Mo. to drop extended benefits for unemployed, By David A. Lieb (AP), March 31, 2011, ABC News: “Thousands of people in Missouri who have been unemployed for more than a year soon will lose their jobless benefits, marking a significant victory for Republican fiscal hawks who are crusading against government spending. When eligibility ends Saturday, Missouri will become the only state to voluntarily quit a federal stimulus program that offers extended benefits. Michigan, Arkansas and Florida also recently took steps to cut back on money going to the unemployed, although they targeted state benefits instead…”

• Arizona asking feds to OK cutting 160K from Medicaid rolls, By Mary K. Reinhart and Ginger Rough, March 31, 2011, Arizona Republic: “Gov. Jan Brewer will formally ask federal health officials today to eliminate more than 160,000 people from the Medicaid rolls under a sweeping plan that would freeze two programs for adults, eliminate coverage for catastrophic care and impose a range of fees and limits on health-care services for Arizona’s indigent. As part of the governor’s Medicaid proposal, the cornerstone of her budget-balancing plan, Brewer also wants lawmakers to restore funding for certain organ transplants, The Republic has learned. Brewer and legislators have come under withering criticism in Arizona and across the country since cutting the life-saving procedures last fall. Brewer’s plan, contained in a 16-page request to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would gradually reduce enrollment in the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program, rather than ending coverage abruptly for more than 250,000 people as she originally proposed…”
• AHCCCS recipients await fate of health-care program, By Mary Jo Pitzl, March 31, 2011, Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s health-care program for low-income adults has been on the bubble for months, the subject of intense debate at the state Capitol over how many people to cut from a program that Republicans and Gov. Jan Brewer say is unsustainable. While the debate rages at the Capitol, the 250,000 people who were originally targeted have watched anxiously, wondering how they will get health care if they are dropped from the state’s Medicaid program. ‘What am I going to do, go to the (emergency room) every day?’ asked John Read, a Phoenix resident who relies on the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to cover his medications for diabetes, HIV and high cholesterol. Read, 52, is one of the so-called Prop. 204 population, named after the ballot measure 11 years ago that mandated broader Medicaid coverage in Arizona. The group is wide-ranging, but there are some common traits. They are mostly adults without dependent children, more male than female, who earn less than $10,890 a year, if they have a job. About half are White, according to 2009 statistics; a quarter are Hispanic…”

Survey shows colleges failing to attract low-income students, By Bill Schackner, March 29, 2011, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “The nation’s wealthiest colleges collectively have failed since 2004 to significantly boost low-income enrollment, and more than half saw declines, including the main campuses of Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh, a survey says. The Chronicle of Higher Education findings published this week show that low-income students as defined by those receiving federal Pell Grants remained largely flat as a share of undergraduates on those campuses, at just under 15 percent. The maximum grant for this school year is $5,500. The Chronicle looked at campuses with the 50 largest endowments, a group that includes Ivy League schools, other elite private colleges and a number of flagship public universities…”

• Washington area counties reflect health disparities, By Lena H. Sun, March 30, 2011, Washington Post: “The Washington area has some of the region’s healthiest counties, such as Fairfax and Montgomery, but also pockets of poor health in the District and Prince George’s County, according to a set of reports to be released Wednesday. The reports, which rank U.S. counties and cities based on how long people live and how healthy they are, reflect disparities that are closely linked to factors outside the doctor’s office, including high school graduation rates, poverty rates and the number of single-parent households…”
• Marin County named healthiest in California in new study; L.A. County ranks 26th, By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, March 30, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “The title of healthiest California county goes to Marin County - for the second year in a row. A new study released Wednesday named the Northern California county the healthiest in the state. The Bay Area county had lower rates of smoking, adult obesity and teen birth compared with other California counties, according to an annual rankings released by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation…”

Poverty often a temporary state, U.S. census study finds, By Ari Bloomekatz, March 28, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Donny Ashley misses the days when he was just barely poor. Sure, he commuted more than three hours each day to work as an electrical apprentice, but the paycheck - about $575 a week - put his family of four over the federal poverty threshold. But then the economy turned, and he lost his job. His wife managed to get work as a nurse but lost that job about a month ago. Now, having burned through their savings, the Watts family has gone from barely poor to officially poor. ‘It’s not a good feeling to be, not necessarily above the poverty line, but somewhat, almost having your head above water where you can breathe. Now I’m drowning,’ Ashley said. ‘It’s a constant feeling of struggle, like no end in sight.’ A report released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau suggests that Ashley’s roller coaster ride along the poverty line is not unusual. The study found that poverty was often a temporary state for households: As some families moved out of poverty, others moved in. The report also showed that many of those families that escaped poverty continued to generate only minimal incomes…”

• Texas leads nation in minimum wage workers, By Steve Clark, March 28, 2011, Brownsville Herald: “If there’s anything faintly resembling good news in a just-released report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it’s that Texas’ share of hourly workers at or below minimum wage among U.S. states fell from 14.3 percent in 2009 to 9.5 percent in 2010. This just barely qualifies as a positive, however, since the number of Texas hourly workers at or below the prevailing federal minimum wage still increased by 76,000 over 2009. At 9.5 percent, Texas ties with Mississippi in terms of U.S. states with the highest proportion of hourly-paid workers earning at or below federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. Texas and Mississippi take top honors, therefore, in terms of having the lowest paid workers among all 50 states and the District of Columbia. To be fair, low wages are partly a function of lower cost of living. In Cameron County and the Rio Grande Valley, low wages and low cost of living - by some measures - go hand in hand, and are both a blessing and a curse in the view of economic development officials…”
• Lone Star State ties Mississippi in low pay count, By Patrick Danner, March 28, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “Texas tied with Mississippi for states having the highest percentage of hourly paid workers earning the minimum wage or less. Some 550,000 Texans, or 9.5 percent of hourly paid workers, made the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour or less last year. That’s up 76,000 workers, or 16 percent, from 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported…”

• Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signs bill to cut unemployment benefits in 2012, By Chris Christoff, March 29, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “As Gov. Rick Snyder and lawmakers struggle to erase a looming $1.4-billion state deficit, another deficit nearly three times as large hangs over the head of Michigan employers. They owe the federal government about $3.96 billion that the state borrowed to pay unemployment benefits during the worst economy since the Great Depression. That’s on top of the regular unemployment tax businesses and other employers must pay. The growing cost is a reason the Republican-led Legislature approved a new law that extends unemployment benefits this year, but next year will reduce to 20 weeks the maximum the state will pay unemployment benefits — down from 26. That means lower unemployment taxes for Michigan employers in the future…”
• Michigan cuts jobless benefit by six weeks, By Michael Cooper, March 28, 2011, New York Times: “Michigan, whose unemployment rate has topped 10 percent longer than that of any other state, is about to set another record: its new Republican governor, Rick Snyder, signed a law Monday that will lead the state to pay fewer weeks of unemployment benefits next year than any other state. Democrats and advocates for the unemployed expressed outrage that a such a hard-hit state will become the most miserly when it comes to how long it pays benefits to those who have lost their jobs. All states currently pay 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, before extended benefits paid by the federal government kick in. Michigan’s new law means that starting next year, when the federal benefits are now set to end, the state will stop paying benefits to the jobless after just 20 weeks. The shape of future extensions is unclear…”

Isle food stamp use rises, By Alan Yonan Jr., March 28, 2011, Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “The number of Hawaii residents signing up for food stamps increased at a faster pace than the national average last year as state officials expanded eligibility for the program to help people suffering from the economic slowdown. Data released recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed that 156,355 Hawaii residents were enrolled in the federally funded program in December, up 16.7 percent from the same month a year earlier. The increase was the 13th largest among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Nationally, the number of people on food stamps under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program rose 13.1 percent to 44 million in December from a year earlier…”

States weigh cuts to earned income tax credit for working poor, By Pamela M. Prah, March 28, 2011, Stateline.org: “Rohnalda Hollon, a single mother of three in Beaverton, Michigan, and an Iraq war veteran, worries that state budget cutbacks will wipe out the refund she gets from a program aimed at helping the working poor. ‘The $400 from the Earned Income Tax Credit could mean the difference between paying my Consumer’s Energy bill or not,’ says Hollon, who works full-time for the Army National Guard Military Funeral Honors program, and has been put forward as one of the faces of an advocacy campaign called Save Michigan’s Earned Income Tax Credit. Hollan is typical of the recipients of the Michigan credit, which returns an average of $432 to families, most with children. Governor Rick Snyder wants to eliminate the program, along with a slew of other tax credits, in a bid to make the state tax system ’simple, fair and efficient.’ Eliminating the credits also would help close the state’s $1.8 billion budget deficit. Just scrapping the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC, would save the state at least $340 million a year…”

Mobile services making rural poverty a little more bearable, By Barbara Cotter, March 26, 2011, Colorado Springs Gazette: “The elderly man shooting the breeze with folks at an Ellicott food and clothing pantry is reluctant to share his full name, but when it comes to discussing his financial situation, he’s an open book. ‘I’m poor, lady. I’m very poor,’ says the man, who will identify himself only as ‘Mr. Hughes.’ The 71-year-old former electrician lives with his wife and a caretaker and survives on about $910 a month in Social Security. He talks about having to choose between heat and food, how he sometimes has to go without gas in his car. Even paying for his oxygen can be a struggle. ‘And yeah, there’s times I don’t eat,’ he says in a gruff voice interrupted by rhythmic puffs from his oxygen tank. Poverty challenges people no matter where they live. But a hard life is made harder for Hughes and hundreds of other financially strapped people who live on the eastern plains of El Paso County, where unending stretches of two-lane and dirt roads connect one small town with few social services to other small towns with few social services…”

Michigan first to act as states weigh reductions in unemployment benefits, By Peter Whoriskey and Michael A. Fletcher, March 24, 2011, Washington Post: “Michigan moved Thursday to significantly cut its unemployment program, becoming the first of what could be a flurry of debt-laden states to reduce aid even as high jobless rates persist. The Michigan measure reduces the maximum period a person can receive state unemployment benefits from 26 to 20 weeks, the lowest in the nation, officials said. Gov. Rick Snyder (R) indicated Thursday that he would sign the bill. The state’s economic troubles, aggravated by the recession and its shrinking manufacturing base, have turned Michigan into a bellwether of bust. Its unemployment rate stands at 10.7 percent - one of the worst in the country. The move comes as other Republican-dominated legislatures, including Florida’s, are weighing similar efforts to restrict payments to the jobless, and states such as Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana are implementing far-reaching, controversial plans to close budget gaps…”

Apartheid-style neglect of kids continues, By Charl Du Plessis, March 24, 2011, Sunday Times: “So says a report, a collaboration between the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the SA Human Rights Commission, released yesterday. It details how the country fails the most vulnerable. The report said that 64%, or 11.9million of the country’s 18.6million children, live in poverty, and four out of 10 children live in households in which none of the adults work. About 1.7million children lived in shacks, 1.4million relied on rivers or streams as their main source of water, and 1.5million had no toilet in their home. African children were 18 times more likely to grow up in poverty and 12 times more likely to experience hunger than white children. The worst-hit areas of ‘multiple deprivation’ were still former homelands, said the report, which drew on data from the Statistics SA general household survey and other surveys. Children are failed primarily by the health and education systems…”

In major cuts, Gov. Jerry Brown slashes services for poor, sick and elderly, By Shane Goldmacher, March 25, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law billions of dollars in budget cuts Thursday that will mean fewer government services, particularly for the old, the poor and the sick. The governor signed the new laws to tackle $11.2 billion of the state’s estimated $26-billion deficit, even as he scrambled to find Republican support for the other half of his budget plan: a ballot measure asking voters’ blessing to renew expiring taxes. Time is running out to place such a measure on the June ballot, he said. State officials will now begin notifying many Californians that their government benefits are to be cut within 90 days - at just about the start of the new budget year. Come July, welfare grants will be reduced by 8%, and parents will be kicked off the rolls after four years instead of the current five…”

• Next meal elusive for hundreds of thousands of needy in D.C. area, By Annie Gowan, March 24, 2011, Washington Post: “More than 400,000 Washington area residents experienced periods of hunger and empty cupboards during the recession, including tens of thousands living in some of the country’s most affluent counties, according to a new study released Thursday. The study, “Map the Meal Gap,” used Agriculture Department, 2010 Census and unemployment data for a sweeping county-by-county portrait of hunger in America, from unemployed timber workers in the South to more than 1.7 million residents in Los Angeles with high unemployment and housing costs…”
• Millions of Americans can’t always afford food, By Kim Carollo, March 24, 2011, ABC News: “While many people may not think much about grabbing a bite to eat, for millions of Americans, it’s been a lot harder. A new report shows about 50 million people aren’t always sure how they’re going to afford their next meal. According to the Map the Meal Gap report by the hunger relief charity Feeding America, about 15 percent of American households experienced “food insecurity” at some time during 2009, or believed they didn’t have enough or couldn’t get enough money for food. The report uses food insecurity data gathered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The report provides food insecurity rates for every county and congressional district in the country and also analyzes each county’s population to determine whether people are eligible for federal nutrition assistance programs…”
• Study: Tens of thousands have too little food, By Julie Wurth, March 24, 2011, Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette: “A new national hunger study says 79,000 people in East Central Illinois don’t have enough to eat — and more than half of them may not qualify for federal food assistance. About 15.5 percent of the 508,000 people in the 14-county region served by the Eastern Illinois Foodbank are classified as ‘food insecure,’ unable to get enough food on a regular basis, according to a study released Thursday by Feeding America, a national hunger-relief organization. The study, called “Map the Meal Gap,” provides numbers for the first time about food insecurity for each county and congressional district. Previously, that data was only available on a state-by-state basis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, officials said…”
• Study: Minnesotans miss 100 million meals each year, By Julie Siple, March 25, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “A study released this week by the hunger relief organization Feeding America estimates that Minnesotans struggling with hunger collectively miss almost 100 million meals each year. The study says, nationwide, hungry people would need $21.3 billion to fill the gap in their food budgets. Work in Minnesota inspired the study. Rob Zeaske and his colleagues at Second Harvest Heartland food bank were looking for a better way to understand who needs help. ‘Traditionally we’ve measured hunger by who comes in for help, by who comes into a food shelf or who comes into a soup kitchen,’ Zeaske said. ‘The attempt was - how do we make a better estimate of who’s out there needing assistance, and how badly, but might not be getting help?’ Feeding America ran with that idea. The national study they released Thursday does two things that hadn’t been done before. It estimates the number of people struggling with hunger in each U.S. county. And it puts a number on how many meals people are missing…”

• Michigan may cut length of jobless benefits, By Todd Spangler, March 24, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “U.S. Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak, finds himself immersed in the affairs of the Capitol in Lansing because of a piece of legislation - now on the governor’s desk - that could make Michigan’s unemployment benefits the skimpiest in the nation, in terms of how long they can last. In a hastily called conference call with reporters and two state legislators this morning, Levin railed against the bill passed by the Republican-controlled state House and Senate as having ‘potentially dire ramifications’ if it goes into effect- which is almost certain to happen, at least in the short term, since Gov. Rick Snyder, also a Republican, has said he will sign it…”
• Levin, Dem leaders urge Snyder not to sign jobless measure, By Karen Bouffard, March 24, 2011, Detroit News: “U.S. Rep. Sander Levin and Democratic leaders of the state House and Senate called a rare joint press conference this morning to urge Gov. Rick Snyder not to sign legislation that will permanently reduce state-level unemployment benefits to 20 weeks from 26. The bill provides a 20-week extension in federal unemployment benefits for about 150,000 laid-off Michigan workers set to lose benefits by the end of the year, including 35,000 slated to fall of the rolls at the end of this month. The governor is expected to sign the bill into law, according to Snyder spokesman Sara Wurfel…”

Bills would require welfare applicants to take, pay for drug tests, By William March, March 24, 2011, Tampa Tribune: “Bills are advancing in both houses of the Florida Legislature requiring applicants for welfare benefits to take and pay for drug tests, despite Democratic and even some Republican opposition. In House committee hearing Wednesday, the bill’s sponsor revised it to make it tougher, applying to all applicants, not just those with criminal records for drug offenses. That brings it in line with the Senate version of the bill, which already applied to all applicants, but also raises more questions about whether bill is constitutional, according to the legislative staff analysis. It also generated increased opposition…”

NJ Kids Count report on children shows some progress, but more live in poverty, By Michael Symons, March 23, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Fewer children in New Jersey are dying as infants, missing out on preschool and being arrested as juveniles, according to a report card published Wednesday that also warns that the number living in poverty, missing recommended immunizations and being repeatedly abused is rising. In all, the first New Jersey Kids Count Report Card, added this year to the annual Kids Count report by Advocates for Children of New Jersey, found conditions have improved for children in four of 15 areas examined, worsened in seven and stayed level in four. Cecilia Zalkind, the executive director of the advocacy group, said some of the areas of improvements are particularly important, including the increase in the number of children with health insurance - which was up by 44,000 between 2005 and 2009, leaving 9 percent of kids, more than half of them low-income, uninsured in 2009…”

• Food stamp use, poverty rates sharply rise among N.J. children during recession, By Megan DeMarco and Salvador Rizzo, March 23, 2011, Star-Ledger: “The Great Recession pushed thousands of New Jerseyans below the federal poverty level in 2009, causing the state’s rate to spike to the highest it’s been since at least 2002, a report released Tuesday finds. The recession also took its toll on the state’s youngest residents, according to a separate report to be released today by the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New Jersey. Close to one-third of the state’s 2 million children were living in low-income families, more youths were out of both school and work, and slightly more children were abused or neglected, the group found. In 2009, 9.4 percent of the state’s residents lived in poverty, compared with the national average of 14.3 percent. New Jersey’s rate has not risen above 8.7 percent since 2002, the first year it was calculated under the formula now used…”
• Report: 1.1 million in N.J. live on the edge of poverty, By Michael Symons, March 22, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Nearly 800,000 state residents were living in poverty in 2009, with another 1.1 million New Jerseyans in households with incomes above the poverty line but low enough to be considered poor, according to a report released Tuesday. Though New Jersey is the nation’s second wealthiest state, nearly a quarter of its residents had household incomes in 2009 that were less than twice the poverty threshold, which advocates for the poor say is still not enough for someone to achieve self-sufficiency in a high-cost state such as New Jersey. Job losses and stagnant wages resulting from the recession that began at the end of 2007 appear to have taken a toll on the middle class, according to the annual report from Legal Services of New Jersey’s Poverty Research Institute…”
• Study finds record poverty levels for Cumberland County, Bridgeton, By Greg Adomaitis, News of Cumberland County: “Cumberland County had 7.2 percent of its residents living in severe poverty - the highest in the state. Bridgeton had 15.4 percent of its 25,349 residents living in ’severe poverty’ - second only to Camden. Meanwhile, New Jersey had the second highest median household income in the country - $64,918. A study released Tuesday found this, and many more sobering statistics, within the 165 page document. The study, ‘Poverty Benchmarks 2011. Assessing New Jersey’s Progress in Combating Poverty’, was done by Legal Services of New Jersey Poverty Research Institute…”

• Medicaid savings unrealistic, study says, By Warren Wolfe and Rachel Stassen-Berger, March 22, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Faulty information is driving a plan by Minnesota House Republicans to save $300 million in Medicaid spending over the next two years by seeking to exempt the state from some federal rules in exchange for a lump-sum block grant, a Washington think tank says. The House proposal is based on a 2009 ‘global Medicaid waiver’ for Rhode Island that some former officials say saved the state about $150 million in its first 18 months. But the ’savings’ actually came from extra federal Recovery Act money to states — including $400 million to Rhode Island — to help them cope with the recession, said the report by health policy analysts at the Center on Budget and Policy Research, published last week and updated Tuesday…”
• Opponents of Medicaid cuts warn of devastating ripple effect, By Chuck Lindell, March 22, 2011, Austin American-Statesman: “Proposed steep cuts to state Medicaid spending threaten to force medically fragile children and adults with disabilities away from home care and into nursing homes and other institutions, health care advocates said at Capitol rallies Tuesday. At the same time, however, the 33 percent cuts proposed for Medicaid-funded nursing homes will force agencies to close across Texas, limiting options for thousands of the state’s elderly, advocates warned. The ripple effect of the cuts - estimated at $7.6 billion to almost $10 billion, or roughly one-third of Texas’ Medicaid spending - will endanger lives, kill jobs, strain the state’s economy, and cost Texas more money in the long run, they said…”

Soaring food prices send millions into poverty, hunger, By John Waggoner, March 17, 2011, USA Today: “Corn has soared 52% the past 12 months. Sugar’s up 60%. Soybeans have jumped 41%. And wheat costs 24% more than it did a year ago. For about 44 million people - roughly the population of the New York, Los Angeles and Chicago metropolitan areas combined - the rise in food prices means a descent into extreme poverty and hunger, according to the World Bank. The surge in food prices has many causes. Rising population. Speculators. Soaring oil prices. Trade policies. And, ironically, improved standards of living in emerging nations. By itself, the soaring cost of food didn’t cause the political unrest in the Middle East and elsewhere. Those tensions have been building for a long time. But higher food prices amplify those tensions…”

400,000 rely on food banks each month in Ontario, By Laurie Monsebraaten, March 22, 2011, Toronto Star: “Hunger is a daily reality for Mike Crawford, 56, as he treks across downtown Toronto in search of soup kitchens between monthly visits to a local food bank. Crawford, who tumbled onto welfare after a nervous breakdown a decade ago, is among more than 400,000 Ontarians - or 3 per cent of the province’s population - who are forced to turn to food banks every month, according to a new report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks. Food bank use has grown by an unprecedented 28 per cent since the recession in 2008, making Ontario the third highest user of food bank services in Canada behind Newfoundland and Manitoba, says the report released Tuesday…”

Food stamps surge in West, By Jim Carlton, March 16, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “Before the recession hit, Idaho, Nevada and Utah had some of the lowest rates of food stamp use in the nation. It was a boom time in a region that has always prided itself on self-reliance and a disdain for government handouts. But since the recession began, these three states have the fastest growth rates in the nation of participation in the federal program, recently released figures show. Utah saw a nearly 34% jump in food-stamp participation in December from the same month a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nevada had the second fastest growth rate at 25%, followed by Idaho at 24%. For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, those three states plus Wyoming ranked among the top 10 in food-stamp growth, with Idaho leading with a 42% jump from 2009, according to USDA figures…”

• Two Kentuckys: Cities grow while rural areas decline, Census shows, By Bill Estep, March 18, 2011, Lexington Herald-Leader: “Kentucky’s Golden Triangle continued to grow during the last decade as the population drained away from the eastern and western coalfields and farm counties along the Mississippi River. That’s the overarching news from the state’s official 2010 U.S. Census count, released Thursday. The state as a whole grew a modest 6.1 percent from 2000 to 2010, to a total population of 4,339,367 as of last April 1, according to a Herald-Leader analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. The numbers released Thursday include more detail: population breakdowns by city, county, race, ethnicity and voting age that shed light on the state’s internal shifts and the growth in the number of Hispanic residents - up 112 percent since 2000…”
• Census data confirms suburban growth, greater diversity in Minn., By Elizabeth Dunbar, March 16, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Minnesota has become slightly more racially diverse, and Minneapolis and St. Paul have lagged behind population growth in other parts of the state over the past 10 years. Those are just a few of the trends found in 2010 census data that state and local officials will examine as they re-draw voting districts and plan government services for the future. The results of the annual American Community Survey already provided officials with information about Minnesota’s population and diversity trends. The survey has replaced the long-form of the census used to track things like poverty and English proficiency. But the release of the new data gives officials detailed counts of the people who live in a particular urban neighborhood or small town. It also provides more detailed demographic information…”

Food stamps and tax aid kept poverty rate in check, By Sam Roberts, March 20, 2011, New York Times: “Without a flood of food stamps and tax benefits for low-income families, about 250,000 more New Yorkers would have slipped into poverty at the height of the recession, according to calculations to be released Monday by city officials. As it was, while the federal poverty rate for the city remained about the same from 2008 to 2009, 17.3 percent, by a measure developed by the city it rose to 19.9 percent. The city takes into account factors the federal standard does not - higher local costs of living and expenses for health care, commuting and day care, or the value of benefits like food stamps, housing allowances and tax credits that can supplement cash income…”

Child poverty rate rose, racial gap widened, in Minnesota, By Jeremy Olson, March 16, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Minnesota’s child poverty rate leapt to 14 percent in 2009 — with minority families faring worst — despite a high rate of working parents, according to a new report by the state branch of the Children’s Defense Fund. While Minnesota had the nation’s fifth-lowest rate for white children that year, its child poverty rate for Asian- Americans was the highest in the nation and its rate for African-American children was fifth highest. The racial divide was one of several showing a widening gap between haves and have-nots in Minnesota, said Kara Arzamendia, research director of Children’s Defense Fund - Minnesota, which produces the annual state Kids Count report…”

Hidden workforce challenges domestic economic recovery, By Ylan Q. Mui, March 15, 2011, Washington Post: “Overshadowing the nation’s economic recovery is not only the number of Americans who have lost their jobs, but also those who have stopped looking for new ones. These workers are not counted in the Labor Department’s monthly unemployment rate, yet they say they are willing to work. Since the recession began, their numbers have grown by 30 percent, to more than 6.4 million, amounting to a hidden labor force that could stymie the turnaround. Adding these workers to February’s jobless rate pushes it up to 10.5 percent, well above the more commonly cited 8.9 percent rate.An even broader measure of unemployment, which includes people forced to work part time, stands at nearly 16 percent…”

• Report: Unemployment adds 9 million uninsured in U.S., By Steven Reinberg, March 16, 2011, US News and World Report: “The millions of Americans who lost their jobs and their health benefits during the recession often had no way to regain affordable health coverage, leaving them and their families at risk of financial ruin, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund. The spate of layoffs during the recession catapulted 9 million more Americans — or 57 percent of those who had had health insurance in a job that evaporated over the last two years — into the ranks of the millions already uninsured. In addition, 19 million people anxiously seeking private coverage over the last three years were either turned down or could not find a plan that was affordable and met their needs, the report found. The Biennial Health Insurance Survey also found a whopping 60 percent increase in skipped care due to cost in the past decade. The survey reported that medical debt problems and out-of-pocket spending costs were on the rise as well, with 29 million Americans using up their entire life savings to pay for medical bills and millions more unable to afford food, heat and rent due to medical payments…”
• Job loss, health costs pushed uninsured to 52 million in U.S., March 16, 2011, San Francisco Chronicle: “Unemployment and rising expenses caused 9 million Americans to lose health insurance during the past two years, according to researchers backed by a group advocating access to health care. Losses of coverage helped swell the ranks of uninsured adults in the U.S. to 52 million in 2010, according to a study released today by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based foundation that says it backs research aimed at expanding and improving care. An additional 73 million adults had difficulties paying for health care and 75 million deferred treatment because they couldn’t afford it, researchers said. President Barack Obama’s health overhaul will provide access to insurance to almost all of the currently uninsured through expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor and through private health plans, said Sara Collins, a study author. Federal subsidies and rules on affordability and mandated benefits will allow many to buy coverage by 2014 when the law is due to take full effect, she said. The law is being challenged in court cases questioning its constitutionality…”

Coveting Singapore’s public housing system, By Kathy Chu, March 15, 2011, USA Today: “Singapore’s public housing system is often touted as a model for other countries. The island nation houses more than 80% of its residents in public housing. It’s building eco-friendly apartment buildings that have green roofs and that use recycled water. Instead of renting the public housing units, Singaporeans can also become quasi-homeowners, buying 99-year leases on the properties that they can later sell at market prices. But as the economy here has recovered from the 2008 recession, public housing prices have skyrocketed. High prices are making it hard for some of the very residents for whom Singapore’s public housing was intended to buy a flat on the resale market…”

Misuse of welfare money is minimal, data show, By Madeleine Baran, March 15, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Republican state lawmakers have proposed new restrictions to prevent poor people from spending welfare money on alcohol, tobacco and lottery tickets. However, the available data suggests misuse of welfare money is minimal. Instead, people who receive welfare said the legislation would make it impossible to use the money for basic needs, like paying rent and doing laundry. ‘It’s degrading enough, and now they want to degrade me even more, and that’s wrong,’ said Gigi Wright, a welfare recipient who would be affected by the changes. Republican lawmakers have authored several bills this session that would impose restrictions on the transaction card that welfare recipients use to access their monthly benefits. At a press conference in late January, lawmakers introduced the bills while standing next to a display of beer, cigarettes, and lottery tickets — items that aren’t supposed to be purchased using welfare money…”

Safety net for jobless rolls up after 99 weeks, By Greg Griffin, March 15, 2011, Denver Post: “Kelly Wiedemer alternates between hope and despair in her search for work, but as the months pass, she finds that pessimism prevails. The 45-year-old former business analyst has been unemployed since July 2008 and worries that she’ll never find a job that puts to use her college degree and more than 15 years of experience. Still, she said, she keeps looking and pursues every lead. Wiedemer’s unemployment benefits expired in April and resumed last month for a final six weeks. She’s been living off food stamps and the help of her mother, whose Westminster house she moved back into last June. ‘It’s a challenge just to buy dog food,’ she said, her 7-year-old bull terrier Kenda lying nearby. ‘My mom’s bootstraps are all that’s holding me up now.’ Wiedemer is among at least 13,000 Coloradans who are receiving six weeks of Tier IV federal unemployment benefits for those out of work at least 94 weeks…”

Audit finds progress at Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare, By Crocker Stephenson, March 13, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Some good news: The number of children neglected or abused while in out-of-home care in Milwaukee’s child welfare system is at a historic low. Some more: The raw number of children in out-of-home care has declined. Staff turnover has begun to stabilize. Caseloads are down. And more: Monthly face-to-face contacts between caseworkers and foster children are up. Health care services have improved. Following public outrage ignited by the murder of a small boy two years ago, officials vowed to revamp Milwaukee’s child welfare system. In particular, they promised to make it a safer place for the city’s abused and neglected children. While significant challenges remain - most significantly, too many children still spend too long churning through too many homes while in state care - many of the promises made then have been kept…”

Low-income elderly could lose drug plan, By Guy Boulton, March 13, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed two-year budget would effectively end the state’s SeniorCare prescription drug program in its current form, forcing tens of thousands of people to enroll in more-expensive private plans available through Medicare Part D. The SeniorCare program, introduced in 2001, provides low-cost prescription drug coverage to low-income people over 65. About 91,000 people are in the program, and for most of them, switching to private coverage could cost hundreds of dollars more per year. ‘Most people now in SeniorCare will not be better off in Medicare Part D,’ said John Hendrick, governmental affairs director for the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups. The least expensive prescription drug plan through Medicare Part D in Wisconsin this year costs $177.60 and has a $310 annual deductible as well as co-pays. Most cost more: The average plan costs $43.96 a month, or $527 a year, based on estimated enrollment, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In contrast, almost 40,000 of the people in the SeniorCare program - those with household incomes below $17,424 for one person and $23,536 for two people - pay only a $5 co-pay for generic drugs and $15 for branded drugs, plus a $30 annual enrollment fee…”

Expanded Medicaid a lifesaver for rural poor in Minn., By Tom Robertson, March 14, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Sweeping changes to the Medicaid program in Minnesota this month have expanded health coverage for tens of thousands of low-income adults. For many of those people in Greater Minnesota, the expansion of Medicaid means they’ll be able to access health care closer to home. That’s good news to Jacque Morrow, 43, a homeless woman who sometimes seeks shelter at the People’s Church in Bemidji. Morrow and other rural clients who were covered under General Assistance Medical Care - adults without children with incomes at or below 75 percent of the federal poverty guideline - struggled to access health care. That’s because under the old program, they could only be treated at one of four hospitals - all in the Twin Cities…”

• Walker’s budget slashes tax credits that aid poor, By Dee J. Hall, March 6, 2011, Wisconsin State Journal: “Low-income taxpayers in Wisconsin would lose hundreds of dollars in tax credits a year under Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed budget - at the same time the governor wants tax cuts for businesses and investors to boost jobs. Walker proposes cutting about $16 million a year from the program, which in 2009 paid 273,939 low-income Wisconsin residents a total of $133 million. Under Walker’s proposed biennial budget, a single mother with two children earning about minimum wage - $15,000 a year - would lose $302 of her $704 Earned Income Tax Credit next year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. A two-parent household with two children earning $30,000 a year would see its tax credit cut by $194 to $258, the alliance said…”
• Bill seeks to cut EITC percentage, By Matthew Clark, March 11, 2011, Pittsburg Morning Sun: “A bill spearheaded by a Kansas House committee has been proposed to decrease Kansas’ Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from its current 18 percent to 5 percent over the next four years. State Rep. Terry Calloway, a Pittsburg Republican, introduced the measure to the House Taxation Committee and it has already drawn sharp attacks from Democrats and other opponents who call the measure ‘counter-productive.’ The bill will generate an additional $56.3 million to the state’s General Fund initially in fiscal year 2012 and increase to $64.5 million by fiscal year 2016. It will reduce the amount of the tax credit - which is meant to benefit low-income individuals and families and also takes out a provision making the tax credit refundable. That means, if a family’s tax credit was higher than their tax liability, they would have the liability paid off, but would not get a check for the difference…”

Kasich hopes more healthy babies will reduce Medicaid costs, By Catherine Candisky and Joe Vardon, March 11, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Reducing the number of low-weight babies born in Ohio will be one of the initiatives to lower health-care costs that Gov. John Kasich is expected to unveil in his state budget next week. The proposal will be part of a broader effort by the Republican’s administration to rein in Medicaid spending by reducing hospitalization and other high-cost care covered by the tax-funded program, which provides health care to 2 million poor and disabled Ohioans. Yesterday, Kasich discussed low birth-weight babies and another initiative to reduce the cost of home visits by nurses and other health-care aides…”

• 41% of state students eligible for meal subsidies, By Amy Hetzner, March 11, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “About two of every five Wisconsin school children now qualify for federally subsidized meals because of low family incomes, according to data released Thursday by the state’s education agency. The proportion of students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch has rapidly increased over the past seven years, climbing from 29.5% in the 2003-’04 school year to 41.4% this school year. The rising number of children who meet the standard for subsidized meals reflects increasing economic hardships among Wisconsin families as well as a push among schools to have qualifying students registered for the lunch program, which often is used to calculate government grants. In a news release announcing the new figures, the Department of Public Instruction noted that 95 of the state’s 424 school districts now have at least half their students receiving subsidized lunches. Milwaukee Public Schools had the second highest percentage of students in the state qualifying for free and reduced-price lunch at 82.6% in the 2010-’11 school year. The Lac du Flambeau School District had 90.3% of its students qualify for subsidized meals…”
• Number of Green Bay students living in poverty rises, By Patti Zarling, March 10, 2011, Green Bay Press Gazette: “More than half the schoolchildren in the Green Bay School District qualify for free or reduced-price meals - an indicator of poverty - and that number is growing. Figures released Thursday by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction show 56.5 percent of Green Bay students qualify for the special meal prices this school year, up from 52.9 percent for the 2009-10 school year…”

Federal cuts could hit US housing agencies, By Samantha Gross (AP), March 11, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “Kevin Gaines and his family got rashes soon after they moved into their new apartment. His son kept getting nosebleeds. The dust made it hard to breathe. When Gaines, a liver transplant recipient, saw yellow mold creeping over the ceiling, he said doctors warned it could cause him to reject his new organ. After Gaines complained, city inspectors recorded dozens of code violations and city workers even came in to make repairs. New York City officials warn, however, that budget cuts being pushed by some members of Congress could decimate their housing enforcement efforts, slicing the funds used to pay inspectors, sue landlords and perform emergency repairs. Around the country, the cuts could also shutter community centers, leave rural water outages unchecked, stymie plans for new housing developments and reduce the money available for fixing broken elevators and leaking roofs in the nation’s public housing. Budget proposals by both the Senate and House of Representatives were voted down Wednesday as lawmakers attempt to wrangle a compromise that would prevent the federal government from shutting down when the latest temporary spending measure expires March 18…”

• More Colorado kids slipping into poverty, report says, By Karen Auge, March 10, 2011, Denver Post: “In one of the first comprehensive looks at how the recession has affected families, the Colorado Children’s Campaign reports that the state’s children continued a slide into poverty that began a decade ago and accelerated as hard times hit. According to the 2011 Kids Count in Colorado! report being released today, another 31,000 children slipped into poverty in 2009, bringing the total to 17 percent of all children, up from 15 percent the year before…”
• Report: Recession sends more Colorado kids into deep poverty, By Barbara Cotter, March 10, 2011, Colorado Springs Gazette: “In a state where the number of children living in poverty has been growing faster than anywhere else in the United States, the recession was bound to make a bad situation worse. And it did. According to the ‘2011 Kids Count in Colorado’ report, released Thursday by the nonprofit Colorado Children’s Campaign, the number of Colorado children living in poverty went up by 17 percent from 2008 to 2009, with minority kids faring even worse. Median family incomes dropped by $1,800 and the number of homeless students enrolled in public schools jumped 53 percent from the 2006-07 school year. Another sobering statistic: The number of children whose families live in extreme poverty - defined as a family of four making $11,000 or less annually - climbed from 65,000 in 2008 to 95,000 in 2009…”

• Will health care law raise states’ Medicaid costs?, By Tony Pugh, March 8, 2011, Miami Herald: “The nation’s Republican governors are raising a new complaint against the 2010 national health overhaul, which they deride as ‘Obamacare.’ They say it would drive up their Medicaid costs dramatically at a time they’re already slashing their budgets to cope with debt. There’s no question that the health care law will force states to expand their Medicaid services, but how that ultimately will affect states’ costs is a matter of considerable dispute. The 2010 law requires that state Medicaid programs in 2014 begin covering all non-elderly people who earn up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, which would comprise people with incomes of up to $29,400 for a family of four this year. By 2019, that expansion is expected to add 16 million people to Medicaid, which now provides health coverage for about 60 million low-income Americans. Childless adults and parents who previously earned too much to qualify for the program will make up the bulk of the new enrollees…”
• To cap Medicaid, Florida looks to managed care, By Greg Allen, March 8, 2011, National Public Radio: “In Tallahassee, Florida’s Legislature has one overriding goal this session: to close a $4.5 billion budget shortfall. And one of the key programs it is targeting for cuts is Medicaid. In Florida and every other state, the program, which provides health insurance for the needy, makes up a big chunk of the annual budget. In reforming the program, Florida hopes to save $1 billion in what it spends on Medicaid. When he introduced a plan recently to overhaul Medicaid, the head of Florida’s Senate, Republican Mike Haridopolos, said that his first two goals were improving the quality of care and improving the access to care. ‘Then and only then,’ he said, ‘we start looking at costs.’ But in fact, there is really one thing driving elected officials in Florida and elsewhere to take a hard look at Medicaid - and that’s the price tag. Ten years ago in Florida, Medicaid cost $9 billion. By last year, it had risen to more than $22 billion. More than half of that cost is picked up by the federal government. Even so, Florida’s share still amounts to nearly one-third of the state’s budget…”

• Floridians may get fewer federal unemployment benefits, if state insurance cut, By Marcia Heroux Pounds, March 6, 2011, Sun Sentinel: “Florida residents who lose their jobs will get fewer unemployment benefits than residents in any other state if a House bill reducing benefits is passed, says a national advocacy group for the unemployed. Republican legislators said the cuts are necessary to protect Florida’s business climate. But benefits experts say Florida’s unemployed will get penalized twice. At issue are the federal unemployment benefits that kick in after state benefits are exhausted. House sponsors of HB 7005 said reducing the state’s payment would not cut the federal entitlement the unemployed can claim. But not everyone agrees…”
• Fla. House gives first OK to reduce jobless benefits, By Jason Garcia, March 9, 2011, Orlando Sentinel: “The Florida House of Representatives tentatively approved a plan Wednesday that would slash unemployment benefits for out-of-work Floridians and pass much of the savings on to businesses. The sweeping legislation would both cut the maximum number of weeks unemployed workers could receive state payments, from 26 to 20, and reduce the tax levied against businesses to pay for the program. It would also make it easier for businesses to deny benefits. A top priority of the state’s business lobby, the unemployment-compensation package was the first substantive measure taken up on the floor of the House in the 2011 legislative session, which opened Tuesday. An estimated 400,000 Floridians are currently receiving unemployment benefits, as the state’s unemployment rate remains stuck at about 12 percent…”

• When test scores seem too good to believe, By Greg Toppo, Denise Amos, Jack Gillum and Jodi Upton, March 6, 2011, USA Today: “Scott Mueller seemed to have an uncanny sense about what his students should study to prepare for upcoming state skills tests. By 2010, the teacher had spent his 16-year career entirely at Charles Seipelt Elementary School. Like other Seipelt teachers, Mueller regularly wrote study guides for his classes ahead of state tests. On test day last April, several fifth-graders immediately recognized some of the questions on their math tests. The questions were the same as those on the study guide Mueller had given out the day before. Some numbers on the actual tests were identical to those in the study guide and the questions were in the same order, the kids told other Seipelt teachers. The report of possible cheating quickly reached district officials, who put Mueller on paid leave. He initially denied any wrongdoing. Ultimately, investigators concluded that Mueller had looked at questions for both fifth-grade math and science tests in advance - a violation of testing rules - and then copied them, sometimes word for word, into a school computer to develop his study guides…”
• When test scores don’t add up: 32 metro Detroit schools show improvements too good to be true, By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki, Chastity Pratt Dawsey and Kristi Tanner-White, March 6, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Each year, millions of children in Michigan and across the nation take state standardized tests that impact everything from a school’s reputation to how teachers will be evaluated to whether schools will even survive. The pressures to perform, experts say, tempt some school administrators and teachers to cheat. The Free Press, as part of a nationwide investigation with USA TODAY and other partners, analyzed millions of test score results and found that 34 schools across Michigan — 32 of them in metro Detroit — showed test score gains over a one-year period that experts say are statistically improbable. More broadly, the analysis found 304 schools in six states and the District of Columbia that had test scores so improbable, they should be investigated. Besides Michigan, the states were Arizona, Colorado, California, Florida and Ohio…”

• Nebraska schools: More minority students, more meeting poverty standard, By Margaret Reist and Mark Andersen, March 6, 2011, Lincoln Journal Star: “Linda Baumert, who has taught first-graders in Schuyler Community Schools for 27 years, was there when the first hints of change squeezed into a desk in her classroom. The first Hispanic student in the district walked into Baumert’s room in the mid 1980s during her first few years of teaching, a harbinger of things to come. Drawn by a meatpacking plant 4½ miles west of town, the district’s Hispanic population grew slowly until about 10 years ago, when a trickle became a torrent. From 2005 to 2010, the district’s Hispanic population grew 533 percent, from 201 students to 1,272. Today, 89 percent of the K-3 elementary school is Hispanic, 68 percent of the high school. For reasons that go beyond race, 73 percent of Schuyler’s students are enrolled in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. Free and reduced-price meal counts are the commonly accepted method for determining poverty in public schools across the country, Nebraska Department of Education spokesman Betty Vandeventer said. Schuyler is an extreme example of two long-term trends in Nebraska’s public schools: increasing diversity and a growing number of students who meet the districts’ poverty standard…”
• LPS student trends mirror those statewide, By Margaret Reist, March 6, 2011, Lincoln Journal Star: “Lincoln Public Schools mirrors two statewide student enrollment trends over the past 15 years: more minority students and more students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. This school year, the percentage of K-12 students qualifying for the lunch program — a schools standard for measuring poverty — hit 43 percent, surpassing 40 percent for the first time, according to LPS statistics. In elementary grades, nearly 46 percent of students today meet the poverty standard. Those percentages are even higher when students attending LPS’s federally funded preschools are included. Last year, according to the Nebraska Department of Education, 42 percent of all LPS students from pre-K to 12th grade met the poverty standard…”

• Microfinance struggles to restore its reputation, By Erika Kinetz (AP), March 7, 2011, Boston Globe: “Long heralded as a way to lift the downtrodden out of poverty, microfinance is under a cloud. The stories of lives being changed by a $27 microloan and picture perfect scenes of smiling women with colorful handlooms, empowered by affordable credit, have been replaced by headlines about borrowers driven to suicide. At best, microfinance seems to be failing to achieve its most noble goal: poverty alleviation. At worst, some lenders are contributing to a cycle of indebtedness and abuse, just like the loan sharks they sought to replace. Critics say the industry has grown too quickly for its own good, with too much rapaciousness and too little regulation. That has fostered a breakdown in lending discipline, with multiple loans to overextended borrowers, and allowed some unscrupulous players to thrive…”
• India’s poor need help to help themselves, By Sarika Bansal, March 7, 2011, The Guardian: “Until recently, microfinance has been the golden child of international development. Microfinance companies would lend small amounts of money to poor women who would, in the ideal scenario, use them to start small businesses. Their interest rates were typically lower than loan sharks’ but still high enough to make a profit. Around the world, development experts believed microfinance was an ideal way to alleviate poverty, a smart way to ‘do good’ while also ‘doing well’. How times have changed. In the last few months, many people have become newly critical. In November, politicians in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh started making bold claims about how microfinance’s crushing interest rates and strongman tactics were, among other things, leading to suicide among over-indebted borrowers…”

1.5 million Ohioans among the uninsured, By Suzanne Hoholik, March 8, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “More Ohioans are uninsured, fewer businesses offer health benefits to workers and almost 250,000 people joined the state Medicaid rolls from 2008 to 2010, according to a survey released yesterday. The 2010 Ohio Family Health Survey found that the number of uninsured grew by almost 160,000 - including 15,283 children - during the two-year period. In all, there are about 1.5 million uninsured Ohioans. ‘These are preliminary numbers. They raise more questions than they answer at this point,’ said William Hayes, an adjunct assistant professor at Ohio State University’s College of Public Health. The survey also found that being uninsured is the second-largest category of health-coverage status, behind employer-sponsored health plans, for working adults 18 to 64 years old…”

City eyes new tactic for failing schools: The turnaround, By Fernanda Santos, March 8, 2011, New York Times: “The Bloomberg administration’s signature strategy for low-performing schools has been to shut them down, a drastic move that often incites anger and protests from teachers, parents and neighborhood officials. Since the beginning of the mayor’s first term, more than 110 schools have been shuttered or are in the process of closing. The administration is now thinking of testing another approach at two schools in the Bronx: replacing the principals and at least half of the teachers, but keeping the schools and all of their programs running - a strategy known as a turnaround. The plan would bring together unlikely partners: the New York City Department of Education, the teachers’ union and the founder of a charter school network who is best known for turning around one of the toughest high schools in Los Angeles. There are benefits and risks for each side. The city would be departing from its philosophy of closing large schools and opening smaller ones in their space. But it could cause less political blowback…”

Sides gird up for Medicaid fight, By Marc Caputo, March 7, 2011, Miami Herald: “In Florida, poverty is big business. Just look at the Medicaid healthcare program, which could account for $22 billion in spending in the coming budget year. It’s the most expensive program in the state budget right now and funds more than 80,000 providers, from large hospitals to podiatrists. It’s on pace to cover more than 3.2 million poor, elderly and disabled Floridians - 15 percent of the population, including more than a quarter of all children, half of all births and almost two-thirds of nursing-home care. But with all the increases - 50 percent over five years - lawmakers say they have to tamp down on costs and improve care. Their solution: require that HMO-like managed-care companies take more control of Medicaid. Lawmakers also want to trim reimbursement rates and cut some programs, including those for the catastrophically sick. Some hope to expand the use of vouchers for recipients to buy private health insurance, and they would like to use the program to help subsidize health insurance for employees of some private businesses…”

Ending homelessness: A model that just might work, By Pam Fessler, March 7, 2011, National Public Radio: “More than 30 years ago, a nonprofit was launched in New York City to try to find permanent housing for chronically homeless people in Times Square. Now it has a national campaign that some people think could be an important first step toward ending homelessness in America. Standing outside an elegant 15-story brick building in midtown Manhattan, Rosanne Haggerty, who runs the nonprofit Common Ground, recalls how it all began - how a former hotel became a model for housing the homeless. ‘In the early ’80s, I lived right next-door to the Times Square Hotel,’ she says. ‘It was back in the day when Times Square was Times Square, as we say - kind of a crazy neighborhood to say the least.’ The area was known mostly for peep shows and prostitutes. It was long before anyone dreamed that Times Square would become a family destination. Haggerty worked with the homeless at the time, and was upset to find out that the hotel was about to shut down…”

Tight budgets mean squeeze in classrooms, By Sam Roberts, March 6, 2011, New York Times: “Millions of public school students across the nation are seeing their class sizes swell because of budget cuts and teacher layoffs, undermining a decades-long push by parents, administrators and policy makers to shrink class sizes. Over the past two years, California, Georgia, Nevada, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin have loosened legal restrictions on class size. And Idaho and Texas are debating whether to fit more students in classrooms. Los Angeles has increased the average size of its ninth-grade English and math classes to 34 from 20. Eleventh- and 12th-grade classes in those two subjects have risen, on average, to 43 students. ‘Because many states are facing serious budget gaps, we’ll see more increases this fall,’ said Marguerite Roza, a University of Washington professor who has studied the recession’s impact on schools. The increases are reversing a trend toward smaller classes that stretches back decades. Since the 1980s, teachers and many other educators have embraced research finding that smaller classes foster higher achievement…”

• U.S. adds 192,000 new jobs; unemployment rate dips to 8.9 percent, By Neil Irwin, March 4, 2011, Washington Post: “The missing piece of the U.S. economic recovery - job creation - is finally starting to fall into place. Employers added 192,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department said Friday, and the unemployment rate edged down to 8.9 percent from 9 percent, the third straight month of decline. While the job numbers received a boost from people returning to work after being marooned at home during the January snowstorms, the report was still the most solid evidence yet that the economic recovery is gaining momentum…”
• Spurred by private hiring, job growth gathers steam, By Catherine Rampell, March 4, 2011, New York Times: “The waiting game still is not over, but it may be soon. The nation’s employers added 192,000 jobs in February, up from a gain of 63,000 the previous month, the Labor Department reported on Friday. While February’s number represented the fastest growth in nearly a year, it was partly the result of a bounce back from unusually depressed hiring in January, when major snowstorms shuttered offices and factories around the country. Taken together, the job growth for the first two months of 2011 has not been much better than it was last fall. Still, economists say they are hopeful that the pace will soon pick up, assuming higher global energy and food prices do not derail the recovery…”

• Block grants could face major cuts as federal funds to fight poverty tighten, By Henri E. Cauvin, March 3, 2011, Washington Post: “Community development block grants have been a vital source of federal anti-poverty money for decades, supporting affordable housing, job training and an array of other programs serving low-income communities. When President Obama, in his 2012 budget, proposed cutting funding for CDBGs, as they are known, by about $300 million, local officials across the country worried about their already-battered finances. Then House Republicans offered their take on the nearly $4 billion grant program. Not only did they urge cutting the program by more than half, to $1.5 billion, they also endorsed making the cuts in the middle of the current fiscal year, part of the $61 billion in proposed cuts that have helped set up the budget battle. Even with Congress having voted this week on smaller cuts to keep the government funded through March 18, the far bigger trims proposed by the Republicans are still on the table. Cuts might not be finalized, but their seeming inevitability has made clear to America’s cities that they face a new reality in Washington…”
• Milwaukee agencies brace for impact of federal cuts in aid to poor, By Georgia Pabst, February 27, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Programs designed to help the poor such as Head Start, energy assistance, education and training could be cut drastically under federal budget proposals that have been made by President Barack Obama and the U.S. House. Local and national officials who work in programs that assist low-income people are watching carefully as the House and the U.S. Senate take up measures to fund federal programs for the remainder of the year and the 2012 budget, but they say it seems clear that many programs aimed at those with low incomes will be trimmed. One of the biggest cuts proposed by Obama is to reduce Community Service Block Grants by half - from $700 million to $350 million. The grants go to anti-poverty agencies such as Milwaukee’s Social Development Commission…”