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The 2001 action agenda of the U.S. Conference of Mayors addresses the Digital Divide, workforce development, and technology deployment in education. The plan outlines dozens of recommendations for the Bush Administration across ten issue areas ranging from drug control to the environment to transportation enhancements.

The study characterizes D.C.’s tech industry while presenting the dichotomy of the District versus the metro region and also reveals some significant differences between the Washington and Silicon Valley areas. For instance, while technology industry directly generates 28 percent of the gross regional product for Silicon Valley, it accounts for 16 percent of the Washington metro economy.

The report co-authored by Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School and Debra van Opstal, senior vice president at the Council suggests the past decade’s economic boom has masked some serious cracks in the foundation of U.S. competitiveness– and it will take a strong policy of local and regional innovation stimulus to get the country back on track.

Governor Jeanne Shaheen released the first-ever comprehensive economic development plan for the State of New Hampshire. The plan calls for New Hampshire state government to focus its activities toward encouraging innovation, strengthening education and workforce development, retaining and protecting the quality of life, and extending economic opportunity to every citizen in every part of the state.

The Greater Cincinnati Regional Technology Initiative released the strategic plan with more than 30 recommendations to improve Cincinnatis position in a tech-based economy. Giving themselves just 100 days to complete the plan, the project was developed through six "Accelerator Teams" involving more than 200 volunteers from the three-state metro area.

The plan revealed by Mayor Richard Daley calls for a unified effort toward two goals: 1) make Chicago a prime location for technology startups, and 2) create world-class leadership in priority New Economy sectors of biotechnology/biomedical, wireless software, software development, and emerging technology such as nanotechnology.

The U.S. General Accounting Office report finds the current rapid place of globalization, the replacement of national economies with a more unified free trade market, is taking a toll on many U.S. manufacturing jobs. The report includes several recommendations including coordinating training programs with the needs of existing local businesses and with local training capabilities.

The U.S. General Accounting Office report finds that the short-term impact of base closures can be very traumatic economically for affected communities, but long term recovery depends on successful redevelopment of the base and the strength of the regional and national economies. Of the 62 communities impacted by the first four rounds of major closures and realignments, 69 percent had unemployment rates lower than the national average in 2000.

The New Economy Transition Team of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce plan outlines how it could position Northern Kentucky as a center for life sciences and information technology, advanced manufacturing and financial services.

The Southern Growth Policies Board report is a 10-year strategic plan to create an innovation-driven economy in the South. Southern Growth describes the plan as "first of its kind in that not only does it lay out goals and objectives for an entire region, but it provides a mechanism for tracking the regions progress toward those goals."