Free Tutoring - After School League

The Urban League of Greater Cincinnati may be able to provide free after school tutoring to your child!

There are limited slots and your child must attend a school included in the program. Tutoring is offered by qualified, paid staff that work directly with your child's school to improve their performance.

If you are interested, please call 513-281-9955 ext. 307 right away - deadline is Friday, September 24, 2010. Please share with friends and family.

Urban League Prescription Drug Card

The National Urban League is proud to present the Prescription Savings Program. Simply present the National Urban League prescription card at a participating pharmacy and save on many of your prescription drugs.

You, your family, and your friends may use the savings card any time your prescription is not covered by insurance. It even works for many pet medications! Finding a pharmacy is easy: 8 out of 10 pharmacies nationwide accept your savings card.

Visit this link to sign up today! Available to anyone and everyone!

Is America Marching in Two Different Directions?

Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League


"Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred." Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963


This past Saturday in Washington, DC, two groups of Americans gathered on the National Mall to express their vision of freedom 47 years after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech. Unfortunately, the two groups seemed to be marching in different directions. One rally, co-convened by Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network, the National Urban League and a coalition of civil rights organizations, marched from Washington's Dunbar High School to the site of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial under construction on the National Mall. That group marched to "Reclaim the Dream" that Dr. King so courageously and eloquently articulated at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963: "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back…We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

In the 21st century that means a national commitment to quality education for all. It means jobs and a living wage for all. It means affordable housing on fair terms for all. And it means quality and affordable health care that is accessible to all. Speaker after speaker, including myself, Rev. Sharpton, NAACP President, Ben Jealous; DC Delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Martin Luther King, III, echoed these themes, which are also the major empowerment goals of the National Urban League during this, our 100th year anniversary. It was fitting that the Reclaim the Dream rally began at a public high school. Education has always been the gateway to opportunity for African Americans and Education Secretary, Arne Duncan was on hand to once again call education the "civil rights issue of this generation." Underscoring that commitment was the presentation by Larry Handfield, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Bethune-Cookman College, of a $100,000 four-year scholarship to high school student, Leah Carr, of Northwest Washington.

Fox News talk show host, Glenn Beck, led the other rally, which took place at the Lincoln Memorial, the very spot where Dr. King rallied the nation to overcome its divisive past. Beck has made a living denouncing the concept of social justice, belittling the legitimate grievances of African Americans, using faith as a wedge issue, and claiming that President Obama is racist and his policies are reminiscent of Nazism. In short, Beck is a world-class divider, and his march was designed to take America in another direction - back to its roots of states' rights separatism. Unfortunately, Beck has amassed a large following. Many of them joined him and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin at their so-called "Restoring Honor" rally.

Their rally was not only about an outdated "us vs. them" vision of America, it was a cynical attempt to hijack the message and meaning of Dr. King and the civil rights movement. As I told the crowd at the Reclaim the Dream rally, "We will not stand silent as some seek to bamboozle Dr. King's dream. We reclaim the dream because we are here to say we must be one nation." At a time when Dr. King's message of unity is more important than ever, the question must be asked: Is America marching in two different directions?

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Congressional Budget Office and Economic Recovery Act in the News

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Vice President
____________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release

August 24, 2010

Statement by the Vice President on New CBO Report on Employment and Economic Impact of the Recovery Act

Vice President Joe Biden today issued the following statement on a new report from the Congressional Budget Office on the employment and economic impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act:

“This new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is further confirmation of what we’ve been hearing from leading economists, the nation’s governors and families across the country: the Recovery Act is working to rescue the economy from eight years of failed economic policy and rebuild it even stronger than before. When the CBO, Congress’s top watchdog and an institution widely-respected on both sides of the aisle, says that because of the Recovery Act as many as 3.3 million Americans are on the job today and the unemployment rate is as much as 1.8 percent lower, it’s impossible for even the most cynical, bent-on-rooting-for-failure critics to deny. So while Republicans in Congress – the same party that got us into this mess in the first place - may want to turn back the clock and drive us back into the same ditch we’re making our way out of, it’s now clearer than ever before that we can’t afford to go backward; we have to keep moving forward and build on measures like the Recovery Act that are creating jobs and making us competitive in the 21st century economy.”

According to the CBO report, “Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output from April 2010 through June 2010,” in the second quarter of 2010, the Recovery Act:
• Raised the level of real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent,
• Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points,
• Increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million



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Aug. 24, 2010, 3:24 p.m. EDT
Stimulus plan boosted GDP by as much as 4.5%, says CBO
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The oft-criticized stimulus plan boosted the economy in the second quarter by as much as 4.5%, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.

In a report published the same day as Minority Leader John Boehner's criticism of President Obama's economic policy, the CBO said the stimulus law boosted the economy by between 1.7% and 4.5%, lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million.

In practice, that means the stimulus plan is the main reason the U.S. economy grew during the second quarter. The Commerce Department estimates the economy grew 2.4% in the second quarter, a figure most economists expect to be sharply revised lower in a report due Friday.

The CBO said the impact from the stimulus law on output and employment, however, will gradually diminish during the second half of 2010 and beyond.

The CBO also upwardly raised the cost of the stimulus plan to $814 billion from $787 billion.


Study: US stimulus package may have averted second recession

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/340855,stimulus-package-averted-recession.html

Washington - A massive government stimulus package approved last year may have helped the United States avert a double-dip recession in the second quarter, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found on Tuesday.

The CBO said the controversial two-year stimulus, President Barack Obama's signature economic plan that was enacted in March 2009, raised US economic output anywhere from 1.7 per cent to 4.5 per cent between April and June of this year.

An initial government estimate last month said gross domestic output (GDP) slowed to 2.4 per cent in the second quarter. Economists predict that number could be lowered as much as one percentage point in a revised estimate due out on Friday.

The slowdown in growth has stoked fears among some economists that the United States could be headed for a double-dip recession. The world's largest economy began growing again in the summer of last year after experiencing the worst downturn in decades.

The US unemployment rate has remained at 9.5 per cent despite the return to growth. But the CBO said the stimulus package, estimated to cost 814 billion dollars, helped create between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.

Conservative Republicans have sharply criticized Obama's stimulus package as a wasteful and unnecessary spending measure that added to an already skyrocketing budget deficit.

They point to the sputtering US economic recovery as evidence of the stimulus' failure. The Obama administration insists the situation would have been far worse without the package and has pushed for more spending measures to ease pressures on small businesses.
Copyright DPA

OP-ED COLUMNIST Too Long Ignored : Black Boys and Men By BOB HERBERT

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Too Long Ignored : Black Boys and Men
By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 20, 2010


A tragic crisis of enormous magnitude is facing black boys and men in America.

Bob Herbert

Parental neglect, racial discrimination and an orgy of self-destructive behavior have left an extraordinary portion of the black male population in an ever-deepening pit of social and economic degradation.

The Schott Foundation for Public Education tells us in a new report that the on-time high school graduation rate for black males in 2008 was an abysmal 47 percent, and even worse in several major urban areas — for example, 28 percent in New York City.
The astronomical jobless rates for black men in inner-city neighborhoods are both mind-boggling and heartbreaking. There are many areas where virtually no one has a legitimate job.

More than 70 percent of black children are born to unwed mothers. And I’ve been hearing more and more lately from community leaders in poor areas that moms are absent for one reason or another and the children are being raised by a grandparent or some other relative — or they end up in foster care.
That the black community has not been mobilized en masse to turn this crisis around is a screaming shame. Black men, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, have nearly a one-third chance of being incarcerated at some point in their lives. By the time they hit their mid-30s, a solid majority of black men without a high school diploma have spent time in prison.

Homicide is the leading cause of death for young black men, with the murderous wounds in most cases inflicted by other young black men.

This is a cancer that has been allowed to metastasize for decades. Not only is it not being treated, most people don’t even want to talk about it. In virtually every facet of life in the United States, black people — and especially black boys and men — are coming up short. White families are typically five times as wealthy as black families. More than a third of all black children are growing up in poverty. In Ohio, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty, the percentage is more than half.

There are myriad reasons for this awful state of affairs. As with so many other problems in American society, a lack of gainful employment has been a huge contributor to the problems faced by blacks. Chronic unemployment is hardly a plus-factor for marriage and family stability. And the absence of strong family units with mature parental guidance is at the very root of the chaotic environment that so many black youngsters grow up in.

The abominable incarceration rates among blacks are the result of two overwhelming factors: the persistence of criminal behavior by a significant percentage of the black population, and a criminal justice system that in many respects is racially discriminatory and out of control. Both of these factors need to be engaged head-on, and both will require a staggeringly heavy lift.

Education in the broadest sense is the key to stopping this socioeconomic slide that is taking such a horrific toll in the black community. People have to understand what is happening to them before they can really do much about it. Young blacks who have taken a wrong road, or are at risk of taking a wrong road, have to be shown a feasible legitimate alternative.

The aspect of this crisis that is probably the most important and simultaneously the most difficult to recognize is that the heroic efforts needed to alleviate it will not come from the government or the wider American society. This is a job that will require a campaign on the scale of the civil rights movement, and it will have to be initiated by the black community.

Whether this is fair or not is irrelevant. There is very little sentiment in the wider population for tackling the extensive problems faced by poor and poorly educated black Americans. What is needed is a dramatic mobilization of the black community to demand justice on a wide front — think employment, education and the criminal justice system — while establishing a new set of norms, higher standards, for struggling blacks to live by.

For many, this is a fight for survival. And it is an awesomely difficult fight. But the alternative is to continue the terrible devastation that has befallen so many families and communities: the premature and often violent deaths, the inadequate preparation for an increasingly competitive workplace, the widespread failure to exercise one’s intellectual capacity, the insecurity that becomes ingrained from being so long at the bottom of the heap.

Terrible injustices have been visited on black people in the United States, but there is never a good reason to collaborate in one’s own destruction. Blacks in America have a long and proud history of overcoming hardship and injustice. It’s time to do it again.