Recently in Soc 213 Category

Poison Pill Slipped Into Indian Health Bill. Michelle Chen. In These Times. 7/09/2008.

Pro-life amendment used to derail legislation.

When it comes to their health, American Indian women face extraordinary barriers -- from high disease risks to increased incidents of sexual violence. They now face another obstacle, rooted in the political battleground of abortion.

INDIA: Public Hearings Grant Justice to Rural Women. Nitin Jugran. Inter Press Services. 6/02/2008.

SAWAI MADHOPUR, Rajasthan, Jun 2 (IPS) - The Indian state of Rajasthan is historically known for its cultural traditions and the epic tales of valour of its womenfolk are legendary. But sadly, today, this state fails to present a vibrant picture with regard to the status of its women who lead a backward existence.

Why Children Are Not 'Little Adults'. NY Times. 7/10/2008.

Earlier this week, the nation's leading pediatric group issued guidelines suggesting that some high-risk children be given cholesterol-lowering statin drugs that are typically prescribed for middle-aged men. The news shocked many pediatricians, who predicted a backlash from the public and doctors.

Borrow a Muslim? A 'living library' to prick stereotypes. Mark Rice-Oxley. Christian Science Monitor. Mark Rice-Oxley. Christian Science Monitor. 6/ 04/2008.

In 12 countries, people check out people for a 30-minute conversation to challenge their own prejudices.

Hippie town's homeless attack portends trend. Evelyn Nieves. AP. 7/17/08. BOLINAS, Calif. (AP) -- Ricky Green wandered into this town some months ago, a stranger just a bit stranger than most. He had shed his middle-class respectability - a job as a graphic artist in the 'burbs - strapped a guitar over his shoulder and landed here on what he told people was "a spiritual journey."

New Criminal Record: 7.2 Million. Darryl Fear. Washington Post. 6/12/2008.

The number of people under supervision in the nation's criminal justice system rose to 7.2 million in 2006, the highest ever, costing states tens of billions of dollars to house and monitor offenders as they go in and out of jails and prisons.

Plutocracy Reborn. The Nation. 6/11/2008.

Chart One: Re-creating the Gap that Gave Us the Great Depression

The most precise data on the income of America's most affluent have come, in recent years, from the work of economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty. Their most recently updated figures for income inequality in the United States, available online from the Emmanuel Saez home page, cover the years 1913 (the first year of the modern federal income tax) through 2006.

Race and Extreme Inequality. Dedrick Muhammad. The Nation. 6/11/2008.

The current presidential campaign has sparked a lot of conversation about race, but it has primarily been at the symbolic and interpersonal level. It has failed to probe the underlying substance of racial economic disparities and the slow rate of progress toward equity in wealth and wages. Too many Americans na�vely see the strong presidential candidacy of Illinois Senator Barack Obama as evidence of the resolution of the racial divide.

The Rich and the Rest of Us. John Cavanagh & Chuck Collins. The Nation. 6/11/2008.

Over the past three decades, market-worshiping politicians and their corporate backers have engineered the most colossal redistribution of wealth in modern world history, a redistribution from the bottom up, from working people to a tiny global elite.

We won't be Berlusconi's scapegoats, say Gypsies. Tom Kington. Guardian/UK. 6/15/2008.

Tom Kington in Rome meets families evicted by the city's new right-wing mayor at their isolated camp and hears them demand 'a few rights'

Study: Language barrier can keep children from getting healthcare. Patrick McGee. Huston Star-Telegram. 6/16/2008.

Children from homes where English is not the primary language have far more health problems than other kids in the U.S. and have less access to health insurance.

The impact goes beyond those youngsters and their families, said study author Dr. Glenn Flores, director of general pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Illegal dumping plagues some Los Angeles neighborhoods. Robert J. Lopez. LA Times. 6/16/2008.

For Alex Rodriguez, the rats and stench are the worst things about the rubbish routinely dumped on the street and alley in his South Los Angeles neighborhood.

Price rises hit Indonesia parents. Lucy Williamson. BBC. 6/04/2008.

Financial pressures in Indonesia are driving more families to give up their children, a report says.

FRANCE: Noble Ignorance Fails the Minorities. Hilaire Arvil. IPS. 6/04/2008.

PARIS, Jun 4 (IPS) - According to the French constitution, France has no minorities. French law makes it illegal to record citizens' ethnic origin or religion. But in the face of mounting discrimination, France recently introduced corrective institutions. However, the system is still in its infancy.

Chinese illegal immigrants discovered in Texas border town. CNN. 6/06/2008.

LA JOYA, Texas (AP) -- Local police are accustomed to dealing with illegal border crossings but were astounded by the video of 15 Chinese immigrants unfolding themselves from the back of a sport-utility vehicle near this small border town.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Children in the Path of the (AIDS) Pandemic. Kathryn Strachan. Inter Press Service. 6/06/2008.

JOHANNESBURG, Jun 6 (IPS) - There is barely a path leading down the steep incline and through the dense bush to the Mabuyakhulu homestead. It would be easy to pass by without finding 13 year old Zanele* and her eight year old sister Andiswa who stay there on their own.

HEALTH-CUBA: Free Sex Change Operations Approved. Dalia Acosta. Inter Press Service. 6/06/2008.

HAVANA, Jun 6 (IPS) - New horizons opened up for transsexuals in Cuba with the approval of a Public Health Ministry resolution that establishes guidelines for their health care, including free gender reassignment operations.

Former nun helps Mexico 'femicide' victims recover. Sara Miller Llana. Christian Science Monitor. 6/05/2008.

Linabel Sarlat runs a support center to help bring economic and spiritual renewal to the women of Anapra, Mexico.

Americans $1.7 trillion poorer. Tami Luhby. CNN. 6/05/2008.

Americans' net worth falls for the second straight quarter as home and stock prices decline, but it may not hurt consumer spending, experts say.

Solving the global food crisis starts with women's rights. Yifat Susskind. The Progressive. 6/03/2008.

Solving the food crisis means empowering women.

James Byrd, Jr.:10 Years Later, 'Horrific Death' in Jasper Won't Fade From Memory. Bill Hanna. Star-Telegram - TX. 6/08/2008.

Ten years after the brutal dragging death of James Byrd Jr., his family is unwilling to let his memory quietly fade away.

U.S.-born children feel effects of immigration raids. Anna Gorman. 6/08/2008.

Federal agents say they try to act humanely when a parent is arrested, but advocates charge that youngsters are often traumatized and are sometimes left without supervision.

Japan's Ainu hope new identity leads to more rights. Takehiko Kambayashi. Christian Science Monitor. 6/09/2008.

URAKAWA, JAPAN - While Friday's parliamentary decision to recognize the ethnic Ainu as Japan's indigenous people is a major step for a country long proud of being ethnically homogeneous, for many members of the long-discriminated-against minority it's not enough.

FRANCE: Noble Ignorance Fails the Minorities. Hilaire Avril. IPS. 6/04/2008.

PARIS, Jun 4 (IPS) - According to the French constitution, France has no minorities. French law makes it illegal to record citizens' ethnic origin or religion. But in the face of mounting discrimination, France recently introduced corrective institutions. However, the system is still in its infancy.

Racist Incidents Give Some Obama Campaigners Pause. Kevin Merida, Wa. Post. 5/13/2008.

Danielle Ross was alone in an empty room at the Obama campaign headquarters in Kokomo, Ind., a cellphone in one hand, a voter call list in the other. She was stretched out on the carpeted floor wearing laceless sky-blue Converses, stories from the trail on her mind. It was the day before Indiana's primary, and she had just been chased by dogs while canvassing in a Kokomo suburb. But that was not the worst thing to occur since she postponed her sophomore year at Middle Tennessee State University, in part to hopscotch America stumping for Barack Obama.

Sex trade traffickers get busy among cyclone orphans. Anne-Claire Duffay. The First Post/UK. 5/14/2008.

Sex trade traffickers are preying on child survivors of Burma's devastating Cyclone Nargis, writes Edward Loxton for The First Post. At least two suspected traffickers have been arrested in Rangoon since the cyclone hit, according to UNICEF's child protection officer in Burma, "A broker came to a shelter and tried to recruit children," she told the French news agency AFP. "The police intervened and made arrests."

How do Muslims view women's rights?. Christian Science Monitor. 5/16/2008.

Many Muslims believe that women should have the right to vote and to hold any job outside the home that they qualify for.

Some rural communities pushed to the edge by high cost of fuel. Tom Kizzia & Tom Hopkins. Anchorage Daily News. 5/16/2008.

Last winter, old people in Emmonak sometimes brought six-gallon plastic jugs to the tank farm at 20 below. They would pull the jug home on a sled, carrying enough stove oil to heat their house for the rest of the week.

Racial Shift in a Progressive City (Portland) Spurs Talks. William Yardley. NY Times. 5/29/2008.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Not every neighborhood in this city is one of those Northwest destinations where passion for espresso, the environment and plenty of exercise define the cultural common ground. A few places are still described as frontiers, where pioneers move because prices are relatively reasonable, the location is convenient and, they say, they "want the diversity."

Boys not better than girls at maths, study finds. Anthea Lipsett. Guardian/UK. 5/30/2008.

Boys are not innately better at maths than girls, and any difference in test scores is due to nurture rather than nature, researchers suggested today.

HEALTH-AFRICA: UNICEF Reports Five Million Child Deaths Every Year. Steffanie Nieuwoudt. IPS. 5/30/2008. (Report)

CAPE TOWN, May 30 (IPS) - When four-year-old Alice Were suddenly developed a fever, her mother Miriam took her to the local medicine woman close to her house in Kangemi, a poor, cramped settlement on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Two days later, Alice was unconscious. Her frantic mother rushed to hospital with the child in her arms. But it was too late. Alice died of malaria.

Undocumented immigrants face Juan Crow. Roberto Lovato. The Progressive. 5/19/2008.

Immigrants held in immigration detention facilities are not just dying because of bad management, callous guards and understaffing.

Food stamp recipients pinched by high food prices. Dawn Babwin. Associated Press. 5/16/2008.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Danielle Brown stands outside a South Side market at midnight, braving the spring chill for her first chance to buy groceries since her food stamps ran out nearly two weeks ago.

Trail of Tears was trail of betrayal. Mark Anthony Rolo. The Progressive. 5/25/2008.

The Trail of Tears began 170 years ago this week. We should recall it not as an aberration but as a logical outgrowth of an inhumane policy. And we should insist, in its memory, that Indian treaties and Indian sovereignty be honored.

Native American health suffers due to inequality. Donald Wame. The Progressive. 5/20/2008.

How long you live should not depend on how rich you are.

But recent studies show that richer you are, the longer you live.

For American Indians, this is not news.

Mom forced to live in car with dogs. Thelma Gutierrez & Wayne Drash. CNN. 5/20/2008.

SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN) -- Barbara Harvey climbs into the back of her small Honda sport utility vehicle and snuggles with her two golden retrievers, her head nestled on a pillow propped against the driver's seat.

More than 2 million U.S. youths depressed: study. Reuters. 5/13/2008.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 2 million U.S. teenagers have suffered a serious bout of depression in the past year, including nearly 13 percent of girls, according to a federal government survey released on Tuesday.

African Women Making Change. Ann Jones. Mother Jones. 5/13/2008.

It's like the old days of the women's movement in the U.S. and the informal consciousness-raising get-togethers that blew the collective mind of my generation.

Utah Mine Disaster Was Preventable, Report Says. Ian Urbina. NY Times. 5/09/2008.

The general manager and possibly other senior staff at the Crandall Canyon Mine near Huntington, Utah, where 9 miners died in August 2007, hid information from federal mining officials that could have prevented the disaster and should face criminal charges, according to a Congressional investigation whose results were released Thursday.

Child Labor Rings Reach China's Distant Villages. David Barboza. NY Times. 5/10/2008.

LIANGSHAN, China -- The mud and brick schoolhouses in the lush mountain villages of this remote part of southwestern China are dark and barebones in the best of times. These days, they also lack students.

System of Neglect - Immigrant Detention. Dana Priest & Amy Goldstein. Wa. Post. 5/11/2008.

As Tighter Immigration Policies Strain Federal Agencies, The Detainees in Their Care Often Pay a Heavy Cost

The Myth of the Stay-at-Home Mom. Paul Nyhan. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 5/13/2008.

The media buzzed in recent years with reports of mothers opting out of the work force to raise their children. It turns out the revolution among mothers has been canceled -- and maybe never even started.

Many Hispanics Are Hit Hard by Economic Slump. Many Many Hispanics Are Hit Hard by Economic Slump. Peter Goodman. NY Times. 5/13/2008.

DALTON, Ga. -- In his first years in the United States, Carlos B. Jacinto endured the itinerant life of a Guatemalan migrant worker, from picking fruit in Florida to moving logs at a sawmill in Washington. Eventually, he settled here in northern Georgia and erected a middle-class American life.

Warming 'affecting poor children'. BBC. 4/29/2008.

Climate change is already affecting the prospects for children in the world's poorer countries, according to Unicef.

New Look at Death Sentences and Race. Adam Liptak. NY Times. 4/29/2008.

About 1,100 people have been executed in the United States in the last three decades. Harris County, Tex., which includes Houston, accounts for more than 100 of those executions. Indeed, Harris County has sent more people to the death chamber than any state but Texas itself.

Blocking the Transmission of Violence. Alex Kotlowitz. NY Times. 5/04/2008.

LAST SUMMER, MARTIN TORRES WAS WORKING AS A COOK IN AUSTIN, Tex., when, on the morning of Aug. 23, he received a call from a relative. His 17-year-old nephew, Emilio, had been murdered. According to the police, Emilio was walking down a street on Chicago's South Side when someone shot him in the chest, possibly the culmination of an ongoing dispute. Like many killings, Emilio's received just a few sentences in the local newspapers. Torres, who was especially close to his nephew, got on the first Greyhound bus to Chicago. He was grieving and plotting retribution. "I thought, Man, I'm going to take care of business," he told me recently. "That's how I live. I was going hunting. This is my own blood, my nephew."

Small-town residents living on deadly ground. Ronnie Greene. Miami Herald. 5/03/2008.

Residents of Tallevast blame toxins that leaked into the ground and their water supply as a factor in the 80 cancers of family members and neighbors over the years, and they want someone held accountable.

Multinationals Make Billions In Profit Out of Growing Global Food Crisis. Geoffrey Lean. Independent/UK. 5/04/2008.

Speculators blamed for driving up price of basic foods as 100 million face severe hunger

Reports Find Racial Gap in Drug Arrests. Erik Eckholm. NY Times, 5/06/2008.

More than two decades after President Ronald Reagan escalated the war on drugs, arrests for drug sales or, more often, drug possession are still rising. And despite public debate and limited efforts to reduce them, large disparities persist in the rate at which blacks and whites are arrested and imprisoned for drug offenses, even though the two races use illegal drugs at roughly equal rates.

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World. Josh Gerstein. NY Sun. 4/21/2008.

Many parts of America, long considered the breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

Load Up the Pantry. Brett Arends. Wall Street Journal. 4/21/2008.

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.

No, this is not a drill.

Biofuels starving our people, leaders tell UN. Allegra Stratton. Guardian/UK. 4/28/2008.

The leaders of Bolivia and Peru have attacked the use of biofuels, saying they have made food too expensive for the poor.

Bangladesh children toil to survive. Al Jazeera. 4/14/2008.

It was a routine raid by Bangladeshi police on a textile factory in a shadowy suburb of the capital, Dhaka.

Despite Tough Times, Ultrarich Keep Spending. Christine Haughney & Eric Konigsberg. NY Times. 4/13/2008.

Who said anything about a recession? Sometime between the government bailout of Bear Stearns and the Bureau of Labor Statistics report that America lost 80,000 jobs in March, Lee Tachman spent roughly $50,000 last month on a four-day jaunt to Miami for himself and three close friends.

Bangladesh Faces Climate Change Refugee Nightmare. Masud Karim. Reuters. 4/14/2008.

DHAKA - Abdul Majid has been forced to move 22 times in as many years, a victim of the annual floods that ravage Bangladesh.

A faltering economy hasn't slowed American CEOs' pursuit of wealth. David Walsh. World Socialist Web Site. 4/16/2008.

The incomes of American chief executives surged ahead in 2007 and into early 2008, despite an economy that was beginning to unravel and various half-hearted (or less) efforts to bring the process under control.

Child brides 'sold' in Afghanistan. BBC. 4/15/08.

In northern Afghanistan it appears some parents are being driven by poverty and hunger to marry off their daughters at an early age. Jenny Cuffe investigates for Radio 4's Seven Days.

Immigration agents detain hundreds at poultry plants. CNN. 4/17/2008

Federal immigration agents fanned out across five states Wednesday, detaining hundreds of employees of Pilgrim's Pride, one of the nation's largest poultry companies.

Wall Street Winners Get Billion-Dollar Paydays. Jenny Anderson. NY Times. 4/16/2008. Hedge fund managers, those masters of a secretive, sometimes volatile financial universe, are making money on a scale that once seemed unimaginable, even in Wall Street's rarefied realms.

Illegal immigrants pay billions in taxes. CNN. 4/15/2008.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- The tax system collects its due, even from a class of workers with little likelihood of claiming a refund and no hope of drawing a Social Security check.

Union Killings Peril Trade Pact With Colombia. Simon Romero. NY Times. 4/14/2008.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- Lucy Gómez still shudders when speaking of the murder of her brother, Leonidas, a union leader and bank employee who was beaten and stabbed to death here last month. His murder was part of a recent increase in killings of union members in Colombia, with 17 already this year.

Credit crunch costs '$1 trillion'. Stevern Schifferes. BBC. 4/09/2008.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that potential losses from the credit crunch will reach $945bn (£472bn) and could be even higher.

As income gap widens, recession fears grow. Tami Luhby. CNN. 4/09/2008

Incomes fell for poor and stagnated for middle-class families since late 1990s, making it tougher for them to weather economic downturn.

For Many, a Boom That Wasn't. David Leonhardt. NY Times. 4/09/2008.

How has the United States economy gotten to this point?

It's not just the apparent recession. Recessions happen. If you tried to build an economy immune to the human emotions that produce boom and bust, you would end up with something that looked like East Germany.

Globalization, trade and recession take a toll on Martinsville, Virginia. Tony Pugh. McClatchy. 4/10/2008.

Foreclosure Machine Thrives on Woes. Gretchen Morgenson & Jonathan Glater. NY Times. 3/30/2008.

As Jobs Vanish and Prices Rise, Food Stamp Use Nears Record. Erik Eckholm. NY Times. 3/31/2008,

Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.

Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race. Mireya Navarro. NY Times. 3/31/2008.

Jenifer Bratter once wore a T-shirt in college that read "100 percent black woman." Her African-American friends would not have it.

Women face bias worldwide - UN. BBC. 4/05/2008.

Women are discriminated against in almost every country around the world, a UN-commissioned report says.

Blue Collar, Bare Cupboards. Sasha Abramsky. In These Times. 3/28/2008.

Ten miles outside Eugene in west central Oregon, little wooden houses and mobile homes make up the town of Alvadore. The homes are too far apart to give the town--population 1,358--the appearance of a city, yet too close together for it to come off as true countryside. Old, domestically manufactured cars line the streets, as well as a few rundown mom-and-pop convenience stores.

Rich clients' assets to hit $75 trillion by 2012: study. Reuters. 3/27/2008.

LONDON (Reuters) - Wealth held by rich investors with assets over $1 million is set to grow 50 percent in the next five years to $75 trillion, according to a report published on Thursday.

Seattle Battles the Homeless. Silja Talvi. In These Times. 3/27/2008.

Underneath the I-5 highway in south Seattle, Isaac Palmer had found a spot to sleep. Hidden away from public view, Palmer likely thought he had found a bit of safety in a city where many homeless people die, often as a result of hypothermia, illness, drug overdose or violent attack. But while tucked in his sleeping bag on June 3, 2007, Palmer, 66, was crushed to death by a brush-clearing machine rolling through the weeds that had been his cover.

Older Americans wealthier, living longer. Julie Steenhuysen. Reuters. 3/28/2008.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Older Americans have more money and are expected to live far longer than prior generations, U.S. government researchers said on Thursday.

Wed to Strangers, Vietnamese Wives Build Korean Lives. Norimitsu Onishi. NY Times. 3/30/2008.

KWANGMYONG, South Korea -- The two couples' baby girls were born last month only two days apart, the younger one on the morning of the Lunar New Year. Each girl, everyone later agreed, had her Korean father's forehead and her Vietnamese mother's nose.

Struggling homeowners find little hope in federal program. Kevin Hall. McClatchy. 3/29/2008.

WASHINGTON -- In the nearly four months since Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson challenged mortgage lenders to modify distressed home loans voluntarily to ease record numbers of foreclosures, it remains difficult to gauge the program's success.

Forty years after the shot rang out, race fears still haunt the US. Paul Harris. Guardian/UK. 3/30/2008.

Life has changed beyond recognition for many Americans since an assassin's bullet killed Martin Luther King in 1968. Yet despite the rise of a black middle class and Barack Obama's challenge for the White House, the racial divide still exists - and for an urban underclass, things have only got worse. Paul Harris reports from Memphis

Food prices rising across the world. CNN. 3/25/2008.

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- If you're seeing your grocery bill go up, you're not alone.

From subsistence farmers eating rice in Ecuador to gourmets feasting on escargot in France, consumers worldwide face rising food prices in what analysts call a perfect storm of conditions. Freak weather is a factor. But so are dramatic changes in the global economy, including higher oil prices, lower food reserves and growing consumer demand in China and India.

Mexico plans water supply boost. BBC. 3/25/2008.

Mexico is to make a major investment in water projects to try to guarantee that at least 95% of the population has access to clean drinking water by 2012.

Consensus on Counting the Innocent: We Can't. Adam Liptak. NY Times. 3/25/2008.

A couple of years ago, Justice Antonin Scalia, concurring in a Supreme Court death penalty decision, took stock of the American criminal justice system and pronounced himself satisfied. The rate at which innocent people are convicted of felonies is, he said, less than three-hundredths of 1 percent -- .027 percent, to be exact.

Scorned trash pickers become global environmental force. Jack Chang. McClatchy. 3/24/2008.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- As the world scrambles to save dwindling resources and halt global warming, a long-scorned population is becoming the latest hope in the environmental battle.

Cultural Imperialism at the W.H.O.?. John Tierney. NY Times. 1/28/2008.

The post from World Health Organization researchers on the practice they call female genital mutilation (FGM) has prompted a couple of critical responses from other researchers. One is a comment from Richard Shweder of the University of Chicago, who calls it "bureaucratic boilerplate" and says it's further evidence that "identity politics has triumphed over science and critical reason at the W.H.O."

Quarter of US Women Suffer Domestic Violence: CDC . Will Dunham. Reuters. 2/07/2008