• Pregnant women who smoke here more than double national average, By Becky Orr, January 25, 2010, Wyoming Tribune Eagle: “The news is troubling: Plenty of Wyoming mothers smoked when they were pregnant. The recently released 2009 Kids Count Data Report finds that 20 percent of women in Wyoming smoked when they were pregnant. The statistic is from 2007, the most recent information available. That’s more than double the national average of 10 percent in 2007…”
• Johnson County childhood poverty rate among the state’s lowest, By Jen Hicks, January 29, 2010, Buffalo Bulletin: “Slightly fewer Johnson County children are living in poverty according to an annual report that monitors the well-being of the nation’s youth. But the same study released last week showed an increase in the number of students who receive free or reduced school lunches. The 2009 Wyoming Kids Count Data Report, funded by the non-profit Annie E. Casey Foundation, found improvement in two of the three key indicators used to measure the economic well-being of children. Because financial stability can have a domino effect on a child’s welfare, Marc Homer, director of the Wyoming Children’s Action Alliance, a non-profit children’s advocacy organization said that it’s important to understand the economic situation children are raised in…”

• Medicaid change could affect more than illegals, By Mark Andersen, January 27, 2010, Lincoln Journal Star: “A number of legal citizens in Nebraska could lose prenatal Medicaid coverage alongside 1,000 illegal immigrants because of a federal rule clarification. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services told state senators Jan. 15 the state was notified that federal law prohibits Medicaid coverage for people who are not documented, except in emergencies. That includes prenatal care for illegal immigrants. But the same rule may affect some legal residents in two groups: pregnant teens living with parents and pregnant adults living in borderline low-income households. The expected change for both groups results from a federal demand that Nebraska stop using eligibility standards that count the unborn as people for purposes of Medicaid eligibility…”
• Officials disagree on who can make Medicaid decision for illegals, By Mark Andersen, January 28, 2010, Lincoln Journal Star: “Nebraska Medicaid could continue to cover prenatal care for poor illegal immigrants, but that must be the Legislature’s call, the state’s top Medicaid official said Thursday. ‘I’m a firm believer in prenatal care,’ said Vivianne Chaumont, director of the state’s division of Medicaid and Long-Term Care, ‘but the feds make policy. The Legislature makes policy.’ In light of LB403, the law approved last year that denies illegal immigrants the right to public benefits, jobs or contracts, Chaumont said she will not assume authority to extend that coverage. Staff attorneys with Nebraska Appleseed argued that Chaumont could act without official legislative action, which could be important now that the deadline has passed for introducing new bills…”
• Senate affirms Medicaid cut, By Tim Carpenter, January 27, 2010, Topeka Capital-Journal: “The legislative session’s first major showdown in a caustic state budget battle Wednesday culminated with Senate affirmation of a $22 million reduction in Medicaid funding recommended by Gov. Mark Parkinson. An attempt to delete the cut to a program providing health care to the poor failed 16-24, with more than a dozen Republicans joining with Democrats to preserve this controversial element of the governor’s plan for balancing the current budget. The Senate bill was then forwarded to the House for consideration. Parkinson proposed the 10 percent reduction in Medicaid payments to hospitals, nursing homes and clinics to help close a deficit exacerbated by unexpected declines in state tax revenue. Adjustments outlined by the governor were part of a larger package of spending cuts he believes sufficient to meet government obligations through June…”
• Gibbons drops proposal to end state Medicaid program, By David McGrath Schwartz, January 27, 2010, Las Vegas Sun: “Gov. Jim Gibbons has decided not to push for Nevada to drop out of Medicaid, citing spending patterns, the number of people served under the public health plan and the ‘apparent demise of the federal health care reform.’ In a news release, Gibbons warned that spending has increased an average of 10 percent a year over the past decade, and ‘undercuts our ability to fund other state responsibilities and is crowding out education, public safety and infrastructure…’”

Save the Children says severe child poverty ‘going up’, January 26, 2010, BBC News: “The number of UK children living in “severe poverty” rose in the four years before the recession, research from a children’s charity suggests. Save the Children says the number of children in homes in this category rose 260,000 to 1.7m from 2004 to 2008. The report warns there is a danger that severe poverty could rise even further. The government says it has lifted half a million children out of relative poverty, and helped the very poorest, as defined by its own criteria. It has pledged to halve child poverty by 2010 from the 1998/99 figure of 3.4 million and end it altogether by 2020…”

• 2m pensioners live in poverty, says ONS, By Hilary Osborne, January 27, 2010, The Guardian: “The number of pensioners living in poverty in the UK fell by nearly a third in the 10 years to 2007/08, official figures showed today, but there were still an estimated 2 million living below the breadline. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the number of pensioners in poverty had fallen from 2.9 million in 1998/99, but that 2 million were still living on less than 60% of the median UK income after housing costs. The figures also showed that around 1 million people aged over 60 and living alone in England were in fuel poverty in 1997, meaning they had to spend more than 10% of their income on heating. Hefty rises in energy prices in 2008 mean many more pensioners are likely to have fallen into fuel poverty since then…”
• Pensioner poverty ‘drops by a third’, January 27, 2010, BBC News: “Poverty among pensioners shrank by almost a third between 1998-99 and 2007-08, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said. There were 2.9 million poor pensioners 11 years ago, but their number had dropped to two million two years ago. Poverty is officially defined as living on 60% of the average income, once housing costs have been paid. However, the ONS also said that in 2007 one million single person households, aged 60 or over, were in fuel poverty. Fuel poverty is defined as a situation where someone needs to spend at least 10% of their income on heating their home…”

• Indiana agency begins hybrid welfare plan rollout, By Ken Kusmer (AP), January 26, 2010, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Indiana’s human services agency said Tuesday the state’s third try at effectively enrolling and keeping people on food stamps and other welfare benefits has begun rolling out, but one affected caretaker said the frustrations keep mounting. The Family and Social Services Administration said it has begun implementing what it’s calling a hybrid welfare intake system, involving caseworkers and some automation, in 10 southwestern Indiana counties. It follows the agency’s aborted bid to turn over highly automated welfare intake to private vendors - a plan designed to replace an outdated, paper-based casework system - that remains in 33 counties…”
• Indiana agency begins hybrid welfare plan rollout, By Eric Bradner, January 26, 2010, Evansville Courier and Press: “The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration rolled out its pilot ‘hybrid’ system for processing welfare applications in a swath of 10 Southwestern Indiana counties on Tuesday. The rollout means the state’s human services agency now has three ways of handling applications for Medicaid, food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families operating simultaneously. The hybrid pilot is now in place in Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Warrick and Vanderburgh counties. The recently abandoned ‘modernization’ effort, which severely restricted face-to-face interaction with agency workers and instead had those seeking benefits apply online or by phone, remains in 49 counties.

• At risk children in Missouri on rise, By Nancy Cambria, January 28, 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “After periods of noted declines, teen births and high school dropout rates are on the rise in Missouri. Kids Count, an ongoing study of how children and teens are faring in this country, released the warnings Wednesday in its annual county-to-county look at Missouri. The study was released by the group Citizens for Missouri’s Children. The study examines 10 indicators of child well-being over a four-year period, and then ranks each county on the overall quality of life for children. Following a disturbing national trend, births to teens aged 15 to 19 increased in the state, up about a percentage point to about 9,150 teens. Many of those increases occurred in rural areas of the state. In the region, St. Louis City dropped its rate by nearly 10 percent, but other counties spiked, especially Jefferson and Warren counties, which both experienced about a 5 percentage point increase…”
• Report: Boone County ranks 10th in children’s well-being, By Kelly Brdicka and Kourtney Geers, January 27, 2010, Columbia Missourian: “Every day in Missouri in 2008, 255,953 children lived in poverty; 31 teens left high school without graduating, and 25 girls - ages 15 to 19 - gave birth, according to the Citizens for Missouri’s Children’s 17th edition of the Kids Count. The report was published in the 2009 Missouri Data Book, which was released Wednesday and compiles information from more than 30 organizations and covers issues important to the welfare of children including economic security, early education, health, child protection and juvenile justice…”

U.N.: ‘09 added 27 million jobless, By Bradley S. Klapper (AP), January 28, 2010, Detroit News: “Twenty-seven million people around the world lost their jobs in 2009, the U.N. labor agency said Wednesday, warning of a jobless spike in a report released on the opening day of the World Economic Forum. About 12 million of the newly unemployed were in North America, Japan and Western Europe, the International Labor Organization said. The jobless jumped by nearly four million in both Eastern Europe and Latin America, while unemployment rates were more stable last year in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The figures point to the need for a ‘global jobs pact’ to boost employment around the world, the ILO said…”

More youngsters from poor homes go to university, By Hannah Richardson, January 28, 2010, BBC News: “More of England’s poorest youngsters are going to university, but the wealthiest are three times more likely to win a place, a report says. Youngsters in the poorest areas are 30% more likely to go to university than they were five years ago, England’s university funding agency Hefce said. A fifth of the poorest youngsters go to university, up from an eighth in 2004. This compares to 57% of the richest. Ministers said ‘record investment’ was helping more people go to university. The report by Hefce statisticians looks at trends in the university participation of 18 and 19-year-olds between 1994 and 2010…”

• Families struggle to afford food, survey finds, By Jason DeParle, January 26, 2010, New York Times: “Nearly one in five Americans said they lacked the money to buy the food they needed at some point in the last year, according to a survey co-sponsored by the Gallup organization and released Tuesday by an anti-hunger group. The numbers soared at the start of the recession, but dipped in 2009 despite the continuing rise in unemployment. The anti-hunger group, the Food Research and Action Center, attributed that trend to falling food prices, an increasing use of food stamps and a rise in the amount of the food stamps benefit. More than 38 million Americans - one in eight - now receive food stamps, a record high…”
• Phila.-area district 2d-hungriest in U.S., study says, By Alfred Lubrano, January 26, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District - which includes Chester, South Philadelphia, and parts of North Philadelphia - is among the hungriest in the nation, according to a report released yesterday. The district, represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, is second only to the 16th District in the Bronx, N.Y., for so-called ‘food hardship,’ as measured by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), a national nonprofit in Washington whose aim is to eradicate hunger. FRAC defines food hardship as the lack of money to buy enough food to satisfy a family’s needs. Using data from a survey of more than 500,000 Americans between January 2008 and December 2009, FRAC learned that more than 36 percent of households in the First District answered ‘yes’ to the question, ‘Have there been times in the past 12 months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?’…”
• Many need more cash for food, report says, By Rita Price, January 27, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “One of every five households in the Columbus metro area fell short of money to buy needed food at some point in the past year, according to a report based on daily Gallup surveys. The results, released yesterday by the Food Research and Action Center, put Columbus at No. 24 — worse than Cleveland and Cincinnati — in a ‘food hardship’ ranking of the nation’s 100 largest metro areas. Local anti-hunger groups say the numbers might not be as surprising as they seem. ‘Our food-pantry statistics track that,’ said Evelyn Behm, senior vice president at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. ‘It goes along with the record increases we’ve seen in the past two years.’ Others say Columbus-area respondents might rank worse because they’re newer to such a struggle and trying to get by on their own before turning to emergency help…”

• 1,500 families may lose food stamp benefits, By James Rufus Koren, January 23, 2010, Contra Costa Times: “Nearly 1,500 San Bernardino County families could lose some or all of their food stamp benefits if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest budget recommendation goes through. Troublingly, some groups say, families who stand to lose state-funded food stamps might not know they have those benefits until they’re gone. ‘The constituency who receives this are unaware of it in a way that would allow them to mobilize to fight it,’ said Matthew Sharp, who works with the nonprofit group California Food Policy Advocates. ‘The benefits are invisible to the client.’ In a Jan. 8 budget presentation, Schwarzenegger recommended eliminating the California Food Assistance Program, which provides food stamp benefits to legal U.S. residents who have not lived in the U.S. long enough to receive traditional federally funded food stamps. While the California Food Aid Program and the federal food stamps program - also called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP - are separate, Californians essentially apply for both programs when they apply for food stamps…”
• More Idahoans on food stamps than ever, By Brian Murphy, January 26, 2010, Idaho Statesman: “A record number of Idahoans are receiving food stamps, a sign that the state’s economy still struggles. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is processing 9,000 new food stamp applications each month, said Tom Shanahan, a department spokesman. More than 176,600 people are enrolled in the program - more than double the 2007 level. ‘We’re setting records every month,’ Shanahan said. ‘Food stamps are a good indicator of the number of people living near poverty. We’re seeing the effects of layoffs and high unemployment.’ Idahoans typically are reluctant to accept government aid, and the state has a relatively low rate of eligible people applying for aid. Around 60 percent of eligible people actually apply for aid, Shanahan said. A department official testified to lawmakers last week that 33 percent of people applying for help in the last two years had never applied before…”

Welfare rolls up in ‘09; more enroll in assistance programs, By Richard Wolf, January 25, 2010, USA Today: “Welfare rolls rose in 2009 for the first time in 15 years, but the 5% increase was dwarfed by spikes in the number of people receiving food stamps and unemployment insurance. The cash-assistance program that once helped more than 14 million people served an average of 4 million in the 2009 fiscal year, up from 3.8 million in fiscal 2008. By comparison, there were more than 37 million people receiving food stamps in September, an increase of 18% from the year before. The number receiving unemployment benefits more than doubled, to about 9.1 million. The disparity has caused some of those involved in passing the 1996 welfare overhaul to question whether it’s failing to help victims of the recession…”

After long decline, teenage pregnancy rate rises, By Tamar Lewin, January 26, 2010, New York Times: “After more than a decade of declining teenage pregnancy, the pregnancy rate among girls ages 15 to 19 increased 3 percent from 2005 to 2006 - a turnaround likely to intensify the debate over federal financing for abstinence-only sex education. The teenage abortion rate also crept up for the first time in more than a decade, rising 1 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit research group…”

Illinois teen employment at new low, By Julie Wernau, January 26, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Eighteen-year-old Gabrielle Banks braids her friends’ hair on the West Side for car fare money. The Community Christian Alternative Academy student has been looking for a job since last summer, when she worked at her high school as an ‘ambassador’ for health and fitness, back when the program was funded. ‘I don’t just think I want a job. I think I need a job,’ she said, ‘My mom, she’s the only income we get, and there’s four of us. I could help out with things like groceries, cleaning supplies, toothpaste, stuff like that.’ Banks is part of an unprecedented number of unemployed teens in the state, a fact state and local leaders say puts them at risk of falling further behind economically for years to come. A report by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, commissioned by the Alternative Schools Network and set to be announced Tuesday in Chicago at a Youth Hearing on Education, Jobs and Justice, says the employment rate for Illinois teens in 2009 was more than 20 percentage points below 2000, marking a new low for the state…”

• Rise in teenage pregnancy rate spurs new debate on arresting it, By Rob Stein, January 26, 2010, Washington Post: “The pregnancy rate among teenage girls in the United States has jumped for the first time in more than a decade, raising alarm that the long campaign to reduce motherhood among adolescents is faltering, according to a report released Tuesday. The pregnancy rate among 15-to-19-year-olds increased 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 — the first jump since 1990, according to an analysis of the most recent data collected by the federal government and the nation’s leading reproductive-health think tank. Teen pregnancy has long been one of the most pressing social issues and has triggered intense political debate over sex education, particularly whether the federal government should fund programs that encourage abstinence until marriage or focus on birth control…”
• Teen pregnancy, abortion rates rise, By Sharon Jayson, January 26, 2010, USA Today: “The teen pregnancy rate in the USA rose 3% in 2006, the first increase in more than a decade, according to data out today. The data also show higher rates of births and abortions among girls 15-19. The numbers, calculated by the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit group that studies reproductive and sexual health, show a clear reversal from the downward trend that began in the 1990s. About 7% of teen girls got pregnant in 2006, a rate of 71.5 pregnancies per 1,000 teens. That’s up slightly from 69.5 in 2005, Guttmacher says. In 1990, when rates peaked, about 12% got pregnant. Just as the long-term declines in teen pregnancy were for all racial and ethnic groups, the rise in 2006 was for all demographics, the report shows…”

• 1.5 million Ohioans are living in poverty, By Catherine Candisky, January 23, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “The economic tsunami has left its mark on Ohio. The annual State of Poverty in Ohio report — unveiled four days before Gov. Ted Strickland’s State of the State speech on Tuesday — is packed with sobering statistics. But this may be the most alarming: Since 2002, the state’s population has increased by 1.2 percent while the number of people living in poverty has grown by 41.7 percent. Ohio is now home to 1.5 million people — 13.7 percent of its population — living below the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s a household income of $22,050 or less a year. Nearly a third of Ohioans, 3.4 million people, had incomes below 200 percent of the poverty level, a level widely accepted as needed to cover housing, food and other necessities. The report by Columbus-based Community Research Partners documents what many now know firsthand…”
• Numbers show depth of Ohio’s economic despair, By Jessica Alaimo, January 23, 2010, Lancaster Eagle Gazette: “President Barack Obama and state leaders could be forgiven if they thought a presidential visit to Ohio occurred on Friday the 13th, not the 22nd. More bad news about the state’s economy preceded Obama’s visit to Lorain, where he promised, ‘I won’t stop fighting to bring back jobs here.’
  • Ohio’s unemployment rate rose to 10.9 percent in December, the latest figures from the Department of Job and Family Services. The jobless rate was 10.6 percent in November, and the department blamed losses in service industries for the decline.
  • A new report from the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies said 14 percent of Ohioans were living in poverty in 2008. Considering the number of Ohioans out of work has risen by 196,000 in the past year, the current poverty rate is almost certainly worse.
  • Ohio’s unemployment compensation fund is $1.8 billion in the red, a watchdog reporting group revealed, and employers could see big hikes in insurance premiums if the state doesn’t start repaying its loans in two years. Recipients also could see their benefits cut…”

Oregon’s rich getting richer and all others falling behind, wage study shows, By Jeff Manning, January 24, 2010, The Oregonian: “A new analysis of state wages shows that the gulf between Oregon’s wealthy and everyone else continues to widen. Oregon’s wealthiest are not only earning more, but the rate at which their incomes are growing far outstrips the middle class and the poor. Meanwhile, the middle class continued to encounter stagnant wages this past decade — even during the vaunted economic boom that preceded the bust — and saw its compensation fall back to 2001 levels in the recession-racked year of 2008, according to a draft analysis of wage trends by the Oregon Employment Department. Inflation-adjusted annual wages for Oregon’s top 2 percent of earners hit $153,480 on average in 2008, a 29.5 percent increase from 1990. Workers at the 50 percentile, meanwhile, earned $32,659 in 2008, an increase of just 2.4 percent over 1990 after adjusting for inflation…”

Many workers unaware of D.C. sick-leave law passed in 2008, By Ann E. Marimow, January 25, 2010, Washington Post: “More than a year after the District became the second city in the nation to require most employers to provide paid sick leave, proponents of the law say many workers are unaware of their rights and businesses are unclear about their responsibilities. Advocates for low-wage workers and business leaders say the Fenty administration has delayed finalizing new rules that would get the word out to the community. Until those regulations are spelled out, critics say, workers are not guaranteed protection…”

Tough economy could spark surge in tax refund loans, By Tony Pugh, January 24, 2010, Miami Herald: “After several years of declining use, tax refund anticipation loans could make a big comeback this tax season with poor, cash-strapped taxpayers. Known as ‘RALs,’ refund anticipation loans are bank loans secured by the amount of a person’s expected income tax refund. Once a tax return is filed electronically by a commercial tax preparer, a third-party bank can provide the loan to the taxpayer in the amount of the expected refund. Various costs, fees and finance charges are deducted from the check, which usually arrives in three to five days - or within a few hours for an extra fee of $25 to $39. In turn, the IRS sends the taxpayer’s actual refund check to the bank to pay off the loan. The combination of widespread money woes, a sour economy and fatter tax refund checks for poor families could entice more people into taking the quickie loans, which have been one of the most pilloried financial products ever marketed…”

• State budget cuts threaten Healthy Kids effort, By Kurtis Alexander, January 24, 2010, Santa Cruz Sentinel: “The future of the county’s Healthy Kids program, which has successfully linked thousands of uninsured children with medical care, is hanging on policy decisions made far from Santa Cruz, and health care advocates are worried. The governor is calling for halting state funds vital to the local insurance effort, while federal lawmakers appear to be abandoning legislation that may have patched some of the gaps in California’s cash-strapped health care programs. ‘More than ever, we face the specter of this being the most damaging year for children’s health that we’ve ever seen,’ said Cliff Sarkin, a senior policy analyst with Children’s Defense Fund California, a group that advocates for low-income children. ‘We’re looking at many threats right now.’ Healthy Kids of Santa Cruz County, which counts more than 13,000 kids from poor families as benefactors, works by enlisting uninsured children not only into a locally funded insurance plan but into state and federal programs as well…”
• Healthy Families health insurance program faces major cuts, By James Rufus Koren, January 22, 2010, San Bernadino County Sun: “About 16,000 children in San Bernardino County could lose their state-subsidized health insurance in May if legislators agree budget cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this month. In his Jan. 8 budget presentation, Schwarzenegger called for cutting more than $96 million from the state’s Healthy Families program, which provides low-cost health insurance for children. He also threatened to eliminate the program, which is partially funded by the federal government, if his request for $6.9 billion in additional federal funds falls through. The cuts would come mainly from increasing insurance premiums and making about 25 percent fewer children eligible for the program, said Bradley Gilbert, chief executive officer of Inland Empire Health Plan, an insurance provider that covers about 60,000 children through Healthy Families…”

Even the poor make too much to get a public defender, By Steven Elbow, January 25, 2010, Capital Times: “So you’re scraping by on minimum wage, and your hours were cut to 25 per week. You managed to put $300 in the bank, and you drive a beater you bought for $2,000. That puts you in the federal poverty bracket. But according to the state public defender, if you’re arrested, you won’t qualify for a public defender. If your boss cuts your hours to nine, you still wouldn’t qualify. State Public Defender Nicholas Chiarkas calls the standards used to assess whether the poor can qualify for assistance from his office ‘an embarrassment.’ They haven’t been updated or adjusted for inflation since 1987 and are the most stringent in the nation, he says. You have to be dirt poor to qualify. Further, the standards force cash-strapped counties to foot the bill for appointing lawyers for defendants who would undergo substantial hardship if they were forced to pay for their own legal representation. The state’s Legislative Fiscal Bureau found that statewide, Wisconsin counties shelled out about $6 million in 2008 - the most recent figures available - to hire attorneys for the poor…”

Poverty soars in Ohio, By Catherine Candisky, January 22, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Rising unemployment and sinking wages have pushed record numbers of Ohioans into poverty. The State of Poverty in Ohio — unveiled four days before Gov. Ted Strickland’s official State of the State speech — was released today by the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies. It provides some startling statistics and reveals what many Ohioans know firsthand. Simply put, things have gotten worse. Since 2002, the state’s population has increased by 1.2 percent while the number of persons living in poverty has grown by 41.7 percent…”

Unemployment rose in 43 states last month, By Christopher S. Rugaber (AP), January 22, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Unemployment rates rose in 43 states last month, the government said Friday, painting a bleak picture of the job market and illustrating nationwide data released two weeks ago. The rise in joblessness was a sharp change from November, when 36 states said their unemployment rates fell. Four states - South Carolina, Delaware, Florida and North Carolina - reported record-high jobless rates in December. New Jersey’s rate, meanwhile, rose to a 33-year high of 10.1 percent while New York’s reached a 26-year high of 9 percent. Analysts said the report showed the economy is recovering at too weak a pace to generate consistent job creation…”

• Haiti to relocate 400,000 homeless outside capital, January 22, 2010, BBC News: “Haiti is planning to house 400,000 earthquake survivors in new tented villages outside the capital, Port-au-Prince, officials have announced. Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said 100,000 people would initially be sent to 10 settlements near the suburb of Croix Des Bouquets. He gave no timeframe, but said the moves would start as soon as possible. An estimated 1.5 million people were left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude quake, which killed as many as 200,000…”
• Haiti plans tent cities for homeless as rebuilding begins, By Scott Wilson, Mary Beth Sheridan and Manuel Roig-Franzia, January 22, 2010, Washington Post: “The Haitian government is planning to erect 11 tent cities to house as many as 400,000 people displaced by the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, hoping to establish safer and more sanitary conditions as the country’s rebuilding begins. Most of the camps will be in and around the capital, officials said, replacing more than 500 squalid, makeshift settlements that have materialized out of desperation and despair. The plan, which is being coordinated with international relief officials, also calls for a camp to house 100,000 Haitians in the town of Croix de Bouquets, about eight miles northeast of the capital…”
• Economy in shock struggles to restart, By Simon Romero, January 21, 2010, New York Times: “The price of candles in the teeming La Saline market here has climbed 60 percent since last week’s earthquake. A box of matches is up 50 percent. A package of Perdue Chicken Franks has gone up 30 percent. As Haitians begin to turn their attention to rebuilding a crippled economy, the rapid surge in prices of crucial products is just one of the many challenges they face. The port here was also knocked out of operation, hobbling exports. The banking system, largely shut down because of fear of robberies, is struggling to restart. The earthquake destroyed the finance ministry and part of the central bank, and killed senior financial officials including Jean Frantz Richard, director of the tax collection agency…”

• Doyle proposes BadgerCare Plus Basic Plan to help uninsured, By Jason Stein, January 21, 2010, Wisconsin State Journal: “With federal health care reform hitting obstacles, Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday proposed a stripped-down health plan to cover tens of thousands of financially struggling state residents. But a Republican lawmaker immediately attacked the proposal aimed at 21,000 childless adults, saying the state was backing into a government-run health plan similar to the controversial public option being debated at the federal level. The proposed BadgerCare Plus Basic Plan would serve as a stopgap for qualifying childless adults in the state on a waiting list to enroll in the state’s swamped Core Plan, Doyle said. The new plan would be funded by a $130 monthly premium paid by participants, not taxpayers, the Democratic governor said. It will require lawmakers’ approval but could be up and running by April…”
• Experts express doubts about BadgerCare Basic health insurance proposal, By Jake Miller, January 22, 2010, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: “Some health care directors who work with low-income patients are skeptical of whether the state’s proposed new health insurance program is affordable for the people it targets. The new BadgerCare Basic plan that Gov. Jim Doyle unveiled Thursday is expected to cost nearly $1,600 a year, or $130 a month. It’s targeted at the nearly 21,000 poor, childless adults who are currently on a waiting list for the popular BadgerCare Core plan…”

At home or in school, California students face harder times, survey finds, By Howard Blume, January 21, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The state’s children found no escape from harder times last year whether at school, where they endured larger classes, unfamiliar teachers and scarce supplies — or at home, where they faced family stresses from emptier refrigerators, job losses and more frequent dislocation. The grim compilation comes in a report to be released today by UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access and the University of California All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity. ‘It’s the bleakest I’ve ever seen,’ said one Los Angeles County school principal, who, like others in the principals survey, participated anonymously…”

• N.J. families seeking government assistance surged during height of recession, By Susan K. Livio, January 20, 2010, Star-Ledger: “One in eight New Jersey children lived in poverty during the height of the recession in 2008, creating a surge in demand for government programs that help people feed their families and pay their utility bills, according to an annual report on child well-being. Food stamps helped feed 254,000 children last year, 70,000 more than in 2005, according to the Kids Count report released yesterday by the Association for Children of New Jersey, a family advocacy group. And with the state doubling the amount it spends on energy assistance programs, it helped pay utility bills for an estimated 252,000 people last year, about 100,000 more than in 2005, according to the report…”
• More NJ children slipping below poverty line, By Robert Stern, January 20, 2010, Times of Trenton: “New Jersey experienced an increased rate of child poverty at the onset of the nation’s economic downturn in 2008, according to a new report by the nonprofit Association for Children of New Jersey. More than one in eight children, 13 percent, were in a family living in poverty in 2008, up from 12 percent the previous year, according to the latest yearly version of the group’s annual statewide report, ‘New Jersey Kids Count 2010.’ Regional numbers on the increase in child poverty will not be available until later this year. Poverty is defined, for a family of four, as households living on $21,000 per year or less. New Jersey’s high housing costs put pressure on low-income families (defined as those below double the poverty level, or $42,000 in annual income for a family of four)…”

• Poverty growing faster in suburbs, By Frank D. Roylance and Larry Carson, January 21, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “The majority of the poor in the Baltimore region now live in the city’s suburbs for the first time, while the poverty rate in the city has declined, a new study has found. The changing geography of poverty here reflects a national trend, and argues for a more regional strategy on issues ranging from social safety nets to mass transit, the study concludes. ‘The notion of poverty as primarily an urban problem is officially outdated,’ said Elizabeth Kneebone, co-author of a report released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution in Washington. ‘This signals a remarkable shift in the geography of American poverty that will ultimately affect the way we think about and approach poverty alleviation strategies.’ Between 2000 and 2008, the number of people living below the federal poverty line in Baltimore’s suburbs grew by nearly 21,000, while the city saw a decline of more than 24,000 poor. The decline in the city’s poverty rate was the third-largest among the 95 cities examined…”
• New report finds suburban poverty rates soaring in downturn, By Tim Logan, January 20, 2010, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Poverty is moving to the suburbs. And in the recession, it is moving even faster. Those findings are the highlights of a new study out today from the Brookings Institution, which found that the number of people living below the poverty line in American suburbs grew 25 percent in the past eight years, far faster than in central cities that have long housed more than their share of the poor. And it is especially true in St. Louis…”
• Study: More poor living in U.S. suburbs than in cities, By Brandt Williams, January 20, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “According to a new study released Wednesday by the Brookings Institution, there are more poor people living in U.S. suburbs than there are in central cities. Researchers say between 2000 and 2008 the number of poor people living in suburban areas grew nearly five times faster than the amount of poor people in the central cities. Brookings researchers say there are now 1.5 million more poor people living in the suburbs than there are in central cities. However, proportionally speaking, poverty is still more prevalent in urban cores…”

• Study: Poverty in Philadelphia suburbs up nearly 1%, By Alfred Lubrano, January 20, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Poverty increased nearly 1 percent in Philadelphia’s suburbs between 2000 and 2008, partly because of two recessions, according to a report being released today. Poverty in the suburbs reached a rate of 7.4 percent, compared with 24.1 percent within Philadelphia, according to the report by the Brookings Institution. Citywide poverty increased 1.2 percent between 2000 and 2008, the report showed. Nationwide, suburban poverty increased by 25 percent during that time frame, nearly five times the rate of urban poverty, according to the report…”
• Suburbia home to new poverty challenge, By Bill Zlatos, January 20, 2010, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Poverty has crept into bedroom communities around Pittsburgh and across America. A report released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution shows a 25 percent increase in poverty in suburbs — nearly five times the rate in cities. ‘It is disheartening, but not surprising,’ said Diana Bucco, president of The Forbes Funds, a Downtown-based group that assists human service agencies and researches nonprofit organizations. She said residents of older, middle-class communities are coping with flat incomes and rising costs of food, gas, utilities and housing…”
• More than one in four Columbia residents are living in poverty, By James Rosen, January 20, 2010, The State: “More than one of every four Columbia residents is now living in poverty, an increase of more than a quarter of impoverished people than a decade ago. Columbia has been hit harder than other cities in the Carolinas, but Charleston, Raleigh and urban centers are also home to a growing number of poor people. The new study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington think thank, looked at Census Bureau data for the country’s 95 largest urban areas, which the U.S. government calls Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The worst recession in two decades has sent family incomes plummeting in cities across the nation, from Hartford, Conn. - where two in five people live in poverty - to Youngstown, Ohio, and Detroit in the Midwest…”
• National suburban poverty blight skips county, By Rob Varnon, January 20, 2010, Danbury News Times: “A wall of wealth in the suburbs of Bridgeport and Stamford appears to have staved off the ravages of poverty sweeping through hinterlands in other states. The Brookings Institution says in a new report today that 9.5 percent of the suburban U.S. population lived below the poverty line in 2008, while suburban Fairfield County had a poverty rate of just 5 percent. ‘The suburban poor has held pretty steady’ in Fairfield County, said Brookings Senior Research Analyst Elizabeth Kneebone, the study’s lead author. The county has the second lowest suburban poverty rate in the nation…”

• UN report: Crisis will keep children out of school, By Angela Charlton (AP), January 19, 2010, BusinessWeek: “The world financial crisis not only hurt balance sheets but could sabotage poor countries’ efforts to get more children into school, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.N. education agency. UNESCO urged more funding and attention for those shut out of education systems such as ethnic minorities and rural girls, who make up a disproportionate part of the legions of school-age children who have never seen the inside of a classroom…”
• India still home to largest illiterate population: UNESCO, January 20, 2010, The Hindu: “India still has the largest number of illiterate adults in the world, but has made ‘rapid advances’ in cutting down the numbers of school drop outs, a new UN report on education has said. The Education For All-Global Monitoring Report, released here on Wednesday finds that out of the total 759 million illiterate adults in the world, India still has the highest number. ‘Over half of the illiterate adults live in just four countries: Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan,’ the report said, adding the progress has been ‘painfully slow’ and threatens to obstruct the Millennium Development Goals…”

• Medicaid would be spared cuts, By Deborah Yetter, January 19, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky’s fast-growing Medicaid program would be spared cuts - and would actually see federal-funding increases because of anticipated growth in its rolls - under the budget Gov. Steve Beshear proposed Tuesday. His budget assumes savings of about $108 million in the next two years in the state’s share of the government health plan that now serves nearly 790,000 poor and disabled Kentuckians. But it doesn’t propose any cuts…”
• Budget would add $782 million for Medicaid, By Valarie Honeycutt Spears, January 20, 2010, Lexington Herald-Leader: “Facing exploding growth in the government-run health insurance program for the poor and disabled, Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposed budget calls for spending an additional $782 million on Medicaid over the next two years. Beshear said the Medicaid program is adding an average of about 3,400 recipients each month, compared with 930 each month just two years ago. ‘We now have over 789,000 Kentuckians in the Medicaid program,’ Beshear said. ‘That’s nearly one in five of our citizens depending on us for their health care.’ Despite the increased spending, Beshear has directed the Medicaid program to cut costs by $108 million over the next two years…”

Gates Foundation seeks to spur savings by the poor, By Steve Lohr, January 13, 2010, New York Times: “For decades, the microfinance industry has really been about microcredit - making tiny loans to shoestring entrepreneurs in poor countries. Taking deposits and creating savings accounts for the poor has gotten short shrift. The reasons were straightforward: funding for loans often came from international donors, and collecting small deposits seemed to be an inefficient headache for the microfinance bankers. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is hoping to change that with $38 million in grants announced on Wednesday for 18 microfinance institutions. The goal is to spur the building of efficient models and systems for small savings accounts. The foundation hopes to reach 11 million people across a dozen nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America over the next five years…”

• Doctors fear health overhaul may backfire for poor on Medi-Cal, By Rob Hotakainen, January 16, 2010, Sacramento Bee: “Paul Phinney is happy to be working as a pediatrician in Sacramento these days, with a historic health care bill on the horizon. For starters, he says it’ll be easier to treat patients if Congress makes it illegal for insurance companies to deny treatment for pre-existing conditions. And he says it would be good if those companies could no longer place a cap on how much they’ll pay for medical services. ‘It’s a very exciting time to be part of medicine,’ he said. But he and many other California doctors worry that the soon-to-be-finalized health care bill could backfire and actually make things worse, making it more difficult for the poor to find doctors and sending more of them to emergency rooms. They say that will happen if Congress does not increase reimbursement rates for doctors who treat patients under the state’s Medicaid program…”
• Feds reject Utah’s low Medicaid pay for dentists, By Lisa Rosetta, January 13, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “A federal agency has rejected the low pay that Utah allots to dental providers who see Medicaid patients because the rates are too low to guarantee pregnant women and children’s access to services. Last session, state lawmakers took back a one-time 24 percent jump in pay that dentists received in 2008, on top of rolling back their 4.5 percent cost of living raise. Dentists said they couldn’t keep their doors open if they saw Medicaid patients at the lower rate. Some limited the number of Medicaid patients they accept; others stopped seeing them or threatened to do so if the Legislature didn’t take action…”

Stalled upgrade delays unemployment checks, By Tom Abate, January 19, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle: “At a time when nearly 800,000 jobless Californians depend on timely unemployment checks, the state has been sitting on more than $50 million in federal funds set aside in 2003 to upgrade antiquated computer and call center systems designed to make the Employment Development Department more responsive. State officials acknowledge that this delay helps explain why it took the department five weeks last year to resume payments to Californians who had exhausted their benefits before Congress authorized a payment extension in November. Ironically, the department already has begun to spend some of the $60 million in federal funds that it received just last spring to modernize other unrelated portions of the ’70s-era software that runs the state’s unemployment systems…”

Hybrid welfare system to roll out, By Ken Kusmer (AP), January 19, 2010, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Indiana’s human services agency is expected to roll out its hybrid welfare intake program, aimed at correcting problems that arose when it tried to privatize the system, in 10 southwestern counties next week. The Family and Social Services Administration had said that it would roll out the hybrid system in the counties around Evansville in January, and last week spokesman Marcus Barlow said the change probably would occur during the last week of the month. Documents obtained by The Journal Gazette in December indicated Vanderburgh County - an early participant in privatization in 2007 and a squeaky wheel in bringing problems to light - was being considered as the first area to launch the new system. Under the hybrid system, which follows the state’s aborted effort to turn welfare intake over to private vendors, many state and private caseworkers will shift from call centers into local offices to give people more personal contact with those making decisions about their food stamps, Medicaid and other benefits…”

• Georgia’s charter schools see gains educating diverse students, By D. Aileen Dodd, January15, 2010, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “An annual report on Georgia’s charter schools in 2009 found that many of the campuses were outperforming surrounding schools even though the charters enrolled large populations of poor students. The report released at a Georgia Board of Education meeting this week showed that most charter schools, which enroll higher concentrations of African-Americans, Asians and poor students on average, are seeing gains on standardized test scores…”
• Graduation rate drops at D.C. charter schools, By Michael Birnbaum, January 16, 2010, Washington Post: “The graduation rate for D.C. charter schools dropped nearly five percentage points, to 83.3 percent, for the 2008-09 school year, officials said Friday. The rate is still higher than that of regular D.C. public schools, which announced last week that theirs had increased 2.6 percentage points, to 72.3 percent, in the 2008-09 school year. Charter school officials said they were not worried, and they attributed the decrease to improved tracking…”

Economy causes record demand for Idaho public aid, By Todd Dvorak (AP), January 19, 2010, Idaho Statesman: “High unemployment caused by the recession has created unprecedented need statewide for food stamp aid and other public assistance programs, the chief of Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare said Tuesday. At the same time, Health and Welfare Director Richard Armstrong said the threat of another midyear budget cut may force the agency to lay off workers and shutter some of its offices across the state - as worker caseloads continue to swell. The agency is processing more than 9,000 new food stamp applications each month, a record level and a 55 percent increase from 2007. More than 179,6000 people or families are enrolled in the program, up 106 percent from more than 87,000 in 2007. Demand for Medicaid programs is up 13 percent from three years ago and child support cases are up 9 percent, according to agency figures…”

U.S. unemployment rate for blacks projected to hit 25-year high, By V. Dion Haynes, January 15, 2010, Washington Post: “Unemployment for African Americans is projected to reach a 25-year high this year, according to a study released Thursday by an economic think tank, with the national rate soaring to 17.2 percent and the rates in five states exceeding 20 percent. Blacks as well as Latinos were far behind whites in employment levels even when the economy was booming. But throughout the recession, the unemployment rate has grown much faster for African Americans and Latinos than for whites, according to the study by the Economic Policy Institute. Moreover, the unemployment gap between men and women has reached a record high — with men far outpacing women in joblessness…”

20 million-plus collect unemployment checks in ‘09, By Christopher S. Rugaber (AP), December 31, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “A record 20 million-plus people collected unemployment benefits at some point in 2009, a year that ended with the jobless rate at 10 percent. As the pace of layoffs slows, the number of new applicants visiting unemployment offices has been on the decline in recent months. But limited hiring means the ranks of the long-term unemployed continues to grow, with more than 5.8 million people out of work for more than six months. The number of new claims for jobless benefits dropped last week to 432,000, the Labor Department said Thursday, down sharply from its late March peak of 674,000. The decline signals that the economy could begin adding a small number of jobs in January, several economists said…”

Demand overwhelms program to prevent homelessness, By Tony Pugh, January 12, 2010, Miami Herald: “In rural communities and urban areas alike, one of the least expensive and most unheralded new initiatives of the stimulus bill is quietly saving hundreds of thousands of Americans from homelessness. Now housing advocates want Congress to boost the program’s $1.5 billion funding as the vast need for more assistance becomes evident nationwide. The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program is expected to help 600,000 people by moving some from homeless shelters into their own apartments and by providing rent payments to prevent others from being evicted. Because the assistance is temporary - usually for three months to 18 months - the program tries to target people who are most in need and can who can return to self-sufficiency within a few months…”

• Bill aims to help borrowers break cycle, By Cathy McKitrick, January 8, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “At his own insurance agency, Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville, got a first-hand look at the tactics some payday lenders use to attempt to collect debts at a borrower’s workplace. ‘It got my attention,’ Dunnigan said of the multiple calls to one of his employees — even after Dunnigan had asked them to stop. The lawmaker crafted HB15 to restrict that practice and also to extend a hand to folks who are drowning in debt. His bill, backed by the Legislature’s Business and Labor Committee, would limit loan rollovers to 10 weeks instead of 12. It also would allow borrowers to request extended payment plans to get a handle on their debt. Supporters of the effort, including an industry association, praise HB15 as what could be a significant improvement over current law. But critics denounce it as window dressing…”
• Poor fall victim to loan sharks over Christmas spending, January 15, 2010, BBC News: “Some of the UK’s poorest people are starting the new year in severe debt after borrowing from loan sharks to pay for Christmas, a report has said. The Financial Inclusion Centre said 100,000 families had borrowed a total of £29m from illegal moneylenders. The think tank said on average it would take a year to pay the money back as lenders recouped three times the value, with some interest rates up to 1,500%. The average amount borrowed was £288, but the average repayment was £820…”

• Governor warns of deep fiscal crisis as he unveils California budget plan, By Evan Halper and Shane Goldmacher, January 9, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warned Friday that the state remained deep in fiscal crisis and proposed steep reductions in almost every major government program, but many lawmakers quickly dismissed his ideas as stale and vowed to push for alternatives such as tax hikes. His proposal, aimed at closing a $19.9-billion gap, and the response to it foreshadow another year of paralysis in Sacramento as the governor and lawmakers struggle with the latest crippling shortfall. The new budget blueprint — the governor’s last before term limits force him from office — comes after the state’s epic financial problems have already become a target of ridicule around the world. Even after $60 billion in program cuts, tax increases and federal stimulus money over the last year, California’s books are so far out of balance that the state is once again in danger of having to issue IOUs…”
• Budget proposal ‘disaster’ for the poor, By Troy Anderson, January 12, 2010, Los Angeles Daily News: “The governor’s proposed state budget could mean a record loss of nearly $4 billion for Los Angeles County, putting hundreds of thousands of needy residents at risk of losing welfare checks, in-home care, health care and other services, officials said Tuesday. ‘It’s very stressful for us when we hear the state budget has a $20 billion shortfall,’ said Gloria Molina, who chairs the Board of Supervisors. ‘We know there is going to be an awful lot of cuts made for many of our services… That is terrifying to all of us.’ Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget, Molina said, nearly 400,000 county welfare recipients could lose $1 billion in benefits…”
• Social services cuts worry Bangor, Portland, By Glenn Adams (AP), January 12, 2010, Bangor Daily News: “Lawmakers expressed horror over proposed cuts in the state program that helps some of the most desperate Mainers on Monday as they began reviewing potential social service cuts recommended by Gov. John Baldacci’s administration. The program is called general assistance and it serves as a last resort for the homeless, the hungry and ‘those out on the street,’ Sen. Joseph Brannigan said during a hearing before two committees assessing numerous cuts. The cuts in Baldacci’s supplemental two-year budget seek to address a $438 million gap between revenues and expenses…”

• Health Reform, the States and Medicaid, Editorial, January 9, 2010, New York Times: “The country needs health care reform, and Congress should move quickly to pass legislation. But as House and Senate leaders work to forge a consensus bill for final approval, they should look for ways to lessen the Medicaid burden on hard-pressed state budgets - and ensure that relief is fairly apportioned. One of the important goals is to extend coverage to more low-income Americans. The bills quite sensibly require the states to expand Medicaid and offer them generous federal support to do so. Even then, the states - whose Medicaid budgets are already badly stretched - will have to put up substantial money of their own…”
• Wary of health care reform, Gibbons weighs rejecting federal Medicaid funds, By David McGrath Schwartz, January 15, 2010, Las Vegas Sun: “In the latest in a series of conservative policy initiatives released by the Republican governor, Jim Gibbons is considering whether Nevada should drop out of the federal Medicaid program, one of the cornerstone safety net programs that provide health care to the poor, disabled and elderly and that cover thousands of Nevadans. Health and Human Services Director Mike Willden was asked to ‘take a serious look’ at opting out of the massive federal program this week. Triggering the interest is concern about the health care reform bill being debated in Congress, said Stacy Woodbury, Gibbons’ deputy chief of staff. The state has estimated that the federal requirement to expand Medicaid under the bill will cost Nevada $636 million from 2014 to 2019, when the 100 percent federal subsidy in the health care reform bill expires…”
• Governor suggests state exit Medicaid, By Ed Vogel, January 15, 2010, Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Gov. Jim Gibbons has asked staff members to explore whether the state can drop out of the Medicaid program, which provides free health care to more than 233,000 Nevadans. A Gibbons spokesman said Thursday that because of the bad economy, the state can no longer cover most Medicaid recipients, though the federal government provides most of the funding. He said things will only get worse if Congress approves the health care bill. Under the health care legislation being considered by a Senate-House conference committee, Nevada would pay an additional $613 million between 2014 and 2019, to provide health care through Medicaid for another 328,000 residents. It would pay no additional Medicaid costs in the three years before 2014. Daniel Burns, the governor’s communications director, said if the idea of dropping Medicaid proves feasible, the state would use its own money to continue to provide care for those who might otherwise be left behind, including the seriously ill and disabled…”
• Rising costs make Arizona’s health care program a budget challenge and a political football, By Paul Davenport (AP), January 12, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Arizona’s Medicaid program has become both a budget headache and a political football, with its costly burgeoning enrollment and the possibility that national health care legislation will add even more red ink on the deficit-plagued state’s bottom line. Enrollment in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment Program has soared in the past decade, thanks to the recession and an earlier voter-mandated lowering of income eligibility thresholds. One in six Arizonans now is enrolled in AHCCCS, or one of every six state residents…”

Welfare-to-work program not working, audit finds, By Phil Kabler, January 11, 2010, Charleston Gazette: “It’s called ‘welfare to work,’ but a legislative audit released Monday found that only about 14 percent of the state program’s recipients actually find employment before their benefits end. The study of West Virginia Works welfare benefits from 2001 to 2006 found that, at the time recipients’ cases were closed, an average of only 14 percent had found employment. Another 14 percent were unemployed but looking for work, while roughly 72 percent were unemployed and not actively seeking employment. Those figures trended downward over the five years: In 2001, nearly 31 percent of welfare recipients were employed when their cases closed. By 2006, that figure was below 6 percent…”

• Poverty opened eyes of Haiti visitors, By Annysa Johnson, January 14, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “When Scott Hamel tries to describe the poverty that plagued Haiti even before Tuesday’s devastating earthquake, he always goes back to a young mother he met there a few years ago. She was living with her six children, two under the age of 1, in a hut the size of a walk-in closet. Her husband had gone to the Dominican Republic for work, and she had not heard from him in more than a year. She had no other family and was on the verge of being evicted. ‘Basically, she had the clothes on her back, no income and no way to feed her children,’ said Hamel of Madison, who has traveled to Haiti repeatedly as part of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Engineers Without Borders. ‘It was staggering to see this woman in her 30s who had nothing,’ he said. ‘It took me awhile to get my head around that.’ Nearly every story coming out of Haiti since the quake mentions its status as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. It is one thing to read about it, but many Wisconsinites have seen it firsthand, working alongside Haitians in health clinics, food kitchens, construction projects and more…”
• Impoverished, storm-prone Haiti is a magnet for disasters, By Seth Borenstein (AP), January 14, 2010, Worcerter Telegram and Gazette: “When it comes to natural disasters, Haiti seems to have a bull’s-eye on it. That’s because of a killer combination of geography, poverty, social problems, slipshod building standards and bad luck, experts say. The list of catastrophes is mind-numbing: This week’s devastating earthquake. Four tropical storms or hurricanes that killed about 800 people in 2008. Killer storms in 2005 and 2004. Floods in 2007, 2006, 2003 (twice) and 2002. And that’s just the 21st-century rundown. ‘If you want to put the worst-case scenario together in the Western Hemisphere (for disasters), it’s Haiti,’ said Richard Olson, a professor at Florida International University who directs the Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas project. ‘There’s a whole bunch of things working against Haiti. One is the hurricane track. The second is tectonics. Then you have the environmental degradation and the poverty,’ he said…”
• Haiti, Editorial, January 14, 2010, New York Times: “Once again, the world weeps with Haiti. The earthquake that struck on Tuesday did damage on a scale that scarcely could have been imagined had we all not seen the photos and videos and read the survivors’ agonizing accounts - of the sudden crumbling of mountainside slums, schools, hospitals, even the Parliament building and presidential palace. Whenever disaster strikes, we are reminded that Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere. And each time there is a disaster, this country and others help - for a while. This time must be different…”
• Helping Haiti help itself, Editorial, January 14, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Haitians have long been prey to hurricanes and coups, their nation ravaged by erosion and corruption, mudslides and marauders, poverty and violence. Now the few economic and political gains made over five years of relative stability have been buried along with thousands of corpses in the rubble of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. The presidential palace, parliament, government ministries and hospitals — indeed most of the capital of Port-au-Prince — are in ruins. An already dysfunctional state now lacks even the edifices of government. Gone too are some of the buttresses: the archbishop and his cathedral; the head of the United Nations mission and some of his top aides, who died when their headquarters collapsed…”

Health reform could endanger CHIP funds, By Rosemary Shinohara, January 9, 2010, Anchorage Daily News: “In reshaping America’s health care, Congress may eliminate a major health insurance program for some U.S. children in families with incomes above the federal poverty level, but Alaska’s kids in the program likely won’t be affected. The prospect that Congress may ditch the Children’s Health Insurance Program has raised alarms nationally, with concerns about whether some children will lose insurance, and whether their families will be able to afford private insurance with new government subsidies that would be created…”

• Kids Count report targeting low weight babies, By Harold Reutter, January 13, 2010, Grand Island Independent: “Although Nebraska is making progress in a number of areas on the well-being of its children, there are a number of areas that should still cause concern. Those conclusions were part of the annual Kids Count in Nebraska 2009 report released Wednesday by the organization Voices for Children in Nebraska. Annmarie Bailey Fowler, host for the Tuesday webinar that preceded the Wednesday release of the Kids Count report, said the 2009 report focused on the area of infant and maternal in addition to immigrant children. She said that indicator was picked because there had been no improvement in the trend of low birth weight babies over time…”
• Report: Nebraska’s infant mortality rate jumps, By Erin Andersen, January 13, 2010, Lincoln Journal Star: “It’s not just children of in poverty or of immigrants who have a rough go of it in ‘the good life’ state, according to the 2009 Kids Count report. In 2007 (the latest year of statistics) Nebraska’s tiniest and youngest citizens died at the highest rate in five years — 6.8 deaths for every 1,000 births, said Dr. Magda Peck, associate dean and professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center…”
• Report: Immigrants’ children fastest growing youth population in Nebraska, By Erin Andersen, January 13, 2010, Lincoln Journal Star: “Nearly one in eight Nebraska kids were born to immigrants in 2008 — making them the state’s fastest growing youth population. But statistics find these kids face more barriers than children of U.S.-born parents, according to the 2009 Kids Count report released Wednesday. Sixty-one percent of children born to immigrants live in poverty — compared with 13.4 percent of Nebraska children as a whole…”
• Immigrant kids’ needs highlighted, By Cindy Gonzalez, January 13, 2010, Omaha World-Herald: “The latest ‘Kids Count in Nebraska’ report ventures into atypical and politically charged territory: immigration. Usually, authors present only a general report card on how children fare in Nebraska. They compile statistics on subjects such as dropout rates, infant mortality and juvenile crime. This year, Voices for Children, a statewide research and policy group that released the 85-page report, chose to highlight barriers faced by immigrant children and parents…”

• U.S. food stamp official: State could be aiding more Texans, By Corrie MacLaggan, January 12, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Texas could be providing food stamps to 650,000 more people and could increase the amount of federal money it receives for the program each year from $4 billion to $5 billion if the state increased its participation rate to the national average, according to President Barack Obama’s top food stamp official. But Texas officials, who are struggling with a strained application system, say increasing participation is not their goal…”
• Official: Food-stamp application flubs hurt hungry Texas families, By Robert T. Garrett, January 13, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Texas’ botched experiment with privatization of welfare application screening has caused “a five-year slide” in how fast and accurately the state handles food stamp applications, the federal government’s top food and nutrition official says. Now, the problems are punishing middle-class Texans who’ve recently lost jobs and are seeking government help - many, for the first time, says U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon…”
• Official: Texas has worst-ranked food stamp program, By Gary Scharrer, January 12, 2010, Houston Chronicle: “Texas has the worst performing food stamp program in the nation, the federal director for food assistance told state officials here Tuesday. It ranks last among the 50 states and U.S. territories in processing food stamp applications and also does a poor job getting eligible low-income people to apply, said Kevin Concannon, a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary, in an earlier meeting with reporters. And because Texas does not even come close to the national average in enrolling those eligible, grocery retailers like H-E-B and Randalls are missing out on nearly $1 billion a year in food sales, he said…”

Budget cuts making it harder for low-income women to get subsidized child care, Mass. Budget and Policy Center says, By Jim Kinney, January 12, 2010, Springfield Republican: “Cuts in state funding are making it harder for low-income women to get their children into state-subsidized child care, according to a new report issued Tuesday by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. At the same time, women are also losing their child-care subsidy as they have their hours cut back at work, said Kathleen A. Treglia, vice president of the YMCA of Greater Springfield and executive director of its community services branch. ‘You have to cut somewhere,’ she said. ‘It’s a lot of little things that are adding up, that’s why you are not hearing a huge public outcry…’”

• Poorer pupils to be given free laptops, January 11, 2010, BBC News: “A scheme to give free laptops to pupils from poor backgrounds is being rolled out to 270,000 families in England. The £300m Home Access scheme, first announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2008, has been piloted in two local areas. It will allow some of the most in need children, those in care and from the poorest homes, to apply for a grant for a free laptop and broadband connection. It aims to help bridge the achievement gap between rich and poor pupils…”
• Free laptops with broadband to be provided to 250,000 low-income households, January 11, 2010, Telegraph: “The Prime Minister said the £300 million project would see every family in the country linked to their children’s schools to access progress reports on attainment, behaviour and other needs. As well as helping pupils with homework, trials of the scheme had also proved invaluable to single parents with finding work and keeping in touch with friends, Mr Brown said. He hailed the national rollout of the scheme in a speech to education ministers and professionals from around the world meeting at a forum in London…”

• Kids Count: Report card mixed on the welfare of Saginaw County children, By Barrie Barber, January 12, 2010, Saginaw News: “The welfare of Saginaw County children received mixed grades in an annual report card released today. The Kids Count in Michigan Data Book 2009 report compiles federal and state information to chart children’s well-being. The county counted more kids in poverty and more child abuse and neglect cases, but the number of fourth- and eight-graders deemed proficient in state standardized math test was up and the high school drop-out rate declined, the report said…”
• Child health signs mixed in Michigan, By Elizabeth Willis, January 12, 2010, Battle Creek Enquirer: “It is no surprise that more children in Michigan were born into poverty in recent years, and that their health has been affected by it, according to a report released today. Calhoun County’s youngest children were among the most vulnerable in Michigan, according to the Kids Count in Michigan Data Book 2009, an annual project of the Michigan League for Human Services. The infant death rate increased significantly in Calhoun County, though the state rate declined. The county had the third-worst infant mortality rate among the 54 counties reporting. There are 83 counties in Michigan…”
• Report: Poverty rates for rural Michigan higher than Wayne County, Associated Press, January 11, 2010, MLive.com: “Some of Michigan’s relatively rural northern counties have a higher percentage of children living in poverty than the state’s big urban counties, according to a study released Tuesday. The latest Kids Count report says one of every five children in Michigan lived in a family with income below the federal poverty level in 2007. Poverty was defined as income below roughly $17,000 for a family of three led by a single parent or $21,000 for a family of four with two parents…”
• Child poverty, neglect on rise in Michigan, By Catherine Jun, January 12, 2010, Detroit News: “Childhood poverty, neglect and abuse continue to rise in Michigan, troubling signs that children continue to bear the brunt of the state’s economic woes, according to a report released today. More than 40 percent of Michigan students were eligible and received free or reduced federal lunches in 2008, according to Kids Count in Michigan, a report released by the Michigan League of Human Services. That’s up from 30.7 percent in 2001. Even in Oakland County, the state’s wealthiest county, more children (age 17 and younger) are falling into poverty: 11 percent compared with 8.6 percent in 2005. Statewide, one in five children lives in poverty…”
• Growing child poverty in Michigan must be addressed, Editorial, January 12, 2010, Detroit News: “A new Kids Count report shows that growing poverty is taking a toll in Michigan and serves as a reminder of the importance of a healthy education system. The report released today by the Michigan League for Human Services and Michigan’s Children finds state childhood poverty rose 6 percent between 2005 and 2007, with nearly one in every five children in Michigan living in poverty. The number of students receiving free or reduced-priced lunches increased 14 percent between 2006 and 2008 — meaning more than two of every five public school K-12 students participate in the school lunch program at free or reduced prices…”