• Can Performance Help in Reducing Deficits?
• BY: Paul L. Posner   |   May 8, 2013
• Making spending decisions based on evidence and analysis can be hardest to do in times of austerity, but that's precisely when these tools are most useful.
• 1 Comments

• Big Data’s Big Headaches, Indiana’s Economic Dollars, Austin’s Tech Scene and Texas’ Smart Utility
• BY: GOVERNING   |   May 7, 2013
• News you should know about government and technology.

• Should Food Stamps Pay for Junk Food?
• BY: Dylan Scott   |   May 7, 2013
• So far, no state has successfully set rules about what people can buy with food stamps. Wisconsin and South Carolina want to be the first.
• 14 Comments

• Road Deaths Increase for 1st Time Since 2006
• BY: Stateline   |   Nation   |   May 7, 2013
• A newly released federal report reveals that the number of people who died in traffic accidents inched up last year, reversing a downward trend in road deaths that began in 2006.

• Illinois GOP Chairman Resigns After Supporting Gay Marriage
• BY: McClatchy News   |   Illinois   |   May 7, 2013
• Pat Brady, the chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, announced his resignation Tuesday amid a simmering controversy over his support for gay marriage legislation.
• 2 Comments

• California Supreme Court: Cities Can Ban Pot Dispensaries
• BY: McClatchy News   |   California   |   May 7, 2013
• The California Supreme Court gave local governments the power Monday to zone medical marijuana dispensaries out of existence, a decision that upholds bans in about 200 cities but does little to solve Los Angeles' struggle to regulate hundreds of storefront pot outlets.

• Illinois Looking to Stop Outsider Access to Pension System
• BY: McClatchy News   |   Illinois   |   May 7, 2013
• No longer just concerned with saving the state's underfunded pension system money, reform efforts now seek to stop allowing interlopers who aren't state workers into the taxpayer-supported retirement systems.
• 1 Comments

• Florida Gov. Scott Urged to Call Special Session on Medicaid
• Source: Miami Herald   |   Florida   |   May 7, 2013
• At stake is $51 billion in federal funding to provide insurance coverage to 1 million low-income Floridians. House Republicans blocked that from happening during the regular session, which ended Friday.
• 1 Comments

• Phoenix Police to Destroy Guns Before New Law Takes Effect
• Source: Arizona Republic   |   Arizona   |   May 7, 2013
• Three months before a new state law goes into effect requiring police to sell any weapon they receive, Phoenix officials plan to destroy as many guns as residents bring them.
• 2 Comments

• Michigan Teachers Opt to Work for Rest of Year -- Even Without Pay
• Source: Detroit Free Press   |   Saginaw, Mich.   |   May 7, 2013
• The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) recently decided to freeze the district’s April, May and June state aid payments after state officials discovered the district had received $580,000 in state aid for a program for incarcerated youths that the district no longer ran.

• Solitary Confinement Under New Scrutiny
• Source: Boston Globe   |   Massachusetts   |   May 7, 2013
• Over the last year, state and federal court rulings have limited the use of solitary units, which prison officials defend. State legislators, meanwhile, have proposed regulating them further.

• Freedom of '3 Strikes' Law Prisoners Varies by County in California
• Source: AP/Sacramento Bee   |   California   |   May 7, 2013
• Majorities in every California county voted last fall to scale back the state's Three Strikes law so thousands of inmates serving life sentences for relatively minor third offenses would have the chance to be set free. Five months later, there is no such unanimity among counties when it comes to carrying out the voters' wishes.

• Lottery Privatization Can Happen Without New Jersey Legislature's Approval Now
• Source: Newark Star-Ledger   |   New Jersey   |   May 7, 2013
• Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill that would have required his administration to get the state Legislature's approval to go ahead with a plan to privatize parts of the New Jersey Lottery.

• GAO: Nashville Spent Millions on Courthouse it Doesn't Need
• Source: Tennessean   |   Tennessee   |   May 7, 2013
• A GAO report found that 10 of the 12 planned courthouses, including Nashville’s, were not justified.

• Georgia Doled Out Economic Incentives Despite Red Flags
• Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution   |   Georgia   |   May 7, 2013
• State officials who awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to lure jobs here sometimes missed critical red flags in vetting the grant recipients.