Child Welfare
Food stamp use in Idaho, where the unemployment rate is just above the national average at 9.5 percent, is nonetheless recording the biggest one-year increase in food stamp usage in the nation. Pamela M. Prah of Stateline reports that food stamp usage jumped 28 percent in the past year.
Emily Bazelon reports in the New York Times magazine on a growing body of evidence that some injuries that appear to arise from a child being shaken may actually be from a stroke or other occurrence that isn’t abusive. Most of these injuries are not accompanied that bruising or other injuries that would reinforce the possibility of the child being shaken.
Education/Jobs
The latest way some students at California universities are reducing tuition: they are getting married.
Tess Townsend reports in the New York Times that some out-of-state students are getting married to qualify for in-state tuition, which at the University of California in Berkeley is $22,000 less than tuition for out-of-state students.
The Santa Ana, Calif.-based for-profit institution Corinthian Colleges Inc. is profiled in this Los Angeles Times piece, as reporter Walter Hamilton explores how this chain of colleges fits into the larger realm of increased scrutiny facing the entire sector.
The Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education is hosting a series of one-day community college regional summits in Philadelphia on Feb. 28, Houston on March 9, Indianapolis on March 23 and San Diego on April 15. More info here.
Juvenile Justice
Jury selection begins today in the federal courthouse in Scranton, Pa., for the trial of former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, charged with accepting money to approve the construction and eventual use of a private juvenile facility. Among the charges he faces are racketeering, extortion, money laundering and conspiracy. Terrie Morgan-Besecker of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Union enumerates the charges against the judge.
