Archive for category National
Good News on the Benefits Front
Posted by Rob Paterson in Journalism, National, Network, Partners on November 5th, 2009
The $24 billion economic package, which would also broaden tax breaks for businesses, cleared the House Thursday afternoon in a 403-12 vote and heads to President Barack Obama to sign into law. It passed 98-0 late Wednesday in the Senate.
Under the measure, the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers would be lengthened by seven months and expanded with a $6,500 credit for some prospective homebuyers who already own homes.
The nearly 2 million people who have lost or are in danger of running through their unemployment benefits before the end of 2009 would receive up to 20 weeks in additional benefits.
For those in states with unemployment rates above 8.5 percent, it would grant an additional six weeks on top of that. The extension is the fourth since last June, and could give some people up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, above the previous record of 65 weeks set in the 1970s, according to the Associated Press.
More after the jump – Source The NewsHour
History may not repeat but it does rhyme
Posted by Rob Paterson in Context, National, Network, Partners, Personal Story, The Collective Story on November 2nd, 2009
Monday on The American Experience: The 1930s:
Civilian Conservation CorpsIn March 1933, within weeks of his inauguration, President Franklin Roosevelt sent legislation to Congress aimed at providing relief for the one out of every four American workers who were unemployed.
He proposed a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide jobs in natural resource conservation. Over the next decade, the CCC put more than three million young men to work in the nation’s forests and parks, planting trees, building flood barriers, fighting fires and maintaining roads and trails.
Corps workers lived in camps under quasi-military discipline and received a wage of $30 per month, $25 of which they were required to send home to their families. This program interweaves rich archival imagery with the personal accounts of CCC veterans to tell the story of one of the boldest and most popular New Deal experiments, positioning it as a pivotal moment in the emergence of modern environmentalism and federal unemployment relief.
The five-part series, “The 1930s,” draws parallels between our current age and the Great Depression era, examining the political and cultural life of America during one of history’s most tumultuous decades.
Learn more about the series and watch films online here.
Lots more work to do – Jobs & Regulation -Moyers/Galbraith
Posted by Rob Paterson in Advice, Context, Engagement, Experts, National, Partners, Reinvention on November 1st, 2009
Frontline – The Warning
Posted by Rob Paterson in Context, Engagement, Journalism, National, Partners on October 27th, 2009
Frontline have just put on a very important show, The Warning, that gets behind the regulatory screen. The informed citizen needs to be more skeptical.
More than Content – Connection and Impact – What we are doing FTMC
Posted by Rob Paterson in Branding, Collaboration, Context, Engagement, Impact, Local, National, Network, Partners, The Collective Story on October 13th, 2009
CPB have put our project on the front page of their site – Here is the link to the letter that Jack Galmiche sent on your behalf to Pat Harrison. In a quiet way, I think that we are making history. Proving to others and to ourselves how we can become a powerful agency for good in our communities.
Jobs? The 1930′s surely offer us a pointer
Posted by Rob Paterson in Advice, Context, Journalism, National, Reinvention on October 10th, 2009
Where might the jobs come from that will be so essential to our future? Here is Bob Herbert’s conclusion in his Op Ed today:
“The past,” as William Faulkner told us, “is not dead. It’s not even past.” The lessons of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s are right in front of us, ready to be studied, analyzed, updated and applied to the present-day needs of the country.
If we’re serious about getting the U.S. back on track economically, we will have to take our heads out of the sand at some point with regard to the nation’s infrastructure. America has to be rebuilt, modernized and re-energized — from its water and sewer systems to its schools to the smart grid and the alternative energy sources that so many are talking about and beyond. That’s where the jobs are for the long term, and that’s the only route to a truly flourishing future.
These investments would be costly and require vision. Seeing them through would take an enormous collective effort by politicians and the public alike. But some variation on these themes is absolutely essential if the U.S. is to pull itself out of the economic quicksand and its long-term, potentially very tragic consequences.
Unemployed – leads to being Uninsured for Health
Posted by Rob Paterson in Context, Impact, National on October 1st, 2009
From NBR Via PRX
If unemployment is a long term situation for millions of Americans – then most will lose their access to health care insurance – what does the individual do?
More Resources – Your Life, Your Money
Posted by Rob Paterson in Advice, Context, Engagement, Experts, National, Personal Story, The Collective Story on September 30th, 2009
It takes time to react – Public Radio and TV are pulling together a solid portfolio of resources to help us understand our relationship with money.
Here is WNED – Buffalo’s new series – Your Life, Your Money
You can watch the entire show or the parts that interest you the most – the POV is you!
What is going on on mainstreet – Patchwork Nation
Posted by Rob Paterson in Context, Impact, Journalism, National on September 24th, 2009
Sagging home prices as the economy tries to recover
Dante Chinni
A look at how home prices have fallen in Patchwork Nation’s community types shows how wide and varied the declines have been in the recession – and what they may mean for any recovery.
Some of the bigger drops have been in the community types that drive consumer spending. And the places at the other end of the home-price spectrum have the least amount of disposable income.
The price data, which come from Zillow.com, don’t include all US counties, and the statistics aren’t necessarily predictive of future economic performance. Still, they offer another warning that any climb out of the recession may be long and slow.
G20 Meets today – What will happen and why
Posted by Rob Paterson in Advice, Collaboration, Context, Experts, National on September 24th, 2009
Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz talks with Paul Solman of the NewsHour – he feels that not much has changed and he has low expectations from the meeting. But he is clear about what happened and what in the end we should do.
His bottom line? Nothing has been fixed. We are spent out and therefore cannot spend our way out. That in the end we need structural change – We need greater equality in our society.
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- 81- Rebar and the Alvord Lake BridgeThere’s something about rebar that fascinates me. If nothing else because there are very few things that invoke a fear of being skewered. My preoccupation with metal reinforcement bars dovetails nicely with a structure in San Francisco I’ve kind of … Continue reading → […]
- 80- An Architect’s CodeLawyers have an ethics code. Journalists have an ethics code. Architects do, too. According to Ethical Standard 1.4 of the American Institute of Architects (AIA): “Members should uphold human rights in all their professional endeavors.” A group called Architects, Designers, … Continue reading → […]
- 79- The Symphony of Sirens plus Soviet DesignFor the ancient Greeks, sirens were mythical creatures who sang out to passing sailors from rocks in the sea. Their music was so beautiful, it was said, that the sailors were powerless against it–they would turn their ships towards these … Continue reading → […]
- 78- No Armed BanditAmericans have always had an uneasy relationship with gambling. To circumvent anti-gambling laws in the US, early slot machines masqueraded as vending machines. They gave out chewing gum as prizes, and those prizes could be redeemed for cash. That’s where … Continue reading → […]
- 77- Game ChangerRegardless of how you feel about basketball, you’ve got to appreciate the way it can bring groups of strangers together to share moments of pure adulation and collective defeat. That moment when time is running out, the team is down … Continue reading → […]
- 81- Rebar and the Alvord Lake Bridge
Facing the Mortgage Crisis is part of CPB's Public Service Media Economic Response Initiative.
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