Recognizing the work of cities.

The National League of Cities bestowed its 2010 Awards for Municipal Excellence on eight cities that created outstanding programs to improve the quality of life in America's communities. These awards recognize city programs that demonstrate community determination and individual commitment at the local level.

The winners were selected by population size. There is a "Gold" and "Silver" winner for each population category (less than 50,000; 50,001 to 150,000; 150,001 to 500,000; and more than 500,000).

The Gold winners were: Kingsport, Tennessee, for its Higher Education Initiative, which focuses on education as a way to spur economic development; South Bend, Indiana, for its Northeast Neighborhood Revitalization program to redevelop the area near the Notre Dame campus; Newport News, Virginia, for its No Longer Lost in Translation: Strengthening Ties with the Hispanic Community program; and New York, New York, for its Financial Empowerment Center Initiative, which offers free, confidential, one-on-one financial counseling to residents who are struggling with their finances.

The Silver winners were: Clemson, South Carolina, for its PinPoint--Public Works partnership, a new technology to help the public works department coordinate and map areas where debris needed to be picked up; North Charleston, South Carolina, for its Sustainable Urban Revitalization project, which brought together public, private, and non-governmental organizations to help revitalize the city after the Charleston Naval Base closed; Minneapolis, Minnesota, for its Wireless Minneapolis public-private partnership, which effectively integrates technology into the city's infrastructure; and Los Angeles, California, for its Terminal Island Renewable Energy partnership, the nation's first project aimed at producing green energy from renewable biosolids (the organic materials that...