Features

• Deed Trouble
• By: Anya Sostek
• With mortgage foreclosures at record levels, states are scrambling to regulate lending practices and products.

• A Muni Bond Warning
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Current law prohibits it, but the SEC chairman is talking about reasons to regulate the municipal bond market.

• Gimme Coverage
• By: Alan Greenblatt

• The landmark law passed last year in Massachusetts has led many more states to take a shot at universal health insurance.

• Digitally Dazed
• By: Ellen Perlman

• States are struggling to bring the efficiencies of IT to their health care systems.

• REAL Nightmare
• By: Ellen Perlman

• States are on the hook to turn driver's licenses into secure ID cards. The size of the job is scaring them.

• Back on Track
• By: Zach Patton

• Sprawling Sun Belt cities discover a new way to grow.

• Dollars and Results
• By: Jonathan Walters

• A movement is afoot to help legislators and city council members link budget dollars more closely to results.

• Coal Calculations
• By: Tom Arrandale
• The West braces for an energy boom that could just as easily go bust.

• Keeping Up With E-mail
• By: Josh Goodman
• Governing takes a look at governors' constituent service

Up Front

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• By: Josh Goodman

• A Rift Runs Through It
• By: Rob Gurwitt
• Nine years ago, voters in Dallas opted to remake the riparian no- man's-land in the center of the city. Now its leaders are fighting over what they meant.

• Eminent Reluctance
• By: Rob Gurwitt
• When Virginia reacted to the Supreme Court's eminent-domain decision, no one had a trickier balancing act than Governor Tim Kaine.

• Turnpike Tempest
• By: Rob Gurwitt
• Governor Ed Rendell wants to lease out the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Things could get ugly along the way.

• Divorce, Arkansas-Style
• By: Rob Gurwitt
• Governor Mike Beebe has split up his state's huge health and social services agency after a painful two-year experiment with consolidation.

• Blunt Instrument
• By: Rob Gurwitt
• Nobody questions Ed Blakely's credentials as an urban thinker. New Orleans just wants him to think before he talks.

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• By: Rob Gurwitt

• PIGs Without Pork
• By: Donald F. Kettl
• State and local interest groups don't wield the clout they once had in Washington. But there's crucial work for them to do.

The Business of Government

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• By: Donald F. Kettl

• Girard Miller's Benefit Beat
• By: Girard Miller
• Overfunded Pensions? Hardly. Keep those hands out of the cookie jar.

• Remodeling Job: States Open Doors For Organ Donors
• By: Elizabeth Daigneau

• Revenue Raiser: Going After Corporate Taxes
• By: Melissa Maynard

• Slow Going
• By: Alex Marshall
• It takes far longer to build a major project today than it did a century ago. Why is that?

• Hiring Help
• By: Ellen Perlman
• In their search for young workers, IT departments are seeking ways to make technology jobs look more like a day at a Play Station.

• CSI, Stand Aside: DNA Databases Raise Alarms
• By: Will Wilson

• A Fight Festers
• By: Penelope Lemov
• GASB ups the ante on performance.

• Playing Dumb
• By: Alan Greenblatt
• Liability rather than serendipity is the focus of playground design. Some are trying to change that.

• States on a Bermuda High
• By: Josh Goodman
• Insuring a Welcome Mat for Captives

• The Salty Solution
• By: Tom Arrandale

• Coastal cities look to the sea for fresh water, but they may find desalting plants aren't ready for prime time.

• The Retirement Factory
• By: William Fulton
• Building a local economy around retirees may seem like the perfect growth formula, but it has its flaws.

Training Opportunities

• Accelerating Economic Growth and Vitality
• This white paper describes how developing competencies in five key area can help public safety agencies more effectively do their jobs in the face of extremely important and difficult sets of issues.
• Crime Prediction and Prevention


• FutureStructure: A New Framework