Apparently tea trays aren't used every day in the Illinois governor's residence. That may be why no one noticed that a silver salver valued at $150, as well as dozens of other items, were missing from the Executive Mansion until the release of a recent state audit.

As if living in homes built on stilts isn't precarious enough, residents of Stiltsville, Florida, are faced with the prospect of having the land they live on (or over) yanked out from under them.

A year ago, Denver's central business district looked like something out of a war movie. But the enemy in the sky wasn't dive-bombers--it was pigeons, whose droppings rained down on city buildings and pedestrians.

Libraries are used to receiving donations of books--many of which they can't use--and old editions of National Geographic that people can't bear to throw away.

A North Carolina nonprofit corporation set up to foster economic development hit the jackpot in April. A company that it launched was purchased by a Silicon Valley supplier of fiber-optics equipment, yielding $230 million for the nonprofit, MCNC, and assuring its financial security for many years to come.