Friday News Digest

Today marks the beginning of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The event is a welcome break from the news of economic recession, continued health care reform posturing and a pending "jobs bill" that is likely to disappoint. Things didn't look so good for the Winter Olympics becuase of one of the warmest January's on record, but it looks like things are taking a turn for the better. We look forward to viewing the world's athletes compete over the coming weeks.

Enjoy some of this weeks news.

• New York City's recent experiment with closing a busy street in an attempt to improve traffic flow and the Mayor has claimed success. While the debate over whether the experiment was successful or not is likely to go on, we think there is something to learn - rather than debating whether different approaches to age-old problems will work or not, there is value in just trying them out.
• Here is a discussion about the hollowing out of many recently developed exurban neighborhoods and some interesting thoughts on what will come of it.
• As if we needed more bad news, now we have to worry that our aging population and cold weather will lead to even less wealth on which to address our budget crisis. At least Texas won't seem quite as appealing.
• More trouble for the suburbs. Looks like it will be harder to escape "the poor" when the poor are us.
• A new twist on road rage.

In honor of the upcoming Olympics, here is a nice flashback to one of the greatest moments in American sports history.

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