‘Absent’ fathers on the rise

Fathers present are making kids a priority

While Father’s Day is a day of cookouts, homemade cards and appreciation for some, for others it’s a reminder of what they’ve been missing.
A new National Survey of Family Growth study analyzed by the Pew Research Center revealed good news and bad news for fathers and their children. The NSFG study found that fathers living in the same home as their children are spending more quality time with them, but the number of absent fathers has increased.
As shown in a graph from U.S. Census Bureau population surveys, more than one-in-four fathers with children 18 and younger now live apart from their children. Only 11 percent of children in the U.S. lived apart from their fathers in 1960. That number increased to 27 percent by 2010.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey and 1960 Census of Population. Graph: Pew Research Center

The Huffington Post hit some of the study’s highlights. Gretchen Livingston, co-author of the analysis report, said an increase in divorce rates and a decrease in marriage rates could be partially to blame for the increase in absent fathers.
“We see that the share of children living apart from their dads has more than doubled from 11 percent in 1960 to 27 percent in 2008, and at that same time we see that three-fold increase in divorce,” she said. “Clearly the trends fit together.”
Pew also found that income, education, age, race and ethnicity are strong indicators of whether a father lives in the same home as his children. Fathers with less income and education are more likely to be an absent father.
About 44 percent of Black fathers live separately from their children, but only 21 percent of white fathers live separately. Thirty-five percent of Hispanic fathers live separately.
"Whites do have lower divorce rates and they are less likely to live apart from their kids; blacks do have higher divorce rates and they are more likely to live apart from their kids," Livingston told the Huffington Post. "But with Hispanics, they actually have relatively low divorce rates but you see that they are more likely to live apart from their kids than whites."
The good news is that Pew found that the father’s role in the home is changing for the better. In 1965, fathers with children in the home only spent 2.6 hours a week caring for the children. In 2000, married fathers spent 6.5 hours a week carrying for the children.
Illustrated in a graph based on fathers with children between the ages of 5-18, fathers living with their children clearly spend more time that the fathers who live apart from their children.

Source: Pew Research Center calculations of the 2006-08 National Survey of Family Growth. Graphic: Pew Research Center

An article from PR Newswire reported that National Fatherhood Initiative research found that about 24 million children live without their father in the home. The organization’s data, outlined in the sixth-edition research book “Father Facts,” found that “across nearly every measure of child well-being – academic, economic, behavioral, emotional, and social – children who live absent their fathers are significantly more likely to suffer negative consequences.”
In the video from the Associated Press, President Obama uses his weekly address to discuss the importance of being a good father. His tips during the address included quality time, structure and unconditional love.

Source: The Associated Press

President Obama weekly address: "Father's Day"

Palin emails underwhelming

Reporters dig for newsworthy morsels

Reporters anticipating the release of Sarah Palin’s emails to be of Wiki Leaks magnitude were sorely disappointed.
Media outlets seem to be struggling to find anything worth reporting following yesterday’s release of 24,000 pages of emails written during Palin’s term as governor of Alaska.
Rachel Weiner, with The Washington Post, reported Friday that Palin faced rumors of her fifth child, Trig, actually being her daughter Bristol’s child long before she became Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential candidate.
Palin emailed staffers and her husband Todd Palin on April 6, 2008, 12 days before Trig was born, regarding the rumors. “Bristol does want it squashed — we just don’t know how to do so without making it a bigger issue. . . . I figured it was them or [former Palin staffer John] Bitney,” Palin wrote.
Even after Trig’s birth, Palin sent out several emails discussing how to handle the rumors. “I wish I could shame people into ceasing such gossip about a teen, but can’t figure out how to do that,” she wrote in an April 22 email.
The Huffington Post reported today that Palin claimed she wasn’t worried about any negative backlash from the emails during an interview last weekend with "Fox News Sunday."
"I think every rock in the Palin household that could ever be kicked over and uncovered anything, it's already been kicked over," she said during the interview. "I don't think there's anything private in our family now. A lot of those emails obviously weren't meant for public consumption. They are between staff members. They're probably between family members."
According to the Huffington Post, Palin’s emails contained conversations to her staffers about McCain’s positions on certain topics, including resource development and oil drilling in Alaska.
“If anyone can help me hear from him (McCain) on that, our state would appreciate it. I'll have a tough time explaining my support for him until I can say I spoke with him about my concerns re: pro-environmental stands he's taking that could hurt Alaska,” Palin wrote in a February 2008 email.
       The Daily Beast read between the lines, claiming to find an overarching trend of Palin obsessing over her portrayal in the media. She wrote to staffers in February 2007 that she wanted to keep track of news clippings and interviews.
      "I need folks to really help ramp up accurate counter comments to the misinformation that’s being spread out there," she wrote. However, months later she wrote that doing such wasn’t worth the time and energy.
But media outlets weren’t the only ones going after Palin. Yahoo! News reported today that Palin’s emails revealed death threats after Palin became the vice presidential candidate. An email from someone identifying himself as Dominique Villacroux accused Palin’s candidacy of being one of “ultra neoconservatism and ultra neoliberalism.”
“She doesn't belong to the NRA to support the right of each citizen to have weapons in an aim of self-defence (sic), but just to support the right of every Southern white citizen to shoot all non-white people legally! Sarah Palin MUST BE KILLED!” Villacroux wrote.
A Reuters story, summarizing the email findings, reported that the emails were released to anyone willing to pay $725 for copies plus the cost of delivery.
Now a complete catalog of Palin’s email correspondence can be found at http://www.crivellawest.net/palin2011/default.html.
For more current news summaries, visit educatedechoes.blogspot.com.

Google catches 'phishing' scam

Google urges users to heighten their security settings after discovering Wednesday that a scam hacked into personal Gmail accounts of U.S. and Asian government officials, Chinese political activists, military personnel and journalists.
 Eric Grosse, Google engineering director, responded to the incident in a Google blog post. He said the attack likely originated in Jinan, China.
 While most schemes are designed to steal identities, Grosse wrote that the latest effort “seems to have been to monitor the contents of these users’ emails, with the perpetrators apparently using stolen passwords to change peoples’ forwarding and delegation settings.”
 David Goldman with CNN reported it was a “massive phishing scheme” that was successful in hacking hundreds of personal email accounts.
 Chris Ortman, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, told CNN that the agency was aware of the incident." We are working with Google and our federal partners to review the matter, offer analysis of any malicious activity, and develop solutions to mitigate further risk,” he said.
 But this is not the first time Google has claimed a password-hacking scheme originating from China, according to NPR. Another Gmail attack occurred more than a year ago in which hackers were able to break through Google's security systems.
 Goldman with CNN reported the previous attack eventually led to Google ending its agreement with the Chinese government to censor certain search results, and the company physically moved its servers out of the country. However, the Wednesday attack was not successful in hacking Google’s security systems.
 Grosse wrote in his blog that hackers take advantage of people who aren’t technologically savvy by using malware and phishing scams to trick users into sharing their password. He said Google would ever ask for a users password through an email form.

A massive phishing scam hacked hundreds of personal Gmail accounts,
including those of U.S. and Asian government officials, Chinese political
activists, military personnel and journalists.


 The Huffington Post reported that the U.S. has warned that a large-scale, devastating cyber attack could result in real-world military retaliation, but analysts say it could be difficult to detect its origin with full accuracy.
 Grosse wrote that Google users could improve their security by enabling a two-step verification system, using a stronger password and check your email settings for suspicious forwarding addresses. “Please spend ten minutes today taking steps to improve your online security so that you can experience all that the Internet offers—while also protecting your data.”