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President Obama has nominated Bryan Samuels, Chief of Staff for Chicago Public Schools and former director of the Illinois Dept. of Children and Family Services, to serve as HHS's Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families. [White House press release] [Youth Today, reg. req.]

A new study of 20,000 youth published in the July issue of Pediatrics show that 15 percent feel that they will die young, leading many to unsafe behaviors including drug use and suicide attempts. [Huffington Post] [Pediatrics, study PDF]

Virgin Mobile's FreeFest, a musical festival set for Aug. 30 in Columbia, Md., has set aside 3,000 tickets for those willing to volunteer their time for homeless youth and will ask all concert goers to donate $5 to homeless youth. [USA Today]

Associated Press profiles MetEast High School in Camden, NJ. The school has no dropouts and each student has been accepted into at least one college. [AP]

State officials in Florida anticipate that a change to the state's zero tolerance policy in schools will divert children from the state's juvenile justice system. [Cape Coral Daily Breeze]

Martha Stone, director of the Center for Children's Advocacy, blasts Conn. Gov. Jodi Rell's proposed cuts to the state's youth service system. [Hartford Courant]

First Place for Youth, California's largest program for foster care youth who aging out of the system, is profiled. [San Francisco Chronicle]

Briarpatch, an agency in Madison, Wis. that serves runaways and other youth in crisis, has served their 10,000th client. [WISC]

Nearly 30,000 teens in foster care "age out," or leave without being adopted or reunited with relatives, of the system each year. USA Today profiles savings plans that are helping these youth with financial education and providing a foundation for life on their own. [USA Today]

Safe Place set to begin in Springfield, Mo. this August. Congrats to The Kitchen, Inc. on bringing the local transit system and all QuikTrip convenience stores as Safe Place sites. [Springfield News-Leader]

Youth homelessness is on the rise in the greater Cincinnati area. Brighton Center, the Safe Place agency in Northern Ky., discusses their 35 increase in homeless youth contacts. [WLWT]

Samuel Henry, chairman of the Oregon Commission on Children and Families, touts the state's prevention efforts and their impact in saving taxpayer dollars while helping youth and families. [The Oregonian]

Connecticut: Early intervention into the lives of troubled youth has lead to a 30 percent decrease in the number of juvenile justice cases. [Greenwich Time]

The state of Maine passed a bill this week marking its commitment to serving runaway and homeless youth. [WABI]

Change.org and Minnesota Public Radio tells Valenica's story of homelessness since 10th grade. [Change.org]