Information Resource Center (IRC) Berlin

November 2006
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In this Issue:

Midterm Elections - Ballot Measures, Voter Turnout, Issues, Polls

On November 7, Americans will elect a new Congress and decide 36 state governorships. At stake are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 U.S. Senate seats. Republicans currently control the presidency and both houses of Congress. Republicans have controlled both chambers since 1994, except for a brief period in 2001 and 2002 when Democrats were in charge of the Senate. Because Congress has the power to pass laws and controls federal funding authorizations, the outcome of the midterm elections could affect significantly U.S. policies and how they are carried out...

Environmental Issues

Although the Iraq war, national security, the economy and immigration are commanding most voter attention, Americans' environmental concerns are reflected in numerous local and state ballot initiatives. In the state of Washington, one initiative would mandate and increase the amount of renewable energy. This is a policy that is already in operation in over 20 states. Candidates across the political spectrum are campaigning on environmentally friendly policies in order to address important new economic realities facing the electorate. Candidates from both parties argue in favor of enhancing opportunities in environmental protection and the advantages of embedding environmental protection in economic development strategies...

U.S. Foreign Assistance

Total U.S. financial flows to the developing world - official development assistance (ODA), private capital flows and private grants - reached a record-breaking $104.4 billion in calendar year 2005, according to new figures released by the U.S. government. The latest figures also show that official development assistance from the U.S. government - nonmilitary grants and loans -attained a record $27.6 billion, an increase of $7.9 billion over 2004...

American Holidays: Thanksgiving

In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony celebrated the autumn harvest with a three-day feast. They had arrived in Massachusetts the year before. After the first harsh winter, they turned for help to neighboring Indians, who taught them how to plant corn and other crops and cook local foods. The next fall's bountiful harvest inspired the Pilgrims to invite members of the local Wampanoag tribe to a celebration to thank the Indians for teaching them how to live in the New World. Other harvest celebrations were also held in early colonial America but this feast is widely accepted as the "first Thanksgiving" - and the beginning of an American tradition...

American Bestsellers: Richard Powers

The novels of Richard Power explore the effects of modern science and technology on society. Born in Evanston, Illinois on June 18, 1957, Powers was interested in multiple sciences as a teenager. He enrolled as a physics major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but switched his studies to literature, receiving his M.A. in that subject in 1979. His most novel "The Echo Maker" ("Die Echo der Erinnerung") has been nominated for a National Book Award. The New York Times describes it as a “a wise and elegant post-9/11 novel… No facile conflation of personal catastrophe with national calamity, but a lovely essay on perseverance in all its forms.”