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  <channel>
    <title>Our View | DUI, Underage Drinking &amp; Binge Drinking News &amp; Opinions</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/blog/rss</link>
    <description />
    <language>en</language>
          <atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/centurycouncil/nZrf" /><feedburner:info xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" uri="centurycouncil/nzrf" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><item>
    <title>5 Tips for a safe Memorial Day Weekend</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/blog/2012/5-tips-safe-memorial-day-weekend</link>
    <description>&lt;section class="field field-name-field-blog-taxonomy field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"&gt;
      &lt;h2 class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h2&gt;
    &lt;ul class="field-items"&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item even"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/b4udrink" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;B4UDrink&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item odd"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/drunk-driving" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Drunk Driving&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item even"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/holidays" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Holidays&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/section&gt;
&lt;div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/477px-Graves_at_Arlington_on_Memorial_Day.JPG"&gt;&lt;img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/477px-Graves_at_Arlington_on_Memorial_Day.JPG" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Century Council&amp;rsquo;s office is located in the Washington DC area; which is a unique opportunity to appreciate the full experience of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. It&amp;rsquo;s a time to celebrate, honor and remember loved ones who have lost their lives to protect our American way of life.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This weekend will be full of visits to Arlington Cemetery and the war memorials on the National Mall to honor the fallen, BBQs to celebrate the warmth of summer and patriotic flags waving to show national pride. In addition to good food, friends and fun, be sure your Memorial Day celebrations include good decisions.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you choose to drink alcohol, please do so responsibly. Learn &lt;a href="http://www.centurycouncil.org/underage-drinking/how-alcohol-affects-your-body"&gt;how alcohol affects your body&lt;/a&gt; and your driving skills. Call a cab or designate a driver. And if you&amp;rsquo;re underage, the only good decision is not to drink alcohol. In 2010, 40% of traffic fatalities over Memorial Day weekend involved impaired driving. Include safe driving in your celebrations so that we can save lives this Memorial Day. Here&amp;rsquo;s the top 5 tips for staying safe this weekend:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ol&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		Be Aware: Know how alcohol affects your body and driving skills, with &lt;a href="http://www.b4udrink.org"&gt;B4UDrink&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		Plan a safe ride home &amp;ndash; Designate a driver or call a cab&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		Always wear your seat belt and be sure kids are secured in the back seat with appropriate child safety seats&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		Avoid distractions such as &lt;a href="http://www.iknoweverything.org/"&gt;texting or eating while driving&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		Obey all rules of the road &amp;ndash; they&amp;rsquo;re not suggestions.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ol&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Fri, 25 May 2012 17:25:05 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>tyler brown</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4385 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>The Drama Years tour finishes with great success!</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/blog/2012/drama-years-tour-finishes-great-success</link>
    <description>&lt;section class="field field-name-field-blog-taxonomy field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"&gt;
      &lt;h2 class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h2&gt;
    &lt;ul class="field-items"&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item even"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/events" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Events&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item odd"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/girl-talk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Girl Talk&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item even"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/partners" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Partners&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item odd"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/teens" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Teens&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/section&gt;
&lt;div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/web%20ready%20Drama%20Years.grid-4x2.jpg"&gt;&lt;img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/web%20ready%20Drama%20Years.grid-4x2.jpg" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;Middle school students feel pressure, or &lt;u&gt;drama&lt;/u&gt;, from all angles.&amp;nbsp; Busy academic calendars, extracurricular activities, friend drama, and the added dimension of social media all falls on their&amp;nbsp;shoulders.&amp;nbsp; It&amp;rsquo;s no surprise that teens need positive outlets and support from parents and friends to get them through the &amp;lsquo;drama years.&amp;rsquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Over the past two months, we have been following Haley Kilpatrick as she traveled across the nation to spread encouragement that not all is bad in middle school and a lot of good can come when you are surrounded by encouraging friends and supportive parents.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Just recently, &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/winning-student-essays-on-bullying/#more-11425"&gt;The New York Times included a column&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; covering an essay contest where girls wrote about bullying during their teen years.&amp;nbsp; The essays are powerful and focus on one of the three dimensions in Haley&amp;rsquo;s book, which places emphasis on not only bullies but on brands and body image as well.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Throughout the tour, Haley discussed with teen girls the importance of expending energy in three areas to help build self-esteem and make middle school enjoyable and establish a strong foundation for high school:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		Find a peer mentor you can turn to&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		Invest energy into an anchor activity that builds self-esteem outside of school&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		Give back to your hometown through community service&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Haley not only gave teens valuable advice, she also spoke candidly to parents on what they could do to help their kids through the &lt;em&gt;Drama Years&lt;/em&gt;. &amp;nbsp;She reminds Moms they have the power. &amp;nbsp;Moms should lead by example with their daughter and try and maintain an &amp;lsquo;attitude of gratitude&amp;rsquo; in all they do in order to raise a generation of nicer girls.&amp;nbsp; Moms should model to their daughters how to be a good friend, encourage them to explore their own unique talents, and &amp;lsquo;walk the walk&amp;rsquo; by not placing excessive emphasis on physical traits or materials items.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Haley&amp;rsquo;s messaging through the course of the tour gave her the ability to talk face to face with girls and Moms on the pressure of the drama years. The Century Council knew a lot could be learned socially by polling our twitter followers.&amp;nbsp; We polled followers and asked them to share their advice, in hindsight, what they would tell themselves as a middle school student.&amp;nbsp; As we shuffled through the responses we couldn&amp;rsquo;t help but agree that with time comes wisdom:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/images/GT GRAPHIC.jpg" style="width: 484px; height: 1376px;" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href="http://www.betterworldbooks.com/the-drama-years-real-girls-talk-about-surviving-middle-school-bullies-brands-body-image-and-more-id-9781451627916.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Drama Years: Real Girls Talk About Surviving Middle School &amp;ndash; Bullies, Brands, Body Image, and More &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;book tour included parent and teen presentations that focused on the Drama Years when girls are in middle school and experiencing an incredible number of changes both physically and emotional.&amp;nbsp; Haley reached over 2500 tweens and parents on her tour and countless others through social media and earned media coverage through the &lt;em&gt;Today &lt;/em&gt;show and local affiliates.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To learn more about how to start a chapter visit &lt;a href="http://www.desiretoinspire.org/"&gt;www.desiretoinspire.org&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We applaud the splash Haley made on the book tour and share in her vision that as more girls adopt into Girl Talk the ultimate result will be &amp;ldquo;a generation of nicer, kinder, community oriented, high school students, college students, women in the workforce and mothers who break this mean cycle.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;object height="500" width="500"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://www.slideflickr.com/slide/htoTTQrw" /&gt;&lt;param name="wmode" value="transparent" /&gt;&lt;embed height="500" src="http://www.slideflickr.com/slide/htoTTQrw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="500" wmode="transparent"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Thu, 24 May 2012 19:55:21 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Tyler Allen</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4373 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>CONGRESSMAN JOHN SHIMKUS JOINS ASK, LISTEN, LEARN AT CENTRALIA JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/news/press-release/2012/congressman-john-shimkus-joins-ask-listen-learn-centralia-junior-high-school</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-field-release-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-05-22T00:00:00-04:00"&gt;&lt;div class="m"&gt;May&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;22&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;2012&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="m"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;CENTRALIA, IL&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;mdash;Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL) joined &lt;a href="../../"&gt;The Century Council&lt;/a&gt; to bring &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don&amp;rsquo;t Mix&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; to students at Centralia Junior High School today.&amp;nbsp; The Century Council created an interactive, physical fitness activity that builds on the existing &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;program and encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp; The initiative is based on research by Harvard Medical School&amp;rsquo;s Dr. John Ratey, showing that for a person&amp;rsquo;s brain to function at its peak; the body needs to move.&amp;nbsp; The interactive activity, as well as a supporting website, encourages kids to live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp; The website also provides parents with information and strategies to help jumpstart the conversation about the dangers of &lt;a href="../../stop-underage-drinking"&gt;underage drinking&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s important that kids understand that the choices they make today&amp;mdash;good or bad&amp;mdash;will have a lasting impact on their lives,&amp;rdquo; said Congressman Shimkus. &amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m proud to participate in the creative work the &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; team is doing to engage children in the sometimes challenging discussion about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and the hazards of underage drinking.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Shannon Adams of The Century Council added, &amp;ldquo;According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 16% of 12 to 14 year olds report they have consumed alcohol in the past month.&amp;nbsp; Our &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program has the potential to further reduce these numbers, as half (49%) of 12-14 year olds believe alcohol education has made a difference in the decision they have made regarding alcohol.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We are thrilled The Century Council was able to bring their &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program Centralia Junior High School.&amp;nbsp; Talking about the dangers of underage drinking with our youth is incredibly important and I have a feeling after today&amp;rsquo;s event our students will be asking to play the interactive activity a lot.&amp;nbsp; I believe the more enthusiasm we can build around this important issue &amp;ndash; saying &amp;lsquo;no&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking &amp;ndash; the smarter choices our students will make,&amp;rdquo; said Principal Dustin Foutch.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Developed over six years ago, &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; has already reached millions of parents, kids, and teachers around the country.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&amp;rsquo;s &lt;/em&gt;new initiatives include:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;Asklistenlearn.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt; encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking&amp;rdquo; by offering kids interactive and educational games and videos.
		&lt;ul&gt;
			&lt;li&gt;
				Any kid can become a member of the &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team by taking a pledge to make healthy choices.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
		&lt;/ul&gt;
	&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;utilizes role models such as Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno and professional track stars Tyson Gay and Bryan Clay, and swimmers Rebecca Soni, and Mallory Weggemann as &amp;ldquo;SuperStars.&amp;rdquo; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team members will be encouraged to read Questions and Answers from &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; to learn how elite athletes dealt with peer pressure as they were growing up.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; will encourage kids to make responsible decisions and live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; will have a supplement in Scholastic where teachers may find information about the program and how to incorporate it into their lesson plans, kids can tear out posters, and can play educational games to learn about living a healthy lifestyle and saying no to underage drinking.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;
	About The Century Council&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p align="left"&gt;The Century Council, is a national not-for-profit leader in the fight to eliminate drunk driving and underage drinking and is funded by the following distillers: Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.; Beam, Inc.; Brown-Forman; Constellation Brands, Inc.; DIAGEO; Hood River Distillers, Inc.; and Pernod Ricard USA. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, The Century Council promotes responsible decision making regarding beverage alcohol and develops and implements innovative programs and public awareness campaigns which ignite action through strategic partnerships. Established in 1991, The Century Council&amp;rsquo;s initiatives are highlighted on its website at &lt;a href="../../"&gt;www.centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.org/"&gt;www.asklistenlearn.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;section class="field field-name-field-release-contact field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Contact:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt; Darron Moffatt, The Century Council; &lt;a href="mailto:MoffattD@centurycouncil.org"&gt;MoffattD@centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; or (202) 637-0077 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/section&gt;&lt;section class="field field-name-field-pr-image field-type-image field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Image:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/2012-05-22_13-37-08_512.jpg" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/section&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Tue, 22 May 2012 20:38:12 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Tyler Allen</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4371 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>CONGRESSMAN TIM BISHOP JOINS ASK, LISTEN, LEARN AT OREGON MIDDLE SCHOOL</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/news/press-release/2012/congressman-tim-bishop-joins-ask-listen-learn-oregon-middle-school</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-field-release-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-05-22T00:00:00-04:00"&gt;&lt;div class="m"&gt;May&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;22&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;2012&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="m"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MEDFORD, NY&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;mdash;Congressman Tim Bishop (D-NY) joined &lt;a href="../../"&gt;The Century Council&lt;/a&gt; to bring &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don&amp;rsquo;t Mix&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; to students at Oregon Middle School today.&amp;nbsp; The Century Council created an interactive, physical fitness activity that builds on the existing &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;program and encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp; The initiative is based on research by Harvard Medical School&amp;rsquo;s Dr. John Ratey, showing that for a person&amp;rsquo;s brain to function at its peak; the body needs to move.&amp;nbsp; The interactive activity, as well as a supporting website, encourages kids to live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp; The website also provides parents with information and strategies to help jumpstart the conversation about the dangers of &lt;a href="../../stop-underage-drinking"&gt;underage drinking&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s important that kids understand that the choices they make today&amp;mdash;good or bad&amp;mdash;will have a lasting impact on their lives,&amp;rdquo; said Congressman Bishop. &amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m proud to participate in the creative work the &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; team is doing to engage children in the sometimes challenging discussion about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and the hazards of underage drinking.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Shannon Adams of The Century Council added, &amp;ldquo;According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 16% of 12 to 14 year olds report they have consumed alcohol in the past month.&amp;nbsp; Our &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program has the potential to further reduce these numbers, as half (49%) of 12-14 year olds believe alcohol education has made a difference in the decision they have made regarding alcohol.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We are thrilled The Century Council was able to bring their &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program to Oregon Middle School.&amp;nbsp; Talking about the dangers of underage drinking with our youth is incredibly important and I have a feeling after today&amp;rsquo;s event our students will be asking to play the interactive activity a lot.&amp;nbsp; I believe the more enthusiasm we can build around this important issue &amp;ndash; saying &amp;lsquo;no&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking &amp;ndash; the smarter choices our students will make,&amp;rdquo; said Principal James Bertsch.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Developed over six years ago, &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; has already reached millions of parents, kids, and teachers around the country.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&amp;rsquo;s &lt;/em&gt;new initiatives include:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;Asklistenlearn.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt; encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking&amp;rdquo; by offering kids interactive and educational games and videos.
		&lt;ul&gt;
			&lt;li&gt;
				Any kid can become a member of the &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team by taking a pledge to make healthy choices.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
		&lt;/ul&gt;
	&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;utilizes role models such as Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno and professional track stars Tyson Gay and Bryan Clay, swimmers Rebecca Soni and Mallory Weggemann and Taekwondo star Steven Lopez as &amp;ldquo;SuperStars.&amp;rdquo; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team members will be encouraged to read Questions and Answers from &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; to learn how elite athletes dealt with peer pressure as they were growing up.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; will encourage kids to make responsible decisions and live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; will have a supplement in Scholastic where teachers may find information about the program and how to incorporate it into their lesson plans, kids can tear out posters, and can play educational games to learn about living a healthy lifestyle and saying no to underage drinking.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;
	About The Century Council&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p align="left"&gt;The Century Council, is a national not-for-profit leader in the fight to eliminate drunk driving and underage drinking and is funded by the following distillers: Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.; Beam, Inc.; Brown-Forman; Constellation Brands, Inc.; DIAGEO; Hood River Distillers, Inc.; and Pernod Ricard USA. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, The Century Council promotes responsible decision making regarding beverage alcohol and develops and implements innovative programs and public awareness campaigns which ignite action through strategic partnerships. Established in 1991, The Century Council&amp;rsquo;s initiatives are highlighted on its website at &lt;a href="../../"&gt;www.centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.org/"&gt;www.asklistenlearn.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;section class="field field-name-field-release-contact field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Contact:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt; Darron Moffatt, The Century Council; &lt;a href="mailto:MoffattD@centurycouncil.org"&gt;MoffattD@centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; or (202) 637-0077 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/section&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Tue, 22 May 2012 20:36:15 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Tyler Allen</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4370 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>CONGRESSMAN RICH NUGENT  JOINS ASK, LISTEN, LEARN TO CHALLENGER K8</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/news/press-release/2012/congressman-rich-nugent-joins-ask-listen-learn-challenger-k8</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-field-release-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-05-21T00:00:00-04:00"&gt;&lt;div class="m"&gt;May&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;21&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;2012&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="m"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SPRING HILL, FL&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;mdash;Congressman Rich Nugent (R-FL) joined &lt;a href="../../"&gt;The Century Council&lt;/a&gt; to bring &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don&amp;rsquo;t Mix&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; to students at Challenger K8 today.&amp;nbsp; The Century Council created an interactive, physical fitness activity that builds on the existing &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;program and encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp; The initiative is based on research by Harvard Medical School&amp;rsquo;s Dr. John Ratey, showing that for a person&amp;rsquo;s brain to function at its peak; the body needs to move.&amp;nbsp; The interactive activity, as well as a supporting website, encourages kids to live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp; The website also provides parents with information and strategies to help jumpstart the conversation about the dangers of &lt;a href="../../stop-underage-drinking"&gt;underage drinking&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s important that kids understand that the choices they make today&amp;mdash;good or bad&amp;mdash;will have a lasting impact on their lives,&amp;rdquo; said Congressman Nugent. &amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m proud to participate in the creative work the &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; team is doing to engage children in the sometimes challenging discussion about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and the hazards of underage drinking.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Shannon Adams of The Century Council added, &amp;ldquo;According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 16% of 12 to 14 year olds report they have consumed alcohol in the past month.&amp;nbsp; Our &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program has the potential to further reduce these numbers, as half (49%) of 12-14 year olds believe alcohol education has made a difference in the decision they have made regarding alcohol.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We are thrilled The Century Council was able to bring their &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program to Challenger K8.&amp;nbsp; Talking about the dangers of underage drinking with our youth is incredibly important and I have a feeling after today&amp;rsquo;s event our students will be asking to play the interactive activity a lot.&amp;nbsp; I believe the more enthusiasm we can build around this important issue &amp;ndash; saying &amp;lsquo;no&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking &amp;ndash; the smarter choices our students will make,&amp;rdquo; said Principal Sue Stoops.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Developed over six years ago, &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; has already reached millions of parents, kids, and teachers around the country.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&amp;rsquo;s &lt;/em&gt;new initiatives include:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;Asklistenlearn.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt; encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking&amp;rdquo; by offering kids interactive and educational games and videos.
		&lt;ul&gt;
			&lt;li&gt;
				Any kid can become a member of the &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team by taking a pledge to make healthy choices.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
		&lt;/ul&gt;
	&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;utilizes role models such as Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno and professional track stars Tyson Gay and Bryan Clay, and swimmers Rebecca Soni, and Mallory Weggemann as &amp;ldquo;SuperStars.&amp;rdquo; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team members will be encouraged to read Questions and Answers from &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; to learn how elite athletes dealt with peer pressure as they were growing up.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; will encourage kids to make responsible decisions and live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; will have a supplement in Scholastic where teachers may find information about the program and how to incorporate it into their lesson plans, kids can tear out posters, and can play educational games to learn about living a healthy lifestyle and saying no to underage drinking.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About The Century Council&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="left"&gt;The Century Council, is a national not-for-profit leader in the fight to eliminate drunk driving and underage drinking and is funded by the following distillers: Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.; Beam, Inc.; Brown-Forman; Constellation Brands, Inc.; DIAGEO; Hood River Distillers, Inc.; and Pernod Ricard USA. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, The Century Council promotes responsible decision making regarding beverage alcohol and develops and implements innovative programs and public awareness campaigns which ignite action through strategic partnerships. Established in 1991, The Century Council&amp;rsquo;s initiatives are highlighted on its website at &lt;a href="../../"&gt;www.centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.org/"&gt;www.asklistenlearn.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;section class="field field-name-field-release-contact field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Contact:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt; Darron Moffatt, The Century Council; &lt;a href="mailto:MoffattD@centurycouncil.org"&gt;MoffattD@centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; or (202) 637-0077 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/section&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 21:02:19 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Tyler Allen</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4367 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>CONGRESSMAN GLENN “GT” THOMPSON JOINS ASK, LISTEN, LEARN AT CENTRAL MOUNTAIN MIDDLE SCHOOL</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/news/press-release/2012/congressman-glenn-%E2%80%9Cgt%E2%80%9D-thompson-joins-ask-listen-learn-central-mountain</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-field-release-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-05-21T00:00:00-04:00"&gt;&lt;div class="m"&gt;May&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;21&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;2012&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="m"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;MILL HALL, PA&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;mdash;Congressman Glenn &amp;ldquo;GT&amp;rdquo; Thompson (R-PA) joined &lt;a href="../../"&gt;The Century Council&lt;/a&gt; to bring &lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don&amp;rsquo;t Mix&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt; to students at Central Mountain Middle School today.&amp;nbsp; The Century Council created an interactive, physical fitness activity that builds on the existing &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;program and encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp; The initiative is based on research by Harvard Medical School&amp;rsquo;s Dr. John Ratey, showing that for a person&amp;rsquo;s brain to function at its peak; the body needs to move.&amp;nbsp; The interactive activity, as well as a supporting website, encourages kids to live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp; The website also provides parents with information and strategies to help jumpstart the conversation about the dangers of &lt;a href="../../stop-underage-drinking"&gt;underage drinking&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s important that kids understand that the choices they make today&amp;mdash;good or bad&amp;mdash;will have a lasting impact on their lives,&amp;rdquo; said Congressman Thompson. &amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m proud to participate in the creative work the &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; team is doing to engage children in the sometimes challenging discussion about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and the hazards of underage drinking.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sarah Cissna of The Century Council added, &amp;ldquo;According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 16% of 12 to 14 year olds report they have consumed alcohol in the past month.&amp;nbsp; Our &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program has the potential to further reduce these numbers, as half (49%) of 12-14 year olds believe alcohol education has made a difference in the decision they have made regarding alcohol.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We are thrilled The Century Council was able to bring their &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program to Central Mountain Middle School.&amp;nbsp; Talking about the dangers of underage drinking with our youth is incredibly important and I have a feeling after today&amp;rsquo;s event our students will be asking to play the interactive activity a lot.&amp;nbsp; I believe the more enthusiasm we can build around this important issue &amp;ndash; saying &amp;lsquo;no&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking &amp;ndash; the smarter choices our students will make,&amp;rdquo; said Principal Mark Rowedder.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Developed over six years ago, &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; has already reached millions of parents, kids, and teachers around the country.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&amp;rsquo;s &lt;/em&gt;new initiatives include:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;Asklistenlearn.com&lt;/a&gt; encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking&amp;rdquo; by offering kids interactive and educational games and videos.
		&lt;ul&gt;
			&lt;li&gt;
				Any kid can become a member of the &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team by taking a pledge to make healthy choices.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
		&lt;/ul&gt;
	&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;utilizes role models such as Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno and professional track stars Tyson Gay and Bryan Clay, and swimmers Rebecca Soni and Mallory Weggemann as &amp;ldquo;SuperStars.&amp;rdquo; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team members will be encouraged to read Questions and Answers from &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; to learn how elite athletes dealt with peer pressure as they were growing up.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; will encourage kids to make responsible decisions and live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; will have a supplement in Scholastic where teachers may find information about the program and how to incorporate it into their lesson plans, kids can tear out posters, and can play educational games to learn about living a healthy lifestyle and saying no to underage drinking.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About The Century Council&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="left"&gt;The Century Council, is a national not-for-profit leader in the fight to eliminate drunk driving and underage drinking and is funded by the following distillers: Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.; Beam, Inc.; Brown-Forman; Constellation Brands, Inc.; DIAGEO; Hood River Distillers, Inc.; and Pernod Ricard USA. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, The Century Council promotes responsible decision making regarding beverage alcohol and develops and implements innovative programs and public awareness campaigns which ignite action through strategic partnerships. Established in 1991, The Century Council&amp;rsquo;s initiatives are highlighted on its website at &lt;a href="../../"&gt;www.centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.org/"&gt;www.asklistenlearn.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;section class="field field-name-field-release-contact field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Contact:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt; Darron Moffatt, The Century Council; &lt;a href="mailto:MoffattD@centurycouncil.org"&gt;MoffattD@centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; or (202) 637-0077 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/section&gt;&lt;section class="field field-name-field-pr-image field-type-image field-label-above"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Image:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/sarah.png" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/section&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Mon, 21 May 2012 15:09:12 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>Tyler Allen</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4363 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>The Century Council Addresses NTSB Panel on Impaired Driving</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/news/press-release/2012/century-council-addresses-ntsb-panel-impaired-driving</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-field-release-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-05-16T00:00:00-04:00"&gt;&lt;div class="m"&gt;May&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;16&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;2012&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="m"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WASHINGTON, D.C&lt;/strong&gt;. &amp;ndash; Today, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) assembled a panel of experts, policymakers, and partners for a discussion on the devastating and dangerous issue of impaired driving and how to combat it effectively.&amp;nbsp; Ralph Blackman, President and CEO of The Century Council, participated in the discussion, titled &lt;em&gt;Reaching Zero: Actions to Eliminate Substance-Impaired Driving, &lt;/em&gt;which was held in Washington, DC at the NTSB Conference Center.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Century Council, which has been at the forefront in the fight against drunk driving since its inception over 20 years ago, contributed to the discussion by pointing out trends and offering recommendations to create a comprehensive solution to the incredibly dangerous and prevalent problem of hardcore drunk drivers.&amp;nbsp; Hardcore drunk drivers are considered those with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .15% and above or repeat DWI offenders.&amp;nbsp; High BAC and repeat DWI offenders are involved in the majority of fatal alcohol-impaired driving crashes each year, a trend that has remained relatively unchanged for more than a decade.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By applying the knowledge gained throughout the years of fighting drunk driving, The Century Council has developed five key areas that will help to combat hardcore drunk driving and believes that they should be part of the nation&amp;rsquo;s agenda to fight impaired driving.&amp;nbsp; Those key areas are:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;Behavioral change: &lt;/strong&gt;Combine technology with efforts to change behavior. Assess DWI offenders&amp;rsquo; problems in order to rehabilitate them while protecting the public.&amp;nbsp; DWI courts and staggered sentencing have been incredibly effective in this regard.&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;Supervise offenders:&lt;/strong&gt; Hardcore drunk drivers are good at manipulating the system and do not follow through with court orders.&amp;nbsp; Effective supervision and the resources to carry it out are of critical importance.&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;Education:&lt;/strong&gt; DWI cases are among the most complex cases to resolve.&amp;nbsp; Ongoing education of criminal justice practitioners is vital to continued progress.&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;An individualized approach:&lt;/strong&gt; Individualized sentencing and rehabilitation must be a priority for hardcore drunk drivers.&amp;nbsp; A one size fits all approach does not work.&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;Better data:&lt;/strong&gt; We need a more accurate measure of the problem in order to focus on better solutions.&amp;nbsp; As safer cars and safer roads lead to fewer deaths, we should explore whether fatality statistics alone are still the best measurement to base policy decisions.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;While drunk driving deaths have fallen by an extraordinary 52% over the last 30 years, no doubt in part due to the hard work of those participating in this panel, it belies a very dangerous and consistent problem &amp;ndash; hardcore drunk drivers,&amp;rdquo; said Ralph Blackman, President and CEO of The Century Council.&amp;nbsp; &amp;ldquo;It is critically important to note that hardcore drunk drivers are extraordinarily cunning when it comes to avoiding traditional sanctions that deter the general public from drunk driving.&amp;nbsp; This is why The Century Council introduced our five recommendations for NTSB&amp;rsquo;s consideration to deal with this problem.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Century Council was proud to participate in the NTSB&amp;rsquo;s panel on eliminating impaired driving and understands the importance of remaining vigilant. It will continue to use its resources to find enhanced and more impactful ways to combat drunk driving in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;About The Century Council &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
	The Century Council, is a national not-for-profit leader in the fight to eliminate drunk driving and underage drinking and is funded by the following distillers: Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.; Beam, Inc.; Brown-Forman; Constellation Brands, Inc.; DIAGEO; Hood River Distillers, Inc.; and Pernod Ricard USA. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, The Century Council promotes responsible decision making regarding beverage alcohol and develops and implements innovative programs and public awareness campaigns which ignite action through strategic partnerships. Established in 1991, The Century Council&amp;rsquo;s initiatives are highlighted on its website at &lt;a href="../../"&gt;www.centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;section class="field field-name-field-release-contact field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Contact:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt; Darron Moffatt, The Century Council&lt;br&gt;(202)637-0077 or &lt;a href="mailto:MoffattD@centurycouncil.org"&gt;MoffattD@centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/section&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 18:18:46 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>tyler brown</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4351 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
  </item>
  <item>
    <title>NTSB's 'Reaching Zero' summit on impaired driving</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/blog/2012/ntsbs-reaching-zero-summit-impaired-driving</link>
    <description>&lt;section class="field field-name-field-blog-taxonomy field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"&gt;
      &lt;h2 class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h2&gt;
    &lt;ul class="field-items"&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item even"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/drunk-driving" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Drunk Driving&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item odd"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/hardcore-drunk-driving" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Hardcore Drunk Driving&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item even"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/public-policy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Public Policy&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/section&gt;
&lt;div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/judge_hammer_0.jpg"&gt;&lt;img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/judge_hammer_0.jpg" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Century Council&amp;rsquo;s President and CEO &lt;a href="http://www.centurycouncil.org/ralph-blackman"&gt;Ralph Blackman&lt;/a&gt; spoke at the National Transportation Safety Board&amp;rsquo;s (NTSB) Reaching Zero summit today. Reaching Zero represents a renewed focus on the deadly problem of impaired driving from the NTSB. Even as impaired driving deaths reach all-time lows, it remains a widespread problem.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our contribution to the Reaching Zero summit focused on hardcore drunk drivers. &amp;nbsp;Hardcore drunk drivers are those with BAC of .15% and above, or those arrested multiple times for drunk driving.&amp;nbsp; High BAC and repeat DWI offenders are involved in the majority of fatal alcohol-impaired driving crashes each year, a trend that has remained relatively unchanged for more than a decade.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We&amp;rsquo;ve put forth a five-pronged approach that we think will result in dramatically fewer deaths nationwide due to &lt;a href="http://www.centurycouncil.org/drunk-driving/national-hardcore-drunk-driver-project"&gt;hardcore drunk drivers&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;Behavioral change: &lt;/strong&gt;Combine technology with efforts to change behavior. Assess DWI offenders&amp;rsquo; problems in order to rehabilitate them while protecting the public.&amp;nbsp; DWI courts and staggered sentencing have been incredibly effective in this regard.&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.centurycouncil.org/drunk-driving/hardcore-drunk-driving-judicial-education-project"&gt;Supervise offenders&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/strong&gt; Hardcore drunk drivers are good at manipulating the system and do not follow through with court orders.&amp;nbsp; Effective supervision and the resources to carry it out are of critical importance.&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;Education:&lt;/strong&gt; DWI cases are among the most complex cases to resolve.&amp;nbsp; Ongoing education of criminal justice practitioners is vital to continued progress.&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;An individualized approach:&lt;/strong&gt; Individualized sentencing and rehabilitation must be a priority for hardcore drunk drivers.&amp;nbsp; A one size fits all approach does not work.&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;strong&gt;Better data:&lt;/strong&gt; We need a more accurate measure of the problem in order to focus on better solutions.&amp;nbsp; As safer cars and safer roads lead to fewer deaths, we should explore whether fatality statistics alone are still the best measurement to base policy decisions.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We were honored to be included in the NTSB&amp;rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Reaching Zero&lt;/em&gt; summit, and remain committed to working with them and others in finding a solution to impaired driving.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Wed, 16 May 2012 13:38:34 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>tyler brown</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4356 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
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    <title>Do as I say, not as I do</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/blog/2012/do-i-say-not-i-do</link>
    <description>&lt;section class="field field-name-field-blog-taxonomy field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above clearfix"&gt;
      &lt;h2 class="field-label"&gt;Tags:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/h2&gt;
    &lt;ul class="field-items"&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item even"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/kids" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Kids&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item odd"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/teen-driver-safety" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Teen Driver Safety&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
          &lt;li class="field-item even"&gt;
        &lt;a href="/blog-categories/teens" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"&gt;Teens&lt;/a&gt;      &lt;/li&gt;
      &lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/section&gt;
&lt;div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/IKE_facebook_logo_0.jpg"&gt;&lt;img typeof="foaf:Image" src="http://www.centurycouncil.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/field/image/IKE_facebook_logo_0.jpg" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/teen-drivers-are-texting-just-like-their-parents/2012/05/13/gIQA8raQNU_story.html?tid=pm_local_pop"&gt;Teens and parents have similar perceptions on what is distracting and/or unsafe driving behavior.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Research conducted for The Century Council by APCO Insights in May 2010 revealed a similar &amp;ldquo;do as I say, not as I do&amp;rdquo; response from a national sample of parents and their teen drivers. Parents and teens both identified the use of handheld devices while driving as the most distracting and dangerous behavior, and they agreed again that the crashes and injury/death are their biggest worries when it comes to unsafe driving and new drivers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That is why The Century Council in conjunction with the Virginia Supreme Court Judges launched the new &lt;a href="http://iknoweverything.centurycouncil.org"&gt;I Know Everything&lt;/a&gt; program designed to effectively capture the attention of today&amp;rsquo;s teen drivers and parents to promote safe driving and keep parents talking to their teen driver about current facts on teen driver safety, as well as &lt;a href="http://iknoweverything.centurycouncil.org/parents"&gt;information for parents&lt;/a&gt; and teens so the message they deliver and their actions behind the wheel is better than &amp;ldquo;do as I say not as I do.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 17:52:27 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>tyler brown</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4350 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
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    <title>Olympic Gold Medalist Steven Lopez Brings 'Ask, Listen, Learn' to Spring Branch Middle School</title>
    <link>http://www.centurycouncil.org/news/press-release/2012/olympic-gold-medalist-steven-lopez-brings-ask-listen-learn-spring-branch</link>
    <description>&lt;div class="field field-name-field-release-date field-type-date field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt;&lt;span class="date-display-single" property="dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-05-11T00:00:00-04:00"&gt;&lt;div class="m"&gt;May&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;11&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;2012&lt;/div&gt; &lt;div class="m"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="d"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="y"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;HOUSTON, TX&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;mdash;The most decorated athlete in Taekwondo, Steven Lopez, joined &lt;a href="../../"&gt;The Century Council&lt;/a&gt; to bring &lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn: Kids and Alcohol Don&amp;rsquo;t Mix&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt; to students at Spring Branch Middle School today.&amp;nbsp; The Century Council created an interactive, physical fitness activity that builds on the existing &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;program and encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp; The initiative is based on research by Harvard Medical School&amp;rsquo;s Dr. John Ratey, showing that for a person&amp;rsquo;s brain to function at its peak; the body needs to move.&amp;nbsp; The interactive activity, as well as a supporting website, encourages kids to live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp; The website also provides parents with information and strategies to help jumpstart the conversation about the dangers of &lt;a href="../../stop-underage-drinking"&gt;underage drinking&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Shannon Adams of The Century Council said, &amp;ldquo;According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, nearly 16% of 12 to 14 year olds report they have consumed alcohol in the past month.&amp;nbsp; Our &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program has the potential to further reduce these numbers, as half (49%) of 12-14 year olds believe alcohol education has made a difference in the decision they have made regarding alcohol.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The decisions made as a young teen heavily influenced where you&amp;rsquo;ll end up in the future.&amp;nbsp; Many of the decisions I&amp;rsquo;ve made out of the ring have contributed the most to my success,&amp;rdquo; said Steven Lopez, the most decorated athlete in Taekwondo.&amp;nbsp; &amp;ldquo;I know that healthy habits and positive choices start during childhood and that is why I&amp;rsquo;m proud to work with The Century Council to spread healthy messages, including saying no to underage drinking, to kids across the country.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We are thrilled The Century Council was able to bring their &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; program to Spring Branch Middle School.&amp;nbsp; Talking about the dangers of underage drinking with our youth is incredibly important and I have a feeling after today&amp;rsquo;s event our students will be asking to play the interactive activity a lot.&amp;nbsp; I believe the more enthusiasm we can build around this important issue &amp;ndash; saying &amp;lsquo;no&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking &amp;ndash; the smarter choices our students will make,&amp;rdquo; said Principal Bryan Williams.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Developed over six years ago, &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; has already reached millions of parents, kids, and teachers around the country.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&amp;rsquo;s &lt;/em&gt;new initiatives include:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;u&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.asklistenlearn.com/"&gt;Asklistenlearn.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/u&gt; encourages kids to &amp;ldquo;say &amp;lsquo;YES&amp;rsquo; to a healthy lifestyle and &amp;lsquo;NO&amp;rsquo; to underage drinking&amp;rdquo; by offering kids interactive and educational games and videos.
		&lt;ul&gt;
			&lt;li&gt;
				Any kid can become a member of the &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team by taking a pledge to make healthy choices.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
		&lt;/ul&gt;
	&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn &lt;/em&gt;utilizes role models such as Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno and professional track stars Tyson Gay and Bryan Clay, and swimmers Rebecca Soni, and Mallory Weggemann as &amp;ldquo;SuperStars.&amp;rdquo; &lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; Team members will be encouraged to read Questions and Answers from &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; to learn how elite athletes dealt with peer pressure as they were growing up.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;SuperStars&lt;/em&gt; will encourage kids to make responsible decisions and live a healthy lifestyle.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
	&lt;li&gt;
		&lt;em&gt;Ask, Listen, Learn&lt;/em&gt; will have a supplement in Scholastic where teachers may find information about the program and how to incorporate it into their lesson plans, kids can tear out posters, and can play educational games to learn about living a healthy lifestyle and saying no to underage drinking.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;
	The Century Council&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Century Council, which has been at the front of the fight against drunk driving and underage drinking since its inception 20 years ago, is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to fighting drunk driving and underage drinking and is funded by the following distillers: Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.; Beam Global Spirits &amp;amp; Wine, Inc.; Brown-Forman; Constellation Brands, Inc.; DIAGEO; Hood River Distillers, Inc.; Pernod Ricard USA; and Sidney Frank Importing Co., Inc. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, The Century Council is a leader in the fight to eliminate drunk driving and underage drinking and promotes responsible decision making regarding beverage alcohol. &amp;nbsp;The Century Council develops and implements innovative programs and public awareness campaigns and promotes action through strategic partnerships. Established in 1991, The Century Council&amp;rsquo;s initiatives are highlighted on its website at &lt;a href="../../"&gt;www.centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;section class="field field-name-field-release-contact field-type-text field-label-inline clearfix"&gt;&lt;div class="field-label"&gt;Contact:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="field-item even"&gt; Darron Moffatt, The Century Council&lt;br&gt;(202)637-0077 or &lt;a href="mailto:MoffattD@centurycouncil.org"&gt;MoffattD@centurycouncil.org&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/section&gt;</description>
     <pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 20:03:11 +0000</pubDate>
 <dc:creator>tyler brown</dc:creator>
 <guid isPermaLink="false">4337 at http://www.centurycouncil.org</guid>
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