Zach Patton

Recent Articles

• Reno Fights to Save the Show that Mocks It
• Aug 31, 2009
• Now that Comedy Central has canceled "Reno: 911!", the Biggest Little City in the World has launched a campaign to save it. Via Facebook, ...

• Kentucky D.A. Provides Relief From Boring (and Impartial) Web Sites
• Aug 27, 2009
• News flash: Government Web sites can be boring. Even the ones that are attractive and user-friendly (and there are plenty that aren't) can be ...
• 1 Comments

• Is This Gigantic Biblically-named Floating Buoy the Key to Saving New Orleans?
• Aug 19, 2009
• Everyone who's been to reconstruct and preserve New Orleans has been going about it all wrong, apparently. While they were foolishly toiling to rebuild ...
• 6 Comments

• What's Rod Blagojevich Saying Now?
• Aug 12, 2009
• Ousted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is on the air! Or at least the Internet. Blago will not be silenced! From the Chicago Sun-Times : He'...
• 1 Comments

• Wage Learners
• Jul 31, 2009
• Gregg Flecha earned pretty good money last year, for a 9-year-old. As a fourth-grader at P.S. 64 in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, Gregg...

• Should the Best Teachers Get More Than an Apple?
• Jul 31, 2009
• As some schools experiment with cash incentives for students, others are resurrecting the idea of paying teachers bonuses for good performance. Traditionally, teachers have been...

• Technology for Tough Times
• Jul 31, 2009
• Struggling to deliver more services with fewer resources and to rise to the twin challenges of transparency and accountability, state and local leaders are counting...
• 1 Comments

• The Risk and Reward of Web 2.0
• Jul 31, 2009
• Governments are understandably skittish about utilizing social networking sites and other Web 2.0 tools--Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and open-source wiki documents. But some adventurous officials are...
• 1 Comments

• Students Speak About Earning and Learning
• Jul 31, 2009
• Read more about big-city schools and cash incentive programs in "Wage Earners" and in "Should the Best Teachers Get More Than an Apple?" in the...

• Who is the 'Oatmeal Governor'?
• Jul 29, 2009
• Which current governor is represented by a bowl of oatmeal? Click to find out.

• Why the Santa Cruz City Council Deserves a Medal
• Jul 28, 2009
• This clip has been popping up all over the Internet this week (which is a little weird, since it's more than a year old). ...

• How Will States Handle DIY Funerals?
• Jul 21, 2009
• According to the New York Times , there's a hip new thing all the kids are trying these days: home funerals. Apparently, a growing number ...

• Microjournalism: How Will Cities Respond?
• Jun 23, 2009
• From Grist comes this very interesting story about one reporter's experiment with new media: When Adam Klawonn quit his job at a shrinking major ...

• To Discourage Water Bottles, a Little "Tap" Dancing
• Jun 12, 2009
• Cities like New York and San Francisco have been aggressively marketing the drinkability of their tap water in recent months. With the skyrocketing number of ...
• 2 Comments

• Judges, Elections and the Perception of Bias
• Jun 8, 2009
• The Supreme Court today ruled that judges who are elected must recuse themselves in "extreme" cases -- those in which the contributions to ...