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America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up
Yahoo! Real Estate: "If you could create the ideal community to raise a child in, what ingredients would you include? First off, you'd probably want a low crime rate.
A strong school system would also be key. From there, you'd need lots of other children, expansive green spaces to play in, and plenty of nearby family events. Toss in an abundance of artistic and recreational activities, and all of a sudden you've got one heck of a place to grow up. At U.S. News, we wanted to find out if any communities like that already existed—and if so, where they were located. So we dug into our database of 2,000 different places all across the country and pinpointed the locales that met these criteria. We then examined these communities more closely to determine which places offered the best combination of safe neighborhoods, fun activities, and top-notch educators. Click on the link to read our selections for America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up."
Recession leaving couples without work
READ MORE: Reinventing America- msnbc.com: "Eleanora and Francis Scully didn’t live a lavish life, but it was a life they loved.The Scullys shared the same apartment in the New York borough of Brooklyn for 32 years, raising two sons before settling into a comfortable existence on their own again.
In the evenings after work, they would sometimes meet in front of the building and head out for a slice of pizza or a cup of coffee. On the weekends, they might go hiking in Pennsylvania or spend the day at the beach. Every once in a while, they went to Illinois or Florida to visit their grown sons.
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“Life was just — you couldn’t ask for more,” remembered Eleanora Scully, 53.
But now that life has unraveled due to job losses that eventually left the Scullys unable to pay their bills and stay in the apartment they rented for decades.
The lengthy recession is delivering a double blow to some American families, leaving both spouses without a job at the same time. The dual loss of income — and the difficult prospect of finding two new jobs — has some facing deep financial fears, including losing their homes and taking on expensive health care costs without the safety net of an employer’s insurance plan. It also is threatening the stability of some families, who are looking at a future very unlike the one they planned for."
For class of 2009, degree doesn’t mean a job
READ more on msnbc.com: "Matt Dumont has been looking for work since May.“I’ve had a couple times that I was told that I was one of the top applicants, went in for an interview, and then I just never heard back from them,” said Dumont, who graduated last spring from Abilene Christian University in Texas with a degree in English and minors in Spanish and the Bible.
Dumont was haunting the college’s Career Center last week, looking for leads and advice. But the prospects are not promising for him and thousands of other new college graduates: Employment counselors and job placement specialists say the class of 2009 faces a daunting task finding work in the worst economy since the Great Depression."
