Ignorance Only: HIV/AIDS, Human Rights And Federally Funded Abstinence-Only Programs in the United States

Programs teaching teenagers to "just say no" to sex before marriage are threatening adolescent health by censoring basic information about how to prevent HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch charged in a new report released today. The forty-seven page report focuses on federally funded "abstinence-only-until-marriage" programs in Texas, where advertising campaigns convey the message that teenagers should not use condoms because they don't work. Some school-based programs in Texas do not mention condoms at all. Federal health agencies share the broad scientific consensus that condoms, when used correctly, are highly effective in preventing the transmission of HIV. Yet the U.S. government currently spends more than $100 million each year on "abstinence-only-until-marriage" programs, which cannot by law "promote or endorse" condoms or provide instruction regarding their use. The Bush administration is advocating a 33 percent increase in funding for these programs

Still Searching: How People Use Health Care Price Information in the United States, New York State, Florida, Texas and New Hampshire

Americans bear a large and growing share of their health care costs in the form of high deductibles and insurance premiums, as well as copayments and, sometimes, coinsurance for physician office visits and hospitalizations. Historically, the health care system has not made it easy for people to find out how much their care will cost them out of pocket. But, in recent years, insurers, state governments, employers and other entities have been trying to make price information more easily available to individuals and families. Are Americans trying to find out about health care prices today? Do they want more information? What sources would they trust to deliver it?This nationally representative research finds 50 percent of Americans have tried to find health care price information before getting care, including 20 percent who have tried to compare prices across multiple providers. Representative surveys in four states— New York, Texas, Florida and New Hampshire—show higher percentages of residents in Texas, Florida and New Hampshire have tried to find price information and have compared prices than New York residents and Americans overall. This variation suggests factors at the state level might be influencing how many people try to find out about health care costs. Nationally and in those four states, more than half of people who compared prices report saving money. Most Americans overall think it is important for their state governments to provide comparative price information. But we found limited awareness that doctors' prices vary and limited awareness that hospitals' prices vary.Public Agenda conducted this research with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the New York State Health Foundation. The findings are based on a nationally representative survey of 2,062 adults, ages 18 and older, and a set of representative surveys in four states: one survey of 802 adults in New York, one of 808 adults in Texas, one of 819 adults in Florida and one of 826 adults in New Hampshire. The surveys were conducted from July through September 2016 by telephone, including cell phones, and online

Profiting Higher Education: What Students, Alumni and Employers Think About For-Profit Colleges

The for-profit higher education sector has attracted significant attention over the past few years -- both from enthusiasts and from critics. For-profit colleges and universities -- most notably large, national and online schools such as the University of Phoenix, DeVry University and ITT Technical Institute -- have seen a steep increase in student enrollment, from serving about 4.7 percent of the undergraduate student population in the 2000 -- 2001 academic year to about 13.3 percent in the 2011 -- 2012 academic year, peaking at nearly 14 percent in the 2010 -- 2011 academic year. And they have become increasingly visible through their ubiquitous advertisements and proactive -- some would say aggressive -- recruitment strategies. Largely missing from the discussion so far have been the perspectives of for-profit students themselves and those of employers who might hire them. This study gives voice to these central stakeholders

Why Let the People Decide? Elected Officials on Participatory Budgeting

This report documents findings from interviews with U.S. elected officials regarding their experience with participatory budgeting (PB). It also includes recommendations for policymakers, PB advocates and funders looking to improve and expand PB

Probabilistic Extensions of the Erd\H os-Ko-Rado Property

The classical Erd\H os-Ko-Rado (EKR) Theorem states that if we choose a family of subsets, each of size (k), from a fixed set of size (n (n > 2k)), then the largest possible pairwise intersecting family has size (t ={n-1\choose k-1}). We consider the probability that a randomly selected family of size (t=t_n) has the EKR property (pairwise nonempty intersection) as $n$ and $k=k_n$ tend to infinity, the latter at a specific rate. As $t$ gets large, the EKR property is less likely to occur, while as $t$ gets smaller, the EKR property is satisfied with high probability. We derive the threshold value for $t$ using Janson's inequality. Using the Stein-Chen method we show that the distribution of $X_0$, defined as the number of disjoint pairs of subsets in our family, can be approximated by a Poisson distribution. We extend our results to yield similar conclusions for $X_i$, the number of pairs of subsets that overlap in exactly $i$ elements. Finally, we show that the joint distribution $(X_0, X_1, ..., X_b)$ can be approximated by a multidimensional Poisson vector with independent components.Comment: 18 page

Public Spending, By The People: Participatory Budgeting in the United States and Canada in 2014-15

From 2014 to 2015, more than 70,000 residents across the United States and Canada directly decided how their cities and districts should spend nearly $50 million in public funds through a process known as participatory budgeting (PB). PB is among the fastest growing forms of public engagement in local governance, having expanded to 46 communities in the U.S. and Canada in just 6 years.PB is a young practice in the U.S. and Canada. Until now, there's been no way for people to get a general understanding of how communities across the U.S. implement PB, who participates, and what sorts of projects get funded. Our report, "Public Spending, By the People" offers the first-ever comprehensive analysis of PB in the U.S. and Canada.Here's a summary of what we found:Overall, communities using PB have invested substantially in the process and have seen diverse participation. But cities and districts vary widely in how they implemented their processes, who participated and what projects voters decided to fund. Officials vary in how much money they allocate to PB and some communities lag far behind in their representation of lower-income and less educated residents.The data in this report came from 46 different PB processes across the U.S. and Canada. The report is a collaboration with local PB evaluators and practitioners. The work was funded by the Democracy Fund and the Rita Allen Foundation, and completed through a research partnership with the Kettering Foundation

The Transmutation of Lanugage

In the fifth century B.C., Empedocles of Acragas, the Greek philosopher, proclaimed that the universe is composed of four primal elements: fire, air, water, and earth. While not, perhaps, the most scientific descriptive cosmology, this doctrine nevertheless dominated Western philosophical thought for twenty-one hundred years and is today still favorably regarded by born-again astrologists. But it did not fully satisfy Aristotle, who, writing a century later, explained that while these four material elements could define all earthly substances, a fifth immaterial element must define all heavenly phenomena. He called this element pemte ousia, or FIFTH BEING

private governance in the global sportswear industry

What motivates companies to invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Analysing CSR in the global sportswear industry, this paper advances the hypothesis that the campaigning activities of human rights activists pushed industry leaders Nike and adidas to incorporate labour norms in their business (sourcing) practices. Drawing on the spiral model of human rights norm internalization, the paper’s findings suggest that the efforts of leading sportswear companies to address poor labour standards in their supply chains can no longer be explained by mere strategic behaviour induced by external pressure, but are increasingly the result of norm guided behaviour. In the case of adidas and to a lesser extent with regard to Nike evidence points to a “prescriptive status” in which the dominant mode of action shifts from the logic of consequences to the logic of appropriateness