EDUCATION
D.C.’s charter schools are improving
The latest results from annual standardized tests in the District of Columbia show the city’s public charter schools continuing to improve. According to a press release from the D.C. Public Charter School Board, charter students have performed equal to or better than the average student in D.C. Public Schools for the past decade.
In the 2015-16 school year, 29 percent of charter students met or exceeded expectations in language arts, compared to 25.5 percent in traditional public schools.
In math, the same is true of 26 percent of charter students, compared to 23.9 percent in public schools. In charter schools, that number improved over last year by 4 percentage points in language arts and 2.5 points in math.
The highest performing charter high school in the city is BASIS Washington D.C. Expectations were met or exceeded by 91 percent of BASIS students in language arts and 86 percent in math.
As of the 2014-15 school year, almost 38,000 students attended Washington charter schools. “We still have more work to do,” said Scott Pearson, chairman of the D.C. Public Charter School Board. “We will keep improving the educational options available to D.C. students.” — Jason Russell
TAXES
Expect refund delays in 2017, IRS warns
There are two reasons certain taxpayers will experience refund delays for taxes due on April 15, 2017.
First, a new law that takes effect next year requires the Internal Revenue Service to hold refunds a few weeks for some early filers who claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit. The agency has to hold the entire refund, not just the portions associated with those credits, until at least Feb. 15.
Second, the rise in identity theft is causing the IRS and state tax authorities to spend additional review time to protect against fraud.
“We just don’t want people caught by surprise if they get their refund a few weeks later than previous years,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “We want people to be aware we are taking additonal steps to protect taxpayers from identity theft, and that sometimes means the real taxpayers face a slight delay in their refunds,” he said.
Taxpayers can adjust their tax withholding for the rest of 2016 so they get more take-home money now and a smaller refund. Most refunds will be issued within 21 days or less. — Joana Suleiman
FOOD
Lab-grown meat and milk inching closer to grocery stores. Who will regulate?
Historically, the U.S. Department of Agriculture regulates meat, poultry and eggs, whereas the Food and Drug Administration oversees the safety and security of food additives and biologics, which include products made from human tissues, blood and cells, and gene therapy.
But emerging biotechnologies may blur those lines of oversight, because some of the new foods don’t fit neatly into existing regulatory definitions. “Cellular culture raises a lot of questions,” Isha Datar, CEO of New Harvest, a New York City nonprofit founded to support the industry, told Science Insider.
The help provide answers, the White House last year started an initiative to review and overhaul how agencies regulate agricultural biotechnology products.
And the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine in Washington is working on a study of future biotechnology developments and regulation. The report is expected to be released at the end of the year.
In the meantime, industry leaders are thinking about how their potential lab-based foods might be handled by regulators. One approach, they told Science Insider, is to show that their product is similar to an existing product that testing has already shown to pose no hazards.
“Most food regulation is about aligning new products with something that’s already recognized as safe,” Datar said.
As biotech creates more overlap among regulatory systems, Datar suggests it would be ideal to create a single regulatory agency. “Right now,” she says, “our system is set up in a way that promotes imitation as opposed to innovation.” — Joana Suleiman
DRUGS
Marijuana use up, but not among kids
Marijuana use in the U.S. has increased among adults but has dropped among teenagers, according to new findings.
The data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also shows that while daily use of marijuana has increased among adults, instances of marijuana dependence or abuse are much lower.
The study looked at marijuana use from 2002-14 and culled data from annual surveys of 884,742 people.
The prevalence of people smoking marijuana during one month in 2014 was 8.4 percent of those surveyed, a 35 percent increase from 2002 at 6.2 percent.
The study found that people ages 12-17 are smoking less marijuana in 2014 compared with 12 years ago. In 2002, nearly 16 percent of people ages 12-17 years old smoked marijuana within the past year, but that percentage fell to 13 percent in 2014.
However, the percentage of people 18-25 years old using marijuana yearly increased from nearly 30 percent in 2002 to nearly 32 percent in 2014. Use rose from 7 percent to 10 percent for people 26 years and older.
The CDC also found that people of all ages perceive lower risks from smoking marijuana in 2014 compared to 2002.
The agency found that as marijuana use becomes more common through state medical marijuana and decriminalization laws, “different patterns of use behavior might account for a substantial proportion of the increase in marijuana use” among adults 18 years and older. — Robert King
HEALTHCARE
Americans say Obamacare penalty unfair for low-competition areas
Most people want a waiver from Obamacare’s individual mandate for residents who live in counties that have only one Obamacare issuer.
The survey from AgileHealthinsurance.com, which advocates for term health insurance, comes as Obamacare is losing competition due to defections from major insurers such as Aetna and UnitedHealth.
A recent study from consulting firm Avalere Health predicted that one-third of counties will have only one Obamacare insurer, sparking questions about prices in the wake of less competition.
Agile said that 61 percent of those polled want a waiver from the uninsured penalty if the person lives in a county with only one Obamacare insurer and if the person doesn’t qualify for subsidies or lacks a healthcare plan option that includes his preferred doctors or hospitals.
The mandate penalty for not having insurance for 2017 is $695 or 2.5 percent of household income.
The survey had 1,164 responses and a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. — Robert King
CONSERVATION
Gnatcatcher 1, construction industry 0
The construction industry will not get its wish of having a little bird on the Mexican border with California removed from the endangered species list.
After a 12-month review started to respond to a joint petition from the Property Owners Association of Riverside County, National Association of Home Builders and the California Building Industry Association, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service won’t be removing the coastal California gnatcatcher from the list of “threatened” species.
It will, however, acknowledge that the bird is not facing extinction and should not be listed a step higher than “endangered.”
“After review of the best available scientific and commercial information, we find that delisting the coastal California gnatcatcher is not warranted at this time,” according to a notice in the Federal Register.
The industry petition tries to assert that the “coastal” variety of the gnat-catching bird species does not exist as a rare subspecies that deserves protection. The bird in Baja is the same variety as the more widespread, non-coastal variety that is not threatened, the industry argues.
“Working within the framework of the regulations for making delisting determinations … the petition asserts that the original data we used in our recognition of the coastal California gnatcatcher as a subspecies, and thus a listable entity under the act, were in error,” the service writes.
The agency doesn’t agree with the industry’s subspecies assertions, but decided that the bird was not facing extinction and is therefore not an “endangered” species. But it is still “threatened” and deserving of protection. – John Siciliano
