Officials in New Mexico and other states across the U.S. have lamented the coming end of federal stimulus funding for Medicaid, the government’s low-income health insurance program. In New Mexico, the potential loss (as of Dec. 31, 2010) of federal stimulus dollars for Medicaid is contributing to a potential $1 billion shortfall for next year. Estimates are that New Mexico will have to replace nearly $150 million in Medicaid dollars from the federal government with its own dollars.

Most of the country, we know now, has hit hard by the recession. But Florida is in a special category. For the first time since World War II, the Sunshine State will lose more people than it gains this year. And that landmark statistic is making state and local officials rethink the state’s economic development philosophy, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

For all you political junkies, here’s a review of Sarah Palin’s memoir from the New York Times. Much more interesting to me, however, was this review of Paul Auster’s new novel. And fans of Malcolm Gladwell, beware. You might not like this review of a compilation of essays from Gladwell by Steven Pinker, the Harvard psychology professor. But I found it refreshing, mostly for its close reading of Gladwell’s curious statistical reasoning.

From the media world, we learn that Lou Dobbs is a richer man for having left CNN last week. The cable news network paid Dobbs $8 million to pack up and leave before his contract was up, the New York Post reports.

Hulu.com,  one of my personal favorite streaming media Web sites, is showing signs of multiple-personality disorder, perhaps because it is the brainchild of several media giants, reports MediaWeek. “Recently, the popular video site’s various parents have sent mixed messages about Hulu’s future business model—and whether or not it will erect some sort of paid subscription wall. Now, reports are bubbling up about an increasing level of discord between Hulu’s own ad sales staff and the staffs of each of the site’s broadcast partners: ABC, NBC and Fox,” the story says.

Detroit, the poster child for the country’s hard times, is getting a third daily newspaper, according to Editor & Publisher. Yep, you read that correctly. It’s the creation of brothers Mark and Gary Stern, who published dailies during newspaper strikes in Detroit and other cities years ago. The Sterns plan to distribute 200,000 copies of their first edition in three counties, E&P reports.

There’s been a revision to Google’s book scanning project, reports BusinessWeek’s Tech Beat blog. Basically, Google will still scan and sell orphan books, “millions of books for which copyright laws still apply but whose rights owner is unknown or cannot be located.” But revisions to the plan call for an independent trustee to collect revenues generated from orphan works for up to 10 years, or until the rights holders are found,” the blog reports. “After 10 years, that money will be donated towards the continued effort to seek out copyright owners.”

Tim Berners-Lee, the reputed creator of the Web, is touting a plan to cut the digital divide in Africa, reports ReadWriteWeb. Berners-Lee’s non-profit Web Foundation exists to bridge the ‘digital divide’ in Internet usage. Only about 25 percent of the world population uses the Web today, however more than 70 percent of people have access to mobile or fixed communication devices capable of displaying Web content, RWW says.