Presidential & Vice Presidential Debate Archive

Online Archive of Presidential and Vice Presidential election debate transcripts. Video also provided for some years. Source : Commission on Presidential Debates
Link to site

State of the Union Addresses - Archive

An online archive of State of the Union Address transcripts back to 1945, with video from 1989 to 2005. Plus video of Nixon's 1974 Address. Source : C-SPAN.
Link to site

Chutes & Ladders: The Search for Solid Ground for Women in the Workforce

"Women Work!’s critical new study has found that single mothers and displaced homemakers are not a disappearing phenomenon in the United States. In fact, these family groups are on the increase and likely to be vastly over-represented in the nation’s low-paying service jobs." Source : Women Work! [Via DocuTicker]

Download : Full PDF Report | State by State Data

The UN’s Role in Nation-Building: From the Congo to Iraq

"Reviews UN efforts to transform eight unstable countries into democratic, peaceful, and prosperous partners, and compares those missions with U.S. nation-building operations. The UN provides the most suitable institutional framework for nation-building missions that require fewer than 20,000 men-one with a comparatively low cost structure, a comparatively high success rate, and the greatest degree of international legitimacy." Source : RAND Corporation [via DocuTicker]
Download PDF Report

Foreign-Born Population Tops 34 Million, Census Bureau Estimates

"The nation's foreign-born population numbered 34.2 million in 2004, accounting for 12 percent of the total U.S. population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released today. The number of foreign-born is 2.3 percent higher than it was in 2003."
Link to Press Release | Link to Detailed Tables

The rising profile of women academics

Study from Canada :
"Women have increased their presence among full-time university faculty during a period of shrinking public funding, rising enrollments and increasing tuition costs. The trend has been fueled by the rising educational attainment of women generally, as well as a growing academic work force reaching retirement age that consists mainly of men." Source: Statistics Canada [via DocuTicker]
Link to online report

Educause Horizon Report

"The second edition of the NMC's annual Horizon Report describes the continued work of the NMC's Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within higher education." Source: Educause
Download Report

Subjects : Postsecondary Education -- trend forecast

GenderStats

"GenderStats is an electronic database of gender statistics and indicators designed with user-friendly, menu-driven features. It offers statistical and other data in modules on several subjects. The data in each module is presented in ready-to-use format. Users have the option of saving the country views in Excel (or another spreadsheet software) to customize them for their own reports.... Data sources for GenderStats include national statistics, United Nations databases, and World Bank-conducted or funded surveys." Choose a country from the dropdown menu and then select the category of data that you want. Source: World Bank [via ResourceShelf]
Link to database

Subjects : Gender Statistics

CSPV Violence Literature Database (VioLit)

VioLit is a violence-related research literature database with abstracts and reference information. Source: Center for the study and prevention of violence (CSPV)

"In an effort to establish more complete and valuable information to impact violence-related policies, programs, and practices, CSPV works from a multi-disciplinary platform on the subject of violence and facilitates the building of bridges between the research community and the practitioners and policy makers."
Link to database.

Searchable Database of the President's Appointees

"The President appoints thousands of people to help formulate, enforce, and carry out policies - particularly those outlined in his inaugural address - and budgets that affect us every day. Do you know who these people are?... explore the thousands of appointed positions and learn about the people who hold them." Link to Search Page

Subjects : U.S. Presidential Appointees

A Career in the Courtroom

A Career in the Courtroom: A Different Model for the Success of Women Who Try Cases
"The Task Force found that, while the number of practicing lawyers continues to rise, women are often underrepresented in the ranks of law firm partnership -- a goal that often indicates success in the practice of law. Too many of them leave their firms before being promoted, even though the firm has made a long-term investment of time, effort, and money in their training and development." Source: DRI-The Voice of the Defense Bar
Download PDF Report

Subjects : Law Careers -- Gender Issues

Analysis of the Public and Private Benefits of Higher Education

The Investment Payoff: A 50-State Analysis of the Public and Private Benefits of Higher Education" A major new study shows that the investment in higher education by states has dramatic and measurable impacts on both the collective well-being of each state as well as on individual citizens. The 50-state study says that the societal benefits of citizens with a college education are widespread and include decreased reliance on public assistance, higher voting rates, and increased volunteering. For individuals, going to college leads to higher income, lower unemployment, and better health." Source : Institute for Higher Education Policy [via DocuTicker]
Download PDF Report

Subjects : Postsecondary Education -- Impact

Empty Promise

Empty Promise: The Benefit to African American Men of Private Accounts Under President Bush's Social Security Plan "President Bush has aggressively promoted his Social Security plan among African Americans, with the promise that it will allow them to pass on their private accounts to their heirs. He has argued that this will be preferable to Social Security, because African Americans, and especially African American men, have shorter life-spans than whites, and therefore do not collect Social Security benefits for as many years. However, because President Bush's plan mandates that workers annuitize enough of their accounts to generate an income that is at least large enough to put them above the poverty level, most African American men will not accumulate enough money to pass anything down to their heirs. In this respect, for the typical African American man, President Bush's proposed system will be exactly the same as the current Social Security system; it will not leave them with anything to pass onto their heirs." Source: Center for Economic and Policy Research [via DocuTicker] Link to Report

Subjects : Social Security -- Privatization

Gideon's Broken Promise

Gideon's Broken Promise: America's Continuing Quest for Equal Justice "During the 40th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Gideon v. Wainwright (which established the right to counsel in state court proceedings for indigents accused of serious crimes), the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants held a series of public hearings to examine whether Gideon's promise is being kept. Throughout 2003, extensive testimony was received from expert witnesses familiar with the delivery of indigent defense services in 22 states representing a wide cross-section of regions, populations, and delivery systems. This comprehensive report represents the culmination of a painstaking analysis of hundreds of pages of testimony compiled from the hearings, leading to the inescapable conclusion that, forty years after Gideon, the promise of equal justice for the poor remains unfulfilled in this country."[via DocuTicker] Link to site

Subjects : Indigent Defense Services

Assortative Mating and Marital Quality in Newlyweds

Assortative Mating and Marital Quality in Newlyweds: A Couple-Centered Approach "Do people tend to select romantic partners that are similar to them or opposite to them? And does spouse similarity lead to marital happiness? In one of the most comprehensive studies ever undertaken on these questions, researchers at the University of Iowa find that people tend to marry those who are similar in attitudes, religion and values. However, it is similarity in personality that appears to be more important in having a happy marriage." Source: American Psychological Association/Journal of Personality and Social Psychology [via DocuTicker]
Download PDF Report

Subjects : Marriage -- Mating

Dancing Without Partners

Dancing Without Partners: How Candidates, Parties, and Interest Groups Interact in the New Campaign Finance Environment "Despite widespread claims that campaign finance reform would result in the death of political parties and their ability to fund a national grassroots and media campaign, the opposite was the case in 2004, according to a major new report by the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University. The report...is the complete summary of the CSED 2004 research project which used scores of academics and hundreds of monitors on the ground to gather information about the presidential race in five presidential battlegrounds and fifteen Senate and House races." [via DocuTicker]
Download PDF Report

Subjects : United States Election 2004 -- Campaign Finance

Radical Right Support

The ‘New Cleavage’ Thesis and the Social Basis of Radical Right Support "The rise of the radical right is open to multiple interpretations. The question addressed in this study is whether many of these parties have fostered an enduring social base among core voters and, if so, which social sectors are most likely to support them." Source: Harvard University, J. F. K. School of Government, Faculty Research Working Paper Series [via DocuTicker]
Abstract | Download PDF Report

Subjects : U.S. Politics -- Right-wing

Party Identification by State

"...compiled from the answers of registered voters throughout the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey, shows that Kansas, Nebraska and Utah are the most Republican states, Maryland and West Virginia the most Democratic, and Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine the most Independent." Source: National Annenberg Election Survey [via DocuTicker]
Download PDF Report

Subjects : Voting -- 2004 Presidential Election

Campus Violence White Paper

"...chronicles the scope of the problem on the nation's campuses, presents significant data, and recommends models for prevention." Source: American College Health Association [via DocuTicker] Download PDF Report
Subjects : U.S. college campuses -- violence

Online Archive of American Folk Medicine

"For more than fifty years, folklorists associated with the University of California, Los Angeles have systematically documented beliefs and practices relating to folk medicine and alternative healthcare. In order to make the data more readily available to the worldwide community of researchers and medical practitioners, the Online Archive of American Folk Medicine was established in 1996 under the direction of Dr. Michael Owen Jones, a professor of folklore and history at UCLA."

A feature that makes this resource very valuable are the journal citations that follow the data details, allowing the researcher to easily locate an authoritative source.

Link to site

Subjects : American Folklore -- Medicine

Ad*Access Project

"The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject
areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University." Link to site

Subjects : Advertising

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Available for Digital Download

From the Press Release : "... available online for the first time, allowing music fans to discover a diverse world of music and sound. Our catalog of nearly 35,000 tracks, is now available for download through MSN® Music. Tracks are only 99 cents each. Legendary artists such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Lucinda Williams, Big Bill Broonzy, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Ella Jenkins are available, as well as nonmusical tracks including speeches, poetry, and natural sounds from around the world" Link to collection | More about Smithsonian Folkways Music

Subjects : Americana -- Music

Valentine's Day

"One legend has it that Valentine’s Day originated to commemorate the anniversary of the death of St. Valentine, a Roman clergyman who was executed on Feb. 14, about 270 A.D., for secretly marrying couples in defiance of the emperor. According to another, the holiday began as a Roman fertility festival. Americans probably began exchanging handmade valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther Howland, a native of Massachusetts, began to sell the nation’s first mass-produced valentine cards."

More fun facts and tidbits about the big heart day :
Census Bureau's Facts For Features includes number of marriages, romantic sounding places, and statistics on the three most common gifts : flowers, candy, and jewelry. Link to site

The History Channel's guide to Valentine History. Link to site

Love those candy hearts? Personalize your own (image) using the Acme Heart Maker : Link to site

Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Faculty Research Working Paper Series

A Number of new papers were released from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government:

Upward Advice Transmission to Leaders in Organizations: Review and Conceptual Analysis
By Todd L. Pittinsky and Bonnie Poon
Abstract | Download Paper

Contemporary Public Leadership in China: A Research Review and Consideration
By Todd L. Pittinsky and Cheng Zhu
Abstract | Download Paper

Not So Lonely at the Top? The Multiple Commitments of Emerging Leaders
By Todd L. Pittinsky and Brian Welle
Abstract | Download Paper

Identity Cues: Evidence from and for Intra-Individual Perspectives on Stereotyping
By Todd L. Pittinsky, Margaret Shih and Amy Trahan
Abstract | Download Paper

The Mistaken Assumption of Intentionality in Equal Protection Law: Psychological Science and the Interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment
By Margaret Richardson and Todd L. Pittinsky
Abstract | Download Paper

Upward Advice Transmission in the Family: The Role of Gender in Young Adults Giving Advice to their Parents
By Bonnie Poon and Todd L. Pittinsky
Abstract | Download Paper

Young Children of Immigrants and Poverty

Young Children of Immigrants in Two-Parent Families Have Triple the Poverty Rate of Children With U.S.-Born Parents. Source : The Urban Institute

From the press release : "One in five young children of immigrants in two-parent families lives below the federal poverty level-triple the rate for children with U.S.-born parents, new research from the nonpartisan Urban Institute shows. Twenty-two percent in the first group are poor versus 7 percent in the latter." Download Full PDF Report


Subjects : Immigrant Families -- Poverty

Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers

Now Available : "The University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center opens the Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers, thousands of pages of interview notes, memos and other materials, available to researchers and the public."

Visit the Online Exhibit | Browse via the University's Finding Aid

"The University of Texas at Austin acquired the Watergate papers of Woodward and Bernstein for $5 million, an acquisition entirely financed by donors."

Subjects : Watergate Scandal -- Nixon -- Woodward, Bob -- Bernstein, Carl -- Washington Post

FY 2006 Budget Available Online From GPO

"The Budget of the U.S. Government, FY 2006, was released on Monday, February 7, at 10:00 AM EST. It is now available on GPO Access in digital form. You can also place orders for the printed version through the U.S. Government Bookstore."
Browse budget by section | Download entire Report(zip file)

Subjects : United States Government -- Budget

How the European Union Can Deliver on its Unfulfilled Promise

"In his kickoff speech at the Wharton European Conference in November, Jean-Pierre Rosso, who recently stepped down as chairman and director of CNH Global N.V., talked about the challenges faced by Europe as it develops a unified identity and begins to emerge as a global economic player. The European Union, he said, remains a "work in progress," with several hurdles to overcome if it wants to become truly competitive. The conference, titled "Raising the Curtain Over a New Europe," also included a panel on 'Transatlantic Business Opportunities.'" Source : Knowledge@Wharton
Link to online article.

Subjects : European Union -- Economics

Multinational Corporations and Ethical Obligation

Do Multinational Corporations Have an Ethical Obligation to Assist Those in Need?

"At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, one particular topic drew unusually strong support -- the need for organizations across the board, both public and private, to contribute more to the war on global poverty and illness."

"Last month, Wharton legal studies professor Nien-hê Hsieh tackled this topic during a luncheon presentation on "Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and the Ethics of Assistance," in which he noted that two principles may justify corporate social responsibility in special circumstances: Rescue and fairness." Source : Knowledge@Wharton
Link to online article

Subjects : Corporate Ethics

Marriages and Divorces: 2001

New report from the U.S. Census Bureau. Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2001

"Marital patterns are affected by social and economic events, as well as by changes in cultural attitudes and behaviors. Changes in the patterns of marriage and divorce can then affect family life and other interactions. The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is one of very few data sources that can provide a comprehensive look at both current and historical marriage and divorce behaviors of men and women in the United States." Download PDF Report

Subjects : Marriage -- Statistics

PEW Report on Internet Users

From the press release : "A new nationwide survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that internet users are extremely positive about search engines and the experiences they have when searching the internet. But these same satisfied internet users are generally unsophisticated about why and how they use search engines. They are also strikingly unaware of how search engines operate and how they present their results."

Download PDF Report | Download Questionnaire

Subjects : Internet -- Search Engines

Profile of 109th Congress

"This report presents a profile of the membership of the 109th Congress. Statistical information is included on selected characteristics of Members. This includes data on party affiliation; average age and length of service; occupation; religious affiliation; female and minority Members; foreign-born Members; and military service." Source : Congressional Research Service

Download PDF Report

Subjects : United States Congress -- 109th Congress

The Interaction of Child Support and TANF

The Interaction of Child Support and TANF: Evidence from Samples of Current and Former Welfare Recipients.

"This report examines the interaction of child support and welfare receipt by addressing several questions concerning child support receipt for samples of current and former welfare recipients. We use several data sources, covering different samples, time periods, and geographic areas, to address these questions in an effort to understand current and former recipients’ status in the child support system, such as their rates of receipt before and after leaving welfare, and the effects of child support on self-sufficiency." Source : MDRC [via DocuTicker]

Download PDF Report

Subjects : Welfare -- Child Support

Africa Policy Outlook 2005

From the Press Release "Just one week after the inauguration of President Bush to a second term in office, Africa Action today released its Africa Policy Outlook 2005, also published by Foreign Policy in Focus. This annual publication forecasts the key issues and developments in Africa policy in the coming year, and analyzes trends in U.S. relations with Africa under the current administration." Link to Report

Subjects : Africa -- Foreign Policy

Fast Facts: African-American History Month: February 2005

A compilation of facts and statistics about the African-American population. Part of the "Facts for Features" series from the U.S. Census Bureau. Link to site

Subjects : African American Population -- Statistics

Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2002 and Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2002

"This report presents findings from the Spring 2003 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Web-based data collection. Data were requested from over 6,600 postsecondary institutions participating in Title IV federal student financial aid programs. The tables in this publication present enrollment data for fall 2002, financial statistics for fiscal year 2002, and student financial aid data for academic year 2001-2002. Also included are graduation rate data for the 1996 and 1999 student cohorts." Source : National Center for Educational Statistics [via ResourceShelf]

Download Report

Postsecondary Institutions--Enrollment--United States

2005 State of the Union

Read the full text of President Bush's 2005 State of the Union address. Video Download is also available from the page.
Link to full-text

In his State of the Union Address President Bush mentions several proposed initiatives. Fact Sheets have been provided for further explanation and background.

Faith-Based Fact Sheet | Helping Returning Inmates Fact Sheet

Subjects : State of the Union Address -- 2005

New Papers from NBER

Our neighbors at the National Bureau of Economic Research publish a weekly list of working papers and chapters of forthcoming books. Here are a couple from this week. Free access is restricted to campus community.

Federal Oversight, Local Control, and the Specter of
"Resegregation" in Southern Schools
by Charles T. Clotfelter, Helen F. Ladd, Jacob L. Vigdor


Reducing the Risk of Investment-Based Social Security Reform
by Martin Feldstein

Complete list of papers released this week

Subjects : Economic Working Papers -- National Bureau of Economic Research

Searchable Database of Accredited Institutions

The Department of Education unveiled a Web site on Tuesday that federal officials hope will be a reliable tool for helping students avoid online diploma mills. The site provides a searchable list of institutions accredited by federally approved organizations.

"The database lists approximately 6,900 postsecondary educational institutions and programs, each of which is accredited by an accrediting agency or state approval agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as a “reliable authority as to the quality of postsecondary education” within the meaning of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA).The database does not include a number of postsecondary educational institutions and programs that elect not to seek accreditation but nevertheless may provide a quality postsecondary education."

Link to site

Subjects : Postsecondary Education -- Database

Rip-off 101: Second Edition

How the Publishing Industry's Practices Needlessly Drive Up Textbook Costs

State Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) released Ripoff 101 -second edition, a report documenting the high price of college textbooks. The report presents "evidence that textbook prices are a significant part of college costs, that textbook prices are rising at a fast pace, and that publishers use a variety of tactics to inflate the cost of textbooks. In addition, we found that textbook publishers increase textbook prices faster than the rate of inflation between editions and charge American students more for the same books than students in other countries."

Download Report

Subjects : Higher Education -- Costs