The U.S. Census Bureau is creatively marketing the decennial census. Ultimate Fighting Championship grapplers are campaigning for the Census in Nevada. The bureau is sponsoring a race car to reach out to NASCAR fans. Other sporting and entertainment event attendees may see promotional messages on the Goodyear Blimp. Students at Chicago Public Schools are learning about the Census from former professional football players. Latino community leaders are inviting their constituents to engage in a multimedia campaign. The bureau has commissioned a fortune cookie maker to include Census-themed messages in the snacks. And a series of Christopher Guest-directed ads, using actors from some of his movies, are also informing the public.

A growing number of police departments are training their officers to administer blood tests in place of breathalyzer tests. Promising results from an established Arizona program, as well as from cities like Dalworthington Gardens, Texas, have prompted Dallas and other cities to implement or consider implementing similar programs. And the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is funding pilot projects in various Idaho and Texas cities. Whereas breath testing does not detect the presence of drugs in a person's blood stream, blood tests can. Additionally, blood tests greatly strengthen DUI cases for prosecutors. This results in more plea deals, which can free up judicial and police resources. Critics note that blood tests may not always be conducted in ideal conditions, that officers may be improperly trained, and that a careless incident may lead to municipal liability.

Retirees and some state parks have come together to help each other out in tough economic times, exchanging volunteer work for rent-free camping space. The program is attracting senior citizens who want to get away but are also on a tight budget, and providing some financial relief to park and wildlife agencies facing budget cuts. Under most arrangements, the retirees work 20 hours to 30 hours a week, performing tasks such as collecting trash, maintaining trails, and leading nature walks.

The U.S. government is funding the acquisition of iris recognition scanning machines to ensure that prisoners will not receive an improper early release. The Department of Justice has granted $500,000 to the National Sheriff's Association, which will then distribute the monies through grants to departments across the nation to establish a national iris scan database. Iris scans are preferable to fingerprint recognition technology which can take hours or days find a match in the FBI database; the iris scan technology can retrieve results in seconds. Critics argue that iris scans in prisons may lead to wider adoption in the outside world, which would have negative privacy repercussions.

The Colorado Springs Police Department has teamed up with a Yellow Cab, a local taxi cab company, to combat crime in the city. Under Cabs on Patrol, the drivers are trained how to better identify, and then report, suspicious activity. Cab drivers often have a good sense of what is going on in a community and can provide law enforcement with information they may not have gathered otherwise. The program also helps fill a widening gap left by police attrition and law enforcement budget cuts.

As tax time approaches, potential scofflaws should steer clear of a budget-strapped New York; the state's Department of Taxation and Finance will post the top 250 business tax debtors and top 250 individual tax debtors to its website. The goal of the "outing" is to shame those named into paying their taxes and to deter others. Each month the list will be reevaluated. The information is already public record, but posting it to the web in this fashion will make it more accessible to the public.

Motorists can now download a new free iPhone application that tells them whether the office they are driving to has a long wait time. DMV Now, developed by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, also gives directions to DMV offices, provides access to their library of driver education videos, and administers sample written driving tests.

By the fall of 2011, a group of high schools in Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont will take part in a new initiative that allows high school sophomores to graduate two years early, if they pass a series of "board exams," and move directly to a two- or four-year college. Those students that do not pass initially may take the exams again the following year. The experiment, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is based on successful programs in Europe and in Singapore which emphasize subject mastery over the accumulation of credits. Educators can also use the exam results to identify and ameliorate students’ trouble spots early on.

San Francisco is helping home and business owners to cover the cost of green improvements through the GreenFinance SF program. GreenFinance SF, which is the largest Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program in the nation, loans money to homeowners for green projects and allows them to pay back the balance over many years as an assessment on their property taxes. The program dampens the high upfront costs of green improvements, removing what is often the biggest obstacle to greening for most property owners.

The road to fiscal sanity requires the kind of big changes that our system of democratic governance makes difficult.

Across the U.S., smart phones are revolutionizing how governments deliver services by putting the power into the hands of citizens.

While many cities are taking steps to embrace green buildings and other sustainable environmental initiatives, bureaucratic hurdles often get in their way. A more integrated approach is needed.

Newsletter produced by: Jim Cooney, editor; Brendan St. Amant, researcher and writer.