Education/Jobs
Rising teen unemployment is tackled by two West coast TV news teams: Khsltv.com’s Elizabeth Gadley explores California’s situation, with a teen unemployment rate north of 34 percent in 2010, and kndo.com in Washington state reports on its teen jobless rate, also at 34 percent.
The Gwinnett Daily Post’s Heather Darenberg writes about how Gwinnett Technical College partners with the Atlanta Regional Workforce Board to get students funding for tuition and books through Workforce Investment Act funding.
The Women in Government Relations Education Task Force is hosting a discussion titled, “Are Traditional 4-Year University Programs Becoming Obsolete for Mainstream America?” to be held from noon to 1:30 on Monday, Feb. 7, location TBD. For more information and to register, go here.
A new report published by the 21st Century Foundation and written by Frontline Solutions details the efforts in four communities that sought increased counting of black males in the 2010 Census and suggests solutions for widespread improvement in future years. The full report is titled Counting the Invisible Man: Black Males and the 2010 Census.
Juvenile Justice
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s push to remove the state from they city’s juvenile justice process is gaining momentum, but some advocates feel that the mayor is not involving communities and families enough in his planning, reports DNAinfo reporter Jill Colvin.
Average daily detention populations are down significantly in Minnesota’s largest counties, but the high proportion of minority youth detained remains a challenge, reports Abby Simons of the Star-Tribune.
A judge has decided to try Pennsylvania youth Jordan Brown as an adult for a shooting he is accused of committing when he was 11. According to the website AllGov.com, Brown, who has not admitted guilt in the matter, would be the youngest person in American history to receive a life without parole sentence if he is tried and convicted in adult court.
Interesting wrinkle in the Brown case: there is an organization that has been established to support Brown, reports Jack Ryan of the Post Chronicle, and one of its principal spokesman is Father Val Peter, the executive director emeritus for Boys and Girls Town.
Miscellaneous
The New York Times’ Tamar Lewin covers a study released this week that shows college freshman are self-reporting the lowest level of self-reported emotional health in 25 years. Times blogger Jacques Steinberg invites his mental health-minded readers to weigh in on the causes.
Diana Epstein of the Center for American Progress makes the case for why the Corporation for National and Community Services, and its flagship AmeriCorps program, should not be eliminated. The Republican Study Committee includes CNCS elimination in its spending cuts proposal, but Epstein writes that it is “unlikely” such a move would pass the Senate or receive a presidential signature.
