New Research and Papers
Annual Privatization Report
Annual Privatization Report by the Reason Foundation
("free minds and free markets") includes federal, state
and local update, surface transportation, air
transportation, education, emerging issues such as
State Lottery privatization update, water & wastewater,
telecommunications, land use and environment, and of
course...prisons, http://www.reason.org/apr2008/
Blacks See Growing Values Gap Between Poor and Middle Class; Optimism about Black Progress Declines
Pew Research Center. 91 pages. November 13, 2007. African Americans see a widening gulf between the values of middle class and poor blacks, and nearly four-in-ten say that because of the diversity within their community, blacks can no longer be thought of as a single race. The new nationwide Pew Research Center survey also finds blacks less upbeat about the state of black progress now than at any time since 1983. Looking backward, just one-in-five blacks say things are better for blacks now than they were five years ago. Looking ahead, fewer than half of all blacks (44%) say they think life for blacks will get better in the future, down from the 57% who said so in a 1986 survey. Blacks have much less confidence than whites in the fairness of the criminal justice system. Also, blacks say that anti-black discrimination is commonplace in everyday life; whites disagree.
A 53% majority of African Americans say that blacks who don't get ahead are mainly responsible for their situation, while just three-in-ten say discrimination is mainly to blame. As recently as the mid-1990s, black opinion on this question tilted in the opposite direction, with a majority of African Americans saying then that discrimination is the main reason for a lack of black progress. http://pewsocialtrends.org/assets/pdf/Race.pdf
By the Numbers: The Public Costs of Teen Childbearing
Documents the public costs of teen childbearing at both
the national and state level. Teen childbearing in the
United States costs taxpayers (federal, state, and
local) at least $9.1 billion, according to a new report
by Saul Hoffman, Ph.D. and published by the National
Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Most of the costs
of teen childbearing are associated with negative
consequences for the children of teen mothers,
including increased costs for health care, foster care,
and incarceration. The study includes state by state
fact sheets on cost of teen childbearing. http://www.teenpregnancy.org/costs/default.asp
Katrina Anniversary Report
Co-released by the Women's
Funding Network and the Ms. Foundation for
Women. "Women have become a critical force rebuilding
the Gulf Coast after being disproportionately affected by
Katrina. This report reveals that, while the lens of race
and class were applied to the natural disaster early on,
the gender dimensions of poverty and recovery on the Gulf
Coast have largely been overlooked. The report includes
amazing stories of women survivors, outlines post-disaster
challenges they face, and the actions they've taken as
leaders in the rebuilding process in partnership with
women's organizations and women's foundations." http://www.wfnet.org/documents/publications/katrina_report_082706.pdf
The Katrina Files
An archive of reports on the hurricane and the aftermath,
is now available at C3 Online, the website of the UCLA-based Center for
Communications and Community. The archive
includes links to print, video and audio content in the following
categories: Coverage Critiques, Community and Independent Media,
Community Activism Research, Journalism and Research Archives http://uclaccc.ucla.edu
Mixed Signals
A counter-recruitment comic book by artist Sabrina Jones. It is being emblazoned on paper
bags, to be distributed to delis and bodegas in New York by a mysterious cadre of
activist artists known as "Friends of William Blake." Check it out in this week's "Time Out NY", on the William Blake website, or at the comic book's web page: http://www.brethren.org/oepa/CRMixedSignals.html
New Orleans by the Numbers
By Peter Wagner and Susan Edwards. This article is from the March/April 2006 issue of Dollars & Sense magazine. The city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana were in trouble long before Hurricane
Katrina flooded the city and long before the Federal Emergency Management Agency decided that the director's dinner engagements were more important than the plight of hurricane victims running out of food in the Superdome. http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/0306wagneredwards.html
Opportunity Agenda Katrina Anniversary Toolkit
August 29th marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. This
toolkit contains a set of tools designed to highlight the vastly unequal
opportunity revealed by Katrina and advance solutions that can expand
opportunity in the Gulf Coast region and beyond. http://www.opportunityagenda.org/si...819/k.58FA/Katrina_1_Year_Later.htm
Segregation Map
Segregation map displays the population of every person in the U.S. along racial and ethnic lines.
"How diverse is your neighborhood really? This map by Dustin Cable at the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service displays the population distribution of every person in America (as of the 2010 census) along racial and ethnic lines. The map features 308,745,538 dots, each smaller than a single pixel and each representing one person: Caucasians are blue, blacks are green, Hispanics are orange, Asians are red, and other races are brown." http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html
Settling for Misconduct
Chicago Reporter. Between 2012 and 2015, the City of Chicago paid more than $210 million to settle police misconduct cases. On average, a civil rights lawsuit against the Police Department is settled almost every other day, according to a new database by The Chicago Reporter. These lawsuits have resulted in millions of dollars in payouts that the city cannot afford. Rather than rein in the practices that lead to these settlements, officials have borrowed millions to pay for police lawsuits, contributing to Chicago's mounting debt.
http://www.chicagoreporter.com/settlements
The State of Black America
The annual Urban League Report addresses the
issues central to Black America in the current year. The publication is a barometer
of the conditions, experiences and opinions of Black America. It examines black
progress in education, homeownership, entrepreneurship, health and other areas.
The publication forecasts certain social and political trends and proposes solutions
to the community's and America's most pressing challenges. March 2006. http://www.nul.org/thestateofblackamerica.html
A System in Crisis
Overburdened long before Katrina, the public mental health network here is
finding it impossible to meet need. By Claudia Feldman.
"For every million people who move here," Burruss says, "between 7 (percent)
and 10 percent have a major mental disorder. And if you add those with
substance-abuse problems, those percentages are even higher. Also consider
that a third of the population of Harris County is uninsured. And factor in
recent cuts in Medicaid and Medicare." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chronicle/4128667.html
|
