October 16, 2009

The October 15 deadline for local law enforcement agencies to sign the new 287(g) agreements has been reached. DHS is expected to announce that nearly all the local partners have agreed to continue in the program. A forthcoming report by the Center for Immigration Studies helps explain why: 287(g) has helped reduce immigration-related public safety problems in participating jurisdictions, while significantly contributing to the productivity of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in removing illegal aliens. The report, "The 287(g) Program: Protecting Home Towns and Homeland," includes statistics from ICE and local 287(g) agencies and describes the various types of 287(g) programs and why they are effective. Authors Jessica Vaughan and James R. Edwards, Jr. also discuss some of the challenges facing the program, such as threats of reduced funding from Congress, opposition from ethnic and civil liberties groups, and efforts by the current administration to impose limits on how local partners can use 287(g). The study will be published next week at www.cis.org; advanced copies are available to the media. Full release.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Humane Society International and Defenders of Wildlife today commended the United States for submitting a proposal to next year's meeting of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to stop the international trade in polar bears. The meeting is set for March 13-25 in Doha, Qatar. "On May 8, 2009, Sec. Salazar said that he and President Obama were fully committed to protecting polar bears, and that we must do everything we can to eliminate all threats to the species," said Jeff Flocken, IFAW Washington, D.C. Office Director. "With this laudable action, they are making good on that commitment. By uplisting the species at the next CITES conference, the U.S. will help prevent the deaths of hundreds of polar bears killed needlessly for the commercial market." Full release.

Drinking. Drugs. Caving into peer pressure. When parents expect their teenagers to conform to negative stereotypes, those teens are in fact more likely to do so, according to new research by professor of psychology Christy Buchanan. "Parents who believe they are simply being realistic might actually contribute to a self-fulfilling prophecy," says Buchanan, who studies adolescent development and behavior. "Negative expectations on the part of both parents and children predict more negative behaviors later on." In her study, published in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, Buchanan found that adolescents whose mothers expected them to take more risks and be more rebellious reported higher levels of risk-taking behavior than their peers one year later. The same was true for adolescents' negative expectations. "Higher expectations for risk-taking and rebelliousness predict higher levels of problem behavior, even controlling for many other predictors of such behavior," Buchanan says. Full release.

Here's a health idea that Democrats and Republicans agree on: when given information on the genetic factors that cause diabetes, both parties equally supported public health policies to prevent the disease. But a study designed by the University of Michigan showed Republicans were less supportive of such policies after reading news reports that people with diabetes got their illness because of social or economic factors in which they live, such as lack of neighborhood grocery stores or safe places to exercise. The social factors increased Democrats' support. The study will appear online Thursday ahead of its December publication in the American Journal of Public Health. "When people are given the same information they can come away with very different opinions," says Sarah E. Gollust, Ph.D., a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania who worked on the study during her doctoral work at U-M. Full release.

Consumers Energy's application for a $174 million federal grant to support development of its smart grid project and reduce costs for customers has cleared the first hurdle with the U.S. Department of Energy. The Energy Department has $3.4 billion of funding available in the Smart Grid Investment Grant Program as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Consumers Energy's application advanced through the initial screening and is being reviewed by the department. The company's application has received strong support from the state's congressional delegation, Gov. Jennifer Granholm, state lawmakers, the Michigan Public Service Commission and a number of local communities, including Grand Rapids and Jackson. "This grant is important to Michigan because it will help create jobs and support the development and deployment of cutting edge technology in our state's energy infrastructure," said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. "Along with creating jobs, this technology will help keep Michigan competitive and ready for an economic recovery." Full release.

On Friday, October 16, U.S. President Barack Obama will join U.S. President George Bush and more than 2,000 service leaders in Texas to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Points of Light movement and issue a new call to Americans to serve in their communities. The anniversary marks President Bush's inauguration speech in 1989, in which he invoked "A Thousand Points of Light" to salute and encourage individuals to solve problems and improve their communities through volunteering and service. He backed up this idea by creating the Commission on National Service, which launched Federal activities supporting service. This idea and the framework for supporting it at a Federal level has endured and grown in the administrations of President William J. Clinton and President George W. Bush and now President Obama. Full release.

An innovative, far-sighted partnership between the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) will improve the health care system for Veterans and dramatically change the way health care is delivered to all Americans, according to Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs W. Scott Gould. "The future will see VA and DoD working even closer together," said Gould, "as we fulfill the President's requirement for a single Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record that will support Veterans from their day of induction to their day of interment." Gould spoke Oct. 15 at the second annual DoD "Breakthrough Convention" devoted to improving business practices in the nation's largest government agency. Full release.

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Founder and President of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization Of A New Destiny, issued the following statement about the scandalous and shameful way NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith treated Rush Limbaugh, effectively blocking his bid as part of a group to purchase the St. Louis Rams: "As an American civil-rights leader I am deeply disturbed by the unfair treatment Rush Limbaugh received at the hands of the NFL and the smear campaign orchestrated by many in the media to brand him a 'racist.' "Rush Limbaugh was denied the opportunity to own a part of an NFL franchise because he's a conservative straight white male and a staunch critic of Barack Obama's agenda. Full release.

AAUW has provided detailed policy recommendations that will help society's institutions catch up with the women's progress detailed in The Shriver Report-A Woman's Nation Changes Everything. AAUW's recommendations on a variety of subject areas, including pay equity, work-life balance, and education, can be found at www.aauw.org/womansnation. A Woman's Nation emphasizes one of the most remarkable changes of the past half century: the movement of millions of women into paid employment. Women now make up half of all workers in the United States, a stunning shift from just a few generations ago. "There hasn't been a comprehensive account of the status of women in more than 45 years," said AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE. "Given the nation's rather complicated economic situation, this report could not have come at a better time. AAUW is taking the lead on providing policy recommendations and grassroots action items for our members and others who are interested in issues affecting working women. These recommendations are aimed at continuing to improve women's status and strengthening the economic security of their families." Full release.

Half the world lives on less than $2 a day. Right now, that's more than three billion people, but new research suggests the population will hit the seven billion mark within two years. The Population Reference Bureau (PRB) also found that the least developed regions, like Africa, are projected to double in population by 2050. PRB recently released these statistics in their 2009 World Population Data Sheet. Morgan Jackson, Faith Comes By Hearing's international director, said these new figures are troubling because billions of people may never hear the message of hope and truth in God's Word. "The world's poorest of the poor are cut off from the Bible," said Jackson. "Half of the world's people are illiterate and too poor to afford a Bible. Five of six African believers will never own a Bible. And when people don't have Scripture in a format they can use and understand the results can be devastating to villages and whole countries." Full release.

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