Teen Girls Report Abusive
Boyfriends Try to Get Them Pregnant
Seven years ago, Elizabeth
Miller was a volunteer physician in a community-based clinic in Boston, Mass., which offered confidential services
to teens. That nagging question inspired Miller, now a pediatrician with
UC Davis Children's Hospital, to dedicate her career to trying to understand
the unique characteristics of adolescent partner violence. In a new qualitative
clinical study published in the September-October issue of the journal Ambulatory
Pediatrics, Miller and her research colleagues report that a quarter of the
teenage girls interviewed for the study -- all of whom had histories of abusive
relationships -- say their partners were actively trying to get them pregnant.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/teen-girls-repo.php
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Study on Joint Attention
Has Implications for Understanding Autism
Joint attention capability
involves social cognition (the cognitive processes involved in social interaction)
and makes a significant contribution to the foundations for language development,
as well as social competence. It is vital to social competence at all ages:
Children and adults that are unable to follow engage and react to joint attention
may forever be impaired in their capacity for relatedness and relationships.
In fact, clinical research indicates that autism is characterized by chronic,
pronounced impairments in initiating joint attention.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/study-on-joint.php
**Civic Engagement/Societal
Trends
Online Bibliography Marks 50th Anniversary of Little Rock Crisis; 1,500
Books and Journals from Scholarly Publishers Offer Knowledge, Insight on Race
Relations in the U.S.
Fifty years after the Little
Rock Schools Crisis brought the conflicts over desegregation to a head, the
case of the "Jena 6" in Louisiana is a troubling reminder of how racism
still affects the relations between black and white Americans. Through Books
for Understanding, an extensive bibliography on the history of race relations
in the United States is available freely online, to provide
students, journalists, and concerned citizens with the knowledge of the wider
context of events in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, and Jena, Louisiana, today.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/online-bibliogr.php
**Economic Security
Black Caribbeans Do Better
in America than in England
Black Caribbeans living
in America enjoy better health, higher incomes
and less discrimination at work than both their English counterparts and black
Americans, according to the first international comparative study of these
populations. The study was led by sociologists at the University of Manchester, U.K., and the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and
found that Caribbeans in the United States were more than twice as likely as
Caribbeans in England to say their health was good. In
addition, Caribbean Americans reported less discrimination at work than their
English counterparts, although levels of experienced racial abuse were similar
in the two countries.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/black-caribbean.php
**Education
U.S. Department of Education Has Awarded
More Than $3.5 Million to Charter School Developers Across
the Country
The U.S. Department of Education
awarded more than $3.5 million to 22 grantees across the country to help plan,
design and create new charter schools and to increase the school choices that
parents have to provide their children. The Department's program is the most
prevalent source of start-up funding for charter schools, with nearly two-thirds
having received Charter School Program (CSP) funds during their start-up phase.
The CSP has received more than $1.9 billion from Congress since first being
appropriated in 1995, and the department provides some $250 million a year
to help sustain and expand charter schools across the nation.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/us-department-o-2.php
Department Awards $100
Million in Magnet School Grants
U.S. Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings announced the award of $100 million in Magnet School grants
to 41 school districts in 17 states. The awards will help school districts
create more school choices for parents, bring diverse groups of children together
and help create innovative educational programs. These grants will help create
innovative educational programs for students and increase options for parents.
The funds will help school districts establish new magnet schools or expand
existing magnet programs that are part of a school district's court-ordered
or federally approved voluntary desegregation plan.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/department-awar-1.php
Program Provides Blueprint
for Recruiting Minorities to Science and Engineering
The Model Institutions for
Excellence Program (MIE) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed a body
of work over the past 11 years demonstrating successful strategies for recruiting
underrepresented minority students to science and engineering fields and supporting
their successful completion of science degrees. Among the keys to the MIE
program's success are helping to bridge the transition from high school to
college through training of elementary, middle school and high school teachers
and offering summer orientation programs.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/program-provide.php
$17.2 Million Awarded
in Grants to Help Hispanic-Serving Institutions
U.S. Department of Education
announced the award of 30 new grants totaling $17.2 million to benefit colleges
and other postsecondary schools that enroll a high percentage of Hispanic
students. At the higher education level it's a different story where Hispanic
students still lag behind their peers in earning a post-secondary credential.
Grants are awarded under the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions program
to expand educational opportunities and improve the educational attainment
of Hispanic students. The purpose of the grants is to improve the academic
quality, institutional stability, management, and fiscal capabilities of eligible
institutions.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/172-million-awa.php
College Admission Process
Gets More 'Up Close and Personal' for Students and Families
Students and families will
encounter a college admission process that offers more opportunity for personalized
communication than in any previous year, according to a report released by
the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). Earlier
in the year, NACAC released a supplemental report entitled, Balancing Acts:
How School Counselors View Risks and Opportunities of Student Loans. Scandals
in the student loan and financial aid communities have further reduced the
"reliable" sources for counselors as they advise students on ways
to finance their postsecondary education.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/college-admissi.php
**Health
Older Blacks and Latinos
Still Lag Whites in Controlling Diabetes
Despite decades of advances
in diabetes care, African-Americans and Latinos are still far less likely
than whites to have their blood sugar under control, even with the help of
medications, a new national study finds. That puts them at a much higher risk
of blindness, heart attack, kidney failure and other long-term diabetes complications.
But the study also suggests opportunities to decrease the disparities.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/older-blacks-an.php
Medicare Prescription
Drug Benefit Progress Report: Chartpack
In the first in-depth look
at seniors' experiences with Medicare's prescription drug benefit, a new survey
finds that the majority of seniors who lacked drug coverage in 2005---before
the establishment of the benefit---obtained it in 2006. Even with Part D
coverage, however, many seniors reported relatively high out-of-pocket spending
in 2006. The survey, which included self-reported responses from more than
16,000 non-institutionalized seniors, was conducted in the fall of 2006 by
Tufts-New England Medical Center with support from the Kaiser Family Foundation
and The Commonwealth Fund.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/medicare-prescr-2.php
California Kids Lose Employment-Based Coverage
Children throughout the
United States have worsening access to employment-based
health care coverage over the last few years. With growing losses in employment-based
coverage and public programs demonstrably under-funded, there looms a large
problem of uninsured kids. Children in California are no exception: by 2006, just over
half of children there under 18 had employer-provided health insurance. A
new Briefing Paper, from the Economic Policy
Institute documents the ways in which children without employment-based
coverage affect those around them, and provides further evidence for the need
for important legislative changes in California and the United States as a whole.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/california-kids.php
********SCHIP Coverage********
Senate, House Announce
Agreement to Renew, Improve Children's Health Insurance Program Now
From Office of the Speaker
of the House:
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/senate-house-an.php
CBO Estimates Show SCHIP
Agreement Would Provide Health Insurance to 3.8 Million Uninsured Children
New Congressional Budget
Office estimates show that by 2012, a total of 3.8 million children who otherwise
would be uninsured would have health care coverage under the bipartisan agreement
reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) developed
by House and Senate negotiators. CBO consequently estimates that a total
of about 3.2 million of these 3.8 million children --- or 84 percent of them
--- are children who have incomes below the current eligibility limits that
states have set. Key elements of the bipartisan agreement would extend the
SCHIP program for five years and raise SCHIP funding levels both to enable
states to sustain existing children's enrollment and to cover more low-income
children.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/cbo-estimates-s-2.php
AARP Asks Texas Governor
to Urge President Bush to Sign Children's Insurance Bill
AARP-Texas asked the Governor
to weigh in on behalf of the uninsured children of Texas and urge President Bush to sign a
bill passed by the House and expected to be passed by the Senate which reauthorizes
and strengthens the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). In
part the letter asked: On behalf of our 2.3 million AARP members in Texas, I am asking for your support in calling
on President Bush to sign the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
expansion bill. Texas has the highest rate of uninsured
children in the nation. Twenty-two percent of children in Texas lack health insurance, compared to
12 percent of uninsured children nationally.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/aarp-asks-gov-p.php
Catholic Health Association
to Congress and President Bush: Uninsured Children Need Your Help Now
The president and chief
executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States issued the following statement. The
Catholic Health Association supports the bipartisan compromise to reauthorize
the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and urges all members
of Congress to support the legislation. Reauthorizing SCHIP represents the
most humane and pro-life opportunity Congress and the President currently
have: to ensure that millions of children -- born and unborn -- receive the
health care they need and deserve.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/catholic-health.php
Statement on House/Senate
Agreement on SCHIP Legislation
From Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation:
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/statement-on-ho.php
APHA Urges President
Bush to Reconsider Unfounded Basis for SCHIP Veto
From American Public
Health Association:
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/apha-urges-pres.php
Statement by CBPP on
the New Congressional SCHIP Agreement
From Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities:
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/statement-by-ro.php
'Deep Concern and Disappointment'
with Exclusion of Medicare from SCHIP Legislation
From American College of Physicians:
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/deep-concern-an.php
**Substance Abuse
The Skid Row Collaborative
The Skid Row Collaborative
(SRC) is one of 11 projects funded in fall 2003 under the Chronic Homelessness
Initiative (CHI) in fall 2003 to demonstrate the feasibility of moving chronically
homeless disabled people directly into housing and helping them retain housing
with health, mental health, substance abuse, and other supportive services.
With much higher housing retention at the three-year milestone than a comparison
group (59 vs. 14 percent), the SRC has proved to be a successful model of
housing plus services for the Skid Row population model that could be adopted
more widely in Skid Row and beyond.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/the-skid-row-co.php
HHS Provides $98 Million
in Access to Recovery Grants
The U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services today announced $98 million in new Access to Recovery (ATR)
grants to provide people seeking drug and alcohol treatment with vouchers
allowing them a greater range of choice in selecting the services most appropriate
for their needs. To date, more than 170,000 people with substance abuse problems
have received treatment and/or recovery support services through the first
round of ATR grants awarded in August 2004, exceeding the three-year target
of 125,000 people. The grants give recipients broader treatment options,
the ability to choose the treatment they believe will help them succeed, and
greater access to recovery support services.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/09/hhs-provides-98.php
