If you live in Louisville, this is the time of year when it hurts your pride a little bit just to pick up the sports page. The cities that are your natural rivals--cities that used to rank right alongside you in size, image and self-confidence--are winning priceless national publicity on the professional football field.

Philadelphia's city controller, Jonathan Saidel, didn't mince words in his audit of one troubled school system technology project. Taxpayers underwrote a new computer system for financial management, human resources and payroll that was "inefficiently procured, wastefully way over budget and still doesn't do many of the things it was intended to do," Saidel wrote.

Most states can't tell you, with any authority, how much agencies spend on training or how wisely they spend it.

Amtrak's woes could affect state and local efforts to increase rail ridership and thus reduce airport and highway congestion.

A backlash is brewing over the impact of Starbucks on local neighborhoods.