From Jim Eskin, Public Affairs Stratagist ....................... ................ April 2009

Baseball has a long tradition of helping Americans rebound from adversity. Babe Ruth and company held the fascination of the nation during the Great Depression. Attendance at games remained amazingly steady, because teams lowered ticket prices and stretched entertainment value with more doubleheaders.

One of the game's proudest legacies is its patriotic response to World War II. Led by stars like Bob Feller, Hank Greenberg, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams (who also served in Korea, giving up in total close to five prime playing years), more than 500 players traded their baseball flannels for military uniforms.

FDR, recognizing how the game was essential to morale on the home front, decided it was in the national interest "to keep baseball going" so people could take their minds off work and the life and death agenda of the day.

Baseball not only mirrors society, it can and has led to societal change. Its finest hour came in 1947 when Jackie Robinson took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Integrating the game and the rest of professional sports paved the way for Civil Rights advances and, ultimately, the election of President Barack Obama.

Baseball is a quintessentially American experience, helping define our spunky character and work ethic. Baseball can and should remind us that we will once again rally and come from behind to break out of the current economic slump.

CONGRESSIONAL UP TICK
Americans' job approval rating of Congress is up an additional 8 points, after a 12-point increase last month, and now stands at 39%, the most positive assessment of Congress since February 2005.

Americans who identify themselves as Democrats are mostly responsible for the improved ratings of Congress measured in the Gallup Poll. After showing a 25-point increase in their approval of Congress from January to February, and a further 14-point increase in March, a majority of Democrats (57%) now approve of the job the Democratically-controlled Congress is doing. Independents also show improved ratings of Congress, but not nearly to the extent that Democrats do. Republicans' evaluations of Congress have changed very little this year.

Last year, on average, only 19% of Americans approved of the job Congress was doing.

POWER
When one thinks of Washington D.C., the power corridors, smoke-filled rooms, and shady deals with lobbyists likely come to mind.

Certain groups get singled out more often than others by large majorities of the American public as having too much power in influencing the government. Influencers leading the list in the Harris Poll are big companies and Political Action Committees (PACs), which give money to political candidates. Eighty-five percent of Americans see both as having too much influence.

Large majorities also believe that political lobbyists (81%) and the news media (75%) have too much power.. Rounding out the top five are entertainment and sports celebrities, as over two-thirds (70%) of Americans believe they have too much power and influence in D.C.

STATE OF JOURNALISM
The state of journalism is bleak, but an annual Project for Excellence in Journalism study of the industry suggests all hope shouldn't be lost.

While the business model of many news organizations appears to be fracturing, there's little indication that consumers are losing interest in news.

Four newspaper companies have sought bankruptcy protection in recent months, and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver stopped publication.

Yet The New York Times and Washington Post have bigger audiences than ever, when online readership is taken into account. Traffic to the top 50 online news sites rose by 27% in 2008.

This isn't an industry that is dying, but rather an industry that's in disorientation.

FAREWELL TO POLITICS
Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson is going back to the small screen after his foray into Republican presidential politics.

Thompson, best known on TV for his role as a gruff district attorney on NBC's "Law & Order," dropped out of the crowded GOP primaries in January 2008 after his much-anticipated presidential campaign failed to gain strong support among conservatives.

He campaigned heavily for eventual nominee John McCain, and recently tried to gain support to be in charge of the Republican National Committee.

Thompson began his acting career playing himself in the film "Marie" in 1985, about a high-profile legal case he handled in Tennessee. He was elected to the Senate in 1993.

CORPORATE GIVING
The recession could take a big bite out of corporate giving this year. Forty-five percent of businesses surveyed by the Conference Board said they had already reduced the amount of money they plan to donate this year. Another 16% were considering such cuts.

Thirty-five percent of companies said they would make fewer grants this year, and 21% said the grants they made would be smaller.

Corporate officials said they were most concerned about financial constraints (56%), the recession (50%), and the alignment of their giving with their business' needs (47%).

LIFE AFTER ARNOLD
Californians have elected celebrity-actors, so how about celebrity-entrepreneurs?

America's most famous woman entrepreneur, Meg Whitman, 52, is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2010. She was President and Chief Executive Officer of eBay from March 1998 to March 2008, when she stepped down from her role, growing the company from 19 employees to more than 11,000.

This campaign should be fun to watch.

GAY AND POOR
The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law released a first-of-its-kind report that shows lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) Americans are likely to be just as poor or poorer than their heterosexual counterparts.

Because the Census Bureau doesn't explicitly ask questions about sexual orientation, LGB adults and families have been invisible in poverty statistics.

Though poverty is on the rise among all Americans, the study suggests that unique social and political aspects of LGB life play a role in contributing to higher rates of poverty in this community, including vulnerability to employment discrimination, inability to marry, and higher numbers of uninsured.

INDIVIDUAL GIVING
The Harris Poll "Donor Pulse" examines the behaviors and attitudes of people who give money or time to charitable organizations or advocate for them, and how their behavior has changed as a result of the economy. Almost half (45%) of these people report that neither their giving nor their volunteering has changed, but many people are giving to fewer organizations (24%) or giving smaller amounts (31%).

In addition, 6% aren't making any donations and 7% are volunteering less. The only positive finding is that 9% report volunteering more of their time because of the economic downturn.

NON-PROFIT CRISIS
A Civic Enterprises study shines a spotlight on the under-reported plight of America's nonprofit organizations and makes recommendations for how the nation can respond. In the wake of the economic downturn, hospitals, nursing homes, nursery schools, senior centers, soup kitchens, and other nonprofit organizations have been hit by a triple whammy. The evaporation of wealth has decimated charitable donations; the state and local budget crunch is costing nonprofits their foremost paying clients; and the human need for nonprofit help is skyrocketing as nonprofit resources shrink.

DID YOU KNOW?
What goes on in the cloakrooms that are located in the Capitol, with doors leading directly into the House and Senate chambers?

They're noisy, smelly, and cramped spaces. The House cloakrooms have snack bars (basic diner food like hot dogs, sandwiches, and soups-and no, it's not free), but when voting goes on late into the night, it's better than nothing. Senators don't have snack bars, but Senate catering sends left-over food platters from receptions to the cloakrooms, so there is usually something to nosh on.

BEST STATES TO LIVE QUIZ
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index has been developed to provide the official measure for health and well-being. It focuses on six important measures: life satisfaction, work quality, healthy behavior, physical health, emotional health and basic access to necessities like food and shelter. Match the following states with their well-being ranking (No.1 being the healthiest and No. 50 being the least healthiest). Answers presented below. See you next month.

Answers: 1=b, 2=d, 3=c, 4=a, 5=e.

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