Andrea Bernstein

On This Week in Politics, WNYC political reporters run down some of the top political stories from the week that was, providing insight and analysis on local, state and national political issues that touch the region.

Two New York Republican state senators who supported gay marriage last year are in virtual ties with their GOP opponents in vote counts from Thursday's primaries. 

You could call it two conventions, two governors. Both Republican Chris Christie and Democrat Andrew Cuomo are fiscally conservative governors of populous northeaster states. But the two men, both seen to have presidential ambitions in 2016, have wildly different approaches to their party's national conventions.

WNYC's Andrea Bernstein compares the political atmosphere in 2008 to the political atmosphere this year as we head into the conventions next week.

In response to a lawsuit filed by seven suburban county governments, a New York State judge ruled Wednesday that a payroll tax suburbanites pay for the NY Metropolitan Transportation Authority is unconstitutional.  Government leaders from Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties are among those who sued to overturn the tax of 34 cents per hundred dollars of payroll for all employers, including freelancers.

The 2009 law was meant to bail out the MTA from a $2 billion a year short fall.  The MTA said in a statement: “We will vigorously appeal today’s ruling. We believe this opinion will be overturned, since four prior challenges to the constitutionality of the law making the same argument have been dismissed.”

Government leaders from Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties were among those who sued to overturn the "mobility tax."

The tax brings the transit authority more than a billion dollars a year. The tax applies to all 12 New York State counties served by the MTA.

In his ruling, State Supreme Court Justice R. Bruce Cozzins Jr. agreed with the plaintiffs' argument that the tax does not serve substantial state interest, and improperly supercedes the county governments.

Paul Steely White, the President of Transportation Alternatives, a transit advocacy group, said in a statement:  "This decision threatens the foundation of the state’s economy. Public transportation is critical to the New York City metropolitan area—an area which provides 45 percent of the state’s tax revenue, paying for countless public services from Niagara Falls to Montauk. We hope Governor Cuomo resolves this case, and that the appeals court will consider the substantial state interest when reviewing this ruling.”

MTA Payroll Tax Decision

Okay, no. A Glee episode a few months back shows the character Quinn (cheerleader, former pregnant girl) looking away from the wheel to read the text "Where are you? HURRY"  Now the US DOT has made it into an anti-texting PSA.

It's not quite as powerful as the AT&T ads that ran during the Olympics showing, variously, brain dead and seriously injured teens, and siblings and parents of people who died while texting. But hey, it's Quinn. And Ray LaHood means it when he says he wants you to drive safely.

Photo: Kate Hinds

Some two thirds of New Yorkers say bike lanes are "a good idea," according to a New York Times poll.  By a 66 to 27 percent margin, New Yorkers are in favor of bike lanes.

The poll shows even larger margins in favor of bike lanes than last year's Quinnipiac College poll,  which found 58 percent of New Yorkers favor bike lanes, compared to 37 percent that do not.  But because different polls have different methodologies, it's hard to conclude a trend from two different polls.

A more recent Q-poll found support for bike share at 74 to 19, up slightly from 72 to 23 in October.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday bike share would be delayed until next spring because of software issues.  It was originally to have launched last month.

The New York Times concluded that "the poll results suggest that the city's residents have gradually become accustomed to bicycle lanes, which have been frequent targest of tabloid ire and are already emerging as a flashpoint in the 2013 mayoral race."

(Photo by Andrea Bernstein)

(UPDATED 9:55am) There will be no shiny blue Citi Bikes on the streets of New York until March.

"Unfortunately there are software issues" said New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Friday on his radio show on WOR with John Gambling. The mayor said: "One of the newspapers keeps writing, 'you're hiding something.' Yeah, well, nothing. The software doesn't work. Duh. Until it works, we're not going to put it out until it does work."

"We did think there would be a possibility of a partial launch but at this point --

At which point, Gambling interjected: "Next year?"

"The spring," Mayor Bloomberg responded. "Hopefully the software will work by then. We want to make sure that it works. Washington and Boston are pretty good tests." The Mayor added that "mother nature" makes winter a poor time to launch a system.

A press release from the NYC Department of Transportation (full text below)  sent out shortly after the Mayor's radio statement clarified the launch date will be "March" for phase 1 of the program, which will include 7,000 bikes at 420 stations. The statement did not specify what neighborhoods, or with what pace the bikes would be deployed.

Chicago also delayed its launch until spring, and before its own system went live, Boston delayed so as not to have the system get going just as a cold, northeast winter was getting under way. Bike share relies on physical activity, and streets clear of snow and ice.

The New York bike share program was to have launched July 31. But that day came and went with city officials tight-lipped about why. Mayor Bloomberg only said the problem had to do with software issues.

"It really is very advanced technology," the Mayor said Friday. "Each station is like a dock, each place you stick in a bike is a computer, and everything runs on solar power so you don't need a lot of wiring and there's no burden on the electrical system. There's an enormous number of transactions you have to communicate in real time to central computers."

With 10,000 bikes at full roll-out New York's system will be, by several orders of magnitude, the largest system in U.S., and the largest in North America. The next largest U.S. system is in Washington, with about 2,000 bikes.

Even before Friday's announcement, there were indications that the initial, breathless announcements may have been overly optimistic. When it named its sponsor, the city let it slip out that launching the system would take 13 months, and that neighborhoods like Park Slope and the Upper West Side wouldn't get bike share until 2013.

That turned out to be because finding a sponsor took so much longer than anticipated, and because of that the vendor who is supplying New York with its bikes, Alta Bicycle Share, didn't have any money in hand to order bikes until months later than planned.

Alta is also preparing large bike shares for San Francisco and Chicago. The Chicago system, set to be 4,000 bikes, is similarly delayed, and the losing vendor in that city has sued, saying the Chicago transportation commissioner, Gabe Klein, had an inappropriate consulting relationship with Alta. A Klein spokesman says there's nothing untoward and that Klein recused himself from Chicago's selection.

Alta is the only vendor in the U.S. who has undertaken large-scale bike share systems, running both the Washington, DC and Boston networks. Those programs are widely deemed to be successful, and both are expanding. They both use a previous version of software, made by a different vendor, than newer Alta bike share systems. Boston's launch was also delayed by several months when it opened with 600 bikes in Summer 2011.

On Thursday, at an unrelated press conference in Coney Island, Brooklyn, the mayor said: “We’re trying to figure out when we can put a date that we’re sure or reasonably sure that it will work."

He said the reason for New York's delay is straightforward. “Look,” he said, “everybody wants to say there’s a secret agenda here. The software doesn’t work. And putting it out when the software doesn’t work, it wouldn’t work. Period.”

He wet on: “The fascinating thing is those people who screamed they didn’t want bicycles are now screaming ‘where are they?’. So I guess we’ve come a long way and [are] going in the right direction. Nobody would put it out quicker than me.”

On Friday, cycling advocates praised the Mayor's edition.  " “While we are eager for Citi Bike to begin, it’s more crucial that this ground-breaking transit system be launched correctly, not quickly, " said Paul Steely White, the Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives.

"New York’s public bike share program will not only be the largest bike share system in the Western Hemisphere, it will also be the city’s first brand-new, full-scale form of public transit since the subway’s debut more than 100 years ago—this is not a moment to rush. When bike share launches in 2013, it will transform New York City by giving New Yorkers unprecedented convenience and freedom of mobility. In time, the circumstances of Citi Bike’s launch will be all but forgotten and we’ll all be enjoying a city made safer, healthier and less congested," Steely White added.

The contract inked between Alta Bicycle Share and New York City last September, which Transportation Nation has obtained, stipulated the company was to have least 1,000 bikes on the street on or before July 31.

Thereafter, Alta was supposed to have added at least 75 stations per ten business days, building to 7,000 bikes by September 30.

The announcement came on a summer Friday, typical a time politicians use to announce news they hope will garner little attention.

Bloomberg said Thursday there were no penalties for a delay.

“It’s all private money. And the people who’ve put up the money, particularly the two big sponsors, Citibank and MasterCard, are fully aware of what’s going on and they have been as supportive as you possibly can be. The city loses because we don’t have bicycles, but the city doesn’t lose any money or anything, and we all want to get it done as quickly — but you’ve got to do it right.”

The city’s Department of Transportation and Alta -- which is contractually not allowed to speak without prior DOT approval --  had been ciphers on the delay. Even Citi Bike’s official twitter account has been dark for a week.

But on Friday, the city issued DOT its longest statement in months on bike share.

The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), bike share operator New York City Bike Share (NYCBS) today announced that the Citi Bike system will launch in March 2013 with an initial phase of 7,000 bikes implemented at 420 stations. The timeline, agreed to by all parties, does not affect the Citi Bike sponsorship structure, which uses $41 million in private funding from Citi to underwrite the system for five years and ensures that NYCBS will split profits with the City.

 “New York City demands a world-class bike share system, and we need to ensure that Citi Bike launches as flawlessly as New Yorkers expect on Day One,” said DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “The enthusiasm for this program continues to grow and we look forward to bringing this affordable new transportation option to New Yorkers without cost to taxpayers.”

“NYCBS continues to be committed to bringing the largest and best solar-powered bike share system in the world to New York City,” said Alison Cohen, President.  “We recognize that New Yorkers are eagerly anticipating the launch of the bike share system and we will deliver on that promise.”

NYCBS continues work to conclude manufacture and testing of the high-performance software necessary to operate the new system, which is being tailored for New York City. The system uses new solar power arrays and circuit boards, and engineers will continue to thoroughly test data communications, power management and payment systems to ensure overall system performance. Following the March launch, work will continue to expand the system to 10,000 bikes, covering parts of Manhattan and from Long Island City to parts of Brooklyn.

Consistent with his strategy of focusing like a laser on New York - and of avoiding any flubs - Cuomo's team says he'll just fly by the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this summer.

(photo by Andrea Bernstein)

Now we know.

The New York MTA spent $1.35 million on giant granite bollards that it later removed outside the Atlantic Terminal station.

To put that in perspective, a year of service* on the B51 bus line, which the MTA discontinued in 2010, cost $800,000 a year.

The bollards, much-reviled by architects and planners and panned by the Brooklyn Paper as "sarcophagi," were installed in 2010 for unspecified security reasons.

Bollards being excavated outside Atlantic Terminal, July 2012 (photo by Andrea Bernstein)

To be sure, the Atlantic Terminal has been a terror target in the past.

But the huge granite slabs were  more imposing than simpler steel bollards outside the more heavily trafficked Penn Station or Grand Central Terminal.

Bollards outside Grand Central (photo by Kate Hinds)

The Atlantic Terminal bollards also blocked pedestrian flow to and from the Terminal, which houses the LIRR and nine subway lines.

This, it was pointed out, presented a potential problem when huge crowds of people start to flow through the plaza for events at the next-door Barclays Center, set to open next month.

The MTA also came to the conclusion that the bollards were a bad idea.  It decided to replace them with a smaller, sleeker model, like the ones at Grand Central.

About a week ago, the authority began to take the bollards down, bringing the total cost of the installation and removal to $1.35 million.

I might never have unearthed this information had I not passed by the Atlantic Terminal Monday morning, trying to grab a quick photo so you all could see how the plaza is coming along.  (I also regretted not having the headline "Never Mind The Bollards," in our initial post, and was hoping for a second chance.)

The construction workers had other ideas. A piece of cardboard came down in front of my iPhone. I would not be photographing the site because it was "a Homeland Security project."

Like, um, the World Trade Center site, which must be one of the most photographed construction sites on earth?

I was told (though maybe in not-so-polite language), that this decision had been made by MTA police. I was offered the opportunity to have them tell me in person.

That's an opportunity I declined.

But I did later email the MTA's chief spokesperson, Adam Lisberg, for an explanation. And, while he was at it, could he please tell me how much the MTA had spent on the bollards in the first place?

Lisberg, a former New York Daily News journalist, told me quite clearly that anyone could photograph the site and that if I should be obstructed again I should stand my ground so I could do my job. In so many words.

So the next day, I went back.

I was greeted no more happily than I was the day before. This time half a dozen construction workers, and three MTA police, came to make the point. But, per Adam "L-i-s-b-e-r-g, the MTA communications chief," I would not leave.

Did I have documentation? Well, I had the constitution of the United States of America. Had they seen the Bill of Rights? Also, my press pass -- though that's not required to photograph a public plaza.

Besides, the construction fence was mostly down so, unlike the day before, I couldn't physically be blocked.

So I took my photos.  (And, unbeknownst to me, was photographed doing so by my colleague, Emily Botein.)

Andrea Bernstein photographing Atlantic Terminal (photo by Emily Botein)

Initially, the MTA re-issued a statement (which TN ran last week) citing the total cost of the Atlantic Terminal renovation -- $108 million -- and the cost of the new security project, which came in at $3.486 million.

Today, the authority furnished further details.

The total cost of building the 15 granite bollards: $1.2 million.

The total cost of demolishing them and removing the granite: $150,000.

A $1.35 million mistake.

*To be sure, service is paid for from the operating budget, while the capital budget pays for everything from bollards to the Second Avenue subway.  So you'll hear that comparing one to the other is like comparing your lunch money to the loan you took out to redo your kitchen.   But at the end of the day, it all ultimately falls to straphangers or taxpayers to foot the bill.

(photo by Andrea Bernstein)

(UPDATED WITH MTA INFORMATION) The imposing concrete bollards surrounding Brooklyn's Atlantic Terminal station are coming down.

The so-called "coffins" appeared without warning in 2010, when the new terminal was opened. "More Extreme Than NYPD Counterterror Guidelines" mocked a Streetsblog headline. Urban planners decried the bollards as pedestrian-unfriendly and a backwards model of city design.

The Long Island Rail Road and nine subway lines stop at the Atlantic Terminal station, which will serve the new Barclays Center arena when it opens in September.

New York's MTA cited unspecified security concerns in installing what the Brooklyn Paper called "sarcophagi."

Workers there say the bollards will be replaced with "something else."

A spokesman for the MTA said that "something else" is new, smaller bollards. The work is part of a $3.5 million security upgrade at the subway terminal.

Deconstruction: bollards being removed in downtown Brooklyn (photo by Andrea Bernstein)

(photo by Andrea Bernstein)

California High Speed Rail, under fire from some GOP members of Congress, is jumping into the communications game. The organization today released a video highlighting all the benefits CASHR says it will bring to California.  Not much news in it -- just a repetition of the themes that California high speed rail will help out other modes, and won't be quite as expensive as the nearly $100 billion that was on the table for a bit.

"It's just another to communicate our message with the people of California," spokeswoman Lisa Murie Burcar told TN. "We thought we'd have it go viral."

You can watch the video here:

Transit info on the current iPhone, via Google  (photo by Kate Hinds)

When Apple V.P. Scott Forstall unveiled the company's new operating system last week, he was breathless with enthusiasm. "Next is Maps," he said. But not included: Transit directions. Bay Area BART trains? Not there. DC's Metro? Not there? Boston's T? Not there.

"I was, first off, kind of surprised," said Joshua Robin, innovation director for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. "For the last couple of years, it's been a huge benefit to our riders to have transit as an option."

iPhones have been relying on Google Maps, which do include transit directions. But now that Apple is working on its own system, it dropped transit. Pro-transit groups started a petition to get Apple to reconsider.

Apple isn't commenting, beyond what Forestall said at the announcement: "Instead of trying to build those ourselves, we are going to integrate and feature and promote your apps for transit right within the Maps app in iOS 6."

So for a while at least, you'll have to download them yourselves.

(From the Marketplace Morning Report)

Capital Bike Share on the streets in Washington D.C.

A new survey of Washington's Capital Bikeshare, done for Capital Bikeshare, says four in ten users report using cars less -- for an average savings of 523 miles for those users.

The survey's authors say that translates to a total of 5 million miles not driven.

But the survey also found that bike share users tend to be, "on average, considerably younger, more likely to be male and Caucasian, highly educated, and slightly less affluent" than the adult population of the Washington, DC area.

And even though the survey found most (56%) of trips were for non-work purposes, more than nine in ten bike share users are employed, compared to just seven in ten adults in the Washington region.

Other results:

* 64 percent said they would not have made the trip without bike share;

* 15 percent said they joined bike share because of a "Living Social" offer;

* More than half of respondents used bike share as a feeder to reach transit stops.

Lots of other interesting nuggets. You can read the full survey here.

It's not news that U.S. infrastructure is falling behind -- we've reported on this many times before.  But it kind of caught our eye that the Council on Foreign Relations -- a New York-based think tank that tends to host talks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the like -- is issuing its own scathing report on the state of U.S.'s transportation infrastructure.

From the report:

Just a generation ago, the United States invested heavily to create one of the world's best transportation infrastructure networks. But now, with real investment stagnating even as much of the infrastructure is reaching the end of its useful life, global economic competitors are leaving the United States behind. Along with a description of major policy initiatives, the report analyzes what's needed to get U.S. transportation infrastructure back on track.

You can read the full report here.

Castro Street, San Francisco (Frano Folini/Flickr)

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that a bicyclist who fatally struck a pedestrian in the Castro district has been charged with vehicular manslaughter.

From the report:

A charge of felony vehicular manslaughter has been filed against Chris Bucchere, the bicyclist who fatally struck a 71-year-old pedestrian in the Castro back in March.

Law enforcement sources tell us a San Francisco judge signed Bucchere's arrest warrant Wednesday and that the defendant is expected to surrender to police for booking before the week is out.

We'll have more later on this.

(photo by: harry_nl)

On The Takeaway this morning, traffic expert Rachel Weinberger says Los Angeles' public transportation system is poised to overtake New York's.  Other tidbits:  NY and LA are so congested, offering  money to get people to drive off peak won't work, because time-shifting really won't help.

Anyway she says, people are already offered money to travel off-peak in New York: a discount on tolls.

Listen to the whole interview here.

Stanford University

This morning's New York Times science section reported on a Stanford experiment on getting drivers to use the roads on its Palo Alto campus at off-peak times: allow them to enter a lottery to win $50 if they avoid rush hour.

Stanford reports huge success, and so do drivers, who say their commutes have been reduced by as much as 18 minutes, from 25 down to seven.

Here's how the story begins:

"Balaji Prabhakar, a professor of computer science at Stanford University, thinks he has a better way.

A few years ago, trapped in an unending traffic jam in Bangalore, India, he reflected that there was more than one way to get drivers to change their behavior. Congestion charges are sticks; why not try a carrot?"

So, we wondered, could a carrot reduce congestion in a big city, like New York, and not just on Palo Alto's bucolic, palm-lined campus?

Not much enthusiasm for that idea.  "How do you pay for it?" wondered Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, in an email. Wylde  has been a big booster of congestion pricing to reduce traffic in midtown Manhattan. Also, she notes, there's "no net reduction in carbon footprint."

Paul Steely White, president of Transportation Alternatives and Wylde's partner in the failed attempt to bring congestion charging to New York, said he tended to agree with transportation expert Charles Komanoff, who was quoted in the article as saying:  “'The incentives will be far too small. You really do need big disincentives (big sticks). Little carrots won’t do the job of changing drivers’ decisions' in New York or in San Francisco."

But White said a pilot "would be great."

Rachel Weinberger, a University of Pennsylvania professor and expert in everything having to do with driving, says there's evidence on both sides. If a woman can reduce her commute by 18 minutes, Weinberger muses, no matter what happens in the lottery, she would have "won" back at least $50 in a month of that kind of time savings.

"It makes me wonder, if as a matter of public policy, we really need to be so concerned about the 'cost' of congestion.  In terms of paying people to 'behave the way we want them to'  it seems that every time I drive in earlier than the congestion charge takes effect I'm paying myself the charge. "

Weinberger describes a Seattle experiment where people were given an account and then drew down on it according to when they drove --  off-peak was cheaper than peak. In the experiment, they could keep what was left at the end. There was a 5-10 percent drop in driving.

"So there's some evidence that people behave irrationally and some that suggests they behave rationally after all."

Commerce Secretary John Bryson (Commerce Department photo)

President Barack Obama called Commerce Secretary John Bryson today.

It was a short conversation, and the President encouraged Bryson to "focus his thoughts on his own health and his own family," according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

It was the first time the two spoke since Bryson's double hit-and run over the weekend.

Bryson is now undergoing medical tests for what's being described as a seizure. No further details about what caused the crashes or Bryson's condition at the time have been made available.

There is no timetable for Bryson's return.

Here's a full transcript of the relevant portion of Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest's Q&A with reporters:

MR. EARNEST:  I actually don’t think I have anything off the top.  We obviously have a series of fundraisers, many of which you will cover over the course of the day today.  And I don’t have any announcements.  If you want to -- so you can go ahead and get started.

Q    What’s the update on Secretary Bryson?  Do we have any better idea of what happened to him and what’s the prognosis?

MR. EARNEST:  As you saw last night, Secretary Bryson had a statement indicating that he ended up taking a medical leave of absence.  Before leaving the White House this morning, the President had an opportunity to speak to Commerce Secretary Bryson on the telephone, where they had a short conversation.

The President encouraged Secretary Bryson to focus his thoughts on his own health and on his own family.  And the President indicated his confidence in Dr. Blank, who is somebody who could lead the Commerce Department in Secretary Bryson’s absence.

Q    I’m sorry, you said he did express confidence in him?

Q    In Dr. Blank.

MR. EARNEST:  In Dr. Blank -- as somebody who could lead the Commerce Department in Secretary Bryson’s absence.  And the President encouraged him to focus -- I’ll speak up a little bit, I apologize.  And the President encouraged Secretary Bryson to focus on his own health and getting that care and medical treatment that he needs.

Q    Josh, is there any update as far as exactly what the Secretary’s condition is or what type of seizure he had?

MR. EARNEST:  I don’t have any updates on those factual details about what happened over the weekend.  But obviously, the medical tests that Secretary Bryson will undergo are related to that.

Q    Was this the first time they had an opportunity to speak, the President and --

MR. EARNEST:  Since the weekend?

Q    Yes, since the weekend.

MR. EARNEST:  Since the weekend, yes.

Q    Josh, can you go over a little bit more of the tick-tock beginning with when was the White House first informed of the incident?  And the President wasn’t informed until Monday morning.  How come the gap in time?

MR. EARNEST:  I don’t have a whole lot -- I mean, you have the details right, that the White House was informed late in the day on Sunday and the President was briefed on Monday morning.  But in terms of more details, I don’t have a whole lot more light to shed on those details at this point.

Q    Was it -- Jack Lew talked to him when?  Sunday or Monday?

MR. EARNEST:  I believe that Mr. Lew spoke to him on Monday.

Q    Monday morning.

Q    To Bryson?

MR. EARNEST:  Yes.

Q    To Bryson, Monday morning.  And so it was -- and the President wasn’t informed until Monday morning.  So it was

Lew --

MR. EARNEST:  The President was briefed on Monday.

Q    So Lew had decided it wasn’t -- well, he didn’t speak to him until Monday morning, so the President wasn’t informed until Monday morning.

MR. EARNEST:  The President was briefed on Monday morning.

Q    So we don’t know why there was a lag on why Bryson didn’t report in or what happened?

MR. EARNEST:  I don’t have any more details for you on that.

Q    Do we know who -- I’m sorry.

Q    Do you know if Mr. Lew called him later in the day to --

MR. EARNEST:  I don’t have the minute-by-minute tick-tock.

What we -- what Jay broadly discussed yesterday in terms of the tick-tock is -- continues -- is an accurate portrayal of the events over the last 72 hours or so.  I don’t have any more details to add to that beyond the President's phone call to Secretary Bryson this morning.

Q    Josh, a medical leave of absence is unusual.  Why didn’t Secretary Bryson decide to step down, fully resign?  And do you have a timetable for his return?  Does the President expect him to return?

MR. EARNEST:  I don’t have a timetable for his return, primarily because I don’t want to pre-judge what the results of a medical examination that was referred to in the statement last night might reveal.

But what the President -- I can reiterate to you what the President reiterated to the Secretary this morning, which is that his -- that the Secretary's attention and interest and priority at this point should be his own health.

Q    But can you say why he chose to take a medical leave versus just agree to resign?

MR. EARNEST:  I can't speak to that at this point.

Q    Was it suggested to him by anyone that he take a medical leave?

MR. EARNEST:  You have to refer to -- you have to check with the Commerce Department on what went into his decision, in terms of --

Q    But do you know if Lew or anyone else in the White House suggested to him that it would be a good thing to do?

MR. EARNEST:  Even if I were privy to the conversations that took place, I probably wouldn’t have much to share about them.

Q    So it's sort of open-ended for when he can return as far as the President is concerned.

MR. EARNEST:  That’s true, primarily because the time that he's taking here will be devoted to his -- an examination of his health and some medical tests.  And he's going to take the time that he needs to focus on those priorities, those things that should be his priority, those things along with his family.

Q    So it wasn't Bryson himself that informed the White House on Sunday night?  Or was it someone else?

MR. EARNEST:  I don’t believe we've gotten into the details about who was on either end of the phone during those conversations, and I don’t have any more on that.

Q    So it sounds like his return hinges on the results of his medical exam.

MR. EARNEST:  Well, again, I don’t want to pre-judge into all of that.

Q    And who notified the White House initially, Sunday?

MR. EARNEST:  Well, as I just said, I don’t have any more details on who participated in those phone calls.

The L.A. Times has the most details on John Bryson's double hit & run.  We'll keep you updated as more emerges.  From the L.A Times report:

U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson was involved in two hit-and-run accidents in the San Gabriel Valley on Satruday before being found unconscious inside his Lexus vehicle by police, authorities said.

Bryson was treated at the scene by Los Angeles County firefighters. Authorities said drugs or alcohol do not appear to have played a role in the crash. 

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and San Gabriel Police Department said in a joint statement that Bryson was cooperative wad detectives. He was cited for felony hit and run but was not booked into jail because he had been admitted to the hospital. His condition was not known.