Poll finds world negative experiences remained at record-high level in 2018 – Anger increased by two points, hitting a new high

18 April 2019 (Gallup) – Gallup’s Positive and Negative Experience Indexes measure life’s intangibles — feelings and emotions — that traditional economic indicators such as GDP were never intended to capture. Each index provides a real-time snapshot of people’s daily experiences, offering leaders insights into the health of their societies that they cannot gather from […]

Hurricane Michael: A harvest on hold for a generation

29 April 2019 (The Weather Channel) – Hurricane Michael ripped through the Southeast U.S. six months ago. The damage at the coast was unreal, but inland, another astounding loss: pecan, timber and row crops. While row crops can be planted again this year, it’ll be a decade before farmers can grow pecans and earn an […]

Puerto Rican families fled Hurricane Maria’s destruction to Panama City. Months later, Michael struck – “When we got here we had nothing”

Puerto Rican families fled Hurricane Maria’s destruction to Panama City. Months later, Michael struck – “When we got here we had nothing”

By Bianca Padró Ocasio29 March 2019 (Orlando Sentinel) – Luis Angel Santos Baez was rummaging in his apartment complex’s dumpster in the early days of January 2018 when he found what seemed like a gift from God: a plastic storage cart that held several bags filled with unused notebooks and other arts-and-crafts supplies. Santos Baez, […]

Climate scientist James Hansen says the Green New Deal is “nonsense”

By Zoya Teirstein24 April 2019 (Grist) – In the 1980s, NASA scientist James Hansen brought climate change to the attention of Congress, and shortly thereafter the public. Humans, he testified in 1988, were responsible for rising global temperatures. But the man who put his reputation on the line to alert the world to the dangers of […]

Graph of the Day: Class Mobility in the U.S. for Children Born Between 1940 and 1984

2 May 2019 (Desdemona Despair) – Everybody knows the “American Dream” of upward class mobility is a shining artifact of the past, to borrow the words of Leonard Cohen. But how fast is the dream dying? Harvard University’s Opportunity Insights project seeks to answer this question and hopes to prescribe remedies. They’ve collected a great […]

Anti-Semitic attacks rise worldwide in 2018, led by U.S., west Europe – “Jews in some countries feel they live in a state of emergency”

By Maayan Lubell; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Gareth Jones1 May 2019 JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Anti-Semitic attacks worldwide rose 13 percent in 2018 from the previous year, with the highest number of incidents reported in major Western democracies including the United States, France, Britain and Germany, an annual study showed on Wednesday. Those incidents included […]

Measles cases break record since disease was eliminated in United States in 2000 – “The suffering we are seeing is avoidable”

By Lena H. Sun 25 April 2019 (The Washington Post) – Measles cases in the United States have now exceeded the highest number on record in a single year since the disease was eliminated in 2000. Nationwide, 695 cases of the vaccine-preventable illness had been reported in 22 states this year, as of 3 p.m. Wednesday […]

Psychologists release results of survey of “Maria generation” kids – “More than seven percent of youth reported clinically significant symptoms of PTSD”

By Helen Adams 26 April 2019 (MUSC) – Psychologists from the Medical University of South Carolina have just published one of the largest post-disaster screening projects in U.S. history. The report, available online through JAMA Network Open, measured the magnitude of Hurricane Maria’s impact on the mental health of children in Puerto Rico. Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo, an assistant […]

Americans’ stress, worry, and anger reached highest recorded levels in 2018

By Julie Ray 25 April 2019 WASHINGTON, D.C. (Gallup) – Even as their economy roared, more Americans were stressed, angry, and worried last year than they have been at most points during the past decade. Asked about their feelings the previous day, the majority of Americans (55%) in 2018 said they had experienced stress during […]

U.S. runs largest monthly budget deficit on record in February 2019 – Deficit for first five months of FY 2019 hits $544.2 billion, up 40% from FY 2018

U.S. runs largest monthly budget deficit on record in February 2019 – Deficit for first five months of FY 2019 hits $544.2 billion, up 40% from FY 2018

By Bob Bryan22 March 2019 (Business Insider) – The US posted a record budget deficit in the month of February, according to a new report from the Treasury Department. The budget deficit for February came in at $234 billion, according to the Treasury, higher than the previous monthly record of $231.7 billion set in 2012. […]

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