Public Agenda Newsfeed

"Fifteen Things Every Journalist Should Know About Public Engagement"

Francie Grace — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:53:31 -0400

"Fifteen Things Every Journalist Should Know About Public Engagement", by Michael Hamill Remaley, National Civic Review, Summer 2008

Public Engagement: Questions & Answers

Shaheen Hasan — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:00:37 -0400

Although the movement to engage citizens in public life is growing, a lot of folks – citizens, leaders and policy-makers included– don’t “get” public engagement and how it works to foster a more meaningful and participatory democratic process. Journalists, in particular, often tend to express skepticism and uncertainty about how public engagement efforts advance community participation in the decision-making process.

Medicare's Self-Inflicted Wounds

Scott Bittle — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:50:31 -0400

Today's New York Times story on Medicare fraud raises an interesting question: Who pays the medical bills when a government bureaucracy shoots itself in the foot?

Inflation Up, Housing Starts Down

Scott Bittle — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:39:36 -0400

Inflation is up and housing starts are down, according to new government statistics. Higher energy costs started the surge, which pushed up wholesale prices 1.2 percent in July, but economists now worry the rising costs are spreading throughout the economy. New housing starts haven't been this low since 1991, a mere 965,000 units, according to a separate report.

Debt: The Movie

Scott Bittle — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:22:21 -0400

Can a movie get people fired up about the national debt? I.O.U.S.A. is going to try.

Tensions Mount With Russia Over Georgia War

Scott Bittle — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:26:58 -0400

This has been a wild week for U.S. foreign policy – relations with Russia have deteriorated dramatically over the war with Georgia, and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a longtime U.S. ally, may be forced out of office.

Anecdotes, Facts, Marriage and Health Care

Scott Bittle — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:49:32 -0400

Storytelling is a powerful tool – and never more so than in public policy.

What got me thinking about this was a story in the New York Times, Health Benefits Inspire Rush to Marry, or Divorce." According to the Times, "it is not uncommon" for couples to get married or break up at least partly in order to have health insurance.

Memo To The Next President

Francie Grace — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:24:12 -0400

"How much do you trust our government to tell the public the truth about our relations with other countries?" More than half of the American public told pollsters for our Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index that the answer is "not too much" or "not at all." That stunning lack of trust may be one of the biggest obstacles the new President will face in January 2009. Even so, there are ways to win back the public trust – and important reasons why it must be done.

Should We Question Who's Controlling Our Bandwidth?

Michael Remaley — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:19:30 -0400

So little of the stuff you read in the opinion pages of the daily newspapers is truly original thinking. Most of it is just a regurgitation of what's been said a million times before. So major kudos to Tim Wu for his piece in the New York Times entitled "OPEC 2.0."

It really got me thinking about something I hadn't previously thought about at all: Are we creating – or, have we already created – a new kind of OPEC that has a monopoly on how we get our information?

Beyond Civics and the 3 R's: Teaching Economics in the Schools

Peiting Chen — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:39:42 -0400

Click Here to download the article.