Archive
The current issue of New York magazine takes a really interesting look at the changes in urban planning and design that they city will undergo ...
If your e-mail address fits the standard government model -- johndoe@agency.state.us or janedoe@anycity.gov -- you are definitely not an economic ...
Dan Walters, the longtime Sacramento Bee columnist, opens a piece about sheriffs with a sentence that NACo's going to love:
"A strong argument could ...
Add copper to the list of metals that are increasingly being stolen from the public domain, as high demand worldwide has tripled the price that ...
Now that former Massachusetts Governor William Weld has dropped out of the New York governor's race, it might be worth looking back at this Governing ...
posted by Elizabeth Daigneau
With the official start of summer just two weeks away, 8 million Americans are revving up their RVs and planning their summer ...
We're certainly not endorsing anyone in the race for mayor of Washington, but we do hope that D.C. Council President Linda Cropp can afford ...
It's a tired old cliche of American politics that the job of lieutenant governor is, for the most part, boring and thankless. Like many cliches, ...
In Governing's May issue, I noted (4th item) that Democrats have been cleaning up in special legislative elections in recent months, taking lots of formerly ...
As the year began, Kinky Friedman seemed to have sewn up the role of kooky independent candidate in the Texas governor's race. But state Comptroller ...
There's one piece of immigration policy that has nothing to do with amnesty or building a barrier but has many states--and their Medicaid directors in ...
While much has been made of the effect a bill making its way through the California legislature could have on presidential politics, the impact could ...
When I was in high school, I thought that nothing I was learning would be useful in the real world. History class was about Tippecanoe ...
It's clear that gang members and the justice system they sometimes encounter operate in different social spheres. You might even say that such (alleged) criminals ...
Vermont Senator Matt Dunne stopped by the 13th Floor yesterday to chat about what's going on in the Green Mountain State, including healthcare issues, technology ...
Fans of cheap irony will want to read this Sacramento Bee story about how the California Reclamation Board plans to meet in closed session to ...
My skills as a prognosticator are about as good as the average political reporter's -- not so hot. I'm living up to that track record ...
Two weeks ago, the state of Utah launched www.espanol.utah.gov, a Spanish-lanaguage site with info on taxes, health services, driver licences, etc.
It ...
Okay, so he's no Schwarzenegger. Or even Ventura.
But Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has landed a role in a major film production. The governor ...
Bay Area biologist Terry Preston was concerned about creekside development in her area, so she hit the books to find relevant laws and zoning rules ...
More news from the replicability front.
After the shock and awe of Massachusetts' passage of a universal health insurance bill in May--a mandate for all ...
They sneak across the border illegally. They leave their country and their families, hoping the journey north will provide a better life. They're willing to ...
Reading this story about how motorcycle deaths in Florida have shot up 67 percent since Governor Jeb Bush, in his wisdom, repealed the requirement that bikers ...
Writing a recent diary on liberal Web site Daily Kos, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack proved that he isn't your father's blogging politician -- and not ...
If blogs were the big shiny new campaign tool in 2004, this year's election techno-gimmick may be social networking sites like Friendster, MySpace or Facebook.
Those ...
Have you got clout at Chicago city hall? If so, you're on the list.
As part of the ongoing trial of former patronage czar Robert ...
"Once a report is made public, the damage from any inappropriate contents cannot be undone."
So says a motion filed by Kentucky Governor ...
This might be the best headline of the day:
State Senator Wants To Limit Fluffernutters
But it's actually a really outrageous story. This legislator in ...
There was no fanfare, no Supreme Court justices sitting on their hands, no heroic figures occupying a place of honor next to his wife. Nonetheless, ...
When incoming Newark, NJ, Mayor Cory Booker gets sworn in on July 1, it's not going to be some small-time affair.
He's getting Queen Latifah, Wyclef ...
Utah has sort of reinstated the Spanish-language site that was taken down after only a week and a half, following outcry that it violated the ...
What with the lousy hours, mediocre pay, constant media scrutiny, obligatory baby kissing and inevitable squabbling with the legislature, why would anyone want to be ...
Two Bay Area transit authorities released their annual survey on traffic in the San Francisco area and, as the Chronicle reports, it's bad and getting ...
Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher has been having his problems. He just doesn't want people -- especially state employees -- to know about them.
We noted ...
We were pleased yesterday to jump on the liberal blog bandwagon regarding the story that Kentucky had blocked access to blogs from state computers.
Now ...
It's old news by now that Robert Smith was fired last week from his post on the board of Washington's Metro transit agency for referring ...
When Doug Duncan dropped out of the Maryland governor's race last week due to his struggles with clinical depression, he achieved a civic good ...
Apparently dissatisfied with their lot, many state legislators seek higher office at the first plausible opportunity. Are the ones in your state doing well so ...
Why do management fads come and go so fast? Blame consultants, says a new study, reported in yesterday's Wall Street Journal (paid subscription). Looking at ...
posted by Zach Patton
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Flecther doesn't need any more public relations debacles.
But he's getting flak right now for not walking to ...
The latest news out of Kentucky's blog blocking scare is that the state has blocked access to a Bible study site, among other religious pages.
...
Uh oh. The New York Times popped the question that no city official who's drunk on WiFi hype wants to think about.
Here it is: ...
I'm doing some reporting on corporate income taxes, and looking at why collections are shooting up so fast in almost all 50 states (See this NGA/...
Ninety-nine government reports out of one hundred instantly get tossed in the wastebasket of irrelevancy, but yesterday's Surgeon General report on secondhand smoke seems destined ...
A Washington Post poll released today had lots of good news for Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich. Fifty-six percent of registered Maryland voters approve of the ...
Two years ago, my colleague Rob Gurwitt wrote a feature about Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin's remarkable ability to forge alliances among disparate interests and factions, ...
Those Supreme Court justices, they're a bunch of teasers, aren't they?
For the past 20 years they've been saying that raw partisan gerrymandering is potentially unconstitutional ...
Need more proof that the bobblehead craze is three years past peak? Introducing the state legislator bobblehead, starring New York Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. ...
In honor of Ron Gonzales, who refuses to step down as mayor of San Jose even though he's under indictment for corruption and the city ...
Yesterday I was handed a flier promoting the candidacy of Hans Riemer for the Montgomery County Council in suburban Maryland. Since I cover politics and ...
NJ Guv Jon Corzine isn't getting much sleep these days, what with a budget showdown looming and the Delaware River bursting its banks. So yesterday ...
I wrote a short article (second item) for Governing in May about the huge increase in state and local lobbying of the federal government. The ...
If your city has debated a ban on smoking, you're no doubt familiar with the usual argument raised by the restaurant industry, that such a ...
I was born and raised in the South, so I was dismayed -- but not really surprised -- to run across this ranking of which ...
An Arizona ballot measure may hold the key to boosting voter turnout: paying people to vote.
The initiative, which last week the state certified for ...
I have to say, I was a little surprised at yesterday's New York court ruling rejecting an effort by gays and lesbians seeking the right ...
Usually when a state is on the brink of shutting down, the main players will emerge at the 11th hour from a smokeless room to ...
That a private-sector computer consultant was able to easily hack into the FBI's computers and gain access to the passwords of Director Robert S. Mueller ...
Lousisana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has vetoed a bill that would have designated an official state poem for the Pelican State. She said the poem "...
Everyone knows the hot-button political issues these days: the Iraq War, gay marriage, abortion, immigration and unfunded public employee pension liabilities. Ok, so maybe the ...
Now that Google has officially become a verb, it's only a matter of time before we bestow similar recognition on the phrase "Googling yourself.&...
Giving Sonny Perdue a run for his money, Maryland Gov. Bob Ehrlich has gone Hollywood. The Guv has a small role as a Statehouse security ...
Alan Greenblatt wrote recently about how business revenues in Montgomery County, Maryland, shot up after the county instituted a smoking ban.
It looks like restaurants ...
So in New Orleans, Ron Mazier can't be "I.Q."
And in Texas, Richard can be "Kinky" but Carole can't be &...
posted by Josh Goodman
A few weeks ago, I did something that no sane person would do. I signed up for dozens of gubernatorial candidate ...
For those who think offshore oil rigs ruin the view, how about floating toilets? But the latter could be an environmental lifesaver.
Virginia wants to ...
How's this for a double dog dare? Bridgeport, Conn., Mayor John Fabrizi, who not long ago confessed to a coke habit, declares that he's ...
I'll be down on the Gulf Coast all week, working on a year-after Katrina story. I'm focusing more on Mississippi (Rob Gurwitt drew the Louisiana ...
My apartment isn't very far from the 13th Floor. I love it. It's close enough for me to walk to work, and if there's something ...
How many times have you heard that artists, writers and other creative types have been priced out of major cities? Daniel Brook, a freelance writer, ...
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Flethcer's patronage hiring scandal is well documented.
But his lawyers are trying an innovative defense of his alleged improprieties: Everybody else was ...
Biloxi is a town that likes a good bet. Before Katrina, the city was pulling in $20 million a year in revenue from casinos. But how's ...
We've all heard that residents of poor inner-city areas have lousy food choices, being badly served by grocery stores (although this may be changing) while ...
posted by Josh Goodman
Legislators in Tennessee are taking a swig of something we here at Governing find highly intoxicating: policy innovation.
Earlier this summer, ...
Ohio officials are getting flak for a state-produced CD of children's music, made by inmates in Ohio prisons.
The disc, entitled "Wings of Hope,&...
The Albuquerque Journal has a story (subs. required) about how New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is courting blogs with as much fervor as he courts ...
Biloxi Councilman George Lawrence took me for a drive through his ward yesterday. It's a U-shaped gerrymander around the point of East Biloxi, where people ...
Here's a pop quiz for the elections junkies out there. What candidate for governor recently described himself as "a compassionate redneck," noted that ...
It happens in the medical field and apparently it also happens in government. For a long time, researchers used men for studies on heart attacks ...
Like many of the towns along Mississippi's Gulf Coast, Gulfport has fallen in love with New Urbanism since Katrina. The city has held a series ...
What is the main thing? According to Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi, "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.&...
Fiji water, the schmancy bottled water that sells for like $9, is getting heat from Cleveland.
A recent ad campaign for the bottled water says: "&...
There is so much destruction up and down the Mississippi coast that you can become inured to the sight of bombed out buildings and concrete ...
This is from Australia, but it's too good not to post.
Rockdale, a suburb of Sydney, was having a problem with loiterers in a local ...
Hey, what's the difference between a pigeon and a homeless person? According to a couple laws passed last week, nothing.
The city of Redmond, ...
Last week, Chris Swope was blogging from the Gulf Coast. He sent posts and photos as he made his way from New Orleans to Mississippi.
...
These may not be new to anyone else, but I was amused the other day at a presentation given by Bill Brier of the Edison ...
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is on a roll.
After solving that whole pesky homeless problem, he has announced his idea to reduce graffiti: ...
Gay marriage may soon run out of steam as a political issue in the states, but there's little danger that a ceasefire is imminent in ...
Yes, we all know politics is local. Sometimes, it's also individual. Yesterday morning I was biking to work and came across about eight people spread ...
Over on Governing's home page, Otis White writes about how San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders killed an idea to treat and re-treat wastewater so that ...
These kids today! With their weird clothes and crazy hair. And their weapons of mass destruction.
Well, not so much. See, when police in ...
Many people have a vision of fire fighters that involves red trucks, ladders, hoses and a couple of dalmatians. But police and fire work also ...
Spam has accumulated once again in my inbox since my post a couple of weeks ago, so it's time for the latest tidbits from the ...
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about Cleveland's objections to an ad campaign for Fiji bottled water, which said "The label says Fiji because ...
I've often talked with members of Congress and other politicians about the silliness of their pathological fear of being voted out of office. When an ...
Joel Garreau, who memorably encapsulated the life of the outer suburbs in the 1992 book Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, has found yet another ...
Texas Governor Rick Perry continues to hold both polling and fundraising leads over his numerous and colorful opponents in his reelection bid this year. But ...
When I was in college, I knew this girl who took great pride in the fact that, in four years of school -- three spent ...
It's been a rough summer for gay marriage supporters, what with courts in New York, Washington, Georgia and Nebraska all ruling against them. But recent ...
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Alderman Todd Stroger, the Democratic nominee to replace his father as Cook County Board president, has donated $8,000 to a Nation ...
I've been talking to people up in Massachusetts about why the Big Dig has turned into such a black eye, while another project with a ...
posted by Ellen Perlman
When I read that Washington, D.C. had put down some rubber sidewalks I decided I just had to go test ...
"Would you vote for a candidate who wrote a trashy, pornographic romance novel that glorifies premarital sex and seeks to arouse sexual interest as ...
Minimum wage hikes remain a hot issue in states, but as you probably know, Congress looks likely to approve the first national increase in nine ...
In recent months, I've been talking with a few academic types about how some of the older industrial towns in the Northeast are starting to ...
While reading The New York Times the other day, I was struck by the claim made in a piece on Guantanamo that, when it comes ...
When it comes to big spending in judicial elections, Alabama is pretty much the biggest. It's at or near the top of the list in ...
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has agreed to a challenge from a potential campaign donor. The donor, an 80-year-old Sacramento man, said he would donate to ...
I wrote a story for the current issue of Governing about Lower Town, a neighborhood in Paducah, Kentucky.
City planners in Paducah are reviving the ...
There's a statue in Loveland, Colorado, that's causing quite a stir.
"Triangle" is a statue of three figures, and it was recently placed ...
The first time I glanced at the National Association of Counties' latest report on meth, I thought it vindicated the meth precursor laws that have ...
Since South Carolina will be the first southern state to hold a presidential primary in 2008, many of the governors who are gathered in Charleston for ...
We talk a lot about interoperability among first responders. It can be tough for police and fire departments to get on the same page. Their ...
Here's the latest delicious political spam candidates for governor are sending to my inbox:
* Wisconsin Republican Mark Green has a folksy video in which he ...
The level of political debate in Tampa was ratcheted up (or down?) a few levels over the weekend.
In a debate on the local cable ...
Joe Riley, the celebrated mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, announced on Friday that he will seek a ninth term next year. Riley has been in ...
Tommy Thompson, the former governor of Wisconsin and secretary of Health and Human Services during President Bush's first term, has been peddling lots of ideas ...
Most Sunday mornings when I read the newspaper, my issue of Parade Magazine goes straight into the garbage can, along with all the other stuff ...
Journalists often would prefer to think inside the box, stick with old paradigms and face fair-to-middlin' -- not perfect -- storms, rather than be caught ...
The windy, second, gritty city of big shoulders, tool maker, wheat stacker and hog butcher to the world.
Yes Chicago, with all its epithets given ...
The thing that political journalists care about the most is conflict -- two sides taking shots at each other over policy or partisanship or anything ...
So last year all the governors got together and agreed on a uniform way to measure their dropout rates.
But now, two states have taken ...
posted by Alan Greenblatt
Only people in Iowa are following the CIETC scandal. For our purposes today, it's enough to know that Archie Brooks, a ...
All sorts of educational sessions were taking place at the National Association of Counties meeting in Chicago from August 4th to 8th.
But for a ...
D.C. United, our hometown soccer club, played Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw the other night in a match played in Seattle. ...
A judge ruled Friday that Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher won't have to face charges stemming from a hiring scandal until he leaves office.
If Fletcher ...
Santa Fe has had a living wage since 2004. It's actually the highest minimum-wage requirement of its kind in the country. The law raised the city's
...
What's the point of passing a law that won't be enforced? The Houston City Council seems particularly prone to cracking down on high-profile problems without ...
Oklahoma State University political scientist Bob Darcy has just done his best to dispel me of one of my favorite urban rural legends: That Brad ...
Needless to say, there are a lot of factors that influence you when you go to the polls -- your personal background, your community, your ...
Our friends at Stateline.org report that state revenues are as flush as they've been in decades, citing an NCSL survey. So, that's good news ...
Utah Senator wants to be able to fire judges. Salt Lake Tribune
When lobbying for school vouchers doesn't work, get the poor to lobby for ...
Q. What happens if you implement an anti-tailgating measure, and motorists obey it perfectly?
A. Traffic jams.
Last weekend, Washington State transportation officials enacted their 2 ...
I don't doubt that George Allen can be insulting and indeed was Monday to a volunteer with his opponent's campaign. But I do doubt that ...
You may be familiar with the ongoing investigation into hiring practices in Illinois. Members of the Blagojevich administration are accused of improperly letting political considerations ...
No Child Left Behind doesn't come up in Congress for reauthorization until next year, but that hasn't stopped a lively discussion from taking place over ...
As an out lesbian, Patricia Todd knew she'd have a tough time running for a seat in the Alabama legislature. What she didn't expect, though, ...
SLC mayor will protest Bush's visit to city. Salt Lake Tribune
Another day, another "electronic voting machines aren't very accurate" study. Columbus ...
We bicyclists here on the 13th Floor are lucky because our building offers a shower. That allows the seven or so of us who commute ...
Six weeks ago, my husband and I went to settlement on a weekend home in Berkeley Springs, an historic town in the eastern panhandle of ...
The Nashville and Davidson County metro government has a lot going for it -- improving schools, affordable housing and an attractive business location -- but ...
One urban planner's search for soundbites: "If it looks like the Louvre, you must approve." Planetizen
Are state fairs in trouble? You bet ...
Thanks to one of our readers for pointing out that the famous Leaning Tower of Sioux Falls, SD, the undemolishable ZIP Feed mill, is now ...
I queried folks here at NCSL's annual meeting in Nashville as to whether Democrats were in a position to take control of the New York ...
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is going to have to start reserving stars for some state governors. (No, not that one. Or that one.)
...
Chicago Mayor Daley slams visiting officials from Sante Fe and San Francisco: "You manage your city." Chicago Tribune
Wyoming has a drinking problem. ...
Yesterday at the National Conference of State Legislatures annual meeting in Nashville, I set out on a search to find the weirdest booth in the ...
