Washington state lawmakers decided to curb property tax growth in 2001 with a fixed 1% cap. The extreme measure has forced towns to reduce police protection, decommission fire trucks, close municipal pools and abandon public safety projects. Many wonder if the cap is helping.
When renewal forms were sent out in the mail to the members of the Australian Football League, they naturally contained personal information including the name, address, phone number and birth date of the recipient. Unfortunately, an error resulted in printing the same data for a different member appearing on the reverse.
In Prato, Italy, it sometimes takes so long for the government to process residence renewal permits that by the time they are ready to be picked up, they have already expired.
An opinion piece from the famous Brookings Institution discusses the reaction to the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Many are asking for a instant response to inspect other bridges and emergency appropriations, but the problem may be systemic.
Of all of the Star Alliance partners, South Africa Airlines (SAA) may be at the bottom of the heap. A recent study indicates that SAA has five times as many employees per plane as some of their competitors.
The New York Times recently reported on the rise of usability professionals; individuals dedicated to making technology easier to use. Curiously, these experts are nicknamed “untanglers.”
In dire need of a new payroll system, the Los Angeles United School District (LAUSD) engaged Deloitte Consulting to the tune of $55 million. Yet the problems and overruns during implementation have caused an uproar in the ranks of teachers and employees, who demand remedy. LAUSD has agreed to another $9.6 million to fix the issues, spending that money (once again) to pay Deloitte.
The names might sound unfamiliar, but a recent story in a Pakistan’s newspaper reports on inefficiencies in local community boards that might well be in your own hometown.
The British government maintains an ambitious registry of over four million DNA samples used in crime fighting. However, some major data entry problems have left nearly 200 crimes undetected.
When Horace Harding pled guilty to a serious traffic offense, he accepted his fate and served a 30-day sentence in prison. Unfortunately, the system designed to record his compliance with the sentence took several weeks to catch up. Harding was then picked up by the police, and because of the processing delay, could not prove he had already cleared the warrant. The slow pace of bureacracy sent Horace Harding to jail twice for only one crime.