FBI director notes from March 2004 Ashcroft-Gonzales meeting

"FBI Director Robert Mueller's personal notes, Federal Bureau of Investigation, August 14, 2007 [released personal notes revealing that former US Attorney General John Ashcroft was "feeble, barely articulate, and clearly stressed" during a confrontation with then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales at Ashcroft's hospital room in March 2004]." Source: House Jucdiciary Committee via the Jurist (Pitt Law School)

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States, colleges work to cut textbook costs

"College students across the country are experiencing sticker shock at their bookstores. At the University of Maryland, a new Understanding Business book sells for $139. At the University of North Carolina, Tar Heels could shell out $153.35 for Principles of Economics. And at the University of Wisconsin, Chemistry and Chemical Reactivity goes for $109.90 – used.

But relief may be on the way as states and university officials move to lower the cost of college textbooks by taking aim at some publisher and faculty practices blamed for raising prices.

This year – when students at four-year public universities spent an average of $942 on books and supplies, the College Board reported – there were 86 bills in 27 states that dealt with textbook affordability, according to the National Association of College Stores (NACS).

Some of the bills proposed direct relief through sales-tax exemptions or credits and deductions, but the seven states that enacted laws – Arkansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington – largely targeted the behavior of publishers and college faculty. They follow the lead of Connecticut and Virginia, which in the last two years passed bills to cut textbook costs." Source: Pew Research | Stateline.org

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P.L. 110-55, the Protect America Act of 2007: Modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

"On August 5, 2007, P.L. 110-55, the Protect America Act of 2007, was signed into law by President Bush, after having been passed by the Senate on August 3 and the House of Representatives on August 4. The measure, introduced by Senator McConnell as S. 1927 on August 1, makes a number of additions and modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA), as amended, 50 U.S.C. ǧ 1801 et seq., adds additional reporting requirements, and sunsets in 180 days. This report describes the provisions of P.L. 110-55, discusses its possible impact on and parallels to existing law, and summarizes the legislative activity with respect to S. 1927, H.R. 3356, and S. 2011." Source: Congressional Research Service

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The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of U.S. Public Schools

"The 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in June to strike down school desegregation plans in Seattle and Louisville has focused public attention on the degree of racial and ethnic integration in the nation's 93,845 public schools. A new analysis of public school enrollment data by the Pew Hispanic Center finds that in the dozen years from 1993-94 to 2005-06, white students became less isolated from minority students while, at the same time, black and Hispanic students became slightly more isolated from white students." Source: Pew Hispanic Center

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Michael Vick Case Draws Large Audience

"Michael Vick's legal troubles attracted a large news audience last week. One-in-four Americans followed the Vick story very closely and 18% said it was the single news story they followed more closely than any other. Overall, the public believes Vick, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback, has been treated fairly by the press, but there is a sharp racial divide on this issue. While 69% of whites say the press has been fair in the way it has covered this story, only 38% of blacks agree. A narrow majority of blacks (51%) say Vick has been treated unfairly by the media." Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

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Teaching and Learning across an ethnic divide

Abstract: "My fieldwork at Shiroyama１public elementary school began dramatically, as Mr. Nakamura, a Japanese teacher in his fifties, explained his views on Latino cultures. “‘Hasta mañana’ tte wakaru,” he asked me. (“Do you know ‘hasta mañana’ [until tomorrow]?”)2“Perū-jin mo burajiru-jin mo, ratenjin dakara, shigoto shinai shi, jikan mo mamoranai. Itsumo ‘hasta mañana’ da” (“Peruvians and Brazilians are Latino, so they don’t work, and they don’t value time. It’s always hasta mañana.”) “Raten-kei dakara,” he explained. (“It’s because they’re Latino.”) Amid national and local public policy discussions of developing Japan into a multicultural society, th difficulties of communicating with foreign parents who speak little to no Japanese often frustrate Japanese public school teachers. As frustrations mount, teachers also complain that these parents are not acquiring Japanese language and culture quickly enough and are remaining too foreign. In contrast, foreign parents complain about the structural constraints that limit their ability to effectively interact with the school, despite their desire to be more involved. Based on ongoing research, this case study uses examples from parent-teacher interactions, including each side’s expressed concerns about the other, to explore the often-tense relationship between Peruvian parents and Japanese teachers. This approach challenges some teachers’ “definition of the situation” (Thomas 1923), and highlights structural factors that place the parents in a disadvantageous position when interacting with the school, including poor language support, ineffective remedial language instruction, and the view that parents’ cultural difference is a source of problems at the school. This article also describes Peruvians’ settlement in Shiroyama, and examines the ways that parents’ class and immigrant status are influencing their ability to gain the social and cultural capital necessary for them to more effectively participate in their children’s education." Author: Robert Moorehead, University of California, Davis Source: Pacific Rim Research Program

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National Intelligence Estimate: Prospects for Iraq’s Stability: Some Security Progress but Political Reconciliation Elusive

"There have been measurable but uneven improvements in Iraq’s security situation since our last National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq in January 2007. The steep escalation of rates of violence has been checked for now, and overall attack levels across Iraq have fallen during seven of the last nine weeks. Coalition forces, working with Iraqi forces, tribal elements, and some Sunni insurgents, have reduced al-Qa’ida in Iraq’s (AQI) capabilities, restricted its freedom of movement, and denied it grassroots support in some areas. However, the level of overall violence, including attacks on and casualties among civilians, remains high; Iraq’s sectarian groups remain unreconciled; AQI retains the ability to conduct high-profile attacks; and to date, Iraqi political leaders remain unable to govern effectively. There have been modest improvements in economic output, budget execution, and government finances but fundamental structural problems continue to prevent sustained progress in economic growth and living conditions. " Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence

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A Study of Academic Entrepreneurs Using Venture Capital Data

"Academic entrepreneurship has become an increasingly important channel through which universities contribute to economic development. This paper studies academic entrepreneurs using a comprehensive venture capital database. I find that about two-thirds of the academic entrepreneurs locate their businesses in the same state as their universities. National academy membership and number of faculty awards, measures of a university’s research quality, are the most significant variables in explaining the number of academic entrepreneurs from a university. In contrast, the abundance of venture capital near the university has no significant effect on academic entrepreneurship." Source: Institute for the Study of Labor

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Is the Chinese Growth Miracle Built to Last?

Abstract: "Is the Chinese growth miracle – a remarkably high growth rate sustained for over two decades – likely to persist or are the seeds of its eventual demise contained in the policies that have boosted growth? For all its presumed flaws, the particular approach to macroeconomic and structural policies that has been adopted by the Chinese government has helped to deliver high productivity and output growth, along with a reasonable degree of macroeconomic stability. In tandem with a benign international environment, this approach makes it unlikely that the economy will face a collapse in growth. But there comes a point when the policy distortions needed to maintain this approach could generate imbalances, impose potentially large welfare costs, and themselves become a source of instability. The traditional risks faced by emerging market economies, especially those related to having an open capital account, do not loom large in the case of China. In the process of securing protection against external risks, however, Chinese policymakers may have increased the risks of internal instability. There are a number of factors that could trigger unfavorable economic dynamics that, even if they don’t rise to the level of a crisis, could have serious adverse repercussions on growth and welfare. The flexibility and potency of macroeconomic tools to deal with such negative shocks is constrained by the panoply of policies that has supported growth so far." Source: Institute for the Study of Labor

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Parenting and the different ways it can affect children’s lives: research evidence

Seven literature reviews of research on parenting.

Policy-makers and commentators often blame ‘bad parenting’ for children and young people’s troublesome behaviour. What can research tell us about the influence of parenting, especially the parent-child relationships in millions of ‘ordinary’ families?

These seven reports review existing research on:

* Parenting and outcomes for children (PDF, 227KB)
* Parenting and resilience (PDF, 217KB)
* Fathers and fatherhood (PDF, 143KB)
* Parenting and ethnicity (PDF, 244KB)
* Children’s views of parenting (PDF, 163KB)
* Parenting and poverty (PDF, 182KB)
* Barriers to inclusion (PDF, 140KB)

They include research based on the perspectives of mothers, fathers and children themselves. They were commissioned by the JRF to inform its own Parenting Research and Development programme. Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Link to download site

Foreign-Born Latinos Make Progress on Wages

"Foreign-born Latino workers made notable progress between 1995 and 2005 when ranked by hourly wage. The proportion of foreign-born Latino workers in the lowest quintile of the wage distribution decreased to 36% from 42% while many workers moved into the middle quintiles, according to a new analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center." Source: Pew Hispanic Center

Download full PDF Report | Link to online summary

Time for Reform: Aging Out and On Their Own

"Drawing on findings from focus groups conducted with youth who aged out or
expect to age out of foster care, research studies and interviews, this report
describes how the current foster care system fails to provide a permanent
family for every child and the difficulty children have staying connected to
family and friends while in foster care. The report also presents the latest
state-by-state data on the number of youth who have aged out of foster care,
and, in the words of former and current foster youth, describes the problems
young adults have when they have to face the future without a permanent
family to support them. The report briefly discusses the history of permanency
in child welfare policy and why one never grows too old to want and need a
permanent family. The report concludes with recommendations for public
policy reforms that could decrease the number of youth who age out of care
each year by improving the federal foster care financing system." Source: Pew charitable Trust

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Clinton and Giuliani's Contrasting Images

Views of Leading '08 Candidates

"Sen. Hillary Clinton is by far the most popular presidential candidate among her own party's voters, but has among the lowest overall favorable ratings of the leading candidates. In sharp contrast, the front-running Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, evokes relatively modest enthusiasm from the GOP base, but is as broadly popular with all voters as any candidate in either partyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif." Source: Pew Center for People and the Press

Download full pdf report | Download pdf topline questionnaire

Preliminary Thoughts on Copyright Reform

"Myriad reasons can be proffered for undertaking a copyright reform project. For one thing, the current U.S. copyright law is way too long, now weighing at approximately two hundred pages long. The statute is also far too complex, incomprehensible to a significant degree, and imbalanced in important ways. It lacks, moreover, normative heft. That is, the normative rationales for granting authors some protections for their works and for limiting the scope of that protection are difficult to extract from the turgid prose of its many exceptionally detailed provisions."

Source: Berkeley Center for Law & Technology

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New Perspectives on Marijuana and Youth

Abstainers Are Not Maladjusted, but Lone Users Face Difficulties

"A lot of adolescents experiment with marijuana — the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that 46% of high school seniors have tried this drug at some time. Pushing boundaries is what young people do, and some researchers believe that trying marijuana is a normal part of growing up.

Does that mean that young people who do not indulge are somehow maladjusted?"

Source: RAND

link to online report

Boston Globe: Academia has '08 cash clout

"Professors and others in the education field have given more to federal candidates running in 2008 than those who work in the oil, pharmaceutical, and computer industries -- a sign of how academia has become a much bigger player in the political cash sweepstakes." Source: Boston Globe

Link to online article

Election Assistance Commission Issues Poll Worker Best Practices

"The United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC) has released two best practices guidebooks to help election officials recruit, train, and retain poll workers. “Successful Practices for Poll Worker Recruitment, Training and Retention” and “A Guidebook for Recruiting College Poll Workers” are available at www.eac.gov.

“Elections are becoming more complicated because of new federal and state laws, new procedures and new technical and security requirements for voting equipment,” said EAC Chair Donetta Davidson. “The need for trained poll workers is more urgent than ever, and we hope these guidebooks will help election officials find and keep good poll workers as well as recruit a new generation of poll workers.”

The guidebooks entailed a fifteen month development process involving two working groups and dozens of interviews and focus groups with election officials, voters and veteran poll workers. Draft versions of each guidebook were field-tested at six sites during the 2006 elections. The guidebooks were reviewed by the EAC’s Standards Board and Board of Advisors during a virtual public meeting last month. The draft documents and comments are available at www.eac.gov."

Link to download site at www.eac.gov

European Library: Online access to 30 European national collections.

The European Library is a non-commercial organisation. It provides the services of a physical library and the opportunity to benefit from a virtual environment in 20 languages.

This website allows to search through the resources of 30 of the 47 national libraries involved in The European Library. Resources can be both digital or bibliographical (books, posters, maps, sound recordings, videos, etc.).

Currently The European Library gives access to 150 million entries across Europe. The amount of referenced digital collections is constantly increasing. Quality and reliability are guaranteed by the 47 collaborating national libraries of Europe.

Link to search catalog | More about the European library

Iraq and Al Qaeda

"In building a case for invading Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein from power, the Administration asserted that the regime of Saddam Hussein had a working relationship with the Al Qaeda organization. The Administration stated that the relationship dated to the early 1990s, and was based on a common interest in confronting the United States. The Administration assertions were derived from U.S. intelligence showing a pattern of contacts with Al Qaeda when its founder, Osama bin Laden, was based in Sudan in the early to mid-1990s and continuing after he relocated to Afghanistan in 1996. Critics maintain that the Administration argument did not demonstrate that the relationship, if it existed, was systematic or institutionalized, and that no hard data has come to light indicating the two entities conducted any joint terrorist attacks. Some major hallmarks of a consistent relationship were absent, and several experts outside and within the U.S. government believe that contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda were sporadic, unclear, or subject to alternate explanations." Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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Broad Interest in Bridge Disaster, Good Marks for Coverage

"The bridge collapse in Minneapolis that killed five people and raised concerns about infrastructure safety nationwide surpassed all other news stories last week both in public interest and media coverage. Nearly half (48%) say this was the story they followed most closely last week, far exceeding interest in Iraq, the week's next most closely followed story (17% most closely)." Source: Pew Center for People and the Press

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Web-Style Multimedia Annotations

"Annotation of multimedia resources supports a wide range of applications, ranging from associating metadata with multimedia resources or parts of these resources, to the collaborative use of multimedia resources through the act of distributed authoring and annotation of resources. Most annotation frameworks, however, are based on a closed approach, where the annotations data is limited to the annotation framework, and cannot readily be reused in other application scenarios. We present a declarative approach to multimedia annotations, which represents the annotations in an XML format independent from the multimedia resources. Using this declarative approach, multimedia annotations can be used in an easier and more flexible way, enabling application scenarios such as third-party annotations and annotation aggregation and filtering." Source: U.C. Berkeley School of Information. Paper 2007-014.

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Problem Solving in Technology-Rich Environments

"This report describes results from the third and last field investigation in the NAEP Technology-Based Assessment Project, which explores the use of new technology in administering NAEP. (The first two focused on assessments of math and writing online.) In the TRE study, two extended scenarios within the domain of physical science were created for measuring students’ ability to solve problems using technology. The TRE Search scenario required students to locate and synthesize information about scientific helium balloons from a simulated World Wide Web environment. The TRE Simulation scenario required students to conduct experiments of increasing complexity about relationships among buoyancy, mass and volume. These scenarios were delivered via school computers or on laptop computers taken into the schools. The sample was nationally representative, consisting of over 2,000 public school 8th grade students tested in 2003. Students were randomly assigned to the assessment scenarios. The TRE project was intended as an exploratory study of how NAEP can use technology to measure skills that cannot be easily measured by conventional paper-and-pencil means. TRE Search produced a total score and two subscores, scientific inquiry and computer skills. The TRE Simulation scenario produced a total score and three subscores: scientific exploration, scientific synthesis, and computer skills. The results indicate that the TRE scenarios functioned well as assessment devices." Source: National Center for Education Statistics

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The Role of Heritage Language Development in the Adjustment of Adolescents from Immigrant Backgrounds

Abstract: The influence of immigrant-background adolescents’ heritage language proficiency and use of the language on parent-adolescent relationships and ethnic identity was investigated in a sample of 414 ninth-grade participants from Latin American and Asian backgrounds. Heritage language proficiency, but not language use, was found to be positively associated with the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship, especially for Asian American adolescents. Although heritage language proficiency and language use were both associated with strength of ethnic identity, when taken together, only heritage language proficiency emerges as a reliable predictor of ethnic identity. These findings indicate that it is the development of proficiency in the heritage language that influences adolescents’ successful adjustment, rather than their own choice of languages. Source: California Center for Population Research. On-Line Working Paper Series. Paper CCPR-012-07.

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Education Differences in Intended and Unintended Fertility

Abstract: Using a hazards framework and panel data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979-2002), we analyze the fertility patterns of a recent cohort of U.S. white and African American women. We examine how completed fertility varies by women’s education, differentiating between intended and unintended births. We find that the education gradient on fertility comes largely from unintended childbearing, and it is not explained by childbearing desires or opportunity cost. Less educated women want no more children than the more educated, so this factor explains none of their higher completed fertility. Less educated women have lower wages, but wages have little of the negative effect on fertility predicted by economic theories of opportunity cost. Our work highlights the importance of examining other mechanisms leading less educated women to have more unintended births. Source: California Center for Population Research. On-Line Working Paper Series. Paper CCPR-016-07.

Note: one of the authors, Paula England, was a CASBS fellow in the class of 2006.


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A Survey of Web-based Collective Decision Making Systems

Abstract: "A collective decision making system uses an aggregation mechanism to combine the input of individuals to generate a decision. The decisions generated serve a variety of purposes from governance rulings to forecasts for planning. The Internet hosts a suite of collective decision making systems, some that were inconceivable before the web. In this paper, we present a taxonomy of collective decision making systems into which we place seven principal web-based tools. This taxonomy serves to elucidate the state of the art in web-based collective decision making as well as to highlight opportunities for innovation." Source: Human Complex Systems. Lake Arrowhead Conference, 2007. U.C. Irvine Paper JHW2007-1.

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Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-8 Countries

"This report describes how the education system in the United States compares with education systems in the other G-8 countries--Canada, France. Germany. Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom.
Twenty indicators are organized in five sections:
(1) population and school enrollment;
(2) academic performance;
(3) context for learning;
(4) expenditure for education; and
(5) education returns: educational attainment and income."

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download entire report as PDF | Link to download site with options for obtaining report in separate sections.

Final Report: An Evaluation of Selected AmeriCorps Programs

"In summary, AmeriCorps in California is not simply another social program in a relatively stable world. Rather, AmeriCorps arrives as an alternative to facilitate the positive forces of community change necessary to address substantial demographic, cultural, linguistic and economic changes over the past two decades. Whereas more traditional patterns of community service provision can become disconnected or “out-of-touch” with the changing realities of new people, new cultures, new economics and reduced state and local budgets, AmeriCorps programs possess the qualities of adaptability and flexibility necessary for relevant and timely service provision which meets local conditions and situations of need." Source: Institute for the Study of Social Change. U.C. Berkeley

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How Did the Statewide Assessment and Accountibility Policies of the 1990s Affect Instructional Quality in Elementary Schools?

NCLB aims to accomplish its goals by holding public schools accountable for their
students’ achievement. Under NCLB, public schools must test all students annually in math and reading in grades 3 though 8. Schools face corrective action or complete restructuring if their students fail to meet state standards for academic progress several years in a row. NCLB also makes it easier for students in low-performing schools to attend better schools or to obtain free tutoring.

Yet the law wisely gave states several years to comply with its most critical requirements. Not until the 2005-2006 school year, for example, did states need to have a “highly qualified” teacher in every classroom and reading and math testing in grades 3 through 8. Consequently, it is still too early to assess the effects of NCLB on the nation’s educational system. Fortunately, however, the assessment and accountability provisions of NCLB build directly on assessment and accountability policies begun a decade earlier. Spurred in part by the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994 (Public Law 103–382), many states increased the number of tests they required students to take and some states began imposing consequences on schools or school districts when students performed poorly on those tests. Examining the effects of these state-wide reforms of the 1990s can help us understand the likely effects of NCLB and generate ideas about how to improve NCLB when it comes up for reauthorization. Prior work has examined the impact of state accountability policies on student achievement (e.g., Carnoy and Loeb 2002; Hanushek and Raymond 2005). This paper focuses instead on how such policies influenced teachers and school administrators—especially those who work in low-income schools. Source: California Center for Population Research. On-Line Working Paper Series. Paper CCPR-017-07.

Download pdf publication | Link to eScholarship Repository

U.S.-Peru Economic Relations and the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement

On December 7, 2005, the United States and Peru concluded negotiations on the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA). President Bush notified the Congress of the United States' intention to enter into the PTPA on January 6, 2006, and the agreement was signed on April 12, 2006 by U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and Peruvian Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism Alfredo Ferrero Diez.

The PTPA is a comprehensive trade agreement that, if approved by Congress, would eliminate tariffs and other barriers in goods and services trade between the United States and Peru. The approval and implementation of a PTPA is a high priority for the Peruvian government. Peruvian President Alan Garc�a has met with President Bush and Members of Congress on several occasions in the United States to stress the importance of the agreement for Peru. The pending PTPA would likely have a small net economic effect on the United States because U.S. trade with Peru accounts for a small percent of total U.S. trade. For Peru, the impact would be more significant because the United States is Peru's leading trade partner. In 2006, 23% of Peru's exports went to the United States, and 16% of Peru's imports were supplied by the United States. In that same year, Peru accounted for 0.5% of total U.S. trade. Peru ranks 43rd among U.S. export markets and 42nd as a source of U.S. imports. The dominant U.S. import item from Peru is gold (24% in 2006) and the leading U.S. export items to Peru are petroleum oils and related products (9% in 2006). Upon implementation, a PTPA would eliminate duties on 80% of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial products to Peru. Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

Download pdf publiction | Link to online Summary

NCSL 50-State Legislative Tracking Web Resources

"At the request of NCSL's Legislative Research Librarians (LRL) staff section, NCSL has developed this resource of 50-state compilations covering various issues that concern state legislators and legislative staff. Here you will find a topical, alphabetical listing of legislative and statutory databases, compilations and state charts/maps."
Source: National Conference of State Legislature


Link to online database

Gangs in Central America

"The 110th Congress maintains a strong interest in the effects of crime and gang violence in Central America, and its spillover effects on the United States. Since February 2005, more than 1,374 members of the violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang have been arrested in cities across the United States. These arrests are raising concerns about the transnational activities of Central American gangs. Governments throughout the region are struggling to find the right combination of suppressive and preventive policies to deal with the gangs.

Some analysts assert that increasing U.S. deportations of individuals with criminal records to Central American countries may be contributing to the gang problem. Most experts argue that the repressive anti-gangs laws adopted by El Salvador and Honduras have failed to reduce violence and homicides in those countries, and that law enforcement solutions alone will not solve the gang problem. Analysts also predict that illicit gang activities may accelerate illegal immigration and trafficking in drugs, persons, and weapons to the United States, although a recent United Nations report challenges those assertions. Others maintain that contact between gang members across the regions is increasing, and that this tendency may cause increased gang-related violent crime in the United States. Several U.S. agencies have been actively engaged on both the law enforcement and preventive side of dealing with Central American gangs. The National Security Council (NSC) created an inter-agency task force to develop a comprehensive, threeyear strategy to deal with international gang activity. The strategy, which is now being implemented, states that the U.S. government will pursue coordinated antigang activities through five broad areas: diplomacy, repatriation, law enforcement, capacity enhancement, and prevention.
Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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What Can Business Learn from Potter Mania?

"With the release of J. K. Rowling’s long-promised final installment Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and the release of the fifth Harry Potter movie, the impact of this franchise is far reaching. As of August 3, the movie grossed $700 million in its first month and more than 11.5 million books have been sold in the U.S. alone.

Who profits becomes a larger issue. A sure winner is Rowling, who went from being an unemployed single mother, living with her sister in Edinburgh, Scotland, to becoming the world’s first billionaire author – and reportedly richer than the Queen of England." Source: Emory University [via Knowledge@Emory]

Link to online article

Nations Report Card: Economics

"This report presents results of the first ever National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) U.S. economics assessment in 2006. National results for a representative sample of students at grade 12 are reported in terms of students’ average economics score on a 0–300 scale, and in terms of the percentage of students attaining each of three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. The overall national average score was set at 150. National scores at selected percentiles on the scale (indicating the percentage of students whose scores fell at or below a particular point) are presented. This report also provides results for groups of students defined by various background characteristics (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, school location and parental education). The national results show that on average male students scored higher than female students, and White and Asian/Pacific Islander students scored higher than other racial/ethnic groups. Students from schools in large cities had lower average scores than students from schools in other locations. Students from families with higher levels of parental education scored higher, on average, than their peers from families with lower levels of parental education. Most 12th-graders reported some exposure to economics content during high school. The report also includes sample assessment questions and examples of student responses. The technical notes section provides information about sampling and weighting; participation, exclusion, and accommodation rates; and statistical significance." Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress, National Center for Education Statistics

Download pdf report | link to online site

Related:
Civics Report Card

History Report Card

From Public Housing to Regulated Public Environments: The Redevelopment of San Francisco’s Public Housing

"Contemporary approaches to concentrated poverty assume intractable ghettos and a dying urban core. In the meantime, welfare reform and gentrification have given rise to new systems of poverty management and new spatial arrangements of poverty within U.S. metropolitan areas. The public housing revitalization program known as HOPE VI (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) provides an opportunity to explore these developments. In the ideal, HOPE VI solves the problem of dense, isolated, crime-ridden projects that house only the most poor by replacing them with new communities that are more attractive, more integrated with their surroundings, and more mixed—both in terms of income and race. This paper argues that HOPE VI is a program of urban redevelopment and poverty management that is firmly rooted in the ideology and goals of welfare reform. Using San Francisco as a case study, it examines the institutional and spatial changes embedded in the city’s HOPE VI process. San Francisco offers a model of progressive HOPE VI, one which prioritizes resident participation, minimizes the loss of affordable housing units, and mediates public/private partnerships through the use of non-profit developers. Despite this progressive approach, the “transformation” of public housing promised by HOPE VI is not the transformation of a severely distressed property to a functional one or the transformation of an area characterized by concentrated poverty to one with a wider range of incomes. Rather, it is the transformation of public housing into a new post-welfare institution, what the author calls a regulated public environment." Source: Institute for the Study of Social Change, U.C. Berkeley [via eScholarship Repository]

Download pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Assessing the Assignment Policy for Army Women

"The current U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) policy for assigning military women was issued in 1994, and the U.S. Army’s assignment policy dates to 1992. In the ensuing years, the U.S. Army has undergone significant technological and organizational transformation, which has changed how it organizes and fights. There is concern that, in the course of operations in Iraq, the Army has not been adhering to its own assignment policy, as there are several important and potentially problematic differences between the DoD and Army policies. For example, the DoD policy prohibits the assignment of women to units whose primary mission is direct combat, whereas the Army policy prohibits the assignment of women to units with a routine mission of direct combat, and their definitions of direct combat differ. The research finds that the Army is adhering to the DoD assignment policy but may not be complying with the separate Army assignment policy for women. Assessing the Assignment Policy for Army Women serves to inform DoD decisionmaking with regard to the clarity and appropriateness of the current DoD and Army assignment policies, especially given how units are operating in Iraq." Source: RAND Corporation

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Student Retention in Higher Education Courses : International Comparison

"This study compares and contrasts retention and participation rates in international Higher Education systems. The aim of the study is to put the performance of United Kingdom higher education institutions in comparative perspective and uncover interesting practice in the countries studied to improve retention rates." Source: RAND corporation


Download full pdf report | Download pdf summary only | Link to online abstract

The Immigrant Population in the United States

"Every state, as well as Washington, D.C., has seen its immigrant population grow since 2000. That holds true for Louisiana and North Dakota, which have seen an overall drop in population since 2000 — Louisiana because of the devastation of hurricane Katrina that displaced more than one million residents.” Two states and Washington, DC have seen arriving immigrants account for more than 100 percent of their population growth. Those are New York and Massachusetts." Source: Federation for American Immigration Reform

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Passenger Name Record Data Agreement between U.S. and Europe

"Under the new agreement, the Department of Homeland Security will collect 19 types of PNR data. The data will be maintained for seven years in an active file, and eight years thereafter in a dormant file with limited access. This ensures that we will be able to identify and investigate threats that might develop over a period of years.

The new agreement also changes how the department collects PNR data from airline reservation systems. Air carriers will now transmit PNR data directly to the department. The agreement also provides legal assurance to European air carriers that they will not be in potential violation of European privacy law when complying with U.S. law concerning PNR data." Source: United States Department of Homeland Security

Download full text of agreement | Link to press release

More of a Bridge than a Gap: Gender Differences in Arab-American Political Engagement

"Objective. Research on immigrant women’s economic and cultural adaptation has increasingly come to the fore of immigration research, yet relatively little remains known about their engagement in the political arena. This study examines this question among Arab Muslims, a group who has been at the center of much public debate but little scholarly discourse. Methods. Using nationally representative data on Arab Muslims, this study examines gender differences in political consciousness and activity and assesses the degree to which different dimensions of religious identity contribute to differences in men’s and women’s attitudes and behaviors. Results. Both women and men have high levels of political engagement, in part reflecting their relatively affluent socioeconomic positions. Men are slightly more involved than women, and this is explained by their greater participation in religious activities and higher levels of political religiosity. In contrast, subjective dimensions of religiosity—or being a devout Muslim—have no effect on political engagement. Conclusions. Overall, there are few gender differences in Arab Muslim political engagement, suggesting that collective identity based on ethnicity and religion is more salient for the political mobilization of this group. Further, religion is not uniformly associated with political activity, varying by gender and the dimension of religious identity in question, suggesting that future research needs to focus on how different facets of religion influence U.S. political involvement." Source: Center for the Study of Democracy. U.C. Irvine

Minimum Wage Effects Across State Borders: Estimates Using Contiguous Counties

"Local case studies of minimum wages typically find no significant employment effects,while studies using national data find some negative effects for teenagers. We argue that heterogeneity in spatial employment trends generates biased estimates in national analyses and causes overstatement of precision in local and national studies. We propose two new local estimators that compare all contiguous counties or metro areas in the U.S. that straddle a state-based minimum wage gradient. We find that the negative elasticities in national fixed-effects models are generated by unobserved heterogeneities in employment trends. Our local estimators are more robust and show no employment effects." Source: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Working Paper Series. [via eScholarship Repository]

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Handbook on Continuing Statistics Education with Technology Workshop

"The 2007 joint SOCR/CAUSEway continuing education workshop demonstrates the functionality, utilization and assessment of the current SOCR (http://www.SOCR.ucla.edu) and CAUSEweb (www.CAUSEweb.org) resources. The workshop and this handbook are most value to advance placement (AP) teachers and college instructors of probability and statistics classes who have interests in exploring novel IT-based approaches for enhancing statistics education. This handbook provides the complete Workshop program (http://wiki.stat.ucla.edu/socr/index.php/SOCR_Events_Aug2007) and instructional materials presented by the Workshop instructors. New strategies for integration of computers, modern pedagogical approaches, the Internet and new student assessment techniques are presented on the handbook.

Source: UCLA Continuing Statistics Education Workshop [via eScholarship repository]

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Public Blames Media for Too Much Celebrity Coverage

From summary: "An overwhelming majority of the public (87%) says celebrity scandals receive too much news coverage. This criticism generally holds across most major demographic and political groups. Virtually no one thinks there is too little coverage of celebrity scandals.

When asked who is most to blame for the amount of coverage these kinds of stories receive, a majority of the public points to the media. Fully 54% of those who say celebrity news is over-covered also believe news organizations are to blame for giving these stories so much coverage. Roughly a third (32%) say the public is to blame for paying so much attention to them, and another 12% say the media and the public are both equally to blame." Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

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A Summer of Discontent with Washington

Clinton Widens Lead, Giuliani Slips

"As official Washington winds down for its summer holiday, all three branches of government are coming under fire from the American public. Just 29% approve of the way President Bush is handling his job, and only slightly more, 33%, approve of the job performance of the Democratic leaders of Congress. Even the U.S. Supreme Court is not immune from the current round of public disaffection: The court's favorable rating has fallen from 72% in January to 57% currently.

Opinion of all three institutions divides predictably along party lines – but even partisans offer comparatively modest support for both the President and the Democratic Congressional leadership. Bush's approval rating stands at only 69% among Republicans and the Democratic leaders can claim just a 62% approval score among Democrats. In contrast, sizable majorities of independents disapprove of the job performance of the President and of Capitol Hill's leadership. " Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

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Digest of Education Statistics, 2006

The 42nd in a series of publications initiated in 1962, the Digest’s primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest contains data on a variety of topics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, and federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons. Source: National Center for Education Statistics

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Demographic and School Characteristics of Students Receiving Special Education in the Elementary Grades

"This Issue Brief provides a detailed description of the proportion of elementary school students receiving special education in kindergarten, first grade, third grade, and fifth grade; the primary disabilities of these students; and the variation in these measures across a range of demographic and school characteristics. Data for this analysis are drawn from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). Findings from the analysis indicate that for the cohort of students beginning kindergarten in 1998, specific learning disabilities and speech or language impairments were the most prevalent primary disabilities over the grades studied. The percentage of the student cohort receiving special education grew from 4.1 percent in kindergarten to 11.9 percent of students in fifth grade. The results also indicate that higher percentages of boys than girls and of poor students than nonpoor students received special education." Source: National Center for Education Statistics

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Understanding Privacy -- and the Real Threats to It

Summary: "Properly defined, privacy is the subjective condition people experience when they have power to control information about themselves. Because privacy is subjective, government regulation in the name of privacy can only create confidentiality or secrecy rules based on politicians' and bureaucrats' guesses about what "privacy" should look like. The most important, but elusive, part of true privacy protection is consumers' exercise of power over information about themselves. Ultimately, privacy is a product of personal responsibility and autonomy.

Law has dual, conflicting effects on privacy. Law is essential for protecting privacy because it backs individuals' privacy-protecting decisions, but much legislation plays a significant role in undermining privacy. Indeed, the principal threats to privacy come from governments.

These threats fall into three classes. The first, government surveillance, is a profound and well-recognized threat to privacy. Governments also undermine privacy by collecting, cataloging, and sharing personal information about citizens for administrative purposes. Less acknowledged -- but no less important -- is the wide variety of laws and regulations that degrade citizens' power to protect privacy as they see fit.

Whether it is anti-privacy regulation, data collection required by all manner of government programs, or outright surveillance, the relationship of governments to privacy is typically antagonistic. Privacy thrives when aware and empowered citizens are able to exercise control of information about themselves. Thoughtful policymakers should recognize the detrimental effects many programs have on consumers' privacy and respond with proposals that reduce the role of government in individuals' lives." Source: CATO Policy Institute

Download full pdf report | HTML version available.

Child Health USA

"Child Health USA is published to provide the most current data available for public health professionals and other individuals in the private and public sectors. The book’s succinct format is intended to facilitate the use of the information as a snapshot of measures of children’s health in the United States.

Population Characteristics is the first section, and presents statistics on factors that influence the well-being of children, including poverty, education, and child care. The second section, entitled Health Status, contains vital statistics and health behavior information for the maternal and child health population. Health Services Financing and Utilization, the third section, includes data regarding health care financing and newly implemented health policies. The final sections, State Data and City Data, contain information on selected indicators at those levels. Please note that Child Health USA is not copyrighted. Readers are free to duplicate and use all or part of the information contained herein." Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau.

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Parental Qualities Found to Significantly Affect the Civic Competence of Adolescents

From Press Release: "What parents do with their adolescent children, and what parents know about politics and government, are generally more important for youth civic development than who the parents are in terms background characteristics.

The research is presented in an article entitled “The Influence of Family Political Discussion on Youth Civic Development: Which Parent Qualities Matter?” authored by Hugh McIntosh (independent scholar), Daniel Hart (Rutgers University), and James Youniss (Catholic University). The article appears in the July issue of PS: Political Science & Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA) and is available online."

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Day Labor in the Golden State

"Situated on busy street corners and in front of home improvement stores, day labor markets are highly visible. Yet little is known about day laborers themselves—their demographic characteristics, economic outcomes, or working conditions. Using data from the National Day Labor Survey, this report examines the day labor population and looks at the ways local governments are responding to the presence of day labor markets in their communities." Source: Public Policy Institute of California

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YouTube Traffic Characterization: A View From the Edge

"This paper presents a traffic characterization study of the popular video sharing service, YouTube. Over a three month period we observed almost 25 million transactions between users on an edge network and YouTube, including more than 600,000 video downloads. We also monitored the globally popular videos over this period of time. In the paper we examine usage patterns, file properties, popularity and referencing characteristics, and transfer behaviors, and compare them to traditional Web and media streaming workload characteristics. We also analyze social networking (Web 2.0) aspects of YouTube. We conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications of the observed characteristics. For example, we find that as with the traditional Web, caching could improve the end user experience, reduce network bandwidth consumption, and reduce the load on YouTube's core server infrastructure. Unlike traditional Web caching, Web 2.0 provides additional metadata that should be exploited to improve the effectiveness of strategies like caching." Source: HP Labs

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Technology, Competition, and Values

Abstract: Law can advance or retard the distributive effects of innovation and its diffusion in many ways. Certain technologies merit special monitoring because they promote the leveraging of economic advantage into social or cultural advantage without substantially increasing overall social welfare. Others threaten to undermine collective values and perceptions commonly used to evaluate technology. A final category threatens to do both, creating unfair or wasteful competition while blunting our capacity to recognize its morally dubious character.

As new sectors of life become more game-like and competitive, methods of leveling the playing field developed in sports and college admissions might become more broadly relevant. Inequality impact statements may be as important to our cultural environment as environmental impact statements are to the natural world. Finally, current laws regulating the use of controlled substances may need to be extended to precision chemical-based emotional enhancement, even if such pharmaceutical interventions are non-addictive. Technology should not be allowed to accelerate wasteful or unfair arms races or to undermine the very values we rely upon to evaluate it. Source: Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology, Forthcoming Available at SSRN

Link to download site at SSocial Science Resource Network

Report: President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors

"Our report is rooted in the work done by the Commission over the past three months plus the work of other Task Forces and Commissions that have been examining similar issues. This Commission has heard testimony at seven public meetings and has conducted 23 site visits to military bases, VA hospitals and treatment centers across the country. We have heard from experts on providing physical and mental health care, navigating health care and disability evaluation and compensation systems, members of Congress and their staff, and most importantly, service men and women, their families and the health care professionals charged with their care." Source: President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors.

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China's Economic Conditions

"Since the initiation of economic reforms in 1979, China has become one of the world's fastest-growing economies. From 1979 to 2005 China's real gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an average annual rate of 9.7%. Real GDP grew by 11.1% in 2006, and during the first quarter of 2007, it rose by 11.1% over the same period in 2006. China is expected to continue to enjoy rapid economic growth over the next several years, provided that it continues to implement needed reforms, particularly in regard to its inefficient state-owned enterprises and the state banking system. If projected growth levels continue, China could become the world's largest economy within a decade or so. Trade and foreign investment continues to play a major role in China's booming economy." Source: Congressional Research Center

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70% - Say Internet Pornography Is Harmful

"A large 70%-majority of Americans reject the idea that "nude pictures and X-rated videos on the internet provide harmless entertainment for those who enjoy it"; only 27% agree; in general, opinions about pornography have become slightly more conservative over the past 20 years. Currently 41% agree that "nude magazines and X-rated movies provide harmless entertainment for those who enjoy it," while 53% disagree. The number saying such material is harmless has fluctuated, declining from 48% in 1987 to 41% in 1990 and then varying by no more than four percentage points thereafter. The pattern is more mixed for other values related to freedom of expression." Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

Link to online summary

Hillary Clinton Most Visible Presidential Candidate

"The 2008 presidential campaign remained a top tier news story last week both in terms of coverage and public interest. The campaign has been one of the top five most covered news stories for much of the year, and public interest has remained fairly consistent. This past week, the national news media devoted 9% of its overall coverage to the campaign, making it the second most heavily covered story of the week, after the Iraq policy debate. Among the public, 16% followed campaign news very closely and 10% listed this as their most closely followed story.

Democratic candidates continue to have a clear advantage over Republican candidates in terms of visibility. When asked which candidates they have been hearing the most about in the news recently, 67% of the public named a Democrat while only 8% named a Republican. Even Republicans themselves name Democratic candidates more readily than GOP candidates by a better than two-to-one margin (54% name a Democratic candidate, 21% name a GOP candidate)." Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

Download full PDF Report | Link to pdf topline questionnaire | link to online summary

Wiki Awareness

"Wetpaint recently commissioned Harris Interactive to ask online users about their awareness of wikis, as compared to blogs, social networks, forums. The result was that only 16% of the US online population is familar with what a wiki is. Even if you just look at the online trendsetters (18-34 year olds), only 27% of those online users are familiar with wikis."

The entire set of survey results are available for download on the Wetpaint site.

Download .doc format

The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation

"Virtually every action, message, and decision of a military force shapes the opinions of an indigenous population: strategic communication, treatment of civilians at vehicle checkpoints, and the accuracy or inaccuracy of aerial bombardment. Themes of U.S. goodwill mean little if its actions convey otherwise. Consequently, a unified message in both word and deed is fundamental to success. Business marketing practices provide a useful framework for improving U.S. military efforts to shape the attitudes and behaviors of local populations in a theater of operations as well as those of a broader, international audience. Enlisting Madison Avenue extracts lessons from these business practices and adapts them to U.S. military efforts, developing a unique approach to shaping that has the potential to improve military-civilian relations, the accuracy of media coverage of operations, communication of U.S. and coalition objectives, and the reputation of U.S. forces in theater and internationally. Foremost among these lessons are the concepts of branding, customer satisfaction, and segmentation of the target audience, all of which serve to maximize the impact and improve the outcome of U.S. shaping efforts." Source: RAND Corporation

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Regulating Older Drivers : Are New Policies Needed?

"Are older drivers posing an increasing risk to the public? If they are, what options should policymakers consider to mitigate that risk? This research offers a new perspective on these questions. Using an innovative approach to estimate the extent to which older drivers are on the road and their riskiness compared with drivers of other age groups, the study finds that older drivers (those 65 and older) are slightly (16 percent) likelier than drivers aged 25 to 64 to cause an accident and that they pose much less risk to the public than do drivers aged 18 to 24, who are nearly three times likelier than older drivers to cause an accident. However, because of their greater frailty, older drivers are much likelier than other drivers to be seriously injured or killed when involved in an accident. In light of these findings, the authors find little support for the idea that stricter licensing policies targeting older drivers would substantially improve traffic safety." Source: RAND Corporation


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Gay Sex and Marriage, the Reciprocal Disadvantage Problem, and the Crisis in Liberal Constitutional Theory

"While it is true that constitutional protection for gay rights depends upon contestable moral judgments, the failure to protect these rights also rests on such judgments. The argument that courts should not take a side in the “culture war” is therefore a wash. Conservatives are nonetheless eager to discredit the argument for gay rights because the failure to do so would challenge core assumptions of standard constitutional theory." Source: Georgetown Law

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Should Wal-Mart, Real Estate Brokers, and Banks Be in Bed Together?

"The application in July 2005 by Wal-Mart to obtain a specialized bank charter from the state of Utah and to obtain federal deposit insurance re-opened a national debate concerning the separation of banking and commerce. Simultaneously, bank regulators were considering the possibility of allowing banks to enter the area of residential real estate brokerage, which is another facet of the same set of issues. Though Wal-Mart withdrew its application in March 2007, the issues and the debate continue. This paper offers a principles-based approach to these issues that begins with the recognition that banks are special and that safety-and-soundness regulation of banks is therefore warranted. Building on that recognition, the paper lays out the principle that the “examinability and supervisability” of an activity should determine if it should be undertaken by a bank or by a bank’s owners. Even if an otherwise legitimate activity is not suitable for a bank, it should be allowed for a bank’s owners (whether the owners are individuals or a holding company), so long as the financial transactions between the bank and its owners are closely monitored by bank regulators. The implications of this set of ideas for the Wal-Mart case, for real estate brokerage, and for banking and commerce generally are then discussed." Source: New York University School of Law.

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In mid-June 2007 Hamas completed the seizure of Gaza, defeating elements of the nationalist Fatah movement. The development effectively left the Palestinian Territories divided, with the Islamists of Hamas in control of Gaza, and Fatah retaining control of the West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Hamas’s actions and announced the formation of an Emergency Government largely composed of technocrats. He said he would rule by decree until the conditions were right for fresh elections. The Prime Minister of the outgoing Government, Ismail Haniya, rejected the move, although Hamas leaders said that they would be willing to talk to Mr Abbas.

The EU and US have normalised relations with the new Government and the Quartet (the US, EU, UN and Russia) has agreed to lift the economic embargo on direct assistance to the Palestinian Authority that had been in place since Hamas entered government in early 2006.

This paper looks at the background to these events and considers their potential implications.

Source: UK. Parliament House of Commons Research Library

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The Effect of Wealth and Race on Start-up Rates

"The wealthiest nascent entrepreneurs are more likely to start a business than are their less wealthy counterparts, concludes a study released today by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration. However, this effect differs when the race and ethnicity of the entrepreneur are considered as factors.

“Self-employment rates among minorities are generally less than would otherwise be predicted,” said Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist for the Office of Advocacy. “Yet, there tends to be more ‘pre-business’ activity among nascent minority entrepreneurs. This study looks at some of the possible factors that might explain that gap.”

The study finds that as a whole, the wealthiest (top 25 percent as determined by net assets) nascent entrepreneurs (individuals putting effort towards opening a business, but who have not yet done so) are four times more likely to open a business than those in the lower part of the wealth distribution. However, even controlling for net wealth, white nascent entrepreneurs are more likely to open a business than are Black or Hispanic nascent entrepreneurs." Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy

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Backgrounder: Is The Fairness Doctrine Fair Game?

"It has been 20 years since the Fairness Doctrine was repealed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Yet in recent weeks, the rule that required broadcasters to balance views they aired on controversial subjects has re-emerged as a topic of debate in media circles—and particularly on talk radio.

Some hosts in the conservative-dominated talk radio universe have warned listeners that Congressional Democrats and liberals want to revive the Fairness Doctrine in an effort to silence voices and views they don’t like. And some have warned that any return to the rule would produce a “Hush Rush Bill.” (The National Review published a recent cover story on the topic, complete with a photo of Rush Limbaugh gagged with duct tape.)

A few weeks ago, Limbaugh raised that prospect when he described his show as something “that frightens and scares the American left to the point that they want to deny this program Constitutional access to the First Amendment.”

Conversely, Ed Schultz, a syndicated liberal talker, has accused conservatives of setting up a “straw man” by playing up the threat of a new Fairness Doctrine. “I can guarantee you folks that no one is out there saying ‘let’s have the Fairness Doctrine,’’’ Schultz declared, and he blamed conservatives for trying to stifle liberal voices on the air. " Source: Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism

Link to online report

U.S. Military Operations in Iraq - Updated Report

"Though initially denying that there was an organized resistance movement, DOD officials have now acknowledged there is regional/local organization, with apparently ample supplies of arms and funding. CENTCOM has characterized the Iraqi resistance as "a classical guerrilla-type campaign." DOD initially believed the resistance to consist primarily of former regime supporters and foreign fighters; however, it has now acknowledged that growing resentment of coalition forces and an increase in sectarian conflicts, independent of connections with the earlier regime, are contributing to the insurgency. Joint counterinsurgency operations involving both U.S. and Iraqi forces are being intensified in Baghdad and al-Anbar province, focusing on a "clear, hold, and build" strategy. By mid-June the last of the units composing the force "surge" announced in January had arrived in Iraq to begin counterinsurgency operations. According to DOD, as of June 30 2007, 3,572 U.S. troops had died in Iraq operations. There have been more than 26,558 U.S. personnel wounded or injured since military operations began. Non-U.S. Coalition fatalities have totaled 287, while Iraqi security force fatalities from June 2003 through July 11, 2007, are estimated to be 7,202. The latest unclassified DOD statistics indicate that as of July 1, about 156,250 U.S. troops are in Iraq, with approximately 20,000 additional military support personnel in the region." Source: Congressional Research Service

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Survey Finds Young Americans’ News Use Is Half That of Older Adults

From Press Release: "Most of America’s teens and young adults do not follow the daily news closely, according to a new report released today by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The report, titled “Young People and News,” is based on a national sample survey of 1800 Americans that included teens (ages 12-17), young adults (ages 18-30), and older adults. The sample is noteworthy for its inclusion of teenage respondents, who’ve seldom been polled nationally on their news habits." Source: Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Link to full pdf report | Link to press release

Census Bureau Publishes First-Ever Reports on Veteran Entrepreneurs and Their Businesses

"The first-ever reports examining veterans in business show that prior to establishing, purchasing or acquiring their firms, veteran owners were somewhat better educated compared to other business owners. In 2002, veterans were about as likely to have either bachelor or postgraduate degrees as all owners of respondent business firms (40.7 percent vs. 40.1 percent). But they were more likely to have postgraduate degrees (19.2 percent vs. 17.3 percent) and less likely not to have graduated high school (4.3 percent vs. 6 percent)." Source: U.S. Census Bureau

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Undocumented Latina/o Students in Chicago’s Colleges and Universities.

"Through the collection of educational oral histories from students in higher education, this research explores the experiences of undocumented Latino students in Chicago to illustrate common factors that enabled this group to be educationally successful despite educational and immigration policies that criminalize every facet of their lives and construct them to be simultaneously extraneous to schooling, but essential to the service economy. In this political moment when the United States is debating the “legitimacy” of amnesty and extending citizenship to those undocumented, and the mainstream media frequently circulates representations of “illegals” with the themes that these individuals are “lazy” or “illegal” and thus undeserving of rights, it is vitally important that the voices and experiences of those undocumented is made visible. In the context where “aiding and abetting” those undocumented was potentially a crime as proposed in the House of Representatives Bill 4437 (The Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005 or the "Sensenbrenner Bill,") that was passed by the United States House of Representatives on December 16, 2005 by a vote of 239 to 182, educators cannot afford to ignore immigration policy as an educational issue, and we must connect both educational and immigration policies to the expansion of the punitive branches of our incarceration-nation." Source: InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies. Vol. 3, Issue 2, Article 6.

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Factors Driving the Silicon Valley Housing Market in 2007

"With Silicon Valley employment still well below the 2000 peak, and rising foreclosures nationwide, this article examines whether the area's housing market is vulnerable to a correction. Recent statistics suggest that several factors have helped support home prices, but that there are uncertainties going forward. Although the San Jose MSA has regained less than one-fifth of jobs lost since 2000, there are now strong signs that employment is in recovery, with job growth occurring in diverse sectors. The San Jose MSA's wage and salary jobs now outstrip the area's resident labor force, suggesting that there may be a pent-up demand for housing from commuters in surrounding communities. This demand may be one of several factors that kept the region's housing prices stable immediately following the dot-com bust, and allowed price increases to follow in the absence of full employment recovery. Other factors include low interest rates; a mobile younger workforce, whose departure affected rent more than home prices; and a shift in investment from stocks to homeownership following the dot-com bust. In the 2007 housing market slowdown, the greatest impact nationwide has been at the low end of the market, while Silicon Valley's expensive housing market has a foreclosure rate well below the statewide average. Nevertheless, there is some evidence of softening. The number of home sales has decreased. The same-home sales price index was down slightly first quarter, as was the median price for new homes. The median price of existing homes is rising, but in part because of the drop off in sales at the low end and in part due to sellers taking homes off the market rather than lowering prices. The paper concludes with several possible scenarios for Silicon Valley home prices going forward--a two-tiered market with price increases in some segments and declines in others; price stabilization across home-types; or a significant recession-induced price decline." Source: Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics. Fisher Center Research Reports: Report #0607. U.C. Berkeley

Download pdf publication | Link to online summary via eScholarship repository

From Motherhood Penalties to Fatherhood Premia: The New Challenge for Family Policy

"The processes that occur in the family are today probably the largest obstacle to continued progress in gender equality in the workplace. Gender differences in wages between single men and women are consistently found to be considerably smaller than among men and women who are married or have children. This study examines how family processes affect gender differences on wages using longitudinal matched employee-employer data from Norway, 1980-1997. We find that over this period the large wage penalty initially associated with marriage and children for women decreases substantially, so that by 1997 women who do the same work for the same employer earn similar wages, regardless of marital status or motherhood. This is not true among men, where the small wage premia for marriage and fatherhood remain relatively constant across this period. Thus, while gender differences at the beginning of this period were primarily due to women being penalized for marriage and motherhood, by the end of this period, family processes create gender differences in wages primarily through the premia for men. These results suggest that Norwegian family policies have been largely successful at ameliorating the wage penalties for women, so that the role of family on gender differences in wages is now primarily due to the male premia. We explore how these processes play out in wage growth and promotions, and conclude by discussing the policy implications of these findings for Norway and the United States." Source: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Working Paper Series. Paper iirwps-154-07. U.C. Berkeley

Download PDF Publication | Link to online summary [eScholarship Repository]

Iraq: Oil and Gas Legislation, Revenue Sharing, and U.S. Policy

"Iraqi leaders continue to debate a package of hydrocarbon sector and revenue sharing legislation that will define the terms for the future management and development of the country's significant oil and natural gas resources. The package includes an oil and gas sector framework law and three supporting laws that would outline revenue sharing mechanisms, restructure Iraq's Ministry of Oil, and create an Iraqi National Oil Company. Both the Bush Administration and Congress consider the passage of oil and gas sector framework and revenue sharing legislation as important benchmarks that will indicate the current Iraqi government's commitment to promoting political reconciliation and long term economic development in Iraq." Source: Congressional Research Service

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Pay Discrimination Claims Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

A Legal Analysis of the Supreme Court's Decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc.

"This report discusses Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., a recent case in which the Supreme Court considered the timeliness of a sex discrimination claim filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In Ledbetter, the female plaintiff alleged that past sex discrimination had resulted in lower pay increases and that these past pay decisions continued to affect the amount of her pay throughout her employment, resulting in a significant pay disparity between her and her male colleagues by the end of her nearly twenty year career. Under Title VII, a plaintiff is required to file suit within 180 days after an alleged unlawful employment practice has occurred. Although the plaintiff in Ledbetter argued that each paycheck she received constituted a new violation of the statute and therefore reset the clock with regard to filing a claim, the Court rejected this argument, reasoning that even if employees suffer continuing effects from past discrimination, their claims are time barred unless filed within the specified number of days of the original discriminatory act. Currently, several bills that would supercede the Ledbetter decision by amending Title VII have been introduced in the 110th Congress, including H.R. 2660 and H.R. 2831, and a companion bill to H.R. 2831 has been announced for introduction in the Senate." Source: Congressional Research Service

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China's Online Population Explosion

What It May Mean for the Internet Globally...and for U.S. Users

"The influx of tens of millions of new online participants each year can be expected to have far-reaching consequences for the people of China, for its government and economy, and for the larger world. At the very least, the internet will offer ever greater numbers of Chinese a much more sophisticated information and communications world than the one they currently inhabit. And because the Chinese share a single written language, despite the multiplicity of spoken tongues, it could have a unifying effect on the country's widely dispersed citizenry. An expanding internet population might also increase domestic tensions that could spill over into China's relations with the U.S. and other countries while the difference between Chinese and Western approaches to the internet could create additional sore points over human rights and problems with restrictions on non-Chinese companies." Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

Link to online report

Fewer Mothers Prefer Full-time Work

"In the span of the past decade, full-time work outside the home has lost some of its appeal to mothers. This trend holds both for mothers who have such jobs and those who don't.

Among working mothers with minor children (ages 17 and under), just one-in-five (21%) say full-time work is the ideal situation for them, down from the 32% who said this back in 1997, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Fully six-in-ten (up from 48% in 1997) of today's working mothers say part-time work would be their ideal, and another one-in-five (19%) say she would prefer not working at all outside the home." Source: Pew Research Center

Download full PDF report | Link to online summary with graphs

Campaign Internet Videos: Viewed More on TV than Online

"Short videos produced for the internet are becoming an important component of campaign news. In some cases, candidates themselves are producing videos and releasing them on their campaign websites. Candidates also are seeing their own gaffes or embarrassing moments packaged in a brief video and put up on the web for all to see. And while these videos originate on the internet, more people are viewing them on TV than online." Source: Pew Research Center for people and the press

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| Link to online summary

How to make people buy books

Esquire Magazine Interviews Chip Kidd who discusses what goes into great book design for covers that attract buyers.

Source: Esquire Magazine

Link to online article

Does American Culture Frown on Vacations?

"For at least 10 years now, many global studies have found that Americans worked longer hours than workers in any other developed country. A lobbying organization that believes Americans should have a mandatory amount of vacation time, Take Back Your Time, notes that last year 25% of American workers got no paid vacation at all, while 43% didn’t even take a solid week off." Source: Emory University via Knowledge@Emory

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Overborrowing and undersaving: lessons and policy implications from research in behavioral economics

"The U.S. household carries over $7,500 in uncollateralized debt and likely saves at a negative rate. There is a growing body of evidence that this borrowing and saving behavior may not, as assumed by standard economics, be the product of rational financial planning. This paper discusses insights from behavioral economics on how self-control problems could play a crucial role in determining such financial outcomes. It is important to note that self-control problems, as defined in this paper, are thought of as an issue affecting all people, not just those involved in our specific research. ; The paper reports results from a field study targeted to low-to-moderate income individuals conducted in Dorchester, MA. It links measured self-control to borrowing and savings outcomes taken from individual credit reports and survey questions respectively. We find that self-control problems are associated with higher borrowing, specifically on credit cards, and lower savings of income tax refunds. The paper discusses how policy prescriptions built around addressing self-control issues could prove helpful in improving financial outcomes." Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

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Status and Progress of Women in the Middle East and North Africa

"This overview updates the main findings of the Regional Gender Report with respect to the status of women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).1 The regional Report on Gender and Development highlighted several points. On the one hand, MENA’s achievements in health and education during the 1980s and 1990s compared favorably with those of other regions. On the other hand, women’s labor force participation remained low and women were underrepresented in national parliaments and in other decision making bodies." Source: World Bank


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Review of Graduate Student Compensation Costs Charged to National Institutes of Health Research Grants

Executive Summary: "Our objectives were to (1) determine whether universities and colleges limited the graduate student compensation charged to National Institutes of Health (NIH) research grants to the amount paid to a first-year, postdoctoral scientist performing comparable work at the same institution and to the National Research Service Award stipend in effect when NIH awarded the grants and (2) provide statistical estimates of the number of grants with graduate student compensation costs charged; the number of researchers who received graduate student compensation, including tuition remission, from NIH grants; and the costs of such compensation.

For all sampled grants with graduate student compensation charges, we found that universities and colleges appropriately limited graduate student compensation charges to the amount paid to a first-year, postdoctoral scientist performing comparable work at the same institution and to the National Research Service Award stipend in effect when NIH awarded the grants. This report also provides statistical estimates related to graduate student compensation costs charged to NIH grants. The report contains no recommendations." Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

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Grant of Executive Clemency and other Presidential Proclimations

Text of recent Grant of Clemency for Scooter Libby and links to other recent Presidential Proclamations.

Link to download site at whitehouse.gov

"Dramatic events in London and Scotland last week attracted a large news audience. Roughly a third of the public paid very close attention to news that British police had found and defused two car bombs in London, and another 31% followed the story fairly closely. Fully 21% said this was the single news story they followed more closely than any other – making it the most closely followed news story of the week.1 Interest in the attempted bombings did not reach the level of last summer's major terrorism scare. In August 2006, 54% of the public paid very close attention to news about a foiled plot to blow up planes flying from England to the U.S. using liquid explosives." Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

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Law in the Labor Movement's Challenge to Wal-Mart

"This Article studies the role of law in the successful community-labor challenge to Wal-Mart’s first proposed Los Angeles-area Supercenter in the working-class city of Inglewood. It focuses on the use of legal and legislative challenges to mobilize opposition to Wal-Mart’s Inglewood initiative—a technique known as the “site fight” because of its focus on blocking Wal-Mart at a specific location. The aims of this Article are twofold. First, it seeks to understand the site fight in relation to broader shifts within the labor movement, which have driven some unions to promote pro-labor legal reform at the municipal government level. Part I therefore explores how labor leaders have responded to the limits of traditional unionism by pursuing an alternative model of labor activism that uses political opportunities available in the local development process to advocate policy reforms designed to increase union density. This local approach is built upon three pillars: (1) it targets non-exportable service industries tethered to local economies and thus offering strong opportunities for union organizing; (2) it relies on community-labor coalitions to exert political influence within the local development process; and (3) it leverages local opportunities for legal advocacy outside the traditional confines of labor law to promote development practices accountable to labor and community stakeholders. To illustrate the dynamics of local labor activism, Part II provides a detailed case study of the defining campaign of the anti-Wal-Mart movement—the Inglewood site fight—in which labor leaders allied with land use and environmental lawyers to oppose Supercenter plans on the ground that the negative community impacts outweighed consumer benefits. The second goal of this Article is to use the Inglewood site fight to engage the scholarly debate about the role of law in social change processes generally and the relationship between law and contemporary labor organizing specifically. Part III draws four central lessons from the Inglewood campaign. First, in contrast to portraits of lawyers derailing social movements by pursuing rights in court at the cost of grassroots mobilization, the Inglewood case study provides an example of multi-level legal activism where lawyers worked in different institutional venues to challenge Wal-Mart site proposals and develop policy reforms. Second, the Inglewood site fight highlights a flexible advocacy model characterized by tactical pluralism, in which lawyers advanced a coordinated labor campaign using traditional litigation alongside nontraditional skills such as drafting legislation and conducting public relations. Third, the case study reveals the sophisticated ways in which labor client groups operate as consumers of legal services, assembling lawyer teams that contribute networked expertise in such areas as land use, environmental, and election law to advance labor organizing objectives. Finally, the case study provides an interesting perspective on the problem of multi-tiered accountability that arises in the context of low-income community representation, where lawyers must navigate complex relationships with multi-organizational coalitions that, in turn, struggle to represent competing conceptions of community." Source: UCLA School of Law. UCLA Public Law Series. Paper 7-01.

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Does Collective Identity Matter? : African-American Conventional and Unconventional Political Participation

"This study is the first to compare the role of feelings of collective identity, or a shared sense of common fate, on the likelihood of participating in conventional (electoral) low-commitment political activity that takes little time (voting), conventional high-commitment involvement that requires more time and effort (participation in a voter registration drive), unconventional (non-electoral) low-commitment political activity (signing a petition), and unconventional high-commitment activity (participation in a protest march or demonstration). The paper concludes that collective identity is a powerful predictor of the likelihood of participation in unconventional but not conventional political activity irrespective of the level of commitment." Source: Center for the Study of Democracy U.C. Irvine

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Why has the LDP Stayed in Power so Long in Post-War Japan?

"Why has the LDP stayed in power so long? This is the biggest puzzle in Japanese politics, especially considering the fact that Japan has been constitutionally a liberal democracy in the postwar period. This paper exams possible reasons for why the LDP has stayed in power for so long. I empirically exam three different explanations, namely the political culture explanation, the political economy explanation (or the Clientelism with centralized fiscal structure), and the system support explanation. While the political culture and the political economy explanations have some validity, neither one can exclusively explain the LDP dominance in the postwar party system. The system-support explanation provides evidence that supports that those Japanese who support the Japanese political system are more likely to support the LDP. Thus, the LDP’s linkage to system evaluation may be another answer to this puzzle of LDP dominance that has been overlooked in previous research." Source: Center for the Study of Democracy. U.C. Irvine

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