DiscussionDIVAS

Cash for caulkers

How about some cash in return for weatherizing your home? Or a job? How about both?

It’s the latest idea circulating in Washington—government cash incentives to encourage you to plug up those drafty houses, insulate them, and switch to efficient light bulbs.

If the title “cash for caulkers” rings like “cash for clunkers,” that’s the point. The clunkers program was wildly successful, with almost 700,000 (lots of Ford Explorers), turned in. Car sales shot up. (We’ll note that the DIVA-mobile, a 1994 Volvo, did not qualify as a clunker.) 

Two birds with one stone
 “Cash for caulkers” is the brainchild of one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capitalists, John Doerr. As described by the New York Times, the program could reduce energy usage and costs, and also create jobs—for the caulkers! This particular program would cost $23 billion over two years, though no word on exactly how it would be paid for (assume taxes).

And while the environmental element is a nice bonus—climate talks are building heading ahead of the crucial Copenhagen summit next month—job creation is on everybody’s mind in Washington these days. 

Looking for a lifeline...

The roundup: Headlines of note from the week

Monday: Sarah Palin on Oprah

If you missed Sarah Palin launching her book tour on Oprah, you've certainly heard about it. Her new book, ‘Going Rogue,’ is the number one best seller.

Tuesday: When to mammogram
A new report sparked confusion and controversy over when and how often to get a mammogram, recommending age 50 for regular screening, not 40. But Health and Human Services asked people to stay the course and urged earlier screenings. The CDC says 41,000 women and 375 men die from breast cancer each year. 

Wednesday: Obama visits Great Wall
President Obama wrapped his meetings in China on trade, currency, climate and security, with a visit to the Great Wall, before heading to South Korea and then home.

Wednesday: Senate reveals health bill
The stats: $849 billion over 10 years; 31 million covered. Vote on Saturday over whether to discuss and vote on the bill.  More details.

Thursday: More Oprah
Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey says she’ll announce Friday that she’ll end her show in 2011 to focus on her new cable network, OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, which launches next year. Will those 7 million viewers move with her?

Friday: Changes in screenings for cervical cancer 
 New guidelines recommend starting screening at age 21, regardless of sexual activity, and get the test every two years and less frequently into their 30s if there's no history of cancer or abnormal pap smears. The report says incidence of cervical cancer is very low in teenagers. Read more.

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The Weekly DIVA: Shopping, anyone? Consumers in the driving seat

 A year ago, when all hell was breaking loose in the economy, shoppers spent 7% more at stores during the weekend following Thanksgiving than they had the year before. What a difference a year makes. Or does it?

Since last November, the market took a nose dive, then recovered by 63%. Unemployment climbed to 10.2%. People stopped spending and the savings rate shot up to 5%. 

Now, with just two weeks left to go before the holiday shopping season officially kicks off, the question is, does the consumer feel confident enough to go holiday shopping?

The “season” officially commences on Black Friday, the extravaganza shopping day on the Friday after Thanksgiving when consumers line up outside of stores hoping to take advantage of the deals and discounts. Last year a Wal-Mart employee was trampled to death in a frenzy after the store's doors opened to the public. This year Wal-Mart has taken several steps to make the experience safer, including keeping stores open from Thanksgiving into the next day instead of closing and having everyone line up outside to await the big morning open.

The forecast

5Q's with Attica Locke

Attica Locke, author of the recently published novel 'Black Water Rising,' discusses how the news informs her work and offers her take on race relations in the news. 

1. As a writer, how does the news inform or affect your work?
The truth is always a jumping off point for me.  As a writer who is consistently drawn to stories that have big, socio-political themes, I routinely look to current events for research and also inspiration.  I still clip articles from newspapers when I come across a story that interests me.

2. Your book, 'Black Water Rising,' is a mystery that takes place in Houston in the early 1980s and is based on a childhood experience on a dark Bayou. What was happening in the news around that time?
Houston in 1981 was a really interesting city.  It was flush with oil money, and the city was getting a lot of international attention.  Houston seemed to represent the conspicuous consumption and the blind optimism of the early Reagan era.  Also, Houston had its first woman mayor at the time.  And she was charged with leading the city through a period of unprecedented growth – which had its own challenges.  I grew up in Houston, so some of what I wrote about the city was from memory, but the rest I pulled from old newspaper and magazine articles.  Most of my research came from journalists’ reporting – articles about problems in the police department and its fights with the mayor; and magazine and newspaper stories that began to signal the end of the oil boom, which would eventually crush Houston’s economy.

3. Race relations play a central role in the book’s narrative—the main character, a black man, rescues a white woman, which without giving too much away provides the basis for the mystery. What have you thought about the national conversation on race this summer post Gates and post Carter?
I think, as a country, we’re in transition.  As we've seen with the recent election of Barack Obama, America has a great capacity for self-correction.  But change, when it comes fast and furious, can do a number on our psyches.  This is the tension that Jay, the main character, is living in.  It can be hard to know one's place when the rules have suddenly changed.  Which is why you have all these birthers and tea-baggers and Glenn Beck followers – 99% of whom are white – who are losing their minds on the other side of the election of the nation’s first black president.  You know, before they started arming themselves, I actually felt tremendous compassion for all these people saying, “I want my country back,” because it’s true that the country they once knew – culturally and politically – is gone.  It’s possible that some people need to mourn that.  All of the racial anxiety we’re seeing of late is, to me, a form of growing pains.  We, as a country, are going to be better for what we’re wrestling with right now.

Hunger stunting growth of 200 million children

A new report from UNICEF says some 200 million children around the growth suffer stunted growth due to lack of proper nutrition. The United Nations says world hunger hit a new high in 2009, rising to over one billion during the global recession. The UN says 90% of the children affected by lack of nutrition under the age of five live in Africa and Asia. Read more of the report on UNICEF's site. 

Google to the H1N1 rescue

Some 41 million swine flu vaccines have been shipped, but that may not mean it's been easy for you to find one. We've talked to plenty of people who have hit the phones or driven many miles to find the shot. 

On the same day the company announced it would offer free WiFi in 47 airports over the holiday season (though not at several major airports like JFK, LGA or SFO), Google announced a tool that helps shot seekers find the vaccine in their area: www.google.com/flushot. They partnered with the Department of Health and Human Services and the American Lung Association to build the tool.

Type in your zip code and Google Maps pulls up a list of places nearby where the shot is still available or was at one point. The latter are marked with "temporarily out of stock." In the search we did, the list also provided phone numbers and times the vaccines were administered. Still phone work, but a little less.

Full list of airports with free Wi-Fi.

Court considers juveniles and life in prison

On Nov. 9, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments against imprisoning juveniles to life in prison. The arguments came on behalf of two minors serving life sentences in Florida--one for rape and the other for armed robbery. Each committed the crimes while teenagers. 

The question the court will consider is if sentencing juveniles to life in prison violates the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits the use of "cruel and unusual punishment."

In 2005 the Supreme Court rulfed it unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to death and the hearings Monday will test if the earlier distinctions can be applied toward cases of life in prison without parole as well, particularly for cases where no one is killed. See a map of where juveniles are serving life sentences in the United States.