Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required): Two-thirds of academic earmarks ($1.6-billion) was directed to scientific research at almost 500 institutions says a new report from the Chronicle of Higher Education. For 2008, the median earmark was $462,000, down from $497,000 in 2003.

Since 2003, it has been harder to win peer-reviewed federal research grants as the budget of the NIH and NSF declined in real terms. In 2008 each agency expects to approve about one in five grant applications, down from one in three in 2001. The drop has made earmarks more attractive to institutions says Chronicle reporters Jeffrey Brainard and JJ Hermes, who report on a 25-percent increase in the number of colleges and universities receiving earmarks compared to the last time the newspaper ran a similar survey in 2003.

The numbers and names show "a system that's out of control," says Michael S. Lubell, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society.