RELATED RESOURCES

Like Al's ideas? Hear more in our broadcast and online seminars. Sign up to receive Al's Morning Meeting by e-mail: * Click here (sent Monday-Friday at 7 a.m.) Buy Al's book, "Aim for the Heart" (Poynter receives a small cut as an Amazon affiliate).

Here is a story that is moving nationwide. From meat-packing plants in Kansas to schools in Arizona, employers and government officials are bracing for a widespread work stoppage today, in what has been tagged a "National Day of Action" on immigration reform. One Web site says it will be the biggest day of demonstrations around the country so far.

This morning, USA Today says as many as a million people will gather in 100 cities to participate in the protests.

Marches are planned everywhere from Texas to Indiana. You can also see a map of other marches nationwide.

Here is a state-by-state breakdown of what protestors will do around the country.   

USA Today reports:

"We think this is the largest mobilization on the issue of immigration reform ever," said Avril Smith, a spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union, which helped organize a march in Washington.

The coordinated day of marches comes after weeks of protests in the USA On Sunday, about 100,000 protesters gathered in Dallas.

Legislation in the Senate would give illegal immigrants an opportunity to stay in the USA, provided that they offer proof that they have lived here at least two years.

Lawmakers left Washington on Friday after efforts to pass the legislation collapsed barely 24 hours after Senate leaders announced a bipartisan deal had been reached. They had hoped to approve the bill before today's street demonstrations.
 

What a Buck Will Buy

The (San Louis Obispo, Calif.) Tribune reported on the sharp growth in "dollar" stores -- the ones where everything sells for a dollar.

Dollar store customers aren't always bargain hunters. The stores also attract more affluent shoppers. Families earning $70,000 or more are the fastest-growing customer group for the bargain stores.

The stores are giving giant retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart some competition, according to a study by the National Retail Federation. The report showed that low-cost items, such as household cleaners, are drawing customers away from superstores. The dollar stores are also helped by more convenient locations.

In a Pandemic, Every County for Itself?

The (Muncie, Ind.) Star Press looks at how important local action plans would be if a bird-flu pandemic occurred. What is your local plan?  

Here is the schedule of state and local meetings that have been set up for discussion of this issue:

State Summits

April 10 -- Nashville, Tenn.

April 13 -- Anchorage, Alaska

April 14 -- Tacoma, Wash.

April 25 -- Baton Rouge, La.

April 25 -- Detroit, Mich.

April 25 -- Honolulu, Hawaii

April 28 -- Washington, D.C.

May 1 -- Jackson, Miss.

May 18 -- Tribal Leaders

May 22 -- Billings, Mont.

May 26 -- Concord, N.H.

For more information, see PandemicFlu.gov. We've covered bird flu a number of times here on Al's Morning Meeting. Take a look at the stories below for more resources:

• "Bird Flu's Cost," (March 21, 2006)
• "Bird Flu: New Concerns," (March 15, 2006)
• "Bioethics and Pandemics," (Feb. 20, 2006)
• "Will States Pay for Bird Flu Plan?" (Nov. 2, 2005)
• "Bird Flu Warning," (May 30, 2005)
  

Playing the College Tuition Game

The (Quincy, Mass.) Patriot Ledger turned out a nice story on how students (and their parents) really don't have to pay sticker price for a college education.

Some private schools may not be as expensive as they look at first glance because students often don't pay the sticker price. Schools with bigger endowments can afford to give substantial grants -- at Boston University, for example, the average grant to a freshman who had a financial need this year was $20,900.

"Most people... know that when you see a car's list price, that's just the starting point of a car's price," said Lauren Asher, associate director of the Institute for College Access and Success, which runs the Project on Student Debt. "People without a lot of experience in higher education may not know that the list price of a college isn't exactly what you pay." 

We've been talking a lot about this recently on Al's Morning Meeting. Click here for more resources.

The "Myth" of the Boy Crisis

The Washington Post pokes pop-culture reporting in the eye with a piece that says recent warnings about boys in crisis are nonsense:

The boy crisis we're hearing about is largely a manufactured one, the product of both a backlash against the women's movement and the media's penchant for continuously churning out news about the latest dire threat to the nation. The subject got a big boost last year when first lady Laura Bush announced that she was going to turn her attention to the problems of boys.

But those problems are hardly so widespread. The alarming statistics on which the notion of a crisis is based are rarely broken out by race or class. When they are, the whole picture changes. It becomes clear that if there is a crisis, it's among inner-city and rural boys. White suburban boys aren't significantly touched by it. On average, they are not dropping out of school, avoiding college or lacking in verbal skills. Although we have been hearing that boys are virtually disappearing from college classrooms, the truth is that among whites, the gender composition of colleges is pretty balanced: 51 percent female and 49 percent male, according to the National Education Association. In Ivy League colleges, men still outnumber women.

One group of studies found that although poor and working-class boys lag behind girls in reading when they get to middle school, boys in the wealthiest schools do not fall behind, either in middle school or in high school. University of Michigan education professor Valerie Lee reports that gender differences in academic performance are "small to moderate."

When it comes to academic achievement, race and class completely swamp gender. The Urban Institute reports that 76 percent of students who live in middle- to higher-income areas are likely to graduate from high school, while only 56 percent of students who live in lower-income areas are likely to do so. Among whites in Boston public schools, for every 100 males who graduate, 104 females do. A tiny gap.

But among blacks, for every 100 males who graduate, 139 females do. Florida's graduation rates among all students show a striking picture of race and class: 81 percent for Asians, 60 percent for whites, 48 percent for Hispanics and 46 percent for blacks.

$600 Gold

Last week, gold topped $600 an ounce. To put the price in perspective, in 1980, gold traded at $873 an ounce but then plunged to $254.80 in 1999. What is behind the new spike, and should the average guy try to invest? CNN/Money explains:

The first crucial question is whether the jump to $600 was a temporary boost or a level that's here to stay. The recent bout of high oil prices has made investors worry that it will push up prices on all kinds of goods and services, eating away the purchasing power of the dollar. Gold is one of the rare investments that maintains its value during periods of inflation.

"So long as there's the threat of higher energy prices and the dollar remains low, metals could rise even higher," said Jim Quinn, commodity floor analyst with A.G. Edwards. "From a technical perspective, the market could certainly exceed $600." 

Analysts caution, however, that investing in gold can be a risky move, one that's usually handled by traders who've built up years of experience understanding metals markets.