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Child Sex
Abuse Policy Recommendations
An article in the April 22
issue of the journal Science summarizes the body of research to date on child
sex abuse and makes major policy recommendations regarding the need for
improved understanding of the causes, consequences and treatment of what one
expert terms an "important and neglected problem."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/uoo-csa041405.php
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Youth Suicide Intervention
and Prevention Grants
The Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration has announced the availability of its State/Tribal
Youth Suicide Prevention Program grants. Approximately 14 grants will be
awarded to programs that display a commitment to establishing statewide suicide
education and intervention projects, including collaborating with foster homes,
juvenile-detention facilities, mental-health institutions, schools, and other
organizations.
http://www.jointogether.org/saredirect/?Object_ID=576692&ID=saFunding
Research Reveals Emotional
Trauma Parents Face when a Child is Diagnosed with Diabetes
A Cardiff University, UK,
research study finds that discovering a child has diabetes can be a traumatic
and life-changing event for parents - and researchers doubt whether many of them
ever come to terms with it. The findings raise doubts about whether many
parents of children with diabetes ever fully accept the diagnosis. Even a year
after diagnosis their emotions resurfaced when circumstances reminded them that
their children were different from others and that they had a chronic and
unpredictable illness.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/cu-rre041805.php
New Research Reveals
Working Mothers do not Adversely Impact on Children's Diets
A new study from the University of Glasgow that
analyses information from 11 year old children and their parents reveals that
maternal employment is associated with better diets. The research challenges
the stereotype of working mothers who regularly dish out ready made meals, to
reveal that children of parents who work may be fed more healthily.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/uog-nrr041805.php
Adolescents not receiving
Health Counseling
A Stanford University
study finds that fewer than 50 percent of adolescent medical checkups include
preventive health counseling, despite the demonstrated effectiveness of doctor-delivered
advice in promoting healthy behavior as well as reducing risky behavior in
teens.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/sumc-anr041805.php
Job Corps Offers New
Services for District Youth
As Job Corps continues to
celebrate its 40th anniversary of training and educating at-risk youth, the
program commemorates the revitalization of the Deanwood area by providing more
neighborhood youth with a second chance to achieve success.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=162-04202005&site=rss
**Community Development
HUD Approves $77.8 Million
Bond Deal to Modernize Public Housing
The U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development announced that it has approved the District of
Columbia Housing Authority to issue up to $77.8 million in bonds that will be
used to modernize public housing throughout the city. DCHA joins other housing
authorities, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans, which have utilized HUD's Capital Fund Financing
Program to raise funds to address major modernization needs in two years that
would normally take five to 10 years.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr05-050.cfm
HUD Announces $20.7
Million in Grants to Public Housing Agencies
The U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development awarded $20,745,477 in grants to provide public
housing residents greater access to computer technology and give them
supportive services they need to become economically self-sufficient. The
grants are from two HUD programs - the Public Housing Neighborhood Networks
Program (NN) and the Resident Opportunities and Self Sufficiency (ROSS)
Program.
http://www.hud.gov/news/release.cfm?content=pr05-049.cfm
AAHSA Urges Congress to
Expand Housing, Home and Community-Based Services
Two officials from the
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging urged Congress to
expand programs that offer home and community- based services to help seniors
age in place and receive the services they need, when they need them, in the
place they call home.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=46085
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**Economic Security
Bush Social Security Plan
Proves Tough Sell among Working Poor
According to a professor of
business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and the author of several papers on savings behavior,
in a society of specialization, people would rather trust their investment and
savings decisions to perceived experts, just as they trust their car repairs to
mechanics and their legal problems to lawyers. “People are wary about taking
control of their Social Security, just as I'm wary of fixing my own car."
That is especially true among the working poor, whose experience with choice
may be particularly bad, Madrian said. They may not have access to the best
doctors because so many physicians do not accept Medicaid. They've been nudged
toward home ownership, but may have fallen victim to predatory lenders or
insurance scams. And they are not likely to believe the government is going to
give them the best investment options for the Social Security accounts.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20050418/ts_washpost/a61356_2005apr17
High-Deductible Plans Not
a Viable Option for Low-Income Adults: Study
Commonwealth Fund researchers
say tax incentives for the purchase of high-deductible health plans will have
little effect on health coverage rates; because premiums are too high for the
many uninsured Americans living near the poverty level.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=274007
**Education
Case Studies Help Efforts
to Fix Failing Schools
A report from RAND discusses
the theory underlying various responses to the problem of failing schools,
including parental choice and government interventions. The strudy examines New Zealand’s
experience with failing schools and intervention strategies in underperforming
schools in California; applies the results of the research to education
reform in the Emirate of Qatar.
http://www.rand.org/publications/RGSD/RGSD187/index.html
Learning Software
Developed by Rutgers Scientist helps 450,000 Students with Reading
About 450,000 American
schoolchildren all have used educational Fast ForWord software products
developed from research that began in the lab of a Rutgers-Newark professor of
neuroscience. Working at Rutgers-Newark's Center for Molecular and Biological
Neuroscience, the researcher has brought a neuroscientist's perspective to the
concept of learning, convinced that developing brains are much more plastic
than has been generally believed by educators. Independent tests at Stanford University
have demonstrated that developmental skills in language and reading can be
dramatically improved through the intensive use of these six- to eight-week
programs involving computer-based suites of exercises.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/rtsu-lsd041805.php
Alliance for Equity in Higher Education Will Manage Building
Engagement and Attainment of Minority Students Project
The Alliance for
Equity in Higher Education will assume leadership and management of the highly
regarded BEAMS (Building Engagement and Attainment of Minority Students)
project effective May 1, 2005. Funded by Lumina Foundation for Education for the
purpose of building capacity at minority-serving institutions, the BEAMS
project involves more than 100 baccalaureate-granting MSI’s that aspire to
increase student learning and success.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050419.121347&time=13%2023%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
Districts and Teachers'
Union Sue over Bush Law
Opening a new front in the
growing rebellion against President Bush's signature education law, the
nation's largest teachers' union and eight school districts in Michigan, Texas
and Vermont sued the Department of Education yesterday, accusing it of
violating a passage in the law that says states cannot be forced to spend their
own money to meet federal requirements.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/education/21child.html?ex=1271736000&en=0b042a234268ed9d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Utah Vote Rejects Parts of Education Law
In a stinging rebuke of
President Bush's signature education law, the Republican-dominated Utah
Legislature on Tuesday passed a bill that orders state officials to ignore
provisions of the federal law that conflict with Utah's education goals or that
require state financing. The bill is the most explicit legislative challenge
to the federal law by a state, and its passage marked the collapse of a
15-month lobbying effort against it by the Bush administration.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/20/national/20child.html?ex=1271649600&en=b25da00f4c6dd357&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
At the Front of the Fight
over No Child Left Behind
Betty J. Sternberg has emerged
as a national leader in the fight against provisions of the 2001 law pushed by
President Bush that requires annual proficiency tests. Connecticut is
challenging the frequency of those tests and the limited exemptions the law
provides for more than 5,000 of the state's special education students and
28,000 who are learning English.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/18/education/18connecticut.html?ex=1271476800&en=ba43d560f64706dc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Lumina Foundation for
Education Announces First Quarter Grants
In the first three months of
2005, Lumina Foundation for Education awarded nearly $5 million in grants to
organizations across the country that will help students - especially the
traditionally underserved - gain access to and achieve success in education
after high school. The grants ranged in size from $8,600 to $1.8 million to
fund research, expand a variety of student services, extend influential
discussions about legislative policy and replicate successful models that shape
educational access and success.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050421.123603&time=13%2009%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
**Health
CDC Efforts to Reduce or
Prevent Obesity
Because the current
generation of children, adolescents and young adults is the most overweight in
our nation’s history, reducing obesity is one of Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention’s top health priorities. CDC is undertaking an agency-wide
effort to conduct research activities and programs to improve our understanding
of all the ways that obesity can affect health, as well as identify strategies
to prevent obesity-related health problems. CDC’s efforts include surveillance,
prevention research, and state, community and school-based programs in
nutrition and physical activity.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/fs050419.htm
Faulty Body Clock Leads to
Obesity and Diabetes
Researchers from Northwestern University and
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare have pinpointed something deep within the
brain and other tissues that plays an important role in the struggle to
maintain a healthy weight: the body's internal clock. The research team, led by
an endocrinologist and a circadian rhythms expert, has shown that a misaligned
clock, which regulates both sleep and hunger, can wreak havoc on the body and
its metabolism, increasing the propensity for obesity and diabetes.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-04/nu-fbc041505.php
Survey Finds Many Seniors
Do Not Take Drugs as Prescribed
A survey of 17,685 seniors
was conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that four in 10 seniors
told researchers in a recent national survey that they haven't taken all the
drugs their doctors prescribed for them in the past year - either because the
costs were too high, because they didn't think the drugs were helping them, or
because they didn't think they needed them.
http://www.kff.org/medicare/med041905pkg.cfm
Kaiser Health Poll Report
- The Public on Prescription Drugs for Seniors
The most recent Kaiser Health
Poll Report featured topic explores the public's views on the new Medicare
prescription drug benefit. The March/April report analyzes new data as well as
related polling information from earlier surveys by the Kaiser Family
Foundation and other organizations.
http://www.kff.org/healthpollreport/apr_2005/index.cfm
Sacramento to Lead National Effort to Educate Consumers about
Prescription Drug Prices
Sacramento regional leaders launched an ambitious effort to get
free information on the cost and effectiveness of prescription drugs into the
hands of consumers -- especially seniors, low income residents and the
uninsured -- to help Californians stretch their health care dollars in an era
of spiraling drug prices. The information is provided by Consumer Union, the
nonprofit publisher of Consumers Reports, through its innovative Consumer
Reports Best Buy Drugs program. The grant-funded project is a pioneering effort
to provide consumers with information in one place on the safety, effectiveness
and costs of prescription drugs.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=134-04182005&site=rss
**Hunger and Nutrition
FRAC Outlines Steps to
Make New Food Guidance Pyramid Meaningful for Low-Income Americans
As the U.S. Department of
Agriculture today released a new pyramid icon to symbolize the nation’s food
guidance system, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) outlined steps to
make the new system more meaningful to the tens of millions of low-income
Americans. In the midst of a national epidemic of obesity which is plaguing
all groups of Americans, FRAC called on the Administration to begin with three
steps to connect the new food guidance system more directly to lower-income
people
http://www.frac.org/Press_Release/04.19.05.html
Food Pyramid Gets New Look
For the first time since it
introduced the Food Guide Pyramid in 1992, the federal government yesterday
unveiled a makeover of this well-known icon that emphasizes eating a variety of
food, including healthful fat, and underscores the importance of physical
activity.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http:/news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20050420/ts_washpost/a693_2005apr19
Nation's Leading Food and
Nutrition Science Organizations Embrace Concepts behind 'MyPyramid'
The Food and Nutrition
Science Alliance, consisting of seven of the nation's leading food and
nutrition science organizations, commends the collaborative effort of the U.S.
Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to provide solid
guidance to Americans on how they can balance food intake and physical
activity.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=170-04202005&site=rss
**Nonprofit Management
IRS Reports Widespread Tax
Abuse among Nonprofits
A recent letter from the IRS
Commissioner to Congress detailed a swath of "increasingly present"
tax abuses involving nonprofits. In the letter, the commissioner cited 31
tax-shelter abuses that had or could involve nonprofits, including some
involving donor-advised funds and non-cash donations that allow taxpayers to
claim inflated worth on donations.
http://www.jointogether.org/saredirect/?Object_ID=576689&ID=saFunding
**Substance Abuse
Study: Most in Treatment
Began Drinking Early
The vast majority of people
in addiction treatment programs first got drunk before the age of 21, according
to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration. According to the analysis, 12 percent of people in treatment
first got drunk when they were younger than age 12, 25 percent got intoxicated
for the first time between the ages of 12 and 14, 35 percent began drinking
heavily between ages 15 and 17, and 16 percent first got drunk between the ages
of 18 and 20.
http://www.jointogether.org/saredirect/?Object_ID=576702&Type=sa
Addiction Not Mental
Illness, Oregon Court Says
The Oregon Supreme Court
ruled this week that alcohol and other drug dependencies should be considered
personality disorders, not mental illnesses. The ruling is expected to hinder
the use of an insanity defense by people charged with crimes committed under
the influence of drugs. It also could allow people confined to state mental
hospitals because of insanity pleas to be freed if their mental-health problems
have been successfully treated, even if they still have addiction problems.
http://www.jointogether.org/saredirect/?Object_ID=576699&Type=sa
