News In Brief

OK, MOM, IF YOU INSIST

Want to know the difference between good money and bad? Ask the young twin daughters and son of Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. "Good money has daddy's signature on it," Summers joked in response to a student's question on what it's like to have his autograph on newly printed US currency. Speaking last week at Harvard University, where he'd taught economics, he also recalled "a policy command" from his mother. Sign it "Lawrence," not "Larry," she said. As any dutiful son would, he did.

NO, IT'S NOT CARBONATED

"There must be something in the water," is usually how the saying goes. But in rural New Zealand, some locals think it has more to do with the grass. Huh? Well, what they mean is that about 1,500 cows are producing a super-frothy milk - a prized commodity for latte and cappuccino. One farm is aiming to process up to 1,300 gallons of the milk a day. That'll be enough for 50,000 cafe patrons.

Ten big-city neighborhoods are singled out as "just right" for affordable-home ownership in a new report by the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Washington-based public company that buys mortgages and packages them for resale as securities. Based on a study of 400 such neighborhoods that have been "underserved" by the lending industry, the finalists were chosen on the basis of strong existing - but neither wealthy nor poor - housing stock that offers the prospect of ownership for families of modest means despite "the challenge of gentrification." The list, in alphabetical order by city:

Atlanta East Atlanta

Boston Dudley Triangle

Chicago Edgewater

Denver Capitol Hill

Oakland, Calif. Fruitvale

Phoenix Alhambra Village

San Antonio Terrell Wells

San Francisco Visitacion Valley

San Jose, Calif. Seven Trees

Seattle Ranier Beach

US Newswire

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