@Andrew:

In normal English usage, people would use "is considering" since the action is ongoing, so you are correct.

When people are writing about the events that occur in a story, however, they tend to use the simple present tense. ("Romeo considers killing himself; then, he drinks the poison.") That's because the writer is referring to a specific point in time in the story, and you can argue that a journalist is telling a story in the same manner. (He's referring to when the council or whomever brought up and considered the proposal, not the fact that the action happens to still be ongoing.) It's also just been American journalistic style for quite some time.

What brought this whole thing up in the first place is that the article was originally posted with the headline "Dallas is considers shutting off..." which is obviously a typo. You can verify this by looking at the URL. Engadget corrected the headline by removing "is," choosing the simple present instead of the present progressive (aka "present continuous"), which is acceptable in journalism but can sound odd when taken out of context. Either way, people would understand you, and it is unlikely that anybody would call you out on it, though, as has happened here.

Clear as mud, right? The only real rule in a language as promiscuous as English is that "there are no rules."

[pedantic]

"Is considering" is not passive because Dallas is not removed from or moved in the sentence and the subject is still doing the acting instead of being acted upon ("Shuttering of red light cameras is being considered [by Dallas]").

It is instead the present progressive, which can be active or passive depending on how it is used ("The boy is eating the pie" / "The pie is being eaten [by the boy]").

[/pedantic]

[commentary]

Who cares?

[/commentary]

[conclusion]

Either "considers" or "is considering" is fine.

[/conclusion]

Virginia did a study that showed that red light cameras reduce T-bone crashes (the most likely to be deadly) but increase rear-end collisions (the most likely just to be fender benders).

http://vtrc.virginiadot.org/PubDetails.aspx?PubNo=07-R2

Virginia had red light cameras for a while, but then the General Assembly let the constitutional exemption that allows them to exist expire, so they were all off for a few years. This past year, they brought them back--but with a lot more restrictions on where and how they can be installed. Most imporantly, no more than 1 camera per 10,000 residents, and lots of safety studies and required paperwork, which ensures that the cameras are used only for safety and not for revenue-generating purposes. In all, it seems like a pretty good compromise.

Considering that mine's discoloring (slowly turning into the black model), safe sleep doesn't always work, been into repair (twice) for the random shutdowns, and is now "squishy" on the left side after such repairs...

Really, a crack is the least of my worries because at this point, the thing could spawn an infant arm that pulled me into a portal to hell and I would not be surprised.

My district in Virginia uses some "WinVote" machines, and they look like a VB6 app that some kid threw together in a weekend. I mean, really, I can't go to the ATM and make a deposit without getting a receipt, but all I get from voting is an odd thunk from an otherwise electronic machine?

It's ridiculous. But once in power, politicians are understandably hesitant to tamper with the system that got them elected.