Living Today: Issues of modern living

ONLINE HOLIDAY SHOPPING

As the shopping days for the end of the year holidays grow fewer, online consumers have markedly increased their spending in order to finish their shopping lists, according a weekly survey from Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen/NetRatings.

The "eSpending" survey reported that the amount spent online by the average U.S consumer jumped 34 percent overall from the beginning week of the holiday shopping season (marked from first week of November) to the week after the Thanksgiving holiday. The weekly online shopping survey of 500 online shoppers found 'Net-surfing consumers spent an average of $57.62 online during the week ending Nov. 9, and spent an average of $77.41 during the week ending Nov. 30.

The recent survey also reports that as of the end of November, only 25 percent of online shoppers have finished their holiday shopping, and that 46 percent of online shoppers have started but not finished. A procrastinating 29 percent have not yet begun their online shopping at all.

The survey noted that despite some consumer security concerns about shopping in stores and at malls this holiday season, shoppers are still continuing to use "brick and mortar" stores as their main shopping venue for the holiday seasons -- though this is down from 80 percent in 2000 to 79 percent for the 2001 holiday season.

The Internet, the survey reports, is the second most popular venue for holiday shopping accounting for 15 percent of holiday buying.

ENTERTAINMENT MARKETING

Washington's campaign against the marketing of violent programming to children has lost its momentum without accomplishing all its goals, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

The campaign grew out of the 1999 massacre of students and teachers at Columbine High School. It may have reached its high point during the presidential election campaign of 2000, when the Federal Trade Commission issued a report critical of the entertainment industry and Congress held hearings into possible legislation on the issue.

According to the Times, terrorism and the recession have pushed entertainment industry issues into the background -- with leading advocates like Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) backing away from promises to do something about the marketing of violent programming to minors. "It's definitely a different climate from a year ago -- with many of the reasons having to do with the war," Lieberman spokesman Dan Gerstein told the newspaper.

The crusade also lost some momentum when significant segments of the entertainment industry made concessions and changed some of their marketing practices.

In a follow-up report issued last week, the FTC commended the movie and video game industries for cutting down on targeting kids with ads for violent products. But the commission had stern words for the recording industry.

Record company executives acknowledge that the music industry abandoned promises to enact an industry-wide system of ratings and guidelines, but they say the reason for those decisions was that the companies did not want to put themselves in a position where they could face legal sanctions for violating voluntary marketing guidelines -- as Lieberman suggested he would call for in legislative proposals.

HUNGER AND HOMELESSNESS

A survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors indicates hunger and homelessness increased significantly in the last year in nearly all 27 cities surveyed and the pace appeared to pick up in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Conference President Marc H. Morial of New Orleans calls the findings "sobering."

"Twenty-five of the 27 cities surveyed showed an increase in demand for emergency food," Morial told a news conference Wednesday. "These cities on average show the increased demand was 23 percent. That is the largest increase our survey has shown since 1991. Twenty-three, approximately, of the 27 cities showed increase in demand for emergency shelter. This reflects in the individual cities an average of about 13 percent increase, the second highest since 1994."

Morial said it is not uncommon for there to be more hungry than homeless people simply because people's money is being stretched so thin, "they cannot properly feed their families."

"We think it's important for all of you to understand the relationship between the two and why the two are linked," he said.

Morial -- who opposed the 1996 welfare reform bill adopted by Congress and signed by President Clinton -- said the flagging economy would provide a real test of the reform program. "We have had a roaring, booming economy with unprecedented (low) unemployment rates .., low inflation and historic number of jobs being created" then, he said. "(The current economy) will test the safety net provisions."

Additionally, he said, many people who are eligible for food stamps were not aware that they are because they think the program operates under the same rules as welfare. He called on the federal government to work with mayors on an outreach campaign to educate the needy.

Morial said he doesn't think the 17th annual survey adequately measured the impact of the Sept. 11 attacks since the survey ended in early November. He said projections from his colleagues for 2002 already are showing increased demand for food and shelter.

The 27 cities that responded to the survey comprise the membership of the Conference's Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness and include: Boston; Burlington, Vt.; Charleston, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Denver; Detroit; Kansas City, Mo.; Los Angeles; Louisville, Ky.; Nashville; New Orleans; Norfolk, Va.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; Providence, R.I.; Salt Lake City; San Antonio; San Diego; Santa Monica, Calif.; Seattle; St. Louis; St. Paul, Minn.; Trenton, N.J.; and Washington.

EXECUTIONS IN 2000

A new Justice Department study shows that while executions declined last year, so did the average stay on death row.

Fourteen states executed 85 prisoners, including two women, during 2000, according to a Bureau of Justice Statistics study released Wednesday. That was 13 fewer than in 1999.

However, the same study showed that prisoners executed in 2000 had spent an average of 11 years and 5 months on death row before being put to death -- about 6 months less than those executed in 1999.

During 2000, Texas executed 40 people; Oklahoma executed 11 inmates; Virginia 8; Florida 6; Missouri 5; Alabama 4; Arizona 3, and Arkansas 2. Delaware, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and California each executed one person.

Thirty-eight states and the federal government authorize capital punishment, including Illinois, which has placed a moratorium on executions because of the number of state death row inmates who have been exonerated.

Those executed during 2000 included 49 whites (including six Hispanics); 35 blacks and one American Indian. Eighty of the executions were by lethal injection, and five by electrocution.

Twenty-one states authorized lethal injections in 1990; that figure increased to 36 states by 2000.

From January 1977 through December 2000, there were 683 executions in 31 states. Sixty-five percent of those executions were in five states: Texas (239), Virginia (81), Florida (50), Missouri (46) and Oklahoma (30).

At year-end 2000, 37 states and the federal government held 3,539 men and 54 women on death row. California had the most (586), followed by Texas (450), Florida (371) and Pennsylvania (238). The federal system held 18.

Between 1990 and 2000, the number of offenders under sentence of death increased 52 percent, a period in which prison populations nationwide grew by 79 percent.

For those under a death sentence as of last Dec. 31 for whom the data were available, all had committed murder and most had a prior criminal background -- 64 percent had a prior felony conviction and 8 percent had been convicted of a prior homicide.

The bulletin, "Capital Punishment 2000" was written by BJS statistician Tracy L. Snell.