Investigation of Failure of the SEC To Uncover Bernard Madoff's Ponzi Scheme

From the Executive Summary

The OIG investigation did not find evidence that any SEC personnel who worked
on an SEC examination or investigation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities,
LLC (BMIS) had any financial or other inappropriate connection with Bernard Madoff or
the Madoff family that influenced the conduct of their examination or investigatory work.

The OIG also did not find that former SEC Assistant Director Eric Swanson's romantic
relationship with Bernard Madoffs niece, Shana Madoff, influenced the conduct of the
SEC examinations of Madoff and his firm. We also did not find that senior officials at
the SEC directly attempted to influence examinations or investigations of Madoff or the
Madofffirm, nor was there evidence any senior SEC official interfered with the staffs
ability to perform its work.

Source; U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Download full pdf report | Download Executive Summary (pdf)

Raising Rigor, Getting Results: Lessons Learned from AP Expansion

From the Press Release:

The report looks at the efforts of six states—Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Nevada and Wisconsin—that received funding as part of the NGA Center’s Advanced Placement Expansion project toincrease the participation of minority and low-income students in AP courses at 51 pilot high schools in rural and urban school districts.

Source: National Governors Association

Download full pdf report | Link to news release

Low-Income Women’s Experiences With Food Programs, Food Spending, and Food-Related Hardships: Evidence From Qualitative Data

This study examines the economic coping strategies of low-income families, using data collected through qualitative interviews conducted in 2006-08 with 35 low-income women residing in the Detroit metropolitan area. Three rounds of interviews found that the majority of the sample were employed at least some of the time, and most had children living with them. Despite careful shopping practices, rising food prices forced cutbacks in purchase of certain foods, including milk, cereal, fruits, and meat. Just under half reported running out of food at some point during the year. As for government assistance, the then named Food Stamp Program, and now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), was their mainstay. Even when eligible for benefits, many of the families did not receive cash assistance, unemployment benefits, or workers’ compensation due to perceived access barriers.

Source: USDA, Economic Research Service

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Strengthening the Health Insurance System: How Health Insurance Reform Will Help America’s Older and Senior Women

From Executive Summary

While all Americans shoulder the burden of rising health care costs and increasingly inadequate health insurance, the 17 million older women (ages 55-64) and 21 million senior women (ages 65 and older) in America have unique situations and health care needs that make them particularly susceptible to rising costs – at a time in their lives when access to affordable health care is increasingly important. Health insurance reform will remove these hurdles to ensure that older and senior women, along with all other Americans, get the quality, affordable health care they deserve.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Download full pdf publication | Link to online report

A Snapshot of U.S. Physicians : Key Findings from the 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey

From Press Release:

Almost 75 percent of physicians were accepting all or most new Medicare patients, the vast majority of physicians contracted with managed care plans, and slightly fewer than six in 10 physicians provided charity care in 2008, according to findings released today from the nationally representative Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey.

Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the 2008 Health Tracking Physician Survey covers a wide variety of physician and practice dimensions, from basic physician demographic information, practice organization and career satisfaction to insurance acceptance, compensation arrangements and charity care provision. The 2008 survey includes responses from more than 4,700 physicians who provide at least 20 hours per week of direct patient care, and had a 62 percent response rate. Because of changes in survey administration, results from the 2008 physician survey cannot be compared to findings from earlier HSC Community Tracking Study Physician Surveys. However, the 2008 physician survey establishes a new baseline that will allow future tracking of how physicians organize and practice medicine.

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Executions, Deterrence and Homicide: A Tale of Two Cities

Abstract:
We compare homicide rates in two quite similar cities with vastly different execution risks. Singapore had an execution rate close to 1 per million per year until an explosive twentyfold increase in 1994-95 and 96 to a level that we show was probably the highest in the world. Then over the next 11 years, Singapore executions dropped by about 95%. Hong Kong, by contrast, has no executions all during the last generation and abolished capital punishment in 1993. Homicide levels and trends are remarkably similar in these two cities over the 35 years after 1973, with neither the surge in Singapore executions nor the more recent steep drop producing any differential impact. By comparing two closely matched places with huge contrasts in actual execution but no differences in homicide trends, we have generated a unique test of the exuberant claims of deterrence that have been produced over the past decade in the U.S.

Source: Boalt Working Papers in Public Law. Paper 08312009.

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Pew Survey Report: The Internet and Civic Engagement

Online Overview:
Political and civic involvement have long been dominated by those with high levels of income and education, leading some advocates to hope that internet-based engagement might alter this pattern. However, a new report by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows that the internet is not changing the fundamental socio-economic character of civic engagement in America. When it comes to online activities such as contributing money, contacting a government official or signing an online petition, the wealthy and well-educated continue to lead the way.

Still, there are hints that the new forms of civic engagement anchored in blogs and social networking sites could alter long-standing patterns. Some 19% of internet users have posted material online about political or social issues or used a social networking site for some form of civic or political engagement. And this group of activists is disproportionately young.

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

Download full pdf report | Read Report Online

The Current Financial Crisis: What Should We Learn from the Great Depressions of the Twentieth Century?

Abstract:

Studying the experience of countries that have experienced great depressions during the
twentieth century teaches us that massive public interventions in the economy to maintain employment and investment during a financial crisis can, if they distort incentives enough, lead to a great depression.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and NBER

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Doubly Robust Internal Benchmarking and False Discovery Rates for Detecting Racial Bias in Police Stops

From RAND :
Allegations of racially biased policing are a contentious issue in many communities. Processes that flag potential problem officers have become a key component of risk management systems at major police departments. We present a statistical method to flag potential problem officers by blending three methodologies that are the focus of active research efforts: propensity score weighting, doubly robust estimation, and false discovery rates. Compared with other systems currently in use, the proposed method reduces the risk of flagging a substantial number of false positives by more rigorously adjusting for potential confounders and by using the false discovery rate as a measure to flag officers.We apply the methodology to data on 500,000 pedestrian stops in New York City in 2006. Of the nearly 3,000 New York City Police Department officers regularly involved in pedestrian stops, we flag 15 officers who stopped a substantially greater fraction of black and Hispanic suspects than our statistical benchmark predicts.

Download full pdf report | Link to online summary

From FactCheck.org: Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200

"A notorious analysis of the House health care bill contains 48 claims. Twenty-six of them are false and the rest mostly misleading. Only four are true."

Read the report online here at FactCheck.org

Stateline.org: 2009 Legislative Review

Stateline.org takes an exclusive look at major developments in state capitols as the country enters the second year of a national recession. Click above to see state-by-state reviews detailing how states are handling budget deficits and the federal stimulus package; the trends developing in key areas, such as education and health care; notable new legislation; and a chart of completed sessions and political control.

Link to Stateline Legislative Review Section

Listening to Latinas: Barriers to High School Graduation

NWLC and MALDEF survey Latinas about their aspirations and unique challenges to reaching their goals

"...addresses the challenges facing Latina high school students in the United States and explores ways to overcome obstacles that undermine their chances of graduating from high school. It also brings new voices to the conversation: those of Latina students themselves and of the adults who work with them on a daily basis. The report includes recommendations for schools and policymakers to improve the odds that young Latinas will graduate from high school and lead successful lives."

Source: National Women's Law Center

Download full pdf report | Download summary | Link to site

Urban Institute Report: The Rough Road to Adulthood

Abstract:

Low-income African American youth engage in fewer risky behaviors than low-income white youth, a new Urban Institute analysis of federal data reveals. This research on young blacks is part of a collection of eight brief studies on vulnerable youth, risky behavior, and the transition to adulthood.

Source: Urban Institute

Read summary online

List of Briefs (download in pdf):
Low-Income African American Youth
Second-Generation Latinos Connecting to School and Work
Multiple Pathways Connecting to School and Work
Youth from Distressed Neighborhoods
Youth from Low-Income Families
Young Men and Young Women
Youth with Depression/Anxiety
Youth from Low-Income Working Families

America’s Seniors and Health Insurance Reform: Protecting Coverage and Strengthening Medicare

From the introduction:

Since its inception in 1965, Medicare has provided a needed – and respected – health care service to our nation’s senior citizens and certain individuals with disabilities. However, rising health care costs, persistent gaps in the use of recommended services, and the threat of Medicare insolvency all undermine the health care that the program’s beneficiaries need and deserve. Health insurance reform will serve to strengthen the health care that our seniors receive.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Link to report online | Download full report in pdf format

Treatment of Noncitizens in H.R. 3200

From the CRS:

This report outlines the treatment of noncitizens (aliens) under H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. In particular, the report analyzes specific provisions in H.R. 3200, and whether there are eligibility requirements for noncitizens in the provisions. Within the bill, noncitizens are treated differently in several provisions.

Source: Congressional Research Service

Read summary online

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Insurance Regulation: Issues, Background, and Legislation in the 111th Congress

Summary:

The individual states have been acknowledged as the primary regulators of insurance as far back as 1868. Since the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, this system has operated with the specific blessing of Congress, but has also been subject to periodic scrutiny and suggestions that the time may have come for Congress to take back the regulatory authority that it granted to the states. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, congressional scrutiny was largely driven by the increasing complexities of the insurance business and concern over whether the states were up to the task of ensuring consumer protections, particularly insurer solvency. Prior to the recent financial crisis, congressional interest in insurance regulation focused on the inefficiencies in the state regulatory system. A major catalyst for congressional interest has been the aftermath of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA), which modernized the regulatory structure for banks and securities firms, but left the insurance sector largely untouched. Many larger insurers, and their trade associations, had previously defended state regulation but consider themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the current regulatory structure. They are now largely arguing for an optional federal charter akin to that available to banks. The increased internationalization of insurance has also brought more pressure on the current U.S. regulatory system. Various pieces of insurance regulatory reform legislation have been introduced in the current and past Congresses, including bills implementing an optional federal charter for insurance and narrower more targeted bills.

Read the rest of the summary
Source: Congressional Research Service

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China's International Behavior Activism, Opportunism, and Diversification

RAND Publication Summary:

China is now a global actor of significant and growing importance. It is active in regions and on issues that were once only peripheral to its interests, and it is effectively using tools previously unavailable. It is no longer appropriate to talk of integrating China into the international system; by and large, it is already there. Its international behavior is clearly altering the dynamics of the current international system, but it is not transforming its structure.

China's global activism is continually changing and has so many dimensions that it immediately raises questions about its current and future intentions and the implications for global stability and prosperity. This study examines how China views its security environment, how it defines its international objectives, how it is pursuing these objectives, and the consequences for U.S. economic and security interests.

Source: RAND

Download full pdf report | Download pdf Summary | Link to online TOC at RAND

UN Report: Tourism and Economic Stimulus

About the Report:

The current initial assessment aims to provide information on the response measures being implemented by countries around the world to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis on tourism.

It is part of UNWTO programme in the area of response to the current crisis, namely in the component of stimulus. This comprises an ongoing process of collecting, monitoring and evaluating the response actions and measures undertaken by governments to address the economic crisis.

This initial assessment includes information on around 60 countries worldwide. The information has been collected through a questionnaire sent to all UNWTO Member States by the Secretariat during the months of March and April 2009 as well as through online sources.

Source: World Tourism Organization United Nations

Download full pdf report | Link to UNWTO

Confidence in Obama Lifts U.S. Image Around the World

The image of the United States has improved markedly in most parts of the world, reflecting global confidence in Barack Obama. In many countries opinions of the United States are now about as positive as they were at the beginning of the decade before George W. Bush took office. Improvements in the U.S. image have been most pronounced in Western Europe, where favorable ratings for both the nation and the American people have soared. But opinions of America have also become more positive in key countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, as well.

Source: Pew Global Attitudes Project


Download full pdf report | Link to online summary including graphics

The Size and Role of Government: Economic Issues

From Online Summary:
The size and role of the government is one of the most fundamental and enduring debates in American politics. Economics can be used to analyze the relative merits of government intervention in the economy in specific areas, but it cannot answer the question of whether there is too much or too little government activity overall. That is not to say that one cannot find many examples of government programs that economists would consider to be a highly inefficient, if not counterproductive, way to achieve policy goals. Reducing inefficient government spending would benefit the economy; however, reducing efficient government spending would harm it, and reducing the size of government could involve either one. Government intervention can increase economic efficiency when market failures or externalities exist. Political choices may lead to second-best economic outcomes, however, and some argue that, for that reason, market failures can be preferable to government intervention. In the absence of market failures and externalities, there is little economic justification for government intervention, which lowers efficiency and probably economic growth. But government intervention is often based on the desire to achieve social goals, such as income redistribution. Economics cannot quantitatively value social goals, although it can often offer suggestions for how to achieve those goals in the least costly way.

Source: Congressional Research Service

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Testing Strategies to Help Former Prisoners Find and Keep Jobs and Stay Out of Prison

The number of people incarcerated in the U.S. has more than quadrupled in the last three decades. Today, more than 2 million people are incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails, and almost 700,000 people are released from state prisons each year. Corrections costs exceed $65 billion per year, with most of this total borne by state and local governments.

This policy brief describes an ongoing initiative, the Joyce Foundation’s Transitional Jobs Reentry Demonstration, that seeks to learn what works best to help former prisoners make a successful transition back into society.

Source: MDRC

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Cost of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States

"According to statistics released in July 2009 from a nationwide government survey, U.S. adults spent $33.9 billion out-of-pocket on visits to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners and purchases of CAM products, classes, and materials."

Source: National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine

Cost of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States
Download the Full Cost Data Report(pdf) | Link to Fact Sheet

Interim Guantanamo Legislative Report.

This two-volume report provides, in detail, the policy positions of every Representative and Senator on the issue of closing Gitmo and transferring detainees to the United States.

The report identifies each Representative/Senator by name, state, and party affiliation, and goes on to identify (1) any public statements that the legislator has made on the issue of Gitmo closure / detainee transfer; (2) how the legislator has voted on key Gitmo legislation in the 111th Congress and prior sessions; and (3) which Gitmo-related legislation he or she has sponsored or co-sponsored.

Source: Center for Security Policy

Download pdf reports : Download Senate Volume | Download House Volume

Students Who Study Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in Postsecondary Education

From Online Summary:
Using data from the 1995-96 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:96/01), this Statistics in Brief focuses on undergraduates who enter STEM programs and examines their characteristics and postsecondary outcomes (persistence and degree completion) several years after beginning postsecondary education.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

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Mexican Immigrants: How Many Come? How Many Leave?

The flow of immigrants from Mexico to the United States has declined sharply since mid-decade, but there is no evidence of an increase during this period in the number of Mexican-born migrants returning home from the U.S., according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of government data from both countries.

Source: Pew Hispanic Center

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Achievement Gaps: How Black and White Students in Public Schools Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences has released a new report analyzing Black-White achievement gaps at both the national and state levels, using NAEP scores as a common yardstick. The study examines data from all main NAEP mathematics and reading assessments through 2007, supplemented by data from long-term trend NAEP results through 2004. Readers will find context for understanding these gaps, as the report examines both the changes in the performance of Black and White students and the changes in the Black-White achievement gap over time.

Mathematics and reading scores on NAEP have increased since the first time the assessment was administered. These score increases have been observed among both Black and White students. However, statistically significant score differences between the two groups have also been observed.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

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Hegemony, Ideology & Oppositional Consciousness: Undocumented Youth and the Personal-Political Struggle for Educational Justice

Abstract:
Social movement practitioners have grappled for years with the role that ideology and consciousness play in bringing about social change. This article asks how lived experiences of institutional exclusion shape the political consciousness of undocumented Latino students. Through my ethnographic study of undocumented youth activists working on a mainstream legislative campaign, I posit that not only is oppositional consciousness a spectrum, as previous theorists have claimed, but it is also, in a Gramscian sense, forged out of the dialectic between ideas that are both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic. It is not the case that counter-hegemonic ideas win over, even temporarily, leading to oppositional consciousness. Rather, oppositional consciousness is forged through the constant negotiation between the two. This article draws on 18 months of fieldwork and is a critical inquiry into the possibilities and limitations of ideas and ideology in building social change.

Source: Institute for the Study of Social Change. ISSC Fellows Working Papers. U.C. Berkeley [via eScholarship repository

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Federal Report on the President's Surveillance Program

On July 10, 2009, the inspectors general from five federal agencies -- the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence -- released an unclassified report investigating the origins and operations of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program.

Source: NY Times

Download full pdf report | Link to NY Times article

The 'Real' Uninsured

Former Sen. Fred Thompson said on "Meet the Press" that "the 45 million ... figure of uninsured is probably about twice the real number of people who can't afford insurance or don't have access to it really." He's not the only one saying that the number is inflated. We find that many of the numbers cited are accurate, but may need to be seen in context to get a true picture.

Source: FactCheck.org

Link to online report

2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report

From Press Release:

2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report : a national study that explores changes in homelessness nationwide. HUD's assessment concludes that while overall homelessness in America held fairly steady from 2007 to 2008, the number of homeless families, particularly those living in suburban and rural areas, increased.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development

Download full pdf of 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report | Link to press release

Iran's Economic Conditions: U.S. Policy Issues

From summary :
The Islamic Republic of Iran, a resource-rich and labor-rich country in the Middle East, is a central focus of U.S. national security policy. The United States asserts that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism and that Irans uranium enrichment activities are for the development of nuclear weapons. To the extent that U.S. sanctions and other efforts to change Iranian state policy target aspects of Irans economy as a means of influence, it is important to evaluate Irans economic structure, strengths, and vulnerabilities. Since 2000, Iran has enjoyed broad-based economic growth. However, strong economic performance has been hindered by high levels of inflation and unemployment and low levels of foreign investment. Some contend that President Ahmadinejads expansionary monetary and fiscal policies have worsened unemployment, inflation, and poverty in Iran. Irans economic growth is expected to slow in 2009. Iran has long been subject to U.S. economic sanctions, and more recently, to United Nations sanctions, over its uranium enrichment program and purported support for terror activities. Such sanctions are believed by some analysts to contribute to Irans growing international trade and financial isolation. Irans economy is highly dependent on the production and export of crude oil to finance government spending, and consequently is vulnerable to fluctuations in international oil prices. Although Iran has vast petroleum reserves, the country lacks adequate refining capacity and imports gasoline to meet domestic energy needs. Iran is seeking foreign investment to develop its petroleum sector.

Download full pdf report | Link to online summary

Indonesia: Domestic Politics, Strategic Dynamics, and American Interests

Indonesia is the worlds fourth most populous country and the most populous Muslim nation. It is also a moderate Muslim state that is strategically positioned astride key sea lanes that link East Asia with the energy resources of the Middle East. Indonesia is seen by many as a valuable partner in the struggle against radical Islamist militants in Southeast Asia. Indonesia is continuing to democratize and develop its civil society and rule of law under the leadership of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), who many view as reform-minded. However, a legacy of abuse of human rights by the military that stems from the three-decade reign of former President Suharto, who stepped down in 1998, remains unresolved. The parliamentary elections of 2009 further consolidated Indonesian democracy and marked a continued preference by Indonesian voters for secular-nationalist parties rather than Islamic or Islamist political parties. President Yudhoyonos Democrat party made significant gains due to the voters approval of the president. Observers predict that President Yudhoyono will win the presidential election scheduled for July 2009. U.S. foreign policy concerns have focused on building relations with Indonesia to more effectively counter the rise of militant Islamist extremists, as well as to develop relations with a geopolitically important state. The United States has sought to promote democracy, the rule of law, and human rights in Indonesia in addition to American trade and investment interests there.

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Romney's Image Improves; Palin Well Regarded by Republican Base

From Overview:
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has seen his favorability ratings improve and now enjoys a positive balance of opinion among the general public: 40% rate him favorably, 28% unfavorably. This marks a reversal of opinion from February 2008, during the latter stages of the GOP primary campaign, when just 30% viewed him favorably and 44% expressed an unfavorable opinion.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted June 10-14 among 1,502 adults reached on landlines and cell phones, finds that impressions of Sarah Palin have not changed much since the presidential campaign. Palin continues to be a divisive figure among the general public, with about as many saying they have an unfavorable impression (44%) as a favorable view (45%) of the Alaska governor.

Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

Download full pdf report | Link to online Overview

The Luiseño Girls' Ceremony

Abstract:

ONE of the most striking characteristics of Luiseno culture is the integration of philosophy, theology, customs, material items, and environment. The Luiseno world is linked through concepts which are inclusive, expansive, and harmonious. The high degree of integration is difficult to express or explain simply, but can be demonstrated through example. In this paper, the ceremony to celebrate the maturation of girls (referred to as the girls' ceremony) is described, annotated, and compared to the Luiseno cosmogony or creation story in order to reveal the Luiseiio worldview. During the weqennic and yuninnic the girls participated in a ritualized reenactment of the creation and ordering of the world. Their place and purpose in life were revealed, and they then hopefully experienced a continuity between their lives, their ancestors, and the past which extended to the beginning of time.

Source: Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

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Migrant Civic Engagement

Abstract:

The spring, 2006 wave of immigrant rights mobilizations represents a watershed in the history of civic engagement in the US. Never before had so many foreign born literally “come out” for the right to be included in the US. Indeed, in many cities, never before had so many taken to the streets for any cause. Practitioners involved in the policy debate, scholars who measure immigrant political opinion, as well as migrant leaders themselves were all caught off guard. This raises questions about the social foundations of the marches – what kinds of social and civic practices, networks and organizations made them possible? To provide at least part of the answer, this chapter introduces the concepts of “civic binationality” and “migrant civil society,” which provide frameworks for understanding the already-existing patterns of migrant organization that came together at this unusual historical turning point. “Civic binationality” refers to practices that are engaged both with US civic life and with migrants’ communities and countries of origin. The related concept of “migrant civil society” refers to migrant-led membership organizations and public institutions (which may not be engaged with communities of origin). The goal of this latter concept is to underscore the significance of migrant capacity for self-representation. The recognition of practices of migrant civic binationality, grounded in an emerging migrant civil society, helps us to understand the patterns of civic engagement and repertoires of action that inform migrant participation in US society. The point of departure here is that, at least for many adult migrants, their initiation into civic life either takes place in their country of origin, or is oriented toward their country of origin. As many analysts of civic engagement have long noted, the best predictor of civic involvement of any kind is past involvement –even if in a completely different arena. 1Apparently, some people are more likely to be joiners than others – across cultures. From this perspective, the kind of civic engagement witnessed on a mass scale in the spring of 2006 was in part grounded in longstanding, often low profile practices of migrant civic binationality. At the same time, the 2006 marches constitute a powerful indicator that millions of immigrants have also been fully transplanted into the US public sphere, followed by subsequent increases in naturalization and voter turnout among “new Americans”in 2008.

Source: Center for Global, International and Regional Studies. U.C. Santa Cruz [via eScholarship Repository]

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Spatial Heterogeneity and Minimum Wages: Employment Estimates for Teens Using Cross-State Commuting Zones

Conventional approaches to estimating the effect of minimum wages on teen employment insufficiently account for heterogeneous employment patterns and selectivity of states with higher minimum wages. We overcome this problem by using policy discontinuities at state borders. Our estimates from cross-state labor markets (commuting zones) using data from the Census and the American Community Survey show that the measured negative impacts on teen employment in traditional estimates are driven by insufficient controls for spatial heterogeneity. We also replicate our key results using the Current Population Survey and show that the negative employment impact in traditional specifications is driven by pre-existing trends. Finally, by using a version of randomization inference, we devise a new test for heterogeneous effects of minimum wages across different local labor markets. We do not find evidence of such heterogeneous treatment effects using this new approach.

Source: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Working Paper Series U.C. Berkeley [via eScholarship Repository]

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America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009 is a compendium of indicators illustrating both the promises and the difficulties confronting our Nation's young people. The report presents 40 key indicators on important aspects of children's lives. These indicators are drawn from our most reliable statistics, easily understood by broad audiences, objectively based on substantial research, balanced so that no single area of children's lives dominates the report, measured regularly so that they can be updated to show trends over time, and representative of large segments of the population rather than one particular group.

Source: Institute of Education Sciences (IES)

Download full pdf report | Link to online summary and ability to download report in sections

Why does the US dominate university league tables?

Abstract:

According to Academic Ranking of World Universities, the world’s top 500 universities are owned by only 38 countries, with the US alone having 157 of them. This paper investigates the socioeconomic determinants of the wide performance gap between countries and whether the US’s dominance in the league table is largely due to its economic power or something else. It is found that a large amount of cross country variation in university performance can be explained by just four socioeconomic factors: income, population size, R&D spending, and the national language. It is also found that conditional on the resources that it has, the US is actually underperforming by about 4 to 10 percent.

Source: University of Queensland, School of Economics Discussion Papers (AU)

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Ready to Assemble: Grading State Higher Education Accountability Systems

States need strong higher education systems, now more than ever. In the tumultuous, highly competitive 21st century economy, citizens and workers need knowledge, skills, and credentials in order to prosper. Yet many colleges and universities are falling short. To give all students the best possible postsecondary education, states must create smart, effective higher education accountability systems, modeled from the best practices of their peers, and set bold, concrete goals for achievement.

In 2008 and 2009, Education Sector conducted a comprehensive analysis of higher education accountability systems in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. We analyzed thousands of documents, Web sites, policies, and laws attempting to answer two questions:

1. What information do states collect on their higher education institutions?
2. How do they use that information to affect institutional improvement?

Source: Education Sector

Link to online report with available scorecards for each state

How Does Retirement Affect Health?

Abstract:

This paper investigates the effects of retirement on various health outcomes. Data stem from the first three waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). With this informative data, non-parametric matching methods can be applied to identify causal effects. It is found that retirement significantly increases the risk of being diagnosed with a chronic condition. In particular, it raises the risk of developing a cardiovascular disease and being diagnosed with cancer. Estimates also indicate that retirement has quite diverse effects for different individuals.

Source: Institute for the Study of Labor

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Growing Old in America: Expectations vs. Reality

From online Summary:

Getting old isn't nearly as bad as people think it will be. Nor is it quite as good.

On aspects of everyday life ranging from mental acuity to physical dexterity to sexual activity to financial security, a new Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends survey on aging among a nationally representative sample of 2,969 adults finds a sizable gap between the expectations that young and middle-aged adults have about old age and the actual experiences reported by older Americans themselves.

Source : Pew Research Center : Social and demographic trends

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Pew Survey : Coverage of Jackson's Death Seen As Excessive

From the online summary

Blacks Track News of Icon's Death Much More Closely than Whites

The public closely tracked the sudden death of pop superstar Michael Jackson last week, though nearly two-in-three Americans say news organizations gave too much coverage to the story. At the same time, half say the media struck the right balance between reporting on Jackson’s musical legacy and the problems in his personal life.

Source: Pew Research Center for people and the press

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

Immigration Policies and Issues on Health- Related Grounds for Exclusion

Summary:

Under current law, foreign nationals not already legally residing in the United States who wish to come to the United States generally must obtain a visa and submit to an inspection to be admitted. They must first meet a set of criteria specified in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that determine whether they are eligible for admission. Moreover, they must also not be deemed inadmissible according to specified grounds in the INA. One of the reasons why a foreign national might be deemed inadmissible is on health-related grounds. The diseases that trigger inadmissibility in the INA are those communicable diseases of public health significance as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). The recent outbreak of the 2009 H1N1 virus (commonly called Swine Flu) has generated attention in Congress and the media, particularly with its relationship to foreign travel. With Mexico reportedly being the likely source country of this strain of influenza, and its spread to a number of areas across the United States, questions have been raised on travel restrictions to the United States, particularly in regard to foreign nationals. Potential issues for Congress are three-fold: (1) are current health-related grounds for exclusion sufficient to ensure public safety in regards to contagious diseases; (2) would increased restrictions on foreign travel (even temporarily) inflict more economic harm than benefit; and (3) are the resources provided for frontline agencies charged with screening foreign travelers sufficient to identify potentially infected travelers? From an immigration standpoint, infectious disease outbreaks place the greatest procedural and resource pressures on Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CBP is charged with screening admissions of all travelers at land, sea, and air ports of entry (POE), and CBP Officers screened approximately 409 million individuals in FY2008 for admissions into the United States. CBP works in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to monitor travelers and attempt to contain any diseases that may be spread by travelers coming from abroad. CDC, in conjunction with CBP, operates 20 quarantine stations and has health officials on call for all ports of entry. DHS has established its role in case of a pandemic outbreak through a memorandum of understanding with other agencies and in The National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. Various federal statutes and legal questions may arise should a response to an influenza pandemic require limiting the use of transportation-related infrastructure, which includes, but is not limited to airports, seaports, and land ports of entry. Constitutional concerns, especially those related to the right to travel may also be implicated by decisions impacting transportation-related infrastructure. In recent years health-related grounds for exclusion has also been a congressional concern for other contagious diseases. In addition to the H1N1 outbreak, these diseases have included tuberculosis (TB).

Source: Congressional Research Service

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Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs

From Summary:
A phenomenon that has become more and more important over the last decade, direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising has grown from about $800 million in 1996 to over $4.7 billion in 2007. Its supporters point to more informed consumers who then visit their doctors and become more involved in their own treatment, leading to better and earlier diagnosis of undertreated illnesses. The critics believe that industrys presentation of the balance of drug benefit and risk information may encourage the inappropriate use of advertised products and lead to higher than necessary spending. In addition to concerns with accuracy and balance, health professionals point out that DTC ads rarely mention alternative treatments, such as other or generic medications or non-drug interventions. In 1962, Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certain authorities to regulate prescription drug advertising. Except in extreme circumstances, the law does not allow FDA to require pre-release review of ads. Regulations written at a time when most ads were printed in medical journals for a physician audience require that all drug ads disclose all of a drugs known risks. However, as drug makers considered moving into broadcast advertising and wanted to get their messages to consumers, they noted, without explicit guidance from FDA, the difficulty in including all risks in the format of a 30-second commercial. FDA issued guidance in 1999 stipulating that broadcast ads had to include the advertised products most important risks in the audio portion of the advertisement and should give sources where more complete risk information about a drug would be available. FDA reviews ads once they are launched, and its enforcement options are notice-of-violation and warning letters, criminal prosecution (through the Department of Justice), civil monetary penalties, product seizures, and withdrawal of approval for sale. Despite these activities, Members of Congress and the public ask what FDA could do differently in light of the safety problems involving some heavily advertised medications. Congress could consider a variety of options to allay concerns about DTC drug advertising.

Source: Congressional Research Service

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The Housing Problem and the Economic Crisis: A Review and Evaluation of Policy Prescriptions

Abstract:

The US economy is in the throes of the worst financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression. What commenced as a crisis in the US housing and mortgage markets has contaminated other sectors and spread globally. Hitherto, most policy efforts and resources have been devoted to propping up the banking and financial sector. It is clear that in order to restore economic growth and confidence internationally, policies must be designed and implemented to stabilize the housing market. With this objective in mind, our paper analyzes and evaluates a wide and comprehensive spectrum of policy proposals that have been put forward to deal with the critical issue of housing foreclosures and the need to stabilize the housing and housing finance sector. We also describe the genesis and evolution of the crisis, as well as present our own cross-state analysis of the determinants of subprime mortgages and foreclosures.

We examine initial responses of various Government agencies and public-private partnerships, the recent Obama administration programs and proposals, as well as wide-ranging and diverse proposals from prominent academics, policy think-tanks and housing experts. Proposed plans include solutions involving auxiliary loans, shared appreciation mortgages, standards for renegotiated principal, across-the-board rate adjustments, creation of new Government institutions and legal reform. We analyze the potential effectiveness of these proposals applying our benchmark criteria of i) non-recurrence and future mitigation of moral hazard, ii) bang for the buck, iii) fairness and distributive aspects, iv) judicious mix of short-term and long term solutions, and v) regulatory implications. In conclusion, we propose some essential elements of a fair, effective and viable plan to fix the residential finance system and the housing market.

Source: Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics. U.C. Berkeley

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Where Are the Voices? Moving Beyond HIV in the Lives of Female Sex Workers

Abstract:

Tijuana promises different things to different people. Throughout Mexico people in difficult circumstances dream of moving to the US-Mexico border in search of better economic opportunities and the chance to be closer to the American dream. Men of means from the United States and other countries flock to Tijuana in search of new and exciting sexual adventures. At the crossroads, we find women working in the sex industry in order to give their families a better life and at the same time servicing men seeking sex.

UCLA Center for the Study of Women. CSW Update Newsletter.

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Trashy Robots: Desire and Disposability in Patricia Yaeger’s “Luminous Trash: Throwaway Robots in Blade Runner, the Terminators, A.I., and Wall•E”

Abstract:

What does it mean for humans to desire human-like relationships with robots? What kind of sovereignty do we want to have over our trash? These two seemingly unrelated questions melded together exquisitely during Patricia Yaeger’s talk “Luminous Trash: Throwaway Robots in Blade Runner, the Terminators, A.I. and Wall•E.” Yaeger directed her audiences’ eyes towards robots as trash, and in doing so, linked together present and future possibilities for re-thinking automated relationships, technological power, and wasteful consumption. Yaeger, the Henry Simmons Frieze Collegiate Professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan, spoke to an overflowing room about our fascination with robots and trash, both of whom—or of which, depending on your comfort level with anthropomorphizing non-human subjects—highlight tensions between our desires and their limits.

Source: UCLA Center for the Study of Women.

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Strong Public Interest in Iranian Election Protests

The dramatic events in Iran last week captured the attention of both the public and the media as Americans tracked news about post-election protests in Tehran nearly as closely as they followed news about the troubled U.S. economy.

Two-in-ten say they followed news about the street protests over disputed election results – and the government bid to contain them – more closely than any other major story last week. That’s about the same as the 22% that say they most closely followed news about the economy, the week’s other top story.

Source: Pew Research Center for People and the Press

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

Political Science Faculty Salaries at the University of California

Combining salary data for permanent non-emeritus faculty at seven departments of political science within the University of California system with lifetime citation counts and other individual level data from the Masuoka, Grofman and Feld (2007) study of faculty at Ph.D. granting political science departments in the United States, we analyze determinants of faculty salaries. For the full data set our main finding are that (1) base salaries of UC political science faculty are slightly more strongly correlated to citation rates (annualized or total lifetime citations) as a measure of research visibility than they are to seniority measured by years since receipt of the Ph.D; and (2) that gender differences and subfield differences in salary essentially vanish once we take into account both year of Ph.D. and research visibility (as measured by annualized citation counts), while gender inequities would appear to exist if we did not control for both variables and thus may appear in the kinds of simpler gender equity comparisons commonly done within the UC system that lack any performance control variable. Also (3) looking across the seven campuses, despite the philosophy of common academic personnel standards across campuses, we find differences in average compensation levels even after we control for cross-campus difference in seniority and faculty research visibility. In particular, the three nationally highest ranked UC political science departments (UCB, UCLA and UCSD) collectively attach considerably less relative weight to seniority relative to citation record in determining faculty salaries than do the other four UC departments, have greater salary variation among those roughly the same time past Ph.D., and, on average, pay higher salaries even after seniority and citations are controlled.

Source: Center for the Study of Democracy. Paper 09-04. U.C. Irvine

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Helping Each Other in Times of Need Financial Help as a Means of Coping with the Economic Crisis

Abstract:

One way that U.S. households are coping with the global economic downturn is by reaching out to each other via financial help. This paper reports survey results from late 2008 and early 2009 that detail patterns of giving and receiving financial help among households in response to the economic crisis, and how these patterns vary by age and income. Among the key findings are that many more households are giving financial help than receiving it and that help most frequently flows from parents to children.

Source: RAND Corporation

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How Much Does President Obama’s Budget Redistribute Income?

From the introduction:

Throughout last year's presidential campaign and continuing through President Obama's first two quarters in office, income redistribution has been a hot-button topic among policymakers, the media, and the general public. The issue was explicitly brought to the forefront of the campaign debate during the now infamous exchange between then-candidate Obama and "Joe the Plumber," who asked why the candidate wanted to tax people like him who own a business that makes $250,000. Obama replied, "... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

How much should the nation's tax and spending programs move money down the income scale? Unfortunately, the basic questions needed to inform that debate have not been answered: "How much are we actually redistributing right now?" and "How would President Obama's proposals change the amount of redistribution?"

Answering those questions is the purpose of the Tax Foundation's fiscal incidence project, whose initial products are this Special Report and the accompanying working paper. Here we focus on 2012 because that is the first fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2011 - Sept. 30, 2012) during which the full Obama policy agenda is scheduled to be in effect, including his treatment of the expiring Bush tax cuts. That is also the first year in which Obama wants significant tax revenue deposited into his proposed health reform reserve fund. It is also when his climate revenues proposal kicks in. The projected budget deficit for FY 2012 is large, $557 billion, but it is actually much smaller than what the administration's budget predicts for fiscal years 2009 and 2010, both of which exceed $1 trillion.

Download full pdf publication | Link to the Tax Foundation

Created Equal: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the US. Criminal Justice System

The prevalence of disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in the U.S. is assessed. Sections comprising this report are: introduction; methodology; arrests; court processing -- pretrial decisions, convictions, and sentencing; new admissions to prison; incarceration in prisons (federal or state) and local jails; probation and parole; death penalty; total control; recidivism; juveniles; and conclusion.

Source: National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) (Oakland, CA)


Download full pdf report | Link to Library of NCCD

SREB Fact Book on Higher Education

The SREB Fact Book on Higher Education is one of the nation’s most comprehensive collections of comparative data on higher education. For decades, state leaders, policy-makers, researchers and journalists have used the Fact Book to find useful data quickly — and to learn more about long-term trends and developments in SREB states and across the nation.

Source: Southern Regional Education Bureau

Link to site to download SREB Fact Book

Strategies and Models for Promoting Adolescent Vaccination for Low-Income Populations

Abstract:

There is new and growing interest in adolescent immunization. Since 2005, three new vaccines for older children have been licensed in the United States and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although the majority of 13–17-year-olds have received recommended vaccines, rates remain below 2010 targets, and the coverage rates for low-income adolescents and minority youth are likely to be lower. The authors discuss barriers to expanded adolescent immunization and develop recommendations to address those barriers. Some recommendations — such as creating concrete, actionable, and active messaging for adolescents and their parents and fostering school accountability for administering vaccines — can be accomplished within the existing legal framework. Others — such as making parental consent time-enduring and administering consent through a Web portal — have tremendous potential to improve coverage rates among adolescents and children but require modernization of current consent laws.

Source: RAND Corporation

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New Materials from Nixon Administration

The Nixon Presidential Library has opened approximately 154 hours of tape recordings from the Nixon White House recorded in January and February 1973 and consisting of approximately 994 conversations. The conversations cover topics such as the conclusion of a peace settlement between the United States and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the return of American POWs, President Nixon’s second inauguration, the U.S. and Europe, the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, energy policy, the reorganization of the executive branch, the creation of a “New Majority” for a reinvigorated Republican Party, and the first Watergate trial.

Source : The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum

Link to listen to the Nixon tapes | Link to library main site

Census Bureau Reports World’s Older Population Projected to Triple by 2050

From the Press Release

The world’s 65-and-older population is projected to triple by midcentury, from 516 million in 2009 to 1.53 billion in 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In contrast, the population under 15 is expected to increase by only 6 percent during the same period, from 1.83 billion to 1.93 billion.

In the United States, the population 65 and older will more than double by 2050, rising from 39 million today to 89 million. While children are projected to still outnumber the older population worldwide in 2050, the under 15 population in the United States is expected to fall below the older population by that date, increasing from 62 million today to 85 million.

These figures come from the world population estimates and projections released... through the Census Bureau’s International Data Base. This latest update includes projections by age, including people 100 and older, for 227 countries and areas

.

Link to Census Bureau's International Database

Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair, 1886-1887

This collection showcases more than 3,800 images of original manuscripts, broadsides, photographs, prints and artifacts relating to the Haymarket Affair. The violent confrontation between Chicago police and labor protesters in 1886 proved to be a pivotal setback in the struggle for American workers' rights. These materials pertain to: the May 4, 1886 meeting and bombing; to the trial, conviction and subsequent appeals of those accused of inciting the bombing; and to the execution of four of the convicted and the later pardon of the remaining defendants. Of special interest and significance are the two dozen images of three-dimensional artifacts, including contemporary Chicago Police Department paraphernalia, labor banners, and an unexploded bomb casing given to juror J. H. Brayton by Chicago Police Captain Michael Schaack. The cornerstone is the presentation, as images and searchable text, of the transcript of the 3,200 pages of proceedings from the murder trial of State of Illinois v. August Spies, et al.

Source: Library of Congress and Chicago History Museum

Link to Haymarket Affair site

The Sotomayor Record : Criminal Justice

As the report observes, Judge Sotomayor's criminal law record "reveals the temperament of a former prosecutor who understands the real-world demands of prosecuting crime and fundamentally respects the rule of law while remaining alert to the rights of criminal defendants."

Judge Sotomayor's long tenure on the bench and her service in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office gives her more experience with criminal law than any of the current Supreme Court justices. She has been endorsed by eight national law enforcement groups and her extensive record in criminal law "proves her to be a careful, prudent jurist who adheres strictly to precedent."

Source: Alliance for Justice



Download full pdf report | Link to AFJ.org

Social Science for Counterterrorism

The authors report on an aggressively interdisciplinary project to survey and integrate the scholarly social-science literature relevant to counterterrorism. They draw on literature from numerous disciplines, both qualitative and quantitative, and then use high-level conceptual models to pull the pieces together. In their monograph, they identify points of agreement and disagreement and point out instances in which disagreements merely reflect difference of research context or perspective. Priorities for further research are suggested and improved ways to frame questions for research and analysis are identified. The questions addressed relate to how terrorism arises, why some individuals become terrorists, how terrorists generate public support, how terrorist organizations make decisions, how terrorism declines, why individuals disengage, and how strategic communications can be more or less effective.

Source: RAND Corporation

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Fathers' Alcohol Use and Substance Use among Adolescents

Alcohol dependence or abuse—and even moderate alcohol use—among fathers living with adolescents (i.e., youths aged 12 to 17) may increase the risk of substance use among those children. Increasing public awareness of the association between paternal alcohol use and adolescent substance use may help to focus attention on providing treatment for affected fathers and support for their children to prevent or reduce adolescent substance use. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) gathers information that can help to provide a better understanding of the relationship between paternal alcohol use and adolescent substance use.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

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Ups and Downs: Does the American Economy Still Promote Upward Mobility?

As Americans face rising unemployment rates and greater uncertainty about the future in this current economic downturn, this report investigates the extent to which the American economy promotes upward economic mobility (in the form of income growth) and prevents downward economic mobility (in the form of income declines), and whether it does so to the same degree as in the past. There is widespread consensus that the current recession is likely to affect more families than any since the Great Depression. But more fundamental than the impact of any one recession is whether the United States has entered an era in which families must permanently lower their expectations for income growth and brace themselves for more and bigger income losses.

Source: Pew Economic Mobility Project

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Can Science and Religion Co-Exist in Harmony?

Some of the nation’s leading journalists gathered in Key West, Fla., in May 2009 for the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life’s Faith Angle Conference on religion, politics and public life.

Francis S. Collins, the former director of the Human Genome Project, discussed why he believes religion and science are compatible and why the current conflict over evolution vs. faith, particularly in the evangelical community, is unnecessary. Collins, an evangelical Christian, talked about his path from atheism to Christianity and his belief that science provides evidence of God. He cited the Big Bang theory and the fact that the universe had a beginning out of nothing. He added that the laws of physics have precisely the values needed for life to occur on earth and argued that would seem to point to a creator.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty, the religion correspondent for National Public Radio, discussed how the brain reacts to spiritual experiences. She talked about the current debate over whether transcendent experiences are merely physiological events or whether they reflect encounters with another dimension. Bradley Hagerty said she believes that “God is a choice,” that people can look at scientific evidence and conclude that everything is explained by material means or that they can look at the universe and see the hand of God.

Source : Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

Link to full event transcript

2008 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons

Forced population displacement has grown in size and complexity in recent years, and the 2008 Global Trends report reflects many of the major humanitarian developments between January and December 2008. The report analyses the statistical trends and changes in the global populations for whom UNHCR has been entrusted with a responsibility by the United Nations General Assembly. These include refugees, returnees, stateless persons and certain groups of internally displaced persons (IDPs), collectively referred to in this report as “persons of concern”.

Source: United Nations [via UN Pulse]

Download full pdf report | Link to News Release

Access to Broadband Networks: The Net Neutrality Debate

As congressional policymakers continue to debate telecommunications reform, a major point of contention is the question of whether action is needed to ensure unfettered access to the Internet. The move to place restrictions on the owners of the networks that compose and provide access to the Internet, to ensure equal access and non-discriminatory treatment, is referred to as net neutrality. There is no single accepted definition of net neutrality. However, most agree that any such definition should include the general principles that owners of the networks that compose and provide access to the Internet should not control how consumers lawfully use that network, and they should not be able to discriminate against content provider access to that network. Concern over whether it is necessary for policymakers to take steps to ensure access to the Internet for content, services, and applications providers, as well as consumers, and if so, what these steps should be, is a major focus in the debate over telecommunications reform. Some policymakers contend that more specific regulatory guidelines may be necessary to protect the marketplace from potential abuses which could threaten the net neutrality concept. Others contend that existing laws and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policies are sufficient to deal with potential anti-competitive behavior and that additional regulations would have negative effects on the expansion and future development of the Internet.

Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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The Role of the Department of Defense During A Flu Pandemic

A flu pandemic is a worldwide epidemic of an influenza virus. As such, the United States response to a flu pandemic would have both international and domestic components. Additionally, the domestic response effort would include contributions from every governmental level (local, state, tribal, and federal), non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. This report will focus largely on the role of the Department of Defense (DOD) in supporting the nations domestic response effort, although it will also touch on DODs international role. The Department of State would lead the federal governments international response efforts, while the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services would lead the federal governments domestic response. The Department of Defense would likely be called upon to support both the international and domestic efforts.

Source: Congressional Research Service, Library Of Congress

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Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America: An Overview and Selected Issues

The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) is a trilateral initiative that was launched in March 2005 to increase cooperation and information sharing for the purpose of increasing and enhancing security and prosperity in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The SPP is a government initiative that was endorsed by the leaders of the three countries, but it is not a signed agreement or treaty and, therefore, contains no legally binding commitments or obligations. It can, at best, be characterized as an endeavor by the three countries to facilitate communication and cooperation across several key policy areas of mutual interest. Although the SPP builds upon the existing trade and economic relationship of the three countries, it is not a trade agreement and is distinct from the existing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Some key issues for Congress regarding the SPP concern possible implications related to private sector priorities, national sovereignty, transportation corridors, cargo security, and border security.

Source: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress

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Internet Use Triples in Decade, Census Bureau Reports

Press Release:
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that 62 percent of households reported using Internet access in the home in 2007, an increase from 18 percent in 1997, the first year the bureau collected data on Internet use. (See Table 1.)

Sixty-four percent of individuals 18 and over used the Internet from any location in 2007, while only 22 percent did so in 1997. (See table 2.)

Among households using the Internet in 2007, 82 percent reported using a high-speed connection, and 17 percent used a dial-up connection. (See Table 1.)

“As access to high speed connections have become more prevalent, so too have the number of people that connect to the Internet at home,” said Thom File, a statistician with the Census Bureau Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division. “These data give us a better understanding of who is using the Internet and from where.”

Among the states, Alaska and New Hampshire residents had among the highest rates of Internet use from any location (home, work or public access) for those 3 and older in 2007. Mississippi and West Virginia had among the lowest rates of Internet use at about 52 percent. (See Table 3.)

Internet usage also varied by education. For individuals 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree, 87 percent reported going online from any location in 2007. For those with only some college, 74 percent reported using the Internet. About half (49 percent) of those with only a high school diploma reported using the Internet, compared with 19 percent for those without a high school diploma.

Internet usage also varied by race and Hispanic origin; 69 percent of whites lived in households with Internet use, while the same was true for 51 percent of blacks, 73 percent of Asians and 48 percent of Hispanics. (See Table 2.)

When looking at age groups, the percentage of 18- to 34-year-olds who accessed the Internet was more than double (73 percent) that of people 65 and older (35 percent). Among children 3 to 17, 56 percent used the Internet. (See Table 2.)

Link to detailed tables for viewing and download

Caste and Wealth Inequality in India

In this paper, we conduct the novel exercise of analyzing the relationship between overall wealth inequality and caste divisions in India using nationally representative surveys on household wealth conducted during 1991–92 and 2002–03. According to our findings, the groups in India that are generally considered disadvantaged (known as Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes) have, as one would expect, substantially lower wealth than the “forward” caste groups, while the Other Backward Classes and non-Hindus occupy positions in the middle. Using the ANOGI decomposition technique, we estimate that between-caste inequality accounted for about 13 percent of overall wealth inequality in 2002–03, in part due to the considerable heterogeneity within the broadly defined caste groups. The stratification parameters indicate that the forward caste Hindus overlap little with the other caste groups, while the latter have significantly higher degrees of overlap with one another and with the overall population. Using this method, we are also able to comment on the emergence and strengthening of a “creamy layer,” or relatively well-off group, among the disadvantaged castes, especially the Scheduled Tribes.

Source: Levy Economics Institute of Bard College

Download full pdf publication | Link to online report

CREDO National Charter School Study

From Press Release (June 15, 2009)

A new report issued today by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes
(CREDO) at Stanford University found that there is a wide variance in the quality of the nation’s several thousand charter schools with, in the aggregate, students in charter schools not faring as well as students in traditional public schools.

While the report recognized a robust national demand for more charter schools from parents and local communities, it found that 17 percent of charter schools reported academic gains that were significantly better than traditional public schools, while 37 percent of charter schools showed gains that were worse than their traditional public school counterparts, with 46 percent of charter schools demonstrating no significant difference.

Source: Center for Research on Education Outcomes

Download full pdf report | Download pdf executive summary

The State of Music Online: Ten Years After Napster

Overview:
In the decade since Napster’s launch, selling recorded music has become as much of an art as making the music itself. The music industry has been on the front lines of the battle to convert freeloaders into paying customers, and their efforts have been watched closely by other digitized industries—newspapers, book publishing and Hollywood among them—who are hoping to staunch their own bleeding before it’s too late.

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

Download pdf report | Link to online overview

Budgets: state-by-state session summaries

Stateline.org takes an exclusive look at major developments in state capitols as the country enters the second year of a national recession. Click above to see state-by-state reviews detailing how states are handling budget deficits and the federal stimulus package; the trends developing in key areas, such as education and health care; notable new legislation; and a chart of completed sessions and political control.

Link to Statline.org major development site

Childhood Abuse, Avatar Choices, and Other Risk Factors Associated With Internet-Initiated Victimization of Adolescent Girls

OBJECTIVE. The objective of the study was to determine the risk factors for Internet-initiated victimization of female adolescents. In particular, it was expected that girls who experienced childhood abuse would show higher vulnerability than their nonabused peers. In addition, the study examined how provocative self-presentations might be related to online sexual advances and offline encounters.

Source: Journal of Pediatrics

Download full pdf report | Link to online abstract

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the arts

From the Executive Summary
This report presents the results of the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the arts, which was given to a nationally representative sample of 7,900 eighth-grade public and private school students. Approximately one-half of these students were assessed in music, and the other half were assessed in visual arts.

The music portion of the assessment measured students’ ability to respond to music in various ways. Students were asked to analyze and describe aspects of music they heard, critique instrumental and vocal performances, and demonstrate their knowledge of standard musical notation and music’s role in society. One question, for example, asked students to identify the instrument they heard in the beginning solo of “Rhapsody in Blue” that was played for them.

The average responding score for music was reported on a NAEP scale of 0 to 300. Scores ranged from 105 for the lowest-performing students to 194 for the highest-performing students.

The visual arts portion of the assessment included questions that measured students’ ability to respond to art as well as questions that measured their ability to create art. Responding questions asked students to analyze and describe works of art and design. For example, students were asked to describe specific differences in how certain parts of an artist’s self-portrait were drawn. The average responding score for visual arts was reported on a NAEP scale of 0 to 300 with scores ranging from 104 for the lowest-performing students to 193 for the highest-performing students.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download full pdf report | Link to Summary

Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children: Opportunities in Improve Identification, Treatment, and Prevention

From Description"

Depression is a widespread condition affecting approximately 7.5 million parents in the U.S. each year and may be putting at least 15 million children at risk for adverse health outcomes. Based on evidentiary studies, major depression in either parent can interfere with parenting quality and increase the risk of children developing mental, behavioral and social problems. Depression in Parents, Parenting, and Children highlights disparities in the prevalence, identification, treatment, and prevention of parental depression among different sociodemographic populations. It also outlines strategies for effective intervention and identifies the need for a more interdisciplinary approach that takes biological, psychological, behavioral, interpersonal, and social contexts into consideration.

Source: The National Academies Press

Available to read online in sections or to purchase : Link to website.

AfriMAP, the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project

"AfriMAP, the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project, is an initiative of the Soros Foundation Network's four African foundations, and works with national civil society organizations to conduct systematic audits of government performance in three areas: the justice sector and the rule of law; political participation and democracy; and effective delivery of public services."

Link to AfriMAP

The Impact of Adequate Prenatal Care in a Developing Country: testing the WHO recommendations

Abstract:

Deficient birth outcomes entail greater mortality risks, and higher probabilities of poor future health. This study is the first statistical examination of the effect of the World Health Organization’s recommended number of prenatal care visits for developing countries on birth outcomes. This study accounts for the endogenous nature of prenatal care decisions by using an instrumental variables approach based on the accessibility of prenatal services. Using the CLHN Survey I construct a measure of prenatal care which involves both timing and intensity and that shows positive impacts for the combination of both. The results are highly robust to changes in measures of birth outcome but are only significant for urban areas. The lack of impact on rural areas could be due to the inferior quality of prenatal care services received there. This theory is corroborated when controlling directly for care quality.

Source: California Center for Population Research [via eScholarship Repository]

Download full pdf publication | Link to online abstract

Late High School Dropouts: Characteristics, Experiences, and Changes Across Cohorts

Abstract:
This report presents information about selected characteristics and experiences of high school sophomores in 2002 who subsequently dropped out of school. It also presents comparative data about late high school dropouts in the years 1982, 1992, and 2004. The findings address only dropping out in late high school and do not cover students who dropped out before the spring of 10th grade. For this reason, the reported rates are lower than those based on the students’ entire high school or earlier school career.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics

Download full pdf report | Link to online summary

UN : The report of the Commission on the Status of Women

The fifty-third session of the Commission on the Status of Women took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 2 to 13 March 2009.

The session was attended by representatives of Member States, UN entities and of ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world.

The Commission on the Status of Women considered the theme: “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS”

Source: United Nations

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Latin America and the Caribbean: economic situation and outlook, 2008-2009

Summary

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Latin America and the Caribbean stood at 4.2 per cent in 2008, which was the sixth consecutive year of expansion, yet at the same time marking the end of a period which has very few precedents in the economic history of the region.

The projected growth rate for 2009 points to an increase in the regional unemployment rate, from an estimated 7.5 per cent in 2008 to as much as 8.6 per cent in 2009. Trends in the world prices of foodstuffs and fuels, however, are likely to bring
about a marked fall in inflation, from 8.3 per cent in 2008 to 5.5-6 per cent in 2009.

What started out as a problem in the subprime mortgage market in the United States of America in mid-2007 became, just over a year later, a systemic crisis that crippled the credit markets of the developed countries and is already having an extremely negative impact on the real economy. Although the region is better prepared to face this crisis than previous ones, there are a number of channels through which the economies are being affected. First, the slowdown in the world economy is lowering the volume and prices of the region’s exports, bringing down remittances and cutting foreign direct investment and demand for tourism services. The countries are also faced with more difficult access to external credit, the cost of
which has increased.

In 2009, growth in Latin America and the Caribbean is expected to fall to a growth
rate of -0.3 per cent. The Governments of the region should make every effort to deploy countercyclical policies in order to ward off an even sharper economic decline.

Source: United Nations

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Rising Giants: Industrial Clusters Are Changing the Face of Chinese Manufacturing

Introduction:

Over the past 30 years, most economists have come to believe that advanced economies are less likely to be driven by strong, lone companies than by complex ecosystems, or clusters, centered in a particular industrial sector. The evidence shows that outsized economic growth often requires an outsized pool of talent and specialized capital in a single geographical region. Intuitively, this makes sense -- the public might like the idea of the heroic entrepreneur, but from Wall Street to Madison Avenue to Silicon Valley, the biggest success stories in American business are often less about an individual's or company's triumphs than the strength of interdependent, regional communities within an industry.

Teaching each other, helping each other, pushing each other -- the evidence all suggests that companies tend to profit from proximity, though what is good for business in general may not always maximize the fortunes of a particular company.

Source: Knowledge@Wharton

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The 2009 H1N1 \"Swine Flu\" Outbreak: An Overview

Summary:

On April 29, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its influenza (flu) pandemic alert level to Phase 5, one level below declaring that a global influenza pandemic was underway. According to WHO, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short. The WHO has increased the pandemic flu alert level in response to the spread of a new strain of influenza A subtype H1N1 virus. First identified in Mexico in March 2009, the novel flu strain has quickly spread to the United States, where, as of April 29, there are 91 confirmed cases of illness, including one death. Additional cases have been confirmed in several other countries. The new flu strain was initially dubbed swine flu because it contained genetic material from flu strains that normally circulate in swine. However, there has been no evidence to date that pigs are involved in the transmission of this virus. There have been concerns that the term swine flu has had unwarranted trade implications for swine and pork products, among other concerns. On April 30, 2009, WHO began referring to the new strain as influenza A(H1N1). Federal agencies have adopted a pandemic response posture, under the overall coordination of the Secretary of Homeland Security. The Obama Administration has requested $1.5 billion in emergency supplemental appropriations to address the threat, and congressional committees in both chambers have convened emergency hearings to assess the situation. This report provides an introduction to the situation regarding the potential of a global human influenza pandemic caused by the new H1N1 flu strain; a brief chronology of events; a discussion of key actions taken and authorities invoked by the WHO and the U.S. government; information about key U.S. government pandemic flu planning documents; and sources for additional information about the situation as it unfolds.

Source: Congressional Research Service

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Show me the money! The geography of contributions to California's Proposition 8

Abstract:
This paper provides an overview of disclosure with regard to contributions in favor of and against California's Proposition 8 measure that banned same-sex marriage. Using publicly available data, out-of-state and in-state contributions are mapped, and the geography of California state politics and the consequences of disclosure are discussed.

Source: California Center for Population Research. On-Line Working Paper Series. Paper CCPR-013-09. [via eScholarship Repository]

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Environmental Protection for Developing Countries: The Polluter-Does-Not-Pay Principle

Abstract:

The polluter-pays principle stipulates that the person who damages the environment must bear the cost of such damage. A number of developing countries have recently extended this principle creating an obligation on the state to compensate the victims of environmental harm. This variation of the polluter-pays principle is aimed at ensuring victims’ compensation when polluters cannot be identified or are insolvent. These regimes hold state and local governments primarily or jointly-and-severally liable for environmental damage and allow the government to act in subrogation against the polluters. In this paper we study the effect of this form of governmental liability which we describe as the polluter-does-not-pay regime on the polluters’ incentives and on aggregate levels of environmental harm. We develop an economic model to study the polluter-does-not-pay principle, identifying the conditions under which this regime may be a more effective instrument for environmental protection. We conclude suggesting that this regime may be desirable in environments characterized by widespread poverty, high interest rates, judicial delays and uncertainty in adjudication.

Source: Berkeley Program in Law & Economics. Latin American and Caribbean Law and Economics Association (ALACDE) Annual Papers. Paper 060509-01. [via eScholarship repository]

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Warrantless Wiretapping, FISA Reform, and the Lessons of Public Liberty

From the abstract:
Through the lens of the recent amendment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), this Essay analyzes a number of Holmesian concepts through. Its Part I describes the background of FISA, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) warrantless surveillance program in violation of this statute, and the amendments to this law in the Protect America Act of 2007, a short term statutory “fix” that has expired, and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which remains in effect. Its Part II turns to an analysis of the challenges to private and public liberty posed by the NSA’s surveillance. This Part is organized around three topics: (1) past wisdom as codified in law; (2) the impact of secrecy on government behavior; and (3) institutional lessons. As we shall see, a Holmesian search for the wisdom previously collected in law proves quite difficult. FISA regulated some aspects of intelligence gathering and left the intelligence community entirely free to engage in others. Over time, moreover, technological innovations and altered national security concerns transformed the implications of the past policy landscape. As a result, the toughest questions, which concern surveillance of foreign-to-domestic communications, do not receive an easy answer from the past.

Source: Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Law and Technology Scholarship (Selected by the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology). Paper 67. [via eScholarship repository]

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Transforming Our Schools : report captures best practices.

"...an in-depth look at the challenges facing today’s school superintendents as they work to transform the nation’s public schools. The report summarizes discussions held among the country’s top public school superintendents at the 2008 National Superintendent of the Year Forum, an intensive, three-day leadership event hosted by AASA, ARAMARK Education and the ING Foundation, the program’s sponsors.

At the forum, the 2008 State Superintendents of the Year from urban, suburban and rural school systems participated in interactive discussions on best practices for transforming their schools to meet the needs of all students."

Source: American Association of Schoool Administrators

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