Blagojevich Hands Off Tricky Spending Question
from the Chicago Tribune
Gov. Rod Blagojevich has approved diverting $221 million in the state budget that lawmakers hope will prevent layoffs and program cuts, but claim it's up to a potential rival, Comptroller Dan Hynes, to determine whether the money is available. That leaves in question the fate of 323 state employees who have been told they'll lose their jobs this fall. More

We're Back...and So Is the Internet
from NASW IL
If you have tried to e-mail me or anyone on the NASW IL professional staff the past couple of weeks, you have received a bounced back message. This has probably left you wondering if our computers fell off the back of the moving truck as it made its 1.5 mile trek to the chapter's new home at 404 S. Wells. After a long unsuccessful dispute with AT&T and SBC since Oct. 1, we now have Internet and e-mail thanks to a satellite dish on our roof. More

Courts are Failing Battered Women
from the Chicago Tribune
For every man convicted in a Cook County court of beating his wife or girlfriend, five men brought in on similar charges walk away legally unscathed. And despite official promises to help women pursue abuse complaints, that conviction rate is only getting worse. More

Becoming a Bully Magnet
from Newsweek
Every parent wants to know the secret to school happiness: why is one kid well liked while another gets picked on? There's no recipe for social success among first graders. But a new study published this week in the Archives of General Psychiatry reveals some intriguing clues about why certain children land in the dreaded world of what science calls "peer victimization." More

Study: Eight out of 10 Americans Stressed Because of Economy
from CNN
If you're lying awake at night, feeling angry or fatigued, because of stress, you're in the majority, according to a nationwide report released recently. As many as 80 percent of Americans are stressed about their personal finances and the economy, according to the annual survey conducted by the American Psychological Association. More

Report Card on Boys Troubling
from the Chicago Tribune
The school year is under way and many parents of sons are getting that sinking feeling as they await the first report card, knowing that their otherwise smart boy is either struggling in school or flying beneath the radar, wholly unengaged in learning. Poor African-American and Latino boys are most gravely affected, but in every demographic—in poor, middle-class and affluent school districts—boys are achieving less than girls. More

Texas Struggling to Staff a Program that Helps the Poor
from The Houston Chronicle
In 2007, there were 58,000 neglected Texas children whose cases don't often make headlines. But they account for 60 percent of confirmed allegations of abuse and neglect in the child welfare system. And poverty is a key factor in many cases. More

Social Services in Virginia Face $86.6 million in Reductions
from WSLS-TV
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s budget reductions announced last week include reductions of more than $86.6 million to mental health, health and human resources agencies. These are the agencies that make sure people with serious mental illness get treatment, that waters where seafood is harvested are routinely tested for contaminants so consumers don’t get sick, that families get the child support due them, among many other things. More