FEATURES

• What is the Age of Responsibility?
• By: Alan Greenblatt

• From sex to driving to juvenile justice to drinking, state and local laws send young people mixed messages about their own maturity. Is there a better way?

• In Pennsylvania, Re-Thinking the State Liquor Store
• By: David Raskin

• How one state learned to run its booze bureaucracy like a business -- politics permitting.

• Hydrofracking for Natural Gas - Worth the Risk?
• By: Jonathan Walters
• The controversial drilling technique hydrofracking uses and pollutes lots of water.

• My Big Fat Pension Payoff
• By: Zach Patton

• Publicizing $100,000 pension checks is a way to reform the pension system -- or kill it.

• Stimulus Results: Difficult to Pin Down
• By: Josh Goodman

• Some jobs are saved, but how many?

DEPARTMENTS

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• By: Josh Goodman

POLITICS + POLICY

• For Louisiana's Governor, Jolts from Washington
• By: Alan Greenblatt

• Federal rules complicate fiscal life for Bobby Jindal.

• A Spending Spree in Kentucky
• By: Alan Greenblatt

• City and county associations have lavished large sums on travel and entertainment.

• Disappearing Dues in Kansas
• By: Alan Greenblatt

• Fees that boards and commissions that regulate professions collect are being raided to balance the state budget.

• Can a White Candidate Be Elected Mayor of Atlanta?
• By: Josh Goodman

• More than City Hall may be at stake in the battle for control of a changing community.

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• By: Josh Goodman

• How Advocates for Fire-Safe Cigarettes Beat Big Tobacco
• By: Josh Goodman

• Soda: the New Front in the War on Obesity
• By: Penelope Lemov

• Compost: the Next Step in City Recycling Programs
• By: Linda Baker

• Collecting food waste is seen as a scrappy way to recycle.

• The Weaknesses of Sweeping Privatization
• By: Alex Marshall
• The most important question is not whether private investment in roads and other public infrastructure will revive, but the degree to which it should.

• Cyclists: Traffic Scofflaws
• By: Christopher Swope
• Cities are asking bikers to obey the rules.

PROBLEM SOLVER

• For Unions, Tough Bargaining Times
• By: Jonathan Walters

• Mayors are asking public employees to to give up raises to save their cities.

• The Management Challenge of Bad Data
• By: Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene
• Obstacles to coming up with solid, accurate numbers to measure program performance are all over the place.

• Social Media Sites' Handicap Hurdle
• By: Ellen Perlman
• As governments turn to Facebook and its ilk, they aren't paying enough attention to the needs of the visually or hearing-impaired.

• For Cash Managers, New Investment Risks
• By: Girard Miller
• Inflation, rising interest rates and company defaults are among the perils.

• Statewide Zoning: a Pipe Dream?
• By: Alan Ehrenhalt

• Massachusetts' housing secretary thinks he can entice dozens of localities to opt in.

Training Opportunities

• Outsmarting the Social Services Fraudster
• Learn how IBM InfoSphere Identity Insight helps social services organizations reduce time and labor for caseload management, comply with new regulations fast and cost-efficiently and identify fraudulent behavior rapidly to stop it before it occurs.
• A Safer Public Through Advanced Analytics
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• Accelerating Economic Growth and Vitality