VOTER PROTECTION

The Supreme Court on Jan. 9 agreed to decide whether a central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is still needed to protect minority voters.

The case concerns the requirements in Section 5 of the law that certain state and local governments, mostly in the South, must obtain permission, or “preclearance,” from the Justice Department or a federal court before making any changes affecting voting. The requirement applies to nine states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia — and scores of counties and townships in other states that Congress found had a history of discrimination at the polls.

The lawsuit challenging the requirement was brought by a municipal utility district in Austin that was established on undeveloped land there in the late 1980’s. The district said it had never been accused of voting discrimination and should not be made to seek federal permission to, say, move the location of polling places or consolidate voting for its five-member board with the larger county ballot. A special three-judge court in Washington upheld the constitutionality of the preclearance requirement in May, saying that Congress had acted reasonably in making the judgment that voting discrimination persists.

— The New York Times

WHAT'S MORE NOBLE?

If we find cancer early, 90 percent survive. If we find cancer late, 10 percent survive.

— Wired magazine Deputy Editor Thomas Goetz, in a report concluding that it’s now time to shift the direction of money spent on cancer research toward developing early detection techniques, rather than a cure.

LIAR, LIAR

People who lie in their e-mails and text messages face being rumbled by new “truth detection” software being developed by researchers. The academics have analysed tens of thousands of electronic messages and claim to have identified telltale signs that show if a person is being economical with the truth.

The software could one day enable bosses to discover if staff are feigning illness to avoid coming to work.

Unlike a conventional lie detector, which looks for physiological signs of anxiety such as a quickening pulse, the so-called “digital polygraph” scans the contents of an e-mail or mobile phone text message for specific word patterns.

— Times Online UK

A CORRIDOR BY ANY OTHER NAME...

“Initially, we did not communicate well enough — or often enough — that the plan would evolve, that initial maps and proposals would be adjusted. So the (Trans-Texas Corridor) became the subject of many discussions, sometimes intense ones. Local communities, government representatives and other stakeholders weighed in, and the TTC began to change. ... We must recognize the inevitable. The Trans-Texas Corridor, as a single project concept, is not the choice of Texans. So we’ve decided to put the name to rest.”

— Amadeo Saenz, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, in prepared remarks on Jan. 6 about the decision to suspend the Trans-Texas Corridor in favor of individual projects.

MIDDLE-SCHOOL WISDOM

If first you don’t succeed, the saying goes, try, try again. That’s what the town of Needham, Mass., did when traditional traffic signs near a middle school failed to slow drivers down. The town solicited its middle-school students to design signs that would slow their parents and siblings down by relating to them. The new signs bear slogans such as “Where’s the fire? Slow Down!” And, “Slow Down!!! You may hurt the future.” The idea is that seeing a child’s handwriting and drawing will make parents relate to the sign in a way they never would have with traditional signage. Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick got the idea from best-selling author Daniel Pink, who argues in his book “A Whole New Mind” that being empathetic coaxes better compliance.

— Governing magazine’s online idea center at www.governing.com/idea.