Good Neighbor Relations
May Help Prevent Early Sex Among Teens
Having the right kind of
neighbors can help prevent teens from having sex at an early age, according
to new research. A study in Chicago found that some teens were more likely to delay having sex if they lived
in neighborhoods where the adults kept a close eye on area children.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/osu-gnr110905.php
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Psychologically Distressed
Children More Likely to be Involved in Bullying
Bullying by elementary school
children was associated with increased odds of lacking a feeling of safety
while at school, having lower academic achievement, and feeling sad most days,
according to an article in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics &
Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/jaaj-pdc110305.php
Major Holes Appear in
Books Giving Parents Advice About Raising Adolescent
Books offering advice to
parents about teens are less likely to contain injury prevention messages
than those that give advice on parenting smaller children, according to a
new University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill study. Notably
absent from most such books were discussions about preventing automobile accidents
among adolescents.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/uonc-skh110305.php
Graduate Students Research
Improving Probation for Juvenile Offenders
Placing juvenile offenders
from Riley County, Kansas, through a nontraditional probation program has
helped reduce the number of re-arrests. The results showed that juveniles
who were placed in this program, which emphasizes their strengths rather than
their shortfalls, were able to accomplish goals they established. This contributed
to the program's success.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/ksu-ksg110805.php
Parents' Safe Gun Storage
Behaviors Improve after Counseling
Families who received a
brief gun-safety counseling intervention from their pediatrician were more
likely to improve their gun storage safety practices, according to a study
in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one
of the JAMA/Archives journals.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/jaaj-psg110305.php
Families Will Lose Child
Care Assistance under Ways and Means Committee Welfare Reauthorization Bill
On October 26, the House
Ways and Means Committee approved a budget
reconciliation bill that includes provisions to reauthorize the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Even as the bill increases families'
work requirements-and the need for child care-it provides only $500 million
in new child care funding over five years, despite Congressional Budget Office
estimates that keeping pace with inflation will cost $4.8 billion over five
years. If enacted, this bill would force states to cut child care assistance
for low-income working families over the coming years.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/publications/house_tanfbill_childcare.pdf
**Civic Engagement
Expert Tells How to Make
Red, White and Blue Democracy Greener
Preserving the environment
will happen only when more policy decisions come from average citizens instead
of just being left to government leaders, says a Purdue University environmental policy expert. Civic groups provide a great
place where people can participate in "deliberate" democracy for
the environment. If people take ownership by talking and working with people
about what needs to be done for the environment, then their attitudes about
preservation are more likely to improve.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20051108.124710&time=13%2021%20PST&year=2005&public=1
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Get more information on
these issues at http://www.ecommunityissues.com.
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**Community Development
Medical Debt Undermines
Housing Security for Working Families
In a new analysis of the
financial consequences that can strike those in the US with health care bills
they cannot pay, the Boston-based Access Project released a report showing
that medical debt is threatening homeownership or housing stability for many
American working families, including those with health insurance.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/bu-mdu110805.php
When the Gates Open:
Ready4Work - A National Response to the Prisoner Reentry Crisis
When the Gates Open describes
the emergence of Ready4Work, a 17-site, national ex-prisoner reentry initiative
developed by Public/Private Ventures. The report outlines the initiative's
basic goals and design, and examines how it is directly confronting the nation's
reentry crisis by drawing on local faith- and community-based organizations
to provide job training, mentoring, case management and job placement services.
With support from both government and private sources, Ready4Work was launched
in 2003 and will continue through 2006. To date it has served more than 3,100
former prisoners.
PDF: http://www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/189_publication.pdf
**Economic Security
What Will Happen to Poverty
Rates Among Older Americans in the Future and Why?
Poverty rates among the
elderly have declined sharply over the past 50 years. The Urban Institute
projects that the poverty rate for the 62 and older population will continue
to decline because of projected growth in real earnings. The Institute also
projects that relative poverty--the share of people who fall below an unchanging
percentage of average income--will increase. The two main sources of higher
relative poverty are the increased share of retirees who are single and divorced
and the reduced growth in benefits associated with the increase in the Social
Security normal retirement age.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9487
Job Development Essentials:
A Guide for Job Developers
Job Development Essentials
Second Edition from Public/Private Ventures provides practical advice for
workforce development professionals - the same advice found in the first edition,
but with a stronger emphasis on engaging employers, providing expanded services
to the business community and involving businesspeople as resources and advocates
for an organization. As one of the few available resources for job developers,
Essentials can be especially useful to those working for publicly funded organizations
striving to successfully serve both job seekers and employers.
http://www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/publications_description.asp?search_id=6&publication_id=144
Capital Gains Tax Rates,
Stock Markets, and Growth
The Urban Institute finds that claims that increasing
capital gains tax rates will adversely impact stock markets and economic growth
are not strongly supported by empirical data. Over the last half-century,
the correlation between the maximum capital gains tax rate and the ratio of
the S&P index to GDP has been about -0.35. Also, capital gains rates display
little evidence of correlation with economic growth.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9494
IRS Data on the Capital
Gains Tax Cut in Each State: Data Show Benefits Sharply Skewed To High-Income
Filers
During consideration of
the reconciliation tax-cut bill in coming weeks, Congress is expected to debate
whether to extend a variety of tax cuts scheduled to expire in 2005 or subsequent
years. Much attention is likely to be focused on whether to extend the reduction
in the capital gains tax rate that was enacted in 2003 and that is set to
expire in 2008. A table from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
based on Internal Revenue Service data for 2003; shows the distribution in
each state of the benefits from the capital gains tax cut. It thus provides
a sense of who will benefit from extending this tax cut.
http://www.cbpp.org/11-7-05tax.htm
**Education
A Good Night's Sleep
Can Mean a Better Day at School
When children stay up late,
they have more academic and attention problems at school, according to a new
study from Brown Medical School to be published in the December issue of the journal SLEEP.
The findings indicate that ensuring students get enough sleep is a significant
step in helping them maximize learning ability in class as well as minimizing
behaviors characteristic of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/ama-agn110405.php
Income of U.S. Workforce Projected to Decline If
Education Does Not Improve
If current trends continue,
the proportion of U.S.
workers with high school diplomas and college degrees will decrease and the
personal income of Americans will decline over the next 15 years, according
to a new report released today by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
The report finds that if states do not improve the education of all racial/ethnic
groups, the percentage of the U.S.
workforce with less than a high school diploma is projected to increase substantially,
while the percentage with an associate's degree or a bachelor's degree is
expected to decline.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=101-11092005&site=rss
Secretary Spellings Discusses
Education Reform at 2005 Hunt Institute Governor's Education Symposium
U.S. Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings discussed the road to education reform for states - how
far we've come and where we need to go - at the James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute
for Educational Leadership and Policy's 2005 Governors Education Symposium
in Charlotte, N.C. Secretary Spellings also made available a new user-friendly
guide, No Child Left Behind: A Road Map to State Implementation, which will
help state policymakers navigate the road ahead.
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/11/11102005.html
**Health
Study Finds Low Birth
Weight Rates Vary Widely Across US
Low birth weight, an important
risk factor of infant mortality and childhood developmental disorders, varies
more than 3-fold in regions across the US, according to national research conducted at Dartmouth Medical School. The study offers promise for health
care experts in an area of prenatal health where progress has been elusive.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/dms-sfl110205.php
Snapshot: California's Uninsured 2005
The decline in employer-based
health coverage and the increase in public health insurance coverage leave
the number of uninsured in California unchanged from 2004 at approximately 6.5 million, or just over 20 percent
of the non-elderly population. This is one of several findings featured in
Snapshot: California's Uninsured 2005, the California Health
Care Foundation’s third annual report highlighting the state’s uninsured population.
http://www.chcf.org/topics/healthinsurance/index.cfm?itemID=115467
New Reports Profile the
Growing Uninsured Population and Portray the Health Care Safety Net as Increasingly
Strained
Reports highlighted at a
Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured policy briefing show the South
is home to more than half of the growth in uninsured Americans and immigrants
are not driving recent growth. Overall growth in the uninsured is outpacing
federal spending on the health care safety net.
http://www.kff.org/uninsured/kcmu110405pkg.cfm
House Budget Bill Would
Eliminate All Current Federal Medicaid Benefit Standards for Six Million Children
and Other Vulnerable People
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, as part of the broader budget (“Reconciliation”)
bill, the House has proposed to eliminate all current federal standards governing
the medical services Medicaid must cover for certain groups of beneficiaries.
The changes fall most heavily on the six million children enrolled in the
program who have incomes just over the federal poverty line and on adults
with disabilities and chronic medical conditions at all income levels.
PDF: http://www.cbpp.org/11-10-05health3.pdf
State Medicaid Fact Sheets
A new interactive tool from
the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured provides the latest key
data for each state's Medicaid program and the population it serves, allowing
for easy comparisons of one state to any other state or to the nation as a
whole, on a selection of important indicators using the most recent data from
Kaiser's continuously updated source for state health data, statehealthfacts.org.
http://www.kff.orghttp:/www.kff.org/mfs/index.jsp
House Medicaid Proposal
Is Unnecessary and Could Impede Citizens' Coverage
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, the House reconciliation bill, scheduled
to come to the House floor on November 10, would impose a new requirement
on states that U.S. citizens who apply for Medicaid must provide documentation
of their citizenship status, generally by producing a birth certificate or
passport. This requirement would have the effect of impeding or delaying coverage
for significant numbers of eligible, low-income U.S. citizens, since many low-income people do not have
birth certificates or passports in their possession.
http://www.cbpp.org/11-9-05health.htm
Survey of Seniors Underscores
Implementation Challenges for Medicare Drug Benefit
A new comprehensive survey
from The Kaiser Family Foundation about
the Medicare drug benefit finds that many seniors remain uncertain about how
the new benefit will affect them and unsure about whether they will enroll
during the open enrollment period, which begins Nov. 15. Seniors who say
they understand the benefit well are more likely to report favorable views
than those who do not.
http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/med111005pkg.cfm
**Substance Abuse
IOM Releases Report on
Quality Drug and Alcohol Treatment
The Institute of Medicine releases a new report that looks at strategies to improve
treatment for mental health and substance use disorders. Millions of Americans
today receive health care for mental or substance-use problems and illnesses.
These conditions are the leading cause of combined disability and death of
women and the second highest of men. Effective treatments exist and continually
improve. However, as with general health care, deficiencies in care delivery
prevent many from receiving appropriate treatments.
http://www.jointogether.org/saredirect/?Object_ID=578563&Type=sa
N.C. Parents Want Tobacco
Use Prevention to Become Higher Priority
North Carolina
parents strongly favor making tobacco use prevention a higher priority across
the state, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill study shows.
More than 90 percent of parents surveyed thought it very important for policymakers
to take more steps to prevent and reduce tobacco use among N.C. children and
adolescents, the study found.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/uonc-snp110805.php
