Thursday, August 29, 2019

Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic Groups 2018

"This report profiles current conditions and recent trends in the education of students by racial and ethnic group. It presents a selection of indicators that examine differences in educational participation and attainment of students in the racial/ethnic groups of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Two or more races. The report summarizes data on topics such as demographics; preprimary, elementary, and secondary participation; student achievement; student behaviors and persistence in education, postsecondary education, and outcomes of education.
Online Availability:

Browse this document.
Download, view and print the report as a pdf file.
 PDF File (6.7MB.."
 

Education racial and ethnic groups

Consumer Expenditures Midyear Update: July 2017- June 2018

"Average expenditures per consumer unit(1) for July 2017 through June 2018 were up 4.0 percent compared with the July
2016 through June 2017 midyear average, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. During the same period, 
the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) rose 2.3 percent, and average pretax incomes increased 4.3 percent.


Table A. Average expenditures and income of all consumer units
_____________________________________________________________________________
                                                           Percent change      
                             July 2016-    July 2017-   July 2016 - June 2017
Item                         June 2017     June 2018            to
                              Average       Average     July 2017 - June 2018
---------------------------------------    ----------   ---------------------
Income before taxes            $73,207      $76,335              4.3
Average annual expenditures     58,460       60,815              4.0
  Food                           7,407        7,869              6.2
   Food at home                  4,121        4,445              7.9
   Food away from home           3,286        3,424              4.2
  Housing                       19,325       20,001              3.5
  Apparel and services           1,771        1,850              4.5
  Transportation                 9,252        9,735              5.2
  Healthcare                     4,710        4,924              4.5
  Entertainment                  2,941        3,379             14.9
  Education    1,372        1,505       9.7
  Cash contributions             2,088        1,840            -11.9
  Personal insurance and         6,938        6,904             -0.5
   pensions                                                  
   Pensions and Social           6,554        6,474             -1.2
   Security                   
  All other expenditures         2,655        2,808              5.8
____________________________________________________________________________
"

Consumer spending

U.S. Metro Areas Exported $1.5 Trillion in Merchandise Across the World in 2018

"Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration released the 2018 goods export data for the nation's 392 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA), highlighting that U.S. metro areas exported a significant $1.5 trillion in merchandise across the world last year. In fact, from 2017 to 2018, exports from MSAs increased $110.3 billion – or 8.1 percent, and 259 metropolitan areas reported positive export growth, with 94 reaching record-level exports.

In 2018, 165 metropolitan areas supported more than $1 billion in merchandise exports; of these, 22 areas reported exports between $10 and $25 billion, and 12 eclipsed the $25 billion threshold. Additionally, 10 metropolitan areas from Texas and 5 metropolitan areas from California are included in the top 50 ranking of metropolitan areas by 2018 export value.

The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land (Texas) metropolitan area topped the rankings with $120.7 billion in goods exports. As in 2017, this metropolitan area also showed the highest annual dollar growth in exports, expanding $25.0 billion from 2017 to 2018. The remaining top five metropolitan areas are: New York-Newark-Jersey City (New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania) with exports of $97.7 billion; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (California) with exports of $64.8 billion; Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (Washington) with exports of $59.7 billion; and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin) with exports of $47.3 billion..."
Metro area exports

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Preparing for a Hurricane or Tropical Storm

"You can’t stop a tropical storm or hurricane, but you can take steps now to protect you and your family.
If you live in areas at risk, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages you to be prepared for hurricane season. The Atlantic hurricane season is June 1 through November 30 each year.
Please follow these important hurricane preparedness tips from CDC:

Hurricanes

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom


"This program listed the events scheduled at the Lincoln Memorial during the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The highlight of the march, which attracted 250,000 people, was Martin Luther King’s "I Have a Dream" speech..."
March on Washington

Thursday, August 22, 2019

DHS and HHS Announce New Rule to Implement the Flores Settlement Agreement; Final Rule Published to Fulfill Obligations under Flores Settlement Agreement

"Today, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin K. McAleenan and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar announced a final rule that finalizes regulations implementing the relevant and substantive terms of the Flores Settlement Agreement (FSA). Importantly, the rule will allow for termination of the FSA, and allow DHS and HHS to respond to significant statutory and operational changes that have occurred since the FSA has been in place, including dramatic increases in the numbers of unaccompanied children and family units crossing into the United States.
Large numbers of alien families are entering illegally across the southern border, hoping that they will be released into the interior rather than detained during their removal proceedings. Promulgating this rule and seeking termination of the FSA are important steps towards an immigration system that is humane and operates consistently with the intent of Congress.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are issuing final regulations that implement:
  • The relevant and substantive terms of the FSA (resulting in the termination of the FSA). 
  • The way HHS accepts and cares for unaccompanied alien children.
  • The requirements that help ensure that all alien children (both accompanied minors and unaccompanied alien children) in the Government’s custody are treated with dignity, respect, and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors. 
  • The ability of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to maintain family unity by holding families with children in licensed facilities or facilities that meet ICE’s family residential standards, as evaluated by a third-party entity engaged by ICE (in the event that licensing is not available through the State).
  • A pathway to ensure the humane detention of families while satisfying the goals of the FSA.
  • The related provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA), including the transfer of unaccompanied alien children to HHS within 72 hours of the UAC determination, absent exceptional circumstances..."
    Flores Aettlement Agreement

Report to Congress on Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems

"The international community has begun to examine the implications of LAWS in discussions held primarily under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), a multilateral arms control agreement to which the United States became a party in 1982, intended to protect noncombatants from particularly inhumane weapons of war. The CCW’s five protocols ban or regulate specific conventional weapons, notably blinding lasers. The CCW’s decisions are made by consensus among the treaty’s States Parties, and it has served in the past as a platform for discussing new weapon technologies.

Since 2014, the CCW has convened annual meetings of its States Parties to discuss the legal, ethical, technological, and military facets of LAWS. These meetings were upgraded in 2017 from informal “Meetings of Experts” to a formal Group of Government Experts (GGE). The GGE invites experts from civil society to partake in the deliberations alongside members of national delegations.

Despite six years of debate, the GGE has not produced any specific policy recommendations for the CCW’s States Parties. Although the meetings have led to a consensus that appropriate levels of human judgement must be maintained over any LAWS and that LAWS are subject to International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the mechanics of applying both terms remain contentious (e.g., does IHL categorically ban LAWS?), and the limited scope of agreement provides no basis for further action.."
Legal autonomous weapon systems

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

E-Cigarettes: Talk to Youth About the Risks

"If anyone can speak firsthand about the significant rise in e-cigarette use by kids, teens, and young adults, it’s someone who works with them every day. Lauren W., a high school teacher in Pennsylvania, often hears her students talking about using e-cigarettes. But when it comes to the dangers of nicotine and addiction for young people, she does not believe they really understand how dangerous e-cigarettes are for their health.
“I talk to them about the risks all the time,” she says, “and those talks reveal that they have never really thought about it.”
As someone who can influence young people, Lauren is doing what she can to teach them about the harms e-cigarette use can have on them. “They are always interested when I pull up research and start listing off findings,” she says.
This fall, as young people get ready to return to school, you have the power to start the conversation. Whether you are a parent, a teacher, a coach—or even a health care professional helping to make sure kids start the new school year in good health—you have an important part to play when it comes to talking to kids about the harms of e-cigarettes.
Since 2014, e-cigarettes have been the most commonly used tobacco product pdf icon[PDF–808 KB] among US middle and high school students. Between 2017 and 2018 alone, the number of youth who used e-cigarettes went up by 1.5 million. In fact, the US Surgeon Generalexternal icon has called e-cigarette use by youth an “epidemic,” and warned that it threatens decades of progress toward making sure fewer young people use tobacco.
Research also shows that e-cigarette advertising uses many of the same themes that have led to cigarette smoking among young people. In 2016, nearly 7 out of 10 US middle and high school students saw ads for e-cigarettes pdf icon[PDF–3.69 MB] in stores, on the Internet, on TV, or in magazines or newspapers.
Advertising can also make e-cigarette use look harmless for young people. Lauren, the high school teacher, says that most of her students know that regular cigarettes cause disease and even death. However, she says most of them don’t know that nicotine in e-cigarettes can harm brain development, or that e-cigarettes can be dangerous to youth for other reasons, too..."
E-Cigarettes

Understanding Who Was Missed in the 2010 Census

"Researchers use two main measures to determine who was missed in the 2010 Decennial Census: omissions and net undercounts. Omissions reflect the number of people who should have been counted in the census but were not, while net undercounts reflect the percent of people who were missed minus the percent who were double counted.

Census omissions and net undercount rates both reflect dimensions of census accuracy, but they often tell different stories. Analysis shows a nationwide omissions rate of 5.3 percent compared to a net undercount rate of 0.01 percent. This paper focuses on census omissions. In the 2010 U.S. Census, there were nearly 16 million omissions.

Omissions rates vary among demographic groups in much the same pattern as seen in net undercount rates. Racial and Hispanic minorities have higher omissions rates than non-Hispanic whites. Renters (8.5 percent omissions rate) are more likely than homeowners (3.7 percent) to be omitted in the census. Among the states, omissions rates range from a low of 2.6 percent in Iowa to a high of 8.9 percent in Mississippi. Large cities tend to have higher omissions rates than the rest of the country..."
2010 Census

Monday, August 19, 2019

Travel to Mass Gatherings

"Whether the event is planned years in advance (World Cup) or happens more spontaneously (street celebrations), events that draw huge crowds can come with unique risks to travelers including increasing the spread of infectious diseases.

What risks should I be worried about?

Mass gatherings involve a large number of people (sometimes in the millions) at a specific location, for a specific purpose, during a defined time frame.
Risks caused by crowding you should be aware of include:

What can I do to protect myself?

Before your trip:
  • Check your destination for health risks and safety concerns.
  • Consult with your doctor or a travel medicine provider at least a month before your trip to allow time to receive vaccinations, medicines, and advice that you may need. Discuss your itinerary and any planned activities with your provider so that he or she can make customized recommendations to ensure a healthy and safe journey.
    • Make sure you are up-to-date on all of your routine vaccines, including measles-mumps-rubella (MMR). Measles and other infectious diseases can spread quickly in a large group of unvaccinated people.
  • Enroll with the Department of State’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). You can subscribe to receive notifications on travel warnings for your destination. Enrolling also ensures that the Department of State knows where you are if you have serious legal, medical, or financial difficulties while traveling. In the event of an emergency at home, STEP can also help friends and family contact you.
  • Pack a travel health kit complete with bug spray, sunscreen, aloe, over-the-counter medicines, prescription medicines, a first aid kit, and more. Be sure to bring enough of your prescription medicines to last for the whole trip, plus a little extra, just in case.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools Findings From the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2017–18

"Selected Findings: School Year 2017–18 

• During the 2017–18 school year, an estimated 962,300 violent incidents and 476,100 nonviolent incidents occurred in U.S. public schools nationwide.2,3 Seventy-one percent of schools reported having at least one violent incident, and 65 percent reported having at least one nonviolent incident (table 1) (figure 1).

• Some 66 percent of schools reported at least one physical attack or fight without a weapon, compared with 3 percent of schools that reported such an attack with a weapon (table 2).

• A higher percentage of schools located in towns reported at least one incident of theft at school (44 percent) than did schools located in cities (36 percent), suburbs (32 percent), and rural areas (29 percent). In contrast, a higher percentage of schools located in cities reported at least one incident of vandalism (40 percent) than did schools located in suburbs (33 percent), towns (31 percent), and rural areas (27 percent) (table 3).

• During the 2017–18 school year, there were an estimated 3,600 incidents nationwide involving the possession of a firearm or explosive device at school (table 4)..."
Crime violence in public schools

United States Life Tables, 2016

"Objectives—This report presents complete period life tables for the United States by race, Hispanic origin, and sex, based on age-specific death rates in 2016.

Methods—Data used to prepare the 2016 life tables are 2016 final mortality statistics; July 1, 2016 population estimates based on the 2010 decennial census; and 2016 Medicare data for persons aged 66–99. The methodology used to estimate the life tables for the Hispanic population remains unchanged from that developed for the publication of life tables by Hispanic origin for data year 2006. The methodology used to estimate the 2016 life tables for all other groups was first implemented with data year 2008.

Results—In 2016, the overall expectation of life at birth was 78.7 years, unchanged from 2015. Between 2015 and 2016, life expectancy at birth decreased by 0.1 year for males (76.3 to 76.2) and did not change for females (81.1). Life expectancy at birth did not change for the white population (78.9) between 2015 and 2016. Life expectancy at birth decreased by 0.2 year for the black population (75.5 to 75.3) and for the non-Hispanic black population (75.1 to 74.9). Life expectancy at birth decreased by 0.1 year for the non-Hispanic white population (78.7 to 78.6) and for the Hispanic population (81.9 to 81.8).."
Life tables

Births in the United States: 2018

"Key findings
Data from the National Vital Statistics System
  • The U.S. general fertility rate (births per 1,000 women aged 15–44) declined 2% between 2017 and 2018; fertility rates declined for non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, and Hispanic women.
  • The teen birth rate declined 7% from 2017 to 2018 to 17.4 births per 1,000 females aged 15–19. Rates fell for each race and Hispanic-origin group.
  • The percentage of vaginal births after previous cesarean (VBAC) rose to 13.3% in 2018 with increases in VBAC deliveries for the three race and Hispanic-origin groups.
  • Percentages of births delivered preterm and early term increased from 2017 to 2018, whereas full-term and late- and post-term deliveries declined. These patterns were consistent across race and Hispanic-origin groups..."
    Birth rates

CDC Yellow Book 2020

"Interested in the latest travel health recommendations? Check out the CDC Yellow Book, Health Information for International Travel, to answer your patients’, employees’, or your own travel health questions.

What is the Yellow Book?

We want all travelers to stay healthy while enjoying the sights, activities, and cultures of countries around the world. As travelers plan the details of their itinerary, clinicians can use the Yellow Book to help inform their health protection strategy.
The Yellow Book offers readers current U.S. government travel health guidelines, including pre-travel vaccine recommendations, destination-specific health advice, and easy-to-reference maps, tables, and charts.
Written by CDC’s travel health experts, the Yellow Book is intended as a reference for health care providers, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. Other audiences that find the Yellow Book to be a helpful resource include:
  • Travel industry,
  • Corporations and chief medical officers,
  • Missionary and volunteer organizations,
  • Americans who live abroad, and travelers taking short trips.
The Yellow Book contains numerous resources to assist health care professionals in making appropriate recommendations to their patients, before, during, and after international travel..."
Yellow book

Chicken and Food Poisoning

"Americans eat more chicken every year than any other meat. Chicken can be a nutritious choice, but raw chicken is often contaminated with Campylobacterbacteria and sometimes with Salmonellaand Clostridium perfringens bacteria. If you eat undercooked chicken or other foods or beverages contaminated by raw chicken or its juices, you can get a foodborne illness, which is also called food poisoning.You Can 

Take Steps to Prevent Food Poisoning

If chicken is on your menu, follow these tips when shopping, cooking, and eating out to help prevent food poisoning:
  • Place chicken in a disposable bag before putting in your shopping cart or refrigerator to prevent raw juices from getting onto other foods.
  • Wash hands with warm soapy water for 20 seconds before and after handling chicken.
  • Do not wash raw chicken. During washing, chicken juices can spread in the kitchen and contaminate other foods, utensils, and countertops.
  • Use a separate cutting board for raw chicken.
  • Never place cooked food or fresh produce on a plate, cutting board, or other surface that previously held raw chicken.
  • Wash cutting boards, utensils, dishes, and countertops with hot soapy water after preparing chicken and before you prepare the next item.
  • Use a food thermometerExternalexternal icon to make sure chicken is cooked to a safe internal temperature of 165°F.
  • If cooking frozen raw chicken in a microwavable meal, handle it as you would fresh raw chicken. Follow cooking directions carefully to prevent food poisoning.
  • If you think the chicken you are served at a restaurant or anywhere else is not fully cooked, send it back for more cooking.
  • Refrigerate or freeze leftover chicken within 2 hours (or within 1 hour if the temperature outside is higher than 90°F)..."
    Chicken & Food poisoning

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Trump Administration Improves the Implementing Regulations of the Endangered Species Act

"In its more than 45-year history, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has catalyzed countless conservation partnerships that have helped recover some of America’s most treasured animals and plants from the bald eagle to the American alligator. Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt unveiled improvements to the implementing regulations of the ESA designed to increase transparency and effectiveness and bring the administration of the Act into the 21st century.
“The best way to uphold the Endangered Species Act is to do everything we can to ensure it remains effective in achieving its ultimate goal—recovery of our rarest species. The Act’s effectiveness rests on clear, consistent and efficient implementation,” said Secretary Bernhardt. “An effectively administered Act ensures more resources can go where they will do the most good: on-the-ground conservation.”
“The revisions finalized with this rulemaking fit squarely within the President’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public, without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “These changes were subject to a robust, transparent public process, during which we received significant public input that helped us finalize these rules.”
The changes finalized today by Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries Service apply to ESA sections 4 and 7. Section 4, among other things, deals with adding species to or removing species from the Act’s protections and designating critical habitat; section 7 covers consultations with other federal agencies.
The ESA directs that determinations to add or remove a species from the lists of threatened or endangered species be based solely on the best available scientific and commercial information, and these will remain the only criteria on which listing determinations will be based. The regulations retain language stating, “The Secretary shall make a [listing] determination solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial information regarding a species’ status.”
The revisions to the regulations clarify that the standards for delisting and reclassification of a species consider the same five statutory factors as the listing of a species in the first place. This requirement ensures that all species proposed for delisting or reclassification receive the same careful analysis to determine whether or not they meet the statutory definitions of a threatened or endangered species as is done for determining whether to add a species to the list.
While this administration recognizes the value of critical habitat as a conservation tool, in some cases, designation of critical habitat is not prudent. Revisions to the regulations identify a non-exhaustive list of such circumstances, but this will continue to be rare exceptions..."
Endangered Species Act

Social Security Act(1935)

"On August 14, 1935, the Social Security Act established a system of old-age benefits for workers, benefits for victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, aid for dependent mothers and children, the blind, and the physically handicapped.
Before the 1930s, support for the elderly was a matter of local, state and family rather than a Federal concern (except for veterans’ pensions). However, the widespread suffering caused by the Great Depression brought support for numerous proposals for a national old-age insurance system. On January 17, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a message to Congress asking for "social security" legislation. The same day, Senator Robert Wagner of New York and Representative David Lewis of Maryland introduced bills reflecting the administration’s views. The resulting Senate and House bills encountered opposition from those who considered it a governmental invasion of the private sphere and from those who sought exemption from payroll taxes for employers who adopted government-approved pension plans. Eventually the bill passed both houses, and on August 15, 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law..."
Social Security Act

Epilepsy in Children

"Parents, use these tips to make sure your child with epilepsy is safe and supported during the school day.
Parents may feel a mix of excitement and worry as a new school year begins. This is especially true for parents of children with epilepsy and seizures who worry about safety during the school day. Here are some tips to keep students with epilepsy safer as they head back to school.

1. Make a Seizure Action Plan.

A Seizure Action Plan contains the essential information school staff may need to know in order to help a student who has seizures. It includes first aid steps, parent and health care provider contact information, and medicines that may need to be taken during the school day. See an example of a Seizure Action Planpdf iconexternal iconfrom the Epilepsy Foundation.
Read the Ideas for Parents pdf icon[PDF – 2.62MB] fact sheet for more tips on what to include in an action plan and how to talk to your child’s school.

2. Help school staff get trained.

CDC partners with the Epilepsy Foundation to deliver free training programs to school staff. Talk to your child’s school to see if school personnel could participate in these programs.

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Few Federal Hate Crime Referrals Result in Prosecution

"The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (18 USC 249) was passed by Congress in 2009. Despite around 50 criminal referrals each year to federal prosecutors for these hate crimes, few have resulted in actual charges filed in federal court. During the Trump Administration, the number of federal prosecutions under this statute have become even rarer. Only 6 prosecutions were reported each year for FY 2017 and FY 2018. The latest data covering the first nine months of FY 2019, record only 4 hate crime prosecutions thus far.." 
Hate crimes


Census Bureau Begins 2020 Census Address Canvassing Operation in Neighborhoods Across America

"Between August 4 and October 18, you may begin to notice census takers in your neighborhood. This is a normal part of the 2020 Census preparation and data collection process. Census field representatives will also continue to collect information for the American Community Survey (ACS) and other ongoing surveys.
Why Does the Census Bureau Do This?
You might see census takers in your neighborhood for a few different reasons:
  • They are verifying addresses in preparation for the census.
  • They are collecting responses to the census or another survey.
  • They are dropping off census materials.
  • They are conducting quality checks on the census.
Census takers who verify addresses are called address canvassers. They help ensure an accurate and complete count by verifying address lists across a wide area of physical geography, housing structures, and residence types. Part of this effort involves census takers on the ground noting where houses, apartments, shelters, and other residences are located. Census takers will attempt to knock on every door in the neighborhood they are canvassing..."
Census neighborhood canvassing

Animals in Schools and Daycares

"Animals in Schools and Daycares

 Students in class with the class pet

Animals can be entertaining and educational. But children, especially children under 5 years of age, are more likely to get sick from germs animals can sometimes carry. Children can learn a lot from animals, and it’s important to make sure they stay safe and healthy while they’re learning. If you plan to have an animal in your classroom, whether it’s a class pet or for a hands-on learning experience, be aware of the risks and how to prevent illness. You can help kids enjoy and learn from animals while staying healthy.

Animals can sometimes spread germs

Animals can sometimes carry germs that can make people sick, even if they look clean and healthy. You don’t have to touch an animal to get sick – the germs can spread to cages, bedding, and wherever animals roam.
There have been disease outbreaks from hatching eggs and chicks in the classroom and from contaminated animal products used for hands-on learning, such as owl pellets for dissection. Salmonella and E. coli are common germs spread by animals..."
Animals in schools

Thursday, August 8, 2019

Tax Withholding Estimator


Tax withholding