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Moving Ideas News

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  • Reports and Analyses: New Report Documents US Right’s Growing Threat to Reproductive Health Programs at UN
    Since the election of George W. Bush in 2000, more and more Christian Right NGOs have sought to restrict women's access to reproductive health services through lobbying at the United Nations, according to the new report UNdoing Reproductive Freedom: Christian Right NGOs Target the United Nations by PRA researcher Pam Chamberlain.
  • Reports and Analyses: CONSUMER CORNER: Check out the companies that do well by doing good
    When Harley-Davidson recently announced its intention to do business in China, it wasn’t another instance of an American company going overseas in search of cheap labor. Instead, the company plans to introduce its American-made motorcycles to the Chinese market. Harley-Davidson’s commitment to keeping jobs in America is linked to its partnership with its workers’ unions. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Healthy Foods, Strong Communities
    In the 1960s and 1970s, when white, middle-class families left urban centers for homes in the suburbs, supermarkets fled with them, taking jobs, tax revenues and their offerings of healthy, affordable foods. The lack of local access to healthy foods makes it difficult for families who remain in low-income urban communities to maintain a well-balanced, nutritious diet. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Television's Dirty Secret
    Despite an ongoing investigation, corporate propaganda is infiltrating local TV newscasts, with disguised product advertisements posing as genuine news reports. This represents a breach of the trust between broadcasters and their viewers. Take action to stop fake news today. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: 2006 Campaign Ads Reveal Progressive Populism
    CAF analyzed how candidates in eleven contested, battleground-state races presented themselves to their constituents. The TV spots, speeches, websites and policy agendas of successful candidates campaigners were progressive and populist. This report explores what that means for the 110th Congress and '08 elections.
  • Reports and Analyses: Making healthcare worse
    In the provision of affordable, adequate health insurance, Benjamin Franklin’s adage applies: “If we do not hang together, we will surely hang separately.” Meaningful insurance requires that many diverse persons join together in “risk pools” that spread their future health-care costs over the healthy and unhealthy, rich and poor, young and old. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: New Fact Sheet Highlights Critical Issues in Children's Mental Health
    The National Center for Children in Poverty's first fact sheet on mental health highlights the widespread nature of mental health problems among children and youth and the lack of adequate services. Latino children and youth are less likely to receive services than children and youth of other ethnic groups. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: GTI Paper Series on Global Future
    The Great Transition Initiative (GTI- www.gtinitiative.org) is a collective endeavor by scholars and activists who share a broad commitment to addressing the major problems confronting humanity: poverty, security, and the environment. GTI's mission is to imagine, assess, and advance a great transition to a global future of enriched lives, equity, solidarity and a healthy planet. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Improving Instructional Content and Practice in Low-Performing High Schools
    Low-performing high schools serving disadvantaged students are more likely to have less experienced and less knowledgeable teachers than other schools. MDRC's recent evaluations of three high school reform models offer lessons about improving the content and delivery of what is taught in high schools.
  • Reports and Analyses: Cancel Haiti's Debt, Now!
    IN APRIL THE WORLD BANK ANNOUNCED that Haiti – the poorest country in the Americas – would be added to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank’s Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative debt relief program. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Swept Away: Chronic Hardship and Fresh Promise on the Rural Great Plains
    Swept Away: Chronic Hardship and Fresh Promise on the Rural Great Plains, describes the economic conditions of agriculturally-based communities in the six-state region of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. It is the update to our 2000 publication, Trampled Dreams. Includes policy recommendations and state-by-state results. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: New Report -- Labor Day List: Partnerships that Work
    Description or Summary: In the second annual Labor Day List: Partnerships that Work, American Rights at Work celebrates partnerships between employers and their employees' unions that both meet the needs of workers and fulfill business objectives in the global economy.
  • Reports and Analyses: CA Legislature Votes for Single-Payer Health System to Cover Uninsured
    This issue of the Stateside Dispatch focuses on California's single-payer health care bill, tobacco measures advancing, and a middle-ground on immigration policy.
  • Reports and Analyses: Selective Prosecution of War Crimes
    In Saddam Hussein's war crimes trial for the 1988 Iraqi campaign that gassed Kurdish villages, his defense lawyers have argued that Iraqi forces were really attempting to strike Iranian forces and the Iraqi Kurdish pesh merga militias that were in and supported by the hamlets. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: What If the U.S. and Iranian Presidents Did Debate?
    The outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has challenged President Bush to debate U.S.-Iran relations. Bush has dismissed the offer and declined. Debate is not good–faith negotiation between the opposing parties, but it is better than nothing. And it might not be as one–sided as most Americans think. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Traditional Pension Returns Outperform 401(k)
    The latest edition of Progressive States' Stateside Dispatch highlights how traditional pensions outperform 401(k)s, Minnesota Blue Cross's endorsement of a univeral health care plan, and the California legislature's dramatic progressive agenda.
  • Reports and Analyses: State Behavioral Health Innovations: Disseminating Promising Practices
    In an era of increased demand and reduced budgets for mental health and substance abuse services, states have been compelled to find ways to increase the efficiency of programs while simultaneously improving performance. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: The Origins of the Doughnut Hole: Excess Profits on Prescription Drugs (pdf)
    Pharmaceutical companies are making billions in excess profits under the new Medicare drug benefit, according to a report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, Part 2
    A new crop of telecom Astroturf groups has sprung up, and today we're giving you a first look at the latest Common Cause report exposing this shady industry practice. Back in March, we released our first Wolves in Sheep's Clothing report, detailing the activities of nine groups masquerading as think tanks and public interest organizations, but controlled by telephone and cable companies. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Reform or Counterrevolution at the UN?
    Although the American media generally depicted Kofi Annan’s end-of-term reform package for the United Nations as a failure, its achievements are by no means negligible. The Millennium Development Goals, the Responsibility to Protect framework, and the launching of the Human Rights Council have all been signal accomplishments of the Annan era. However, the U.S. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Lamont Wins--Tell the Real Story
    Listen to CAF Co-Director Robert Borosage share thoughts on the Lamont victory and its impact on American politics.
  • Reports and Analyses: The Employment Retention and Advancement Project: Results from the Texas ERA Site
    The Texas ERA program provided individuals receiving welfare with job search assistance, case management, and a monthly stipend of $200 if they retained employment. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: New CBO Deficit Estimate Indicates that without the Tax Cuts, the Budget Would Be Balanced
    CBO's new deficit estimate for 2006 is $30 billion below the Administration's July estimate because CBO forecasts lower spending than the Administration did; both deficit estimates assume the same amount of revenues. Also, CBO's estimate indicates that were it not for the tax cuts of recent years, the budget would now be in balance.
  • Reports and Analyses: Analysis of Data from Mexican Election Recount Raises Serious Questions (pdf)
    An analysis of the first partial recount of Mexico’s presidential election raises a number of questions about the electoral process, most importantly about its transparency. The study also found a number of unexplained anomalies in the data. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Islamic Blowback Part Two?
    A core component of America’s foreign policy since September 11 has been educational reform in Muslim countries to check the influence of extremist ideologies and fundamentalism. America’s partners in this effort to reform Islam from within are medieval monarchies, military regimes, Islamic emirates, and controlled democracies. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Increasing Male High School Graduation Rate Could Add $7.7 Billion to National Economy (pdf)
    A 5 percent increase in the number of males who receive a high school diploma could mean significant crime-related savings and higher earnings for the United States, according to conservative calculations by the Alliance for Excellent Education in its new issue brief, "Saving Futures, Saving Dollars: The Impact of Education on Crime Reduction and Earnings."
  • Reports and Analyses: An Evaluation of OPM’s Efforts to Improve Hispanic Representation in the Federal Workforce
    This evaluation is based on National Hispanic Leadership Agenda's (NHLA) analysis of Federal Equal Opportunity Recruitment Program statistical reports from 2000-2005, and other government agency reports which address OPM’s performance on minority participation in the federal workforce. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: New Report Considers Regional Development Strategies
    Today the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) announced the release of a new report, "Seeds of Workforce Change: a Regional Approach to Improving our Economic Landscape in Southwest & South Central Wisconsin." The report is a comprehensive economic and demographic profile of the twelve counties in Southwest and South Central Wisconsin including Rock and Dane. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Lebanese Civilians Casualties Hurt U.S. Standing in Region
    In a recent interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, Carnegie's Julia Choucair, an expert on Lebanon, states that although many Lebanese people and several Arab governments criticized Hizbollah for instigating the crisis with Israel, the Israeli air attacks, including the killing of many civilians, have now quieted the criticism, and have worsened the already poor standing of the U.S. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: A New Map of the Middle East
    Given the last two weeks in the Middle East — client entities like Hizbollah provoking a conflict, the Saudis and Egyptians speaking without power from the sidelines, Western uncertainty about the role of Syria and Iran — is it possible to draw a new map of the Middle East? Carnegie senior associate Amr Hamzawy discusses this on "Open Source" with Christopher Lydon.
  • Reports and Analyses: Slowing housing market contributes to downshift in job growth
    The slowdown in employment growth appears to be consistent with slowing in the wider economy. This likely means longer job searches for new and returning workers entering the job market, and this could put upward pressure on the unemployment rate in coming months. Though wages are still rising at a decent clip, this dynamic will ultimately put the brakes on wage growth. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: FDA Resumes Consideration of Emergency Contraception Over-The-Counter
    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Monday that it would resume the process of making emergency contraception over-the-counter for some women.
  • Reports and Analyses: Mexico’s Critical Moment
    Since the start of Mexico´s presidential campaigns, the race has opened up latent but profound fissures in Mexican society. The present post-electoral conflict not only hinges on legal issues of how the elections were run. It brings to the fore deep concerns about transparency, social justice, and the future course of a nation at a critical juncture in its fledgling transition to democracy. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Measure 48 Ain't No Rainy Day Amendment
    OCPP has updated our report that explains how Measure 48, a “taxpayer bill of rights” or TABOR measure, would make recessions worse in Oregon. The report shows that not only does Measure 48 fail to create a rainy day fund, it would undermine any rainy day fund that the Legislature might later create by including unemployment insurance under the spending scheme.
  • Reports and Analyses: IWPR Announces Annual State-by-State Report Card Series on Women's Progress in the United States
    The Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR) announced today it will redesign its long-running project on the Status of Women in the States, a series of reports that rank states on how well they have achieved gender equality for women. The reports now will be released on an annual basis, increasing their frequency from the previous biennial releases.
  • Reports and Analyses: Good Stories Aren't Enough: Becoming Outcomes-Driven in Workforce Development
    Workforce development organizations are more and more focused on achieving and documenting performance outcomes; yet managers frequently face a challenge getting buy-in from frontline staff about collecting and using data-not only to satisfy funders' needs but to improve services. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Framework for a High Performance Health System for the United States
    While acknowledging that the U.S. provides some of the best medical care in the world, The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System believes that overall, the nation fails to achieve adequate value for the resources it devotes to health care. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Since Last Minimum Wage Increase, Congress Has Reduced Estate Tax Burdens Nine Times
    On Friday, the Senate is expected to consider legislation passed by the House that links a dramatic reduction in the estate tax with an increase in the minimum wage. In seeking to tie the fate of these two proposals together, Congressional leaders have implied that they address concerns of similar import and urgency. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Latest Data on Minimum Wage Workers and Taxable Estates, by State
    This analysis uses state-by-state data to highlight the dramatically different populations that would be impacted by the estate tax/minimum wage legislation. The estate tax reduction only affects the nation’s most well-off households, while the minimum wage increase would boost the earnings of 6.6 million American workers. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Minority Americans' 'Health Care Disconnect'
    Hispanic and African American working-age adults face gaps in health insurance coverage, problems accessing care, and medical debt at higher rates than their white counterparts, Commonwealth Fund researchers find. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: GDP slows, housing weakens
    Growth in real gross domestic product slowed dramatically to 2.5 %, compared to last quarter’s 5.6 %. Today’s Economic Policy Institute analysis by Josh Bivens illustrates that the cooling housing market is a key influence in that downturn. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Comparing the House Minimum Wage and Estate Tax Proposals
    House leaders are following a legislative strategy that involves marrying an increase in the minimum wage to a sharp reduction in the estate tax. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Making Ends Meet
    How do Ohio families with young kids survive at the poverty level? Only by foregoing essentials, according to a study by Policy Matters and the Economic Policy Institute. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: The College Dropout
    As higher education has become more essential, it has also become more expensive in Ohio and in the nation. Ohio's state investment in higher education, measured per pupil or as a percent of state income, has not kept pace with other states or with demand. Having always lagged the nation in higher education completion, we can ill afford to fall further behind. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Federal Tax Cuts Benefit Richest Ohioans
    This June 2006 analysis, based on data from Citizens for Tax Justice, shows that federal tax cuts since 2001 strongly favor the richest Ohioans compared to less affluent taxpayers in the state. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Medicare Physician Payment: Are We Getting What We Pay For? Are We Paying for What We Want?
    In his invited testimony before the Subcommittee on Health of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Stuart Guterman examines much we pay physicians and the importance of ensuring the quality of care that they provide in the context of patients covered by medicare.
  • Reports and Analyses: A Whole ’Nother World
    MDRC’s Opening Doors Demonstration is measuring the effects of various combinations of curricular reforms, enhanced academic advising, and increased financial aid intended to increase the persistence and improve the academic achievement of students at six community colleges. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Employment-Focused Programs for Ex-Prisoners
    Each year, the more than 600,000 people released from prison face numerous obstacles to successful reentry into society, starting with the challenge of finding stable work. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: House Committee Considering "Mean-Spirited" Bill Cutting off Attorneys' Fees in Church-State Cases
    Americans United for Separation of Church and State today urged the House Judiciary Committee to reject a bill that would make it more difficult for Americans to bring church-state violations into court. The so-called “Public Expression of Religion Act” targets those who challenge church-state infringements by government officials. The measure, H.R. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Missing the Mark Again: Bush Administration’s Career Advancement Accounts (pdf)
    Recent announcements by U.S. Department of Labor officials have touted Career Advancement Account (CAAs) demonstration projects as an innovative response to automotive dislocations by Ford and General Motors in nine states. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Waste in the Medicare Drug Benefit: Why the Doughnut Hole is Unnecessary (pdf)
    Millions of seniors and disabled Americans enrolled in Medicare Part D drug plans are discovering the “doughnut hole”-- the $2,850 gap placed into the plan in order to save the government money. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Foreign-Born New Yorkers Have Poor Access to Care, Health Declines Over Time
    Many foreign-born New Yorkers, particularly Spanish-speakers, face difficulties accessing health services, and their health may decline after living in the United States, according to a report supported by The Commonwealth Fund and the Fund for Public Health in New York.
  • Reports and Analyses: Tax Digest 7-21-06
    In this issue: How Big Is The Deficit -- Really?, OMB Watch Report Finds IRS Threatening Rights of 501(c)(3) Organizations, Congress Poised to Extend Special Tax Advantages to Wealthy Families In Guise of “Savings Incentives” -- and Maybe Gut the Estate Tax While They're At It, And Maybe Congress Will Gut the Estate Tax While They're At It, Ohio Proposes Tax Break for Wealthy, Trying to Export Sta
  • Reports and Analyses: PK-3: What Is It and How Do We Know It Works? (pdf)
    The newly released FCD Policy Brief, PK-3: What Is It and How Do We Know It Works?, identifies the five key components of PK-3: alignment, school organization, qualified teachers, classrooms as learning environments, and accountability to parents and communities. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: MassVOTE Digest: The Primaries Are Coming
    In order to help voters become change agents, fully prepared to flex their civic muscles on Election Day, MassVOTE has created a “Guide to Statewide Elected Officials available in English or Spanish. This publication, which can be e-mailed, posted and handed out, provides voters with a brief summary of the role and responsibilities of each of the offices up for election this fall. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Hungary's Jobless Picture Worsens
    Since 2000, Hungary has developed a dire unmet need for job creation. Hungary's rate of long-term unemployment — about half of the country's unemployed — is extremely high when compared to other developed countries. And according to the World Bank, 7.5 percent of Hungarians are trapped in long-term poverty. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Wages up Monthly, but Flat Over Last Quarter & Over Recovery
    Real hourly wages rose 0.2% in June, reversing a three month slide from March through May. Over the first two quarters of this year, both real hourly wage and weekly earnings have been flat, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Despite growing more quickly in recent months, the real wages of most workers continue to lag inflation on a yearly basis. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Child Poverty Higher in US than in Other Developed Nations
    Other developed countries have more effective policies for eliminating child poverty than the United States. In today’s Snapshot, EPI economist Sylvia Allegretto compares child poverty outcomes in 16 countries with similar economies. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Analysis of Proposed Ohio Capital Gains Tax Cut
    The Ways and Means Committee of the Ohio House of Representatives is beginning hearings on House Bill 626, which proposes a new set of income tax cuts, this time to the rates on capital gains. Policy Matters Ohio and The Center for Community Solutions requested that the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) analyze the proposed reductions. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Jobs-Plus: A Promising Strategy
    MDRC’s study of Jobs-Plus, an employment program for public housing residents, offered the first hard evidence presented to the Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census, House Committee on Government Reform that a work-focused intervention based in public housing can effectively promote residents’ self-sufficiency. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: MDRC's Evaluation of Project GRAD
    Project Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) is an ambitious education reform initiative that targets high schools and the elementary and middle schools that feed into them. Findings from MDRC’s evaluation of Project GRAD in several urban school districts can be found in two reports-one focused on elementary schools and the other on high schools.
  • Reports and Analyses: Maximizing the Use of EPSDT to Improve the Health and
    This second Project THRIVE Short Take examines the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) program of Medicaid with a focus on young children. While the Medicaid EPSDT benefit covers health and developmental services for one in three children under age 5, most states do not meet national goals for screening. Short Take No. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Challenges and Opportunities in Children’s Mental Health: A View from Families and Youth
    The first working paper in NCCP’s new series on children's mental health-- Unclaimed Children Revisited --documents how families and youth can and should be involved in research and policy as well as advocacy to better help children and youth facing mental health challenges.
  • Reports and Analyses: The Recent Upturn in Revenue and OMB's Mid-Session Review
    This updated report finds that the nation still faces major long-run fiscal challenges: Revenue growth over the current business cycle has been lower than in comparable past periods, weak overall revenue growth during this business cycle reflects the impact of tax cuts, short-term revenue “surprises” are not unusual in economic recoveries, the role of the economy in the recent revenue growt
  • Reports and Analyses: How Much More Cost-Sharing Will Health Savings Accounts Bring?
    Proponents of health savings accounts (HSAs) often argue that, when combined with high-deductible insurance plans, these arrangements can help control spiraling health care costs by forcing consumers to be more cost-conscious. Higher patient cost-sharing, they say, is the key. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Deficits Soar, Bush Celebrates
    Having slashed personal income taxes, primarily on the wealthy, over the past six years, the Bush administration would like the public to believe that tax revenues are nonetheless doing just fine, and that the budget deficit is not really a problem. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Rise and Demise of the "New American Century"
    In addition to examining the rise and decline of the Project for the New American Century, Barry describes the emergence of new neoconservative groups, such as the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Committee on the Present Danger, that remain dedicated to shaping U.S. foreign policy in line with neoconservative ideology and policy agenda. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Supervisor in Name Only: Union Rights of 8 Million at Stake
    This report reveals how many and what type of workers could be stripped of their contract protection and denied union rights if the board significantly broadens the definition of a supervisor. Supervisors in the traditional sense have the authority to hire, fire, discipline, evaluate or promote the employees they supervise. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Feeding the Factory Farm: Implicit Subsidies to the Broiler Chicken Industry
    Lost in the subsidy debate is a clear understanding of the winners and losers from current agricultural policies, and from the price trends these policies provoke. In a new paper from the Global Development and Environment Institute, Elanor Starmer, Aimee Witteman, and Timothy A. Wise focus on one group of winners – industrial, corporate-owned livestock production facilities. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Making Ends Meet in Ohio
    The cost of securing a safe and decent yet modest standard of living is close to twice the official poverty line for working families in Ohio’s rural areas, and between two and three times the poverty thresholds in urban areas. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: The Forgotten Homeland
    Nearly five years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, has the government adequately protected its citizens against terrorism and catastrophic disaster? The Forgotten Homeland: A Century Foundation Task Force Report gathers leading homeland security experts to analyze the nation's most significant vulnerabilities and propose strategies to reduce them. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Immigrants As Aid Donors
    In today’s smaller world, immigrants to the United States retain strong ties to families left behind. These ties mean that every dollar a new immigrant earns through hard labor in the United States is shared with the poor and hungry of the developing world. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: The IRS Political Activities Enforcement Program for Nonprofit Groups: Questions & Concerns
    A new OMB Watch report finds fault with the IRS program to enforce the ban on partisan activities by charities. The report's most serious findings suggest that the IRS's Political Activities Compliance Initiative (PACI) threatens the constitutional rights of nonprofit organizations and churches to speak out on issues of the day. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: The 2006 KIDS COUNT Data Book
    The 17th annual national and state-by-state study profiles the well-being of America's children, and seeks to enrich discussions concerning ways to secure better futures for all kids. The annual Data Book ranks states on 10 key measures and provides data on child health, education and the economic condition of families. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: African Americans, Latinos and Economic Opportunity in the 21st Century
    This report by Jennifer Wheary, a Demos Senior Fellow, discusses demographic change and its implications for building the middle class of tomorrow. This report is the most recent in Demos' Future Middle Class series. It shows that African Americans and Latinos are the fastest growing segments of the U.S. population and have made gains in entering the middle class. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Jobs Byte July 7, 2006: Wage growth continues to outpace inflation
    At 4.1 percent, the unemployment rate of high-school graduates is at its lowest rate since July 2001. The economy added 121,000 new jobs in June. Over 2006, average monthly job creation has been 142,000, lower than in 2004 and 2005, when the economy added an average of 175,000 and 165,000 jobs per month, respectively. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Job Growth Slows Again, Indicating Trend
    June’s 108,000 new jobs mark the third month in a row that job growth is slower than analysts expected. In today’s Jobs Picture, EPI senior economist Jared Bernstein sees job growth being affected by the same forces cooling the overall economy and expects this to persist. Wages have accelerated and finally exceed inflation. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: U.S. Deeper in Debt To Foreign Countries
    To deal with its mounting trade deficit, the United States has had to sell more of its assets to foreign investors and consequently, has become the world’s most highly indebted nation. In 2005, the U.S. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: What the Public Really Wants on Immigration
    Public Opinion Watch has ceased publishing after four great years. In its place, the Center for American Progress and The Century Foundation have launched a new series from joint senior fellow Ruy Teixeira called "What the Public Really Wants..." Each month, Ruy will provide in-depth analysis of public opinion data on one topic defining the political debate in America. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Home Energy Affordability Gap
    The Home Energy Affordability Gap for the United States reached $23.2 billion in 2005, according to the most recent annual Home Energy Affordability Gap analysis released by Fisher, Sheehan & Colton, Public Finance and General Economics (FSC). The 2005 Affordability Gap (which include heating, cooling and electricity, but not transportation), published in April 2006, was nearly $5.0 billion higher
  • Reports and Analyses: Medicaid ID Rule Could Put Coverage at Risk for Millions
    A new rule requiring U.S. citizens to prove their citizenship when applying for or renewing Medicaid benefits is expected to jeopardize coverage for several million qualified citizens, from elderly people in nursing homes to foster children, according to a national survey conducted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington-based research group.
  • Reports and Analyses: News Digest 7-3-06
    In this Issue: Kids Count Shows Progress of ‘90s Stalled, Children Now Treading Water, Agriculture Under Secretary Eric Bost Confirmed As Ambassador to South Africa, New Federal Welfare Rules Set to Reduce Support, Move More People from Welfare to Work, Senators Protest Cutting Food Stamps and Other Programs to Pay for Veterans’ Credit Monitoring, Op-Ed: Path to Citizenship for Deserving Immigrant
  • Reports and Analyses: Voting Rights in Texas, 1982-2006
    The evidence discussed in this report makes clear that racially discriminatory and exclusionary practices continue to plague the Texas electoral system despite legal challenges and gradual progress. The reauthorization of Sections 5, 203, and the federal observer provisions is of paramount importance to secure the fundamental right to vote for minority citizens in Texas. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Facilitating Implementation of Evidence-Based Guidelines in Hospital Settings: Learning From Trauma Centers
    Clinical care guidelines help providers practice evidence-based medicine and reduce variability in the quality of care they deliver. Nonetheless, guideline adoption to date has been slow and uneven. What gets in the way of adopting clinical guidelines? And how do successful hospitals manage to do it? ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Creating a Personalized and Orderly Learning Environment in High Schools
    The large size of many low-performing high schools can leave students, especially those who are less academically successful, feeling lost and anonymous. MDRC research suggests that making changes in the structure and functioning of these high schools can help.
  • Reports and Analyses: 10 Economic Indicators to Watch for Signs of Housing Bubble Collapse
    Washington, DC: A new report by economist Dean Baker describes the key economic indicators that signal the state of the housing market. "Is the Housing Bubble Collapsing? 10 Economic Indicators to Watch" provides an up-to-date analysis of the available data sources and their uses and limitations. "The housing bubble appears to have passed its peak. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: Fox's Gibson: "There are tons of Differences between" Fox and NY Times, "Starting with, We don't Make this Stuff up, and They Have"
    On The Big Story, John Gibson criticized The New York Times and its former editor Howell Raines, whose new book Gibson takes aim at during the "My Word" segment of the show. Gibson goes on to say, "There are tons of differences between Fox and The New York Times, starting with, we don't make this stuff up, and they have."
  • Reports and Analyses: New Research Connects Availability of EC and Dropping Healthcare Costs
    A new study by the University of British Columbia reveals that by making Plan B, a form of emergency contraception (EC), available over the counter, healthcare costs can be dramatically reduced.
  • Reports and Analyses: An 'F' For Antiterrorism
    Eight-four percent of foreign policy experts say the Bush administration is not keeping Americans secure.
  • Reports and Analyses: Language is a Barrier to Health Care in New York City
    The New York Forum on Child Health of the New York Academy of Medicine, released a new report, Language as a Barrier to Health Care for New York City: Haitian, Russian and Latino Perspectives. ...
  • Reports and Analyses: The Next Big Thing? Methampetamine in the United States
    The Sentencing Project has released a new major study disproving the popular belief that there exists a growing methamphetamine epidimic within the United States. To the contrary, "The Next Big Thing? Methamphetamine in the United States," reveals that methamphetamine is actually one of the rarest of illegal drugs used. ...
  • Action Alerts: FRAC 2006 Year-End Appeal
    The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) is leading the fight to end poverty-related hunger in the United States. FRAC works to end hunger by expanding access to nutrition assistance programs that ensure health and well-being for low-income families. FRAC works in partnership with others through research, publications, training, public education and policy analysis.
  • Action Alerts: Take the Packaging Pledge
    Packaging symbolizes the disposable society we have become. More than half of all paper produced in the United States is used in paper packaging. Join the growing movement to eliminate, reduce, and dramatically change the way packaging is created and used.
  • Action Alerts: Who will Police the Police?
    On Sunday, November 26, Sean Bell was supposed to be getting prepared for his wedding. Instead, he was zipped into a body bag after being shot to death by New York City police. It's a tragedy we've gone through too many times--an unarmed young Black man killed by the police in a senseless barrage of gunfire. ...
  • Action Alerts: SCHIP Reauthorization Sign-On Letter
    As you probably know, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has played an invaluable role in reducing the number of uninsured children in America. But unless President Bush requests more money for SCHIP in next year's budget, thousands of kids will lose their health coverage, while many more will continue to lack insurance. ...
  • Action Alerts: Tell your Representative to vote for the DC Voting Rights Act
    Nearly 600,000 Americans living in the District of Columbia have no voting representation in Congress. It’s the only national capital among the world’s democracies that lacks a vote. Even citizens in Baghdad have the right to representation in Iraq’s legislature. The DC Voting Rights Act is headed for a vote in the last few days of the 109th Congress. ...
  • Action Alerts: Campaign to Advance Comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform
    Thanks to American voters, 20 incumbent members of Congress -- including 7 directly touched by scandal -- are now out of a job, proof that corrupt politicians who do political favors for big-money special interests and lobbyists do so at their own peril. ...
  • Action Alerts: Tell Texas Utility Company: Don't Barbeque Our Planet!
    A Texas utility company is planning 11 new coal-burning power plants that will use outdated technology and make global warming a lot worse. Tell TXU to cancel these plans and invest in energy efficiency projects instead.
  • Action Alerts: Support Iraqi Women and Children:
    Dr. Rashad Zidan, a pharmacist and mother of four, was part of the Iraqi women's delegation to the US in March 2006. Horrified by the devastation wrought by the war, Rashad founded the Knowledge for Iraqi Women Society to, in her words, "relieve the suffering of Iraqi women by providing financial, occupational, medical, and educational resources."
  • Action Alerts: Vote Now for Food Stamps to Be a National Coalition Priority
    As you know, the Food Stamp Program was last reauthorized in the 2002 Farm Bill and is due for action next year. While it is the backbone of the nutrition safety net, benefits at an average of only $1 per person per meal are not enough for attaining a minimally healthy diet. Moreover, the program serves only a portion of the vulnerable people who need it. ...
  • Action Alerts: Thanksgiving feast for one million
    Let's set a Thanksgiving feast for 1 million hungry Americans! I know a million is a lot of Thanksgiving meals, but we can do this. Because The America's Second Harvest Network of food banks and food-rescue organizations is so efficient, every $1 you give provides 16 meals for families in need. There are millions of families in a devastating situation this Thanksgiving. ...
  • Action Alerts: World Bank, G8 Nations Pressured to End Oil Aid
    Jubilee USA Network joins with environmental groups to highlight the connections between debt, oil, and climate change. This month, we have published a full page ad in the Financial Times, calling on the World Bank and G-8 nations to end subsidies to Big Oil and enact broader debt cancellation, as concrete steps towards combating the twin problems of global poverty and climate change. ...
  • Action Alerts: Ask Speaker Pelosi to stand up for workers’ rights
    Workers and workers' rights advocates helped elect a new set of leaders last week. They did so because these new members vowed to fix the problems facing workers in this country, be it stagnant wages, skyrocketing health care, or the uphill battle they encounter when they try and form a union. ...
  • Action Alerts: Protect Attorneys Fees in ALL Establishment Clause Cases
    The Senate has the opportunity to debate legislation which, if enacted, would undermine a critical enforcement mechanism that has safeguarded rights and liberties of Americans for more than a century. The Public Expression of Religion Act (S. ...
  • Action Alerts: Improve nuclear deal with India: Senate action
    While being touted as a non-proliferation initiative, the deal would enable India to increase its production of nuclear weapons to as many as 50 bombs a year, a big increase over its current production capability of about 10 weapons a year. So the deal would dangerously undermine the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). If voted on, the deal is likely to be approved.
  • Action Alerts: Tell Congress to Stop the Peru NAFTA Expansion
    The Peru “Free Trade” Agreement is a NAFTA/CAFTA cookie-cutter expansion that lacks enforceable labor rights, will continue the outsourcing of good U.S. jobs, threatens Peru's environmentally sensitive Amazon basin, and contains provisions limiting Congress’ authority to decide if it’s okay for national security to give control of port services to foreign corporations.
  • Action Alerts: Help Raise the Minimum Wage
    In the past nine years, workers making the minimum wage haven’t gotten a single raise. Not one. And while the wage of $5.15 an hour has stayed the same, its value has dropped precipitously, putting workers further and further behind. It’s long past time for Congress to help the millions of workers earning the minimum wage or close to it. Sen. ...
  • Action Alerts: Mandate for Peace! Join the Campaign
    Dozens of peace and community groups are launching a new post-election campaign this week called "Mandate for Peace". Our goal is to push the new Congress to carry out the will of the voters to bring our troops home from Iraq and pursue foreign policies that promote peace and international cooperation. ...
  • Action Alerts: Tell Target that PVC is Out of Style
    Target may have the latest hip designs, but their aisles are filled with products made from chemicals linked to cancer. Target sells many products made out of or packaged in polyvinyl chloride (PVC), the poison plastic. These products are dangerous to our health and environment from start to finish - in the factory, at home, and in the trash. ...
  • Action Alerts: Join Green Media Toolshed before the new year arrives!
    Join Green Media Toolshed before December 1st and get membership free until the end of the year! Membership will then continue at the regular rate for all of 2007. GMT caters to the environmental, progressive community by providing them with a suite of online media tools, including an extensive media database, a press room and a password protected campaign site. ...
  • Action Alerts: Get it Straight by 2008!
    We are working in Washington, DC, and in states around the country to Get It Straight by 2008 - to make sure we don't have an election meltdown in our next critical election. ...
  • Action Alerts: Help Us Make Every Vote Count: Stop Voter Disenfranchisement!
    Voting is one of the most important rights we possess. Unfortunately, some elected officials don’t see it that way. They will resort to lies and intimidation to keep voters away from the polls on Election Day. ...
  • Action Alerts: Support Improved WIC Food Packages by November 6!
    Comments are due Monday, November 6 on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s new proposed packages of foods for mothers and young children in the WIC program. The USDA’s proposals are important steps forward. They include fruits, vegetables, soy, and whole grain bread and cereals, while decreasing the amount of fruit juice, eggs, and milk. ...
  • Action Alerts: Fast for a World Harvest
    The facts may surprise you: More than 850 million people suffer from chronic hunger. In the US alone, almost 36 million people live in poverty. Globally, 30,000 children under the age of five die every day, mostly from preventable causes, including malnutrition.
  • Action Alerts: Starbucks Should Give Ethiopia Control Over Coffee Names
    Each year, coffee companies make billions of dollars. Starbucks alone earned almost $5.8 billion in net revenues during the first three quarters of 2006. With as many as 15 million Ethiopians dependent on coffee production, Ethiopia has decided to get its farmers more of what they deserve. ...
  • Action Alerts: Congress: Only YOU Can Authorize War on Iran
    News reports earlier this year indicated that the Bush Administration was planning offensive military operations against Iran, possibly including nuclear weapons, and that these plans are not just "contingencies." Intelligence officials quoted by renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh described this planning as "enormous," "hectic" and "operational."
  • Action Alerts: Tell Hershey's what's nuts about Blue Diamond
    Blue Diamond Growers runs the world’s largest almond processing plant and has run – in its own words – “an aggressive union avoidance campaign.” Earlier this year, the company was found guilty of threatening, disciplining, intimidating, and firing pro-union workers. ...
  • Action Alerts: Go To South Dakota. Help Defeat The Abortion Ban.
    Exciting news! Polls show a majority of South Dakota voters oppose the draconian abortion ban on the November 7th South Dakota ballot. But ads supporting the abortion ban have been very deceptive. Pro-choice forces must organize a massive get-out-the-vote effort. Volunteers are needed. Volunteer this weekend in South Dakota. ...
  • Action Alerts: Help Save Alaska's Wolves
    Alaska has taken action to reinstate its aerial gunning program. Under the program, marksmen can gun down wolves from the air or run the wolves to exhaustion, then land and shoot them at point blank range. Help Defenders of Wildlife put an end to this brutal practice once and for all.
  • Action Alerts: Protect our Air and Water from Factory Farm Polluiton
    Large factory farms are the largest source of toxic ammonia air pollution in the U.S. Tell your Senators to oppose S.3681 and protect communities' air and water from factory farms!
  • Action Alerts: Urge your Senators and Representatives to Co-Sponsor "The Afghan Women's Empowerment Act of 2006"
    As the Taliban militia returns and increases its violent attacks against women to prevent them from exercising their rights, we must urge Congress to support organizations that promote and protect women's rights and the women-led nonprofits that provide urgently needed assistance to women and girls.
  • Action Alerts: Tell the Forest Service to remove the Mike Horse Dam
    Heralding the Blackfoot River, John McLean wrote A River Runs Through It. Unfortunately, an old, unstable, toxic dam runs through the river. That could change, with your help!
  • Action Alerts: Dial for Rivers!
    More than 130 river activists from across the country are walking the halls of Congress, meeting face-to-face with their elected officials, and delivering a message about the need to protect and restore rivers in our communities. ...
  • Action Alerts: Urge your Representative to Cancel Haiti's Debt!
    Thank you Jubilee supporters for calling your members of Congress on July 25th to urge them to support a House resolution that would immediately cancel Haiti's debt. Your efforts generated 16 new co-sponsors to H.Res. 888!The Haiti debt cancellation resolution (H.Res. ...
  • Action Alerts: Make It Back to School Time For All the World's Children!
    In order to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of Education for All by 2015, the U.S. must do more to support countries to eliminate these fees and scale-up education systems. President Bush had called for the creation of the Millennium Change Account (MCA). Given its intent, the MCA should be used to extend basic education in qualifying nations. Take Action! ...
  • Action Alerts: Show your solidarity with Ebadi and demand that Iran declare her organization for women’s rights legal!
    In an ominous action, Iran has outlawed the Center for the Defense of Human Rights – an organization co-founded by Dr. Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace Laureate and a hero for her work on rights for women and children. Iran has declared the organization illegal, claiming it did not have a proper permit, and is threatening to arrest Dr. ...
  • Action Alerts: Big Oil Pumping YOU Dry
    Whether you’ve seen it on tv or felt it at the pumps, I’m sure you know all about BP’s shutdown of half of the nation’s largest oil field in Alaska. This is just the latest blow in a series of hurricanes, war, pipeline leaks, and just plain greed that have all contributed to rising oil prices and exposed our dependence on fossil fuels. ...
  • Action Alerts: Sign the Petition for Children's Health Care
    There are more than 9 million uninsured children in the United States, while millions more are underinsured. This means that millions of children in America can't see a doctor on a regular basis, can't afford prescription drugs, and can't get preventive care, among other services. ...
  • Action Alerts: Urge Iran to Stop Stoning Women
    Dear Feminist Activist, Ashraf Kolhari, an Iranian mother of four, has been sentenced to death for allegedly having sex outside of wedlock. Kolhari was given this brutal sentence for having an affair after the Iranian court system refused to grant her a divorce from her husband. The stoning could be carried out at any time. ...
  • Action Alerts: Host a Minimum Wage Party with Sen. John Edwards & CPC!
    On August 15th at 6:00pm, Colorado Progressive Coalition in partnership with ProgressNowAction, will organize house parties all across the state to write letters to other Colorado voters in support of the minimum wage increase. ...
  • Action Alerts: Our President Should Be Elected by Voters, Not Dollars
    In the upcoming 2008 election, few of the serious presidential contenders are expected to stay in the public financing system. This is because they can raise and spend more money than candidates who use public financing under the current limits. ...
  • Action Alerts: Show the Senate Right from Wrong on the Minimum Wage!
    Within 24 hours, the Senate is expected to vote on a bill that demands $750 billion more in tax give-aways to America's super rich in order to raise the minimum wage just $2 an hour for America's lowest-paid workers. America's minimum wage workers haven't gotten a raise in over nine years! They deserve a raise with no strings attached. The outcome is still in doubt. ...
  • Action Alerts: Help Library Workers Get a Voice at Work
    In recent years, the library employees have suffered through cutbacks: no more overtime pay for Sunday work, no annual cost of living raises, and no health benefits for retirees. They also have concerns about workload -- the library has a third fewer staff than it had 10 years ago! ...
  • Action Alerts: Act Now on Burdensome New Medicaid Proof of Citizenship Rules
    On July 12, 2006, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published the interim final regulations to implement the new law that U.S. citizens applying for and receiving Medicaid show “satisfactory documentary evidence” of their citizenship. This new documentation requirement could increase the likelihood that poor and vulnerable U.S. ...
  • Action Alerts: National Children's Health Care Campaign
    Families USA, in conjunction with over 35 other national organizations, launched the Campaign for Children’s Health Care on July 11. The campaign is designed to raise public awareness that more than 9 million children are uninsured in the United States and millions more are underinsured. ...
  • Action Alerts: Help Progressive Maryland's Endorsed Candidates Win!
    Volunteers are still urgently needed to do phone or in-person outreach on issues, for candidates and to Get Out The Vote! Contact Progressive Maryland's office nearest to you today: —Silver Spring, 301-495-7004— New Carrollton, 240-603-1547 —Towson, 410-296-3946
  • Action Alerts: Urge Your Representative to Cancel Haiti’s Debt!
    Haiti is the most impoverished country in the Western hemisphere. Haiti’s massive debt burden of $1.4 billion is both unpayable and unjust. Much of Haiti’s debt was contracted under 30 years of Duvalier regimes, notorious for human rights abuses. The Haiti debt cancellation resolution ( H.Res. ...
  • Action Alerts: Take Action: Medicaid Rule on Citizenship Still Threatens Access to Care
    Many U.S. citizens who are Medicaid-eligible―including people with mental illnesses, foster children and the homeless―remain at risk of being denied access to essential health and mental health services because they cannot produce the necessary documents on a timely basis. ...
  • Action Alerts: Tell Congress: Oppose Sunset Commissions
    Conservatives have long pushed for Sunset Commissions as a way to eliminate programs they don't like – including Head Start and other important health, energy and education services. Under the proposals (H.R. 3282 and H.R. 5766), sunset commissions would meet behind closed doors without any public notice or comment, and without providing Congress with documentation or transcripts. ...
  • Action Alerts: We Have Had Abortions
    We have had abortions.That was the headline of a petition in the 1972 debut issue of Ms. magazine in which 53 well-known U.S. women declared that they had undergone abortions -- despite state laws rendering the procedure illegal. At the time of the original Ms. petition, illegal abortions were causing untold suffering and countless deaths of young women in the United States. ...
  • Action Alerts: Amazon Rainforest on a Fast-Food Menu?
    KFC really does have a secret recipe – want to know what’s in it? Freshly sizzling Amazon Rainforest. That’s what goes into the soy that KFC's famous chickens are fed.

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