By Alemayehu Bishaw27 June 2014 (census.gov) – The Changes in Areas With Concentrated Poverty: 2000 to 2010 report [pdf] largely compares Census 2000 poverty estimates with those based on the 2008–2012 5-year American Community Survey (ACS). As 2010 represents the midpoint of this period, for convenience the remainder of this report refers to these 2008–2012 […]
By Diana Marcum30 May 2014 HURON, California (Los Angeles Times) – The two fieldworkers scraped hoes over weeds that weren’t there. “Let us pretend we see many weeds,” Francisco Galvez told his friend Rafael. That way, maybe they’d get a full week’s work. They always tried to get jobs together. Rafael, the older man, had […]
By SIMON ROMERO and CHRISTOPHER CLAREY18 May 2014 RIO DE JANEIRO (The New York Times) – Nico Delle Karth, an Austrian sailor preparing for the 2016 Summer Olympics, said it was the foulest place he had ever trained. Garbage bobbed on the surface, everything from car tires to floating mattresses. The water reeked so badly […]
By Ken Silverstein18 May 2014 (Forbes) – Being a big business, the insurance industry is a strong backer of free enterprise and its laissez-faire leaders. But a rift could be developing now that some major carriers are staking claims in the climate change cause while many of their congressional backers have remained skeptical of the […]
[UPDATE: Objections have been raised about this study, e.g., here. I asked Prof. Gilens for his rebuttal, and he graciously replied. His response is appended at the end of this post. –Des] By Tom McKay16 April 2014 (PolicyMic) – A new scientific study, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens” [pdf], […]
1 April 2014 (Associated Press) – On the same day the world’s scientists issued their latest report on climate change and the risks it poses to society, America’s biggest oil and gas company said the world’s climate policies are “highly unlikely” to stop it from selling fossil fuels far into the future. Exxon Mobil issued […]
By CJ Werleman9 April 2014 (AlterNet) – If America needed a reminder that it is fast becoming a second-rate nation, and that every economic policy of the Republican Party is wrongheaded, it got one this week with the release of the Social Progress Index (SPI). Harvard business professor Michael E. Porter, who earlier developed the […]
WASHINGTON, DC, 29 March 2014 (Inquirer.net) – Tens of thousands of Filipinos affected by Typhoon Haiyan could lose their homes and livelihoods, unless a controversial government policy is changed immediately, according to a recent report by international refugee assistance group. In its latest report, Philippines: Typhoon Survivors Face Obstacles to Recovery, Refugees International (RI) urges […]
By Jenny Purt, Laura Paddison, and Jennifer Kho 1 April 2014 (theguardian.com) – The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, meant to represent the global consensus on the state of climate-change science, came out Monday. Read the Guardian’s extensive coverage of the report, including: • Climate change report: ‘The worst is yet […]
By Gardiner Harris28 March 2014 DAKOPE, Bangladesh (The New York Times) – When a powerful storm destroyed her riverside home in 2009, Jahanara Khatun lost more than the modest roof over her head. In the aftermath, her husband died and she became so destitute that she sold her son and daughter into bonded servitude. And […]
