{
  "id": "2006-november-december-tallying-city-spending-on-trinkets",
  "slug": "2006-november-december-tallying-city-spending-on-trinkets",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2006-november-december-tallying-city-spending-on-trinkets.html",
  "year": 2006,
  "month": "November • December",
  "monthNum": 11,
  "headline": "Tallying city spending on trinkets",
  "kicker": "FIRST VENTURE",
  "author_name": "Eugene Mulero",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "The Arizona Republic",
  "summary": "Eugene Mulero explores how cities spend taxpayer money on promotional items like stress-relief toys and pens.",
  "keywords": [
    "city spending",
    "promotional items",
    "public records"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Government & Politics",
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Business & Economy"
  ],
  "technologies": [],
  "full_text": "My interest in city promotional items, or trinkets, started at a local history festival last fall in Chandler, Ariz., and led to my first CAR story. The event took place at a park near the ruins of the old Southern Pacific Railroad line. To commemorate the event, city officials handed out small foam choochoo trains. The trains looked like squeezable stress-relief toys. More importantly, they had the city's logo and Web site on their tops. I took one back to the newsroom. A few weeks later, I talked to a former colleague in New Jersey. I told him I picked up the trinket, and he mentioned that cities in Jersey wouldn't spend money on those items. I realized he was right. I never saw a city in New Jersey give away pens or notepads with their logos. If they did, residents would criticize officials for overspending.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "pre-v2",
    "extracted_at": "",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "2003-julyaugust-historical-spending-data",
      "score": 0.144
    },
    {
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      "score": 0.14
    },
    {
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      "score": 0.134
    },
    {
      "slug": "2003-julyaugust-learning-lessons-while-tracing-pols-spending",
      "score": 0.114
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    {
      "slug": "1995-october-look-who-gets-city-hall-jobs",
      "score": 0.109
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2006-november-december-tallying-city-spending-on-trinkets.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2006-november-december-tallying-city-spending-on-trinkets.json"
}