The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality today announced that Texans turned in more than 43 million pounds of electronics to computer manufacturers for recycling. In addition to recycling covered computer equipment, many computer manufacturers also voluntarily collect televisions and other electronics for recycling. The TCEQ allowed computer manufacturers to report other electronics collected, not just the computer equipment covered under the program. Computer manufacturers reported collecting more than 43.8 million pounds of electronics from Jan. 1, 2012, through Dec. 31, 2012. Currently, 90 manufacturers representing 133 brands are participating in the computer recycling program. As part of the program, computer manufacturers collected more than 24 million pounds of covered computer equipment in 2012. Of that collected weight, more than 20 million pounds were recycled and 3.7 million pounds were reused. The 2012 number is higher than the amount reported for any other reporting year.  The second highest year was 2010 when computer manufacturers collected for reuse or recycling a total of 19.5 million pounds of computer equipment. Texans have many opportunities to recycle their computer equipment and other electronics outside of the computer recycling program. Collection events coordinated by municipalities, local nonprofit groups, private recyclers, and community-oriented businesses are additional ways Texans can recycle their computers.   Since some of the recyclers don’t report to the TCEQ, the agency’s reported number doesn’t fully represent recycling activity in Texas. The TCEQ is currently working to implement a new program for the recycling of televisions, which will require television manufacturers that sell in Texas to collect and recycle television equipment. The TCEQ encourages consumers to take advantage of electronics recycling opportunities in 2013. Texas consumers can learn how to recycle their computer equipment by visiting TexasRecyclesComputers.org, and their television equipment by visiting TexasRecyclesTVs.org. For more information on the programs, contact the TCEQ’s Pollution Prevention and Education Section, 512-239-3143.

Analysis shows that Texas’ Veterans Would Lose Nearly $1.4 billion Over 10 Years

AUSTIN, TEXAS

As budget negotiations continue in Washington, AARP released an analysis showing the negative impact one proposal – the “chained CPI” -- would have on Texas’ veterans’ compensation and pensions. The chained CPI would change the way the cost-of-living adjustment is calculated for veterans’ compensation and Social Security, reducing the amounts veterans receive every year, and over time cutting benefits the most for the oldest veterans, including those with severe disabilities.  AARP joins more than a dozen veterans’ groups in opposing adoption of the chained CPI, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America and Disabled American Veterans. “Texas’ veterans and their families deserve our support and thanks for their service and sacrifices, not cuts to the benefits they have earned and rely on,” said Bob Jackson, Director of AARP Texas. “Adoption of the chained CPI would have a devastating effect on the financial well-being of our state’s veterans, and we urge Texans to let their members of Congress know that imposing the chained CPI is unacceptable.” According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Texas was home to over 1.6 million veterans in 2011. Using data from the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense, AARP calculates that adoption of the chained CPI would result in Texas’ veterans losing nearly $1.4 billion over a 10-year period. Over that same period, 23 million disabled veterans and military retirees nationwide would see their compensation and benefits cut by $17 billion. The chained CPI proposal would lower the yearly cost-of-living adjustment for veterans’ benefits, leaving veterans struggling to keep up with the rising cost of utilities, health care, and prescriptions – things that are hard to substitute for. Under this proposal, benefits for retired and disabled veterans would shrink by larger amounts every year, hurting those who served our nation more and more as they age and their retirement savings start to run out. And our nation’s youngest veterans – especially those who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan – would face harmful cuts, according to the Congressional Budget Office.  Replacing the current COLA formula with the chained CPI would cause a 30-year-old veteran with severe disabilities to see his or her veterans’ benefits reduced annually by $1,425 at age 45, $2,341 at 55 and $3,231 at 65. “Veterans understand sacrifice and the need for fiscal discipline, but we have made promises to our veterans who’ve sacrificed so much for our nation, and those promises must be kept,” Jackson added. “Imposing the chained CPI on Texas’ veterans would break our promise to those who have given so much to our state and nation, and AARP joins with veterans groups across the nation in opposing this proposal.” To check how much these changes would impact your benefits over time, go to our Chained CPI calculator: www.aarp.org/whatyoulose AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of more than 37 million, that helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial to them and society as a whole. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to either political campaigns or candidates. We produce AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for Americans 50+ and the world's largest-circulation magazine; AARP Bulletin, the go-to news source for the 50+ audience; www.aarp.org; AARP VIVA, a bilingual lifestyle multimedia platform addressing the interests and needs of Hispanic Americans; and national television and radio programming including My Generation and Inside E Street. The AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. AARP has staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Learn more at www.aarp.org.

WACO, Texas

A study to examine whether and how Boy Scout programs affect the character, health and academic achievement of youths — as well as their contribution to community and democracy — will be launched in September by Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion and Tufts University’s Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development. The three-year study, armed with major funding from the John Templeton Foundation and headed by Tufts, will evaluate an innovative Boy Scouts of America program that incorporates full-time executives to assist Scout troops by training the leaders, recruiting and retaining youths, and fund raising. Typically, local troops are staffed by volunteers. Researchers will be Byron Johnson, Ph.D., director of the ISR and also of Baylor’s Program on Prosocial Behavior, and Richard Lerner, Ph.D., Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and director of the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts. The study will be done in four waves in a geographic area in Philadelphia, Penn., that is served by the Cradle of  Liberty Council Boy Scouts of America. “It was necessary to select a jurisdiction that would generate a large and diverse number of study participants from rural as well as urban communities,” said Thomas Harrington, the CEO of the Cradle of Liberty Council. Noted Johnson: “The program could become a model for recruitment and retention of diverse youth — especially boys from inner cities — in Boy Scouts, especially if the study shows that involvement in the Scouts enhances the youths’ character.”

The study will compare all boys ages 7, 8, 9 and 10 from three groups in the selected geographic area:

• 36 randomly selected Cub Scout packs with full-time executives

• 36 randomly selected Cub Scout packs without full-time executives

• Comparable samples of boys who are not in Cub Scouts All youths surveyed (approximately 3, 880) will be from the same schools or religious organizations and will be matched on demographic characteristics – other than age – that are related to the likelihood of being in Cub Scouts, Johnson said. The youths will be re-tested in May 2014, September 2014 and May 2015, and any new youth entering the sample packs will be tested as well, he said. Said Lerner: “Large longitudinal surveys of this kind are increasingly rare within the social and behavioral sciences.” In addition to directing ISR and leads Baylor’s Program on Prosocial Behavior, Johnson is Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor. He was the principal investigator in a nationwide scientific survey of the impact of Eagle Scouts on society. In that study, released in spring of 2012 and funded by  a two-year research grant from the John Templeton Foundation, Baylor researchers partnered with the Gallup Organization to survey  2,512 adult males. Findings demonstrated that Eagle Scouts went on to contribute significantly, from holding leadership positions in their workplaces and neighborhoods to voting, volunteering, protecting the environment and preparing for emergencies. Johnson also completed a series of studies for the Department of Justice on religion’s role in prosocial youth behavior. He is recognized as a leading authority on the scientific study of religion, the efficacy of faith-based organizations, domestic violence and criminal justice. His research also has been used in consultation with the Department of Defense, Department of Labor and the National Institutes of Health. Co-researcher Lerner has more than 500 scholarly publications, including 70 authored or edited books, among them The Good Teen.  In that book, he supports a new conception of adolescence based on strengths rather than weaknesses, presenting five personality characteristics — competence, confidence, connection, character, and caring — that lead to long-term contributions to society. He and colleagues at Tufts have published more 100 studies on the impact of the 4-H program on youths. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and of Applied Developmental Science and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science.