Brother Jesse Blog: Interview with author Sonya Jah Muhammad on her latest anti-bullying book http://ping.fm/Lkre8

Federal government tracking your kids

CNN's Brooke Baldwin looks at the tracking of children by the federal government.

Processed Food Lowers IQ in Children, Nutritious Food Raises It

Processed foods are the staple of far too many diets, particularly in the United States where 105 million peoplehave either diabetes or prediabetes. These processed foods are filled with white sugar, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), aspartame, artificial food colorings, and a wide variety of other toxic substances. Is it any wonder that children are suffering from IQ reduction upon introducing processed foods into their diet?   | Natural Society

Britain's 'polite,' 'insidious' racism facing the UK’s Black youth

Lee Jasper is one of Great Britain’s leading activists in the Black community. He has spent the last 30 years campaigning for social justice and racial equality. Mr. Jasper’s keen insight and compelling commentary on issues concerning fair treatment and equal justice can be read on http://www.leejasper.com/ and http://leejasper.blogspot.com/. Mr. Jasper recently answered questions posed by Final Call staff writer Starla Muhammad regarding critical issues facing the UK’s Black youth.  Final Call...

Youth of Color, the School-to-Prison Pipeline and the Private Prison Industry

The “Kids for Cash” scandal serves as a perfect example of the industry directly benefiting from the school-to-prison pipeline, as children were directly routed from their schools into privatized facilities. In 2009, two corrupt judges from Pennsylvania were charged with accepting over $2.6 million in “kickbacks” from private juvenile facilities. From 2003 to 2008, these judges found over 4,000 juveniles guilty, many of whom did not have legal representation, and were sent to one or both of the facilities that were involved in the scandal. This scheme exemplifies how privatizing prisons, specifically juvenile detention centers, plays a direct role in pushing children into the school-to-prison pipeline.   :: racismreview.com

How Private Warmongers and the US Military Infiltrated American Universities

A matrix of closely tied university-based strategic studies ventures, the so-called Grand Strategy Programs (GSP), have cropped up on a number of elite campuses around the country, where they function to serve the national security warfare state.

In tandem with allied institutes and think tanks across the country, these programs, centered at Yale University, Duke University, the University of Texas at Austin, Columbia University, Temple University and, until recently, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, illustrate the increasingly influential role of a new breed of warrior academics in the post-9/11 United States. The network marks the ascent and influence of what might be called the "Long War University."  | Truthout

Marijuana Use Growing Among Teenagers

One out of every 15 high school students smokes marijuana on a near daily basis, a figure that has reached a 30-year peak even as use of alcohol, cigarettes and cocaine among teenagers continues a slow decline, according to a new government report.

The popularity of marijuana, which is now more prevalent among 10th graders than cigarette smoking, reflects what researchers and drug officials say is a growing perception among teenagers that habitual marijuana use carries little risk of harm. That perception, experts say, is fueled in part by wider familiarity with medicinal marijuana and greater ease in obtaining it.  - NYTimes.com

US approves first heart pump for children

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a first mechanical cardiac assist device for children that can help keep patients alive as they await a transplant.

The EXCOR Pediatric System, made by German company Berlin Heart, can be sized to fit young people from newborns to teenagers.  | The Raw Story

Recession Taking a Toll on Family Relationships

A University of Missouri researcher has found that parents who are experiencing financial problems — and the depression that often results from those problems — are less likely to feel connected to their children, and their children are less likely to engage in positive behaviors, such as volunteering or helping others.

“The study serves as a reminder that children’s behaviors are affected by issues beyond their immediate surroundings,” said Gustavo Carlo, Millsap Professor of Diversity in the university’s department of human development and family studies.   | Psych Central News

Also read:

• Economic Recession Takes Toll on Family Relationships, MU Researcher Says

Child Poverty In America Is Absolutely EXPLODING – 16 Shocking Statistics That Will Break Your Heart

If the U.S. economy is improving, then why is child poverty in America absolutely exploding? If we are experiencing “economic growth”, then why are more than half of all children in major U.S. cities like Cleveland and Detroit living in poverty? If we are the “greatest economy on earth”, then why are one out of every four American children on food stamps? The shocking statistics that you are about to read below should absolutely break your heart. Tonight, millions of precious American children will go to bed without any dinner. Tonight, millions of American children will shiver as they try to go to sleep because their families cannot afford any heat. How bad does child poverty have to get before we all finally admit that our economic system is completely failing many of the most vulnerable members of our society? If you want someone to blame, you can blame Congress, the Obama administration, the Bush administration and the corrupt Wall Street bankers. But most of all, blame the Federal Reserve and the debt-based monetary system that the Fed administers. Our economy is in the midst of a long-term decline and is slowly but surely dying. Many of those that are suffering the most from this decline are children.

The following are 16 shocking statistics about child poverty in America that will break your heart….

#1 Child homelessness in the United States is now 33 percent higher than it was back in 2007.

#2 According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, 1.6 millionAmerican children “were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year”.

#3 The percentage of children living in poverty in the United States increased from 16.9 percent in 2006 to nearly 22 percent in 2010. In the UK and in France the child poverty rate is well under 10 percent.

#4 A higher percentage of American children is living in poverty today than was living in poverty back in 1975.

#5 The number of children living in poverty in the U.S. has risen for four years in a row.

#6 There are 10 different U.S. states where at least one out of every four babies is born to a family living in poverty.

#7 Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent.

#8 According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#9 In the United States today, more than 35 percent of all African-American children are living in poverty and more than 33 percent of all Hispanic children are living in poverty.

#10 There are seven million children in the United States today that are not covered by health insurance at all.

#11 Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

#12 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point in their lives before they reach the age of 18.

#13 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#14 There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity.

#15 In Washington D.C., the “child food insecurity rate” is 32.3%.

#16 More than 20 million U.S. children rely on school meal programs to keep from going hungry.
Read more at: - BlackListedNews.com

More women in combat means more mothers with PTSD

The percentage of women in the military has doubled in the last 30 years, with more than 350,000 serving as of 2009, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs' latest figures. With more female troops in combat, there has been an increase in PTSD diagnoses: One in five female veterans suffer from PTSD, according to the VA.  - CNN.com

US Homelessness: 1.6 Million Children (1 out of 45) Are Homeless, Up by 38 Percent Since 2007

According to a report released today by the National Center on Homelessness, more than 1.6 million children are currently homeless in America. This amounts to one child in 45. It represents a dramatic increase of 38 percent since the onset of the recession in 2007. The report “America’s Youngest Outcasts” paints a grim picture, and it provides a ranking between the 50 states. It also recommends some policy solutions to be implemented both on  Federal and State levels.  | NEWS JUNKIE POST

The Hypocrisy of Democracy and How Our Failures Create Environmental Devastation for Our Children

This is the only environment that we have, but the Obama administration is proving itself to be bad steward. “As part of Obama’s ongoing betrayal of campaign promises, he recently struck down new measures that would have seen the U.S. partially reduce emissions.” Occupy EPA attempts to put “protection” back into the agency’s mandate. “While state, local and even the federal government seem committed to destroying the Occupy Movement they are simultaneously oblivious to the crimes committed everyday on Wall Street in the name of the free enterprise system.”  | Black Agenda Report

Birth Control Death Plan? FDA & Big Pharma Move to Make Morning-After Pill Plan B Accessible to Teens Under 17

FDA May Remove Age Restrictions From Morning-After Pill Plan B – TIME Healthland

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may move to eliminate age restrictions for the morning-after emergency contraception pill, Plan B One-Step, according to several people involved with the deliberations who spoke with TIME Healthland.

The morning-after pill is currently available without a prescription to users aged 17 or older. Younger teens still require a prescription. If the FDA does away with that restriction, it could bring the emergency contraception pill from behind the pharmacist's counter to store shelves, alongside more familiar over-the-counter medications like antacids and painkillers.

Plan B Pill Maker Seeks to Ease Access for Teens - WSJ.com

The FDA is weighing a request from the drug's manufacturer, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., which argues the product should be available in store aisles for all those who need it easily and quickly.

Any loosening of the restriction would likely cause an uproar from conservative groups, which say the drug shouldn't be available without medical oversight or parental involvement.

Plan B: FDA Considers Putting Morning After Pill on Drug Store Shelves - ABC News

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide today whether to switch the Plan B morning-after pill to nonprescription status for women of all ages -- a move that would land the emergency contraceptive on drugstore shelves alongside condoms, spermicides and contraceptive sponges.

Currently women 17 and older can buy the high-dose hormone pill over-the-counter, but girls younger than 17 need a prescription.

America's Child Sex Trafficking Report Card, is that such a grade as F-

Most of America's states are failing in their ability to protect children being trafficked for sex, according to a report released Thursday. (Dec. 1)

America's Child Sex Trafficking Report Card

Study Shows Foster Children Have High Rates of Prescription of Psychiatric Medications

The federal government has not done enough to oversee the treatment of America's foster children with powerful mind-altering drugs, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to be released Thursday.

ABC News was given exclusive access to the GAO report, which capped off a nationwide yearlong investigation by ABC News on the overuse of the most powerful mind-altering drugs on many of the country's nearly 425,000 foster children.   - ABC News