• Rising child poverty rates could be a ‘taste’ of what’s ahead, By Ron Scherer, November 29, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “In a troubling snapshot of the declining finances of Americans, considerably more school-age children are living in poverty than in the pre-recession year of 2007, the US Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Of all 3,142 counties in the US, 653 counties saw significant increases in poverty for children ages 5 to 17, according to the 2010 Census Bureau survey. Only eight counties saw a decrease. Nationally, 19.8 percent of schoolchildren qualify as poor - and one-third of all counties now have child poverty rates above that threshold. About one quarter had child poverty rates significantly lower than the national average…”
• More schoolchildren in Central Texas living in poverty, By Juan Castillo, November 29, 2011, Austin American-Statesman: “About 1 in 4 school-age children in Travis, Bastrop and Caldwell counties lived in poverty in 2010 - higher than the national average - and the poverty rate for schoolchildren has risen since the recession began in 4 of 5 counties in the Austin metro area, according to census estimates Tuesday reflecting the effects of the weakened economy…”
• Wisconsin schools see more children in poverty, By Erin Richards and Ben Poston, November 30, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “More than four out of 10 school-aged children in Milwaukee are living in poverty, a jump of nearly 10 percentage points from 2007, according to new estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau that underscore another effect of the Great Recession. The percentage of children in poverty residing in the Milwaukee Public Schools district rose to 41% in 2010 from 32.4% in pre-recession 2007, according to the bureau’s 2010 income and poverty estimates for all counties and school districts…”
• Alabama struggles with number of children living in poverty at 27.4%, By Kim Chandler, November 30, 2011, Birmingham News: “More than one in four Alabama children live in poverty — a figure that has jumped since the recession began in 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday. In 2010, 27.4 percent of children age 18 and under in Alabama lived in poverty. The percentage was 23.6 percent in 2007…”
• Poverty rate soars among S. Florida kids, By Donna Gehrke-White, Dana Williams and Cara Fitzpatrick, November 30, 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “The poverty rate for school-age children skyrocketed in South Florida from 2007 to 2010 with thousands of parents thrown out of work during the Great Recession. In Broward and Palm Beach counties, about one in five children ages 5 to 17 live in poverty, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. In Miami-Dade, nearly one in four children fall below the poverty level. The huge increase in poverty among school-aged children places the three South Florida counties in the nation’s top 20 percent of counties experiencing the steepest jump in child poverty, according to the Census Bureau data…”
• Fresno County has state’s highest poverty rate, By Kurtis Alexander, November 29, 2011, Fresno Bee: “Soaring unemployment has pushed California’s poverty rate up for three straight years — but nowhere higher than in Fresno County, according to new Census data. The nearly 250,000 county residents living in poverty in 2010 gives Fresno County claim to the state’s highest poverty rate, at 26.8%. Almost 70,000 more people lived in poverty last year than in 2007 when the recession began. Statewide, 15.8% were impoverished, the census data show, up 3.4 percentage points from three years ago…”
• Poverty rates varied greatly among Oklahoma counties in 2010, By Chris Casteel, November 30, 2011, The Oklahoman: “Poverty rates jumped in some of the poorest and richest counties in Oklahoma in 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday that show Okfuskee County had the highest rate last year, with 27 percent of its residents in poverty…”

• The Near Poor: Many educated, employed Americans struggle to make ends meet, By Elizabeth Stuart, November 30, 2011, Deseret News: “Federal poverty statistics may not paint an accurate picture of how Americans are getting along economically, two new studies suggest. About 45 percent of U.S. residents who are not considered poor by federal standards don’t have enough money for basic expenses like housing, food and health care, according to a new study by the advocacy group Wider Opportunities for Women. And the number of people hovering just above the federal poverty threshold is 76 percent higher than official records indicate, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data published in the New York Times…”
• In U.S., Canada, new measures of the poverty line, By Miles Corak, November 28, 2011, Globe and Mail: “U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Rebecca Blank — a capable, no-nonsense, PhD in economics, and a former Dean at the University of Michigan — to his new administration, and told her to answer a simple question: How should the United States measure poverty? Blank did an end-run around the sad politics that has characterized discussions of poverty measurement in the U.S. by having the Census Bureau develop an entirely new indicator that reflects the realities of participating in contemporary American society…”

• China raises poverty line, increasing number of official poor by 100 million, Associated Press, November 29, 2011, Washington Post: “Even with its booming economy, China now has more poor people - at least officially. A sharp upward revision in the official poverty line, announced by the government Tuesday, means that 128 million Chinese in rural areas now qualify as poor, 100 million more than under the previous standard. The new threshold of about $1 a day nearly doubles the previous amount. While the revised poverty line is still below the World Bank threshold of $1.25 a day, the change brings China closer to international norms and better reflects the country’s overall higher standards of living after three decades of buoyant growth…”
• China increases rural poverty limit to $1 a day, November 29, 2011, BBC News: “China has redefined the level at which people in rural areas are considered poor to include everyone earning less than $1 a day (6.5 yuan). Previously people in the countryside were only regarded as poor if they earned less than 55 cents a day. The move should see millions more people get access to state benefits. Some 27 million people were classified as rural poor last year. The new threshold is expected to increase that number fourfold…”

• Study: Even with more kids in poverty, number of uninsured children fell 14% over 3 years, Associated Press, November 29, 2011, Washington Post: “Even with more children living in poverty because of the rough economy, the number of children without health insurance in the U.S. has dropped by 1 million in the past three years, according to a report released Tuesday by Georgetown University. Many states have expanded eligibility for, and simplified access to, the children’s Medicaid program. This has helped shrink the number of uninsured children from 6.9 million in 2008 to 5.9 million in 2010. Experts say the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care overhaul that requires states to maintain income eligibility levels and discourages other barriers to coverage, has played a key role in the improvement…”
• Safety-net programs insure more Texas children, By Todd Ackerman, November 29, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “Houston-area children’s health insurance is increasingly being provided by government safety-net programs as employers cut jobs and benefits, according to a new study. The survey, sponsored by Texas Children’s Hospital, found that in the last three years, area children’s enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program doubled as coverage through work-based plans decreased significantly. This shift comes in a state known for not embracing government health programs…”
• Number of uninsured Minnesota kids climbs, By Jeremy Olson, November 29, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “The number of children without health insurance rose sharply in the past two years in Minnesota, making it the only state to see a significant increase since 2008, according to a report released Tuesday. Uninsured Minnesota kids totaled 84,000, although that number could fall again as a result of changes enacted by the Legislature in 2009. The uninsured rate rose from 5.8 to 6.6 percent. While Minnesota’s rate remains better than the national average of 8 percent, the state is no longer among the nation’s best…”
• Utah lags behind other states in covering kids, By Kirsten Stewart, November 29, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Even as unemployment and child poverty has grown, the uninsured rate for children nationally - and in Utah - has shrunk, an analysis of census data shows. From 2008 to 2010 the number of American children living in poverty rose 19 percent, while the number of uninsured children fell 14 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. How, given the high cost of health care, is this possible? Two words, say Georgetown researchers: Medicaid and CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program…”

Federal cuts give Maine a chill as winter approaches, By Abby Goodnough, November 27, 2011, New York Times: “Michele Hodges works six days a week but still cannot afford a Maine winter’s worth of heat for her trailer in Corinth, a tiny town where snowmobiles can outnumber cars. Ms. Hodges and her two teenage daughters qualified for federal heating assistance last year, but their luck might have run out. President Obama has proposed sharply cutting the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and Maine is at this point expecting less than half of the $55.6 million that it received last winter, even as more people are applying. The average state benefit last year was about $800 for the season; now it may be closer to $300. Eligibility requirements have tightened too, and with oil prices climbing - the average in Maine was $3.66 a gallon last week, up from $2.87 a year ago - many here are anticipating days or weeks of forgoing heat…”

More than 1 in 5 Americans are economically insecure, By Tami Luhby, November 28, 2011, CNNMoney.com: “More than one in five Americans saw at least a quarter of their available household income vanish in the Great Recession, yet lacked a sufficient financial cushion, according to a report released Monday. The situation has left them economically insecure, according to the report, which updates an Economic Security Index created by Jacob Hacker, a political science professor at Yale. More than 20% of the nation was in this condition in the three years spanning 2008 to 2010, a sharp increase from 14.3% in 1986. Some 62 million Americans faced economic insecurity last year. The Great Recession is also prompting deep losses among the insecure, with the median drop in income for this group hitting a record 46.4% in 2009…”

• Number of N.J. residents receiving food stamps doubled in last four years, By Eric Sagara and Stephen Stirling, November 27, 2011, Star-Ledger: “The number of New Jersey residents receiving food stamps has doubled in the past four years and is at its highest level in more than a decade as the nation’s still sputtering economy continues to take its toll on the poorest residents of the Garden State, state and federal data show. As of September, the most recent data released by the state Department of Human Services, more than 400,000 households and nearly 822,000 people were enrolled in the food stamp program, meaning nearly one out of every 10 residents in New Jersey receives assistance.As of September, the most recent data released by the state Department of Human Services, more than 400,000 households and nearly 822,000 people were enrolled in the food stamp program, meaning nearly one out of every 10 residents in New Jersey receives assistance…”
• Michigan ranks third in use of food stamps, By Maureen Groppe, November 21, 2011, Lansing State Journal: “Michigan households relied on food stamps last year more than all but two other states, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And the 16.9 percent of Michigan households that received food stamps in 2010 was up from the 14.5 percent that did in 2009. The figures released last week come from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. Participants were asked whether anyone in the household received food stamps in the last 12 months…”
• Food stamp divide grows, By Bob Smietana, November 23, 2011, The Tennessean: “David Shelley of Nashville used to work two jobs to feed his wife and two children, but it still wasn’t enough. So, for a few months, they used food stamps to make ends meet. Two decades later, he’s a Baptist pastor and small businessman, and he’s joining a growing number of people critical of the food stamp program at the same time participation is at a record high. He fears it’s becoming an entitlement program people don’t try to leave. ‘If you are working and you are doing your best and you need food stamps, then God bless you,’ he said. Otherwise, he believes the Bible message is clear: If you don’t work, you don’t eat. Nearly 46 million Americans participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. That’s up from 17 million in 2002 and includes 15 percent of households in Tennessee, according to the Census Bureau. The price of the program - about $68 billion annually - and the nation’s budget crisis have opened it to scrutiny and revealed deep divides in American culture…”
• Food stamp usage sticking, By Joan Garrett, November 25, 2011, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “As Tennessee families paused to give thanks around the dinner table Thursday, one of every six households was getting help from Uncle Sam. A new study found that Tennessee ranked second behind only Oregon in the share of households receiving food stamps, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Payments (SNAP), during 2010. The U.S. Bureau of Census reports that 45 states provided more federal help with groceries last year, swelling the number of U.S. households getting food stamps to 13.6 million…”

• Ottawa lacks plan to fight child poverty, coalition says, By Laurie Monsebraaten, November 23, 2011, Toronto Star: “When it comes to helping Canada’s 639,000 children living in poverty, the more things change, the more they stay the same. That is the sobering message from Campaign 2000, a national coalition of more than 120 groups and individuals that has been lobbying for federal action on the issue for two decades. ‘Neither the promised poverty elimination or plans have materialized,’ the group says in its 20th anniversary progress report on Ottawa’s 1989 pledge to tackle the issue. The report, obtained by the Star, is being released Wednesday and calls on the government to cut poverty by at least 50 per cent by 2020. Canada’s poverty rate in 2009 was 9.5 per cent. And although the rate has inched up and down with the business cycle over the past 20 years, the report notes that the problem remains largely unchanged from 1989, when 11.9 per cent of the nation’s children were living in poverty…”
• Report: More kids living in poverty, By Frances Willick, November 23, 2011, Chronicle Herald: “It was 22 years ago this week that Canada’s leaders gathered in the House of Commons to unanimously pass a lofty, daunting goal: to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000. A laudable goal, yes, but in hindsight, it was unattainable. The most recent statistics, released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, show that child poverty has not only lingered, but for the first time since 2003, it’s on the rise. In 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available, nearly 10 per cent of Canadian children under the age of 18 lived in poverty. In Nova Scotia, 8.2 per cent of kids lived below the poverty line. That’s up from a nationwide low of 9.1 per cent in 2008 and a low in Nova Scotia of 7.9 per cent…”

Missouri, Illinois adjust to changing graduation formula, By Jessica Bock, November 21, 2011, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “For years, comparing high school graduation rates between Missouri and Illinois - or any other state for that matter - was difficult to impossible. The numbers simply didn’t match. Education officials in each state had their own way of calculating the percentage of students graduating each year. Some, like Missouri, accounted for certain students who needed more than four years to earn a diploma. A few included in the equation those who had obtained equivalency diplomas. Others were thought to have inflated graduation rates because of poor tracking of dropouts. In data released today, Missouri for the first time is publishing a graduation rate under a new formula - mandated by the federal government - that makes it easier to make comparisons across the country…”

• Malloy touts new tax credit, By JC Reindl, November 23, 2011, The Day: “Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Tuesday joined Democratic lawmakers and social services advocates to herald the implementation of Connecticut’s new Earned Income Tax Credit for low- and moderate-income individuals and families. The credit was included in the governor’s biennial budget plan that passed the General Assembly this spring. The cost to the state is a projected $110 million this fiscal year. Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia now offer some type of earned income tax credit. Under Connecticut’s program, the approximately 190,000 state households that are eligible for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit will receive an additional credit equal to 30 percent of the federal one…”
• Taxing the working poor back to starting line, Editorial, November 20, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “As much as younger pensioners may howl about the state income taxes they’ll have to pay come Jan. 1, the hardest hit group of people who file income tax forms may be the poorest — workers whose wages barely bring their families up to the poverty level. That’s because the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit will drop from 20% of the federal payment to 6%. Although this is better than nothing — which, in fact, was what Michigan had until three years ago — it will return the state to the unwelcome status of taxing some people back into poverty…”

California adult day healthcare centers get a reprieve, By Anna Gorman, November 18, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Just weeks before the planned closure of adult day healthcare centers throughout California, state officials and disability rights attorneys reached a legal settlement Thursday that preserves services for those low-income seniors and disabled residents most at risk of being institutionalized. The state, which faces a $3.7-billion revenue shortfall, had targeted the centers as part of a plan to reduce spending on Medi-Cal, the government health program for the poor and disabled. Adult day healthcare centers provide nursing care, occupational therapy, physical therapy, meals and exercise to people with serious disabilities, brain injuries and chronic illnesses…”

Drugs used for psychotics go to youths in foster care, By Benedict Carey, November 20, 2011, New York Times: “Foster children are being prescribed cocktails of powerful antipsychosis drugs just as frequently as some of the most mentally disabled youngsters on Medicaid, a new study suggests. The report, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, is the first to investigate how often youngsters in foster care are given two antipsychotic drugs at once, the authors said. The drugs include Risperdal, Seroquel and Zyprexa - among other so-called major tranquilizers - which were developed for schizophrenia but are now used as all-purpose drugs for almost any psychiatric symptoms…”

Pennsylvania still lacks computerized child welfare system network, By Kari Andren, November 20, 2011, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Four-year-old Kristen Tatar’s emaciated body was wrapped in garbage bags, stuffed inside a picnic cooler and left out with the trash at her parents Armstrong County home. Her death in 2003 brought calls for creation of a computerized network that would allow all counties and the state to share information about children receiving child welfare services anywhere in Pennsylvania. Eight years later, that network does not exist…”

• Older, suburban and struggling, ‘near poor’ startle the Census, By Jason DeParle, Robert Gebeloff and Sabrina Tavernise, November 18, 2011, New York Times: “They drive cars, but seldom new ones. They earn paychecks, but not big ones. Many own homes. Most pay taxes. Half are married, and nearly half live in the suburbs. None are poor, but many describe themselves as barely scraping by. Down but not quite out, these Americans form a diverse group sometimes called ‘near poor’ and sometimes simply overlooked - and a new count suggests they are far more numerous than previously understood. When the Census Bureau this month released a new measure of poverty, meant to better count disposable income, it began altering the portrait of national need. Perhaps the most startling differences between the old measure and the new involves data the government has not yet published, showing 51 million people with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line. That number of Americans is 76 percent higher than the official account, published in September. All told, that places 100 million people - one in three Americans - either in poverty or in the fretful zone just above it…”
• Counting the poor in America proves difficult, controversial, By Elizabeth Stuart, November 18, 2011, Deseret News: “How many poor people are there in America? It depends how you ask the question. The official U.S. Census Bureau report released in September put the number at 46.2 million. In a second, unofficial report published last week, the bureau estimated the number is closer to 49 million. The official measure, devised in 1964 to measure progress in President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” is based on the idea that families spend one-third of their income on food. To establish federal poverty lines, experts calculated the lowest annual cost of feeding a family and multiplied it by three. Poverty experts have long criticized the method as outdated and simplistic. The measure does not account for money received in food stamps and other benefits or the money lost to taxes and medical care. It also doesn’t account for regional differences in cost of living. The new report, known as the supplemental poverty measure, attempts to address these factors…”

Texas may cut Medicaid reimbursements to healthcare providers, By Darren Barbee, November 20, 2011, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Therapy and physician groups in Texas are alarmed about proposed cuts in government healthcare reimbursement rates that they say would hurt the sickest and poorest Texas patients, most of them children. Therapists stand to lose millions of dollars as Medicaid reimbursement rates for their services are slashed. The average reduction for home health providers, for example, would be 35 percent. All told, the state plan calls for cutting $150 million a year for therapists; that is 19 percent of the $792 million they received last year. The state would save millions more with cuts in co-payments to physicians for people covered by both Medicaid and Medicare. But doctors say the proposed change will further push doctors from wanting to practice in less affluent parts of the state…”

Businesses penalized for state unemployment insurance debt, By Pamela M. Prah, November 18, 2011, Stateline.org: “Employers in 20 states will have to shell out more in taxes next year as a penalty for the states not paying back federal loans that kept unemployment programs afloat during the recession. Altogether, states still owe $37.6 billion to the feds that they borrowed when their unemployment insurance trust funds sank to zero. Most states have dealt with the problem by raising state payroll taxes on employers, making benefits to workers less generous; or a combination of the two. A handful, though, have opted to issue bonds. Idaho did it earlier this year, and Texas did it last year. And just this month, Illinois lawmakers approved legislation allowing the state to issue bonds to pay back the $2 billion the state owes the federal government for unemployment relief. Governor Pat Quinn has applauded the UI package and has indicated he will sign the measure. The state figures it will get an interest rate lower than the 4 percent it would have to pay the federal government, saving the state and businesses millions of dollars…”

• State drafting a waiver to provide health insurance benefits in exchange for community service, By Wendy Leonard, November 17, 2011, Deseret News: “Community service in exchange for health insurance? It’s an idea that the Utah Department of Health is exploring to allow an otherwise economically challenged population to give back to their community. Based on income, some recipients of the state’s Medicaid health insurance benefit share in the cost by paying modest co-pays and premiums. A pilot program would offer the service option in exchange for health benefits for those who can’t afford to contribute toward cost of Medicaid. But the proposed program would first need approval by federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. UDOH has until the first of the year to submit a waiver to CMS that could change how Medicaid operates in Utah and allow the program…”
• Utahns: Mandated charity work for Medicaid is ‘demeaning’, By Kirsten Stewart, November 17, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “Annette Wright minces no words when asked about the prospect of having to do community service for her Medicaid coverage. It’s ‘crazy’ and ‘demeaning,’ because it presumes people on the low-income health care program don’t already give back, said the 54-year-old career actress. ‘Volunteering should come from the heart. It’s something you do because you want to, not because you have to. What they’re doing is more like coercion.’ Such was the prevailing sentiment Thursday at a public hearing on an experiment that, if approved by the federal government, would require fewer than 100 Medicaid recipients to do charity work in exchange for health insurance. The pilot program is meant to build a sense of community, not punish the poor, said its architect, Rep. Ronda Menlove, R-Garland…”

Welfare roundup reaches way back to collect overpayments, By Catherine Candisky, November 16, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The state is reaching back more than a quarter of a century to collect millions in nonfraudulent overpayments to former welfare recipients, most the result of administrative errors by government workers. The state Department of Job and Family Services said an estimated 14,000 notices have been sent in an effort to collect about $18 million in welfare overpayments from before 2001. An estimated 8,000 Ohioans owe an additional $8.4 million in food-stamp overpayments that are more than 10 years old…”

Report: Israel poverty levels fall to lowest since 2003, By Dana Weiler-Polak, November 17, 2011, Haaretz Daily Newspaper: “Israel poverty levels fell slightly in 2010, and is now at the lowest level since 2003, according to the annual poverty report published by the National Insurance Institute on Thursday. According to the report, 19.8% of Israeli families suffered from poverty in 2010, compared to 20.5% in 2009. The number of children living below the poverty line fell from 36.3% in 2009 to 35.3%, and the overall percentage of Israeli citizens living in poverty also fell - from 25% in 2009, to 24.45…”

New Census measure shifts the face of poverty, By Sarah D. Sparks, November 15, 2011, Education Week: “Federal social programs are keeping nearly 2 million American children out of poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s first new poverty-calculation measure in more than four decades. The new poverty measure, released on Nov. 6, is intended to supplement the federal government’s official count, which is used by the education field for everything from achievement research to setting eligibility criteria for programs such as Title I school grants for disadvantaged students. The new measure will not affect eligibility or grant allocations for those programs, Census research economist Kathleen Short said at a briefing on the release at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, but it does give a much more comprehensive picture of who is poor in America and how they are affected by housing, child care, and other daily costs…”

Record-low percentage of Americans moved between 2010 and 2011, By Daniel B. Wood, November 15, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “There are many casualties of the Great Recession, including jobs, homeownership, retirement savings, and consumer confidence. Those issues are well known, but here’s one that isn’t as frequently discussed: Americans’ mobility. In a nutshell, bad times mean staying put, demographers and economists say. Uncertainty means clinging to the familiar, which more often than not means maintaining the residence you already have. The issue affects Americans’ aspirations about getting married and having a family. And it can be a big factor as they think about what constitutes a dream home, when to retire, and where to move in retirement…”

Thousands of children of deported parents get stuck in foster care, By Francisco Miraval, November 17, 2011, Denver Post: “In the United States today there are at least 5,000 children in foster care because their parents were deported or have been arrested due to irregular immigration status, according to a recent report prepared by the Applied Research Center, a New York organization that promotes social and racial justice. The actual number of immigrant children in this situation could be much higher, said Seth Wessler, author of the report, adding that whatever the true figure is, it is likely to triple over the next five years if immigration laws do not change and if the emphasis on enforcement continues. Part of the problem in estimating how many children of deported immigrants are transferred to foster families is that national data simply do not exist, said Wessler, because neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement nor social services departments are required to compile the information. Moreover, within many states, such as Colorado, each county operates independently with regard to foster fami- lies. If the data exist, these agencies have no obligation to share it…”

Middle-class areas shrink as income gap grows, new report finds, By Sabrina Tavernise, November 15, 2011, New York Times: “The portion of American families living in middle-income neighborhoods has declined significantly since 1970, according to a new study, as rising income inequality left a growing share of families in neighborhoods that are mostly low-income or mostly affluent. The study, conducted by Stanford University and scheduled for release on Wednesday by the Russell Sage Foundation and Brown University, uses census data to examine family income at the neighborhood level in the country’s 117 biggest metropolitan areas. The findings show a changed map of prosperity in the United States over the past four decades, with larger patches of affluence and poverty and a shrinking middle…”

Many states cut Medicaid payments as stimulus ends, By Doug Trapp, November 16, 2011, San Antonio Express-News: “Fourteen states and the District of Columbia cut Medicaid physician pay for fiscal year 2011, down from 20 states in fiscal 2010. But continuing state budget deficits could lead to more new fee cuts than those already adopted for fiscal 2012, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The foundation’s 11th annual survey of state Medicaid programs concluded that continued Medicaid budget pressure on many states led them to expand cost-saving measures in 2011 and 2012. These moves included increasing enrollment in Medicaid managed care, reducing or ending optional benefits such as dental care, tightening prescription drug formularies, enacting or hiking co-payments and, most frequently, reducing Medicaid fees to doctors, according to the Kaiser report, released on Oct. 27…”

State uninsured jumps by 22 percent; 18.4 percent of Weld residents lack insurance, By Erica Gonzalez, November 15, 2011, Greeley Tribune: “The number of Coloradans without health insurance has risen by 22 percent in the last two years, with 829,000 residents now uninsured, according to a survey released Tuesday. In Weld County, the percentage lacking insurance jumped from 10.6 percent in the last two years to 18.4 percent. The 2011 Colorado Health Access Survey shows that the poor economy has made carrying health care coverage increasingly difficult for state residents. Two years ago, when the last survey was conducted, 678,000 residents lacked coverage…”

• Jobless-benefit checks phased out, By Chad Livengood, November 15, 2011, News Journal: “Paper unemployment insurance checks will be virtually nonexistent in Delaware by mid-2012. The Delaware Department of Labor plans to do away with almost all paper checks by June, when it begins issuing debit cards to jobless workers who don’t choose to receive their unemployment benefits via a direct deposit into their bank accounts. ‘As far as the paper check, it’s going to go the way of the dinosaur,’ said Tom MacPherson, director of the division of unemployment insurance. There may still be some paper checks issued to people claiming unemployment benefits for the first time, MacPherson said, but only until a direct deposit can be activated with their bank…”
• Branstad praises results of closing 36 unemployment offices, By Jason Clayworth, November 14, 2011, Des Moines Register: “Gov. Terry Branstad’s decision that’s being challenged as unconstitutional to close 36 Iowa unemployment offices was praised today by himself and his administration as ‘a significant success.’ ‘Our tracking data indicates that services are equal to or greater than what they were available at this time last year. I see this as a significant success and commend Director (Teresa) Wahlert and Iowa Workforce Development for their good work,’ Branstad said. Branstad in July vetoed portions of Senate File 517 that would have prohibited closure of the 36 Iowa Workforce Development offices across the state. Branstad wrote in his veto letter that the legislation would have prevented the department from putting together a more efficient system for assisting unemployed Iowans…”

• Poverty’s new faces: Where to draw the line?, By Rick Montgomery, November 12, 2011, Kansas City Star: “For nearly half a century, the U.S. government has based poverty levels on a simple formula that nearly all experts consider outdated: Calculate the lowest annual cost of keeping a family fed, then multiply by three to cover other basic needs. For the new poor - such as Amber Vieux, 28, who once earned $19 an hour - grocery bills often aren’t the main problem. Her son won’t go hungry, she’ll make sure of that. What has thrown the nursing student into the assistance line, a place Vieux never imagined being, are the other bills: Day care for her 4-year-old, $575 a month. Mandatory health premiums to study and work part-time at KU Med Center, $350 for half a year. Car payment, fuel and insurance, $600 a month or more. The rent. Utilities. Internet access and her cellphone plan, without which she’d be isolated from the modern world…”
• New Poverty Measure: More accurate account of income and benefits still shows growing need, Editorial, November 13, 2011, Syracuse Post-Standard: “For years, economists and others have been arguing that the way the nation counts its poor is outdated. For one thing, the measure put in place in the 1960s overemphasizes the cost of feeding the average family, which has shrunk from one-third to one-seventh of household resources. For another, while the old measure factors in welfare payments, it doesn’t take into account more widely used ’safety net’ programs like food stamps that aim to rescue many families from the cruelest burdens of poverty. This year, for the first time, the U.S. Census Bureau has adopted a ‘Supplemental Poverty Measure’ that takes into account those safety net programs. It doesn’t replace the ‘official’ poverty measure - that’s still needed to determine safety net eligibility - but it paints a more realistic portrait of poverty in America…”
• Editorial: New data offer a fuller picture of life for America’s poor, Editorial, November 9, 2011, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The flaws built into the Census Bureau’s official estimates of poverty in the United States never have been a secret. Specialists in the economics of poverty - non-profit service organizations, public service officials, academics, statisticians, even the Census Bureau itself - recognized the inadequacies of the oversimplified estimates almost from the moment they were developed in the 1960s. But on Monday, the bureau released a report describing a new Supplemental Poverty Measure that addresses many of the longstanding imperfections in the official estimates…”
• Measuring poverty, Editorial, November 12, 2011, Boston Herald: “The Census Bureau has worked up a new measure of poverty that for the first time takes into account facts in the real world - today’s world particularly. Now we can only hope it will improve official decision-making and public discussion. The official measure, which still will be used and is incorporated in scores of federal laws, was produced in 1964 to measure progress in President Lyndon Johnson’s ‘War on Poverty.’ An economist in the Social Security Administration noted that the Agriculture Department estimated that families of three or more spent one-third of their income on food, so therefore, the poverty level for those families was set at three times their food expenses. It’s been adjusted for inflation but not otherwise changed, even though families now spend about a seventh of their income of food…”

• Most of America’s unemployed no long receiving benefits, By Christopher S. Rugaber (AP), November 5, 2011, Denver Post: “The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America’s unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits. Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent - a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America’s 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more. Congress is expected to decide by year’s end whether to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states. If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further. The ranks of the poor would also rise. The Census Bureau​ says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year. It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four. Yet for a growing share of the unemployed, a vote in Congress to extend the benefits to 99 weeks is irrelevant. They’ve had no job for more than 99 weeks. They’re no longer eligible for benefits…”
• Thousands of Oregon jobless will lose unemployment insurance if Congress doesn’t renew federal benefits, By Richard Read, November 3, 2011, The Oregonian: “Thousands of Oregonians will lose their unemployment benefits early next year if Congress doesn’t extend emergency coverage, state projections show. Now, about 2,000 Oregonians a month exhaust their jobless benefits, having failed to find work after as long as 99 weeks. But that number would jump to 13,400 in January and 12,500 in February, according to the projections by the Oregon Employment Department. Democrats in the U.S. House introduced a bill Thursday to extend the federally funded benefits another year, and Congress has never failed to pass an extension when unemployment rates were this high. But the measure — with a $45 billion price tag, plus a potential $7 billion to help states extend benefits — is not certain to pass given heavy public pressure to cut federal spending…”
• Oregon unemployed allowed to keep jobless benefits paid by mistake, By Richard Read, November 8, 2011, The Oregonian: “More than 600 Oregonians who received unemployment payments in error can keep the money — which totals $615,000 so far — under a state law passed this year. In each case, the Oregon Employment Department determined that recovering the overpayments from people enduring financial hardships would violate equity and good conscience. The total amount forgiven will increase under the system as more people request and receive repayment waivers. The money comes from a state jobless-benefits trust fund financed by employers, not taxpayers…”
• New jobless claims decline to lowest level since April, Reuters, November 10, 2011, New York Times: “New claims for jobless benefits in the United States fell last week to their lowest level since early April and the country’s trade deficit unexpectedly shrank in September, pointing to a slight improvement in the sluggish economy. The Labor Department said on Thursday that initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell for the second consecutive week, dropping 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 390,000. That is still well above levels from before the 2007-9 recession, but economists say a level below 400,000 could prompt some acceleration in hiring…”

Improved poverty metrics show aid does help, By Emily Badger, November 10, 2011, Miller-McCune: “A year and a half ago, the Census Bureau announced that it would address a long-sought demand of poverty researchers: For the first time in four decades, it would produce a dramatically different and more nuanced calculation identifying who in America struggles to cover basic living expenses and who doesn’t. We wrote at the time that researchers welcomed the promise of a new metric that could finally help quantify the impact of expensive federal anti-poverty programs. This week, the Census Bureau released its first report on the new Research Supplemental Poverty Measure (so-called because the existing ‘official’ poverty measure will live on, in part due to the political mess of discarding it). The data reveal a slightly counterintuitive picture: More people are living in poverty than thought - by about 2.5 million - but the new measure also shows government anti-poverty programs are making a difference…”

• Poverty rate growing in N.J.’s working-class towns, census data shows, By Stephen Stirling and Eric Sagara, November 3, 2011, Star-Ledger: “Danny Bryant has lived in solidly blue-collar Carteret for 46 of his 47 years. During that time, just about everybody worked. Jobs weren’t glamorous, but they put food on the table. The houses were modest, tidy and well-kept. Now Bryant, a former pool supply worker, survives on the $600 his girlfriend brings home every other week from her fast-food job and $200 a month in food stamps after being laid off last year. And his section of Carteret is not the town it used to be. There are a lot of Danny Bryants there now. ‘If you live here and are poverty stricken, it’s hard to get help,’ Bryant said. ‘There’s a big line between being middle class and being poor. Everybody is struggling.’ More than one in four of the residents in Bryant’s neighborhood in the Middlesex County borough now live below the poverty line. A study released today by the Brookings Institution shows the poverty rate in New Jersey’s working-class communities like Carteret, Union Township and Garfield has grown substantially in the last decade…”
• Pockets of severe poverty intensify and spread around Tampa Bay area, By Jeff Harrington and Darla Cameron, November 6, 2011, St. Petersburg Times: “Derrick Lewis lives in the hardest-hit slice of the Tampa Bay area. The poverty rate here jumped nearly threefold from 15 percent to 40 percent over the past decade, the cusp of what’s considered extreme poverty. Lewis, 50, considers himself lucky. He juggles a nighttime security guard job and a morning job making biscuits at Hardee’s, enough income to pay his landlady $250 to $275 every couple of weeks. Around the corner from his one-bedroom apartment lies a couple of boarded-up apartments, vacated after their latest residents were caught selling drugs. ‘I feel bad for them,’ he says. ‘You see it in tough times. A lot of people that never would have thought of doing something illegal before. Instead of being homeless, they do what it takes.’ This isn’t the inner city. It’s the suburbs. In a far-reaching analysis released Thursday, the Brookings Institution compared poverty rates in U.S. Census tracts in 2000 to their average poverty rates between 2005 and 2009. Among the report’s chief conclusions: Poverty is growing twice as fast in suburbs than in cities…”

• Brownback’s administration rolls out Medicaid reform package, November 8, 2011, Wichita Eagle: “Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration unveiled a major Medicaid reform package Tuesday that will shift thousands of disabled, elderly and low-income residents into a managed care system that aims to reduce hospital visits and slow the growth of Medicaid spending over five years without reducing benefits. The ‘person-centered’ integrated care program is called KanCare. It will be managed by three companies that win state-issued three-year contracts. They will be evaluated and paid based on their outcomes, such as reduced emergency room visits…”
• Brownback seeks $850M in Medicaid savings, By Tim Carpenter, November 8, 2011, Topeka Capital-Journal: “Gov. Sam Brownback took a step Tuesday toward formation of a managed-care system for all Kansans on Medicaid that emphasizes coordination of services to improve health outcomes and cut costs by more than $850 million over a five-year period. Brownback said the cornerstone of the overhaul was an integrated care system - to be called KanCare - intended to improve the lives of 350,000 disabled, elderly and low-income Kansas. KanCare would take effect in January 2013 and begin to bend the cost curve of Medicaid down by engaging new partnerships with the state’s Medicaid provider community…”
• Lawmakers OK changes that could drop 65,000 from Medicaid, By Jason Stein, November 10, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office projects 65,000 people - nearly half of them children - would leave or be turned away from the state’s health programs for the poor, under a proposal passed by lawmakers Thursday. The Joint Finance Committee approved 11-4 a proposal by GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s administration to bridge the final part of a more than half-billion dollar budget gap in the rapidly growing health plans. All Republicans voted in favor and all Democrats against. The proposal must still win federal approval from President Barack Obama’s administration by the end of the year - a significant hurdle. The Medicaid health plans cover about one in five state residents - almost 1.2 million people - and provide everything from doctor visits for poor families to nursing home care for the elderly. To help control rapidly increasing costs in the programs, Walker’s administration wants to decrease benefits for a quarter of a million recipients, increase premiums for tens of thousands of others by up to tenfold, and drop coverage for adults and children for at least a year if the premiums aren’t paid…”

• FCC launching $4-billion program to narrow digital divide, By Alexa Vaughn, November 9, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “The Federal Communications Commission is launching a $4-billion program to narrow the digital divide by making high-speed Internet access and computers more affordable for more than 25 million mainly low-income Americans. The FCC said a public-private partnership, which includes major broadband and computer companies and nonprofits, will make ‘the biggest effort ever’ across the nation to help poorer citizens as well as rural residents, seniors and minorities obtain broadband access. Those who qualify would pay $9.95 a month for Internet access at 1 megabit per second and $150 for a refurbished laptop running the Windows 7 operating system, along with applications that include digital literacy training…”
• Internet access: Discount for poor families with kids, By Peter Svensson (AP), November 10, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “Cable companies said Wednesday that they will offer Internet service for $9.95 per month to homes with children that are eligible for free school lunches. The offer will start next summer and is part of an initiative the Federal Communications Commission cobbled together to get more U.S. homes connected to broadband. One third, or about 35 million homes, don’t have broadband. That affects people’s ability to educate themselves and find and apply for jobs, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said…”

State budget cuts threaten day programs for thousands of seniors and the disabled, By Sandy Kleffman, November 8, 2011, Contra Costa Times: “State budget cuts that go into effect Dec. 1 will eliminate funding for day programs for thousands of seniors and the disabled, creating angst among relatives who say their lives will be turned upside down. Some fear they will have to send their elders to institutions. Others worry they will need to quit jobs to care for them. Unless a pending lawsuit blocks the plan, the state will halt $169 million in annual Medi-Cal funding for 35,000 people in 287 adult day health care programs throughout California, jeopardizing many of the programs…”

Poverty worsening in Hub, study says, By Meghan E. Irons, November 9, 2011, Boston Globe: “Poverty has deepened in Boston’s poorest neighborhoods, widening the gap between the city’s wealthiest and neediest residents, a report being released today finds. The study points to concentrated need in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury, where 42 percent of children live in poverty, the densest cluster of childhood poverty in the state, according to the study sponsored by the Boston Foundation. In those communities, 85 percent of families are headed by a single parent, mainly mothers, and at least 20 percent of the adults have no high school diploma. Poverty there is fueled by unemployment and low educational attainment, the study found…”

More resources urged for high-risk youths in foster care, By Garrett Therolf, November 9, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “As California implements a new law extending foster care benefits to youths until age 21, social workers and policymakers should focus their efforts particularly on the hardest cases, according to a major new study. The study found that substantial amounts of money are being spent on Los Angeles County’s so-called crossover youth - children who start out as foster kids and end up committing crimes that land them in the juvenile justice system. At least 10% of the 20,000 youths under probation supervision were foster children, the study found. Each crossover youth cost taxpayers $35,000 on average in just the first four years of adulthood - more than twice the amount spent on those who were in only the foster care system or the justice system…”

• New model finds more in poverty, By Gale Holland, November 8, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “More than 49 million Americans live in poverty, an increase from previous counts that reflects heavy medical expenses for older people and high housing costs in Western states, especially California, according to new estimates announced Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The estimates, produced by a first-ever experimental recalibration of the federal model of hardship, adds 2.5 million people to the 46.6 million included in the official poverty count for 2010 released in September. Under the new formula, more than 2.8 million Americans joined the ranks of the poor in the Western states, bringing the regional poverty rate up from 15.4% to 19.4%. The national poverty rate in the new report is 16%. Census officials Monday did not break out results by state. But experimental research for 2009 showed California’s poverty rate surging from 15.5% under the old template to 22.4%. Researchers say housing costs were the main cause…”
• Census Bureau measures more Americans living in poverty, By Michael A. Fletcher, November 7, 2011, Washington Post: “The Census Bureau on Monday released a new, comprehensive poverty measure that painted a more dismal picture of the nation’s economic landscape than the official measure from September. The report found that 49.1 million Americans - 16 percent of the population - lived in poverty in 2010, which is higher than the 46.2 million Americans found to live in poverty by the official measure released in September. The new report marked the culmination of a years-long effort by the Census Bureau to come up with a poverty measure that takes into account the huge amounts of money in social services benefits provided to the needy, as well as their expenses for things such as medical care and payroll taxes…”
• New Census measure gauges poverty level, By Alfred Lubrano, November 8, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A new, more accurate way of measuring poverty shows that antipoverty programs are working to keep children from falling into absolute deprivation. The U.S. Census Bureau released a supplemental poverty measure Monday that shows children’s poverty is at lower levels than previously calculated, thanks to food stamps and other programs aimed at helping families survive. ‘It looks like the programs are targeted well at families with children, bringing many up out of poverty,’ said Kathleen Short, the Census Bureau economist who wrote the report. At the same time, the report shows that the number of elderly living in poverty is much higher than previously calculated…”
• New way to tally poor recasts view of poverty, By Sabrina Tavernise and Robert Gebeloff, November 7, 2011, New York Times: “The Census Bureau on Monday released what it says is a more accurate measure of poverty in America. The new measure shows more poverty among the elderly, but less among children and African-Americans. It also shows a slightly higher poverty rate for the nation last year - 16 percent compared with 15.2 percent under the official measure - but lower rates among groups who benefit from noncash government programs the official count leaves out, including food stamps and the earned-income tax credit. As a result, there were 3.2 million fewer children found to be living in poverty in 2010, compared with the official measure, a difference of about four percentage points, and 800,000 fewer poor African-Americans, or about two percentage points less…”
• Government introduces new way to count the poor, By Matt O’Brien, November 7, 2011, Contra Costa Times: “The U.S. government on Monday came out with a new way of measuring poverty that finally will take into account the Bay Area’s high cost of housing. The new calculation means that another 2.5 million Americans are counted as poor, bringing that number up to 49.1 million, a sum that is likely to engender significant debate. The new measure finds 16 percent of Americans were poor last year, compared to 15.2 percent using the old measure. Perhaps more important than the numbers, however, are how different groups of people are affected. More elders, West Coasters and Latinos fall below the poverty line using the new calculation; fewer children, Midwesterners and African Americans count as poor…”
• Census supplemental test: 49.1 million in poverty, By Carolyn Said, November 8, 2011, San Francisco Chronicle: “Who is poor in America? The question has immense relevance in determining programs and policies to help people make ends meet. A new formula released on Monday by the Census Bureau tries to draw a more realistic picture of poverty - and found that it’s more prevalent than ever. A record 49.1 million Americans lived in poverty in 2010, according to the census’ supplemental poverty measure. The new measure considers a range of expenses, including food, shelter, clothing and utilities, and takes into account different sources of income, such as food stamps and housing subsidies. It shows that 16 percent of the U.S. population lives in poverty, the bureau said…”
• New measure shows higher poverty rate in U.S., By Pam Fessler, November 7, 2011, National Public Radio: “The government released a new experimental poverty measure Monday that found that the poverty rate was 16 percent last year - slightly higher than previously thought. The new measure won’t replace the official one, but it is an effort to get a more accurate picture of who is and isn’t poor. The official poverty measure has long been seen as inadequate. It doesn’t include government benefits that many poor people receive, such as food stamps. It doesn’t look at expenses such as health care or taxes. And it doesn’t account for regional differences in the cost of living, which is why people like Sandra Killett of New York City might feel poor - even though the government says she isn’t…”
• Poverty may be worse than in ‘official’ count, By Pamela M. Prah, November 8, 2011, Stateline.org: “The number of Americans living in poverty totaled 46.2 million in 2010 - or 49.1 million. Both figures come from the federal government. So which number is accurate and why the discrepancy? The ‘official’ poverty rate from the U.S. Census Bureau came out last month and showed 46.2 million people were poor, or 15.1 percent, the largest number in the 52 years the bureau has been estimating poverty rates. But a new ’supplemental poverty measure’ that Census and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released yesterday showed a higher figure of 49.1 million, or 16 percent. As Stateline reported last year, there have been concerns for decades that the way the federal government comes up with the poverty level, using a process unchanged since 1963, is outdated because it counts only cash income. Advocates for the poor have argued that poverty counts would be much higher if the cost of housing, child care and other expenses, which are currently excluded, were factored in…”

• US poverty at new high: 16 percent, or 49.1M, By Hope Yen (AP), November 7, 2011, San Francisco Chronicle: “A record number of Americans - 49.1 million - are poor, based on a new census measure that for the first time takes into account rising medical costs and other expenses. The numbers released Monday are part of a first-ever supplemental poverty measure aimed at providing a fuller picture of poverty. Although considered experimental, they promise to stir fresh debate over Social Security, Medicare and programs to help the poor as a congressional supercommittee nears a Nov. 23 deadline to make more than $1 trillion in cuts to the federal budget. Based on the revised formula, the number of poor people exceeds the record 46.2 million, or 15.1 percent, that was officially reported in September…”
• Seniors falling into poverty faster in new census measure, By Esmé E. Deprez, November 7, 2011, San Francisco Chronicle: “More Americans, and a greater percentage of the elderly, were poor in 2010 than the U.S. Census Bureau estimated in September, new figures from the agency show. The bureau used an alternate method to calculate that 16 percent of Americans, or 49.1 million people, lived in poverty in 2010, up from the official rate of 15.2 percent, or 46.6 million, according to a report released today. The new measure put the proportion of indigent Americans 65 and older at 15.9 percent, an increase from the official 9 percent rate. Among those under 18, the new rate was 18.2 percent, a drop from the official rate of 22.5 percent. The new Supplemental Poverty Measure is a ‘more complex statistic,’ showing how much families spend on food, shelter, clothing and utilities, the bureau said. It finds that medical out-of-pocket expenses have the largest proportional effect on disposable income of any expense or benefit, and takes into account how geographic differences can alter housing costs…”
• New data show grim picture of poverty, By Allison Linn, November 7, 2011, msnbc.com: “More Americans are living in difficult circumstances than the official data show, according to a new and sobering gauge of poverty. The new indicator, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, estimates that 49.1 million were grappling with very difficult economic circumstances in 2010, compared with 46.6 million under the standard poverty definition. The poverty rate under the supplemental measure is 16 percent, compared with 15.2 percent under the official measure…”

• Census data show wealth of older Americans is 47 times that of young adults, widest gap ever, Associated Press, November 7, 2011, Washington Post: “The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt. The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday. While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this wealth gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation…”
• Why the wealth gap between young and old is wider than ever, By Mark Trumbull, November 7, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “The wealth divide between older and younger Americans has widened sharply in recent years - because of both the deep recession and longer-term trends. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis released by the Pew Research Center, which looked at an array of government numbers to reach its conclusions. In all, the typical household headed by someone younger than 35 has seen its net worth fall by 68 percent between 1984 and 2009, after adjusting for inflation, according to the Pew report released Monday. Those in the 35-to-44 age group also saw a decline in net worth over that period, a drop of 44 percent…”

Medicaid cost cuts planned, By Guy Boulton, November 6, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Wisconsin is not alone in dealing with the thorny task of trying to lower the cost of its health care programs for low-income residents. Massachusetts no longer pays for restorative dental care and dentures. Washington no longer covers eyeglasses and hearing aids. Minnesota no long covers chiropractic care. Illinois, Iowa and other states planned to require a $50 co-payment for unnecessary visits to emergency departments. And California has proposed a $50 co-payment for all visits to emergency departments and a co-payment of $100 for hospital stays that last one day and $200 for longer stays. Every state plans to implement at least one policy to control Medicaid spending this fiscal year, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. In Wisconsin, the Department of Health Services has proposed dozens of changes in the BadgerCare Plus and Medicaid programs to close a $500 million gap in their budget…”

• Bleak portrait of poverty is off the mark, experts say, By Jason DeParle, Robert Gebeloff and Sabrina Tavernise, November 3, 2011, New York Times: “When the Census Bureau said in September that the number of poor Americans had soared by 10 million to rates rarely seen in four decades, commentators called the report ’shocking’ and ‘bleak.’ Most poverty experts would add another description: ‘flawed.’ Concocted on the fly a half-century ago, the official poverty measure ignores ever more of what is happening to the poor person’s wallet - good and bad. It overlooks hundreds of billions of dollars the needy receive in food stamps and other benefits and the similarly formidable amounts they lose to taxes and medical care. It even fails to note that rents are higher in places like Manhattan than they are in Mississippi. On Monday, that may start to change when the Census Bureau releases a long-promised alternate measure meant to do a better job of counting the resources the needy have and the bills they have to pay. Similar measures, quietly published in the past, suggest among other things that safety-net programs have played a large and mostly overlooked role in restraining hardship: as much as half of the reported rise in poverty since 2006 disappears…”
• To define poverty, US has a new (and improved?) formula, By Anna Mulrine, November 4, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “How to get the clearest picture of who is poor in America? That’s a question poverty experts have grappled with for years - and years. At last, the Census Bureau is updating how it measures who’s poor and who’s not - aka the poverty line. Until this month, the poverty line has been calculated the same way for half a century. It was developed in 1964 as part of Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. Ever since, a debate has ensued about how to determine who’s truly poor…”

• Bay Area’s five poorest neighborhoods show up in study, By Matt O’Brien, November 3, 2011, San Jose Mercury News: “The Bay Area has fewer concentrations of extreme poverty than a decade ago, according to a report released Thursday. That may not console the people living in the Bay Area’s five poorest neighborhoods. In five census tracts, four of them in the East Bay, more than 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line, according to the Brookings Institution report. The neighborhoods are in downtown Berkeley, uptown Oakland, Alameda Point and parts of West Oakland and San Francisco’s Hunters Point. Two are business districts where many homeless congregate; one, the area around Oakland’s Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, has been central in the Occupy protests. Others are residential areas with well-kept public housing. The Uptown Oakland area, which includes some of downtown and the plaza, is a study in contrasts: Despite a glut of new condos meant to attract young professionals, more than 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line — which for a single person means making less than $11,000 a year…”
• Poor Chattanooga neighborhoods have more than doubled in 9 years, By Judy Walton, November 4, 2011, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “The number of extremely poor neighborhoods in Chattanooga and the region — those with poverty rates above 40 percent — more than doubled from 2000 to 2009, a new report shows. The number of people living in the poorest census tracts in the Chattanooga region grew by more than 4,200, to 10,535, in the period, according to ‘The Re-Emergence of Concentrated Poverty,’ from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. The Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute is a liberal-leaning nonprofit that researches social issues. ‘We lost ground against concentrated poverty in the 2000s,’ Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior research associate at Brookings and lead author of the report, said in a news release. ‘More people are living in areas that are extremely poor, and concentrated poverty now affects a greater swath of communities than in the past.’ In the release, Kneebone noted that the federal poverty level in 2010 was $22,314 annually for a family of four…”

City’s childhood poverty third worst in nation, By Mark Curnutte, November 3, 2011, Cincinnati Enquirer: “Patti Bellamo makes about $13,500 a year as a food service helper at Oyler School, her 14th year with Cincinnati Public Schools. Their three adult children, daughter-in-law and five grandchildren live with Bellamo and her disabled husband, Paul, a former contractor, in their house near the school. Her son Eric and his wife, Nicole, and their five children, ages 2-10, moved in a few months ago when Eric had trouble getting enough hours with a moving company to pay his Duke Energy bill. Those five Bellamo youngsters are among the estimated 48 percent of the children in Cincinnati who give it the third-highest rate of childhood poverty, behind Detroit and Cleveland. The poverty level for a family of four in 2010 was $20,050…”

New attention paid to homeless youth and families, By Meribah Knight, November 3, 2011, New York Times: “More than 10,000 homeless students are enrolled in Chicago’s classrooms this fall, a 16 percent increase over last year and a record high, according to Chicago Public Schools data for September. The school district’s numbers reflect a trend seen by service providers around the city: Chicago’s homeless population is becoming younger. More families are living on the street, and the number of homeless youths on their own has grown exponentially. With a lack of affordable housing, a rising number of foreclosures and a state unemployment rate higher than the national average, the increase in homeless youths and families is putting stress on a social support system that is facing sharp cuts in budgets and programs…”

• A vicious cycle in the used-car business, By Ken Bensinger, October 30, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn’t find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered. Lee figured she had no choice. She put $3,000 down and drove off in a 2007 Ford Fusion, agreeing to pay $387 a month for four years. The interest rate: 20.7%, nearly triple the national average for a used-car loan…”
• Investors place big bets on Buy Here Pay Here used-car dealers, By Ken Bensinger, November 1, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “The J.D. Byrider used-car dealership in Visalia, Calif., sits amid a jumble of tow yards, hubcap vendors and vacant lots littered with empty beer cans. It may not look like much, but selling aging cars to waitresses, secretaries and farmworkers is a lucrative business. That’s why private equity firm Altamont Capital Partners of Palo Alto bought the J.D. Byrider chain in May for a reported $50 million. Altamont’s offices, on the 10th floor of a luxury office tower overlooking Stanford University, are 200 miles and a world away from the Visalia lot. On a recent morning, a dozen executives could be seen huddled in a glass-walled conference room, reviewing a slide presentation on plans to buy some franchised Byrider lots. It’s part of a strategy to boost profit at the 135-lot chain, which had sales of $740 million last year…”
• A hard road for the poor in need of cars, By Ken Bensinger, November 3, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “No car, no work. That’s the conclusion Lisa Twombly reached as she fought to hang on to her job as a caretaker for an elderly San Diego couple. Taking the bus and bumming rides from friends wasn’t cutting it, and she was repeatedly late for work. Told she’d be fired if it happened again, Twombly put down $4,000 - all her savings - on a 9-year-old Chrysler Sebring with 95,000 miles. The dealership lent her the $2,600 balance at a steep 18% interest rate. A few months later, the Sebring broke down and she got into a dispute with the dealer over who should pay for repairs. Twombly quit making loan payments, and Dig’s Wheels of Escondido, Calif., repossessed the car. She again struggled to get to work on time and was fired. That set off a chain of events that left the 38-year-old single mother and her two children homeless for six weeks. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ said Twombly, who is still out of work. ‘I lost my job because I lost my car.’ For more than a century, efforts to help the disadvantaged have focused on education, healthcare, nutrition and housing. Almost nothing has been done to help the working poor afford cars, despite research that indicates it would help alleviate poverty…”

Families to lose welfare benefits after appeals court overturns Genesee County judge’s ruling, By Kristin Longley, November 4, 2011, Flint Journal: “More than 1,200 families in Genesee County will lose their cash assistance benefits this weekend after the Michigan Court of Appeals on Thursday overturned a local judge’s ruling. Genesee County Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut had issued a temporary injunction as part of a lawsuit that argues the state can’t use a five-year time limit based on federal regulations to end benefits for some welfare recipients. But the appeals court reversed that order Thursday, ruling that Neithercut’s ‘issuance of the temporary injunction was inappropriate.’ The cash assistance cutoff will start Saturday, the Department of Human Services said in a statement…”

• Report shows gain in jobs but growth still sluggish, By Catherine Rampell, November 4, 2011, New York Times: “The United States economy created a modest number of jobs in October, the Labor Department reported Friday. Employers added 80,000 payroll positions on net, slightly less than what economists had expected. That compares to 158,000 jobs in September, a month when the figure was helped by the return of 45,000 Verizon workers who had been on strike. Friday’s report also showed that job growth in September and August was significantly stronger than the Labor Department initially believed it was, giving economists hope that October’s employment growth may have been better than this first estimate suggests, too…”
• Economy adds 80K jobs in Oct.; unemployment dips to 9%, By Neil Irwin, November 4, 2011, Washington Post: “The U.S. economy kept muddling along in October, according to new government data, as employers continued to hire at a sluggish pace and the unemployment rate fell slightly to its lowest rate since April. The jobless rate fell to 9 percent in October from 9.1 percent, the Labor Department said Friday morning, with more people reporting that they had a job in a survey of households. Employers created 80,000 net new jobs last month…”

• Extreme poverty spikes in U.S., study finds, By Sabrina Tavernise, November 3, 2011, New York Times: “The number of people living in neighborhoods of extreme poverty grew substantially, by one third, over the past decade, according to a new report, erasing most of the gains from the 1990’s when concentrated poverty declined. More than 10 percent of America’s poor now live in such neighborhoods, up from 9.1 percent in the beginning of the decade, an addition of more than 2 million people, according to the report by the Brookings Institution, an independent research group. Extreme poverty - defined as areas where at least 40 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty line, which in 2010, was $22,300 for a family of four - is still below its 1990 level, when 14 percent of poor people lived in such areas. The report analyzed Census Bureau income data from 2000 to 2009, the most recent year for which there is comprehensive data…”
• Poorest poor in US hits new record: 1 in 15 people, By Laura Wides-Munoz (AP), November 3, 2011, Deseret News: “The ranks of America’s poorest poor have climbed to a record high - 1 in 15 people - spread widely across metropolitan areas as the housing bust pushed many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places and shriveled jobs and income. New census data paint a stark portrait of the nation’s haves and have-nots at a time when unemployment remains persistently high. It comes a week before the government releases first-ever economic data that will show more Hispanics, elderly and working-age poor have fallen into poverty. In all, the numbers underscore the breadth and scope by which the downturn has reached further into mainstream America…”
• Poverty’s grip grows in central Ohio, By Mark Ferenchik and Rita Price, November 3, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The number of Columbus-area neighborhoods gripped by poverty continues to rise, and not only in the central city but in outlying areas as well. A report released today by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program says the number of census tracts showing extreme poverty in the city of Columbus increased from eight to 24 over 10 years. ‘That’s a very significant uptick,’ said Alan Berube, one of the report’s authors. The report says the number of extremely poor neighborhoods - those with poverty rates of 40 percent or higher - has jumped since 2000, with the population in those neighborhoods rising by one-third…”
• Brookings report finds poverty-stricken neighborhoods jump dramatically in Cleveland area, By Dave Davis, November 3, 2011, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “The number of people living in extremely poor neighborhoods has grown faster in Northeast Ohio suburbs than elsewhere in the nation, poverty figures released Thursday by the Brookings Institution show. By the end of 2009, 13 Northeast Ohio suburban neighborhoods had poverty rates of at least 40 percent, Brookings researchers found. (See the full document below). Ten years earlier there was none. With an 8 percentage point increase, Cleveland’s suburbs claimed the nation’s fourth highest rate of growth of the poor in poverty-stricken neighborhoods…”
• Toledo area poverty rise worst in U.S., By Mark Reiter, November 3, 2011, Toledo Blade: “The concentration of poor people living in Toledo’s poorest neighborhoods grew by more than 15 percent in the past decade, giving the metropolitan area the unenviable distinction of No. 1 among American’s largest metro areas. More than 46,000 people reside in neighborhoods with poverty rates of 40 percent or higher in the metro area — which includes Lucas, Fulton, Ottawa, and Wood counties — with all but one of the 22 poor neighborhoods located within the borders of Toledo, according to a Brookings Institution study of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country…”

• Since 1990s, U.S. students’ math has sharpened, but reading lags, By Sam Dillon, November 1, 2011, New York Times: “Elementary and middle school students have improved greatly in math, but their reading skills have stagnated over the last two decades, federal officials said on Tuesday. The officials, who oversee the largest federal standardized testing program, used the release of scores from nationwide math and reading exams to highlight the contrasting long-term trends…”
• Nation’s report card: Kids showing a bit of improvement in math, but many still not proficient, Associated Press, November 1, 2011, Washington Post: “Some progress. Still needs improvement. The nation’s report card on math and reading shows fourth- and eighth-graders scoring their best ever in math and eighth graders making some progress in reading. But the results released Tuesday are a stark reminder of just how far the nation’s school kids are from achieving the No Child Left Behind law’s goal that every child in America be proficient in math and reading by 2014. Just a little more than one-third of the students were proficient or higher in reading. In math, 40 percent of the fourth-graders and 35 percent of the eighth-graders had reached that level…”
• Education report card: Flat reading scores are ‘deeply disappointing’, By Amanda Paulson, November 1, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “America’s fourth- and eighth-graders are inching ahead in their performance in math, but their reading scores are largely stagnant. That’s the verdict from the latest round of data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), otherwise known as the ‘nation’s report card,’ which regularly measures students’ performance on a variety of subjects. The best news from the 2011 test was in math, where scores have risen steadily since 1990. The scores posted a small increase from 2009, the last time the test was given. For fourth-graders, the average math score was 241 on a 500-point scale - 28 points higher than in 1990 and 1 point higher than in 2009. Students at all percentiles except the lowest one increased…”

Maine told heat aid being slashed, By Glenn Adams (AP), November 2, 2011, Lewiston Sun Journal: “As Andy Tasker watches his work hours and pay go down, his need for heating assistance goes up. The Auburn resident and thousands like him in Maine are facing drastic cuts in Low Income Home Energy Assistance, as the price of heating oil rises far above last year’s level. ‘This is a necessity to me,’ Tasker said Monday, just days after federal government told the Maine State Housing Authority that it should expect to receive $23 million for the program, down from $55.6 million last year - a 60 percent drop. Maine Housing officials, and their counterparts around the Northeast, are hoping one of two bills in Congress will bolster heating assistance, but the outlook nonetheless is not good that the final amount will help people like Tasker…”

• Overhaul to foster-care system wins approval, By Jennifer Sullivan, October 31, 2011, Seattle Times: “A years-long effort to overhaul the state’s foster-care system, making home placements more stable for children and keeping caseloads manageable for social workers, will be completed in just over two years. Under an agreement signed Monday, the state will have a far different child-welfare system in place by the end of 2013 than it did when a class-action lawsuit on behalf of foster children was filed in 1998. The case, known by state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) officials as Braam, is named after plaintiff Jessica Braam, who had been bounced through 34 foster-care placements by the time she was 12 years old. Her story became emblematic of problems that plagued the foster-care system overseen by the DSHS…”
• Governor’s office calls NPR foster care report flawed; congressmen seek review, By Kevin Woster, November 1, 2011, Rapid City Journal: “Staffers for Gov. Dennis Daugaard on Monday attacked a National Public Radio report critical of state child-protection programs that remove Native American children from their homes for foster-care placement, saying NPR was biased and inaccurate in its reporting. But two members of the U.S. House of Representatives thought the NPR report was valid enough to call for an investigation into whether those South Dakota child protection policies and practices with Native American families violate federal law. U. S. Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Dan Boren, D-Okla., sent a letter to Larry Echo Hawk, assistant secretary of the Interior Department for Indian Affairs, calling for the investigation. They allege, as the NPR report implies, that South Dakota violates the Indian Child Welfare Act, a law that directs officials to place Native American children removed from homes with their relatives or tribes, except in unusual situations…”