Friday Roundup

Here is a listing of articles published in the last 7-10 days that may be of interest:

Health
1. More kids skip school shots in 8 states; Usatoday.com, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: More parents are opting out of school shots for their kids. In eight states now, more than 1 in 20 public school kindergartners aren't getting all the vaccines required for attendance, an Associated Press analysis found.

2. Medicare in America: "It has to get better"; CNN Money, November 29, 2011
Brief Introduction: As administrator of Medicare and Medicaid, Donald Berwick has been in charge of paying for the health care of nearly one in three Americans. He has also had an important role in implementing last year's health reform law, which uses the Medicare system as a big lever to change how doctors and hospitals do business, in hopes of containing costs.

3. Pastor fights HIV stigma in Southern town; CNN.com, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: It's a problem all across the Bible Belt. In 2007 -- the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- the rate of diagnosed AIDS cases in the Southeastern United States was much higher than in other regions of the country: 9.2 per 100,000 people, versus 2.5 in the Midwest, 3.9 in the West and 5.6 in the Northeast.

Education
1. Detroit schools face fines over truancy; UPI.com, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: The Detroit News reported Monday the documents it obtained show the financially struggling school district could lose about $25.9 million because attendance fell below the state minimum of 75 percent on 46 days last school year.

2. Homeless children snap their dreams; Detroit News, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: When asked what she wishes for, Julie, a 10-year-old resident of a homeless shelter, said she wants her mother to feel better. Nine-year-old Dearon, also a shelter resident, wants to go to college. Diamond, age 7, hopes to make her mother proud. The children were among 15 Detroit kids living in the Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries shelter who articulated their hopes and dreams by taking photographs as part of the nationally acclaimed Pictures of Hope project.

Race
1. As public sector sheds jobs, Blacks are hit hardest; The New York Times, November 28, 2011
Brief Introduction: Mr. Buckley is one of tens of thousands of once solidly middle-class African-American government workers — bus drivers in Chicago, police officers and firefighters in Cleveland, nurses and doctors in Florida — who have been laid off since the recession ended in June 2009. Such job losses have blunted gains made in employment and wealth during the previous decade and undermined the stability of neighborhoods where there are now fewer black professionals who own homes or who get up every morning to go to work.

2. Ruling on Ala. immigration law averts exodus, groups say; USA Today; November 29, 2011
Brief Introduction: Civil rights groups say a judge's decision to halt part of Alabama's strict illegal immigration enforcement law averted a Thanksgiving weekend exodus of Hispanics from the state. Some portions of Alabama's law, known as HB 56 and described by supporters and critics as the harshest state immigration law in the country, were already blocked by a federal judge. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson took an additional step by ordering the state to stop denying manufactured home registration permits to people who couldn't prove their U.S. citizenship.

3. Black and Hispanic N.J. residents less likely to own homes following housing crisis, U.S. Census reveals; NJ.com, November 26, 2011
Brief Introduction: Sixty-five percent of Garden State householders live in homes they own. But for black households, that number drops to 40 percent. For Hispanics, the home ownership rate is even lower, at 36 percent, even as the community’s population has exploded in the last decade, according to data from the 2010 Census.