Planned Parenthoods Rescued By Obama Administration With Large Title X Grants
huffingtonpost.comTen Republican-controlled state legislatures have voted to defund Planned Parenthood since the 2010 midterm elections, but the clinics affected by the cuts will not have to shut their doors any time soon. The Obama administration so far has awarded hefty new federal family planning grants to Planned Parenthood clinics in three states that have cut the providers’ funding: New Jersey, Tennessee and North Carolina.
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While Obama supports Planned Parenthood, the direct Title X grants are not exactly unusual: HHS has contracted directly with Planned Parenthood providers for years, including under former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But the Planned Parenthood clinics that are receiving new federal grants this year are applying for those grants for the first time after defunding in their states created a need for federal money.Paige Johnson, a spokesperson for the Planned Parenthood clinic in Durham, said that clinic has never appealed to HHS for Title X grants because it was always able to partner with the state. But after the state stopped contracting with Planned Parenthood, the clinic made the case to HHS that it is the primary provider of family planning to low-income women in the area. Under federal law, HHS is required to award grant funds in a manner that expands women’s access to care in the most cost-effective way possible in areas of the greatest need.
Trust me, they mad.
A huge thank you to the Obama administration for putting women’s health above the GOP’s hissy fits.
So I'm on the front page of the Austin paper today . . .
… and you’d think I’d be a little more excited. I wasn’t on the front page because of this blog, or as part of a feature about my YouTube channel, or to celebrate getting a AAAS Fellowship to work at Wired Magazine in San Francisco this summer, or to talk about my generally unquenchable thirst to share awesome science with people. This article was about the uncomfortable intersection of science and politics. Yuck!
I’m glad I got a chance to talk about this issue, but I think the (not totally accurate) story of “me” takes away from the message. (click through to read my full response)
“America's schools are in such disrepair that it would cost more than $270 billion just to get elementary and secondary buildings back to their original conditions and twice that to get them up to date, a report released Tuesday estimated. In a foreword to the report, former President Bill Clinton said "we are still struggling to provide equal opportunity" to children and urged the first federal study of school buildings in almost two decades.”
—School Maintenance Report Shows Need For $542 Billion To Update, Modernize Buildings
Neanderthal birthplace kills archaeology funding
The area which gave rise to the name Neanderthal will run out of public funding for archaeology in two years - North Rhine-Westphalia state government is phasing out its financial support
The region is riddled with the remains of all sorts of ancient societies and attracts archaeologists from around the world.
With Roman settlements along the River Rhine and as the region where Neanderthals were discovered, and thus named after, NRW has long been a source of learning about our predecessors.
But this could soon die out, as the Der Spiegel news magazine reported on Thursday that the state government plans to cut its funding each year until 2015, when there will be nothing left at all. Read more.
“As his Republican peers in other states search for ways to cut public school funding, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is charting a different course. He's doubling down on education. Branstad, who was elected in 2010 as part of a resurgent GOP, has made proposals many Republicans would sneer at: raising minimum teacher salaries and offering incentive pay for teachers who take on more responsibilities — all by tapping $187 million in new school funding.”
—In Iowa, a GOP governor charts a different course
Sharing because I’m shocked/relieved to see a state actually investing in education.
Lottery funding for 'lost town' bid
Initial funding has been secured for an ambitious archaeological project to uncover a lost 17th-century town in Northern Ireland.
The site beside Dunluce Castle on the scenic Causeway Coast has been hailed as potentially the region’s own “little Pompeii”.
The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has now provided more than £300,000 for an excavation project and signalled the potential for a total support package of £4 million.
The ruins of the castle have stood on the rocky coastal outcrop near Bushmills in north Antrim for centuries but it was only four years ago that archaeologists re-discovered a lost settlement beside the famous landmark. Read more.
