We drew up a report about the Obama Administration’s ‘Home Affordable Modifications Program‘ (HAMP) in early August this year, in which we looked at news stories and even the government’s own figures that demonstrated the slow start, and middle stretch, the program was having. The program was meant to offer those who were behind on […]
Net Neutrality Neutered
The FCC voted 3-2 to pass the rules it had drawn up with the ‘help’ of telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T. In the ways of Washington over the last several months, almost no one is happy with the plan. And yet again the Obama Administration is being called to the mat. Well, AT&T seems […]
‘Lame Duck’ Seems A Misnomer – Or A Political Attack (On Net Neutrality)
Lame-duck Congresses refer to those sessions that follow a November election through the winter holidays. Some number of Congress people have just lost their seats, but the newly elected replacements do not get to move in until they are sworn in in January. Thus the ‘duck’ is too ‘lame’ to fly, though it is alive […]
Harsh Op-Ed On ‘Charitable Scrooges’
Debates about social media as catalyst, about political responses to economic crises, about open internets, about the care of our health… can help us sharpen our own positions and/or encourage us to take on ideas that we had avoided. This particular blog outlet tends to focus on the nexus of nonprofits, politics, and communications technologies, […]
Meta-Debate About Mega-Cities (Or Not) Of The Future
Yesterday we posted news concerning two multi-family buildings opened or in development in Washington DC and Baltimore. These projects, initiated and funded by a bipartisan association of private- and public-sector institutions, are also meeting the gold standard of LEED Certification of environmental stewardship. The project in Washington DC represents a new model of Section 8 […]
Nonprofits Prepare For Changing Political Landscape
Image via Wikipedia Yes, the elections were a whole week ago. The new Congress will not be seated until January 2011, anyway. But some voices in the nonprofit world are still responding to the former and preparing for the latter. We would encourage our readers in the mission-based community to continue to do the same. […]
Smarter Cities: Opportunity For Corporate And Community Cooperation?
I had a late night out last night (No, nothing particularly entertaining to report; just a late night) and had to drive home along much of the length of a major urban road in northern Baltimore city. Twice I sat at red lights for over a minute while the non-existent traffic on the small cross […]
The Gaps In The New Logo From The Gap (Design By Proxy)
Yesterday we discussed the rise and fall of the new logo for The Gap (rising and falling in about three days). The Gap Company is not the first to take on a logo redesign only to have the effort eviscerated by customers and critics (See, for examples, Tropicana and Pepsi. If the fact of the […]