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2022 - 11 - 10

Post cover — Image courtesy of "USDA.gov"

USDA Invests $50 Million for Schools & Food Industry to Work ... (USDA.gov)

Washington, D.C., Nov. 10, 2022 – USDA's Food and Nutrition Service today launched a new and innovative initiative for healthier school meals through a $50 ...

In the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean-energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. Efforts from both phases of the initiative will support American agricultural producers by strengthening access to nutritious commodities in small and rural school districts. The National Strategy was released in conjunction with the first White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in over 50 years, hosted by President Biden on September 28, 2022. These organizations will award competitive grants to support and enhance the food supply chain for K-12 schools. The Biden-Harris Administration’s National Strategy provides a roadmap of actions the federal government will take to end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases by 2030 – all while reducing disparities. The grants will support schools’ ability to access a wider variety of healthy, appealing products and promote innovation by food producers and suppliers, including local producers and small and disadvantaged businesses. USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. The initiative is designed to improve the quality of school meals by strengthening access to nutritious food products. 10, 2022 – USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service today launched a new and innovative initiative for healthier school meals through a $50 million grant opportunity that will support collaboration with the food industry to develop nutritious, appetizing school meals for students. “USDA is committed to supporting these programs holistically, and that includes strengthening the entire food supply chain that sustains them. Up to four non-governmental organizations will be selected by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service to manage funds for the School Food System Transformation Challenge. “For children to reach their full academic potential, they must build healthy eating habits, and USDA recognizes the importance of private sector partnership in making this happen.”

MIT PhD students shed light on important water and food research (MIT News)

Portraits of the 2022-23 Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab Fellows highlight each student's research and their inspiration to solve challenges ...

Zhang says that “one of the most serious problems is vitamin A deficiency, because vitamin A is not very stable.” She goes on to explain that although vitamin A is present in different vegetables, when the vegetables are cooked, vitamin A can easily degrade. Zhang hopes that the technology can one day “produce lots of clean water for communities around the world that currently don't have access to fresh water,” and create a new appreciation for this common liquid that many of us might not think about on a day-to-day basis. Is it really going to reach the people who need it the most?” Adding these constraints in the beginning of the research process sometimes makes the problem more difficult to solve, but Gokhale notes that in the end, the solution is much more promising. Fransen says she finds the work “really interesting from the scientific perspective as well as from the idea that [she’s] going to make the world a little better with these new materials.” She adds, “I think it is both really fulfilling and really exciting and engaging.” Zhang says it is the “little, tiny steps every day that are pushing us forward to the final impactful product.” “We don't really think much about it, it's transparent, odorless, we just turn on our sink in many parts of the world and it just flows through,” says James Zhang when talking about water. “I know how important it is to do something which is not just scientifically interesting, but something which is impactful in a real way,” says Gokhale. He decided to focus his attention on designing emitters that are resistant to clogging, testing with sand and passive hydrodynamic filtration back in the lab at MIT. “We can't ensure that all of our plastic waste gets recycled or reused, and so we want to make sure that if it does escape into the environment it can degrade, and that's kind of where a lot of my research really comes in,” says Fransen. “Their passion and determination to create positive change for humanity are evident in these unique video portraits, which describe their solutions-oriented research in water and food,” Lienhard adds. Most of her work involves creating polymers, or “really long chains of chemicals,” kind of like the paper rings a lot of us looped into chains as kids, Fransen explains. One glance at the news lately will reveal countless headlines on the dire state of global water and food security.

USDA ERS - Background and Uses (usda.gov)

The USDA, Economic Research Service's (ERS) Poverty Area Measures data product serves as a resource for researchers, Federal agencies, policymakers, ...

The next edition of the county typology codes (published 2015) dropped 1970 and added American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year period estimates for 2007–11 to the persistent poverty measure, which reflected a transition to using ACS estimates for poverty statistics. [2004 edition of the County Typology Codes](/data-products/county-typology-codes/) includes persistent poverty area measures (total and child populations) derived from Decennial Census data years 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000. The 1990 persistent poverty area measure provided in this data product includes decennial data years 1960 through 1990, while the research measure spans 1990 to the 2015–19 ACS 5-year period estimates. This data product contains official USDA, ERS persistent poverty county measures for periods ending in 1990, 2000, and 2007–11 as well as a research measure ending in 2015–19. [persistent poverty county and persistent child poverty county definitions](/data-products/county-typology-codes/documentation/). Persistent poverty area status is determined by ERS using 4 data periods, approximately 10 years apart, and spanning 30 years (baseline and 3 evaluation periods). As such, a high poverty measure can be used to identify areas where poverty has reached a critical impact point (i.e., where neighborhood poverty begins to negatively affect individual well-being for area residents regardless of their own poverty status) and as a proxy for the potential extent of that impact (i.e., as an area’s poverty rate increases from 20 percent up to 40 percent it is likely to produce areawide poverty conditions that are more structurally and demographically systemic). Measures of high and persistent poverty at multiple spatial scales are in demand as is the ability to adjust those measures using different years of data and data sources. See: [Rural Poverty Has Distinct Regional and Racial Patterns](/amber-waves/2021/august/rural-poverty-has-distinct-regional-and-racial-patterns/)(Amber Waves, August 2021) [Rural Education at a Glance, 2017 Edition](/publications/pub-details/?pubid=83077)(Economic Information Bulletin No. It is not exhaustive of all possible data years and sources, but it includes those commonly used in Federal high and persistent poverty area definitions. "Persistent poverty" refers to long-standing geographic concentrations of poor individuals, as determined by OPM poverty income thresholds. "High poverty" is defined as an areawide poverty rate of 20 percent or more, based on the U.S.

United States and Spain Announce the Development of a New ... (CISA)

WASHINGTON - The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in partnership with the U.S. Department of State and the Spanish Ministry of the ...

When completed, the tool will feature a series of case studies of PPPs that have been used in the counter-ransomware fight, including those pioneered by members of the CRI P3 Working Group. “Spain has the strong conviction that this project will contribute in a decisive manner to expose the most innovative state of the art of PPP best practices to fight against ransomware, said Guillermo Ardizone Garcίa, Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The CRI is a global coalition of 36 partner nations and the European Union dedicated to confronting the scourge of ransomware.

Justice Department, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ... (Department of Justice)

Justice Department, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Labor Issue Resource Document for Military Servicemembers Ahead of Veterans Day ...

The Civil Rights Division also houses the Justice Department’s Servicemembers and Veterans Initiative (SVI), which supports this legal work by conducting targeted outreach, training, policy development and coordination with other federal partners. “We owe our servicemembers, veterans and their families a deep debt of gratitude for their service to our country,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “As the federal government makes historic investments in infrastructure, manufacturing and technology, OFCCP is playing a central role in ensuring that the nation is utilizing the full talents of all workers, including our nation’s protected veterans.” The document also explains how additional federal laws prohibit discrimination against employees for other reasons that servicemembers and veterans may face, including discrimination on the basis of a disability or other protected characteristics. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and its Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS), issued a resource document describing federal protections from unlawful employment discrimination against servicemembers and veterans. Ahead of Veterans Day, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S.

Your Friday Briefing: Xi and Biden to Meet (The New York Times)

President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, China's leader, will meet on Monday, before the G20 summit in Indonesia. The conversation will be their first in-person ...

Here are the [latest updates](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/10/us/election-updates-midterms-results?type=styln-live-updates&label=midterm%20election%20updates&index=0). [Diaries](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/books/ukraine-writers-diaries.html)have become a lifeline for Ukrainians living through the war. [You can find all our puzzles here](https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords). He also raised the possibility of peace talks, though Western officials say they are [unlikely in the near future](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/politics/ukraine-russia-peace-talks.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article). presidents](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/world/asia/biden-taiwan-china.html). Now, a [reckoning awaits](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/business/dealbook/ftx-crypto-binance-sbf-cz.html), as investors and customers prepare to fight the company for their money. But Ukrainian officials expressed skepticism, saying that [the withdrawal could be a trap](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-weapons.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-russia-ukraine&variant=show®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc). [once considered a safe bet](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/technology/big-tech-layoffs.html) for the so-called best and brightest employees, is rushing to make staffing cuts, blaming a worsening economy. [rising for months](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/us/politics/taiwan-biden-weapons-china.html). [slowing in the U.S.](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/business/stock-market-inflation.html), bolstering investors’ expectations that the Federal Reserve will moderate the pace of its interest rate increases. “You’d sip on a bottle of wine over the course of a few hours, you’d get warm, feel better, feel good. A senior White House official framed the meeting as “building a floor” in U.S.-China relations, and said the president would be honest about his concerns.

Xi-Biden meeting: Taiwan top of agenda for Chinese and US leaders (BBC News)

Taiwan is expected to top the agenda when US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet next week - their first in-person encounter since Mr ...

Meanwhile Mr Xi has told the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to "focus all energy on fighting a war... The US has long been walking a tightrope over Taiwan. This way they can "determine whether or not they conflict with one another… But Taiwan sees itself as distinct. and what I want to do with him when we talk is lay out... "I'm sure we'll discuss Taiwan...

Death Penalty Information Center Launches Series on Human ... (Death Penalty Information Center)

[W]hen we think about the death penalty, we need to be thinking about the use of these kinds of state sanctioned or state sponsored death threats ….”…

death penalty is not just a human rights issue in itself, it also impedes efforts by both the United States and by our friends and allies alike to respect human dignity, protect basic social, economic, and political rights, and promote the values of a free and open democratic society.” “that helped Germany to build a constitution” based on the “principles of human dignity and human rights.” Discussing a pending United Nation’s resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty, Dittmann stated that “Europe and Australia together hope for some kind of support from the United States. primarily sees capital punishment as a criminal law issue.” The DPIC webinar series, she said “will be really important in highlighting how maintaining the death penalty perpetuates a wide range of human rights abuses.” Reviewing the evolution of the death penalty from the slave statutes of the Civil War era to its racially disparate application today, Rust-Tierney argued, “The death penalty is demonstrably a human rights violation…. DPIC presented the second event in the series, a webinar on Race, Human Rights, and the U.S. “The death penalty has always been a human rights violation and it’s something that our human rights allies around the world have always known,” Rust-Tierney said. “[W]hen you trace the history of the death penalty and its use today, you see that it was always used primarily to delineate the relative worth of lives based on race and skin color.” And while the death penalty has been cloaked as a measure of accountability, or response to criminal activity and public safety, it’s a practice that is always been practiced in a capricious and biased way.” Explaining the expanded understanding of torture from the physical infliction of excruciating pain to including psychological torture and death threats, Bessler said, “We need to be thinking about re-characterizing the death penalty as an act of torture.” The death penalty, he said, is “essentially a series of death threats. … [W]hen we think about the death penalty, we need to be thinking about the use of these kinds of state sanctioned or state sponsored death threats ….” The program reframed the discussion of capital punishment from a public safety context to whether its existence and practice is incompatible with fundamental notions of human rights. Death Penalty on November 4, 2022, with a live-streamed panel discussion at the German embassy in Washington, D.C.

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