Once again, coming to you from Houston, Texas the nation's fourth largest city, and home of the Texans, Astros, Rockets, and Dynamo.
For those who haven't met me, I'm an out loud and proud liberal, card-carrying LGBT community member, nonprofit professional, and DKos Trusted User. I appreciate any/all feedback on this little round-up of newsy-ish links and stories from Htown.
For now, I'm keeping the Commmunity/Business/Nonprofit format. Anything else y'all think I should cover? Follow me below for news you can use.
COMMUNITY
Schools Cope as Classes Expand and Staffs Shrink
As state spending contracted in the 2011-12 school year, classroom sizes ballooned. Data from the Texas Education Agency show that the number of elementary classes across the state with more than 22 students grew to 8,479 from 2,238 last year. And the fastest-growing school districts have been hit the hardest by larger classes.
http://www.texastribune.org/...
File your tax return quick, before someone else does
If you haven't filed your income tax return yet, you might want to do it before a thief steals your chance - and your refund. The Internal Revenue Service is reporting an explosion in the number of returns filed by people who have stolen the identities of others in order to rob them of their refunds. In 2010, the IRS said it intercepted nearly 49,000 fraudulent tax returns involving identity theft. Last year, that number more than quadrupled, to nearly 262,000.
http://www.chron.com/...
Feds will phase out funds for Women's Health Program
The federal government said Thursday it will phase out funding to Texas for a key women's health program, calling a transition period necessary to ensure that low-income clients don't abruptly lose access to screenings and contraceptives. Money for the Medicaid Women's Health Program is drying up because the state has decided to exclude clinics affiliated with abortion providers, even if the clinics don't provide abortions. The federal government says that's not allowed.
http://www.chron.com/...
'Match Day' moves cancer survivor toward career as cancer specialist
On Friday Echendu will join more than 150 Baylor students - and about 450 others at University of Texas' Houston and Galveston medical schools - in a physicians' rite of passage: Match Day. After four years of medical school, they will rip open envelopes to learn where they will perform residencies, the next step in their medical careers. Earlier this week, Echendu, who in May will graduate in the top 15 percent of her class, was one of 27 students inducted into Baylor's Gold Humanism Honor Society - a group chosen for "integrity, excellence, compassion, altruism, respect and empathy."
http://www.chron.com/...
Prison Radio Show is Inmates' Link to the Outside World
Part news program, part call-in show, "The Prison Show" aims to help inmates stay connected to family, friends and the outside world. “The Prison Show,” which started in 1980 on KPFT, is part news program and part call-in radio show. Some Texas inmates have listened to their own weddings on the show, with the new spouse and a proxy exchanging vows in the studio. Others have listened to their children grow up on the radio, hearing news of soccer games and report cards from children they never see.
http://www.texastribune.org/...
BUSINESS
Fewer seek jobless aid, tying 4-year low
Fewer people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, adding to signs that the job market is strengthening. And in another reassuring sign for the economy, wholesale inflation remains mild outside of higher gas prices. Applications for unemployment aid dropped 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 351,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That matches a four-year low reached last month. The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, was unchanged at 355,750.
http://www.chron.com/...
Google Faces New Privacy Probes
Regulators in the U.S. and EU are investigating Google for bypassing the privacy settings of millions of users of Apple's Safari Web browser. Google stopped the practice last month after being contacted by The Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/...
Petitions Are Going Viral, Sometimes To Great Success
Petitions have been a common form of protest throughout modern history, often bringing attention to a cause through little more than handwritten letters and word of mouth. But like a lot of other things, petitions are going viral. And one website in particular has contributed to the phenomenon.
http://www.npr.org/...
UPS intends to make offer for TNT Express
United Parcel Service said it was in constructive talks to buy Dutch rival TNT Express and reiterated its intention to make an offer, having last month proposed a 9 euros per share deal worth 4.9 billion euros ($6.4 billion).
http://www.reuters.com/...
NONPROFIT / OTHER
Elephant (Still) in the Room: States’ Budget Crises Loom over Nonprofits, Social Services
What happened to the state budget crisis? Last year, it was the raging headline in nonprofit circles. While the federal budget might have been stuck in the muck and mire that characterizes Washington politics at the moment, the nonprofit focus was on the tanking of state budgets riddled with gaping holes. With states caught between mandated expenditures such as public employee pensions and Medicaid on one side and the requirement to balance their budgets on the other, nonprofits feared the worst and they experienced much of what they feared—scimitar slashes in human services, housing, community development, and the arts, the discretionary programs that are the bread and butter of nonprofit service missions.
http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/...
Houston Startup Coins New Term in Tech. "What is Your Social Meter?"
Social Meter, a Houston-based startup, provides a vehicle for executives and other professionals to parlay the public’s desire for personal access to them into charitable contributions. Malcolm Sykes, founder of Socialmeter.org, says the site allows an individual to use his or her notoriety for a good purpose. Sykes points to billionaire Warren Buffett's lunch">Warren Buffett’s lunch as an example of a very high Social Meter.
http://www.chron.com/...
How Supporting Entrepreneurs Can Break The Cycle Of Poverty
Kiva is a non-profit organization that connects people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the Internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create sustaining opportunity for entrepreneurs around the world. But Kiva, like most nonprofits, continually needs to attract new supporters to scale to its full potential. Even with 700,000 lenders in the Kiva community, and nearly $300 million in microloans to date, Kiva is just scratching the surface. Millions of people around the world are seeking the initial resources they need to create a better future for themselves and their families, and Kiva is a powerful way to provide these resources.
http://mashable.com/...
Backlash Aside, Charities See Lessons in a Web Video
It has galvanized young Americans, inspired a flood of donations and stirred a backlash from critics. But for some in the nonprofit world, the reaction to the unprecedented success of an advocacy video about the murderous African warlord Joseph Kony can be summed up in a word: envy. Experts emphasized that social media alone would not create the next Kony video, which benefited from a large and diverse network built by Invisible Children over years of conferences, campus visits and digital outreach — in other words, old-fashioned community organizing.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Post-Katrina, New Orleans Rises Up With A Sustainable, Entrepreneurial Culture
Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans. No one can deny that. What happened afterwards, though, is a bit muddled in the country’s collective consciousness. To some, the city seems like it’s still devastated, struggling in vain to recover from a crushing disaster. Others still think of it as the city of Mardi Gras, a place to party. The NOLABound program wants to highlight a different reality: a city which has risen up in the face of Katrina’s aftermath to create a thriving entrepreneurial culture that can bring the city’s economy back to life. New Orleans is becoming a hotbed of social enterprise, as the city plans to show to the world during this year’s NOLABound showcase.
http://www.fastcoexist.com/...