• Governors differ on extent of flexibility for Medicaid, By Amy Goldstein and Dan Balz, February 28, 2011, Washington Post: “Democratic and Republican governors, burdened by crushing budget pressures from Medicaid, said Sunday that federal officials should allow them more freedom to change eligibility rules and other aspects of the public health insurance program for the poor. But they displayed sharp ideological differences over how far such flexibility should go. After a series of private conversations at the National Governors Association’s semiannual meeting over the weekend, leaders of the group formed a bipartisan committee to explore in detail what kind of flexibility over Medicaid the governors can agree to seek from federal health officials. It remains unclear whether they will be able to forge such common ground, given their partisan disagreements over both Medicaid and the new federal law to reshape the health-care system. ‘The closer governors get to Washington, the more they start acting like members of Congress,’ said Oregon Gov. John A. Kitzhaber (D), vice chairman of the NGA’s Health and Human Services Committee, referring to the rancorous debate over health care that persists on Capitol Hill.
• Governors: Medicaid more a budget buster than ever, By Julie Rovner, February 28, 2011, National Public Radio: “The federal government and the states have shared the cost of Medicaid, the health insurance program for some 60 million low-income Americans, since it was created in 1965. They’ve shared something else almost that long - arguments about who should foot how much of the ever-escalating bill. ‘Medicaid cost growth has been a problem for time immemorial,’ says Alan Weil, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. But this time, he says, things are different. For one thing, ‘the program is bigger, so growth on a larger base is more real dollars that’s harder to find…’”

Lawmakers poised to privatize Medicaid statewide, By Kelli Kennedy (AP), February 28, 2011, Miami Herald: “Jason Rosenstock typically waits six weeks to see a specialist to treat his pituitary disease, a side effect from a childhood brain tumor. The private insurance company managing his care for Medicaid has repeatedly denied his medications, each denial eliciting a mountain of red tape. The 33-year-old and his mother kept a journal of every phone call and e-mail detailing their fight the past few years as Rosenstock has been bounced between three different health plans. Rosenstock lives in Broward County, the largest of five counties participating in a 2006 pilot program implemented under former Gov. Jeb Bush that puts Medicaid recipients into privately managed care. Gov. Rick Scott and Republican lawmakers want to expand the program statewide during the upcoming legislative session, which begins March 8. Lawmakers say Florida must overhaul Medicaid or its rising costs, which are expected to top $21 billion next year, will overwhelm the budget. The program has nearly 3 million low-income and disabled residents, with the federal government paying more than half the bill. The state is trying to eliminate a $3.6 billion budget deficit…”

Number of children abused or neglected in Colorado rises, By Karen Auge, February 28, 2011, Denver Post: “The number of abused or neglected children in Colorado has risen over the past three years, even as the numbers in other states have declined - with 36 children killed by abuse in 2009, up from 27 in 2007. After a dip between 2006 and 2007, the rates of confirmed child abuse and neglect in the state have increased: from 8.3 per 1,000 in 2007, to 8.6 in 2008, to 9.1 per 1,000 in 2009, the latest year for which statistics are available. In 2009, 11,339 of Colorado’s 1.2 million children were maltreated, 641 more than the previous year, according to data collected by the Colorado Department of Human Services child welfare division and provided by the Kempe Center, which treats abused children. During the past two years, 1,236 additional children were abused and neglected compared with 2007. It is not uncommon for more children to get hurt by adults when a stalled economy piles stress on a family, child welfare experts say. Still, states across the country - states where the economy is as bad as or worse than it is in Colorado - reported decreases…”

State could face sanctions over severe problem with food stamps, By Arielle Levin Becker, February 24, 2011, The Day: “Connecticut wrongly denies food stamps to eligible residents at a higher rate than any other state. It ranks among the worst in the nation in processing food stamp applications on time and paying out accurate levels of benefits. And federal officials warn that without a ‘tremendous turnaround,’ the state could face significant financial sanctions. ‘We’re really concerned with what’s happening in Connecticut,’ James Arena-DeRosa, northeast regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, told members of the Human Services and Appropriations committees Tuesday. Legislators called the figures he presented shocking. Twenty-six percent of cases in which food stamps were denied or cut off were the result of errors, according to preliminary fiscal-year 2010 figures based on a sample of cases. Fewer than 60 percent of applications were processed in a timely manner, and the rate of inaccurate benefit payments was second-worst in the country…”

Delaware government: Medicaid care heads home, By Hiran Ratnayake, February 25, 2011, Wilmington News Journal: “Each morning, a home health aide goes to 43-year-old Lisa Hughes’ Newark apartment to help with her day-to-day life. Because of her health needs, Hughes is among close to 17,000 Delaware residents who would benefit from a new state program that could save millions in health care costs while keeping people out of nursing homes. From the time she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 18 years ago, Hughes’ autoimmune disease has slowly progressed. At first, it caused ‘flashbulb spots’ in her vision, but it has progressed to the point that Hughes needs a wheelchair. Aides from Bayada Nurses, a home health care company, help her get ready every morning and prepare to go to bed at night. A Bayada registered nurse — as well as occupational and physical therapists — also check on her twice a week. Hughes, who gets part of her health insurance through Medicaid, wouldn’t have it any other way…”

Sacramento County’s neediest must wait weeks for aid, By Brad Branan, February 25, 2011, Sacramento Bee: “Sacramento County’s poorest residents are waiting longer to receive cash assistance because of a double whammy common to social service programs these days. The county has fewer caseworkers even as the need for services has increased. The county tries to finish applications for its General Assistance program within six weeks, or two weeks longer than it did a year ago, said Paul Lake, director of the Human Assistance Department. Applications are taking as long as two months to approve, he said. Advocates for the poor, however, say claims are taking two months to three months to complete. The county is hurting these people because they have no other money to survive, advocates say…”

Tax credit helps poor, but many unaware, By Rita Price, February 25, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “As a single mother who works and goes to college, Brandi Hardgrow adheres to a budget that leaves little room for wiggle - or for unexpected car repairs. But she gets by, and a big reason is her tax savvy. Hardgrow, 29, files for the Earned Income Tax Credit and then carefully manages a hefty refund - sometimes more than $2,500 - that keeps her household humming when her job as a Columbus-schools latchkey worker pauses for summer break. ‘It’s made a total difference in my life,’ she said. Researchers say the EITC is the nation’s best poverty buffer for low-income workers. It’s also an economic boon for their communities because recipients often need to spend a big chunk of their refunds right away…”

Report decries lack of paid parental leave in US, By David Crary (AP), February 23, 2011, Washington Post: “Americans often take pride in ways their nation differs from others. But one distinction - lack of a nationwide policy of paid maternity leave - is cited in a new report as an embarrassment that could be redressed at low cost and without harm to employers. ‘Despite its enthusiasm about ‘family values,’ the U.S. is decades behind other countries in ensuring the well-being of working families,’ said Janet Walsh, deputy director of the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch. ‘Being an outlier is nothing to be proud of in a case like this.’ Human Rights Watch, based in New York, focuses most of its investigations on abuses abroad. But on Wednesday, with release of a report by Walsh on work/family policies in the U.S., it takes the relatively unusual step of critiquing a phenomenon affecting tens of millions of Americans…”

• One billion people forgotten in fight against poverty, By Annie Kelly, February 25, 2011, The Guardian: “This year Unicef’s annual flagship State of the World’s Children report, released on Friday, focuses exclusively on adolescents. A recognition, says Unicef, of the increasingly urgent need to invest in the world’s 1.2 billion 10-19 year olds, an invisible generation who are nevertheless pivotal in global efforts to reach the UN millenium development goals targets by 2015. The report argues that adolescents are often marginalised in development budgets and programming, and that if this is not corrected then investment in global poverty, health, education and employment goals will be compromised. Many of the world’s teenagers were babies or young children when the MDGs were established in 2000. Since then, many of them will have been the direct beneficiaries of the significant global gains in child survival, primary education, access to safe water and sanitation…”
• Indian teen girls most ill-fed: UN, By Chetan Chauhan, February 25, 2011, Hindustan Times: “Indian adolescents girls are worse than even those in world’s poorest region — Sub-Saharan Africa - in terms of nutrition and empowerment whereas a majority of boys are at high risk because of their sexual activity, a new United Nations report on adolescents on Friday said. The report, ‘Adolescence an Age of Opportunity’, released three days before the union budget had found that 63 per cent of the Indian boys in the age group of 15-19 were engaged in high-risk sex with non-marital, non-cohabitating partner as compared to just one percent girls in the same age group. Still it was lowest in the developing world with the highest being in South Africa with 95 % boys and 99 % girls reporting high risk sex. The report found sexual activity among Asian children below the age of 15, including India, to be lowest in the world…”

Some schools cut lunch options for kids who struggle to pay, By Alex Johnson, February 21, 2011, MSNBC.com: “At the turn of the new year, the Lee County, Fla., public schools were losing about $2,000 a week on school lunches. Then came the cheese sandwiches. When classes resumed Jan. 3 after the winter break, the district - the 40th-largest in the United States, with about 80,000 pupils - had a problem. Up to 1,100 pupils weren’t paying for their meals, school officials say. Because the National School Lunch Program, or NSLP, requires participating schools to provide nourishing meals for all pupils, what do school administrators do if a pupil shows up in the lunchroom with no cash and with no money left in his or her electronic meal account? Most raise their prices for kids who can pay, according to research by the nonprofit School Nutrition Association, which found that nearly 60 percent of public school districts raised lunch prices in 2009, the last full year for which national figures were available…”

In quarter of U.S. counties, deaths outnumbering births, By Hope Yen and John Raby (AP), February 23, 2011, Las Vegas Review-Journal: “In America’s once-thriving coal country, 87-year-old Ed Shepard laments a prosperous era gone by, when shoppers lined the streets and government lent a helping hand. Now, here as in one-fourth of all U.S. counties, West Virginia’s graying residents are slowly dying off. Hit by an aging population and a poor economy, a near-record number of U.S. counties are experiencing more deaths than births in their communities, a phenomenon demographers call ‘natural decrease.’ Years in the making, the problem is spreading amid a job slump and a push by Republicans in Congress to downsize government and federal spending…”

In Pa., low-income adults soon may be uninsured, By Jenny Gold, February 23, 2011, National Public Radio: “When Paula Michele Boyle first received the letter earlier this month explaining that her health insurance coverage was being terminated, she took it personally, thinking maybe the insurer had discovered something in her history to make her ineligible. But then the Philadelphia resident read on and realized that it wasn’t just her - the entire program, Pennsylvania’s state-funded health plan for low-income adults, was about to be canceled. For Boyle and her husband, Tom, both self-employed cancer survivors who need regular medical care, the news has been unnerving. ‘We were in shock over this,’ Boyle says. ‘What are we going to do now? We need doctor visits and testing.’ Nearly 42,000 people who participate in the program have received similar notices. Another 494,787 people had been on the waiting list, hoping to get such coverage…”

Obama administration asks states to cut costs without dropping Medicaid coverage, By Marilyn Werber Serafini, February 22, 2011, Washington Post: “The Obama administration is deploying squadrons of in-house experts to help budget-strapped states figure out how to save money on Medicaid, the health program for the poor that has been a source of rising tensions between state capitals and Washington. In recent weeks, both Democratic and Republican governors have been pressing the administration to be flexible in enforcing a requirement in the new health-care law that bars states from tightening eligibility for the program between now and 2014, when an additional 16 million people will be eligible for the program. Some states want to tighten eligibility now to curb spending. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has a difficult balancing act. The former governor of Kansas wants to improve relations with the governors, who are due Saturday in Washington for a big meeting. But she also wants to expand Medicaid, not shrink it…”

Bank closings tilt toward poor areas, By Nelson D. Schwartz, February 22, 2011, New York Times: “Until it closed its doors in December, the Ohio Savings Bank branch on North Moreland Boulevard was a neighborhood anchor in Cleveland, midway between the mansions of Shaker Heights and the ramshackle bungalows of the city’s east side. Now it sits boarded up, a victim not only of Cleveland’s economic troubles but also of a broader trend of bank branch closings that is falling more heavily on low- and moderate-income neighborhoods across the country. In 2010, for the first time in 15 years, more bank branches closed than opened across the United States. An analysis of government data shows, however, that even as banks shut branches in poorer areas, they continued to expand in wealthier ones, despite decades of government regulations requiring financial institutions to meet the credit needs of poor and middle-class neighborhoods…”

• Group says early education investment saves money, By Zachary Colman (AP), February 17, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “With more Illinois children falling into poverty, investing in early childhood education today could save the state millions of dollars in the future, an advocacy group said Thursday. Voices for Illinois Children acknowledged the state has a huge budget deficit and is cutting many programs. But the group’s president, former state lawmaker Kathy Ryg, said services for children in fourth grade and below should be spared from budget cuts if the state wants to prevent a drain on social services when the children are older…”
• Organization reports disparities in children’s reading skills, By Kathy Millen, February 18, 2011, Naperville Sun: “If the measure of reading skills at the beginning of fourth grade is a predictor of future success, then many Illinois children may be looking at a lifetime of struggles. By the time they’re leaving third grade, children typically make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn. But in recent years, reading scores at these grade levels have barely improved in Illinois. Wide disparities among student groups remain, especially among the 45 percent of public school students who come from low-income families. That was the conclusion of a report from Voices for Illinois Children, a group focusing on improving the lives of children throughout the state…”
• Report shows Knox County students perform better than state averages, By Tom Loewy, February 18, 2011, Galesburg Register-Mail: “An annual report focused on the well-being of Illinois’ children released more data Thursday that showed an increasing number of kids in Knox County live in households struggling to make ends meet. But the Voices for Illinois Children’s ‘2011 Illinois Kids Count’ data reports did show that despite economic and social challenges, Knox County’s third-graders performed above the state averages on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test during the 2009-2010 school year. According to ‘2011 Illinois Kids Count,’ 81.8 percent of third-graders in Knox County meet or exceed the state standard in reading. Only 73.7 percent of their counterparts in the state meet or exceed the state standard in reading…”

• State keeps pressing for waiver to change Medicaid, but success is unlikely, By Emily Ramshawand Marilyn Werber Serafini, February 17, 2011, New York Times: “Just a few months ago, Gov. Rick Perry led a group of Texas lawmakers who were threatening to drop out of Medicaid, the state-federal health care program for the poor. A state analysis showing that Texas would lose billions of dollars in financing put an end to talk of opting out. Now, the debate has shifted, as Texas and other struggling states ask Washington for permission to operate the program as they see fit. Their approach - finding savings by curbing mandatory benefits or limiting eligibility among Medicaid populations - is unlikely to be approved by the Obama administration, which is intent on expanding Medicaid, not shrinking it. And while pressing for a waiver is a far cry from threatening to drop out, it may have the same result: fueling the fire behind Texas’ anti-Washington, state-sovereignty rhetoric…”
• Cutting Medicaid harder than issuing soundbites, senators learn, By Robert T. Garrett, February 14, 2011, Dallas Morning News: “Texas budget writers are finding that cutting Medicaid is harder than it sounds. Reducing services that states don’t have to provide for poor adults is already a part of both chambers’ initial budgets. But Senate health budget writers were warned Monday to tread carefully for fear of costing the state more in the long run…”

Digital age is slow to arrive in rural America, By Kim Severson, February 17, 2011, New York Times: “After a couple of days in this part of rural Alabama, it is hard to complain about a dropped iPhone call or a Cee Lo video that takes a few seconds too long to load. The county administrator cannot get broadband at her house. Neither can the sportswriter at The Thomasville Times. Here in Coffeeville, the only computer many students ever touch is at the high school. ‘I’m missing a whole lot,’ said Justin Bell, 17. ‘I know that.’ As the world embraces its digital age - two billion people now use the Internet regularly - the line delineating two Americas has become more broadly drawn. There are those who have reliable, fast access to the Internet, and those, like about half of the 27,867 people here in Clarke County, who do not. In rural America, only 60 percent of households use broadband Internet service, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Commerce. That is 10 percent less than urban households. Over all, 28 percent of Americans do not use the Internet at all…”

As unemployment insurance debts mount, interest payments loom, By Pamela M. Prah, February 16, 2011, Stateline.org: “For more than two years, stubbornly high unemployment has been taking a toll on the nation’s workforce, but for states, the mounting costs of paying benefits to millions of people who can’t find work are only beginning to become clear. Come this fall, some 30 states will be on the hook for paying $1.3 billion to the federal government for loans they took out to keep sending unemployment checks to workers who’ve lost their jobs. And that’s just the interest. In total, states owe the feds more than $42 billion, a tab they hope will evaporate on its own as the economy improves but will require decreasing benefits or raising taxes on businesses if it doesn’t…”

• Britain begins welfare overhaul, By Sarah Lyall, February 17, 2011, New York Times: “The British government on Thursday introduced legislation that it said would simplify and reduce the cost of the country’s welfare system, saying that it wanted to change a culture in which people on welfare risk losing income if they find jobs. Calling his proposals ‘the most ambitious, fundamental and radical changes to the welfare system since it began,’ after World War II, Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech here that they were based on a simple idea: ‘Never again will work be the wrong financial choice…’”
• Welfare reform: Find a job or lose benefits, mothers to be told, By Patrick Wintour, February 17, 2011, The Guardian: “All stay at home mothers claiming the government’s new universal credit will be required to make themselves available for work or lose state support, putting them on a par with single parents for the first time. The requirement would apply to mothers with children aged over seven. The proposals came in the government’s welfare bill published on Thursday and were hailed by David Cameron as ‘tough, radical … but fair’. His remarks came as ministers published a raft of figures alongside the bill, for the first time showing the full impact of the introduction of universal credit and other welfare cutbacks announced by ministers. The figures show 1.7m households will lose out from the universal credit reforms…”
• Welfare reform: ‘most radical shake-up for 60 years’, By Randeep Ramesh, February 17, 2011, The Guardian: “Iain Duncan Smith’s radical welfare bill, perhaps the most significant reshaping of the welfare state in 60 years, aims to simplify the system of subsidies that covers everything from income support to housing benefit to sickness payments. For the government the aim is to remove the benefit traps that see some people lose 90p in every extra pound they earn as means-tested benefits are withdrawn. The new system will be paid for by deep cuts in welfare, as ministers push through savings of £18bn over the next four years. There are signs of an unseemly rush to push through the bill, with details on a new child maintenance scheme published two months before a consultation on the issue is finished…”

Sebelius clears the way for Arizona to shed adults from Medicaid, By Kevin Sack, February 16, 2011, New York Times: “The Obama administration gave a green light on Tuesday to Arizona’s plan to remove about 250,000 adults from its Medicaid rolls, instructing the state that it could circumvent a requirement in the new health care law that prohibits reductions in eligibility. In a letter to Gov. Jan Brewer, the secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius, wrote that Arizona’s expansion of Medicaid to cover low-income childless adults had been enacted a decade ago with special permission from the federal government, known as a waiver. That waiver, Ms. Sebelius wrote, is time-limited and expires Sept. 30…”

New York courts vow legal aid in housing, By David Streitfeld, February 15, 2011, New York Times: “New York court officials outlined procedures Tuesday aimed at assuring that all homeowners facing foreclosure were represented by a lawyer, a shift that could give tens of thousands of families a better chance at saving their homes. Criminal defendants are guaranteed a lawyer, but New York will be the first state to try to extend that pledge to foreclosures, which are civil matters. There are about 80,000 active foreclosure cases in New York courts. In more than half of them, only the banks have lawyers…”

• State’s poor pose intricate challenge, By Kevin Yamamura, February 14, 2011, Sacramento Bee: “As Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed slashing government aid for poor people, he argues that California still provides more generous benefits than many other states. His budget, chock full of comparisons, notes that ‘Texas and Illinois have a hard limit of three prescriptions per month” and “South Dakota charges 5 percent of costs up to $50 for emergency room visits.’ It’s all relative, he says. ‘If you compare (the safety net) to other states, we’re still doing reasonably well,’ Brown said last month when he released his budget. ‘If you compare us to some European states, we’re not doing so well at all. So it depends upon what your yardstick is.’ A Sacramento Bee review of several national yardsticks found that while California has a high share of people receiving low-income aid, the benefits they receive are not necessarily more generous than those provided in other states…”
• Lawsuit seen as likely if Medicaid is cut, By Nolan Hicks, February 13, 2011, San Antonio Express-News: “If proposed cutbacks to Medicaid reimbursement rates for doctors and dentists are enacted by the Legislature, the state risks another lawsuit over the level of health care Texas provides to poor children, health and human services officials warn. The cuts, which were suggested in the Texas House’s initial budget proposal, would reduce the rate Medicaid pays doctors and dentists by at least 10 percent. Slashing spending on social programs such as Medicaid is an important element of Republican efforts to balance the budget without increasing taxes…”

Federal audit targets delays, errors in Colorado’s benefits computer system, By Michael Booth, February 13, 2011, Denver Post: “Persistent delays and errors in the state computer system for Medicaid and food stamps have prompted federal officials to launch an ongoing performance review of Colorado’s multibillion-dollar benefit programs. The long-troubled Colorado Benefits Management System continued to malfunction after the federal review got underway last summer, with lockouts and slowdowns plaguing managers through at least December, documents obtained by The Denver Post show. Repeated internal complaints about system crashes also have raised questions about a $44 million contract with Deloitte consultants to overhaul a network that has proved problematic since its installation in 2004 at a cost of $223 million. Disclosure of the new federal audit, after an open-records request, comes as legal-aid attorneys continue their pursuit of court sanctions against the state Health Care Policy and Financing Department for delays in processing benefit records. Those delays have exceeded 70 percent of cases in some months…”

Proposals put squeeze on Florida’s jobless, By Jeff Ostrowski, February 13, 2011, Palm Beach Post: “Mark Wampole figures his weekly unemployment checks are the only thing saving him from homelessness, and he grows frustrated when he hears of proposals by state lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott to tighten eligibility for unemployment compensation. ‘Without it, I’d starve,’ said Wampole, a laid-off welder who lives in Palm Beach County. ‘I’d have to live under a bridge and hope I could find somebody to feed me. It’s that serious.’ Job seekers surviving on unemployment benefits that top out at $275 a week aren’t the only ones facing a financial squeeze. Business groups and Republican lawmakers point to dire finances for the state’s unemployment system, which has been sapped by an economic downturn that left more than 1 million Floridians seeking work. Unemployment benefits are paid through an insurance system that gets little attention in good times. Employers pay a small premium every year, and workers who are laid off collect benefits…”

A look inside America’s poorest county, By Nomaan Merchant (AP), February 13, 2011, Kansas City Star: “In the barren grasslands of Ziebach County, there’s almost nothing harder to find in winter than a job. This is America’s poorest county, where more than 60 percent of people live at or below the poverty line. At a time when the weak economy is squeezing communities across the nation, recently released census figures show that nowhere are the numbers as bad as here - a county with 2,500 residents, most of them Cheyenne River Sioux Indians living on a reservation. In the coldest months of the year, when seasonal construction work disappears and the South Dakota prairie freezes, unemployment among the Sioux can hit 90 percent. Poverty has loomed over this land for generations. Repeated attempts to create jobs have run into stubborn obstacles: the isolated location, the area’s crumbling infrastructure, a poorly trained population and a tribe that struggles to work with businesses or attract investors…”

State’s bills soar for legal aid to poor, By Milton J. Valencia and Matt Carroll, February 14, 2011, Boston Globe: “The state last year paid private lawyers $155.6 million to represent poor clients, almost 25 percent more than anticipated under a 2005 state law that was passed to make their pay more equitable with other states, according to a Globe analysis of the spending. At the same time, the state has failed to take several other actions recommended in 2005 that would have limited the state’s dependence on private lawyers - and the fees they received - and better defined who qualifies as an indigent defendant…”

School-lunch aid up in Ohio, local suburbs, By Catherine Candisky, February 13, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The federal free and reduced-price lunch program for low-income children now feeds more than four of every 10 Ohio students. New statistics from the Ohio Department of Education show that the proportion of students receiving the tax-funded benefit - regarded as one of the most-reliable indicators of poverty - has increased nearly 50percent in the past five years to a record high. Although the program has long been a staple in urban and rural districts, some of the largest spikes in recent years can be seen in suburban schools surrounding Columbus, not often seen as the front lines of poverty…”

State jobless benefits hit record $23 billion in 2010, By Dean Calbreath, February 11, 2011, San Diego Union-Tribune: “In what will be a major surprise to absolutely nobody, California broke all records in jobless benefits last year, paying $22.9 billion to a record benefits to 1.7 million jobless Californians, according to a report released Thursday by the state Employment Development Department. That averages to about $90 million each business day as the jobless rate continues to linger at post-Depression highs. In comparison, a typical annual average during a strong economy is about $5-$6 billion, averaging $20-$24 million per business day…”

• Record number of North Dakotans using food stamps, up 19 pct from 2009, By James MacPherson, February 11, 2011, Bismarck Tribune: “A record number of North Dakotans are using food stamps to buy groceries, coinciding with the state’s population growth but contrary to its robust economy, the director of the state Data Center says. North Dakota had an average of 59,888 people per month receiving food assistance in fiscal 2010, up from 53,070 in 2009, said Richard Rathge, the Data Center director and North Dakota demographer. The fiscal year ended Sept. 30. Rathge said the federal Agriculture Department figures show ‘an apparent contradiction’ with North Dakota’s strong economy that has been fueled largely by the state’s booming oil patch. North Dakota’s unemployment rate of 3.8 percent is the nation’s lowest…”
• Record number of Rhode Islanders using food stamps, By Paul Davis, February 11, 2011, Providence Journal: “A record 155,184 Rhode Islanders received food stamps at year’s end, according to figures from the state Department of Human Services. The number of people getting help from the federally financed program - now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP - increased by more than 26,400 people in December, up 20 percent from December 2009. The number has been rising steadily over the past 12 months. That means about one in seven Rhode Islanders relies on government food assistance, another sign that the state’s poorest residents have yet to recover from the worst recession in decades…”

LePage seeks to bar noncitizens from welfare for first 5 years, By John Richardson, February 11, 2011, Kennebec Journal: “Gov. Paul LePage launched his first attempt at welfare reform Thursday, proposing to save about $20 million over two years by eliminating a variety of benefits for new immigrants and refugees who are not yet U.S. citizens. ‘Maine was built by immigrants,’ LePage said in his first budget address. ‘Maine must always be a welcoming place for those who seek an opportunity to advance through hard work and self-reliance.’ However, LePage said, Maine should no longer be ‘one of just a few places in the country that offers welfare on day one for legal noncitizens.’ His proposal would make legal noncitizen residents ineligible for MaineCare, food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families during their first five years of residency in the state…”

Rising global food prices squeeze the world’s poor, By Ben Arnoldy, February 10, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “Amid the stalls of neatly stacked vegetables at this city’s Sarojini Market, Manju shops with her young granddaughter. Her bags have become lighter in recent months, as she’s cutting back on the basics. Food prices have risen sharply over the past year and Manju is even going with fewer onions, the ubiquitous ingredient that fills just about every Indian gravy dish. ‘The kids have stopped eating properly,’ she says. ‘They have lost the taste for food and are complaining.’ Families in many parts of the world - especially India, China, Mexico, Haiti, and Egypt, where food costs spiked in the past year - are making sacrifices and seeking alternatives. The United Nations Food and Agri­cultural Organization (FAO) food price index hit an all-time high in December. This sparked concern that high prices just prior to the global recession could reflect longer-term structural changes in supply and demand that will imperil the poor’s ability to eat…”

States must cut health care programs, By Julie Appleby, February 10, 2011, USA Today: “Lisa Huff says the state-funded Disability Lifeline program in Washington state has lived up to its name, helping her get counseling for depression, treatment for diabetes and support for her ultimate goal: getting a job. Now the program for low-income, temporarily disabled residents is one of many on the chopping block in Washington, where lawmakers face stark choices in closing a projected shortfall of $4.6 billion in their next two-year budget, 2011-13. At risk are some of the very programs seen as national models: a state-subsidized Basic Health insurance plan for low-income residents who don’t qualify for federal help - the first of its kind when it began 20 years ago - and services that help seniors and the disabled stay out of nursing homes, as well as insurance for 27,000 undocumented children…”

Veterans more likely to be homeless, study says, By William M. Welch, February 10, 2011, USA Today: “Military veterans are much more likely to be homeless than other Americans, according to the government’s first in-depth study of homelessness among former servicemembers. About 16% of homeless adults in a one-night survey in January 2009 were veterans, though vets make up only 10% of the adult population. More than 75,000 veterans were living on the streets or in a temporary shelter that night. In that year, 136,334 veterans spent at least one night in a homeless shelter - a count that did not include homeless veterans living on the streets. The urgency of the problem is growing as more people return from service in Iraq and Afghanistan. The study found 11,300 younger veterans, 18 to 30, were in shelters at some point during 2009. Virtually all served in Iraq or Afghanistan, said Mark Johnston, deputy assistant secretary for special needs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)…”

Home heating assistance seen at record high, By Jonathan Fahey (AP), San Jose Mercury News: “High energy prices, high unemployment and a cold winter are prompting a record number of households to seek home heating assistance. The National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association will announce Wednesday that 8.9 million households are expected to qualify for financial help this winter, up from 8.3 million last winter. It’s the third year in a row the number of households needing assistance has set a new high. The chief reason is the economy, according to Mark Wolfe, Executive Director of NEADA. ‘We have this group who weren’t poor before the recession, who are poor now and scrambling for whatever they can get,’ Wolfe says. ‘It’s a tough situation.’ Congress doubled funding for the program, called Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, to $5.1 billion two years ago and matched that level last year. Congressional Republicans are expected to try to pare that back during budget negotiations next week…”

Obama plans to rescue states with debt burdens, By Michael Cooper and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, February 8, 2011, New York Times: “President Obama is proposing to ride to the rescue of states that have borrowed billions of dollars from the federal government to continue paying unemployment benefits during the economic downturn. His plan would give the states a two-year breather before automatic tax increases would hit employers, and before states would have to start paying interest on the loans. The proposal, which administration officials said would be included in the 2012 budget that the president is scheduled to unveil next week, was greeted coolly by Republicans on Capitol Hill, who warned that the plan would ultimately force many states to raise their unemployment taxes in the years to come. But the White House is calculating that the proposal will ultimately appeal to Republicans because it involves a tax moratorium right now for hard-hit states during a still-fragile economic recovery…”

Bill would eliminate state tax credit for working poor, By Karen Bouffard, February 8, 2011, Detroit News: “Tax credits for Michigan’s working poor would be eliminated under a bill introduced in the state Senate today. The bill to repeal the state earned income tax credit (EITC) was met with strong opposition by Democrats and family advocates, who said it would amount to a tax increase for low income workers. The bill was introduced by Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, who said Michigan can’t afford the $370 million cost. If the bill passes in the Senate and House, and is signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder, the credit would be eliminated at the end of this calendar year…”

• Kids Count report shows poverty, test scores up in Greater Muskegon area, By Lynn Moore, February 8, 2011, Muskegon Chronicle: “‘Resilient.’ It’s a word educators use to describe students who deal every day with poverty, the stress of job losses in their homes and even neglect, and yet show up to school ready to learn and achieve. Teachers hear the stories about the heat being turned off in students’ homes. They can tell when a student’s day got off to a rough start, even before they walk in the classroom. And they’ve seen the growing lines of children taking advantage of free breakfast programs in school cafeterias. And yet, according to the annual Kids Count report released today, despite worsening conditions in their lives, children’s performance in school is improving. While childhood poverty and the often related incidents of child abuse and neglect are increasing, so are the numbers of students who are passing state assessment tests and staying in school…”
• Poverty, abuse surge among Michigan children, By Catherine Jun, February 8, 2011, Detroit News: “Nearly half of Michigan’s public school students qualified for free and reduced-price lunches in 2009, just one troubling statistic on how the economic crisis has affected the state’s youngest residents. The rate of those who qualified jumped 26 percent in three years, rising to almost 46 percent of children in 2009 from 36 percent in 2006, according to the annual “Kids Count in Michigan” report released today. In Detroit, 81 percent qualified. The lunches, funded by the federal government, are designed for students whose families have gross incomes below $40,200 for a two-parent family of four…”
• More than one-fourth of Saginaw County children living in poverty, By Lindsay Knake, February 8, 2011, Saginaw News: “More than one quarter of Saginaw County children and teens live in poverty. The Michigan League for Human Services and Michigan’s Children partnered for Kids Count, a project to measure the well-being of Michigan children, released state and county data about children’s education and health. Michigan’s Children is a group that works with lawmakers, business leaders and communities to promote children’s prosperity…”
• More kids in Michigan are raised in poverty, By Kathleen Lavey, February 7, 2011, Lansing State Journal: “More kids are slipping into poverty due to Michigan’s fragile economy, putting them at higher risk for abuse and neglect. That’s the word from the new Kids Count in Michigan survey, which compiles data on the well-being of kids and families. ‘Child poverty is such a critical issue,’ said Jane Zehnder-Merrell, project director for Kids Count in Michigan and senior research associate at the Michigan League for Human Services. ‘It has an impact on outcomes for kids across the board…’”

Food stamp rolls reach historic levels, By Pamela M. Prah, February 7, 2011, Stateline.org: “Dorene is a certified teacher in Idaho, but the only job she can find is as a teaching assistant, which pays under $11 an hour. That is considerably less than the $45,000 that the average teacher in Idaho earns annually. She asked that her full name not be used because her family doesn’t know she has been getting food stamp benefits for her two young children and herself for a year. ‘We live paycheck to paycheck,’ she says, even with child support. ‘I never thought I’d be in this situation.’ Nationwide, one in seven Americans currently receives help from the government to put food on the table. All but 14 states saw double-digit spikes in the number of people getting food stamps over the one-year period that ended in November 2010. But Idaho had the largest one-year increase in the country: 28 percent, according to the latest government figures…”

Early childhood education benefits both kids, taxpayers, study says, By Liz Szabo, February 3, 2011, USA Today: “Investing in early childhood education can yield impressive economic benefits - both for children and taxpayers, according to a National Institutes of Health study that followed participants until age 26. Each dollar spent on Chicago-based, federally funded Child-Parent Centers generates $4 to $11 in return, both because children finished high school or college, earning more than their peers, and also because participants were less likely to be held back, arrested, depressed, involved with drugs or sick, the study says. That’s up to an 18% annual rate of return, says Arthur Reynolds, a professor at the University of Minnesota and lead author of the study, published today in Child Development…”

Hospitals, state officials agree to provider fee to help shore up Medicaid in Colo., By Michael Booth, February 4, 2011, Denver Post: “State health officials and hospital leaders have agreed on a proposed $50 million transfer of provider fees to shore up basic Medicaid in Colorado, while federal officials on Thursday urged states to also consider cuts in optional benefits to balance their threatened Medicaid budgets. Hospitals and advocates for the poor hail the first year of the provider fee - hospitals taxing themselves to get more Medicaid funding through a federal match - as a success in expanding insurance coverage in Colorado. ‘We pitched it as a win-win-win for consumers, hospitals and the state, and I think it’s absolutely proven to be that,’ said Cody Belzley, vice president of the Colorado Children’s Campaign and an architect of the fee in the administration of former Gov. Bill Ritter. It allowed the state to expand insurance last year to 30,000 people who previously made too much to qualify…”

• Crushed by Medicaid costs, states expand managed care, By Christine Vestal, February 4, 2011, Stateline.org: “Last week, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a health care reform bill that will dramatically change the way many Medicaid patients receive care. The bill aims to push half of Illinois’ Medicaid caseload into the hands of managed care organizations by 2015. Illinois has a long way to go to reach that goal: Only 8 percent of Medicaid patients in the state receive care this way now. When he signed the bill, Quinn promised the reforms would reduce the state’s Medicaid costs by as much as $774 million over the next five years. The savings is supposed to come from shifting from a system in which the Illinois Medicaid program generally pays doctors for each service they provide, to one where the state pays insurers a set rate per year for each patient. Quinn also said Medicaid patients will see their health care services improve because insurers would be responsible for more carefully coordinating patient care to reduce avoidable hospitalizations and worsening of chronic conditions. Illinois is late to the managed care phenomenon - on average, states already have moved 46 percent of their Medicaid caseloads into managed care. But in a year of tight budgets and rising health care costs, Illinois is only one of many states turning to the managed care model to squeeze savings out of Medicaid, which now consumes 22 percent of state budgets. This year, at least a dozen states are expanding managed care for Medicaid, the state-run health insurance program for low income children, pregnant women, the disabled and frail elders…”
• Governors get advice for saving on Medicaid, By Robert Pear, February 3, 2011, New York Times: “Fearing wholesale cuts in Medicaid by states with severe budget problems, the Obama administration told governors on Thursday how they could save money by selectively and judiciously reducing benefits, curbing overuse of costly prescription drugs and attacking fraud. However, the administration refused to say whether it would allow states to adopt stricter eligibility standards that would, in effect, throw low-income people off the Medicaid rolls and eliminate their insurance coverage. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said she was still studying that question. Governors said the ideas, though constructive, were not nearly enough. They said they wanted waivers of some federal requirements and relief from Congress, and they noted that the new health care law would greatly increase Medicaid rolls in 2014…”

• In a snowy January, job numbers fail to take off, By Motoko Rich, February 4, 2011, New York Times: “The United States labor market is still having trouble achieving liftoff. Payrolls expanded by 36,000 jobs in January, a sharp decline from recent months and well below consensus forecasts. But the picture painted by the Department of Labor’s monthly snapshot of the job market was confounded by a drop in the unemployment rate to 9 percent, the lowest it has been since April 2009. That was mainly because that rate is calculated using a different survey than the payroll data. Payrolls expanded by 36,000 jobs in January, a sharp decline from recent months and well below consensus forecasts…”
• Unemployment rate plunges to 9% in January, but only 36,000 jobs added, By Neil Irwin, February 4, 2011, Washington Post: “Job creation came nearly to a halt in January, yet the unemployment rate plummeted to 9 percent, according to a new report that gives a muddled picture of the state of the labor market. Employers added 36,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, far fewer than the 145,000 economists had forecast and the weakest month of job creation since September. The surprisingly low numbers suggested that last month’s snowstorms probably kept people from looking for work…”
• Job growth remains sluggish, though unemployment drops to 9%, By Don Lee, February 4, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “U.S. employers added a paltry 36,000 jobs in January, partly because of bad weather and partly because many employers remain reluctant to hire despite a strengthening economic recovery. Even so, the nation’s unemployment rate fell dramatically for the second month in a row, the government said Friday. It dropped to 9% in January, the lowest since April 2009. In December, the jobless figure was 9.4%, and it was 9.8% in November. Some analysts attributed the unusually large rate drop more to a statistical fluke than substantive gains in hiring…”

Social service funding dries up, By Kristen Consillio, February 4, 2011, Honolulu Star Advertiser: “Social service programs for the state’s most needy population will terminate on April 1 to save the Department of Human Services $84 million over the next two years and three months. The department is facing a $116 million budget deficit and will eliminate funding for 41 children, youth and family programs such as Read Aloud America, Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Institute for Human Services. Patricia McManaman, interim human services director, said the department decided to cut funding for the services under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program so it could keep intact job training and welfare programs…”

For working poor, tax tweak cuts pay, By Brian J. O’Connor, January 31, 2011, Detroit News: “If you haven’t seen the new 2 percent payroll tax cut reflected in your paycheck yet, look closely at your pay stub. But if you don’t make a lot of money, you might not want to look too closely. Today is the deadline for employers to adjust their payroll systems and lower the rate on Social Security payroll taxes to 4.2 percent from 6.2 percent. They’ll also have until March 31 to adjust checks to give back any excess amount withheld so far this year. Sam Morgan, a tow truck driver, said he would be glad to see anything extra in his next paycheck. ‘I would like a tax cut,’ the 25-year-old Madison Heights man said. ‘I can always use more money in my paycheck.’ But for taxpayers making less than $20,000 a year, the new tax cut will turn out to be a tax hike. Workers making $15,000 a year, for example, will pay $100 more in taxes during 2011 than in 2010. And if they file a joint return, they will pay $500 more…”

NGOs in Haiti face new questions about effectiveness, By William Booth, February 1, 2011, Washington Post: “In the days after the earth shook and the government collapsed, the municipal nursing home here became one of the most desperate sights in Haiti, as old people lay swaddled in dirty sheets, huddled in cramped tents, begging visitors for water. But little by little, order was restored. A humanitarian aid group called HelpAge International arrived at the nursing home. They paid salaries for security guards, health-care workers and cooks. The last building left standing was patched, and the elderly residents no longer were bathed with buckets in the yard. But six months later, HelpAge abandoned the project after it failed to negotiate a new agreement with city hall. The group Project Concern International, which was operating a clinic on the grounds of the nursing home, also closed down after the mayor asked for rent. The travails at the municipal nursing home illustrate both the promise and the perils of the unprecedented humanitarian aid response in Haiti…”

• Obama administration looking to help states cut Medicaid costs, By Noam N. Levey, February 3, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Facing a brewing revolt among states wrestling with massive budget shortfalls and tattering healthcare safety nets, the Obama administration is intensifying a drive to help state leaders find ways to wring savings from their Medicaid programs. Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a letter to the nation’s 50 governors suggesting a range of cuts they can make to Medicaid, including dropping some people from the program…”
• Fla. lawmakers could expand Medicaid privatization, By Kelli Kennedy (AP), February 2, 2011, Miami Herald: “Florida legislators seem poised to pass a bill during its coming session aimed at reducing the state’s Medicaid expenditures by expanding privatization of the program, but that may not get federal approval. The Republican Legislature wants to put more of the state’s nearly 3 million Medicaid recipients into privately managed care, expanding a 2006 pilot program implemented under former Gov. Jeb Bush that affects five counties - Broward, Duval, Baker, Clay and Nassau. Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he’d like to expand the program statewide. Scott recently talked with federal health officials about the waiver and said he hopes it’s extended without changes. Florida’s Medicaid program cost about $18 billion during the last fiscal year, with the state paying $8 billion and the federal government footing $11 billion. The cost is expected to rise to more than $20 billion during the current fiscal year…”
• As many as 182,000 to join state Medicaid, By Ry Rivard, February 1, 2011, Charleston Daily Mail: “Three years before national health care reform’s most expensive provisions take effect, West Virginia officials are struggling to guess how many residents will suddenly be insured by the government-run Medicaid program and how much the state will owe because of it. As many as 182,000 new people could enroll in the state Medicaid program, costing the state as much as $175 million a year starting in 2017, officials from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources said Monday. And as many as half of those people may already have insurance, including about 29,000 who currently pay for private insurance, according to separate estimates made by DHHR. Officials are still struggling to understand the effects of the Obama administration’s overhaul of the nation’s health care system. A tangle of administrative rules and shifting projections makes every number tentative and subject to change…”

California still second to last in food stamp participation, federal officials report, By Alexandra Zavis, February 2, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Just half the eligible Californians were receiving food stamps in 2008, a slight improvement over previous years but well below the national average of 66%, according to federal estimates released Wednesday. California officials dispute the way the figures are calculated and say they are outdated. “The information is based on 2008 data which is three years old, and it doesn’t reflect the impact of some of the recent program changes that were made to increase the access of needy eligible families and adults,’ said Maricela Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the California Department of Social Services. More than 3.5 million Californians received the nutrition benefit in October, the most recent month for which state figures are available. That is nearly 46% more than in October 2008. But the number of people who qualify for the benefit has also increased and it is unclear whether enrollment has kept pace with that growth…”

• Return of child-care funds may be too late, By Barbara Anderson, February 2, 2011, Fresno Bee: “California could have a plan this week to restore child-care subsidies that help parents keep working and stay off welfare. But the fix may come too late for some Fresno County families. The subsidies, known as CalWorks Stage 3, serve California families who have moved off welfare cash aid and into the work force but whose incomes remain too low for them to afford the full cost of child care. About 55,000 children are served. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut the $256 million program in October to help the state with a gaping budget hole. A court fight delayed the cut-off, originally set for November, until Jan. 1. Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed reinstating the subsidies — with cutbacks — by April. And Assembly Speaker John Pérez, D-Los Angeles, has asked the Department of Education to find money for the program until then. The program cost $30 million a month in state general funds when it was fully funded…”
• Child-care centers feel pushback from cuts, By Kevin Duggan, January 31, 2011, Loveland Connection: “Tight county and state budgets are translating to tough times for child-care facilities in Larimer County and the families that use them. In anticipation of a possible cut in state support for its Child Care Assistance Program, or CCAP, the county is tightening its eligibility requirements for the program and reducing funding it will direct to child-care centers that accept the program’s clients. As of July 1, the eligibility level for the program will be changed from 185 percent of the federal poverty level to 150 percent. The move is expected to save the county about $456,000, said Laura Sartor, deputy division manager for benefits planning with the county’s Department of Human Services. But it also will mean the end of subsidized care for 80 families and 128 children. For a single mother with one child, 150 percent of the poverty level equates to $1,821 a month - or a wage of $10.50 an hour…”