States are increasingly willing to walk away from significant federal money for "abstinence only" sex education programs.
The Washington Post says:
The number of states refusing federal money for "abstinence-only" sex education programs jumped sharply in the past year as evidence mounted that the approach is ineffective.
At least 14 states have either notified the federal government that they will no longer be requesting the funds or are not expected to apply, forgoing more than $15 million of the $50 million available, officials said.
Among the states that have dropped out are California, Ohio, New Jersey, Colorado, Maine and Virginia.
The story continues:
"This wave of states rejecting the money is a bellwether," said William Smith of the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a Washington-based advocacy and education group that opposes abstinence-only programs. "It's a canary in the coal mine of what's to come."
"We hope that it sends a message to the politicians in Washington that this program needs to change, and states need to be able to craft a program that is the best fit for their young people and that is not a dictated by Washington ideologues," Smith said.
Foreclosures Create Business
I like stories that turn conventional wisdom on its head.
This St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times story does that. The conventional wisdom is that foreclosures cost jobs. But lawyers who handle foreclosures, and businesses that manage the whole foreclosure procedure, are doing just fine.
Governors May Regain Control Over Guards
Stateline.org reports:
Congress has approved legislation that would strip President Bush of the power to call up National Guard troops during terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other domestic emergencies, returning that authority exclusively to the nation's governors after little more than a year in the commander-in-chief's hands. A little-noticed provision in last year's National Defense Authorization Act -- an annual bill that lays out priorities and expenditures for the Defense Department -- gave the president new power to go over governors' heads and activate National Guard troops during stateside crises ranging from hurricanes to health epidemics. The provision came in the form of an amendment to the 200-year-old Insurrection Act, which originally said the president could use the National Guard domestically only to put down rebellions or enforce constitutional rights if states failed to do so. (See related story: Governors lose in power struggle over Guard)The 2008 Defense Authorization Act -- which cleared the U.S. Senate on Friday (Dec. 14) after being approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 12 -- would repeal the president's expanded authority over the National Guard, leaving governors as sole commanders of the state-run militias during disasters on U.S. soil. The president maintains the right to deploy the Guard to foreign countries during wartime. The story points out:
While President Bush has not used his new authority to call up state Guard units during the past year, governors from both parties have argued that states are always better poised than federal authorities to control Guard troops at home."It is clear the congressional leadership finally listened to the concerns of governors about the efforts by the president to expand his authority over the National Guard, which would have jeopardized the safety and welfare of our citizens in emergencies," North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley (D) said in a statement on Friday. Easley is a leading spokesman on National Guard affairs for the National Governors Association (NGA), which lobbied for the change and stridently opposed last year�s amendment to the Insurrection Act.State emergency managers and law-enforcement officials across the country also sided with the governors, lending more support to lobbying efforts against presidential authority, said Nolan Jones, deputy director of the NGA's Office of Federal Relations in Washington, D.C.Jones said partisan politics likely did not play a role in federal lawmakers' reversal this year -- despite a turnover of power in last November's elections that handed Democrats control of both houses of Congress."There's no politics of that nature in this whole issue," Jones said, stressing the importance of concentrated lobbying efforts from a host of state officials.
Al's Excellent Christmas Gift
I am in Nashville, Tenn., this morning for a VERY good reason. Click here to see a short movie.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
Hi Al, Congratulations on the birth of your grandbaby! I'm...
