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**Alerts
Tell Congress
to Reject an Irresponsible and Harmful Budget
From: OMB Watch -- Compose a Message
The President's budget lays
out his priorities for the federal government for fiscal year 2006. These
priorities include steep cuts to Medicaid, Food Stamps for working families
with children, education, National Parks, and child care assistance.
http://capwiz.com/ombwatch/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7121776
**Children, Youth &
Families
Natural Mentors help Mold
Lives of Teens
According to a study by University of Illinois at Chicago
researchers, natural mentoring relationships positively impact teens, but these
relationships do not meet all the needs of at-risk youth.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/uoia-nmh030105.php
NCCP Warns Against
Ignoring Children in Social Security Debate
The National Center for
Children in Poverty highlights the fact that Social Security is the single
largest support program for children in the United
States. Although Social Security is
the single largest program that provides support to American children, the
debate over privatization has focused almost entirely on changes in benefits
for retirees. The Center discusses this issue in a policy brief which outlines
the role that Social Security plays in protecting children in the United States.
http://www.nccp.org/rel_6.html
Social Security is Better
Equipped to Provide Family Income Protection
The Social Security system
offers more benefits than any private retirement savings plan--it is a fully
equipped iPod, compared to the stripped-down Walkman of a 401(k) account. The
Snapshot for February 28 explains how Social Security provides protection
against inflation, insurance in the case of death or disability, and benefits
to families that are not a part of any retirement savings package.
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/webfeatures_snapshots_20050228
Evidence Mixed on Demand
and Impact of Out-of-School Programs
According to a RAND
Corporation study, evidence is mixed on whether there is a shortage of publicly
funded, group-based programs for children outside of school and on whether such
programs improve academic achievement issued today. The study says existing
evaluations with rigorous methodology show at most that some programs have
produced modest positive effects on educational expectations, high school
graduation rates, credits earned, college attendance and social behaviors.
http://www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG242/index.html
Teen Sex Abstinence Study Sparks
Controversy
A study suggesting
abstinence-only education courses do not curb teenage sexual activity has
reignited the debate over such programs in the US. Proponents of the
abstinence approach argue the new study of teenagers at 29 high schools in Texas is
seriously flawed, as there appears to be no control group against which the
impact of the course can be measured. The study, led by Buzz Pruitt at Texas
A&M University, shows a rise in teen sex after a group of ninth grade
children - aged about 13 to 14 - underwent abstinence programs.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6957
Teenagers Find Information
about Sex on the Internet when they Look for it - and when they Don't
UCLA's Children's Digital Media Center reports
that teenagers find information about sex on the Internet when they look for it
- and when they don't. American children live in an "all-pervasive
sexualized media environment" that produces a "tremendous amount of
inadvertent exposure to pornography. Teenagers often search the Internet for
information about sex that they would be embarrassed to discuss with an adult.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/uoc--tfi030105.php
**Civil Society
Life Expectancy Hits
Record High
According to the latest U.S. mortality
statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, life expectancy
for Americans has reached an all-time high. The report, "Deaths:
Preliminary Data for 2003," prepared by CDC’s National Center for Health
Statistics (NCHS), shows life expectancy at 77.6 years in 2003, up from 77.3 in
2002. Record-high life expectancies were found for white males (75.4 years)
and black males (69.2 males), as well as for white females (80.5 years) and
black females (76.1 years).
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/fs050228.htm
**Community Development
The Trend in Federal
Housing Tax Expenditures
The Urban Institute finds that tax programs
that provide deductions to homeowners or credits to both builders and owners,
greatly exceed direct federal outlays on housing. The beneficiaries of these
tax programs tend to be middle-to-upper income families who own their homes
while the recipients of outlays tend to be lower income families who rent. In
effect, the federal government pays those with more income to own their homes
while paying those with less income to rent.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9182
**Economic Security
Illness and Injury as
Contributors To Bankruptcy
An article in Health Affairs
highlights the intersection of illness and bankruptcy filings. In 2001, 1.458
million American families filed for bankruptcy. About half of surveyed
bankruptcy filers cited medical causes, which indicates that 1.9 - 2.2 million
Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical bankruptcy. Among those
whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since
the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness. Even
middle-class insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when
sick.
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.w5.63/DC1
Is There a Way for
Low-Income Families to Break Cycle of Poverty?
The Catholic Campaign for
Human Development (CCHD) recently launched a new national public awareness
campaign that calls attention to the nearly 36 million Americans now living in
poverty. Named "Portraits of Hope," the public service campaign
focuses on poor and low-income people who are doing something to combat poverty
at the local level.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43477
High-Income Families
Benefit Most from New Education Savings Incentives
According to the Urban Institute, if funds from education
savings plans are not used for schooling, the penalties more than offset the
tax benefits for lower-income families; higher-income families gain even if
their children do not go to college. A new breed of tax-advantaged savings
vehicle has emerged for the college bound. This brief explains how these new
college plans work, comparing benefits between education savings and other
savings vehicles.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9185
HHS Provides
Additional $50 Million to States for Energy Aid
The Department of Health and
Human Services released an additional $50 million in emergency funds to be
provided to states and territories from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program (LIHEAP). The money is designed to help low-income families pay their
energy bills.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2005pres/20050301.html
Catholic Charities USA
Welcomes Senators’ Antipoverty Agenda
Catholic Charities USA
welcomed efforts by a group of senators to put domestic and international
poverty issues on the Congressional agenda. Reacting to today's press
conference held by several Republican Senators outlining their antipoverty
agenda, Catholic Charities USA's Vice President for Social Policy called the
senators' package, "A good first step in addressing the needs of the
nation's low-income families, especially the senators' proposed plans to
reintroduce the CARE Act; create individual development accounts, kids savings
accounts, and work opportunity tax credits; and provide more support for
prisoners reentering society."
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/news/content_displays.cfm?fuseaction=display_document&id=538&location=3
**Education
Identifying School Districts for Improvement and Corrective Action Under the No Child Left Behind
Act
According to the Center on
Education Policy, much attention has been devoted to the effects of the No
Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) on schools. Schools that have been identified as
"in need of improvement" under the NCLB accountability provisions are
at work implementing the actions required by the law, such as offering public
school choice and tutoring and developing school improvement plans. However,
now states are confronting the additional responsibility of identifying school
districts for improvement.
PDF: http://www.ctredpol.org/nclb/identifying_school_districts.pdf
State Legislators Offer
Formula for Improving No Child Left Behind Act
According to a bipartisan
review of the law, granting states flexibility to meet the goals of the No
Child Left Behind Act will result in stronger democracy and strengthen the
nation's economic future. A special task force of the National Conference of
State Legislatures today released the results of a 10-month study that
identified specific areas of the act that need to be changed if states are to
guarantee that young people will learn at their full potential.
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2005/pr050223.htm
Achieve Inc. Announces
13-State Coalition to Improve High Schools
At the close of the 2005
National Education Summit on High Schools, Achieve Inc. announced that a group
of 13 states -- which together educate more than a third of all U.S. students
-- have agreed to form a new coalition to improve high schools.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=43605
**Health
AGS Foundation for Health
in Aging Launches Web-Based Resource for Patients and Their Clinicians
The AGS Foundation for Health
in Aging (FHA) has just launched "Aging in the Know: Your Gateway to
Health and Aging Resources on the Web." Based on the professional
education programs of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) such as the
Geriatrics Review Syllabus (GRS) and Geriatrics at Your Fingertips (GAYF), this
free, comprehensive online resource makes state-of-the-art information on the
diseases and disorders of older adults available to the public.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050228.114233&time=11%2057%20PST&year=2005&public=1
Youth with HIV take More
Risks after New Meds Introduced
According to a new report in
the American Journal of Health Behavior, teens with HIV are having more risky
sex with more partners than their counterparts did in the years before powerful
new medications for HIV were introduced in 1996. A group of HIV-positive youth
studied between 1999 and 2000 reported having more sexual partners, more
unprotected sex and more drug use than HIV-positive youth studied between 1994
and 1996.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/cfta-ywh022305.php
HHS Awards Almost
$1.7 Billion for HIV/AIDS Care
The Department of Health and
Human Services announced 174 grants worth nearly $1.7 billion to help all 50
states, nine U.S. territories, 51 cities hit hard by HIV/AIDS, and 64
community-based organizations provide essential services to low-income
residents living with HIV/AIDS. The Fiscal Year 2005 grants support the
delivery of primary medical care, prescription drugs and support services.
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2005pres/20050302.html
Low Birth Weight Babies
Sets the Stage for Type 2 Diabetes Later in Life
Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have
discovered one reason why infants with low birth weight have a high potential
of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. In studies of mice, the
researchers found that poor prenatal nutrition impairs the pancreas's ability
to later secrete enough insulin in response to blood glucose.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050223.122037&time=21%2000%20PST&year=2005&public=1
African-Americans Receive
Less Aggressive Heart Attack Treatment
According to a study at the Maya Angelou Research Center on
Minority Health at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, African-Americans continue to receive less
aggressive treatment for heart attack than whites.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/wfub-arl030105.php
Americans Value the Health
Benefits of Prescription Drugs
The most recent Kaiser Health
Poll Report found that Americans believe prescription drugs are improving their
lives, but most also say that the drug industry cares more about profits than
people. The current report analyzes the new data as well as related polling
information from earlier surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation and other
organizations.
http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/feb_2005/index.cfm
**Hunger & Nutrition
Hunger, Homelessness Still
On the Rise in Major U.S. Cities
Hunger and homelessness
continued to rise in major American cities over the last year, according to the
new U.S. Conference of Mayors-Sodexho USA Hunger and Homelessness Survey. In
particular, families with children requesting food assistance and emergency
shelter also increased substantially over the last year.
http://www.sodexhousa.com/press-releases/pr121404.asp
Out of School Time Resource
Center
The Food Research and Action
Center’s Out of School Time
Resource Center provides information on the federal child nutrition
programs that provide crucial funding for meals and snacks in afterschool,
summer, and before
school programs. The federally-subsidized meals and snacks attract children
to out of school time programs, which allow them to learn, and be active and
safe while their parents are working. The food helps keep hunger at bay so that
children are engaged and ready to learn.
http://www.frac.org/Out_Of_School_Time
Perspective Change Needed
in Obesity Prevention; March Is National Nutrition Month
According to University of California
nutrition experts, the idea that eating right and getting physical activity are
solely governed by personal responsibility is a concept of the past. Terms
such as "environment" and "community" are now creeping into
the lexicon of obesity prevention. As the country marks National Nutrition
Month in March, the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health and UC Cooperative
Extension continue their campaign to take a broader view of the increasing
overweight and obesity problem in California.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050301.124244&time=13%2014%20PST&year=2005&public=1
**Substance Abuse
Reports Sees Little
Progress in Cutting Underage Drinking
According to the Center on
Alcohol Marketing and Youth, the United
States is in denial about underage
drinking, the government is not tracking the problem adequately, and little
progress was made last year in fighting youth alcohol use.
http://www.jointogether.org/saredirect/?Object_ID=576324&Type=sa
School-Based Smoking
Prevention Programs Ineffective
According to a professor at
the Indiana University School of Medicine, smoking prevention programs in
junior high or high school have little influence on whether teens choose to
light up or not.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/iu-ssp022805.php
Parents who Quit Smoking
may Influence their Offspring to Quit as Young Adults
A new study by researchers at
Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center suggests that parents who quit smoking when their
children are young may have a big influence on whether their offspring will
quit smoking as young adults.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/fhcr-pwq030105.php
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