• An event at the American Enterprise Institute will ask: “Do Liberals Know Best?” Providing an answer will be Gerard Alexander, delivering AEI’s March Bradley lecture on March 15 at 5:30 p.m.

• Thanks to the Pioneer Institute, city dwellers in Massaschusetts have a new online tool to track how their city government is performing and to compare 14 cities throughout the state. The institute’s Middle Cities Initiative focuses on economic development in the 14 cities that comprise the state’s historic industrial sector. As part of that initiative, Pioneer has launched MassCityStats, a Web site that provides users with numerous benchmarks of the cities’ performances, including crime rates, school dropout rates, foreclosure rates, bond ratings, city debt as a percentage of revenue, and many others.

• The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has launched a new online news source—Michigan Capital Confidential Daily—to fill the news gap left by the shuttering of newspapers around the state. Recent articles include an examination of why a state agency remains in operation months after the legislature voted to eliminate it, and a look at “green” education programs, which in at least one school means checking the pressure on school bus tires.

• From health care to tort reform to bailouts to protecting gun rights, the state of Texas is at the forefront of efforts push back against an overweening federal establishment. At The Heritage Foundation, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot will discuss how states can resist federal encroachment. The event will begin at noon on March 1.

• The winner of the next Milton Friedman Prize will be honored by the Cato Institute at a black-tie event on March 13. The award, given every other year, honors individuals who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of human freedom. The 2008 winner was Yon Goicoechea, a leader of the pro-democracy student movement in Venezuela.