• More prisons are creating hospices for terminally ill inmates
"More Prisons Considering Hospices for Dying Inmates," Deborah L. Shelton, American Medical News, October 11, 1999, p. 22.

Some prisons have set up hospice programs to care for the growing number of terminally ill inmates, and more are considering developing such programs.

Longer sentences and higher rates of HIV infection have fueled an increase in the number of inmates who are dying in prison. The nation had 824 terminally ill inmates in 1998, with 152 of those in prison hospice programs, says a National Institute of Corrections report. Eleven hospices have been established in state prisons since 1987 — the year the first prison hospice, at a federal facility, was opened. As many as 25 other hospices are being set up.

Hospice programs offer care that emphasizes comfort while maintaining routine and familiar surroundings. Pain management, psychological counseling and spiritual support, among other services, are provided by teams composed of medical professionals, social workers, chaplains and prisoner representatives.

Dying inmates are voluntarily cared for by other inmates in Oregon and California hospice programs. Oregon’s terminally ill inmates remain in their cells as long as possible before being transferred to the hospice in Salem. In their cells, they are attended to by volunteer inmates who help them with the activities of daily living. Oregon started its hospice program because it expects more than 800 inmates to succumb to terminal diseases over the next 45 years. California opened one of the first prison hospices in the country in 1987, initially for AIDS patients. Now, most hospice inmates die from cancer and end-stage liver disease.

"There are so many reasons why it’s important to have this alternative…these people don’t need aggressive, expensive medical care," says Dr. Joseph Bick, California Department of Corrections’ chief medical officer. "They need comfort."

Minnesota note: The Department of Corrections contracts with HealthEast’s St. Joseph’s Hospital to provide hospice care to terminally ill inmates at the Oak Park Heights Maximum Security Facility.

See another scan about prisons and health care in the November 1999 edition of Minnesota IssueWatch: 
• Telemedicine cuts costs of health care for inmates, study reports

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• Community colleges using housing to attract students
"More Community Colleges Are Building Dormitories," Erik Lords, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 12, 1999, www.chronicle.com.

More community colleges are adding campus housing as a way to attract international students, athletes, and people who live far away, as well as to meet the demand from students who want the kind of "residential experience" four-year schools offer.

About 60 of the 1,200 community colleges nationwide now have dormitories. Some community colleges, founded to serve nearby residents, are turning to campus housing as a way of competing with four-year institutions for the same pool of students. They also want to provide safe, affordable housing for students recruited from distant locales. On-campus housing is appealing in rural areas where students have to drive a long way in sometimes inclement weather to attend class. Colleges that offer popular, highly specialized programs in such areas as agriculture, culinary arts and veterinary technology, to name only a few, attract students from a wide area and want to build dormitories to provide housing.

In addition, the start-up costs for housing are attractively low in some cases where developers are eager to get into the college market. Collin County Community College in Plano, Texas, sold land to a construction company that agreed to bear all the costs of building a dormitory that houses nearly 300 students. The school shares in the profits of the building, while students pay as little as $278 a month for a room, compared to the average of $675 a month for an off-campus apartment.

Supporters of on-campus living say the academic environment, experience of living on their own, and quiet study areas benefit students. Of course, "some students want to live here because they can escape the surveillance of Mom and Dad," says resident assistant James Guest of the Collin County college’s apartments.

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• North Carolina first to mandate computer literacy requirement for graduation
"How to Teach Tech?" Katie Dean, Wired News, August 19, 1999, www.wired.com.

Beginning in 2001, North Carolina will require all public school students to pass a computer literacy test to graduate from high school. It is the first state to mandate such a test.

Students will be tested in database, spreadsheet and word-processing applications. Part of the exam is taken on the computer, and part is multiple choice. State educators see the test as an important first step toward providing a more comprehensive curriculum. Critics say that students would be better served if computers were integrated into the curriculum now.

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• Federal program lets teachers buy houses for half the market rate
"Program Cuts Prices for Teachers' Homes," Meredith May, San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 1999.

Thanks to a federal program, private and public school teachers can buy houses in California for half the market rate, providing they agree to live in struggling neighborhoods for at least three years.

The program, Teacher Next Door, is modeled after the two-year-old Officer Next Door program, which helped 2,750 police officers nationwide buy homes in urban neighborhoods. The houses, which are available because of foreclosures on government insured mortgages, are in tough neighborhoods. "The idea is to lift some of these neighborhoods by pulling in community leaders," said Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman Larry Bush, "It's also a way to help teachers buy a home and help urban school districts retain teachers."

Full-time teachers with credentials who live within the school district where they teach are eligible for the program. Bids for the homes, which are sold as is, are made online, and the winning bid is chosen in a lottery. A new list of homes is published weekly. The down payment may be as little as $100. Teachers can sell their property at market rate after three years.

Although the program for police officers was popular, teachers may hesitate to move into high crime areas. "Teachers are mostly women, and I just don't think they'd feel safe moving to a troubled area," says a San Francisco Bay-area high school teacher. "I don't know if teachers would want to raise their kids in an environment that isn't healthy for them."

Educators, however, emphasize the opportunity the program gives teachers to be positive community role models. Jose Lopez, a professor at California State University at Hayward, believes that if teachers in low-income neighborhood schools lived in the same area, "they would gain a better understanding of their students' lives outside class. It would also allow them time to join after-school activities or coach, because they would not have to commute after work."

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• Philadelphia school head urges school-religious group partnerships
"Closer Ties Sought Between Schools, Religious Groups," Alan Richard, Education Week, November 17, 1999, p. 7; "Groups Endorse Guidelines on Using the Bible in Instruction," John Gehring, Education Week, November 17, 1999, p. 7.

The superintendent of Philadelphia’s public schools has taken a high-profile stand encouraging more involvement of religious groups in public education.

David Hornbeck has directed leaders in the school district to form partnerships between schools and churches, synagogues, temples and mosques. At a November conference cosponsored by the Philadelphia district, the U.S. Department of Education and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., Hornbeck advocated closer ties between schools and religious organizations through creating an army of religious people to support public education.

Hornbeck’s call for religious groups to become more involved in public education mirrors a growing interest in tapping a wide variety of community assets beyond school walls to support student achievement. The Search Institute of Minneapolis has identified some 40 developmental assets, including involvement in religious activities, that help youth grow up healthy, competent and caring.

The focus of Hornbeck’s initiative is engaging religious groups to support young people. First Amendment scholar Charles Haynes of Vanderbilt University believes religious organizations can provide such services as tutors, mentors and after-school programs if they follow federal guidelines and ecumenical principles. Haynes had a central role in creating a new guide for teaching about the Bible in public schools. The Bible and Schools: A First Amendment Guide was released in November by Vanderbilt’s First Amendment Center and is endorsed by 18 groups, including the American Federation of Teachers, the Anti-Defamation League, the Christian Legal Society and the People for the American Way Foundation.

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• California school district says year-round school costs too much
"12-Month Schooling Called Too Costly," Kristin Storey, Los Angeles Times, November 24, 1999, www.latimes.com.

Eight schools in the Pomona, California, school district will return to a nine-month schedule this fall because operational costs exceed the amount granted by the state for running a year-round program.

The district will give up almost $196,000 from the state by not sticking with the year-round schedule, but it expects to save even more by not having to pay for utilities or the salaries of such staff as janitors, secretaries and cooks during the summer. In addition, the change will eliminate the problems of teachers in the year-round schools not being available for training with others on different schedules in the district and of scheduling time for major repairs. Year-round schedules were begun in 1991 as an effort to ease overcrowding, but that problem will be allayed by the construction of three new elementary schools.

See another scan about year-round schools in the November 1999 edition of Minnesota IssueWatch: 
• Year-round schedule may boost segregation and hinder student performance

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• "Green" schools are cheaper to maintain than traditional schools
"Little Green Schoolhouse," Kerry Tremain, New Democrat, September/October 1999, p. 16.

Green schools — buildings that are designed to use resources efficiently and to sustain the environment — are safe, long-lasting and cheaper to maintain than traditional school buildings.

The most advanced of these schools make good use of vegetation, natural drainage and sun orientation, and incorporate locally produced and recycled building materials and natural lighting. Advanced computer systems are used to monitor their resource usage. Their students get involved in studying, designing and maintaining the schools’ environmental features.

Schools could cut operating costs by 25 percent—a savings of $1.5 billion — by conserving energy, maintains the U.S. Department of Energy. Green schools use less energy to begin with, so savings could be even greater, says Gary Bailey of Innovation Design of North Carolina, a firm that builds green schools. As much as $4 billion over current costs could be saved nationwide in a year, according to his calculations, because green schools use one-third to one-half of the BTUs of a typical school. While low-emission windows, solar panels and other special elements do cost more up-front than traditional building materials, these costs are offset by long-term savings, and the schools are no more expensive to build.

See another scan about the benefits of natural light in the November 1999 edition of Minnesota IssueWatch:
•  Kids perform better in classrooms with natural light, study shows

See another scan about smart building design in the December 1998/January 1999 edition of Minnesota IssueWatch: 
• "Smart" office buildings are comfortable and save money

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• Capturing carbon dioxide may be key to slowing greenhouse effect
"A Radical Approach to Global Warming," Burt Solomon, National Journal, October 2, 1999, p. 2828.

Carbon sequestration — capturing carbon dioxide before it is released into the atmosphere — may hold the most promise for slowing the greenhouse effect.

Scientists are discussing many low- and high-tech solutions to sequester carbon dioxide. One familiar method is to plant more trees, since young trees use more carbon dioxide than older ones. Other ideas include injecting carbon dioxide captured from factories and power plants into underground formations, such as exhausted oil wells, or deep in the ocean. Scientists have also suggested altering plants on a molecular level or adding microbes to help them use more carbon dioxide; increasing the ability of the soil to store carbon by growing more crops on agricultural land; or bringing large herd animals back to Siberia to encourage plant production on the tundra because grasslands hold large amounts of carbon.

Increased energy conservation, less reliance on fossil fuels and greater use of nuclear or solar energy probably will be sufficient to meet the 10- to 15-year goals on limiting emissions of greenhouse gases agreed to in the 1997 pact signed by the United States and other nations in Kyoto, Japan. Beyond that, however, more radical steps may be needed. "To stabilize carbon dioxide concentrations at 550 parts per million — higher than the current 360 ppm but about the most that won't endanger people's health — would entail cutting worldwide emissions by 70 percent," says Doug Carter, the director of planning for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Coal and Power Systems. Carbon sequestration may be a way to address the projected doubling of concentrations of carbon dioxide by 2050.

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• Low-cost aeration system controls hog manure odor
"It's All in the Bubbles," Dan Lemke, Ag Innovation News, October 1999, p. 12.

A patent-pending system that aerates the top layer in a hog manure lagoon controls odors at a lower cost than other aeration systems.

The Aero-Cap system, developed by Charles Gantzer, creates an odor barrier — a one-foot thick aerobic layer — on the surface of the lagoon. The aerobic layer oxidizes volatile compounds but doesn't allow them to be released into the air. Tests by the University of Minnesota show it cuts odors by 90 percent and hydrogen sulfide emissions by about 95 percent. Because the new system circulates and aerates the surface water rather than the entire basin, it costs only 30 cents per hog. Aerating the entire lagoon can cost several dollars per hog — too large an expense for many farmers.

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• Public college doctors in Alabama cannot be sued for malpractice, court rules
"Alabama Court Says Student-Health Physicians Are Exempt from Malpractice Suits," Dan Carnevale, Chronicle of Higher Education, November 29, 1999, www.chronicle.com.

Alabama’s top court has ruled that malpractice suits cannot be brought against doctors hired to treat students at public colleges because the doctors are state employees and the state’s constitution bars suits against state employees.

The Alabama Supreme Court found that allowing such suits against state university and college health-service doctors would make higher education more expensive and reduce schools’ willingness to provide health services to students. The court said any proposed changes to the current law needed to be addressed by the legislature. Two justices dissented in the decision, writing, "With the Court's grant of absolute immunity, the crushing burden of the consequences of medical negligence will fall squarely on individuals who can least afford it."

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• Same technology that aids hate groups also provides venue to resist them
"Downloading Hate," The Economist, November 13, 1999, p. 30.

While the Internet may make it easier for hate groups to reach a wider audience, it also provides a platform for groups to resist extremists.

While hate groups make up a small proportion of total web sites — perhaps 300 to 1,000 of an estimated 8 million — the groups can connect with others of a similar ilk. Extremist groups around the world are organizing through the Internet to pool their resources, says an Anti-Defamation League report. "Before the Internet, many extremists worked in relative isolation, forced to make a great effort to connect with others who shared their ideology. Today, on the Internet, bigots communicate easily…. Extremists have found a secure forum in which to exchange ideas and plans," says the ADL. White nationalists agree the Internet has allowed them to reach a larger audience. "The net has provided us with the opportunity to bring our point of view to hundreds of thousands of people who would never have otherwise…been in touch with any of our organizations," says Don Black, a former Klansman and owner of the first "white-pride" web site. Black reports 1 million hits to his site since 1995.

Watchdog groups are using the Internet to resist hate groups. "The Internet helps fighters for tolerance by exposing the activities of previously shadowy groups. When you expose hate groups for what they are, people are enticed to get involved to stop them," says Robert Arena, a political Internet expert with Presage Internet Campaigns in Alexandria, Virginia.

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• Fatal accident rate involving large trucks in 1998 was lowest ever recorded
"Fatality Rate Falls More Than 8 Percent," Daniel L. Whitten, Transport Topics, November 1, 1999, p. 1.

Large trucks were in slightly more than 2.3 fatal accidents per 100 million miles driven in 1998, the lowest national rate ever recorded, according to federal statistics. This 8.3 percent decline from the previous year compares to a drop of only 3.6 percent for all vehicles.

Between 1988 and 1998, the rate of fatal truck crashes fell 34 percent, while the rate of injuries in truck-related accidents went down 31 percent. The American Trucking Association believes credit for the decline should go to industrywide safety education and outreach programs, coupled with the strengthening of commercial driver licensing programs and the targeting of high-risk carriers for inspection. Truck travel increased 4.5 billion miles in 1998, to a total of 196 billion.

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page

• Air cargo efficiency is tied to good ground transport system
"Roads Are Key to Moving Air Cargo," Sean Kilcarr, Transportation Topics, November 1, 1999, p. 14.

Port authorities, trade groups and airports are looking for ways to improve efficiency and safety for trucks accessing air freight facilities at airports.

Truckers need wide, uncongested roads with room to turn around and merge. In addition, larger parking areas, more truck doors and docks, expanded staging areas for trailers, better-timed traffic signals and separate road systems would all help trucks pick up or drop off loads more easily.

The Jacksonville (Florida) Port Authority plans to spend up to $4 million to build a separate network for trucks at its airport, and Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte-Douglas airports in North Carolina have put in roads serving only the air cargo terminals. The Rickenbacher Port Authority of Columbus, Ohio, operates an all-cargo airport. "Air cargo is very time-sensitive," says William Pettit of the Jacksonville Port Authority. "The longer a truck is delayed on the ground, the more unattractive air cargo becomes for a shipper. That's why I'd say building better roads for trucks is among our top three [criteria] for improving air cargo service."

Worldwide air freight tonnage is projected to grow by more than 11 percent this year, to nearly 30 million tons, and be worth about $57 billion, according to a Georgia consulting firm, Colography Group. About 13 percent of the revenue of passenger airlines comes from air cargo, says Boeing's 1999 World Air Cargo Forecast, and this share may increase at a greater rate as shippers need more value-added services.

December 1999/January 2000 contents | IssueWatch home page