Focus on Literacy: Efforts to Boost Reading in Lackawanna County Include Help from Physicians

Community leaders, local educators, and physicians are coming together to increase literacy in the greater Lackawanna County Area.

Founded over ten years ago, the National Reading Crisis Project and the Scranton Education Improvement Organization now operate with a nine-member literacy committee that have launched several projects targeting youth literacy.

Projects include distributing books during pediatric visits, educational events, and are in the process of expanding to surrounding counties.



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Housing Programs in Philly are Rooted in Regional Incomes, Should That Change?

Area Median Income, or the center of an area’s income distribution (AMI), is an increasingly vital measurement for the affordability of a housing initiative, specifically when they are backed by government programs.

Calculated annually by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, AMI is used to determine several housing related issues, but are disadvantageous to cities such as Philadelphia, with higher distributions of poor residents.

WHYY discusses why AMI can be considered problematic for Philadelphia, and how this solution can be addressed. 

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Kings College Opens Former Times Leader Building as Healthcare Education Center

Kings College has debuted its new Frank and Carolyn Kowalski Center for Advanced Healthcare and Education, formerly a Times Leader news building.

Home to the first doctoral program at the college, the building also offers a new accelerated nursing program and new equipment for various majors.

Students can practice labs and exercises featuring augmented reality technology and daily labs. 

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Infrastructure Equity in Motion 

To date, there has not been a major transportation project in the United States that has not raised concerns about the destruction of communities of color and the amount of urban pollution caused.

Addressing these concerns amid an era of expanding transportation access remains a major priority for the Department of Transportation.

The Urban Institute explores research on the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program, and how related grants can help bridge the transportation gap for disadvantaged communities.



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How is Inflation Measured?

Inflation influences everyday concepts such as mortgage rates, government programs, and school lunch budgets.

Due to its fluctuating rates, researchers have developed a series of strategies for estimate the ways that inflation impact American households.

The Bipartisan Policy Center explains how inflation is measured, and how common measures of inflation use different approaches to better understand its influence. 

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Americans are Using AI at Fairly High Rates. What Does This Mean for the Economy?

Harvard economist David Deming conducted a survey to determine how much Americans are using AI technology.

The survey, modeled after the Current Population Survey, received national responses which suggested that almost 40 percent of Americans have used generative AI, and nearly 25 percent use it regularly.

NPR discusses further survey findings regarding American use of AI, and what that may mean for the national economy.

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