February, 2008

Despite our melting-pot roots, Americans have often been quick to blame the influx of immigrants for rising crime rates. But new research released Monday shows that immigrants in California are, in fact, far less likely than U.S.-born Californians are to commit crime. While people born abroad make up about 35% of California's adult population, they account for only about 17% of the adult prison population, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) showed. Indeed, among men ages 18 to 40 — the demographic most likely to be imprisoned — those born in the U.S. were 10 times more likely than foreign-born men to be incarcerated.

The legacy of religious orders is one of charity embracing justice, according to Sister Margaret John Kelly, a Daughter of Charity.Congregations of men and women religious "quarried, carried and polished the stones which have helped to build the marvelous and massive organization of Catholic Charities."Specifically, she pointed to "strong congregational leaders, veritable giants, who (as) faithful servants themselves drew others into charitable enterprise and set up standards."

Private Medicare plans often cost beneficiaries more than the traditional government-run Medicare program, Congressional investigators say.Many private plans advertise extra benefits and low costs. But in a report to be issued Thursday, the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, says that many people in private plans face higher costs for home health care, nursing homes and some hospital stays.

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is offering a plan to improve childhood nutrition and setting a goal to reduce by half the 12 million youngsters living in poverty over the next dozen years.A package of proposals, to be unveiled Thursday, includes a "comprehensive" early education initiative that starts with nurse's visits for pregnant women, lets children begin the Head Start program earlier and calls for universal pre-kindergarten programs.

The Canadian province of British Columbia last week became the first jurisdiction in North America to enact a consumer-based tax on carbon emissions.The goal is to raise US$1.75 billion over the next three years by taxing virtually all fossil fuels, including gasoline, diesel, natural gas, coal, propane, and home-heating fuel.The plan is meant to be "revenue neutral," meaning that overall taxes won't climb.

Five states did something over the past 12 months that no state had done before: expressed regret or apologized for slavery.This year, Congress, which meets in a Capitol built partly by slaves, will consider issuing its own apology."We've seen states step forward on this," says Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, citing the resolutions of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and New Jersey.

The infusion of newcomers to the United States -- especially Spanish-speaking immigrants -- has kept the American Catholic Church from joining other mainline denominations in dramatic decline, according to a study released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. "It is hard to put exact numbers to it, but there is no question that, were it not for the impact of immigration, the proportion of the U.S. public that is Catholic would have declined," said Greg Smith, a Pew research fellow who worked on the study, one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind.

Gasoline prices, which for months lagged behind the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts saying they could approach $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily, and oil settled at a record high of $100.88 a barrel on Tuesday. The increases could not come at a worse time for the economy. With growth slowing, energy increases that were once easily absorbed by consumers are now more likely to act as a drag on household budgets, leaving people with less money to spend elsewhere. These costs could worsen the nation’s economic woes, piling a fresh energy shock on top of the turmoil in credit and housing.

Tom Brown, chairman of Washington's Ward 8 Workforce Development Council, has perfected an approach to attacking urban poverty: He takes employers on a job tour in Southeast Washington neighborhoods to personally meet with unemployed residents. Since October, more than 100 residents have found jobs in the twice-monthly sessions at churches and community centers in the heart of the neighborhood. The goal is to employ 300 residents a year. "The success of it is because of the intimacy of the setup," Brown said. "It's straight talk between unemployed residents and employers."

As the housing crisis deepens, major lenders say they will help borrowers avoid foreclosure, but nonprofit groups and others say their actions are not living up to their promises. "Some lenders are willing and able to work out loan modifications," said Juanita Bryant, a loss mitigation officer at Michigan Neighborhood Partnership, which covers one of the worst-hit states in the country. "Those lenders are in the minority."

A proposed green building ordinance in San Francisco would transform the construction industry across northern California, impacting everything from city paint shops and local subcontractors to suburban neighborhoods resistant to sand pits and gravel quarries. If passed in March, the ordinance would require most new commercial and residential high-rises to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. Under LEED, developers must earn credits from a checklist of building practices that reduce the project's carbon footprint.

Senate Republicans surprised their Democratic counterparts Tuesday by agreeing to hold a full-fledged debate on a Democratic bill that would quickly end the U.S. combat mission in Iraq. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said his members oppose the bill. But he added they welcome the debate because it will "give us a chance to talk about the extraordinary progress that's been made in Iraq over the last six months, not only on the military side but also with civilian reconciliation finally beginning to take hold." Sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, and supported by the Senate Democratic leadership, the measure would cut off funding for combat operations 120 days after enactment.

A tiny Alaska village is suing two dozen oil, power and coal companies, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to the global warming they say threatens the community's existence. The city of Kivalina and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, has launched action against nine oil companies, 14 power companies and one coal company in a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco.

America has always been a competitive religious marketplace, but a major survey released yesterday shows a country increasingly exploring different faith identities and ways of worship. The survey also lays out, just weeks before Pope Benedict XVI's first papal visit to the United States, the Catholic Church's challenge here: no American faith group has lost more adherents. Among U.S. adults, about the same percentage, 24%, call themselves Catholic as in the past, but that statistic masks significant turnover. The percentage has held up primarily because of the huge number of recent Latino immigrants, who are largely Catholic, the survey found. Sixty-eight percent of people raised Catholic still identify with their childhood denomination

The two archdioceses where Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate public Masses in April on his first U.S. tour as pope have received more than 200,000 ticket requests, about double the number of seats available, from Catholics around the nation. Only 46,000 seats will be available for the Mass at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., and 57,000 will be available at Yankee Stadium in New York City. The stampede for free tickets — offered to all 195 Roman Catholic dioceses nationwide, in allotments from a handful to a thousand — was fierce.

The annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering opened this morning with a keynote address from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Director of the Office of Justice, Peace, and Human Development John Carr. The meeting convenes representatives from a gamut of Catholic institutions such as Catholic Relief Services, the USCCB, Catholic Charities USA, and more in a conference part workshop and part lobbying opportunity. As a new presidential election cycle gets well under way, Carr admitted to once again feeling “homeless” as a contemporary Catholic grappling with America’s two party reality. “We are neither Democratic nor Republican; we don’t fit on a bumper sticker.”

By 2017, total health care spending will double to more than $4 trillion a year, accounting for one of every $5 the nation spends, the federal government projects. The 6.7 percent annual increase in spending -- nearly three times the rate of inflation_ will be largely driven by higher prices and an increased demand for care, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Monday. Other factors in the mix include a growing and aging population. The first wave of baby boomers become eligible for Medicare beginning in 2011.

When it comes to the presidential election, it seems that nearly everyone has an opinion about this candidate or that candidate. That’s all well and good, says Tom Allio, senior director of the Diocesan Social Action Office. But it’s how the views on faith and politics are expressed—at times in heated statements which lack civility and express disdain for others holding differing views—that concerns some within the church. The social action office, with the approval of Bishop Richard G. Lennon, has developed a program that could reduce tempers and encourage a sense of respect for others in a volatile election season.

By any standard, applying for US permanent residency – often a first step to citizenship – is an arduous, unpredictable process. Green-card applicants must find suitable sponsors, decipher complex legal jargon – for many, in an unfamiliar language – or spend thousands of dollars on lawyers to do it for them. They must gather and submit hundreds of pages of personal documents that vouch for their identity, professional qualifications, familial relationships, and financial security. They must also pay fees and expenses – for photos, medical examinations, and vaccinations – running into thousands of dollars. And that's just to submit the application.

As the Bush administration and Congress consider proposals to ease the home foreclosure crisis, local governments across the country have been lending money to imperiled homeowners and confronting some opposition. Some of these municipal and state efforts have met resistance from people who consider the assistance undeserved and adamantly oppose anything that resembles a taxpayer bailout.

In this year’s lively primary election season, there has been little attention to Catholics as a voting bloc – at least not in the mainstream news media. There are, however, some trends apparent in how Catholics are voting. Pollster John Zogby argues that there really isn’t a “Catholic vote” in the sense of an identifiable bloc that votes on the basis of shared religious beliefs. Nevertheless he sees patterns in why some Catholics are voting in certain ways this primary season. Alexia Kelley, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, said issues of concern to people of faith have been much more front and center in this year’s political debate than in recent elections.

In this primary season, exit poll have shown that Catholics represent roughly 1 in 4 votes. In the coming Ohio primary — seen as a must-win for Hillary Clinton — the Buckeye State's large population of older, white Catholics is a strategic focus. Both campaigns know it, but that does not make their jobs easy, according to the Pew Center's John Greene, who studies the intersection of religion and politics.

Evidence links oral disease to heart and respiratory problems, and studies show that the old, frail and poor have the worst dental conditions of anyone in the country. Most of those who had dental insurance during their working lives lose it when they retired. Medicare, the national health insurance program for senior citizens, does not cover routine oral health or dental services. Private dental insurance is limited and too costly for many. And the price of dental care can overwhelm people on fixed incomes: A pair of dentures can cost hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars.

Despite a 2002 promise from President Bush to put citizenship applications for immigrant members of the military on a fast track, some are finding themselves waiting months, or even years, because of bureaucratic backlogs. About 7,200 service members or people who have been recently discharged have citizenship applications pending, but neither the Department of Defense nor Citizenship and Immigration Services keeps track of how long they have been waiting.

The 75 tenants at 1811 Eastlake were once chronic drunks, living and boozing on Seattle's streets. Two years ago, outreach workers rounded them up and gave them their own place to live - and drink. Despite an initial furor about taxpayers' supporting chronic alcoholics - "bunks for drunks," some critics have called it - Seattle Mayor Gregory J. Nickels announced last month that the program was succeeding. He said 1811 Eastlake and a second facility, had saved taxpayers $3.2 million in emergency social and health services formerly spent on homeless people. Tenants have also reported a one-third reduction in the number of days they get drunk.