Non-Hispanic Whites Projected to be a Minority in American Public Schools for the 2014-2015 Academic Year

The Associated Press article is linked below.

Non-HIspanic Whites in Public Schools Projected to be a Minority in the Upcoming School Year

"For the first time ever, U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children.

Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent. But the National Center for Education Statistics says minority students, when added together, will now make up the majority.

About one-quarter of the minority students are Hispanic, 15 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian and Pacific Islanders. Biracial students and Native Americans make up a smaller share of the minority student population."

---Associated Press, August 9, 2014

Links to Coverage of the July 17, 2014 Malaysia Airlines Catastrophe in Ukraine

Below are links to various sources of coverage of today's aircraft disaster in Ukraine:

CNN Coverage   NBC Coverage  BBC Coverage  CBS Coverage ABC Coverage

New York Times Coverage  The Guardian Coverage Time Coverage

More from The Guardian Le Monde Coverage

From New Year's Day Through the World Cup Final, Here's a Chronicle of 2014

Linked below is a running chronicle of calendar year 2014.  One the day of this post, it covers January 1, 2014 through July 13, 2013. In the coming days, I will update the record of this year as events dictate.

I will be using this record of 2014 in the high school courses that I teach.

A Chronicle of 2014

Marijuana Sales for Recreational Use Now Legal in the State of Washington

State of Washington

July 8, 2014 will be remembered as a milestone date stemming from the results of Election Day, November 6, 2012.

One the same day that the American electorate awarded President Barack Obama with a second term, voters in the state of Washington approved a referendum allowing for the legal sales of recreational marijuana for the northwestern state.

Nearly two years later---Tuesday, July 8, 2014---legal recreational marijuana sales began in Washington.

AP: Legal Marijuana Sales for Recreational Use Begin in State of Washington

Seattle Times: November 6, 2012 Article on Voter Approval of the Marijuana Referendum

Seattle Times: Post Sales Legal in Washington, July 8, 2014

Seattle Times: Seattle Has its First Legal Recreational Weed Sales

Salon Writers: Pessimism on the Week of the 2014 Fourth of July

Salon's Jim Sleeper: The United States Crumbling Apart

Salon's Andrew O'Hehir: Lincoln, Obama, and is our Nation Failing?

Salon's Paul Rosenberg: The Religious Right and Neo-Confederates

Pew Research: U.S. Census Bureau Data Indicate that, Among Babies Born in the Year Ending in Mid-2013, Non-Hispanic Whites Exceeded Minorities by Only 3,000 or so

The Pew Research Center article is linked below.

Pew Research: Minority Babies a Near Majority in the Year Ending in Mid-2013

"But minorities are not yet the majority of any age group, even babies, in the bureau’s new estimates. Among the nation’s 3.9 million children younger than age 1 in 2013, there were about 3,000 more non-Hispanic whites than minorities—essentially equal shares."

---D'Vera Cohn, Pew Research Center, June 26, 2014

Wall Street Journal: An Expanding American Generational Racial-Ethnic Demographic Divide

The Wall Street Journal article is linked below.

Wall Street Journal: American Youth Increasingly More Diverse than Elderly

Al-Jazeera: American Fertility Decline Continued into 2013; Non-Hispanic Whites Experienced Natural Decline for 2nd Consecutive Year

The Al-Jazeera article is linked below.

Natural Decrease for U.S. Non-Hispanic Whites for 2nd Consecutive Year

"For the second year in a row, deaths of non-Hispanic whites outnumbered births from July 1, 2012, to July 1, 2013, according to population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau."

---Haya El Nasser, Al-Jazeera, June 26, 2014

USA Today: One-Year Asian Population Increase Fueled by Immigration Into U.S.

The USA Today article is linked below.

USA Today: Asians Outpacing Hispanics in U.S. Net Migration Last Year

CBS News and New York Times Poll: 75% of Americans Say the Iraq War was not Worth it

Iraq

A CBS News article reporting on the poll results is linked below.

CBS News: Three-Fourths of the American Public Says Iraq War not Worth it

"Just 18 percent of Americans think the result of the war in Iraq was worth the loss of American lives and other costs of attacking Iraq, the lowest percentage ever recorded in CBS News Polls."

---CBS News, June 23, 2014

Pew Research: U.S. Born Workers Now a Majority of American Hispanic Labor Force

The Pew Research Center article and report is linked below.

Immigrants Now a Minority of U.S. Hispanic Labor Force

"For the first time in nearly two decades, immigrants do not account for the majority of Hispanic workers in the United States. Meanwhile, most of the job gains made by Hispanics during the economic recovery from the Great Recession of 2007-09 have gone to U.S.-born workers, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data."

---Rakesh Kochhar, Pew Research Center

Slate's Jamelle Bouie: Don't Listen to Bill Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz about Iraq

Iraq

Jamelle Bouie's column at Slate is linked below.

Don't Listen to Kristol and Wolfowitz

Salon's Paul Rosenberg: The Blame for the Iraq Mess Falls on George W. Bush

Iraq

Paul Rosenberg's Salon column is linked below.

Paul Rosenberg: Yes, Bush is to Blame

U.S. Department of Labor: 217,000 American Jobs Created in May 2014

Job creation in the United States seems to be fairly robust for the time being.

NBC News: 217,000 Jobs Created in May 2014

The 2012 Presidential Election and State Population Densities

Last summer, I examined the relationship between state population densities and the outcome of the 2012 Presidential Election.  The blog post is linked below.

State Population Densities and the 2012 Presidential Election

Obamacare Sign-Ups Reach 8 Million

President Barack Obama

On Thursday, April 17, 2014, President Barack Obama announced that there are 8 million sign-ups for purchasing health insurance via healthcare exchanges.

WhiteHouse.gov: 8 Million ACA Sign-Ups Via Exchanges

WhiteHouse.gov: ACA Stats

The New Republic: Obamacare Sign-Ups Reach the 8 Million Milestone

ACASignups.net: Obamacare Attains 8 Million Sign-Ups Via Exchanges

Washington Post: Obama Announces 8 Million ACA Sign-Ups

White House: Obamacare Sign-Ups Reach 7 Million Benchmark

President Barack Obama

CNN coverage is linked below.

Obamacare Sign-Ups HIt 7 Million

Washington Post: 7.04 Million

"The White House announced Tuesday that more than 7 million Americans have signed up for health plans under the Affordable Care Act, marking a sharp turnaround for a federal campaign to sell the nation on new health insurance from disastrous beginnings six months ago."

----Washington Post, April 1, 2014

The New Republic's Anne Applebaum: The Cautionary Lessons From History Regarding Revolutions that, in Part, Played Out in the Streets

Anne Applebaum's article at The New Republic is linked below.

Lessons About Revolutionary Fervor in the Streets

"Yet a successful street revolution, like any revolution, is never guaranteed to leave anything positive in its aftermath—or anything at all. In the West, we often now associate protests with progress, or at least we assume that big crowds—the March on Washington, Paris in 1968—are the benign face of social change. But street revolutions are not always progressive, positive, or even important. Some replace a corrupt tyranny with violence and a political vacuum, which is what happened in Libya. Ukraine’s own Orange Revolution of 2004–2005 produced a new group of leaders who turned out to be just as incompetent as their predecessors. Crowds can be bullying, they can become violent, and they can give rise to extremists: Think Tehran 1979, or indeed Petrograd 1917."

---Anne Applebaum, The New Republic 

The New Republic's Paul Berman: To Understand Putin's Actions in 2014, Look to the Logic Behind Soviet Military Actions in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968

Vladimir Putin

Paul Berman's article at The New Republic is linked below.

Soviet Actions in 1956 and 1968 Shed light on Putin's Approach to Ukraine in 2014

"It is always said of Putin that he is a czar, operating on nineteenth-century principles. Or he is a Russian enigma. And he is not a Kremlin general secretary from Soviet times. Even so, he is a Kremlin general secretary. He has invaded Ukraine on the basis of the same logic that led Nikita Khrushchev to invade Hungary in 1956 and that led Leonid Brezhnev to invade Czechoslovakia in 1968. It is the logic of counterrevolution, and it is not inscrutable."

---Paul Berman, The New Republic

NBC News: 21 Percent of Americans Say that Religion Not Particularly Important to Them

The NBC News article is linked below.

NBC News: For a Growing American Demographic, Religion Not Important

"One in five Americans say religion does not play an important role in their lives, a new NBC/WSJ journal poll shows – the highest percentage since the poll began asking participants about their focus on faith in 1997.

Twenty one percent of respondents said that religion is 'not that important' to their lives, compared to 16 percent who said the same in 1999. In 1997, 14 percent of Americans said religion did not play an important role in their lives.

The poll showed that these less religious Americans are more likely to be men, have an income over $75,000, to live in the Northeast or West and to be under the age of 35."

---Carrie Dann, NBC News, March 12, 2014

CNN's David Frum: The Nuanced Liberalism of Millennials

David Frum's CNN column is linked below.

David Frum: Today's Youngest Voters are Trending Liberal

"The generation born since 1981 is the age group most likely to vote Democratic. The eldest of them are in their 30s now, and they continue to be much more liberal than previous-age cohorts at the same point in their lives. A big new survey by the Pew Research Center seeks to understand why. Its report carries political warnings for conservatives -- and some larger warnings for us all.

The warning for conservatives is: Millennial attachment to the Democratic Party is not a phase. Millennials are far less likely to be religiously affiliated than their elders. They are more likely to have children outside marriage (47% of their children are born outside marriage, compared with only 35% of Generation X children in 1996). They are poorer than their predecessor generations at the same point in their life cycles."

---David Frum, CNN, March 11, 2014

David Masciotra: Historian Richard Hofstadter's Warnings About American Anti-Intellectualism are Still Relevant Today

David Masciotra's story at The Daily Beast is linked below.

The Persistence of American Anti-Intellectualism

"Anti-Intellectualism in American Life—one of Hofstadter’s best, among many great books – was a pile of dynamite in 1963, when it was first published and blew a sizable hole in the house of America’s self-comforting delusions of intellectual superiority. In 2014, one can only hope that some of its initial blast still reverberates, as media commentators, university administrators, and even the President, have exposed themselves as adherents to what Hofstadter indicted as the 'lowest common denominator criterion' of thought and 'technician conformity' of lifestyle. Suspicion, and often outright hatred, of ideas is making American culture as riveting as oatmeal. By reading Hofstadter, one learns that the resurgence of a new anti-intellectualism isn’t new, at all. In fact, Hofstadter identified the particularly poisonous strain of the virus that now infects the American mind and kills the imagination."

---David Masciotra, The Daily Beast 

Pew Research Center: Among Recent American High School Graduates, the College Enrollment Rate of Females Significantly Exceeds that of Males

The Pew Research Center article is linked below.

Among Recent High School Graduates, College Enrollment Rates Dominated by Women

"In 1994, 63% of recent female high school graduates and 61% of male recent high school graduates were enrolled in college in the fall following graduation. By 2012, the share of young women enrolled in college immediately after high school had increased to 71%, but it remained unchanged for young men at 61%."

---Pew Research Center, March 6, 2014

The New Republic's Julia Ioffe: Putin is Nutty!

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia

Julia Ioffe's article at The New Republic is linked below.

Julia Ioffe: Vladimir Putin is Crazy

"Today's performance, though, put all that speculation to rest. Merkel was absolutely right: Putin has lost it. Unfortunately, it makes him that much harder to deal with."

---Julia Ioffe, The New Republic 

Tom Engelhardt: A World Without Imperialist Power?

Tom Engelhard't column at TomDispatch.com is linked below.

Where Has Imperialistic Power Gone?

"As the new century dawned, a crew led by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney ascended to power in Washington.  They were the first administration ever largely born of a think tank (with the ambitious name Project for a New American Century).  Long before 9/11 gave them their opportunity to set the American military loose on the planet, they were already dreaming of an all-American imperium that would outshine the British or Roman empires.

Of course, who doesn’t know what happened next?  Though they imagined organizing a Pax Americana in the Middle East and then on a planetary scale, theirs didn’t turn out to be an organizational vision at all.  They got bogged down in Afghanistan, destabilizing neighboring Pakistan.  They got bogged down in Iraq, having punched a hole through the heart of the planet's oil heartlands and set off a Sunni-Shiite regional civil war, whose casualty lists continue to stagger the imagination.  In the process, they never came close to their dream of bringing Tehran to its knees, no less establishing even the most rudimentary version of that Pax Americana."

---Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch.com

Robert J. Samuelson: Ignoring Demographic Realities

Robert J. Samuelson's column at the Washington Post is linked below.

Robert J. Samuelson: Demographic Realities are Looming

"Second, family breakdown. In 2011, unmarried women accounted for 41 percent of U.S. births, up from 5 percent in 1960. The trend affects all major groups. The rate is 29 percent for whites, 53 percent among Hispanics and 72 percent among African Americans. Although 60 percent of single mothers have live-in boyfriends, half of these relationships end within five years. Single parenthood’s stigma is gone."

---Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post 

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto and his New Book on Hispanics and American History

The article at NBC News is linked below.

NBC News: The Deep Presence of Hispanics in U.S. History

Pew Research Center: Among Married American Couples, Wives who are More Highly Educated than their Husbands now Outnumber those Couples in which Husbands Possess More Education than their Wives

Wendy Wang's article at Pew Research Center is linked below.

Among Married Couples, Wives with More Education than Husbands now a Larger Cohort than the Opposite

"It used to be more common for a husband to have more education than his wife in America. But now, for the first time since Pew Research has tracked this trend over the past 50 years, the share of couples in which the wife is the one “marrying down” educationally is higher than those in which the husband has more education.

Among married women in 2012, 21% had spouses who were less educated than they were—a threefold increase from 1960, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census data.

The share of couples where the husband’s education exceeds his wife’s increased steadily from 1960 to 1990, but has fallen since then to 20% in 2012."

---Wendy Wang, Pew Research Center

New York Times: Obamacare Enrollments Exceed 3 Million

Robert Pear's article at the New York Times is linked below.

Nearly 3.3 Million Enrolled in Obamacare

New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait: Right-Wingers Demonizing Obamacare as the New Welfare

Jonathan Chait's article at New York Magazine is linked below.

Jonathan Chait: Obamacare is not the old "Aid to Families with Dependent Children" Program

"But Ryan is completely wrong about the class of people facing this reduced-work incentive. It’s not workers who are set to “begin working” and “get on the ladder of life” who face the Obamacare phase-out. That hits much higher up the income ladder — $94,000 a year for a family of four. A person facing this subsidy cutoff may work fewer hours, or even quit altogether, but he or she would be living off his or her own savings or a spouse's income. There's no Obamacare "dole," in the sense of income that substitutes for work, unless conservatives imagine Medicaid patients clothing themselves in free hospital gowns and feeding their children all the waiting room lollipops they can eat."

---Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine 

Pew Research Center: In 2012, Modest Uptick in U.S. Marriages Among the College-Educated

The Pew Research Center article is linked below.

Pew Research Center: Some Rebound in New Marriages Among College-Educated

"But a closer look at the demographic patterns reveals some interesting insights about who is getting married. From 2011 to 2012, the total number of newly married adults increased by 113,000 (from 4.21 million to 4.32 million).  Examining the newlyweds by education level, the number of newly married adults with at least a bachelor’s degree increased by 98,000 from 2011 to 2012.  Thus, almost the entire increase in new marriages (87%) from 2011 to 2012 is accounted for by the college-educated."

---Richard Fry, Pew Research Center

Salon's Simon Maloy: Coca-Cola's Multi-Language Super Bowl Ad Drew Out the Nativist Xenophobes

Simon Maloy's column at Salon is linked below.

Simon Maloy: The Backlash Against the Coca-Cola Super Bowl Ad

"Coca-Cola’s ad was a nod to a long-standing truth about America: A country of such broad ethnic diversity is going to have whole communities that speak languages other than English. From the barrios of Los Angeles to the tenement blocks of turn-of-the-century New York to the Gullah region of the antebellum South, there have always been American communities where standard English wasn’t spoken at home. In my own family it’s not uncommon to hear conversations in English, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese. This isn’t a threat to American culture. It is American culture.

But for the conservative pundits and 'English first' nativists, the simple act of recognizing other heritages somehow detracts from their own. This is the culture war, and it’s a zero-sum fight. In the eyes of the critics, Coke’s acknowledgment that English does not command 100 percent of the linguistic market was giving aid and comfort to the enemy. It’s a blatant and nasty appeal to cultural resentment and xenophobia."

---Simon Maloy, Salon 

Coca-Cola's "America the Beautiful" Super Bowl Commercial Ignites Rightwing Xenophobia

Coverage of the Super Bowl Coca-Cola Controversy is linked below.

New York Daily News: Coverage of the Backlash Against Coca-Cola

Eonline.com: Coverage of the Coca-Cola Super Bowl Controversy

Politico: Coverage of Conservative Reaction to the Coca-Cola Multi-Language Ad

Salon's Joan Walsh: Fox News is the Avant-Garde of White Grievance and Backlash

Joan Walsh's column at Salon is linked below.

Joan Walsh: Fox News, a Channel for White Grievance

"Thanks in large measure to Roger Ailes, we live in a country now where a carnival barker with an ugly comb-over can make the duly elected president show him his papers, and an angry mediocrity like O’Reilly can condescend to an accomplished black man who is in fact his moral and intellectual superior.

Maybe more important, day to day Fox provides a steady infusion of toxic lies into our political bloodstream, from tales about 'victims' of Obamacare who could in fact be helped by it, to fantasies of neglect and incompetence at Benghazi that in fact shame the memory of the men who died there. Politically, we are all the sicker for it.

So if progressives want to believe that Fox is history because its viewers are getting old and its hosts are getting crazier, that’s their choice. I was always told dying animals can be the most dangerous."

---Joan Walsh, Salon 

The New York Times: American Abortion Rate Falling

The article in The New York Times is linked below.

The New York Times: Significant Decline in U.S. Abortions Since 2008

Associated Press: The U.S. Abortion Rate Has Declined Significantly Since 1981

The Associated Press article posted at Politico article is linked below.

Associated Press: U.S. Abortion Rate Has Declined to a Nearly 40 Year Low

"According to the report, the abortion rate dropped to 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 in 2011, well below the peak of 29.3 in 1981 and the lowest since a rate of 16.3 in 1973."

---Associated Press, article posted at Politico.com 

Joe Namath Contends that the Human Body was not Engineered for Football

Huffington Post's coverage of Joe Namath's statement is linked below.

Huffington Post: Joe Namath Claims that a Person's Body not Suited for Football

The Star-Ledger Editorial: Chris Christie Must Resign if Latest Allegations Prove True

Star-Ledger editorial is linked below.

Star-Ledger: A Chris Christie Resignation Might Prove Necessary

"Forget about the White House in 2016. The question now is whether Gov. Chris Christie can survive as governor."

---Star-Ledger Editorial Board

The New Republic's Lane Florsheim: The Decline of Self-Identified Members of the American Middle Class

Lane Florsheim's article at The New Republic is linked below.

The New Republic: Fewer Americans Consider Themselves to be Middle Class

"However, the Pew survey released last week indicates a rapid increase in the number of people who identify themselves as lower class, as well as a smaller rise in those identifying themselves as lower-middle class. As Paul Krugman points out, the two “lower” categories now make up almost a plurality of the population (indeed, approaching the 47 percent mark)."

---Lane Florsheim, The New Republic 

The Nation's Dave Zirin: All Hail the Attempt by Northwestern Wildcats Football Players to Form a Union

Dave Zirin's column at The Nation is linked below.

Dave Zirin: The Northwestern Wildcats vs. the NCAA

"Whether or not the Northwestern players succeed in their efforts to unionize—and the NCAA will spend however many billions it takes to make sure this does not happen—their efforts today will long be remembered as the opening shot that cracked the NCAA Cartel. They deserve our support. They deserve our respect. Most of all, they deserve our solidarity. In 1922, that author of The Jungle, Upton Sinclair wrote, 'College athletics, under the spur of commercialism, has become a monstrous cancer.' I do not know what Sinclair would make of a twenty-first-century world where coaches make 100 times the salaries of professors. I think we can say safely, however, that the actions of the Northwestern football team would have made Mr. Sinclair very proud indeed."

---Dave Zirin, The Nation 

NBC News: A Majority of the American Public Supports Marijuana Legalization

Michael O'Brien's article at NBC News is linked below.

NBC News: Strong Majority Support for Marijuana Legalization

"Fifty-five percent of Americans support legislative efforts to legalize marijuana, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Those respondents would back similar laws to the ones on the books in Colorado and Washington state, where adults over the age of 21 are permitted to possess limited amounts of marijuana for personal use."

---Michael O'Brien, NBC News

NBC News: Chris Christie Collapsing

The NBC News article is linked below.

NBC News: Chris Christie Crashing

"Chris Christie’s political future looks to be in serious danger with more Americans believing the embattled New Jersey governor is lying about the bridge closure scandal than telling the truth, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.  Christie’s overall standing has taken a major hit in the survey, with just 22 percent of Americans viewing the Republican New Jersey governor favorably -- down from 33 percent in October."

---Domenico Montanaro, NBC News

NBC News: Americans are Deeply Pessimistic Regarding the State of the Nation

The NBC News article by Mark Murray is linked below.

NBC News: A Pessimistic America

"As President Barack Obama enters his sixth year in the White House, 68 percent of Americans say the country is either stagnant or worse off since he took office, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Just 31 percent say the country is better off, and a deep pessimism continues to fuel the public's mood. Most respondents used words like 'divided,' 'troubled,' and 'deteriorating' to describe the current state of the nation."

---Mark Murray, NBC News

The New York Times' Ross Douthat: Left and Right and the Matters of Contraception, Abortion, Divorce, and Marriage

Ross Douthat's column at The New York Times is linked below.

Ross Douthat: Abortion, Contraception, Divorce, and Marriage

Auburn Ranked as the Best City in Alabama

Movoto.com's article is listed below.

Movoto.com: Auburn is Alabama's Best City

"This charm, this Southern something that residents have known about for years—and in today’s post, we are going to explore just which Alabama places are the best, and what that something is that makes them so special. Without further ado, here are the 10 best places in Alabama, starting with our winner, Auburn:"

---Natalie Grigson, Movoto.com

Auburn Ranked #1 Among Alabama's Cities

Politico: Rankings of the Best and Worst States in America

Politico's report is linked below.

Politico: New Hampshire the Best, Mississippi the Worst

"With this in mind, Politico Magazine rounded up 14 different state rankings from reputable sources like the Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the FBI, and on important factors such as high school graduation rates, per capita income, life expectancy and crime rate. Then we averaged out each state’s 14 rankings to come up with a master list—atop which sits none other than New Hampshire."

---Margaret Slattery, Politico 

Huffington Post: More Than 3 Million Have Registered for Private Insurance Under Obamacare

President Barack Obama

Sam Stein's article at Huffington Post is linked below.

Over 3 Million Registered for Private Insurance Under Obamacare

"Hundreds of thousands of people have chosen private health coverage under Obamacare so far in 2014, continuing the accelerated pace of enrollments from the end of last year.

The Obama administration said Friday that more than 3 million people have now signed up for private plans through the federal and state health insurance exchanges, including more than 800,000 in January."

---Sam Stein, Huffington Post 

CDC: Final U.S. Birth Data for 2012

Access to the CDC's final birth data for 2012 is linked below.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/births.htm

Recent Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, a Conservative Republican, Indicted in Gift Scandal; McDonnell's Wife Indicted as Well

The Washington Post article is linked below.

Washington Post: Bob McDonnell and Wife Indicted

"Former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were charged Tuesday with illegally accepting gifts, luxury vacations and large loans from a wealthy Richmond-area businessman who sought special treatment from state government.

Authorities alleged that for nearly two years, the McDonnells hit up executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr. again and again, lodging near constant requests for large loans, clothes, trips, golf accessories and private plane rides."

---Rosalind S. Helderman, et al, Washington Post

Politico: The Indictment of Bob McDonnell and Wife

Associated Press: Per a New Study, 49% of Black Males, 44% of Hispanic Males, and 38% of White Males in the U.S. Have Been Arrested by Age 23

The Associated Press article posted at ABCNews.com is linked below.

Associated Press: Almost half of U.S. Black Males Arrested by Age 23

"The authors found that by age 18, 30 percent of black men, 26 percent of Hispanic men and 22 percent of white men have been arrested. By 23, those numbers climb to 49 percent for black men, 44 percent for Hispanic men and 38 percent for white men."

---Jake Pearson, Associated Press 

Reuters: Bomb Blasts Kill Over 20 in Baghdad, Iraq

Iraq

The Reuters story is linked below.

Reuters: More deadly violence in Iraq

"Seven bomb explosions killed 26 people and wounded 67 in the Iraqi capital on Monday, police and medics said, as security forces battled Sunni Muslim militants around the western cities of Falluja and Ramadi."

---Reuters

San Francisco Chronicle: California's Hispanic Population Set to Exceed California Whites

The San Francisco Chronicle article is linked below.

San Francisco Chronicle: Hispanics on the Verge of Becoming the Largest Racial-Ethnic Group in California

Emily DeRuy: Glaring Lack of Diversity Among Computer Science Advanced-Placement Test-Takers

Mississippi

Emily DeRuy's article at National Journal is linked below.

National Journal: Whites Are Disproportionately the AP Computer Science Test-Takers

"The pipeline of students who will be tomorrow's tech leaders is alarmingly vanilla.

According to a new analysis of test-takers, not a single girl, African-American or Hispanic student took the computer science Advanced Placement test in Mississippi or Montana last year. More than a third of the population in Mississippi is black.

In other words, a hugely disproportionate bunch of white guys took the test."

---Emily DeRuy, National Journal, Fusion

Barry Lando: The U.S. Role in the Destruction of Iraq

Iraq

Barry Lando's column at Antiwar.com (original post at unz.com) is linked below.

Barry Lando: How the U.S. Played a Pivotal Role in Destroying Iraq

"The military onslaught and the American rule that immediately followed, destroyed not just the people and infrastructure of Iraq, but the very fiber of the nation. Though Saddam’s tyranny was ruthless, over the years the country’s disparate peoples had begun living together as Iraqis, in the same towns and neighborhoods, attending the same schools, intermarrying—slowly developing a sense of nationhood.

That process was shattered by the American proconsuls who took charge after the invasion. They oversaw a massive political purge, a witch hunt, that led to the gutting of key ministries, the collapse of the police and military and other key government institutions, without creating any viable new structures in their place. The Shiites who the U.S. helped bring to power took revenge on the Sunnis, many of whom had backed Saddam."

---Barry Lando, Antiwar.com/unz.com, January 10, 2014

AL.com: Kaiser Family Foundation Ranks Alabama as Having the 15th Worst State Poverty Rate in the United States

Alabama

The AL.com article is linked below.

AL.com: Alabama Has the 15th Worst Poverty Rate, Per the Kaiser Family Foundation

"An estimated 22 percent of Alabama residents are living below the federal poverty line, representing roughly 1 million people, according to an analysis conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Across the United States, about 20 percent of residents -- one in five -- lives in poverty, putting Alabama's rate slightly above the national figure. Alabama ranks 15th in overall poverty.

All 10 southeastern states have poverty rates above the national figure."

---Alex Walsh, AL.com

NJ.com: Declines in the Numbers of Graduating High School Seniors Making College Admission Easier?

The NJ.com article is linked below.

NJ.com: High School Graduates Declining in Numbers for the Next Several Years

"After growing for 15 years and peaking at 3.4 million, the number of high school graduates is expected to decline by 100,000 to 200,000 this year, according to the report. Because of a decline in the number of births, the number of high school graduates is not projected to start rising again until 2020."

---Kelly Heyboer, NJ.com

Democrat Terry McAuliffe Inaugurated as Governor of Virginia

The Democratic Party

Washington Post: McAuliffe Becomes Governor of Virginia

Time: Coverage of the Swearing in of Terry McAuliffe as Governor of Virginia

Washington Post: In Bridgegate, there Was an "Extensive Coverup" by Christie Administration Officials

Governor Chris Christie

The Washington Post article is linked below.

Washington Post: Newly-Released Documents Show a Coverup

"The hundreds of pages of e-mails and internal documents released Friday afternoon show for the first time how Christie loyalists inside the Port Authority worked to orchestrate a coverup after traffic mayhem swiftly arrived in Fort Lee on Sept. 9.

The e-mails also reveal the extent to which Christie’s appointees kept their Port Authority colleagues and Fort Lee officials in the dark about their plans."

---Philip Rucker and Aaron Blake, Washington Post  

CNN: In 2013, the U.S. Economy Only Added 74,000 Jobs in December 2013 as the Unemployment Rate Fell to 6.7%

The CNN article is linked below.

CNN: Unemployment Rate is 6.7%, and the Economy Added 74K Jobs in December 2013


"Hiring slumped sharply in December, as the economy added only 74,000 jobs, according to the government. This was the weakest month for job growth since January 2011 and came as a huge surprise to economists, who were expecting an addition of 193,000 jobs."

---Annalyn Kurtz, CNN

Salon's Joan Walsh: Put a Fork in Chris Christie; He's Done in Terms of 2016

Gov. Chris Christie

Joan Walsh's column at Salon is linked below.

Joan Walsh: Chris Christie is Roadkill

"Now he’s in big trouble already, and you can bet GOP operatives are combing the record along with Rachel Maddow’s staff and dozens if not hundreds of local and national reporters, to tell the story of the real Chris Christie. That’s in addition to the state and federal investigators who will be looking for evidence that Christie knew more about the Fort Lee plot than he’s shared. Christie will be spending more time with lawyers than with GOP donors in the months to come, and he may have to focus on keeping his job rather than winning the White House. His path to the White House is all but closed, even if some national pundits can’t bear to admit it yet."

---Joan Walsh, Salon 

New York Daily News: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is "Pathetic"

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

The New York Daily News editorial is linked below.

New York Daily News: A "Pathetic" Chris Christie

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s one-hour-and-forty-seven-minute self-serving, self-pitying display of contrition on Thursday was a climactic act in a brazen cover-up that threatens to further unravel his political career.

Ever so thoroughly the governor scoured the thesaurus for words of apology, regret and painless self-flagellation while nervily playing the victim and mercilessly destroying the aide who played only a supporting role for the George Washington Bridge political revenge plot."

---New York Daily News 

National Journal Interviews Brookings Institution Demographer William Frey

The National Journal interview of William Frey is linked below.

National Journal: Brookings Institution Demographer William Frey Discusses 2013 Demographic

"For the first time in more than a century, it was reported there were more white deaths than births, leading to a natural decrease of the white population."

---Brookings Institution Demographer William Frey, Interview in National Journal 

Bigger, Faster, Dumber! CNN Takes a Look at Major College Athletes and the Frequency of Low Reading Skills

The CNN investigation is linked below.

CNN: Major College Athletes and Illiteracy

"A CNN investigation found public universities across the country where many students in the basketball and football programs could read only up to an eighth-grade level. The data obtained through open records requests also showed a staggering achievement gap between college athletes and their peers at the same institution.

This is not an exhaustive survey of all universities with major sports programs; CNN chose a sampling of public universities where open records laws apply. We sought data from a total of 37 institutions, of which 21 schools responded."

---Sara Granim, CNN 

CNN: Data From Various Universities That Play Major College Athletics

Allison Linn of NBC News: The Perceived Benefits of Single Mothers Getting Married Might be Overstated

Allison Linn's article at NBC News is linked below.

NBC News: Marriage for a Single Mother Might not be as Beneficial as Previously Thought

"A new briefing paper, written by Williams and released Monday by the Council on Contemporary Families, argues that even when single mothers do later marry, those marriages are not necessarily beneficial to the women and their children.

Williams points to a study finding that more than half of single moms who married were divorced by the time they reached ages 35 to 44. In many cases, she notes, women who marry and later divorce are worse off financially."

---Allison Linn, NBC News

U.S. Census Bureau: Almost One-Third of Americans Experienced at Least Two Months of Poverty in 2009-2011

The U.S. Census Bureau news release is linked below.

Census Bureau: Almost One-Third of U.S. Experienced Poverty a Minimum of Two Months of Poverty in 2009-2001

"According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 31.6 percent of Americans were in poverty for at least two months from 2009 to 2011, a 4.5 percentage point increase over the prerecession period of 2005 to 2007. Poverty was a temporary state for most people; however, 3.5 percent of Americans were in poverty for the entire three-year period."

---U.S. Census Bureau News Release, January 7, 2014

CNN Poll: Majority Support for U.S. Marijuana Legalization, Along With a Large Majority Being Tolerant of Marijuana Use

The CNN/ORC Poll is linked below.

CNN/ORC Poll: America's Changing Views on Marijuana

"The CNN/ORC International survey released Monday also indicated that the number of people who say smoking pot is morally wrong has plunged.

Fifty-five percent of those questioned nationally said marijuana should be made legal, with 44% disagreeing."

---CNN

The New York Times: Liz Cheney Drops Out!

The article in The New York Times is linked below.

NYT: Liz Cheney Gives Up

"Liz Cheney announced early Monday morning that she was withdrawing from the Wyoming Republican Senate primary, bringing an abrupt end to her unsteady challenge to the incumbent, Michael B. Enzi."

---Jonathan Martin, The New York Times 

Fareed Zakaria at Time: 2014 is a Pivotal Year for China

The People's Republic of China

Fareed Zakaria's column at Time is linked below.

Fareed Zakaria: China at an Economic Fork in the Road

"2014 is the year of the horse in China. But for the rest of us, it might prove to be the year of China. The country faces a historic turning point: either it will revamp its economic system, deal with some of its growing environmental and social problems and set itself up for another decade of growth and stability that will ensure it becomes the world's largest economy, or 2014 will be the year that the great Chinese miracle hits a serious road bump--with seismic consequences."

---Fareed Zakaria, Time