U.S. Teen Births down, early Drug Use UP

Image Courtesy of fui

New statistics from the annual report on America’s children and their well-being point to some good news and bad news when it comes to the health of our kids.

The report, which is a compilation of statistics from numerous organizations, found that births to adolescents declined for the second consecutive year in the U.S. A drop in the adolescent birth rate, from 21.7 per 1,000 girls ages 15 to 17 (2008) to 20.1 per 1,000 (2009, preliminary data) was reported.

And the preterm births declined for the third consecutive year, with a drop in the proportion of infants born before 37 weeks, from 12.3 percent (2008) to 12.2 percent (2009, preliminary data).

“It is reassuring to see continued declines in the preterm birth rate and adolescent birth rate,” said Dr. Alan E. Guttmacher, director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Guttmacher noted although the numbers were promising, the federal government did not identify reasons for the declines.

The report also noted that adolescent injury deaths have also declined, with a drop in injury-related deaths among teens ages 15-19 from 44 per 100,000 (2008, preliminary data) to 39 per 100,000 (2009, preliminary data). That number includes teenage driving deaths. When asked if new state teenage driving laws had anything to do with these numbers, Guttmacher could not speculate. “I think it’s a number of things, “he said. “We’ve also seen fewer 12th-graders binge drinking. It could be a number of factors.”

The report, known as America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2011, looks at statistics ranging from cases of asthma in children to their test scores in math. It was compiled by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, a working group of 22 federal agencies that collect, analyze, and convey data on issues pertaining to children birth to 18 and their families. The report uses the most recently available major federal statistics on children and youth to measure family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.

But there was a flip side to the positive numbers. The report also found a rise in the proportion of eighth-graders who reported using illicit drugs in the past 30 days, from 8 percent (2009) to 10 percent (2010) And more children were likely to live in poverty, and fewer children were likely to live with at least one parent working year round, full time.

“This report documents some significant changes in several key areas,” said Edward Sondik, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics “This annual report is an important tool to monitor the well being of our nation’s children,” said Sondik. "Each area we report on is critical to our youth."

This year’s report also included a section on adoption. According to the data, adoption is preferred by parents to alternatives such as long-term foster care, group homes, emergency shelters, or orphanages. The report also noted that although most adopted children thrive, children who are adopted, particularly those adopted beyond the first months of life, experience disruptions in parenting that can have long-standing implications for their development and well-being.

CNN Health

Post by: Val Willingham - CNN Medical Producer Filed under: Adolescent Health • CDC • Families

'America Ferrera Ties the Knot!' - by Kelly Fisher

'Ugly Betty' is officially off the market!

 

America Ferrera married her longtime love Ryan Piers Williams over the weekend.

According to PopSugar, the wedding also served as a mini cast reunion for the former ABC show. Ferrera's 'Ugly Betty' co-star Vanessa Williams loaned out her Chappaqua house in upstate New York for the nuptials, while castmember Judith Light officiated the ceremony.

The couple were married "an intimate setting amongst close friends and family," her rep told PEOPLE. "The bride wore a dress by Amsale's Christos label and Fred Leighton earrings."

Other stars in attendance at the celebration included Rebecca Romijn (another 'Betty' star!) and husband Jerry O'Connell, as well as Ferrera's 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' co-stars Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn, and Blake Lively -- though her rumored beau Leonardo DiCaprio was missing from the celebration.

 

Ferrera and Williams became engaged last June after over three years of dating. The pair met at the University of Southern California when Williams, who now owns a production company, cast Ferrera in a student film.

Since 'Ugly Betty' ended its four year run in 2010, Ferrera was most recently seen on the small screen in a recurring role on the CBS drama, 'The Good Wife.' She'll also lend her voice in the upcoming animated film, 'How to Train Your Dragon 2.'
 PopEater.com

'Afghanistan: France follows US in troop withdrawal' - 23 June 2011

"Our mission will change from combat to support”

President Obama: "America, it is time to focus on nation-building at home"

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced the phased withdrawal of its 4,000 soldiers serving in Afghanistan.

A statement said the French would follow the timetable of US withdrawals announced by President Barack Obama.

Mr Obama said 10,000 US troops would pull out this year, with another 23,000 leaving by the end of September 2012.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed the move, but the Taliban dismissed it as "symbolic" and vowed to continue fighting until all foreign forces left.

At least 68,000 US troops will remain in the country after the 33,000 have been withdrawn, but they are scheduled to leave by 2013, provided that Afghan forces are ready to take over security.

However the US reductions just announced are larger and faster than military commanders had advised.  They told the president that the recent security gains were fragile and reversible, and had urged him to keep troop numbers high until 2013.

Correspondents say the enormous cost of the deployment - currently more than $2bn (£1.25bn) a week - has attracted criticism from Congressional leaders, while the public are weary of a war that seems to have no end and has left at least 1,500 personnel dead and 12,000 wounded.

There have also been changes on the ground, notably the killing in May of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden by US forces in Pakistan.
 
'Tide of war'
Mr Sarkozy's announcement came shortly after Mr Obama's, and followed a telephone discussion between the two leaders on Wednesday, said the Elysee Palace - the presidential office - in a statement.

The withdrawal of the approximately 4,000 serving French troops would be progressive and would take place "in a proportional manner and in a timeframe similar to the pullback of the American reinforcements", it said, beginning in the coming months.

Analysis

Christian Fraser BBC News, Paris

President Sarkozy has pointed to the progress made in Afghanistan this past year as the reason for France's decision to begin a gradual withdrawal.

It will be in a proportional manner, said the Elysee Palace, and in a calendar comparable to the US withdrawal.

France currently has 4,000 men and women operating in areas like Kapisa, the province adjoining Kabul, in the east of the country. But in recent years its special forces have been more closely involved in the fiercest fighting with the Taliban, and this has been one of the deadliest years to date, with nine French soldiers killed.

There are, of course, financial and political considerations here. France is one of the leading nations in the ongoing Nato operations over Libya and Mr Sarkozy is building up to the 2012 presidential election campaign. He has been edging slowly back up in the polls and this will be a popular decision.

The French president "stressed that France shared the American analysis and objectives and that it was happy with President Obama's decision".

Mr Obama's announcement, after a month-long strategy review, outlined the exit of the forces he sent to the country at the end of 2009 as part of a "surge".

In his speech, he said he had set clear objectives for the surge in December 2009 - to refocus on al-Qaeda, to reverse the Taliban's momentum, and train Afghan security forces to defend their own country.

His administration also stated the commitment would not be open-ended and that the withdrawal would begin in July 2011, he added.

"After this initial reduction our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace as Afghan security forces move into the lead. Our mission will change from combat to support."

The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington says the speech was all about reassuring the American public that the "tide of war" was receding.

Six thousand Americans have died in Iraq and Afghanistan and $1 trillion has been spent.

The initial withdrawal is expected to happen in two phases, with 5,000 troops coming home in coming months and another 5,000 by the end of the year.

The remainder of the surge reinforcements - 20,000 combat troops and an 3,000 deployed to support the operation - will be out by the end of September 2012, in time for the US presidential election.

Our correspondent says this is a quicker pace than most analysts predicted, and suggests the president does not feel he needs to leave the bulk of the surge force in place for another fighting season.

 

"This is a moment when President Obama can do what was unthinkable two years ago. He can defy the Pentagon. Early in his presidency it would have been too risky to ignore military advice”

Mark Mardell BBC North America editor

The second largest contributor to the international force in Afghanistan is the UK, which has more than 10,000 soldiers including special forces.

It has pledged to pull back forces by 2015 - and earlier if conditions allow.

US administration officials told the New York Times that the US military commander in Afghanistan, Gen David Petraeus, had not endorsed Mr Obama's decision. He recommended limiting initial withdrawals and leaving in place as many combat forces for as long as possible, they said.

Outgoing Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reluctantly accepted the reductions, the officials added.

Serious doubts remain about whether Afghan forces will be up to the task.

But President Karzai welcomed Mr Obama's announcement as "a good step for their benefit and the people of Afghanistan".

"I want the people of Afghanistan to be safe in their country with their own capable means," Mr Karzai said.
 
There was a more ambivalent response from senior Afghan security officials who spoke to the BBC.

 

They stressed that neither the army nor police were yet capable of handling security alone, citing problems of enemy infiltration, drug addiction, and high desertion rates.

An Afghan official with the country's National Security Council said he hoped the withdrawal would take place progressively, and not in one fell swoop.

"We look for a long-term commitment from the United States and the international community, one that will not allow Afghanistan to fall back to the pre-civil war and Taliban days," the official, who did not want to be named, told the BBC.

"We want to remind everyone, history shows that if you turn your [back] on Afghanistan, it will have negative consequences for you."

But a farmer in a volatile district in the north-eastern province of Kundoz told the BBC: "As far as I am concerned, the American forces didn't make a difference to me and my village. So if they leave it won't affect me.

"They supported militias, commanders who kill, rape and loot here. They are hated for that at my village.''

BBC News 

Barack Obama to announce Afghanistan troop decision - by Bilal Sarwary, 22 June 2011

 

Afghan forces are due to take over all security operations by 2014

US President Barack Obama will use a prime-time TV address to unveil plans for an initial withdrawal of thousands of US troops from Afghanistan.

Speaking on Wednesday evening, he is expected to say that 30,000 "surge" troops will begin leaving in July - with most gone by 2013, US media say.

The US currently has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan.

Divisions remain within the Obama administration over the size and speed of the pull-out.

Military commanders are thought to want to limit the number of combat troops removed from the country in an effort not to lose ground gained from the Taliban during recent fighting.

Reports of Mr Obama's announcement come after departing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that the US was holding "outreach" talks with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

It was the first time the US had acknowledged such contact.

The Afghan defence ministry welcomed the decision to withdraw foreign troops.

 

Analysis

Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Kabul

The US may be setting a timetable for withdrawing its forces - but there are many questions over the first phase of the security transition. In the past few weeks, insurgents have launched what Afghan intelligence officials say is a carefully planned wave of attacks in all of the areas to be handed over by Nato.

In Panjshir, insurgents tried to detonate a car full of explosives but it exploded before it could reach its target.

On Tuesday, the influential governor of Parwan province, Abdul Basir Salangi, a close ally President Karzai, survived an assassination attempt. In the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, a bomb explosion injured two civilians.

In some areas, insurgents have blockaded cities and towns, leaving thousands short of food and medicines.

Afghanistan's police and army are still dependent on coalition forces for air support, food, ammunition and roadside bomb-clearing. In addition, they have high rates of desertion and drug addiction, as well as "rogue" soldiers - there have been a number of incidents in which men in uniform have turned their weapons on Nato and Afghan colleagues.

"We appreciate the efforts and sacrifices made by the foreign forces in Afghanistan, but at the same time we congratulate them for returning back to their homelands after a long period of war," a spokesman said.

"The Afghan National Army [ANA] is ready to fill their space but they will face some problems in this area as they still lack weapons and equipment."

Afghan forces are due to take over all security operations by 2014, but BBC correspondents say they are a long way away from being ready for that.
 
'Gains could be threatened'
Mr Obama will make his address from the White House at 2000 local time (0000 GMT on Thursday), the White House press office said.

He is expected to announce the withdrawal of as many as 5,000 troops next month, the Associated Press reported.

Most of the 30,000 additional "surge" troops Mr Obama ordered deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 are to be withdrawn from the country by the end of 2012, CNN reported.

Under the plan the US military would aim to gradually hand over all security operations to Afghan security forces by 2014.

US military leaders are thought to favour a very gradual reduction in troops but other advisers advocate a more significant decrease in the coming months.

Earlier this month, Mr Gates said at Nato headquarters that "substantial progress" was being made on the ground in Afghanistan.

But he argued that "these gains could be threatened if we do not proceed with the transition to Afghan security lead in a deliberate, organised and co-ordinated manner".

US troops have been in Afghanistan since 2001

"Even as the United States begins to draw down in the next month, I assured my fellow ministers there will be no rush to the exits on our part."

But some believe the security gains being talked about mean a more rapid withdrawal of US forces is practical.

There is also growing political pressure for a significant withdrawal.

A bipartisan group of 27 US senators sent Mr Obama a letter last week pressing for a shift in strategy.

"Given our successes, it is the right moment to initiate a sizable and sustained reduction in forces, with the goal of steadily redeploying all regular combat troops," the senators wrote. "The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits."

While many Afghans accept that American troops are needed to defeat the Taliban, correspondents say that they resent their presence in the country.

The war is in its 10th year, civilian casualties are at an all-time high, and correspondents say the population has grown weary of the fighting. Insurgents are to blame for most of the deaths, but killings by foreign troops generate widespread outrage.
BBC News

'Porn publisher Larry Flynt offers job to embattled ex-congressman' - by the CNN Wire Staff June 17, 2011

(CNN) -- Larry Flynt, porn publisher and erstwhile snoop into the sex lives of politicians, has offered a job to disgraced former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner.

Flynt, founder of Hustler Magazine, made the job offer in a letter that was published in The Huffington Post on Thursday.

"This offer is not made in jest," wrote Flynt.
"Just as we do not undertake insincere political crusades, we do not make insincere job offers."

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Weiner could not be immediately reached for comment.
Where does Weiner go from here?

Flynt's job offer came within hours of the congressman's resignation on Thursday over a sexting scandal.
In the letter, Flynt offered to give Weiner a 20% raise above the salary he earned in the U.S. House of Representatives, ensuring the former congressman's medical benefits would match what he had received in office.

Flynt also offered to pay Weiner's moving expenses to Beverly Hills, California.
"While this employment opportunity is being offered in large part due to your qualifications and clear passion for making a change," Flynt wrote, "I feel that your unfortunate resignation is a prime example of unfounded political pressure and the hypocrisy that has invaded democracy in Washington, D.C."

The job offer was the second made by Flynt to a politician within the past year.

Recent political sex scandals
In October, he offered to hire Republican Carl Paladino after the socially conservative gubernatorial candidate garnered headlines over pornographic images circulated to friends and colleagues.

The tone of Flynt's purported job offer to Paladino was markedly different than Weiner's.
"It's clear that 'values purporting' Carl Paladino has a keen instinct for kinky sex," Flynt said in a news release at the time. "He is a natural pornographer who has a skilled eye for unusual views and acrobatics ... It's clear he's better suited to join our team than be the governor of the state of New York." Paladino lost the election to Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

In 1998, during the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, Flynt offered $1 million to anyone with evidence of sexual misconduct against Republican lawmakers leading the effort against Clinton.

He published some of the evidence he obtained.

CNN Politics