Comcast announced a $150,000 grant to the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators’ (NHCSL) John S. Martinez Scholarship Fund at the NHCSL Annual Summit in Puerto Rico. This commitment reinforces Comcast’s initiative to create education and employment opportunities for the Hispanic community and specifically impacts students in six states where Comcast provides products and services.

The John S. Martinez Scholarship Fund is focused on developing tomorrow’s Hispanic leaders through work experience and learning opportunities within the public service arena. The $150K Comcast Foundation grant will be applied over the next three years in support of this program developed by NHCSL.

“We know that education is key to any individual’s success and we are delighted to be part of this initiative,” said David L. Cohen, executive vice president for Comcast and chairman of the Comcast Foundation. “We are proud to be a part of NHCSL’s efforts to provide a well-rounded education and professional experience for Hispanic students in the communities we serve.”

Comcast is supporting this pilot program with legislators in California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico and Ohio. Guidance and financial support will be provided to 24 Hispanic high school students selected by the NHCSL, Hispanic state legislators and educational institutions. Once selected, the students will serve as paid legislative interns to the Hispanic legislator in their respective states and will provide a youth perspective on relevant issues.

The Pew Hispanic Center released a fact sheet entitled Latinos and the 2006 Mid-term Election that uses exit polls to compare the Latino vote in the 2006 election to elections in 2002 and 2004. It also assesses the possible impact of the Latino vote in 2006 by looking at the Hispanic share of eligible voters in the most contested congressional races, the Latino vote in 30 House seats gained by Democrats and the outcome in districts with large shares of Hispanic voters. For more information visit www.pewhispanic.org

Health Report: Nine major health insurers formed the National Health Plan Collaborative with the goal of reducing health disparities. The report Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities and Improving Quality Health Care describes collaborative members’ activities to address disparities so far, and outlines their next steps to define why disparities exist and make recommendations to reduce them. For the full report visit: http://www.rwjf.org/files/publications/other/
NHPCSummaryReport2006.pdf

State Legislation on Public Health (include Healthy States Logo – see NHCSL website)
Healthy States Report on 2005 & 2006 public health legislation (as of July 3, 2006). The report includes a legislative summary, list of bills introduced and the status of each. Download the entire 2006 report at http://www.healthystates.csg.org.