Celebrate the National Park Service's 100th Birthday

On August 25, 2016 the National Parks Service (NPS) turned 100.  To celebrate the NPS created 99 Ways to Find Your Park, a linked list of 99 activities people can do in urban, nature, and historic parks. They also created the hashtag #FindYourPark for those wanting to post a picture or video of a park experience.

Presidential Candidates and Election Information

Where can you find out more information about Presidential candidates' policies? Check the Elections/Voting LibGuide for links to various free and subscription (library only or remote access with a Rice ID) services.
For example, if you want:

• information about candidates' foreign policies, check the Council on Foreign Relations site.
• information about a candidate's biography, voting record, positions, ratings, speeches, and funding, check Project Vote Smart.
• to see where candidates stand on a host of issues, check ProCon.org's Presidential Election site.
• to check whether candidates' statements are factual, access FactCheck.org.http://www.factcheck.org/ and/or  POLITIFACT. 
• more information about how delegates are awarded by the political parties or how the electoral college works, check the Presidential Election Process from USA.gov. 
• information on elections, parties, voter behavior and campaigns, check CQ Voting & Elections Collection (subscription).
• information about campaign contributions, check the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and/or OpenSecrets.org.
• general information on evaluating candidates for public office, check USA.gov's Choosing Candidates to Vote for

Monitoring Restoration of Gulf Coast After Deepwater Horizon (DWH) Oil Spill

Concerned that monitoring of the restoration of the Gulf coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill may be inadequate, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine have created a publication identifying best practices for restoration monitoring, assessment, and synthesis. The publication also "offers specific guidance for a subset of habitats and taxa to be restored in the Gulf including oyster reefs, tidal wetlands, and seagrass habitats, as well as a variety of birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals." Download Effective Monitoring to Evaluate Ecological Restoration in the Gulf of Mexico for free on the Academies' site or purchase a paper copy for $52.00.

July 29, 2016 - Last Day to Apply for Houston-Area Flooding Assistance for April 2016 Floods

The City of Houston Disaster Recovery homepage lists Friday, July 29, 2016  as the final day for residents of 16 Texas counties to register with FEMA for assistance for damage/losses due to the April 17-30 floods. See http://www.houstonemergency.org/go/doc/2263/2861890 for more information.

Understanding Political Party Conventions

http://publications.usa.gov/USAPubs.php?PubID=6099

With the Republican Party Convention convening next week, some may have questions about how the convention process works. A new guide entitled USAGov's Guide to the Party Conventions is now available to explain the basic structure of political conventions.

Understanding Brexit

UK Data Service Research Associate Dr. Kathryn Simpson, an expert in comparative European politics, political behavior and public opinion, has a new blog post, Making Sense of Brexit - the data you need to analyse. In the post she discusses four key issues: immigration, sovereignty, security, and economy. She then provides links to data that fall under the following broad categories: data to analyse Europe; data to analyse Britain/UK; and data to analyse Northern Ireland.

Most common age in U.S., by race and ethnicity

Using Census data, the Pew Research Center has created a histogram showing the most common age for white (55 years), black (24 years), Hispanic (8 years), and Asian (33 years) people in the United States. The full report explaining the histogram is also available.