Progress Towards MLK's Dream for America

In a recently released report from Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends, "King’s Dream Remains an Elusive Goal; Many Americans See Racial Disparities," it was found that many Americans (45%) say the US has made "a lot" of progress toward racial equality and nearly half of all  Americans (49%) say that “a lot more” needs to be done.  The data for this study were gathered by interviewing 2,231 adults in the continental US. Interviews were conducted by cell and landline telephone from August 1 through 11, 2013 .

This report is accompanied by an interactive tool that allows the user to view the data in table and chart forms and see the changes in a number of measures over time.

Read more:
http://www.pewresearch.org/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/08/22/kings-dream-remains-an-elusive-goal-many-americans-see-racial-disparities/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2013/08/final_full_report_racial_disparities.pdf
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/08/22/race-demographics/
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/category/interactives/

Cost of Raising Children

In a recent CNN/Money article, Melanie Hicken reports that it will cost a middle class family an estimated $241,080 to raise a child from birth through age 18 years. This estimate does not include the cost of college. The findings are based on data from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and show a 3% increase over 2011. The USDA tracks costs for items such as housing, transportation, food, child care, and others.

The article is accompanied by an interactive tool which allows the user to examine change in expenses over time and by year, region of the country and class.

Read more:
http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/14/pf/cost-children/index.html
http://money.cnn.com/interactive/pf/cost-of-children/?sr=fb081513costraisekid5p/gallery/pf/2013/08/14/cost-of-children/index.html?sr=fb081513costchildren