Child Welfare
More bad press for the Florida Department of Children and Families: a counselor for its child abuse registry hotline has been arrested on child molestation charges, reports Tallahassee.com’s Derek Redd. A DCF spokesman said the counselor, Matthew Lappin, did not have contact with agency-involved families.
Education/Jobs
Caralee Adams, who writes the College Bound column for Education Week, breaks down the new numbers on “dropout factories” and blogs from the Building a Grad Nation Summit.
Attendees at a February fundraiser Congressional candidate Jack Davis (R-N.Y.) were shocked when he suggested that young black men be bused to work on farms, replacing illegal immigrants, reports Jerry Zremski of the Buffalo News. One of the paper’s columnists, Rod Watson, wrote that source aside, the concept is one that some African-Americans embrace in light of soaring unemployment figures.
Juvenile Justice
Kristi Phil of the Tri-City Herald’s story here, on county-level discussions over juvenile justice spending in two Washington counties, nicely depicts the top-down pressure put on juvenile justice by the looming cuts at the federal and state level.
A bill currently in the Colorado House would make the state’s recent ban on juvenile life without parole sentences retroactive.
Miscellaneous
AmeriCorps proponents Michelle Nunn and Brian Williams draw attention to this week’s honoring of George H.W. Bush at the Kennedy Center in Washington, where the four living past presidents all spoke about the value of community service and volunteerism.
