Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe NONVIOLENCE SUPPORTED BY BOTH SIDES Two years into the Intifada or holy war, a survey by Search for Common Ground reveals 80 percent of Palestinians would support a large-scale non-violent protest movement and 56 percent would participate in its activities. Advertisement In additions, 78 percent of Israeli Jews believe the Palestinians have a legitimate right to seek a Palestinian state, provided they use non-violent means. Search for Common Ground, a conflict prevention and resolution organization, sponsored the survey conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes of the University of Maryland to determine, the attitudes Palestinians and Jewish Israelis on the potential for nonviolent methods. A strong majority of Palestinians believe a new approach is needed in the Intifada and overwhelming majorities approve of Palestinians using various methods of nonviolent action. Palestinians, however, also show equal levels of support for violent methods. A majority express a desire for retribution and do not think violence is harming their cause internationally. Advertisement -- Have the people in Israel and the Palestinian territories moved closer together than their leaders? -- Do you think violence by the Palestinians has hurt their cause internationally? SCHOOLS AND ASTHMA Schools are dangerous places for the nearly 5 million children who have asthma, warns the nonprofit group Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics. Too many of the nation's schools deny students access to lifesaving asthma medication, lack a full-time nurse and contain symptom-causing allergens and irritants. "Instead, children with asthma are dying at school because they didn't have immediate access to their inhalers or because the one trained nurse happened to be at another school that day," AANMA President Nancy Sander says. Asthma kills 15 people every day and is the leading cause of missed school days, according to Snyder. A deadly asthma attack can strike anytime, anywhere -- playgrounds, lunchrooms, school buses or classrooms. Only 18 states have passed legislation giving students the right to carry and self-administer their inhalers at school. -- Since many schools have designated themselves "drug free" and require a nurse to administer medications, should students should have access to a registered nurse at all times? Advertisement -- What are the reasons students should not carry and use inhalers? DEFICITS RETURN The most dramatic drop in tax revenue since 1946 has put the government into deficit for the next three years and has shriveled the projected 10-year federal budget surplus by 60 percent in just five months, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO's influential midyear budget forecast underscores the deterioration of the government's fiscal health, The Washington Post reports. As recently as March, congressional forecasters had predicted the government would run a much larger surplus -- $2.4 trillion -- than the $1 trillion total that the CBO now foresees between 2003 and 2012. That number has shrunk because of a plunge in tax receipts, the likes of which has not been seen since the repeal of World War II surtaxes 56 years ago, says CBO Director Dan L. Crippen. President Bush meanwhile prepares to unveil a new round of tax cuts to stimulate the stock market and pushes Congress to make last year's 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut permanent. -- Should the 10-year $1.35 trillion tax cut be postponed? -- Do you think another round of tax cuts would stimulate the stock market? Advertisement
