Challenges of Providing Health Coverage for Children and Parents in a Recession

Provides a 2009 update of states' eligibility rules, enrollment, and renewal procedures, and cost-sharing practices in Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program. Discusses trends in expanding coverage and the implications of budget cuts

Health Coverage for Children and Families in Medicaid and SCHIP: State Efforts Face New Hurdles

Surveys eligibility rules, enrollment and renewal procedures, and cost-sharing practices authorized in July 2006-January 2008 in Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs, as well as new hurdles to expanding coverage for low-income families

Enhancing Civic Knowledge/Inspiring Political Engagement: The Role of Public Libraries in Civic Participation

For the past several months I have been conducting “civic education” workshops under the umbrella title: Civics for Adults—To Enhance Civic Knowledge and Inspire Political Engagement. I doubt there is anyone in the library community who is not concerned about the public’s level of civic understanding, political discourse and civic engagement. As Robert Putnam pointed out in his book Bowling Alone, the cohesive function of social and civic groups—as with the simple bowling league—has withered, and along with the demise of those groups a correlative decline in political activities like voting. Public libraries should be primary instruments for civic education in the community. It is a role that can be well filled by public libraries. Bonus—it provides a rationale for increased funding. Public libraries can make better citizens. It’s as simple as that

A Foundation for Health Reform: Findings of a 50 State Survey 2009

Surveys state actions on Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Plans and analyzes advances and setbacks in expanding coverage for low-income children and parents as well as disparities between the two groups. Discusses legislative and economic factors

Determining Income Eligibility in Children's Health Coverage Programs: How States Use Disregards in Children's Medicaid and SCHIP

Outlines how and why states disregard or deduct certain earnings and expenses in determining eligibility for Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program to help cover low-income working families. Summarizes a survey of state policies

Building Knowledge and Power with The Third Sector in Haifa Israel: A Report of the Learning Exchange Research Project

A Report of the Learning Exchange Research Project. This report presents a model of Participatory Action Research (PAR) focused on the development of the third sector in Israel. The PAR methodology, combined with a learning exchange, intentional reflection, and community building opportunities, was used as a tool for enhancing Haifa Non-Governmental Organizations’ (NGO) capacities. The report describes the practical and conceptual impacts of this model\u27s application in a pilot trial and discusses its possible use and importance for future participatory research and NGO capacity building work

Detection of a z=0.0515, 0.0522 absorption system in the QSO S4 0248+430 due to an intervening galaxy

In some of the few cases where the line of sight to a Quasi-Stellar Object (QSO) passes near a galaxy, the galaxy redshift is almost identical to an absorption redshift in the spectrum of the QSO. Although these relatively low redshift QSO-galaxy pairs may not be typical of the majority of the narrow heavy-element QSO absorption systems, they provide a direct measure of column densities in the outer parts of galaxies and some limits on the relative abundances of the gas. Observations are presented here of the QSO S4 0248+430 and a nearby anonymous galaxy (Kuhr 1977). The 14 second separation of the line of sight to the QSO (z sub e = 1.316) and the z=0.052 spiral galaxy, (a projected separation of 20 kpc ((h sub o = 50, q sub o = 0)), makes this a particularly suitable pair for probing the extent and content of gas in the galaxy. Low resolution (6A full width half maximum), long slit charge coupled device (CCD) spectra show strong CA II H and K lines in absorption at the redshift of the galaxy (Junkkarinen 1987). Higher resolution spectra showing both Ca II H and K and Na I D1 and D2 in absorption and direct images are reported here

Concluding Synthesis: Lessons Learned. A Complex Web: A Collective Process to Advance Social Justice

In Blessed Unrest, referenced by the opening quotation and several essay authors, Paul Hawken uses the metaphor of the immune system to describe the connectivity of organizations and activists across the world fiercely working to realize local and global social, economic, political, and environmental justice. Just as the invisible but interconnected parts of the body’s immune system jump into concerted action to restore health to an ill body, this social-change movement is organizing from the bottom up and emerging as an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s unstoppable need to reimagine their relationships to the environment and to one another. The leaders and organizations participating in the Boston–Haifa transnational learning exchange are actors in this powerful movement with “no name, no leader.” The transformational interplay between personal, collective, and social-change processes, nourished by our relationships with each other across and within national borders, is apparent throughout the journal essays and the Learning Exchange overall. We have collectively built knowledge to feed and inform our future actions and directions while simultaneously acting in our present worlds. Our reflection processes focus on matters of importance. Transformational change happens as we see ourselves and each others’ worlds through the others’ eyes. We privilege and grow from the interplay of many ways of knowing. In the process, transformation happens — changes of self, our organizations, and our communities. A connective web of relationships grows across borders, advancing social justice