Richard Brodsky, a former Democratic assemblyman who is now with the Wagner School at New York University and has been working with local officials, said the rising costs of health care and pensions of public workers is hitting local governments as cities outside New York City are losing population and tax base.

WSJ: Gov. Cuomo ready to work with NY's troubled cities

In parts of the Dakotas, officials cancelled classes and many local governments closed offices.

NPR: Spring Storm Crawls Eastward; Dumps Snow, Rain

Officials have justified the practice as a way of reducing incentives for local governments forcibly to appropriate farmland and sell it to developers.

ECONOMIST: Urbanisation

Local officials have signaled in the past that they welcome the support of foreign governments to preserve that status.

WSJ: Review & Outlook: Paranoia in Hong Kong

Back in the buccaneering 1970s, cable systems would twist the arms of local governments with whom they were negotiating rates by cutting all programming, and screening instead the officials' names and addresses.

ECONOMIST: Friend of Bill