Democrats Go Domestic: Analyzing the 6-28 Debate

A Comparison of the Candidates' Views with Those of the Public

"Eight candidates for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president squared off last night in a debate held before a predominantly black audience at Howard University in Washington D.C. and televised nationally by PBS. Here is a run-down of how their views on key issues stacked up against the attitudes of the general public, of self-identified Democrats, Republicans and independents, and of African Americans generally, as measured by recent Pew Research Center surveys." Source: Pew Research Center


Link to online article

New state laws bring changes July 1

"on July 1, the fiscal years of 46 states begin and several new laws take effect. So South Carolina gang members, Virginia teenage tanners and Illinois truants, take note: Life’s about to get a little tougher.

A few laws are borne out of events likely to inspire TV episodes of “Law & Order.” It now will be a felony to dismember or hide a body to conceal a crime in Iowa. The law closes a loophole that constricted police investigating a woman who helped her boyfriend cut up and hide the body of his murdered roommate. They could charge her only with lying to investigators and taking the victim’s belongings." Source: Stateline.org via Pew Research

Link to rest of online article

As Marriage and Parenthood Drift Apart, Public Is Concerned about Social Impact

"Americans believe that births to unwed women are a big problem for society, and they take a mixed view at best of cohabitation without marriage. Yet these two nontraditional behaviors have become commonplace among younger adults, who have a different set of moral values from their elders about sex, marriage and parenthood, a new Pew Research Center Survey finds." Source: Pew Research Center

Download pdf Report | Link to online overview

Census Bureau: Facts for the 4th of July

Statistics on U.S. population and the 4th of July activities.

Many of the year's 74 million + barbecues will be held this Wednesday where people will consume hot dogs most likely from Iowa, and Potato Salad or Chips from Idaho or Washington crops.

Over $206.3 millions worth of imported Chinese fireworks will wow audiences on what should be a grand celebration.

Full press release with links to data

The Rule of Law in the Age of Terrorism - An Audit

"I now want to explore the history of the present, or at least the last few years since 9/11. Timothy Garton Ash observed that at the end of the twentieth century the Cold War had ended and “Western values” of “freedom, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law” had triumphed. But he goes on to argue that the 21st century really began with September 11 and that terror has brought about a crisis for the free world.2 Other bombings by Islamic terrorist organisations in Bali, Madrid and London led to responses from Australia, Britain and the United States - exemplars of “Western values” - to trade those values at a heavy discount for security. On international markets - the United Nations, the law of war, human rights, torture, the Geneva conventions, and on domestic markets - the separation of powers, the rule of law, preventive detention, due process, freedom from warrantless access to financial records, search and
wiretapping - all sold at substantial discount." Source: David J. Neal, SC, "The Rule of Law in the Age of Terrorism - An Audit" (January 30, 2007). Center for the Study of Law and Society Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. Papers Presented in the Center for the Study of Law and Society Bag Lunch Speaker Series. Paper 36.

Download Pdf publication | Link to eScholarship Repository

Iraq Dominates News Landscape in First Six Months of 2007

"In the first six months of 2007, the Iraq war has captivated the public's interest and eclipsed most of the year's other major news stories, including the 2008 presidential election, two major Washington political scandals, and news from other international trouble spots. Iraq has been the most closely followed news story in 18 of the 22 weeks that Pew has been tracking public attentiveness to the news.

The only stories this year that have drawn greater public interest than the war were the Virginia Tech shootings in April and rising gas prices at the end of May. In addition, the release in early April of 15 British sailors and marines who were held captive by the Iranian government drew slightly more interest than the war to become that week's most closely followed news story." Source: Pew Center for People and the Press

Download PDF Report | Link to online summary and tables

Dropout Rates in the United States

"This report builds upon a series of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates for 2005, and provides data about trends in dropout and completion rates over the last three decades (1972-2005), including characteristics of dropouts and completers in these years. Among other findings, the report shows that in students living in low-income families were approximately six times more likely to drop out of high school between 2004 and 2005 than of their peers from high-income families." Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download PDF Report | Link to download site and access to more data

Chron. of Higher Ed.: How to avoid being a Bad Author

From the Careers section, Rachel Toor writes a new column called "Page Proof" with advice for academics about writing and getting published. This week she offers advice for academics on communicating and maintaining good relationships with publishers, editors and agents.


Link to online column

Part-Time Undergraduates in Postsecondary Education:

"This report uses data from the 2003–04 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:2004) to profile part-time undergraduates enrolled in U.S. postsecondary institutions in 2003–04. About 49 percent of undergraduates were enrolled exclusively full time in the 2003–04 academic year, 35 percent were enrolled exclusively part time, and 16 percent had mixed enrollment intensity. Part-time undergraduates, especially exclusively part-time students, were at a distinct disadvantage relative to those who were enrolled full time: they came from minority and low-income family backgrounds; they were not as well-prepared for college as their full-time peers; they were highly concentrated in 2-year colleges and nondegree/certificate programs; and many of them worked full time while enrolled and were not enrolled continuously. Using longitudinal data from the 1996/01 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:96/01), the report also found that part-time enrollment was negatively associated with persistence and degree completion six years after beginning postsecondary education even after controlling for a wide range of factors related to these outcomes. This was the case even for the group of students with characteristics that fit the typical profile of a full-time student (i.e., age 23 or younger, financially dependent on parents, graduated from high school with a regular diploma, and received financial help from parents to pay for postsecondary education). Regardless of whether they resembled full-time students, part-time students (especially exclusively part-time students) lagged behind their full-time peers in terms of their postsecondary outcomes even after controlling for a variety of related factors.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download PDF Report | Link to NCES Site

An Overview of Selected Legal Digital Libraries

"More and more digital libraries and repositories are coming into existence (see, e.g., NELLCO Legal Scholarship Repository, 2007). The purpose of this paper is to review ten digital libraries from the legal field. The major characteristics of each library are summarized. Guidance is given for the user who would access the library. Finally, some of the differences between the ten libraries are presented."

Link to online article and resources

Description and Employment Criteria of Instructional Paraprofessionals

"This Issue Brief (1) offers a descriptive portrait of the distribution of instructional paraprofessionals in all public elementary and secondary schools by instructional responsibility and selected school characteristics and (2) examines the educational attainment criteria used by school districts in hiring these paraprofessionals. Data for this analysis were drawn from the 2003–04 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The findings from this analysis indicate that 91 percent of public elementary and secondary schools in the United States had at least one instructional paraprofessional on staff in 2003–04. A greater percentage of traditional public schools than charter schools had instructional paraprofessionals and a greater percentage of elementary schools than secondary schools report having instructional paraprofessionals. Overall, 93 percent of schools were in districts that required paraprofessionals to have a high school diploma or the equivalent. The results also indicate that a greater percentage of Title I schools than non-Title I schools were in districts that required instructional paraprofessionals to have a high school diploma or the equivalent." Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download PDF Report | Link to NCES

Innovation and Learning by Public Discourse: Citigroup and the Rainforest Action Network

This paper presents the project finance controversy between Citigroup and the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) from a moral learning and innovation perspective. Using Kohlberg’s framework for moral development and learning it shows, that Citigroup improved its moral organizational cognition and implemented innovative processes and standards. This case demonstrates that public criticism can trigger social innovations. Source: Center fo Responsible Business U.C. Berkeley

Download PDF publication | Link to online abstract [via eScholarship Repository]

Are Women Asking for Low Wages? Gender Differences in Wage Bargaining Strategies and Ensuing Bargaining Success

"Men and women’s labor market outcomes differ along pay, promotion and competitiveness. This paper contributes by uncovering results in a related unexplored field using unique data on individual wage bargaining. We find striking gender differences. Women, like men, also bargain, but they submit lower wage bids and are offered lower wages than men. The adjusted gender wage gap is lower with posted-wage jobs than with individual bargaining, although less is ascribable to the term associated with discrimination. Both women and men use self-promoting, or competitive bargaining strategies, but women self-promote at lower levels. Employers reward self-promotion but the larger the self-promotion, the larger is the gender gap in bargaining success. Women therefore lack the incentives to self-promote, which helps to explain the gender disparities." Source: Swedish Institute for Social Research

Download Report | Link to other SOFI Working papers

Amazon to Digitize books from University and Public libraries and offer them for sale.

"Amazon.com's BookSurge subsidiary announced Thursday that it has partnered with book digitization company Kirtas Technologies on a project to archive and distribute hard-to-find books. This new initiative involves collaboration with public and university libraries to provide their collections of "rare and inaccessible" books; the titles will be digitized through Kirtas and then reproductions will be sold through Amazon through the BookSurge print-on-demand service.

In return, the partner libraries--initially consisting of Emory University, University of Maine, and the public libraries in Toronto, Ont. and Cincinnati, Ohio--will receive a cut of the revenue to fund further book preservation efforts, provided the titles are in the public domain or the libraries own the rights to them." Source: C|Net

Link to Online Article

Missing in Action: News Coverage of Private Contract Forces in Iraq

"Exactly how many Americans are serving in Iraq and what they are doing there might not seem complicated questions. Stories in the media regularly talk about the 150,000 U.S. military personnel in the Iraq theater. Coverage of events inside Iraq, which includes the actions of U.S. troops there, was the third-biggest news story in the U.S. media for the first quarter of 2007, according to PEJ research.

But those numbers do not include coverage of some 30,000 employees of U.S. and European-based Private Security Companies (PSCs), who work in some of Iraq's most dangerous areas.

These PSC employees are not like other contractors in Iraq. Many of them carry weapons and are hired to protect important people, facilities and convoys. They have been involved in firefights and scores of them, the exact number is unclear, have perished. Yet there are many basic unanswered questions about these armed forces, which augment by 20% the number of foreign troops in the country. " Source: Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Download PDF Report | Link to online Summary

Network News is all the Same, Cable Networks more Distinct

"In spite of their general criticisms of the media, Americans have good things to say about the major broadcast and cable news networks. The public draws few distinctions among the news divisions of the big three broadcast networks. There is much less consensus about the major cable news networks. Nearly half of the public sees real differences among CNN, the Fox News Channel and MSNBC, but four-in ten say the cable news outlets are all pretty much the same. National Public Radio is less well known to the public, but receives generally positive evaluations from those who can rate it." Source: Pew Research for People and the Press

Download PDF Report | Link to Online Summary

The Use of Profit by the Five Major Oil Companies

"The price of crude oil began to increase in the last quarter of 2003, and has led to the high prices observed from 2004 through 2007. The Iraq War, unexpectedly high demand growth in China, India, and the United States, and hurricanes Katrina and Rita, along with a number of other factors, all contributed to the rising price. An important result of these largely unexpected events was that the oil industry, as represented by the five major integrated oil companies doing business in the United States, experienced rapidly expanding revenues and profits. Some observers characterized these profits as "windfall" gains, while others pointed to the increasing scarcity and rising costs observable in the oil industry. Some saw "price gouging" in high gasoline prices, while others saw the market working to avoid physical supply shortages. The larger profits experienced by the oil industry and the five major integrated oil companies can be used in a variety of ways. Profits might be used to expand exploration and development of crude oil resources to expand the supply of oil. Refineries might be constructed, and technology improved at existing refineries, to expand the supply of petroleum products, most notably, gasoline. Profits might also be used to provide increased returns to the owners of the oil companies, the shareholders. This end might be accomplished through dividend payments and share repurchase plans." Source: Congressional Research Service

Download PDF Report | Link to online Summary

United Nations World Economic and Social Survey 2007

"The 2007 Survey analyses the implications of population ageing for social and economic development around the world, while recognizing that it offers both challenges and opportunities. Among the most pressing issues is that arising from the prospect of a smaller labour force having to support an increasingly larger older population. Paralleling increased longevity are the changes in intergenerational relationships that may affect the provision of care and income security for older persons, particularly in developing countries where family transfers play a major role. At the same time, it is also necessary for societies to fully recognize and better harness the productive and social contributions that older persons can make but are in many instances prevented from making." Source: United Nations

Download PDF Report | Link to UN Download site

The Environmental Impacts of Electric Bikes in Chinese Cities

Abstract: "Electric bikes have captured a large share of trips in many Chinese cities. They provide high levels of mobility and use little energy, two things that Chinese cities need to optimize. However, these benefits come at a cost, particularly emissions from primarily coal power plants and increased lead waste from battery use. Chinese policy makers are struggling with developing appropriate policy that maximizes modal options and mobility and minimizes environmental impacts. Electric bikes use very little electricity and, as a result, emit low levels of pollution per vehicle (passenger) kilometer traveled, even compared to fully occupied buses. The most problematic issue with electric bikes is the use of lead acid batteries that have high lead loss rates during the production, manufacturing and recycling processes. Most other motorized modes also use lead acid batteries, but their rate of use is lower and thus they have lower lead emission rates per kilometer. This research investigates and quantifies the environmental implications of electric bike use in China; particularly energy use, air pollution, solid waste and water use. A framework for policy analysis is presented and potential regulatory mechanisms are discussed. This investigation can inform policy by quantifying environmental impacts so that problematic parts of the life cycle can be addressed, rather than banning electric bikes all together." Source: UC Berkeley Center for Future Urban Transport: A Volvo Center of Excellence. Paper vwp-2007-2.

Download full pdf report | Link to online abstract

The Evolving Food Chain: Competitive Effects of Wal-Mart's Entry Into The Supermarket Industry

Abstract: "We analyze the effect of Wal-Mart's entry into the grocery market using a unique stor-level price panel data set. We use OLS and two IV specifications to estimate the effect of Wal-Mart's entry on competitors' prices of 24 grocery items across several categories. Wal-Mart's price advantage over competitors for these products averages approximately 10%. On average, competitors' response to Wal-Mart's entry is a price reduction of 1-1.2%, mostly due to smaller-scale competitors: the response of the "big three" supermarket chains (Alberson's, Safeway, and Kroger) is less than half that size. We confirm our results using a falsification exercises, in which we test for Wal-Mart's effect on prices of services that it does not provide, such as movie tickets and dry cleaning services." Source: Department of Economics, UCSD. Paper 2007-03.

Download PDF Report | Link to online abstract

Do Gasoline Prices Resond Asymmetrically to Cost Shocks? The Confounding Effect of Edgeworth Cycles

Abstract: "Asymmetric price cycles which look similar to Edgeworth Cycles are appearing in increasingly many retail gasoline markets in the U.S. and worldwide. The cycles can give the appearance of asymmetric prices responses to cost shocks under traditional methodologies. This article shows how to remove the confounding effect of the cycles and test for any true underlying asymmetry in price responses. Designing the correct counterfactual is key. The methodology is demonstrated for one strongly cycling market and some asymmetry to cost shocks is found. Covert collusion is unlikely, but the ability to coordinate cyclical price increases may play a role. Consumers can still reduce xpenditures on gasoline up to 7.7% with simple timing rules of thumb." Source: Department of Economics, UCSD. Paper 2007-04

Download PDF Report | Link to online paper

Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools From the Common Core of Data

"This report presents national and state-level data about the number of regular, special education, vocational, alternative, and charter schools; average school size; and the numbers of schools in city, suburban, town, and rural locations." Source: National Center for Education Statistics


Download PDF Report | Link to download site

Openness & Accountability: A Study of Transparency in Global Media Outlets

"The recent Libby case dramatically illustrated not only the hubris of Washington power politics, but the lack of commitment of mainstream media to journalistic transparency. “Here's the conflict in such situations,” wrote reporter Sydney Schanberg, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the fall of Cambodia. 'The press calls for transparency by government, corporations, and everyone else. But here the reporters reject transparency for themselves, and yet they say they are practicing good journalism. The public needs a fuller explanation, and that can only come from the reporters themselves.'" Source: "The International Center for Media and the Public Agenda, University of Maryland

Link to conclusions | Link to Study Methodology

The causes of civil war

"The dominant hypothesis in the literature that studies conflict is that poverty is the main cause of civil wars. We instead analyze the effect of institutions on civil war, controlling for income per capita. In our set up, institutions are endogenous and colonial origins affect civil wars through their legacy on institutions. Our results indicate that institutions, proxied by the protection of property rights, rule of law and the efficiency of the legal system, are a fundamental cause of civil war. In particular, an improvement in institutions from the median value in the sample to the 75th percentile is associated with a 38 percentage points' reduction in the incidence of civil wars. Moreover, once institutions are included as explaining civil wars, income does not have any effect on civil war, either directly or indirectly." Source: World Bank

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Inequality and Institutions in 20th Century America

"We provide a comprehensive view of widening income inequality in the United States contrasting conditions since 1980 with those in earlier postwar years. We argue that the income distribution in each period was strongly shaped by a set of economic institutions. The early postwar years were dominated by unions, a negotiating framework set in the Treaty of Detroit, progressive taxes, and a high minimum wage - all parts of a general government effort to broadly distribute the gains from growth. More recent years have been characterized by reversals in all these dimensions in an institutional pattern known as the Washington Consensus. Other explanations for income disparities including skill-biased technical change and international trade are seen as factors operating within this broader institutional story." Source: M.I.T. via Social Science Resource Network

Link to download site

Report on the hybrid operation in Darfur

A new report has been released by the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on the hybrid operation in Darfur. The report proposes a mandate and a structure for the operation and provides details on the various components of the proposed operation and their specific tasks. It also describes the ongoing efforts of the international community to support the peace process in Darfur and to strengthen the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS). Source: Unites Nations

Link to download site (report available in multiple languages)

Corruption in education: breaking the taboo

"Based on six years of research and the experience of over 60 countries, “Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities” analyses the problem, points the way forward and outlines anti-corruption strategies, illustrated by success stories." The report defines corruption, illustrates the hidden costs of corruption in education, provides the means of detecting it and suggests anti-corruptions strategies. Source: UNESCO

Download full pdf report | Link to press release

Point Systems for Immigrant Selection: Options and Issues

"Replacing or supplementing the current preference system for admitting legal permanent residents (LPRs) with a point system is garnering considerable interest for the first time in over a decade. Briefly, point systems such as those of Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and New Zealand assign prospective immigrants with credits if they have specified attributes, most often based on educational attainment, skill sets used in shortage occupations, extent of work experience, language proficiency, and desirable age range. President George W. Bush has stated that comprehensive immigration reform is a top priority of his second term, and his principles of reform include increased border security and enforcement of immigration laws within the interior of the United States, as well as a major overhaul of temporary worker visas, expansion of permanent legal immigration, and revisions to the process of determining whether foreign workers are needed. The Bush Administration is reportedly among those advocating to replace or supplement the current legal immigration preference system with a point system that would assign prospective immigrants with credits if they have specified attributes. Proponents of point systems maintain that such merit-based approaches are clearly defined and based on the nation's economic needs and labor market objectives." Source: Congressional Research Services

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"No Confidence" Votes and Other Forms of Congressional Censure of Public Officials

"S.J.Res. 14 of the 110th Congress, submitted on May 24, 2007, has been described as proposing a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. This report discusses the possible significance of action by Congress or either House to adopt a resolution expressing "no confidence" in a cabinet official or other official in the executive branch of the federal government. It examines the legal issues that could be raised by resolutions of this kind and discusses the relation of such action both to votes of no confidence in systems of parliamentary government and to congressional action to censure or otherwise express disapprobation of public officials. It also describes known instances in which action to express a lack of confidence in, or impose another form of censure on, public officials have been attempted in Congress" Source: Congressional Research Service

Download PDF Report | Link to online Summary

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' Immigration Fees and Adjudication Costs

The FY2008 Adjustments and Historical Context

The charging of fees for government services or benefits has long been practice in the United States by the federal government. Such fees have usually been charged as a service cost recovery only to those individuals who have used the service or benefit--so called user fees. More recently, this question has focused on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS), which adjudicates immigration benefit applications. As immigration services grow in complexity, questions have emerged concerning what users of feebased services should be obligated to pay for. As related to immigration, the current debate tends to produce two answers to the funding question: (1) an agency should either recover all of its costs through user fees, or (2) an agency should only charge user fees that recover the costs directly associated with providing services or benefits. Source: Congressional Research Service

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Govs' speeches send grads on their way

"This year at least 22 governors — 15 Democrats and seven Republicans — made the commencement rounds to laud graduates.

Governors and their speechwriters largely adhered to commencement clichés: They congratulated grads, encouraged them to reach for the stars, and cited cartoonist Garry Trudeau’s quote that commencement speeches were invented largely in the belief that graduates “should never be released into the world until they have been properly sedated.” To which Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) added, “If I cannot be transcendentally inspirational, I at least hope not to sedate you.”

But one governor strayed from the usual script. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) used the University of Massachusetts-Boston podium to unveil an ambitious, 10-year education plan that includes universal preschool, all-day kindergarten, extending the school day and year, plus free community college." Source: Pew | Stateline.org

Link to online article

'No Child Left Behind' Gets Mixed Grades

"As Congress prepares to debate reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, Americans express mixed views about the nation's signature education law. Among those who have heard about the law, 34% say the law has made schools better; 26% say it has made schools worse; and 32% say it has had no impact.

Parents of public school children have relatively positive views of No Child Left Behind, which uses annual testing to measure school progress and requires schools to raise reading and math test scores. More than four-in-ten public school parents (42%) who have heard a lot or a little about the law say it has made schools in the country better (compared with 34% of the public). However, just 30% of public school parents say that No Child Left Behind has made their children's schools better." Source: Pew Center for People and the Press.

Download PDF Report | Download PDF Questionnaire | Link to online summary

The Excess Burden of Government Indecision

"Governments are known for procrastinating when it comes to resolving painful policy problems. Whatever the political motives for waiting to decide, procrastination distorts economic decisions relative to what would arise with early policy resolution. In so doing, they engender excess burden. This paper posits, calibrates, and simulates a life cycle model with earnings, lifespan, investment return, and future policy uncertainty. It then measures the excess burden from delayed resolution of policy uncertainty. The first uncertain policy we consider concerns the level of future Social Security benefits. Specifically, we examine how an agent would respond to learning in advance whether she will experience a major Social Security benefit cut starting at age 65. We show that having to wait to learn materially affects consumption, saving, and portfolio decisions. It also reduces welfare. Indeed, we show that the excess burden of government indecision can, in this instance, range as large as 0.6 percent of the agent’s economic resources. This is a significant distortion in and of itself. It’s also significant when compared to other distortions measured in the literature. The second uncertain policy we consider concerns marginal tax rates. We obtain similar results once we adjust for the impact of tax rates on income." Source: Harvard Business School Working Papers

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Shortage of Public Health Physicians a Concern

"To attract physicians to public health careers and adequately prepare them for current and emerging challenges, more funding is needed to strengthen and sustain public health training programs and to offer financial incentives to keep these professionals in the field, says a new Institute of Medicine report. The estimated number of practicing physicians in public health is about half of what may be needed in the near future." Source: The National Academies

Link to read report online

Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (XDR-TB): Quarantine and Isolation

"The recent international saga of a traveler with XDR-TB, a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, has placed a spotlight on existing mechanisms to contain contagious disease threats and raised numerous legal and public-health issues. This report will briefly address the existing law relating to quarantine and isolation, with an emphasis on the interaction of state and federal laws and international agreements." Source:Congressional Research Service, Libary of Congress

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Local Authority or Local Autonomy?: A Revisionist History of Urban Renewal in San Francisco's Mission District, 1955-1973

"During the period of the federal urban renewal program (roughly 1949-1973) cities across the country engaged in massive “slum clearance”—the physical destruction of existing urban fabric for the purpose of redevelopment. Such clearance was undertaken almost exclusively in poor, minority neighborhoods. In the mid-1960s, residents of San Francisco’s primarily Latino Mission District organized to keep the local redevelopment agency from applying for federal urban renewal funding for their neighborhood. Existing literature gives the impression that the neighborhood groups defeated the redevelopment agency, thereby avoiding the imminent clearance of the Mission. Through an analysis of the preliminary plans drawn up for the neighborhood and other historical sources, this paper demonstrates that such clearance was not imminent because the redevelopment agency had recommended a mix of “spot clearance” and rehabilitation. After the initial application for federal funding was stopped, the neighborhood groups themselves took up the mantle of renewal, acting on many of the agency’s plans. The neighborhood groups did not defeat the redevelopment agency, but rather forced the redevelopment agency into collaboration. This paper argues that neighborhood/city collaborations are a part of the legacy of urban renewal which has been overlooked by scholars who emphasize the many abuses of the program. Existing histories of urban renewal have thereby (and in many cases inadvertently) provided fuel for privatization arguments, and a broadly anti-government agenda. While existing literature argues that community mobilization achieved neighborhood autonomy from public authority, this paper argues that community mobilization made the neighborhood a locus of public authority." Source: Institute for the Study of Social Change. ISSC Fellows Working Papers U.C. Berkeley

Download PDF Publication | Link to online abstract

Gendered Resource Returns: African American Institutions and Political Engagement

"While numerous studies discuss the importance of black churches and race-based organizations to African American political participation, few of them systematically analyze the gendered nature of such engagement. Employing data from the 1994 National Black Politics Survey, this study compares the influence of church-based activities and race-based organizational participation on African American men's and women's electoral and non-electoral political participation, and finds that 1) African American women participate less than African-American men; 2) in spite of black institutional participation the gender gap remains; 3) a liberal political orientation or households with union members mediates the gendered black institution effect; and, 4) Black institutional involvement enhances male more than female political participation. These findings have important implications for our theoretical understanding of institutional resource returns." Source: Center for the Study of Democracy, U.C. Irvine

Download PDF publication | link to online summary via eScholarship repository

Classics at Berkeley: The First Century 1869-1970

"During retirement, the late Joseph Fontenrose (1903-1986) conducted research in the departmental and university archives to compile this account of the Department of Classics at the University of California, Berkeley (and its predecessor departments) during the first hundred years of the university. It contains biographies and bibliographies of the long-term professors and lists of other teachers, and also tells of the development of the curriculum in different periods." Source: U.C. Berkeley

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Small Civil War Letters Archive at Baylor

"Love letters written by a Civil War soldier in the early 1860s have crossed into the digital age, thanks to a local physician and the Baylor University Electronic Library.

Thirty-two letters were loaned to the Electronic Library by Dr. Douglas Guthrie, a Mexia podiatrist and self-affirmed Civil War buff, for the purpose of digitization, transcription and placement in the online database called The Baylor Digital Collections. Written 140 years ago from towns such as Mechanicsburg, Okolona, Queens Hill and North Duck River, the letters by a Confederate officer from East Texas are helping history come alive and reach a new audience."

Link to archive at Baylor

Mixed Views on Immigration Bill

"The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted May 30-June 3 among 1,503 adults, finds a growing majority of Americans saying increased employer sanctions, as opposed to more border fences and patrols, can best reduce illegal immigration from Mexico. A 55% majority sees increased penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants as the most effective way to stem cross-border immigration, up from 49% a year ago. By comparison, just 25% say increasing the number of border patrol agents is the best solution, and even fewer (7%) see more border fences as the most effective solution." Source: Pew Center for People and the Press

Download pdf report | Download topline questionnaire | Link to online summary

Thompson Demonstrates Broad Potential Appeal

Bush Approval Falls to 29% -- Lowest Ever

"Former Sen. Fred Thompson has broad potential appeal among Republican voters even before his expected entrance into the presidential race. Thompson is not nearly as well known as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani or the other leading GOP candidates. But 37% of the Republican and Republican-leaning voters who have heard of Thompson say there is a "good chance" they will support him. This is equal to the level of support Giuliani receives from GOP voters who have heard of him, and reflects far more enthusiasm than any of the other Republican candidates garner." Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

Download full pdf report | Link to pdf topline questionnaire | link to online summary

How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners?

"As Congress considers the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law an analysis of recent data from standardized testing around the country shows that the fast growing number of students designated as English language learners are among those farthest behind.

The results of national testing conducted in 2005 shows that nearly half (46%) of 4th grade students in the English language learner (ELL) category scored "below basic" in mathematics in 2005--the lowest level possible. Nearly three quarters (73%) scored below basic in reading. In middle school achievement in mathematics was lower still, with more than two-thirds (71%) of 8th grade ELL students scoring below basic. Meanwhile, the same share (71%) of 8th grade ELL students scored below basic in reading." Source: Pew Hispanic Center

Download PDF report | Link to online summary | Supporting materials

Census Bureau Submits Subjects for 2010 Census to Congress

"The U.S. Census Bureau submitted to Congress the subjects it plans to address in the 2010 Census, which include gender, age, race, ethnicity, relationship and whether you own or rent your home. Estimated to take less than 10 minutes to complete, the 2010 Census would be one of the shortest and easiest to complete since the nation's first census in 1790." Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Download American Community Survey (ACS) Subjects Notebook (.pdf format)

Report on the State of American Education Shows High School Students Taking More Advanced Coursework

"High school students in the United States are taking more courses in mathematics and science, as well as social studies, the arts, and foreign languages, according to The Condition of Education 2007 report released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The general increases in credits earned since the early 1980s are, in large part, a product of more graduates taking more advanced courses."

"The Condition of Education 2007 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 48 indicators on the status and condition of education and a special analysis on high school coursetaking. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2007 print edition includes 48 indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education."


Source: Naional Center for Education Statistics

Link to website (contains various documents and data tables from the report)
Download pdf report analysis
Download full pdf report

Research Universities: Core of the US Science and Technology System

Abstract: "This paper traces the historical development of the American research and technology enterprise from its origins in the post-Civil War period to its current international dominance in the discovery and dissemination of scientific knowledge. U.S. research universities have become the vital center of this enterprise over the past 60 years. But competitors in Europe and Asia, many of them looking to the American research university as a model, are beginning to challenge U.S. leadership in science and technology. The paper analyzes the nature of this challenge and the problems research universities must address to continue their remarkable record of success." Source: Center for Studies in Higher Education [via California Digital Repository]

Download full pdf publication | link to online abstract

Grants Information for Constituents

This report describes key sources of information on government and private grants for state and community projects. For federal grants, loans, or nonfinancial help, constituents, who often know their projects best, can search the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) [http://www.cfda.gov] by keyword and by browsable indexes such as subject, department or agency, program title, beneficiary, and applicant eligibility. The website Grants.gov [http://www.grants.gov] enables grant seekers to search for federal funding opportunities, to sign up for e-mail notification, to apply electronically for grants through a uniform process for all agencies, and to track submitted applications. Federal department and agency websites provide additional information and guidance, as well as agency contacts. Websites such as the Foundation Center [http://foundationcenter.org] identify possible sources of private, corporate, and community foundations, and offer guides to writing grant proposals. Source: Congressional Research Service

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Terrorist Precursor Crimes: Issues and Options for Congress

"As Congress conducts oversight of the federal agencies engaged in terrorist precursor crime investigations and intelligence efforts, this phenomenon and U.S. efforts to identify, investigate, and counter it may be of particular concern. One such issue is how these agencies coordinate with one another on the issue of terrorist precursor crimes and whether there is an across-agency strategy on how to deal with such activity. Beyond the federal government agencies, there are numerous state, local, and tribal (SLT) agencies that are well positioned to assist in the identification and investigation of terrorist precursor crimes, but it is often unclear, and at the very least inconsistent, how these agencies are incorporated into existing efforts. In addition to oversight, there are potential budgetary and legislative issues related to terrorist precursor crimes that are of interest to Congress." Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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Veterans Benefits: Federal Employment Assistance

"There are federal employment and training programs and policies specifically targeted to help veterans seeking employment in the civilian economy. Transition assistance programs are operated by the Department of Defense (DOD), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the Department of Labor (DOL) to assist servicemembers as they prepare to leave the military. DOL operates grant programs to states to provide outreach and assistance to veterans in finding civilian employment. In addition, the federal government has policies that assist veterans in obtaining jobs with the federal government and federal contractors. This report provides a brief overview of these federal programs and policies." Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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40th Anniversary of the Summer of Love

Online presentation of the San Francisco Chronicle's special report on the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love. Photos, essays, and video illustrate the season that had an impact on American life. Source: SF Gate

Link to online presentation

Pew Results: Public Wants More Coverage on Issues, Less on Fundraising

"At this early stage of the 2008 campaign, about half of the public believes that press coverage of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates has been fair. But there are sizable partisan differences in evaluations of campaign coverage. Notably, a plurality of Republicans believes the press has gone too easy on Democratic candidates."

Link to online summary | Download full pdf report | Download topline questionnaire

Indicators Suggest a Recent Slowing of Migration across the U.S. Border

"While short-term changes in immigration flows are difficult to measure, several indicators suggest a possible slackening in migration from Mexico since mid- 2006. The Mexican-born population in the United States has continued to increase, but the rate of growth appears to have slowed in recent months.

This assessment is based on data that indirectly reflect the pace of migration over time and are subject to statistical fluctuations, survey effects and other phenomena that limit the ability to accurately measure changes in immigration flows across short periods of time. No data offer specific measures of the number of foreign-born individuals entering the country at a given point in time." Source: Pew Hispanic Center Major Report

Link to online summary | Download full pdf report

Stateline report: Civil unions spread, but gays want to wed

"Although gay rights activists say they are grateful for the legal protections that come with civil unions — including hospital visitation and burial rights, inheritance without a will and access to a partner’s health-insurance benefits — they stridently object to the notion that civil unions are the same as marriage." Source: Stateline.org


Link to online report | Download pdf of state-by-state policies on same-sex marriage

United Nations Human Rights Report Released

From the Press Release: "The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has released its 2006 Annual Report, providing a detailed account of the increasing range and impact of its human rights work around the world. The document uses charts, personal stories and photographs to portray the work of the Office.

The 2006 report reviews the implementation of the 2006-2007 Strategic Management Plan during the first half of the biennium, using the performance indicators set out in the document to gauge progress. For the first time, this year's report covers the entirety of the Office's work—including both those elements funded under the United Nations regular budget and those funded from voluntary contributions, mostly from governments. The document uses charts, personal stories and photographs to portray the work of the Office while providing examples of OHCHR's work in a plain and friendly style." Source: United Nations

Download full PDF Report | Link to Press Release

Foreign Students in the United States: Policies and Legislation

"Five years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by foreign nationals -- including several terrorists on students visas -- the security concerns over foreign student visas are being weighed against competitiveness concerns. Potential foreign students, as well as all aliens, must satisfy Department of State (DOS) consular officers abroad and immigration inspectors upon entry to the United States that they are not ineligible for visas under the so-called "grounds for inadmissibility" of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which include security and terrorist concerns. The consular officers who process visa applicants are required to check the consolidated Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) before issuing any visa. In part because of these security measures, student visa debates have expanded to include both security and market-based discussions. Higher education institutions in the United States are concerned over their ability to attract the numbers and quality of foreign students, and whether the postSeptember 11 security measures impede the entry of potential students into the U.S. education system. The fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) increasingly rely on foreign students, and these fields hold a top priority with most research institutions. Furthermore, the U.S. economy has a high demand for the skill-sets produced in these fields of study, and the STEM students often provide a major link between the academic community and the labor market. Consequently many groups in higher education and the private sector are seeking to expand pathways for foreign students to emigrate. All nonimmigrant students are issued visas from one of three categories, and are monitored and tracked by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). " Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

Download CRS Pdf report | Link to online Summary

Social Security: The Chilean Approach to Retirement

Over the past few years, there has been intense debate about Social Security reform in the United States. A number of options, ranging from changing the benefit formula to adding individual accounts, has been discussed. The policy debate takes place against the backdrop of an aging population, rising longevity, and relatively low fertility rates, which pose long-range financial challenges to the Social Security system. According to the 2007 Social Security Trustees Report's intermediate assumptions, the Social Security trust funds are projected to experience cash-flow deficits in 2017 and to become exhausted in 2041. As policymakers consider how to address Social Security's financing challenges, efforts of Social Security reform across the world have gained attention. One of the most oft-cited international cases of reform is Chile. Chile initiated sweeping retirement reforms in 1981 that replaced a state-run, pay-as-you-go defined benefit retirement system with a private, mandatory system of individual retirement accounts where benefits are dependent on the account balance. As a pioneer of individual retirement accounts, Chile has become a case study of pension reform around the world. Although Chile's experience is not directly comparable to the situation in the United States because of large differences between the countries, knowledge of the case may be useful for American policymakers. This CRS report focuses on the Chilean individual retirement accounts system. It begins with a description of the U.S. Social Security policy debate, along with a brief comparison of Chile and the United States. Next, the report explains what Chile's individual retirement accounts system is and how it works. The pension reform bill sent to the Chilean Congress for debate in 2007 is also discussed. Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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U.S.-Funded Assistance Programs in China

United States foreign operations appropriations for the People's Republic of China (PRC) primarily support democracy-related programs, particularly rule of law training, and support Tibetan communities. The U.S. Congress has played a leading role in providing funding for such programs, which has grown from $10 million in 2002 to $23 million in 2006. Major funding areas include legal training, legal aid, criminal defense, labor rights, and non-governmental organization (NGO) development in China, monitoring human rights conditions in the PRC from outside China, and preserving Tibetan culture. Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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U.S. Food and Agricultural Imports: Safeguards and Selected Issues

U.S. food and agricultural imports have increased significantly in recent years, leading to concerns about whether current federal programs and funding for them are sufficient to ensure their safety. The discovery of adulterated pet food ingredients from China has heightened interest in the issue in the 110th Congress, where bills include H.R. 357, H.R. 1148, H.R. 1600, H.R. 2108, S. 404, S. 654, S. 887, S. 1082, and S. 1274.1 Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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Access to Firearms Among Orange County Youth: A School-based Study

Objective: School-associated firearm violence among children and adolescents is a national public concern. The objective of this study was to determine the accessibility of firearms, methods of firearm access and firearm safety knowledge among middle and high school students in Orange County, California.

Methods: After permission from school officials and parents was obtained, a 24-question survey was distributed to 176 students in grades 6 through 12 at four schools in Orange County. Data was collected over a 12-month period beginning in February 2003. Data analysis was presented in proportions. In addition, cross tabulations were performed to determine which factors were associated with access to guns, having fired a gun, and firearm possession at school.

Results: The mean age of participants was 16.1 years. Seventy-seven (45%) were male, 121 (69%) Hispanic, and 171 (94%) were of middle income. Four participants (2.3%) admitted to gang involvement, 47 (26.7%) had fired a gun. Those more likely to have fired a gun appeared to be non-Hispanic males (p= 0.001). Seventy-five (43%) reported access to a gun. Older students and those in grades 9 to 12 were more likely to have access to a gun (p= 0.01), which they stated could be obtained from their homes, friends or relatives (4.5% to 22%). No students admitted to bringing a gun to school. Two (1.1%) students stated that they had thought of using a gun at school. One hundred one students (62%) were taught firearm safety by their parent(s). Conclusion: Almost half of the students in this study acknowledged that they could gain access to a gun and two students had thought about using a gun at school. Firearm education, safety and counseling are of paramount importance to ensure safety among school youths. Source: Western Journal of Emergency Medicine via eScholarship Repository.

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Drowning in Data: Digital Library Architecture to Support Scientific of Embedded Sensor Networks

"New technologies for scientific research are producing a deluge of data that is overwhelming traditional tools for data capture, analysis, storage, and access. We report on a study of scientific practices associated with dynamic deployments of embedded sensor networks to identify requirements for data digital libraries. As part of continuing research on scientific data management, we interviewed 22 participants in 5 environmental science projects to identify data types and uses, stages in their data life cycle, and requirements for digital library architecture. We found that scientists need continuous access to their data from the time that field experiments are designed through final analysis and publication, thus reflecting a broader notion of “digital library.” Six categories of requirements are discussed: the ability to obtain and maintain data in the field, verify data in the field, document data context for subsequent interpretation, integrate data from multiple sources, analyze data, and preserve data. Three digital library efforts currently underway within the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing are addressing these requirements, with the goal of a tightly coupled interoperable framework that, in turn, will be a component of cyberinfrastructure for science." Source: Center for Embedded Network Sensing. Statistics and Data Practices, University of California multi-campus project (via eScholarship Repository)

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Growing Up With the News : Most Parents Encourage their Kids to Follow the News

In an era where the news is often dominated by war, tragedy and scandal, America's parents are more likely to encourage their children to follow the news than they are to shield them from it. Among parents with school-aged children (kindergarten through 12th grade), six-in-ten (61%) say they often or sometimes encourage their children to follow the news. Fewer parents (47%) often or sometimes try to shield their kids from the news, while nearly four-in-ten (38%) say they never do so.

Even so, most school-aged children are not regular news consumers. According to their parents, only 6% of today's kids follow news about national and international issues very closely and 23% follow the news fairly closely. The vast majority don't follow the news too closely or at all. Source: Pew Research for people and the press

Download full PDF Report | Download pdf topline questionnaire | Link to online Summary

Which countries filter internet content : reports from the Open Net Initiative

"... a synopsis of the findings and conclusions of OpenNet Initiative (ONI) research into each of the countries. The summaries also provide a basic framework for considering the factors influencing countries’ decision to filter or abstain from filtering the Internet, as well as the impact, relevance, and efficacy of technical filtering in a broader context of Internet censorship.

These summaries cover the countries where ONI conducted both testing and analysis in 2006. Countries selected for in-depth analysis are those in which it was believed that there was the most to learn about the extent and processes of Internet filtering. Many countries known to filter the Internet, including many in Europe and North America, were not subject to testing because their practices are well documented elsewhere. ONI plans to conduct in-depth analysis on an expanded number of countries in future years."

Link to online database of reports

Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream

War on Terror Concerns

"The first-ever, nationwide, random sample survey of Muslim Americans finds them to be largely assimilated, happy with their lives, and moderate with respect to many of the issues that have divided Muslims and Westerners around the world.

The Pew Research Center conducted more than 55,000 interviews to obtain a national sample of 1,050 Muslims living in the United States. Interviews were conducted in English, Arabic, Farsi and Urdu. The resulting study, which draws on Pew's survey research among Muslims around the world, finds that Muslim Americans are a highly diverse population, one largely composed of immigrants. Nonetheless, they are decidedly American in their outlook, values and attitudes. This belief is reflected in Muslim American income and education levels, which generally mirror those of the public." Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

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Measuring the Cost of Corruption

"Corruption - the theft of public resources for private gain – imposes large costs on businesses and society. The first type of costs is redistributive. Redistribution costs are incurred whenever business or individuals with more financial or political power abuse their privileged position to gain contracts or services (including regulatory services) at the expense of their competitors. The second type is a welfare cost to the overall economy as a result of corruption, making everyone worse off. Research has only recently started to quantify the various ways in which corruption retards private sector development." Source: World Bank

Link to database listing of various papers

Reflecting, Writing, and Responding: Reasons Students Blog

"Faculty and students are recognizing blogging's learning potential, including the chance to practice writing, reflect on others' thinking, and respond to critical analyses of one's own work. In this paper, a graduate student explores the campus "blogosphere" to discover who is blogging and what they are posting, as well as how faculty are using blogs in their courses and the results they are seeing." Source: Educause

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7 Things You Should Know About Facebook II

"...the social networking site originally developed for college and university students has become available to anyone. It now offers new ways of organizing social networks as well as extensive new features and access to other Web applications. Users can now manage online identities and engage other users much more easily. They also enjoy privacy policies that give them unprecedented control over how their personal information is handled on the site.

The "7 Things You Should Know About..." series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning technologies. Each brief focuses on a single technology and describes what it is, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use these briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview of a topic and share them with time-pressed colleagues. Source: Educause

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The Nation’s Report Card: Civics 2006

"This report presents results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2006 civics assessment. National results for a representative sample of students at grades 4, 8, and 12 are reported in terms of students’ average civics score on a 0–300 scale, and in terms of the percentage of students attaining each of three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. National scores at selected percentiles on the scale (indicating the percentage of students whose scores fell at or below a particular point) are also discussed. This report also provides results for groups of students defined by various background characteristics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, and students’ eligibility for free/reduced-price school lunch). Comparisons are made to results from 1998—the previous year in which the same assessment was administered. The national results show an increase in the average civics score since 1998 at grade 4, but no significant change in average scores at grades 8 and 12. The report also includes sample assessment questions and examples of student responses. The technical notes section provides information about sampling, statistical significance, use of accommodations, and school participation." Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download PDF Report | Link to online site | Download PDF Summary

The Nation’s Report Card: U.S. History 2006

"This report presents results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2006 U.S. history assessment. National results for a representative sample of students at grades 4, 8, and 12 are reported in terms of students’ average U.S. history score on a 0–500 scale, and in terms of the percentage of students attaining each of three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. National scores at selected percentiles on the scale (indicating the percentage of students whose scores fell at or below a particular point) are also discussed. This report also provides results by four U.S. history subscales, and for groups of students defined by various background characteristics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, and students’ eligibility for free/reduced-price school lunch). Comparisons are made to results from 1994 and 2001—the previous years in which the NAEP U.S. history assessment was administered. The national results show an increase in the average U.S. history score at all three grades, compared to the scores of both earlier assessments. The report also includes sample assessment questions and examples of student responses. The technical notes section provides information about sampling, statistical significance, use of accommodations, and school participation." Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download full PDF report | Link to online site | Download PDF summary

The Corporate Welfare State: How the Federal Government Subsidizes U.S. Businesses

"Supporters of corporate welfare programs often justify them as remedying some sort of market failure. Often the market failures on which the programs are predicated are either overblown or don't exist. Yet the federal government continues to subsidize some of the biggest companies in America. Boeing, Xerox, IBM, Motorola, Dow Chemical, General Electric, and others have received millions in taxpayer-funded benefits through programs like the Advanced Technology Program and the Export-Import Bank. In addition, the federal crop subsidy programs continue to fund the wealthiest farmers."

Source: CATO Institute

Download full text of policy analysis | Link to online press release

Violent Design: People’s Park, Architectural Modernism and Urban Renewal

"The events surrounding the 1969 struggle over People’s Park in Berkeley, California were among the most violent confrontations of the 1960s era. Typically, these events are seen as an episode of increased student radicalism and the anti-Vietnam war movement. Instead, this paper argues that conflict over competing visions of urban space was at the center of the People’s Park violence. The park movement was a reaction to the University’s plan to raze existing older housing in order to expand the campus, build modernist high-rise residential towers, and pursue a joint urban renewal program with the city. Park supporters, which included many design professors and students, drew on emergent new paradigms in planning and architecture. The park became an inspirational test case for theories of community-based development in architecture and planning, exposing the profound divisions in the design professions that characterized this time." Source: Institute for the Study of Social Change. U.C. Berkeley

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The Pediatric Emergency Department: A Substitute for Primary Care?

Objectives: Pediatric emergency department (PED) patients often present with non-urgent complaints. We attempted to estimate the perceived degree of urgency of the visit and to identify reasons for seeking non-urgent care in the PED by patients and parents. Methods: A prospective survey was completed by parents (for children 17 and younger) and patients (18-21) presenting to a suburban academic PED that sees approximately 15,000 patients per year. A convenience sample of participants was enrolled. Results: Three hundred and five of 334 surveys were completed (91% response rate) over a 3-month period. Twenty-four percent of the chief complaints were perceived by those surveyed as emergent or possibly life-threatening, 23% were felt to be very urgent, and 52% were deemed somewhat urgent or minor. Twenty-five percent of those with minor or somewhat urgent complaints arrived by ambulance. Weekend visits and minority race correlated with a lower degree of perceived urgency. Overall, 79% of those surveyed identified a primary care provider (PCP) for themselves or their child. Of those, 54% had attempted to contact the PCP prior to coming to the PED. Six percent of those who attempted to reach their primary care providers were able to contact them and 52% were told to come to the PED. Conclusions: More than half of patients and parents presenting to the PED believed they had minor or somewhat urgent complaints. While the majority of patients have a regular provider, limited access to timely primary care and convenience may make the PED a more attractive care option than primary care for many parents and patients.
Source: Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, U.C. Irvine

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Popular Conceptions of the Meaning of Democracy: Democratic Understanding in Unlikely Places

"This paper addresses the question of whether ordinary people express a reasonable understanding of the meaning of democracy, and what are the contents of their definitions? Do people focus on the procedural aspects of democracy—elections, democratic institutions, and processes—which are the main focus of democratization efforts. Alternatively, do they see democracy in terms of rights and liberties, or economic or social welfare terms? We draw on a wide range of recent public opinion surveys from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Our research yields three generalizations about popular conceptions of democracy. First, even in new democracies, most people can define democracy in their own words. Second, and most important, most people think of democracy in terms of the freedoms, liberties and rights that it conveys, rather than procedural conceptions of liberal democracy. Third, equating democracy with social benefits emerges as a minor theme, even in the poorest of nations. Our findings thus suggest that democratic aspirations are shaped by perceptions of the liberties and freedom that democracy can produce, and that are seen as lacking in other political systems." Source: Center for the Study of Democracy, U.C. Irvine

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Prescription Drug Importation: How S. 242 / H.R. 380 Would Change Current Law

"Current law prohibits the importation of a prescription drug by anyone other than its manufacturer. S. 242/H.R. 380 would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to allow commercial and personal-use importation. The legislation would create a detailed set of procedures to address concerns relating to the safety and effectiveness of imported drugs, cost savings to U.S. consumers, and administration of the program. Senator Dorgan offered S. 242 as an amendment to S. 1082, the Food and Drug Revitalization Act, during Senate Floor consideration. The amendment was agreed to, but only after Senators voted to approve a second-degree amendment offered by Senator Cochran, which effectively nullified the language in S. 242. Drug importation is likely to be taken up by the House when it considers legislation to reauthorize Food and Drug Administration (FDA) user fees." Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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Cities, Citizenship and Undocumented Aliens: Dilemmas of Law and Political Community in Contemporary America

This paper argues that cities are important political and legal communities that construct and govern the “rights in action” of undocumented aliens in the United States today. However, it also challenges the proposition that large U.S. cities are likely to be sites for expansive citizenship for all non-citizens. Through close examination of case law and publicly available documents related to New York City's changing police department policies concerning the immigration statuses of its residents, the paper reveals how limited U.S. cities may actually be in attempts to formulate positive laws expanding the “rights” or “citizenship” of undocumented aliens in particular. On a theoretical level, this paper argues that attention must be given to the prominent role of positive law in U.S. immigration and alienage law as well as to the complexities created for positive law by overlapping jurisdictions and modern administrative modes of governance. While this paper concedes that a formal, legal conception of citizenship need not dominate all discussions of citizenship, it nonetheless seeks to build a particularly sociolegal framework for institutional analysis of cities, citizenship, and alienage in the U.S. today. Source: Institute for the Study of Social Change. ISSC Fellows Working Papers.

Download PDF report | Link to eScholarship repository

Educating Researchers

"This is the third in a series of policy reports on the results of a four-year study of America's education schools. This report focuses on the need for quality education research and on the preparation of the scholars and researchers who conduct it."

"Hand in hand with our need to find answers to the educational challenges that face us, we need to agree on what constitutes "good" research and on howbest to prepare education researchers, the next generation of scholars, to study education and to teach in the nation's universities and colleges. Today, researchers, policymakers and practitioners disagree about both subjects." Source: Education Schools Project


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Related Reports:
Educating Leaders
Educating Teachers

How to understand politics: What the Humanities can say to Science

"Tonight I want to suggest two improvements for today’s understanding of politics arising from the humanities. The first is to recapture the notion of thumos in Plato and Aristotle, referring to a part of the soul that makes us want to insist on our own importance. Thumos is psychology or biology, hence science as conceived by those philosophers, but I say it is proper to the humanities now because, having been expelled from modern science, thumos lingers, unnoticed and unemployed, in the history of science, which is a museum of rejected science. The second improvement is the use of names—proper to literature and foreign to science. Literature tells stories of characters with names, in places with names, in times with dates. While science ignores names or explains them away, literature uses and respects them." Source: 2007 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities by Harvey Mansfield

Link to lecture text as prepared for delivery

Prediction Markets as an Aggregation Mechanism for Collective Intelligence

"Collective intelligence is the result of the proper aggregation of local information from many individuals to generate an optimal global solution to a problem. Often, these solutions are more optimal than what any individual could have provided. In this article, we focus on prediction markets as the aggregation mechanism for collective intelligence. Prediction markets, like commodity markets, channel inputs from all traders into a single dynamic stock price. Instead of determining the value of a particular good, a prediction market is used to determine the probability of a particular event occurring. We present and discuss five features of prediction markets that urge a collective toward optimal solutions. Through the combination of these features, prediction markets lend themselves to the systematic study of the promising phenomenon of collective intelligence." Source: Human Complex Systems. Lake Arrowhead Conference, 2007. Paper JHW2007 [via eScholarship Repository]

Download pdf paper | Link to eScholarship Repository

Modest Coverage, Broad Interest in Pet Food Recall

"A story which received relatively little media coverage last week attracted a great deal of public interest. The recall of more than 100 brands of pet food due to possible contamination was the second most closely followed news story last week. Only the war in Iraq attracted more public interest. Nearly three-in-ten Americans (28%) followed the pet food recall very closely, and 17% said it was the single news story they followed more closely than any other last week. The national news media devoted 1% of its overall coverage to the pet food recall. The story was covered more heavily in newspapers (3%) than in other sectors." Pew Research Center for People and the Press

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Literacy Behind Bars: Results From the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Prison Survey

Abstract: "The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) included the first assessment of the English literacy of incarcerated adults since 1992. The assessment was administered to approximately 1,200 adults (age 16 and older) incarcerated in state and federal prisons, as well as approximately 18,000 adults living in households. Three types of literacy were measured: Prose, Document, and Quantitative. Results were reported in terms of scale scores (on a 500-point scale) and four literacy levels—Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. The findings in this report—Literacy Behind Bars—indicate the changes in literacy among incarcerated adults between 1992 and 2003. The report also compares the literacy of adults in the prison and household populations and across groups of prison inmates with different characteristics, including race/ethnicity, gender, educational attainment, age, language spoken before starting school, and parents’ educational attainment. The report looks at the relationship between literacy, education, and job training, including traditional academic education, vocational education, and skill certification. Additionally, the report examines the relationship between literacy and experiences in prison other than education, including prison work assignments, library use, computer use, and reading frequency. Finally, the report looks at the relationship between literacy, criminal history, and current offense. The results show how the relationship between literacy, type of offense, expected length of incarceration, expected date of release, and previous criminal history has changed since 1992. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

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Shareholder Value and the Transformation of American Industries

"There is now a solid set of results from economic sociologists concerning the spread and implementation of "shareholder value" strategies across publicly held corporations in the United States during the 1980s. Corporations were financially reorganized and used the tactics of selling off unrelated product lines, engaging in mergers with firms in similar industries, various financial ploys such as stock buybacks, and downsizing their labor forces. Using data from 62 industries for 1984-2000, this paper explores empirically the connections between shareholder value strategies such as mergers and layoffs, and related industry-level changes such as de-unionization, computer technology, and subsequent profitability. Mergers occurred in industries where economic conditions were not good in line with shareholder value arguments. Mergers subsequently led to layoffs, consistent with the shareholder value perspective that emphasizes that firms needed to deploy their resources more efficiently as they reorganized. There is also evidence that managers who engaged in mergers invested in computer technology. This technology displaced workers through layoffs and was focused on reducing unionized work forces. There is no evidence that mergers or layoffs returned industries to profitability. This suggests that shareholder value strategies were not, successful in righting the problems of American business." Authors: Neil Fligstein (CASBS Fellow 1995) and Taek-Jin Shin Source: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. U.C. Berkeley

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May Day 2006: It's a Family Affair: Inter-generational Mobilization in the Spring 2006 Protests

"Among those participating in immigration marches, demonstrations, boycotts and other events that occurred across the United States in the spring of 2006 were hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers. Data collected from newspaper reports throughout the country indicate that from March 10 to May 1, 2006 between 3.5 and 5 million individuals participated in immigrant rights rallies across the United States (Fox, Selee and Bada 2006). Newspaper reports at the time and early analyses of the marches repeatedly note that significant proportions of participants were under the age of 18 (e.g.,Bada, Fox & Selee 2006; Flores-Gonzalez, et al. 2006; Wang & Winn 2006). One
account of the May 1st march in Oakland, California, claims that a quarter of participants were school-age children and teenagers (Rauh 2006). If this estimate is accurate and representative of other rallies, one million youths might have participated in the 2006 spring immigration protests." Source: Institute for the Study of Social Change. U.C. Berkeley

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Dropout Rates for Public School Students in Grades 9-12

"The report summarizes and compares event dropout rates for public high school students, by state, for 2002-03 and 2003-04. Among reporting states in 2003-04, the rates ranged from a low of 1.8 percent in Connecticut and New Jersey to a high of 7.9 percent in Louisiana. The event dropout rate measures the percentage of high school students who drop out in a given year. A dropout is a student who was enrolled at the beginning of the year, not enrolled at the beginning of the next year, and who did not graduate from high school or complete some other district- or state-approved educational program." Source: National Center for Education Statistics

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Genetic Nondiscrimination in Health Insurance: A Side-by-Side Comparison of the Title I Provisions in H.R. 493 and S. 358

"On April 25, the House passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2007, H.R. 493, on a vote of 420-3. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved similar legislation (S. 358). S. 358 is awaiting Senate floor action. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act would restrict health insurers' (Title I) and employers' (Title II) acquisition and use of genetic information in several ways. These restrictions build upon those already imposed in federal law. This report provides a comparison of the Title I provisions in H.R. 493 and S. 358. Those provisions would extend the current Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protections against discrimination by group health plans and issuers of health insurance in both the group and individual markets, and restrict their collection, use and disclosure of genetic information." Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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Just The Facts About Online Youth Victimization

Researchers Present the Facts and Debunk Myths

"The nation's foremost academic researchers on child online safety presented their research and answered questions over a luncheon panel on May 3. This was the first time these prominent academics have appeared together to present their research, which, altogether, represents volumes of data on the state of online youth victimization and online youth habits. More than likely you have heard pieces of their research quoted (or misquoted) on Capitol Hill during the last 12 months as Congress struggles to understand these issues. The discussion covered issues related to online youth safety including recent trends and the latest research."

Source: Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus


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A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users

The advent of Web 2.0 - the ability of people to use a range of information and communication technology as a platform to express themselves online and participate in the commons of cyberspace - is often heralded as the next phase of the information society. Yet little is known about which segments of the population are inclined to make robust use of information technology and which aren't.

With that in mind, the Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted a survey designed to classify Americans into different groups of technology users. We developed our typology along three dimensions of people's relationship to information and communications technology (ICT) Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

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Democratic Institutions and Provision of Public Good

"This paper aims to test empirically the predictions of a theory that deals with the effect of different democratic regimes on public good provision. The theory predicts higher provision of public good in proportional electoral systems and parliamentary political regimes in comparison to majoritarian systems and presidential regimes respectively. The tests are performed using cross-country data from the 1990s on health and education quantity indicators of public good. Use of quantity indicators instead of expenditure data, previously used by other researchers, enables a cleaner test of the theory as a higher amount of any quantity measure clearly indicates a higher supply of public good. Overall, the robust results in this paper do not provide enough support for the theory. Electoral system has no effect on any of the public good indicators while except for two indicators under education, the nature of the political regime has no significant effect either." Source: Department of Economics, UCSB. Departmental Working Papers. Paper wp2-07. via eScholarship Repository

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National Clearinghouse on Academic Worklife

"The National Clearinghouse on Academic Worklife combines into a single website information resources and community discussions to support those who study or participate in academic work.

Up to date articles, policy examples, and discussions are available on topics ranging from family-friendly benefits, tenure attainment, and faculty satisfaction to policy development, productivity, and demographics. This one-stop website was developed at the University of Michigan Center for the Education of Women through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Search for articles, reports, or policies from a wide range of disciplines and institutions.

Source: University of Michigan Center for the Education of Women.

Link to National Clearinghouse on Academic Worklife

Intellectual Property as Information: A law and economics approach

Abstract: "Intellectual property has held great economical importance since the mid XIX century, though protection for the intellectual property has remained fragmented in isolated juridical systems interlinked only for creation or immateriality of the intellectual goods. However, creation may be substituted by information as central element of the intellectual property. Such substitution allows harmonizing it around a single aspect and, through this central aspect, to apply the theory of systems and the economical valuation of the system of intellectual property toward better understanding of the institute and additionally for future investigations. The attribution of values furthermore allows the identification of the economical characteristics of information as intellectual property and with this defines balancing protection strategies (procedure, scope and duration) seeking the efficiency of the intellectual property institutes. Instruments of Law and Economics allow a better understanding - in this context - of intellectual property. Ultimately, the conclusion drawn is the need of protection of intellectual goods as incentive element to innovation, keeping all of the exceptions to protection inside the system of intellectual property as information." Source: Berkeley Program in Law & Economics. U.C. Berkeley

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Disarming fears of diversity : ethnic heterogeneity and state militarization, 1988-2002

Summary: The authors address the question of state militarization under conditions of ethnic and other diversity. "Primordialist" claims about ancient hatreds, fear, and insecurity in such societies would lead one to expect that fractionalization, polarization, and ethno-nationalist exclusion would prompt governments to militarize heavily. But contrary to such expectations, the authors find that higher levels of ethnic diversity predict lower levels of militarization, whereas higher polarization and ethno-nationalist exclusion trigger neither lower nor higher levels of militarization. If fractionalization lowers the hazard of civil war, as many find, then it does not happen by way of a "garrison state" effect. The authors discuss two potential explanations for their findings, one drawing from the empirical conflict literature, the other stemming from economists' study of public goods provision under conditions of diversity. They argue that their findings are best seen as consistent with and complementary to the empirical literature on conflict onset and duration. Source: World Bank Working Papers

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Where Are the Scientists and Engineers?

"PhDs are an important and vital asset in Canada's labour force because not only do they represent the highest educational attainment level in a knowledge-based economy, but they are also highly skilled industrial researchers and innovators, teachers and professors, along with being scientists and engineers. The study examines what industries are employing scientists and engineers and in what occupations, along with other labour market characteristics such as income and unemployment, age, gender and geographic location. The report also examines the differences between Canadian born and non-Canadian born scientists and engineers." Source: Statistics Canada

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Motherhood Today: Tougher Challenges, Less Success

Mom's Biggest Critics are Middle-Aged Women

"From managing busy schedules to dealing with outside influences, mothers have their hands full these days. There is broad agreement among the public that it is harder to be a parent today - especially a mother - than it was in the 1970s or 1980s. Fully 70% of the public says it is more difficult to be a mother today than it was 20 or 30 years ago, while somewhat fewer (60%) say the same about being a father." Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

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Changing Faiths: Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion

"Hispanics are transforming the nation's religious landscape, especially the Catholic Church, not only because of their growing numbers but also because they are practicing a distinctive form of Christianity.

Religious expressions associated with the pentecostal and charismatic movements are a key attribute of worship for Hispanics in all the major religious traditions -- far more so than among non-Latinos. Moreover, the growth of the Hispanic population is leading to the emergence of Latino-oriented churches across the country." Source: Pew Hispanic Center and Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

Download full PDF Report | Link to online summary | Press Briefing (pdf)