Friday digest-open thread 10/12/07

The future of the "SCHIP" children's health insurance program has been a major news item this week. Although the bill passed with strong bipartisan support, President George W. Bush vetoed it. Proponents are now working to get more support for the legislation before an override vote that's scheduled for next Thursday. Health and Human Services Sec. Mike Leavitt has urged a compromise on the measure, but Families USA estimates that the current reauthorization legislation would cover only about half of the nearly 10 million children in America. HHS has used citizen engagement as a way to address pandemic flu. Perhaps the federal government could again look to the public for help finding creative ways to cover more of those children, as well as the estimated 47 million total people without health insurance in the United States.

Mychal Bell of the Jena Six is back in jail today after a judge revoked his probation and sentenced him Thursday on charges that predated the beating of a white classmate. The Rev. Al Sharpton told The Washington Post that the 18-month sentence "was a cruel and unusual punishment and is a revenge by this judge for the Jena Six movement," while organizers of Toward a More Perfect Union in Palm Beach, Florida, wrote in a recent letter to the editor that teen study circles in Jena and elsewhere could help remedy the root problems that led to the Jena Six saga.

Lee Derby, a principal in the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools and a participant in that district's robust study circles program, has been honored with an award that recognizes "an exceptional ability to encourage academic excellence, positive human relations and strong community outreach." Meanwhile, today is the registration deadline for a round of education study circles set to start soon in Lowell, Indiana.

Yesterday was the annual National Coming Out Day. The current issue of Minnesota's Lavender magazine features the life-affirming stories of five people who have chosen to live openly as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered people. One of them, Rodney Weck, recalls, "My family has been such a huge support…they have reiterated that their biggest concern was my happiness. I think back to how scared I was to tell them and how I had all of the fears of rejection or abandonment, and realized that none of them came even close to coming true.”

Thanks to Study Circles Resource Center administrative assistant Myriah Pahl for passing along several of today's items. Do you have a tip for the weekly digest? Send it to jfanselow at studycircles dot org, or just post it in the comments below. This is your space; we appreciate links to whatever you are reading and thinking about or working on.