State governments so far are using almost all of their stimulus transportation dollars to build and improve roads and highways while devoting only about 6 percent to public transit systems, according to a 50-state study by Smart Growth America, which said transit projects could create 31 percent more jobs than new road construction.

Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, announced a new Web site designed to track more than $70 billion in government information-technology spending, showing all contracts held by major firms within every federal agency. The site, USAspending.gov, shows detailed information about whether IT contracts are being monitored and budgets being met.

The federal government will allow more distressed borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth to be eligible for refinancing assistance under an Obama administration housing rescue program. Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan said the expanded program will allow homeowners who owe 25 percent more than their homes are worth on the market to get refinancing help.

Several big-city police chiefs urged Congress to draft a new policy that improves public safety by bringing illegal immigrants out of the shadows. The chiefs called for an overhaul that would integrate immigrants into the legal system, possibly with driver’s licenses, and separate the local police from immigration enforcement.

With the Highway Trust Fund on the verge of depletion, the Transportation Department sent Congress a more detailed plan to keep surface transportation programs funded through March 2011. The department proposed borrowing $20 billion from the Treasury’s general fund, to be repaid over 10 years.

Nearly every school system in Florida has eviscerated or eliminated summer school this year, and officials are reporting sweeping cuts in states from North Carolina and Delaware to California and Washington. The federal stimulus law is channeling $100 billion to public education, and Education Secretary Arne Duncan has repeatedly urged states and districts to spend part it to keep schools open this summer.

The Environmental Protection Agency released a list of 44 “high hazard potential” coal ash waste dumps in 10 states, sites where a dam failure would most likely result in a loss of human life. The list was compiled after more than a billion gallons of ash broke through a dam at a Tennessee Valley Authority plant last December.

The White House is mounting a summer-long effort to help tailor the administration's agenda to small-town America. President Obama announced a rural tour that will see Cabinet secretaries fan out across the country to discuss issues including broadband deployment, rural health, economic development and agriculture.

The federal government is carving out public land in six Western states for fast-tracked development of 13 commercial solar power plants, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said. A total of 670,000 acres in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah are being divided into 24 "Solar Energy Study Areas."

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge. The Supreme Court acknowledged adverse impact against minorities in promotional exams but concluded that some of the city's arguments were "blatantly contradicted by the record."