Debit cards reward Medicaid patients for care, By Tom Murphy (AP), August 31, 2009, Washington Post: “Some Indiana Medicaid patients can now earn money to spend on health care simply by visiting the doctor or seeking routine preventive care. Managed Health Services on Monday announced a new debit card program that rewards patients for making regular trips to the doctor, taking their babies in for checkups and getting screened for several conditions. Participants can earn between $10 and $20 on their cards for each visit or screening. They can then use the funds to buy health-related items like cough syrup or thermometers…”

Tennessee food stamps, waistlines expand, By Christina E. Sanchez, August 30, 2009, The Tennessean: “More Tennesseans are receiving food stamps than ever before - nearly one in six - and the numbers are only expected to increase. But as the food stamp program expands, so too may the waistlines of the people who use the benefit to put food on the table, according to a recent study. Researchers at Ohio State University found that people who used food stamps were more likely to be obese. Women on average were about 6 pounds heavier than women who did not get food aid. They tracked 10,000 people, both on and not on food stamps, over 14 years and found that poverty, lack of access to healthy foods, and nutritional education of people on food stamps contributed to the obesity rates…”

Jobless claims overwhelm state workers, By Mark Hornbeck, August 31, 2009, Detroit News: “While most state workers are about to take their last unpaid furlough day, Unemployment Insurance Agency employees are racking up overtime. The 800 employees, including call center and problem resolution staff, recently received a memo saying they’ll have to put in 140 more hours of overtime before the end of the year to keep up with the crush of applications from Michigan’s legions of jobless. They’ll have to work seven Saturdays or holidays and then another 80-plus hours of overtime during regular workdays. The overtime will cost $3.4 million, about $4,300 per employee, a tab picked up by the federal government. Michigan has an unprecedented 450,000 residents receiving unemployment compensation and ‘hundreds of thousands’ waiting to get benefits, said Norm Isotalo, spokesman for the Unemployment Insurance Agency. The state’s 15 percent jobless rate is the highest in the nation…”

$3.1B set aside for jobless unclaimed, By Matt Kelley, August 30, 2009, USA Today: “More than $3.1 billion in stimulus money for state unemployment insurance programs is sitting in a federal trust fund because 23 states haven’t expanded their jobless benefits, Labor Department records show. Nearly 350,000 out-of-work Americans could get benefits if all those states revamp their unemployment systems to qualify for federal money, according to estimates from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a workers’ advocacy group. In all, the stimulus package offers $7 billion to states that make changes, which can include offering benefits to part-time workers…”

Some fear profit motive to trump poverty efforts in microfinance, By Matthew Saltmarsh and Cat Contiguglia, August 28, 2009, New York Times: “From a warehouse in this scruffy suburb outside Paris, Jacques Attali has been building what he calls the ‘McKinsey’ of the microfinance world, a one-stop consulting shop for the sector. A consummate French insider, Mr. Attali, a former banker and presidential advisor, has recruited big names as board members and advisors, including Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of the Nobel prize-winning Médecins Sans Frontières, now the French foreign minister; and Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel-winning founder of Grameen Bank, a pioneer in the field of microfinance. He has attracted a host of corporate partners, like SAP, the German software company, and BNP Paribas, the largest bank in France. The result - PlaNet Finance - now has a staff of 700, about 10 percent based in Saint-Ouen, active in more than 60 countries. Since 1998, it says it has provided help to 140,000 entrepreneurs and set up $80 million in financing. It also has an investment arm and offers technical assistance to donors and recipients. Some services, like ratings, have become benchmarks; others, like insurance, are less successful. The expansion illustrates just how microfinance - the providing of small business loans to individuals, usually in developing countries - has become big business. Companies like PlaNet Finance and BlueOrchard, based in Geneva, attract not only public investors, but private ones seeking a “double bottom line” of socially responsible returns…”

Millions in Nepal facing hunger as climate changes, By Binaj Gurubacharya (AP), August 28, 2009, Bradenton Herald: ” Millions of people in Nepal face severe food shortages because global climate change has disrupted weather patterns and slashed crop yields in the Himalayan nation, an international aid agency warned Friday. Changing weather patterns have dramatically affected crop production in Nepal, leaving farmers unable to properly feed themselves and pushing them into debt, Oxfam International said in a report released in Katmandu…”

• A national shame, August 27, 2009, The Economist: “It is hardly one of Latin America’s poorest countries, but according to Unicef almost half of Guatemala’s children are chronically malnourished-the sixth-worst performance in the world. In parts of rural Guatemala, where the population is overwhelmingly of Mayan descent, the incidence of child malnutrition reaches 80%. A diet of little more than tortillas does permanent damage. This chronic problem has become acute. Higher world prices for food have coincided with a recession-induced fall in money sent back from Guatemalans working in the United States (remittances equal 12% of Guatemala’s GDP). Drought in eastern Guatemala has made things worse still. Many families can scarcely afford beans, an important source of protein, and must sell eggs from their hens rather than feed them to their children…”
• Hungry in Guatemala, By Samuel Loewenberg, August 26, 2009, The Atlantic: “At the G8 meeting in Italy last month, the world’s richest countries agreed to devote $20 billion to food security and agricultural development. President Barack Obama declared that the ‘purpose of aid must be to create the conditions where it’s no longer needed, to help people become self-sufficient, provide for their families and lift their standards of living.’ The initiative was primarily spurred by concerns about the effects on struggling populations of global warming and the economic downturn. But it is also perhaps a reflection of Obama’s stated intent to put a greater emphasis on what his administration calls ’smart power’ - diplomacy and development, as opposed to primarily defense - in his approach to foreign policy. Here’s an unlikely candidate to be the poster child for the new program: Guatemala. The Central American nation has the sixth-worst rate of chronic malnutrition in the world, despite being what might be described as a relatively well-off lower-middle class country…”

Budget victims, By Rita Price, August 28, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: At age 3, the boy’s development was so delayed that teachers had to use materials designed for 12- to 24-month-olds to assess his abilities. The staff at the South Side Learning and Development Center on Reeb Avenue worked closely with the child for 10 months to get him caught up. Now, teachers can only wonder how he spends his days. The loss of the state Early Learning Initiative program is a gut punch to centers such as South Side, where enrollment recently plummeted from 86 to 36 boys and girls…”

Philippine workers abroad: The boon has a price, By John M. Glionna, August 26, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Looking down the main drag of this farm town, Police Chief Eric Noble marvels at the modern conveniences — byproducts of the fierce ties binding Philippine families. Sturdy houses with concrete foundations now replace the thatched huts of a generation ago. There are new cars, washing machines, children attending private schools and former sharecroppers who have purchased the farms where they once worked as lowly laborers. Such economic progress has come from remittances, the staggering $1 billion sent to families nationwide each month by Filipinos working overseas in an attempt to overcome extreme poverty and joblessness in their native land…”

No papers — and little hope of advancement, By Garrett Therolf, August 23, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Many days, Jamal King stands at South Vermont Avenue and West 46th Street in South Los Angeles, his muscled arms covered with tattoos flaunting his membership in the Rolling 40s, a drug-running criminal gang. His former foster father often drives past slowly, wagging his finger. ‘I know people look at me and just see a gangbanger,’ King said. ‘It’s not really who I am. It’s just temporary.’ But King’s hope for a better life is hobbled by more than poverty and his surroundings — he lacks a birth certificate. He was born in a car 20 years ago as his mother tried to get to a hospital. By age 2, he was being raised by Los Angeles County’s child welfare system. At 18, he was sent by the system into adulthood without a single form of identification: no driver’s license, no Social Security card, no way to prove who he was. Unable to qualify for even an individual taxpayer identification number, he has less ability to navigate through society than an illegal immigrant. He can’t open a bank account, obtain a job, receive government benefits, enroll in higher education…”

Developing world’s parasites, disease hit U.S., By Stephanie Simon and Betsy McKay, August 22, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Parasitic infections and other diseases usually associated with the developing world are cropping up with alarming frequency among U.S. poor, especially in states along the U.S.-Mexico border, the rural South and in Appalachia, according to researchers. Government and private researchers are just beginning to assess the toll of the infections, which are a significant cause of heart disease, seizures and congenital birth defects among black and Hispanic populations. One obstacle is that the diseases, long thought to be an overseas problem, are only briefly discussed in most U.S. medical school classes and textbooks, so many physicians don’t recognize them…”

Two million children now in homes with no working adult, By Katie Allen, August 26, 2009, The Guardian: “Almost 2 million children now live in households where there is no working adult, according to official figures released today that lay bare the social effects of the recession. The Office for National Statistics said the number of children in workless households rose by 170,000 to 1.9 million in April-June of this year, compared with the same period last year. One in six children now live in homes where there is no adult in employment. In addition, the number of children in homes with both working and workless adults over 16, also rose, up 45,000 to 3.6 million. That number includes students, retired people or those looking after the home…”

ADB says poverty elimination curtailed by crisis, Associated Press, August 26, 2009, Jakarta Globe: “Large pockets of extreme poverty and hunger persist in Asia, where the global downturn makes it more difficult to achieve UN goals to reduce the ranks of the poor, the Asian Development Bank said on Wednesday. Supporting smaller businesses, where most Asians are employed, is key to fueling domestic demand and growth, the Manila-based lender said in a report on key economic indicators. In 19 Asian economies, including the most populous China and India, more than 10 percent of people live on less than $1.25 a day and more than 10 percent are malnourished. This is despite the region’s success over the last 15 years in cutting the number of poor from one in two to around one in four, the report said…”

SSI/SSP program, hit often by cuts, in line for more in October, By Jim Miller, August 20, 2009, Riverside Press-Enterprise: “California’s budget crisis has triggered a quick drop in welfare payments to about 1.3 million elderly, blind and disabled residents, fraying a major part of the state’s safety net. State spending on the federal-state Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Program has grown by about a quarter this decade. Now it’s shrinking. Since January, the maximum monthly payment for individual participants in the program has declined from $907 to $850. Last month’s budget-balancing package will cause checks to drop again in October to a maximum of $845 for individuals. The federal poverty level is $10,830 annually for a one-person household, an average of $903 a month…”

Hope, reality collide in post-Katrina New Orleans, By Becky Bohrer and Peter Prengaman (AP), August 26, 2009, Washington Post: “Shelia Phillips doesn’t see the New Orleans that Mayor Ray Nagin talks about, the one on its way to having just as many people and a more diverse economy than it did before Hurricane Katrina. How could she? From the front porch of her house in the devastated Lower 9th Ward, it’s hard to see past the vegetation slowly swallowing the property across the way. Nearby homes are boarded up or still bear the fading tattoos left by search and rescue teams nearly four years ago. The fence around a playground a few blocks down is padlocked. ‘I just want to see people again,’ she said recently, swatting bugs in the muggy heat. On paper, the city’s economy appears to be thriving, with relatively low unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. But in post-Katrina New Orleans, residents’ perceptions of their city’s recovery tends to depend on where they live, their vantage point of it. Swaths of some neighborhoods are sparsely populated, even desolate, and federal rebuilding dollars have provided much of the economic resilience…”

Flu could hit poor schools hardest, By Kristi Jourdan, August 25, 2009, Washington Times: “If the flu outbreak this fall is as widespread as some experts fear, students who stay home should use Web conferencing and podcasting technologies to try to stay current - a federal recommendation that could be too advanced for some poorer school districts to take advantage of. The six-page guidelines issued by the Department of Education on Monday suggest closed-circuit television, DVDs and Internet usage, among other technology, to get information to students in anticipation of high absentee rates and temporary school shutdowns because of a flu outbreak. But some families in inner cities like the District, where the announcement was made, might lack the means to follow the suggested federal guidelines…”

Proposal shortens heating aid program, By Elwin Green, August 25, 2009, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “A federally-funded program that assists homeowners with their heating bills will run for a shorter period of time this winter, reducing the availability of benefits by six weeks, according to a proposal by the state agency that administers the program. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or Liheap, administered by the Department of Public Welfare, offers two types of assistance: the cash component and the crisis component. In years past, both were available from early November through the end of March…”

• State gets $56 million for weatherization from stimulus, By Beccy Tanner, August 26, 2009, Wichita Eagle: “Bernice Jones made history Tuesday when her house on East Second Street became the first in Kansas to be weatherized using federal stimulus funds. Workers were installing a furnace, central air-conditioning unit and refrigerator in her 1920s-era bungalow Tuesday as she ushered in the Kansas governor and other state and city officials…”
• Pa. gets weatherization funds held up by impasse, By Tom Infield, August 26, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “After months of delay caused by state inaction, the federal government finally was able to announce yesterday that it had awarded $101 million in stimulus funds to Pennsylvania for home weatherization. E. Craig Heim, in charge of weatherization for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, said that while Pennsylvania was “unquestionably behind” many other states in launching its program, “I think we’ll be able to catch up.” The funds from the U.S. Department of Energy, together with some earlier money that has been on hold, comprise nearly half of the $253 million that the state expects to receive to weatherize the homes of nearly 30,000 low-income Pennsylvanians over the next 21/2 years. The funds represent a sevenfold expansion of the decades-old Weatherization Assistance Program…”

With donations and grants down, social service agencies feel the pinch, By Diane Cardwell, August 21, 2009, New York Times: “At a social service agency on Staten Island where budget cuts forced the layoff of a driver, the staff scrambles to arrange transportation to Brooklyn for an elderly homeless woman whose family has agreed to take her in. In Midtown Manhattan, a woman who has lost her job worries that she will not be able to send her granddaughter to an after-school program at the settlement house that helped the girl’s father and two uncles. And in Washington Heights, an agency is hard-pressed to prevent evictions after laying off half of its legal services team…”

Advocates push to include the homeless in Medicaid, By Pam Fessler, August 25, 2009, National Public Radio: “Most homeless people in America are too poor to buy their own health coverage, but many also don’t qualify for Medicaid, the government-run health program for the poor. Medicaid is mainly for people who have children or a disability, and most homeless people are childless adults. So, like 63-year-old Walter Brooks of Baltimore, they make do without insurance coverage…”

• Cutbacks pinch homeless programs, By Wendy Koch, August 24, 2009, USA Today: “The homeless are having more trouble getting help because of state budget cuts, and federal stimulus funding in September will fill only part of the gap, service providers for the homeless say…”
• New faces of homeless in D.C., By Leila Fadel, August 23, 2009, Seattle Times: “At 6 a.m., a block from the manicured lawns of the White House, Poppy Cali starts his days. Cali, 36, a Navy veteran, wakes up just after dawn, before security can find him sleeping on the steps of the General Services Administration building near the grate he uses to warm himself in the winter…”
• Nashville follows Denver’s lead in homelessness fight, By Angela Patterson, August 25, 2009, The Tennessean: “The Metropolitan Homelessness Commission wants to bring a little of what Denver learned to Nashville. The Mile High City created a 10-year plan to end homelessness called Denver’s Road Home. An accompanying partnership between the private and public sectors helped lower the city’s chronic homelessness rate by 36 percent…”
• Strategy goes beyond housing homeless, By Mark Price, August 24, 2009, Charlotte Observer: ” Project Hope - a groundbreaking program that could change the way Charlotte deals with homelessness - is expected to be unveiled tonight as part of a Charlotte City Council vote to back the project with nearly $2 million in federal stimulus money. Crafted to be a long-term solution rather than a quick fix, the program calls for pulling families and individuals from local shelters, putting them in rental apartments, and stabilizing their lives over 18 months with education, job skills, counseling and support from social workers and teams of volunteers…”

State seeds fresh food delivery in Detroit, By Kimberly Hayes Taylor, August 22, 2009, Detroit News: “Imani Abba got choked up Friday as she purchased fruits and vegetables from a delivery truck. ‘We don’t have to go to the liquor stores and get dried-up vegetables,’ said the 54-year-old Detroiter, while taking strawberries, bananas and grapes her excited daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughter handed off. ‘For a long time, people around here didn’t have fresh food, and there are children around here that just know food from cans.’ The MI (pronounced “my”) Neighborhood Food Movers, a fresh food delivery program that officially launches Tuesday, is designed to change that for some Detroit residents. Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s office has invested $75,000 in seed money for the pilot program, which they plan to develop into a larger initiative that will include urban gardens, more delivery services, cooking classes and other programs…”

Minnesotans jam lines to join state health care plan, By Warren Wolfe, August 25, 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Applications for MinnesotaCare, the state’s insurance plan for the poor and working poor, have shot up 25 percent so far this year. The increase appears to reflect layoffs in a weak economy and the rising cost of health insurance, which has caused employers to drop coverage or shift more costs to employees. Last month alone, MinnesotaCare applications rose 43 percent from July 2008, reaching 5,473. The crush of applicants has doubled the time required to process applications, to eight weeks, and phone lines are often jammed because the agency that manages the program now answers the phone only between 12:30 and 4 p.m. so workers can spend more time on the paperwork backlog, officials acknowledged Monday…”

Even with coverage of two major plans, some Oregonians struggle to get health care, By Andy Dworkin, August 19, 2009, The Oregonian: “Little noticed in the debate on public medical insurance and health reform is a group of 55,000 Oregonians covered by two major public health plans. The so-called ‘dual eligibles’ qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid because they have low incomes and are disabled or over 64. About 9 million Americans have both Medicare and Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and they tend to be poorer, sicker, less educated and more often women or minorities than other citizens. As some Democrats push Congress to create a national public health insurance option, the dual eligibles show both benefits and pitfalls expanded public coverage could bring. On one hand, dual eligibility gives fairly complete insurance to poor, sick people who can’t afford private insurance, and would likely be rejected by most private plans for their existing health problems. But caring for dual eligibles costs upward of $200 billion a year. And some people covered by both plans still have trouble finding doctors or buying prescriptions — proof that expanding insurance coverage isn’t enough to lower costs or improve health care, two other, competing goals of health reform…”

Section 8 shortfall leaves thousands waiting, By Dan Gorenstein, August 23, 2009, National Public Radio: “Federal funding for Section 8, the nation’s largest rental assistance program, could dry up for some housing authorities before year’s end. The shortfall is forcing some low-income families to pay higher rents - and putting others in jeopardy of losing their vouchers altogether. As for the hundreds of thousands currently on multiyear waiting lists nationwide, the wait is now even longer. In New Hampshire, the Housing Finance Authority cut aid, forcing people to pay more in rent. Executive Director Dean Christon doesn’t like to squeeze people who make on average less than $15,000 a year, but he says that’s better than the alternative…”

Food assistance participants increasing, By Russ Corey and Tom Smith, August 23, 2009, Florence Times Daily: “Jenny Kerbs said she doesn’t know how her family would make ends meet without the aid of the Food Assistance Program. ‘I still have to spend extra money, but just on milk and bread,’ she said. ‘I get all my meats and canned vegetables with my food stamps.’ Kerbs receives $163 per month on her electronic benefit transfer card to help offset the expenses of buying groceries for her family. The card is also referred to as EBT. The average monthly benefit for qualified families in the state is $128.54, according to the Alabama Department of Human Resources, and Kerbs is one of a growing number of local residents using EBT cards…”

Poverty on the rise in county, By Betty Ridge, August 20, 2009, Tahlequah Daily Press: “While Americans hope, and many experts predict, that the recession is turning around and the economy heading upward, the head of one local agency dealing with poverty isn’t so optimistic. Tom Lewis, CEO of Project O-Si-Yo, said demand for the shelter, which currently provides temporary housing for up to 15 homeless men, has grown more than expected. Based on preliminary reports he has seen from the latest U.S. Census figures, he expects more men to come to 118 W. Keetoowah looking for a place to spend the night, or a new start in life. The new figures will be released shortly after Labor Day, Lewis said…”

• State budget cuts force cuts in child care, By Tiffany Aumann, August 21, 2009, Newark Advocate: “Some local child care centers are reducing staff hours and benefits and looking at possibly cutting part-time care programs as the result of cuts to state child care subsidies that will go into effect Sunday. ‘It has a lot of directors and day cares scrambling to figure out how to make ends meet,’ said Margaret Riggs, director of Southtowne Kids Care in Heath. ‘We’re watching and cutting where we can and just hope we stay full (enrollment)…’”
• Child care centers are in ‘dire straits’, By James McGinnis, August 20, 2009, Buck County Courier Times: “Each year, Pennsylvania state government provides subsidies for an estimated 235,000 children from low-income families. Child care programs for low-income families in Bucks County could be shut down next month due to the inability of state lawmakers to pass a budget. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare said it has no money to distribute. And subsidies for day care centers have stopped…”

Jobless rate captures only part of pain, By Mark Niquette, August 21, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: “Considering the number of people she knows personally who are out of work, Amy Drake had suspected that the unemployment rate reported in recent months was too low. “It seemed like, statistically, it should be higher than what we hear in the news,” said Drake, 44, whose Columbus job in information-technology communications was eliminated in March. That’s why it was both illuminating and disturbing for Drake to learn that the unemployment rate, widely used as a key economic indicator and political weapon, wouldn’t include her if she hadn’t looked for a job for a month. Although it’s often assumed that the jobless rate includes all unemployed workers or is based on official claims for unemployment benefits, it actually comes from a monthly survey of about 60,000 households nationwide — and it counts only those who have actively looked for work during the past four weeks…”

Homeless: Orlando could be the most violent metro area in Florida, survey finds, By Willoughby Mariano, August 20, 2009, Orlando Sentinel: “The nation’s third “meanest” city for the homeless may also be the state’s most violent toward them, say survey results being released today. Forty-six percent of homeless people questioned in Orlando and Orange County in an ongoing local survey said they were physically attacked in the past four years by someone they thought was not homeless - well above Florida’s average of 27 percent, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. The same organization last month ranked Orlando as the third “meanest” city in the country, behind Los Angeles and St. Petersburg. A coalition report released earlier this month said that in 2008, Florida led the nation in violence against the homeless for the fourth year in a row…”

Colo. could be 1st state to lower minimum wage, By Kristen Wyatt (AP), August 19, 2009, Denver Post: “Colorado’s lowest-paid workers could make even less money next year. That’s because the state has an adjustable minimum wage that may become the first in the nation to drop slightly along with the cost of living. Colorado is one of 10 states where the minimum wage is tied to inflation. The indexing is thought to protect low-wage workers from having flat wages as the cost of living goes up. But because Colorado’s provision allows wage declines, the minimum wage could actually drop 3 cents an hour next year. If the wage is reduced by state labor officials in September as expected, it would be the first minimum wage decrease in any state since the federal minimum wage law was passed in 1938…”

Food stamp system improved with stimulus funds, By Deborah Yetter, August 18, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky will use $2.9 million in federal stimulus money to try to improve service to people applying for food stamps, state officials said. By this fall, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services plans to convert paper files stored in local offices to electronic files state workers will use to complete or renew applications for the federally funded food stamp program…”

Number of homeless in Oklahoma City slightly up, By Murray Evans (AP), August 19, 2009, Tulsa World: “A report released Wednesday found that Oklahoma City’s homeless population increased by 4 percent this year, though advocates said the ongoing economic slowdown likely will push next year’s count far higher. The “Point in Time” count found that 1,475 people were homeless in the city as of late January, when the annual count is taken each year. Since then, advocates say they’ve seen a spike in the number of people visiting shelters or seeking help from local homeless agencies…”

Study finds S.F. health plan didn’t hurt jobs, By Heather Knight, August 21, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “San Francisco’s first-of-its-kind universal health care program and its mandate that employers provide health care has not resulted in feared job losses, according to a new study by a UC Berkeley researcher. Crunching quarterly data from the U.S. Labor Department, the researcher found that since the inception of Healthy San Francisco’s employer mandate in 2008, the city’s growth rate across all employment sectors was similar to or better than other Bay Area counties. While San Francisco saw its employment rate shrink due to the struggling economy, it actually shrank less than other counties…”

Numbers of poor, uninsured projected to increase, Associated Press, August 19, 2009, New York Times: “The ranks of poor and uninsured Americans are likely increasing — with more than 38.8 million believed to be in poverty. Rebecca Blank, the Commerce Department’s undersecretary of economic affairs, spoke to The Associated Press in advance of next month’s closely watched release of 2008 census data. Noting the figures are not yet final, Blank said the numbers likely will show a “statistically significant” increase in the poverty rate, to at least 12.7 percent. That would represent a jump of more than 1.5 million poor people compared with the previous year. ‘There’s no question that 2008 economically was a much worse year than 2007,’ she said Wednesday. ‘The question is how much and how bad…’”

Utah poverty report points at middle-class decline, By Julia Lyon, August 19, 2009, Salt Lake Tribune: “A new poverty report released Wednesday sheds light on how many Utahns were already struggling before the recent economic downturn. ‘The biggest thing we see in the report is the falling of the middle class into poverty,’ said Heather Tritten, the executive director of the Utah Community Action Partnership Association. The 2009 Annual Report on Poverty in Utah combines data such as the unemployment rate, food stamp growth and insurance gaps, using statistics from the past several years. It analyzes poverty needs in every Utah county…”

• State safety net makes up 46 percent of budget, By Cynthia Needham, August 20, 2009, Providence Journal: “State-funded safety net programs for the poor have grown into an expensive and sometimes chaotic system that doesn’t always effectively serve the neediest residents, according to a report to be released Thursday by the Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council and the United Way. The result of a year-long study, the report combines data with analysis by an advisory council made up of anti-poverty advocates, union officials, clergy and members of the business community, who see first-hand the effects of these programs. Rhode Island, that data suggests, spends an a steadily increasing amount of money on its safety net programs — 46 percent of total spending in the current year’s budget…”
• Study: R.I. social safety net ill-managed, By Chris Barrett, August 20, 2009, Providence Business News: “Rhode Island’s social safety net is expensive and splintered, according to a report released jointly today by United Way of Rhode Island and the R.I. Public Expenditure Council. The 58-page report details federal and state programs that provide assistance to the state’s poor, unemployed and disabled residents. It comes as the state’s economy continues to struggle and state agencies deal with an influx of residents seeking social services. The report found that 46 percent of all spending in this year’s enacted state budget flows to grants and benefits for programs such as Medicaid, medical assistance programs, child care subsidies and unemployment benefits…”

Minus Medicaid, homeless youths hurting, By Jennifer Brown, August 20, 2009, Denver Post: “LeeLee Hanley, 19, plunks down in a chair in the makeshift health clinic and asks for a pregnancy test. She also needs a new asthma inhaler because her ex-boyfriend has hers. And she wants a tuberculosis test so she can move back into this youth homeless shelter, Urban Peak. Hanley, who lost her Medicaid coverage when she turned 19, has no money and no home. When she needs a doctor, she goes to a hospital emergency room or the physicians who spend a few hours each week at the homeless shelter, in central Denver. About 75 percent of the more than 3 million American adults who spent some part of the last year homeless have no insurance, according to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. Under the radar of the town-hall shouting matches on health reform, advocates for the homeless are pushing to get them on the rolls of the insured.

Poverty line fluctuates with conflicting data, By Priyadarshi Siddhanta, August 20, 2009, Indian Express: “The issue of poverty estimation seems to be getting more complicated as a government-sponsored panel has now said that about 38 per cent Indians are poor - 10 percentage points higher than a previous estimate. The states are already opposed to the Centre’s calculations on poverty estimation. In an interim finding, former chief of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Suresh Tendulkar has estimated that 38 per cent of India’s population (comprising 8.32 crore families) is poor…”

Hoosiers may find it harder to pay for heat, By Nicole Blake, August 19, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Thousands of Hoosiers already struggling to make ends meet may find less money available to help them pay their winter heating bills. A pilot program offered by Citizens Gas and other utilities that helped more than 50,000 people last year is in jeopardy. The Universal Service Fund program, which expired in May, needs approval by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission before it can be restarted…”

• Auditors warn Utah Medicaid is likely wasting millions of taxpayer dollars, By Heather May, August 18, 2009, Salt Lake Tribune: ” Millions of tax dollars are likely being wasted in Utah’s Medicaid program on procedures — including a breast augmentation and nose jobs — that aren’t covered by the government insurance program, according to a scathing legislative audit released Tuesday. Millions more are lost because the Medicaid department isn’t adequately going after providers who submit fraudulent bills. And while there are three sets of internal auditors charged with overseeing the department and its $1.7 billion budget, none are independent enough to do their jobs appropriately, the report says…”
• Audit says Utah losing millions to Medicaid fraud, waste, By Lana Groves, August 18, 2009, Deseret News: “Legislators are appalled over the results of an audit reporting the state Medicaid system is losing millions because of an outdated system. The state audit released Tuesday found that the Utah Department of Health’s Bureau of Program Integrity, which checks for fraud, waste and abuse within the state Medicaid program, is mismanaged and failed on several occasions to follow policy regarding cost-saving methods…”

Government extends SeniorCare through 2012, By Stacy Forster, August 18, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The federal government will extend SeniorCare, the state’s popular prescription drug program, through 2012, Gov. Jim Doyle said Tuesday. SeniorCare is an alternative to the federal Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage plan for low-income residents aged 65 and older, and it is the only program of its kind in the country. The state program was to end Dec. 31. Doyle and Wisconsin’s congressional delegation had asked President Barack Obama’s administration to extend the program for three years…”

Inmates grow, gather veggies, make soup for hungry, By Julie Carr Smyth (AP), August 18, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “The nation’s food banks, struggling to meet demand in hard times, are turning to prison inmates for free labor to help feed the hungry. Several states are sending inmates into already harvested fields to scavenge millions of pounds of leftover potatoes, berries and other crops that otherwise would go to waste. Others are using prisoners to plant and harvest vegetables. ‘We’re in a situation where, without their help, the food banks absolutely could not accomplish all that they do,’ said Ross Fraser, a spokesman for Feeding America, a national association of food banks. The number of Americans who couldn’t afford food jumped 30% from December 2007 to December 2008, according to a survey by the group. Demand at some pantries have more than doubled, Fraser said, as job losses and wage cuts have strained family budgets…”

• Stars aligning on school lunches, By Kim Severson, August 18, 2009, New York Times: “Ann Cooper has made a career out of hammering on the poor quality of public school food. The School Nutrition Association, with 55,000 members, represents the people who prepare it. Imagine Ms. Cooper’s surprise when she was invited to the association’s upcoming conference to discuss the Lunch Box, a system she developed to help school districts wean themselves from packaged, heavily processed food and begin cooking mostly local food from scratch…”
• N.J. schools bag funds with free lunch, By Ashley Milne-Tyte, August 18, 2009, American Public Media: “New Jersey’s formula now works like this: the state provides about $9,700 to educate each child to meet academic standards. But poor students in poor districts can get an extra $5,000 on top of that. That’s where free lunch comes in…”

Downturn brings a new face to homelessness, By Alexi Mostrous, August 15, 2009, Washington Post: “The lowest point in Lawanda Madden’s life came in February, when she woke up on the floor of her friend’s run-down house in this city battered by recession. She was shivering with cold. She remembers turning to her 8-year-old son, Jovon, and thinking: ‘How did this happen to us? How did we become homeless?’ Only 15 months before, Madden, 39, had a $35,000-a-year job, a two-bedroom apartment and a car. She was far from rich, but she could treat Jovon to the movies. She occasionally visited her sister in Chicago and bowled in a local league. She dreamed of going to law school. Then she was laid off and lost everything. ‘I’ve had a job since I was 19,’ she recalled. ‘I never imagined I would be without a home. You think it’s going to get better — that it’s just temporary — and then six months goes by, and you wonder, ‘Wait a minute — this might be it.” With neat hair and clean clothes, a college education and stable job history, Madden represents the new face of American homelessness…”

Health-care barriers overwhelm Nashville homeless, By Christina E. Sanchez, August 18, 2009, The Tennessean: “Robert Tucker kept having dizzy spells and felt weak a couple of months ago, but he didn’t see a doctor because he didn’t have health insurance or even a job. Tucker, who is homeless, finally went to the doctor after a former boss offered aid, and he learned he has diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and hepatitis C. But as health-care workers say, the easy part of caring for the homeless like Tucker is diagnosing their condition. ‘The hard part is treating,’ said Mary Bufwack, CEO of United Neighborhood Health Services. ‘And we are seeing more people in the streets and more families in hotels…’”

Unemployment spike compounds foreclosure crisis, By Renae Merle, August 18, 2009, Washington Post: “The country’s growing unemployment is overtaking subprime mortgages as the main driver of foreclosures, according to bankers and economists, threatening to send even higher the number of borrowers who will lose their homes and making the foreclosure crisis far more complicated to unwind. Economists estimate that 1.8 million borrowers will lose their homes this year, up from 1.4 million last year, according to Moody’s Economy.com. And the government, which has already committed billions of dollars to foreclosure-prevention efforts, has found it far more difficult to help people who have lost their paychecks than those whose mortgage payments became unaffordable because of an interest-rate increase…”

City’s poor still distrust banks, By Christine Haughney, August 17, 2009, New York Times: “In 1986, when the Lower East Side had just one bank in a 100-square-block area, the high numbers of residents without bank accounts alarmed the city but did not surprise anyone. In the years since, the number of bank branches has skyrocketed, with the big names compelled to open in underserved areas. Community credit unions have sprung up from Washington Heights to Bedford-Stuyvesant. Outreach workers have taken to the streets to draw the ‘unbanked’ - many of them the city’s poorest, living check to check - into the system and away from the high-fee world of check-cashing and money orders…”

States plug budget holes, for now, By Pamela M. Prah, August 17, 2009, Stateline.org: “This year’s state legislative session will go down as one of the most brutal in recent memory as the national recession forced lawmakers to find money to cover a staggering $215 billion in estimated budget gaps for 2009 and 2010 - the equivalent of more than $700 for every man, woman and child in the country. Even with the federal stimulus package dumping billions of dollars into the states, California, Kentucky, Nevada, New York and Washington are among states that struggled with the largest deficits in modern history. California, by far, faced the biggest challenge - a whopping $26 billion gap - that forced the state to slash $15 billion in basic services, including program funds for K-12 education and health care for the poor, and to divert some $4 billion from local jurisdictions…”

Subsidized school meals might skyrocket this year, By Tony Pugh, August 16, 2009, Modesto Bee: “The number of U.S. students who receive free and reduced-cost meals at school could soar to a 41-year high this school year, as record job losses and high unemployment push thousands more children into poverty, many for the first time. According to projections by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at least 18.5 million low-income students are expected to participate in the National School Lunch Program each day during the 2009-10 school year. More than 8.5 million are expected to take advantage of the federal School Breakfast Program. Both projections are about the same as the record participation levels that each program set last year. If rising family homelessness and steady growth in the food stamp program are any indication, however, enrollment in both student-meal programs could swell well beyond expectations this fall…”