Alcohol Abuse

Price, Tom. "Alcohol Abuse: Can underage drinking be curbed?" CQ Researcher 8 June 2012. Americans are abusing alcohol less than in the past with one exception: college students, who drink more and binge drink more often than nonstudents of similar age. And alcohol continues to extract a high toll from those who abuse it at any age, killing 80,000 Americans a year and draining more than $220 billion from the economy. Although high school students drink and binge less, bingeing accounts for 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by teens who drink. Health experts also worry about the effects of new products, especially flavored alcoholic drinks, which seem to encourage young women and girls to drink and drink more. To combat alcohol abuse, many educational institutions, community organizations and government agencies are stepping up efforts to promote abstinence among the young and responsible drinking by adults who do imbibe. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Books: We added several books recently on this topic, including Getting wasted : why college students drink too much and party so hard by Thomas Vander Ven (click linked title to check availability).

Human Trafficking

Human Trafficking Seminar, Columbia Basin College, 28 Oct. 2011. 10:30 AM - Noon.

• Video part 1 (~20 mins.)
• Video Part 2 (Remainder)

Articles

Masci, David. "Human Trafficking and Slavery." CQ Researcher 26 Mar. 2004.

EBSCOhost Search: human trafficking AND united states - 300+ full text articles

ProQuest Washington Newsstand Search: human trafficking - 100+ full text articles from Washington State newspapers

Books

Ebrary Search: human trafficking; includes titles such as:

• Newman, Edward. Trafficking in Humans : Social, Cultural and Political Dimensions. United Nations UP, 2008.
  
  
• Bales, Kevin. Understanding Global Slavery : A Reader. University of California Press, 2005.

Web

United States. Senate. Judiciary Committee. “The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act: Renewing the Commitment to Victims of Human Trafficking.” 14 Sep 2011. 10:00 AM. NOTE: Includes webcast of testimoney.

Google Search: human trafficking site:wa.gov (limited to past year) - Washington State government sites

Eyewitness Testimony & Wrongful Convictions

Jost, Kenneth. Eyewitness Testimony: Could new safeguards prevent misidentifications?. CQ Researcher October 14, 2011. Eyewitness testimony is often essential to criminal prosecutions, but witnesses sometimes misidentify an innocent person. Misidentifications played a part in three-fourths of the 273 wrongful convictions confirmed over the past two decades by DNA exonerations. Eyewitness scientists have long known of the unreliability of witness identifications, as confirmed through experiments dating back to the early 20th century, but police have been slow in changing ID procedures. The Supreme Court established limited safeguards against unreliable identifications in the 1960s and '70s, but experts say the rulings have had little impact and may actually mislead jurors in determining the accuracy of an identification. Now, the New Jersey Supreme Court has ordered stricter standards on identification testimony in the state's courts, including special instructions on the risk of misidentification even by witnesses who are absolutely certain. And the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in November in a case that could allow the justices to revisit the issues. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

More Articles:

EBSCOhost

• Academic Search Premier: eyewitness* and (misidentif* or wrongful or mistak* or fals* or reliab* or memory) - 400+ articles
  
  
• Legal Collection: SUBJECT (Child*) AND (eyewitness* or witness*) AND (recollect* or psychol* or truth* or decept* or memor* or honest*) - over 50 articles, primarily from law reviews and criminology journals, dealing with the subject of children as witnesses
  
  
• Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection: (eyewitness* or witness*) and (police or evidence or criminal) - 590+ full text peer-reviewed articles, mostly from psychology journals

ProQuest - (witness* or eyewitness*) and (false or wrongful or memory or mistak*) - 600+ full text articles from newspapers, magazines, and journals

Albany Law Review, Volume 74 Issue 3 (2011). Special issue on innocence, includes several relevant articles such as:

• Clark, Steven E. "Blackstone and the Balance of Eyewitness Identification Evidence." 74 Alb. L. Rev. 1105 (2011)
  
  
• Norris, Robert J., et al. "'Than That One Innocent Suffer': Evaluating State Safeguards Against Wrongful Convictions." 74 Alb. L. Rev. 1301 (2011)
  

Books

Ebrary: eyewitness and (false OR error OR wrongful) - Ebooks, many from scholarly/University presses, arranged in relevance order (the most occurences of the keywords at the top)

Web

Known Sites: If I perform a general internet search I am obliged to further research the publisher and authors of each webpage I want to use in order to evaluate their credibility. The CQ Researcher issue listed above provides specific websites to search, such as that of the Innocence Project, which publishes a page:
"Understand the Causes: Eyewitness Misidentification."

Specific Domains: Since it is government agencies that seek eyewitness testimony I can also target a web search to just government sites - the .gov domain. Here is a Google Advanced Search limited to government websites with the word 'eyewitness' in the page title: allintitle: eyewitness site:.gov. This provides webpages such as

United States. Dept. of Justice. Natl. Institute of Justice.Eyewitness Identification. 30 Sep. 2011

National Debt

FACTS.com

• Key Issue: Budget and the National Debt. World News Digest. Facts On File News Services. Last updated June 2011.
• Focus On: The U.S. Federal Budget and National Debt (Research Feature)." World News Digest. Facts On File News Services, May 2011.
• Reuters News (Today). Reuters. World News Digest. Facts On File News Services.

CQ Researcher

• Clemmitt, Marcia. "National Debt: Are higher taxes needed to reduce the debt?" CQ Researcher 18 Mar. 2011.
  Washington is wracked this year by intense budget politics. Spurred by the conservative Tea Party movement, Republican lawmakers point to the federal government's $14 trillion debt as an emergency that demands big cuts in domestic programs, including Social Security, plus tax cuts they say will spur economic growth. But Democrats say government spending is needed to sustain the economy while the private sector struggles back to health. They call for government investment in infrastructure and education, plus tax increases to strengthen programs such as Social Security for future generations. A decade ago the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that the federal government would run a $796 billion surplus in 2010, but that rosy future never materialized. Over the past 10 years, a severe recession, tax cuts and spending on two wars put the federal government, and also the states, deeply in the red. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.
  
  
• Clemmitt, Marcia. "The National Debt: Has it gotten too big?" CQ Researcher 14 Nov. 2008.
  With the national debt now more than $10 trillion — twice what it was eight years ago — the country faces a dire financial future, some analysts argue. Over the past eight years, the Bush administration has run larger and larger annual deficits, adding to the national debt and restricting the government's ability to respond to a new crisis. Now, with the U.S. and global financial meltdown ushering in a potentially catastrophic economic slowdown, the next president — newly elected Sen. Barack Obama — will be under pressure to use government fiscal policy, such as tax cuts and government spending, to bolster the economy, even though those actions will raise the debt further. Besides wrestling with that dilemma, the new president also must face the question of how to pay for spiraling Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits for the nation's 77 million baby boomers.
  From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Articles

EBSCOhost
SU ( debt* or budget deficit* ) and ( federal or national or public ) and GE united states

ProQuest
SU(National debt or budget deficits) AND SU(federal budget) AND GEO(united states)

Reference

Gale Virtual Reference Library: Entries related to national debt or budget deficits from several scholarly encyclopedias covering law, social sciences and history.

Ebrary

Figgie, Harry E. & Gerald J. Swanson. America the Broke : How the Reckless Spending of the White House and Congress Are Bankrupting Our Country and Destroying Our Children's Future. Doubleday Publishing, 2004.

Rivlin, Alice M. & Isabel V. Sawhill. Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2005 : Meeting the Long-Run Challenge. Brookings Institution Press, 2005.

Rivlin, Alice M. & Isabel V. Sawhill. Restoring Fiscal Sanity: How to Balance the Budget. Brookings Institution Press, 2004.

Rivlin, Alice M. & Joseph R. Antos. Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007 : The Health Spending Challenge. Brookings Institution Press, 2007.

Shaviro, Daniel N. Do Deficits Matter? Univ. of Chicago, 1997.

Wright, Robert E. One Nation Under Debt : Hamilton, Jefferson, and the History of What We Owe. McGraw-Hill, 2008.

Yarrow, Andrew L. Forgive Us Our Debts : The Intergenerational Dangers of Fiscal Irresponsibility. Yale UP, 2008.

Search Ebrary directly for more titles on national debt or budget deficits.

Web

United States. House of Representatives. Committee on Rules. Budget Control Act (Amended version reflecting announcement of July 31, 2011).

United States. Congressional Budget Office. "CBO Analysis of August 1 Budget Control Act." Summary. 1 Aug. 2011. Links to entire document and blog post.

United States. House of Representatives. Committee on Rules. "Section-by-Section Analysis of the Budget Control Act of 2011 as Announced on July 31, 2011."

Higher Education - Economic Aspects

Billitteri, Thomas J. "The Value of a College Education: Is a four-year degree the only path to a secure future?" CQ Researcher 20 Nov. 2009. CQ Researcher. Web. 19 Nov. 2009.
President Obama's $12 billion American Graduation Initiative — announced in July — aims to help millions more Americans earn degrees and certificates from community colleges. The president wants the United States to have, once again, the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. Along with the administration, economists and many students and parents embrace the notion that higher education offers the most promising ticket to financial security and upward mobility. However, some argue that many young people are ill-prepared or unmotivated to get a four-year degree and should pursue apprenticeships or job-related technical training instead. The debate is casting a spotlight on trends in high-school career and technical education — long known as vocational education — and raising questions about the ability of the nation's 1,200 community colleges to meet exploding enrollment demand. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Articles

EBSCOhost

Subject Search:

• Community Colleges AND United States
  • Subtopics: Enrollment, Tuition OR Costs OR Finance
• Student Loans AND Debt*
  
• SU college graduates and SU ( wage* or employ* or economic ) and united states

ProQuest

("Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act" or "american graduation initiative")

Books

Romano, Richard M. and Hirschel Kasper. Occupational outlook for community college students. New directions for community colleges, no. 146. Jossey-Bass, 2009. Print. Main Collection. LB2328 .N472 2009 no.146

Kamenetz, Anya. Generation debt : why now is a terrible time to be young. Penguin, 2006. Print. Main Collection. HQ799.7 .K36 2006

Draut, Tamara. Strapped: why America's 20- and 30-somethings can't get ahead. Doubleday, 2005. Ebrary. Also Print Main Collection HQ799.7 .D73 2007.

Mooney, Nan. "College Promises: Real Debt and False Expectations." in Not Keeping up with Our Parents : The Decline of the Professional Middle Class. Beacon, 2008.

ebrary Search: Subject "community colleges"

Web

Carnevale, Anthony P., Jeff Strohl and Michelle Melton. What's it Worth? The Economic Value of College Majors. Center on Education and the Workforce. Georgetown University. 24 May 2011. "The report finds that different undergraduate majors result in very different earnings."

United States. White House. "Investing in Education: The American Graduation Initiative." by Katherine Brandon. White House Blog, 14 July 2009.

United States. Library of Congress. Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (H.R.3221).

Washington State. Board for Community & Technical Colleges. Academic Year Report. A "snapshot of funding, facilities, staffing, and enrollments . . . expenditures, personnel and students."

Artificial Intelligence

This post will help you find resources about the impact of artificial intelligence on society.

Find Topic Overviews
Marshall, Patrick. "Artificial Intelligence." CQ Researcher 22 Apr. 2011: 361-84. Web. 14 May 2011. Can “smart” machines replace humans? From battlefields and factory floors to hospital operating rooms and retail call centers, artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how the world thinks and works. IBM's powerful new computer, Watson, recently beat two “Jeopardy!” game-show champions. Drone aircraft are deployed on dangerous reconnaissance and assault missions, reducing soldiers' exposure to harm. Computers diagnose disease, and robotic devices perform delicate surgical procedures. And “smart” machines are bringing new efficiencies to a variety of professions and industries, such as law offices, banks and manufacturing plants. But analysts warn that artificial intelligence may have devastating downsides. Some argue that if battles are fought with machines instead of humans, wars might be easier to start. And economists worry that as robots and other forms of artificial intelligence replace more and more workers, catastrophic levels of unemployment will be the result. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Whitney, Stewart B. "Artificial Intelligence." Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Ed. H. James Birx. Vol. 1. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2006. 281-282. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 14 May 2011.

Find Books 
Print books in the CBC Library
ebooks available through the CBC Library
--Artificial life: an overview (a NetLibrary ebook)

Find Articles
EBSCOhost ASP sample search:
artificial intelligence (in Subject Terms) AND (unemploy* or employ* or job*) (full text results)

Find Websites
Myers, Courtney Boyd ed. (2009). The AI Report. Forbes June 2009
Christian, Brian , “Mind vs. Machine,” The Atlantic, March 2011.

School Reform

Clemmitt, Marcia. "School Reform: Should evaluations of teachers rest on students' test scores?" CQ Researcher April 29, 2011. With international tests showing that the United States no longer leads in school achievement, a bipartisan coalition of reformers is advocating the creation of more charter schools and a system of basing pay and firing decisions for teachers on students' standardized test scores. Conservatives have long recommended such businesslike approaches for schools, and Republican lawmakers and politicians are pushing for laws to weaken unions' ability to defend teachers against charges of incompetency. Teachers' unions remain opposed to market-oriented reforms, but the philosophy has new adherents among education-reform groups and centrist Democrats such as President Obama, whose administration is providing funding to states to develop data-driven teacher assessments. Meanwhile, some education scholars point out that poorly performing students are concentrated in low-income districts, where funding shortfalls, bad teaching conditions and poverty make educating students more difficult. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Fixing Urban Schools: Has No Child Left Behind helped minority students?" CQ Researcher 17.16 (2007): 361-384.

More Articles:

EBSCOhost:

View Results for search illustrated below:


(school or education or academic) AND (improvement or reform or achievement or innovation* or change)

ProQuest

SU(urban school* or city school*) AND ("Quality of education")

SU(education or school*) AND SU(reform*) AND (united states)

Books:

Search CBC Library Catalog: educational accountability or school choice or educational change and united states

Ebrary: "School Improvement Programs" OR "Education, Urban" OR "Educational Change" OR "Educational Accountability" OR "School vouchers" OR "school choice" AND "United States" - 50+ ebooks

netLibrary books:

Cuban, Larry, and Michael D. Usdan. Powerful Reforms With Shallow Roots: Improving America's Urban Schools. New York : Teachers College Press, 2003.

McAdams, Donald R. Fighting to save our urban schools-- and winning! lessons from Houston. New York : Teachers College Press, 2000.

Freedman, Sarah Warshauer. Inside city schools investigating literacy in multicultural classrooms. New York : Teachers College Press, 1999.

Organ Donations

Mantel, Barbara. "Organ donations: can the growing demand for organs be met?" CQ Researcher 15 Apr. 2011: 337-360.  More than 110,000 Americans are on organ-transplant waiting lists, and demand for kidneys, lungs, hearts and other donated organs far exceeds the supply. Eighty percent of those waiting for organs need kidneys, in part because of rising incidences of obesity, hypertension and diabetes. States have made it easier for people to register as donors, either online or when obtaining or renewing a driver's license. Also, hospitals have been working to increase the number of families that allow a loved one's organs to be donated at death. But some transplant advocates are proposing more controversial measures, such as rewarding donors with financial compensation. Advances in bioengineering may eventually shrink the organ gap, allowing surgeons to transplant organs engineered from a patient's own stem cells. But for complex organs such as lungs and kidneys, that goal is probably decades away.
From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Other articles:

EBSCOhost: (SU donation of organs, tissues, etc. OR SU transplantation of organs, tissues, etc.) AND shortage

ProQuest: SU("BLOOD & ORGAN DONATIONS" OR "TRANSPLANTS & IMPLANTS") AND (shortage*)

Books: SU transplantation OR SU donation AND SU organs

Identity Theft, Phishing and Consumer Scams

Books
Search our catalog: Subject - Identity Theft

Subject - Internet Fraud

Articles

Proquest: Search SU(identity theft)

(phishing) AND SU(internet crime)

(phishing or internet crime or network security) AND (epsilon)

EBSCOhost

Search Subject: Identity Theft

Subject: Phishing

Selected articles:

Helft, Miguel. "Firms Warn of E-Mail Fraud After a Breach." New York Times 5 Apr. 2011, Late Ed. ProQuest. "While e-mail addresses may not seem particularly vulnerable, experts say that if criminals can associate addresses with names and a business like a bank, they can devise highly customized attacks to trick people into disclosing more confidential information, a technique known as 'spear phishing.'"

Cohn, Laura. "What to Toss, What to Keep." Kiplinger's Personal Finance; Feb2010, p69-70.
The article presents information on the amount of time financial documents must be kept before throwing them away.

Cohn, Laura. "What You Need to Know About Identity Theft." Kiplinger's Personal Finance; Jul2009, Vol. 63 Issue 7, p79-79, 1p.
This article offers information on identity (ID) theft and provides tips on preventing it.

Albanesius, Chloe. Consumers Haven't Learned Not to Divulge Private Info Online. PC Magazine; Jun2010, Vol. 29 Issue 6, p1-1, 1p.
The article presents the study from Consumer Reports regarding the behavior of consumer in divulging private information online in the U.S. The study reveals that 52 percent of adult Internet users still engage in risking personal information including date of birth, home addresses, and information about their children, despite warnings from privacy advocates.

Biggs, Ohn. "Stop Hack Attacks." Popular Mechanics Aug. 2010: 98-101. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. "The easiest and most common method for bad guys to get your data is currently the phishing attack, wherein hackers create a Web page that looks trustworthy but is actually a collection point for passwords and credit card information. Many scams involve e-mails about fake charges to your credit cards or online payment accounts."

Sarrel, Matthew D. Thwarting Identity Theft. PC Magazine; Nov2008, Vol. 27 Issue 12, p96-96, 1p

Kiviat, Barbara. "WHO'S GOT YOUR NUMBER?" Time; 7/17/2006, Vol. 168 Issue 3, p68.
The article discusses the risk of identity theft and recommends that individuals not give out their social security numbers.

CQ Researcher

Katel, Peter. "Identity Theft." CQ Researcher 10 June 2005: 517-40.

Web

United States. Federal Trade Commission. Fighting Back Against Identity Theft.
This website is a one-stop national resource to learn about the crime of identity theft. It provides detailed information to help you deter, detect, and defend against identity theft.

United States. Federal Trade Commission. "Phishing." OnGuardOnline.gov. Feb. 2008. Facts, advice, and how to report suspicious emails.

Anti-Phishing Working Group. "Consumer Advice: How to Avoid Phishing Scams."

Redistricting Debates

Jost, Kenneth. "Redistricting Debates: Will new reforms limit gerrymandering?" CQ Researcher 25 Feb. 2011: 169-192. The once-every-decade process of redrawing legislative and congressional districts is getting under way in state capitals around the country. To start, Sun Belt states will gain and Rust Belt states will lose seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. But win or lose, states have to redraw lines to make sure that legislative and congressional districts have equal populations and give fair opportunities to minority groups. The process is intensely political, with parties maneuvering for advantage and incumbents seeking to hold on to friendly territory. Republicans are in a good position after gaining control of legislatures in a majority of states last November. But demographic trends, especially the growth of Latino populations in some states, may limit the GOP's opportunities. In addition, California and Florida will be operating under new rules pushed by good-government groups that seek to limit “gerrymandering,” line-drawing for purely partisan reasons. After redistricting plans are completed, many will be challenged in court, where outcomes are difficult to predict.
From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Other articles:

EBSCOhost: (redistrict* or gerrymander*) and "united states"


ProQuest: (redistrict* or gerrymander*) and united states

Lies, Politics and Lying Politicians

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Lies and Politics: Do Politicians Lie More Today?" CQ Researcher 18 Feb. 2011: 145-68.
When Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted “You lie!” during one of President Obama's early addresses to Congress, the outburst was unprecedented. Yet, in the charged political climate of the past two years, hot partisan rhetoric has continued, and accusations of lying have been rife. Historians say that false charges by competing candidates and lies by government officials to hide their actions from the public are a staple of politics going back to the 1800 presidential campaign between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Some legal scholars point out that the First Amendment broadly protects political speech, even when it's false. Some blame a lazy media — and clearly partisan media outlets like Fox News and MSNBC — for allowing more misinformation to flourish today. And some point out that political speech can be misleading without being flat-out lying.
From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Other articles:

EBSCOhost: (falsehood or deception) and politic* and united states

Nyhan, Brendan and Jason Reifler. "When Corrections Fail: The Persistence of Political Misperceptions." 2010. Political Behavior 32(2): 303-330.

Books

Ebrary: (lies OR lying OR deception) AND Subject (politics OR political OR politicians) - ebooks include:

Cliffe, Lionel. Politics of Lying. New York: Macmillan, 2000.

Web

Factcheck.org - Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania to reveal the "factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases."

Immigration - United States

Greenblatt, Alan. "Immigration Debate." CQ Researcher 1 Feb. 2008: 97-120.
(Updated: December 10, 2010)

Karaim, Reed. "America's Border Fence." CQ Researcher 19 Sep. 2008.
Will it stem the flow of illegal immigrants? America is rushing to build 670 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border by the end of the year. The fence — or wall, as critics along the border call it — is to include 370 miles of fencing intended to stop illegal immigrants on foot and 300 miles of vehicle barriers. To speed construction, the Bush administration is using unprecedented authority granted by Congress to waive environmental-, historic- and cultural-protection laws. No one claims that building physical barriers along roughly a third of America's 2,000-mile Southern border will stem illegal immigration by itself, but supporters believe it is an essential first step in "securing the border," providing a critical line of defense against illegal migration, drug smugglers and even terrorists. Opponents see it as a multi-billion-dollar waste that will only shift illegal immigrants toward more dangerous and difficult routes into the country, while doing environmental, cultural and economic damage.
From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Facts.com:
Research Feature: Immigration Debate (Note the Key News Events links on the left)
Key Issue: Immigration

ProQuest:
(border) AND SU(immigra*) AND (fence*) (550+ articles)

EBSCOhost:
(immigra* OR alien*) AND illegal AND (employer* OR job* OR labor) AND united states
(Limited to Full Text and CBC Title Collection)
direct link to search results (450+ articles)

CBC Library Catalog: sample searches
“united states immigration” (200+ books as of Jan. 2011)

"open immigra" (9 books as of Jan 20, 2011)

LeMay, Michael C. U.S. Immigration: a reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA : ABC-Clio, 2003.

Gale Virtual Reference: immigration AND "United States"

Daily Life Online: immigration and united states

Opposing Views on the Web:
(Note: These are just a few examples.)

Anthony Gregory, "In Defense of Open Immigration", Freedom Daily, January 21, 2005.

Stephen Cox, "The Fallacy of Open Immigration," Liberty, October 1, 2006.

Steven A. Camarota, "Immigration Is Hurting the U.S. Worker," Americas Quarterly,Spring 2007.

Daniel T. Griswold, "Immigration Law Should Reflect Our Dynamic Labor Market", The Dallas Morning News, April 27, 2008.

updated by y.y.

Income Disparities in America

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Income Inequality": Is the gap between rich and poor getting wider? A recent Census Bureau report brought a flurry of press attention to the widening gap between rich and poor. The gap in New York City is widening — and is now bigger than in India, noted the New York Daily News. Indeed, most analysts agree incomes of the very rich have been pulling away from all others in recent decades. The average pretax income for the bottom 90 percent of households is almost $900 below what it was in 1979, while the average pretax income for the top 1 percent is $700,000 higher. Having a wealthy class with very large amounts of disposable money is valuable — not harmful — to society, some argue. But others say the recent winner-take-all economy helped trigger the massive recession, leaving most people with stagnant incomes. Meanwhile, Republicans argue that Bush-era tax cuts on top earnings should be extended to stimulate the economy, while many Democrats back extensions only for lower earners. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

More Articles:

EBSCOhost Search: SU income gap and GE united states

ProQuest Search: SU (income distribution) AND GEO(united states)

Capital Punishment

Jost, Kenneth. "Death Penalty Debates." CQ Researcher 20.41 (2010): 965-988. Is the capital punishment system working? Public support for capital punishment in the United States remains strong on paper, but opponents say it is weakening in practice. The number of new death sentences fell in 2009 to its lowest point in four decades and seems likely to end even lower in 2010. The number of executions has also fallen, to at least half the number in the 1990s. Opponents of the death penalty say prosecutors may be seeking the death penalty less often because of the costs of a capital trial, sentencing and post-conviction proceedings. Jurors may also be worried about the costs of the system, the delay between sentence and execution and the risk of executing an innocent person. Supporters of capital punishment counter that the costs and delays result primarily from obstructionism by death penalty lawyers and that the risk of a wrongful execution is all but nonexistent. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

More Articles

CQ Researcher:

Jost, Kenneth. "Death Penalty Controversies." CQ Researcher 15.33 (2005): 785-808.

EBSCOhost: SU capital punishment and GE united states

Books:

Death Penalty on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents. (ABC-CLIO ebook)
Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice. (Gale Virtual Reference Library)

American Political Parties

Katel, Peter. "Democrats' Future:"Will they lose their congressional majorities? CQ Researcher. Oct. 29, 2010. Triumphant only two years ago, the Democratic Party could lose its House majority, and possibly its Senate dominance as well. To stave off defeat, it is refashioning its campaign and policy strategies in a political season marked by the rise of hardcore conservatives in Republican ranks. Along with President Obama's election, Democrats won majorities in both houses of Congress. Back then, some commentators were predicting a Democratic “realignment” on the model that Franklin D. Roosevelt built in the 1930s, and which lasted (with some interruptions) for decades. But continuing high unemployment and economic uncertainty gave an opening to the conservative Tea Party upsurge among Republicans. In a year marked by hard-fought congressional elections and the beginning of preparations for the 2012 presidential race, Democrats are debating whether their party has been too liberal in its stimulus approach to the economic crisis, or not liberal enough. And some have faulted Obama himself for poor leadership. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

More Articles:

EBSCOhost Search: congress* and elect* and GE united states

ProQuest Search: congress* and major* and GEO(united states)

Books: CBC Library Catalog: political part* AND "united states"

Obesity in America

Mantel, Barbara. "Preventing Obesity." CQ Researcher 20.34 (2010): 797-820.
Do Americans face too many obstacles to healthy eating?
The number of obese Americans has increased dramatically over the last 40 years, and in 2001 the nation's surgeon general went so far as to call obesity an epidemic. Since that landmark declaration, efforts to combat obesity have slowly grown, and although no one knows exactly why, the obesity rate among children and adolescents has leveled off. It is still, however, alarmingly high. One-third of children and two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese, posing a daunting public-health challenge. Those adults are more likely to develop serious illnesses like heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. While diet programs emphasize personal responsibility, public-health experts blame a multitude of factors — many beyond individuals' control — for the societywide epidemic. Prominent among those factors are low consumption of fruits and vegetables and America's “obesogenic” environment, which promotes increased portion size, non-healthful foods and physical inactivity. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

More Articles

CQ Researcher:

Greenblatt, Alan. "Obesity Epidemic." CQ Researcher 13.4 (2003): 73-104.

Bettelheim, Adriel. "Obesity and Health." CQ Researcher 9.2 (1999): 25-48.

EBSCOhost sample search: SU obesity and GE united states and SU prevention (limited to full text academic journal articles published after 1994)

Reference
Gale Virtual Reference search: obesity

Books
Search Library Catalog: obesity [in Subject]
Search ebrary: obesity [in Title]

updated 12/27/2010 y.y.

Health Care in America

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Health-Care Reform:"Is the landmark new plan a good idea? CQ Researcher. June 11, 2010. The health-care reform legislation signed into law by President Obama on March 23 marked the biggest attempt to expand access to health care since Medicare and Medicaid were launched in the 1960s. The massive legislation will help 32 million Americans get health insurance coverage and bans insurers from denying coverage to those with preexisting illnesses. It also expands Medicaid to all poor people — except illegal immigrants — and gives subsidies to low- and low-middle-income people to buy insurance. But opponents, including every Republican member of Congress, say the coverage expansion is simply too expensive, at a price tag of about $1 trillion over 10 years. They also say new fees and taxes to help pay for the coverage place too big a burden on currently insured people. Meanwhile, a group of state attorneys general is challenging the constitutionality of the law's requirement that everyone buy health insurance. From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Health-Care Reform:" Is Universal Coverage too Expensive? CQ Researcher August 28, 2009.

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Universal Coverage." CQ Researcher 17.12 (2007): 265-288. CQ Press. 5 April 2007.

Clemmitt, Marcia. "Rising Health Costs:" Can costs be cut without hurting care quality? CQ Researcher April 7, 2006.

More Articles:

EBSCOhost Search: SU ( medical care or medical policy or health insurance or health care ) and united states and ( reform or universal or single payer )

ProQuest Search: (health care or health insurance) and (reform or universal) and united states

Books:

Ebrary Search: Subject (health insurance OR medical care OR uninsured) AND united states - over 100 ebooks

Websites:

United States. Census Bureau. Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2009 (or view the 9/16/10 press release with summary of key findings). Sep. 2010.

United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services. HealthReform.gov. Reports, news, weekly updates.

United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services. National Center for Health Statistics. Fastats: Health Insurance Coverage. Numbers insured/uninsured, with links to reports.

Publications from The Commonwealth Fund, a "private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system...by supporting independent research on health care issues."

Jobs & the American Economy

English 102 - Figueroa - Class Topic Spring 2010

Katel, Peter. "Jobs in the Future: Is a College Education Important?" CQ Researcher, 4 June 2010.
American workers — and their jobless counterparts — are still absorbing the blows of the Great Recession. The economy has finally started to grow again, but more than 8 million jobs that disappeared after the economic crisis began in late 2007 haven't returned. People who do have jobs are working harder. Increased productivity is only one of several major changes on the job front. As technology advances, the competitive environment for U.S. workers is intensifying. American employers now can hire people halfway across the globe to perform skilled tasks — interpreting downloaded X-ray pictures, for example. Experts argue over how many jobs are at risk, but no one disputes that young people are better off with advanced schooling that builds analytical capacity, allowing them to switch careers if necessary. As for lesser-educated workers, demand is rising at the low end of the market. Jobs that fall in between the two extremes may be most at risk.
From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

Boolean/Phrase Search Techniques:

• Truncation: econom* (beginning with this) = economy, economic, etc.
• Or Statements: employ* or unemploy* = any of these, broadens
• And Statements: econom* and United States = all of these, narrows
• Phrases: United States = only this, very narrow
• Grouping: (employ* or unemploy*) and United States = do the part in parentheses first – or use ‘Advanced Search’ and put different concepts on different lines

EBSCOhost Boolean/phrase search:

( labor supply or unemployment or employment ) and (recession* or econom*) and united states - 4300+ full text articles

Research questions this attempts to answer:

• What are the impacts of current economic conditions on the labor supply in the United States?
• How has the U.S. recession changed future employment possibilities?
• When will the economic recovery reduce unemployment in the United States?

More Articles:

ProQuest: (college education or college graduates) AND (employ* or jobs or econom* or labor or workers) AND (united states) - 1700+ full text articles from newspapers, magazines and journals

Facts.com World News Digest:

"The Economic Downturn: From Credit Crunch to Global Recession." World News Digest. Facts On File News Services, Jan. 2009. Research feature offering an overview and links to articles arranged by subtopic and date.

Books

Ebrary: Subject ("labor market" OR "labor supply" OR "job creation" OR unemployment OR employment) and Subject ("United States) - 50 ebooks

2010 Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Oil Spill

Websites

Deepwater Horizon Response: Unified Command

Whitehouse site: Deepwater BP Oil Spill

Google government sites search results: "oil spill Gulf of Mexico site:.gov"

Articles

EBSCO: DE "BP oil spill, Gulf of Mexico, 2010"

Gale Virtual Reference: oil spills

CQ Researcher

Oil Spills

Cleaning Up Hazardous Wastes


Books

CBC Library Catalog: oil spill

CBC ebrary online books: Text and Key Fields: "oil spill" AND Subject:"Environmental Aspects" OR "Crisis Management"

Oil drilling

• "Prevention and Control Mechanics of Well Blowouts." in Drilling Engineering by J.J. Azar and G. Robello Samuel. PennWell Corp., 2007.
  
  
• "A Losing Proposition." in Lives per Gallon : The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction. by Terry Tamminen. Washington, DC, USA: Island Press, 2006.

12/2010 y.y.

U.S. Census

Billitteri, Thomas J. Census controversy: should undocumented immigrants be counted? CQ Researcher, May 14, 2010. Now under way, the 2010 census has sparked bitter partisanship. Some conservative Republicans, for example, have criticized the census as an unconstitutional intrusion on privacy; others warn that census participation is important for maintaining GOP power, since the count is used to apportion congressional seats and allocate federal money to cities and states. Liberal Democrats have been more supportive of census procedures, which for the first time will count same-sex couples. To raise response rates, the Census Bureau sent every household the same brief 10-question form and dropped use of the “long form” — a lengthy questionnaire seeking data on housing, transportation, education and income. The long form has been replaced by a separate, ongoing monthly survey that will provide timelier data, but from a smaller sample of households. Researchers generally hail the change but say it will cause some problems, at least initially.
From the CQ Researcher. Reprinted with permission from CQ Press.

More Articles


CQ Researcher

Jost, Kenneth. Census 2000: What is the best way to get an accurate count? CQ Researcher May 1, 1998.

Gavin, Jennifer. Redistricting: Are minority groups fairly represented in Congress? CQ Researcher Feb. 16, 2001.

EBSCOhost - subject term searches:

census AND immigrant*

census AND United States

demographic surveys AND United States

apportionment AND United States

ProQuest

SUB(aliens) AND(census of population)

SUB(census of population)

SUB(apportionment) AND SUB(census of population)

Ebooks

Choldin, Harvey M.Looking for the Last Percent: the Controversy Over Census Undercounts. Rutgers University Press, 1994. [NetLibrary]

Web

United States. Bureau of the Census.Census Bureau Home Page.