Don't always believe what you read, says Bruce Kenney, a systems management engineer with the West Virginia Department of Transportation. A local newspaper recently ran a story saying that since the state privatized the striping of its highways, costs have almost doubled to $9 million. And that, Kenney says, is simply not so. The overall costs may actually be lower.

A payroll dispute between University of Hawaii faculty and the state that has dragged on for two years is before the courts again. Whatever the outcome, the situation highlights the difficulties in using an accounting gimmick--delaying state employee paychecks--to manage fiscal problems.

Tiger Woods would love it. The city of Dallas' newly refurbished golf course is designed to attract golfers who used to drive 30 minutes out of the city to play on fancy, upper-end courses. Its quality grasses can be mowed to an eighth of an inch so that balls roll as if they're on low-nap carpet.

When it's time to build a new post office, towns often have little input.

When food fights started erupting on a regular basis last fall at Paul V. Moore High School in upstate New York, something had to be done. So the principal came up with an idea: Have the parents of students suspended for launching their lunch across the table--or the room--eat in the cafeteria with their progeny for a week in exchange for expunging the suspension from school records.