Entry deadline is December10th  http://redribbon.org/enter -  

Win $500 Worth of Red Ribbon Merchandise For Your School  -

The National Family Partnership® (NFP)  announces its annual call-for-entries for the new theme of next year’s Red Ribbon Week®. “The winner will receive national acclaim and recognition,” said Peggy Sapp, NFP’s volunteer president. “The winning slogan and design will be used throughout 2013 at thousands of schools and communities across America.”   In its 28th year as the nation’s largest and oldest drug prevention campaign, Red Ribbon Week® reaches 80 million people each year throughout the United States.  The winner will receive $500 worth of Red Ribbon Week® 2013 merchandise for their K-12 school. HOW TO ENTER THE CONTEST: Entries must be received by December 10th, 2012 via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (or via mail to National Family Partnership, 2490 Coral Way, Miami, FL 33145).  Please include your name, school, telephone number and email address. Contest rules and full details are available at www.redribbon.org/enter. HELPFUL HINTS: Red Ribbon Week® is celebrated in schools across America, with large banners and signs hung from marquees and fences. Themes and designs should work within this context. Themes should be brief and as catchy as possible (The 2012 theme was “The Best Me Is Drug Free™.” 2011’s theme was "It's Up To Me To Be Drug Free®."  The theme for 2010 was “I Am Drug Free: Choices = Consequences®.”) Other recent annual slogans include “100% Me Drug Free®,” “Look At Me I’m Drug Free®” and “Drug Free Is The Key®.” While the red ribbon should be prominently featured in the design, it is not required. Please refer to the red ribbon logo at www.redribbon.org.  And last, don't be afraid to use other colors (in addition to red) in your entry. NATIONAL RECOGNITION: The winner will be recognized at the 2013 Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s (CADCA) Annual Leadership Forum (which brings together more than 2,500 participants representing community anti-drug coalitions from across the country, the media, government leaders, addiction treatment professionals, researchers, educators, law enforcement, and faith-based leaders). The winning slogan will also be recognized via Red Ribbon Week®’s national media relations and social media campaigns. About Red Ribbon Week® and the National Family Partnership (NFP)® Red Ribbon Week® is the nation’s largest and oldest drug prevention campaign, reaching 80 million people each year. The NFP spearheaded the national campaign in response to the 1985 death of DEA agent Kiki Camarena, who was abducted and murdered by drug traffickers in Mexico. The NFP was established in 1980, and is a national leader in drug prevention, education and advocacy. Its mission is to lead and support our nation’s families and communities in nurturing the full potential of healthy, drug-free youth. For more information, please visit www.redribbon.org or www.nfp.org. 

AUSTIN, Texas

With fluctuating gas prices and the increasing call for work-life balance, telecommuting has become an attractive option for busy professionals. Yet according to a new study from The University of Texas at Austin, for most employees who work remotely, telecommuting equates to working more hours. The study, co-authored by Jennifer Glass, professor in the Department of Sociology and the Population Research Center, shows that most of the 30 percent of respondents who work from home add five to seven hours to their workweek compared with those who work exclusively at the office. They are also significantly less likely to work a standard 40 hour schedule and more likely to work overtime. In fact, most telecommuting hours occur after an employee has already put in 40 hours of work at the office. Using two nationally representative data sources — the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 panel and special supplements from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey — Glass and her colleague, Mary Noonan, associate professor of sociology at the University of Iowa, analyzed trends in the use of telecommuting among employees and employers in the U.S. civilian workforce. The results, published in Monthly Labor Review, indicate that telecommuting causes work to seep into home life, a problem previously identified in the 2008 Pew Networked Workers survey. According to the survey, a majority of tech-savvy workers claim that telecommuting technology has increased their overall work hours and that employees use technology, especially email, to perform work tasks even when sick or on vacation. “Careful monitoring of this blurred boundary between work and home time and the erosion of ‘normal working hours’ in many professions can help us understand the expansion of work hours overall among salaried workers,” says Glass, who is the Barbara Pierce Bush Regents Professor in Liberal Arts. The researchers also found the labor demand for work-family accommodation does not seem to propel the distribution of telecommuting hours. In fact, parents with dependent children are no more likely to work from home than the population as a whole. According to the findings, employees with authority and status are more likely than others to have the option to work remotely because they have more control of their work schedules. The authors conclude that telecommuting has not permeated the American workplace, and where it has become commonly used, it is not very helpful in reducing work-family conflicts. Instead, it appears to have allowed employers to impose longer workdays, facilitating workers’ needs to add hours to the standard workweek.

(AUSTIN)

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs released the final report in the Texas, It’s your Money series titled, Your Money and Pension Obligations. Combs also announced recommendations aimed at improving government transparency for legislative leadership to consider in the upcoming session.  This latest report provides a detailed look at state and local pension programs, while the overall report series offers Texans a clear picture of who is taxing them, how their money is being spent and how public debt is growing. Each one of the reports focuses on financial obligations of taxpayers and provides suggestions on how government should provide more transparency regarding those obligations. Combs is now recommending the Legislature consider these suggestions in the upcoming session. “What comes through in each of these reports is a set of recommendations which shows where we fall short of talking straight to the taxpayer and providing a more transparent government,” Combs said. “I am working with leadership on legislative ideas to embody these recommendations and principles.” The first of these reports, Your Money and The Taxing Facts, examines all the local entities that contribute to a taxpayer’s bill, such as cities, counties, special-purpose districts and transit authorities, and identifies trends in spending. Combs is calling for these taxing entities to post more information on the Web and for local taxing districts to send that information to the Comptroller’s office so the agency can put all local sales and property tax information on one public website. The second report, Your Money and Local Debt, zeroes in on the debt issued by local governments. Combs suggests ballots for new debt contain information both on current and proposed debt obligations, including the following: the debt’s stated purpose, total outstanding debt, total debt per capita and annual debt service requirements. The third report, Your Money and Education Debt, examines the indebtedness of Texas’ public schools and higher education institutions. Because most of this debt is used for school construction, Combs wants information on the cost of each facility, cost per square foot and space per student be posted on the Web.  The fourth report, Your Money and Pension Obligations, looks at public pension debt, which has made national headlines recently. Combs urges public pension funds in Texas to report on a public website such line items as their actual investment returns for the past 10 years and the plans’ assumed rates of return. “We want to give taxpayers the same kind of information on government debt and spending that they would need to prepare and balance their own budgets, to handle a mortgage or buy a car — a clear knowledge of what we’re spending and what we owe,” Combs said. “It’s your money.  If you don’t know how it’s being used, you need to know.  And it’s our job to let you know.” Each of the four reports along with interactive Web tools can be seen at www.texasitsyourmoney.org