A big part of my job is covering local governments. One of the things I hate about government is the overuse of acronyms. Unfortunately, government officials love them.  After years of doing this, I know what most of them mean, but do you? I’ve decided to test your knowledge - the person who gets the most correct, wins a prize. This obviously is not going to be much fun for you if you’re a bureaucrat or if you look the answers up on the internet, but there’s no way to police that,  so, as Jerry Seinfeld once famously said -  I’m sure that we’ll all feel comfortable within the confines of the honor system. These are all acronyms I commonly hear at local government meetings: UGA, GMA, EIS, SEPA, ADU, BMP, TMDL, WAG, WASHDOT, COMP PLAN, MDNS, LAMIRD, PDA, PDC, PFD, PUD, COB. Email me with your answers - good luck.  gtg, ttfn

Our group of radio stations will soon start airing a segment about good things happening in the community. We were asked to submitt an idea. This is mine…

You may not like paying local taxes, but at least you can feel good about the way the money is being taken care of. Whatcom County, the City of Bellingham, and the Port of Bellingham have all received Certificates of Achievement Excellence In Financial Reporting.  The Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada presents the awards, which are considered the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting. City of Bellingham Finance Director John Carter can be doubly proud – before coming to the city recently, he held a similar position with the port.

Would you like to see these types of stories in the news? Or do you think they’re OK for a special feature, but not for a newscast? What’s your take on “good news” stories in general?