News for Tues: Help a Soldier get a puppy & are changing demographics impacting voting?

• Kind of a cool art story about a veteran with PTSD who healed by using his talents as a graffiti artist.

• Speaking of soldiers, I turned on the news this morning to a piece about soldiers with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries and the healing powers that animals can have on people. This program was started by a young soldier who served in Afghanistan and deferred studying at Harvard Med School to fight overseas and when he came back he decided to try and find solutions to these problems. He started Dog Bless You and now a philanthropist is giving away a free service animal to a soldier for every person who "likes" their facebook page.

NPR Did a story yesterday about the impact on the electorate changing demographics have. Teaser is that America is among one of the biggest and fastest demographic changes EVER. WOOT!

"It's not only a phenomenon of Phoenix and Dallas and Miami. Iowa, Utah, Nebraska are seeing substantial increases in their minority population, particularly their Hispanic population. And all of these changes are most concentrated and forceful among the young.

Today, the census tells us almost 47 percent of Americans under 18 are minority or non-white. Under 18, our youth population, will be majority minority by the end of this decade. And it kind of begs the question we're going to have to - we may have to come up with some new terminology once we are in that America."

• General Colin Powell spoke to the young people at the World Youth Peace Summit
  
• CNN does a story on concussion dangers for young athletes.
  
• In financial news, apparently the Millennial Generation is beginning to dive into the idea of the stock market. Those that are investing weren't investing before in stocks but that has doubled since 2003. We here at FM would also encourage some of those investments to be donated our way.
• Speaking of the changing market for the Millennial Generation - the rental market is taking a turn in the Twin Cities according to a report Saturday. Evidently a few years ago the majority of the rental market was made up by 30 and 40 year olds but that is changing now with Millennials taking over. Their findings, where were reported during the National Apartment Association Education Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas last month, were that wifi is critical, and renting provides a high end option to those who want fancy but can't yet afford or don't want to commit to a long-term mortgage.
• Another breaking news story about the tail end of the Millennial Generation (those born in the late 90's) it turns out the Vanity Fair cover with Justin Bieber sold the lowest ever. When asked about the cover the Vanity Fair spokesperson said "Who knew 12-year-olds didn’t buy magazines?" In the words of Perez Hilton "Umm, everyone!?!" I'd be interested to see if magazines are on their way out with Millennials and younger generations.
• In college affordability news: For Profit Colleges continue to be a train on tax dollars and run students into debt. Likely to run away and hit someone... I know it seems like I post at least a few stories like this a week but the higher ed lobby for for-profit schools is so strong that we have to do everything we can to bring to light those that are unfair and harming students.
• Student Loan means high flying career never materializes, but debt persists.
• Here's a story about how the minimum wage is boosting unemployment numbers. I expected this to be a right wing attack on the minimum wage saying we should cut it entirely because it doesn't help but this is actually starts off with a good argument for why it should be raised in New Hampshire who has legislation up to increase it to the federal standards.
  

  "New Hampshire officials may be thinking of young job seekers. Unemployment in the state averaged 18 percent for 16- to 19-year-olds in 2010. Horrible enough, though well below the national average of 25.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the minimum wage affects youths disproportionately: About half of those paid the federal minimum or less are younger than 25.

  Do penny differences really count when it comes to employment? The case that they do is stronger than it used to be, especially when it comes to less-productive workers such as teens. Particularly problematic for teens is the federal minimum wage, an old fixture of the American workplace."

  The concern I have: when the piece continues saying that the FDR set a high minimum wage saying that with more people making enough to get by they could work less hours and provide more jobs for more people. This hit companies who, the article claims, are getting less for more. I would argue that the "worker harder for less" ideology disproportionately hurts people and accounts for the significant increase in stress, anxiety, obesity, and other health problems we have in the US. When we say a 40 hour work week we're living in a disillusion. Because realistically, Americans work more like a 50+ hour work week, for 40hr pay. When you compare our work culture with those working 30-35 hour work weeks for the same pay they are much healthier than we are.

• Here's another probably Baby Boomer talking about how young people don't really know anything and that Democrats are stupid for listening/recruiting young people. Look for a full response to this later today.
• According to a new study in the UK, video games can help young people who have learning disabilities. Basically, using games that involve physical activities like the Wii and Kinect can help with motion tasks that can sometimes be difficult for those with disabilities. "Participants in the study were aged between 16 and 24 and had disabilities ranging from Down's Syndrome to autism spectrum disorders." Interesting study and a great idea for ways to help young people to be more independent despite challenges.
• DoSomething.org makes news with a new piece in Non-Profit Quarterly that details orgs that are making a difference through text messaging.
• Here's a good idea. A UK piece talks about apprenticeships for young musicians who want to get into the biz.

Have a great 4 day work week!