Mathematically speaking, it looks like Minnesota won't be getting its fair share of pork. Not that $55 million is chump change, but in terms of federal appropriations for 2010, it adds up to not much more than 1 percent of the nearly half-trillion in federal spending the House approved Thursday.

A Central Corridor rail bid-opportunity mixer is scheduled for 2-4 p.m. Nov. 9 at the Minnesota Transportation Museum in St. Paul’s historic Jackson Street Roundhouse, 193 Pennsylvania Ave. E.

The Metropolitan Council and five African-American organizations will hold a business and employment workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 14, regarding the Central Corridor light-rail transit project.

A $1.1 million grant to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Council under the federal stimulus act will allow the replacement of 35 small diesel buses, 17 of them small gas-electric hybrid vehicles.

Robert Johns, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies (CTS), has accepted a position as director of the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Mass., operated by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

A series of public open houses to discuss the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s 2009 comprehensive statewide freight- and passenger-rail plan will be held in October.

A new 750-space park-and-ride ramp on Kenrick Avenue in Lakeville will open Monday, and Metro Transit will begin offering express service on Interstate 35W from the ramp to downtown Minneapolis.

A car-seat clinic for residents of Dakota County will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the Eagan Transit Station, 3470 Pilot Knob Road.

On Wednesday, the Central Corridor Management Committee reviewed the Central Corridor project scope and recommended several additions.

Fares for the 40-mile Northstar Line, the region’s first commuter rail line, have been established by the Metropolitan Council.