Cities, such as Beaverton, Oregon, are investigating economic gardening, a principle that promotes nurturing existing local businesses rather than allocating scarce public resources to subsidize outside companies. This approach gives businesses a competitive edge by providing strategic information and technological resources, which they might not otherwise have access to, including data mining resources that can create marketing lists, chart industry trends, and reveal intelligence about competitors.

In response to a recent poaching of thousands of Venus' flytraps within a protected preserve, officials in North Carolina are using a plant-friendly ultraviolet dye to deter illegal harvesting and safeguard its plant population. Conservationists apply the dye to the plants' roots; if they turn up for sale, inspectors can quickly identify them as illegally dug up. The program is an offshoot of a similar one to protect the state's native ginseng, which can sell for up to $500 a pound in Asia.

Stanford University will open an online high school for gifted students this fall. Billed as the first of its kind in the nation, the three-year, fully accredited Online High School (OHS) will retain Stanford professors on its faculty and cover advanced concepts in mathematics, engineering, and social studies through video conferencing and other virtual classroom techniques. Although recent education reforms have focused on the needs of disadvantaged students, the needs of academically gifted students--especially those in rural areas or residing overseas--are often not adequately cultivated.

Providing timely, objective, and accurate demographic data about an expanding and migrating population is the goal of the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS). Unlike the traditional decennial census, the ACS will release its compilations annually, and use statistically significant samples of different communities, instead of headcounts, to determine key demographic indicators, such as age, race, income, commute time to work, and home value. Experts predict that these yearly reports will make service delivery and public policy on the local level much more effective.

Roseville, California, will have the first railyard in the country with a system that measures, captures, and treats diesel train locomotive emissions. The Advanced Locomotive Emission Control System applies technology used to capture emissions from industrial plants to scrub pollutants emitted from idle locomotives. The system will help improve air quality and protect public health, and if proven effective, may be replicated in railyards across the country and even in shipping ports. The $1.75 million demonstration project is a collaboration of the public and private sectors.

Health officials in Oklahoma have launched a loan-payback program to alleviate the shortage of dentists in rural areas of the state. This fall, the University of Oklahoma's College of Dentistry will give $25,000 a year for up to five years to four recent dental graduates setting up practice in underserved areas. The unintended consequence of students choosing to work in higher-paying urban settings to service their debt load, which can be in excess of $140,000, is that it becomes more difficult for rural residents to find dentists nearby.

As in many other states, officials in New Jersey are considering whether local government consolidation would maximize efficiencies in both costs and service delivery. Critics warn that some city services simply are not replicable from one neighborhood to the next, and that a larger central government may be less accessible to the general public. Nevertheless, advocates point to the fact that New Jersey has more local governments per square mile than any other state, and suggest that the state may be able to pass on the savings from consolidation to citizens.

The Small Business Administration is beginning to offer podcasts to small business owners on the go. Ten-minute audio feeds will feature interviews with SBA and industry experts on themes ranging from starting, expanding, and financing a small business to business protection.

Police departments in North Carolina are expanding their online presence to ensure that citizens can learn about criminal activity and topics of neighborhood concern. Residents in Greensboro and High Point, for example, can track incidences by street and date, as well as obtain police reports. Officials believe that putting the information online saves time on both ends, as it gives residents and insurers looking for accident reports a quick way to access the information and reduces the time departments spend fulfilling requests.