B&G Report

In researching the 26-year-old Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program recently, we had the chance to talk with Mary Beth Vogel-Ferguson, a University of Utah research professor who has spent the last 23 years in a state-funded project to interview TANF clients and share results with agency management and senior leadership. “My role, which I really appreciate, has been in kind of translating what folks who are experiencing the program say and helping the people

It would be a wonderful thing, we think, if the federal government could move forward on environmental issues. But as recently as a few hours ago, the Washington Post reported that Congress is still squabbling over details of a clean energy proposal, with Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia holding out on one of the key elements of the bill that much of the remainder of his party supports. We’re not going to get involved in this particular debate. But reading the Washington

by John R. Bartle, University of Nebraska at Omaha and Can Chen, Georgia State University John Bartle Can Chen Modern life cannot exist without good infrastructure. Travel, water, toilets, electricity, internet, and heating and cooling for buildings all rely on good infrastructure systems. The wealth of cities depends on public investments in infrastructure. Right now, it might seem as though there is all the money

Over the last months, we've written a series of columns for Route Fifty and elsewhere about the difficulties states and localities are having in staffing up. We've tended to focus on the reasons why they are short on qualified workers, and ways they can attract more. But it's important to go beyond the turnover data and look at the real-world ramifications of the current hiring and turnover crisis that real human beings can feel in their day to day lives. An audit report tha