MicCheck Radio

Work-Family Conflict 101

For the podcast on Work-Family Conflict go here: http://bit.ly/d8at4r

From CAP's "The Three Faces of Work-Family Conflict" report:

• Work-family conflict is much higher in the United States than elsewhere in the developed world. One reason is that Americans work longer hours than workers in most other developed countries, including Japan, where there is a word, karoshi, for “death by overwork.” The typical American middle-income family put in an average of 11 more hours a week in 2006 than it did in 1979.
• The United States today has the most family-hostile public policy in the developed world due to a long-standing political impasse. The only major piece of federal legislation designed to help Americans manage work and family life, the Family and Medical Leave Act, was passed in 1993, nearly two decades ago.
• Paid family leave legislation at the federal level remains absent despite years of effort. Childcare subsidies are limited to the poor and are sporadic even for those families, as we will further describe below. The only other relevant federal programs, tax credits for childcare and other dependents and the ability to use pretax earnings for dependent care, offer most families only a small annual subsidy that is not available for families who owe no taxes.
• Progressives need to explain how the family-friendly policies Americans need to enable them both to care for and support their families are needed by American families at all income levels—even if their needs differ. In the pages that follow, we describe in detail what these differences are. We then show how smart, progressive policies backed by effective political coalition building can make these reforms happen.

Right Wing Wackiness

Today’s Moral Hangover

During a recent radio broadcast, leading social conservative Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association explained Hitler allowing gays to serve in the military, saying Adolf deliberately recruited gays to be his "enforcers," because they had "no limits" to "the savagery and brutality they were willing to inflict." Fischer is "currently scheduled to speak at 'Values Voter' summit in September, along with Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Mike Pence (R-IN) and Mike Huckabee." [TPM]

Tags: right-wing

Just Plain Cool

Source: flickr/andersadermark

Booze And Alzheimer’s

Forget the messy days of youth where booze made you forget stuff - today booze may help you remember. A new study from Spain shows drinking alcohol may help you avoid the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Moderate drinking affected the brain's neural centers and helped women avoid the disease, but here's the rub: it only worked if the women were nonsmokers. [Yahoo News]

Tags: alcohol

Just Plain Cool

flickr/chrispirillo

Pac Man Fever

"Study: Pac-Man on Google wasted 4.8 million hours" Check it out: "It might not sound like a lot on first glance, but the 36 extra seconds that the average Google.com visitor spent there last Friday playing Pac-Man adds up to a massive 4.8 million of wasted hours. According to a study by RescueTime, Pac-Man on Google--the playable version of the iconic game that the search giant replaced its home page logo with on Friday--cost the economy a total of 4,819,352 man-hours and a whopping $120,483,800 in lost productivity." [CNET]

Tags: games

Green Is Good

flickr/justbeingmyself

Don Young and Polar Bears

Don Young:

• "U.S. Rep. Don Young has introduced a bill to remove polar bears from the threatened species list. The 19-term representative, facing a Republican primary challenge in August, claims polar bear populations are thriving." [Juneau Empire]

Polar Bears:

• A new report in the journal Biological Conservation shows that based on everything we know about both polar bears and ecology, bear "pregnancy rates will fall and fewer bears will survive fasting during longer ice-free seasons. These changes will happen suddenly as bears pass a 'tipping point'." [BBC]

Tags: climate change

Coming To America

Source: flickr/gypsyfaephotography

Arizona Law Makes Crime Worse

The Washington Post reports: "Arizona's new crackdown on illegal immigration will increase crime in U.S. cities, not reduce it, by driving a wedge between police and immigrant communities, police chiefs from several of the state's and the nation's largest cities said Tuesday." Police chiefs are meeting in DC today to talk to AG Eric Holder. "This is not a law that increases public safety. This is a bill that makes it much harder for us to do our jobs," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. "Crime will go up if this becomes law in Arizona or in any other state." [Washington Post]

Tags: arizona law

Right Wing Wackiness

Source: flickr/thinkprogress

Sentenced

James O'Keefe, the kid who dressed up like a pimp to fake videos and bring down Acorn then got busted breaking into Sen. Mary Landrieu's Senate office, was sentenced to three years probation today, fined $1500 and ordered to do 100 hours of community service. [NOLA]

Tags: acorn, o'keefe, o'keefe

Green Is Good

Source: flickr/cmakin

More BP News

"The trans-Alaska oil pipeline is shut down after several thousand gallons of North Slope crude spilled Tuesday from a containment tank at a pump station near Fort Greely, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks." The pipeline is operated by Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., which in turn is owned by BP (47% owner), ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and other oil companies. [WSJ]

Tags: oil spill

Health & Wellness

Source: http://flickr.com/2082874105

Parenting Alert

A new study conducted by researchers in South Carolina show that overweight girls have sex earlier (60% more likely to be sexually active before the age of 13), are more likely to have more partners during their teen years (30% more likely to have 3 or more partners than thinner girls) and are less likely to use protection (20% less likely to use condoms). Reasons listed by researchers for these unexpected, dramatic findings: Obese girls hit puberty earlier, have low self-esteem and poor body image. [MSNBC]

Tags: obesity

Health & Wellness

flickr/anitacanita

Ewwww

A new investigation from the Government Accountability Office shows many of those herbal dietary supplements that promise to help you shed pounds, stay smart, increase your libido and relieve your stress actually contain poison. Scientists found lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium and pesticides in the supplements, which are currently not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. [NYT]

Tags: drugs

Source: flickr/jwpacifist

Wednesday, May 26

CAP - Lifting the fog of averages event

• Please join the Center for American Progress for the release of two new papers: "Lifting the Fog of Averages" describes the motivation, passage, and enforcement of California Senate Bill 687, which promotes transparency around school-level expenditure reporting; and "Comparable, Schmomparable" which explores the data made available by the California law.

CAP - Progressive Authors event

• Historian Julian E. Zelizer discusses his new book, Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security--From World War II to the War on Terrorism. In his book, Zelizer shows that partisan fighting has always shaped American foreign policy and the issue of national security has always been part of our domestic conflicts. Based on original archival findings, Arsenal of Democracy offers new insights into nearly every major national security issue since the beginning of the Cold War: from Franklin D. Roosevelt's masterful management of World War II to the partisanship that scarred John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, from Ronald Reagan's fight against Communism to George W. Bush's controversial war on terror.

Potus

• President Obama checks out a solar factory in Fremont, California
• First Lady Michelle Obama attends a youth leadership and mentoring luncheon for kids in Detroit, Michigan
• Vice President Joe Biden holds a Middle Class Task Force roundtable in DC. Topic: What incentives to offer employers to hire unemployed workers.

The Administration

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Seoul, South Korea to talk about regional stability.
• Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke is in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Jakarta for a clean energy trade mission.
• Attorney General Eric Holder attends a youth leadership and mentoring luncheon for kids in Detroit, Michigan with First Lady Obama

On The Hill:

• 2:30PM: Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee hearing on "Assessing Challenges and Opportunities for Peace in Sudan."
• 10AM: House Natural Resources Committee hearing on "Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Strategy and Implications of the Deepwater Horizon Rig Explosion." Watch For: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
• 10AM: House Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing on "Internet Terror Recruitment and Tradecraft: How Can We Address an Evolving Tool While Protecting Free Speech."

The World:

• The Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has its second of six scheduled meetings.

This Day In History:

• 1868: President Andrew Johnson narrowly avoids being impeached when the Senate falls one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority. President Johnson was locked in battle with the "Radical Republicans" in Congress over Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, whom he wanted to fire and replace with Ulysses S. Grant.
• 1896: The Dow Jones Industrial Average publishes for the first time. It includes 11 stocks with an average price of 40.94
• 1897: Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" goes on sale in London
• 1938: Congress establishes the House Un-American Activities Committee.
• 1994: Michael Jackson marries Lisa Marie Presley.
• Happy Birthday: Acting legend John Wayne, actor Al Jolson, singer Lenny Kravitz, Sen. Kay Hagan and astronaut Sally Ride

Green Is Good

flickr/JimBrickett

BP = Big Problems

Who was behind the botched clean-up of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989? Nope - it was BP. CBS News reports: "BP owned a controlling interest in the Alaska oil industry consortium that was required to write a cleanup plan and respond to the spill two decades ago. It also supplied the top executive of the consortium, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co." According to a commission report about the immediate cleanup and response in Alaska, "Years of cost cutting and poor planning led to staggering delays in response over the next five hours." As a result, "what could have been an oil spill covering a few acres became one that stretched 1,100 miles." Commission chairman Walter Parker: "What happened in Alaska was determined by decisions coming from (BP in) Houston." [CBS News]

Tags: oil spill, exxon valdez

Green Is Good

flickr/justbeingmyself

Polar Bear Tipping Point

A new report in the journal Biological Conservation shows that based on everything we know about both polar bears and ecology, bear "pregnancy rates will fall and fewer bears will survive fasting during longer ice-free seasons. These changes will happen suddenly as bears pass a 'tipping point'." [BBC]

Tags: climate change

Political Junkie

Bunk

Snopes, the Internet-rumor debunk service that tracks down whether those e-mail forwards about seatbelts or liver-theives from your Aunt May are true or not, have had a busy year thanks to the Obama rumor-mongers. "In less than two years, Obama rumor-mongers have had nearly twice the output that their Bush counterparts managed in eight years – 87 to 47. And while the Bush rumors split almost evenly true-false, false Obama rumors dwarfed the true ones. The false rumors about Obama outnumbered the total number of rumors about Bush. And while the lies about Obama are almost all negative, some of the false rumors about Bush are quite flattering, along the lines of the George Washington cheery tree rumor – like the rumor that had Bush paying for the funeral of a boy who had drowned near the Crawford ranch." [Context.org]

Tags: rumors

Political Junkie

flickr/coffeehero

Meth, Porn and Oil

According to a new inspector general report, staffers for the Minerals Management Service (the government agency overseeing offshore drilling) were deep into sex, drugs and cronyism during the Bush years, 2000-2008. One staffer now admits he used crystal meth on work nights and may have still been pretty high at work the next day at the office. The report also found staffers "accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography, according to an Interior Department report alleging a culture of cronyism between regulators and the industry." [MSNBC]

Tags: mms, corruption

Over The Rainbow

Poll Position

Eight out of every 10 Americans think we should get rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. "A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday indicates that 78 percent of the public supports allowing openly gay people to serve in the military." [CNN]

Tags: dadt

And Justice For All

Source: flickr/ bootbearwdc

Dr. Perry Speaks On Elena Kagan Critics

For more from Dr. Imani Perry, a professor at Princeton University's Center for African American Studies, who pushes back on African American critics of SCOTUS nominee Elena Kagan, listen to Progress 2050's podcast. http://bit.ly/dwazEk

Here are a few excerpts from Washington Post's article titled, "White House seeks to defend Kagan's diversity record."

• Some black activists were already dismayed that no African American woman has reached President Obama's short list in two searches.
• The selection of Kagan, the U.S. solicitor general, served to irritate them further, as they described her tenure at Harvard -- which administration officials highlight as evidence of her practicality and her ability to work across ideological lines -- as one lacking in racial inclusion.
• Leaders of the NAACP and legal groups discussed their concerns with White House officials. Afterward, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Jarrett had described the role civil rights groups could play in supporting future nominees for solicitor general and district and appellate judges. Kagan's nomination, Sharpton said, "is already made, and most of us are inclined to support it."
• As with many elite institutions, Harvard Law has been prodded over the years to diversify the ranks of its faculty. While Kagan led the school from 2003 to 2009, 29 faculty members were hired: Twenty-eight were white, and one was Asian American.
• The White House (and Dr. Imani Perry) has pushed back against the notion that Kagan has not been racially sensitive, releasing a set of talking points on the subject to civil rights lawyers and reporters.
• It emphasizes that Kagan did not have the final say in hiring at Harvard, where such decisions are made by committee. The memo also argues that Kagan made other appointments and promotions that enhanced diversity, including moving two minority professors to tenured positions. Three of the 12 clinical professors hired were minorities

Tags: kagan, scotus

Health & Wellness

Source: flickr/danshouse

By The Numbers

45 Million: Number of Americans who still don't wear their seatbelts in the car. And according to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, an "average of 38 unbelted people a day are killed in motor vehicle crashes." [CBS News]

Tags: mortality

Right Wing Wackiness

Source: flickr/notionscapital

Quote Of The Day

"As I said to Nikki this morning, 'Hang in there. I've been there. Any lies told about you will strengthen your resolve to clean up political and media corruption. You and your supporters will grow stronger through things like this.'" -- Sarah Palin backing up South Carolina Republican gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Haley, accused today of carrying on an inappropriate physical relationship with a South Carolina blogger. Haley denies the affair. [CNN]

Tags: palin

Political Junkie

History According To JD

"But I would also point out, that if we want to be sticklers, the war that Dwight Eisenhower led in Europe against the Third Reich was never declared by the United States Congress. Recall, the Congress passed a war resolution against Japan. Germany declared war on us two days later. We never formally declared war on Hitler's Germany, and yet we fought the war." -- JD Hayworth, John McCain's challenger for his Senate seat in Arizona, rationalizing U.S. involvement in armed conflicts today without formally declaring war. For the record, the United States declared war on Germany on December 11, 1941. [TPM]

Tags: right-wing

Political Junkie

Source: flickr/teabonics

Tea Party Casualty

The GOP is turning on the tea party, so pull up some popcorn and sit back to watch the fireworks. In our most recent example, the national party is worried tea party candidate Tim D'Annunzio in North Carolina may win the primary but won't win the election, so they're trying to take him out, "circulating documents from the man's messy divorce that depict him as a pot smoker who has called himself the messiah." [Yahoo]

Tags: tea party

Over The Rainbow

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Deal Reached

President Obama and the Pentagon reached a deal this week with lawmakers about repealing the military's discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" which blocks gays from serving openly in the military. Under the compromise, Congress could repeal the law as soon as, well, immediately, but General Robert Gates then has the power to implement any and all changes on the timetable he sees fit. [MSNBC]

Tags: dadt

Source: flickr/jwpacifist

Tuesday, May 25

CAP - Three Faces Of Work event

• The typical American middle-income family put in an average of 11 more hours a week in 2006 than it did in 1979. Families increasingly have all adults in the labor force and as a result fully 90 percent of American mothers and 95 percent of American fathers report work-family conflict. Join us in a conversation about the day-in and day-out challenges posed by work-family conflict among families across different classes, communities, and incomes as well as a discussion about the politics of how we can move policymakers on these issues. [CAP event]

White House

• 12:30 p.m.: POTUS attends the Senate Republican Policy Committee's closed luncheon to discuss his legislative agenda.
• At some point: POTUS meets with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano

Administration

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: In Beijing to attend the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue
• Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner: In Beijing to attend the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue

The Hill

• 9:30AM: Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on "The Role of Strategic Arms Control in a Post-Cold War World." Watch For:  Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
• 10AM: Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on financial responsibility issues related to the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico
• 10AM: House Natural Resources Committee Subcommittee hearing on "Building on America's Best Idea: The Next Century of the National Park System."

The World

• Tea partiers head to the New Jersey Supreme Court to try to recall Sen. Bob Menendez (D) over his support for health care reform

In History

• 1925: John T. Scopes was indicted in Tennessee for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution.
• 1935: Babe Ruth hits his final home run, Number 714
• 1951: Willie Mays makes his Major League Baseball debut with the New York Giants.
• 1986: Seven million people take part in Hands Across America to bring attention to homelessness and hunger in the United States.
• Happy Birthday: Miles Davis, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sen.Amy Klobuchar and actor Mike Meyers.

Health & Wellness

Child Mortality

Child mortality rates dropped dramatically across the globe in the past two decades...unless you're a child in the United States. Overally, "the number of children younger than 5 who die this year will fall to 7.7 million, down from 11.9 million two decades ago." The U.S., however, ranked #29 in child mortality rates twenty years ago. Today, we're #42, " behind much of Europe as well as the United Arab Emirates, Cuba and Chile." Dr. Christopher Murphy of the University of Washington and lead reasearcher in the study, found the data suggests "broader problems with the nation's fragmented, poorly planned healthcare system." [LA Times]

Tags: health care reform, child mortality

Health & Wellness

Shop This

A new study shows people who shop at cheap grocery stores are 10 times more likely to be obese than those who shop at high-end markets. "In the Seattle area, a region with an average obesity rate of about 20 percent, only about 4 percent of shoppers who filled their carts at Whole Foods Market stores were obese, compared with nearly 40 percent of shoppers at lower-priced Albertsons stores." The stat underscores one of the problems with trying to fight obesity in low-income neighborhoods; even when healthy food is available, the expense and time it takes to prepare low-cal, healthy food may be more than some people feel they are able to do. [MSNBC]

Tags: obesity

And Justice For All

Girl Power!

For the first time in its 208-year history, two women took top honors at West Point this year. "2nd Lt. Alexandra Rosenberg of New York earned the highest cumulative academic quality point average and was named the Class of 2010 valedictorian. Second Lt. Elizabeth Betterbed of Fox Island, Washington, graduated with the highest accumulative cadet performance score." [CNN]

Tags: military, girl power

Health & Wellness

A Guinness A Day Helps Keep Doctors Away

New research shows drinking a glass of Guinness a day is as effective as taking low-dose aspirin in preventing the blood clots that lead to heart attacks. Researchers say they think "'antioxidant compounds' in the Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for the health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls." [BBC]

Tags: heart

Just Plain Cool

Ugh.

It finally happened. A movie theater in New York is charging $20 for a ticket. "Several theaters will charge $20 per adult ticket to IMAX showings of the animated 3-D family film 'Shrek Forever After,' the fourth 'Shrek' installment from DreamWorks Animation." We'll wait for the DVD. [WSJ]

Tags: movies