February 03, 2010

Last week, US House of Representatives Refugee Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) called on the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to "actively work" to protect Sahrawi refugees in Polisario-controlled camps near Tindouf in southern Algeria and expressed concern over a recent report by the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) that describes three-decades of "ongoing human rights and resettlement failures." In a letter sent to UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres—who in 2009 became the first UNHCR High Commissioner to visit the camps in more than thirty years—the Members of Congress expressed serious concern over accounts in the USCRI report of "dire living conditions in the camps" and "human rights abuses" suffered by tens of thousands of refugees at the hands of the Polisario. Full release.

On Thursday, February 04, 2010, the Department of Justice is expected to file a brief expressing their opinions on the proposed settlement of the Google Books case. Earlier this week, Congressmen Charlie Gonzalez (TX-20) and Gene Green (TX-29) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder expressing some concerns about the proposed settlement and sharing a letter they had received from several minority publishers who were worried that the settlement would impinge on their rights and those of other small businesses. "The proposed settlement was negotiated between Google and the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild," said Congressman Gonzalez, "but it would affect every author and publisher in the country. Protecting the rights of individuals and small businesses is one of the chief responsibilities of our government, and no other source carries the weight of the Department of Justice. Full release.

Amid signs of a stuttering recovery, senior real estate executives report that declining fundamentals and deterioration in Net Operating Income (NOI) pose formidable challenges to the commercial real estate sector — encompassing office buildings, shopping malls, warehouses, hotels, and apartment buildings — according to The Real Estate Roundtable's 1st quarter 2010 Sentiment Index. "Our industry urgently needs public policies that will drive job growth in the economy. We need policies that will facilitate equity investment in real estate. And we need policies that will restart a secondary market – to help banks clear their balance sheets of toxic assets while encouraging greater lending to credit worthy borrowers, both large and small," Roundtable President and CEO Jeffrey DeBoer said. Full release.

A new report, Getting Value Out of Value-Added, was released today by the National Research Council and National Academy of Education. This report documents discussions of a workshop jointly held by the two organizations in 2008 to help policy makers understand the current strengths and limitations of value-added approaches and whether to implement them in their jurisdictions. Sponsored with generous support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the workshop brought together experts in educational testing and accountability, value-added methodology from both the economics and statistical traditions, and state and local data systems to help identify areas of emerging consensus as well as areas of disagreement regarding appropriate uses of value-added methods. Value-added methods have attracted considerable attention in recent years due in part to the testing requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which has created a wealth of student achievement data with which to implement these techniques, and to dissatisfaction with the current status indicators used for NCLB. Full release.

What if the federal government held a beauty contest for taxpayer-backed nuclear reactor loan guarantee bailouts ... and no reactor project "beauties" could be lined up for the runway? According to experts from around the United States, that is precisely the situation the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) faces today with the extraordinarily weak crop of four reactor project candidates vying for loan-guarantee bailouts. The four proposed projects at the top of the list for $18.5 billion in federal bailout support are: the Southern Company's Vogtle reactors in Georgia (widely believed to be the current front runner); the NRG reactor project in Texas; the VC Summer reactors in South Carolina; and the Calvert Cliffs reactor in Maryland. The local experts are far from being alone in their negative assessment of the viability of the four bailout candidates. Full release.

Taking the next step in more than 20 years of research, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have linked sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) with low production of serotonin in the brainstem, based on a comparison of brainstem samples from infants dying of SIDS compared to brainstems of infants dying from other, known causes. The findings, published in the Feb. 3 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, may give a concrete approach to identifying babies at risk for SIDS, the leading cause of death for infants between 1 and 12 months old in the United States. In the brainstem, serotonin helps regulate some of the body's involuntary actions, such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure during sleep. Full release.

More than 200 faith leaders representing a diversity of religions have signed onto a letter to Congress expressing concern over the Supreme Court's decision to reverse decades of campaign finance law to allow unlimited corporate spending on elections. The faith leaders are also pledging to work with their congregations to encourage passage of legislation that put voters -- not special interests -- in charge of our democracy. Common Cause and Public Campaign released the letter Wednesday. "We believe existing campaign finance laws already permit the unfair influence of persons and groups with extraordinary wealth over the political process by providing them with special access to elected officials," the religious leaders wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). "This special access ultimately results in legislative outcomes that reflect the needs of those with the financial means to make political contributions, and not the needs of the poor or disenfranchised." Full release.

The American Psychological Association (http://www.APA.org) has denied the appeal of The Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology (http://www.energypsych.org), a non-profit association of practitioners and researchers in Energy Psychology, to provide APA Continuing Education credit for Energy Psychology. This action sends a potentially chilling effect on the utilization of one of the most promising treatments for PTSD and trauma at a time when hundreds of thousands of our returning soldiers are suffering from PTSD and more effective treatments are desperately needed. Energy Psychology methods have been used successfully throughout the world to treat thousands of traumatized disaster survivors and U.S. soldiers and have been adopted by three international disaster relief organizations as a core modality (http://www.energypsychologyresearch.com). Full release.

Planners in the Intermountain West must focus on the economic savings of mitigating and adapting to climate change as they tailor federal and state efforts to suit local and regional needs, according to a new report published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Planning for Climate Change in the West, by Rebecca Carter and Susan Culp, acknowledges the critical role of local planners in confronting challenges posed by climate change. It also addresses the region's many political, cultural, demographic, and geographic factors that can be barriers to innovation and effectiveness. "State and federal initiatives are important, but mitigation and adaptation will only happen if implemented on the ground, locally," said Armando Carbonell, senior fellow and chairman of the Department of Planning and Urban Form at the Lincoln Institute. Full release.

According to the latest Kelley Blue Book www.kbb.com Market Intelligence data, Toyota consideration and interest has dramatically dropped since the company recently announced its massive recall. More than 20 percent of those who said they were considering a Toyota prior to the recall now say they no longer are considering the brand for their next vehicle purchase. In addition, Toyota's overall brand consideration dropped to third-place and now trails its domestic rivals, first-place Ford and second-place Chevrolet. When comparing Toyota consideration in Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence's Brand Watch survey from the days prior to the recall to the days following the recall announcement, consideration dropped nearly half, from 29 percent to just 18 percent. In addition, the Brand Watch data showed a drop in Toyota's perceived safety rating from 8.4 to 7.6. Full release.

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