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Friday News Digest


Those of you that regularly read this blog (I'm amazed at how there are more and more each day - thank you, and please pass our site on to others) know that I am a huge fan of the Minnesota Twins. This last week put me in a position to 1) attend my first Twins game of the year (we won), 2) attend a Colorado Rockies game in beautiful Coors Field, and 3) select my seats for the brand new 2010 Minnesota Twins OUTDOOR stadium. It was a lucky break to be able to fit this all into a busy planner schedule. Go Twins!

Since I was at CNU last week and was blogging about the conference, there has been no news digest for a couple of weeks. That is going to make this a long one. Enjoy!

"What happened? The financial crisis, for starters. The easy money that Wall Street was counting on to finance its purchases has largely disappeared. Then the Obama administration unintentionally damped interest with its $787 billion economic stimulus package, a windfall that local governments are now racing to spend."


"The stimulus money, as well as other infrastructure money promised by Congress, has provided temporary relief for cash-poor municipalities. But this situation will not last forever."

"Green consumption became "positional consumption" that identified the consumer as a member of a moral and intellectual elite. A 2007 survey found that 57 percent of Prius purchasers said they bought their car because "it makes a statement about me."

The U.S. Conference of Mayors complained this week that urban areas haven't been given a large enough share of stimulus funds.

"My goal is to find some revenue sources that are on the backs of a user fee -- whether it's creatively using our parking meters or whether it's looking at some of the innovations that could be forced on us anyways by the state with red-light cameras."

60 years ago (1949)

The practice of putting coins behind windshield wipers for police officers to put into parking meters, thus preventing overtime parking tickets, must be discontinued, said police chief Tom Templeton. The practice has become widespread.