June 18, 2010

Internet-driven offers of employment to foreigners seeking paid positions in Haiti may be untrue, and the Pan American Development Foundation is urging potential applicants to be cautious. "Many talented professionals are eager to help our neighbors in Haiti," says John Sanbrailo, PADF's executive director. "Unfortunately, unscrupulous individuals want to take advantage of them in order to obtain personal information and/or money." In some cases, these scammers may copy the logos of legitimate organizations working in Haiti for use in the bogus employment offer. To continue the ruse, email accounts are created that look similar to a real organization. Full release.

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A series of national media studies conducted on President Obama's speeches during his seventeen months in office revealed that Americans ranked his speech on the BP oil spill as the lowest ranked speech to date. The studies were conducted by HCD Research, using its MediaCurves.com website from January 2009 to June 2010, to obtain Americans' perceptions of various speeches that were given by President Barack Obama during his term in office. The series of studies were conducted on major speeches given by President Obama to derive the overall ratings for each speech. The ratings were based on a scale of 1-7, which was used to measure viewers' perceptions of the president's likeability, believability and sincerity after viewing each speech. Full release.

Creativity may be the most sought-after quality in business and academic life; it's frequently cited as important to successful problem-solving. On June 29, at the annual conference of ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) in Denver, an expert educator will conduct a session on practical ways teachers and students can foster and analyze creativity as part of any classroom project. Candace Hackett Shively, Director of K-12 Initiatives at nonprofit TeachersFirst.com, will present "Dimensions of Creativity: A Model to Analyze Student Projects," demonstrating proven ways to encourage productive, applied creativity in project-based learning. The focus will be on the use of web-based tools to facilitate growth in creativity skills. Full release.

Following is the text of a joint press release by the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The U.S. government continues to lay the groundwork for efforts under the U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI), announcing the first round of "GHI Plus" countries, as well as the program's governance structure. GHI is a six-year, $63 billion initiative to help partner countries improve measurable health outcomes by strengthening health systems and building upon proven results. It places a particular focus on improving the health of women, newborns and children. Full release.

The ongoing foreclosure crisis has slashed hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth from communities of color, a new CRL research report shows, as an estimated 17% of Latino homeowners and 11% of African-American homeowners have already lost their home to foreclosure or are now at imminent risk. The wealth drain is the result of direct losses from foreclosures and also the decline in neighboring property values each foreclosure brings. The report-"Foreclosures by Race and Ethnicity: The Demographics of a Crisis," http://www.responsiblelending.org/mortgage-lending/research-analysis/foreclosures-by-race-and-ethnicity.html-shows that foreclosures will continue to climb and losses will continue to mount. From 2009 to 2012, those living near a foreclosed property in African-American and Latino communities will have seen their home values drop by more than $350 billion, possibly exceeding the damage the Gulf States suffered from Hurricane Katrina. And high levels of unemployment that were caused by reckless lending and the collapse of the housing and financial markets continue to exacerbate the foreclosure crisis. Full release.

The Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP) today announced more than $300,000 in grant funding to 16 additional local governments under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. A total of 3,416 units of local government are eligible for a direct JAG Recovery Act award. Funding is used to prevent and control crime and improve the criminal justice system. "This funding will play an important role in helping local communities address their criminal justice challenges," said Assistant Attorney General Laurie Robinson. "These funds will help our partners fight crime and build safer communities." Full release.

Federal banking regulators are closely watching banks, as they try to find new credit card fee loopholes, while Americans struggle to settle their debt. New restrictions on credit card fees are forcing banks to rethink their strategy by coming up with new and novel fees to charge their customers. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act was passed in 2009. The Act was designed to adopt tougher regulations in the wake of America's economic crisis. Corporations have responded by looking for creative ways to make up for lost profits. Full release.

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