The Douglas County Clerk and School District in Colorado are partnering to recruit high school students to be election judges for the upcoming US presidential election. Working alongside senior poll workers, students are expected to bring energy and computer skills to the polling sites. They will create and run their own recruiting program and earn community service credits; the income they earn as judges will be given back to school programs.

Maine Governor Baldacci has announced a new initiative, sponsored by several state agencies, to help the state's truckers combat rising fuel costs. The program will offer low-cost loans to trucking and other small businesses for energy-saving equipment, such as auxiliary power units that decrease fuel consumption when a vehicle is idling. The initiative is also expected to lead to significant reductions in diesel fuel emissions.

A year after it opened its doors as a pilot program, the Global Collegiate Academy—part of the public school system of Hartford, Connecticut—is deemed a success by students, teachers, and administrators. At the Academy, students start preparing early for college and their future careers through targeted activities such as visiting the campus of Central Connecticut State University and speaking with professors. Students benefit from small class sizes, an emphasis on group work, exercises to improve their presentation and speaking skills, and having a say in developing the curriculum.

In an effort to encourage charitable donations by increasing the transparency of nonprofit organizations, the US Internal Revenue Service has revised its charities annual tax form for the first time in almost 20 years. The form, which nonprofits have to make available to donors upon request, will include standardized and more detailed information about the charity's financial information, accomplishments, fund raising, governance, and compensation to trustees.

Houston, Texas, will start employing "tele-nurses" in an effort to reduce the number of ambulances dispatched to non-emergency medical calls. When a 911 dispatcher is confident that a situation does not warrant immediate medical care, such as a sprained wrist or a peculiar rash, the call is transferred to nurses who will answer questions, provide first-aid advice, and inform patients how to obtain appropriate medical attention. Every year, thousands of people in the Houston area call 911 for non-emergencies, diverting resources and slowing response times to true emergencies, and costing taxpayers and callers millions of dollars.

Across the nation, libraries continue to reinvent themselves, rather than allow themselves to be rendered obsolete by the Internet. Patronage has actually increased overall, as libraries install cafes, auditoriums, audio-areas akin to music stores for listening to CDs, and even gaming rooms outfitted with Nintendo Wiis. In San Francisco, public transit officials have partnered with area libraries to install book-lending machines at stations for commuters to borrow titles on the go. Illinois' Pontiac Public Library will offer workshops for older patrons who want to capture their life experiences in writing, and hope to preserve the autobiographies as a compilation in the local history collection of the library.

With perfect attendance, and a little luck, one high school student in the Santa Ana Unified School District has netted a brand new donated car. While critics contend that prizes for attendance motivate students for the wrong reasons, the district joins a small but growing number of systems experimenting with ways to discourage absenteeism. School officials also note the potential cost savings of good attendance: each day a child misses school costs the district $25 to $40.

Educators in Palm Beach County, Florida, are looking to hire graduation coaches to ensure that at-risk students remain on track to earning their diplomas. Following a two-year model in Georgia, graduation coaches devote personal attention to these students, addressing fundamentals like tardiness and reading skills; they can also recruit outside resources to work with the students on larger family, behavioral, or substance abuse issues. Unlike guidance counselors, who work with an entire student body and juggle ancillary duties such as class scheduling and cafeteria monitoring, graduation coaches remain solely focused on troubled youth.

Florida emergency officials are teaming up with the Florida Outdoor Advertising Association to post urgent hurricane and disaster information on electronic billboards throughout the state. The digital billboards, normally used for commercial purposes, will be enlisted to provide weather warnings, evacuation routes, road detours, and shelter locations to travelers during severe weather events.

Arkansas law enforcement officials have deployed the Arkansas Electronic Logbook, an online real-time information system that tracks sales and purchasers of medication that contain pseudoephedrine, the primary ingredient in methamphetamine. The system is designed to thwart the practice of buying the maximum limit of such medications at different stores, and instantly alerts store personnel and the authorities of suspicious purchase patterns. Previously, officers would have to travel on-site to review pharmacy records, a time consuming process that also failed to prevent the offending purchase.