by admin | Mar 2, 2018 | Books, Business, Careers, Chicago, Economic development, Economics, Government, Public policy, Transportation, Urban Planning
We often hear from conservatives that the public sector is inherently inefficient, lacking the competitive pressures that drive innovation. A great deal of the evidence seems anecdotal, although it’s not hard to come by. The work of most public agencies is at least...
by admin | Sep 12, 2017 | Blogging, Business, Disaster, Natural Hazards, Public safety, Urban Planning, Water
Life can produce very sudden turns of events. The turmoil and destruction dished out by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma may have been predictable in the abstract, that is, events that could occur at some point someday, but that means little when the day arrives that a...
by admin | Aug 4, 2017 | Business, Personal history, Restaurants, Transportation, Travel
It has been almost a month since my last blog post, for a reason. I spent most of the remainder of July at a conference in Colorado, for four days, and then overseas, for nearly two weeks. My wife and I traveled to Norway for a vacation, and I chose to separate myself...
by admin | Jul 8, 2017 | Activism, Books, Business, Climate, Disaster, Economic development, Economics, Environment, Government, Natural Hazards, Public health, Public policy, Renewable Energy, Resilience, Urban Planning
For some time, it has been my intent to address the question of how we communicate about and discuss climate change, with a focus on books that have tackled the issue of how to explain the issue. Several of these have crossed my desk in the last few years, and I have...
by admin | May 7, 2017 | Agriculture, Business, Environment, Government, Politics, Public policy
The people of Iowa are about to get a new governor. Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds will be sworn in as soon as Terry Branstad wins confirmation to his new post of U.S. ambassador to China and he resigns his position as governor. President Trump nominated him because of the...
by admin | Oct 22, 2016 | Adoption, Agriculture, Blogging, Books, Business, Careers, Chicago, Civil rights, Climate, Cooking
Floods generally result from regional storm systems producing intense precipitation, from fast melting of winter snows, and occasionally from the failure of protective infrastructure such as dams and levees, often as a result of pressure from such events. We tend to...
