Four faculty members in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Bloomington have received Trustees' Teaching Awards. They are: Barry Rubin, Beth Cate, Justin Ross and Cheryl Hughes.

Burnell C. Fischer, a faculty member in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University in Bloomington, is being recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation for his contribution to tree planting, conservation and stewardship.

A survey shows a majority of Indiana local government officials want some nonprofit organizations to offer payments or services in lieu of property taxes. More than one in four believe churches should make payments. The survey results come as local governments face decreasing revenues and growing budgetary pressures.

The U.S. should adopt mileage-based road user fees to raise revenue to build and maintain roads and bridges, faculty members at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs write in a recently published journal article. Denvil R. Duncan, assistant professor, and John D. Graham, the dean of the school, advocate implementing a mileage tax system using "simple, low-tech" methods.

Indiana University Bloomington's 2012-13 Outstanding Junior Faculty awards will support the creation of innovative textile art and research on public investments in energy, the worldwide loss of coastal mangrove forests, the development of anti-malarial drugs, the relationship between vision and balance, and the appropriateness of cancer screenings.

Beth Gazley says that when her students volunteer with the United Way, it's always a great learning experience. So she wanted to send the organization a valentine, and she's found two ways to do it.

When schools are failing, new research from Indiana University suggests, administrators should focus on a single, annual goal if they want to obtain higher graduation rates. Schools will be less effective if they focus on a range of what could be considered less critical goals including athletic success, compliance with No Child Left Behind standards and discipline.

Two Indiana University faculty members are on a list of the top contributors to the public debate about education published on the Education Week website. The second annual "Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings" includes IU School of Education professor Curt Bonk and School of Public and Environmental Affairs assistant professor Ashlyn Nelson.

National talk show host and SPEA alumnus Tavis Smiley will be in Indianapolis on Tuesday, Jan. 15, to join the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs and its dean, John D. Graham, for a panel discussion on poverty. The event anticipates the release this month of "America's Poor and the Great Recession," written by Graham and former SPEA faculty member Kristin Seefeldt and published by IU Press.

Chemicals used as flame retardants are present as environmental pollutants at locations around the globe, including remote sites in Indonesia, Nepal and Tasmania, according to a study by researchers from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

A study from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs casts doubt on the Obama administration's goal of putting a million plug-in electric vehicles on the roads by 2015. But the study does find that consumers are more receptive to buying electric cars in some cities, including San Jose/San Francisco, Chicago and Boston.

Paul Helmke, former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors and of the Brady Campaign/Center to Prevent Gun Violence, will be joining the faculty of the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington starting in January 2013.

As the end of the year approaches with its holiday shows and events, a new report from Indiana University finds that employment and wages in Indiana's nonprofit arts, entertainment and recreation industries are growing but trail more rapid growth in for-profit employment and wages in these industries.

President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders have been deadlocked over the "fiscal cliff," the tax increases and spending cuts that will take place Jan. 1 unless elected officials take action to avert them. Indiana University experts offer their perspectives and are available to speak with news media.

A highly respected scientist and academic leader has been chosen to direct Indiana University Bloomington's new Integrated Program in the Environment. Jeffrey R. White, a teacher and researcher whose interests include the potential for life on Mars, will be the program's first director.

The pay-for-access policies adopted by The New York Times and many other media outlets will succeed only if consumers believe they're justified by financial necessity, according to a new report from two social scientists.

It's time to establish a national network for wildlife conservation, bringing together state, federal and private initiatives to coordinate planning and work toward common goals, 11 prominent wildlife biologists and policy experts write in the journal BioScience.

A team of Indiana University Bloomington researchers will spend the next three years studying the effects of tree-planting programs in six cities -- Indianapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Des Moines, Iowa -- with help from a $173,206 grant awarded by the U.S. Forest Service.

A former top federal government official and an influential broadcaster will be speaking on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington as part of the 40th anniversary celebration at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Both speeches are free and open to the public.

Preliminary results from an ongoing study by Indiana University show significant and positive economic and social impacts in south-central Indiana from the Indiana National Guard's operation of the Atterbury-Muscatatuck Complex, consisting of Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center and Muscatatuck Urban Training Complex.

A solid majority of Indiana residents think it's a good idea to address concerns about climate change by capturing carbon dioxide from coal-burning power plants and storing it underground, according to a recently published study by Indiana University researchers. But most Hoosiers didn't know about the approach, called carbon capture and storage, before being contacted for the study.

Indiana University Bloomington will celebrate Constitution Day on Sept. 17 with a campus-wide watch party for a National Endowment for the Humanities Emancipation Day event and panel discussions of such topics as voting rights and education for immigrants.

Indiana nonprofit social assistance agencies are feeling the effects of the Great Recession and the increased competition from for-profit firms, a new report from Indiana University shows. Employment in Indiana's social assistance industry grew almost every year between 1995 and 2009, even during recessions. This growth, however, can be attributed more to growth in the for-profit sector than to increases in nonprofit employment.

Four IUPUI students raised their right hands and swore to protect the residents of Speedway, Ind., and their property as members of the Speedway Police Department, becoming what are believed to be the first university students to participate in a unique law enforcement internship program.

More than 30 Indiana University faculty members and graduate students will present research this week during the 97th annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. The meeting, themed "Life on Earth: Preserving, Utilizing, and Sustaining our Ecosystems," got under way Aug. 5 and is expected to attract about 4,000 scientists from around the world during the six-day event.