Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/TheUrbanInstitute

Children are a diminishing priority in the federal budget, a study from the Urban Institute and New America Foundation shows. If current spending and revenue policies continue, the children’s share of domestic federal spending-which excludes defense, non-defense homeland security, and international affairs-will be 13.8 percent in 2018, down from 16.2 percent in 2007 and 20.2 percent in 1960.

The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center launches a new intellectual venture capital fund to help policymakers, the public and the media better understand the U.S. tax system and the policy challenges facing the nation over the next decade. The $10 million Opportunity Fund will include a $2.5 million challenge grant from the Gates Foundation.

DNA evidence isn't a typical tool for investigating property crimes like burglary, but a new Urban Institute report reveals that biological evidence can be remarkably effective in solving and prosecuting such crimes.

Ten budding undergraduate researchers have been selected for the debut class of the Urban Institute Summer Academy for Public Policy Analysis and Research. The Summer Academy, established with support from the Ford Foundation, addresses the underrepresentation of minorities and people from distressed communities in public policy research. Academy students will take part in an intensive eight-week program that will help hone their analytical and research skills.

"Life after Lockup: Improving Reentry from Jail to the Community" is the first national resource focusing on jail inmates' transition from incarceration to society. It presents an overview of U.S. jails and their population and how reentry from jail differs markedly from reentry from state and federal prisons. The report examines concrete reentry steps, profiles 42 reentry programs around the country, and explores probation's role in the process. A companion report, "The Jail Administrators' Toolkit for Reentry," is a handbook on assessment of inmates' needs, identifying community resources, educating the public, and measuring success.

Eugene Steuerle's Contemporary U.S. Tax Policy, second edition, details how federal tax policy since the 1950s has evolved and trains an expert's eye on its considerable successes, shortfalls, and problems. He prefaces his account with an explanation of important tax policy principles and an overview of the main actors and their changing roles. Steuerle closes his engaging narrative with a perceptive analysis of President George Bush's unsuccessful second-term efforts to use commissions to reform Social Security and to rewrite the tax code.

The violent crime rate, which had been declining for years, went up from 2004 to 2006 and is no longer on a downward trend. Among the explanations for the crime spike is that emphasizing terrorism prevention has left less money and manpower for community policing. The federal government, and the presidential candidates, can take the lead in providing states with innovative ways to combat crime.

As voters weigh candidates' positions on domestic issues, differing views about the government's role in helping children and families will come into play. What do members of the public believe about children and families? How do their beliefs overlap or conflict with the research and policy evidence and the demographic and economic trends that shape family life?

Most heads of midsize nonprofits give their trustees low marks for fundraising and monitoring board performance, an Urban Institute study of nonprofits with annual expenses between $500,000 and $5 million has found.

Our time has witnessed the unprecedented combination of tax reductions at home and war abroad. War and Taxes, released May 6 by the Urban Institute Press, chronicles the political arguments, economic conditions, and public opinions that made it possible for previous presidents and Congresses to raise taxes, sell bonds, and cut domestic spending to pay for wars.

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