Mergers, program cuts recommended to trim state budget, By Cy Ryan, October 29, 2010, Las Vegas Sun: “Merging agencies, shifting programs to local government and cutting benefits to low-income residents are among proposals to save millions of dollars as the state faces a financial crunch. The fiscal staff of the Legislature on Thursday outlined more than 20 ideas for efficiencies and savings in the upcoming budget. State agencies have produced initial budgets with 10 percent reductions. The legislative financial division has additional suggestions the 2011 session might consider…”

Welfare reform failing poor single mothers, By Melinda Burns, October 28, 2010, Miller-McCune: “The women at the bottom in America, single mothers on public assistance, are sometimes called ‘drawer people,’ the subjects of case files that stay in the welfare manager’s drawer, year after year. They are mothers who quit work or can’t work because they are ill or disabled, or illiterate, or victims of abuse, or the sole caregivers for an elderly parent or chronically sick child. These so-called hard-to-serve single mothers may include women who fail to apply for the 70 jobs in one month required to qualify for a federal cash grant. They may want to go to school full time, which is against welfare rules in some states. They may be approaching the five-year lifetime limit for cash assistance that most states impose. Or they may simply not own a car…”

Researchers fight to save the region’s tiniest babies, By Josh Goldstein, October 25, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Delivered by cesarean section 11 weeks early, Quinzel Kane Jr. was so tiny that his 1.6-pound body nearly fit in his father’s hand. A week later, the child developed a leaky bowel - a common problem in underweight babies - and was rushed to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Over the next few months, specialists there would fight to keep him from becoming part of a grim statistic: the high infant mortality rate in pockets across the region. Philadelphia’s infant mortality rate stands among the nation’s highest - rivaling Detroit’s and Baltimore’s - and is on par with those of Uruguay in South America and Bosnia in eastern Europe. But the rates are high too in some suburban towns, such as Upper Darby and Norristown. And while murders grab far more attention here, the number of infant deaths is actually greater across the region…”

City’s teen birthrate heading downward, By Karen Herzog, October 28, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Milwaukee’s teen birthrate - the second highest in the nation less than a decade ago- is dropping at a pace that could put it near the much lower state average by 2015, according to data released Wednesday by public health officials.
‘We know there’s much work to get done, but we should all feel encouraged this trend is going in the right direction,’ said Bevan Baker, Milwaukee’s health commissioner. Baker is co-chair of a United Way of Greater Milwaukee advisory committee that set a goal in 2008 of reducing the city’s teen birthrate, which hovered in 2006 at 52 births per 1,000 teens ages 15 to 17. By 2015, the goal is 30 births per 1,000 teens in that age group. The committee targeted new pregnancy prevention efforts starting with fourth-graders because they would turn 17 in 2015…”

Recession officially over, use of food stamps stays at record high, By Husna Haq, October 26, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “Before the recession, Mary Ellen Hayden was living an active New York City life. She worked days at a corporate job, nights as a professional singer, taught as a substitute on occasion - and all as she was finishing her certification in secondary English education. Then the recession hit and Ms. Hayden found herself out of a job and living on a shoestring budget in the most expensive city in the US. ‘Things were drying up left and right,’ says Hayden, who had completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at private universities in the Northeast. When a friend told her she could qualify for food stamps, she hesitated, but not for long. ‘I was surprised it existed for me,’ says Hayden, who moved recently to more-affordable Rochester, N.Y. ‘And embarrassed because I’d never done it before. You think, ‘Oh my gosh, I hope no one sees me.’ It’s a humbling experience for someone who’s never been on it before.’ The recession introduced millions of Americans to food stamps - many of them, like Hayden, for the first time. Now, more than a year after the recession is officially said to have ended, more Americans than ever are on food stamps, and the trend is higher still…”

Privatizing child welfare near, By Martha Stoddard, October 26, 2010, Omaha World-Herald: “Department of Health and Human Services officials hope to take a first step this week in replacing child welfare workers with private contractors. Agency spokeswoman Kathie Osterman said Monday that the agency’s staff is working on documents justifying the change. The documents are expected to be submitted to the Department of Administrative Services for approval ‘within the week,” she said. The justification is required by a 1995 state law. But some legislators are questioning the agency’s plans and its timeline. State Sen. Gwen Howard of Omaha, a former state caseworker, said she is concerned that the change is being rushed through without legislative oversight. She said numerous questions need to be answered in light of the problems experienced already in the move toward privatizing care of state wards…”

• Colleges aim to boost low grad rates; many students unprepared, By Lori Higgins, October 24, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Colleges today face a dilemma: They can get students in the door. But keeping them enrolled, and getting them to graduate, is a tough task. In Michigan, just a little more than half the students who enter college as first-time students graduate within six years. At individual universities, the rates are even lower: 32% for Wayne State University, 38% at Saginaw Valley State University, 40% at Eastern Michigan University. The rates are worse for minorities. The reasons: too many academically unprepared students, financial struggles forcing students to drop out, part-time students who take longer to graduate. Officials are working to turn around the numbers with tutoring, mentoring and academic counseling…”
• Report: ‘Horrendous’ black-white gap at Wayne State, By Lori Higgins, October 24, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Graduation rates overall show a need for improvement, but they’re particularly dismal for some minority groups. In Michigan, about 59% of students who enrolled in 2002 graduated within six years, but the rate is only about 36% for African-American students. In contrast, white students have a graduation rate of about 61%. Similar gaps can be seen between white and Hispanic groups at some universities, though the overall rate for Hispanic students, 56%, is more comparable to that of white students…”

• Recession’s reverberations keep pummeling the young, By Don Lee, October 24, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “As the nation struggles with the aftermath of the Great Recession, few groups have suffered greater setbacks or face greater long-term damage than young Americans - damage that could shadow their entire working lives. Unemployment for 20- to 24-year-olds hit a record high of more than 17% earlier this year. Even for young adults with college degrees, the jobless rate has averaged 9.3% this year, double the figure for older graduates, according to the Labor Department. Adding to the impact, surveys by the Pew Research Center indicate, a greater share of workers in their 20s lost hours or were cut down to part-time status than any other age group. And their incomes have fallen more sharply, even as they are far more likely than others to say they are working harder than ever…”
• Recession in midstate hitting children hardest, By Diana Fishlock, October 24, 2010, Patriot-News: “Dauphin County is seeing its youngest children get hit hardest by the recession. Among Dauphin County families with children all under 5 years old, more than 20 percent were living in poverty in 2009. That’s up from about 15 percent just two years before, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Families with children under 18 saw poverty increase during the same time. Nearly half of the county’s single mothers with children under 5 lived in poverty. Those on the front lines of providing social services say they see more younger children exhibiting signs of anxiety and parents worrying about providing enough food. In surrounding counties, families with children generally saw poverty decrease from 2007 to 2009, according to census estimates…”

• The world’s most corrupt countries, By Mike Blanchfield, October 26, 2010, Toronto Star: “The No. 1 recipient of Canadian taxpayers’ foreign-aid dollars is the second-most corrupt country in the world, a new report says. Afghanistan tied with the military dictatorship in Myanmar as the second-most corrupt country on the planet, according to the yearly audit by the Berlin-based group Transparency International. Somalia won the dubious distinction as most corrupt on the organization’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index. On the least-corrupt scale, Canada inched up to sixth from eighth from a year earlier in the ranking of 178 countries. Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore topped the list as the countries with the most virtuous public sectors…”
• Russia most corrupt among global powers, study says; U.S. ranking also worsens, By Will Englund, October 26, 2010, Washington Post: “Corruption in Russia has grown even more blatant over the past year, according to a report issued Tuesday by Transparency International, and the country has fallen from 146th place to 154th on the organization’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Russia tied with Tajikistan, Papua New Guinea and several African countries, and was ranked most corrupt among the G-20 nations. For the first time since Transparency International began issuing its annual list 15 years ago, the United States dropped out of the top 20 least-corrupt nations, because of financial scandals it has endured. The United States fell from 19th place to 22nd, behind Chile…”

• ‘An illusion of treatment’, By Alan Johnson and Catherine Candisky, October 24, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “Ohio’s mental-health system, once a national model, is on the verge of collapse as the state careens toward the biggest budget crisis in memory. Thousands have been slashed from the mental-health-care rolls. Others might have to wait months to see a psychiatrist. State funding for mental-health services has been decimated, Medicaid is gobbling up scarce local dollars, and hundreds of small group homes for the mentally ill have closed. Prisons, nursing facilities and homeless shelters are the new homes for thousands of mentally ill Ohioans, advocates say…”
• 1988 act worked well, for a few years, By Catherine Candisky, October 24, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “July 1, 1988, wasn’t a holiday, but Maureen Corcoran didn’t sleep the night before. ‘It was like New Year’s Eve because July 1 was the beginning of the Mental Health Act,’ said Corcoran, now Ohio’s Medicaid director, then a deputy director for the Department of Mental Health and former executive assistant to former Gov. Richard F. Celeste. ‘Nothing happened on July 1, but that’s how excited we were.’ The Mental Health Act of 1988, signed by Celeste on March 28 that year, was a watershed in Ohio’s treatment of the mentally ill. After decades of inadequate treatment, marked by tragic stories of patients unserved, mistreated or chained in hospital wards, the state was dawning a new day. Patients could leave the hospitals (or avoid going there in the first place), return to their home communities, and receive treatment, housing, transportation and other services coordinated by 53 community mental-health boards. Most important, the state funds that had paid for their hospitalization would follow them home, assuring the availability of critical restorative services…”

Tough economic times head West after recession, By Christopher S. Rugaber (AP), October 22, 2010, Washington Post: “A delayed decline in home prices and drops in manufacturing and tourism have caused unemployment in western mountain states to rise faster in the past year than in any other region. The jobless rate in the eight-state Mountain West region has jumped to 9.3 percent from 8.7 percent a year ago. That’s still lower than the 9.6 percent national average. But the gap is narrowing with the rest of the nation. The jobs crisis in regions with higher unemployment has mainly stabilized. The lagging pace represents a sharp turnaround for a region that had been growing at a healthy pace before the recession. And it illustrates how broadly the Great Recession and its aftershocks are affecting the country…”

Report faults state prisons’ treatment of mothers, By David Crary (AP), October 21, 2010, Miami Herald: “The number of women in America’s state prisons has reached a record high, yet many states have inadequate policies for dealing with the large portion of them who have children or are pregnant, according to a new 50-state survey. The report, being released Thursday by the National Women’s Law Center and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights, analyzes policies in three areas - prenatal care, shackling of pregnant women during childbirth, and community-based alternatives to incarceration enabling mothers to be with their children. Only one state, Pennsylvania, received an A…”

• Homeless students on the rise throughout Washington, By Carol Smith, October 24, 2010, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “School districts around the state are grappling with how to help growing populations of homeless students, even as budget cuts further slash their ability to meet their federal obligation to do so. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, school districts are required to identify and report homeless students and to guarantee those students transportation so they can stay at their original schools even if they have been forced to find emergency shelter outside the district. Being homeless can affect how children learn, can lead to depression, and can be misdiagnosed as learning disabilities, labels that stick with a child for years…”
• Homelessness can cause mental problems in kids, By Carol Smith, October 24, 2010, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “The truest victims of homelessness are young children, who have no control over the decisions that put them there, and no power to change their circumstances. The typical homeless families in the country are headed by young women in their 20s, typically with two children. Nearly half those kids are under age 5. The consequences of homelessness can be devastating and long-lasting for young children. By age 8, one in three homeless children has a mental health problem that affects their functioning, said Karen Hudson, social worker with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a national expert on homeless children…”

More working families getting government food aid, By Mark Niesse (AP), October 22, 2010, Kansas City Star: “Lillie Gonzales does whatever it takes to provide for three ravenous sons who live under her roof. She grows her own vegetables at home on Kauai, runs her own small business and like a record 42 million other Americans, she relies on food stamps. Gonzales and her husband consistently qualify for food stamps now that Hawaii and other states are quietly expanding eligibility and offering the benefit to more working, moderate income families. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture reviewed by The Associated Press shows that 30 states have adopted rules making it easier to qualify for food stamps since 2007. In all, 38 states have loosened eligibility standards. Hawaii has gone farther than most, allowing a family like Gonzales’ to earn up to $59,328 and still get food stamps. Prior to an Oct. 1 increase, the income eligibility limit for a Hawaii family of five was $38,568 a year…”

• Highest teen birthrates are in the South, October 21, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The highest teenage birthrates in the U.S. are clustered in Southern states and the lowest in the Northeast and upper Midwest, government researchers said Wednesday. Birthrates fell to an average of 41.5 births per 1,000 female teens in 2008 from 42.5 in 2007, with 14 states seeing declines. That followed an increase from 2005 to 2007, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. The differences are important because teen parents are less likely to pursue higher education, their children are less likely to be healthy, and they earn less on average than people who have children later…”
• State’s lower teen-pregnancy rate doesn’t tell whole story, By Carol M. Ostrom, October 20, 2010, Seattle Times: “Teen pregnancy is associated with all sorts of bad things - physical risks to babies, interrupted education for moms, and lower lifetime incomes all around - so it’s good news that Washington, overall, has a significantly lower rate than the U.S. average. But the statistics released Wednesday morning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention don’t tell the whole story. Buried inside the big-picture statistics about Washington are numbers that reveal pockets of teen pregnancy, often in nearby high schools and middle schools…”
• Teen birth rate low, but racial disparities persist, By Elizabeth Dunbar, October 21, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “New numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show Minnesota has the eighth-lowest teen birth rate in the nation, but the rates are much higher among teens of color. Nationally, the CDC found that the worst disparities between black teens and the general population occurred in the South and the Upper Midwest. Minnesota was among the 10 states with the highest teen birth rate among black teens…”

In Illinois, late payments fray the safety net, By Daniel C. Vock, October 19, 2010, Stateline.org: “On weekday afternoons when schools let out in Humboldt Park, a predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, dozens of children, ages 6 to 16, head to a community center known as the Youth Service Project. When they arrive at the center’s activity rooms, the children must do their homework first. Then they’re allowed to play, read books about sharks, throw balls at each other or just hang out with friends. It’s a safe place in a neighborhood troubled by gang violence. Two years ago, two participants at the Youth Service Project were killed, and two more were injured, in the fighting. The youth at the center, which runs an arts education program, responded to the deaths by painting an indoor mural of their memories of that summer’s events. It shows a SWAT team van, a church cross against a blue sky and a funeral home - although the center’s staff, fearing that the funeral home would be a distressing image for the kids to see every day, have moved a bookshelf in front of it. The center plays an important role in the life of Humboldt Park. Indeed, the state of Illinois, which provides 95 percent of the Youth Service Project’s funding, expects the center to provide all of the services under its contract. The catch is that, with all the state’s fiscal troubles lately, no one knows when the state will actually hand over that money…”

• Cholera reported in several areas in Haiti, By Donald G. McNeil Jr., October 22, 2010, New York Times: “A cholera outbreak in a rural area of northwestern Haiti has killed more than 150 people and overwhelmed local hospitals with thousands of the sick, the World Health Organization said Friday, increasing long-held fears of an epidemic that could spread to the encampments that shelter more than a million of Haitians displaced by the January earthquake. Even as relief organizations rushed doctors and clean-water equipment toward the epicenter - the Artibonite, a riverine rice-producing area about three hours north of the capital, Port-au-Prince - Haitian radio reported that cholera cases had surfaced in two other areas: the island of La Gonâve, and the town of Arcahaie, which lies closer to the capital. In addition, a California-based aid group, International Medical Corps, said they had confirmed cases in Croix-des-Bouquet…”
• Haiti’s first cholera epidemic in a century kills scores, By Rory Carroll, October 22, 2010, The Guardian: “Haiti’s first cholera epidemic in a century has swept a region north of the capital Port-au-Prince, killing dozens and overwhelming health services. At least 142 people have died and more than 1,500 were stricken by diarrhoea, fever and vomiting in the worst public health crisis since the January earthquake. Authorities and aid agencies scrambled to contain the outbreak in the largely rural Artibonite region before it reached tent cities housing vulnerable quake survivors…”

• Unemployment rate drops in 23 states in September, By Christopher S. Rugaber (AP), October 22, 2010, USA Today: “Nearly half of U.S. states reported drops in their unemployment rates in September from a month earlier, the best showing since June. But job creation was weak in most areas of the country. Unemployment fell in 23 states and Washington, D.C., rose in 11 states and was unchanged in 16 during September, the Labor Department said Friday. The declines were nearly double the number reported by states in the previous month…”
• For some, jobless benefits trump a job, By Allison Linn, October 21, 2010, MSNBC.com: “You know the economy has become truly screwy when it pays more to collect jobless benefits than to get an actual job. The economy is so weak and jobs are so scarce that some people are finding that it isn’t worth it to work. These workers say that’s because the only jobs available are part-time or low-wage gigs that would not only be a big step down from their previous careers but also would not even pay enough to cover their expenses. About 8 million people are now collecting some form of unemployment aid, but how much they take home varies widely depending on what state they live in and how much they made previously. In Massachusetts, for example, the maximum benefit is $943 per week, including an allowance for dependents, while in Mississippi it is just $235 a week. In August, the average weekly benefit was $293.54, according to U.S. Department of Labor. On average, unemployment pays about 47 percent of what people were making before they lost their jobs, according to the department’s latest data from 2009…”

Proposal would restore state funding for child care, By Patrick McGreevy, October 19, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Upset that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed $256 million in child-care money for the poor, the state Assembly leader announced a proposal Monday to go around the governor and restore funding until a new chief executive takes office in January. The program pays child-care costs for working parents who take jobs to move off welfare but can’t afford day care. The governor’s action means child care for 60,000 families will end Nov. 1 unless a stopgap measure is found. It would cost $60 million to extend the program through Jan. 1, after which the new Legislature could try to pass a measure to restore full funding, according to Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles)…”

Community colleges not preparing California’s future workforce, study says, By Carla Rivera, October 20, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Seventy percent of students seeking degrees at California’s community colleges did not manage to attain them or transfer to four-year universities within six years, according to a new study that suggests that many two-year colleges are failing to prepare the state’s future workforce. Conducted by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Cal State Sacramento, the report, released Tuesday, found that most students who failed to obtain a degree or transfer in six years eventually dropped out; only 15% were still enrolled. In addition, only about 40% of the 250,000 students the researchers tracked between 2003 and 2009 had earned at least 30 college credits, the minimum needed to provide an economic boost in jobs that require some college experience…”

Fewer black males are dropping out of school in Baltimore, By Liz Bowie, October 20, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “After a push to get dropouts back in the classroom and to provide students with a greater choice of schools, Baltimore has seen marked improvements in both the graduation and dropout rates for black males. In 2007, for every diploma the city handed out to a black male student, another had dropped out. In 2010, the city handed out two diplomas for every one who dropped out…”

• Unlikely allies in food stamp debate, By Anemona Hartocollis, October 16, 2010, New York Times: “Seventeen years ago, Ann Landers got a letter from “Upset in Texas,’ a checker at a grocery store, complaining about customers on food stamps. One woman bought a ‘fancy birthday cake’ for $17. Another bought a ‘luxury’ bag of shrimp for $32.12, and so forth. ‘Can’t something be done about the freeloaders who are costing us taxpayers millions?’ Upset complained. Ellen Vollinger, legal director for the nonprofit Food Research and Action Center, thought of that letter with a pang a few days ago, when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg asked the federal government for permission to bar New York City’s food stamp users from buying sodas and other sugary drinks with their benefits. Mr. Bloomberg cast his proposal as a kind of social and scientific experiment in fighting the national epidemic of obesity and diabetes. He promised that over the two-year life of the project, New York would collect data on whether food stamp users spent their taxpayer-funded benefits on more healthful choices, like fruits and vegetables. Ms. Vollinger’s group, which is dedicated to fighting hunger, promptly came out against the idea, suggesting that, among other things, it would ‘perpetuate the myth’ encompassed in that letter to Ann Landers, that people who need government assistance make bad choices at the supermarket…”
• Oklahomans receiving food stamps went up in September, marking 30 straight monthly net increases, By Bryan Painter, October 17, 2010, The Oklahoman: “Howard Hendrick, director of the state Department of Human Services, was visiting a DHS office in McAlester and randomly walked into an interview room. Each day, Hendrick reviews the colossal numbers of those in need. That day in southeastern Oklahoma he wanted to hear the story of the young woman in the room seeking assistance. She wakes at 5 each weekday morning, gets her two children ready, takes them to child care by 6:30 a.m. and arrives at work by 7 a.m. where she’s a manager at a developmental disabilities group home. She’s divorced and her ex-husband works in a little country general store. Even though he’s paying child support and she’s working, they still don’t have enough money to take care of their family. ‘She’s driving a Ford Mustang with a couple hundred thousand miles on it,’ Hendrick said. ‘And she’s just living from paycheck to paycheck, trying to make things work. This is the plight of a lot of people today.’ In March 2008, the number of Oklahomans on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, was at 410,440, having dropped 7,184 from the previous month. Unemployment was 3.2 percent and holding steady…”

• Welfare: Well-meaning, well-funded, well-done?, By John Richardson, October 17, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “Wherever the candidates for governor go in Maine, they say, one question is likely to follow them. What are you going to do about welfare? ‘I have never seen anger this intense about anything, with the possible exception of the Vietnam War,’ said Eliot Cutler, one of three independent candidates on the ballot. The face of welfare in Maine might be a mother buying cigarettes with her state-issued debit card. It might be an elderly neighbor on the edge of becoming homeless. Both pictures are accurate — and that’s one of the reasons that Maine’s complex system of aid to the poor creates starkly different views of welfare and the people who receive it. With a gubernatorial election coming in between a deep recession and a billion-dollar budget crisis, the topic of public assistance for the poor may be the most emotionally charged issue in the Nov. 2 election. Advocates and critics of the system both throw out statistics to support their views, but it is clear that Maine’s system is facing historic pressures…”
• Maine welfare system data proves hard to get, By John Richardson, October 17, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “There is nearly universal agreement on one criticism of Maine’s welfare system: Getting detailed information on what the state spends and who gets the money can be a tall order…”
• Poll shows Mainers dissatisfied with, mistrustful of assistance programs, By John Richardson, October 17, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “Maine voters are frustrated and skeptical about the state’s public assistance programs, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage has tapped into that anger far more than his rivals, according to a poll by MaineToday Media…”
• From Welfare to Work: For many Mainers, there’s no free lunch, By John Richardson, October 18, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “It’s 7:30 a.m., and Portland’s General Assistance office is filled with men and women who need help paying their rent or some other basic expense. But they’re here for the day’s job assignments. One by one, they are sent off to clean the city’s homeless shelter, do laundry at the Barron Center, clean up a park or do clerical work at City Hall, among other tasks. These days, for thousands of Mainers, welfare is work. And people on the receiving end say they like it that way…”
• Candidates tackle welfare: State’s assistance programs face a political reality check, By John Richardson, October 19, 2010, Portland Press Herald: “From a business executive who grew up in poverty to a longtime legislator who defends public assistance programs, the candidates for governor have widely differing perspectives on welfare in Maine. Whoever wins Nov. 2 is sure to oversee changes in Maine’s welfare system…”

A growing problem: Fresh out of foster care and homeless, By Carol Smith, October 18, 2010, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Fueled by high unemployment and high housing costs, shelters for young adults in King County are turning people away in record numbers. The legacy of a failing foster care system and young people stranded by the crack epidemic of the late 1980s, the record demand experienced by these shelters illustrates a new face of homelessness, and comes even as the number of beds for young adults has been expanding. Homeless families are overwhelmingly headed by young women with young children. Yet the group driving this trend — young adults ages 18-24 — is generally under-counted and under-represented when solutions are envisioned. Relatively few resources are being directed to prevent them from producing new generations of homeless families…”

D.C. schools dinner program aims to fight childhood hunger, By Bill Turque, October 19, 2010, Washington Post: “D.C. public schools have started serving an early dinner to an estimated 10,000 students, many of whom are now receiving three meals a day from the system as it expand efforts to curb childhood hunger and poor nutrition. Free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch long have been staples in most urban school systems. But the District is going a step further in 99 of its 123 schools and reaching nearly a quarter of its total enrollment. Montgomery and Prince George’s Country also offer a third meal of the day in some schools but not on the scale undertaken in the city. The program, which will cost the school system about $5.7 million this year, comes at a time of heightened concern about childhood poverty in the city. Census data show that the poverty rate among African American children is 43 percent, up from 31 percent in 2007 and significantly higher than national rates…”

‘Culture of poverty’ makes a comeback, By Patricia Cohen, October 17, 2010, New York Times: “For more than 40 years, social scientists investigating the causes of poverty have tended to treat cultural explanations like Lord Voldemort: That Which Must Not Be Named. The reticence was a legacy of the ugly battles that erupted after Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an assistant labor secretary in the Johnson administration, introduced the idea of a ‘culture of poverty’ to the public in a startling 1965 report. Although Moynihan didn’t coin the phrase (that distinction belongs to the anthropologist Oscar Lewis), his description of the urban black family as caught in an inescapable ‘tangle of pathology’ of unmarried mothers and welfare dependency was seen as attributing self-perpetuating moral deficiencies to black people, as if blaming them for their own misfortune. Moynihan’s analysis never lost its appeal to conservative thinkers, whose arguments ultimately succeeded when President Bill Clinton signed a bill in 1996 ‘ending welfare as we know it.’ But in the overwhelmingly liberal ranks of academic sociology and anthropology the word ‘culture’ became a live grenade, and the idea that attitudes and behavior patterns kept people poor was shunned. Now, after decades of silence, these scholars are speaking openly about you-know-what, conceding that culture and persistent poverty are enmeshed…”

For the elderly, poverty level doesn’t cut it, By Alexandra Zavis, October 17, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “At the age of 80, Exaltacion Divinagracia thought that life would be easier. The petite widow still works part time at a nursery school. To keep the house she rented with her late husband, she has taken six roommates, all over 75. After church on Saturdays and Sundays, she drags a beat-up suitcase from one food pantry to the next in search of enough to eat for the coming week. Divinagracia takes home less than $13,000 a year, including public benefits. But according to the government’s income standards, she is not impoverished. To get that designation a single person must live on $10,830 a year or less. Experts say the standard - which is used nationwide to assess need, determine eligibility for aid and measure the effectiveness of public programs - has little to do with reality, particularly in places like Los Angeles, where housing costs are high. A recent UCLA study found that most older Californians, those 65 or older, need at least twice the income calculated by the federal government to make ends meet - $21,763 a year on average for a single person renting a one-bedroom apartment, or $30,634 for a couple…”

• Poverty in Israel decreased by as much as 29%, think tank reports, By Moti Bassok, October 17, 2010, Haaretz Daily Newspaper: “Israel’s poor became significantly better off by all measures during the last decade’s economic growth, the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies said in a report it released yesterday. ‘In every measure related to quality of life - purchasing power of necessities, real income, ownership of durable goods and life expectancy - Israel’s poor have become significantly better off,’ stated the report, written by Yarden Gazit. In terms of real income, poverty decreased by 18.8% between 2004 and 2008, and in terms of purchasing power, poverty decreased by 29%, the report stated…”
• Over half of capital’s kids live in poverty, report finds, By Melanie Lidman, October 18, 2010, Jerusalem Post: “More than half the children in the Jerusalem district live below the poverty line, according to an extensive report on the capital’s population released Sunday by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. Jerusalem’s poverty rate is much higher than other Israeli cities. In Tel Aviv, 23 percent of children and 14% of families live below the poverty line, and 20% of families and 34% of children in Israel as a whole live in poverty, the report found. Sunday was the UN’s International Day to Eradicate Poverty, making the dire statistics about Jerusalem even more poignant. The authors of the Jerusalem study pointed to the large haredi and Arab populations in the city as the main reasons for the high level of poverty…”
• ‘Poverty drops 18.8% in just four years’, By Ruth Eglash, October 18, 2010, Jerusalem Post: “The country’s poor are significantly better off than they were a decade ago, with the number of people living in absolute poverty falling by 18.8 percent in just four years, according to a report published by the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies on Sunday. Released to coincide with the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and one day before various Knesset committees discuss the poor, the report calls into question the annual figures published by the National Insurance Institute (NII), which show that poverty rates are continually rising, and suggests that the situation is not as grim as depicted. Authored by economist Yarden Gazit and based on consumer trends data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies report is the first to measure absolute poverty as opposed to relative poverty in the country. It shows that Israelis, even those with the lowest salaries, are able to pay for their basic needs and even allow themselves luxuries and savings…”

Welfare recipients pay banks millions in fees, By Marisa Lagos, October 15, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle: “Banks are making nearly $1.5 million a month in fees by charging California welfare recipients to withdraw their benefits using ATMs and debit cards - an amount that has nearly doubled since 2008. The sharp increase comes as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s administration has made cracking down on fraud in the state’s welfare-to-work program a priority, most recently by barring use of welfare debit cards at casinos and cruise ships after media reports revealed that nearly $70 million in benefits had been withdrawn outside the state since 2007. Advocates for the poor say that while Schwarzenegger has rightly cracked down on such abuses, he has failed to curb another source of waste: escalating bank fees that take money from needy families and from the California businesses where that money would otherwise flow. By the end of this year, they estimate, more than $38 million will have been transferred from poor families to banks in the form of ATM and debit fees over the past three years. For example, in 2008, according to state figures, banks collected $10.1 million in fees from welfare recipients; this year, they are on track to collect more than $15 million. In June 2008, recipients paid out $833,000; banks collected $1.44 million the same month this year…”

School study sees benefits in economic integration, By Stephanie McCrummen and Michael Birnbaum, October 15, 2010, Washington Post: “Low-income students in Montgomery County performed better when they attended affluent elementary schools instead of ones with higher concentrations of poverty, according to a new study that suggests economic integration is a powerful but neglected school-reform tool. The debate over reforming public education has focused mostly on improving individual schools through better teaching and expanded accountability efforts. But the study, to be released Friday, addresses the potential impact of policies that mix income levels across several schools or an entire district. And it suggests that such policies could be more effective than directing extra resources at higher-poverty schools…”

WHO: 1 billion suffer from hidden tropical disease, By Colleen Barry (AP), October 14, 2010, Washington Post: “The World Health Organization estimated Thursday that 1 billion of the world’s poorest people suffer from neglected tropical diseases such as dengue, rabies and leprosy that remain concentrated in remote rural areas and urban slums despite being mostly eradicated from large areas of the world. WHO said it can substantially reduce those numbers with the help of drug donations from the pharmeceutical industry, which announced fresh pledges. WHO identified 17 diseases and disease groups present in 149 countries one-third of the 2.7 billion people living on less than $2 a day. Thirty countries have six or more of the diseases. In all, more than one-third of the 2.7 billion people living on less than $2 a day are affected…”

• Rise in fuel poverty is a ‘national scandal’, By Graham Snowdon, October 14, 2010, The Guardian: “A senior charity executive has described the increase in fuel poverty as ‘a national scandal’ after official figures released today showed that the number of fuel-poor families rose to 4.5m in 2008, around one in six of all UK households. A fuel-poor family is defined as one that has to spend more than 10% of its income on heating its home to a decent standard. According to the latest data in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) statistics, an extra half a million households fell into this category from 2007-2008. The Annual Report on Fuel Statistics 2010 showed vulnerable households in the UK as a whole - around three-quarters of homes - were especially hard-hit, with fuel poverty in these homes rising to 3.75m in 2008, up by 500,000 from the previous year…”
• Fuel poverty doubles in five years, By Harry Wollop, October 14, 2010, The Telegraph: “With the average British fuel bill climbing to well over £1,000 a year - for many pensioners the largest bill they have to pay all year - a worryingly large number of people are struggling to keep their homes warm. A household is defined as being fuel poor if it has to spend 10 per cent or more of its income on paying to keep the home adequately warm. In 2003 the number of households hit a low of two million, but it climbed to four million in 2007 and then 4.5 million in 2008, the figures for which were published today by the Department of Energy & Climate Change…”

• Child poverty: study shows fifth of UK youngsters severely affected, By Jessica Shepherd, October 15, 2010, The Guardian: “A fifth of seven-year-olds in the UK live in ’severe poverty’ with both parents together earning less than half the average national income, a major report reveals. The government-sponsored Millennium Cohort Study has tracked 14,000 children born at the start of the century to build a picture of how family circumstances determine a young person’s education, health and happiness in Britain. The latest findings are from two years ago, when the children were seven years old…”
• One in three children in Wales live below poverty line, October 15, 2010, BBC News: “Researchers found one in three Welsh seven-year-olds live in a family with less than 60% of the UK’s average household income. But most youngsters are thought to be in excellent health with many friends. The assembly government said tackling child poverty is a ‘top priority’. The research was carried out by the Institute of Education at the University of London and involved a survey of 14,000 children born between 2000 and 2002 from across the UK…”

• Child care cuts force families to waiting lists, By Susan Ferriss, October 15, 2010, Sacramento Bee: “As soon as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his veto power last week to slash all $256 million in funding for a child care program she uses, Daniella Scally asked for a day off work to go door to door looking for other options. All the panicked Sacramento mother of three could do was add her children’s names to waiting lists. As of Nov. 1, Scally and 30,000 other families and 55,000 children face an immediate crisis. They will lose all subsidies that help them pay for their children’s child care needs under a special program known as CalWORKs Stage 3 Child Care. Schwarzenegger vetoed the child care money and more than $700 million from other programs from the newly passed state budget in order to build the state’s reserve fund. The Stage 3 program was designed to support parents who have graduated from California’s welfare-to-work program, CalWORKs, and have been completely off all cash aid for two years and gainfully employed…”
• State vetoes cut into Valley families’ child care, By Chris Collins, October 15, 2010, Fresno Bee: “After she got off welfare four years ago, Fresno single-mom Cristina Guillen vowed to provide for her kids without relying on the welfare system again. But now cuts to a government-funded child-care program threaten to push Guillen and hundreds of other families in Fresno County out of their jobs and back onto the dole. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued line-item vetoes to the state budget on Oct. 8 that totaled nearly $1 billion, including $256 million for child-care subsidies for families formerly on welfare. The cuts will affect about 1,500 families and almost 3,000 kids in Fresno County alone. Guillen, 30, had relied on the subsidies to pay for her children’s child care. With no one else available to care for her younger children while she’s at work, she said she may have to quit her job…”

• Legislators skeptical about plan to privatize Medicaid, By Matt Gouras (AP), October 15, 2010, Helena Independent Record: “Montana lawmakers and others said Thursday they are skeptical about Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s plan to privatize Medicaid services, especially those who remember a disaster in the mid-1990s to contract out some of those services. Only recently have health care providers and interested legislators learned about plans in the Schweitzer administration to consider a test letting a private, managed-care firm run Medicaid in part of the state, although many of the details have not been disclosed. ‘On first blush it sounds too good to be true. They don’t decrease care, they don’t decrease provider rates and plus they take their profit on top?’ said Rep. Mary Caferro, a Helena Democrat. ‘I just think if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.’ The Lee Newspapers State Bureau reported the state is considering asking companies to bid on a contract to manage Medicaid, the state’s $900 million health care program for the poor, in a five-county area that includes Helena and Great Falls…”
• Increasing Medicaid rolls and higher costs a challenge for next governor, By Bill Rufty, October 14, 2010, Lakeland Ledger: “Shannon Baxley and Brian Alvear and their two children receive health care through Medicaid. One daughter is disabled. Brian works two jobs, and Shannon is a full-time mom trying to get additional education. ‘It definitely helps,’ Baxley said. ‘But it does change, and you either are on full Medicaid like the children or you are on ’share of cost’ depending on your income from month-to-month, based on a formula. I could see someone older who may have Medicaid in addition to their Medicare not going to the doctor, just for the hassle of figuring it out.’ With Democrat Alex Sink and Republican Rick Scott hammering away on each other in the race to become Florida’s governor, one of them will soon be in a position to affect people like Baxley and her family. Whichever one gets the most votes in the Nov. 2 election will have to work with members of the state legislative leadership who have said the state’s share of Medicaid costs must be reduced…”
• Central Florida legislator looks to other states for Medicaid solutions, By Bill Rufty, October 15, 2010, Lakeland Ledger: “If anyone has seen all sides of the Medicaid issue, it has to be Ed Homan. He is a state legislator, an orthopedic surgeon whose medical group treats Medicaid patients, and he is a professor at the University of South Florida School of Medicine. The Temple Terrace Republican has tried to get a bill passed that would assure care for poor patients, would pay doctors compensation and would save money through a program that has been successful in North Carolina. But he said he keeps getting beaten back by corporate medical lobbyists. Homan’s latest attempt, and his last because he is leaving the Florida House after reaching term limits, was his introduction of a bill in the 2010 Florida Legislature that would have combined the best of the North Carolina plan and a similar one in Oklahoma…”

• Chronic homelessness down 42 percent, new Utah report says, By Marjorie Cortez, October 13, 2010, Deseret News: “Utah has experienced a 42 percent downturn in chronic homelessness from the previous year, a new report shows. Researchers and human services providers attribute the decline to a 10-year initiative that places the homeless in housing sooner and connects them to an array of services and case management to deal with issues that contribute to homelessness…”
• Number of homeless Utah kids skyrockets, By Julia Lyon, October 14, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “The lingering recession has taken a toll on Utah’s youngest residents, leading to a 48 percent increase in the number of homeless school-age children since 2008, according to state data released Wednesday. Nearly 12,000 children were homeless in January 2010, meaning their families had lost their homes and were typically staying with friends or relatives, officials said at the annual Homeless Summit in downtown Salt Lake City. In the Salt Lake City School District this fall, one girl was staying with friends after her mother was deported. Another teenager stayed with relatives, finishing high school in Utah after his family left the state for work in Montana. Statewide, the numbers of homeless children jumped from 8,016 in 2008 to 10,388 in 2009 and 11,883 in 2010…”
• D.C. still lacks enough shelter for homeless families, By Nathan Rott, October 13, 2010, Washington Post: “With cold weather just weeks away, the District has shelved a plan to expand its already packed shelter for homeless families at the former D.C. General Hospital, a decision that advocates fear could leave vulnerable families even worse off than last winter. A month after pledging to do a better job of sheltering the city’s homeless this winter, District leaders haven’t figured out how best to meet that promise. Meanwhile, the Family Emergency Shelter, which can house 135 families, is nearly full. And last week, 67 more families were waiting for emergency housing, with no place else to go, according to Omega Butler, chief of operations at the Virginia Williams Resource Center, which helps find housing for homeless families…”
• R.I. homeless shelters to reach record number of visits in 2010, By Chris Barrett, October 14, 2010, Providence Business News: “Visits to homeless shelters will reach record levels in 2010, the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless predicted Thursday. The advocacy group expects 4,340 people will visit shelters by the Dec. 31, the highest number since records started 25 years ago. Last year, 3,371 people visited shelters…”

Medicaid coverage at its highest level ever in Montana, October 13, 2010, Billings Gazette: “Medicaid, the state-federal program that pay medical bills for the poor and disabled, covers about 99,600 people in Montana - its highest level ever. The economic recession has swelled the ranks of the program, which is one of the largest single expenditures in the state budget. For the 2010-11 biennium, the Legislature budgeted $1.75 billion for Medicaid, or nearly $900 million a year. The state covers anywhere from one-fourth to one-third of the cost. Most Medicaid spending is on aged people, including those in nursing homes, disabled people, pregnant women, children and families with dependent children. They qualify if their income is under certain levels…”

• ‘Kids Count’ report shows progress for Oklahoma children, By Michael Overall, October 13, 2010, Tulsa World: “Statistically, children in Oklahoma seem to be healthier and better off now than they were in the mid-1990s, according to the annual ‘Kids Count’ report released Tuesday. But the researchers themselves are quick to mention that old saying: Statistics don’t tell the whole story. ‘Especially in this case,’ said Linda Terrell, executive director of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy, which presented the report at the University of Central Oklahoma. From birth weights and infant mortality to juvenile crime and drop-out rates, the report compares a dozen different categories of statistics to measure the well-being of children in the state. In most categories, Oklahoma has seen positive long-term trends. ‘But,’ Terrell raises a finger in the air to emphasize this point, ‘the data come from 2008,’ the most recent year with available information…”
• Parents in prison cause problems for Oklahoma children, By John Estus, October 12, 2010, The Oklahoman: “An Oklahoma mother is sent to prison. Her child is left motherless, develops emotional problems and flunks out of school. The child has a baby of her own before turning to drugs, a life of crime or both. Then that mother is sent to prison, leaving another child with a parent behind bars. This bleak cycle likely happens at a higher rate in Oklahoma than any other state, a new report shows. Oklahoma incarcerates more women per capita than any other state, and their children are five times more likely to end up in prison than their peers, according to the annual Kids Count Factbook from the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy. Lawmakers are taking notice of the issue as they grapple with an underfunded, overcrowded state prison system. The report states more than half of the nearly 26,000 people in state prisons are parents whose imprisonment means their children face a higher risk of going to prison themselves than their peers. Policymakers want to stop that domino effect, particularly when it comes to locking up mothers who committed nonviolent crimes…”

• Many Lansing babies ‘at high risk’, By Louise Knott Ahern, October 13, 2010, Lansing State Journal: “More than 60 percent of all births in Lansing are paid for by Medicaid, and babies here are nearly twice as likely as the statewide average to be born to a mom without a high school diploma, according to a report released Tuesday. It’s an indication, say some social service advocates, that the effect of rising poverty, falling incomes and cuts to programs for poor moms is finally reaching the most vulnerable among us: babies…”
• Report calls city ‘high risk’ for health of moms, infants, By Tarryl Jackson, October 12, 2010, Jackson Citizen Patriot: “The number of babies born pre-term and to unwed mothers and black teens in Jackson jumped during the past decade, according to a statewide report released today. The Right Start in Michigan report, produced by the Michigan League for Human Services, measured maternal and infant health from 2000 to 2008 for 69 Michigan communities. It declared Jackson one of 13 that are ‘high risk.’ Of 934 births to mothers who lived in Jackson in 2008, Medicaid paid for 64 percent. Medicaid typically covers the cost of prenatal care and delivery for pregnant women without health insurance and in households with income below 185 percent of the federal poverty level…”

• Mental health providers grapple with Medicaid expansion, By Darryl Fears, October 12, 2010, Washington Post: “For District health officials, it was an easy decision. The federal government handed them an opportunity to save $56 million over four years by expanding Medicaid this summer and they jumped at it. They switched 35,000 low-income residents from the city -funded D.C. Health Care Alliance insurance plan to a Medicaid plan and reaped the reward. It looked like a win-win: The city got some financial relief and the new Medicaid beneficiaries got mental health coverage, which was not part of the Alliance plan. But it creates a problem for the city’s mental health-care providers, who said this week that they are faced with serving thousands of new clients they are not prepared to manage…”
• Medicaid among Wisconsin’s fastest-rising costs, By Jason Stein and Patrick Marley, October 11, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In hospital birthing rooms across Wisconsin in 2008, state health programs covered 45% of all deliveries. That’s just one example of the breadth of the state’s health care safety net, which has grown even larger in recent years. Today, more than 1.1 million people in Wisconsin depend on Medicaid health programs for the poor. Medicaid provides health care for one in five Wisconsin residents; the group of programs has expanded faster here over the past nine years than in any state except Arizona. That has placed health care among the state’s fastest-rising costs for taxpayers. ‘States do have few easy and good options left to control spending in the program,’ said Robin Rudowitz, associate director with the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, who has written about nationwide increases in Medicaid amid the downturn. To keep up, the state Department of Health Services is requesting $675 million more for Medicaid and other programs over the next two years, a huge part of the more than $3 billion shortfall in the two-year state budget that awaits the next governor…”
• Tennessee’s bold leap in care for the aged and disabled, By Christine Vestal, October 12, 2010, Stateline.org: “After lagging behind the rest of the country for years, Tennessee is catching up fast when it comes to changes in its health care system aimed at elderly and disabled residents. More of them are getting the assistance they need in their homes - at a much lower cost than at a nursing home. A lot of this change is the direct result of efforts by Governor Phil Bredesen. Nearing the end of his eight years in office (he is required to leave due to term limits this year), Bredesen decided to focus on getting Tennessee off the bottom rung in rankings of states that offer consumers choices in long-term care. Just a few years earlier, only a few hundred Tennesseans were able to get Medicaid funding for anything but a nursing home. Now, it is one of a handful of bellwether states that offer a broad range of alternatives to nursing home care…”

A portrait of hunger, By Alfred Lubrano, October 10, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “There’s not enough food in Imani Sullivan’s life. At home, Sullivan, 31, often doesn’t set a fork for herself at the table so that her sons, ages 3 and 10, can eat. Naturally diminutive, Sullivan looks frail these days. She has dropped 15 pounds since losing her part-time janitor job during the summer. Each family meal feels like an obligation she cannot meet, a daily burden multiplied by three. ‘It makes me feel like less of a mom not to have food,’ she says in her mother’s North Philadelphia apartment, suddenly overcome by the hardship. Tears form in her eyes. ‘Every day, I walk into a brick wall. No bricks fall - there’s no dust, no crumbling. Just the wall. It never moves.’ The hunger in Sullivan’s house is distressingly commonplace throughout the area of Philadelphia where she lives: Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District. At a time when more people in America are suffering from hunger, the First Congressional District is one of the hungriest, second only to the Bronx, N.Y., according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, an ongoing national poll done in conjunction with the Food Research and Action Center in Washington. Meanwhile, U.S. Census data released in late September show that the district, with a poverty rate of nearly 29 percent in 2009, is among the 10 poorest in the United States, and poorer than any other district in Pennsylvania…”

• Governor’s veto ax falls heavily on welfare, child care and special education programs, By Jack Dolan and Shane Goldmacher, October 9, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday vetoed nearly $1 billion in spending on welfare, child care, special education and other programs before signing the budget bill that lawmakers had passed about eight hours earlier after a marathon overnight session. The governor slashed 23 line items from the $87.5-billion general fund budget, including $256 million from a program for school-age children of families moving off welfare, $133 million from mental health services for special education students and nearly $60 million from AIDS treatment and prevention programs. Schwarzenegger did not explain his actions, but a report issued by his finance department said the savings from his vetoes would ‘create a prudent reserve for economic uncertainties.’ The state’s reserve for emergencies such as battling wildfires will grow from $375 million to $1.3 billion, the report said. Advocates for the poor said the governor’s cuts were too deep, especially after a months-long standoff had produced a compromise spending plan that largely spared health and welfare programs from the ax…”
• Governor’s vetoes to strike local day care, other social services, By James Burger, October 11, 2010, Bakersfield Californian: “Linnea Hood found out over the weekend that she’s going to lose her job providing day care to the children of low-income families in Oildale. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto power Friday to slash the state budget and remove $256 million of statewide funding for a program that helps those families in the final stages of leaving welfare to pay for day care. Hood said she’s not worried about the job she has working for her daughter who runs the large day care. ‘My main concern is the children,’ she said. Her daughter was forced to tell the parents of all but five of the children she cares for that they will have to find a new place to take their kids. Hood said the day care can’t afford to discount care enough to keep the children there and, even if they did, parents who have fought to land an $8-an-hour job couldn’t afford to pay for their day care without help. ‘These aren’t career welfare people who are just sitting on their butt. They’re out there working,’ Hood said. ‘We’re going to take care of our (state) budget on the back of our children.’ P.H. Walker, deputy director of the state Department of Finance, said he could not speak about local impacts of the governor’s nearly two dozen line-item vetoes. Schwarzenegger made the cuts to strengthen the state’s rainy-day reserve, increasing it from the ‘razor-thin’ neighborhood of $300 million to $1.3 billion, Walker said…”

Child abuse investigations didn’t reduce risk, a study finds, By Nicholas Bakalar, October 11, 2010, New York Times: “Child Protective Services investigated more than three million cases of suspected child abuse in 2007, but a new study suggests that the investigations did little or nothing to improve the lives of those children. In 1973, Congress passed the Child Protective Services Act, designed to encourage more thorough and accurate reporting and record-keeping in child abuse cases. In New York, for example, there are now Child Protective Services offices in every county, paid for in part with federal funds. Researchers examined the records of 595 children nationwide, all at similar high risk for maltreatment, tracking them from ages 4 to 8. During those years, Child Protective Services investigated the families of 164 of these children for suspected abuse or neglect. The scientists then interviewed all the families four years later, comparing the investigated families with the 431 families that had not been investigated. The scientists looked at several factors: social support, family functioning, poverty, caregiver education and depressive symptoms, and child anxiety, depression and aggressive behavior - all known to increase the risk for abuse or neglect. But they were unable to find any differences in the investigated families compared with the uninvestigated in any of these dimensions, except that maternal depressive symptoms were worse in households that had been visited…”

• Unfilled openings frustrate the jobless, By Mark Whitehouse, October 11, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “Job openings aren’t what they used to be. Among the explanations for the stubbornly high U.S. unemployment rate, factors such as housing troubles and extended unemployment benefits have played a leading role. Increasingly, though, economists and job seekers are identifying another problem: Employers are being pickier, or not trying as hard as they usually do to fill the openings they have. The reasons for the foot-dragging are closely related to the reasons employers aren’t creating many openings in the first place. Companies lack confidence about the outlook for consumer demand, they’re not sure what the government will do with taxes and regulation, and they want to keep squeezing as much output from their current workers as they can. They also feel they have plenty of time to pick the best candidates…”
• Unemployment holds above 9.5% for 14 months, By Joe Taschler, October 8, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “With the national unemployment rate hovering at 9.6%, chances are if you haven’t been laid off, you know someone who has. The U.S. jobless rate in September spent its 14th straight month above 9.5%, the Labor Department said Friday, making it the longest such spell since the 1930s - eclipsing the downturn of the early 1980s, which forever disrupted the industrial way of life in the Milwaukee region and the Midwest. ‘We’re not (officially) in a recession,’ said Tim Smeeding, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ‘But if you look at it in terms of people affected and jobs, we’re still in a big recession.’ As happened in the early 1980s, this downturn has brought fundamental change to the nation’s economy. There used to be roads for young people with high school degrees to work their way into the middle class, said Smeeding, who is also director of the UW Institute for Research on Poverty. Those roads are largely closed now…”
• U.S. sheds 95,000 jobs in September, By Michael A. Fletcher, October 9, 2010, Washington Post: “The nation’s economy continued shedding jobs in September, as modest increases in the private sector were offset by steep losses in government employment, the Labor Department reported on Friday. The unemployment rate remained at 9.6 percent in the final jobs report before the midterm elections. It marked the 17th consecutive month that the nation’s jobless rate has been above 9 percent, sharpening the challenge facing President Obama and congressional Democrats, whose policies have failed to produce significant new hiring…”

• Call center waits prove frustrating, By Phil Anderson, October 10, 2010, Topeka Capital-Journal: “Please don’t mention the word ‘filibuster’ to Kansas Department of Labor Secretary Jim Garner. He really doesn’t want to hear it. Not after a summer in which a filibuster that started in early June by U.S. Senate Republicans contributed to almost two months of delays in processing extensions to unemployment claims that Garner said resulted in thousands of frustrated Kansans having to wait weeks for benefits or information regarding their eligibility. The previous unemployment extension expired June 2, he said. Many thought passage of a new extension would be a mere formality, but the Senate filibuster action changed that. Garner said the Kansas Department of Labor had to stop taking applications because the federal extended benefit program ‘wasn’t legally in existence…’”
• N.H. long-term jobless take a hit: Feds shift burden to local welfare rolls, By John Nolen, October 11, 2010, Foster’s Daily Democrat: “Some unfortunate Granite Staters who lost their jobs when the recession began to impact New Hampshire in January 2009, have been unable to find work since then. Their woes eased slightly this summer when Congress voted to extend unemployment benefits to 99 weeks for this might have carried them through to November. It was a false dawn, though. Like just a handful of states, New Hampshire’s unemployment rate has averaged below six percent in recent months, and so the latest federal benefit extension lifeline has excluded the long-term unemployed in New Hampshire. The calculations that go into the 99-week unemployment payments are complex, and in the process a few states with lower unemployment rates may be filtered out of some of the federal programs…”

• Health care becomes optional for people who are underemployed, By Aziza Jackson, October 11, 2010, Anniston Star: “It is no surprise that uninsured and underinsured Americans cannot afford to get sick nowadays. Obtaining affordable health care has indeed become a growing problem for many Americans, and, for the residents of Calhoun County, the problem hits even harder. According to a study headed by Dr. Samuel Addy, director and associate research economist at the Center for Business & Economic Research at the University of Alabama, Calhoun County has the highest number of underemployed workers out of all the other counties that make up the region known as ‘Region 5.’ Underemployed Calhoun County residents are considered employed because they do hold jobs. However, their jobs do not equal stability and do not provide them or their families with healthcare coverage. The underemployed are finding it difficult to make ends meet and afford medication and preventative care. Simply put: They can’t afford to get sick…”
• High-risk insurance pool accepts patients with pre-existing conditions, By Patricia Anstett, October 11, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Deri Mick is left to wonder whether the health insurance he just got through Michigan’s new program for the hard-to-insure came in time to help. Mick, 46, of Swartz Creek was set to have kidney cancer surgery last week at the University of Michigan. But tests found more cancer than expected. He awaits further tests and possibly chemotherapy. Through Michigan’s new high-risk insurance pool, Mick, who hasn’t had insurance for nine years, was able to get coverage that will cost him $350 a month. The program, which began offering coverage Oct. 1, is open to any adult 19-64 who has been rejected for insurance in Michigan. It will accept the first 3,500 applicants. Mick was turned down earlier in September by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which can legally refuse to offer insurance to people with a pre-existing condition for a period of six months from the time of the request. But the company referred Mick to the new pool. ‘I’m going to be high risk all my life,’ said Mick, a divorced father of two who earns $38,000 a year. He hopes he will qualify for some financial help in 2014, when broader health reforms begin, including subsidies for lower-income people, particularly those earning less than $40,000 a year…”

• Some insured kids miss proper health care due to costs, By Jenifer Goodwin, October 7, 2010, USA Today: “About 13% of parents with health insurance say they haven’t gotten pediatrician-recommended care for their children due to costs, a new survey in Ohio finds. Parents of kids covered by private health insurance were more likely than those with public health insurance such as Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to report forgoing care such as seeing a recommended specialist, filling a prescription or getting a lab test because of difficulty paying for it. In the survey, about 61% of parents had children covered by private insurance while about 39% had public insurance. Researchers queried 1,978 parents at pediatricians’ offices in the summer of 2009 in three counties in Ohio about their income, type of insurance and ability to access medical care for their children…”
• Government helps to insure children, even above the poverty line, By Lesley Alderman, October 8, 2010, New York Times: “The last few years have not been easy for Dean McCrea. In 2007, Mr. McCrea, 55, lost his wife of nearly 30 years. Then last November the company he worked for folded, and he could not afford to pay the steep Cobra premiums required to keep health insurance for him and his son, Henry, 16. Mr. McCrea, a media producer in Portland, Ore., receives $380 a week in unemployment benefits, which barely covers his mortgage; Henry receives a small stipend from Social Security each month. ‘The last years have been a constant navigation of what feels like Class 5 rapids,’ he said. In June, Mr. McCrea’s luck turned, a little. He learned about Healthy Kids, the state’s health insurance program for middle-class families, and promptly enrolled his son. The program provides Henry with full health coverage, including vision and dental. The cost: $38 a month. ‘A lot of people in my circle, solid middle-class families, are struggling,’ Mr. McCrea said. ‘The peace of mind that this program has supplied me is not measurable.’ Government health insurance for children is no longer available only for the poorest households. Now middle-class families like the McCreas, struggling through the recession, can benefit as well. The Census Bureau recently reported that the poverty rate was up, and the number of insured adults was down. But the news was brighter for children. The percentage of children under age 19 with insurance edged up to 91 percent last year, a record high, from 90.3 percent in 2008…”

• Employment picture dims as government cuts back, By Catherine Rampell, October 8, 2010, New York Times: “In the one-two punch many had long been fearing, hiring by businesses has slowed significantly while government jobs are disappearing at a record pace. Companies added 64,000 jobs last month, after having added 93,000 jobs in August, the Labor Department reported Friday. But over all, the economy shed 95,000 nonfarm jobs in September, the result of a 159,000 decline in government jobs at all levels. Local governments in particular cut jobs at the fastest rate in almost 30 years…”
• Economy continues shedding jobs, posing challenge for Obama, Democrats, By Michael A. Fletcher, October 8, 2010, Washington Post: “The nation’s economy continued shedding jobs in September, as modest increases in private employment were offset by the steep loss of government jobs, the government reported on Friday. The unemployment rate remained at 9.6 percent in the final jobs report before the midterm elections. It marked the 17th consecutive month that the nation’s unemployment rate has been above 9 percent, sharpening the challenge facing President Obama and congressional Democrats, whose policies have failed to produce significant new hiring…”

• The buying hour, By Anne D’Innocenzio and Dena Potter (AP), October 7, 2010, Eugene Register-Guard: “Once a month, just after midnight, the beeping checkout scanners at a Walmart just off Interstate 95 come alive in a chorus of financial desperation. Here and at grocery stores across the country, the chimes come just after food stamps and other monthly government benefits drop into the accounts of shoppers who have been rationing things like milk, ground beef and toilet paper and can finally stock up again. Shoppers mill around the store after 11 p.m., killing time until their accounts are replenished. When midnight strikes, they rush for the checkout counter…”
• Millions in federal food aid goes unused, By Peter Passi, October 3, 2010, Duluth News Tribune: “Kobreina Carlson doesn’t know how she and her 2-year-old daughter would make ends meet without food stamps. A single mother living in Duluth, Carlson works part time providing home care to seniors, but she doesn’t earn enough to pay rent on her modest apartment and still keep food on the table. To fill the gap, she relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - the proper name for the federal aid most people know as food stamps. Use of federal food aid has soared 48 percent locally in the past five years, with more than one in eight Duluthians receiving assistance through the program as of June. But a recent study indicates almost one-third of Duluthians are probably eligible to receive federal food aid. The SNAP Utilization Study published in April found that only 42 percent of people who would qualify for food stamps in St. Louis County actually received them. That compares with a statewide utilization rate of 45 percent for the program…”
• New York asks to bar use of food stamps to buy sodas, By Anemona Hartocollis, October 6, 2010, New York Times: “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sought federal permission on Wednesday to bar New York City’s 1.7 million recipients of food stamps from using them to buy soda or other sugared drinks. The request, made to the United States Department of Agriculture, which finances and sets the rules for the food-stamp program, is part of an aggressive anti-obesity push by the mayor that has also included advertisements, stricter rules on food sold in schools and an unsuccessful attempt to have the state impose a tax on the sugared drinks…”

• Suburbs take hit as US poverty climbs in downturn, By Hope Yen (AP), October 7, 2010, Washington Post: “The American suburb is no longer a refuge from poverty in cities. A pair of analyses by the nonprofit Brookings Institution paints a bleak economic picture for the 100 largest metropolitan areas over the past decade and in coming years, and finds that suburbs now are home to one-third of the nation’s poor, and rising. The study of census data finds that since 2000, the number of poor people in the suburbs jumped by 37.4 percent to 13.7 million. The growth rate of suburban poverty is more than double that of cities and higher than the national rate of 26.5 percent…”
• Poverty on rise in ‘burbs, By Francine Knowles, October 7, 2010, Chicago Sun-Times: “The number of poor in Chicago’s suburbs jumped in the last decade, and social service agencies are overwhelmed, a study from University of Chicago researchers found. Most suburbs examined experienced more than 50 percent increases in the number of poor from 2000 to 2008. In Aurora, the number jumped nearly 62 percent to 19,479, and in Joliet, it rose 39.5 percent to 15,266. Meanwhile, more than half of suburban Chicago nonprofits surveyed reported a loss in a key revenue source last year, the study released today showed. One in four reduced services, and 30 percent laid off full-time and part-time staff. More funding cuts are anticipated. The study, prepared for the Brookings Institution, looked at 30 Chicago suburbs…”
• Poverty hits high among city suburbs, By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer, October 6, 2010, Contra Costa Times: “Once a haven where people moved to pursue the American Dream, the nation’s suburbs are experiencing a dramatic spike in poverty among working-age residents, straining social services traditionally geared to the inner-city poor. A pair of analyses released today by the nonprofit Brookings Institution paint a bleak economic picture for the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, where the poverty rate is projected to hit 15 percent in the coming years. More startling, however, was a finding that suburbs - including those in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys - are bearing the brunt of the increase…”