• Lawmakers debate ending child welfare privatization, By Martha Stoddard, February 29, 2012, Omaha World-Herald: “Nebraska lawmakers launched into debate Tuesday about whether to put the brakes on the state’s experiment in child welfare privatization. At issue is whether the state should take back responsibility for managing child welfare cases from the last remaining private contractor. Legislative Bill 961, introduced by the Health and Human Services Committee, would require the change. The bill was introduced before state officials announced that Kansas-based KVC was dropping out of the picture as one of the last two child welfare contractors. KVC stops managing child welfare cases for the state as of Wednesday, leaving the Omaha-based Nebraska Families Collaborative as the state’s only private contractor. Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood of Norfolk warned colleagues to think hard before moving forward on the proposal…”
• Senators advance four child welfare bills but question returning case management to state, By JoAnne Young, February 27, 2012, Lincoln Journal Star: “The Legislature focused Tuesday on repairing the state’s child welfare system. Lincoln Sen. Kathy Campbell set the tone for two days of debate on a set of five bills to overhaul child welfare reform. ‘Today, we begin the process of building a stable foundation and a bridge to the future for the benefit of the children and families of the state of Nebraska,’ she said. The Legislature proceeded to advance four of the bills — with no senator voting against them — and then, late in the day, started debate on a bill that would return all child welfare case management to the state. That last bill (LB961) could prove to be one of the toughest…”

• Emergency dental care up 16%; lack of insurance cited, By Guy Boulton, February 27, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Preventable dental conditions resulted in an estimated 890,000 emergency department visits nationally in 2009, a 16% increase from 2006, according to a report from the Pew Center on the States. The problem can be seen in Wisconsin and is a long-standing frustration for the Wisconsin Hospital Association. The association has estimated that 32,000 patients with dental problems, such as an infected tooth, are seen by hospital emergency departments each year. Many of the visits stem from the limited access to dental care for people who are uninsured or who are covered by state health programs. The fees paid to dentists by the state’s health programs, such as BadgerCare Plus, are the fifth-lowest in the country, according to a separate report released last year by the Pew Children’s Dental Campaign, a national effort to increase access to dental care for low-income children…”
• More Americans seek dental treatment at the ER; costs can be 10 times more than checkups, By Lindsey Tanner (AP), February 28, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “More Americans are turning to the emergency room for routine dental problems - a choice that often costs 10 times more than preventive care and offers far fewer treatment options than a dentist’s office, according to an analysis of government data and dental research. Most of those emergency visits involve trouble such as toothaches that could have been avoided with regular checkups but went untreated, in many cases because of a shortage of dentists, particularly those willing to treat Medicaid patients, the analysis said. The number of ER visits nationwide for dental problems increased 16 percent from 2006 to 2009, and the report released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States suggests the trend is continuing…”

• World’s extreme poverty cut in half since 1990, By Sudeep Reddy, February 29, 2012, Wall Street Journal: “The share of people living in extreme poverty around the world continued to decline in recent years despite financial crises and surging food prices, the World Bank said today. The bank said preliminary estimates for 2010 showed that the world’s extreme poverty rate - people living below $1.25 a day - had fallen to less than half of its 1990 value. That meets the first Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty from its 1990 level, before its 2015 deadline, the Washington-based development institution said…”
• WB sees progress against extreme poverty, February 29, 2012, The Himalayan: “In every region of the developing world, the percentage of people living on less than $1.25-a-day and the number of poor declined between 2005-2008, according to estimates released today by the World Bank (WB). This across-the-board reduction over a three-year monitoring cycle marks a first since the bank began monitoring extreme poverty. Similarly, South Asia witnessed the $1.25-a-day poverty rate fall from 61 per cent to 36 per cent between 1981 and 2005 and fell a further 3.5 percentage points between 2005 and 2008. The proportion of the population living in extreme poverty is now the lowest since 1981, the global agency said, adding that its methodology is based on consumption and income, adjusted for inflation within countries and for purchasing power differences across countries…”

• Make children the cornerstone of urban decision-making, urges Unicef, By Mark Tran, February 28, 2012, The Guardian: “Unicef has urged governments to put children at the heart of urban planning - and to improve services for all - since the majority of the world’s children will grow up in towns or cities rather than in rural areas. In its report, The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World, the UN agency said hundreds of millions of children who live in urban slums are being excluded from vital services, from clean water to education…”
• Split between rich and poor greater in cities, UNICEF reports, By Leslie Scrivener, February 28, 2012, Toronto Star: “Five-year-old Kiara appears well cared for - nicely dressed, well-fed and loved. Her hair shines. But she has worked with her family since she was three, selling trinkets in the subway trains of Buenos Aires. There have been mishaps: she has fallen onto the train tracks while playing, and last year she broke her arm in a train door. Almost half the world’s children live in cities. Their families are lured from their rural homes, hoping to find jobs for themselves and education for their children. It doesn’t always work out that way. ‘It’s heartbreaking for parents,’ says David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada. ‘They don’t want their children working on the street. They wish they had enough.’ In its annual report, released on Tuesday, UNICEF explores the struggles faced by families raising their offspring in the world’s slums, where one in three city-dwellers now live…”
• World’s slum children in desperate need, UNICEF says, By Robyn Dixon, February 28, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “You see them, night and day, in nearly every African city. They are ragged children dodging between the cars: beggars, shoeshine boys, teenage prostitutes, petty traders and porters carrying loads on their heads with thin, pinched faces and anxious eyes. They tap on car windows, begging, and wait by the highway desperate to sell their goods. Around half the people in the world live in cities and towns, a billion of them children, as the urban population spirals. Millions of children live in slums and shantytowns and they’re dying of the same illnesses that kill the rural poor, according to UNICEF: hunger, diarrhea and disease caused by poor sanitation and overcrowding…”

• Teen pregnancy rate lowest since 1969, By Michelle Roberts, February 28, 2012, BBC News: “The teen pregnancy rate in England and Wales has reached its lowest since 1969, new data shows. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show conceptions in under-18s fell to 34,633 in 2010 compared with 38,259 in 2009, a drop of 9.5%. Pregnancies in under-16s also went down - by 6.8% to 6,674 in total from 7,158 the previous year…”
• Teen pregnancies at lowest level since 1960s, By Stephen Adams, February 28, 2012, The Telegraph: “The teenage pregnancy rate has fallen to its lowest level since the 1960s, according to official figures released on Tuesday. The rate for girls aged 15 to 17 in 2010 - the most recent period for which figures are available - was 35.5 per 1,000 - the lowest since 1969. The number of pregnancies in under 18s fell almost 10 per cent between 2009 and 2010, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Family planning organisations claim the drop is due to better sex education…”

Plans to drug test welfare recipients get momentum, By Ben Neary and Ivan Moreno (AP), February 26, 2012, Deseret News: “Conservatives who say welfare recipients should have to pass a drug test to receive government assistance have momentum on their side. The issue has come up in the Republican presidential campaign, with front-runner Mitt Romney saying it’s an ‘excellent idea.’ Nearly two dozen states are considering plans this session that would make drug testing mandatory for welfare recipients, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. And Wyoming lawmakers advanced such a proposal this week. Driving the measures is a perception that people on public assistance are misusing the funds and that cutting off their benefits would save money for tight state budgets - even as statistics have largely proved both notions untrue…”

• Pregnancy medical homes gain momentum in North Carolina, By Christine Vestal, February 24, 2012, Stateline.org: “Like most southern states, North Carolina has a higher than average rate of infant deaths and premature births. So it made sense to Medicaid Director Craigan Gray, a trained obstetrician, to attack the problem head on. Shortly after taking over in 2009, he began a campaign to create a new kind of program that would identify Medicaid beneficiaries with high-risk pregnancies sooner than before and use proven medical procedures to help prevent problems at birth. Launched less than a year ago, Gray’s program, called pregnancy medical homes, is showing promise…”
• Sickest unsettled by state’s plans to change long-term care, By Catherine Candisky, February 27, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “The state plans sweeping changes to the way it provides long-term care and other health services to 190,000 Ohioans eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. ‘Dual eligibles’ are among the sickest and most expensive to care for. In Ohio, they make up 10 percent of the 2.1 million on Medicaid, yet they account for 46 percent of long-term-care costs. Gov. John Kasich’s administration wants to better coordinate their care. But details are sketchy, and that’s created a lot of worry for enrollees such as Carl Meyers, 86, of Westerville…”
• Mo. changing rules for Medicaid ‘spend down’ plan, By Wes Duplantier (AP), February 27, 2012, Southeast Missourian: “Some low-income seniors and people with disabilities in Missouri could have to pay more out of their pockets to qualify for Medicaid coverage under changes being initiated after the state realized it was running afoul of federal rules. About 24,000 Missouri residents qualify for Medicaid — even though their income is higher than the program’s federal limits — by ’spending down’ the difference between their monthly income and the federal eligibility limit. They do that in one of two ways — sending the state a cash payment, sort of like a monthly insurance premium, or by submitting medical bills that show they spent that excess income on medications and treatments. About one-third of the people in the program submit medical bills to satisfy their monthly ’spend down’ amount. The problem, as state officials told a Senate panel last week, is that the state might have been giving people too much credit toward their monthly ’spend down’ amount…”

Rule could leave child-support debtors no income, By Daniel Wagner (AP), February 27, 2012, Detroit News: ” Old child support debts could cost thousands of poor men their only income next year because of a policy aimed at reducing the cost to the government of mailing paper checks to pay federal benefits. The Treasury Department will start paying benefits electronically next March. It will stop issuing the paper checks that many people rely on to safeguard a portion of their benefits from states trying to collect back child support. States can freeze the bank accounts of people who owe child support. A separate Treasury Department rule, in place since last May in a preliminary form, guarantees them the power to freeze Social Security, disability and veterans’ benefits that have been deposited into those accounts. Once paper checks are eliminated, about 275,000 people could lose access to all of their income, advocates say…”

• Analysis: More Utah children live in areas of poverty, By Brooke Adams, February 23, 2012, Salt Lake Tribune: “Utah is among states with relatively few children living in areas where poverty is prevalent. That’s the good news. The bad news, according to a newly released study, is that the number of Utah children residing in poor neighborhoods increased 80 percent since 2000, with some 27,000 children now living in communities with high concentrations of poverty. Utah’s increase was more than triple the 25 percent increase notched across the country, based on a comparison of 2000 Census numbers and 2006-2010 data from the Census’ American Community Survey. Nationally, nearly 8 million children are now living in areas of concentrated poverty. Some states saw dramatic increases - such as Colorado, where numbers rose 360 percent to 72,000 children - while eight states recorded decreases, according to a Kids Count data snapshot from the Annie E. Casey Foundation…”
• More ND children in high poverty, By Helmut Schmidt, February 24, 2012, Dickinson Press: “More North Dakota children are living in areas of high poverty, putting them at risk for not getting proper food, housing or health care, and making it more likely that they could have severe behavioral and emotional problems, the Kids Count program announced Thursday. North Dakota data for 2010 indicates 7 percent of the state’s children, about 11,000, live in economically distressed areas - neighborhoods where at least 30 percent of residents live below the federal poverty line. That’s up from 5 percent in 2000, the Kids Count program at North Dakota State University reports…”
• Growing number of Kentucky kids in poverty, By Robyn L. Minor, February 23, 2012, Bowling Green Daily News: “Kentucky is one of 11 states where 30 percent or more of the population living in high poverty areas. That means a high percentage of children are living in those areas, and that has to be addressed, according to Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, which produces the Kids Count report. ‘Historically, almost one in four kids lived in poverty,’ Brooks said. ‘That went to one in four and now it is more than one in four. We’ve seen a 20 percent increase in children living in high poverty areas (during past decade). There are 20,000 more kids living in those high poverty areas than a decade ago.’ Kids Count, by looking at results of the American Community Survey published by the U.S. Census Bureau, estimated that between 2006 and 2010, 13 percent of the state’s children lived in areas where the poverty rate is 30 percent or higher…”
• Number of Minnesota children living in poverty increases, By Renee Richardson, February 23, 2012, Brainerd Dispatch: “Three area counties rank among the highest in the state for numbers of children in poverty, according to Kids Count - a report by a charitable foundation using the latest Census data. Aitkin, Wadena and Cass counties were among eight counties with the highest percentage of children in poverty ranging from 21.1 percent to 35 percent. The Kids Count Data Snapshot, using 2010 Census data, was recently released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The number of Minnesota children living in high-poverty neighborhoods almost doubled in the last decade from 35,000 to 68,000, rising from 3 percent to 5 percent - a 94 percent increase, the foundation reported…”

More than 1.4 million families live on $2 a day per person, By Marisol Bello, February 23, 2012, USA Today: “The number of families living on $2 or less per person per day for at least a month in the USA has more than doubled in 15 years to 1.46 million. That’s up from 636,000 households in 1996, says a new study released by researchers at the University of Michigan and Harvard University. Government benefits blunt the impact of such extreme poverty, but not completely, says one of the researchers, Luke Shaefer, a professor of social work at Michigan…”

Grading system likely to hurt high-poverty schools most, By Scott Elliott, February 24, 2012, Indianapolis Star: “Indianapolis Public School 46 is a success story, a lauded example of how a school whose students come from poverty can excel with help from a community partner. Just last week, Kroger announced that the grocery chain would again commit $100,000 in cash and volunteers this year to the school it adopted 27 years ago. John Elliott, public affairs manager in Indianapolis for Kroger, was more than proud to tout the school’s achievements. School 46 has earned an ‘A’ grade for its academic performance from the Indiana Department of Education the past four years. But after the event, Elliott was stunned to learn the school’s grade might soon go way down — to a C. School 46 is a likely casualty of the state’s new grading system, passed earlier this month by the State Board of Education. And when it comes to high-poverty schools, it’s far from the only one…”

N.J. considers raising minimum wage, By Joelle Farrell, February 23, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “After hearing tales of hardship from both low-wage workers and struggling businesses on Thursday, a panel of New Jersey lawmakers decided it was time to give a boost to those who earn the minimum wage. The Assembly Labor Committee voted 6-2 to approve a bill that would raise the minimum hourly wage to $8.50, a $1.25 increase that would give New Jersey one of the highest rates in the nation. The bill would peg the wage to inflation, allowing future increases to occur automatically. The full Assembly can now vote on the measure. The Senate Labor committee had not yet scheduled a hearing on the bill…”

Measures aim to end bias against long-term jobless, By Shelly Banjo, February 24, 2012, Wall Street Journal: “More than a dozen states are considering legislation to make it illegal for companies to discriminate against the unemployed. State lawmakers say they see the bias turning up in a nation with an 8.3% unemployment rate: Companies that explicitly advertise that they won’t hire someone who isn’t currently employed. The proposals from Connecticut to California range in scope from banning advertisements that require current employment to allowing unsuccessful job candidates to sue businesses under the same discrimination laws that apply to bias on the basis of religion, race, gender or national origin. The efforts come as the percent of the long-term unemployed-people looking for work for more than six months-has consistently topped 40% since December 2009, when it broke that threshold for the first time since 1948, the year such data began being collected…”

• More U.S. kids living in high-poverty areas: study, By Susan Heavey, February 22, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Years of economic setbacks have taken their toll on the nation’s youngest residents, with another 1.6 million children living in high-poverty neighborhoods, according to one study that shows nearly 8 million children residing in poor areas in 2010. In 2000, 6.3 million children lived in high poverty in the United States, a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found. The growth - a 25 percent increase - reverses the trend just a decade ago that saw fewer children living in communities with high poverty rates, according to the nonprofit group. And three-quarters of those children live in such areas despite having at least one parent working, the study showed…”
• Colorado’s percentage of kids living in severe poverty soars, By Karen Augé, February 23, 2012, Denver Post: “Over the past decade, the number of Colorado children living in communities of concentrated, severe poverty grew at one of the fastest rates in the nation, a new study has found. The number of children living in areas of poverty here - 92,000, or 8 percent - is still relatively low compared with many states, according to the Kids Count Data Snapshot on High-Poverty Communities, compiled by the nonprofit Annie E. Casey Foundation. In 2000, the report found 20,000 Colorado kids living in high-poverty areas…”
• Muskegon County ranks ninth-worst for percentage of children living in high-poverty areas, By Megan Hart, February 23, 2012, Muskegon Chronicle: “Muskegon County is ninth-worst in the state when it comes to the percentage of children living in areas of high poverty. About 19.1 percent of Muskegon County children lived in areas of high poverty, defined as an area where 30 percent or more of the population falls below the federal poverty guidelines. That’s $17,000 for a family of three or $22,000 for a family of four. Of Michigan’s 83 counties, 33 had children living in high-poverty communities, according to a report the Annie E. Casey Foundation released Thursday. The report used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey from 2006 through 2010. The Casey Foundation advocates for policies to help families living in poverty…”
• Report: 67% of Detroit kids live in high-poverty areas, By Karen Bouffard, February 23, 2012, Detroit News: “More children live in high-poverty neighborhoods in Detroit than in any of the nation’s 50 largest cities, according to a new report. Roughly 67 percent of Detroit children live in a neighborhood with concentrated poverty, according to the ‘Data Snapshot on High-Poverty Communities’ from Kids Count. That’s 10 percentage points more than the next worst city, Cleveland, where 57 percent of children live in high-poverty areas. Michigan ranked 44th among the states for the number of children living in neighborhoods where 30 percent or more of the population is in poverty, defined as about $22,000 per year or less for a family of four…”

• Audit: Child-welfare checks uneven in Minnesota, By Jeremy Olson, February 21, 2012, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Minnesota’s child welfare system needs stronger guidance to ensure that vulnerable children are treated consistently from one county to another, a legislative audit concluded Tuesday. Testing county and tribal child-welfare agencies with 10 fictional cases of abuse and neglect, state auditors found wide variations in whether local officials deemed investigations necessary. It was a virtual 50-50 split, for example, on whether agencies would investigate a claim of a small child found wandering a block from home. And 64 percent said they wouldn’t investigate as maltreatment a domestic abuse incident that occurred while a child was in another room. Despite these so-called ‘gray area referrals,’ many of the state’s child-welfare intake workers made reasonable and thoughtful deliberations, said Carrie Meyerhoff, the lead author of the report for the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor…”
• Report finds gaps in Minnesota child protection system, By Sasha Aslanian, February 22, 2012, Minnesota Public Radio: “The Legislative Auditor says there are gaps in Minnesota’s child protection system — variations in how counties and some Indian tribes first respond to cases of alleged mistreatment of children. The report was fueled by two concerns: That the child protection system is screening out too many cases; and there’s too much variation in how child protection laws are applied across different counties. However, the report found that overall, county and tribal agencies are doing an adequate job deciding whether to act on suspected cases of child abuse or neglect…”

Stimulus bolsters public assistance, By Russ Zimmer, February 18, 2012, Fremont News-Messenger: “Most stimulus spending in Ohio last year went to supplementing public assistance programs for the poor, according to a CentralOhio.com analysis of data gathered by investigative news nonprofit ProPublica. The $840 billion American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 turned 3 years old Friday and is, by all accounts, winding down. The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board has paid out all but $100 billion, a board spokeswoman said. About $16.8 billion has been injected into Ohio since the bill’s passage on Feb. 17, 2009, ProPublica reports. More than a quarter of it — $4.5 billion — has been directed toward helping the state cover its share of Medicaid bills and meeting the greater demand on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Last year, state government received at least $2.1 billion from stimulus-funded sources, according to Ohio Office of Budget and Management spokesman Dave Pagnard…”

Tax-cut bill includes updates to jobless benefits system, By Annie Lowrey, February 21, 2012, New York Times: “Tucked into a $140 billion bill extending emergency jobless benefits and a temporary cut to payroll taxes are several provisions intended to modernize the country’s outdated unemployment insurance system. Experts described the little-noticed changes as marginal improvements, but important ones, and said they promised to aid the long-term jobless and help hold down the unemployment rate in future recessions…”

Post office closings may increase rural isolation, economic disparity, By Cezary Podkul and Emily Stephenson, February 18, 2012, Washington Post: “Postal officials were blunt in December when they stood before 120 residents in Dedham, Iowa, to tell them why their town’s post office has to close. The Internet, officials said, was killing the U.S. Postal Service. ‘Well, I have no Internet,’ resident Judy Ankenbauer said at the meeting. Like many of Dedham’s 280 residents, Ankenbauer said she still relies on the post office to buy stamps and send letters and packages. Dedham is hardly alone in its dependence on the Postal Service. Some of the nation’s poorest communities, many of them with spotty broadband Internet coverage, stand to suffer most if the struggling agency moves ahead with plans to shutter thousands of post offices this year, a Reuters analysis found. Nearly 80 percent of the 3,830 post offices under consideration are in sparsely populated rural areas where poverty rates are higher than the national average. Moreover, about one-third of the offices slated for closure fall in areas with limited or no wired broadband Internet…”

A very rough road for community college students, By Carla Rivera, February 21, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “Foster Washington knows the odds are against him. The Los Angeles Southwest College student is a 20-year-old from a tough neighborhood in Watts where, he says, there was little encouragement or preparation for college. Recent studies suggest that students such as Washington are the least likely to stay in school, get a degree or transfer to a four-year university, hampering their future job prospects. But Washington is determined to be the first college graduate in his family of 12 siblings. Southwest, part of the nine-campus Los Angeles Community College District, is trying to fulfill his goal through new programs focused on intensive tutoring, faculty training and helping students adjust to college life…”

• LePage’s claims that Maine’s Medicaid spending is above average are true, By Clarke Canfield (AP), February 20, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “In his relentless demands for steep Medicaid cuts, Gov. Paul LePage has said Maine spends far more per capita than other states on Medicaid and is high above the national average. Whether you support or oppose LePage’s cost-cutting proposals, he’s right. Maine had the nation’s fifth-highest Medicaid coverage rate in fiscal year 2009, 27.8 percent, behind California, New Mexico, Louisiana and Vermont, according to the latest statistics for Maine from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The national rate for the same period was 21 percent. Maine’s Medicaid expenses for that year amounted to $1,890 per resident. That’s 61 percent higher than the national average of $1,173 per person, according to CMMS statistics…”
• New Mexico proposes to overhaul Medicaid program, By Barry Massey, February 21, 2012, February 21, 2012, Boston Globe: “Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration is proposing to overhaul a program that provides health care to a fourth of the state’s population, and the changes could require some needy New Mexicans to dig into their pockets to pay a fee if they go to an emergency room for medical care that’s not considered an emergency. One of the goals of the planned revision is to slow the rate of growth in Medicaid, which accounts for 16 percent of this year’s state budget and costs New Mexico taxpayers nearly $1 billion…”

President Obama’s budget proposal targets home heating bill program, By Larry Bivins, February 20, 2012, Appleton Post-Crescent: “Once again advocates for the poor will have to appeal to Congress for an increase in funding for a program that helped more than 230,000 Wisconsinites last year pay their home heating bills. That’s because President Barack Obama has again proposed cuts to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The president wants to spend $3 billion on the program in fiscal year 2013, which begins Oct. 1. While that represents an increase over the $2.6 billion he requested in his budget plan for the current fiscal year, it is less than the nearly $3.5 billion Congress appropriated and far short of the full authorization amount of $5.1 billion Congress approved in 2009 and in 2010…”

Another blow to child welfare privatization, By Martha Stoddard, February 21, 2012, Omaha World-Herald: “Nebraska’s experiment in privatizing child welfare services suffered a major blow Tuesday when one of two contractors pulled out. Officials with the Kansas-based KVC announced that the company will stop managing child welfare cases as of Feb. 29. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services will take back the responsibility. KVC’s departure leaves the state with only one private contractor: the Omaha-based Nebraska Families Collaborative. The state and KVC ultimately parted ways over money…”

With Marion County on board, Indiana’s welfare system is now fully ‘hybrid’, By Mary Beth Schneider, February 20, 2012, Indianapolis Star: “Marion County today becomes the final county in the state to move to the so-called ‘hybrid’ welfare eligibility system. The change represents the final and perhaps biggest challenge for the state’s Family and Social Services Administration since the new system was implemented in January 2010. The number of people receiving benefits in Marion County is 20 percent of all welfare cases in the state. About 125,000 people in Marion County receive various services, including Medicaid and other health programs, food stamps and job training. Starting today, they’ll not only be able to visit the welfare offices as they are accustomed to doing — though some are in new locations — they also will be able to access records online and call a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week toll-free number to check benefits or report changes to their status. People now will be able to enroll online or walk into an office, without an appointment, to get help…”

RI’s unemployment card fees questioned, By David Klepper (AP), February 20, 2012, Boston Globe: “Rhonda Taylor had never been on unemployment until she was laid off from her information technology job in 2008. When she received the debit card she’d use to access her unemployment benefits from the state, she assumed it worked like any other bank card. But after a month using the card, the North Providence resident noticed she was being charged a fee every time she checked her balance at an ATM. Every time she used her PIN to make a purchase. Every time she tried to withdraw cash. A dollar here, $1.50 there. The fees added up. Twenty dollars a month matters, she said, when you’re unemployed and relying on the state. The fees come from JPMorgan Chase, which the state selected in 2007 to operate Rhode Island’s debit card system. The state Senate voted last week to ask Gov. Lincoln Chafee to review the fees…”

• NH joins Idaho in new welfare limits for disabled, By Norma Love (AP), February 19, 2012, Idaho Statesman: “Legally blind since she was 9, Chrissy Fairbanks just got word she’s losing the $363 state welfare check she got each month from New Hampshire because she gets federal assistance due to her disability. The 31-year-old Keene resident says her girls, ages 11 and 12, are taking the news well that their clothes will come from the clearance rack and there will be no more trips to the ice skating rink. ‘I already sat down with the girls and told them we were going to have a budget cut. The grabbing something to eat when we go out walking isn’t going to happen,’ she said. Of the 5,600 New Hampshire families that receive state welfare assistance, Fairbanks is among 1,136 families who will lose that aid because the state is counting Supplemental Security Income for residents too disabled to work in calculating their welfare grant. Another 420 people will receive reduced welfare benefits as a result, said state Family Assistance Director Terry Smith…”
• Lawmakers urged to revoke 20 percent pay cut on personal care assistants, By Elizabeth Dunbar, February 17, 2012, Minnesota Public Radio: ” Some personal care assistants in Minnesota are urging lawmakers to revoke a new law that cuts their pay by 20 percent. More than 17,000 Minnesotans with disabilities rely on personal care assistants to help them with everyday tasks like eating and getting dressed. In about a third of the cases, family members are paid to provide this care to their adult relatives. To help balance the state’s budget last year, the Legislature reduced personal care assistant wages paid to family members. A judge has temporarily blocked the cut. But personal care assistants say lawmakers still need to find a permanent fix…”

As economy improves, Congress scaling back jobless benefits for long-term unemployed, Associated Press, February 17, 2012, Washington Post: “Millions of Americans will continue to receive long-term unemployment benefits under legislation approved Friday in Congress, but the scope of the program is being scaled back to cover fewer people by the end of the year. The measure, which also extends a payroll tax cut through the rest of 2012, begins to wind down the program of extended federal jobless benefits that Congress first approved at the height of the recession. The bill reduces the current maximum 99 weeks of benefits to 73 weeks by September. For those in all but about a dozen of the highest unemployment states, benefits will be cut off after 63 weeks. The benefits are for people out of work more than six months. The program has provided checks to about 18 million out-of-work Americans who exhausted the 26 weeks of state jobless benefits…”

Illinois Medicaid cuts will hit a system already in crisis, By Kristen McQueary, February 17, 2012, New York Times: “When Gov. Pat Quinn announces Medicaid cuts from a Springfield podium next week, Dr. Jason Grinter will be in the operating room of a Chicago hospital, treating Medicaid patients. Dr. Grinter is a dentist whose appointment book includes hundreds of Medicaid clients, many of whom have no other access to dental care. He treats children, the elderly and the disabled - often in school gymnasiums or nursing home cafeterias as part of a mobile dentistry outreach. Dental services are among the benefits lawmakers are considering cutting as they look for ways to reduce the cost of the state’s health care system for the poor. Dr. Grinter says that is short-sighted. ‘When you go without dental care, you get infections,’ he said. ‘You go to the emergency room - that’s big bucks. The state will be spending twice as much if it gets rid of the dental program.’ From the enrollment of patients through treatment and payment, the Medicaid program in Illinois has been plagued by fraud, inefficiency, unsustainable costs and a paralyzing political climate with often-competing doctor, hospital and health care lobbies, according to lawmakers and health-care organizations who work within the system…”

Risk of poverty greater in Portugal, February 18, 2012, The Portugal News: “The risk of poverty is greater in Portugal compared to the rest of Europe, with one in four Portuguese living with the threat of poverty and social exclusion in 2010, according to statistics published by Eurostat this month in Brussels. Despite the risk of poverty having increased in Europe between 2009 and 2010, the average in the EU’s 27 countries is 23.4 percent risk of poverty, while in Portugal it is over 25 percent. According to the European statistics agency, 25.3 percent of Portuguese were at risk of poverty in 2010, 0.4 percent more than during the previous year. In total, throughout Europe, 115 million people lived at risk of poverty in 2010…”

Cash payments help cut HIV infection rate in young women, study finds, By Sarah Boseley, February 14, 2012, The Guardian: “Regular small cash payments to girls and young women can enable them to resist the attentions of older men and avoid HIV infection, according to a new study. Girls and young women are at the greatest risk of HIV infection in endemic countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, between a quarter and a third have the virus by the time they reach their early 20s. But educating girls about risks and promoting condom use has had little impact in countries where they are struggling with poor education, low status and poverty, and where older men with money offer one of the few ways out of financial difficulties. A team of researchers from the World Bank, University of California at San Diego and George Washington University in the US carried out a randomised controlled trial in Malawi to find out whether monthly payments to schoolgirls and their families would help change the girls’ behaviour and safeguard their health…”

The nutrition puzzle, February 18, 2012, The Economist: “In Eldorado, one of São Paulo’s poorest and most misleadingly named favelas, some eight-year-old boys are playing football on a patch of ground once better known for drug gangs and hunger. Although they look the picture of health, they are not. After the match they gather around a sack of bananas beside the pitch. ‘At school, the kids get a full meal every day,’ explains Jonathan Hannay, the secretary-general of Children at Risk Foundation, a local charity. ‘But in the holidays they come to us without breakfast or lunch so we give them bananas. They are filling, cheap, and they stimulate the brain.’ Malnutrition used to be pervasive and invisible in Eldorado. Now there is less of it and, equally important, it is no longer hidden. ‘It has become more visible-so people are doing something about it…’”

As seniors climb from poverty, young fall in, By Marisol Bello, February 16, 2012, USA Today: “Living in rural North Carolina, Linda Sue Jones doesn’t see her teenage son as the archetype of a national trend. But 15-year-old Josh, as a boy who lives in the South in a household headed by a single woman, is characteristic of the exploding numbers of children in the USA living in poverty - numbers exacerbated by the recession that has pushed many families into poverty for the first time. Twenty miles away, Kenneth Moody, 70, and his wife, Margie, 65, say they, too, are struggling, especially because of high out-of-pocket medical bills. They stay off the poverty rolls because of the $2,000 they receive from Social Security every month. They pay more than $300 a month for prescription drugs but say their medical costs would be even higher if they didn’t have Medicare. ‘It’s life,’ says Margie Moody. ‘That pays our bills, buys our food, pays for the doctor.’ The two families highlight a national trend over the past three decades as child poverty steadily rises and poverty among seniors, aided by social programs, steadily drops…”

• Arizona Supreme Court allows cuts to AHCCCS to stand, By Mary K. Reinhart, February 15, 2012, Arizona Republic: “The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to review an appeal challenging cuts to the state’s Medicaid program, letting stand an enrollment freeze that has locked thousands of poor residents out of government-paid health insurance. An estimated 100,000 childless adults will lose Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System coverage this fiscal year. The state has turned away an untold number since a lower-court judge allowed the cap to take effect in July. The high court’s decision effectively ends the case, which centers on a 2000 voter- approved measure that expanded the AHCCCS population. However, it lets stand an Appeals Court ruling that effectively said the budget cuts violated the measure, Proposition 204, but the court couldn’t force the Legislature to obey the law. The court decisions raise questions about how much room legislators have to interpret ballot measures…”
• Feds look into Minnesota’s premium rates for poor, By Jackie Crosby, February 14, 2012, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “The federal government has launched an investigation into whether Minnesota has set premium rates too high on health insurance coverage for low-income people, officials said Tuesday. The probe came to light at a state House committee hearing, at which one critic of the state’s nonprofit plans said they earn more on the state plans for Medical Assistance than they have on commercial plans, even as doctors and hospitals collect less reimbursement. But even as lawmakers pushed for answers during a sweeping four-hour session, few details were forthcoming…”

Child welfare reform: Colorado unveils plan to better protect children, By Christopher N. Osher, February 16, 2012, Denver Post: “Colorado will overhaul how it trains child abuse caseworkers, make more information public when a child dies of abuse or neglect and will start holding counties accountable for how they deal with reports of child abuse, state officials said today. Reforms unveiled by Gov. John Hickenlooper and Reggie Bicha, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Health and Human Services, are aimed at improving a child welfare system that has seen 43 children die in the past five years amid concerns that caseworkers did not do enough to save them. ‘Every decision we make in formulating and implementing this plan has the safety and well-being of children and their families at the forefront,’ Hickenlooper said in a prepared statement. The plan, which took a year to develop, has five key strategies. The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Case Family Program helped the state come up with the program and has contributed more than $600,000 toward developing and implementing the proposal…”

Senate approves tax break for low-income workers, By Mike Glover (AP), February 14, 2012, Sioux City Journal: “The Iowa Senate has unanimously approved a tax cut for low-income workers Tuesday, with backers calling it a powerful tool against poverty. ‘Iowa’s working families will spend this tax cut in their local communities, buying food, milk, gas, repairing the family car and paying medical bills,’ said Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, the measure’s main backer. ‘It helps working families. You must have a job to benefit from this tax credit.’ Critics said they would have preferred a broader tax proposal that would not only help the working poor but spark the economy as well. ‘This is just one piece,’ said Sen. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull. ‘I urge the body to put together a full and comprehensive tax plan…’”

Michigan, Pennsylvania put limits on families seeking food aid, By Kathy Barks Hoffman (AP), February 9, 2012, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “The 2010 Buick Enclave parked in her garage kept Michigan resident Renee Moore from getting food stamps for two months last year, even though her family’s income had dropped to below the poverty level, her husband’s Ford Explorer had 300,000 miles on it and her family had less than $1,000 in the bank. The reason? In the eyes of the state, she owned too much. Unlike other states that moved away from setting limits on what families like the Moores can own before they qualify for help, Michigan last year made it harder for thousands of residents to become eligible for food stamps by adopting new limits on what people can own. Pennsylvania also is toughening its so-called asset test, adding new restrictions on who gets government help. The move to redefine who’s truly needy comes after cash-strapped states saw a surge of applications for food stamp aid during the economic downturn. Still, leaders maintain the assistance needs to be targeted to those who need it most…”

Even critics of safety net increasingly depend on it, By Binyamin Appelbaum and Robert Gebeloff, February 11, 2012, New York Times: “Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government. He says that too many Americans lean on taxpayers rather than living within their means. He supports politicians who promise to cut government spending. In 2010, he printed T-shirts for the Tea Party campaign of a neighbor, Chip Cravaack, who ousted this region’s long-serving Democratic congressman. Yet this year, as in each of the past three years, Mr. Gulbranson, 57, is counting on a payment of several thousand dollars from the federal government, a subsidy for working families called the earned-income tax credit. He has signed up his three school-age children to eat free breakfast and lunch at federal expense. And Medicare paid for his mother, 88, to have hip surgery twice. There is little poverty here in Chisago County, northeast of Minneapolis, where cheap housing for commuters is gradually replacing farmland. But Mr. Gulbranson and many other residents who describe themselves as self-sufficient members of the American middle class and as opponents of government largess are drawing more deeply on that government with each passing year…”

Poverty, homelessness rising sharply among Florida students, By Mc Nelly Torres, February 11, 2012, Miami Herald: “Since the economy collapsed in 2008, Florida’s student population has become poorer each year - with almost all school districts in the state experiencing spikes in the number of kids who qualify for subsidized meals. Children have become homeless at alarming numbers as well. Homelessness among school-age children has soared from 30,878 in the 2006-07 school year to 56,680 in 2010-11. Homelessness for children of all ages, including those too young for public school, was 83,957 in 2010-11, up from 49,886 in 2006-07. The adverse effects of the economic downturn are having a significant impact on Florida’s public school system, in which over 56 percent of students enrolled in the 2010-2011 school year qualified for subsidized meals. The Florida Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed data relating to poverty rates, homeless students and subsidized meals for all school districts before the financial crisis began up to and through the 2010-11 school year. The widespread increase in these three poverty indicators paints a picture of a state that has become much poorer after the Great Recession…”

Nigerians living in poverty rise to nearly 61%, February 13, 2012, BBC News: “Poverty has risen in Nigeria, with almost 100 million people living on less than a $1 (£0.63) a day, despite economic growth, statistics have shown. The National Bureau of Statistics said 60.9% of Nigerians in 2010 were living in ‘absolute poverty’ - this figure had risen from 54.7% in 2004. The bureau predicted this rising trend was likely to continue. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest oil producer but the sector has been tainted by accusations of corruption. According to the report, absolute poverty is measured by the number of people who can afford only the bare essentials of shelter, food and clothing…”

• State tax credit for the working poor in heavy demand, By Keith M. Phaneuf, February 13, 2012, Connecticut Mirror: “More than 70,000 Connecticut households took advantage of a new tax credit for the working poor during just the first month of state income tax filings, according to the Department of Revenue Services. The claims filed under the new state Earned Income Tax Credit were hailed both by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration and a leading private, nonprofit anti-poverty group as evidence of the new program’s necessity as well as its success…”
• Tax refund is vital chunk of annual budget for many people, By Susan Tompor, February 9, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “For Ola Jones, 53, her federal income tax refund typically amounts to more than an extra paycheck each year. It’s a vital part of her annual budget and a way to cover extra bills and necessities. ‘Right now, I need a washing machine and tires for my car,’ said Jones, who stood in line one snowy Saturday morning in late January to obtain free tax-preparation help at Focus: HOPE in Detroit. Her daughter, Tujuana Jones, 19, also received free tax-preparation help, offered that day by volunteers from the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants. The student, who attends Wayne County Community College District and works at Rainbow Clothing in Detroit, planned to go shopping with her $500 tax refund. For lower-income families, the tax season kickoff is a time to catch up with bills and rebuild some savings. The federal earned income tax credit and other Michigan-related tax credits offer a powerful punch for limited budgets…”

Fighting poverty remains tall task, By Erin Rhoda, February 12, 2012, Kennebec Journal: “Scott Labbe, 63, is a retired, former business owner who has lived in Madison for 40 years. When he first moved to town, there were four appliance stores, three stores selling televisions and four furniture stores, he said. One of those stores, Scott’s Appliance, was his. People in Somerset County were not wealthy — he recalled once trading a washer for half a slaughtered cow — but they made a living. Now, he questions how people in Madison and Somerset County make ends meet, considering the shortage of good jobs in comparison to housing payments, food costs, fuel for the car and the expenses that come with raising children. Labbe is on the mark — a recent report says nearly one in five people in Somerset live in poverty. Of the county’s 52,200 residents, 9,700 people, or 18.6 percent, live below the poverty line…”

• Medicaid overhaul leaves questions, By Benjamin Yelle, February 13, 2012, Keene Sentinel: “A plan to change the way Medicaid services are delivered in New Hampshire has service providers and family members searching for answers - and time is running out. Gov. John H. Lynch and the N.H. Executive Council are scheduled to act in March on contracts for so-called ‘managed care’ of Medicaid clients. Medicaid is a federal program that provides medical and social services to low-income Americans. It has two components: acute care, which is similar to health insurance, and covers things like doctor’s visits, and long-term or chronic care, which covers permanent developmental disabilities, acquired brain injuries and other serious or recurring ailments. In the Monadnock Region about 1,000 people receive such services. The state Legislature voted in 2011 to send Medicaid services out to bid to private, for-profit companies to take over administration from the N.H. Department of Health and Human Services…”
• Feds deny part of Fla. Medicaid proposal, By Kelli Kennedy (AP), February 11, 2012, Miami Herald: “Republican lawmakers’ quest to expand a Medicaid privatization program statewide was dealt a blow this week after federal health officials said the state could not impose $10 monthly premiums on Medicaid beneficiaries. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also denied the state’s proposal to charge $100 co-pays for any non-emergency ER visits, according to a letter sent Thursday. Federal health officials said the fees violated several statutes designed to protect nearly 3 million of state’s most vulnerable…”
• Medicaid managed care companies defend their efforts in Kentucky, By John Cheves, February 13, 2012, Lexington Herald-Leader: “Three companies hired last year to manage most of the state’s Medicaid program on Monday defended their efforts thus far and said they’re working to resolve problems. Lawmakers on the Program Review and Investigations Committee quizzed executives with Coventry Cares, Kentucky Spirit and WellCare of Kentucky, which manage Medicaid outside of the Louisville area under a cost-cutting plan implemented in November by Gov. Steve Beshear…”

• How are our kids doing? Study says one in five live in poverty, By Jennifer A. Bowen, February 10, 2012, Belleville News-Democrat: “One in five children in Illinois live in poverty, according to Illinois Kids Count 2012 data released Thursday by the organization Voices for Illinois Children. The organization released its 2012 data Thursday morning at various locations throughout the state, including East St. Louis, and the report shows an economy that is still struggling with poverty and a high joblessness rate. One in five children in Illinois live in poverty, and the racial-ethnic disparities in family income have widened. African-American and Latino families have the highest child poverty rates, according to the Illinois Kids Count 2012 report. The report is researched and prepared by Voices for Illinois Children and Kids Count…”
• Bad economy hurts kids, too, charity says, By Deidre Cox Baker, February 10, 2012, Quad-City Times: “State and federal budget cuts that cause a harsh impact on children threaten the future for everyone, several advocates agreed at Thursday’s release of the 2012 Illinois Kids Count findings. ’Being born poor was not a barrier for success in the past, but that’s not true in today’s economy,’ said Sue Swisher, the executive director of the Child Abuse Council in the Quad-Cities. She spoke at a news conference called to announce the annual report tallied by Voices for Illinois Children, the Illinois Kids Count organization…”
• Report: Illinois children are caught in ‘budget crossfire’ as recession undermines gains, By Karen Hawkins (AP), February 9, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Illinois children are caught in a ‘budget crossfire,’ hit hard by state budget cuts and a recession that left one in five of them living in poverty and 33,000 students homeless in 2010, a children’s advocacy organization said in a report released Thursday. The Illinois Kids Count 2012 report says the state’s budget crisis is undermining gains made for young people, with cuts to investments in early childhood education and after-school programs…”
• High poverty rates, child care issues persist in Tri-County, By Pam Adams, February 9, 2012, Peoria Journal Star: “Orders of protection issued in the Tri-County Area are at record levels and, in most cases, the victims of domestic violence are pregnant or have young children, according to Martha Herm, director of the Center for Prevention of Abuse. The Children’s Home is seeing ‘astronomical increases’ in the number of Tri-County Area children on Medicaid hospitalized for psychiatric problems, according to the agency’s president and CEO, Clete Winkelman. And a small day care on Peoria’s south side that doesn’t accept government funding is, nevertheless, feeling the crunch of state government cutbacks…”

Education gap grows between rich and poor, studies say, By Sabrina Tavernise, February 9, 2012, New York Times: “Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening, a development that threatens to dilute education’s leveling effects. It is a well-known fact that children from affluent families tend to do better in school. Yet the income divide has received far less attention from policy makers and government officials than gaps in student accomplishment by race. Now, in analyses of long-term data published in recent months, researchers are finding that while the achievement gap between white and black students has narrowed significantly over the past few decades, the gap between rich and poor students has grown substantially during the same period…”

• N.J. to disperse $40M in federal Medicaid funding to hospitals, clinics investing in electronic records, By Susan K. Livio, February 9, 2012, Star-Ledger: “The state this week is distributing $40 million in federal Medicaid funds to reward 30 hospitals and 40 physician practices that have been enterprising enough to invest in an electronic medical record system designed to improve care and catch mistakes, state health and human services officials announced today…”
• Health care providers say Medicaid managed care riddled with problems, By Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt Spears, February 9, 2012, Lexington Herald-Leader: “The baby was coming, no matter what a managed care company had to say. But when a woman in labor went to one of Appalachian Regional Healthcare’s eight Kentucky hospitals before Christmas, the hospital was told by one of three managed care companies that now run Medicaid in much of Kentucky that it must get preauthorization to deliver the baby in order to get paid. Fourteen days after the woman and baby went home, the hospital still was waiting for approval to deliver the baby, said Joe Grossman, vice president and chief financial officer of Appalachian Regional Healthcare. Grossman was one of several people to testify Wednesday before a Senate panel about problems with private companies that are now managing Medicaid care in Kentucky…”
• Quinn to Obama: Illinois pressing ahead on Medicaid reforms, By Ray Long and Alissa Groeninger, February 10, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “As President Barack Obama presses forward with his signature health care law, his fellow Illinois Democrats running state government have waited more than a year to win federal approval for a new plan to fight fraud in the health program for 2.7 million of the state’s poorest residents. Facing increasing Republican pressure to put reforms in place, Quinn’s team told the Obama administration this week that Illinois will wait no longer. Later this month, the state’s Healthcare and Family Services Department will start matching addresses of people enrolled in Medicaid against Illinois secretary of state driving records to ensure that care for the poor is going to people who actually live in Illinois. The Quinn administration also is putting together a plan to check income eligibility and plans to roll it out soon, officials said…”

• State Medicaid to quit paying for ER visits deemed unnecessary, By Carol M. Ostrom, February 7, 2012, Seattle Times: “Intent on cutting state budget health-care costs, Medicaid officials say the program will no longer pay for any medically unnecessary emergency-room visits, even when patients or parents have reason to believe they’re having an emergency. The rules - arguably more drastic than an earlier proposal to limit Medicaid patients to three visits per year for nonemergency conditions - would block payment for ER visits for about 500 different conditions. They would apply to all adults and children on Medicaid, with no exceptions, such as someone being brought in by ambulance or from a nursing home, or when patients have neurological symptoms or unstable vital signs. The new rules are to begin April 1, but a statewide group of emergency doctors, backed by the Washington State Medical Association and the Washington State Hospital Association, are pressing lawmakers to stop the plan, arguing it would shift costs to hospitals and ER doctors and deny care to people with real emergencies…”
• Medicaid may stop covering visits to ER later deemed ‘unnecessary’, By Jordan Schrader, February 8, 2012, Tacoma News Tribune: “Medicaid soon might stop covering emergency-room treatment that state officials decide afterward was ‘not medically necessary.’ A state Health Care Authority rule putting a three-visit limit on unnecessary ER use by poor patients was blocked in court on procedural grounds. The agency has replaced it with a new policy planned to take effect April 1 that would reduce the number of conditions deemed non-emergencies but would forbid even a single unnecessary visit. The doctors and hospitals who sued over the old rule blasted the new plan Tuesday, saying it would leave it up to a ‘faceless bureaucrat’ to decide what’s an emergency. They weren’t ready to say they’ll go to court again over it…”

• Teen pregnancy rate hits 40-year low, By Joel Provano, February 8, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The U.S. teen pregnancy rate has reached a 40-year low, a new study finds. The study, by the Guttmacher Institute, found that the pregnancy rate declined 42 percent from its peak in 1990, according to the study released Wednesday. The teen pregnancy rate in 2008 was 68 per 1,000 girls age 15-19, down from 117 per 1,000 in 1990. That means about 7 percent of girls in that age group became pregnant that year. In addition, the survey showed the birthrate declined 35 percent between 1991 and 2008, from 61.8 to 40.2 births per 1,000 teens…”
• Teen pregnancy, abortion rates at record low, study says, By James B. Kelleher, February 8, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Birth and abortion rates among U.S. teens fell to record lows in 2008 as increased use of contraceptives sent the overall teen pregnancy rate to its lowest level since at least 1972, a study showed on Wednesday. But disparities among racial and ethnic groups continued to persist, with black and Hispanic teens experiencing pregnancy and abortion rates two to four times higher than their white peers, the Guttmacher Institute, the nonprofit sexual health research group that conducted the analysis, said…”

• Latinos, hit hard by job losses, are making strong comeback, By Don Lee, February 5, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “After scraping by on handyman jobs for a year, Bert Qintana figured he’d have to leave his wife and teenage son at their home near Taos, N.M., and find work elsewhere. Then Qintana got a call last month from Chevron Mining, which runs a mine 20 miles away. Would he be interested in hauling muck from the molybdenum mine for $17.05 an hour? He leaped at the offer. ‘Thank God,’ said Qintana, 45, a Latino who had worked as a general contractor. ‘I was able to hang in there and not have to move.’ About a dozen other workers, most of them Latino, also were hired. Like Qintana, many Latinos with ties to the home building industry got slammed by the recession, which wiped out about 2 million construction jobs. But now, as the economic rebound picks up a bit of steam, Latinos are scoring bigger job gains than most other demographic groups and proving to be a bright spot in the fledgling recovery…”
• For some black women, economy and willingness to aid family strains finances, By Ylan Q. Mui and Chris L. Jenkins, February 5, 2012, Washington Post: “The Great Recession carried special pain for black women like Jane Ladson. She had always been the one her family turned to when they needed help, and she didn’t hesitate to give it. She helped pay for weddings and rent. She made room for her nephew when her brother died of AIDS. And even now in her 50s, she took in a baby that wasn’t her own. But help was easier to give when the economy was booming and Ladson was bringing home $4,000 a month as a mechanic at Amtrak. Even an injury on the job turned into a blessing in disguise when she collected a $700,000 settlement that allowed her to build her dream home in Clinton and help her longtime partner start her own hair salon. Then the recession hit, and fate twisted the other way…”
• Unemployment drop still leaves low skill workers behind, By Michael A. Fletcher, February 6, 2012, Washington Post: “The nation’s jobless rate has declined to its lowest level in three years, a fact that has left Jamie Bean, an unemployed air-conditioner repairman, feeling more left out than ever. Bean, 36, lost his job in December. Now he is scrambling to keep up with child-support payments to his wife, who is also unemployed. ‘As it stands now, I can’t afford to get divorced,’ he said, managing a wry smile. Bean’s predicament is not unlike that of many people who have a high school education or less. Not only were they hit especially hard by the recession but they have continued losing ground in the recovery that has followed. By disproportionate numbers, these Americans have given up looking for work, making the nation’s recovery appear better than it is. If the unemployment rate counted the 2.8 million people who want jobs but have stopped looking, it would sit at 9.9 percent rather than its current 8.3 percent…”

Census data shows poverty hitting Washington County children hard, By Tom Walsh, February 7, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “Nearly one in three children living in Washington County lives in poverty. A recent study titled ‘Poverty in Maine’ shows 30.9 percent of those under age 18 are living in Washington County households with incomes below the federal poverty level. On a county-by-county basis, that is the highest childhood poverty rate in Maine. Statewide, the childhood rate is 18.2 percent, which is less than the national rate of 21.6 percent…”

Audit: Michigan’s prisoner re-entry initiative harms public safety, fails to track ex-convicts, By Mike Martindale, February 8, 2012, Detroit News: “A much heralded Michigan prisoner release program is only moderately effective, not sufficiently monitored and lacks proper record-keeping, according to a state audit released Tuesday. The audit is the second in less than a year criticizing the Michigan Prisoner Re-entry Initiative, which the Department of Corrections has held up as a successful model of how to safely blend ex-convicts back into society. Corrections officials claim the initiative - which has received more than $175 million since 2007, including $52 million last year - has cut recidivism by giving ex-convicts aid for housing, transportation, employment, health care and education. The 32-page audit focuses on shortcomings and provides support to critics who say the department has put budget issues before public safety…”