Brewed Fresh Daily

Here’s a study in contrasts: the Washington Nationals and the Cleveland Indians.

Thomas Boswell describes how it’s being done in Washington.

You feel General Manager Mike Rizzo’s influence everywhere here. Invariably, his touch is measured, modest, mildly humorous and soaked in lifetime study of how a big league team should be built. But most of all, his emerging body of work is coherent and cohesive, the pieces interlocking.

General Manager Mike Rizzo gives Nationals an offseason makeover

Sadly, the Indians are not inspiring the same level of pre-season confidence.

The Indians opted to strike it rich through a bevy of non-guaranteed, minor-league contracts. Maybe it will work in one or two instances, but it’s not the recommended way to build a team.

Then again, the Indians say they’re beyond the rebuild stage. The 162-game season, which begins April 5 in Chicago, will test a portion of that belief.

Breaking down the big questions as the Cleveland Indians prepare for spring training: Analysis

Follow the PDs Paul Hoynes on Twitter.

Perhaps the biggest key to controlling health care costs will be confronting the burden of disease, Cosgrove said. Three preventable conditions – smoking, obesity and lack of activity – cause 40 percent of premature deaths, 70 percent of chronic disease, and 75 percent of all health care costs.”We can no longer figure that we can live any kind of lifestyle we want and then, when you get sick, expect to be taken care of,” he said.

Innovation Is Key to Health Care Shift From Chronic Disease to ‘Chronic Health’

Mark Puente, crime reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has won the 20th annual Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting administered by the University of Colorado School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Puente’s three-month investigation uncovered decades of corruption by Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul,who resigned and is now the subject of a criminal investigation.

Plain Dealer’s Mark Puente Wins Police Reporting Award

The Environmental Protection Agency on Sunday unveiled a five-year, $475-million plan to revitalize the Great Lakes, including cleaning up polluted water and beaches, restoring wetlands and fighting invasive species such as Asian carp.

Federal and state officials call the effort, dubbed the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan, “historically unprecedented” in size, funding and coordination between various branches of government.

EPA unveils Great Lakes restoration plan

More from the EPA here.

YikeBike – The world’s first super light electric folding bike.

FutureStory: how people and businesses in towns and cities across the UK are adapting to – and succeeding in – the new global economy. Wherever you live, you can build your own FutureStory and upload and share it here.

FutureStory

A land tax is an efficient tax because it can make the economy more productive and create wealth, because raising the tax rate on land has few undesirable effects, while lowering the rate on improvements has many benefits. A conventional property tax tends to discourage investment in new structures and maintenance of existing structures by reducing the return on such expenditures. A land value tax can be a better method of property tax reform than assessment limits, which have undesirable side effects, including unequal treatment of similarly situated taxpayers and distortion of economic incentives.

Land Value Tax Holds Promise for Cash-Strapped Cities and Towns, Report Says

In Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Cleveland, gardening and urban farming are vital parts of revitalization plans — and Akron isn’t far behind. Grow Pittsburgh promotes local, urban food through farmer education, school gardening and a host of other projects….

The energy behind urban agriculture is also high in Youngstown, a city that has seen its share of economic distress, foreclosures and vacant property. In addition to developing community and for-profit urban farms, local food advocates in Youngstown are working to develop a commercial kitchen in the city, a space that would allow small-scale producers and farmers to process fresh produce into salsa or jam, for example.

Last fall, nationally recognized urban farmer and local foods advocate Will Allen of Milwaukee visited Youngstown to inspire and inform current and prospective urban farmers. Allen is best known for his work with Growing Power Inc., an urban farming organization he developed in 1993 to link Milwaukee teens with growing opportunities.

Growing Power now operates many urban and rural farm projects in Wisconsin and Illinois, with a focus on Milwaukee and Chicago.

In July, Allen was in Cleveland to inspire teachers and youth advocates at the National Gardening Association’s youth gardening conference, sharing stories about his work to bring youth in touch with food and land. Participants from across the state and the country left inspired and invigorated, full of ideas to help youth learn to grow.

Urban farm movement is taking root in Akron