FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 2006
Friday Edition: NCAA Games in the Office
The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser had some fun looking at office pools for the NCAA tournament. NBC News says thanks to the games being streamed online (by CBS) for free, corporate America will lose about $4 billion worth of productivity during the tournament.
The Boston Globe added:
Working with Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and information from the Internet tracking firm Hitwise about time spent on the ESPN.com college hoops site during last year's tournament, the firm estimated that if fans spend just 13.5 minutes per day online keeping up with the action, the cost could be $3.8 billion.
Strict employers do have computer-usage policies to fall back on, noted Lynda Slevoski, vice president of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, a business group with 7,500 members.
''But do I think workers might try to sneak a look at the games at lunch or during the day if one of their favorite teams is playing?" she said. ''Yes, I do."
Desperate for Spring
The Hartford (Conn.) Courant ran a story about a trend that makes me wonder if it is not more widespread. The story says folks are running out of heating fuel assistance money. State assistance programs set aside more money this winter but because of the higher price of fuel, the money did not go very far. Assistance workers say people are out of money for heating oil and electric and gas bills.
State Lawmakers Take Aim at Eminent Domain
When the U.S. Supreme Court opened the doors to cities and states to condemn property for "economic development," legislators heard citizens screaming for laws to protect landowners. In state after state, legislatures are writing new eminent domain laws. Stateline.org reports:
So far, lawmakers in seven states have acted to limit the use of eminent domain since the Supreme Court's ruling: Alabama, Delaware, Michigan, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and just this week the Indiana Legislature sent its bill to the governor. Utah and Nevada took action in anticipation of the Supreme Court decision. Lawmakers in 41 states are considering bills to curb the government's power to seize private property, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
Meanwhile, many cities and towns still are invoking their right to use eminent domain to spur commercial development. And some high-profile projects have been grandfathered in under new state limits: When Texas passed one of the more restrictive laws, it carved out an exception to raze homes for a new Dallas Cowboys stadium.
Broken Hydrants
CBS-3 in Philadelphia found hundreds of broken fire hydrants in that city and in some cases the fire plugs have not worked in years.
The story said: "In Philadelphia, years of city records obtained by CBS 3 show 25-percent of the (city's) almost 350 broken fire hydrants have been busted for six months or longer and still were not repaired."
St. Patrick's Day/Irish Facts
The Census Bureau has you covered.
Corned Beef and Catholics
Bishops around the country are giving Catholics permission to enjoy a little St Patty's Day corned beef today despite it being a Friday during Lent.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected. Posted at 3:25:32 PM
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