|
||||||
|
THRIFT AND GENEROSITY Institute leaders were all over the news this month promoting thrift and combating state-sponsored gambling. Paul Davies and Andrew Yarrow had opinion pieces in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Daily. The New York Times ran an editorial -- after Institute-generated media appeared on the topic -- opposing the governor's plan to expand state-sponsored gambling that was in line with the Institute's position. Leaders also did interviews for WOR in New York City, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Hudson Valley public radio, and other outlets. New York's Bad Bet Paul Davies, New York Times, January 22, 2012 "The governor of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo, is sending his state down the same wrongheaded path as other states that are trying to gamble their way out of economic trouble by legalizing commercial casinos. The casinos might create jobs and generate revenue for state coffers, but those gains would come at a cost that casino supporters ignore or play down." Read the Article | And read reactions NY Governor Seeks Aqueduct Convention Center, Casinos Michael Gormley, Associated Press, January 4, 2012 "'Legalized casino gambling encourages people to pin their hopes on games of chance that are stacked against them,' said Cornell University economics Professor Robert Frank. He is part of the survey by the Institute for American Values that says the social costs of gambling addiction outweigh the tax revenues. 'Those who are determined to gamble will find some way to do so, but why lend government's imprimatur to predators' efforts to exploit people who can least afford to bear the inevitable losses?' Frank said." Read the Article | See also at Huffington Post | Press of Atlantic City | and Austin-American Stateman Mr. Cuomo's New Year Editorial, New York Times, January 4, 2012 "We are concerned about his plan to bolster state finances and create jobs with a lot more gambling. He said on Wednesday that he will pursue a constitutional amendment that would allow gambling throughout the state and not just in the five casinos run by American Indians and the locations with 'electronic gaming machines.' There's little evidence that casinos, which carry high social costs, will create good, high-wage jobs." David Blankenhorn on Gov. Cuomo's Casino Gambling Proposal The Governor David Patterson Show, WOR NewsTalk Radio 710, January 4, 2012 "Governor David Paterson speaks with David Blankenhorn, President of the Institute for American Values, to discuss his op-ed piece in the Daily News ['Andrew, Heed Mario -- Gambling Will Not Help New York']." Listen (start listening at 32:50) Think Tank Surveyed NY Economists Says Casinos Are Bad . . . Staff Writer, Mid-Hudson News, January 3, 2012 "A survey of economists conducted by the Center for Thrift and Generosity at the Institute for American Values in New York finds most believe legalized casino gaming in New York would be bad.... 'Legalized casino gambling encourages people to pin their hopes on games of chance that are stacked against them,' said Cornell University economics Professor Robert Frank. Another respondent to the survey, Union College economist Prof. Mary O'Keefe said casino gambling 'is not just economically regressive, it is sociologically destructive to the community.'" Casino Giants $4B Gamble Erik Kriss, New York Post, January 6, 2012 "Gov. Cuomo is pushing for a constitutional amendment to legalize gambling, which could allow Genting to expand its current racino at Aqueduct -- the only racino in the five boroughs -- into a full-fledged casino.... An anti-casino think tank attacked the proposed Genting plan as a clever way to sell gambling. 'It's a slick move by the governor to try to wrap the casino plan around the convention-center plan,' said Institute for American Values spokesman Paul Davies.... 'The reality is this is a huge tax on low-income people' who frequent casinos, Davies said." Convention Center Plan at NY's Aquedect Progresses Associated Press Staff, Wall Street Journal, January 9, 2012 "'Casino gambling is not just economically regressive, it is sociologically destructive to the community,' said Mary O'Keefe, a Union College economist working with the Institute for American Values that opposes gambling." Cuomo Rolls the Dice on New Convention Center Brandon Quinn, Legislative Gazette, January 9, 2012 "The Institute for American Values, a New York City think tank dedicated to rectifying America's personal debt crisis, recently published a survey by the Center for Thrift and Generosity that shows economists strongly disagree with Cuomo's plan to legalize gambling. The survey of 64 professors at New York universities spanned the spectrum of expertise from social and ethical economics to business professors. It finds that legalized gambling and the building of casinos would increase jobs, but 'the majority of jobs in casinos are low-wage and low-skill positions.'" Racino Operator Donates $100,000 to State Pols Kenneth Lovett, New York Daily News, January 24, 2012 "Gambling foe David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, called the donations 'disappointing, but not surprising.' 'If there is a real public discussion on the issue, these casino lobbyists will not succeed so they try to use money and secrecy to get their way,' Blankenhorn said." A Shinnecock Casino at Belmont? Don't Bet On It Spencer Rumsey, Long Island Press, January 26, 2012 "'I thought it was a very slick move on his part to wrap a casino inside a convention center. They're both bad ideas,' says Paul Davies, a fellow at the Institute of American Values in Manhattan. He bemoaned the fact that former Gov. Mario Cuomo had denounced gambling in his 1994 book The New York Idea as 'economically regressive.' Unlike his son today." Cuomo Will Get Casino Gambling, But Maybe Shouldn't Phil Reisman, LoHud.com, January 29, 2012 "Paul Davies, a fellow at the Institute for American Values and editor of the blog getgovernmentoutofgambling.org, doesn't buy Cuomo's rationale that gambling is a fait accompli. 'My response to that is that more of a bad thing is not good,' Davies said.... His blog lists 21 reasons why government should avoid the temptation, citing analyses from all over the country." Letter: Potential Casinos Warrant Study Douglas M. Walker, Times Union, January 22, 2012 "While I agree with David Blankenhorn's opinion ('More casinos? Think again,' Jan. 3) that state government should more carefully study the potential economic impacts of introducing casinos, he propagates several misconceptions." Letter: Critic Ignores Church Gambling Peter G. Sokaris, Times Union, January 9, 2012 "David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, asks Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to 'take a period of time actually to think and to allow us to think along with them, before they act' on the issue of bringing casino gambling to New York ('More Casinos? Think again,' Jan. 3).... Mr. Blankenhorn and his Institute for American Values are thoughtless. Their silence on the issue of weekly gambling activities in our holy places of worship leaves them lacking in credibility." E-gambling: Yeah, I Bet Paul Davies, The Daily, December 29, 2011 "Public Relations 101 dictates that to bury any bad news, release it before the weekend or a holiday. The Justice Department did just that last week by issuing a legal opinion on Friday, the day before Christmas Eve, that reverses its long-held opposition to online gambling. Even more troubling, the opinion was written in September -- a clear sign that the department is not proud of its flip-flop." Online Gambling Broke UConn Poker Addict Rick Green, Hartford Courant, January 4, 2012 "'What everyone needs to be aware of here is that this is a government program based on pushing people deeper and deeper into personal debt and creating addiction in order to feed off of it,' said Les Bernal, [Institute partner and] executive director of Stop Predatory Gambling, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that opposes government-sponsored gambling. 'This is the equivalent of opening up a casino or lottery retailer in every home, office or dorm room in Connecticut, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.'" Government Teaching Kids to Gamble? Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow, January 9, 2012 "'What you see -- in the U.K. and elsewhere in our country here in terms of what government's daily voice is its lottery advertising and casino advertising, and it needs to change,' the Stop Predatory Gambling spokesman [and Institute partner, Les Bernal] contends. 'If we want to get our country going in the right direction, we've got to get government out of the gambling business.'" Gambling Opponent: Gingrich Weakened Casino Oversight in Congress Mary Ellen Klas, Miami Herald blog Naked Politics, January 23, 2012 "'By eliminating the subpoena power of what ultimately became know as The National Gambling Impact Study Commission, Gingrich made the commission virtually impotent, allowing predatory gambling operators to totally disregard its key recommendation that states implement a moratorium on any gambling expansion,' writes Les Bernal, [Institute partner and] head of Stop Predatory Gambling, a non-profit devoted to exposing government profit and promotion from gambling." The Debt Crisis We're Ignoring Andrew L. Yarrow, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 17, 2012 "[Thrift is] a topic that would have been in the news nearly a century ago around this time of year, when the nation kicked off National Thrift Week on Benjamin Franklin's birthday, which is today. Thrift Week, which is being revived in Franklin's hometown of Philadelphia, promoted not only saving, but also the value of conservation, efficiency, and frugality." Dr. Charles Stokes on the Thrift Index Consumer Talk with Michael Finney, KGO 810, January 21, 2012 Consumer talk show host Michael Finney interviews Institute fellow Dr. Charles E. Stokes about the first-ever U.S. Thrift Index. Listen (start listening at 44:15) MARRIAGE AND FAMILIES When Are You Too Old to Have a Baby? The Dr. Oz Show, January 27, 2012 Dr. Oz features FamilyScholars blogger and founder of the Anonymous Us Project Alana S. participating in a debate between Jennifer Lahl and a prominent fertility doctor on childbearing after age 40. Anonymous Father's Day Jennifer Lahl and Matthew Eppinette, Anonymous Father's Day, January 29, 2012 The new documentary Anonymous Father's Day, featuring interviews with Center for Marriage and Families director Elizabeth Marquardt and FamilyScholars bloggers Alana S. and Stephanie Blessing, premiered in New York City on January 29th. Why Marriage Matters to Your Adult Children Amy Ziettlow, Huffington Post, January 23, 2012 "Of late, I've been listening to the life stories of Gen X individuals whose baby boomer mom or dad, stepmom or stepdad, died in the fall of 2010. Each story is unique and beautiful, full of grace-filled surprises found in the midst of daily survival. As they review the life of the parent who has died through the lens of care giving and grieving, we catch a glimpse of how the first wave of the baby boomers is aging and dying." Read the Article | And read at FamilyScholars.org MLK Day: Achieving the MLK Dream Staff Writer, The Free Lance-Star, January 16, 2012 "Social historian Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, in an award-winning article in The Atlantic Monthly -- statistically proved that 'Dan Quayle was right,' that 'children in families disrupted by divorce and out-of-wedlock birth do worse than children in intact families on several measures of well-being.'" The Secret to a Happy Marriage? Small Acts of Kindness Sarah Hampson, Globe and Mail, January 8, 2012 "The generous marriage has a much greater chance of being a happy one. That's the finding of a recent study by the University of Virginia's National Marriage Project, examining the role of generosity in marriages.... Undertaken in co-operation with the Center for Marriage and Families at the Institute for American Values, an organization headed up by Elizabeth Marquardt, a famously pro-marriage family scholar who argued in her book, Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce, that even amicable divorces profoundly shape the lives of children in negative ways, the study set out to counter what it calls 'the increasingly individualistic tenor of modern life.'" Fewer Marriages, Fewer Babies, No Wonder! Susan Newman, Psychology Today blog Singletons, January 5, 2012 "One of the themes explored in 'The State of Our Unions' centers around the number of children a couple has. Apparently, you can't have just one or two babies and be VERY happy. A section titled 'Family Size, Faith, and the Meaning of Parenthood' reveals fairly consistent happiness levels for parents with 1-3 children. Those parents report being happy, but they are not very happy. The leap to being a VERY happy married couple actually sets in when you have no children or four or more children." Proposed Legislation to Make Divorce More Difficult Gaining Momentum FindLaw Knowledge Database, January 12, 2012 "The Second Chances Act would require a mandatory one year waiting period and educational courses focusing on reconciliation prior to granting a petition for divorce. The Act was investigated and proposed to policy makers by William J. Doherty, a professor of family and social science at the University of Minnesota, and Leah Ward Sears, a former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court." |
||||||
|
 
|
