Consumed by payday loans: State legislators offer haven for lenders deemed ‘predatory’, By Karen de Sá, October 30, 2011, San Jose Mercury News: “Facing government crackdowns around the country, payday lenders are thriving in lightly regulated California, where they lure hundreds of thousands of desperate borrowers a year despite punishing, triple-digit interest rates. Seventeen states and the U.S. military have effectively banned payday loans, which attract low-income borrowers who need a cash advance on paychecks. Georgia has declared payday lending to be felony racketeering. But in California, payday storefronts outnumber Starbucks coffeehouses. Neon-splashed businesses touting slogans like ‘Cash as Easy as 1, 2, 3!’ promise hassle-free, short-term loans, while few borrowers heed the fine print: A two-week loan will saddle them with what amounts to an annual interest rate of 460 percent. Now, the multibillion-dollar industry is looking for more help from a state Legislature that has protected payday lenders for years…”

After-school tutoring likely to end as dozens of states pursue No Child Left Behind waivers, Associated Press, October 30, 2011, Washington Post: “Dozens of states intend to apply for waivers that would free their schools from a federal requirement that they set aside hundreds of millions of dollars a year for after-school tutoring, a program many researchers say has been ineffective. The 2002 No Child Left Behind law requires school districts that repeatedly fail to meet its benchmarks to set aside federal money to pay for outside tutors. But studies released in the past five years have found mixed results, at best, from the program. They say it has suffered from participation rates as low as 20 percent, uneven quality among tutors, a lack of coordination between tutors and teachers, poor oversight by the states and a prohibition against giving the lowest achieving students priority. Also, they say, there has been no connection between students’ success and tutors’ paychecks…”

Oregon overpays $392 million in unemployment benefits, fraud investigators swamped, By Richard Read, October 28, 2011, The Oregonian: “As unemployment insurance claims ballooned during the past few years, Oregon overpaid more than $392 million in benefits, a U.S. Labor Department analysis shows. That’s about 12 percent of almost $3.5 billion paid in benefits during the three years that ended in June. Some of the money went out the door innocently enough, paid before the Oregon Employment Department determined a recipient was ineligible for benefits. But other checks went to people who fraudulently collected unemployment without looking for work, or who found a job and continued claiming benefits. Either way, Oregon officials aim to recover the money, which originates from employers, not individual taxpayers. But they say fraud cases have swamped the Employment Department, where caseloads at one point reached 400 per investigator, up from 150 before the recession…”

• California gets OK for large cuts to Medi-Cal, By Anna Gorman, October 28, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “The Obama administration will allow California to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from Medi-Cal, a move doctors and experts say will make it harder for the poor to get medical treatment. California plans to reduce rates by 10% to many providers, including physicians, dentists, clinics, pharmacies and most nursing homes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday. The cuts ‘will have a real impact on Medi-Cal patients’ because fewer doctors will be willing to see those covered by the program, which serves 7.6 million poor and disabled Californians, said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access, a consumer group. The head of the California Medical Assn., which represents doctors, echoed the concern…”
• Medicaid costs balloon for cash-strapped states, By Tami Luhby, October 27, 2011, CNNMoney.com: “As stimulus funds dry up, cash-strapped states are facing steep rises in Medicaid spending, forcing them to slash services and trim costs. States will have to spend another 28.7% on Medicaid this fiscal year — by far the largest increase ever, according to new data released by the Kaiser Family Foundation Thursday. Much of the increase comes from the loss of more than $100 billion in federal stimulus funds, which helped buffer states from the massive jump in Medicaid enrollment during the Great Recession. But those federal funds ran out in June, leaving states to shoulder the burden of covering nearly 60 million people on their own…”
• State spending on Medicaid up sharply, By N.C. Aizenman, October 27, 2011, Washington Post: “The expiration of federal stimulus funding for Medicaid has dealt a blow to states still struggling to recover from the economic downturn, according to figures released Thursday. To compensate for the loss of extra federal Medicaid dollars this June, states have increased their spending on the program by an average of 29 percent in the current fiscal year. Nearly every state also has turned to tough measures to trim Medicaid costs, such as eliminating benefits, reducing payment rates to doctors and hospitals, and increasing the co-payments they charge the poor and disabled served by the program. Even so, more than half of state officials surveyed said there was a 50-50 chance their Medicaid programs - which are financed with a combination of state and federal funds - would face a budget shortfall as enrollment continues to rise…”
• Survey: States counting on lower costs as Medicaid enrollment slows, By Christine Vestal, October 28, 2011, Stateline.org: “As states were drafting their 2012 Medicaid budgets this summer, they faced the biggest leap in general fund spending since the program began - a whopping 29 percent increase. That’s mainly because federal stimulus dollars for the program dried up, leaving states to shoulder their traditional share of the bill - about 50 percent. As a result, state lawmakers authorized only a 2 percent increase in overall spending for the federal-state health insurance program for low-income people - one of the lowest growth rates on record. That’s according to a 50-state survey released Thursday (October 27) by the Kaiser Family Foundation…”

Facing hardship, jobless still say they have hope, By Michael Cooper and Allison Kopicki, October 26, 2011, New York Times: “The nation’s lingering unemployment crisis has forced many people without work to dip into their savings, borrow from relatives and do without necessities including health insurance, and most people who receive unemployment benefits said that the money was not enough to meet their basic needs, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll of jobless Americans. Still, despite enduring hardships and being even more pessimistic about the nation’s economy than the general public, unemployed Americans remained optimistic about eventually landing jobs. A little more than half of those polled said they were either very or somewhat confident they would find long-term employment in the next year, and a majority said they expected that when they did find permanent work, it would be at a similar or higher salary than they had received in the past. But the poll found deep unease about unemployment benefits…”

Fewer marriages, fewer jobs: what’s contributing to poverty?, By Katie Leslie, October 27, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Losing a job is a quick and certain path to economic distress, as all too many Georgians have learned in recent years. But new census data highlight another, deeper-seated trend with profound implications for the long-term prosperity of middle-class families: the disappearance of marriage as a norm, especially among those who have children. In Georgia, from 2008 to 2010, the poverty rate was higher among single women raising children than among the unemployed — 39 percent vs. 31 percent — according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of 3-year census estimates released Thursday…”

More Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans wind up homeless, By Gregg Zoroya, October 28, 2011, USA Today: “As wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down, federal officials are seeing a growing number of young veterans on the street, according to a joint homeless study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Veterans Affairs released Friday. About 13,000 of the nation’s homeless in 2010 were ex-servicemembers between ages 18 and 30, a disproportionately large number of the nation’s overall homeless veteran population, the study says…”

Weatherization goal passed: 20,185 homes got improvements with stimulus funds, By Mary Beth Schneider, October 27, 2011, Indianapolis Star: “Indiana has surpassed its goal of weatherizing about 20,000 homes with federal stimulus dollars and hopes to deliver energy-saving improvements to as many as 3,000 others before the program ends in March. Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman, standing outside an Eastside home outfitted with a new furnace, water heater and insulation, said Wednesday that the jump in projections is possible because of cost savings that have left some of the $131.8 million in federal funds available. The success marks a turnaround from the program’s slow start. In November 2009, when the first benchmarks were to be met, the state was to have completed work on 2,202 homes. Instead, only 403 were completed…”

• Many who started in middle class find lifestyle slipping away, By Aldo Svaldi, October 23, 2011, Denver Post: “Joanne Spillman, 50, grew up in a large home in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood, never wanting for anything, and never anticipating she would achieve anything less in her life. ‘We were middle class, and our needs were met,’ Spillman said. ‘I always figured I would grow up and live the same lifestyle.’ But Spillman has struggled her whole adult life to reach the standard of living she once knew, a struggle that the recession and weak recovery have made much tougher. Nearly three out of 10 Americans, 28 percent, born in the middle class drop out of it as adults, according to a recent study on economic mobility from The Pew Charitable Trusts. The study defines middle class as those families making between $32,900 and $64,000 in 2010 dollars, which ranks between the 30th and 70th percentiles of income. The 30th percentile was used as a cut-off point because it is where families typically stop relying on government support to get by, said Erin Currier, project manager for Pew’s Economic Mobility Project…”
• Census: Share of Americans on the move falls to record low amid long-term housing and job woes, Associated Press, October 26, 2011, Washington Post: “Yet another symptom of the economic downturn: Americans aren’t moving. Young adults are staying put, often with their parents. Older people aren’t able to retire to beachfront or lakeside homes. U.S. mobility is at its lowest point since World War II. New information from the Census Bureau highlights the continuing impact of the housing bust and unemployment on U.S. migration, after earlier signs that mobility was back on the upswing. It’s a shift from America’s long-standing cultural image of ever-changing frontiers, dating to the westward migration of the 1800s and more recently in the spreading out of whites, blacks and Hispanics in the Sun Belt’s housing boom. Rather than housing magnets such as Arizona, Florida and Nevada, it is now more traditional, densely populated states - California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey - that are showing some of the biggest population gains in the recent economic slump, according to the data released Thursday…”

• Utah has nation’s lowest ‘income inequality’, By Lee Davidson, October 26, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “More than any other Americans, Utahns live among neighbors whose incomes are similar to their own. The rich live with the rich, and the poor with the poor. But the overall range of Utahns’ household incomes is relatively narrow, too, with comparatively few who are exceptionally high- or low-income. That’s according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau looking at ‘neighborhood income inequality’ between 2005 and 2009…”
• Income inequality lower than average in NW, says Census report, By Jessica Robinson, October 26, 2011, Oregon Public Broadcasting: “New numbers show the gap between the rich and poor has grown across the nation. But income inequality in the Northwest is lower than the national level. That’s according to an analysis released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Correspondent Jessica Robinson has more. The report is based on survey data collected between 2005 and 2009 — three years of economic growth, plus two years of recession. It uses three different measurements. And in all of them, Oregon, Idaho and Washington have lower-than-average levels of income inequality. That is, the spread between high wage earners and low wage earners…”
• Top earners doubled share of nation’s income, study finds, By Robert Pear, October 25, 2011, New York Times: “The top 1 percent of earners more than doubled their share of the nation’s income over the last three decades, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday, in a new report likely to figure prominently in the escalating political fight over how to revive the economy, create jobs and lower the federal debt. In addition, the report said, government policy has become less redistributive since the late 1970s, doing less to reduce the concentration of income…”
• The rich are getting richer, U.S. study says, By Jim Puzzanghera, October 27, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “The rich got richer over the last three decades - and the very rich got very much richer - according to a new government study. The top 1% of households saw their after-tax incomes grow by 275% from 1979 to 2007, said the study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That was more than quadruple the growth of the rest of the top 20% of the population during that period. Meanwhile, income for the 60% of households that make up the middle of the income scale increased by slightly less than 40%, the study found. The poor - the 20% of the population with the lowest incomes - saw just an 18% increase…”

Already financially hurting school districts brace for more cuts ahead, Associated Press, October 24, 2011, Washington Post: “Educators are bracing for a tough reality: As difficult as budget cuts have been on schools, more tough times are likely ahead. Even in a best-case scenario that assumes strong economic growth next year, it won’t be until 2013 or later when districts see budget levels return to pre-recession levels, said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators in Arlington, Va. That means more cuts and layoffs are likely ahead. ‘The worst part is that it’s not over,’ Domenech said. Already, an estimated 294,000 jobs in the education sector have been lost since 2008, including those in higher education…”

More and more, adoptions being made out of foster care, By Colleen O’Connor, October 25, 2011, Denver Post: “Images of children from distant countries, from Bulgaria to China to Russia, have been the public face of adoption in America. But that picture is overdue for an update. Most kids adopted by U.S. families now come from the child-welfare system: about 52,340 in 2010, up from 15,000 in 1988. In Colorado, the number has increased 125 percent to 1,044 in 2010 from 465 in 1995. The consensus is that it’s good to get children out of ‘the system.’ However, such adoptions can bring with them unanticipated physical and emotional challenges that require ongoing support…”

Taking pulse of Medicaid costs, By Cathleen F. Crowley, October 25, 2011, Albany Times-Union: “Guy Amisano’s soda company sold cases of Pepsi all over Western New York, but he never could put his finger on which sales were the most profitable or whether his price discounts paid off. So in the 1980s, Amisano hired some computer geeks to build a software program to track sales and costs in real time. ‘I was able to see precisely what and to whom I should sell and at what price to achieve optimal profitability without losing volume,’ Amisano said. His profits rose 20 percent and his company grew significantly. Over the next 14 years, Amisano ran Pepsi-Cola Elmira Bottling Co. while selling his computer program on the side. More than half of the beverage industry bought it. In 2000, his family sold the Horseheads-based bottling company to focus on the visual datamining software under a business called Salient Management Company. Now New York’s Medicaid system — the largest in the nation — uses Salient’s software to track the public health program’s $52 billion annual budget, 4.7 million recipients and 60,000 health care providers. Medicaid is the public health insurance program for low-income and disabled people. For the first time, top health officials say they can see where Medicaid dollars are going in real time…”

Minn. farmers’ markets adapt as food stamp program changes to EBT, By Julie Siple, October 25, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Getting fruits and vegetables into the hands of low-income Minnesotans got a little bit easier this summer, as a growing number of farmers markets across the state allowed customers to pay with Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT cards — the replacement for food stamps. It’s part of a national trend, one aimed at making fresh produce more accessible to the more than 45 million Americans who rely on government assistance to put food on their table…”

Outside Cleveland, snapshots of poverty’s surge in the suburbs, By Sabrina Tavernise, October 24, 2011, New York Times: “The poor population in America’s suburbs - long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class - rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations. The increase in the suburbs was 53 percent, compared with 26 percent in cities. The recession accelerated the pace: two-thirds of the new suburban poor were added from 2007 to 2010. ‘The growth has been stunning,’ said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, who conducted the analysis of census data. ‘For the first time, more than half of the metropolitan poor live in suburban areas.’ As a result, suburban municipalities - once concerned with policing, putting out fires and repairing roads - are confronting a new set of issues, namely how to help poor residents without the array of social programs that cities have, and how to get those residents to services without public transportation. Many suburbs are facing these challenges with the tightest budgets in years…”

Native foster care: Lost children, shattered families, Series homepage, By Laura Sullivan and Amy Walters, National Public Radio: “Nearly 700 Native American children in South Dakota are being removed from their homes every year, sometimes in questionable circumstances. An NPR News investigation has found that the state is largely failing to place them according to the law. The vast majority of native kids in foster care in South Dakota are in nonnative homes or group homes, according to an NPR analysis of state records…”

Florida’s welfare drug testing halted by federal judge, By Rebecca Catalanello, October 25, 2011, Miami Herald: “A federal judge in Orlando on Monday temporarily blocked Florida’s controversial law requiring welfare applicants be drug tested in order to receive benefits. Judge Mary Scriven issued a temporary injunction against the state, writing in a 37-page order that the law could violate the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on illegal search and seizure. ‘The constitutional rights of a class of citizen are at stake,’ Scriven wrote. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state last month on behalf of Luis Lebron, a 35-year-old Navy veteran and single father from Orlando who is finishing his college degree. Lebron met all the criteria for receiving welfare, but refused to submit to a drug test on the grounds that requiring him to pay for and submit to one is unreasonable when there is no reason to believe he uses drugs…”

• Some states adding assets to food stamp qualification, By John Wisely, October 19, 2011, USA Today: “How rich is too rich for food stamps? The answer depends on where you live. In Michigan, if you have $5,000 in liquid assets or a car or truck worth more than $15,000, you’re probably out of luck under new rules launched this month. Earlier this month, the state of Michigan began asking residents about their assets - homes, cars, stocks, bonds, even lottery winnings - in addition to income when they receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the formal name for food stamps. The decision to ask about assets rests with the states. Arizona, Texas and Indiana are among the states that ask. Oregon, Oklahoma and New York are among those that don’t, USA TODAY research showed…”
• Rochester region sees food stamp explosion, By Meaghan M. McDermott, October 23, 2011, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: “Since the Great Recession began in 2007, the number of people in the six-county region using food stamps has grown by nearly 50 percent. In that time, spending on the program locally has doubled. Although a portion of that increase may be attributable to a drive to get more eligible people signed up, there’s no denying that the uptick is a sign of ongoing economic distress. It comes at a time when incomes nationwide are down and poverty is on the rise. It’s a symptom reflected in increased demand at local food pantries and mirrors food insecurity trends nationwide…”
• South Floridians on food stamps continue to rise, By Donna Gehrke-White, October 24, 2011, South Florida Sun Sentinel: “Tens of thousands more South Floridians have gone on food stamps in the last year even though the recession has officially ended and the unemployment rate has improved, state statistics show. In Broward County, those on food stamps have jumped nearly 14 percent from September 2010 to last month with 140,010 receiving them, according to the state agency that oversees the federal program. Palm Beach County experienced a 16 percent jump from September 2010 to last month with 91,504 on food stamps…”
• Food stamps fraudsters using Web as tool, By Michelle Miller, October 24, 2011, CBS News: “In this economy, food stamps have become a lifeline for millions more Americans. Just this year, the government is spending more than $70 billion on food stamps. But there’s a disturbing trend: People are buying and selling the benefits online, as correspondent Michelle Miller reports. ‘We had received a lot of complaints about the easy accessibility of these cards,’ explains Steve Lowe, the director for fraud and accountability at the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services. ‘It wasn’t just, ‘Go down on the corner.’ You go on the web and make contact and try to make a purchase.’ In a hidden camera video filmed by the department in the parking lot of a large store, an undercover agent was seen buying a card with $200 worth of food benefits on it. She purchased it for $100 after finding out about it on Facebook. ‘Trafficking, what we call where people are selling their benefits on Craigslist or out in a parking lot, that’s a violation of the program,’ U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon said…”

• Optional Medicaid benefits face state cuts, By Phil Galewitz, October 23, 2011, USA Today: “States are using a variety of strategies to control rising Medicaid costs even as they look ahead to a massive expansion of the state-federal health insurance program for the poor beginning in 2014. The weak economy is driving more jobless Americans into Medicaid, increasing enrollment at the same time that medical costs keep going up. To deal with the higher costs, states are pushing Medicaid recipients into managed-care plans run by private insurers, cutting reimbursement rates to hospitals and doctors and reducing benefits…”
• More states limiting Medicaid hospital stays, By Phil Galewitz, October 23, 2011, USA Today: “A growing number of states are sharply limiting hospital stays under Medicaid to as few as 10 days a year to control rising costs of the health insurance program for the poor and disabled. Advocates for the needy and hospital executives say the moves will restrict access to care, force hospitals to absorb more costs and lead to higher charges for privately insured patients. States defend the actions as a way to balance budgets hammered by the economic downturn and the end of billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds this summer that had helped prop up Medicaid, financed jointly by states and the federal government…”

• Washington region has nation’s lowest poverty rate, By Carol Morello and Luz Lazo, October 20, 2011, Washington Post: “The Washington region had the lowest poverty rate of any major metropolitan area in the country during the past two years, even though poverty is up significantly and continues to rise. About 8.4 percent of the region’s residents lived in poverty in 2010, compared with 6.8 percent before the recession began in 2007. Although the rate represents a steep increase, it is far below the 15 percent national figure and that of urban areas in the West and the South, including Fresno, Calif., and El Paso, where more than 20 percent of people are poor. The region’s poverty rates have been among the lowest in the nation for many years. But although its rate has risen since the recession, other places have struggled more. Even the District, where the poverty rate is a staggering 19 percent, falls midway among other urban centers…”
• Fresno County poverty near nation’s highest, By Russell Clemings, October 20, 2011, Fresno Bee: “Driven by rising unemployment, poverty increased sharply in Fresno County between 2009 and 2010, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of people living below the poverty line, the exact value of which depends on family size and age of the householder, rose almost everywhere in those two years. Nationwide, that percentage was 14.3% in 2009 and 15.3% in 2010. But the Fresno metropolitan area, which consists of Fresno County, had a bigger rise - from 21.5% to 26.8%. That means more than 1 in 4 people here now live in poverty, compared to a little more than 1 in 5 before the recession-induced unemployment spike hit its peak. Because the census data is based on a survey that goes only to part of the population, the numbers are considered accurate only within 1 or 2 percentage points. But even that uncertainty is not enough to account for the change in Fresno County’s fortunes…”
• As poverty climbs, Utah’s cash handouts hold steady, By Brooke Adams, October 20, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “More Utah families slipped into poverty last year, but that wasn’t reflected in the estimated number of households receiving cash help from the government. An analysis of American Community Survey data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday found about 3.3 million households nationwide received public assistance in 2010, an increase of about 300,000 households from 2009. The analysis looked only at cash assistance, not such benefits as Supplemental Security Income or food stamps. Participation rates increased in 14 states, decreased in 25 and stayed flat in another 11 states - including Utah. That is likely because of Utah’s three-year, lifetime limit on welfare through the general assistance and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF] programs, said Terry Haven, Kids Count director at Voices for Utah Children. While federal law sets a 60-month, lifetime limit on cash assistance, states can set shorter limits or no time frame. In Utah, the limit is 36 months…”
• Census data show NH has nation’s lowest poverty rate, By Lisa Lambert, October 20, 2011, New Hampshire Union Leader: “The ranks of the poor rose in almost all U.S. states and cities in 2010, despite the end of the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression the year before, U.S. Census data released on Thursday showed. Mississippi and New Mexico had the highest poverty rates, with more than one out of every five people in each state living in poverty. Mississippi’s poverty rate led, at 22.4 percent, followed by New Mexico at 20.4 percent. New Hampshire had the lowest poverty rate, at 8.3 percent, making it the only state with a poverty rate below 10 percent. Twelve states had poverty rates above 17 percent, up from five in 2009, while poverty rates in 10 metropolitan areas topped 18 percent, the data showed…”
• Maine’s poverty rate isn’t the highest, but it’s No. 2 on public assistance list, By Eric Russell, October 20, 2011, Bangor Daily News: “New Census data show that Maine had one of the highest rates of households accepting public assistance in 2010 despite the fact that the state’s poverty rate was not among the highest. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey released this week compared rates of public assistance for all 50 states. In 2010, Maine saw 28,213 households accept public assistance, or 5.2 percent of the state’s population. That was an increase from the 4.9 percent of households that collected assistance in 2009. Maine’s rate trailed only Alaska (6.7 percent) and was significantly higher than the 2.9 percent national rate of households accepting public benefits in 2010. At 1.5 percent, Wyoming had the lowest rate. No state saw a decrease in the number of households accepting assistance from 2009 to 2010…”

• Poor neighborhoods may contribute to poor health, By Amina Khan, October 20, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “People who move from a poor neighborhood to a better-off one could end up thinner and healthier than those who stay behind, according to an urban housing experiment that tracked low-income residents in five major cities for 10 to 15 years. The research, set up by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, shows that health is closely linked to the environments people live in - and that social policies to change those environments or move people away from blighted areas could be a key tactic in fighting the ‘diabesity’ epidemic. The study released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine took advantage of a 1990s social experiment approved by Congress primarily to track the changes in income, education and employment of people given the opportunity to move out of low-income housing in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago, New York and Boston. At least 40% of the residents at the start of the study made less money than the federal poverty threshold. Researchers soon realized that the project could allow them to study residents’ changes in health as well, said study coauthor Dr. Robert Whitaker, a pediatrician at Temple University in Philadelphia…”
• Study: Living in poor neighborhood can hurt health, By Mike Stobbe (AP), October 21, 2011, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Back in the 1990s, the federal government tried an unusual social experiment: It offered thousands of poor women in big-city public housing a chance to live in more affluent neighborhoods. A decade later, the women who relocated had lower rates of diabetes and extreme obesity - differences that are being hailed as compelling evidence that where you live can determine your health. The experiment was initially aimed at researching whether moving impoverished families to more prosperous areas could improve employment or schooling. But according to a study released Wednesday, the most interesting effect may have been on the women’s physical condition…”
• Study: Better neighborhood lowers obesity, diabetes risk, By Nanci Hellmich, October 19, 2011, USA Today: “Low-income moms who move from very poor neighborhoods to less disadvantaged ones lower their risk of becoming extremely obese and developing type 2 diabetes, a study reveals. ‘This research shows how important the environment can be for people’s health,’ says the study’s lead author, Jens Ludwig, a professor of social service administration, law and public policy at the University of Chicago. Obesity increases people’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems. People in poorer neighborhoods are at a higher risk of becoming too heavy because they may not have access to grocery stores that are well-stocked with healthy fare such as fresh fruits and vegetables, often don’t have safe places to be physically active and may have greater concerns about safety, which could impact their psychological stress and eating habits, Ludwig says…”

States retool food stamp, benefits systems, By Pamela M. Prah, October 21, 2011, Stateline.org: “Food stamp applicants in California and Texas no longer have to be fingerprinted, a change both states hope will save money and improve the process of distribution. That makes Arizona and New York City the only remaining jurisdictions that fingerprint - a requirement that opponents say scares off the needy from applying for food stamps while doing little to combat fraud. The changes in California and Texas reflect a larger movement at the state level, spurred on by the recession and a record number of Americans getting food stamps and other public assistance: States are trying to make it easier for those seeking help and cheaper for state workers who process the applications and provide the benefits…”

Growing prison populations hinder budget cuts, By Kevin Johnson, October 20, 2011, USA Today: “The rising number of prisoners serving costly life terms across the country is complicating state officials’ efforts to make dramatic cuts to large prison budgets, lawmakers and criminal justice officials said. From 1984 to 2008, the number of offenders serving life terms quadrupled, from 34,000 to roughly 140,000, according to the most recent count by The Sentencing Project, which advocates alternatives to incarceration. One of the fastest-growing subgroups are inmates serving life without the possibility of parole. Those numbers have jumped from 12,453 in 1992 to 41,095 in 2008 and represent the most costly inmates to house as the aging inmates require increased medical care…”

Drug tests for welfare recipients raise debate, By Jennifer Brooks, October 21, 2011, The Tennessean: “As the economy drives more and more people to seek public assistance, an increasing number of states are debating whether that aid should go only to applicants who can pass a drug test. This year, 36 states have introduced bills to require drug testing for welfare recipients. Tennessee is one of them…”

A deal to help foster youths find housing, By Mosi Secret, October 20, 2011, New York Times: “New York City has reached an agreement on a proposed settlement of a lawsuit that claims the city allows older children to leave foster care only to become immediately homeless. Each year, roughly 800 to 1,100 people age 18 to 21 are discharged from foster care to fend for themselves, the plaintiffs complained in the class-action suit. There is no current data on the youths’ housing after foster care, but previously the city’s Department of Homeless Services and the City Council estimated that more than a quarter of youths discharged from foster care because of their age end up homeless almost immediately, according to the complaint, which accuses the city of shirking its responsibilities to those youths…”

• W.Va. is only state with rising teen birthrate, By Megan Workman, October 18, 2011, Charleston Gazette: “Teenage birthrates decreased in every state in the country from 2007 through 2009 except in West Virginia, which saw a 17 percent increase, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Statistics from the Natality Data File in the National Vital Statistics System showed that the teenage birthrate declined 8 percent in the United States from 2007 through 2009, the most recent data available. The nation’s teen birthrate reached its lowest in 70 years, at 39.1 births per 1,000 teens ages 15 to 19, according to the CDC. West Virginia’s 15- to 19-year-old population’s birthrate has steadily been on the rise, as the 2009 rate was 49.7 births per 1,000 teenagers…”
• Milwaukee’s teen birthrate plunges for second straight year, By Karen Herzog, October 12, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Milwaukee’s teen birthrate plunged by 5.6 births per 1,000 teens last year, keeping the city well ahead of the pace needed to reach its goal of being in line with the state rate by 2015. This is the second year in a row that Milwaukee’s rate has dropped dramatically. From 2008 to 2009, the rate fell from 46.73 births per 1,000 teens to 41.30 births per 1,000. The preliminary data released Tuesday shows a drop to 35.68 in 2010. The city counts births between ages 15 and 17…”

• Study: Community college dropout rate costly, By Paul Takahashi, October 20, 2011, Las Vegas Sun: “Dropping out of school carries a high cost - and it’s not just to the student. A new report analyzing spending on community college dropouts nationally found that failing to graduate cost taxpayers nearly $4 billion at the federal, state and local levels over a five-year period. In Nevada, the cost of funding community college students who dropped out after one year was estimated at $8.8 million between 2004 and 2009, according to the report released Thursday by the American Institutes for Research - a Washington, D.C. - based nonprofit, nonpartisan research group…”
• High cost of first-year community college dropouts, By Nanette Asimov, October 20, 2011, San Francisco Chronicle: “Like making a bad bet in Vegas, taxpayers gamble hundreds of millions of dollars a year on community college students who quit as freshmen - many in California. A new study shows that from 2004 to 2009, Americans spent nearly $4 billion on full-time students who dropped out after one year and didn’t transfer. California’s first-year dropouts benefited from $480 million in tax-funded grants and allocations in that time - more than any other state - says the study, ‘The Hidden Costs of Community Colleges,’ from the nonpartisan American Institutes for Research in Washington, D.C…”

Medicaid expansion seen covering nearly all state prisoners, By Christine Vestal, October 18, 2011, Stateline.org: “The federal health law’s controversial Medicaid expansion is expected to add billions to states’ already overburdened Medicaid budgets. But it also offers a rarely discussed cost-cutting opportunity for state corrections agencies. Starting in 2014, virtually all state prison inmates could be eligible for Medicaid coverage of hospital stays-at the expense of the federal government. In most states, Medicaid is not an option for prison inmates. But a little known federal rule allows coverage for Medicaid-eligible inmates who leave a prison and check into a private or community hospital. Technically, those who stay in the hospital for 24 hours or more are no longer considered prison inmates for the duration of their stay…”

Fuel poverty ‘will claim 2,700 victims this winter’, By Mark King, October 19, 2011, The Guardian: “Almost 3,000 people in England and Wales will die this winter because they cannot afford to heat their homes, a report suggests - more than the number killed in traffic accidents each year. Commissioned by the government, the Hills Fuel Poverty Review found that if just 10% of UK winter deaths are caused by fuel poverty - a conservative estimate it claims - 2,700 people will perish as a direct result of being fuel poor. The report also found that between 2004 and 2009 the ‘fuel poverty gap’ (the extra amount those with badly insulated homes and poor heating systems would need to spend to keep warm) increased by 50% to £1.1bn as a result of rising fuel prices…”

Opponents say S.C.’s voting law unfair for the poor, By Pam Fessler, October 19, 2011, National Public Radio: “South Carolina is one of several states that passed laws this year requiring voters to show a government-issued photo ID at the polls. The South Carolina measure still needs approval from the U.S. Justice Department to ensure that it doesn’t discriminate against certain voters. Voting rights advocates say the requirement will be a big burden for some, especially the elderly and the poor, who can have a difficult time getting a photo ID - even in this day and age…”

• Some states seek flexibility to push health-care overhaul further, By Sarah Kliff, October 16, 2011, Washington Post: “As far as health-reform boosters go, Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is among the most stalwart. ‘We want to show that health reform is something real, that it actually works,’ he said. ‘Oregon is a place that can actually make it happen.’ His state has aggressively implemented the health overhaul Congress passed last year, taking more than $100 million in federal funding to do so. But at the same time, the health-care law puts Kitzhaber (D) in a bind. This year, Oregon passed its own plan, which starts with changing how it pays doctors and eventually ends with allowing public employees to enroll in Medicaid, the federal insurance program for low-income Americans. There’s just one big obstacle: What Oregon wants to do would require the Obama administration to waive integral pillars of its signature legislative accomplishment…”
• Administration seeks to roll back hospital rules, By Robert Pear, October 18, 2011, New York Times: “The Obama administration moved Tuesday to roll back a number of rules governing hospitals and other health care providers after concluding that the standards were obsolete or overly burdensome to the industry. Among other things, the proposals would allow hospitals to save money by sometimes using qualified nurse practitioners and physician assistants in place of better-paid doctors, allowing doctors to focus more on patients and helping address ‘impending physician shortages.’ Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the proposed changes would save providers nearly $1.1 billion a year without creating any ‘consequential risks for patients.’ The proposed rules would apply to more than 6,000 hospitals…”
• ‘Supercommittee’ decision may lead to cuts funding for public health initiatives, By Marilyn Werber Serafini, and Mary Agnes Carey and Kaiser Health News, October 16, 2011, Washington Post: “Federal funding for medical research, disease prevention and a host of public health initiatives could be sharply reduced if the congressional ’supercommittee’ fails to agree on a deficit-reduction package, triggering automatic cuts. Public attention has largely focused on possible cuts to entitlement programs for seniors and the poor, Medicare and Medicaid, but health advocates are raising an alarm about many other smaller programs they say need to be protected…”

More low-income residents with housing vouchers are moving to the suburbs, study finds, By Ted Roelofs, October 18, 2011, Grand Rapids Press: “The stereotype of public housing as an inner city landmark is belied in communities across West Michigan, where Grand Rapids ranks No. 9 in the nation’s metropolitan areas for growth in suburban housing vouchers. Equal-access housing advocates maintain the trend is better for both city and suburb alike, affording low-income residents economic opportunity while broadening diversity within the metropolitan area…”

• Experimental malaria vaccine protects many children, study shows, By Rob Stein, October 18, 2011, Washington Post: “An experimental malaria vaccine has for the first time been shown to safely protect large numbers of children against the mosquito-borne scourge, researchers reported Tuesday. The eagerly awaited study involving more than 15,000 newborns and babies in seven African countries found the vaccine cut the risk of being infected with the malaria parasite by about half and the chances of getting deathly ill from an infection by more than a third. While far below the protection provided by many widely used vaccines for other diseases, the results were hailed as a major advance toward one of the most elusive goals in medicine…”
• Malaria vaccine could save hundreds of thousands, By Stephen Adams, October 18, 2011, The Telegraph: “The pan-African trial in 6,000 children aged five to 17 months found the vaccine reduced the numbers infected with the most serious form of malaria by 56 per cent, in the 12 months after vaccination, compared to those who did not receive the jab. It also reduced the number of severe malaria cases by 47 per cent. As little as a decade ago vaccine experts considered the challenge of tackling the mosquito-borne infection impossible. But scientists on the project said the results proved that ‘innovation and a lot of hard work’ paid off in the end…”

Veterans’ unemployment outpaces civilian rate, By Michael A. Fletcher, October 16, 2011, Washington Post: “As soon as Brian Joseph graduated from high school he joined the Army, where he was trained in a series of jobs that seem to exist only in the military. He was a multi-channel radio operator. Then he worked as a single-channel radio operator. Later, he worked as a psychological operations specialist, tailoring the U.S. war message to residents of Kosovo and, later, Iraq. But since leaving the Army in 2008, Joseph has found that the rigorous training he gained during 18 years of military service means little to civilian employers…”

FSSA hopes new hybrid system aids service, By Dorothy Schneider, October 16, 2011, Lafayette Journal and Courier: “Richard Graves has had his share of frustration in dealing with the local office for the Indiana Department of Families and Social Services Administration. He can recount tales of lost paperwork and unreturned phone calls, as he has worked to oversee his granddaughter’s Medicaid coverage. ‘I haven’t talked to the caseworker in two years,’ Graves said. Complaints about the state’s FSSA case management are nothing new, but Indiana officials are hoping they lessen as ongoing improvements to the application system are rolled out across the state…”

Tackling infant mortality rates among blacks, By Timothy Williams, October 14, 2011, New York Times: “Amanda Ralph is the kind of woman whose babies are prone to die. She is young and poor and dropped out of school after the ninth grade. But there is also an undeniable link between Ms. Ralph’s race - she is black - and whether her baby will survive: nationally, black babies are more than twice as likely as white babies to die before the age of 1. Here in Pittsburgh, the rate is five times. So, seven months into her first pregnancy, Ms. Ralph, 20, is lying on a couch at home as a nurse from a federally financed program listens to the heartbeat of her fetus. The unusual attention Ms. Ralph is receiving is one of myriad efforts being made nationwide to reduce the tens of thousands of deaths each year of infants before age 1. But health officials say it is frequently disheartening work, as a combination of apathy and cuts to federal and state programs aimed at reducing infant deaths have hampered progress, with dozens of big cities and rural areas reporting rising rates…”

• Lower Medicaid dispensing fees may pressure pharmacies, By Claire Cardona, October 14, 2011, New York Times: “In Rio Grande City, Rene Martinez’s Starr Pharmacy has one line for Medicaid patients and another for non-Medicaid patients. On some days, most of his clients can be found waiting on the Medicaid line, a testament to the importance of that federal-state health insurance program in this poor city along the Texas-Mexico border - and to Mr. Martinez’s bottom line. His store is one of a number of independent pharmacies in Texas that may have to lay off workers and cut services like free delivery to homebound patients because of looming lower dispensing fees. Beginning in March, a new managed-care plan goes into effect that reduces the amount pharmacies receive for filling Medicaid prescriptions…”
• Medicaid stand-in rebuffed by feds, By Niki Kelly, Journal Gazette, October 1, 2011, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “The federal government on Friday rejected Indiana’s proposal to use its Healthy Indiana insurance plan in place of a Medicaid expansion beginning in 2014. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a letter that the state’s request was premature because rules related to the expansion have not yet been finalized and encouraged Indiana to apply again in the future…”
• Medicaid overhaul saves $600M, By Casey Seiler, October 6, 2011, Albany Times-Union: “The first phase of the state’s attempt to overhaul its health insurance program for low-income residents has achieved almost $600 million in savings in its first six months, according to a progress report released Wednesday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team gathered at The Egg to hear team reports and receive a demonstration of the Medicaid Visual Data Mining system, which allows state officials and health care managers to track spending in a more targeted and quick-response fashion. ‘We are now live-managing the program,’ said Greg Allen of the state Department of Health, who demonstrated how the system could be used to track anomalies that could indicate possible fraud or other problems. State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah suggested the data tool could be used by hospitals to track re-admission rates due to infections or other phenomena…”

EU considering massive cuts to food aid for poor, By Raf Casert (AP), October 14, 2011, ABC News: “The European Union is considering a roughly 75 percent cut in funding for a program that helps feed 18 million of its poorest citizens. The cuts, set to take effect after New Year’s, would come at a time of rising unemployment and consumer food prices in many parts of Europe, as well as overall economic turmoil on the continent. The looming cuts already have raised fears among people who rely heavily on the program…”

Report: People on housing assistance are moving to the suburbs, By Matthew Sturdevant, October 13, 2011, Hartford Courant: “Low-income people who receive federal housing vouchers are moving to the suburbs - a 42 percent increase in metro Hartford between 2000 and 2008, according to a new report. The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. think tank, said changes in federal policy during the 1990s gave people who receive housing vouchers more living options…”

State minimum wage rates to go up with inflation in 2012, By Pamela M. Prah, October 14, 2011, Stateline.org: “Increases in the minimum wage often involve protracted political battles, but no so for 10 states that will increase their rates in 2012. That’s because these states tie annual increases in their minimums to increases in the cost of living. The minimum wage will increase by 28 cents next year in Colorado; 30 cents in Montana, Ohio and Oregon; and 37 cents in Washington State. Other states that have laws requiring their minimum wages be adjusted annually are Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nevada and Vermont. Announcements regarding rate increases in those states are still to come. Nationwide, 18 states and Washington, D.C. have minimum wage rates that are higher than the federal minimum wage of $7.25, according to U.S. Labor Department data. Washington State has the highest hourly rate at $8.67, which will go to $9.04 next year when the new rate goes into effect…”

Ineligible Medicaid recipients cost Va. millions, By Jim Nolan, October 13, 2011, Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Errors by local Department of Social Services caseworkers in enrolling ineligible Medicaid recipients are responsible for the greatest number of improper payments in Virginia’s share of the program, according to an extensive review by the legislature’s watchdog agency. It found that the state’s administration of the Medicaid program is overly complex and not automated. It also needs investments in technology and greater oversight to guarantee it is not overpaying managed-care organizations for services. Errors in enrolling ineligible recipients could have cost the state somewhere between $18 million and $263 million in fiscal 2009, according to the report - requested by lawmakers in 2010 and presented Tuesday to lawmakers by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission…”

WHO to recommend improving food aid for malnourished children under 5, Associated Press, October 13, 2011, Washington Post: “The World Health Organization said Thursday it plans to recommend tighter nutritional standards in food aid for young children, a move activists say is necessary to improve donations from countries such as the United States. The new guidelines are likely to make food aid more expensive in the short term, but the improved formulas will be more effective at reducing moderate malnutrition in children under the age of 5, the head of WHO’s nutrition department told The Associated Press…”

Poverty touches more Sioux Falls students, By Josh Verges, October 12, 2011, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “The state’s largest school district has added 515 students since this time last year, but the number of students from low-income families is growing even faster. When the Sioux Falls School District’s year ended in May, 46.8 percent of its elementary students were eligible for free or reduced-price meals, up from 43.7 percent the year before. Districtwide, the number of students in the program increased by about 900 in one year…”

• Rise in full-time workers receiving food stamps, By Jere Downs, October 12, 2011, Louisville Courier-Journal: “On her day off from work one recent Friday, Angela Carter stopped at Shively Area Ministries to pick up four bags of free food. She figured the noodles, bratwurst, cereal, canned goods, milk and beef stew would see her, her husband and two sons through until $350 is deposited in her food stamp account. ‘I have a full time job and I’m still broke,’ said Carter, whose paycheck for her $8.57-an-hour job as a Rite-Aid clerk comes twice a month. ‘One paycheck goes to rent, the next one goes to bills. I always run out of money for food.’ Her husband, seeking assembly line work, has brought home only three paychecks in the last 3 months. As the 13 Kentucky and Southern Indiana counties in the Louisville area experitence the end of a third year of more than 9 percent unemployment and flat wages, the working poor like Carter figure prominently among a sharp rise in the number of households receiving food stamps, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture…”
• N.J. relaxes rules on food stamps, By Ken Serrano, October 8, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Faced with an increasing number of people receiving food stamps, some states, like Kansas, have toughened eligibility requirements for their federally funded food assistance programs. But New Jersey has done the opposite. Gone is the requirement that people must list assets to apply. The annual gross income limit for a single person in New Jersey to be eligible to participate in its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was raised in April 2010 from $14,701.50 to $20,146.50. Deductions for things like utility bills figure into the limits. The maximum allowable income for a family of three to participate went from $23,803 per year to $34,281…”
• Fingerprinting those seeking food stamps is denounced, By Kate Taylor, October 11, 2011, New York Times: “Taking aim at a practice she called unnecessary, costly and punitive, the speaker of the City Council, Christine C. Quinn, is asking the Bloomberg administration to justify requiring applicants for food stamps to be electronically fingerprinted. New York City, where 1.8 million people receive food stamps, is one of only two jurisdictions in the country that require applicants to be fingerprinted, according to Ms. Quinn’s office. The other is Arizona. California and Texas recently lifted a similar requirement; New York stopped using fingerprinting for food-stamp recipients statewide in 2007, but kept it in New York City at the Bloomberg administration’s request…”

• 400,000 children will fall into relative poverty by 2015, warns IFS, By Randeep Ramesh, October 10, 2011, The Guardian: “The government shakeup of the tax and benefits system will result in a further 400,000 children falling into relative poverty during this parliament, leaving Britain on course to miss legally binding targets to reduce child poverty by 2020, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In a bleak assessment of changes in the government’s new social contract, the IFS said the number of children in absolute poverty in 2015 will rise by 500,000 to 3 million. Even worse, by 2020 3.3 million young people - almost one in four children - will find themselves in relative child poverty. This is 2 million short of the 2020 target to reduce child poverty to 10% or less of all children, and represents an increase of 800,000 on the figures for 2011…”
• UK seeing ‘a big rise in poverty’, October 10, 2011, BBC News: “The UK will continue to see a big rise in the number of people living in poverty, a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned. The study said 2.2 million children and two million working age adults were living in absolute poverty in 2009-10. It predicts that by 2012-13, this will rise by an extra 600,000 children and 800,000 adults of working age…”

Millions to lose unemployment benefits if Congress doesn’t act, By Tami Luhby, October 11, 2011, CNNMoney.com: “Millions of unemployed Americans are waiting for Congress to do something other than trade barbs over their job creation plans. If lawmakers don’t act soon, the jobless see their unemployment checks start to disappear come January. More than 6 million Americans are set to lose federal unemployment benefits in 2012, with 1.8 million running out in January alone, according to new figures from the National Employment Law Project. President Obama’s $447 billion American Jobs Act would extend the deadline to file for federal unemployment benefits for another year. Though the Senate is expected to take up the controversial jobs bill on Tuesday, it’s unlikely to get very far…”

States adding drug test as hurdle for welfare, By A.G. Sulzberger, October 10, 2011, New York Times: “As more Americans turn to government programs for refuge from a merciless economy, a growing number are encountering a new price of admission to the social safety net: a urine sample. Policy makers in three dozen states this year proposed drug testing for people receiving benefits like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing. Such laws, which proponents say ensure that tax dollars are not being misused and critics say reinforce stereotypes about the poor, have passed in states including Arizona, Indiana and Missouri. In Florida, people receiving cash assistance through welfare have had to pay for their own drug tests since July, and enrollment has shrunk to its lowest levels since the start of the recession…”

Recession officially over, U.S. incomes kept falling, By Robert Pear, October 9, 2011, New York Times: “In a grim sign of the enduring nature of the economic slump, household income declined more in the two years after the recession ended than it did during the recession itself, new research has found. Between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation-adjusted median household income fell 6.7 percent, to $49,909, according to a study by two former Census Bureau officials. During the recession - from December 2007 to June 2009 - household income fell 3.2 percent. The finding helps explain why Americans’ attitudes toward the economy, the country’s direction and its political leaders have continued to sour even as the economy has been growing. Unhappiness and anger have come to dominate the political scene, including the early stages of the 2012 presidential campaign…”

L.A. County expands no-cost healthcare, By Anna Gorman, October 9, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “In one of the largest expansions of health coverage to the uninsured, Los Angeles County is enrolling hundreds of thousands of residents in a publicly funded treatment program and setting the stage for the national healthcare overhaul. The county hopes to register as many as 550,000 patients and is assigning them to medical clinics for services at no cost to them. At the same time, the county is transforming its healthcare system to be less focused on acute care and more on primary care. The changes are expected to reduce costs, streamline care and attract patients. Under President Obama’s controversial healthcare overhaul, millions more uninsured Californians will be eligible for Medicaid - the healthcare program for the poor - beginning in 2014. Even as the debate over the law continues in Washington, California is starting that expansion now and using federal dollars to do so. Altogether, the state expects to receive $2.3 billion to expand and modernize its Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, now available only to certain low-income residents…”

Unemployed seek protection against job bias, By Sam Hananel (AP), October 9, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “After two years on the unemployment rolls, Selena Forte thought she’d found a temporary job at a delivery company that matched her qualifications. But Forte, a 55-year-old from Cleveland, says a recruiter for an employment agency told her she would not be considered for the job because she had been out of work too long. She had lost her job driving a bus. ‘They didn’t even want to hear about my experience,’ said Forte. ‘It didn’t make sense. You’re always told just go out there and get a job.’ Forte, scraping by now as a part time substitute school bus driver, is part of a growing number of unemployed or underemployed Americans who complain they are being screened out of job openings for the very reason they’re looking for work in the first place. Some companies and job agencies prefer applicants who already have jobs, or haven’t been jobless too long…”