Oregon’s hunger assistance program receives two awards, By Saerom Yoo, September 29, 2011, Statesman Journal: “There’s a silver lining in Oregon’s record hunger problem - $5 million worth, in fact. The state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp program, has received two awards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its successful performance. For the fifth consecutive year, SNAP was recognized for its high participation rate with a $2.6 million award. Almost 92 percent of Oregonians eligible for food stamps are enrolled. It was also awarded $2.4 million for timely processing of applications…”

N.J. ranks 46th nationally for participation in the National School Breakfast Program, By Nic Corbett, September 30, 2011, Star-Ledger: “A bowl of cereal, a cup of milk and some graham crackers can help a student start the school day off right, but New Jersey ranks 46th in the nation for participation in the National School Breakfast Program. Only 28 percent of New Jersey children eligible for free- or reduced-price meals were served breakfast at school last year through the federally funded program, according to a report by the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New Jersey using data from the New Jersey Departments of Education and Agriculture. Executive Director Cecilia Zalkind said it’s difficult for students to concentrate on a reading assignment or solve a math problem without eating in the morning…”

• Studies: Medicaid vital to kids, seniors, By David Gulliver, September 28, 2011, Bradenton Herald: “More than a half-million Floridians rely on Medicaid to pay for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses, and that federal safety net may be crucial as private health insurance costs rise far faster than wages. That picture comes from a pair of separate studies released Tuesday. Families USA examined Medicaid usage in major states, and found that in Florida, seniors and children are among its biggest recipients. The Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed employers and found that annual premiums for their family health plans increased 9 percent from the prior year, to about $15,073, greatly outpacing the 2.1 percent rise in workers’ pay…”
• State wants to shift some Medicaid recipients to lower-cost plans, By Jason Stein, September 30, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “To help address a half-billion dollar shortfall in the state’s health programs, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration is seeking to shift hundreds of thousands of state residents to lower-cost state plans or to private plans but not to leave them without coverage altogether, officials said. State officials said that there is now a $554 million estimated deficit - $110 million more than previously projected - through June 2013 in state Medicaid health programs, which provide everything from doctor’s visits for poor families to nursing home care for the elderly. That deficit could still grow further going forward, they warned. To close that gap and control fast-growing costs, state Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith said that the state would avoid dropping state residents with no other options for coverage and look instead at efforts like shifting 230,000 state Medicaid recipients into a lower-cost plan with fewer benefits…”

Unemployment benefits applications fall but joblessness remains high, By Christopher S. Rugaber and Martin Crutsinger (AP), September 30, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “The economy is showing signs of modest improvement - not enough to reduce highunemployment but enough to ease fears that another recession might be near. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, though some of that was due to technical factors. And the economy grew slightly more in the April-June quarter than previously estimated. Growth is also expected to tick up in coming months…”

• Alabama life already changing under tough immigration law, By Patrik Jonsson, September 29, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “Even before federal judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn upheld the toughest parts of Alabama’s groundbreaking immigration law Wednesday, daily life in Alabama had already begun to look - and feel - a little different. The state’s agriculture commissioner says some farmers are mourning squash rotting in the fields, after migrant workers either left or avoided the state, some in fear that their children would be used as deportation tools as schools next week begin checking the immigration status of incoming students. Two days before Judge Blackburn proffered her ruling, Alabama announced a new car-registration database called ALVerify, to head off fears of citizen revolts against long courthouse lines as residents prove their citizenship. And those working to rebuild the state from this spring’s massive tornado outbreak predicted delays under the expectation that Hispanic workers will be harder to find to lay roofs, build decks, and pour foundations…”
• Law doesn’t mark end of Alabama immigration battle, By Scott Neuman, September 29, 2011, National Public Radio: “Alabama’s toughest-in-the-nation law on illegal immigration went into effect Thursday, a day after a federal judge upheld some of its key provisions, but the court battle over the issue appears far from over. State law enforcement can now question and detain without bond people they suspect may be in the country illegally, and public schools are required to verify students’ immigration status. U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn on Wednesday upheld those and other key aspects of the law. The Justice Department, civil rights groups and some Alabama churches had sued to stop the measure from taking effect…”

Community colleges taking hits in Michigan, By David Jesse, September 30, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Fewer students are enrolling and others are taking lighter class loads at Michigan’s community colleges, the result of federal worker retraining money drying up and health care reform that expanded a student exception to insurance rules. Federal health care law now allows part-time students to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies, which could account for a decline in credit hours as students look to save money by paring class loads. Enrollment at Michigan’s 28 community colleges is down 4% compared to last fall, and the number of credit hours taken is down 6%. Falling credit hours is a bigger deal to school officials than enrollment, because tuition revenue is based on classes taken and not enrollment…”

• Poverty affects 46 million Americans, By Marisol Bello, September 28, 2011, USA Today: “Billy Schlegel plunged from middle class into poverty in the time it took his daughter to play a soccer season. In January 2010, he was making $50,000 a year as a surveyor, meeting the mortgage payments on his three-bedroom home in the nation’s wealthiest county and paying for his children to play hockey and soccer. Then came February. Schlegel, 45, was laid off. During the next 18 months, the divorced father of three almost lost his house, had to stop paying child support and turned to the local food bank for basic necessities. ‘You’ve got to swallow your pride,’ Schlegel says. ‘Especially around here, people lose their status and they feel they don’t fit in.’ This is the face of poverty after the Great Recession. Millions of Americans such as Schlegel now find themselves among the suddenly poor…”
• Hispanic children in poverty exceed whites, study finds, By Sabrina Tavernise, September 28, 2011, New York Times: “Hispanic children living in poverty in the United States outnumber poor white children for the first time, a demographic shift that was hastened by the recession, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center. The number of Hispanic children in poverty jumped by 36 percent from 2007 to 2010, to a total of 6.1 million, compared with 5 million non-Hispanic white children who are poor, said the report, which analyzed recent data from the Census Bureau. The recession drove the rise, the report found. But demographics also contributed. The Hispanic population has grown by more than 40 percent over the past decade…”
• Hispanic kids the largest group of children living in poverty, By Carol Morello and Ted Mellnik, September 28, 2011, Washington Post: “Hispanics now make up the largest group of children living in poverty, the first time in U.S. history that poor white kids have been outnumbered by poor children of another race or ethnicity, according to a new study. In a report released Wednesday, the Pew Hispanic Center said that 6.1 million Hispanic children are poor, compared with 5 million non-Hispanic white children and 4.4 million black children. Pew said Hispanic poverty numbers have soared because of the impact of the recession on the growing number of Latinos…”

• Most food stamp recipients have no earned income, By Sara Murray, September 26, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “Some 70% of households that relied on food stamps last year had no earned income, a new report shows. More than 40 million individuals and nearly 19 million households tapped the food stamp program in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While the recession technically ended in 2009, a sluggish economic recovery left millions out of work or underemployed and leaning on the government for assistance last year…”
• $7M plan may save the state $130M, By Catherine Candisky, September 29, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The state hopes to avoid $130 million in federal penalties by giving working-poor families $10 a month in food stamps. Federal regulators recently levied nearly $33 million in fines against Ohio for having too few welfare recipients working or training for a job. Desperate to avoid that fine and another $100 million in pending fines, state officials announced their plan for boosting the so-called work-participation rate - padding the rolls. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says that among its initiatives is temporarily adding more poor families - with jobs - to public-assistance rolls so they can be counted in the state’s work-participation rate…”

New study says Shelby County is best place in Alabama to be a kid, By Kim Chandler, September 27, 2011, Birmingham News: “Shelby County is the best place to be a child in Alabama, according to a study ranking indicators of child well-being. The 2010 Kids Count Data Book ranked Shelby No. 1 in the state in a survey weighing factors such as births to unmarried teens, children in single-parent families, child poverty and the high school graduation rate. Shelby County was followed by Blount, Lee, Limestone, Cleburne, St. Clair and Madison as top counties in the state. Dallas County, in the poverty-stricken Black Belt, ranked last in the state…”

• Unemployment rates fell in two-thirds of US cities last month, despite slowdown in hiring, Associated Press, September 28, 2011, Washington Post: “Unemployment rates fell in roughly two-thirds of U.S. cities last month, despite zero job growth nationwide. The Labor Department said Wednesday that unemployment rates dropped in 237 of the nation’s largest metro areas in August from July. They rose in 103 and stayed the same in 32. That’s an improvement from July, when rates fell in 193 areas and rose in 118. Some areas with large agricultural sectors added jobs to coincide with the start of the harvest. Auto companies boosted hiring in several other cities…”
• Georgia could cut jobless benefits to repay feds, By Dan Chapman, September 27, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia borrowed $721 million from Washington to help the unemployed survive the lousy economy and now, as the bills come due, it may repay the debt by cutting back on jobless benefits. The state Labor Department will send a $21.4 million check to Washington this week, the first payment on debt run up since late 2009. Labor Commissioner Mark Butler is weighing a slew of repayment options, but strongly hinted he favors cutting benefits — both the weekly amount and the number of weeks of eligibility…”

Federal heating funding could drop from $115 million down to $46 million, By Christopher Keating, September 27, 2011, Hartford Courant: “With federal money being slashed deeply by President Barack Obama, state legislators are considering a controversial plan by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to distribute the federal money only to residents who use oil to heat their homes. The idea is being proposed because low-income citizens who heat their homes with electricity and natural gas have shutoff protection during the cold winter months and cannot have their heat turned off for non-payment for half of the year between November 1 and May 1 under the law. The move is under consideration because the state’s $115 million allotment under the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, could be cut to $46.4 million. State officials are hoping that the funding could boost to $75 million, but that is uncertain…”

Reading, Pa., knew it was poor. Now it knows just how poor., By Sabrina Tavernise, September 26, 2011, New York Times: “The exhausted mothers who come to the Second Street Learning Center here - a day care provider for mostly low-income families - speak of low wages, hard jobs and an economy gone bad. Ashley Kelleher supports her family on the $900 a month she earns as a waitress at an International House of Pancakes. Louri Williams packs cakes and pies all night for $8 an hour, takes morning classes, and picks up her children in the afternoon. Teresa Santiago takes complaints from building supply customers for $10 an hour, not enough to cover her $1,900 in monthly bills. These are common stories in Reading, a struggling city of 88,000 that has earned the unwelcome distinction of having the largest share of its residents living in poverty, barely edging out Flint, Mich., according to new Census Bureau data. The count includes only cities with populations of 65,000 or more, and has a margin of error that makes it difficult to declare a winner - or, perhaps more to the point, a loser…”

New law to benefit state’s foster care program, By Paris Achen, September 27, 2011, The Columbian: “A bill awaiting President Barack Obama’s signature would give new federal support to state programs like Washington’s that help keep children out of foster care, according to the bill’s sponsors. Senate Bill 1542 would reform rules that now prohibit states from using federal foster care funding on programs that help keep children at home with their families. States that reduce the number of case- loads now lose federal dollars for foster care, called Title 4-E funds. Under the bill, those states could tap that stream of money for programs that help keep children at home or reduce the duration of their stay in foster care. The changes could significantly benefit Washington, which wasn’t able to claim about $2.7 million in federal appropriations between 2008 and 2010 because it reduced its caseload by 13.8 percent…”

• State decides what’s not an emergency, By Jordan Schrader, September 26, 2011, Tacoma News Tribune: “State government is about to start refusing to pay for repeat visitors to emergency rooms whose conditions don’t truly rise to the level of emergencies. The trouble is all in how you define an emergency. Starting Saturday, Medicaid won’t pay for more than three ER visits in a year for a patient’s nonemergency conditions as defined by the state. A list of more than 700 diagnoses put into that category has drawn fire from hospitals and doctors’ groups over inclusions whose symptoms seem awfully similar to emergencies…”
• Wisconsin starts publishing Medicaid cut proposals, By Scott Bauer (AP), September 27, 2011, Sheboygan Press: “Gov. Scott Walker’s administration unveiled a website Monday that includes a handful of Medicaid cost-savings proposals intended to help it reach required cuts of about $444 million over the next two years. But there’s a long way to go. Most of what was released was either already known about or would make little progress toward what needs to be cut. Only three of the six areas of savings detailed Monday had not been previously announced. Those three total $6 million in savings in state money, just 3 percent of the $181.8 million that must be found under the two-year budget that took effect in July. The total amount of unspecified cuts that must be found, including federal funding and other sources, is $444 million…”

• Slump alters Jobless map in U.S., with South hit hard, By Michael Cooper, September 26, 2011, New York Times: “When the unemployment rate rose in most states last month, it underscored the extent to which the deep recession, the anemic recovery and the lingering crisis of joblessness are beginning to reshape the nation’s economic map. The once-booming South, which entered the recession with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, is now struggling with some of the highest rates, recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Several Southern states - including South Carolina, whose 11.1 percent unemployment rate is the fourth highest in the nation - have higher unemployment rates than they did a year ago. Unemployment in the South is now higher than it is in the Northeast and the Midwest, which include Rust Belt states that were struggling even before the recession…”
• African-American unemployment reaches record highs, By Leslie Kwoh, September 26, 2011, Star-Ledger: “Jeanette Grimes doesn’t need to look at the latest data to know black unemployment has reached record highs. She sees the growing joblessness all around her - on the streets of Trenton, at networking meetings, in her local unemployment office. And she’s felt the pain first-hand, too, as an African-American who was laid off nearly two years ago from her job as a nonprofit organizer. Grimes has since struggled to land work, agonizing as the rejection pile has grown while her savings have dwindled. ‘It’s been pretty rough,’ said Grimes, 48, of Trenton. ‘You become hopeful and think, ‘This job is exactly what I have experience in’ - and then you get a letter saying they hired another candidate.’ While high unemployment is affecting all sectors of the population in this tough economy, African-Americans are by far the hardest-hit demographic. Nationally, black unemployment reached 16.7 percent last month - the highest level since 1984 - even as the jobless rate for whites fell to 8 percent, according to the U.S. Labor Department…”

Food stamps become big business in TN, By Nancy DeVille, September 26, 2011, The Tennessean: “It was another bustling Thursday at the Tennessee Department of Human Services office in Nashville, with recession victims filling chairs and waiting for two hours or more to see what help they could get. But the day of the week doesn’t matter. The office always looks like that as more Tennesseans seek benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - commonly known as food stamps. It mirrors a national trend that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, attributes to a record unemployment rate. One in five Tennesseans is in the program this year - a 37 percent increase from 2008 - compared with 1 in 7 nationally. And with more people carrying the easy-to-use and discreet debit cards the program hands out, more businesses are stepping up to accept them…”

Poverty hitting S.D. children hard, By Megan Luther, September 26, 2011, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “South Dakota children are hit hardest by poverty - more than any other age group, according to recently released 2010 Census numbers. And the state continues to have higher poverty rates for children under 18 compared to neighboring states. More than 34,000 - or one in six children - in South Dakota have been affected by poverty, which is defined as annual income at or below $22,350 for a family of four. And that number counts only children living with related adults and excludes others such as children in foster care, which would make the number higher, according to Joy Smolnisky, director of the South Dakota Budget & Policy Project, which conducted the analysis…”

• Mobile poverty jumps almost 2 percent; poverty rises elsewhere in Alabama, September 23, 2011, Mobile Press-Register: “American Community Survey 1-year estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show that poverty in the Mobile metropolitan area rose from 18.4 percent in 2009 to 20.2 percent in 2010 — almost a 2-percent jump. During the same period, median household income in the Mobile metro fell from $40,407 in 2009 to $39,998 in 2010…”
• Of big cities, Valley had 3rd-largest job-loss rate, By Ronald J. Hansen, September 22, 2011, Arizona Republic: “The Phoenix area from 2008 to 2010 suffered one of the worst declines among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas in the percentage of working-age people with a job, according to newly released Census Bureau data. As of last summer, the Phoenix area also was near the bottom of the largest markets in the share of its population that held a job, at 65.6 percent. Nine metro areas had lower figures, and three others matched Phoenix’s percentage. The annual Census Bureau estimates, which also included worsening numbers for household income and poverty rate, portray a region that has fared worse than the nation as a whole in the aftermath of the Great Recession…”
• Census calls Memphis poorest in nation, By Tom Charlier, September 23, 2011, Memphis Commercial Appeal: “With nearly one in five residents stuck below the poverty line, metropolitan Memphis ranks as by far the most impoverished large metro area in the nation, new census figures show. Of the 1.3 million people in the eight-county metro area, an estimated 246,265 — 19.1 percent — lived in poverty last year, according to figures released Thursday from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey…”
• Child poverty rate in Connecticut cities hits ‘alarming’ rate, census data shows, By Angela Carter, September 22, 2011, Middletown Press: “Connecticut workers earn a median income of $40,478 in an environment where income is falling among all groups and cities are facing ‘alarming’ child poverty rates, according to the American Community Survey, released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The American Community Survey is an annual survey between decennial Census counts in geographic areas in the United States with a population of 65,000 or more…”
• Poverty pervades the suburbs, By Tami Luhby, September 23, 2011, CNNMoney.com: “Guess where most people in poverty live? Hint: It’s not in the inner cities or rural America. It’s in the idyllic suburbs. A record 15.4 million suburban residents lived below the poverty line last year, up 11.5% from the year before, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of Census data released Thursday. That’s one-third of the nation’s poor. And their ranks are swelling fast, as jobs disappear and incomes decline amid the continued weak economy. Since 2000, the number of suburban poor has skyrocketed by 53%, battered by the two recessions that wiped out many manufacturing jobs early on, and low-wage construction and retail positions more recently…”
• Census report shows Greater Cleveland families are feeling the sting of a lost decade, By Robert L. Smith, September 22, 2011, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Some economists are referring to the last 10 years as the ‘lost decade’ and no doubt tens of thousands of Greater Clevelanders feel something critical has been missing. That something is income. A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms that the region is deeply embedded in a gloomy national trend, one that has seen middle-class incomes steadily erode…”
• Census shows rise in N.Y. poverty, By Joseph Spector, September 22, 2011, Ithaca Journal: “New York’s poverty rate rose 5 percent between 2009 and 2010, while home values and median household income fell slightly, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday. The data shows how New York, as well as the nation, continues to struggle through a difficult economic period. People living in poverty in New York — which is categorized as a family of four earning less than roughly $22,000 a year — rose from 14.2 percent of households to 14.9 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to the census data…”
• More Rhode Islanders fall below poverty line, By Paul Davis, September 23, 2011, Providence Journal: “Struggling with a lingering recession and high unemployment, more Rhode Islanders fell below the poverty line last year, according to new census figures released Thursday. The poverty rate rose to 14 percent last year from 11.5 percent in 2009, according to 2010 numbers that are part of the American Community Survey. The state’s poverty rate, the highest in New England, is less than the nation’s 15.3-percent rate. After Rhode Island, Maine had the highest poverty rate in New England at 12.9 percent…”
• Census data paints bleak economic picture in Kentucky, By Valarie Honeycutt Spears, September 23, 2011, Lexington Herald-Leader: “New data from the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday painted a bleak picture of Kentucky’s economic health. Household income is down. Poverty is up. Low-paying jobs are replacing higher-paying jobs. Use of food stamps and publicly funded health care is up. Median household income fell in Kentucky in 2010 from the previous year by $778 and the share of the state’s households that earn annual incomes between $10,000 and $25,000 is increasing, according to the data…”

• Young adults gain health insurance under new law, By N.C. Aizenman, September 21, 2011, Washington Post: “Nearly 1 million more young adults have obtained health insurance since the 2010 health-care law began requiring insurers to let adult children stay on their parents’ plans until age 26, according to government data released Wednesday. The jump in enrollment caused the share of young adults who are uninsured to drop from 34 percent at the start of 2010 to 30 percent - or 9.1 million people - by March of this year, according to a national interview survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…”
• Young adults make gains in health insurance coverage, By Kevin Sack, September 21, 2011, New York Times: “Young adults, long the group most likely to be uninsured, are gaining health coverage faster than expected since the 2010 health law began allowing parents to cover them as dependents on family policies. Three new surveys, including two released on Wednesday, show that adults under 26 made significant and unique gains in insurance coverage in 2010 and the first half of 2011. One of them, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimates that in the first quarter of 2011 there were 900,000 fewer uninsured adults in the 19-to-25 age bracket than in 2010. This was despite deep hardship imposed by the recession, which has left young adults unemployed at nearly double the rate of older Americans, with incomes sliding far faster than the national average…”

• Recession’s lost generation: Census finds new lows in mobility, jobs, wedlock for young adults, Associated Press, September 21, 2011, Washington Post: “Young adults are the recession’s lost generation. In record numbers, they’re struggling to find work, shunning long-distance moves to live with mom and dad, delaying marriage and raising kids out of wedlock, if they’re becoming parents at all. The unemployment rate for them is the highest since World War II and risk living in poverty more than others. Data released Thursday from the 2010 census show the wrenching impact of a recession that officially ended in mid-2009…”
• Wisconsin’s median income plummets, census figures show, By Bill Glauber, Ben Poston, Annysa Johnson and Mike Johnson, September 21, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “To all those Wisconsin workers who feel like they’ve been economically squeezed in the first decade of the 21st century: It’s not your imagination. It’s reality. Adjusted for inflation, median household income in the state declined 14.5% between 1999 and 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. The rate of decline in Wisconsin dwarfed the national drop of 8.9% in median household income over the same period…”
• Poverty numbers spike in Milwaukee, By Bill Glauber, Ben Poston, Annysa Johnson and Mike Johnson, September 21, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Poverty has tightened its grip on the city of Milwaukee, flared in Waukesha County and surged statewide, according to startling figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Milwaukee’s poverty rate was 29.5% last year, up from 27% in 2009. In all, 171,521 people - including nearly half the city’s children - lived below the poverty line in 2010 as Milwaukee remained among America’s 10 most impoverished big cities. In Waukesha County, one of the wealthiest counties in the state, 6.3% of the population was in poverty, up from 4.8% in 2009…”
• One in five New York City residents living in poverty, By Sam Roberts, September 22, 2011, New York Times: “Poverty grew nationwide last year, but the increase was even greater in New York City, the Census Bureau will report on Thursday, suggesting that New York was being particularly hard hit by the aftermath of the recession. From 2009 to 2010, 75,000 city residents were pushed into poverty, increasing the poor population to more than 1.6 million and raising the percentage of New Yorkers living below the official federal poverty line to 20.1 percent, the highest level since 2000. The 1.4-percentage-point annual increase in the poverty rate appeared to be the largest jump in nearly two decades…”
• Poverty rate rose in Philadelphia from 2009 to 2010, By Alfred Lubrano, September 22, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The poverty rate in Philadelphia jumped nearly two percentage points from 2009 to 2010, according to a federal report released Thursday, underscoring the growing plight of residents being swamped by unemployment and hard times…”
• 1 in 4 Baltimore residents living in poverty, By Steve Kilar, September 22, 2011, Baltimore Sun: “About one in four Baltimore residents is living in poverty, a one-year increase of more than 20 percent, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Although the recession officially ended in June 2009, a federal survey conducted last year shows that the downturn’s enduring effects have led poverty rates to skyrocket over a short period. The uptick is straining government and charitable resources and leaving Baltimore leaders scrambling for solutions…”
• Census: More residents sinking into poverty, By Jack Broom and Justin Mayo, September 21, 2011, Seattle Times: “Household income - in Washington state and across the country - declined in 2010, while the percentage of people living in poverty increased, as did the numbers of people without health insurance, according to data being released Thursday by the Census Bureau…”
• More in Michigan fall into poverty, By Mike Wilkinson and Serena Maria Daniels, September 22, 2011, Detroit News: “Just as the nation was declaring the recession officially over last year, the landscape in Michigan was far from rosy: The poverty rate in 2010 was its highest in at least four decades, and incomes continued to fall as the economic shift away from manufacturing continued, new census data released this morning shows. The data reveals problems that could grow worse with plans to cut aid to the poor while also slashing spending on higher education, one of the surest ways to avoid poverty…”
• Metro Detroit schools see surge in number of kids living in poverty, By Lori Higgins, September 22, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “More of the children attending schools in metro Detroit are living in poverty, a trend pronounced not just in urban areas but also in some of the tri-county’s wealthier areas. Between 2006 and 2010 — a period marked by a recession that rocked Michigan more than most states — 19 school districts in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties saw increases of more than 100% in the number of poor children. Some of it can be tied to low-income families moving into wealthier districts as they look for better schools. But mostly, school officials say, it’s homegrown, with local parents falling into poverty after losing jobs or dealing with pay cuts…”
• Census survey data: Minn. income continued downward slide in 2010, By Elizabeth Dunbar, September 21, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Minnesotans’ income took another hit in 2010, and the poverty rate edged up, according to new American Community Survey data released Thursday. Median household income fell from about $56,600 in 2009 to about $55,500 in 2010, with inflation already taken into account. Since 2007, median income has dropped by about 5 percent in Minnesota. The poverty rate increased from 11 percent to 11.6 percent from 2009 to 2010, and the uptick was even more pronounced among children: 15.2 percent in 2010 compared to 14.1 percent in 2009…”
• Poverty extends reach across St. Louis region, By Doug Moore, September 22, 2011, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The recession officially ended two years ago, but the number of people living in poverty here and across the country continues to rise. New data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show that an additional 19,000 people living in the region’s top six counties plus the city of St. Louis fell into poverty in 2010…”
• More than 1 in 5 Austin residents live in poverty, new census data show, By Juan Castillo, September 22, 2011, Austin American-Statesman: “More people in Austin lived in poverty, were on food stamps and saw their median family household incomes shrink in 2010, according to new census data out today depicting the growing toll of the weakened economy in Central Texas and across the state. About 18 percent of all Texans lived in poverty in 2010, more than 3 percentage points above the national average…”
• Census: City lags in education, By Jeannie Kever, September 21, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “Houston faces sharp divisions over education and opportunity, according to Census data released today. More than one in four adults - and more than 40 percent of Hispanics - don’t have a high school diploma. That’s higher than the state average, and far higher than the national average of 14.4 percent. On the other hand, more than 28 percent of Houston residents have at least a bachelor’s degree, slightly higher than the national average and almost 3 percent higher than state figures…”

• States, unhappy with health-care overhaul, look to form compact, By Guy Gugliotta, September 19, 2011, Boston Globe: “State governors and legislators opposed to the federal health-care law are considering a novel approach to escape its provisions: joining an ‘interstate compact’ that would replace federal programs - including Medicare and Medicaid - with block grants to the states. To date, legislation has been drafted or introduced in 14 states and brought to the floor by lawmakers in at least nine. Three Republican governors - in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Texas - have signed the compact into law, while Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri, a Democrat, let the compact become law without signing it. Supporters say they hope to get 40 states to put it on the legislative calendar in 2012. If a significant number of states pass the compact, supporters plan to submit it to Congress for approval in the same way that the body approves interstate compacts regulating commerce, transportation, and resource conservation and development…”
• Study looks at who remains uninsured in Mass., By Chelsea Conaboy, September 19, 2011, Boston Globe: “Much of the discussion around the 2006 Massachusetts health law has focused on how far the state has come in providing coverage for the uninsured. Dr. Rachel Nardin, a neurologist at Cambridge Health Alliance and chair of the Massachusetts chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, said sometimes it is important to take a different look — to look at the glass as half empty and ask, why? She and others at the Harvard-affiliated health system published a study online with the Journal of General Internal Medicine last week looking at why people remain uninsured in Massachusetts despite a law mandating that most residents have health insurance…”
• Pa. considering shift in Medicaid payments to help cut rising expenses, September 21, 2011, By Phil Galewitz, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania is considering paying Medicaid recipients as much as $200 as an incentive to visit higher-quality and lower-cost hospitals and doctors. Experts say the strategy has never been tried by other states. Gary Alexander, the state’s secretary of public welfare, said his agency hoped to launch the plan by early next year to help control rising expenses in the $30 billion Medicaid program…”

• Poor countries lead in mother, child spending, Associated Press, September 20, 2011, La Crosse Tribune: “Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal and some of the world’s other poorest countries delivered not only money but new services in the year since U.N. member states pledged more than $40 billion to save the lives of mothers and children, a new study of the spending said Tuesday. The spending report was released at a high-level event chaired by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has made raising money for the health of mothers and their children a special project. Ban told a gathering at U.N. headquarters that when he was born in 1944 in South Korea, child mortality was so prevalent that families often waited months to register births to make certain babies would survive…”
• WHO report hails efforts to curb maternal deaths, By Sarah Boseley, September 19, 2011, The Guardian: “One year on from a major UN meeting to tackle the deaths of women and babies in childbirth, 44 of the world’s poorest countries have made major commitments to the cause, totalling nearly $11bn (£7bn), according to a progress report. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called the meeting a year ago because of sluggish progress towards two of the UN millennium development goals - reducing maternal and child mortality. More than $40bn was pledged for a range of strategies from donor governments, the private sector, NGOs and philanthropists. The one-year assessment from the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) of the World Health Organisation highlights progress in the worst-affected countries. Low-income countries made the highest number of commitments overall…”

• 2010 data show surge in poor young families, By Sabrina Tavernise, September 19, 2011, New York Times: “More than one in three young families with children were living in poverty last year, according to an analysis of census data by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. At 37 percent, it was the highest level on record for the group, surpassing the previous peak of 36 percent in 1993, according to the analysis by Ishwar Khatiwada, an economist at the center. By comparison, the rate was about 25 percent in 2000. The economic distress among the country’s youngest families - defined as under the age of 30 - is in contrast to the poverty rate for elderly families, which remained low in 2010, at 5.7 percent, according to the analysis. In the 1970s, poverty was only slightly higher for younger families than for families headed by someone age 65 or over…”
• Some of the faces behind the new US poverty figures; for many it’s first brush with being poor, Associated Press, September 18, 2011, Washington Post: “At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears. She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem. ‘It’s like there is no way out,’ says Kris Fallon. She is trapped like so many others, destitute in the midst of America’s abundance. Last week, the Census Bureau released new figures showing that nearly one in six Americans lives in poverty - a record 46.2 million people. The poverty rate, pegged at 15.1 percent, is the highest of any major industrialized nation, and many experts believe it could get worse before it abates. The numbers are daunting - but they also can seem abstract and numbing without names and faces. Associated Press reporters around the country went looking for the people behind the numbers. They were not hard to find…”

• Legislators: State could save millions if prison officials seek Medicaid funding for inmates, By Sebastian Kitchen, September 19, 2011, Montgomery Advertiser: “Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Alabama, who have not agreed on much in recent months, are questioning why the state prison system is not seeking reimbursement for medical treatment of Medicaid-eligible prisoners — a change they believe could save the state millions during tough economic times. The prison commissioner in Mississippi, Christopher Epps, told the Montgomery Advertiser his state has saved $10 million through the program since implementing it in 2009 and that Mississippi has fewer inmates than Alabama. State legislators have pushed corrections officials and the administrations of Gov. Robert Bentley and former Gov. Bob Riley to adopt the program, in which a vendor qualifies eligible inmates for Medicaid reimbursements…”
• State delays implementation of Medicaid overhaul until Nov. 1, By Beth Musgrave, September 20, 2011, Lexington Herald-Leader: “After hearing concerns from Kentucky hospitals, the state announced this week that it will delay implementing an overhaul of the state’s Medicaid program until Nov. 1. The state announced in July that it was hiring three companies to manage care for 560,000 people on the health insurance program for the poor and disabled. The controversial move is expected to save the state $375 million over the next three years. Managed care was scheduled to begin Oct. 1 in Kentucky…”
• Feds give Utah’s Medicaid overhaul mixed reviews, By Kirsten Stewart, September 19, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah’s plan for reforming Medicaid is getting mixed reviews from the Obama administration. Like many states, Utah is looking to redesign its Medicaid program to contain costs. A blueprint submitted in July for federal approval calls for moving Medicaid patients into managed care networks that would pay providers to keep patients healthy, instead of for more tests and treatment. The meat of the proposal - its payment reforms - has been well received, said Utah Medicaid Director Michael Hales. But officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have indicated they don’t support a controversial provision that would impose higher co-payments and deductibles on pregnant women and children enrolled in the low-income insurance program…”

Fast food and food stamps: Big controversy, small program, By Pamela M. Prah, September 20, 2011, Stateline.org: “The notion that welfare recipients might be able to buy fast food with their food stamps caused a ruckus on blogs and Twitter earlier this month, but some key facts often got muddled. ‘Restaurants want a piece of food stamp pie,’ read the headline of a recent USA Today story that said fast food restaurants ‘are lobbying for a piece of the action’ as the number of businesses approved to accept food stamps grew by a third from 2005 to 2010. The article correctly notes that since the 1970s, states have had the option of creating what the federal government calls a ‘Restaurant Meal Program’ for food stamp recipients. But few states actually have created them. One of the reasons is because eligibility is restricted to the homeless, disabled or elderly who get food stamps. The programs are not open to everyone - a crucial fact that was missed when the story went viral. The point of the restaurant meal program is to help those food stamp recipients who may not be able to cook for themselves or don’t even have a place to cook, explains Aaron Lavallee, a spokesman for the U.S Department of Agriculture. Otherwise, these folks have few options for using their food stamps…”

• Kansas proposes welfare changes, By Brad Cooper, September 16, 2011, Kansas City Star: “Kansas is undertaking a series of welfare reforms, including one measure that would remove a financial advantage for unmarried couples on the welfare rolls. The head of social services, Rob Siedlecki, revealed the reforms Friday, saying they’re intended to level the playing field in several programs that serve tens of thousands of people. The goal is to strengthen the agency’s efforts to help Kansans find employment and achieve self-sufficiency, he said…”
• Kansas reforming some welfare rules, By Scott Rothschild, September 16, 2011, Lawrence Journal-World: “Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Robert Siedlecki Jr. on Friday announced a host of policy changes for programs that provide assistance to low-income Kansans. ‘These changes represent a significant change in policy, in that they treat all households equally, and create fairness across the system,’ Siedlecki said in a news release. Siedlecki said the changes would help eliminate fraud and abuse, and save from $10 million to $15 million, which would expand SRS’ programs to get folks back to work. ‘Getting people jobs is our first priority,’ Siedlecki said. The new policies will affect programs that provide tens of thousands of Kansans with food stamps, child care assistance and temporary assistance. They are set to take effect starting Oct. 1 and should be fully in place by Jan. 1…”

Child abuse rose during recession, research says, By Lindsey Tanner (AP), September 19, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “An increase in child abuse, mostly in infants, is linked with the recent recession in new research that raises fresh concerns about the impact of the nation’s economic woes. The results are in a study of 422 abused children from mostly lower-income families, known to face greater risks for being abused, and the research involved just 74 counties in four states. But lead author Dr. Rachel Berger of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh said the results confirm anecdotal reports from many pediatricians who’ve seen increasing numbers of shaken baby cases and other forms of brain-injuring abuse. Berger decided to study this type of injury, known as abusive head trauma, after noticing an increase at her own hospital from late 2007 through June 2009. Her hospital averaged 30 cases per year during those recession years versus 17 yearly before 2007…”

States slow to tap $7.6B fund to help jobless pay mortgages, By Julie Schmit, September 18, 2011, USA Today: “A $7.6 billion federal program to help homeowners avoid foreclosures had distributed about 1% of its money to distressed owners 16 months after its creation, government reports show. The Obama administration awarded the funds last year to 18 states most affected by unemployment and fallen home prices. The states developed their own foreclosure-prevention programs targeting assistance to lower-income jobless and underemployed homeowners. By June 30, 17 states had used the funds to help about 7,500 homeowners, show reports states filed to the Treasury Department. New Jersey, which began its program in May, started making loans only this month. Funds are flowing more rapidly now, state officials say. All the states have launched their programs. The last was Illinois last week…”

• Poor are still getting poorer, but downturn’s punch varies, Census data show, By Jason DeParle and Sabrina Tavernise, September 15, 2011, New York Times: “The discouraging numbers spilling from the Census Bureau’s poverty report this week were a disquieting reminder that a weak economy continues to spread broad and deep pain. And so it does. But not evenly. The Midwest is battered, but the Northeast escaped with a lighter knock. The incomes of young adults have plunged - but those of older Americans have actually risen. On the whole, immigrants have weathered the storm a bit better than people born here. In rural areas, poverty remained unchanged last year, while in suburbs it reached the highest level since 1967, when the Census Bureau first tracked it. Yet one old problem has not changed: the poor have rapidly gotten poorer. The report, an annual gauge of prosperity and pain, is sure to be cited in coming months as lawmakers make difficult decisions about how to balance the competing goals of cutting deficits and preserving safety nets…”
• Health insurance, poverty: Numbers of poor, uninsured increase, census figures show, By Jeff Kunerth and Kate Santich, September 13, 2011, Orlando Sentinel: “More than 46.2 million Americans live in poverty - the highest number in the 52 years for which such estimates have been published, according to census figures released Tuesday. From 2009 to 2010, the nation’s poor increased by 2.6 million, and the number of those without health insurance grew by nearly 1 million people. In Florida, 3.8 million people - more than one in five - were without health insurance last year. Nationwide, the number of uninsured was closer to one in six. Census officials attributed the increase in poverty to the high numbers of unemployed Americans…”

• Medicaid change delayed, By Dale Wetzel (AP), September 16, 2011, Jamestown Sun: “A chronically delayed new computer software system to handle North Dakota’s Medicaid bills, which was to be finished in nine months, will not be working until mid-2013, an executive told state legislators Thursday. The project was originally scheduled to be finished two years ago. Last summer, a vice president for the software’s developer, Affiliated Computer Services Inc., promised it would be functioning by June 2012. ACS is a unit of Xerox Corp…”
• Utah explores extending Medicaid to inmates, By Kirsten Stewart, September 15, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah health officials are exploring expanding the state’s Medicaid program to cover inmates’ hospital stays and doctors’ office visits. Inmates have traditionally been barred from the state-federal health insurance program, which caters to the poor and disabled. Currently, the Department of Corrections contracts directly with the University of Utah’s hospital and clinics for procedures that cannot be handled at the prison infirmary, and the state picks up the tab. Moving inmates onto Medicaid would shift most of the funding burden onto the federal government, explained state Medicaid director Michael Hales on Thursday at an advisory board meeting. In the past, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been loathe to shoulder what has long been a state obligation, said Hales. But the agency has recently signaled a willingness to bend the rules…”
• Calif. Medicaid expansion: A lifeline for ex-convicts, By Sarah Varney, September 13, 2011, National Public Radio: “California has embarked on an ambitious expansion of its Medicaid program, three years ahead of the federal expansion that the health law requires in 2014. At least half a million people are expected to gain coverage - mostly poor adults who never qualified under the old rules because they didn’t have kids at home. Among those who stand to benefit right now are ex-offenders. Inmates often leave California prisons with no consistent place to get medical care. But that’s changing…”

• Unemployment rate rises in most states in August, By Derek Kravitz (AP), September 16, 2011, USA Today: “Unemployment rates rose in most states in August for a third straight month, further proof that job growth is weak nationwide. The Labor Department says unemployment rates increased in 26 states. They fell in 12 and remained unchanged in 12. Nevada had the nation’s highest unemployment rate among states at 13.4%. That is up from 12.9% in July. North Dakota had the lowest unemployment rate, at 3.5%. That’s up from 3.3% in July. Nationwide, hiring fell significantly in August. The economy added no new net jobs, and the unemployment rate stayed at 9.1% for a second month…”
• California unemployment rate hits 12.1% as employers slash jobs, By Alana Semuels, September 16, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Unsettled by signs that the recovery is stumbling, California employers in August cut jobs for the second month in a row, helping push the unemployment rate to 12.1% from 12% in July. Payrolls fell by 8,400 positions last month, according to figures released Friday by the Employment Development Department. The losses are worrying to economists, who say turmoil at the state and national levels could continue through the fall. The country added no jobs in August. The national unemployment rate stands at 9.1%…”
• Unemployment benefits extensions have small impact on jobless rate, By Sara Murray, September 16, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “Generous unemployment benefits have had little effect on the unemployment rate, according to a new study that may help ease concerns that benefits give sidelined Americans a disincentive to hunt for jobs. Unemployment insurance, which is available for up to 99 weeks in some states, nudged the jobless rate up 0.2 to 0.6 of a percentage point higher than it would have been otherwise, according to a new paper by Jesse Rothstein, a University of California, Berkeley economist and released at the Brookings Institution this week…”
• Billions in unemployment benefits paid in error, By Sara Murray, September 14, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “Nearly $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error during the three years that ended in June, new Labor Department data show. The amount represents more than 10% of the $180 billion in jobless benefits paid nationwide during the period. (See a sortable chart of each states’ overpayments) The tally covers state programs, which offer benefits for up to 26 weeks, from July 2008 to June 2011. Layers of federal programs that help provide benefits for up to 99 weeks weren’t included…”

Minimum wage to rise, By Ilene Aleshire, September 16, 2011, Eugene Register-Guard: “Oregon’s minimum wage will go up 30 cents per hour, to $8.80, next year, state Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian announced Thursday. The increase mirrors a 3.77 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index since August 2010, Avakian said. ‘Safeguarding the wages of low-income workers is especially critical in a tough economy,’ Avakian said in a statement. ‘Oregon’s economy will not rebound if we allow 144,538 minimum wage earners to fall behind inflation.’ Oregon’s current minimum wage is the second-highest among all 50 states, behind only to Washington state’s $8.67, according to the nonpartisan Oregon Center for Public Policy. Washington will announce its 2012 minimum wage on Sept. 30, Avakian said…”

• SAT scores for class of 2011 decline in every aspect, By Carla Rivera, September 15, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “The high school graduating class of 2011 lost ground on every measure of the SAT exam, with reading scores nationally the lowest on record, prompting concern about whether students are being adequately prepared for college, officials said Wednesday. Average SAT scores for high school seniors dropped three points in reading, one point in math and two points in writing, according to a report by the College Board, a New York-based nonprofit that administers the SAT and Advanced Placement program…”
• SAT reading scores drop to lowest point in decades, By Michael Alison Chandler, September 14, 2011, Washington Post: “SAT reading scores for graduating high school seniors this year reached the lowest point in nearly four decades, reflecting a steady decline in performance in that subject on the college admissions test, the College Board reported Wednesday. In the Washington area, one of the nation’s leading producers of college-bound students, educators were scrambling to understand double-digit drops in test scores in Montgomery and Prince William counties and elsewhere…”
• Average Scores Slip on SAT, By Tamar Lewin, September 15, 2011, New York Times: “Average scores on the SAT fell across the nation this year, with the reading score for the high school class of 2011 falling three points to 497, the lowest on record, according to a report Wednesday by the College Board, which administers the exams. The average writing score dropped two points, to 489, and the math score was down one point, to 514. The College Board attributed the decline to the increasing diversity of the students taking the test. For example, about 27 percent of the nearly 1.65 million test-takers last year came from a home where English was not the only language, up from 19 percent a decade ago…”

• Census finds more people than ever living in poverty, By William Mullen, Ryan Haggerty and John Keilman, September 14, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “The parking lot of the United Methodist Church of Worth was overflowing Tuesday night, forcing some people to park their vehicles across the sidewalk. The number of people coming to the church’s food pantry has steadily increased in recent years, said the facility’s director, Susan Greer. On most days the pantry is open, more than 160 families show up to get groceries. ‘I’m making it, but I’m not making it very good,’ said Warren Smith, 53, a house painter who saw steady work dry up about five years ago. The number of people in similar predicaments is growing across the country. In a grim portrait of a nation in economic turmoil, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday that the number of people living in poverty last year surged to 46.2 million - the most in the 52 years the statistic’s been kept. A million more Americans went without health insurance and household incomes fell sharply, the data showed…”
• California poverty rate rises in 2010 for fourth year in a row, By Alana Semuels and Duke Helfand, September 13, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “The number of Californians living in poverty grew for the fourth straight year in 2010, more evidence that continued high unemployment and a struggling economy are weighing on the state’s families. About 6 million Californians had incomes below the federal poverty line of $22,113 for a family of four in 2010, census data released Tuesday show. That’s 16.3% of the population, up from 15.3% in 2009. Nearly 1 in 5 residents lacked health insurance last year, one of the highest rates in the nation. Median household income in the state, when adjusted for inflation, fell 4.6% to $54,459. That’s the largest decline in a single year since record keeping began…”
• State poverty hits 10.8%, incomes slide, By Warren Wolfe and Jeremy Olson, September 13, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “The recession of 2008-09 wiped out more than a decade’s worth of earnings gains in Minnesota and has left nearly one in six U.S. residents in poverty. The numbers, released Tuesday by the Census Bureau and collected during 2010, showed both the stark impact of the worst downturn since the 1930s and the sluggish pace of the weak recovery that has followed it. In Minnesota, the census information showed household income dipped 3 percent to $54,785 — the lowest level in 15 years. The number of Minnesotans living below the poverty line hit 10.8 percent, up from 9.6 percent in 2007-08. About 544,000 Minnesotans now live in poverty, a sharp increase since 2000. One in four Minnesotans, more than 1 million people, were considered ‘near poor,’ with incomes below 200 percent of the poverty line. The federal poverty threshold is $11,344 for a single person, or $22,113 for a family of four…”
• Poverty hitting harder in Indiana, By Bill McCleery, September 13, 2011, Indianapolis Star: “Indiana has outshone its neighbors in keeping and attracting jobs, but Census Bureau figures released Tuesday showed that more Hoosiers are slipping into poverty. Indiana’s poverty rate in 2010 climbed to 16.3 percent — higher than the national average of 15.1 percent and putting the state in a tie for 15th in the nation with California and Oklahoma. Indiana had a poverty rate of 16.1 percent in 2009…”
• Median income in Ohio hits 27-year low, By Bill Bush, September 14, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “Ohio households were poorer last year than they’ve been in more than 25 years, and the number of people living in poverty is higher than it’s been in more than 30 years, according to a census report released yesterday. ‘People are getting squeezed from every direction,’ said James Newton, chief economic adviser to Commerce National Bank. When adjusted for inflation, the 2010 annual median household income in Ohio of $46,093 was down by $543 from the previous year, and down 15.3 percent from the peak of $54,395 in 2000, according to the census’s Current Population Survey, which was released yesterday. The inflation-adjusted figure hasn’t been lower for Ohio since officials began keeping that record in 1984, census officials said…”
• Poverty at new heights in Georgia, nation, By Carrie Teegardin and Craig Schneider, September 13, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia’s poverty rate reached its highest point since 1983 last year, according to Census Bureau figures, as stubbornly high unemployment and the housing bust strained finances. The annual gain was slight, from 18.4 to 18.7 percent, but it translated to 1.83 million Georgians in poverty, 61,000 more than a year earlier. It also left Georgia with the third-highest rate among states. Nationally, the poverty rate climbed more steeply, from 14.3 to 15.1 percent, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. That was the highest national rate since 1993 and put 46.2 million Americans below the poverty level…”

Tennessee boomers face growing threat of hunger, By Stephanie Toone, September 11, 2011, The Tennessean: “Therese Marrs has learned the art of stretching a link of smoked sausage, a jar of cheese and a box of macaroni into three meals every week. The 56-year-old Smyrna mother struggles to make the meals come together for her husband and 16-year-old daughter each week, since she was laid off from her quality assurance job at a factory in February. She spends almost every day looking for jobs, but she fears the worst once her unemployment benefits run out in a few months. ‘I’ve learned how to cut my meals. My food stamps only stretch about three weeks, so the food bank helps,’ Marrs said. ‘I’ve been working in factories since I was 15, but I can’t seem to get anybody to hire me.’ Marrs is among the 1 in 6 Tennesseans and 15.6 million older adults who face the threat of hunger as a result of a lingering weak economy in America, according to a recently released AARP report, ‘Food Insecurity Among Older Adults…’”

• U.S. poverty totals hit a 50-year high, By Don Lee, Noam Levey and Alejandro Lazo, September 14, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “In a grim portrait of a nation in economic turmoil, the government reported that the number of people living in poverty last year surged to 46.2 million - the most in at least half a century - as 1 million more Americans went without health insurance and household incomes fell sharply. The poverty rate for all Americans rose in 2010 for the third consecutive year, matching the 15.1% figure in 1993 and pushing many more young adults to double up or return to their parents’ home to avoid joining the ranks of the poor. Taken together, the annual income and poverty snapshot released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau underscored how the recession is casting a long shadow well after its official end in June 2009…”
• Young people hit hard as U.S. poverty rate increases to 15.1 percent, By Matt O’Brien, September 13, 2011, San Jose Mercury News: “Joblessness pushed an additional 2.6 million people into poverty last year as 15.1 percent of Americans and 16.3 percent of Californians were living under the poverty line — the highest rate since 1993, according to 2010 U.S. census statistics released Tuesday. ‘I never thought it was going to be this bad,’ said Celina Lopez, a single mother of two young children who has moved in with her grandmother in El Sobrante. ‘My situation is pretty scary, in terms of housing, kids and being able to provide for them. I didn’t think it would be this hard to find a job.’ The national poverty rate rose from 14.3 percent in 2009, and it increased most dramatically for children and the youngest working-age adults, those from 18 to 24…”
• Census figures show record numbers of Americans in poverty, By Alfred Lubrano, September 14, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Stymied by a relentlessly dismal economy, more Americans were in poverty in 2010 than at any other time since poverty levels were first published 52 years ago, new government figures show. Overall, 46.2 million Americans lived in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009. The poverty standard for a family of four is an annual income of $22,113. The poverty rate last year was 15.1 percent, compared with 14.3 percent in 2009. It was the highest rate in 17 years, according to U.S. Census figures released Tuesday…”
• Government aid keeps millions out of poverty, By Tami Luhby, September 14, 2011, CNNMoney.com: “Without help from the federal government, millions more people would have sunk below the poverty line in 2010, U.S. Census data shows. Unemployment insurance helped keep 3.2 million Americans out of poverty in 2010, according to new statistics released Tuesday. Without this vital lifeline, which lasts up to 99 weeks, these jobless folks would have joined the roughly 46.2 million people now considered in poverty. Other government assistance programs, such as food stamps, also provided much-needed support to the poor. But because the Census Bureau’s official poverty statistics don’t consider these income sources, they were not taken into account when determining whether a person fell below the line, which is $22,314 for a family of four. However, the Census Bureau does calculate what impact this assistance would have had if it were measured…”
• Rising poverty rate shows holes in safety net, By John W. Schoen, September 13, 2011, MSNBC.com: “The worst economic downturn since the 1930s has left a record number of Americans in poverty and created strains on the government’s safety net not seen in decades, according to a report issued Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. ‘Clearly the safety net has helped, but it’s got holes in it,’ said Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and former White House economist. With the unemployment rate stuck stubbornly over 9 percent, the poverty rate in the United States climbed to 15.1 percent last year - the highest level since 1993 - as the number of impoverished Americans swelled to a record 46.2 million, the Census report said…”
• Poverty rate rises, especially for Hispanics, By Schuyler Velasco, September 13, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “More Americans are living in poverty than ever before - and for Hispanics, the trends are especially bleak. Their poverty rate went up 1.3 percent in 2010, the sharpest annual rise of any group except blacks. More than a quarter of Hispanics - some 13.2 million people - were living below poverty level, more than double the 9.9 percent rate of non-Hispanic whites, according to a new report from the US Census Bureau. The median household income for Hispanics dropped from $38,667 to $37,759 - a decrease of 2.3 percent…”

• U.S. Poverty rate, at 15 percent, is the highest since 1993, By Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times: “The percentage of Americans living in poverty last year rose to the highest level since 1993, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, fresh evidence that the disappointing economic recovery has done nothing for the country’s poorest citizens. Another 2.6 million people slipped below the poverty line in 2010, meaning 46.2 million people now live in poverty in the United States, the highest number in the 52 years the Census Bureau has been tracking it, said Trudi Renwick, chief of the Poverty Statistic Branch at the Census Bureau. That figure represented 15.1 percent of the population, up from 14.3 percent in 2009, and 11.7 percent at the beginning of the decade in 2001. The poverty line in 2010 for a family of four was $22,113…”
• U.S. poverty rate reaches 15.1 percent, By Michael A. Fletcher, September 13, 2011, Washington Post: “The nation’s poverty rate spiked to 15.1 percent in 2010, the highest level since 1993, the Census Bureau reported on Tuesday, providing vivid new evidence about the country’s inability to escape the lingering effects of the recession. About 46.2 million Americans lived in poverty last year, marking an increase of 2.6 million over 2009 and the fourth consecutive annual increase in poverty…”
• U.S. Poverty rate up, household income down, By Arlette Saenz, September 13, 2011, ABC News: “An estimated 46.2 million Americans lived in poverty last year, or 15.1 percent, the highest rate since 1993, new data from the Census Bureau released today showed. Median household income declined at the same time and the number of people without health insurance coverage rose, highlighting the consequences of the recent recession…”
• Household income falls, poverty rate rises, By Conor Dougherty, September 13, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “The income of the average American worker-long the envy of much of the world-has dropped for the third year in a row and is now roughly where it was in 1996, adjusted for inflation. The U.S. poverty rate, meanwhile, has continued to rise. America’s median household income-what the statistical middle of the pack earns in a year-fell 2.3% to $49,445, adjusted for inflation, according to the Census Bureau’s annual snapshot of living standards. The figure has fallen each year since 2007 as high unemployment and a tougher job market has made it harder for working Americans to get bigger paychecks…”
• Nearly 1 in 6 Americans in poverty, Census says, By Hope Yen (AP), September 13, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “The ranks of the nation’s poor have swelled to a record 46.2 million - nearly 1 in 6 Americans - as the prolonged pain of the recession leaves millions still struggling and out of work. And the number without health insurance has reached 49.9 million, the most in over two decades. The figures are in a Census Bureau report, released Tuesday, that offers a somber snapshot of the economic well-being of U.S. households for last year when joblessness hovered above 9 percent for a second year. The rate is still 9.1 percent at the start of an election year that’s sure to focus on the economy and President Barack Obama’s stewardship of it…”
• Poverty rate rises in America, By Annalyn Censky, September 13, 2011, CNNMoney.com: “Amid a still struggling economy, more people in America fell below the poverty line last year, according to new census data released Tuesday. The nation’s poverty rate rose to 15.1% in 2010, its highest level since 1993. In 2009, 14.3% of people in America were living in poverty…”
• No change in number of uninsured Americans, By Kirsten Stewart, September 13, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “The rate of Americans without health insurance held firm last year, propped up by stubbornly high unemployment. From 2009 to 2010 there was no statistically significant change in the number of Americans without coverage, which rose from 49 million to 49.9 million, new census figures show. That’s 16.3 percent, or one out of every five U.S. citizens…”

• Reduced state dental benefits create dire situation for patients, By Anna Gorman, September 12, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Little surprises Nagaraj Murthy, a dentist in Compton for the past 32 years. He has seen patients who have suffered toothaches for years. Others who haven’t been to the dentist in a decade. Some who can’t chew hard food. But in the two years since California sharply reduced dental benefits for roughly 3 million Medi-Cal recipients, he and other dentists say the situation has become dire for patients who are waiting until their infections land them in an emergency room or their rotted teeth have to be immediately pulled…”
• Lower-income Northern Virginians struggle to get dental care, report finds, By Lena H. Sun, September 7, 2011, Washington Post: “In Northern Virginia, 16 percent of lower-income adults have not gone to a dentist in more than five years, according to a report that looks at disparities in oral health in one of the most prosperous regions in the country. Among lower-income adults who have health coverage, only one-fourth have coverage that includes dental care, compared to 64 percent for higher-income adults. Those were among the key findings in a survey of oral health in Northern Virginia released Thursday. The survey was commissioned by the Northern Virginia Health Foundation, a nonprofit group that focuses on health-care safety nets…”

To help the poor, experts invent solar-powered hearing aids, motorcycle ambulances, Associated Press, September 12, 2011, Washington Post: “A bit of creativity never hurts, especially when it comes to solving health problems in developing countries. Instead of the usual donated medicines and health equipment, some experts are inventing new products for the poor, like a solar-powered hearing aid or a motorcycle ambulance. Both inventions were showcased at an engineering conference in London. And in a new report published online Monday in the journal Lancet, the United Nations highlights innovations like using text messages in South Africa to remind women with HIV to get their babies tested and tucking medicines into Coca-Cola crates to reach remote villages. Hundreds of thousands of replacement joints, surgical tools and other medical devices have been sent to poor countries over the years. But according to the World Health Organization, about 75 percent of the donated goods sit unused, either because they’re broken or no one knows how to use them…”

Unable to pay child support, poor parents land behind bars, By Mike Brunker, September 12, 2011, MSNBC.com: “It may not be a crime to be poor, but it can land you behind bars if you also are behind on your child-support payments. Thousands of so-called ‘deadbeat’ parents are jailed each year in the U.S. after failing to pay court-ordered child support - the vast majority of them for withholding or hiding money out of spite or a feeling that they’ve been unfairly gouged by the courts. But in what might seem like an un-American plot twist from a Charles Dickens’ novel, advocates for the poor say, some parents are wrongly being locked away without any regard for their ability to pay - sometimes without the benefit of legal representation…”

Healthcare costs rose while insurance coverage fell, studies show, By Noam N. Levey, September 8, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “U.S. workers whose wages stagnated over the last decade also saw their health insurance degrade, even as medical costs gobbled up a growing share of their income, two new studies show. An estimated 29 million adults who had health insurance lacked adequate coverage in 2010, leaving them exposed to medical expenses such as high deductibles that they couldn’t afford, according to a survey by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund. That is up from 16 million underinsured people in 2003, the survey found, underscoring the rising burden that insurance plans are placing on consumers as the industry raises required co-pays and deductibles…”

Tenants, landlords hit hard by cuts in rental aid, By Chas Sisk, September 9, 2011, The Tennessean: “A federal program that helps low-income families pay their housing costs is being squeezed by a weak economy. High demand and federal cuts have stretched the budgets for Section 8 vouchers, payments to landlords that help cover the rent for low-income families. Tennessee agencies have been forced to respond by refusing to take on new families, telling landlords that they cannot increase rents and rolling back the amount they are willing to pay, leaving thousands of tenants to make up the difference. The moves have helped agencies keep as many as 1,000 Middle Tennessee families on the rolls, housing officials say. But they also have kept more people from joining the program, cut into the finances of landlords who rent to low-income families and required those who receive the vouchers to dig deeper for rent…”

• House OKs tighter rules on food aid for criminals, By Karen Bouffard, September 8, 2011, Detroit News: “The state House tightened rules for Bridge Card users Wednesday, giving Michigan State Police powers to help root criminals from the welfare system. The legislation passed Wednesday would set up an automated program to compare lists of public assistance recipients with lists of people with outstanding warrants and bar anyone with a warrant from getting public assistance. It also prohibits people who are jailed from receiving food stamps or other assistance, bans dispensing cash from Bridge Cards at ATMs in casinos and bars the cards from being used to buy alcohol, tobacco or lottery tickets…”
• State House passes new restrictions on Bridge Cards; bills go to Senate, By Kathleen Gray, September 8, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “New restrictions on the use of Michigan’s Bridge Cards, which operate like a debit card for food and cash assistance to low-income residents, were passed without debate Wednesday in the House. Jail inmates would no longer be able to use the cards, nor could they be used to get cash from ATM machines in casinos or to buy alcohol, lottery tickets or tobacco products. Approximately 1.3 million bridge cards are in circulation in the state. The amounts the state loads onto the cards are determined by the level of income and family size of recipients…”

Tennessee’s voter-ID law draws congressional scrutiny, By Elizabeth Bewley, September 9, 2011, The Tennessean: “Laws that require voters to show photo identification at the polls reduce election fraud, supporters of Tennessee’s new voter ID law told Senate lawmakers Thursday. Opponents of such laws countered that they target low-income, minority and student voters, who are more likely to vote for Democrats and might lack government-issued IDs such as driver’s licenses and passports. Democrats and voting-rights advocates told members of the Senate subcommittee on civil rights that rural and elderly voters also could be disproportionately affected because they might have trouble traveling to get an ID. In Tennessee, voters older than 60 aren’t required to have a photo on their driver’s licenses…”

• Childcare costs force poorest families into debt, September 7, 2001, The Guardian: “Britain’s poorest families are getting into debt because of the high cost of childcare, while a third are turning down jobs and 40% are considering leaving work because they cannot afford to pay for someone to look after their children, according to research. Parents spend almost a third of their incomes on childcare - more than anywhere else in the world, according to a study by Save the Children and the Daycare Trust. For four out of 10 families the cost of childcare is on a par with mortgage or rent payments, the study showed. Of those families in severe poverty, nearly half have cut back on food to afford childcare and 58% said they were, or would be, no better off working once childcare was paid for. The research found that parents, regardless of income, cannot afford not to work but struggle to pay for childcare, and despite many parents cutting back their spending almost a quarter are in debt because of childcare costs…”
• Childcare costs put parents in debt, survey concludes, September 6, 2011, BBC News: “Nearly a quarter of UK parents questioned in a survey by the Daycare Trust and Save the Children say the cost of childcare has put them in debt. The survey of 4,359 parents found 58% had cut spending on other essentials like clothing, heating and other bills. Nearly two-thirds said they could not afford not to work, but struggled to pay for childcare. Four out of 10 families surveyed said the cost of childcare was on a par with their mortgage or rent. The study suggests the cost of childcare has the greatest consequences for the poorest families…”

Nebraska audit blasts child welfare services, By Grant Schulte (AP), September 7, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “Nebraska’s effort to privatize child welfare services increased costs by 27 percent in a two-year period and led to millions of dollars in overpayments to a provider that has since gone out of business, according to a state audit released Wednesday. Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley told a legislative panel that the Department of Health and Human Services failed to publicly bid multi-million dollar contracts with private service providers, and spent thousands of dollars on duplicate claims and payments to the wrong contractors. The audit was part of a legislative review of the rising costs and instability within Nebraska’s child welfare system. The state began to privatize services in 2009, handing cases of neglected and abused children over to contractors. Three of the five providers have since dropped or lost their contracts as caseloads and costs grew unsustainable…”

• USDA: Increased food aid kept hunger rate steady, By Pam Fessler, September 7, 2011, National Public Radio: “Despite the bad economy, the number of Americans who struggled to get enough to eat did not grow last year, and in some cases declined, according to new government data. Still, a near-record number - almost 49 million people - were affected. Federal officials say an increase in government food aid kept the numbers from going even higher. According to the new data from the Department of Agriculture, about 17.2 million households last year had trouble putting food on the table - what it calls ‘food insecure.’ And more than a third of those households had members who went hungry at some point during the year because they couldn’t afford enough to eat…”
• 1 in 10 Minnesota households struggles with hunger, USDA report says, By Julie Siple, September 7, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “A new report released Wednesday by the United States Department of Agriculture shows one in ten Minnesotan households doesn’t always have access to enough food for a healthy lifestyle. The numbers are part of an annual survey conducted for the United States Department of Agriculture. Every December, U.S. Census workers ask people all over the country a series of questions about food. They’re counting how many people lack consistent access to enough food. It’s the closest thing to an official hunger count. The report says 14.5 percent of American households are food insecure - close to 49 million people. But in a conference call this morning, USDA Undersecretary Kevin Concannon pointed out the good news…”
• In Texas, 18 percent are facing hunger, By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje, September 8, 2011, San Antonio Express-News: “According to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Texas ranks second in the nation in the percentage of people struggling with ‘food insecurity,’ a term that refers to households where members have difficulty meeting their food needs. In 2010, more than 4 million Texans - 18 percent - either experienced hunger outright or altered their eating patterns to avoid hunger, such as buying less healthy but more filling food. Only Mississippi had a worse rating. On the heels of the national report, a Texas group released a study that reveals the level of food insecurity among Texas’ 254 counties, using the newest data…”

Families feel sharp edge of state budget cuts, By Monica Davey, September 6, 2011, New York Times: “Stretched beyond their limits and searching for new corners of their budgets to find spending cuts, states are now trimming benefits for residents who are in grim financial shape themselves. Some states, including Florida and Missouri, have decided to shrink the duration of state unemployment benefits paid to laid-off workers, while others, including Arizona and California, are creating new restrictions on cash aid for low-income residents. Here in Michigan, more than 11,000 families received letters last week notifying them that in October they will lose the cash assistance they have been provided for years. Next year, people who lose their jobs here will receive fewer weeks of state unemployment benefits, and those making little enough to qualify for the state’s earned income tax credit will see a far smaller benefit from it…”

Many in U.S. slip from middle class, study finds, By Michael A. Fletcher, September 6, 2011, Washington Post: “Nearly one in three Americans who grew up middle-class has slipped down the income ladder as an adult, according to a new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Downward mobility is most common among middle-class people who are divorced or separated from their spouses, did not attend college, scored poorly on standardized tests, or used hard drugs, the report says. ‘A middle-class upbringing does not guarantee the same status over the course of a lifetime,’ the report says. The study focused on people who were middle-class teenagers in 1979 and who were between 39 and 44 years old in 2004 and 2006. It defines people as middle-class if they fall between the 30th and 70th percentiles in income distribution, which for a family of four is between $32,900 and $64,000 a year in 2010 dollars. People were deemed downwardly mobile if they fell below the 30th percentile in income, if their income rank was 20 or more percentiles below their parents’ rank, or if they earn at least 20 percent less than their parents. The findings do not cover the difficult times that the nation has endured since 2007…”

Gov. Rick Snyder says Michigan welfare system returned ‘to its original intent’ after signing law putting tighter 48-month limit on benefits, By Peter Luke, September 6, 2011, Kalamazoo Gazette: “Legislation that puts in place a more strict 48-month time limit on cash assistance benefits was signed into law today by Gov. Rick Snyder. ‘We are returning cash assistance to its original intent as a transitional program to help families while they work toward self-sufficiency and also preserving our state’s integral safety net for families most in need,’ Snyder said in a statement. ‘Affected recipients are able-bodied and have had at least four - some as long as 14 or more - years to transition to independence.’ Tighter enforcement of the four-year limit begins on Oct. 1 and some 11,000 households will lose their $500-a-month benefit. The Department of Human Resources is scheduling appointments with affected families to extend housing and job placement assistance for three months to those actively seeking employment…”