Good morning, Houston. Did you read the Chronicle over breakfast this morning? We're sure the paper is thanking you: According to the Newspaper Association of America, the Chron lost 2 percent of its circulation in the six-month period ending in March. That's really not so bad compared with drops among some of the other biggest papers in the country: 3.5 percent for The Washington Post, 4.2 percent for the LA Times and a whopping......

So here's a numismatic question: Does anyone ever use Sacagawea dollars, the golden $1 coins the U.S. Mint started churning out in 2000? More than a billion of them are in circulation, but Houstonist never gets one in change. It makes us wonder just how well the Mint's latest foray into dollar coins, the presidential dollar, is going to work out. But we'll know pretty soon: The first presidential dollar, featuring the mug of George......

The U.S. Mint has announced that it now cost 1.2 cents to make a penny. The first time the price exceeded the penny’s value. So why keep making them? Sentimental reasons mostly, it seems. Enough Americans feel strongly about saving the penny that several organizations and lobbying groups have been built around the cause. They’re concerned that if pennies go away, it’ll lead to higher prices (rounding up), hurt charities (think convenience store jars), and......

A national study by Central Connecticut State University ranked Houston 53rd out of 69 of the nation's top cities for literacy, the Houston Business Journal reported. Oddly, the study doesn't really look at literacy rates. According to the report, the study's author, John Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, examines factors like newspaper circulation, the number of bookstores and library resources as a gauge of a city's literacy. Internet literacy was included in......