Kolkata, a resident told me, "has difficulty letting go." One day a city official handed me a report from the municipal government laying out options for how rickshaw pullers might be rehabilitated.

加尔各答的一位居民告诉我：“很难放手。”一天，一位市政府官员给了我一份市政府的报告，上面列出了如何改造人力车夫的方案。

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You have just heard the story "A Municipal Report."

VOA: special.2009.01.17

Our story today is called "A Municipal Report."

VOA: special.2009.01.17

Note: this post draws heavily on a report by Tracy Gordon, a municipal finance expert at The Brookings Institution, and a report published by Michigan State University.

FORBES: My City Went Bankrupt. Should I Flee?

Separately comes a report that municipal bonds backed by water utilities may also be heading toward a crisis due to stress on water tables around the nation.

FORBES: Is A Muni Bond Crisis Brewing?

While the U.S. mid-term elections are going full steam ahead with a myriad of maybe-reliable and not-so-reliable electronic voting systems in place, Quebec is pulling back from its adventures in e-voting, after the province's chief electoral officer Marcel Blanchet delivered a harsh report on the 2005 municipal elections.

ENGADGET: Quebec puts the brakes on electronic voting