Breakfast links: The business of America is business

Mine for votes?

A Virginia mining company seeking a change in state law is flying a dozen state legislators to France for free. The legislators will inspect French mines… and Paris. (Post)

Tee up for profits

Residents near Congressional Country Club are letting golf fans park on their lawns for as much as $60/day. The T2 Metrobus costs $1.50. Also, a county inspector shut down some kids’ lemonade stand. (Post, WUSA)

Lefties beat big business

DCFPI has been an effective advocate for their fiscal point of view. Jack Evans thinks the business community is impotent at lobbying, even though the DC Chamber of Commerce has the mayor’s ear. (City Paper)

Road privatization causes problems

What happened to Dave Jamieson after he left TBD On Foot? He’s at the Huffington Post, writing articles about things like problems with privatizing toll roads — mostly in Ohio and Indiana, but also in Virginia.

Metro explains capital plan

Continuing its trend of actually communicating, WMATA has launched a campaign, Metro Forward, to inform riders about its 6-year capital improvement plan. (DCist)

More seniors lack transit

Seniors are increasingly stuck without transit options as driving becomes difficult. In the Washington area, 34% of seniors lived in areas without good transit; as more age, that’ll rise to 41%. (Post)

Defying yet another national trend

There remains a gap in life expectancy between DC’s black and white residents, but that gap is shrinking.  Nationally, however, the gap is growing. (DCentric)

Jaffe on journalists

Examiner columnist Harry Jaffe sits down with his new neighborhood’s blog. He thinks Courtland Milloy is a racist and Mike DeBonis is soft on crooks and tough on cops. DeBonis retorts that he’s “not willing to swallow whole every talking point the police union would like me to parrot.” (Borderstan)

And…

The Golden Triangle BID’s new bike racks have a National Geographic theme (goDCgo) … Ken Cuccinelli is helping religious leaders get involved in politics (Post) … Riding CaBi might be even safer than riding your own bike. (Streetsblog)