Pew Charitable Trusts

Grim Picture for Economic Models for Online News

Washington, DC - 03/15/2010 - The losses suffered in traditional news gathering in the last year were so severe that by any accounting they overwhelm the innovations in the world of news and journalism, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ).

There is tremendous energy in efforts around the country to do journalism in the digital age, PEJ’s State of the News Media 2010 finds, and many of these efforts are bringing a renewed sense of public mission to the news.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 01/21/2010 - Canadians and Americans do not have the same likelihood of climbing the income ladder and experiencing economic mobility, but not because of different underlying values or societal goals, according to new data released today by Pew’s Economic Mobility Project.

The report, Chasing the Same Dream, Climbing Different Ladders: Economic Mobility in the United States and Canada, examines the differences in mobility over a generation and analyzes the results in conjunction with public opinion polls commissioned in both nations by the Project. It looks at differences in public attitudes and cultural values to understand to what degree they can explain the disparity in economic mobility.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 01/19/2010 - States can save money and stimulate their economies, in the short and long run, by protecting funding for effective pre-kindergarten and home visiting programs, according to a new issue brief by the Partnership for America’s Economic Success.

“The Costs of Disinvestment” provides evidence for why states cannot afford to cut early childhood programs whose demonstrated economic and societal benefits reduce taxpayer costs now and generate more revenue in the future. Rigorous science and hard data show that these investments are fundamental to achieving a globally competitive workforce and fiscal sustainability for states and the nation.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 12/07/2009 - The federal Minerals Management Service today gave the green light to Shell Oil’s plan to drill exploratory wells in the ecologically rich waters of the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast next summer.

“We are very concerned because drilling for oil runs the risk of devastating spills in a sensitive marine ecosystem already stressed by dramatic climate change,” said Marilyn Heiman, director of the Pew Environment Group’s U.S. Arctic program. “Careful scientific research should come before drilling in the Chukchi.”    » read more »

Berkeley, CA - 12/01/2009 - College seniors who graduated in 2008 carried an average of $23,200 in student loan debt. Meanwhile, unemployment climbed from an already challenging 7.6 percent in the third quarter of 2008 to 10.6 percent in 2009 – the highest third-quarter rate for college graduates aged 20 to 24 this decade.

The Project on Student Debt’s new report, Student Debt and the Class of 2008 (PDF), and an interactive online map include debt levels for the 50 states and District of Columbia and nearly 2,000 U.S. colleges and universities.    » read more »

Conservation Groups Welcome Australian Senate’s Support for Coral Sea Conservation Zone

Sydney, Australia - 11/17/2009 - Conservation groups today welcomed the Australian Senate’s support for the Federal Government’s Coral Sea conservation zone. This support now gives a green light for assessing whether the Coral Sea should be protected as a marine park.

The motion by National Party Senator Ron Boswell and Liberal Party Senator Ian Macdonald today to disallow the Coral Sea conservation zone was voted down by the Australian Labor Party, the Australian Greens, and Senator Nick Xenophon.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 11/16/2009 - One in four (26%) of American teens of driving age say they have texted while driving, and half (48%) of all teens ages 12 to 17 say they’ve been a passenger while a driver has texted behind the wheel.

These findings form the centerpiece of a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project that looks at teens, mobile phones and distracted driving. The report is based on a telephone survey of 800 teens ages 12-17 and a parent or guardian as well as 9 focus groups with middle and high school students.

Boys and girls are equally likely to report texting behind the wheel as well as riding with texting drivers. As teens get older, they are more likely to report riding with drivers who text.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 11/16/2009 - A new report based on a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press finds that more than eight years after former President George W. Bush unveiled his faith-based initiative, the policy continues to draw broad public support. At the same time, many Americans express concerns about blurring the lines between church and state, as was the case when Bush first announced the initiative.    » read more »

Pew Environment Group Urges Stronger Action to Save Bluefin Tuna and Sharks, Regrets Failure of International Fisheries Commission

Porto de Galinhas, Brazil - 11/15/2009 - After meeting for ten days, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) refused to end fishing for Atlantic bluefin tuna. Instead, ICCAT set the catch limit for bluefin, considered the most valuable fish in the sea, at 13,500.

Member countries also agreed on only one measure that will help conserve sharks in the Atlantic, a ban on the retention and landing of big eye threshers, but Mexico was granted an exemption to catch 110 of these vulnerable sharks.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 11/12/2009 - New polls of voters in selected states – Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Ohio – show overwhelming support for measures that would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) new authority to ensure the food Americans eat does not make them sick, according to a new poll commissioned by the Pew Health Group and conducted by a respected bipartisan team of pollsters at Hart Research (Democratic) and Public Opinion Strategies (Republican).

The polls, conducted in October, demonstrated an overwhelming majority of voters support food safety legislation that would give the FDA these new powers.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 11/12/2009 - Over the next several weeks, the U.S. Senate has an historic opportunity to take a major step toward improving food safety for all Americans.

That is why a coalition of public health professionals, consumer organizations and groups representing victims of foodborne illness is sending the message that it is time to “Make Our Food Safe for the Holidays!”    » read more »

Washington, DC - 11/12/2009 - During this year’s Global Week of Action, a week devoted to farmed salmon awareness, the Pew Environment Group today raised concern about the creation of fish farms in U.S. waters without adequate uniform national aquaculture standards in place.

In the past two months, tens of thousands of farmed salmon have escaped from open-net fish farms in British Columbia, Norway and Scotland. This poses serious threats to wild salmon populations and coastal marine ecosystems. While monetary losses amount to millions of dollars, the ecological damage caused by these fish is immeasurable. Escaped fish spread disease to wild fish and compete and interbreed with wild salmon populations.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 11/09/2009 - Recent surveys of voters conducted in three swing states and five swing congressional districts find overwhelming support for a two-part plan to reduce global warming emissions and to require use of clean energy sources.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 10/28/2009 - One hundred percent of credit cards offered online by the leading bank card issuers continue to include practices that will be outlawed once legislation passed in May takes effect next year, according to a new report by the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project. The report also found that advertised credit card interest rates rose an average of 20 percent in the first two quarters of 2009, even as banks’ cost of lending declined.

With the Federal Reserve currently developing rules to ensure penalty charges are “reasonable and proportional” as required under the Credit CARD Act, the report also includes policy recommendations for regulators.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 10/19/2009 - Sixteen Americans who have been directly affected by foodborne illness gathered at the White House recently to share their personal stories and meet Sam Kass, assistant White House chef, who cooks for the Obama family and is an advisor on food policy; Mariano-Florentino Cuellar, who is the lead staffer for the White House Food Safety Working Group; and David Lazarus, senior advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture, who coordinates with the White House on food safety issues.

Representing the millions of Americans who fall ill each year from contaminated food, the victims and relatives of victims appealed to the Obama administration to urge congressional lawmakers to pass food safety legislation this year.    » read more »