News

TPM’s PollTracker Mobile App wins minOnline’s Best of the Web Award

Talking Points Memo’s PollTracker mobile app, developed in partnership with Dewey Square Group, has just won minOnline’s Best of the Web award for 2013 as the best new smartphone application of the past year, beating out the mobile apps for the TED Conference, Vogue Insider Magazine, and TravelZoo. minOnline describes their Best of the Web awards as “the industry’s top honor in the digital space, recognizing outstanding Web sites and digital initiatives among consumer and b2b magazines.”

Reviewed as the “must-have campaign app of [the 2012] political season,” PollTracker features up-to-the-minute polling data on presidential, US Senate, and US House races as well as on policy issues, notifying the user whenever a new poll is posted on a campaign or issue they’re following. In addition to the Best of the Web award, TPM PollTracker Mobile has been featured on lists of top 2012 campaign apps from Mashable, US News and World Report, and the Washington Post.

DC Dialogue: Middle ground in immigration reform?

All eyes are on the sequester. But when it comes to the notion of “can’t we all get along,” it seems prospects for immigration reform are strong – especially when it comes to bringing in highly skilled workers.

Former New Hampshire Senator John Sununu is immersed in the issue and talks about the strong bipartisan support.

Sununu examines why it is so critical for the future of New England’s economy.

NECN

Eight New Organizations Join inSPIRE STEM USA

New Members Include Key Education, Minority and LGBT Groups

inSPIRE STEM USA announced the addition of eight new members on Wednesday, including four education organizations, as the coalition continues its efforts to strengthen the nation’s education pipeline of students trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and computer fields.

Joining inSPIRE STEM USA are:

• Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF)
• Education Development Center
• The Hispanic Institute
• HR Policy Association
• The JASON Project
• National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• STEMconnector

The coalition now has 30 members, including education organizations, businesses, and advocacy groups.

“The diversity of inSPIRE STEM USA demonstrates the broad-base of support for establishing a stronger STEM education pipeline in the U.S.,” said Beneva Schulte, inSPIRE STEM USA Executive Director. “The pipeline is crucial to helping the nation develop the talent that will drive American innovation and one of the fastest growing segments of our economy.”

Schulte said the nation’s education system simply does not produce enough workers trained in STEM fields to keep up with the number of jobs in those areas. The U.S. economy creates approximately 120,000 new American computing jobs each year, but the nation’s higher education system awards just 40,000 bachelor’s degrees annually in related fields.

inSPIRE STEM USA CO-CHAIRS’ LETTER URGES JUDICIARY COMMITTEE SUPPORT FOR I-SQUARED ACT AND CALLS FOR LARGER HIGH-SKILLED WORKFORCE AND STRONGER NATIONAL STEM EDUCATION

inSPIRE STEM USA Co-Chairs John E. Sununu and Maria Cardona on Wednesday urged members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to address America’s shortage of high-skilled workers and the need for the nation to produce more professionals in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The co-chairs’ letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy can be found here.

The committee’s hearing on comprehensive immigration reform came just hours after President Obama used his State of the Union Address to call for broad immigration reform and for additional investments for STEM education. inSPIRE STEM USA urged the President and Congress to support a two-pronged solution to filling high-skilled STEM vacancies in the near term while building a STEM worker pipeline for the future as part of immigration reform.

“We are committed to ensuring the United States remains competitive globally by training and graduating more engineers and computer scientists,” Sununu said. “We advocate an approach that can immediately sharpen America’s economic competitiveness through modernization of the H-1B visa process while providing long-term support to improve training of tomorrow’s workforce.”
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Jill Alper’s Final Column Looks at Michigan in the 2014 Elections

“Campaigns with winning relationships within them are those that win,” DSG’s Jill Alper pens in her final Detroit Free Press column on the 2012 election cycle. Looking ahead to 2014 and beyond, Alper projects that “Democrats may just win back the House, as they hold the Senate, allowing President Obama to pass a sweeping agenda, setting up another historic Democratic presidential win in 2016 of a woman president.”

Read her full “Politically Speaking” column for more reflections and projections here.