Harvard report: A new kinder, gentler LAPD, Los Angeles Daily News- May 18, 2009 |
… After facing its darkest days following the Rodney King beating and Rampart police scandal in the 1990s, the Los Angeles Police Department has significantly redeemed itself in the eyes of the public, according to a Harvard University study released Monday.
A full 83 percent of city residents say the LAPD is doing a good or excellent job - up from 71 percent two years ago, the study said. The percentage of people saying the department was doing an excellent job doubled in the period, the study found. …
Still, non serious force incidents, like pulling motorists over, have increased sharply.
"We are talking about a department that has been able to reduce crime, increase satisfaction within the community while increasing law enforcement activity," said Christopher Stone, a co-author of the report and a professor of the practice of criminal justice at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "It's a remarkable combination."
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Harvard report: A new kinder, gentler LAPD
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How not to pay for healthcare, Boston Globe- May 18, 2009 |
PRESIDENT OBAMA has gone to great lengths not to repeat the mistakes of Bill and Hillary Clinton as he works with Congress toward an overhaul of the nation's healthcare system. But there are those in the administration and Congress pushing the president to duplicate a strategic blunder in an even earlier reform initiative: the 1988 attempt to add catastrophic care to Medicare.
Congress ended up repealing that law in 1989, when part of its funding mechanism, a surtax of up to $800 a year on wealthier seniors, proved wildly unpopular. Seniors had to pay the tax even if they already had catastrophic coverage privately. This year, an unpopular measure being proposed to pay for coverage of the uninsured is a new tax on the health benefits workers get from their employers. Health reform financed in this way could suffer the ignominious fate of 1988's catastrophic care plan. …
Just how unpopular is the tax on health benefits? Robert J. Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health and the Kennedy School of Government surveyed six different ways to fund coverage of the uninsured. Taxing health benefits came in dead last, approved by just 26 percent of those polled. The two approaches that won the most favor were increasing the tax on cigarettes (72 percent approval) and increasing income taxes on people from families making more than $250,000 a year (70 percent). …
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How not to pay for healthcare
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L.A. still needs more cops, L.A. Times - May 16, 2009 |
This coming week, criminal justice experts from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government will release a study they've done on how the LAPD has fared since the imposition of the federal consent decree under which the department now operates.
That study will document sweeping reforms and also fundamental changes in public attitudes toward crime. The percentage of Angelenos who believe crime is "a big problem" has fallen over the last four years to 38% from 58%. More important, no matter what the ethnic community or geographic area, less than half now believe crime is a significant issue. That's a stunning turnaround from a decade ago. …
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L.A. still needs more cops
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Book Review: "Once the Shore", New York Times - April 23, 2009 |
Paul Yoon, former faculty assistant to Jenny Mansbridge, Sandy Jencks and Pepper Culpepper, published his first book which was reviewed by Joan Silber in the Sunday New York Times Book Review:
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Quiet Discomfort
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HKS Profs Named Carnegie Scholars, Harvard Crimson - April 15, 2009 |
HKS Professors Asim Khwaja and Tarek Masoud named 2009 Carnegie Scholars
Two Harvard Kennedy School professors will receive grants of up to $100,000 after being named 2009 Carnegie Scholars yesterday by the Carnegie Corporation of New York for their research on Islam and dedication to public outreach and understanding.
This was the first time that two Kennedy School professors were chosen in the same year, said Patricia L. Rosenfield, program director for the Carnegie Scholars program.
Associate Professors Asim I. Khwaja and Tarek Masoud are among 24 scholars who will receive the two-year grant to pursue their research projects.
Masoud said that he plans on using the money to analyze Islamist political parties, and to examine the nature of elections in the Middle East.
“I will look at how it may be less about Islamist appeal in these countries, but more about their ability to mobilize a narrow constituency to go over the threshold to win in an area,” said Masoud. “Some scholars have thought that Islam influences people to vote [in favor of Islamist parties], but I think the more proxy cause is micro level variables on the ground in these elections.”
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HKS Profs Named Carnegie Scholars
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Book Review: "More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City."- March 6, 2009 |
NYT Book review of William Julius Wilson’s new book – More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City.
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Why the Poor Stay Poor
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The Collaboration for Poverty Research (CPR)- January 22, 2009 |
This morning the Harvard Kennedy School and Stanford University announced a new collaboration. The Collaboration for Poverty Research (CPR) will link the work of the Malcolm Wiener Center's Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy with the Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality. This partnership will leverage the research efforts of faculty, staff and students at both institutions who will work together towards solving one of the most significant public problems of our time.
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The Kaiser Family Foundation sponsored research - November 6, 2008 |
The Kaiser Family Foundation has sponsored research by faculty member Bob Blendon. He, and several co-authors, have written an analysis, published in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, examining voters' attitudes towards the US healthcare system.
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Voters and Health Reform in the 2008 Presidential Election
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Warren J. Mitofsky Award Recipient - October, 2008 |
The Roper Center has announced that Wiener Center faculty member Robert Blendon is this year's recipient of the Warren J. Mitofsky Award for Excellence in Public Opinion Research.
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Muhammad Yunus Delivers Malcolm Wiener Lecture in Political Economy - October 13, 2007 |
On Saturday, October 13, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed Yunus presented the Malcolm Wiener Lecture in Political Economy in the John F. Kennedy, Jr. Forum. The Forum audience was at capacity for this event where Yunus spoke about founding the Grameen Bank and his efforts at eliminating poverty in Bangladesh through the bank's lending programs and social business investments. Below is a Kennedy School press release which includes a link to the Forum web site that can be used to view the Yunus event from your computer:
http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Multimedia-Center/All-Videos/Social-Business-Enterprise-And-A-World-Without-Poverty2
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"Honoring Nations"conference, Harvard University Gazette - October 4, 2007 |
Imagine the map of the United States as it really is. Not 50 states, but 50 states plus 562 sovereign nations — the 562 federally recognized American Indian tribes and communities that exist within U.S. borders. ...
Imagining that realistic map was possible at Honoring Nations, a Sept. 26-28 conference celebrating tribal governance. About 150 registrants from tribes across the country attended panels and speeches in the Taubman Building at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The event was sponsored by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (HPAIED), housed within the Kennedy School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. “Part of our mission here is to break stereotypes,” said HPAIED Director Joseph P. Kalt, Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the Kennedy School. That includes a reminder that Indian nations are complex and culturally diverse.
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Conference celebrates tribal governance
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"Crime, Justice, and Growth in South Africa: Toward a Plausible Contribution from Criminal Justice to Economic Growth" - September 20, 2006 |
A new KSG working paper by Christopher Stone of the center's Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management looks at the correlation between crime and growth in South Africa.
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Crime, Justice, and Growth in South Africa: Toward a Plausible Contribution from Criminal Justice to Economic Growth
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"Labor Movement: As U.S. Debates Guest Workers, They Are Here Now", Wall Street Journal - September 18, 2006 |
Center faculty member George Borjas is quoted in this Wall Street Journal article looking at the effect of guest workers on U.S. wages.
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As U.S. Debates Guest Workers, They Are Here Now
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"Harvard to end early admission", The Boston Globe - September 12, 2006 |
Christopher Avery of the Malcolm Wiener Center and his research are referenced in this Boston Globe article on Harvard's decision to eliminate early admission to the College.
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AP Poll: Signs of doubt cloud the war on terror, The Associated Press - September 1, 2006 |
Robert Blendon is quoted in this article analyzing the results of a recently conducted AP poll about the war on terror.
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A Wave of Alarm: With fewer officers, Lowell police shift gears as murder rate spirals, Boston Globe - July 27, 2006 |
Anthony A. Braga, a senior research associate and a lecturer in public policy at the Malcolm Wiener Center, is quoted in this article about violent crime in Lowell, Massachusetts.
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A wave of alarm
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Borrowing Language of Civil Rights Movement, Drive Is On to Unionize Guards, The New York Times - July 26, 2006 |
William Julius Wilson of the Joblessness and Urban Poverty Research Program is quoted in this article about a nationwide unionization drive for security guards.
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Borrowing Language of Civil Rights Movement, Drive Is On to Unionize Guards
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Bane named academic dean at KSG, Harvard University Gazette - July 20, 2006 |
Mary Jo Bane, Thornton Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Management, has been named the new academic dean at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (KSG). Bane will succeed Stephen M. Walt, who served in the role over the past four years.
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Bane named academic dean at KSG
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Survey: One in four in US south would defy Hurricane evacuation orders , The Associated Press - July 20, 2006 |
Robert Blendon's new survey focusing on hurricane evacuation is discussed in this Associated Press article. Blendon is a faculty member at both the Wiener Center/KSG and the Harvard School of Public Health. This AP article also appeared in the July 21 issue of the Boston Globe.
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Many Could Ignore Hurricane Evacuation
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The Immigration Equation, The New York Times Magazine - July 9, 2006 |
George Borjas of the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy is profiled in this story about his research on the economic impacts of immigration in America.
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The Immigration Equation
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Calculating College Costs, Forbes.com by Janet Novack - July 5, 2006 |
Susan M. Dynarski, a Wiener Center/KSG associate professor of public policy and Harvard doctoral candidate Judith E. Scott-Clayton recently co-authored a new paper on the costs of complexity in the college financial aid system.
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Calculating College Costs
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Bitter Arguments of Past Still Echo, The Miami Herald - May 21, 2006 |
Christopher Jencks of the Wiener Center discusses immigration in this recent article from the Miami Herald.
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U.S. Immigration Debate is a Road Well Traveled, The Washington Post - May 8, 2006 |
Christopher Jencks of the Malcolm Wiener Center is quoted in this Washington Post article on U.S. immigration policy.
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U.S. Immigration Debate Is a Road Well Traveled (Subscription May Be Required)
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A Glut of Guns, The Boston Globe - March 20, 2006 |
An editorial in today's Boston Globeexamines the flow of illegal guns in Boston, and cites research from Anthony Braga of the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at the Malcolm Wiener Center.
Excerpt:
Almost two-thirds of the illegal guns recovered by Boston police in 2004 had been in circulation for at least seven years since their original, legitimate retail sale, according to Anthony Braga, a researcher at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Braga, one of two dozen experts who participated in a daylong handgun violence summit at Northeastern University recently, cited straw purchases, theft, off-the-books gun dealing, gun shows, and flea markets as pathways for guns used in crimes. Last year, 341 people were shot, 51 fatally, in Boston neighborhoods where a gun seller found a willing buyer. And that carnage came about despite the seizure of roughly 800 guns by Boston police.
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A glut of guns
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Poll: 60% of Americans are worried about bird flu, Associated Press - February 24, 2006 |
Nearly 60% of Americans are concerned about the bird flu, but fewer than one-third think it will show up in the United States this year, according to an Associated Press report printed in USA Today. The report is based upon a public opinion poll conducted by Robert Blendon who is a professor of health policy at the KSG's Malcolm Wiener Center and the Harvard School of Public Health.
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Poll: 60% of Americans are worried about bird flu
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Boston Crime Rates on the Rise, The Harvard Crimson - February 15, 2006 |
Wiener Center lecturer Anthony Braga is quoted in this story about the increase in violent crimes in Boston, part of a nationwide trend of heightened violence.
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Boston Crime Rates on the Rise
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Score Gap Initiative Sparks Debate; Plan to look at scores by race raises criticism , The Harvard Crimson - February 15, 2006 |
Ronald Ferguson of the Wiener Center is quoted in this story about local and national benchmarking initiatives to close the achievement gap between minority and white students.
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Score Gap Initiative Sparks Debate
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