The Evanston Community Foundation is sponsoring a workshop this month to brief board members of non-profit groups on how to provide financial oversight for the organizations they serve.

Whether of not they have financial backgrounds, board members and the board as a whole have an important role in providing financial oversight and protecting the assets of the organization.

Expanding a free parking offer at Evanston's downtown garages seems to have increased garage usage during the holiday shopping season.

Usage figures presented at this week's Parking and Transportation Committee meeting show parking garage usage increased 6 percent during the Nov. 27 to Jan. 4 run of the promotion last year compared to the same time span in 2008.

About 40 Evanstonians gathered in a Civic Center meeting room Tuesday to strategize about how to persuade Google to build a new ultra-high-speed internet service here.

The search-engine giant announced earlier this month that it's seeking information from communities around the country that would like to be the site for a company-funded test of gigabit internet service, and Evanston officials announced last week that they plan to apply.

Representatives of Northwestern University and the local technology incubator joined the session, along with a variety of high-tech business owners, workers and retirees who live or work in Evanston.