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Philadelphia Student Voices 2008 Civics Fair Winners Announced

 Students representing nearly a dozen schools from across the School District of Philadelphia gathered at the University of Pennsylvania’s Hall of Flags Tuesday to present civics projects on topics ranging from global warming to the gun violence plaguing the city. The projects were the culmination of work the high school seniors had done in their

Amy Jordan on Children and Electronic Media

Amy Jordan, director of the Media and the Developing Child sector of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, has authored “Children’s Media Policy,” the final article in the latest issue of the journal The Future of Children, which is devoted exclusively to children and electronic media. The journal is a collaboration of the Woodrow Wilson School of

Amy Jordan Briefs Senate Staff on Childhood Obesity

More than nine million children in the United States are overweight, a figure that has tripled since the 1970s. Overweight children are more likely to suffer psychological and physical health problems in their youth, and those problems are likely to follow them to adulthood. Obesity may be the number-one health problem facing children today. That

Factchecking by media a hit, new studies reveal

Political Mendacity and the Rise of Media Fact-Checkers More newspapers and television stations are fact-checking the claims of politicians, and the public seems to love it, according to factchecking practitioners and two new studies released today at a conference sponsored by FactCheck.org and the Annenberg Public Policy Center. “You get 100 e-mails saying thank-you for

U.S. Must Be Engaged Around the World, says George P. Shultz

In a world that is drifting, the United States must come up with a cohesive game plan to guide its diplomacy, said former Secretary of State George P. Shultz who delivered the second annual Leonore Annenberg Lecture in Public Service and Global Understanding at the University of Pennsylvania on October 18. Shultz’s address was entitled

Judicial Campaigns: Money, Mudslinging and an Erosion of Public Trust

Thirty-nine states elect their judges in some fashion. What once were “sleepy little affairs,” judicial campaigns have become high-stakes races, drawing in big money and increasingly negative advertising campaigns. In 2006, an estimated $16 million was spent on advertising in supreme court races in 10 states, a record. If predictions hold true, contests in 2008

Americans overwhelmingly favor election of judges but disapprove of judicial campaign fund-raising, fearing it affects fairness

Nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, of Americans prefer electing their judges rather than having governors nominate them from a list prepared by a nonpartisan committee. Yet when judges run for office they usually have to raise money for their election campaigns. Seven in 10 Americans believe that the necessity to raise campaign funds will affect a