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Latest Blog Posts

• Next Generation Street Lighting Toolkit
• Posted By: Bob Graves |   January 14, 2013
• Public sector LED street lighting is an emerging market with tremendous potential for local governments to significantly reduce electricity costs, environmental impacts and maintenance while enhancing lighting quality. Technology is not the major issue. The real challenge is money and appropriate funding models will be critical drivers in the transformation of street lighting. Upgrading existing city street lighting is a capital intensive investment undertaking at a time when municipal governments are fiscally challenged. This toolkit is provided as a resource to help move these projects forward from start to successful implementation.
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• 1 Comments

• LED Street Lighting Interview with David Gassaway
• Posted By: Bob Graves |   January 14, 2013
• Get a hands-on perspective on what it takes to start a citywide street lighting upgrade project. Governing Senior Fellow, Bob Graves interview with David Gassaway, management analyst, City of Rancho Cordova, California.
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• 1 Comments

• Michelle Rhee, Education and the Inputs-Outcomes Trap
• Posted By: Mark Funkhouser |   January 10, 2013
• Her rankings of states' education policies look at things from the wrong direction. It's a discussion we do need to have, but first we need to tone down the rhetoric.
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• 11 Comments

• The Political Future of a Browning America
• Posted By: Mark Funkhouser |   January 7, 2013
• People of color now account for most of the country's population growth. That has profound implications for the way elections are won and the nation is governed.
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• Can a 'Millennial Mayor' Turn a Factory Town Around?
• Posted By: Mark Funkhouser |   January 3, 2013
• Things are beginning to look up for Fitchburg, Mass., under Lisa Wong's leadership. It hasn't been easy.
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• 6 Comments

• A Fraudster's Nightmare Called 'Bubba'
• Posted By: Mark Funkhouser |   December 20, 2012
• Tennessee's Arthur Hayes has had a major impact on the world of government auditing. Don't get him started on "gray areas."
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• 1 Comments

• Childhood Obesity and the Medicaid Squeeze
• Posted By: Mark Funkhouser |   December 13, 2012
• We're beginning to turn this serious health problem around. That is very good news for efforts to get our health-care costs under control.
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• Community Health and the Competition for Jobs
• Posted By: Mark Funkhouser |   December 10, 2012
• Community health is about more than quality of life. Increasingly, companies are basing their location decisions on the availability of a healthy workforce.
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• 4 Comments

• Barking Dogs and the Potluck Model of Government
• Posted By: Mark Funkhouser |   December 6, 2012
• A city in California is working to move beyond the customer-service approach to government and engage citizens as problem-solvers.
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• 2 Comments

• Houston's Mayor and the Imperative to Compete
• Posted By: Mark Funkhouser |   December 3, 2012
• For Annise Parker, competing globally is about a lot more than delivering services efficiently.
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• 1 Comments