Students in Literacy “Red Zone”

Charleston County, South Carolina has a growing literacy problem. Recent test scores have shown that at North Charleston High School 46% of incoming 9th grade students read at a fourth-grade level or below.
In the Charleston County School District 23% of all incoming 9th grade students read at a fourth-grade level or below. The [...]

Obama lifts restriction on foreign aid

On January 23 President Obama signed a measure that will lift the Bush administration’s block on funding to foreign assistance programs that provide education on abortion to woman, a move that could have a big impact on international poverty programs. According to a post on the White House website, this Reagan era policy referred to [...]

U.S. AIDS relief helps over 10 million

In 2003 the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) became the largest contribution to fighting a single disease in history, providing $18.8 billion in humanitarian aid to fight the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. According to the PEPFAR annual report to congress, the program has been successful in treating over 2 million people, and providing care [...]

China Leads World Growth in Carbon Emissions

According to a report issued this week by Worldwatch Institute, world carbon emissions from fossil fuel jumped 22 percent between 2000 and 2007, to an estimated annual output of 8.2 billion tons
The United States and Europe accounted for roughly 4 and 3 percent, respectively, of the growth during this decade. India contributed 8 percent, [...]

World trade talks collapse

The seven-year world trade talks being held in Geneva collapsed this afternoon when the United States, China and India failed to reach an agreement on agriculture imports.
See reports from the Associated Press, The Daily Telegraph, The Hindu, and China View.

Report finds wide disparity in human development in U.S.

A new report released this week by the American Human Development Project, ranked the U.S. 12th in the world in human development, and revealed a wide disparity in development potential between ethic groups and regions.
According to Oxfam America, a sponsor of the report, “The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008-2009,” published by Columbia [...]

Visualizing Poverty

There is a great tool for visualizing poverty in the United States. At Social Explorer you can view an interactive map that plots the percentage of people living in poverty based on the 2000 Census. (Choose “poverty” from the second drop-down menu on the right. The tool also allows you to zoom in on specific [...]