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Me and Jesus Got Our Own Thing Goin'




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Why Is “In The Flesh” Non-Negotiable?




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So, You Got to Have Faith!




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Me and Jesus Got our Own Thing Going




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Why is “In the Flesh” Non-Negotiable?




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You Are My Son!  Today, I Have Begotten You




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What's Love Got to do With Transhumanism?

Wesley introduces the Transhumanists and then explains what is wrong with their desire to increase human intelligence.




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The Forgotten Faith

Bobby Maddex interviews Fr. Philip LeMasters, Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Religion at McMurry University and an occasional AFR podcaster, about his new book The Forgotten Faith: Ancient Insights for Contemporary Believers from Eastern Christianity, published by Cascade Books.




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7 Clever Tricks That Will Make You a Better Negotiator

How can you improve your negotiation skills even if you HATE to negotiate? Here 7 of my best tips to help you get what you want… #1 Ask Yourself These 2 Questions… You might think that in order to negotiate better you have to strong-arm people. Like… You walk into the room and DEMAND to […]




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'My Instagram got disabled and I don't know why'

Emily Sutcliffe says it is "unfair" she has lost her account documenting life with her two sons.




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The SEO Starter Guide got a makeover

Today we're publishing a refreshed, more pocket-sized version of the SEO Starter Guide with a better focus on a starter audience and the topics we think a person who's just dipping their toes in SEO should focus on and why.




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Réseaux Sociaux… entre hystérisation et égotisme

Si la question de l’hystérisation des réseaux sociaux ne date pas des Gilets Jaunes, nulle doute qu’elle revient sur le devant de la scène. Je ne parle même pas des théories du complot lié à ce mouvement. Pour ma part, les choses sont claires, il est...




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Sustaining Negotiated QoS in Connection Admission Control for ATM Networks Using Fuzzy Logic Techniques




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When glamour meets goth at the VMAs: The best artists got their awards, now it’s fashion’s turn

From DJ Khaled posing in pink to Taylor’s tartan nightmare, who nailed last night’s looks




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Digital transformation in healthcare: The often forgotten human factor

While technology is key for digital transformation in healthcare, the human element is equally, if not more, important



  • The Way I See It

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Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley showcase happiness after ‘long time' desire comes true

Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley showcase happiness after ‘long time' desire comes true

Margot Robbie and Tom Ackerley are “settling” into their roles after becoming parents for the first time.

A source who is close to the couple candidly shared with People how the...




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NASA astronauts won't say which one of them got sick after almost eight months in space

Three NASA astronauts whose prolonged space station mission ended with a trip to the hospital last month declined to say Friday which one of them was sick.




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NASA astronauts won't say which one of them got sick after almost 8 months in space

Three NASA astronauts whose prolonged space station mission ended with a trip to the hospital last month declined to say Friday which one of them was sick.




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Veterans with PTSD making progress thanks to service dog program: 'I got my life back'

After working at a crowded and dangerous internment camp in Iraq, Air Force Staff Sgt. Heather O'Brien returned to the U.S. with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.




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Gone but far from forgotten

Kristin here: The speed with which the news of David’s death, early on the morning of February 29, 2024, spread has amazed me. I expected many responses: condolences, tributes, and most of all stories of how he had affected people’s lives. I didn’t expect the tidal wave of messages and posts and emails that followed. […]




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The Forgotten Disciples

Raise you’re hand if, like me, you went straight from your mother’s womb to a saved seat in the sanctuary of your local church. Now keep your hand raised if you knew from an early age that music was going to play an important role in your future. Keep your hand up, still, if you began singing on your youth group worship team the minute you reached the allowed age and continued all the way through high school and even through college as part of your respective campus ministries. One final round . . . keep it raised if, at some point during your time as a maturing worshiper, you had a seasoned leader intentionally pouring into you, helping you fully understand what it means to step into the role of a worship pastor. If your hand is still raised, you and the person or people who discipled you deserve as many rounds of applause as one might hear during the annual State of the Union. 


Why? 


Because somehow over the years, this incredibly important piece has gotten lost in all the stage fog and bright lights, and much of the Church has been left with a whole bunch of good song leaders and musicians with no pastoral legs to stand on. There’s been a universal confusion placed between the role of worship pastor/leader and worship artist or song leader. My friends, would you agree that these are vastly different roles? 


Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. - John 4:23

If the people in our congregations only see the experiential (Spirit) side of worship, and don’t leave having been filled with truth as well, we have missed the mark. Don’t get me wrong, I love a well-executed version of this month’s top CCLI songs as much as the next gal, but where appreciation turns to disappointment is when it becomes abundantly evident that the person leading us has nothing else to offer besides a good voice. Do I believe that the Lord can use a song with or without a teaching moment stuck in there to expound on the message of the lyrics . . . absolutely. But I also believe that on the whole, those charged with leading our congregations in worship, week-in and week-out, are to be just as called, equipped, and anointed to shepherd His people as the other church leaders.


Indulge me for just a minute. 


Say you start hearing strange sounds coming from your car. You take it to the nearest auto shop and you’re greeted warmly by one of the mechanics. He seems perfectly nice and seems to know a lot of the lingo, as he throws around words like carburetor and fuel pump, but as you get further into the conversation it starts becoming clear that perhaps this guy doesn’t understand quite as fully as he’s letting on. You ask him, “So exactly how much experience do you have in fixing cars?” His reply is something like, “Well I’ve been hanging out here for several years observing these other mechanics fixing cars and I’ve watched several YouTube videos about it. They even let me turn a wrench every now and then when they need a bathroom break.” Something tells me you’d be hightailing it out of there to find a more experienced technician.


To my fellow ladies . . . if you walked into a beauty salon for a cut and color and the beautician available next is completely disheveled and her hair looks like a 3 year old styled it, how likely would you be to trust her with your coif? 


And yet, week after week, the hearts of many church goers are being entrusted to people with no pastoral training, no teaching experience, and a Biblical knowledge that is shaky at best. But whose fault is that? Is it theirs? They’re simply operating out of the amount of knowledge and equipping that they’ve been handed. I’m inclined to believe that it is we who have failed this forgotten generation of disciples and left them unprepared to carry this mantle to its fullest extent. Something desperately needs to change, wouldn’t you agree? 


Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. - 2 Timothy 2:2b


So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up… - Ephesians 4:11-12

We clearly have been tasked not just with leading songs, but with discipling those who will one day fill our shoes.


But how? 


It starts with you, right where you are in your local context, finding those worshipers who you believe have been set apart to usher God’s people into His presence through music; who have the gifts that it takes to pastor the men, women, students, and children of your church; who desire to know God’s Word in such a way that they are ready to wield it from the stage in a manner that supports the songs they are leading; and who have the humble, teachable spirit necessary to step into this role. That could be a handful of high school and college students, green but eager. It could also be a few men and women who have already been serving on your team, but have never been poured into in this way. It may not even be members in your local church. It may be 3 or 4 people just a little younger than you who you know could really flourish with a little mentorship. Whoever it may be, find them. Reach out to them. Lead and guide them through more than just the “glamorous” and visible sides of worship leading. Dig into scripture together. Talk about what it looks like to really pastor and shepherd a church . . . the good, the bad, the ugly, and the uglier. 


My boss and dear friend, Michael Farren, says “a true worship pastor will have muddy boots and bloody knuckles.” Our job is not to stand up each week, sing some songs, quote a couple Bible verses, and give emotional cues in hopes of people experiencing an encounter with God. Our responsibility, to both the Church and her future leaders, is first to LOVE these people well, to TEACH them about His presence, to DEMONSTRATE what it looks like to worship Him both on the stage and off, and to LEAD them into a deeper relationship with the Lord.  Let’s not forget any longer that we are not the last generation of worship leaders. We are setting the bride of Christ up for failure if we don’t do our part in loving, teaching, demonstrating, and leading those coming up behind us.


To those of you already in the depths of discipling, bravo and keep at it. You are positioning your churches well. Thank you!


Maybe you’re reading this and you feel like perhaps you’re one of the very people talked about here who were thrusted into a position of leadership with little to no equipping. Don’t be afraid to ask another worship pastor to mentor you. We will never “have it down” this side of heaven. There is always more to learn.


If you’re a worship pastor out there who knows this is something that needs to be happening in your church, don’t wait. It’s never too late and you can never start too early.  Our team here at All About Worship is for you in ways you can’t imagine! We are cheering you on as you step into this crucial role! We’d love to know what kinds of resources and tools would be helpful to you as you start your journey. Feel free to comment below with questions or with things that have helped you in your experience.





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Red Sox already got beat to key free agent catcher after Angels' move

The Boston Red Sox have lost two of their three catchers to free agency this offseason. Reese McGuire and Danny Jansen will hit the market, and the Red Sox aren't expected to sign them back because the organization can do better. Boston's top catching prospect, Kyle Teel, may not be major-league-ready out of spring training. Like Jansen and McGuire, the Red Sox also need to hit the catching market.




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Got ideas to ‘Beat the Heat’? OSHA wants to know

Washington — OSHA has launched a national competition for the best tools and resources on the dangers of heat exposure – indoors and outdoors – at work.




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A quick, accurate way to determine if a chemical causes cancer? Researchers say they’ve got one

Boston — A group of researchers from the Boston University schools of medicine and public health has developed what it calls a “fast, accurate and cost-effective approach” to test whether certain chemicals increase people’s cancer risk.




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You’ve got more time to submit Safe-in-Sound award nominations

Washington — NIOSH has extended until Aug. 18 the nomination deadline for its 2023 Safe-in-Sound Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention Award.




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GOTCHU Hot Sauce

Made with Gochujang – a Korean hot pepper paste, fermented for a complex heat and unique flavor – GOTCHU creates a slow, balanced heat for a new depth of flavor. 




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'Generation Z' and 'second generation': an agenda for learning from cross-cultural negotiations of the climate crisis in the lives of second generation immigrants.

Children's Geographies; 06/01/2021
(AN 151284196); ISSN: 14733285
Academic Search Premier









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' ... nice to get some alone time': children's spatial negotiation of alone time needs in the family home.

Children's Geographies; 08/01/2024
(AN 178911402); ISSN: 14733285
Academic Search Premier




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At 83, Mary Lane upholds the blues tradition: 'I still got it'

The Arkansas-born blues singer looks back on her career and discusses "Travelin' Woman," her first album in more than 20 years.




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Countries That Start With 'W' and How They Got Their Names

Ever wondered how many countries start with "W"? Well, spoiler alert: You won't need many fingers to count them.




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Got a Cowlick? Hair Styling Doesn't Have to Be Impossible

It's the rare person indeed who is always pleased with how their hair looks. Most of us have to fight it a little bit (or a lot) to get it the way we want it. If you have a cowlick, hair management is even more of a struggle.




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Data: 1 Out of 10 Couples Who Got Married in 2023 are Multicultural Couples

[Economy] :
One out of ten couples who tied the knot last year were from different cultures, as the number of multicultural marriages returned to pre-pandemic levels. According to Statistics Korea on Thursday, there were 20-thousand-431 multicultural couples in 2023, up 17-point-two percent from a year ...

[more...]




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Czech Delegation to Visit S. Korea for Final Contract Negotiations for Nuclear Deal

[Economy] :
A large delegation representing Czech power authorities will make a two-week visit to South Korea for working-level negotiations ahead of the conclusion of a final contract for the Czech nuclear power plant project.  Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power(KHNP), which was selected in July as the preferred bidder ...

[more...]




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FilmWeek: ‘Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train,’ Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street,’ ‘Together Together’ And More

Archival still from the documentary "Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street"; Credit: HBO

FilmWeek Marquee

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Claudia Puig and Charles Solomon review this weekend’s new movie releases.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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Unpaid Caregivers Were Already Struggling. It's Only Gotten Worse During The Pandemic

Rhitu Chatterjee | NPR

The pandemic has taken a massive toll on people's mental health. But a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms what many of us are seeing and feeling in our own lives: The impact has been particularly devastating for parents and unpaid caregivers of adults.

Two-thirds of survey respondents who identified as unpaid caregivers said they experienced mental health challenges during the pandemic, such as symptoms of anxiety or depression, or suicidal thoughts.

Only one-third of people with no caregiving responsibilities reported the same symptoms.

Of the more than 10,000 survey respondents, more than 40% identified as being unpaid caregivers.

"What is striking here is just how widespread unpaid caregiving responsibilities are in the population and how much of a burden and a toll these responsibilities" are having, says Shantha Rajaratnam, a co-author of the study and a psychologist at the Turner Institute of Brain and Mental Health at Monash University in Australia.

The study also found that people who care for both children under 18 and adults — many of them part of the sandwich generation — are faring the worst, with 85% of this group experiencing adverse mental health symptoms.

"It's an extremely important study," says psychologist Dolores Gallagher-Thompson, professor emeritus at Stanford University who has researched family caregivers and their challenges.

The study is the first to document the problems caregivers have experienced during COVID-19, she notes, and underscores "the importance of paying attention to caregiver issues, caregiver mental health" and the need for education and resources to better support them.

The contrast between caregivers and others is stark

The study, part of ongoing research by The COVID-19 Outbreak Public Evaluation (COPE) Initiative, is based on surveys conducted in December 2020 and February-March 2021.

More than half of those who identified as caregivers said they had experienced symptoms of anxiety or depression, or of disorders like PTSD related to the stress and trauma of COVID-19.

A significant number of caregivers said they had contemplated suicide. Nearly 40% reported having passive suicidal thoughts, meaning "wishing that they had gone to bed and didn't wake up," says study co-author Mark Czeisler, a graduate student at Monash University and a research trainee at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

And more than 30% had seriously considered taking their own life — about five times the number of noncaregivers, the study found.

Across the board, mental health impacts have been more severe for people who care for both children and adults. Half of this group said it had seriously considered suicide in the past month.

The pandemic worsened the challenges caregivers face

Even before the pandemic, being an unpaid caregiver was stressful and associated with a higher risk of mental health issues, says Gallagher-Thompson. The COVID-19 pandemic has made things even harder.

For instance, the pandemic has taken away many formal and informal sources of support for caregivers.

That was the case for Dr. Nicole Christian-Brathwaite. She's a Boston-based child psychiatrist and lives with her husband, her mother, her husband's father and two sons, who are 4 and 6.

Before the pandemic, her father-in-law, who has dementia, went to a day program for seniors with cognitive decline. Her mother, a survivor of breast and lung cancers, went to physical therapy twice a week, doctor appointments and met with friends.

When the pandemic hit, they lost those services and social support — at the same time Christian-Brathwaite and her husband began working from home while taking care of their sons and parents.

Life at home became much more complicated. Her sons developed behavioral problems with the transitions and stresses of the pandemic. Her mother struggled with chronic pain, and was hospitalized during the pandemic. And there were days when her father-in-law was confused, disoriented or aggressive.

"Many days I was walking around on edge waiting for something to happen because our entire setup was so very fragile and vulnerable," says Christian-Brathwaite. "It's been exhausting."

And her mental health has suffered. "I certainly was dealing with insomnia," she says. "I was short tempered. I was more irritable. I didn't have the same tolerance for things."

More support needed to help caregivers cope

The new study highlights the extent to which unpaid caregivers have struggled during the pandemic, says Gallagher-Thompson.

"There are some serious issues here that shouldn't be ignored," she says.

And yet caregivers are often ignored by the health system, which is set up to focus only on patients.

"Family members are rarely asked, 'How does this affect you? What is difficult? How can we help you? How can we support you in being able to carry out your role, your tasks, your responsibilities?'" Gallagher-Thompson says.

As the new study shows, support can make a big difference — respondents who could rely on others for help with caregiving had a lower incidence of mental health symptoms.

So it's important to educate and support caregivers. For example, physicians can start by screening their patients' caregivers for mental health symptoms and provide more resources to those who need it, says Gallagher-Thompson.

Christian-Brathwaite hopes the new study will help physicians recognize that family caregivers are just as important to consider while treating patients.

"We really need to take a step back and look at the village that's around them because our patients can't be successful without having the support from family," she says.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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COVID-19 AMA: LA County’s New COVID-19 Cases Have Doubled, Vaccinated People Who Got Infected Carry Less Virus, CDC Researchers Say And More

Facemasks remain worn as firefighter paramedic Jorge Miranda, holding syringe, speaks with Eduardo Vasquez, who has lived homeless on the streets of Los Angeles since 1992, before administering the one-shot Johnson and Johnson' Janssen Covid-19 vaccine as part of outreach to the homeless by members of the Los Angeles Fire Department's Covid Outreach unit on June 14, 2021 in Los Angeles.; Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

James Chow | AirTalk

In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with UCSF’s Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. 

Topics today include:

  • Two weeks after reopening, LA County’s new COVID-19 cases have doubled

  • CDC: Infected vaccinated people carry less COVID-19 virus

  • Delta variant is now detected in all 50 states

  • J&J: “At present, there is no evidence to suggest need for a booster dose to be administered”

  • Novavax claims vaccine’s overall efficacy is 89.7%

  • Another respiratory virus is spreading in the U.S.

  • Curevac’s final trial show shot is far less effective than other vaccines

  • Can we now live with the coronavirus?

  • Israel scrambles to curb rising COVID-19 infection rates

  • Is it time to rethink “one-size-fits-all” approach for masking?

Guest:

Peter Chin-Hong, M.D., infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the UCSF Medical Center; he tweets @PCH_SF

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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We Just Got Our Clearest Picture Yet Of How Biden Won In 2020

Incoming President Biden and Vice President Harris stand with their respective spouses Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff after delivering remarks in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 7, the day the Democrats were declared the winners in the 2020 election.; Credit: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Danielle Kurtzleben | NPR

We know that President Biden won the 2020 election (regardless of what former President Donald Trump and his allies say). We just haven't had a great picture of how Biden won.

That is until Wednesday, when we got the clearest data yet on how different groups voted, and crucially, how those votes shifted from 2016. The Pew Research Center just released its validated voters' report, considered a more accurate measure of the electorate than exit polls, which have the potential for significant inaccuracies.

The new Pew data shows that shifts among suburban voters, white men and independents helped Biden win in November, even while white women and Hispanics swung toward Trump from 2016 to 2020.

To compile the data, Pew matches up survey respondents with state voter records. Those voter files do not say how a person voted, but they do allow researchers to be sure that a person voted, period. That helps with accuracy, eliminating the possibility of survey respondents overreporting their voting activity. In addition, the Pew study uses large samples of Americans — more than 11,000 people in 2020.

It's a numbers-packed report, but there are some big takeaways about what happened in 2020 (and what it might tell us about 2022 and beyond):

Suburban voters (especially white suburban voters) swung toward Biden

Suburban voters appear to have been a major factor helping Biden win. While Pew found Trump winning the suburbs by 2 points in 2016, Biden won them by 11 points in 2020, a 13-point overall swing. Considering that the suburbs accounted for just over half of all voters, it was a big demographic win for Biden.

That said, Trump gained in both rural and urban areas. He won 65% of rural voters, a 6-point jump from 2016. And while cities were still majority-Democratic, his support there jumped by 9 points, to 33%.

Men (especially white men) swung toward Biden

In 2020, men were nearly evenly split, with 48% choosing Biden to Trump's 50%. That gap shrank considerably from 2016, when Trump won men by 11 points. In addition, this group that swung away from Trump grew as a share of the electorate from 2016 — signaling that in a year with high turnout, men's turnout grew more.

White men were a big part of the swing toward Biden. In 2016, Trump won white men by 30 points. In 2020, he won them again, but by a substantially slimmer 17 points.

In addition, Biden made significant gains among married men and college-educated men. All of these groups overlap, but they help paint a more detailed portrait of the type of men who might have shifted or newly participated in 2020.

However, we can't know from this data what exactly was behind these shifts among men — for example, exactly what share of men might have sat on the sidelines in 2016, as opposed to 2020.

Women (especially white women) swung toward Trump

The idea that a majority of white women voted for Trump quickly became one of the 2016 election's most-cited statistics, as many Hillary Clinton supporters — particularly women — were outraged to see other women support Trump.

While that statistic was repeated over and over, Pew's data ultimately said this wasn't true — they found that in 2016, white women were split 47% to 45%, slightly in Trump's favor but not a majority.

This year, however, it appears that Trump did win a majority of white women. Pew found that 53% of white women chose Trump this year, up by 6 points from 2016.

This support contributed to an overall shift in women's numbers — while Clinton won women of all races by 15 points in 2016, Biden won them by 11 points in 2020. Combined with men's shifts described above, it shrank 2016's historic gender gap.

Notably, the swing in white women's margin (5 points altogether) was significantly smaller than white men's swing toward Biden (13 points altogether).

Hispanic voters swung toward Trump

Trump won 38% of Hispanic voters in 2020, according to Pew, up from 28% in 2016.

That 38% would put Trump near George W. Bush's 40% from 2004 — a recent high-water mark for Republicans with Hispanic voters. That share fell off substantially after 2004, leading some Republican pollsters and strategists to wonder how the party could regain that ground. Trump in 2016 intensified those fears, with his nativist rhetoric and hard-line immigration policies.

There are some important nuances to these Hispanic numbers. Perhaps most notably, there is a sizable education gap. Biden won college-educated Hispanic voters by 39 points, but the Democrat won those with some college education or less by 14 points.

That gap mirrors the education gap regularly seen in the broader voting population.

Unfortunately, Pew's sample sizes from 2016 weren't big enough to break down Hispanic voters by gender that year, so it's impossible to see if this group's gender gap widened.

Nonwhite voters leaned heavily toward Biden

Unlike white and Hispanic voters, Black voters didn't shift significantly from 2016. They remained Democratic stalwarts, with 92% choosing Biden — barely changed from four years earlier.

Nearly three-quarters of Asian voters also voted for Biden, along with 6 in 10 Hispanic voters and 56% of voters who chose "other" as their race. (Those groups' sample sizes also weren't big enough in 2016 to draw a comparison over time.)

2018 trends stuck around ... but diminished

In many of these cases where there were substantial shifts in how different groups voted, they weren't surprising, given how voters in the last midterms voted. For example, white men voted more for Democrats in 2018 than they did in 2016, as did suburban voters.

What it means for 2022

The data signals that Democrats' strength with Hispanic voters has eroded, but that the party succeeded in making further inroads in the suburbs, including among suburban whites.

It suggests that these groups, already major focuses for both parties, will continue to be so in 2022, with Republicans trying to cement their gains among Hispanics (and regain suburban voters), while Democrats do Hispanic outreach and try to hold onto the suburbs.

However, it's hard to project much into the future about what voters will do based on the past two elections because of their unique turnout numbers.

"It's hard to interpret here, because 2018 was such a high turnout midterm election, and then our last data point, 2014, was a historically low turnout midterm election," said Ruth Igielnik, senior researcher at Pew Research Center.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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The Case For Universal Pre-K Just Got Stronger

; Credit: /The Washington Post via Getty Images

Greg Rosalsky | NPR

Editor's note: This is an excerpt of Planet Money's newsletter. You can sign up here.

According to the National Institute For Early Childhood Research, nearly half of all three-year-olds and a third of all four-year-olds in the United States were not enrolled in preschool in 2019. That's in large part because many parents can't afford it. Imagine a future where we changed that. A future where every American child had access to two years of preschool during a critical period of their mental development. How would their lives change? How would society change? If President Biden gets his way, and Congress agrees to spend $200 billion on his proposal for universal preschool, then we may begin to find out.

But it turns out, we kind of already know. In fact, a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research gives us a glimpse of what that world could look like. It adds to a burgeoning amount of high-quality research that shows just how valuable preschool is — and maybe not for the reasons you might think.

An Accidental Experiment

The story begins back in the mid-to-late 1990s. The Mayor of Boston, Thomas Menino, wanted to improve the city's schools. One of his big goals was to provide universal, full-day kindergarten for Boston's kids. But the budget was tight, and following a task force's recommendations, he and local lawmakers decided to move resources from preschool (for four-year-olds) to kindergarten (for five-year-olds) in order to achieve it.

The result was an even more limited number of slots for city-funded preschool, and the city officials had to figure out how to fairly divvy up those slots. They resorted to a lottery system, randomly selecting kids who would get in.

Fast forward two decades later, and the economists Christopher R. Walters, Guthrie Gray-Lobe, and Parag A. Pathak saw this as a golden opportunity to see how preschool can affect people's lives. The fact that Boston's school administrators randomized who got admitted meant there were two virtually identical groups of kids with only one difference: one group got an extra year of education by going to preschool. That gave the researchers the opportunity to compare and contrast the two groups of kids and credibly see how kids' lives changed as a result of getting into preschool.

Four thousand four-year-olds took part in Boston's preschool lottery between 1997 and 2003. Walters, Gray-Lobe, and Pathak acquired data on them from the Boston school system. And then they were able to get additional data from other sources that gave them insight into ways that the childrens' lives might have benefited from an additional year of preschool education. These kids are now all twentysomethings — a fact that should make you feel old.

Consistent with other studies that find preschool has a huge effect on kids, Walters, Gray-Lobe, and Pathak find that the kids lucky enough to get accepted into preschools in Boston saw meaningful changes to their lives. These kids were less likely to get suspended from school, less likely to skip class, and less likely to get in trouble and be placed in a juvenile detention facility. They were more likely to take the SATs and prepare for college.

The most eye-popping effects the researchers find are on high school graduation and college enrollment rates. The kids who got accepted into preschool ended up having a high-school graduation rate of 70% — six percentage points higher than the kids who were denied preschool, who saw a graduation rate of only 64%. And 54% of the preschoolers ended up going to college after they graduated — eight percentage points higher than their counterparts who didn't go to preschool. These effects were bigger for boys than for girls. And they're all the more remarkable because the researchers only looked at the effects of a single year of preschool, as opposed to two years of preschool (as President Biden is now proposing for the nation's youth). Moreover, in many cases, the classes were only half-day.

Intriguingly, while attending preschool at age four had clear effects on these kids' entire lives, it did not improve their performance on standardized tests. These findings fit into a large body of research that suggests the true value of preschool is helping little ones to develop "non-cognitive skills," like emotional and social intelligence, grit, and respect for the rules.

"The combination of findings — that we don't see an impact on test scores, but we do see an impact on these behavioral outcomes and the likelihood of attending college — is consistent with this idea that there's some kind of behavioral or socio-emotional, non-cognitive impact from preschool," says Christopher Walters, an economist at UC Berkeley who co-authored the study.

In other words, there's growing evidence that preschool can permanently improve kids lives — but it's not necessarily because it makes them smarter. It seems more related to making them more disciplined and motivated, which is just as important (or perhaps even more important) for their future livelihoods as how well they perform on reading or math tests.

The Bigger Picture

This latest study isn't the first to show the outsized effects of providing a preschool education. The Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman has spent many years studying the results of small, randomized experiments with preschool in the 1960s and 1970s. The most famous such experiment was The Perry Preschool Project, which was conducted in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The program provided two years of high-quality preschool for disadvantaged three- and four-year-olds.

Heckman and his colleagues found that the Perry Preschool had seismic effects on the kids who participated. They were much less likely to get arrested, go on welfare, or be unemployed as adults. They earned significantly more. In a recent study, Heckman and his team found that even the kids of the kids who went to the Perry preschool had significantly better outcomes in life.

All in all, Heckman and his team estimate that every dollar the Perry Preschool project invested in kids had a return on investment of 7-10 percent per year, through increased economic gains for the kids and decreased public spending on them through other social programs when they got older. That's a substantial return, equal to or greater than the average annual return from the stock market, and much greater than most other things our government spends money on.

Other preschool programs studied by Heckman and his colleagues have had even greater benefits. In the 1970s, a couple of programs in North Carolina experimented with high-quality childcare centers for kids. The centers offered kids aged zero to five education, medical checkups, and nutritious food. Heckman and his team found these centers delivered a 13 percent annual return on investment to the public for every dollar they invested. The program helped Heckman develop what's known as "the Heckman Curve," which asserts that the government gets more bang for the buck the earlier it provides resources to educate people. Educating toddlers, Heckman says, is much more powerful than educating high-schoolers, college students, or adults in, for example, job-training programs.

As astounding as Heckman's findings about preschool have been, naysayers have long questioned whether such effects could be replicated with larger scale programs, like the one President Biden is now proposing. This new study out of Boston, which looks at a large-scale program conducted across the entire city, is another brick in the growing edifice of evidence that shows preschool is a worthy investment, not just for kids, but for society overall.

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Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.




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