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APDU Data Update

 

 

APDU Data Update

 

APDU Events:

 

 

Webinar:

ACS Workshop, National Academy Report

March 20, 2013
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

Register

 

This webinar will summarize and provide pointers to the materials generated from the June 2012 Workshop on the Benefits (and Burdens) of the American Community Survey (ACS), particularly the formal workshop summary that was released on February 28, 2013.

The workshop was designed to canvass a broad array of the nonfederal ACS user base—among those users, the media, policy research and evaluation groups, state/local/tribal agencies, businesses and economic development organizations, and local and regional planning authorities. In particular, it sought to gather information on users’ experiences with the first few sets of full ACS data product releases (1-, 3-, and 5-year estimates). The workshop also devoted attention to the multiple burdens associated with the ACS, ranging from privacy and confidentiality concerns to the challenges of communicating and interpreting high-variability estimates.

 

 

Webinar:
Law as data:  Coding legal text using Public Health Law Research’s LawAtlas

 

April 4, 2013
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EDT

 

Register

 

The National Program Office for Public Health Law Research launched LawAtlas.org in October 2012.  LawAtlas is a website designed to facilitate the construction and display of quantitative legal datasets, enabling researchers to create custom web pages that allow users to interact with data and the associated legal texts through queries and maps.  LawAtlas.org includes a web-based content management system called Workbench.  This system was developed to provide a platform for accurately and efficiently compiling legal texts and coding their mechanistic features.

We believe the Workbench design increases the accuracy and efficiency of legal measurement projects.  It allows researchers to automate the creation of databases for organizing legal texts and coding for measuring features of associated laws.

This webinar will look at two unique datasets constructed using the LawAtlas Workbench system, and will demonstrate the complexity and value of systematically collecting and coding statutes, regulations and case law.  Sarah Happy, JD will present “Wages and Health,” a dataset of state and federal minimum wage  laws from a 30-year period that examines the role of minimum wage rates as a social determinant of health.  Steve Latham, JD, PhD will share  “Criminalization of HIV Transmission and Exposure,” a dataset that compiles data from HIV/AIDS-specific criminal statutes and reported cases that use the defendant’s HIV status as an element of crime as a reason to elevate or enhance a charge or as a factor in justifying enhanced sentencing.

 

Introduction:

Joan Naymark, JG Naymark Demographics
Moderator:

Damika Webb, JD, Legal Analyst and LawAtlas Manager, Public Health Law Research
Presenters:

Sarah Happy, JD, Legal Analyst, Public Health Law Research
Steve Latham, JD, PhD, Director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics

 

 

News

 

BLS 2013 Sequestration Information

On March 1, 2013, President Obama ordered into effect the across-the-board spending cuts (commonly referred to as sequestration) required by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended.  Under the order, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must cut its current budget by more than $30 million, 5 percent of the current 2013 appropriation, by September 30, 2013.  Read more here.
 

 

ACS Data Users Group Questionaire

With funding from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) and Sabre Systems are forming a new American Community Survey (ACS) Data Users Group.  The purpose of the ACS Data Users Group is to improve understanding of the value and utility of ACS data.  Membership in the group is free and open to all interested ACS data users.  To facilitate communication among ACS data users, PRB and Sabre Systems will create and maintain an online forum, organize webinars and special sessions at professional meetings, and hold an annual ACS Data Users Conference.  Take the survey here.
 

 

Virtual RDC Data

The most recent QWIPU data for all participating LED states are available for download.  The release R2012Q4 covers data through 2012:4, for 46 states and the District of Columbia.  The following states were missing in previous releases, and are now included again: Louisiana (LA), New Jersey (NJ), Rhode Island (RI).  Missing are Colorado (CO) and North Carolina (NC) due to temporary data quality issues, and Massachusetts (MA), which has not yet provided data to the Census Bureau.  In general, each state’s version.txt file points to the last updated quarter.  Each data file contains the complete historical time series for each state, up through the latest quarter.  Access the data here.
 

 

USDA Introduces the Food Access Research Atlas

The USDA Economic Research Service’s Food Desert Locator has been replaced by the Food Access Research Atlas, a mapping tool that allows users to investigate multiple indictors of food store access.  This new tool expands upon the Food Desert Locator by updating previous estimates of food desert census tracts, incorporating alternative estimates of low-income and low-access census tracts, and offering contextual information for all census tracts in the United States.  In the Atlas, updated estimates of food-desert census tracts—low-income census tracts where a substantial number or share of people are far from supermarkets—that use more recent population and store location data can be viewed and mapped.  New additional measures of low-income and low-access census tracts are also estimated and mapped.  Read more here.
 

 

American Housing Survey Updates: Metro Tables

The summary tables for the metropolitan areas that were included in the 2011 American Housing Survey are available on the Census Bureau’s web site.  Note that if you click on the metro area name, you will be taken to the American FactFinder system.  If you want the tables in Excel, click on the “XLS” link to the right of the area name.  The Excel files use the same structure as the national summary tables.  Access the tables here.
 

 

ESA Shows How to Use Its Agencies’ Local and Regional Data for Economic Planning

When disaster strikes an American community, local and regional planners focus on saving lives and property, but once the winds stop or the waters recede, the process of assessing the damage and economic impacts begins.  Developing an accurate economic and demographic baseline is a key early step in this process, as it gives planners the starting point from which to assess the damage and plan the recovery.  The Economics and Statistics Administration’s U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis provide a wide-array of local and regional data that are used to create these baselines.  Read more here.
 

 

BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook Now Available in Spanish

The Spanish language version of the 2012-13 Occupational Outlook Handbook is now online.  This release marks the first time that the entire OOH is available in Spanish, including 341 occupation profiles, an overview of the 2010-20 projections, FAQs, and more.  Read more here.
 

 

Notable Data Publications

 

Each week, the APDU Data Update identifies recent statistical data releases of interest to APDU members.

 

 

Did you work on a great report that you want your colleagues to know about?  Just email us and we’ll include it here.

 

Calls for Comment

 

APDU maintains a list of