The Center on Law And Social Policy (CLASP) has released Getting Punched: The Job and Family Clock [1], a policy brief detailing pressures on working families and how government can promote more family-friendly workplace policies by encouraging family leave and more flexible scheduling.
Looking at land use regulations in the nation's 50 largest metropolitan regions, the Brookings Institution has released a broad survey [2] of the different zoning, comprehensive plans, building moratoriums and other rules that shape metropolitan growth and density-- and the opportunities for housing and decent transit in these different communities. In a companion piece [3], researchers found that cities with the legal ability to annex land from its surrounding county have higher bond ratings and stronger fiscal health than in states that deny cities that power.
According to data from the Economic Policy Institute [4], employees are now paying 22.1% of health insurance premiums, a major increase from the 14% of premium costs they were paying back in 1992. This is on top of increased deductibles and co-pays by employees as well.
Increasing the high school and graduation rates of male students by only 5% would lead to $8 billion in savings and increased revenues to the economy, estimates a new report by the Alliance for Excellent Education. [5] Much of the savings would come from reduced crime-related costs.
Instead of increasing the power of citizen legislators as originally promised, term limits, according to a new study [6] by The Joint Project on Term Limits, has led to a shift in power away from state legislatures towards greater executive discretion, especially in budget decisions. The report also details efforts by states with term limits to increase training of new legislators to try to counteract this loss of experience.
A new report commissioned by Cuyahoga County in Ohio has found problems to be so widespread [7] with voting technology and election training that there are fears that the problems will not be solved 2008, much less by this November's election.
A study comparing attitudes of doctors in the U.S. and Canada has found that malpractice concerns [8] do not drive lack of disclosure of medical error among doctors -- more evidence that tort reform is far from the panacea claimed by the far right.