We've learned a lot about cutting caseloads. The next step is to focus on keeping people out of poverty.

For a guy who doesn't vote, Larry Bartels sure knows how to get himself in a political tangle. True, he never intended to thrust himself into the contentious debate over racial fairness in public office. And he certainly didn't plan to put himself at the center of the first major redistricting case of the decade.

A few years ago, I went for a drive through the winding streets of Emery Manor, a subdivision of small, Levittown-like rambler houses built in the Chicago suburbs in the early 1950s. People in the older neighborhoods nearby said terrible things about Emery Manor when it was going up: They called it a drab, tasteless collection of identical tiny boxes, scarcely better than shacks.

The transit agency in King County, Washington, is putting a fresh spin on the ancient art of matchmaking. A new Web site, RideshareOnline.com, pairs up isolated Seattle-area commuters with carpooling partners.

Most governments have not been daring enough in their Web strategies and may be missing a real opportunity to change things.