Thursday, February 5, 2009

Ways To Save Mississippi’s Housing

Posted by American Forum at 7:12 AM

MISSISSIPPI FORUM

By Ed Sivak

Just like in other states across the country, Mississippians are seeing the effects of a sagging economy. More people are unemployed and many working Mississippians have seen their retirement savings decline in value during the past year. As people lose jobs and face financial emergencies with less savings, they become at risk of losing their homes in foreclosure. Foreclosure rates for both prime and subprime loans at the end of the third quarter of 2008 have more than doubled compared to the same period in 2007. When foreclosures do occur, the effects are devastating for working families and communities. Families lose their primary asset and access to affordable credit, and neighboring homes lose value.

Fortunately, several opportunities exist to rectify the challenges associated with foreclosures. The funding of a Housing Trust Fund would elevate Mississippi’s ability to create affordable workforce housing opportunities. Presently, Mississippi is one of only 12 states without a funded housing trust fund. Housing Trust Funds have been successful across the country in the creation of jobs, stabilizing workforce housing and investing back in communities. A statewide trust fund with an ongoing revenue source would benefit Mississippi’s working families through increased economic development opportunities.

One cannot overlook the effects of subprime lending in the state of Mississippi. At the height of the subprime lending boom, Mississippi had the highest rate of subprime lending in the country. Many of the unaffordable products sold to home purchasers -- Option Payment Adjustable Rate Mortgages, No Documentation Loans -- that ultimately made their way to Wall Street as securities were subprime lending products.

 

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Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Missouri Needs to Examine its Death Penalty System

Posted by American Forum at 10:22 AM

MISSOURI FORUM

By Rep. Bill Deeken

For the past several years I have sponsored legislation that would impose a moratorium on executions in Missouri while a commission does a complete study of the death penalty system in our state. This may seem a strange action for a person who, in principle, supports the death penalty. But I believe that this legislation is absolutely necessary in Missouri.

Since 1989, Missouri has executed 66 people, the fourth most of any state. Legislation returning the death penalty to Missouri law was enacted over 30 years ago. Since then, Missouri has not had a comprehensive official review of the state’s death penalty system. With a punishment as final as death—it’s long past time state officials take a pause to thoroughly examine our system of taking a life.

A death penalty moratorium is important because there is a fear that an innocent person could be executed. While there is much to be proud of in our criminal justice system, it is still a human system. Mistakes can and have been made when it comes to the death penalty. Nationally, 129 people who were convicted and sentenced to death since 1973 have been exonerated. This includes three men in Missouri—Clarence Dexter, Eric Clemmons and Joe Amrine—who had their death sentences removed when evidence of their innocence came to light.

 

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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Just Show Me the Money

Posted by American Forum at 12:12 PM


TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Patrick D. Reagan, Ph.D.

The newly-minted Republican majority in the Tennessee General Assembly is faced with an unaccustomed reality: responsibility for governing, rather than criticizing those who hold that responsibility. Tennesseans, not unexpectedly, are curious about how this newfound responsibility will be implemented.

The overwhelming challenge confronting the Republican majority is certain to be the enormous budget deficit, likely to exceed $1 billion for this and next year. Gov. Bredesen will present his budget recommendations in February but he is already talking about 20 percent cuts in most departments and related functions, like higher education and health care. Reductions of this magnitude will bring real suffering and loss to millions of Tennesseans.

The nation’s economic misery is partly to blame, but so is Tennessee’s antiquated, dysfunctional, unfair, and ineffective tax system. By relying so heavily on the nation’s highest sales tax for the state’s principal revenue source, the revenue shortfall is hardly surprising. There is no doubt about the situation: Tennessee is in a horrendous budget mess.

 

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Monday, February 2, 2009

The State of Mississippi’s Children

Posted by American Forum at 11:57 AM


MISSISSIPPI FORUM

By Rhea Bishop

Mississippi is once again failing its children.

The Children’s Defense Fund’s recently released State of America’s Children 2008 report highlights how far we have to go in Mississippi to protect our children. Even in the midst of the current economic downturn, Mississippi must continue to invest in our children if we are ever to move up from the bottom of the nation’s economic ladder.

Here’s what we learned in the report:

Once again, Mississippi has the highest percentage of children living in poverty at almost 3 in 10 (the national rate is 1 in 6). The vast majority of Mississippi families living in poverty are working families. The federal poverty line for a family of four in 2008 was $21,200.

 

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Friday, January 30, 2009

Investing in Our Human Infrastructure

Posted by American Forum at 12:31 PM


By Riane Eisler

Over half a million people lost their jobs last month. There’s no question we need a job-creation plan. The real question is what kind of plan will most quickly stimulate the economy and at the same time provide the best long-term investment for our nation.

President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Job-Creation Plan should be used to massively invest in our human infrastructure. Study after study shows that when our nation invests in its people, starting in childhood, the economic benefits are enormous.

By creating, subsidizing, and providing training for jobs in childcare, early education, healthcare, eldercare, and other “caring industries,” as well as supporting caring work in homes, we quickly stimulate the economy, help families, radically reduce poverty and violence, reward women’s economic contributions, save billions in crime and prisons, and develop the “high quality human capital” needed for our post-industrial economy.

Our economic crisis is an opportunity to lay foundations for a sustainable and equitable economic system instead of just trying to patch up an economy based on unsustainable consumerism, consumer debt, and environmental practices. The current economic meltdown is not due simply to the globalization of unregulated capitalism. The problem goes much deeper -- and so must the solutions.

 

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Better Nutrition Equals Better Education

Posted by American Forum at 8:14 AM


By Kathleen Rogers

Cafeteria food has always been the brunt of kids' jokes. Many of us remember the grilled cheese sandwich that stuck to the plate when you turned it upside down, and the egg soufflé that jiggled when you poked it. But even that is a far cry from what's served now.

In the midst of a growing childhood obesity crisis, school food now means federally subsidized chicken nuggets, low-grade hamburgers, french fries, hot dogs and pizza. "Cooking" usually involves a centralized kitchen similar to a fast food assembly line.

According to Ron Haskins, senior fellow of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, "behind the overcooked vegetables and steam-table pizza that American children confront each school day is an industry that rivals defense contractors and media giants in its ability to bring home the federal bacon." That industry is agribusiness -- and, via the National School Lunch Program, it has a chokehold on our kids.

 

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Tuesday, January 27, 2009

PSA on the Problems of DTV Transition

Posted by American Forum at 10:36 AM

By Steve Macek



Click Here to Read the Op-ed

 

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Ending Wage Discrimination

Posted by American Forum at 12:14 PM


NORTH CAROLINA EDITORIAL FORUM

By Lisa Grafstein

In 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision which changed the rules for determining how long an employee has to raise a claim of wage discrimination. The plaintiff in that case, Lilly Ledbetter, lost a claim for 18 years of discrimination, but has lent her name to a proposal which would correct the interpretation of federal law and allow victims of wage discrimination to recover a portion of what they have lost.

Before the Ledbetter case, courts -- including the Supreme Court -- had used a “paycheck rule,” which recognized that, when an employee is underpaid on a discriminatory basis, each paycheck that employee receives is affected by discrimination, and the statute of limitations for a claim therefore begins to run when a discriminatory paycheck is issued. In most cases, employees do not become aware of wage discrepancies until well into their employment. Moreover, we know that a pay decision continues to impact a worker over her earning years. The National Women’s Law Center has calculated that women 24 and younger start out earning 6 percent less than their male counterparts, but that gap increases over time, resulting in women 45-64 earn 71 percent of what their male counterparts earn.

 

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

English Only Amendment; How Not to Unite a Community

Posted by American Forum at 1:20 PM


TENNESSEE EDITORIAL FORUM

By Nancy Stetten

I have been a teacher all of my life. For a number of years I taught English to immigrants. I experienced firsthand the frustration of trying to communicate without a common language. I was always impressed though with how difficult it was for the adults to learn English, and how hard they struggled to master it to become better, more informed members of their communities.

Proponents for the English-Only Metro Charter Amendment though, say that by promoting English-Only, communities will be more united under a common language. This makes absolutely no sense. Communities are only made stronger due to their differences and by a willingness to come together despite those differences to make it a better place for everyone. This amendment seeks to divide communities. It is bad policy for Nashville and can send a problematic precedent for the rest of the state.

While early voting for the English-Only Metro Charter Amendment has begun, it is very important to understand what the proposal means and what it is trying to accomplish and why it is bad for the state.

Click Here for Full Article

 

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A Weight Loss Plan for the New Administration

Posted by American Forum at 9:08 AM

By Morgan Downey

At this time of year, millions of Americans are hoping the new administration will solve our seemingly intractable problems at home and abroad. Millions are also hoping to lose weight in the new year. The two are not unrelated.

Over the past three decades, obesity has increased among all segments of the population, in the United States and abroad. Obesity is now recognized as the fuel behind many major health problems and a significant cause of increasing health care utilization and health care costs.

The efforts of the last eight years have been largely educational: tell people they should lose weight, eat more nutritiously, exercise more and hope. It has not worked. Other than surgery, nothing works very well to lose significant amounts for a long period of time.

 

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Thursday, January 8, 2009

Did the Four Horsemen Destroy the Auto Industry?

Posted by American Forum at 9:40 AM


By Darin Gilley

The day of reckoning has arrived for the U.S. auto industry and much like the four horsemen of the apocalypse (strife, war, famine, death) our nation’s policies (tax, trade, health care, energy) have helped decimate American manufacturing. As a result, America has gone from the world’s greatest creditor nation to the world’s greatest debtor nation.

Let’s look at how these long-standing policies have virtually eliminated several industries from the productive side of the American economy – shoes, TV’s, textiles, electronics, and potentially the auto industry.

 

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Tuesday, January 6, 2009

To Achieve Change President-Elect Obama Needs to Bet on Women

Posted by American Forum at 11:42 AM

By Linda Tarr-Whelan

President-elect Obama has now moved swiftly to name talented and creative people to Cabinet-level offices and the key members of the White House team. But a nagging thought keeps coming back to me: Why isn't he naming more women to bring our experience, creativity and energy to address the problems that face us?

Until only recently it looked like Obama's Cabinet-level composition held only three women. But the announcement that Gov. Bill Richardson will not be taking the Commerce Secretary slot leaves an open position to fill, and one more chance for diversity.

Whereas the presidents of Chile and Spain, also elected as change candidates, appointed women to one-half of their Cabinet seats, Obama has named (including Richardson), 12 men of 15 Cabinet-level departments heads. Leaving his team very diverse in terms of race and ethnicity -- but not in gender. This is a diminished representation from both Bush presidencies and the Clinton administration.

 

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Monday, January 5, 2009

America’s DTV Transition Beset with Problems

Posted by American Forum at 3:00 PM



By Steve Macek and Mitchell Szczepanczyk

On February 17, 2009, all full-power analog television broadcasts in the United States will cease and existing TV stations will begin broadcasting exclusively in a digital format. The switch to digital television (DTV) will free up frequencies for emergency uses and allow broadcasters to provide more programming for their viewers through "multicasting."

As a practical matter, people will need to subscribe to a cable or satellite television service, use a digital-ready TV set, or hook up a digital converter box to an analog TV set, in order to continue watching broadcast television.

Unfortunately, the number of people who stand to lose their access to TV programming in the coming DTV transition is considerable. Roughly 10 to 15 percent of all TV households (about 30 to 40 million people) still rely on over-the-air television, most of whom are senior citizens, poor, or non-English speakers. In a city like Chicago, with high poverty rates and a large immigrant population, some 20 percent of residents still use antenna-only TV and an estimated 230,000 households are completely unready for the conversion.

 

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Friday, January 2, 2009

Medicaid Reform: Yet Another Barrier To Care

Posted by American Forum at 9:59 AM

FLORIDA FORUM

By Toni Waters Woods

On Thanksgiving Day 2006, my father, James "Buzz" Waters, was waiting to be disenrolled from the Medicaid reform pilot program in Duval County so that a high-risk cardiologist in Alachua County would see him. Jacksonville cardiologists referred my father to the Alachua doctor because apparently there was not a high-risk cardiologist in the Duval County Medicaid reform program. This wait proved to be fatal.

Before Medicaid reform my father would have been able to immediately make an appointment and be seen by the cardiologist in Alachua county. Two years ago the state introduced a pilot program to North Florida and Broward county that required more Medicaid recipients to join Medicaid HMOs. Proponents of the pilot claimed that Medicaid Reform would result in increased choices of health plans and providers. But by forcing more Medicaid patients into Medicaid HMOs it has instead created new barriers to care. In fact patients are now unable to access specialists who accept Medicaid but are outside reform plan networks without experiencing unnecessary and sometimes fatal delays. Because the specialist my father needed to see was not part of Duval county's Medicaid reform network, he had to waste precious time going through the disenrollment process before he could even make an appointment with the out of network high risk cardiologist. New Medicaid plan enrollments only start at the beginning of the month. As a result, the time frame for effectuating disenrollment from a plan is a frustrating and ludicrous obstacle for high-risk patients who have immediate needs that cannot wait. My father didn't make it to December 1. He died on that Thanksgiving Day, November 23.

Click Here for Full Article

 

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Green Stimulus

Posted by American Forum at 7:51 AM


By Kathleen Rogers

A massive stimulus package of nearly $600 billion holds promise for the economy, and could mean more federal spending on infrastructure and energy efficiency projects. An estimated $400 billion in that bill will repair lots of bridges and roads, but what will they all lead to? Nothing -- unless we first start building bridges and roads between our economic, climate, and education concerns, and start appreciating the way they’re all connected.

New policy and stimulus needs to take into account that we’re not just trying to save our economy with roads, bridges, and buildings: We’re trying to save ourselves.

Few other national topics are as timely as a discussion of how to build a new green economy nationwide. During his campaign Obama promised to create 5 million green jobs. It is this way of thinking that should shape our country’s future.

 

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