(August 11, 2005) -- Tucked away in the recently passed $286 billion federal Transportation bill is $1,672,000 for "Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, to build intermodal park and ride facility."

We'd like to report details of this but those who ought to know seem unusually tight-lipped. City Hall staffers said they didn't have specifics. So we called MOLAA. They called us back a couple of days later and a spokesperson claimed she didn't have information and tried to deflect our inquiry to Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald.

We doubt the Congresswoman sought the $1.67 million for MOLAA on her own. We presume MOLAA knows what the money is for but since they're not talking we've had to bother the Congresswoman's staff for details. They're working on it.

We separately reported other local items in the Transportation bill, including $1.2 million to [p]rovide landscape enhancement of an existing open culvert on Atherton Street." That federal money, secured by Cong. Millender-McDonald, has been aggressively pursued since the incumbency of former Councilman Del Roosevelt with a clear public purpose: to cover the Atherton ditch and eliminate a chronic health and safety nuisance. Yes, that money is federal pork but at least it will provide some benefits to the general public.

Exactly what will $1.67 million for a MOLAA "intermodal park and ride facility" deliver? For whom?