America’s Parents Vote for Change on Social Security’s Most Popular Baby Names List

In 2008, American parents voted for change in naming their children. After a 12-year reign as the most popular baby name, Emily has slipped to third on the list. Emma is now the nation’s most popular name for girls.

The most popular boy’s name, Jacob, remained the same for the 10th year in a row.

Boys

1. Jacob
2. Michael
3. Ethan
4. Joshua
5. Daniel
6. Alexander
7. Anthony
8. William
9. Christopher
10. Matthew

Girls

1. Emma
2. Isabella
3. Emily
4. Madison
5. Ava
6. Olivia
7. Sophia
8. Abigail
9. Elizabeth
10. Chloe

2009 Pulitzer Prizewinners and Nominated Finalists

JOURNALISM:

• Public Service - Las Vegas Sun
• Breaking News Reporting - The New York Times Staff
• Investigative Reporting - David Barstow of The New York Times
• Explanatory Reporting - Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times
• Local Reporting -Detroit Free Press Staff and Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley Tribune, Mesa, AZ
• National Reporting - St. Petersburg Times Staff
• International Reporting - The New York Times Staff
• Feature Writing - Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times
• Commentary - Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post
• Criticism - Holland Cotter of The New York Times
• Editorial Writing - Mark Mahoney of The Post-Star, Glens Falls, NY
• Editorial Cartooning - Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune
• Breaking News Photography - Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald
• Feature Photography - Damon Winter of The New York Times

LETTERS, DRAMA and MUSIC:

• Fiction - Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (Random House)
• Drama - Ruined by Lynn Nottage
• History - The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (W.W. Norton & Company)
• Biography - American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham (Random House)
• Poetry - The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin (Copper Canyon Press)
• General Nonfiction - Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday)
• Music - Double Sextet by Steve Reich, premiered March 26, 2008 in Richmond, VA (Boosey & Hawkes)

+ Finalists, jurors, bios and photos of winners, winning photos and cartoons, and links to winning stories

Source: The Pulitzer Prizes

The 2009 Fortune ranking of America’s largest corporations is now available online.

Exxon Mobil returns to the top spot this year. Wal-Mart (last years #1) moves down to #2.

Top 10 (2009)
1. Exxon Mobil
2. Wal-Mart Stores
3. Chevron
4. ConocoPhillips
5. General Electric
6. General Motors
7. Ford Motor
8. AT&T
9. Hewlett-Packard
10. Valero Energy

+ Review the Top 50 Companies

+ Direct to Complete List
NOTE: The complete list consists of 1000 corporations.

+ Browse the List by Location

+ Fortune 500 CEO List

+ Review Past Rankings (Back to 1955)

Source: Fortune

Top Ten Jury Verdicts of 2008

After steadily declining for years, the size of the Top Ten Jury Verdicts rose dramatically in 2008.

The top verdict in 2008 was $388 million, a significant increase over 2007’s top award of $109 million. The average award increased dramatically as well, driven by three verdicts of well over $100 million – including one of nearly $400 million. The average award for 2007 was just shy of $51 million, while the average award for 2008 more than doubled, to $112 million.

The year’s top verdict was awarded to a 70-year-old inventor who claims he was hounded by California tax authorities for the past 15 years. And five of the Top Ten Verdicts stemmed from personal injury cases, including $85 million for a medical school student who was badly injured after falling into a manhole and $84 million for an elderly man struck by a U-Haul with a faulty parking brake. Interestingly, there were no medical malpractice cases in the Top Ten.

Source: Lawyers USA

Private Eye Reading: The Top 50 Detective Blogs

True crime stories have intrigued the masses for as long as crime has been around. Whether people want to understand the psychology behind the crime, are just curious to get the gossip, or, like a puzzle, want to figure out the details to solve the crime, the desire to get the scoop is a strong one. These sites bring the detectives and their work to you through the the writings on their blogs. Whether you want to read about detectives on the police force, private eyes, British detectives, true crime, or even a little bit about fictional detectives, these blogs will provide you with hours of crime and criminals.

Source: e-Justice Blog

The new list was released on Wednesday.

The 2009 list has a new #1–NetApp. Last year’s number one spot was held by Google. It’s now ranked at #4.

Top 5 on the 2009 List
———————-
1) NetApp
2) Edward Jones
3) Boston Consulting
4) Google
5) Wegmans Food Markets

See Also: Map of Company HQ Locations

See Also: Rankings by State

See Also: Rankings by Company Size

See Also: Companies Ranked By Pay

See Also: Companies Ranked by Perks

Source: Fortune

The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media

Barack Obama’s inauguration was the formal point at which the reigning ideology in Washington changed from “conservative” to “liberal.” We use those terms without apology, as they are used in American political discourse.

Broadly, a “liberal’ subscribes to some or all of the following: progressive income taxation; universal health care of some kind; opposition to the war in Iraq, and a certain queasiness about the war on terror; an instinctive preference for international diplomacy; the right to gay marriage; a woman’s right to an abortion; environmentalism in some Kyoto Protocol-friendly form; and a rejection of the McCain-Palin ticket.

n recognition of the role played by the media in our national debate, Forbes.com nominates, here, 25 of America’s most consequential liberal journalists and media personalities.

Our list includes newspaper editors and columnists, magazine writers, television anchors and commentators, as well as one TV personality more commonly regarded as an entertainer. It also includes–how could it not?–a number of bloggers, all of whom have made an emphatic mark on the modern American Conversation.

Direct to slide show of list

Source: Forbes.com

Top Current Events Web Sites for Inauguration Day 2009 (PDF; 37 KB)

Following the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, which was viewed by 37.8M on television, Nielsen Online released traffic figures for the top 10 most visited Current Events & Global News web sites on Inauguration Day. In addition, Nielsen also reported the fastest growing news sites on January 20th, Web traffic to whitehouse.gov and the most linked-to videos of the day.

CNN Digital Network was the top online Current Events & Global News destination when ranked by unique audience on Inauguration Day, with 11.0 million unique visitors. MSNBC Digital Network and Yahoo! News took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, with 10.0 and 9.1 million unique visitors, respectively.

Source: Nielsen Wire

See also: Nearly 37.8 Million Watch President Obama’s Oath And Speech On TV

From the Report:

Move over, Atlanta. Seattle, Microsoft and Amazon.com’s home base, is now the country’s most wired city.

While these marquee names have long lent the Emerald City tech-y cachet, it was Seattle’s increased use of broadband that powered it up Forbes’ annual list of the 30 most broadband-connected cities in the U.S. High marks in two other wired city categories–broadband access and wi-fi hot spots–helped Seattle clinch the top spot.

Direct to Slideshow: America’s Most Wired Cities (Top 30)

Source: Forbes

New rankings from the American Kennel Club were released today.

From the Announcement:

For the 18th consecutive year, the Labrador Retriever is the most popular purebred dog in America, according to 2008 registration statistics released today by the American Kennel Club (AKC) But, while more than twice as many Labs were registered last year than any other breed making it a likely leader for many years to come, the Bulldog continues to amble its way up the list. The breed made news last year by returning to the AKC’s Top 10 for the first time in more than 70 years and now has jumped 6%, advancing two spots to land in 8th place.

Direct to Complete List

See Also: Top 10 Most Popular Breeds in the 50 Largest U.S. Cities

Source: American Kennel Club

Peace Corps Announces Top 25 Volunteer Producing Schools

The Peace Corps is proud to announce the top colleges and universities on their annual list of “Peace Corps Top Colleges and Universities” for 2009.

For the third consecutive year, the University of Washington is No. 1 on the undergraduate list in the large schools category, with 104 alumni serving as Peace Corps Volunteers. The University of Colorado-Boulder has risen dramatically from sixth place last year to claim the No. 2 in the large schools category, with 102 Volunteers. Michigan State University has also risen up two spots from fifth place last year to take the No. 3 rank among the country’s large schools, with 89 currently-serving Volunteers.

In the medium schools category, George Washington University captured the No. 1 spot this year with a total of 57 alumni serving as Volunteers. The University of California-Santa Cruz takes the No. 2 honors this year with 52 Volunteers, while American University comes in quite closely behind UC Santa Cruz to garner the No. 3 spot with 51 Volunteers.

Among small schools, the University of Chicago tops the list at No. 1 for the second consecutive year in a row, with 35 Volunteers. St. Olaf College rose significantly this year from ninth place last year to take the No. 2 spot with 26 Volunteers, edging out a three-way tie for the No. 3 spot, which is shared this year by Middlebury College, Smith College, and the University of Puget Sound, with 21 alumni serving respectively as Volunteers.

In the graduate schools rankings, Boston University garners the No. 1 spot this year, up from third place last year with a total of 17 graduate alumni serving as Peace Corps Volunteers. The No. 2 rank is shared this year by New York University and Ohio State University, with both schools fielding 16 Volunteers each.

+ Complete list (PDF; 53 KB)

Source: Peace Corps

Quality Counts 2009

Quality Counts 2009 is the 13th edition of Education Week’s series of annual report cards tracking state education policies and outcomes. Drawing heavily on data from the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center’s annual state policy survey, the report once again offers a comprehensive state-by-state analysis of key indicators of student success. With English-language learners as the special focus of this year’s report, it also, for the first time, provides 50-state information on this diverse and growing student subgroup, complemented by explanatory articles from Education Week reporters.

Source: Education Week

Jobs Rated

Remember that kid in elementary school who always had a pencil and calculator nearby, and while the rest of us drew pictures, read comic books or played cards, that kid was happily crunching numbers — for fun. Fast forward 20 years or so, and it turns out that kid probably has one of best careers around today, according to an exclusive new study of the nation’s best and worst jobs.

Compiling research on 200 different positions, this year’s JobsRated.com report ranks mathematician as the country’s best job, followed by actuary and statistician — three jobs for which a calculator and solitude are prerequisites. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Monty Python troupe made famous the song, “I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK.” Unfortunately, our study finds that lumberjacks have the nation’s worst job, followed by dairy farmers and taxi drivers, which seems to bear out the old grade-school adage that “it’s better to earn a living with your head rather than with your hands.”

+ 10 Best Jobs in America
+ 10 Worst Jobs in America
+ A Comprehensive Ranking of 200 Different Jobs (”Librarian” is #43.)
+ Methodology

Source: CareerCast.com (JobsRated.com)

See: Doing the Math to Find the Good Jobs (Wall Street Journal)

Direct to Lists

Source: Amazon.com

From the Web Site:

“It’s that time of year again!”

Lake Superior State University “maverick” word-watchers, fresh from the holiday “staycation” but without an economic “bailout” even after a “desperate search,” have issued their 34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. This year’s list may be more “green” than any of the previous lists and includes words and phrases that people from “Wall Street to Main Street” say they love “not so much” and wish to have erased from their “carbon footprint.”

Source: Lake Superior State