Today’s Wall Street Journal has a story about how former homeowners in the exurbs are becoming renters.
The piece looks at the saga of one family (the Disciannos) in Plano, Illinois, a town about 50 miles west of Chicago:
Now, as the housing bust and recession has turned the exurbs from engines of growth to economic laggards, many of these families have the worst of both worlds. They are still on the fringes but have no equity. In many cases the amenities they hoped would follow — new shopping centers, movie theatres — have ceased construction or opened with only a few stores. Government projects like new schools and parks have also been delayed as budgets get cut and population growth has slowed.
Wondering whether there are still any jobs worth getting after you slave away to earn your college degree? Let the Infrastructurist be your guidance counselor. We spoke with career specialists from a wide range of institutions of higher learning to find out what majors were still garnering good gigs for graduates, even in this brutal economy. Not surprisingly, our experts were full of suggestions linked to sectors of the economy that are receiving bundles of federal money from the stimulus package and are well positioned to grow for years beyond that. “Every area of the government is going to add jobs, especially those areas related to the stimulus package,” says Trudy Steinfeld, Executive Director of NYU’s 
1. Energy Commerce
Are you part of that special breed of Americans who want to bring the text of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with them everywhere they go? Are you part of that special breed of Americans who own iPhones? If you answered yes to both questions, take a moment to download the “Transparent Gov” app. It gives you several helpful breakdowns of stimulus spending and then in each case steers you directly into the relevant text of the bill, which you can explore for hours on end until your scrolling thumb cramps up and your eyes dry out.
The country’s top transportation official got to witness an airline security scare first hand last week. On Wednesday evening, Ray LaHood and 150 of his fellow passengers on a US Airways flight from Washington to Phoenix were hurried off their plane before takeoff when crew members found a box cutter in the plane’s rear galley.
Asphalt is apparently the hottest thing in viral marketing. KFC, an outfit best known for its chicken parts dipped in boiling oil, has announced that 
Obama’s $8 billion gambit for high-speed rail in the stimulus package may be the country’s largest-ever investment in its railways, but America is still decades behind the curve when it comes to fast trains. We reviewed the state of the high speed rail in other countries around the world, and came up with this ranking of the best networks. We could do a lot worse than to emulate any one of them.
The other day I saw this story come across the news wire:
Not shockingly, a $9 billion construction project that would give Las Vegas even more giant hotels, entertainment venues, and gambling floors is running into funding issues.
In January, US motorists logged a total of 222 billion road miles. That’s 7 billion fewer–about 3% less–than in January 2008.
Modern greenhouses, such as those that 
China is undertaking a massive infrastructure spending stimulus of its own. A couple of well-placed fund managers thinks the situation offers a great opportunity to invest in cement makers. In recent years China has made and used nearly half the world’s cement. With the half-trillion dollar measure set to take effect, government spending should ensure ongoing demand as the frenetic pace of road building in China continues apace. Beyond that, the country is shutting down a lot of older, dirtier cement factories because of environmental concerns.
