Document of the Month Archive for 2001

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See also: Document of the Month Archives: 2000 | 2002

• December 2001: Fixed rate or ARM with cap? How about a balloon loan? If you're shopping for a home mortgage, and you'd like a basic understanding of some of the mortage products available these days, the New York State Banking Department's online booklet, Consumer's Guide to Home Mortgages can help. The Guide "is intended to be an initial road map through a sometimes complex area of borrowing. It highlights factors which apply to all mortgage loans and ARMs; outlines the features of the ARM rate adjustment, including the use of indexes, adjustment periods and rate 'caps'; and discusses application fees, closing costs, 'points' and refinancings."
  
  
• November 2001: The New York State Department of Labor's Finding a Job in New York State (in PDF) is a "comprehensive guide to finding a job in New York State contains job-seeking advice, information about the services of One-Stop Centers and other community resources, references to useful books and places to find help-wanted advertisements and on-line job banks. Help obtaining further education and training is also covered."
  
  
• October 2001: To Assure Pride and Confidence in the Electoral Process: Final Report of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform - The National Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, among others, released its final report at the end of July. Even those tiring of reading and thinking about election reform may want to take a look at this 108-page document which takes a broader view on election issues than simply a discussion of chads, hanging or otherwise. The report begins with a summary of thirteen policy recommendations, among them, recommendations that Congress make presidential and congressional elections a national holiday, that news organizations should not forecast presidential election results as long as polls remain open, and that states should make allowances to restore voting rights to citizens who have served their time for felony convictions. It also includes a brief history of the Federal election system, a discussion of the standards for better voting technology, and estimating the costs of improvement.
  
  
• September 2001: A Beautiful and Fruitful Place: Selected Rensselaerswijck Seminar Papers- A New Netherland Project publication, A Beautiful and Fruitful Place: Collected papers of the first 10 years of The Rensselaerswijck Seminars, provides a fascinating look at various aspects of life in the Dutch colony of New Netherland during the seventeenth century. New Netherland comprised an area approximately from the Connecticut River to the Delaware Bay (present-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and half of Connecticut). Scroll down the seminar listing page to see the topics from 1979 through 1987.
  
  
• August 2001: Frigid Fury: The Battle on Snowshoes, March 1758. This article is an account of a battle that took place in the vicinity of Lake George, New York, in March of 1758, when the English and Frenchwere fighting over control of this strategic area in the Adirondack Mountains. The fighting was between 180 men led by Captain Robert Rogers,commanding His Majesty's Independent Companies of Rangers, and the French, Indians and Canadians. Outnumbered, surrounded, and suffering great losses, Rogers' eventually escapes down the nearly vertical east face of Bald Mountain to the frozen surface of Lake George over a thousand feet below.
  
  
• July 2001: What changes can we expect in our climate during the twenty-first century? How will these changes impact farmlands, urban areas? What about pests and diseases? How will our water resources be effected? Our health? What resources may be available to help us adapt? The National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change is an effort to research and answer many questions about this issue.
  
  
• June 2001: The Digest of Education Statistics, 2000 provides answers to many questions about our schools.. Issued annually since 1962 (except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86), the Digest provides a compilation of statistical information covering American education from kindergarten through graduate school. It includes "a selection of data from many sources, both government and private, and draws especially on the results of surveys and activities carried out by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)."
  
  
• May 2001: When You Are Concerned: A Handbook for families, friends and caregivers worried about the safety of an aging driver. This handbook, by the New York State Office for the Aging, contains an overview for families concerned about the safety of an aging family driver, how to know when it is time to become concerned, finding help, how to broach the subject of unsafe driving, how to cope with the change and get around, how to keep driving safely, and how to keep your ability to drive.
  
  
• April 2001:A single online publication, The World Factbook, from the CIA, can give you the answers to a myriad of questions regarding the geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, or transnational issues of individual countries of the world.
  
  
• March 2001: In Losing our Children: An Examination of New York's Foster Care System "...the Assembly Committees on Children and Families and Oversight, Analysis and Investigation conducted a comprehensive examination of the State's foster care system, within the broader context of the child welfare system as a whole."
  
  
• February 2001: The 40-page document, State Aid to Schools A Primer, published in June 1998, contains an overview of School Finance in New York State. It includes sections on "State Support to Public School Districts (1998-99)", "Key Concepts Concerning School Aid", graphical information on "Where the Education Dollar is Going" and other charts, a "Summary of 1998-99 State Apportionments for Support of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools", operating aid formulas and other information.
  
  
• January 2001: Viewing the Electoral College through Historical Documents. The January "Document of the Month" is actually a collection of documents. The New York State Archives in Albany maintains the state's Electoral College records. This site, "Viewing the Electoral College through Historical Documents" is a collection of historical documents of the Electoral College from different presidential elections. Made available online by the New York State Archives, these documents show the process of the Electoral College from the general election in November to the meeting of electors in December.
  
  

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