The U.S. Census Bureau has just released the national and state population figures from the 2010 Census. As of April 1, 2010, the national population stood at 308,745,538, an increase of 9.7% since 2000. And while New Jersey registered a 4.5% increase to 8,791, 894, it was not enough to stem the southern and westward migration of apportioned seats in the House of Representatives. Along with many of its neighbors in the Northeast and Midwest, New Jersey will lose a seat in the House. A video presentation from C-SPAN is available as are slides, tables, and maps from this morning’s press conference. Additional information can be found at The New York Times, The Bergen Record, Asbury Park Press, and The Wall Street Journal.
Archive for December, 2010
Library Hours for 2010/2011 Winter Recess/Intersession
We will be open the following days from 8:30am to 4:30pm: Wednesday, December 22-Thursday, December 23; Monday, January 3-Friday, January 7; and Monday, January 10-Friday, January 14. We will resume regular hours on Tuesday, January 18 at 7:30am.
Governor Christie’s “60 Minutes” Interview
The December 19 airing of 60 Minutes included a segment on the fiscal difficulties many states are facing called State Budgets: Day of Reckoning; Governor Christie’s interview starts at 6:47 into the program. He says nothing new, and repeats his assertions that public sector benefits packages are part of the current problem. The prgram also contains “Web Extras” – two short pieces with the Governor as well as a transcript of the program.
Governor Christie Selects Christopher Cerf as His Education Commissioner
According to various reports, Governor Christie will nominate Christopher Cerf to be the new education commissioner. Among his previous duties, Mr Cerf was deputy chancellor of education for the New York City school system. More information and biographical details can be found at: The Wall Street Journal, The Star-Ledger, SangariGlobalEd, and GothamSchools.org (interview).
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year”
The special report is here. More biographical information on the co-founder and CEO of Facebook can be located at: The New York Times, Biography.com, the Wall Street Journal, 60 Minutes (interview), and Stanford (interview).
Updated Socioeconomic Statistics from the Census Bureau Are Released
As the press release states: “Up until now, small geographic areas had to rely on outdated 2000 Census figures for detailed information about the characteristics of their communities. Consisting of about 11.1 billion individual estimates and covering more than 670,000 distinct geographies, the 5-year ACS estimates give even the smallest communities more timely information on topics ranging from commute times to languages spoken at home to housing values.” You just need to access the “detailed tables” link to have access to HUNDREDS of updated figures on EVERY location in this country. Please remember that much of the data contained in these statistics are NOT part of the decennial census; those questions have been whittled down considerably over time, and the American Community Survey provides these more telling figures ranging from marital status to poverty status to travel time to work.
Biography of Liu Xiaobo, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Number of Women-Owned Businesses
This Survey of Business Owners-Women-Owned Firms: 2007, the latest iteration of this once-every-five-years survey, shows that women owned 7.8 million nonfarm businesses (29% of all nonfarm enterprises), employing 7.6 million people, and generating $1.2 trillion in receipts. Other tables include what type of businesses women owned and well as their geographic locations. In New Jersey, women owned 27% of all nonfarm busineses, which is a 15% increase from the last time this survey was conducted – 2002.
Poverty Statistics for School Districts, Counties, and States
The Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program has just issued its figures for 2009. The methodology used to arrive at these various figures can be found here. At the county and state level, estimates are given for: all ages in poverty; under age 18 in poverty; age 5-17 in families in poverty; under age 5 in poverty(state only); and median household income. At the school district level, estimates are given for: grade range; total population; relevant age 5-17; and relevant age 5-17 in families in poverty. In Jersey City, 8189 of the 36178 children between 5 and 17 live in poverty which closely mirrors the 22.8% poverty rate for this cohort in Hudson County.
Extended Library Hours for Fall 2010 Finals
The Library will be open until 11pm Tuesday, December 14; Wednesday, December 15; Thursday, December 16; and Monday, December 20. On Tuesday, December 21, we’ll be open until 10pm.
Today in History: The Attack on Pearl Harbor
A simple naval dispatch said it all : AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL The next day, December 8, President Franklin Roosevelt (his Public Papers can be consulted, and special diplomatic files are available at his presidential library) addressed a Joint Session of Congress, delivering his famous “day of infamy” speech; within an hour, the United States was at war. More information is available at: Pearl Harbor Raid, 7 December 1941: Overview and Special Image Section (U.S. Navy); Ships Present at Pearl Harbor (U.S. Navy); Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships; Remembering Pearl Harbor (National Geographic); After the Infamy: Man on the Street Interviews (Library of Congress); Pearl Harbor (New York Times); Pearl Harbor (Time Magazine); Attack at Pearl Harbor, 1941: The Japanese View (Eyewitness to History); USS Arizona Memorial (National Park Service); Books on Pearl Harbor, including the multi-volume Congressional Hearings (HathiTrust); Pearl Harbor: A Rude Awakening (BBC); and Videos on Pearl Harbor (Internet Archive).
Tenants’ Rights in New Jersey (and All the Other States)
Don’t know what your rights are as a tenant? Then consult this valuable tool – Tenant’s Rights in New Jersey where each section is accompanied by the relevant legal precedent or law. Guides to all the other states are also online.
Author Interviews from “The Paris Review”
The Paris Review has introduced readers to some of the foremost writers of our time. Poets, novelists, playwrights, and short story writers have graced its pages for almost six decades.(For more history, come here.) But one of its greatest gifts to literature are its interviews with writers under the umbrella Writers at Work. This continung series features such luminaries as Woody Allen, Arthur Miller, William Styron, Jorge Luis Borges, William Faulkner, Lillian Hellman, and two of our favorites: Patrick O’Brian and Ray Bradbury. All interviews can be searched by author or by decade.
Governor Christie on Educators, Again
Governor Christie was the keynote speaker at the 2010 Excellence in Education Foundation Summit. A partial video is available (the full 50-minute video is supposed to be uploaded today; we’ll post it if it is) and is a partial transcript. For those who are interested, you can view the Governor’s YouTube channel with over 160 videos. Here is a New York Times article examining Governor Christie’s YouTube presence and another from New York Magazine. And in this wired world his presence also resonates in England as can be seen in this article from The Telegraph ” ‘Tony Soprano’ governor is YouTube hit.” More information can be read at The Bergen Record.
Economic Crisis – December 2010 Update
The 2007-2009 Recession: Similarities to and Differences from the Past (CRS); Impact of the Economy on Older Workers (EEOC); Economic Downturn Widespread Among States 2009 (Burean of Economic Analysis); Women and the Economy 2010 (U.S. Senate. Joint Economic Committee); and Understanding the Economy: State by State Snapshots (JEC).
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 