Wednesday, April 28, 2004

State Livability Ratings Morgan Quitno's 2004 livability ratings are out for the states.  Where would your rather live: Florida, New Mexico, California, or Wyoming.  Check the ratings and you'll find that Wyoming is the most livable of those four.  Actually, I'm not sure how you can determine a livability rating for an entire state.  For example, how would you compare living in Green River, Utah with living in Salt Lake City or say, Richland, Washington with Seattle - they're worlds apart. 10:47:30 AM    comment []

Idaho Business Portal Idaho is working on a new business portal which will be at business.idaho.gov.  Sounds a lot like the Utah Business Portal that we implemented a year ago and which the legislature required us to implement in the last session. 10:34:51 AM    comment []

NASCIO Recap View of the Chicago River & Lake Michigan from my room at the NASCIO conference WXIA-TV in Atlanta points out Louisiana's "CyberShame" website and a dozen other states' websites that identify delinquent taxpayers. The final session in NASCIO's midyear conference yesterday addressed the topic of offshoring.  This morning, in USA Today, Intel's CEO discusses the same issue.  He identifies four key points that the U.S. needs to address if it is to compete more effectively: Education Research & Development Communications Infrastructure Government Policy The Tuesday session also included a panel on HAVA, the Help America Vote Act.  Here is the current version of Utah's plan. My notes from NASCIO are here. Maryland's Attorney General has put up a website that allows you to compare prescription drug prices at pharmacies throughout the state.  It is co-sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS - the new HCFA).  Apparrently, you will be able to search a federal database at Medicare.gov beginning tomorrow. President Bush has created a new position to coordinate new high-tech government health initiatives. The National States Geographic Information Council has posted the presentations from their recent midyear conference, including this one on how to participate in the geodata.gov portal. 7:42:09 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 David Fletcher.