Archive
When I saw the newspaper headline "To Market a City Condom, Make It Catchy but Tasteful", I knew immediately that the city was ...
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been pretty clear about the fact that he doesn't want to run for higher office.
Yesterday, his answer was ...
Britney Spears is something of a poster child for bad marriages. She married two different guys in 2004. Her infamous first marriage, a quickie Vegas wedding ...
A growing number of states and cities have a message for people who get squeamish about seeing women breast-feed their babies in public. And that ...
You may have seen the news this week that Rufus, a bull terrier, won Best in Show at this year's Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
...
You know when lawmakers accept gifts from lobbyists? And they don't disclose the gifts, even when they're considering legislation that could benefit those lobbyists' clients?
...
Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took a new step in his public health crusade yesterday, granting "Healthy Arkansas" designations to 106 of his state's dining ...
$70,000. That's the household income level that Fort Lauderdale is considering as the cutoff for a new housing aid program. Yeah, Fort Lauderdale's got some pricey ...
The Virginia legislature is considering a gas tax increase with a twist. Anyone could mail in their receipts for gas purchases twice a year and ...
For cities and states, a great slogan can be a terrific way to market yourself. (Just ask New York.)
But you have to be careful; ...
Ray Bradbury wants to bu ild a monorail in Los Angeles.
In New York, Mayor Mike Bloomberg is entertaining an idea for a huge gondola ...
The lethal injection debate unfolding in California this week has garnered a lot of attention because of the medical ethics questions it brings up. But ...
The backlash against the Supreme Court's Kelo decision is continuing unabated. Property rights advocates across the country are proposing amendments to state constitutions to restrict ...
The Philadelphia City Council unanimously approved a resolution yesterday opposing the deal to sell shipping operations at six major U.S.ports to a company ...
Earlier this month, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show", defending his position that the state can require pharmacists ...
Does it count as a form of bipartisanship if the former coach of the Oklahoma Sooners endorses his old rival at the University of Nebraska?
...
One thing the debate over the UAE ports deal has made clear is that politics is becoming pure theater, shedding its former pretense about serious ...
Here's today's assignment: turn to your neighbors at home or at work and ask them if they know what their official state dirt is. Okay, ...
Washington Governor Christine Gregoire seems to have worked a minor miracle in brokering a compromise between doctors and malpractice attorneys in her state. That's not ...
Here at Governing, we always take pleasure in pointing out when federal legislation mirrors laws already on the books in the states. Well, the congressional ...
posted by Zach Patton
When you call your city government and get put on hold, you usually brace yourself for an onslaught of Olivia Newton ...
Remember those folks who live on Hooker Lane in Greenwich, Connecticut, who were petitioning the town last fall to change the name of their street?
...
If you're curious about the future of public financing of Major League Baseball stadiums, keep a close eye on the Minnesota legislature over the next ...
One reason I'm so fascinated by the response to the Supreme Court's Kelo decision is that every day there seems to be a new angle ...
posted by Ellen Perlman
Two bears in Richmond were killed by health officials and tested for rabies after biting a four-year-old boy who got too ...
What do a former Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, a former county executive, a former city councilman and a former Steelers player have in common? (Other ...
We're all familiar with situations in which a public official says something candid but off-message and is later "corrected" by aides who explain ...
In a victory for anyone who gets annoyed seeing rotting jack-o-lanterns on Christmas Eve or wilting Easter bunnies at Memorial Day, Aurora, Il., has passed ...
A few months ago, I argued that although the political environment might be turning voters against both the Republican and Democratic parties, no credible independent ...
"One Book, One City" initiatives, whereby local residents all read and discuss the same book during a set period of time, have spread ...
Waiters in Massachusetts' restaurants are going to have to figure out how to make those little foil swans for wrapping up leftover wine and sending ...
Now that South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds has signed legislation to ban virtually all abortions, a renewed court battle over Roe v. Wade seems inevitable. ...
It didn't win an Oscar on Sunday, but one of the documentaries that was nominated is a film that anyone interested in local politics would ...
In "Skybox Skeptics" [Governing, March], my colleague Josh Goodman writes about the growing difficulty baseball teams are having leveraging public money for new ...
We've had trouble lately on the 13th Floor with people attaching junk ads to our posts. But since we're getting in the spirit of Internet ...
I can see it now: Senior citizens angling with teenagers at the video arcades to get a turn at one of those race-car games where ...
Initiatives are a famously large part of the political process in California. Among other things, they have been the avenue to political power taken by ...
You may not agree with Paul Krugman's politics -- he's a New York Times columnist famous for bashing President Bush. You may not agree with ...
Ahh, New Jersey. Good for an easy punchline or for stereotypes about bad hair, turnpikes, The Sopranos or gold jewelry. Not to mention a fun ...
Who's the most frequent flyer on Alaska's new state jet? Not Guv Frank Murkowski. The AP analyzed the jet's first three months of action and ...
The Washington Post offered principals in the D.C. area an interesting opportunity this weekend: Explain for the world why your school is not meeting ...
You may have read a few weeks ago about Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, being suspended for making an offensive comment. He likened a ...
That's a pretty scary headline, right? A lot of liberal bloggers are wondering why you haven't seen it in your local papers or scrolling at ...
Cat owners are nuts. There, I said it. Bring on the hate mail.
The latest proof is the response to a bill recently introduced in ...
Powwows are back in Georgia state parks.
For a while there, a recommended ban on powwows, which was never formally adopted but was enforced anyway (...
Even in an age of partisan extremes, there are still stories that can amaze.
Ted Gambordella, a Dallas martial-arts expert, is a supporter of the ...
Rule No. 1: Know Where Your State Is
Jeanine Pirro, the ex-Westchester County DA and ex-opponent to Sen. Hilllary Clinton (in a race where Pirro ...
Last week, Robert J. Healey Jr., announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor of Rhode Island. But Healey wasn't exactly in the state at the time.
...
In one episode of the Simpsons, Marge tells Homer, "It's very easy to criticize," to which he responds, "and fun, too!"
...
A zero-tolerance crackdown on drug- and quality-of-life crimes in Buffalo is working very well. Police arrested 500 more people in January and February of this year ...
Smoking marijuana: not okay.
Spray-painting huge marijuana leaves on the outside of your house: fine, apparently.
That's the verdict in Winsted, Connecticut, where town officials (...
If only homeland security were this simple: Conducter on a DC metro train: "Passengers, please refrain from taking pictures of the train due ...
Voters are headed to the polls today in Illinois for primary elections -- or at least they're supposed to be. As Taegan Goddard points out ...
The Economist has a lengthy survey of Chicago in its current issue. As is often the case in this publication, no new ground is broken, ...
Have big telecom and cable companies had a change of heart? It used to be that whenever the topic of municipal wireless came up, they ...
Who knew that four dead presidents - all white males, of course - would end up right in the middle of the latest abortion debate? ...
It's been amusing to watch the Minnesota university system and state legislature squabble over what to call the new stadium that will be built on ...
Don't let anyone tell you L.A.'s not a transit town. In fact, the city's got so many transit lines -- the Red Line, ...
How do you get people into your state parks and forests? One way is to tap into their penchant for being TV-watching couch potatoes. Connecticut ...
There are two tried-and-true routes to good P.R. You can earn it through effective spin, or buy it through effective advertising. Now Alaska Guv ...
I've just completed an initial update of the state technology officials for Governing's Sourcebook and the results show that slowly more women are moving into ...
Here in the D.C. area, everyone knows the most rapid growth is occuring out in the exurbs. A list of fast-growing counties without Virginia's ...
"Government is something that people consume like a McDonald's Big Mac. If it takes more than 10 minutes, people aren't happy even if the burger ...
Everyone who knows anything about electronic voting machines knows that they are controversial. Few people seem completely confident in any of the existing technologies.
But ...
You know those 90,000 FEMA trailers that the President of the United States seems, somehow, powerless to get moved off the lot in Arkansas? Maybe it's ...
Whatever happened to running for an office you actually wanted? Last week, we mentioned a candidate for Rhode Island lieutenant governor who's running on ...
Recent events in Michigan illustrate how voter referendums are becoming devices for influencing the results of other votes. Governor Jennifer Granholm was all smiles yesterday ...
A couple of months ago, I had a very simple question for a state that will remain nameless.
I found the division that would have ...
There aren't that many openly gay mayors in this country -- only three, according to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. That number increased to ...
Well, Sunday morning I'll be running around the house grumbling about all the clocks, just like I do twice every year, wondering ...
When Metropolis , the glossy monthly on architecture and design, shows up at our house, the first thing my teenage son (who wants to be an ...
Maybe this goes without saying, after Katrina. But lately Mike Leavitt, the federal health secretary, has been saying it directly to local officials: you're on ...
There's always something interesting in the montly newsletter I receive from the Urban Libraries Council. An article in the April edition highlights some of the ...
After decades in the wilderness, Republicans have been having a high old time running things as the dominant party in Missouri. They took control of ...
Ever since he killed TennCare, Tennessee's cover-everyone health insurance for the poor and working poor, Governor Phil Bredesen has been desperately seeking a solution to ...
Being a journalist, I'm no great fan of restrictions on free speech, yet I can't help but feel sympathetic towards the state legislatures that have ...
Matt Tully, who covered Mitch Daniels' victorious run for the governorship of Indiana and now writes a smart column for the Indianapolis Star, is touting ...
State legislators are never short on creativity. If you don't believe me, consider some of the quirky ideas percolating in legislatures around the country this ...
If you're reading this post on a bar's wi-fi connection in Austin, you might want to put down that beer.
The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission ...
Connecticut legislators are in the midst of debating a "truth in music" law. According to NPR, the law seeks to prevent musicians from ...
Ohio Secretary of State---and '06 GOP gubernatorial hopeful---Kenneth Blackwell has been getting some flak lately for owning stocks in companies with which the state does ...
Hey, congratulations on your move to a new city! Hope you enjoy the new digs.
Oh, didn't you realize you'd changed locales? Well, according to ...
Is Richard Florida right? We've written repeatedly about his idea that cities will thrive if they attract the best and the brightest, creating comfy havens ...
Here's an idea that might catch on around the country. Arkansas just became the 17th state to ban smoking in workplaces, but, more interestingly, it ...
Florida's massive contract with Convergys to run its human resources management system has always been troubled. Now it's the source of legal action, as state ...
Eric Anderson, the city manager of Tacoma, came by the 13th Floor last week and floated an interesting idea: What if we paid for local ...
We've all read about big companies like General Motors worrying about health care costs and their deadly effect on the bottom line. And we've all ...
posted by Zach Patton
Let's put the just-finished Maryland legislative session into perspective:
What Lawmakers Did Not Do: Reach any agreement to limit utility rate ...
Critics have long called tax incentives for businesses "corporate welfare." But are those tax breaks any better if they're directed at companies that ...
Among land-use planners, Houston, the only big city without zoning, is a handy punch line. Houstonians, in turn, tend to sound both defensive and Texas-proud ...
I have a friend Alex who, when I call or email to ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, doesn't get back ...
Although the minimum wage is always an issue for state legislators, last year and this year they have been especially active. At least nine states ...
Sunlight Labs announced the release of TransparencyData.com in April. The site makes searching, obtaining and downloading government data so much easier than it has ever been.
The one significant change in disclosure that goes to the root of the public fears of lobbying would be immediate disclosure of lobbyist contact with lawmakers, government officials and government offices. There an informational valley here that creates extreme distrust and fear.
The "Cycle of Transparency" demonstrates the specific actions and the variety of actors that need to work together to create the open, transparent government we seek--a useful tool in thinking about how to make governments more transparent.
Fixing the state's retirement finances is like untangling a Gordian knot.
Plus: Public-Private Partnerships, The End of the Rubber Room, And More
When it comes to directing some sunlight at the courts, there are many more transparency measures to consider.
Sunlight's Policy Counsel wrote about his curiosity regarding the differences between the House and Senate versions of the DISCLOSE Act, legislation that responds to the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision in Citizens United. Today, he has his answer.
Sunlight couldn’t agree more with the name of the bill introduced today by Senator Schumer and Representatives Van Hollen and Castle: Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections (the DISCLOSE Act).
There is nothing so mundane as street sweeping. So how did the District of Columbia generate cost savings, bring in additional revenue, streamline operations and...
Putting trust and responsibility in the hands of front-line workers means having a strong ethical grounding.
It has been clear for some time that the innovative, cost-saving approaches highlighted at this site are in high demand among public officials. So it...
The most recent issue of the Columbia Journalism Review includes a guide to health reform (PDF), courtesy of the Commonwealth Fund. Although it's designed ...
Some reporters write long. If an editor gives them 3,000 words, they'll take 4,000. Some reporters write short. Give them 3,000 words and they'll struggle to ...
To survive these challenging times, leaders must embrace a relentless commitment to better, faster and cheaper government.
Anger at government and its employees is in the news, amped up in part by a bad economy and fueled by broad dissatisfaction with politicians....
Poverty is encroaching on suburban enclaves -- even the most affluent of them. Many are ill-equipped to meet the new social-service needs.
Agencies caught in the eye of a scandal need a pre-plan for defusing the storm of media attention.
Can police Chief George Gascón clean up this San Francisco district without pushing the poor out?
California is racing to build an ambitious high-speed rail system. Some cities think it should slow down.
With America expected to grow by 100 million people in the next 40 years, how will states and localities run a bigger, more diverse country?
The tax on disposable bags in the nation's capital has had a noteworthy impact.
Could shortening school years be a pain-free way for school districts to save money?
As states engage in yet another round of budget cutting, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter has zeroed in on an unlikely target: the money his state...
Dr. Patricia Gabow molds Denver's public health system into a national model.
Pittsburgh's proposed tax would have been a first: a 1 percent levy on all tuition paid by the city's 100,000 college students. If it had passed, it...
Health care won't cost less until people get healthy.
(Photo: Tony Alter/Flickr CC).
Closing state parks may be a politically palatable option, but is it the smart financial choice?
Even before President Barack Obama signed health-care reform into law, two states had already taken steps to invalidate it. In Utah, lawmakers proposed a measure...
Almost from the day he stepped into office, Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons has been widely unpopular. But somehow, he still has a chance to win...
The economic slump is forcing debt-laden municipalities nationwide to consider filing for bankruptcy.
Recently created government "apps" contests are popular, but are they worth doing?
Deep cuts in state and local spending may exert an undertow on the nation's recovery.
Preventing small problems from growing bigger takes on significance in today's economy.
The low-tech telephone plays a key role in keeping government connected to citizens. Too bad, officials never pick up. (Photo: Chris Campbell/Flickr CC)
A revived Small Business Administration is good news for local government.
What's not to like about the Race to the Top? Plenty, it seems.
If you’re counting on technology to swoop in and save the day, you may be wasting a lot of hope, and a lot of money.
A personal take on the merits of IT consolidation in government.
Here is the essential digest of articles that reflect my view of the world -- or at least that part of it that relates to government, technology and management. If Public Great is a buffet of new ideas, here is a sampler plate:
Government simply doesn’t have the capacity to do all the good we want to do in this world. Who will save us from this crisis and what can you do about it? In short: you, and everything.
Consolidation. That was the watchword as the nation's top public-sector technologists gathered in Baltimore this week for the midyear conference of the National Association ...
Don't ask how much the private sector should be involved in government, but how it should be involved.
An article from today's Wall Street Journal documents the trend in government cutbacks:
In Los Angeles this week, the mayor proposed closing most city offices...
I was in San Francisco in March, taking pictures for John Buntin's May story about that city's efforts to clean up its roughest neighborhood, the ...
When we suggested fireworks displays are community-building events that shouldn't be eliminated, some of our readers lit up like the Fourth of July.
Plus: Kentucky Loses a Resource, Texas Loses Some Fireworks, And More
They call it "Opportunity NYC" and it was controversial from the start. New York City sought to incent poor people to improve their behavior by...
Local government leaders have the tenure and familiarity with a place to create and sustain communities.
I recently "put to bed" (as we say in the magazine biz) a story about San Francisco Police Chief George Gascon's efforts ...
You've probably seen the scary projections of the latest White House budget that highlight the imbalance between Washington's policy promises and its capacity to pay...
How state and local government agencies can use the ISO 9001:2008 standard to improve the quality and efficiency of their Recovery Act reporting.
Governors, mayors and budget directors need to update the budgeting process to ensure IT-enabled innovations.
