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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://evpl.org/community/utility/FeedStylesheets/rss.xsl" media="screen"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"><channel><title>Research Blog : current events, Online resources, useful web sites</title><link>http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/current+events/Online+resources/useful+web+sites/default.aspx</link><description>Tags: current events, Online resources, useful web sites</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><generator>CommunityServer 2008 SP1 (Build: 30619.63)</generator><item><title>The Health Care Reform Act turmoil</title><link>http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/2009/08/18/the-health-care-reform-act-turmoil.aspx</link><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:33:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">9a7b961d-7882-4302-b701-732ca0e566f2:1779</guid><dc:creator>SuDocQueen@evpl</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=1779</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/2009/08/18/the-health-care-reform-act-turmoil.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;Opinions and concerns abound about this issue, sometimes to the point that the facts get obscured. Can I separate all the facts from the fiction? Nope, I can be duped and sucked in as easily as the next person. But I can tell you where to go to form your own opinions undiluted by anyone else with an agenda. &lt;a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/"&gt;Thomas&lt;/a&gt; from the Library of Congress is an excellent site for following legislation and the workings of Congress. As a matter of fact, Thomas has made it easy for people right now. You don&amp;#39;t even have to search for the House&amp;#39;s health care bill. They&amp;#39;ve put up a direct link on the very front of their website. From that link, you can then read a summary of the bill, see what Committees it&amp;#39;s been referred to, see who is sponsoring it, and read the bill word for word yourself. Be warned, the bill&amp;#39;s over 1,000 pages long and very dense to read! That doesn&amp;#39;t mean I think it&amp;#39;s not worth reading; I&amp;#39;m just saying don&amp;#39;t expect to skim through it on your lunch hour unless you belong to Mensa. :)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You can also get some very useful links from Congressman Brad Ellsworth&amp;#39;s &amp;quot;&lt;a href="http://www.ellsworth.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;task=view&amp;amp;id=515&amp;amp;Itemid=43"&gt;Online Office&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;quot; He has the PDF of the full bill, just as Thomas does, but he additionally has links to the committee work being done on the bill.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And while we&amp;#39;re talking Congressmen, if you want to share your opinion, do you know who to share yours with? Indiana&amp;#39;s Senators are &lt;a href="http://bayh.senate.gov/contact/"&gt;Evan Bayh&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://lugar.senate.gov/contact/"&gt;Richard Lugar&lt;/a&gt;, while Evansville&amp;#39;s Congressman is &lt;a href="http://www.ellsworth.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&amp;amp;task=view&amp;amp;id=71&amp;amp;Itemid=72"&gt;Brad Ellsworth&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lastly, here&amp;#39;s on other place I like to go when I&amp;#39;m inundated with opinions, &lt;a href="http://factcheck.org/"&gt;http://factcheck.org/&lt;/a&gt;. They appear non-partisan to me. They&amp;#39;ve debunked pro and con statements surrounding the health care debate. And, their website/services don&amp;#39;t exist solely for the health care debate (it just looks that way right now :). Take a look at their &lt;a href="http://factcheck.org/archives/"&gt;Archives&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a href="http://factcheck.org/ask-factcheck/"&gt;Ask Factcheck&lt;/a&gt; to see some of the other political issues they address.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://evpl.org/community/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1779" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/politics/default.aspx">politics</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/current+events/default.aspx">current events</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/health/default.aspx">health</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/library+of+congress/default.aspx">library of congress</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/government/default.aspx">government</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/public+opinion/default.aspx">public opinion</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/propaganda/default.aspx">propaganda</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/Online+resources/default.aspx">Online resources</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/legal/default.aspx">legal</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/policy/default.aspx">policy</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/useful+web+sites/default.aspx">useful web sites</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/legislation/default.aspx">legislation</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/websites/default.aspx">websites</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/health+risks/default.aspx">health risks</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/U.+S.+Government/default.aspx">U. S. Government</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/law/default.aspx">law</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/insurance/default.aspx">insurance</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/health+insurance/default.aspx">health insurance</category></item><item><title>Explore Issues of Global Importance with New Database</title><link>http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/2009/05/16/explore-issues-of-global-importance-with-new-database.aspx</link><pubDate>Sat, 16 May 2009 16:56:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">9a7b961d-7882-4302-b701-732ca0e566f2:1507</guid><dc:creator>Bufkinite@evpl</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=1507</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/2009/05/16/explore-issues-of-global-importance-with-new-database.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="192" width="240" alt="Global Issues in Context home page" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3582/3533939774_4d84d1486c_m.jpg" style="float:left;" /&gt;Need up-to-the-minute information on child labor? &amp;nbsp;Want to have an idea about current world opinion regarding the US military&amp;#39;s use of torture? &amp;nbsp;Are you concerned about nuclear weapons in failed states falling into the hands of international terrorist organizations? &amp;nbsp;Are you confused by the proliferation of different and conflicting information about global climate change and sea-level rise?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Information on all of these issues and much more is available through a new database called &lt;em&gt;Global Issues in Context&lt;/em&gt;. &amp;nbsp;Available through the &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.evpl.org/research/databases/"&gt;EVPL database page&lt;/a&gt;, this resource offers global news and perspectives on issues and events&amp;nbsp;of international importance, like the ones outlined above, and provides background information on them, placing them in the proper&amp;nbsp;sociopolitical, religious, and cultural&amp;nbsp;context.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Searching &lt;em&gt;Global Issues in Context&lt;/em&gt; can take place in a variety of ways, starting with simple keyword searching in a single search box. &amp;nbsp;There is also a clickable world map, where choosing a particular country then links to issue portals where that country is mentioned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Global Issues in Contex&lt;/em&gt;t has a great deal of multimedia components, including extensive audio and video clips from such places as NPR, PBS, CBC, and NBC news; interactive maps, and links to world newspapers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-style:normal;"&gt;TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; Global Issues in Context&amp;#39;s&lt;/em&gt;&amp;nbsp;conten is aligned to state and national social studies and science standards and is up to date. &amp;nbsp;Thus it can be used across the curriculum. &amp;nbsp;It also encourages and develops critical-thinking skills by providing students a variety of pertinent global perspectives on the issues.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Check out this resource; it will broaden and deepen your understanding of current events and issues affecting countries and people around the world.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://evpl.org/community/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1507" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/current+events/default.aspx">current events</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/education/default.aspx">education</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/databases/default.aspx">databases</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/Online+resources/default.aspx">Online resources</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/students/default.aspx">students</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/maps/default.aspx">maps</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/issues+and+controversies/default.aspx">issues and controversies</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/Gale/default.aspx">Gale</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/useful+web+sites/default.aspx">useful web sites</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/geography/default.aspx">geography</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/skills/default.aspx">skills</category><category domain="http://evpl.org/community/blogs/research/archive/tags/eResources/default.aspx">eResources</category></item></channel></rss>