NOT SPICED HAM

In 2001, spam accounted for about five per cent of the traffic on the Internet; by 2004, that figure had risen to more than seventy per cent. This year, in some regions, it has edged above ninety per cent—more than a hundred billion unsolicited messages clogging the arterial passages of the world’s computer networks every day.

The flow of spam is often seasonal. It slows in the spring, and then, in the month that technology specialists call “black September”—when hundreds of thousands of students return to college, many armed with new computers and access to fast Internet connections—the levels rise sharply.

– The New Yorker magazine

GETTING IT WRONG

A study from Northwestern University estimating the accuracy of jury verdicts finds juries in criminal cases get it wrong 13 percent of the time. The likelihood of a wrongful conviction, the study found, is nearly twice that of a wrongful acquittal.In Texas, less than one percent of all convictions result from jury verdicts. The rest end in plea bargains, so most criminal defendants never get near a jury.

– Grits For Breakfast, a Texas-based blog about criminal justice matters.

THINK ABOUT IT

Nationally, the FBI has more than 2,000 public corruption cases ongoing. In 2004 and 2005, more than 1,060 government employees were convicted of corrupt activities, including 177 federal officials, 158 state officials, 360 local officials and 365 police officers, according to FBI statistics.

– El Paso Times

FILLING THE GAP

State and local governments are in the middle of a building boom that has helped keep the economy afloat and offset job losses from the decline in home construction.

The construction of sewer plants, schools, ball fields and other government facilities soared 11.1 percent in the first four months of the year to a record annual rate of $257 billion, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the most recent Census data.

The fuel for the building spree is the same as it was for the residential housing boom: borrowed money.

State and local governments issued $228 billion in bonds during the first six months of this year, up 28 percent from last year, Thomson Financial reports.

Tax collections grew a modest 4.7 percent in the first half of 2007.

Investors have been happy to buy highrated, tax-exempt municipal bonds as an alternative to the more volatile stocks and mortgage-related investments.

– USA Today

MOVING ON UP

Overlooked in the hullabaloo over states’ scrambling to be first in line to choose nominees for the White House is the impact the compressed calendar will have on early and absentee voting.

Voters in California, Arizona and New Jersey could be casting ballots to choose nominees for the White House barely a week after most Americans are sweeping the confetti from 2008 New Year’s celebrations. “People think [states] are just moving the primary up. No. They are moving their entire election processes up,” Donna Brazile, chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute and formerly Vice President Al Gore’s campaign manager, told Stateline.org. That means some states will have to have their ballots printed and ready to mail as early as December, she said.

– Stateline.org

WHITE HOUSE DIARY by Lady Bird Johnson. Originally published in 19 70, A White House Diary is Lady Bird Johnson’s behind-thescenes account of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency from November 22, 19 63, to January 20, 19 69. Beginning with the tragic assassination of John F. Kennedy, Mrs. Johnson records the momentous events of her times, including the Great Society’s War on Poverty, the national civil rights and social protest movements, her own activism on behalf of the environment and the Vietnam War. To be re-released in October. University of Texas Press.

WHERE IS THE WEALTH OF NATIONS? MEASURING CAPITAL FOR THE 21ST CENTURY by Kirk Hamilton. A World Bank economist says the trick to economic development isn’t in natural resources or industry, it’s in ‘intangible’ capital that allows money to be put to long-term use locally. Published by World Bank Publications.

TXDOT: OPEN FOR BUSINESS by the Texas Department of Transportation. Colorful 26-page booklet presents a simplified overview of how to further favored transportation projects and work within the system. Available online at www.dot.state.tx.us/publications/government_ and_public_affairs/open_for_business. pdf

CLAYTIE: THE ROLLER-COASTER LIFE OF A TEXAS WILDCATTER by Mike Cochran. Autobiography records the ups and downs of the West Texas millionaire oilman. Texas A&M University Press.

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