Local economic development programs are primarily aimed at increasing employment and tax revenues. Data on these programs are collected through self-report surveys conducted by the International City Managers Association and others. This study evaluates predictors of accurate self-reporting. Using agency theory as a theoretical framework, the study measures the quantity of internal reporting components and the quality of financial reporting and evaluates how these are associated with accurate self-reporting. As a control, the condition of the local economy is also evaluated. The findings indicate a statistically significant relationship between the quality of financial reporting and the strength of a local economy with accurate self-reporting. Recommendations to improve research in this area are for the Government Finance Officers Association and the International City Managers Association to work together, with the former creating standards for reporting on local economic development programs and the latter aligning its survey with these standards.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt shaped the role of the modern president in part with his relentless pursuit of grand policies and his ability to marshal historic legislation through Congress. In this article, I focus on one legislative tactic employed by FDR that has received little attention—the detailing of Executive Branch staff to select Senate committees. This tactic, effectively a blending of legislative powers, was used to implement FDR’s ambitious postwar domestic agenda as detailed in his Second Bill of Rights. I find that the tactic, used late in FDR’s presidency, was moderately effective, served as a substitute for the personal energy FDR applied to the presidency in his first term, and created a backlash that contributed to the adoption of the Legislative Reform Act of 1946. With these findings I conclude that FDR deserves credit as a transitionary figure for the modernity of Congress, as well as the presidency.

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The identification of a vaccination candidate against COVID-19 providing protecting activity against emerging SARS-COV-2 variants remains challenging. Here, we report protection activity against a spectrum of SARS-COV-2 and variants by immunization with protein-based recombinant RBD-C-tag administered with aluminum-phosphate adjuvant intramuscularly. Immunization of C57BL/6 mice with RBD-C-tag resulted in the in vivo production of IgG antibodies recognizing the immune-critical spike protein of the SARS-COV-2 virus as well as the SARS-COV-2 variants alpha (United Kingdom), beta (South Africa), gamma (Brazil/Japan), and delta (India) as well as wt-spike protein. RBD-C-tag immunization led to a desired Th1 polarization of CD4 T cells producing IFNγ. Importantly, RBD-C-tag immunization educated IgG production delivers antibodies that exert neutralizing activity against the highly transmissible SARS-COV-2 virus strains Washington, South Africa (beta), and India (delta) as determined by conservative infection protection experiments in vitro. Hence, the protein-based recombinant RBD-C-tag is considered a promising vaccination candidate against COVID-19 and a broad range of emerging SARS-COV-2 virus variants.