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Innovators Insights




  • Policing and Crime Prevention
  • Social Services for Specific Populations
  • Elementary Education
  • Pluralism, Diversity, Gender, and Inequality
  • Environment and Natural Resources
  • Adult and Continuing Education
  • Homeland Security
  • Cultural Preservation
  • Community Revitalization
  • Higher Education
  • Accountability
  • Finance
  • Higher Education

  • Management Insights: A Governing.com Weekly Column
 
May 9, 2008
What's New
Important Web Resources for Conservation Finance
New Online Event


Please join us on May 14 at 10 am (EDT) for this free, interactive discussion on important online resources for the field, including the Trust for Public Land's Conservation Almanac and the Katoomba Group's Ecosystem Marketplace.

New on our site
Documentary Features Innovations Award Winners


Watch Visionaries, a public television documentary series that showcases the winners of the 2007 Innovations in American Government Awards, sponsored by the Ash Institute.

Policing and Crime Prevention
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State offers police extra DNA tool; California will use partial matches from relatives in its genetic database to try to track down criminals

04/26/2008 | Los Angeles Times

California is adopting an aggressive and controversial crime-fighting technique that uses DNA to identify criminals through their relatives. By taking DNA collected at a crime scene and searching for a possible relative in the state's genetic database, investigators can use that family member to obtain leads on the suspect. While several states permit partial match searching in certain instances, California appears to be the first state in the nation to utilize it as a matter of policy. Many public and private entities are concerned that this policy represents an invasion of privacy, and some scholars have declared it unconstitutional.

Social Services for Specific Populations
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Seattle hatches an innovative plan to tackle its growing homeless population

04/29/2008 | USA TODAY

The 1811 Eastlake housing project in Seattle, Washington, provides on-site support services and case management for chronic public inebriates who are homeless, and allows them to consume alcohol in their semi-private apartments. While the program is controversial, a study has confirmed that it has saved Seattle over $2 million a year in reduced emergency, transportation, detoxification, court, jail, and legal services. It has also given these "pre-recovery" individuals a safe environment in which they can begin transitioning into a more constructive lifestyle.


Read how the Supportive Housing Pilots Initiative, winner of a 2006 Innovation in American Government Award, has also created a unique combination of housing and social services for Connecticut's homeless population.
Elementary Education
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School cafeteria to use biometrics

04/16/2008 | Tampa Tribune (Florida)

Elementary school students often spend up to half of their allotted lunch break waiting in the cafeteria line to pay for their food. Children at two schools in New Port Richey, Florida, will begin testing a biometric fingerprint-recognition system to speed up lunch lines. Officials stress that the technology does not store images of the fingerprints. Instead, the system translates fingerprint scans into a numerical pattern that is then matched with a child's account. Accounts may include balance information, nature of purchase, and whether a student qualifies for free or discounted meals. A growing number of schools are deploying the technology.

Pluralism, Diversity, Gender, and Inequality
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Colleges 'coming out' for gays; CU-Boulder among universities touting gay-friendly campus

04/15/2008 | Daily Camera (Boulder, Colorado)

Hoping to increase enrollment and to diversify their campuses, while acknowledging that high school students are now "coming out" at earlier ages, many universities are trying to attract college-bound gay students. For example, this year, the University of Colorado at Boulder participated for the first time in a special admissions fair for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. The university is also promoting its program in LGBT studies and supporting outreach by its students to educate high schoolers on issues surrounding sexuality.


Read how the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit of Washington, DC, winner of a 2006 Innovations in American Government Award, is bridging the cultural divide between the city's police force and the local gay and lesbian community.
Environment and Natural Resources
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Mayor Newsom breaks ground on first 100 percent off-grid building in San Francisco

04/22/2008 | US States News

San Francisco has broken ground on The EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park, a youth environmental education center that will be the city's first "off-grid" building. The center will feature an on-site wastewater treatment system, a "living" roof filled with flora, and a solar panel array that will allow the building to meet all of its electricity needs.

Adult and Continuing Education
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New 'Plus 50 Initiative' by community colleges reaches out to baby boomers

04/25/2008 | States News Service

The American Association of Community Colleges is launching a new program designed to attract students aged 50 and above, as the number of baby boomers entering retirement skyrockets. The Plus 50 Initiative will expand or create learning, training, and civic engagement opportunities that are particularly interesting or relevant to this population. Ten community colleges will pilot the grant-funded program.

Homeland Security
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Checking out devices for BWI check-ins; new system being tested to make process smoother

04/29/2008 | The Baltimore Sun

Reducing the anxiety of airline passengers during airport security checks is the primary goal of a new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) initiative. Officials hope that lessening the overall stress level of travelers will allow individuals who are potential security threats to be more readily detected by their high levels of anxiety and other suspect behaviors. Through Checkpoint Evolution, the TSA is rolling out aesthetic adjustments to security areas, such as the introduction of soothing music, softer lighting, painted murals, and more room for loading carry-on items into bins. Full-body scanners will replace traditional, more physically invasive pat-downs, unless a passenger does not want to be scanned.

Cultural Preservation
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Finding a sense of self through new NSU data; Tracing lineages easier with online tool

04/27/2008 | Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

Residents of Broward County, Florida, can trace their heritage by taking advantage of Nova Southeastern University's free electronic genealogy databases and collection of 4,000 books, manuscripts, and other material on ancestry. Amateur genealogists can input their names and the names of relatives to draw from US Census information dating to 1790, manifests of ships from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and draft lists going back to the Civil War. Also available are marriage, birth, and death certificates from the 1600s.

Community Revitalization
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City's new 'Green Team' to spruce up vacant lots

04/21/2008 | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has created a Green Team to help beautify vacant lots and other neglected sites in the city. Part of the Department of Public Works, the five-person team will spread topsoil, and plant grass and trees on derelict plots. The hope is to ensure that these spots of blight will no longer deter neighborhood development in surrounding areas.

Higher Education
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Rutgers is taking English studies off the shelf; Writers House, a high-tech laboratory of ideas, taps the internet generation to create new forms of writing

04/30/2008 | The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey)

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, has opened the Writers House, a high-tech laboratory of sorts, to encourage students to engage in more complex thinking than they typically do on traditional social networking sites. Rutgers is part of a nationwide trend toward integrating multimedia into reading and writing curricula, recognizing that the newest generation of students is more accustomed to online communication than to traditional reading and writing.

Accountability
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State to change how it doles out colleges' funds In new formula, 10% of money tied to schools' retention rates

04/26/2008 | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)

Arkansas will become the first state to tie ten percent of its higher education financing to the number of students who actually complete their courses, rather than allocating funds solely upon initial student enrollment figures. The goal of this formula revision is to spur the state's graduation rate, currently ranked 49th nationwide, and to increase accountability. Five other states are considering similar formulas.

Finance
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Collaboration makes program unique; Oswego's "Money Smart" wins honorable mention at Community Bank Awards

04/24/2008 | The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)

Money Smart is a financial wellness program for adults offered in partnership by a bank, a state college, and the public library in Oswego, New York. During the seven-week program held at the library, participants learn about basic financial management from Oswego State professors and business students, as well as from representatives of Pathfinder Bank. Praised for its impact on the community, the program also proved helpful to the business students, who are eager to apply their knowledge and to improve their presentation skills.


Read how the Chuka Chukmasi Home Loan Program, winner of a 2003 Innovations in American Government Award, also relies on a partnership with financial institutions to help members of the Chickasaw Nation realize their dream of homeownership.
Higher Education
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University libraries could sell outdated books under new bill

04/27/2008 | The Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois)

Illinois may revise a state statute that outlaws the sale or donation of outdated books and journals; currently, libraries dispose of over 500,000 used books per year. The new bill's legislative supporters argue that the measure could add $1 million per year to university coffers by easing resale restrictions. It could also increase the knowledge resources of a wider range of organizations that receive book donations from these libraries.

Management Insights: A Governing.com Weekly Column
This series is moderated by Stephen Goldsmith, director of the Innovations in American Government Awards Program, Harvard Kennedy School. This week, Peter Hutchinson examines what foundations and corporations can—and can't—do for governments facing budget deficits, in "We Can Help, But We Can't Save You."

Newsletter produced by: Vanessa Ruget and Brendan St. Amant, researchers and writers; Jessica Engelman, editor.
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