ScoopDaily Email Alerts /
Want to write for Scoop? Apply Now
Gay Marriage Getting You Down? Call it a Civil Union.
After senators in New York reject yet another same-sex marriage bill, it may be time to finally reevaluate.
We’ll get ‘em next year.
That was the call-heard-around-the-world—or at least around New York State—of gay rights activists after news spread yesterday that New York’s gay marriage bill was defeated in the state senate 38-24 and all but tabling further discussion of the issue until at least 2011.
The conversation that took place among senate members behind closed doors was reportedly one of the most emotional and impassioned discussions that most senators had encountered in their careers, but while the issue of gay marriage may be becoming the subject of more discussions, the outcome of the trial signified little or no progress …
Popularity: 1% [?]
Green Jobs Movement Leaves Women Behind
A report by the U.N. released last week found that women eat more vegetables, use less fuel for travel, and are more likely to buy eco-friendly products than men. Yet in the bio-fuel and energy sectors, women comprise only 18.7 and 7.6 percent, respectively, of the total workforce in those industries. Moreover, the numbers for minority women were even lower—only 4 percent of green jobs are held by African-American or Latino women, according to a study by the Women of Color Policy Network.
What gives?
“What we’re seeing now is result of historic labor segmentation where women are underrepresented in fields considered green—bioengineering, construction et cetera—for a long time,” said C. Nicole Mason, Executive Director of the Women of Color Policy Network. “When we look at administrative efforts to create jobs and who those jobs go to, women are left out of those fields.”
In other words, most of the green jobs available—positions …
Popularity: 3% [?]
Dying Youth Mobilize Peers
When President Obama spoke at last week’s memorial for the victims of the Fort Hood massacre that took place on Nov. 6, he was honoring some of the army’s youngest heroes. Five of the 13 soldiers killed in the tragedy were under the age of 24, the youngest only 19 years old.
The fact is: casualties in this age group are sadly commonplace—more than half of all U.S. military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan were soldiers between 18 and 24 years old. But what those soldiers didn’t know was that their deaths, the largest number of American casualties since the war in Vietnam, may have spurred a new era of increased political participation among young people, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since our parents protested Vietnam 35 years ago.
As of August 2008, a combined 4,683 American had died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to statistics …
Popularity: 2% [?]
Lessons in Teaching
You graduated from a liberal arts college with a degree in [enter chosen humanistic but most useless pursuit of study here]. The job market sucks, the thought of grad school leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and you’re not sure what you want to do with your life. What’s a poor, debt-ridden college alumnus to do?
When the going gets tough, the tough get teaching—nowadays, at least. It’s the millennial generation’s equivalent of joining the army. Through programs like Teach For America, NYC Teaching Fellows in New York City, TeachNOLA in New Orleans, and dozens more, recent grads can choose to enter a somewhat grueling application process and, if selected, teach for a year or two in a suffering public school district near you. And with the economy on the outs and entry-level jobs all but a myth, more grads than ever are taking advantage of these opportunities to promote …
Popularity: 1% [?]
Millennial Group Takes on Weight of the World
Ask a diverse group of young people from across the country what their main concern with their government is and you’ll get the same answer: unemployment.
That’s what Maya Enista, CEO of Mobilize.org, found when she and the leaders of several other youth-oriented political organizations polled more than a thousand members of the millennial generation on their political views and governmental worries as part of an initiative called Democracy 2.0.
“When we’ve surveyed young people [in the past] about the government and asked them what’s working and what’s not working for them, the answers have been all over the map,” Enista said. “This time, it was all economic. We’re hearing from our young people that unemployment is their biggest concern.”
It’s also what prompted Enista, 25, to work together with leaders of SAVE (Student Association for Voter Empowerment), the Roosevelt Institution, and thirty other politically-minded organizations …
Popularity: 1% [?]
