Implementation of the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act and the Japanese War Crimes Provisions of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act: An Interim Report to Congress
http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/iwgreport02.html
The Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG) recently submitted this report to Congress in response to the statutory requirements of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 and the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act of 2000. The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 established the Nazi War Criminal Records IWG to oversee the declassification and release of US Government records containing information on Nazi crimes during World War II, and the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act of 2000 established the declassification and release of American records specifically relating to Japanese crimes during World War II. The initial report, which was submitted to Congress on October 27, 1999 (last mentioned in the November 19, 1999 Scout Report), dealt with the Government's involvement in the identification and declassification of records regarding the Nazi war crimes in the European Theater in World War II. This recent report, however, includes the Government's efforts in identifying and declassifying records relating to crimes committed by Japan. [MG]
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Left Behind in the Labor Market: Recent Employment Trends Among Young Black Men [.pdf]
http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/es/urban/publications/offnerexsum.htm
Written by Paul Offner and Harry Holzer, Professors at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, "Left Behind in the Labor Market: Recent Employment Trends Among Young Black Men" is a nine page report that compares the employment trends of young black men with no more than a high school education to other groups of the same educational background over the past two decades. According to the report, as the employment rate for young black women has steadily increased over the last 20 years, the rate of employment for their male counterparts has declined. Only 52% of young black men are currently employed compared to 62% twenty years ago. Furthermore, the study finds that the employment rate for young black men is much lower in cities compared to the suburbs. On the whole, the findings provide a cautionary note for welfare reform public policies aimed towards "family formation." Hence, the high percentage of unemployed young black men makes the economics of marriage less favorable for many low-income black couples. The report concludes with the authors' recommendations for how welfare policy can contribute to the formation of two parent families by helping young black men and fathers succeed in the labor market. [MG]
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Marriage, Poverty, and Public Policy
http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/briefing.html
According to recent census statistics, the poverty level for families headed by single moms is 33%, while the poverty level for two parent families with children is only 6%. For this reason, many people feel the solution to poverty reduction is merely to marry off single moms. However, according to the report "Marriage, Poverty, and Public Policy," the solution to lessening this percentage gap is not one-dimensional. Written by Stephanie Coontz, Professor of History and Family Studies at Evergreen State College, and Nancy Folbre, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the report finds that "lack of marriage is sometimes a symptom rather than a root cause of poverty, and that encouraging people to marry without giving them long term support systems may actually do more harm than good." Prepared for the fifth annual conference of the Council on Contemporary Families (which will be held at Fordham University in New York from April 26-28), the report offers several governmental solutions ranging from the elimination of disincentives or penalties for marriage, to investigating ways to help couples form and sustain relationships. The authors make clear that such policies, however, should not be confused with antipoverty programs, and should not be a cause to divert money from welfare programs. [MG]
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Investment in Tobacco Control: Stage Highlights 2002 [.pdf]
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/statehi/statehi_2002.htm
Recently released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), this report summarizes statistical information regarding the health and economic burden of tobacco use for all fifty North American states. An augmented version of last year's report (last mentioned in the February 16, 2001 Scout Report), this 2002 report offers users the opportunity to download the full text or look up individual state information via an interactive map. In addition, users can view summary maps and tables with information ranging from youth projected to die from smoking, to smoking attributable medicaid and direct medical expenditures, to the number of packs sold and taxed per capita, to current cigarette smoking and tobacco use among youth from grades 6-12. [MG]
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Poles and Italians then, Mexicans Now? Immigrant-to-Native Wage Ratios, 1910 and 1940
http://www.levy.org/docs/wrkpap/papers/343.html
In this working paper, Joel Perlmann, Levy Institute Research Professor of History at Bard College, examines whether today's Mexican immigrants will be as successful as past immigrants in "catching up" with the native American population. According to the report, Mexicans comprise the largest immigrant group in this country and are the prime example of a migrant group entering American society at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder due to lack of high educational credentials and other economic advantages. As a result, Perlmann finds that, based upon the wage ratios revealed in a previous research paper by Christopher Jencks of Harvard University, it would be difficult for today's Mexican immigrants to advance to the socioeconomic status of the native American population. [MG]
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Annual Capital Expenditures, 2000 [.pdf]
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-47.html
Presented by the US Census Bureau, the Annual Capital Expenditures Survey (ACES) provides detailed information on industry capital investments in building and other structures, machinery and equipment, furniture, computers, and vehicles by nonfarm businesses. The survey contains 130 separate industry sectors including manufacturing, information, finance and insurance, real estate, utilities, mining, and many more. According to the report, the data is used "to improve the quality of current economic indicators of business investments, as well as the quarterly estimates of gross domestic product." Ultimately, however, the data is used to identify business opportunities, product development, and business planning for those in the nonfarm market. [MG]
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The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910-1934 [Flash]
http://www.moma.org/russian/
A companion site to an exhibit now on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (last mentioned in the November 6, 2001 Scout Report), The Russian Avant-Garde Book: 1910-1934 affords visitors an opportunity to explore a lost world of artists and intellectuals who wanted to help change the world by making it see the sense in communism and socialism. Broken into three parts, provocatively titled A Slap in the Face of Public Taste, Transform the World, and Building Socialism, the exhibit awakens viewers to the passion from which it sprang. A lively interactive tour, the online exhibit shuttles visitors past more than three hundred examples of Russian avant-garde text, graphic art, and photography. Following each multi-panel tour, users are free to return to the main page of any of the three exhibits and consider at leisure the items that most grabbed their interest. Perhaps most compelling is the site's perspective of the life cycle of the Russian Avant-Garde movement itself, which only meant to help but was ultimately suppressed by a dictator who came to fear internal artistic expression as much as he did political challenge or resistance. [WH]
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Timeline of Art History
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm
Currently presenting world art from Metropolitan Museum dating 20,000 BC to 1400 AD, the Timeline of Art History can be navigated from a timeline, maps, or the thematic index. To orient by date or geography, proceed from the timeline itself to the World Map, and select a region such as North America 1000 - 1400 AD. An overview page lists characteristic developments of the time period (e.g., pueblos in New Mexico in 1000). Small images of contemporary art, in this case a black and white Mimbres bowl, link to larger images with full descriptions. To approach by art historical topics, start at the thematic index, and proceed to definition pages such as The Cult of the Virgin, which includes a 10th century Greek ivory icon depicting the Virgin, a French wooden sculpture of the Virgin and child (1200 AD), and a leaf from an Italian 14th century manuscript that shows the birth of the Virgin in an initial G. There are also links back to related spots on the timeline from definition pages. Viewers should check back frequently, though, because the timeline will eventually reach to the present day. [DS]
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