Welfare Time Limits: An Update on State Policies, Implementation, and Effects on Families

One of the most controversial features of the 1990s welfare reforms was the imposition of time limits on benefit receipt. This comprehensive review, written by The Lewin Group and MDRC, includes analyses of administrative data reported by states to the federal government, visits to several states, and a literature review

Pesticide Use and Water Quality

Understanding use rates and use patterns of pesticides is valuable to the agricultural industry for manufacturers, registrants, regulatory agencies, environmental interests and pesticide end-users. There are several sources of data, including surveys of pesticide users, monitoring of pesticide detections in the environment, and indirect measures including tracking pesticide sales. The Iowa Groundwater Protection Act of 1987 directed the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) to collect pesticide sales data from pesticide dealers. The dollar sales data, which is confidential business information, is being used to calculate approximate pounds of active ingredients for pesticides which might impact surface or ground water quality. The calculated pounds data for selected pesticides is then provided to the water quality researchers at the Iowa Geological Survey (IGS) of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and at Iowa State University Extension. The dataset presented here using two methods, one by ISU Extension and the other by the Geologic Survey Bureau, was gathered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Pesticide Bureau and was compiled with assistance from the Iowa Geologic Survey Bureau of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. These use rate patterns are helpful in crafting management plans to reduce or avoid environmental contamination from specific pesticides

Marketing and value-added opportunities with alternative swine systems

Rich Hall, president of the four-year-old Precision Beef Alliance, said efforts actually began in 1991 when a group of beef producers met to discuss ways to improve their herds. Five producers wanted to create an opportunity for success in the cattle markets. They could see they would have to change, and they wanted to change toward success. Danny Tollefson is a pork producer from Minnesota who developed an outstanding lean pork product through his feeding program. He had some trouble working with his processor to get the finished product, so when he had the opportunity to buy a USDA-inspected plant, he did

The Role of Information Sharing to Improve Case Management in Child Welfare

Congress enacted the Adoption and Safe Families Act to improve outcomes concerning the permanency, safety, and wellbeing of children in the care of child welfare agencies. However, achieving its goals for the more than 700,000 children who spend time in the custody of child protective services (CPS) every year in the United States is made more difficult by their poorer health compared to the general population.1 Common health concerns among children in CPS custody include developmental delay (e.g., intellectual delay or disability, gross or fine motor delay, speech delay), infections diseases, mental and behavioral health concerns, and medical concerns. Higher levels of healthcare compared to other children who live in poverty are often required.2 While health concerns may have been identified before children entered CPS custody, connections to healthcare providers and services are disrupted when children are removed from their families of origin and placed in out-of-home care. Efforts to collect a child’s complete medical history upon entering care may be difficult, and incomplete histories negatively impact health and disease management. Moreover, disruptions in healthcare can continue even after children enter CPS custody and out-of-home care—for example, when children change placements or caseworkers—leading to additional challenges managing children’s health needs and increasing healthcare use.