Unemployment falls in a majority of US cities, By Christopher S. Rugaber (AP), April 28, 2010, Washington Post: “Unemployment rates fell or remained level in three-quarters of the 372 largest metropolitan areas, a sign that the economic recovery is widespread. The Labor Department said Wednesday the jobless rate dropped in 69 percent of metro areas last month from February. It rose in 24 percent of large cities and remained the same in the rest. That’s an improvement from February, when the unemployment rate decreased in 51 percent of metro areas and increased in one-third. The report follows other recent encouraging news about jobs. Employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the government said earlier this month, the most significant gain in three years. Still, the growth wasn’t enough to bring down the unemployment rate, which remained at 9.7 percent for the third straight month…”

Free money left on table, By Armand Emamdjomeh, April 29, 2010, New York Times: “What if residents of California - a state reeling from unemployment, a sagging economy and a gaping budget hole - had access to more than $1 billion, but did not use it? What if Alameda County residents had access to $29 million and failed to take it out of the federal treasury? That is exactly what they have been doing, according to a new report, ‘Left on the Table,’ by two professors at California State University, Fresno, which was published by the New America Foundation. An estimated 800,000 California residents will fail to claim a total of $1.2 billion in 2009 earned-income tax credit refunds, the report says. California has the highest rate of unclaimed earned-income tax credits nationally, with nearly a quarter of qualified residents failing to claim the credit when they file their taxes, according to studies by both the Internal Revenue Service and the Government Accountability Office…”

Study: Md., Va. Latino kids fare better than peers elsewhere, still face hurdles, By Tara Bahrampour, April 29, 2010, Washington Post: “Latino children in Maryland and Virginia are faring better than their counterparts in many areas of the country but still face significant hurdles to integration and success, according to a report released Wednesday by the Population Reference Bureau and the National Council of La Raza, a Latino civil rights organization. The report found that a disproportionate number of Latino children in the United States live in poverty, drop out of school, lack health insurance and end up in the juvenile justice system. Its authors stressed the ‘urgency’ of the situation and recommended swift intervention to reverse the trends…”

‘99ers’ dread future without jobless benefits, By Alana Semuels, April 30, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Karl Schafer says he has tried for hundreds of jobs since he was laid off from a truck factory more than two years ago. Still waiting to get hired, the 52-year-old Ohio man has suffered the indignity of applying for food stamps and asking his elderly mother for help. Weary of her own job search, former customer service representative Wagma Omar, 40, of Mission Viejo is thinking about applying for a dangerous civilian job in Afghanistan. And in California’s wine country, Kay Stephens, 56, is frantically looking to cut her living expenses so her unemployment doesn’t become a burden to her 30-year-old daughter. Schafer, Omar and Stephens are among the increasing number of unemployed Americans whose burdens just got heavier: They’ve exhausted their 99 weeks of jobless benefits and must now figure out how to get by on ever more meager resources…”

Quarter of children in Scotland in ‘persistent’ poverty, By Reevel Alderson, April 29, 2010, BBC News: “The Scottish government has been urged to change the way it tackles the problem of child poverty. A series of studies it has published reveals poverty may be more serious for many families than had been previously believed. Researchers with Growing Up in Scotland, who tracked the experiences of 8,000 families, said a quarter of children were ‘persistently poor’. They said government measures to deal with the problem needed to be targeted. Eradicating child poverty is a commitment of both the Westminster and Holyrood governments…”

• States decide on running new pools for insurance, By Robert Pear, April 29, 2010, New York Times: “The fight over the new health care law shifted Thursday to the states, as some governors claimed federal money to run a new insurance pool for people with serious medical problems, while officials in other states said they would not operate the program. Friday is the deadline for states to tell the Obama administration whether they want to run the high-risk insurance pool for uninsured people with pre-existing conditions, or whether they will leave the task to Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services…”
• New Colorado law to help insure 67,500 more, By Jennifer Brown, April 29, 2010, Denver Post: “Colorado can afford to add about 67,500 people to Medicaid and other government insurance next week, thanks to a new state law that requires hospitals to chip in toward the landmark initiative. Hospitals made their initial payments - and in return, received more state and federal cash to take care of needy patients - this month. The amount each hospital paid was worked out through a complicated formula that left some hospitals in the hole and others millions of dollars ahead of where they were before the new law. The state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing released a list of hospital winners and losers at The Denver Post’s request…”

• Townships stockpiling reserves intended for needy, By Joe Biesk and Elisabeth Martin, April 25, 2010, Southtown Star: “At a time when America is grappling with its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, township governments across the Southland have stockpiled hefty cash reserves in accounts intended to help the poor pay for basic necessities, a SouthtownStar analysis shows. Many Southland townships are paying more to administer their poor relief programs - funded almost exclusively from the local property tax - than they are to give the needy a hand. Others are sitting on large sums of money, in some cases topping more than $1 million, that they invest or save for future use instead of increasing benefits or returning it to taxpayers, the analysis found…”
• Townships use different methods to address needs of poor, By Elisabeth Martin and Joe Biesk, April 26, 2010, Southtown Star: “When homeowners in Frankfort Township open their property tax bills each year, there’s a big fat zero where their taxes for the township’s general assistance program normally would be. The township hasn’t collected taxes for the program in 20 years, and officials say they plan to keep it that way. Instead, needy residents who come to Frankfort Township for help get referrals to other programs that offer assistance and visits to the township’s food pantry. As a result, the township hasn’t had a client on its general assistance rolls for years…”