Suchergebnisse

THE COSTS AND BENEFITS ASSOCIATED WITH HAVING A LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOND ISSUE RATED BY ONE OF THE NATIONALLY KNOWN BOND-RATING AGENCIES ARE EXAMINED. RATINGS CAN SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER BORROWING COSTS FOR SOME GOVERNMENTS AND FOR SOME TYPES OF ISSUES. HOWEVER, RATINGS APPEAR TO HAVE LITTLE EFFECT ON THE INTEREST COST OF SOME SMALL GOVERNMENT ISSUES. GENERAL RULES ARE SUGGESTED FOR DECIDING WHETHER A CREDIT RATING MAY BE WORTHWILE FOR A SMALL GOVERNMENT.

This article provides an intensive case study of a change process in which members of a youth program developed relationships with and altered attitudes and behavior toward diverse groups, including those defined by ethnicity, social class, religion, and sexual orientation. Latino and African American members of a community youth activism program were interviewed over a 4-month period, and supplementary data were obtained from participant observations and from interviews with the lead organizer. Qualitative analyses revealed a process in which youth were active agents of self-change. Their reports suggest three stages of change: developing relationships across groups, learning and discovery, and coming to act with awareness in relation to difference. The program facilitated this change not only by providing Allport's contact conditions and affording youth personalized experiences but also by providing them with critical understanding of the interpersonal and systemic processes that create marginalization and injustice.

Forward; Preface; The Water We Drink; Water Pollution; Water Protection; Living with the Risk of Polluted Water; Managing Risk and Drinking Water Quality; Appendix 1-1: Average Elemental Abundance in the Earths Crust; Appendix 1-2: Chemical Compounds with Established Water Quality Criteria -- 1952; Appendix 1-3: USEPA National Recommended Water Quality Criteria: 2002 for Freshwater and Human Consumption of Water + Organism; Appendix 2-1: Dow Industrial Chemicals, Solvents and Dyes in 1938; Appendix 2-2: USEPA List of Priority Pollutants; Appendix 2-3: Summary of Surface Water Data; Appendix 2-4: Summary of Shallow Groundwater Data; Appendix 2-5: Organic Chemicals found in Landfill Leachate and Gas; Appendix 2-6: Unregulated Pollutants Discharged to or Identified in Water Resources; Appendix 2-7: Chemicals Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer or Reproductive Toxicity; Appendix 2-8: Regulated Pesticides in Food with Residues Tolerances; Appendix 2-9: Comparison of Chemicals Required to be Monitored in Groundwater Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, CFR 40, Part 264, Appendix IX: USEPA Regulate Chemicals under Drinking Water Standards, Priority Pollutant List or Ambient Water Quality Criteria; Appendix 3-1: General Drinking Water Monitoring and Warning Requirements; Appendix 3-2: National Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence Database -- Data on Primary Water Quality Standards; Appendix 3-3: National Drinking Water Contaminant Occurrence Database -- Data on Unregulated Compounds; Appendix 3-4: Examples of Bottled Mineral Water Chemistry; Appendix 3-5: Examples of Bottled Water Chemistry; Appendix 3-6: Trace Element Analysis of Mineral Waters (ppb) that Appear in Either; Appendix 3-4 or Appendix 3-5; Appendix 4-1 Toxicological Primer on Terminology; Appendix 4-2 Toxicological Information on Existing Standards; Appendix 4-3 Suspected Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals; Appendix 4-4 US Geological Survey Target Compounds, National Reconnaissance of Emerging Contaminants in US Streams (2000)

Subjective risk perceptions give rise to unique policy implications as they reflect both the expectation of risk exposure and the ability to mitigate or cope with the adverse impacts. Based on data collected from semistructured interviews and iterative ranking exercises with 159 households in the Altay and Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang, China, this study investigates and explains the risks with respect to a seriously understudied population and location. Using both geostatistical and econometric methods, we show that although fear of environmental crisis is prevalent among our respondents, recently implemented pastoral conservation, sedentarization, and development projects are more likely to be ranked as the top concerns among affected households. In order to reduce these concerns, future pastoral policy must be built on the livestock economy, and intervention priority should be given to the geographic areas identified as risk hot spots. In cases where pastoralists have to give up their pastures, the transition to other comparable livelihood strategies must be enabled by creating new opportunities and training pastoralists to acquire the needed skills.