Two boys walk over the steep hillsides of Haiti, the first time in a month they’ve been able to go to school. It was destroyed, like thousands of others, in the magnitude 7 earthquake. Government buildings too, were destroyed, including the ministry of education. Despite this, Haiti’s Minister of Education, based now in UNESCO’s Port au Prince office, has been hard at work to get Haitian children back to school in whatever way he can.

To help in this heroic effort, 150 UNICEF Schools In a Box, which include a stand-alone emergency school tent and school supplies, have arrived at the UN organization’s storage facility to cater to affected areas. After an intensive training session with volunteer Haitian boy scouts on erecting the tents, the distribution begins.

One year ago President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the Stimulus Bill.

According to economists on the left and the right, there is reason to believe that the Recovery Act helped avert a major economic disaster. Looking at economic indicators across the board, there is an unmistakable optimistic trend.

Just today, AP reported, “Industrial production rose 0.9 percent in January, the seventh consecutive monthly increase as manufacturers help lead the nation’s economic recovery. Numbers rose in all three major categories: manufacturing, mining and energy utilities.”

This chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that even job losses are finally waning.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says the Recovery Act is already responsible for retaining or creating as many as 2.4 million jobs through the end of 2009 and as a result, job losses are a fraction of what they were a year ago.

April 15 is approaching and for Americans that means filing your tax return.

You can make filing simple and get help with the process, yet avoid buying tax-preparation programs, services or paying for e-filings — if you know where to look.

Start at www.irs.gov. The website includes information on Free File, an online free federal income tax preparation and filing program provided by the IRS and a group of tax-software companies.

(Continue reading at the Baltimore Sun)

The Taliban’s top military commander has been arrested in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, two Pakistani intelligence officers and a senior U.S. official said.

Baradar is the most senior Afghan Taliban leader arrested since the beginning of the Afghan war in 2001 following the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.

(Continue reading AP article at the Press Democrat)

Under the city’s latest green transportation plan, about 225 parking meters across the city will have their heads hacked off and be turned into circular bike racks.

“One of the biggest challenges to bike commuting in the city has been bike parking. This is a whole new alchemy of the street.”

(Read more at the New York Post)

Oxfam has launched several cash-for-work projects, which give those living in camps a chance to earn an income while improving their environment by building latrines and clearing rubble.

Cash in hand helps earthquake survivors stay in the driver’s seat in their own recovery – able to purchase what they most want and need, such as the food that is now available on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Those purchases in turn support local suppliers and begin to bring Haiti’s economy back to life. See the cash-for-work program photos in this slideshow.

An assessment of market conditions in Port-au-Prince showed there is sufficient food, but people do not have the money to purchase it. Oxfam has tested “cash for work” in crises around the world and found it to be more effective than food distribution as long as sufficient food is available on the market. It also helps restores dignity in difficult circumstances.

This “cash-for-work” effort is set to expand across nine sites where Oxfam has recently installed clean water and latrines, serving 80,000 people.

Read more about what OXFAM is doing to aid in the relief of Haiti on their website.