Mapping IRS Tax Return Filings Reveals Marked Differences in the Distribution of Income and Dependents

"Most Americans filed their taxes recently, not only providing the federal government with funds needed to operate but also providing the IRS (and ultimately the public) with data about the reported amounts and sources of income, their number of dependents, and other factors that shape the distribution of financial means across the country.

For the U.S. as a whole, the average adjusted gross income (AGI) reported on federal income tax returns filed in 2021 increased to $76,539. This reflects income received during 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Filings during 2021 showed AGI up only slightly from $75,758 during the previous year. This does not adjust for inflation.

Reported income, however, varied markedly across states and counties. Aside from D.C., Massachusetts had the highest average reported income at $101,863, followed by Connecticut at $101,589 and Washington State at $95,584. The lowest AGI with only half that of the top three states was Mississippi at $50,876. West Virginia had the second lowest income at $53,461 while New Mexico returns reported on average an AGI of $56,383 which was the next lowest.
 

AGI does not tell the whole story, of course. Income variation by county does not take into account the cost of living, which is considerably higher in places like New York City and Los Angeles than in rural areas. Nonetheless, mapping the distribution of AGI by county shows where concentrations of lower-income and higher-income tax filers reside..."
Tax Filings and Income Distribution 

Free Solar Panels? Don’t Get Burned.

"Sunlight is one of the most widely available resources on the planet. With recent investments and advances in solar energy technology, more Americans than ever before can harness the sun’s rays and power up their homes and businesses.

Riding this historic trend, some are even claiming they can bring you in on a deal of lifetime: free solar panels.

Sound too good to be true? That is probably because it very well may be.

So what is the truth? The Department of Energy and the Solar Energy Technologies Office have got you covered!

Claim

The Department of Energy is aware of claims of offers for free solar panels or that solar companies must provide solar panels for free if requested. However, the federal government does not offer any programs for free home solar panel installations nor does the government require companies to grant solar panels for free to customers. 

Additionally, be wary of attempts to collect your personal data in exchange for a price quote or to verify eligibility for services, as well as installers who are neither licensed nor certified by a reputable organization like the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners..."
Free Solar Panels 

Integrating Nutrition into Healthcare in the Midwest

"Can you imagine a day when healthcare is mostly proactive as opposed to reactive? Imagine if everyone has access to the vital conditions for health and wellbeing: the factors that people depend on to reach their full potential. What does that future look like?

One way we’ll know that we’ve achieved this future is that everyone will experience nutrition security – meaning they have consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, and affordable foods that promote optimal health and well-being – and diet-related illnesses will no longer be the leading cause of death in the United States, especially for people of color who are historically at greatest risk.

That was the focus of our discussions in late March at the second regional Come to the Table summit on nutrition security and healthcare at Trinity Health in Ypsilanti, Michigan, hosted by ProMedica and The Root Cause Coalition.  . Alonzo Lewis, president of Trinity Health Ann Arbor, set the tone by encouraging the 150 stakeholders in attendance to build on the momentum of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health by strengthening the intersections between nutrition and healthcare.

In addition to panel discussions comprised of experts in various fields, there was a lively town hall which provided everyone an opportunity to add their voice and experience to the conversation on hunger as a health issue. All in the room acknowledged that as a country, we have work to do. But as USDA Secretary Vilsack said in his recorded remarks, “Together, there is no challenge we can’t overcome.”.."
Nutrition and Security 

Financial Disclosure and the Supreme Court

"The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (EIGA) established financial disclosure reporting requirements for many high-level government officials and employees, including the Chief Justice of the United States and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justices must file publicly available financial disclosure statements that report certain financial transactions. A recent article detailing undisclosed trips by an Associate Justice has increased interest in Supreme Court ethics and the interpretation of the EIGA’s reporting requirements.

This Legal Sidebar provides an overview of financial disclosure requirements under the EIGA and how they apply to the judicial branch. It also examines recent statutory and regulatory updates to judicial branch financial disclosure requirements. The Sidebar concludes with a discussion of potential congressional action on Supreme Court ethics and highlights legal considerations regarding Congress’s authority to regulate the Supreme Court.

Federal Financial Disclosure Laws

The EIGA was enacted, in part, to “preserve and promote the integrity of public officials and institutions.” To help achieve this goal, the EIGA requires, among other things, that covered employees file annual financial disclosure statements reporting:
 income from any source (other than from current employment by the federal government) including honoraria; payments made to charity in lieu of honoraria; and any dividends, rents, interest, and capital gains that exceed $200;
 gifts and reimbursements (although filers do not have to report gifts received from relatives or food, lodging, or entertainment “received as personal hospitality of an individual”);
 interests in property;
 liabilities exceeding $10,000 owed to any creditor other than a close family member (with certain exceptions such as mortgages for personal residences);
 transactions that exceed $1,000 in real property (other than a personal residence) and securities;
 positions with outside entities and major sources of compensation;
 agreements or arrangements relating to other employment; and
 qualified blind trusts.

Covered filers must also report certain financial transactions of their spouses and dependent children. These financial disclosure reports assist in identifying real or perceived conflicts of interest held by government officials.

Financial disclosure reports are submitted annually to each individual’s designated agency ethics official, and reports must be made available to the public (unless the covered individual qualifies as a confidential filer). Additionally, under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012, certain filers must also submit periodic transaction reports (PTRs). Covered individuals must file PTRs when they, their spouses, or their dependent children make a sale or exchange of a security that exceeds $1,000 within 45 days of the transaction. The PTR requirements do not apply to a “widely held investment fund”—such as a mutual fund—so long as the fund is publicly traded, the assets of the fund are widely diversified, and the reporting individual does not exercise control over the fund..."
Supreme Court and Financial Disclosure  

Making Green: Good-Paying Jobs With an Environmental Focus

"For some workers, every day is Earth Day. Did you know studying how to protect the planet often leads to a good paycheck, too? 

Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that many scientists and engineers in green jobs had wages that were higher than the $45,760 median for all occupations in 2021. In addition, the bureau projects more than 30,000 openings overall each year, on average, from 2021 to 2031 for the 10 occupations shown below:

Chart showing the 2021 median annual wages for 10 green jobs, ranging from $64,750 to $102,270..."
Green Jobs 

Autism Awareness Month

"April is Autism Acceptance Month. The recognition raises awareness about autism acceptance and promotes inclusion and connectedness for people with autism. Social and community support can help people with autism achieve optimal health and reach their full potential. CDC promotes early identification and provides essential data on autism to inform programs and policies that support children with autism and their families. CDC activities include surveillance and monitoring, educational materials and resources, and sharing best practices with state, territorial, and national partners. 

CDC activities help us understand and help children and families with autism.

Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network

The Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network is the only collaborative network to track the number and characteristics of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities in multiple communities throughout the United States. The ADDM Network has been tracking the number and characteristics of 8-year-old children with ASD since 2000. The program is now in its sixth phase of funding, and the ADDM Network includes ten funded sites and one CDC-managed site in Georgia.

The sixth funding cycle and surveillance activities of the ADDM Network began in January 2023 with new and returning sites. The 11 ADDM Network sites will track early identification, prevalence, and characteristics of children with ASD among 4- and 8-year-olds. Five of the sites will also track transition planning and co-occurring conditions among 16-year-old children with ASD..."
Autism 

Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community:2023

"During the coming year, the United States and its allies will confront a complex and pivotal international security environment dominated by two critical strategic challenges that intersect with each other and existing trends to intensify their national security implications. First, great powers, rising regional powers, as well as an evolving array of non-state actors, will vie for dominance in the global order, as well as compete to set the emerging conditions and the rules that will shape that order for decades to come. Strategic competition between the United States and its allies, China, and Russia over what kind of world will emerge makes the next few years critical to determining who and what will shape the narrative perhaps most immediately in the context of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, which threaten to escalate into a broader conflict between Russia and the West. Second, shared global challenges, including climate change, and human and health security, are converging as the planet emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and confronts economic issues spurred by both energy and food insecurity. Rapidly emerging or evolving technologies continue to have the potential to disrupt traditional business and society with both positive and negative outcomes, while creating unprecedented vulnerabilities and attack surfaces, making it increasingly challenging to predict the impact of such challenges on the global landscape.

These two strategic challenges will intersect and interact in unpredictable ways, leading to mutually reinforcing effects that could challenge our ability to respond, but that also will introduce new opportunities to forge collective action with allies and partners, including non-state actors. The 2023 Annual Threat Assessment highlights some of those connections as it provides the IC’s baseline assessments of the most pressing threats to U.S. national interests. It is not an exhaustive assessment of all global challenges. This assessment addresses both the threats from U.S. adversaries and functional and transnational concerns, such as weapons of mass destruction and cyber, primarily in the sections regarding threat actors, as well as an array of regional issues with larger, global implications..."
Threat Assessment 

Want to Compost in Your Garden Bed? Let the Worms Do It!

"If you really want your garden to bloom, consider adding high-nutrient compost to your soil. In the People’s Garden at USDA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., we set up a vermicompost system, or a system that uses worms to help with the composting process!

Vermicomposting is a great way to create high-quality compost to feed your plants and improve your soil. It is also an environmentally friendly way to recycle kitchen scraps. Worm castings are high in plant-available nutrients and help improve soil structure and water holding capacity.

How to vermicompost

Many at-home composters use “worm bins” made with plastic totes. To make temperatures easier to control, you may want to create an in-bed vermicomposting system by burying the plastic-lidded containers into garden beds, insulated with shredded paper. The worms can move up and down in the bed in response to temperatures, spreading nutrients throughout the compost.

Making an In-Bed Vermicomposting System

This system is easy to construct.

1. Take a lidded bucket and drill holes along the bottom and lower third of the bucket.
2. Bury the bucket to the rim in your garden bed and keep the lid on the bin.
3. Add bedding such as shredded paper (avoid glossy paper), cardboard, or coconut coir.
4. Add 200-300 worms per bin. Worms can be bought online.
5. Feed your worms with lawn clippings and table scraps. Avoid certain foods like citrus, meat and dairy.
6. Each layer of scraps should be topped with dry materials such as shredded leaves or paper.
7. Monitor the buckets and remove food items that are not being eaten as the worms will not eat decomposing food.
8. After the scraps are consumed and the compost is dark and rich, it’s time to harvest!
9. Remove the lid and wait a few minutes after the compost is exposed to sunlight.
10. Gently remove the top layer of compost until you find worms. Exposing the worms to sunlight will cause the worms burrow deeper into the container so you can harvest another layer.
11. After harvesting the compost, you can restart the process with fresh bedding and food.

Happy composting and happy growing!

Learn about how USDA can support organizations with cooperative agreements to support Composting and Food Waste Reduction.

Learn more at usda.gov/peoples-garden..."
Compost 

Condition of Education: 2022

"The Condition of Education 2022 is a congressionally mandated annual report summarizing the latest data from NCES and other sources on education in the United States. This report is designed to help policymakers and the public monitor educational progress.

• Browse the Condition of Education. 
• Download, view and print the Report on the Condition of Education 2022 as a pdf file.  (1899KB)
• Download, view and print the Condition of Education 2022 At a Glance as a pdf file  (207KB).."
  Condition of Education 

Digest of Education Statistics: 2021

"This introduction to the Digest of Education Statistics 2021 provides a brief overview of current trends in American education and highlights key data on topics of current interest. Although the Introduction focuses on more recent trends at the national level, the Digest of Education Statistics also contains long-term trend data spanning up to 100 years and many tables with breakouts by state and subgroups.

Detailed data are available in the Digest tables, which can be accessed from the Most Current Digest Tables page. For instance:

• Data on internet and computer access and use of technology can be found in the 218 and 702 subsections.
• Data on pandemic-related changes in educational activities and plans are available in tables 206.60, 218.80, 218.85, 218.90, 227.60, 302.80, and 302.85.
• Data on cost of postsecondary education and student debt can be found in the 330, 331, and 332 subsections.

The blog post Tips for Navigating the Digest of Education Statistics provides additional information on how to navigate the Digest. In addition to the highlights below, the Digest includes other topics such as federal funds for education, international comparisons of education, and school crime and environment and provides supplemental information including population trends and characteristics of households with children that serves as background for evaluating education data. Unless otherwise noted, data on enrollments, teachers, and faculty are for fall of the given year.

The 2021 edition of the Digest is the 57th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. While the Digest provides an introduction to education-related data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics and nearly 200 other government or nongovernment sources, it is not meant to report on every aspect of these data.."
Digest Education Statistics 

Health Risks of Old and New Tobacco Products

"Learn about CDC’s Tobacco Laboratory and the harmful chemicals in different products.

There are a lot of harmful chemicals in tobacco products. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Tobacco Laboratory studies cigarettes, e-cigarettes/vapes, cigars, snuff, and pipe tobacco, plus other nicotine products. CDC scientists help individuals, health care professionals, and legislators understand how tobacco products put people’s health at risk.

The Tobacco Laboratory not only measures ingredients in the products, but also in the smoke, aerosol, and other emissions from them. Ingredients range from nicotine and heavy metals to chemical preservatives and flavors like menthol.

Lung Injuries Associated with Use of E-Cigarette, or Vaping, Products

The Tobacco Laboratory played a key role in CDC’s response to a 2019-2020 EVALI outbreak that was connected to about 2,800 hospitalizations and 68 deaths. EVALI stands for e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury.

At first the cause of the outbreak was unknown. But most people affected were younger than 35 years old, and all had used e-cigarettes or other vaping products. What else did they have in common? CDC worked with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and state partners to find out.

The key piece of the puzzle turned out to be vitamin E acetate, a chemical that was being added to some vapes containing THC. Vitamin E acetate can damage lung tissue.

CDC’s Tobacco Laboratory helped shed light on the vitamin E acetate problem and other risks of using vapes.

CDC and FDA recommend that vitamin E acetate should not be added to any e-cigarette/vaping products.

Data Helps Protect Public Health

“Our goal is to collect data for decision-makers to use to help decrease harm to the U.S. population,” explains Ben Blount, CDC Tobacco and Volatiles branch chief.

CDC’s Tobacco Laboratory works closely with FDA and other federal agencies, the World Health Organization, Health Canada, universities, health departments, and many other partners to improve public health for the nation and the world..."
Tobacco Health Risks 

How to Grill Safely

"What You Need to Know

• When handling raw meat, chicken and other poultry, and seafood
  • Separate it from other food
  • Refrigerate it before grilling
  • Wash your hands before and after handling it
  • Make sure its juices do not touch other food, utensils, and surfaces
  • Use a food thermometer to ensure it is cooked to a safe internal temperature
• Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours of cooking

Food poisoning peaks in the summer months when warmer temperatures cause foodborne germs to flourish. Follow these steps for a safe and enjoyable grilling season.

Separate

When shopping, pick up meat, chicken and other poultry, and seafood last, right before checkout. Separate them from other food in your shopping cart and grocery bags. To avoid cross-contamination, put packages of raw meat and poultry into individual plastic bags.

Chill

Keep meat, poultry, and seafood refrigerated until ready to grill. When transporting, keep at 40°F or below in an insulated cooler.

Thaw & Marinate

Harmful germs can multiply quickly at room temperature. Thaw food safely in the refrigerator, cold water, or microwave. Always marinate food in the refrigerator no matter what kind of marinade you’re using. Never thaw or marinate meat, poultry, or seafood on the counter.

Clean

Wash your hands with soap before and after handling raw meat, poultry, and seafood. Wash work surfaces and utensils with hot, soapy water before and after cooking.

Check Your Grill and Tools

Use a moist cloth or paper towel to clean the grill surface before cooking. If you use a wire bristle brush, thoroughly inspect the grill’s surface before cooking. Wire bristles from grill cleaning brushes may dislodge and stick into food on the grill.

Don’t Cross-Contaminate

Throw out marinades and sauces that have touched raw meat juices, which can spread germs to cooked foods. Use clean utensils and a clean plate to remove cooked meat from the grill. Do not place cooked meat back on a plate that held raw meat.

Cook

Use a food thermometer to ensure meat is cooked hot enough to kill harmful germs. When smoking, keep temperatures inside the smoker at 225°F to 300°F to keep meat at a safe internal temperature while it cooks.

When grilling, cook to:

• 145°F—whole cuts of beef, pork, lamb, and veal (then allow the meat to rest for 3 minutes before carving or eating)
• 145°F—fish (or cook until the flesh is opaque and separates easily with a fork)
• 160°F—hamburgers and other ground beef
• 165°F—all poultry and pre-cooked meats, like hot dogs.."

 

Grill Safely 

Alcohol and Pregnancy

"Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a group of conditions that can occur in a person who was exposed to alcohol before birth. FASDs have lifelong effects, including problems with behavior and learning as well as physical problems. FASDs are preventable if a developing baby is not exposed to alcohol.

There are resources available to help prevent alcohol use during pregnancy and provide care for children with FASDs and their families.

 In a 2022 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), CDC researchers found that nearly 1 in 7 pregnant people reported current drinking* and about 1 in 20 reported binge drinking** during the past 30 days. Pregnant people who experienced frequent mental distress (14 or more days of poor mental health in the past 30 days) and those who did not have a usual healthcare provider were more likely to report .

In a 2023 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), CDC researchers found that 80% of people who were pregnant were asked about alcohol use; however, only 16% of those who self-reported drinking within the past 30 days were advised to quit or reduce their use. These findings highlight missed opportunities to integrate alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) in practice, utilize strategies to address recognized barriers (e.g., improving reimbursement for alcohol SBI), and to help reduce alcohol use during pregnancy.

What Can Be Done?

Tools for Healthcare Providers

CDC and its partners have resources to help prevent alcohol use during pregnancy and provide care for children with FASDs and their families.

Tools are located here for healthcare providers working in

• family medicine,
• medical assisting,
• nursing,
• obstetrics and gynecology,
• pediatrics, and
• social work.."
  Alcohol and Pregnancy