Broad Criticism of Pope Benedict’s Handling of Sex Abuse Scandal
Amid new revelations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI’s job ratings for handling the scandal have plummeted.
Broad Public Support For Legalizing Medical Marijuana
Nearly three-quarters of Americans say they favor their state allowing the sale and use of marijuana for medical purposes. Support spans all major political and demographic groups. There is less support for general legalization, but the proportion supporting legalizing marijuana use has continued to rise over the past two decades.
The Impact of the Internet on Institutions in the Future
Most technology experts and stakeholders say innovative forms of online cooperation could result in more efficient and responsive organizational structures for business, non-profits and government by the year 2020.
Chronic Disease and the Internet
Americans living with a chronic disease are significantly less likely than healthy adults to have internet access. The majority are online, however, and they are more likely to share what they know and to learn from their peers.
Gun Control Splits America
The public is divided over whether state and local governments should be able to pass laws banning the sale and possession of handguns as well as whether it is more important to protect gun owners’ rights or control gun ownership.
The Return of the Multi-Generational Family Household
The multi-generational American family household is staging a comeback — driven in part by the job losses and home foreclosures of recent years, but more so by demographic changes that have been gathering steam for decades. As of 2008, a record 49 million Americans, or 16.1% of the total U.S. population, lived in such a household, up from 28 million, or 12.l%, in 1980. Such households had been more common a century ago, but began to fall out of favor after World War II. Now they are coming back.
Public’s Economic Woes Persist
Americans don’t favor the current health care reform legislation, but most opponents prefer a new bill to no bill and more see their health care costs rising without reform than with it. Nearly everyone gives the national economy a negative rating; 70% of Americans say they have faced one or more job or financial-related problems in the past year
Census: Growing Awareness, Most Ready For Forms
Those with lower levels of income and education remain significantly less likely than others to say they will take part in the census. All partisans want to participate, but Democrats are more likely than independents or Republicans to say the census will benefit their community.
Support for Alternative Energy and Offshore Drilling
Americans strongly favor increased funding for research on wind, solar and hydrogen technology and more spending on mass transit, but majorities also support offshore drilling and nuclear power. Half have heard nothing at all about “cap and trade.”
The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change.
A new national survey focuses on American teens and twenty-somethings who are making the passage into adulthood at the start of a new millennium. These young people have begun to forge their generational personality: confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change.
