Two Agreement Goofs in One Article!

A recent article in The Birmingham News deals with a sadly
familiar issue--budget cuts in city government. Also sadly familiar is the
issue of subject/verb agreement which is handled incorrectly in TWO
sentences in this one article. The first sentence reads as follows:

Birmingham's financial challenges
and bare bones 2011 budget has made
it to the national spotlight.

This sentence has TWO subjected (CHALLENGES, BONES) connected by the word AND. Therefore, the verb should be plural. The sentence should read this way:

Birmingham's financial challenges and bare bones 2011 budget have made it to the national spotlight.

In the next paragraph, the reporter writes this sentence:

Mayor William Bell will appear on CNN's "Your Money" this weekend to discuss how a tough economy and low revenue is affecting cities nationwide.

Whoops again! The final clause of this sentence also has TWO subjects (ECONOMY, REVENUE), and they are also connected by AND. Therefore, the verb should be plural, and the sentence should read as follows:

Mayor William Bell will appear on CNN's "Your Money" this weekend to discuss how a tough economy and low revenue are affecting cities nationwide.

BONUS POINT: We should give this reporter credit for getting the usage correct by using the VERB "affecting" in this sentence.