Cleaning out the Notebook

Time for another edition of Cleaning out the notebook, all the stories I wanted to blog about but didn't get to:

Soccer

A two part story on the growth of USL, the second and third division pro leagues in the U.S. In many ways, USL's growth parallels the the development of leagues in the rest of the world. Part 1 and Part 2.

In more USL news, the Atlanta Silverbacks will not be operating in the 2009 season. Atlanta is one of the possible MLS expansion locations and the Silverbacks are citing economic difficulties. In related news, the USL-2 winners the Cleveland City Stars will play in USL 1 next year.

Updates on DC United's roster. This is older news.

The Detroit Bailout
Again, these items have been overtaken to a certain extent by events, but are pretty good otherwise.

First is the question of whether we should be coddlling car companies in the first place. I generally think no, particularly when you consider that a Detroit bailout will, to a significant extent, result in a UAW Bailout. One of hte problems with the labor aspect of the carmaker bailout is that we don't have a good idea of the numbers we are talking aboutwhen it comes to the cost of labor. Finally, an interesting spin on the matter was presented by Robert Bixby who suggests that the same "transparency" being sought of the car makers should be applied to Congress as well. Good luck with that idea.

Education
Just a quick list of posts/stories to read:

Size of School Districts by Arnold Kling
Bill Ferriter aka The Tempered Radical on Writing Student Friendly Learning Goals. His suggestions could apply in circles well outside of Education--including education policy making.
Sean Corcoran on Private Donations to Public SchoolsI think it a good idea, but you do have to find some balancing points so that wealthy districts don't over do it.
eduwonkette on Micromanaging the Micromanager, which deals with a recent profile of DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and her prolific emailing habit. How prolific is a matter of dispute.
College is reportedly getting more expensive, but it is not as bad as you would think.

Music and the Law
Because I like Joe Satriani, this an interesting story. While I admit that the Satriani song in question is no where near his best, I don't think this reaction is appropriate either.

Random Political Stories that I Thought I Would Write About and Didn't.

Bobby Jindal in Iowa.
Health Insurers caving to political pressure.
Wal-Mart is an economy unto itself and this piece is worth reading.
The politics and classism is at the heart of this piece on surrogacy by contract. it doesn't paint some people in a particularly good light.
Giving voters what they want? One wonders what the voters reaction will be in four years, on all sides of the aisle.

Finally, a little does of Maryland Politics

Maryland's fiscal incompetence--the result in part of decades of essentially Democratic rule and mismanagement.

More on the same subject.

A few other posts are in the works.