NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

"The Office of National Marine Sanctuaries serves as the trustee for a network of underwater parks encompassing more than 600,000 square miles of marine and Great Lakes waters from Washington state to the Florida Keys, and from Lake Huron to American Samoa. The network includes a system of 13 national marine sanctuaries and Papahānaumokuākea and Rose Atoll marine national monuments...."
National Marine Sanctuaries

The Condition of Education: 2017

"The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations. It fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report full and complete statistics on the condition of education in the United States; conduct and publish reports and specialized analyses of the meaning and significance of such statistics; assist state and local education agencies in improving their statistical systems; and review and report on education activities in foreign countries.

NCES activities are designed to address high-priority education data needs; provide consistent, reliable, complete, and accurate indicators of education status and trends; and report timely, useful, and high-quality data to the U.S. Department of Education, the Congress, the states, other education policymakers, practitioners, data users, and the general public. Unless specifically noted all information contained herein is in the public domain..."
Condition of Education

How Consumer Price Index Data Impacts You

"Every month, Debi Bertram, an economic assistant in our Philadelphia region, checks the price of milk at a local grocery store. She also goes to several stores to check the prices of items such as toothpaste, sports equipment and appliances. You may not know Debi – or any of the men and women who collect data for the Bureau of Labor Statistics – but their findings have a real impact on your life.

Among other things, they’re used for making changes in the federal income tax structure and providing cost-of-living wage adjustments for millions of American workers. Additionally, the president, Congress and the Federal Reserve Board use trends in that data to inform fiscal and monetary policies.

How does it work? BLS data collectors visit or call thousands of locations across the country, from grocery stores to doctors’ offices, to get the prices of about 80,000 different items every month. That data helps BLS compile the Consumer Price Index, which measures the average change over time in prices consumers pay for a market basket of goods and services. It is the key measure of consumer inflation in the U.S. economy..."

Consumer Price Index

New Tool Compares County Criminal Juistice Statistics for Wisconsin and other states

(Via WisBlawg..http://wisblawg.law.wisc.edu)

"Earlier this week, the nonprofit Measures for Justice launched an amazing new data portal “to assess and compare the criminal justice process from arrest to post-conviction on a county-by-county basis. The data set comprises measures that address three broad categories: Fiscal Responsibility, Fair Process, and Public Safety.”

According to The Marshall Project:

The project, which has as its motto “you can’t change what you can’t see,” centers on 32 “core measures”: yardsticks to determine how well local criminal justice systems are working. How often do people plead guilty without a lawyer? How often do prosecutors dismiss charges? How long do people have to wait for a court hearing? Users can also slice the answers to these questions in different ways, using “companion measures” such as race and political affiliation.

Just six states are included so far, but fortunately for us, Wisconsin is one of them.  The others are Washington, Utah, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida..."
Criminal justice statistics 

The South Is Home to 10 of the 15 Fastest-Growing Large Cities

"Ten of the 15 fastest-growing large cities were located across the South in 2016, with four of the top five in Texas, according to new population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Conroe, Texas (near Houston), was the fastest-growing large city (population of 50,000 or more) between 2015 and 2016 at 7.8 percent, making its growth rate more than 11 times the nation’s growth rate of 0.7 percent. Some of the other fastest-growing cities were: Frisco, Texas (6.2 percent); McKinney, Texas (5.9 percent); Greenville, S.C. (5.8 percent); and Georgetown, Texas (5.5 percent).

“Overall, cities in the South continue to grow at a faster rate than any other U.S region,” said Amel Toukabri, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s population division. “Since the 2010 Census, the population in large southern cities grew by an average of 9.4 percent. In comparison, cities in the West grew 7.3 percent, while cities in the Northeast and Midwest had much lower growth rates at 1.8 percent and 3.0 percent respectively.”

Four cities in the West — Bend, Ore.; Buckeye, Ariz.; Lehi, Utah; and Meridian, Idaho — were among the top 15 fastest growing. Only one city in the Midwest, Ankeny, Iowa, topped the list while no cities in the Northeast were among the nation’s fastest growing.

The statistics released today  cover all local governmental units, including incorporated places (such as cities and towns), minor civil divisions (such as townships) and consolidated cities (government units for which the functions of an incorporated place and its parent county have merged).

Later this summer, the Census Bureau will release additional population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin for the nation, states and counties..."
Cities population changes

Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation Increased in 2015

" Nonemployer businesses, establishments without paid employees, in the Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation subsector (North American Industry Classification System (NAICS 485) increased by 59.4 percent from 362,445 in 2014 to 577,809 in 2015, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics released today. Receipts in this subsector increased 21.9 percent from $11.7 billion in 2014 to $14.3 billion in 2015.

Examples of the Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation subsector include rideshares, taxi and limousine services, chartered bus, school bus and special needs transportation. The Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation subsector had the largest increase within the Transportation and Warehousing sector (NAICS 48-49).

“The Transportation and Warehousing sector reached 1.5 million nonemployer establishments in 2015 leading all sectors in both rate of change (with a 22.2 percent increase) and number of establishments gained (277,383),” said Jenny Tran, chief of the Business Statistics branch. “By comparison, when looking across all sectors covered, the number of establishments rose by 494,466 or 2.1 percent to 24.3 million from 2014 to 2015.”..."
Transportation statistics

Children in a democracy. A migratory family living in a trailer in an open field

 
"Dorothea Lange, whose photographs of the unemployed and migratory farm workers became synonymous with the Great Depression, was born on May 26, 1895. The caption of this photo reads "On Arizona Highway 87, south of Chandler. Maricopa County, Arizona. Children in a democracy. A migratory family living in a trailer in an open field. No sanitation, no water. They came from Amarillo, Texas. Pulled bolls near Amarillo, picked cotton near Roswell, New Mexico, and in Arizona. Plan to return to Amarillo at close of cotton picking season for work on WPA." 

The photo is one of a series taken for an agricultural "Community Stability and Instability" study by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Taken by Dorothea Lange and Irving Rusinow, the photographs are a record of pre-World War II rural life and social institutions. Of particular interests are images of African Americans in Alabama and Georgia and migrant laborers hired to work in cotton fields in Arizona and California..." 
Dorothea Lange photography

Take a Ride, On the Safe Side!

"OK, let’s start with a little fun. When is a bicycle not a bicycle? Answer: When it turns into a driveway.While there are a lot of jokes out there about bicycles, let’s be clear, bike safety is NO laughing matter.

We estimate that there are more than 450,000 injuries associated with bicycles that landed people in ERs in 2016.   The most frequent diagnoses were contusions/abrasions (23.0%), fractures (21.7%), and lacerations (15.4%).

And, according to our friends at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) more than 800 bicyclists died in 2015 due to motor-vehicle-related crashes on public roads and highways.

These are some staggering statistics.  We need to do much more to keep kids and adults safe while biking.

May is National Bicycle Safety Month, a good time to remind family and friends to take a ride—a ride on the safe side!  Here’s how:

Helmet Safety:

• First, use your head: wear a helmet! Wearing one while cycling can significantly reduce the risk of head injury in the event of a fall.
• When buying a helmet look for the label that reads “Complies with U.S. CPSC Safety Standards for Bicycle Helmets.”
• Size matters, make sure the helmet fits. Also, it must have a chin strap and buckle that will stay securely fastened during impact.
• Regularly check the helmet for cracks or degradation. Remember if you crash it, trash it!.."

Bicycle helmets

E-Stats 2015: Measuring the Electronic Economy

"The 2015 E-Stats provides estimates of e-commerce activity in key sectors of the U.S. economy for 2015, revises previously released estimates for 2014 and earlier, and places these estimates in historical context. Underlying data are collected in four separate surveys of manufacturing, wholesale, service, and retail businesses. Corresponding data tables for each sector can be found at..
www.census.gov/programs-surveys/e-stats/data/tables.html.."
E-Commerce

JFK 100

"The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has announced a year-long celebration to honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of President John F. Kennedy. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, President Kennedy was the youngest president ever elected to office. To commemorate his centennial year, the JFK Library is spearheading a series of events and initiatives aimed at inspiring new generations to find meaning and inspiration in the enduring values that formed the heart of the Kennedy presidency.

The centennial celebration is presented in partnership with the National Archives and Records Administration, which administers the presidential library system, and features collaborations with a number of institutions including the U.S. Navy, Peace Corps and National Peace Corps Association..."
Presient John F. Kennedy centennial

Your Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Benefits

"Imagine your child is experiencing anxiety and depression and has suicidal thoughts. Or you are recovering from an eating disorder and need treatment at a residential facility. Then you’re told you have to pay deductibles and copayments that your workplace health coverage normally covers for other medical claims.  Before you know it, these out-of-pocket costs are adding up to thousands of dollars you just don’t have. 

Unfortunately, these are real scenarios that benefits advisors at the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration have heard about recently.

But the good news for these workers – and you − is that a federal law called the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act provides protections. In most cases, the financial requirements (such as copayments, deductibles, coinsurance or out-of-pocket maximums) and treatment limitations in a health plan must be comparable for both physical and mental health/substance addiction benefits..."

Mental health and substance use

Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy

"The United States, partner countries, and the Afghan government are attempting to reverse recent gains made by the resilient Taliban-led insurgency since the December 2014 transition to a smaller international mission consisting primarily of training and advising the Afghanistan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF). The Afghan government has come under increasing domestic criticism not only for failing to prevent insurgent gains but also for its internal divisions. In September 2014, the United States brokered a compromise to address a dispute over the 2014 presidential election, but a September 2016 deadline was not met for enacting election reforms and deciding whether to elevate the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position to a prime ministership. The progress of the Afghan government in reducing corruption and implementing its budgetary and other commitments was assessed by an international meeting on Afghanistan during October 4-5, in Brussels, as sufficient to merit continued international assistance. The government has adopted measures that would enable it to proceed with new parliamentary elections, but no election date has been set..."
Afghanistan

Graduation: Fact Sheet

"Graduation and commencement ceremonies at U.S. academic institutions are often held in the months of May and June. This guide is designed to assist congressional offices with work related to graduation celebrations. It contains a brief history of the ceremonial tradition and the attire worn, sample speeches by government officials, presidential commencement addresses, and statistical resources on educational attainment and graduation rates from authoritative government sources..."
Graduation

Travel and Vaccines

"Make sure you are up to date on all recommended vaccinations before traveling abroad.

Some types of international travel, especially to developing countries and rural areas, may have higher health risks. These risks depend on a number of things including:

• Where you are traveling.
• Your activities while traveling.
• The state of your health.
• Your vaccination history.

Many vaccine-preventable diseases that have become rare in the United States, such as measles and pertussis, are still common in other parts of the world. Certain activities, such as attending crowded events, can increase the spread of infectious disease. No matter where you plan to go, you should get recommended vaccines to lower the chances for getting and spreading disease..."
Travel smart