WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced today that it is awarding 2,500 rental assistance vouchers to 37 public housing authorities across the U.S. to reunite more than 7,500 children with their parents. The children are currently in foster care. Read more from this post.

Nearly half of all tax units will pay no income tax in 2009. The fraction of non-taxpayers differs widely, depending on income, tax filing status, and whether the unit is elderly or contains children. Read more from this post.

Since the 1970s, there has been much debate surrounding the fact that individuals with autism have difficulty in understanding speech in situations where there is background speech or noise. Today, at the annual meeting of the International Multisensory Research Forum being held at the City College of New York, neuroscientists announced conclusive evidence to verify this fact. Read more from this post.

To ensure that all children enter elementary school with the foundation they need for success, a major national initiative is needed to improve early childhood mathematics education, says a new report from the National Research Council. Read more from this post.

As childhood obesity rates continue to increase, experts agree that more information is needed about the implications of being overweight as a step toward reversing current trends. Now, a new University of Missouri study has found that overweight children, especially girls, show signs of the negative consequences of being overweight as early as kindergarten. Read more from this post.

Suffering from migraine headaches as an adolescent leads to lower high school grades and decreases in the likelihood of graduating high school and the likelihood of attending college, according to Daniel Rees, economics professor at University of Colorado Denver, and Joseph Sabia, professor of public policy at American University's School of Public Affairs. These results were presented on Wednesday, July 1, at the 84th Annual Conference of the Western Economic Association International in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read more from this post.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced an expansion of the Obama Administration's Home Affordable Refinance Program to include participation by borrowers who are current but up to 125 percent underwater on their mortgage. Under authorization provided by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, borrowers whose mortgages are currently owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will now be allowed to refinance those loans according to the terms of the Home Affordable Refinance program established earlier this year. Read more from this post.

The American Dietetic Association has released an updated position paper on vegetarian diets that concludes such diets, if well-planned, are healthful and nutritious for adults, infants, children and adolescents and can help prevent and treat chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes. Read more from this post.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that starting tomorrow $13 billion will be available for schools and that millions of current and former college students will benefit from better student loans and financial aid. Read more from this post.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today called Kyle Brenner, a world history teacher and debate coach at Princeton High School in Princeton, Texas to discuss comments Brenner recently posted on the U.S. Department of Education's Listening & Learning Tour blog at http://www.edgovblogs.org/duncan/topic/listening-tour/. Read more from this post.

In a study published online by the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, UC Davis researchers report that it takes at least a year for former methamphetamine users to regain impulse control. The results tell recovering substance abusers, their families and drug-treatment specialists that it can take an extended period of time for the brain functions critical to recovery to improve. Read more from this post.