56 Results

''A Second Chance for Children''

Children can spend months or years in foster care waiting for a permanent home, particularly those who are older or have special needs. The federal Adoption Incentive Program helps by giving states money to promote adoptions of children in foster care. But the program will expire next month unless Congress acts.

America’s Leading Thinkers Propose Innovative New Ideas for Investing in America’s Children

A selection of America's leading thinkers, including a Nobel laureate, award winning economists, researchers, and other notable experts have come together to provide 22 innovative new proposals for dramatically improving the lives of America's children.

Time for Reform

Many significant improvements have been made to the foster care system over the years, and across the country, case workers and court officials have worked to facilitate better outcomes for children in the government’s care. Yet the number of foster youth aging out of care keeps rising. In 2006, the latest year for which data are available, 26,181 youth aged out of care, a 119 percent increase since 1998. On average, youth who aged out of foster care in 2006 spent five years in the system, compared with less than two years for children who left through reunification, adoption, guardianship or other means.

''Federal Rules Separate Kids from Abusive Families''

The best interest of the child' is the philosophy that should drive child welfare decisions, but the rules that come with federal funding haven't always cooperated.

''House Introduces Nanotech Bill''

The House Science and Technology Committee introduced a bill Jan. 15 about the need to strengthen federal efforts to better comprehend the potential environmental, health and safety effects of nanotechnology.

Ethical Evaluations of Nanotechnology

Recent action in Congress to reauthorize the U.S. federal nanotechnology research program offers the chance to address the social and ethical issues concerning the emerging scientific field, experts say.

Nanotechnology and the Consumer

As part of a 6-DVD lecture series produced by the Museum of Science, Boston, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies director David Rejeski covers the topic of nanotechnology in consumer products.  This set, Talking Nano, provides an excellent overview of nanotechnology.

Oversight of Next Generation Nanotechnology

Since 1980, the capability of the federal agencies responsible for environmental health and safety has steadily eroded. The agencies cannot perform their basic functions now, and they are completely unable to cope with the new challenges they face in the 21st century. This paper describes some of these challenges, focusing on next-generation nanotechnologies, and suggests changes that could revitalize the health and safety agencies. More info

New Data Show Nanotechnology-Related Activities in Every U.S. State

Data released today by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) highlights more than 1,200 companies, universities, government laboratories, and other organizations across all 50 U.S. states and in the District of Columbia that are involved in nanotechnology research, development, and commercialization. This number is up 50 percent from the 800 organizations identified just two years ago.

Nanotechnology, Synthetic Biology, & Public Opinion

A groundbreaking poll finds that almost half of U.S. adults have heard nothing about nanotechnology, and nearly nine in 10 Americans say they have heard just a little or nothing at all about the emerging field of synthetic biology, according to a new report released by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies and Peter D. Hart Research. Both technologies involve manipulating matter at an incredibly small scale to achieve something new.

Progress on Court Reforms

The release of the court recommendations of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care in 2004 focused greater attention on the need to enhance dependency court performance to achieve improved outcomes for children and youth in foster care and their families. As part of a first of its kind national judicial summit in 2005, states developed action plans to strengthen dependency court performance in the four critical areas identified by the Pew Commission: accountability, collaboration with child welfare agencies, judicial leadership, and constituent voice. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 provided $100 million in court improvement funds to support judicial reforms across the country.

In this review, Kids Are Waiting both examines the progress that states have made since the 2005 summit in strengthening their dependency courts and improving outcomes for children, youth, and families, and makes recommendations for continued improvements.

Pew Health Group

Americans should not have to worry about hidden dangers in the products they use every day—in the medicines they take, the food they eat or the financial and consumer items they rely on. The Pew Health Group implements Pew founder Joseph N. Pew Jr.’s vision of telling the truth and trusting the people by shining a light on potential and actual hazards in these products while advocating for policies and practices that reduce unacceptable risks to the health and well-being of the American public.

''Potential for 'Super Bugs' in Meat, Dairy Products Alarms Regulators''

"At a one-day conference in Washington, D.C., co-sponsored by the nonprofit consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest and The Pew Charitable Trusts, food safety experts and officials agreed that decades-long misuse of antibiotics on the nation's farms has been largely responsible for the steady increase in e.coli, salmonella and other food-related outbreaks in recent years."