Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Press Release, USDL-12-0094, January 27, 2012

In 2011, the union membership rate--the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union--was 11.8 percent, essentially unchanged from 11.9 percent in 2010, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.8 million, also showed little movement over the year. In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were17.7 million union workers.

Source: Joseph L. Martin, Bronwen Lichtenstein, Robert B. Jenkot, David R. Forde, Prison Journal, Vol. 92 no. 1, March 2012
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Prisons in the Southern United States are among the most underfunded, understaffed, and crowded in the nation. This study seeks to identify how Alabama state correctional officers experienced crowding related to their mental and physical health and safety. A total of 66 correctional officers at 3 Alabama men's prisons are surveyed about crowding in relation to job performance, health and safety, and inmate control. Respondents at all facilities, which had occupancy rates between 154% and 206% of capacity, report high levels of stress and impaired job performance due to understaffing and overwork. Officers at the most crowded prison are most stressed and fearful of inmates. In the absence of policies to reduce density or increase staffing in prisons, new strategies are urgently needed to reduce occupational stress among officers in crowded correctional facilities.

Source: Christian Henrichson, Ruth Delaney, VERA Institute of Justice, January 2012

From the press release:
State taxpayers pay, on average, 14 percent more on prisons than corrections department budgets reflect, according to a report released today by the Vera Institute of Justice. The report, The Price of Prisons: What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers--published today--shows that in 40 states that participated, the aggregate cost of prisons in FY2010 was $38.8 billion, $5.4 billion more than their corrections budgets reflected. When all costs are considered, the annual average taxpayer cost in these states was $31,166 per inmate.

While it is common knowledge that some prison costs are tracked outside corrections budgets, The Price of Prisons marks the first time these costs have been quantified for prisons across the states. To calculate the total price of prisons, Vera developed a survey tool that tallied costs outside corrections budgets. The most common of these costs were fringe benefits, underfunded contributions for corrections employees' pension and retiree health care plans, inmate health care, capital projects, legal costs, and inmate education and training.
See also:
The Price of Prisons: 40 state fact sheets

Source: NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, December 2011

From the summary:
The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) and the NAACP have been tracking the rising tide of legislative measures designed to block access to the polls for voters of color. What our research has uncovered is a cause for grave concern: a coordinated and comprehensive assault has been launched against our voting rights.

The findings of our research are gathered in this report, Defending Democracy: Confronting Modern Barriers to Voting Rights in America. The report reveals direct connections between the trend of increasing, unprecedented turnout among voters of color and the proliferation of restrictive measures across the country designed to thwart electoral strength among people of color--particularly those who are poor, young, or elderly....

...These voting restrictions have been pushed in states with large communities of color where political participation has surged. The measures range from new and enhanced voter identification requirements to provisions that will curtail voter access to registration, inhibit critical voter
registration drives, limit voting periods, and tighten the ability to cast ballots.
In all, 14 states have passed 25 various measures designed to restrict or limit the ballot access of voters of color, threatening to disfranchise millions of people, a disproportionate number of whom are people of color. ...

Source: Common Cause Minnesota, August 2011

From the summary:
Some of the nation's largest and richest companies, including Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Koch Industries and AT&T, have joined forces to invest millions of dollars each year to promote the careers of thousands of state legislators and secure passage of legislation that puts corporate interests ahead of the interests of ordinary Americans.

The American Legislative Exchange Council, also known as ALEC, counts among its members some 2,000 state legislators and corporate executives. They sit side-by-side and collaborate to draft "model" bills that reach into areas of American life ranging from voting rights to environmental protection. They they work in concert to get those bills passed in statehouses across the country.
See also:
ALEC Exposed in Texas
Source: Phillip Martin, Kristen O'Brien and Samuel Carfagno, Progress Texas, January 2012

Source: Constance Newman, Jessica E. Todd, Michele Ver Ploeg, Social Service Review, Vol. 85, No. 4, December 2011
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
This study analyzes changes in the determinants of use of multiple food assistance (FA) programs by low-income children from 1990 to 2009. Using data from the 1990 and the 2008 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, it compares very poor households with those that are poor and near poor. For both poverty groups, use of other welfare programs, especially Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, is found to be an important determinant of multiple FA program use, but the effects are found to decline over the study period. Volatility in household income-to-poverty ratios is also found to reduce both groups' participation in multiple programs, but this effect grows for the very poor over the length of the study. Very poor children in households with more employed and married adults are found to use fewer FA programs, although they are apparently eligible for these programs.

Source: Paul Fronstin, Employee Benefit Research Institute, EBRI Notes, Vol. 33, No. 1, January 2012

From the press release:
The new federal insurance law has increased the health insurance coverage of adult children between 2009 and 2011...

...To determine whether the coverage mandate had an effect, EBRI examined data from two U.S. Census Bureau surveys (the Current Population Survey, CPS, and the Survey of Income and Program
Participation, or SIPP), as well as from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) by the Centers for Disease Control.

The data indicated:
- The percentage of persons ages 19‒ 25 with employment-based coverage as a dependent increased from 24.7 percent in 2009 to 27.7 percent in 2010, according to the CPS.
- The percentage of individuals ages 19‒ 25 with employment-based health coverage as a dependent averaged 26.9 percent during January ‒ September 2010, and increased to an average 27.1 percent during October and November, per SIPP.
- The percentage with private insurance increased from 51 percent to 55.8 percent, and the percentage uninsured fell from 33.9 percent during 2010 to 28.8 percent during the first half of 2011 among those ages 19 ‒ 25, according to data from the NHIS.