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	<title>Understanding Government</title>
	<link>http://understandinggov.org</link>
	<description>Informing the Public; Improving Government</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:37:57 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>What Now For Tim Geithner</title>
		<description><![CDATA[John Cassidy&#8217;s New Yorker profile of Tim Geithner mostly makes a single argument, with that argument contained in the  sub-head: &#8220;Timothy Geithner&#8217;s financial plan is working &#8212; and making him very unpopular.&#8221; This has become the prevailing wisdom on the Geithner beat &#8212; summarized equally well a few weeks ago by the Wall Street Journal&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/10/what-now-for-tim-geithner/</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Teen Idles</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Chicago Tribune&#8217;s Mary Owens has a good piece on one consequence of the recession &#8212; the lack of summer jobs for teenagers. Jobs that teens in Chicago, and elsewhere, used to get at fast food restaurants or retail stores either no longer exist or have been taken by college graduates or more experienced employees [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/10/teen-idles/</link>
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		<title>U.S. Senate Hasn&#8217;t Got Around To Caring About Salmonella</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Food and Drug Administration claims that the company Basic Food Flavors has knowingly sold vegetable protein laced with salmonella. The Washington Post&#8217;s Lyndsey Layton reports that a food maker who purchased products from Basic Food Flavors tipped off the FDA and the agency subsequently inspected the Food Flavors plant. But why did federal regulators [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/10/u-s-senate-hasnt-got-around-to-caring-about-salmonella/</link>
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		<title>Jihad Jane as an Opportunity, Not Just a Threat</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Sure it&#8217;s creepy when American citizens start working with overseas terrorist organizations, even when they&#8217;re people as clearly unstable and &#8220;wanna-be&#8221; prone as Colleen LaRose.  LaRose&#8217;s advantage (let&#8217;s stop giving her the benefit of an attractive pseudonym right now) to certain Islamic terrorists was that she wouldn&#8217;t stand out in places like Sweden, where she [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/10/jihad-jane-as-an-opportunity-not-just-a-threat/</link>
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		<title>Teaching to the Same Test</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Washington Post&#8217;s Nick Anderson reports that all 50 of the nation&#8217;s governors have approved national standards for what students are expected to know in math and English. This is really good news. An argument against national standards is an argument against standards-based education policy.  However, both Democratic and Republican politicians have expressed a clear [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/10/teaching-to-the-same-test-2/</link>
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		<title>Federal News Digest – March 10, 2010</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Washington Post
Jihad Jane, an American woman, faces terrorism charges – Carrie Johnson reports on FBI’s snare of unlikely terrorist, accomplices
FDA says Basic Food Flavors knew plant was contaminated with salmonella – Lindsey Layton reports that FDA learned of contamination from foodmaker who purchased food additive five months into shipments of contaminated product
Defense Secretary Gates greets [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/10/federal-news-digest-%e2%80%93-march-10-2010/</link>
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		<title>They Want to Pay the Money Back?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A national infrastructure bank &#8212; government-backed and -administered &#8212; would create jobs, encourage competition among states and localities, and force local leaders to make responsible decisions.  In the Washington Post, Harold Meyerson looks at Los Angeles&#8217;s surprising plan for light rail and buses to ease that city&#8217;s congestion and then brings the conversation back around [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/10/they-want-to-pay-the-money-back/</link>
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		<title>What&#8217;s At Stake In The Census Count</title>
		<description><![CDATA[In my piece on the ten-year U.S. Census as a jobs creator, I mentioned that the count determines billions of dollars in federal funding. The Chicago Tribune&#8217;s Oscar Avila has a more precise report of how much money is at stake &#8212; in 2008, Illinois received $19.1 billion in federal funds tied to Census figures. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/09/whats-at-stake-in-the-census-count/</link>
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		<title>Unemployment Benefits Are Economic Stimulus</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Washington Post&#8217;s Michael A. Fletcher and Dana Hedgpeth have a report on unemployment benefits that includes Arizona Sen. John Kyl doubting that the continual extension of these benefits helps the economy. The Post frustratingly doesn&#8217;t point out that Kyl is probably wrong. Almost every economist agrees that these benefits do, indeed, stimulate the economy [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/09/unemployment-benefits-are-economic-stimulus/</link>
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		<title>Gas Stations In The Sky</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The New York Times&#8217; Christopher Drew reports that defense contractor Northrop Grumman withdrew its bid to build a $40 billion fleet of Air Force refueling tankers. This means that Boeing wins the bid by default. It also suggests that the bidding to construct these aerial refueling tankers, a/k/a gas stations in the sky, is now [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://understandinggov.org/2010/03/09/gas-stations-in-the-sky/</link>
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