Budget cuts restrict medical care for poor, By Julia Lyon, March 3, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “One year after an emergency room doctor noticed a disturbing spot on Deborah Davis’ kidney, the recovering alcoholic who has been homeless for years is finally trying to find out if she has cancer. But if she needs a kidney removed, she may be one year too late to get help from Utah. This January, the state stopped enrolling poor, disabled clients for short-term monthly cash payments known as General Assistance, intended to keep them afloat until they receive federal disability benefits. Being enrolled in GA also allowed people to apply for state money for one-time medical procedures. Fixing a hernia or carpal tunnel syndrome — more typical procedures than Davis’ kidney surgery — allows a recipient to go back to work, stop relying on public benefits and prevent a long-term disability. Fewer and fewer Utahns have access to that support. In the past few years, state budget cuts reduced GA by millions of dollars and shortened the amount of time clients receive aid, resulting in hundreds of people losing benefits…”

Maine may index minimum wage, By Deborah McDermott, March 1, 2010, Portsmouth Herald: “The Maine Legislature’s Joint Labor Committee is currently debating a bill that would tie the state’s minimum wage to cost-of-living increases - a measure that has strong detractors and passionate supporters. LD 192, introduced by Sanford Democratic Rep. John Tuttle, requires the Department of Labor to calculate the inflation-adjusted miminum hourly wage based on changes in the CPI for the Northeast each Jan. 1, starting this year. Excluded from the calculations would be any month in which the state’s unemployment rate exceeds the national unemployment rate. So far, Maine’s rate hasn’t exceeded the national rate. Maine’s hourly minimum wage is $7.50 an hour, 25 cents an hour higher than the federal minimum. If Tuttle’s bill passes, Maine will be the 11th state that indexes minimum wage. A similar effort in New Hampshire was killed last year, leaving the Granite State’s minimum at $7.25 an hour…”

Microfinance’s midlife crisis, By Julian Evans, March 1, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “From humble beginnings, microfinance-a system of providing tiny loans and savings accounts to the poor-has grown into a global industry attracting the interest of large multinational banks. But the commercialization of the industry has sparked a fierce debate. Profit advocates highlight improved access to foreign capital and expertise; traditionalists say microfinance companies are in danger of becoming little better than predatory moneylenders. There is little doubt that microfinance is now big money. In 2008 it attracted $14.8 billion in foreign capital, up 24% from the previous year. For the first time, the majority of the money came from private investors-including pension schemes and private-equity funds-rather than governments, according to the World Bank…”

• Payday lenders giving advances on unemployment checks, By Robert Faturechi, March 1, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The payday loan industry has found a new and lucrative source of business: the unemployed. Payday lenders, which typically provide workers with cash advances on their paychecks, are offering the same service to those covered by unemployment insurance. No job? No problem. A typical unemployed Californian receiving $300 a week in benefits can walk into one of hundreds of storefront operations statewide and walk out with $255 well before that government check arrives — for a $45 fee. Annualized, that’s an interest rate of 459%. Critics of the practice, which has grown as the jobless rate has increased, say these pricey loans are sending the unemployed into a cycle of debt from which it will be tough to emerge. Many payday clients pay off their loans and immediately take out another, or borrow from a second lender to pay off the first, and sink ever deeper into debt. Typical customers take out such loans about 10 times a year, by some estimates…”
• Online payday loans pose new challenges for consumers, regulators, By Pat Schneider, February 22, 2010, Capital Times: “Bonnie Bernhardt is proud to have helped nearly 400 Wisconsin residents get back some of their money from an online lender that state attorneys say overstepped its bounds. The 43-year-old single mother from Verona was the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed two years ago against online payday lender Arrowhead Investments. After an out-of-court settlement to the class action lawsuit was approved earlier this month, Bernhardt and the others will split $100,000 in restitution. Another $432,000 in outstanding loans will be closed out and forgiven by Arrowhead, and the Delaware-based company is also barred from doing business in Wisconsin for five years…”