Report: Economic well-being of US children slips

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) ? It wasn't so long ago that David Hutchinson spent a month sleeping under a bridge while his wife and young daughter spent their nights at a domestic violence shelter.

But this wasn't a case of domestic violence. The couple simply had no choice. There were just no shelters in Phoenix with room for another homeless family, and their top priority was finding a safe place for their daughter.

The family is one of many in the U.S. that have been trying to raise children in the face of joblessness and homelessness. An annual survey released Monday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows the number of children living in poverty increased to 23 percent in 2011, after the recession.

The Southwest has been hit particularly hard. New Mexico, for the first time, has slipped to worst in the nation when it comes to child well-being. More than 30 percent of children in the state were living in poverty in 2011 and nearly two-fifths had parents who lacked secure employment, according to this year's Kids Count survey.

Nevada is ranked No. 48, followed by Arizona. Mississippi, which has traditionally held last place, made slight improvements in early childhood education while reading and math proficiency for some students increased, putting the state at No. 49.

Overall, the report shows there have been gains in education and health nationally, but since 2005, there have been serious setbacks when it comes to the economic well-being of children.

"There's little doubt that things are getting worse," said Kim Posich, executive director of the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. "Aside from the fact the New Mexico economy has been so slow to turn around, the systems that generally serve people who are the working poor and suddenly lose their jobs or face greater hardship, all those systems have been strained beyond the max."

In Arizona, charities and government programs were cut during the recession, making it more difficult for families to get by and rebuild, said Dana Wolfe Naimark of the Children's Action Alliance in Phoenix.

"So many things were slashed just when people needed it the most," she said. "That is a key policy issue that we do have choices over. We can find ways to rebuild that investment. It's not OK to just throw up our hands and say, 'We can't.'"

According to the Kids Count report, a lingering concern is the effect of unemployment on children, particularly long-term unemployment. Researchers found that more than 4 million workers were unemployed for more than six months, and more than 3 million were without work for a year or more.

David Hutchinson and his family eventually ended up in Albuquerque. He has been looking for work for months. Finally, he landed a job just this week with a contractor who installs fire suppression systems.

"If I wasn't so crippled, I'd be doing backflips," he said, pointing to the rod and pins in his forearm, an injury that ended his career in the U.S. Navy.

His wife, Chelsea, said she knows her husband is ready to put aside any pain because the prospect of their family being able to move from Joy Junction, the shelter where they have been staying since December, hinges on a regular income.

William and Elimar Roper are in the same boat. They and their four children have been at the shelter for about a year. William just landed a job in the kitchen and Elimar has graduated from the shelter's recovery program, which helps those addicted to drugs or alcohol.

"We're happy because we've upgraded from being homeless to something that can help us stabilize. It's the first step," Elimar Roper said.

William Roper served in the U.S. Army for nine years and did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. After the military, he worked as a janitor and then lost his job. The family's savings soon ran out, leaving them homeless.

The Kids Count report shows the percentage of children whose parents don't have secure employment has been increasing. That's more than one-third of children in each of the four states at the bottom of the Kids Count list.

"Growing up in poverty, it just has these terrible repercussions and you see these associations with much lower rates of high school graduation, lower performance overall in school, much lower rates of college attendance and the cycle perpetuates," said Curtis Skinner, director of Family Economic Security at the National Center for Children in Poverty.

Skinner said the center's research is showing a troubling trend in the aftermath of the recession: Poverty rates are rising in what used to be the middle class, in two-parent households and in families where parents have college educations.

While there is a lag in the Kids Count data, officials in New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada believe some of their numbers will start to turn around in the coming years thanks to investments in education, particularly pre-kindergarten programs.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has pushed for doubling pre-K funding and funneling more money to early literacy and high school graduation efforts.

"Clearly, doing things the way they've always been done hasn't worked for our kids," said Enrique Knell, a spokesman for the governor. "And reform efforts must include ending the practice of setting our children up for failure by passing them on to the next grade level when they can't read."

The well-being of their children has been the motivating factor for both the Hutchinson and Roper families. They want something better for their kids, and they say things are starting to turn around.

"Finally, being to the point of stabilizing and being able to get the kids out of this environment, that's a good feeling," Elimar Roper said.

___

Online:

Kids Count Data Book: http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/KIDSCOUNT.aspx

National Center for Children in Poverty: http://www.nccp.org/

New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty: http://nmpovertylaw.org/

Joy Junction: http://www.joyjunction.org/

___

Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas and Cristina Silva in Phoenix contributed to this report.

___

Follow Susan Montoya Bryan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/susanmbryanNM

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/report-economic-well-being-us-children-slips-080704195.html

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When Gadgets Should Be Repaired, Not Replaced

When I was 14, my stereo broke. Opening it up, I found a small piece of metal had been disconnected from the circuit board at the base. I grabbed a lighter, and melted the piece back in place. I plugged the stereo back in, and turned it on. It worked. It was the first time I actually got something I tried to fix working.

It's a story most of us probably have. The pure joy that follows when you fix a gadget that was once broken is hard to match, and once you do it once it becomes an addiction. However, as time has moved on, gadgets have gotten smaller and harder to work on. They're harder, if not impossible to fix, and most of us decide it's easier to just buy a new one than it is to repair one.

But just because it's easier to move on to a new gadget doesn't mean we should. Last month, I had the misfortune of losing both a hard drive and a graphics card on a notoriously impossible to work on iMac. My first reaction was to just abandon it and move on, but after a little research I found that while it was going to be a huge pain in the ass, both of those parts were replaceable. The final cost of repair? About $400, and a lot of time. The cost of a new 27" iMac? At least $1,800.

It's not just the fact I saved a lot of money. It's that I didn't have to buy a new thing. I fixed the computer I already paid (too much) money for, and breathed life back into it. When that startup chime rang again, it made my heart skip a beat.

The point is that a quick repair like this can get you something that more than meets your needs. When you're done, you realize that the newest thing isn't necessary. For me, that new iMac was shiny, but totally unneeded. Once I was running again I was happy with the old one. It's not just about repairing, it's about making what you already have work, even when you think it shouldn't.

We talk a lot about the value of making things here and doing everything yourself. But as Wired pointed out recently, the maker movement is just half of the equation. We need a "fixer movement" too:

We need, in short, a fixer movement. This would be a huge cultural shift. In the 20th century, U.S. firms aggressively promoted planned obsolescence, designing things to break...

Today e-waste has become one of the fastest-growing categories of refuse. We chucked out 2.4 million tons of it in 2010 and recycled just 27 percent. And ?recycling? often means shipping electronics overseas, where the toxic parts pollute developing countries. It?s a mess. A fixer movement could break this century-old system.

One superb place to start is fixing computers?because these days old models perform nearly as well as new ones. As hardware hacker Andrew Huang has noted, cloud computing has artificially slowed Moore?s law: An older laptop runs a browser just fine. Plus, computers are often surprisingly fixable. Vincent Lai, a Fixer Collective volunteer, gets handed ?dead? laptops??and for $20 I can fix it. It?s a user-replaceable part! For $20 the user could have fixed it.?

And Wired's totally right. Computers and laptops are deceptively easy to fix, and their lives are a heck of a lot longer than most of us give them credit for. I fixed and cleaned up my seven year old laptop to pass on to my dad a few months ago and the thing's still kicking just as strongly as it did the day I bought it. All it took was a few hours of work.

Of course, it's not just about computers. It's about every product we buy. From toasters to speakers, having the skill set (or the willingness to look online for repair guides, they're everywhere, I promise. You can also hunt down a local hackerspace for help), patience, and ability to fix the stuff we pay for really matters. The thing is, it's not always as easy as it should be.

In some cases, companies are just making their products smaller and less user-serviceable. But the other problem is that if you try to fix something yourself you're going to void the warranty. All of these issues have prompted sites like iFixit and Sugru to post their own "fixer manifestos." Both boil down to a pretty simple set of ideas and rights, including:

• The right to open and repair our things without voiding a warranty.
• The right to choose your own repair technician.
• The right to troubleshooting instructions and documentation.
• The right to hardware that doesn't require proprietary tools to repair.

While it'd certainly be nice for companies to make repairs easier for us, more than anything it boils down to making the effort to fix and preserve things ourselves. The maker movement, and the idea of creating something from nothing is a lot easier to sell than just fixing up that 30 year old blender.

Seriously, from bikes, cars, and chairs, to computers, repairs are surprisingly easy to do yourself. After all, when a broken gadget is brought back to life you feel the same elation as powering something on for the first time.

Photo by Kodomut.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/when-gadgets-should-be-repaired-not-replaced-534807800

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Malaysian charged with sedition, 3 more arrested

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) ? Malaysian authorities detained three anti-government figures, charged a student activist with sedition and seized hundreds of opposition newspapers Thursday, raising political tensions after recent national elections triggered claims of fraud.

Opposition activists have staged numerous peaceful demonstrations since the May 5 general elections, which the National Front coalition won with a weakened parliamentary majority. The activists insist the coalition, which has governed since 1957, retained power through bogus ballots and other irregularities, though Prime Minister Najib Razak and electoral authorities deny manipulating the results.

The latest arrests involve Tian Chua, a senior official in opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's People's Justice Party; Haris Ibrahim, a rights activist who leads an anti-government group; and Tamrin Ghafar, an opposition party member. The men had criticized the National Front at a recent political gathering.

The three were arrested separately and taken to a police station where lawyers were informed they were under investigation for sedition and would be held overnight.

The Prime Minister's office issued a statement saying the men were detained "after the police received numerous reports against the defendants by members of the public."

"In such circumstances the police are required to investigate and are following due and proper process," the statement said, adding that the men would face "fair and open court proceedings" if charged.

After his arrest, Chua tweeted that Malaysians should not allow themselves to be "overtaken by fear (but should) continue to assemble peacefully and have faith."

Their arrests occurred hours after prosecutors charged student Adam Adli, 24, with making seditious statements that included calling for people to "go down to the streets to seize back our power" while addressing a political forum. He pleaded innocent at a Kuala Lumpur district court Thursday and was released on bail ahead of a hearing July 2.

Sedition as defined by Malaysian law includes promoting hatred against the government.

Rights activists have long criticized Malaysia's anti-sedition law as a tool to curb democratic dissent. Najib said last year the government planned to eventually abolish the Sedition Act, which was introduced in 1949 during British colonial rule, and replace it with new laws that would strike a better balance between allowing freedom of speech and ensuring public stability.

Adam, who was arrested last weekend, faces three years in prison and a fine if convicted.

Hundreds of people demonstrated peacefully in recent days against Adam's arrest. Adam became publicly known in 2011 when he brought down a flag bearing Najib's portrait at the ruling party's headquarters during a demonstration. He was subsequently suspended for three semesters from his teaching course at a Malaysian state-backed university.

Separately Thursday, the Home Ministry said it had seized more than 2,500 copies of newspapers published by opposition parties from stores nationwide since Wednesday. The government-issued publication licenses for those newspapers specifies they should be distributed among party members only and were not for retail sales, the ministry said in a statement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/malaysian-charged-sedition-3-more-arrested-082110169.html

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Chilly Morning, Great Afternoon

Good morning! ?After yesterday?s severe weather threat that didn?t pan out to be much, today we are rewarded with Chamber of Commerce weather. ?Here?s the email weather update I sent my morning show team this morning. ?Thought it would make a good read for you.

?

This Morning:? 2 Items

1. Boy, it?s chilly out this morning!? Skies have cleared and temps have dipped into the low 50s for much of Metroplex.? Parts of Dallas County & areas east will be in the upper 50s.
2. And FOG.? Not thick enough for an advisory, but a few areas will get down to ? mile visibility.? Those would be the usual suspects like McKinney, along 75 in Collin County and along I-30 Grand Prairie or I-20 Arlington.? We won?t deal with low level clouds this morning, so Dallas tower cam shot should look pretty good over the fog layers!

?

Today:? back to normal

1. Sunny and mild with highs near or slightly above the normal 85 degrees.
2. Today is going to be a BEAUTIFUL day because the humidity will be low and the breezes light!
3. Humidity increases starting tomorrow.? The rest of the week and through next week temps should run in the upper 80s to low 90s.

?

Pattern Ahead:

I want to say the pattern looks dry and quiet, but there is a cold front to the north that could trigger storms THURSDAY to the north and with the front over us on FRIDAY and into SATURDAY more storms are possible with the heat of day.? Most activity looking like northern and western areas, so even if storms turn out it likely won?t impact Metroplex.

?

Memorial Day Weekend:? looking like we are hot and humid SAT-SUN-MON with highs each day 91-92.? We may have to put storm chances in forecast for SUN-MON, but for now leaving out until better model agreement.

Source: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/05/22/chilly-morning-great-afternoon/

Phil Spector

FoulBusiness UK - Greenway Home Improvements Ltd (member of ...

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My parents have spent over ?20,000 to employ, Greenway Home Improvements Ltd to construct a conservatory & porch. Only to discover the conservatory is NOT energy efficient, doubts regarding the roofing system (supplied by Ultrafame) being structurally safe following an incident where the conservatory double glazed glass roof 10?x2?6? panel fell out of the roof frame, bowing down into the conservatory and allowing water to enter.

Greenway?s Fitters, Steve & John neglected to full fill the contract (agreed by Tom Tucker, Greenway Salesperson), by not carrying out the necessary building work whilst constructing my parent?s bricked porch. This Andrew Green ? MD of Greenway Home Improvements Ltd will not address, neither will Matthew Glover & Greg Kane of Conservatory Outlet.

The following is a brief summary of the complaint?(a brief summary was sent to Greenway, email dated 13 July 2011):-

1.A 10? x 2?6?Double Glazed Roof Glass Panel come out of the roof frame and bowing down into the conservatory. This happened 16 weeks after completion.

2.Roof support trims, some supplied undersized and fitted by Steve, John, & Rob, some cut too small (near the roof valley) and fitted by Steve, John & Rob. Steve & John had no intention of replacing these trims, even though the trims were not fit for purpose, thus not making the conservatory energy efficient, allowing water and draughts in.

3.Steve, John & Rob had little respect for the my family property on many occasions, using home appliances without asking permission, breaking items around the garden and hiding them in shrubbery.

4.Rob the fitter for Greenway?s got aggressive with me, for cleaning the conservatory. Yet I used the method that was relayed to me by Ian Haines, the Greenway surveyor.

5.My family had to experience the backlash from Steve & John for the previously arranged, (with Tom Tucker & Ian Haines), internal door to be temporally boarded up while the front door was waiting to be replaced. (Security reasons) The discussion between Steve & John went as far as to call someone ?twatters?.

6.My family made enquiries to Ian Haines regarding the investigation work allegedly carried out by Steve & John into the depth of the footing already present for the new porch brickwork. (Were these footings suitable?) There was no evidence to prove this was conducted by Steve & John. Yet these instructions are on the contract.

7.Steve& John signed off the conservatory and left a considerable hole between the house wall and the conservatory. Allowing water to enter the conservatory.

8.Steve, John & Rob left the backing on, the adhesive strips on the roof trim. Thus the glass was not secured completely.

9.Steve called the my family liars concerning a crack in the double glazed glass panel, from the side of the conservatory. This crack rendered the double glazed unit as non-energy efficient.

10.Steve & John became aggressive towards my family, when we enquired why the double glazed roof panel had fallen out of the roof frame.

11.Steve & John have lied to the company, Greenway in regards to the customers (my family), not leaving the fitter alone to carry out the job (CCTV recordings to substantiate that Steve & John are not being truthful). Furthermore, if my family were constantly bombarding the fitters with question, as the fitters claimed. How did Steve have the opportunity to once again smear silicon up on the middle of a pane of the self-cleaning glass on the conservatory?

12.The fitters Steve & John, not only made the customers feel uneasy by their aggression, on?28 February 2011 & 22 June 2011(whilst in the my family?s home),but also when Steve called Andrew Green the MD of Greenway, a liar and stated he would tell him (Andrew) this to his face. This is not very customer friendly.

13.Steve & John have gone as far as to slander my family (Greenway Customers) to discredit their characters in order to deflect the issues/matters/complaints from themselves, the causers of the conflict.

The above is a proportionate account of how Steve, John& Rob fitters of Greenway Home Improvements Ltd have treated my family.

The response I received from The MD Mr Andrew Green, of Greenway Home Improvements Ltd was:-

?have decided that your e-mail counterproductive. In Response, I have skipped to the end??

To clarify matters.

The installation was stated as being complete and fit for purpose on?24 February 2011(fitters Steve, John & Rob of Greenway)

Yet Greenway fitters (Steve & John) returned?28 February 2011?to carry out issues on the conservatory.

Greenway fitter (Rob) returned on?19 May 2011?to carry out further issues with the conservatory e.g. water entering through holes in roofing trims etc. Rob got very aggressive towards me when discussing how the water was entering the conservatory. Also, Rob prised the double glazed roofing panel up to remove the backing from adhesive seals, which had been left on during installation by Steve, John & Rob. The valley capping and guttering was misshaped following Rob?s manhandling of the roofing glass. It was also reported to Rob that the guttering surrounding the conservatory sloped away from the down-pipe, thus holding at least 20mm of water.

What I found strange was that, Rob at this point knew exactly where the holes were situation in the conservatory roof, prior to any member of my family indicating how the water was entering the conservatory. How? Unless the fitter (Steve, John & Rob) knew the state they had left the conservatory in.

Greenway ? MD Mr Andrew Green visited, on?25 May 2011, my family home, following the aggressive behaviour of Rob, the damage left by Rob and the issues (structural, energy efficiency etc.) with the conservatory.?Mr Andrew Green took away a considerable list of outstanding issues, which now appear to?have disappeared. Stated as, Mr Green will not refer to the issues itemised on this lists, just keeps reiterating, ?complete this one small item?.

During Mr Green?s visit of?25 May 2011, it was agreed by both parties?(Mr Green & my family) that not to cause any further damage to the glass or surrounds, that additional trims would be added inside and outside to cover the substantial holes in the roofing trims. Mr Green also agreed that an additional down-pipe would be added to drain away the substantial water that was being held in the guttering. There were also problems with the valley capped that had been misshaped, flashing and the internal sills. All were itemised on Mr Green?s list to be rectified.

20 June 2011at approx. 8.30 pm?I entered the conservatory and found water entering from the roof. On inspection it was discovered that one of the roof panels had fallen out of the roof support. Quickly furniture was moved, dust sheets were put down and my family had to prop up the glass in the roof(the double glazed glass panel which is approx. 10 foot x 2?6 had bowing out of the frame in the roof). An e-mail was sent to Mr Green marked as, emergency as my family feared the roof glass could collapse in.

21 June 2011?A member of my family telephoned Mr Green as there had been no response to the emergency e-mail. Mr Green was asked if he could came and look at the roof .Mr Green stated he was unavailable all day and would send Mr Haines (Greenway Surveyor), as he was the more of the structurally minded person, than Mr Green. Greenway confirmed that Mr Haines was to call when he returned from Gloucester. At approx.?3.10 pm on

21 June 2011my family?e-mailed Mr Green following Mr Haines non arrival.

At approx.?3.20 pm on 21 June 2011?Mr Haines arrive, at my family Home. Mr Ian Haines (Greenway surveyor) looked at the roof and informed my family to leave the prop holding the glass up in place for safety. My family discussed again the problems of the roof trims that were letting in draughts and water, etc. Mr Haines explained the trims are delivered pre-cut, except for the trims either side of the roof valley. My family know for a fact, the valley trims were:- one side undercut leaving a 1cm+ hole and the other wrongly fitted, at an angle, leaving another gap. When discussing the problems, each time Mr Haines response was, ?see John & Steve when they call tomorrow?. Mr Haines also said he would phone the fitters at home that night. Additionally, Mr Haines did add that the supplier might have to become involved.

22 June 2011 at approx. 9.10am, John and Steve arrived; my family enquire the explanation of why the glass had come out of its frame, but both John & Steve were not forth coming with answers. My family did notice Steve didn?t reset the double glazed roofing panel, simply prised the glass panel across the roof frame with a screw driver. Questions were asked to the fitters, relevant to the job in hand. During the discussion with the fitters, it became apparent that all Mr Green had previously promised, was not going to happen according to Steve & John. Steve even went as far as to call Mr Green ?A liar ????.?and? I?ll tell it to his face.? This put my family in a very awkward position. The fitters left at approx. 9.40am, stating that John was going to telephone Mr Green and request a follow up telephone call to my family. Following the fitters departure it was once again found that the fitters has smeared silicon on the centre of one of the self-cleaning panes of glass. This was a habit of Greenway Fitters while working on my family?s conservatory.

Anyone can clearly see, Greenway Home Improvements Ltd has had ample opportunities to rectify the list of issues with my conservatory and in fact each time has?caused further damage.

Yet, Mr Andrew Green MD of Greenway Home Improvement Ltd, will not address the substantial complaint concerning the porch project, the poor workmanship, the attitude from Greenway Fitters, Steve, John, Rob and the conservatory project in its entirety (itemised on Mr Greens list taken on?25 May 2011). Yet Mr Green has acknowledged photographs of the poor workmanship of his fitter that were forwarded to Ultraframe, the suppliers of the roofing system.

Source: http://www.foulbusiness.co.uk/review/greenway-home-improvements-ltd/22

Plaquemines Parish

Tech News Headlines - Yahoo! News

Ahead of the Bell: Electronic Arts

Shares of Electronic Arts shares jumped before Wednesday's opening bell after the video game publisher projected a better-than-expected profits for the More??

AP - Wed, May 8, 2013

Video Game Play Sharpens Elderly Minds

Elderly people who played a video game that challenged their brain processing speed showed improvements in executive function compared with those who did More??

Scientific American - Fri, May 3, 2013

New twist in the Zynga tragedy

Soon after its IPO, Zynga?s share price spiked above $15 in early 2012. Very little has gone right since then. Just last month, Zynga issued yet another More??

BGR.com - Thu, May 2, 2013

Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/techblog

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Observatory: Boneworms? Secret Revealed

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Boneworms are gutless and mouthless, but somehow they live off the carcasses of whalebones. Now researchers say that the worms produce and secrete an acid that can dissolve bone.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/science/boneworms-secret-revealed.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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