March 01, 2010

With more than 2 million people homeless after the devastating 8.8 earthquake in Chile, the non-profit Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) and the Organization of American States (OAS) are seeking donations from companies, governments and individuals to meet the urgent needs of the survivors. "PADF is working with civil protection authorities, the private sector and community organizations to provide immediate assistance to Chile," says John Sanbrailo, PADF's Executive Director. Full release.

"Students, parents, education advocates should take heart that we have a President in the White House who understands that a good education, a quality education is vital to the success of the individual and the nation. For too long we have allowed too many students to attend high schools where graduation was not the norm. These dropout factories disproportionately enroll low-income students, students of color and the future residents of our nation's major cities. We cannot allow this crisis to continue." Full release.

New statistics from Bank Foreclosures Sale, a leading online provider of foreclosure listings and information, reveal that foreclosure rates in states across the nation were down significantly during January. Nationally, the number of foreclosures for sale fell by 10% from December to January, with a total of 315,710 foreclosure homes reported. While these figures do indicate that the new year seems to be getting off on the right foot for buyers and investors, experts point to the fact that this month's total may be down, but is still 15% higher than it was in January of 2009. Full release.

The League of American Voters (USALeague.com) launched a major TV-ad campaign today urging thirteen House members to vote "No" on the Obama-Pelosi plan to take over healthcare. House Democrats who voted with Nancy Pelosi to narrowly pass Obamacare last November, who represent congressional districts whose citizens overwhelming oppose Obamacare, are initial targets of the ads. The League is preparing TV ads to run in an additional seventeen congressional districts. Full release.

AdMeTech Foundation announced today that its President and CEO Dr. Faina Shtern will testify on March 4 before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on how health care reform highlights the need for increased funding for research aimed at creating accurate, life-saving diagnostic tools for prostate cancer, which will improve screening, prevention, early detection and reduce health costs. Full release.

State, regional and national public health associations today called on Congress to send comprehensive health reform legislation to the president in the coming weeks. Thirty-six organizations representing tens of thousands of public health professionals from Alaska to Maine, Iowa to Kentucky and states in between signed on to a letter to members of Congress urging action. "Congress has come further than ever before to passing comprehensive and affordable health reform legislation with an emphasis on changing from a system that focuses on treating the sick to one that focuses on keeping people healthy," the organizations wrote. Full release.

The Justice Department today announced that it will monitor primary elections on March 2, 2010, in Fort Bend, Galveston, Gonzales, Williamson and Wilson Counties in Texas, to ensure compliance with the minority language requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal voting rights statutes. The Voting Rights Act requires these covered jurisdictions to provide language assistance in Spanish during the election process. In addition, jurisdictions must comply with the requirements of the Help America Vote Act during this election for federal office, including requirements regarding provisional ballots, accessible voting equipment and information provided to voters. Full release.

World Vision began distributing hundreds of blankets and some water containers to Santiago's earthquake survivors over the weekend as it prepared to start an extensive response in the hardest hit areas south of the capital. Many of the communities in Chile where the aid group already works, including Lota City, Temuco, Concepcion and other areas in the Bio Bio region and the La Araucania region, were close to the devastating quake's epicenter. Full release.

About 56,000 census workers today began hand delivering 2010 Census questionnaires to roughly 12 million addresses across the nation, mostly in rural areas where people do not receive mail at the same location as their residence. Most of the nation's 120 million households, about 90 percent of the U.S. population, should look for their 10-question forms to arrive by mail mid-March. Full release.

Stories of "recession-friendly" celebrations of Valentine's Day and "recession tourism" underscored the media's sentiment about a faltering U.S. economic recovery and contributed to a drop in the Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for February to 38.1. This represents a slight drop from January's 38.8 and comes after two months of weak performance for the ESI. The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator aims to predict the health of the U.S. economy by analyzing the coverage of 15 major daily newspapers in the U.S. using a proprietary algorithm to look for positive and negative sentiment about the economy in every article. Full release.

Escalating globalization, the growing economic importance of small businesses and the need to develop innovative sources of funding are among the major dynamics expected to converge in the near future which will drive new approaches to supporting nonprofit hospitals and health care systems, says a new Emerging Trends study released today by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP, www.ahp.org). Full release.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend the March 12th opening night in New York of a three-day summit, Women in the World: Stories and Solutions, co-hosted by The Daily Beast, Vital Voices Global Partnership, Diane von Furstenburg, and the UN Foundation. Secretary Clinton will introduce an exclusive one-night reading at the Hudson Theatre of SEVEN, the documentary play created for Vital Voices Global Partnership to honor the courage of brave female activists from Afghanistan, Cambodia, Guatemala, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, and Russia. Full release.

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