Ohio State News Tips 1/13/14

Donna Brazile is featured speaker for Ohio State’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration – Jan. 16. Donna Brazile, author of the best-selling memoir, Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics, will speak at Ohio State’s 42nd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16, at Weigel Hall Auditorium, 1866 College Road.
The event, which honors the life and legacy of the civil rights icon, will also feature a viewing of the Kirwan Institute’s production of “A Reading of the Letter from the Birmingham Jail” at 6 p.m., along with a tribute to Nelson Mandela, and musical entertainment.
The event, sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s Hale Center, is free and open to the public and will kick off of a number of activities leading up to the national observance on Monday, Jan. 20.
Other events include:
Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service – Jan. 20. Ohio State’s Pay it Forward, which provides students with service opportunities, and the Hale Center partner to host this annual day of community services.
Ohio State Student March for Freedom – Jan. 20. Participants will gather at 2:30 p.m. at the Hale Center, 154 W. 12th Ave. and march to Columbus City Hall to join the City of Columbus for its traditional MLK city-wide march and celebration.
MLK Blood Drive – Jan. 24. The blood drive takes place from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in 101 Hale Hall, 154 W. 12th Ave. It is sponsored by the American Red Cross and student organizations.
SEE: http://odi.osu.edu/news/martin-luther-king-jr-day.html.

Marriage Promotion Has Failed to Stem Poverty among Single Moms, expert says new approach needed. As the United States marks the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty this month, a new report suggests one recent weapon in the battle has been a disappointing failure.
The federal government has made marriage promotion among single mothers a key part of its continuing effort to fight poverty.
But that approach has missed the mark because marriage doesn’t provide the same benefits to poor, single mothers as it does for others, according to Kristi Williams, associate professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.
“If the goal of marriage promotion efforts was truly to lower poverty rates and improve the well-being of unmarried parents and their children, then it is time to take a different approach,” Williams said.
SEE: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/marrpromote.htm. CONTACT: Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu.

Study: One “Villain” of the Housing Crisis Played Only a Small Role – Mortgage defaults still high after predatory lenders forced out. One of the major factors blamed for the subprime mortgage crisis may have actually played only a minor role in the housing meltdown, new research reveals.
Some people claim that high mortgage default rates which helped crash the economy in 2008 were the fault of predatory lenders who approved risky housing loans to unqualified buyers.
But a study of an anti-predatory lending program in Chicago found that the program brought down default rates only modestly, while causing major disruptions in the market.
“Our results suggest that even without any predatory lending during the housing boom period, we still would have had a subprime crisis,” said Itzhak Ben-David, co-author of the study and associate professor of finance at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.
SEE: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/subprime.htm. CONTACT: Jeff Grabmeier, (614) 292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu.

The person listed as the CONTACT will have the most current information about the story. Call on our media relations staff for help with any Ohio State story: Jane Carroll, 614-292-5220 or carroll.296@osu.edu; Liz Cook, 614-292-7276 or cook.17@osu.edu; Gary Lewis, 614-688-2048 or lewis.330@osu.edu; or Amy Murray, 614-292-8385 or murray-goedde.1@osu.edu.