Features

• The Truth About Term Limits
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Term limit laws have created some clear winners and losers. Among the losers are the legislatures themselves.

• Buy By Data
• By: Zach Patton
• States that can apply "strategic sourcing" to their purchasing operations stand to save millions of dollars.

• A Looser Lockup
• By: Ellen Perlman
• Get-tough programs for juvenile offenders have largely failed to reduce recidivism. Missouri has had success with a less punitive approach.

• An Unusual Outsourcing
• By: Ellen Perlman
• Virginia partners for technology overhaul.

• Legislatures 2006: Issues to Watch
• By: Josh Goodman

• Deficit Discipline
• By: Elizabeth Daigneau
• Elected Leaders Refocus on Results

• The Code War
• By: Christopher Swope
• As governments move toward uniform building codes, they are being lobbied by two rival groups that offer competing sets of standards.

Up Front

• Stressed Responders
• By: Jonathan Walters
• Federal disaster money doesn't help much unless governments get together on how to use it.

• Medical Experiment
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Should doctors run EMS programs? Louisville thought so--that's how Neal Richmond got there.

• When to Say When
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Why some public officials in trouble don't step down

• Merit In the Classroom
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Good teachers doing tough jobs are closer to a bonus.

• If You Build It...
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Cities hope big arts venues will wow visitors.

• The Fellow Behind the Tree
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• A business-dominated commission may help Texas out of its school funding mess.

• Chips Fall In North Carolina
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• The nation's newest lottery may be more of a gamble than anybody thought.

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• By: Alan Greenblatt

• Uniquely Unicameral
• By: Alan Ehrenhalt
• Nebraska's single-house legislative body is unlike any that has existed in any state before or since.

The Business of Government

• Opening Up Gridlock
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Voters put their money where the pain is.

• The Bell Tolls: Revenue Relief for a Traffic Slump
• By: Zach Patton

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• By: Zach Patton

• Child Proofing
• By: Anya Sostek
• Georgia Automates Its Family Services System

• A Simple Solution
• By: Mark Stencel
• Success can depend as much on tweaking the way people use tools as on what those tools are.

• Gaming the Numbers
• By: Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene
• Many of the statistics policy makers use today are set in concrete but made of quicksand.

• Talk of the Town
• By: Penelope Lemov
• It's time to walk people through the choices they have to make in order to get health care that works for everyone.

• Median as Marketplace
• By: Elizabeth Daigneau
• Increasingly, local governments are limiting or banning solicitations along public rights-of-way.

• Hedging Bets
• By: John E. Petersen
• With slow growth from traditional investments, pension fund managers are tempted by the snappy returns of alternatives.

• Meters Matter
• By: Josh Goodman
• Water limits finally set by a holdout city

• Gassing Up in Minnesota
• By: Elizabeth Daigneau
• A state ups the ante on alternative fuels.

• Mining the Future
• By: Christopher Swope
• South Dakota's Underground Plan

• Kansas City Goes Global
• By: Zach Patton
• Local growth comes from ties to Canada and Mexico

Training Opportunities

• Health Care Reform After the Decision
• In this Mercer Report, you’ll learn how different organizations plan to tackle the new requirements of ACA and discover where most employer concerns are focused, who expects to be hardest hit, and how different health plans and Medicaid may impact overall costs.
• Crime Prediction and Prevention


• Accelerating Economic Growth and Vitality