The president of a conservative think tank is highly critical of the current effort to roll back flood insurance rate increases imposed through a 2012 law, saying the reforms were modest and a test of whether federal legislators have the political will to put its fiscal house in order.

Two consecutive winter storms have put the Midwest and South on high alert as heavy snow, ice and freezing rain that began a trek across the country on Wednesday show no signs of abating until late next week.

According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, 31,586 large and mid-sized vehicles were reported stolen in the United States between January 2009 and December 2012. The vast majority of these vehicles were mid-sized, making up nearly 70% of the large and mid-sized vehicle total.

Don't get overwhelmed by terms like "big data." Just remember that the objective is using data to make better decisions, and if you are like most agencies, youve already done the hard part by moving to an electronic agency-management-system platform.