Pa. broadens eligibility for food stamps, By Alfred Lubrano, July 31, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Javina Brown, who makes $9.75 an hour working for Boston Market, applied for food stamps in June but was denied. Her salary was $4 a month too high. As of this week, however, Brown and others like her will be eligible for food stamps. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Pennsylvania has raised the income limit for the program…”

States slash health care programs in budget crisis, By Susan Haigh (AP), July 29, 2009, The State: “Aurice Barlow knows what happens when someone can’t afford dental care. ‘I see people walking the streets with toothaches, teeth hanging out of their mouths,’ said the former nurse’s aide. At least 30 percent of the people in this city of 124,500 are impoverished. ‘Nobody cares,’ she says. Barlow is worried she’ll now become one of them. Washington is pouring $87 billion in federal stimulus money into the states to help maintain state-run Medicaid health care for the needy - and to handle the expected surge in enrollment. But Connecticut and other cash-strapped states say they still must slash spending on health care to cover massive budget deficits. At least 21 states have already restricted low-income children’s and families’ eligibility for health insurance or their access to services; at least 22 states and the District of Columbia are cutting services for low-income elderly or disabled patients…”

Report highlights hunger in India, July 31, 2009, BBC News: “India is emerging as the world centre of hunger and malnutrition, a report by Indian campaign group, the Navdanya Trust, says. The trust says that there are more than 200 million people - or one-in-four Indians - going without enough to eat. The prominent environmentalist Vandana Shiva, who runs the trust, said there were now more hungry people in India than in sub-Saharan Africa…”

R.I. to offer its first public pre-K program, By Jennifer D. Jordan, July 27, 2009, Providence Journal: “For the first time, the state Department of Education is venturing into early childhood education by launching a small, high-quality pre-kindergarten program designed to level the playing field for low-income children who now start school at a significant disadvantage compared with middle- and upper-income students. Until now, Rhode Island has failed to support the notion of public early childhood education. It is one of just 12 states that does not offer public pre-K…”

Public housing moving out, By Dionne Walker (AP), July 29, 2009, Washington Times: “The nation’s bulldozer attack on crime and poverty soon will make Atlanta - home of the first public housing development - the first major city to eliminate all of its large housing projects. Cities from Boston to Los Angeles are following its lead. For more than 15 years, housing officials across the country have been razing the projects where about 1.2 million families live and replacing them with a mix of higher-rent and subsidized apartments and homes…”

• Cuts in safety net for children go far too deep, Editorial, July 29, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “Tuesday marked a new low for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his role as a guardian of the health of California’s children. With a stroke of his blue pencil, the governor axed an additional $50 million from the state’s Healthy Families program, which provides health insurance to California’s neediest children. That’s on top of the devastating $144 million in cuts to Healthy Families in the budget deal Schwarzenegger had negotiated with the Legislature last week…”
• Safety net takes hit in this budget, Editorial, July 29, 2009, Sacramento Bee: “Spending on health and welfare programs for the poor is the state government’s second most expensive item, after the public schools. Last year, California taxpayers spent about $29 billion on these services for their less fortunate neighbors. But in the current economic climate, even these essential programs are going under the knife…”

One in 20 Italians lives in absolute poverty, By Daniel Flynn, July 30, 2009, New York Times: “One in seven Italians scrapes by on less than 1,000 euros (£853) a month and roughly one in 20 lives in absolute poverty, unable to maintain a minimum standard of living, the national statistics agency said Thursday…”

• Benefits system has failed poor pensioners, say MPs, By Phillip Inman, July 30, 2009, The Guardian: “Means-tested benefits have failed to lift more than two million pensioners out of poverty, according to a group of MPs who are calling on the government to make a bigger effort to increase the incomes of poor people in retirement. A further one million pensioners live on less than 50% of average incomes, the report found, highlighting the increasing divide between those over-65s without private savings and workers in generous final salary pensions who can enjoy incomes equal to 80% to 90% of their pre-retirement salary when state benefits are included…”
• Pensioner poverty ‘unacceptable’, July 29, 2009, BBC News: “It is “unacceptable” that two million pensioners in the UK are still living in poverty, a group of MPs says. The Work and Pensions Committee says the figure is a third lower than it was in 1997, but wants ministers to commit to ending pensioner poverty altogether. It is also calling for the benefits system to be simplified for older people and the compulsory retirement age of 65 to be scrapped…”

• Homeless families could face eviction over rules, By Julie Bosman, July 27, 2009, New York Times: “Homeless families can be kicked out of city shelters for repeatedly breaking rules like staying out past curfew or for refusing apartments offered to them, according to a tougher policy that takes effect Tuesday. The new policy gives the city greater latitude to push families out of the shelter system, which had swelled to a near-high of 9,720 families as of Sunday.  Families could always be evicted for illegal behavior like bringing in drugs or weapons, but they can now be ousted for any of 28 violations, including failing to sign in and out or not keeping an active case file with city welfare agencies…”
• City aids homeless with one-way tickets home, By Julie Bosman, July 28, 2009, New York Times: “They are flown to Paris ($6,332), Orlando ($858.40), Johannesburg ($2,550.70), or most frequently, San Juan ($484.20). They are not executives on business trips or couples on honeymoons. Rather, all are families who have ended up homeless, and all the plane tickets are courtesy of the city of New York (one-way).  The Bloomberg administration, which has struggled with a seemingly intractable problem of homelessness for years, has paid for more than 550 families to leave the city since 2007, as a way of keeping them out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family. All it takes is for a relative elsewhere to agree to take the family in…”

• Kids report shows data issues, By David Crary (AP), July 29, 2009, Knoxville New Sentinel: “Serious shortcomings in national data, including an outdated federal measure of household poverty, are undermining the task of identifying and assisting America’s most vulnerable children, according to a report issued Tuesday. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, in its annual Kids Count report on children’s health and well-being, says national efforts to track and analyze such trends ‘fall far short of what is possible, what is needed, and what is demanded’…”
• Granite State still first in children’s well-being, By Adam D. Krauss, July 29, 2009, Foster’s Daily Democrat: “The rankings are in, and once again the Granite State was deemed to be the best state for the well-being of children. But advocates aren’t resting on their state’s laurels…”
• Children faring worse in state, By Mike Averill, July 29, 2009, Tulsa World: “Oklahoma dropped to 44th nationally in child well-being, according to a national report that ranks states on 10 health indicators. The state ranked 43rd last year, 42nd in 2007 and 38th in 2003, according to the 2009 Kids Count Data Book, released annually by the Annie E. Casey Foundation…”
• Child poverty on the rise, By Martha Stoddard, July 29, 2009, Omaha World-Herald: “Iowa children are better off than those in Nebraska, according to a new national report. But the 2009 Kids Count Data Book shows growing numbers of children in both states living in poverty. The increases occurred even before the current recession hit last year…”
• More kids in state living in poverty, By Angela Mapes Turner, July 29, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “The ranks of Hoosier children living in poverty or with unemployed parents are growing, according to a state-by-state study on the well-being of America’s youth…”
• 24% of Alabama kids living in poverty, By Lydia Seabol Avant, July 29, 2009, Tuscaloosa News: “Almost a quarter of Alabama’s children live in poverty, according to a national Kids Count study released Tuesday. Alabama ranks 48th in the nation in the annual state-by-state analysis that examines the well-being of children. The study looks at 10 measures, including teen birth rate, child death rate, high school dropouts and the poverty rate…”
• Study: La. 49th in child welfare, By Sarah Chacko, July 29, 2009, Baton Rouge Advocate: “Despite improvements in key areas, including a decline in births to teenage mothers and high school dropouts, Louisiana again ranked second to last in a national study on child well-being released Tuesday. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2009 Kids Count data book ranks Louisiana 49th out of 50 states - a place Louisiana has held for at least the past decade…”
• State is 47th in well-being of its children, By Nancy Cole, July 29, 2009, Arkansas Democrat Gazette: “Arkansas lags behind all but three states, ranking 47th in children’s health, education and economic well-being, according to a report released Tuesday by a national child-advocacy group…”

Study finds lower earners use credit as safety net, Associated Press, July 28, 2009, New York Times: “Even before the recession hit full force, people who earn low and middle incomes were tapping credit cards to cover basic living expenses, medical costs and other necessities — and driving up their balances in the process.  The average credit card debt for low- and middle-income households rose 3 percent to $9,827 from $9,536 three years earlier, according to a study released Tuesday by the New York-based nonprofit research and advocacy group Demos. About 42 percent of those surveyed in August said they had more debt than three years earlier, while 10 percent said they had the same amount. Less than half reported having less debt than three years earlier, when the group did its prior survey.   Credit cards were used to cover basic living expenses like rent or mortgage payments, groceries and utilities by more than one-third of the households in the survey. And three out of four people who took part said they used their cards for essential spending like car repairs, home repairs and college expenses…”

More retailers say yes to food stamps, By Jayne O’Donnell and Rachel Huggins, July 28, 2009, USA Today: “More retailers are accepting food stamps, as a record number of consumers are turning to government aid to pay for groceries. Nearly 39 million people received food stamps - now known as Electronic Benefit Transfers - in April 2009, up about 20% over April 2008. Retailers ranging from some Costco (COST) stores - yes, quarts of capers do qualify - to 7-Eleven to Target (TGT) are moving quickly to cater to cash-strapped customers…”

• Governor signs budget, vetoes $650 million in spending, By Thadeus Greenson, July 29, 2009, Contra Costa Times: “With a stroke of his pen Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made official what is perhaps the largest reduction in state services California has ever seen. But before signing his name to the state’s revised $85 billion budget, Schwarzenegger used his budget knife to deepen some of the cuts lawmakers approved last week, using his veto power to carve out another $656 million in spending reductions. Schwarzenegger’s vetoes — added to the more than $15 billion in cuts lawmakers approved Friday — drew sharp condemnation from some…”
• Schwarzenegger’s vetoes prompt Democratic threats, By Judy Lin (AP), July 29, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a revised $85 billion budget and targeted welfare programs for deeper cuts, prompting opposition Democrats to threaten to block his political agenda during his final months in office…”
• County: Governor’s vetoes may hurt kids, elderly, poor, By Tony Burchyns, July 29, 2009, Vallejo Times-Herald: “Solano County officials scrambled Tuesday to analyze the latest round of cuts to California’s budget after the governor used his line-item veto power to save an additional $656 million. One top county official forecast longer waits for services, as well as an increase in the number of abused kids falling through the cracks of the so-called safety net designed to protect society’s most disadvantaged people…”

Florida shifts child-welfare system’s focus to saving families, By Erik Eckholm, July 24, 2009, New York Times: “After her daughter and a daughter-in-law were each jailed on drug charges last fall, Sylvia Kimble, 46, poor and with a deeply troubled history of her own, struggled to care for six grandchildren.  Only a few years ago, officials here say, the safest path would have been to split up the children in foster care. Yet here they are, rambunctious children wrestling in her living room, Ms. Kimble encouraging her daughter’s out-patient drug rehabilitation while also arranging for summer camp and a family trip to a water park…”

• U.S. children likely worse off due to recession, By Carol Morello, July 28, 2009, Washington Post: “The well-being of American children changed only modestly during the boom years of this decade and undoubtedly has worsened since the onset of the recession, according to a report issued this morning.  The Kids Count assessment by the Annie E. Casey Foundation examines 10 key indicators culled from the U.S. Census and other government statistics. The figures showed slight improvements in six areas since 2000, including infant mortality, high school dropout rates and the percentage of idle teens neither attending school nor working. But the report noted that teenage pregnancies, although still lower than in 2000, are again on the rise in all but nine states and the District…”
• Infant mortality rate significantly higher in Md., report claims, By Brent Jones, July 28, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “Maryland’s infant mortality rate has significantly increased, continuing an erratic trend since 2000 that has seen the state drop to 11th worst in the nation, according to the 2009 Kids Count Databook, an annual report released Tuesday by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation…”
• Children’s lot in R.I. improves in 2008, By Colin Chazen, July 28, 2009, Providence Business News: “Rhode Island ranked 15th in the nation in overall children’s well-being in a nationwide report released by Kids Count today. The state moved up six places in the rankings from last year, led by improvements in the teen death rate and percentage of teens who are high school dropouts. Massachusetts was ranked fifth and Connecticut fourth, with the lowest scores concentrated in the South and the Southwest…”

• Holes in the safety net: Medicaid falls short just as some need it most, By Tom Curry and JoNel Aleccia, July 27, 2009, MSNBC.com: “Doctors at the Maple City Health Care Center, a neighborhood clinic where the toddler’s family receives most care, couldn’t diagnose the problem. The child needed to see a specialist, but no local dermatologist would agree to accept Medicaid, the government’s safety net plan. Instead, Antonia Mejorado, 33, has to drive nearly two hours to see a dermatologist willing to treat her daughter’s potentially serious illness…”
• Colorado Medicaid list swells to record, By Tim Hoover, July 28, 2009, Denver Post: “Colorado had a 14 percent spike in Medicaid enrollment in the budget year that ended in June, a record-setting rate that capped a year with the largest-ever number of people in the health insurance program. As of June 30, there were 467,556 Coloradans on Medicaid. That’s 79,488, or 20.5 percent, more than in the same month a year before. The June figure represented the highest total in the 40 years Colorado has been participating in the state and federally funded program, which covers low-income pregnant women, children, the elderly and the disabled. Nearly 10 percent of the state’s residents are now enrolled in Medicaid…”

• State’s jobless confront hurdles, By Peggy Fikac, July 26, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “For Jerry, the chance of unemployment benefits is the chance to breathe a little easier for a few weeks. He’d been used to a good salary as an IT consultant, but he’s been out of work for a year. He and his wife sold a car and cut back, but he still puts more on his credit card than he’d like. At 62, he is looking at jobs in neighboring states. Closer to his Panhandle home, he’s competing with high school kids for work…”
• California’s slow handling of appeals from workers denied unemployment benefits gets worse, By Marc Lifsher, July 28, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “California is so slow in handling appeals from workers denied unemployment benefits that it may take years to catch up, state officials say. And the backlog is getting worse. With unemployment now at 11.6% in California and rising, there is a record backlog of more than 82,500 Californians who have appeals pending on their eligibility for checks of as much as $475 a week. At the same time, the state is about to furlough for three days a month the judges and support staff who handle the appeals…”

• D.C. weighs welfare cut as budget gap looms, By Henri E. Cauvin, July 26, 2009, Washington Post: “The Fenty administration wants to save several million dollars by cutting back on welfare benefits for people who are not working or using the city’s help to find a job.  The monthly benefit, which for a family of three is $428, would be cut in half for any recipient deemed employable who does not meet the work requirement for six months. If the recipient were to go another six months without complying, the District would be prepared to cut off benefits altogether, the city’s human services director told advocates for the poor last week…”
• State budget cuts leave safety net strained, By Ray Long, July 26, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Illinois might have a working budget in place, but there is a broader story behind the numbers: Real people are hurting.  If they have not lost care, they worry the thin reed of stability provided by non-profit, community-based organizations will disappear without state support. Cuts at social service agencies are tearing holes into safety nets for the state’s most vulnerable residents…”
• Parenting programs take big hit from budget cuts, By Dean Olsen, July 18, 2009, State Journal Register: “Hoping to become a cosmetologist someday, Theresa Mercado says she has drawn inspiration from fellow single mothers in a support group that met weekly at the Family Service Center of Sangamon County…”

Neighborhoods key to future income, study finds, By Alec MacGillis, July 27, 2009, Washington Post: “Researchers have found that being raised in poor neighborhoods plays a major role in explaining why African American children from middle-income families are far more likely than white children to slip down the income ladder as adults.  The Pew Charitable Trusts Economic Mobility Project caused a stir two years ago by reporting that nearly half of African American children born to middle-class parents in the 1950s and ’60s had fallen to a lower economic status as adults, a rate of downward mobility far higher than that for whites.  This week, Pew will release findings of a study that helps explain that economic fragility, pointing to the fact that middle-class blacks are far more likely than whites to live in high-poverty neighborhoods, which has a negative effect on even the better-off children raised there. The impact of neighborhoods is greater than other factors in children’s backgrounds, Pew concludes…”

• Reach of subsidies is critical issue for health plan, By Robert Pear, July 26, 2009, New York Times: “The major health care bills moving through Congress would require nearly all Americans to have health insurance. But as lawmakers struggle to achieve the goal of universal coverage, a critical question is whether the plans will be affordable to those who are currently uninsured…”
• Small business owners wary of health reform, By Guy Boulton, July 26, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Dianne Wonder, owner of Alpha-Omega Cleaning in New Berlin, has followed the debate over health care reform closely through a variety of media outlets and e-mails from her representatives in Congress. ‘I find it very difficult to know what to believe because there is so much conflicting information,’ Wonder said.  But she knows this: A payroll tax on employers who don’t provide health benefits would increase her business’ costs…”
• Hawaii law mandates health coverage, By Mark Niesse (AP), July 27, 2009, Charlotte Observer: “Hawaii’s 35-year-old mandate for companies to provide insurance to workers has brought something less than universal health care to the 50th state. President Obama’s home state poses some cautionary realities to any sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system as Congress considers a similar federal requirement that businesses provide health insurance to employees.  Since the law passed 35 years ago, the percentage of uninsured in Hawaii has fallen to lower levels than nearly every other state, but there are coverage gaps.  And cost-conscious business owners avoid the law by hiring more part-time workers, who aren’t required to be covered…”

• Opinions split on how hike in wage affects the economy, By Diane Stafford and Tony Pugh, July 26, 2009, Buffalo News: “The federal minimum wage rose from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour on Friday, bringing with it controversy about whether the increase is good or bad for the economy.  The raise, which affects about 4 million workers nationally, is the third and final increase mandated by Congress in 2007…”
• Raising the bar: Minimum wage hike benefits seniors returning to work, By Vernon Tarver, July 26, 2009, Northwest Arkansas Times: “For minimum wage workers, Friday was a good day indeed. Federal minimum wages increased to $7.25 for employees covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, meaning workers receiving minimum pay in Arkansas can look forward to a 70-cent increase in hourly wages…”
• Minimum wage for tipped workers unchanged since 91, By Tony Pugh, July 24, 2009, Miami Herald: “Friday’s increase in the federal minimum wage left Leanne Foti feeling a little hollow. A single mother of two, Foti works as a waitress at the Bridgewater Diner in Bridgewater, N.J.  So her base pay of $2.13 per hour didn’t budge Friday when the federal minimum wage went from $6.55 to $7.25 an hour.  Foti, 34, is one of roughly 146,000 Americans - many of them restaurant, hotel, car wash and nail salon employees - who are paid mainly through customer tips and therefore earn a lower federal minimum wage, $2.13 an hour…”
• Not everyone sees increase in paychecks, By Rhiannon Meyers, July 26, 2009, Galveston County Daily News: “After 30 years of waiting tables, Paula Baker earns just $1.03 more an hour than she did when she started working in the early 1960s. So although millions of minimum-wage earners received a raise Friday, the League City waitress, who’s been struggling for years to make ends meet, did not…”

Once a dream, U.S. life is hard reality for Iraqis, By Kristin Collins, July 26, 2009, Charlotte Observer: “It was the hope of America that sustained them through Iraq’s long years of war. First, they believed the United States’ promises that their country would be free after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Then, as the fighting continued, they were thankful for the good-paying jobs the U.S. military provided. And finally, their lives in peril, they traded their homeland for a new start in North Carolina.  About 200 Iraqis have moved to this state since 2007, officials say. They are part of a wave of more than 20,000 who have come to the U.S. after being targeted by terrorists in Iraq or working for the U.S. government there. But as they arrive in the midst of a recession, their expansive hopes are being replaced by a struggle with poverty and social isolation…”

• Groceries more costly for Valley’s poor, By Barbara Anderson and Bethany Clough, July 25, 2009, Fresno Bee: “For thousands of people in the central San Joaquin Valley, a tomato costs at least a dollar. So does a single roll of toilet paper. That’s the price of being poor.  It’s a well-known but unsolved paradox: Poor people often spend more than their middle-class neighbors for groceries…”
• Programs ensure needy have access to fresh foods, By Ingrid Stegemoeller, July 27, 2009, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Amid the crowds shopping for produce at the Richland Farmers’ Market, Carolyn Merrell and her mother-in-law Linda Herrera carefully selected corn, tomatoes, onions, cherries and blueberries from the colorful bounty.  But rather than handing over cash for their purchases, the West Richland women paid with Women, Infants and Children (WIC) vouchers from the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program…”

• To create jobs, Tennessee looks to New Deal model, By Michael Cooper, July 27, 2009, New York Times: “Critics elsewhere may be questioning how many jobs the stimulus program has created, but here in central Tennessee, hundreds of workers are again drawing paychecks after many months out of work, thanks to a novel use of federal stimulus money by Tennessee officials to help one of the state’s hardest-hit areas…”
• Stimulus creates 12,000 teen jobs, By Clay Carey, July 27, 2009, The Tennessean: “As she searched for what would be her first summer job, Jasmine Frazier hit dead end after dead end.  Clothing stores and boutiques near her family’s home in Wilson County weren’t hiring. In a tight economy, she was competing with older, more experienced workers for low-paying jobs teens typically land…”

Tracking the recession: Lawmakers dreading end of stimulus dollars, By Stephen C. Fehr, July 27, 2009, Stateline.org: “Whether they welcomed or snubbed the federal economic stimulus package, state lawmakers took advantage of the bailout dollars this year to help patch their state’s shaky finances.  Now, as they start thinking ahead to next year’s budget and the 2010 elections, lawmakers are increasingly apprehensive about what will happen when the stimulus money dries up. They predict even deeper cuts in services, higher taxes and raids on rainy day funds to balance budgets…”

• Minimum wages to rise in 31 states, By Tony Romm, July 24, 2009, Stateline.org: “Minimum-wage earners in 31 states and the District of Columbia can soon expect slightly bigger paychecks thanks to the third and final installment of a federal rate hike that raises the wage floor from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 an hour effective Friday (July 24).  The latest federal bump will enlarge roughly 4.5 million workers’ paychecks by about four cents an hour in some states to almost $1 an hour in others, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, D.C. that supported the increase…”
• Some attack timing of minimum wage hike, By V. Dion Haynes and Emma L. Carew, July 24, 2009, Washington Post: “The federal minimum wage will rise to $7.25 from $6.55 an hour Friday, an increase aimed at giving workers at carwashes, restaurants, child-care centers and retail shops more buying power but one that has sparked criticism from some small-business owners, who say it could threaten their ability to survive in a weak economy…”
• Minimum-wage boost has mixed benefits, By Jonathan B. Cox, July 23, 2009, Charlotte News and Observer: “At Bojangles’ restaurants operated by the company’s largest franchise, a chicken biscuit costs a little more these days. So does the sweet tea. Those higher prices are because the people behind the counter are getting paid a little more…”
• Minimum wage hike could threaten low earners’ jobs, By Dionne Walker (AP), July 23, 2009, Seattle Times: “A federal minimum wage increase that takes effect Friday could prolong the recession, some economists say, by forcing small businesses to lay off the same workers that the pay hike passed in better times was meant to help.  The increase to $7.25 means 70 cents more an hour for the lowest-paid workers in the 30 states that have lower minimums or no minimum wage. It also means higher costs for employers who feel they’ve already trimmed all their operating fat…”

• Massachusetts, home of nation’s most ambitious health care law, offers reform ‘dos and don’ts’, By Steve LeBlanc (AP), July 24, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Three years into its experiment with near-universal health care, Massachusetts has some ‘dos and don’ts’ for the nation as it grapples with the best way to cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans.  Do require that virtually everyone have health insurance, the overriding goal in Massachusetts. Don’t ignore rising costs, the single greatest threat to the law’s long-term affordability…”
• Texas Medicaid program likely to surge under health care proposals, By Dave Michaels, July 24, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “The effort to insure tens of millions of uncovered Americans will almost certainly involve a sweeping expansion of Medicaid – with Texas probably feeling the impact more than any other state.  State lawmakers have for years limited Medicaid’s reach to low-income adults, who under Texas rules don’t qualify for the joint state-federal program. One proposal by U.S. House lawmakers would provide federal funding to extend Medicaid to about 1 million Texas adults, according to the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities – a massive jump from the 38,000 who qualify today…”

• Jobless checks for millions delayed as states struggle, By Jason DeParle, July 23, 2009, New York Times: “Years of state and federal neglect have hobbled the nation’s unemployment system just as a brutal recession has doubled the number of jobless Americans seeking aid.  In a program that values timeliness above all else, decisions involving more than a million applicants have been slowed, and hundreds of thousands of needy people have waited months for checks…”
• Claims drop as jobless exhaust state benefits, By Kelly Evans, July 24, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “The number of workers on jobless rolls is declining in an encouraging sign for the U.S. economy, although the decrease partly reflects people exhausting their state benefits. The Labor Department said Thursday that about 6.2 million workers received weekly unemployment benefits, known as ‘continuing claims,’ from their state in the week ended July 11, down from a peak of nearly 6.5 million in late March. The number of new weekly claims also is down from its spring highs…”

Feeling the heat, By Damian Mann, July 24, 2009, Mail Tribune: “Tara Harper would rather find a good job to support her family, but for the time being food stamps are the lifeline sustaining her two children.  ‘It’s great they have food stamps, but it’s not something I want to rely on forever,’ said the 31-year-old Ashland resident. ‘I do want to go back to work.’ Harper said she’s not surprised that 58,000 people in Jackson and Josephine counties received foods stamps in June, equating to roughly one out of five residents…”

• Joy, skepticism greet IBM’s plan, By Angela Mapes Turner, July 24, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “State lawmakers and social service providers welcome Indiana’s extensive plan to correct its failing welfare system.  But they aren’t convinced it provides the right guidance for private welfare vendor IBM Corp. to resolve widespread problems…”
• IBM to add humanity to welfare, By Ken Kusmer (AP), July 24, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “IBM Corp.’s 362-page plan to fix problems with Indiana’s privately run welfare system calls for providing more face-to-face help and no longer “forcing clients to self-service channels” such as telephone call centers and online applications.  The plan, obtained by The Associated Press, also describes myriad mechanical and human errors such as an automatic call distributor that “inappropriately fails” about twice a month, losing all telephone calls in progress and infighting within IBM’s coalition of partners…”

• State’s high school graduation rate in ‘crisis’, By Gracie Bonds Staples and D. Aileen Dodd, July 23, 2009, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia’s dismal high school graduation rate has reached a ‘crisis’ level, according to a national report released Wednesday. The authors recommended immediate federal action. Entitled ‘Graduating America: Meeting the Challenge of Low Graduation-Rate High Schools,’ the report puts Georgia among 17 states with the lowest overall graduation rates in the country…”
• Report: State poised to lift graduation rates, By Kathleen Lavey, July 23, 2009, Lansing State Journal: “Michigan is one of 17 states in a ‘make or break’ position as the U.S. strives to improve high school graduation rates, according to a nationwide report released Wednesday.  But the report also says the state - along with Ohio and California - is in a good spot to boost graduation rates if local school districts take advantage of federal stimulus money and other resources as well as tailoring solutions to their individual needs…”

Report: Insecurity in Arab world hinders its progress, By Edith M. Lederer (AP), July 22, 2009, Seattle Times: “A new report by over 100 independent intellectuals and scholars from Arab countries blames political, economic, social and environmental problems for undermining the lives and freedom of Arabs - coupled with the region’s vulnerability to outside intervention.  According to the Arab Human Development Report 2009 released Tuesday, what’s missing in the Arab world is ‘human security - the kind of material and moral foundation that secures lives, livelihoods and an acceptable quality of life for the majority’…”

• To minimum-wage workers, this raise makes a difference, By Dana Hunsinger, July 23, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Will Farrington folds clothes, helps customers find just the right jeans and toils daily in the world of retail. For his work at Aeropostale, he makes $7 an hour. But Friday, his pay will jump when the federal minimum wage rises to $7.25 an hour from $6.55. For Farrington, that means $2 more a day for eight hours of work. But he says it’s nothing to scoff at…”
• Minimum wage goes up tomorrow, but pay is heading down in South Florida, By Harriet Johnson Brackey, July 23, 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Caroline Bartha’s last employer in Fort Lauderdale reduced staff, from about 80 a few years ago to eight. Next came the pay cut, followed by hours being pared back. Then workers were told they’d have to take two weeks off without pay. ‘Morale was dragging on the floor,’ she said. ‘Because of the pay cuts, I didn’t feel they were treating the employees the way they should.’ And in a final blow, Bartha’s company extended the unpaid leave to three weeks. A full paycheck is no longer a certainty for many South Florida workers…”

Colorado jobless won’t get extension pay till Aug., By Allison Sherry, July 22, 2009, Denver Post: “Out-of-work Coloradans eligible for a 20-week extension in unemployment benefits will have to wait until the end of August to get paid, even though a new law providing those benefits took effect July 1, state officials said Tuesday. By August, between 5,000 and 6,000 people will be due money, said Steve Fowler, director of unemployment insurance at the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment…”

More troops relying on food stamps, Bryan Mitchell, July 22, 2009, Military.com: “Military members and their families are using more food stamps than in previous years - redeeming them last year at nearly twice the civilian rate, according to Defense Commissary Agency figures. The agency reports that more than $31 million worth of food stamps were used at commissaries nationwide in 2008 - an increase of about $6.2 million, or more than 25 percent - from the $24.8 million redeemed in 2007. That contrasts with a 13 percent overall increase in food stamp use by Americans for the same period, according to the Department of Agriculture, which administers the food stamp program…”

• States’ budget pain eclipses last recession, By Stephen C. Fehr and Daniel C. Vock, July 21, 2009, Stateline.org: “The current recession — now 19 months long and still going — already has forced states to deal with greater budget shortfalls than they faced in the five years it took them to recover from the last national recession after the 2001 terrorist attacks.  New figures from the National Conference of State Legislatures show that states scrambling to balance their budgets already have closed at least $268.6 billion in gaps between projected spending and revenues since the recession started in December 2007…”
• Safety net for poor, disabled in tatters after plan’s cuts, health care advocates say, By Ken Carlson, July 22, 2009, Modesto Bee: “As details of the state budget deal emerged this week, some health care advocates said the agreement cuts too deeply into safety net programs for the poor and disabled. According to one estimate, a $144 million budget cut to Healthy Families, the low-cost health insurance for the working poor, would result in denying coverage to almost 780,000 children in California…”
• California budget cuts deep into healthcare, schools, By Daniel B. Wood, July 21, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “Deep cuts in government services including healthcare, prisons, and local government assistance are the likely results of the budget deal struck between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers after negotiations all day Monday. The California legislature will vote as early as Thursday on the deal to close the state’s $26.3 billion budget deficit…”

• Food stamps, now paperless, are getting easier to use at farmers’ markets, By Katie Zezima, July 19, 2009, New York Times: “Natasha Smilansky comes to the farmers’ market here each Thursday because she enjoys ripe tomatoes and cucumbers. Now there is the added benefit of using food stamps for her purchases. ‘It helps me a lot,’ said Ms. Smilansky, 53, who is on disability. ‘I like the freshness of the vegetables here. I spend all year waiting for the market.’  The use of food stamps at farmers’ markets has been authorized for some time. But the program has been limited because the federal government in 2004 replaced the traditional paper food stamp coupons with debit cards that were processed through electronic benefit transfer terminals…”
• Food stamp users get fresh food options, By Catherine Jun, July 21, 2009, Detroit News: “On her visits to the local farmers market over the past two years, Denise Hicks, who receives food stamps, could spare only a few dollars for vegetables and a cookie each for her two children.  That changed this summer.  Starting in June, the Northwest Detroit Farmers Market began accepting Electronic Benefit Transfer cards. On a recent visit, Hicks swiped her card and bought a modest bagful of farm fresh groceries: a seven-grain loaf of bread, reduced-fat hamburgers, salmon, baby cucumbers and organic tomatoes…”

• Budget to reshape the Golden State, By Mitchell Landsberg, July 22, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Students and the poor will notice the biggest changes from downscaling of the government.  Roads will be rougher, classrooms fuller and textbooks more tattered. The odds of encountering someone fresh out of prison will almost certainly be higher.  If the budget deal crafted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and top legislative leaders is passed by the Legislature and survives the inevitable court challenges, California will undergo perhaps the biggest downscaling of government in its history…”
• Cities vow to fight ‘reckless’ state budget proposal in court, By Denis C. Theriault and Ken McLaughlin, July 21, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “The deal to balance California’s budget by relying heavily on a plan to transfer $4.4 billion in local tax revenue to Sacramento had cities and counties across the state crying foul Tuesday.  As more details emerged about the tax take-away — twice as large as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had initially sought — leaders from already-struggling South Bay cities were left facing a new round of budget cuts far steeper than most had anticipated…”
• California budget deal to sting schools and poor, By Sally Connell, July 21, 2009, San Luis Obispo Tribune: “Cuesta College students may see the cost for each unit they take increase from $20 to $26.  Public school officials are expecting that $6 billion in cuts statewide will translate into local school districts being unable to hire back employees who received layoff notices.  And the county’s working poor on welfare will see money cut for child care and for buying equipment and clothing they could use at a new job…”

• Texas averts crisis over extended unemployment benefits, By Dave Montgomery, July 21, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “The Texas Workforce Commission took emergency action Tuesday to continue unemployment assistance to as many as 15,000 jobless Texans who were in danger of exhausting their benefits by the end of the month…”
• Unemployment insurance a two-sided political issue for Perry, By Jason Embry, July 21, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “Gov. Rick Perry’s opposition to federal stimulus dollars for unemployment benefits earlier this year boosted his standing among many Republicans. But other issues surrounding the state’s unemployment program could create political headaches for Perry in the next year and a half…”
• Texas leaders should reconsider the federal stimulus money, By Mitchell Schnurman, July 22, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “At what point does the real world trump politics and principle?  Texas is shaping up as a test case, because more than 23,000 workers are losing their jobs every week and $556 million in federal aid is sitting on the table, unclaimed.  Texas is one of only four states — the others are Alabama, Florida and Virginia — that rejected federal stimulus dollars connected with reforming unemployment insurance. Thirty-six states qualify for the federal money, including more than two dozen that adopted reforms this year, and the rest are still debating the issue…”

Poor rural children: The forgotten fifth, July 22, 2009, Daily Yonder: “Federal anti-poverty efforts began in rural America. But discussions of poverty in the U.S. now largely exclude rural communities — even though a fifth of all poor children are rural.  Nobody has studied child poverty in rural America more than Bill O’Hare. He has now written a new report, The Forgotten Fifth: Child Poverty in Rural America, for the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire…”

Medicaid and the states: Health-care reform’s next hurdle, By Karen Tumulty, July 21, 2009, Time Magazine: “Until the nation’s governors staged a public revolt last weekend, few people were paying attention to one of the most far-reaching proposals being considered as part of overhauling the health-care system: a dramatic expansion and redefinition of the Medicaid program. Redefining who is eligible for Medicaid would be one of the major means by which lawmakers hope to achieve universal health coverage — which is one of the reasons that governors, whose budgets are already straining under the program’s growing costs, are so wary of the idea…”

• Stimulus Watch: Neediest areas not first for money, By April Castro (AP), July 20, 2009, Washington Post: “Under the Obama administration’s economic stimulus plan, needy communities were supposed to be first in line for money to rebuild highways and jump start the economy. It hasn’t worked out that way.  The rules required that states give priority to counties considered “economically distressed.” Yet less than half the federal highway money announced so far is directed toward those high-unemployment, low-income areas, according to an Associated Press analysis of more than $16 billion in spending announced by the U.S. Transportation Department…”
• Pa. trails N.J., others in plans for stimulus spending, By Tom Infield, July 20 , 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Five months into the federal stimulus program, Pennsylvania is lagging behind its neighbor New Jersey and other states in preparing for a deluge of money to do energy-saving home improvements for low-income families.  The state has received about $25 million of $253 million it expects to get over three years for the massive expansion of its Weatherization Assistance Program, which dates to the ’70s…”

• UW-Madison profs help shape bold initiative for community colleges, By Todd Finkelmeyer, July 20, 2009, Capital Times: “A report released in May and co-authored by UW-Madison professors Sara Goldrick-Rab and Douglas Harris argued that community colleges are in need of significant government investment if the United States is to help more of its people get a formal education and better compete with others from around the globe for the best jobs…”
• Community colleges’ new clout, By Derrick Z. Jackson, July 18, 2009, Boston Globe: “For decades, American presidents lauded the working stiffs and immigrants who fill our community colleges, but then stiffed them during budget time. That ended this week when President Obama made one of his most welcome proposals of his first year, a $12 billion, 10-year plan to boost community colleges…”

• State plugs budget hole with Medicaid money, By Beth Musgrave, July 21, 2009, Lexington Herald-Leader: “The state was in the black for the fiscal year that ended June 30, but only because it received a loan from the Medicaid program, which had additional money from the federal stimulus program. Now state officials are trying to determine how much money state agencies will have to cut from this year’s budget, which began July 1…”
• CalWORKS: Is it costing too much?, By Steve Wiegand, July 19, 2009, Sacramento Bee: “It’s the kind of statistic that makes radio talk show hosts drool: California is home to about 12 percent of all Americans – and more than 30 percent of all Americans on welfare. Critics of the state’s welfare program, called CalWORKs, say it’s clear proof that the system is flabby and overly beneficent, particularly as compared to other states…”
• Governor, legislative leaders begin building support for their budget pact, By Evan Halper and Shane Goldmacher, July 21, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders will begin working today to line up votes for the budget agreement they reached Monday evening to close a $26.3-billion deficit and allow the state to begin paying all of its bills again…”
• Budget breakthrough solves California’s long fiscal nightmare, By Steven Harmon, July 20, 2009, Contra Costa Times: “A tense, months-long standoff over ever-shrinking resources gave way Monday to a deal to bridge California’s $26.3 billion deficit…”

Stimulus saves, but doesn’t raise, foster care payments, By Janell Ross, July 20, 2009, The Tennessean: “In a typical week, one of the four foster children in Loraine and Ron Copeland’s care might need a new pair of shoes, medicine for an unexpected cough or cold and, of course, diapers. Over the last nine years, the Copelands have provided that and more to 50 children, including a 3-week-old in need of multiple open-heart surgeries. Without families like the Copelands, those children might have had to live in orphanages…”

• Lowest-wage workers to get a pay hike, By Tony Pugh, July 19, 2009, Miami Herald: The final installment of a three-part increase in the federal minimum wage is proving to be the most controversial. Two previous wage hikes, one in 2007, the other in 2008, pushed the federal wage to $5.85 and then to the current $6.55 an hour. The third, which goes into effect Friday, will push it to $7.25 an hour…”
• Minimum wage rise: More money or fewer jobs?, By Marilyn Geewax, July 19, 2009, National Public Radio: “This Friday, the federal minimum wage will rise to $7.25 an hour, up from $6.55. Conservative economists are worried that the government-mandated raise will force small businesses to lay off workers. They note that the job market has deteriorated since Congress approved the 10.7 percent pay raise two years ago…”

Privatizing welfare means more fall through cracks, critics say, By Will Higgins, July 20, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Omega Young lay in her hospital bed, her body wracked with disease. The cancer that started in her ovaries had spread to her kidneys, breast and liver. She’d lost her appetite to the chemotherapy; she weighed 98 pounds. Then came more bad news: After a botched round of telephone tag with welfare officials, the state of Indiana pulled the plug on her Medicaid benefits and food stamps…”

• Defying slump, 13 states insure more children, By Kevin Sack, July 18, 2009, New York Times: “Despite budgets ravaged by the recession, at least 13 states have invested millions of dollars this year to cover 250,000 more children with subsidized government health insurance…”
• Governors fear Medicaid costs in health plan, By Kevin Sack and Robert Pear, July 19, 2009, New York Times: “The nation’s governors, Democrats as well as Republicans, voiced deep concern Sunday about the shape of the health care plan emerging from Congress, fearing that Washington was about to hand them expensive new Medicaid obligations without money to pay for them…”
• More uninsured patients cause struggle for local hospitals, By Sarah Tompkins, July 19, 2009, Munster Times: “While about 700 working Hoosiers each week lose health insurance during the declining economy, local hospitals and doctors are left to figure out how they can continue to treat more and more uninsured…”
• Millions more lacking insurance, By Mark Johnson, July 19, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “This month, Pierre Aterianus is due back at the doctor for twice-a-year tests of his high cholesterol, but he may stay home and simply hope he isn’t heading toward a heart attack or stroke. Aterianus, who is 57 and lives in Whitefish Bay with his 23-year-old daughter, was laid off in January from his engineering job…”
• Healthy Kids expansion to take time, By Margot Sanger-Katz, July 17, 2009, Concord Monitor: “Gov. John Lynch signed a bill yesterday that will allow young adults to purchase low-cost health insurance from a state plan originally designed for low-income children…”

Texas stalling on extended pay for jobless, critics say, By Robert T. Garrett, July 17, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Critics say the Texas Workforce Commission has overstated the role that federal requirements played in delaying 13 more weeks of unemployment benefits for Texans who have been out of work more than a year.  Andrew Stettner of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for low-wage workers, said a requirement that the jobless document their work searches is a quarter-century old and has been partially waived by the Obama administration…”

Schwarzenegger proposes private, centralized system for public assistance eligibility, By Michael Rothfield, July 16, 2009, Los Angeles Times: A proposal that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been pushing in closed-door budget talks would tie the state, with little oversight or review, into a multibillion-dollar computer system likely to be run by the private sector to enroll low-income Californians in welfare, food stamp and healthcare programs.  A draft of the plan obtained by The Times shows that Schwarzenegger would replace existing county-run processes, which use four different computer systems across the state, with a single one. Administration officials say the new Internet-based system would allow them to save money on overhead and spend more on recipients…”