Corporations have been rushing to create a new executive position: "chief privacy officer." They're awash in a flood of privacy concerns from customers who worry whether their personal information is being trafficked over the Internet. Few governments have created such a position, but some now are starting to follow in those corporate footsteps.

Congestion is going to get worse in the next two decades. And that's likely to be true no matter what policies we adopt.

Car tags with low numbers are highly coveted and controlled.

It's been a while since the odor from the stockyards wafted across Chicago, but now the Windy City is grappling with a new source of olfactory offensiveness.

This year's look-before-you-leap award goes to Saratoga County, New York. Officials there recently acquired a piece of tax-delinquent property, only to find out later that the land contained an illegal tire dump, a potentially huge environmental liability.