The Center for American Progress is proud to host Anya Kamenetz and other leading higher education policy experts for a panel discussion about Kamenetz's new e-book, The Edupunks' Guide. The discussion will focus on emerging strategies for students to acquire high-quality education and credentials outside of the traditional classroom. The session will also cover new educational models and technologies that could potentially transform the higher education industry. As Anya says in her e-book, "College takes time. College is expensive. College is exclusive. College is no longer the only way to get a great education."

This new e-book presents an ideal opportunity to bring together students, educators, researchers, and policymakers to continue our ongoing exploration of higher education policies that make it easier for nontraditional students to access high-quality education at a reasonable cost.

Please join keynote speaker William J. Lynn III, Deputy Secretary of Defense, for a farewell address on his last day serving in the Obama administration. As the Pentagon’s second highest ranking civilian, Secretary Lynn has been a key member of President Obama’s national security team for more than two and a half years. He will discuss how to keep our nation safe in a time of fiscal austerity.

Following Secretary Lynn's remarks, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Rudy deLeon, now the Center for American Progress' Senior VP for National Security and International Policy, will join Secretary Lynn in a conversation that will cover a wide range of national security issues, including cyber security, the future of war, and the effort to achieve a more unified national security budget.

"Safety and Services: Women of Color Speak about their Communities," a new report released by the Center for Family Policy and Practice, highlights the perspectives and needs of African American women living in low-income communities.

Based on a series of listening sessions with domestic violence victims, survivors, advocates, and community service providers, "Safety and Services" elevates women's experiences and perspectives on how they should be served.

This event marks the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness Month and is co-sponsored by the Center for Family Policy and Practice, the Center for American Progress, and the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence.

This October marks another solemn 10-year anniversary, as a decade has passed since a series of letters containing anthrax spores infected 17 Americans and killed 5, and introduced the United States to the dangers of a biological attack. The anthrax was sent to news outlets and two congressional offices, including Sen. Tom Daschle’s office in Washington.

Much has changed in U.S. preparedness—including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security with primary responsibility for responding to biological threats—but many questions that Americans faced for the first time ten years ago still linger and require meaningful action. Policymakers need to ask: Are we better prepared today?

The United States is undergoing a tremendous demographic shift. According to the 2010 Census it is projected that by the year 2050, if not sooner, there will be no ethnic majority in our nation. That future has already arrived in various communities and states across our nation. What are the implications of this demographic shift? How are the communities that have experienced this shift in the last decade managing this change? What are the opportunities and challenges of a more diverse society? And most importantly what is our collective vision for the year 2050 and what do we need to do today to make that vision a reality?

Please join the Center for American Progress to explore these questions and to launch an exciting new project — Progress 2050 which seeks to explore and analyze the policy implications of the demographic change and work towards a more inclusive progressive agenda.

As with many issues, guns have been portrayed as deeply polarized—extremes on either side and no middle ground. In 2008 the Supreme Court found that there is a constitutional right to own guns, and it concurred that the government has the right—and responsibility—to protect its citizens with reasonable restrictions designed to keep Americans safe from gun violence.

In fact, for nearly 200 years federal and state laws have imposed conditions and restrictions on gun ownership with the support of gun owners and the National Rifle Association. Today Americans agree that some restrictions to keep them safe make sense. Meanwhile, for the last several decades (or since the 1970s), the leadership of the NRA has mounted vigorous opposition to any effort to restrict gun ownership and has had some success in weakening federal and state protections.

While the Court is clear that the government cannot arbitrarily restrict gun owners, Americans are increasingly concerned that terrorists and other potentially threatening individuals who may suffer from mental illness or addiction can easily purchase guns legally. Americans expect the government to protect them by making it impossible for these individuals to purchase, own, or carry a gun.

Can progress be made to increase the safety of Americans in light of NRA opposition? Please join the Center for American Progress for a lively discussion about these issues.

The Center for American Progress, Half in Ten, and the National Partnership for Women & Families invite you to a discussion on the growing momentum for paid sick days laws. Paid, job-protected sick days provide a critical workplace standard that promotes the economic security of U.S. workers and their families and safeguards the health of our communities.

Join us for a conversation with Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, who championed and signed the nation's first statewide paid sick days law, Seattle City Council Member Nick Licata, the champion of the paid sick days ordinance that recently made Seattle the third U.S. city with a paid sick days standard, and local restaurant owner Andy Shallal, who provides paid sick days to his employees.

We have entered what is called the “biological century,” and a new biopolitics has emerged to address the implications for America’s collective value system, our well-being, and, ultimately, our future.

Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Jonathan Moreno's new book, The Body Politic: The Battle Over Science in America, is the first book to recognize and assess this new force in our political landscape—one that fuels today’s culture wars and has motivated politicians of all stripes to re-examine their platforms. As Moreno explains the most contentious issues, he also offers an engaging history of the intersection between science and democracy in American life, a reasoned (and often surprising) analysis of how different political ideologies view scientific controversies, and a vision for how the new biopolitics can help shape the quality of our lives.

Copies of The Body Politic will be available for sale at the event, and Moreno will be available to sign books.

More than 2 million children in the United States have, to varying degrees, become collateral damage after decades of ideology, laws, and policies that hurt lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, people and families. To shine a light on this issue, LGBT, allied, and child welfare-focused organizations are, for the first time, releasing a comprehensive report that profiles and documents the experiences of the 2 million children with LGBT parents, the many ways that state and federal laws hurt and exclude them, and the common-sense policy solutions that can make things better.

Please join the Center for American Progress and Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler to discuss a new report, "All Children Matter: How Legal and Social Inequalities Hurt LGBT Families." "All Children Matter" was released by the Center for American Progress, the Family Equality Council, and the Movement Advancement Project, in partnership with COLAGE, The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, and the National Association of Social Workers (with a foreword by the Child Welfare League of America).

While the history of the left is a long story of idealism and determination, it has also been, in the traditional view, a story of movements that failed to gain support from mainstream America. In American Dreamers, Michael Kazin tells a new history: one in which many of these movements, although they did not fully succeed on their own terms, nonetheless made lasting contributions to American society that led to equal opportunity for women, racial minorities, and homosexuals; the celebration of sexual pleasure; multiculturalism in the media and the schools; and the popularity of books and films with altruistic and antiauthoritarian messages.

With movements for economic and social justice rising globally and across America, please join us for us for a fascinating discussion of the origins, goals, and legacy of the American left. 

Nearly half of all Americans can be expected to go without coverage at least once over a ten year period. Even small bouts of un-insurance can have negative outcomes on individuals’ health and financial stability. Key triggers of loss of coverage include: unemployment, reduction in work hours, changing jobs, moving and divorce. COBRA benefits are currently the main option for people who lose job-based coverage, but take-up rates are low due to high costs at a time of reduced income. The new health insurance exchanges have the potential to provide seamless coverage for those who lose employer-sponsored insurance due to life transitions. Achieving this full potential will require action by the federal and state entities charged with implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

At this event, a panel of experts will present data from a new policy brief to be released at the event and provide recommendations for the federal government and the states on ACA implementation to maximize coverage after life transitions.

You are invited to a symposium celebrating the second anniversary of President Obama's White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI). UCLA will release a special issue of the AAPI Nexus Journal entitled, "Forging the Future: The Role of New Research, Data, and Policies for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders" to celebrate the second anniversary of the establishment of the White House Initiative which was created on October 14, 2009, when President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13515: Increasing the Participation of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Federal Programs.

The special issue features research originally presented at a WHIAAPI convening on research and data collection in December 2010. The policy briefs in the journal address the following five sectors: Civil Rights, Economic Development (including sustainable neighborhoods), Education, Health, and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Through the generous support and commitment to AAPI communities of our co-sponsors, complimentary copies will be available.