Almost half a century ago, after he'd gotten home from the Korean War, Tom Coleman found himself selling chemical fertilizer to the farmers of south Georgia.

In the mid-1980s, when metropolitan Portland first began planning a light-rail line, the downtown merchants in suburban Gresham, Oregon, discussed the issue and reached a quick consensus: They didn't want it.

The speed and clout of the Internet let community organizers mobilize support in the flash of a mouse click.

Instead of teaching a lesson on sex and appropriate behavior, the Montana health department recently learned one.

Cincinnati schools are marching toward the head of the performance- measurement class. If teachers ratify the plan in a mid-September vote, the city's school system will become a leader in the move to take teachers off a single-salary schedule and put them onto one based on job performance.