Tag: America

After the Obama administration-embraced solar-panel company Solyndra collapsed and defaulted on its government-backed loans, the surging U.S. solar industry is suddenly worried that the subsidies it receives -- tax credits and loans guarantees -- could dry up in the face of opposition from conservatives.

In 2009, the number of unemployed Americans exceeded the tally of those working in the manufacturing sectors.
While the States once boomed because of their industrial prowess, tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs disappear every month. Bill Fletcher, Jr., author of Solidarity Divided, cites a globalized economy and unconcerned politicians for the loss of localized jobs.

Comedian Jon Stewart has more clout in America than President Barack Obama. That's the view of voters on an online men's magazine who picked the Daily Show host as the most "influential man of the year" in the US.

While premature births have steadily increased over the last thirty years in America, and are on the rise worldwide, a new report released by the CDC provides hope that the tide has turned. With pre-term birth rising over 20 percent between 1990 and 2006, the 3 percent decline reported today between 2007 and 2008 is small but significant. It is the second year in a row that there has been a decrease.

What do Elvis Presley, Adam Lambert and a group of somewhat talented singers have in common?

They were all a part of Tuesday night's "American Idol."

This week's theme was Elvis, and it had some competitors shining and some singing as if it were karaoke night at the closest dive bar.

 more...

Two competing narratives dominate our debate about the ongoing ethnic and demographic transformation of America. The first holds that non-European immigrants O.K., let's be honest, Mexicans will rip apart the nation's social fabric. The second has it that the diversity of younger generations of Americans will inevitably lead to a more integrated, postracial era.

But both of these narratives are off the mark. With some minor differences, today's immigrants are assimilating into U.S. society in ways not terribly unlike those of millions before them. At the same time, it's likely that decades from now, Americans will still invest a lot of meaning in group distinctions.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1971133_1971110_1971119,00.html#ixzz0i5L0uB6Q

WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - Violent crime in the United States, including murder and robbery, dropped 4.4 percent in the first half of 2009 and property crime like car thefts also dropped, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday.

The latest statistics suggest U.S. violent crime
could drop for a third full year in a row, a steady decline despite the harsh economic recession that some policymakers and police groups had feared would lead to an upward spike.

The FBI report did not offer an explanation for the declining crime rates.

Blame the refrigerator rather than the gym for Americans ever-expanding waistlines. A new study shows that overeating alone can account for the obesity epidemic in America.

Researchers say that until now no one has quantified the contributions of overeating and decreases in physical activity to the rise in obesity in America since the 1970s.

This stretch of rolling dairy country has long been Milton Hershey's turf, where he first found success making chocolate more than a century ago and earned a name synonymous with chocolate in America.

Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive a sure sign the world's richest country faces economic crisis