• Number of subsidized lunches on the rise, By Meranda Watling, November 19, 2009, Lafayette Journal and Courier: “An increased number of Greater Lafayette students are getting lunches on the government’s dime this semester, thanks in large part to the economy, school officials report. Preliminary numbers for this school year show that in Tippecanoe County, only the West Lafayette school district saw fewer students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches under federal guidelines…”
• Poverty in CMS hits all-time high: 51 percent, By Ann Doss Helms, November 19, 2009, Charlotte Observer: ” Almost 68,000 students, or 51 percent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ enrollment, get lunch aid for low-income families this year - an all-time high. The numbers announced Wednesday, while hardly unexpected, are bound to fan talk about middle-class flight and the growing swath of urban schools abandoned by affluent families. The school system nudged past the 50-percent poverty mark in the middle of last school year, as the recession worsened and new applications for aid came in…”
• Number of poor children rose in Tarrant suburbs, census data show, By Eva-Marie Ayala, November 18, 2009, Fort Worth Star Telegram: ” Fort Worth has seen a drop in the number of school-age children living in poverty, while many suburban school districts have seen significant increases, according to 2008 estimates released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. From 2004 to 2008, the number of such children in Tarrant County school districts grew by 901 to 53,092. The Fort Worth, Lake Worth and Northwest school districts saw decreases, while Kennedale, Grapevine-Colleyville, Crowley and Mansfield had the most significant increases. The shift within the county mirrors housing trends, said Pat Guseman, a demographer who works with Mansfield and other North Texas school districts…”
• Southern New Jersey school districts see worst of nation’s poverty, By John Froonjian, Diane D’Amico, Trudi Gilfillian, and Edward Van Embden, November 19, 2009, Press of Atlantic City: “Gladys Lauriello didn’t realize her family was poor when she went to school in Wildwood. But now, as Lauriello works as principal in the same building where she attended class, she recognizes the signs of poverty that characterized her youth. She wasn’t surprised to learn that U.S. Census Bureau data released Wednesday show that 36 percent of school-age children in Wildwood live in poverty. That’s the highest percentage among school districts in New Jersey…”

• Half of U.S. children will use food stamps, study finds, By Alfred Lubrano, November 18, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “In a stark and surprising finding, about half the children in the United States will be on food stamps at some point during their childhood, a new study of 29 years of data shows. One in three white children and 90 percent of all black children - ages 1 through 20 - will use the program, according to the research, published this month in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. ‘This means Americans’ economic distress is much higher than we had ever realized,’ said Thomas A. Hirschl, a sociology professor at Cornell University and a coauthor of the study with Mark R. Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis. The survey finds that continued food-stamp usage signifies a kind of poverty that is ‘a threat to the overall health and well-being of American children, and, as such, represents a significant challenge to pediatricians in their daily practice.’ The persistent poverty described in the survey dovetails with the findings of a U.S. Department of Agriculture study released Monday. It determined that 49 million Americans - 17 million of them children - were unable to consistently get enough food to eat in 2008. Nearly 15 percent of households were having trouble finding food, the highest number recorded since the agency began measuring hunger in 1995…”
• Hunger in the United States, Editorial, November 17, 2009, New York Times: “Congress should make a priority of expanding federal nutrition programs that are aimed at helping millions of struggling families feed their children. The need to bolster these programs was underscored again this week in a dismaying Department of Agriculture study showing that a record number of households had trouble getting sufficient food at one time or another last year…”

State costs rise with poverty, By Jon Walker, November 15, 2009, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “A new reality in the shadow of today’s health care debate is that a growing number of South Dakotans live in poverty. Use of Medicaid to pay health care bills jumped the past five years across the state, as did use of food stamps to buy groceries. Both trends indicate that more South Dakotans are low-income, and both show the pain that the recession has caused for individuals and families. But those trends also show that South Dakotans, already below average for wages, are losing ground to what the government defines as a minimum basic income. ‘People making ends meet two years ago and four years ago are not really as able to do that now,’ said Matt Diersen, a South Dakota State University economist. The rise in poverty presents a budgeting headache for politicians and a hard choice for doctors who must decide whether to accept more Medicaid patients at discount rates. But it also pushes more state residents to public health services…”

Alabama poverty rate would decline under new formula, says study, By Dan Murtaugh, November 12, 2009, Mobile Press-Register: “Alabama’s poverty rate is lower than the national average when regional differences in housing costs are taken into account, according to a recent study. Both Alabama and Mississippi are among several Southeastern states whose poverty rates decrease under such a formula. The study, written by Dorothy Smith at the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C., aims to highlight the need to modernize how poverty is measured. Kristina Scott, executive director of the Alabama Poverty Project, said a study of regional differences in poverty needs to take into account more than just housing costs. But overall, she agreed that officials need new ways to measure the problem…”

Aid freeze in post-coup Honduras hurting poor, By Robin Emmott, November 12, 2009, Washington Post: “Poor Hondurans are going hungry and their sick children cannot obtain medicines as donors cut aid to the country following a June coup that deposed President Manuel Zelaya, doctors and aid workers say. Soup kitchens have closed, medicines have become scarce, foreign doctors have canceled trips to Honduras and funding for the poor to run small businesses have dried up, increasing unemployment. With Honduras already suffering from the global economic crisis, international development banks, the European Union and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close Zelaya ally, froze donor programs after the army-backed coup on June 28…”

• Persistent poverty in Northern Ireland ‘twice that of Great Britain’, November 12, 2009, Belfast Telegraph: “The level of persistent poverty in Northern Ireland children is more than double that of those in Great Britain, it was revealed today. High levels of unemployment, disability, lower wages and poor quality part-time jobs were to blame, a study for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) discovered. A fifth of families in Northern Ireland experienced persistent poverty compared to a tenth in Great Britain in recent years. Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, called for action by the Assembly…”
• NI has worst child poverty in UK, November 12, 2009, BBC News: “The level of persistent child poverty in Northern Ireland is more than double that of the rest of the United Kingdom, new research has found. The study, by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, found that high levels of unemployment, disability and poor quality part-time jobs were to blame. The charity defines poverty as the experience of a family with an income which is 60% below the UK average…”

Who’s poor? Proposal aims for better measurement, By Ruben Rosario, November 4, 2009, Pioneer Press: “I need to cut a piece of wood that is precisely 36 inches long and 5 inches wide. I have two measurement tools at my disposal. I already know the distance between the tips of my outstretched thumb and pinky - 9 inches. I also have a tape measure. Both will do the job, but one will provide a more accurate and efficient measurement. Which leads me to a bill in Congress that, if passed, will change the way we define and measure poverty in Minnesota and across the nation for policy-making and public assistance purposes. Whether the proposed change will be significant, increasing or decreasing who’s officially poor and who is not, is open to debate. The Measuring Poverty in America Act of 2009 seeks to replace the current federal poverty-level guideline used to determine the nation’s poverty rate as well as an individual’s or a family’s eligibility for public assistance benefits that can range from food stamps to state-subsidized health care…”

Study finds working poor hardest hit by income tax, By Phillip Rawls (AP), November 5, 2009, Montgomery Advertiser: “A national study released Wednesday showed Alaba­ma makes families living in poverty pay higher income taxes than any other state. The study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priori­ties comes a few days after a U.S. Census report showed Alabama residents and busi­nesses overall pay less in state and local taxes than their counterparts in any other state. In the 2007 fiscal year, the average of state and local taxes collected per person in Alabama was $2,909. Missis­sippi finished 49th at $2,989. The national median was $4,011. That doesn’t mean every­one in Alabama is enjoying low taxes…”

Children slipping back into poverty, By Rachel Williams, November 3, 2009, The Guardian: “Children in affluent areas are sinking into poverty after a third of the gains made over the last eleven years in getting families into work were wiped out in just 12 months, a new study warned today. One in five - two million - British children now live in households where neither parent has a job, a rise of 170,000 since 2008, the Campaign to End Child Poverty said. If unemployment continued to rise as forecast, the number could return to levels of a decade ago, when Tony Blair made his flagship pledge to eradicate child poverty by 2020 and halve it by 2010. The number of children in jobless households, two thirds of whom face poverty, had fallen by a half a million - nearly a quarter - between 1997 and 2008…”

• Report: 1 in 4 Israelis poor, By Yael Branovsky, November 2, 2009, Ynetnews: “The beginning of the financial crisis did not affect the figures of poverty in Israel, which remained almost unchanged last year, according to the National Insurance Institute’s Poverty Report for 2008. Nonetheless, the data published Monday point to an extremely grim picture: There are 1,651,300 needy people living in Israel, including 783,600 children. The percentage of poor people in Israel dropped slightly to 23.7%. In other words, one in four Israelis is defined as needy. According to NII officials, the financial crisis’ influence, which was partly seen in the second half of 2008, compensated for the rise in income in the first half of the year. The results of the crisis erased the improvement in the dimensions of poverty among families and children. However, many families are now above the poverty line, thanks to allowances they are receiving…”
• Number of working poor grows, By Shay Niv, November 2, 2009, Globes: “The beginnings of a fall in the rate of poverty in Israel seen in the second half of 2007 and the first half of 2008 were wiped out in the second half of 2008, because of the economic crisis. This emerges from the 2008 Poverty Report, released by the National Insurance Institute of Israel today. The dimensions of poverty in 2008 were the same as in 2007, placing Israel at the head of the ladder of developed countries with especially high rates of poverty, alongside the US and Mexico. According to the data, 420,000 Israeli families lived in poverty in 2008. Poverty affected 1.65 million people, 783,000 of them children. In other words, one in every three Israeli children is poor…”

Illinois school test scores: Income-based gap proves hard to close, By Tara Malone and Darnell Little, October 30, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Surrounded by sports fields and suburban lawns, Hadley Junior High School could be the envy of the state. Nine of every 10 students at the Glen Ellyn school passed state exams in reading and math, according to the 2009 Illinois School Report Card made public Friday. But average scores belie a widespread problem the federal government has spent billions trying to fix nationwide: While at least 95 percent of Hadley’s well-off students passed the eighth-grade reading and math tests, about half of their low-income classmates met the same goals, revealing an achievement gap that is as persistent as it is pernicious. Seven years after the federal No Child Left Behind Law ambitiously pledged to eliminate such disparities and invested nearly $6.2 billion in Illinois schools alone, the progress has been modest and isolated. While the performance gap between advantaged and disadvantaged grade school children narrowed in Illinois since 2002 — in math, the margin shrunk by at least 13 percentage points in third, fifth and eighth grades — the divide among high school juniors actually widened slightly in math and reading…”

Needs grow for children amid creeping poverty, By Josh Verges, October 25, 2009, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “Wendy Klinsing used to volunteer serving food to the needy. But with her husband’s bartending income slashed by a poor economy, she now holds down expenses by eating a weekly meal at The Banquet. ‘We might start going twice a week for Christmas,’ Klinsing said Thursday as her 6-year-old daughter complained about the lasagna. ‘They don’t know about the economy. They still want presents.’ Child poverty indicators in Sioux Falls are at historic highs. And while state government faces a serious budget squeeze, some advocates are hopeful the recession will bring heightened awareness to the plight of the poor - and with it changes in policy to help more struggling families. After years of slow growth, the percentage of public elementary schoolchildren signed up for free and reduced-price lunches hit 41.5 at the end of May, a 2.9-point increase from the previous year. Meanwhile, the local waiting list for Head Start, the federally funded preschool program for children in poverty, reached a record 301 in a September count. School officials say there are 330 more students on the list who are considered below the self-sufficiency marker of 200 percent of the federal poverty line…”

• Poverty study receives praise, By Amanda McElfresh, October 26, 2009, Daily Advertiser: “Local researchers who study poverty and its effects across the state say they are encouraged by the U.S. Census Bureau’s decision to release revised estimates of how many Americans are living in poverty. The new formula, developed in part by the National Academy of Science, shows that about 47.4 million Americans lived in poverty last year, about seven million more than originally estimated. In addition, almost 18 percent of children lived in poverty, a slight decrease from the number found using the traditional formula…”
• 3.6M older Americans living in poverty, By Saul Friedman, October 23, 2009, Newsday: ” We cannot take much comfort in the latest census figures on poverty among older Americans. It is true that the 2008 poverty rate, 9.7 percent among people 65 and older, was unchanged from 2007. But that 9.7 percent, according to the census tables, represents about 3.6 million people who are living on $10,326 a year, or $14,051 for a couple. That probably means Social Security is their only income; indeed, for half the population over 65, Social Security is the primary source of income. Yet, those figures don’t take into full account of the effects of the prolonged and deepening recession on older people…”
• U.S. needs better way measure poverty, By Terry Haven, October 23, 2009, Salt Lake Tribune: “On Oct. 19, the Census Bureau released alternate poverty rates based on recommendations from a National Academy of Sciences panel on measuring poverty. No state data were given in the report, but new figures show a national poverty rate of 15.8 percent rather than the 13.2 percent poverty rate released just weeks ago using the traditional formula. The poverty rate for the Western Region rose from 13.5 percent to 19 percent. There is increasing agreement among policymakers and advocates that the current federal poverty measure is broken and outdated. The advent of these poverty figures is a good time to reflect on the inadequacies of our poverty measure and the crucial need to update this outdated statistic…”

Research shows value of preschool for poor, By Joe Smydo, October 23, 2009, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Research released yesterday should end the debate over whether pre-kindergarten classes help level the playing field for the state’s most vulnerable children, researchers and study sponsors said. The three-year study of 10,000 children showed the state’s Pre-K Counts program helped the students improve math, literacy and social skills; helped put them on track for kindergarten; and reduced their need for special-education services…”

• Sweden does most to help world’s poor: study, By David Landes, October 22, 2009, The Local: “Sweden has the best foreign aid policies among the world’s wealthy countries, according to a new ranking. Sweden edged out Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway to claim the top spot in the 2009 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), an annual ranking compiled by the Center for Global Development (CGD), a Washington, DC-based think tank…”
• Ireland ranked sixth in helping poor countries, By Kitty Holland, October 23, 2009, Irish Times: “Ireland has been ranked sixth out of 22 rich countries for its record on helping poor and developing countries by a Washington-based think-tank. The Irish State was, however, criticised by the Centre for Global Development (CGD) for the barriers it puts up to trade in agricultural products from poor countries and its record on investment in technological creation…”
• Canada 11th of 22 in battling poverty, By Olivia Ward, October 23, 2009, Toronto Star: “When it comes to battling world poverty, some of the wealthiest countries, including Canada, are punching below their weight, says a new report from an international think-tank. In the Commitment to Development Index released this week by the Center for Global Development, Canada rates 11th of the 22 richest countries. But the Washington-based organization found that ‘among the G7 countries - those that matter most by dint of their economic power - only Canada squeezes into the top half.’ The index is an important reality check, the group says, because it tallies a wide range of policies that affect the daily lives of poor people in developing countries, going beyond handouts of money or goods…”

America’s 10 poorest cities, By Joshua Zumbrun, October 19, 2009, ABC News: “The Great Recession is rewriting the rules of American poverty. Data from the Census Bureau, released in September, show that during the first year of the recession, incomes fell farther and poverty leaped higher than during almost any other time in a generation. In 2008, U.S. median income fell to $50,303 from $52,163 in 2007. That 3.6% decline is the largest one-year drop since records begin. The poverty rate increased to 13.2% from 12.5%, meaning the recession has brought 2.6 million more Americans into poverty. The Economic Policy Institute projects that in the next two years, incomes could decline by another $3,000 and poverty could increase by 1.9 percentage points. Just as the recession has changed the map of unemployment, it has redrawn the contours of poverty…”

Youth face uphill struggle amid Detroit’s troubles, By Corey Williams (AP), October 17, 2009, Washington Post: “Like the rundown houses and shuttered storefronts in his Detroit neighborhood, bleakness abounds in LeRoy Taylor’s future. He is among tens of thousands reaching adulthood in a city where the American Dream appears just outside their reach. Taylor, 20, spends empty hours on basketball courts, zoned out in front of a television or aimlessly pedaling through streets he desperately wants to leave, but doesn’t have the work skills, education or money to do so. ‘I fill out applications. No one will call me back,’ said Taylor, stopping his bike long enough to hustle change for cigarettes near a west side bus stop. ‘It’s useless. It’s real scary.’ Too few jobs are only part of the problems facing youths in this troubled city. Its public high schools are considered among the nation’s worst. Planned budget cuts to the recreation department will reduce hours and slash into staffing. Then there’s crime…”

• Fuel poverty ‘continues to rise’, October 21, 2009, BBC News: “Up to 4.6 million households in England could be in fuel poverty in 2009, new figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change show. The government has vowed to end fuel poverty in England by 2016. Fuel poverty is defined as those who spend more than 10% of their household income on heating their homes. The projection comes within data that reveals the number fuel-poor households in the UK rose from 3.5 million in 2006 to four million in 2007. The data, based on the latest figures for England and Scotland along with extrapolated estimates for Wales and Northern Ireland, suggest that 16% of all UK households were in fuel poverty in 2007…”
• Households in fuel poverty to hit 4.6m, By Sandra Haurant, October 21, 2009, The Guardian: “The number of households living in fuel poverty in England is likely to reach 4.6 million by the end of the year, figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) showed today. A household is said to be “fuel poor” when more than 10% of its income is spent on fuel to maintain an “adequate level of warmth” - usually 21C in the living area and 18C in other rooms. The latest figures show that 3.25 million households in the UK lived in fuel poverty in 2007, an increase of half a million compared with 2006. In England 2.8 million households were fuel poor in 2007, up from 2.4 million in 2006. The DECC said the jump in fuel poverty was caused by an increase in fuel prices, which continued to soar in 2008…”

• Poverty is up, but how much? Census tells two stories, By Mark Trumbull, October 20, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “The way you measure poverty makes a big difference in the results you get. The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that 15.8 percent of Americans lived in poverty last year, using an alternative gauge that differs sharply from the 13.2 percent official poverty rate the agency released last month. The difference is even starker for some specific groups within America. For example, Americans over age 65 have a poverty rate that’s twice as high - 18.7 percent - using the alternative measure. In all, 47.4 million Americans lived in poverty last year, or 7 million more than indicated in official poverty statistics last month…”
• Is poverty at 40 million - or 47 million?, October 20, 2009, msnbc.com: “How should poverty in America be counted? The Census Bureau uses a calculation that put the number at 39.8 million last year. But a revised formula that lawmakers are considering adds more than 7 million Americans to that number. If the revised formula is adopted, a more refined picture of American poverty could emerge that would capture the everyday costs of necessities besides food. A change also could upend long-standing notions of those in greatest need and lead to shifts in how billions of federal dollars for the poor are distributed for health, housing, nutrition and child care…”

Revised formula puts 1 in 6 Americans in poverty, By Hope Yen (AP), October 20, 2009, Washington Post: “The level of poverty in America is even worse than first believed. A revised formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations show that approximately 47.4 million Americans last year lived in poverty, 7 million more than the government’s official figure. The disparity occurs because of differing formulas the Census Bureau and the National Academy of Science use for calculating the poverty rate. The NAS formula shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6 Americans, according to calculations released this week. That’s higher than the 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million, figure made available recently under the original government formula. That measure, created in 1955, does not factor in rising medical care, transportation, child care or geographical variations in living costs. Nor does it consider non-cash government aid when calculating income. As a result, official figures released last month by Census may have overlooked millions of poor people, many of them 65 and older…”

More Colorado children living in poverty, By Karen Auge, October 18, 2009, Denver Post: “Joshua Richardson’s days unfold about like any 4-year-old’s. His mom, LaKetra Richardson, pulls him from under his Spider-Man covers way too early every morning so she can get him and his 2-year-old sister, Alice May, to preschool and still be on time for work. At 4, he knows his letters, his numbers and what time “SpongeBob SquarePants” - or, Spunk Bot Care Pat - comes on. He has no idea, though, that he is part of one of the nation’s fastest-growing demographics: children growing up poor. Or that his home state leads the U.S. in that growth. Colorado’s number of children living in poverty grew 73 percent from 2000 to 2006 - the nation’s highest rate of growth, according to the Colorado Children’s Campaign. The percentage of Colorado kids in poverty grew from 11.3 percent in 2000 to 15 percent in 2008, according to U.S. census data reported last month…”

Teacher inequalities still haunt Nashville schools, By Jaime Sarrio, October 18, 2009, The Tennessean: “Students attending schools at the center of Metro’s controversial rezoning plan are more likely to be taught by inexperienced teachers, despite incentives to attract and retain staff at the high-poverty schools. Teachers at nine select schools affected by the rezoning were offered a 5 percent pay increase or the chance to earn more money through training sessions, but at every school the average level of teaching experience decreased. The problem goes beyond schools involved in the rezoning. Across the district, poor students are more likely to be taught by a new teacher than are their wealthier peers. It’s a trend that has gotten worse in the past year, according to a Tennessean analysis of teacher profile data…”

As city adds housing for poor, market subtracts it, By Manny Fernandez, October 14, 2009, New York Times: “Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is closing in on a milestone: building or preserving 165,000 city-financed apartments and houses for low-, moderate- and middle-income families, the goal of a $7.5 billion housing plan he announced in 2002 and expanded in 2005. It has already financed the creation or preservation of 94,000 units, including 72,000 for low-income households, city officials say. But those efforts have been overwhelmed by a far larger number - the 200,000 apartments affordable to low-income renters that New York City has lost over all, because of market forces, during the mayor’s tenure. The shrinking supply of these apartments, highlighted by researchers at New York University, illustrates not only the increasing strain that housing costs have had on this city of renters, but also the limits of the mayor’s success in providing the city’s poor with reasonable places to live…”

We need to fix how we measure poverty, By Anne Stuhldreher, October 13, 2009, Sacramento Bee: ” From climate change to redistricting, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have teamed up on a number of issues. It’s time to add another to the list — updating the antiquated and misleading way we measure poverty. It may seem like an odd concern for the Republican duo. But Bloomberg took the lead on the issue last year when conditions in New York City were similar to those California faces today: The economy was down; need was rising; and public resources were constrained. A number-cruncher by trade, Bloomberg turned to statistics to shed light on those suffering in the economic gloom. “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” he was quoted as saying. His questions were basic: What people and places in New York have the greatest need? How could the city best deploy its limited public dollars to meet them? And what impact were its current programs having?…”

W.Va., other states divert child support payments to help poor families get back on their feet, By P.J. Dickerscheid (AP), October 5, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Changes in how state governments are allowed to disperse child support payments to welfare families has put more money in the pocket of West Virginia resident Becky Salmons, allowing her to buy school supplies and medicine for her 17-year-old daughter. West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington are among the states taking advantage of changes in federal law that encourage states to stop using the money to reimburse state and federal welfare services and instead use it to help poor families get back on their feet. For some families, the change means hundreds of extra dollars a month. Until a year ago, most of the $225 Salmons’ ex-husband paid each month went to the government. Now, she gets all the money…”

More Hoosiers feeling the pain of poverty, By Bill Ruthhart, October 5, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Indiana is one of only eight states that last year had a statistically significant increase in its poverty rate — likely yet another troubling effect of devastating layoffs in the auto and RV industries, experts said. The percentage of Hoosiers living in poverty increased to 13.1 percent in 2008, up from 12.3 percent the year before, according to the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. That survey estimates that more than 807,000 Hoosiers were living in poverty in 2008, up from 757,000 in 2007. The numbers are particularly disturbing for black and Hispanic Hoosiers. In 2007, 25.5 percent of blacks and 22.2 percent of Hispanics lived below the poverty line, compared with 10.4 percent of whites. But this year’s survey shows those numbers have climbed to 28.1 percent of blacks and 23.7 percent of Hispanics. The percentage of whites rose more slowly, to 11 percent. Experts who work with the homeless and help distribute food stamps say Indiana’s increased poverty rates reflect what they’ve seen since last year: More Hoosiers are struggling to make ends meet and feed their families…”

Report: High poverty risk for Southern rural kids, By Dionne Walker (AP), October 1, 2009, Miami Herald: ” A child living on a remote Southern farm may be at a higher risk of poverty than counterparts in the city, as schools struggle to develop new opportunities and factories shut down what few jobs are available, according to a new report. The brief by the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute found rural children in several Southern states fell into poverty at a faster rate than urban children in 2008. The report examined population numbers released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau, which showed the South remains home to many of the nation’s poor children. ..”

• Census data show falling income, By Kate Linthicum and DeeDee Correll, September 30, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Reporting from Los Angeles and Denver - In 2008, the median household income in the United States plummeted 3.6% from the year before, and the percentage of people living in poverty soared to an 11-year high, recently released U.S. Census data reveal. Economists say the bleak news — which they blame on the slew of layoffs that have accompanied the economic downturn — is significant, if not entirely surprising…”
• Poverty in Ohio spreading and getting worse, By Catherine Candisky and Alan Johnson, September 30, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: “Crushing job losses and rising unemployment pushed nearly one in five Marion County residents into poverty last year, the highest rate among the state’s larger counties, according to new U.S. Census statistics. Marion County’s 2008 poverty rate of 19.4 percent represents a jump of more than half in only two years for the county of 66,396 people about an hour north of Columbus…”
• Child poverty in Baltimore declines, By Brent Jones, September 30, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “Despite a decrease in poverty among city children, nearly one in five Baltimore residents were living below federal poverty levels in 2008, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday. Census Bureau data showed that 19 percent of Baltimore’s population lived in poverty last year, putting Maryland’s most populous city well above the national rate of 13 percent…”
• Experts say LI rate underestimates level of poverty, By Olivia Winslow, September 30, 2009, Newsday: “Long Island’s poverty rates remained largely unchanged in 2008 from the previous year, continuing to fall well below national and state levels, according to new census data out Tuesday. But experts say the figures likely underestimate the level of poverty here, since the region’s high cost of living is not factored into the federal poverty formula…”
• Public aid need grows in Oklahoma, census finds, By Vallery Brown and Paul Monies, September 29, 2009, The Oklahoman: “Nearly one in four Oklahoma families with children younger than 18 were on some type of public assistance in 2008, according to newly released census estimates. Public assistance includes food stamps and supplemental Social Security income…”
• Requests for help contradict statistics, By Kevin Duggan, September 30, 2009, Fort Collins Coloradoan: “Poverty rates in Larimer County appeared to level off in 2008 after rising sharply in the early part of the decade, according to data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. But information in the bureau’s American Community Survey does not reflect the current level of poverty around the county brought on by the economic downturn and the loss of jobs, say local agencies that work with low-income residents…”
• County hit with sharp rise in level of poverty, By Lori Weisberg, October 1, 2009, San Diego Union-Tribune: “Poverty in San Diego County rose last year to its highest level this decade, fresh evidence of the financial toll the county’s prolonged recession and heavy job losses are taking on the region’s neediest households. In all, nearly 367,000 individuals were living in poverty - almost 46,000 more than a year earlier, according to data released this week by the Census Bureau…”

• 140,000 of Minnesota’s kids are living in poverty, By Warren Wolfe, September 30, 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune: “Rising child poverty means that more Minnesota children are suffering physical and emotional “toxic stress” that, for some, will result in irreversible delays in brain development, according to a new report that tracks 14 indicators of child well-being over the last decade. Even in the best years, more than 100,000 Minnesota children live poverty. But the past few years have not been good for children, according to the 2009 Kids Count report by the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota…”
• Childhood poverty rates on the rise, By Tim Nelson, October 1, 2009, Minnesota Public Radio: “A new report on child welfare in Minnesota predicts the number of children in poverty will jump by a one-third over the course of the current recession. The Children’s Defense Fund of Minnesota says while the economic downturn may last only a few months, it will leave a long and troubling legacy. The organization’s annual Kids Count report says more than 26,000 additional children fell into poverty in the first part of this decade. But twice that number could join their ranks during this recession alone…”

• US income gap widens as poor take hit in recession, By Hope Yen (AP), September 29, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets…”
• Downturn weighs on poor, By Conor Dougherty, September 29, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Poverty rose in the West and Midwest last year, as slowdowns in housing and manufacturing sent more families below the poverty line, according to a Census Bureau report released Tuesday. The report, part of the agency’s annual American Community Survey, was the latest to measure the recession’s toll on low-income families, after a boom in which low-skilled workers relied on plentiful jobs and overtime — often in construction and retail — to raise their incomes and prospects…”
• D.C. data on poverty grim but unchanged, By Carol Morello and Dan Keating, September 29, 2009, Washington Post: “More than one in four District children were living in poverty last year, even as the region was weathering the recession’s onset better than most metropolitan areas, according to census data released Tuesday. The poverty rates for District children diverged widely by race and ethnicity. The rate was 36 percent for black children; 17 percent for Hispanic children; and 3 percent for non-Hispanic white children. Virginia and Maryland also had large racial and ethnic gaps in childhood poverty, but none as great as in the District. The data was virtually unchanged from 2007…”
• N.Y. poverty data paint mixed picture, By Sam Roberts, September 29, 2009, New York Times: “In a departure from the national picture, family income rose slightly in New York City in 2008 from 2007, and the proportion of poor people was virtually unchanged, according to census figures released Tuesday. Still, the city and surrounding region had its share of grim news: The Bronx remained the country’s poorest urban county; the income gap in Manhattan was still higher than in any other county; and the poverty rate in Connecticut rose faster than in any other state…”
• Poverty hits harder across Front Range, By Burt Hubbard, September 29, 2009, Denver Post: “The poverty rate has escalated this decade among major cities and counties along the Front Range, led by Greeley, where more than one in five residents are poor, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released today. A Denver Post analysis of the census figures also found that child poverty rose at a faster pace than the overall rate, and the economic gap between races widened between 2000 and 2008…”
• Food-stamp use, poverty up in the region, By Alfred Lubrano, September 29, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The percentage of households receiving food stamps in Philadelphia increased by nearly 3 percentage points between 2007 and 2008 - the period of time marking the start of the recession - according to figures released yesterday by the U.S. Census Bureau…”
• Recession’s impact reflected in Census data, By Tim Nelson, September 29, 2009, Minnesota Public Radio: “New data from the U.S. Census show more effects of the recession last year. The new numbers from the ongoing American Community Survey indicate Minnesota’s poverty rate inched up slightly last year, from 9.5 to 9.6 percent, although that’s well within the survey’s margin of error. Minnesota is one of nine states with a poverty rate of less than 10 percent…”
• Poverty was dropping before meltdown, By Curtis Killman, September 29, 2009, Tulsa World: “With the exception of the elderly, the percentage of people living in poverty in Tulsa County and across the state declined in 2008, just before the nationwide economic downturn. Tulsa County residents whose income in 2008 was below the poverty level declined from 16.2 percent of the population in 2006 to 13.8 percent in 2008, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Statewide, an estimated 15.9 percent of the population was living in poverty in 2008, compared to a 17 percent poverty rate in 2006…”
• One in 8 Ohioans is in poverty, By David Knox and Katie Byard, September 29, 2009, Akron Beacon Journal: “More than one in eight Ohioans fell below the poverty line last year, pushing the state’s rate to 13.4 percent - the highest recorded in a decade, according to the latest Census figures…”
• Report shows poverty decline, By Sarah Chacko, September 29, 2009, Baton Rouge Advocate: “Louisiana’s poverty rate dropped by a little more than 1 percentage point from 2007 to 2008, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, the state still ranks among the worst in the nation with 17.3 percent of the population living below the poverty line…”
• More in Miss. living in poverty, By Natalie Chandler, September 29, 2009, Jackson Clarion-Ledger: “More Mississippians are living in poverty or receiving food stamps as the effects of a national recession persist, according to new census numbers released today and information provided by the state.’We’re almost serving 1 out of every 5 Mississippians right now,’ Cheryl Starkman, director of the Division of Economic Assistance at the Department of Human Services, said of the food stamp program. Census figures show Mississippi was one of a half-dozen states in 2008 with 16 percent or more of its residents living below the poverty level. Mississippi had the highest poverty rate, at 21.2 percent…”
• Recession hammers California’s low-wage workers, By Pete Carey and Mike Swift, September 29, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “Many of California’s lowest-paid workers appear to have tumbled into the ranks of the poor last year, as the recession hammered people already straining to live in a high-cost state, U.S. census data released today indicates. The nation’s most populous state had a bigger increase in the number of people living below the poverty line than any other state during the first year of the recession. About 160,000 more Californians fell below the poverty line in 2008 than during the three years preceding the start of the recession. But nine states showed a bigger jump in their overall poverty rates…”

• More in Rhode Island now living in poverty, By Paul Edward Parker, September 22, 2009, Providence Journal: “More than 3 percent of Rhode Island’s population — some 33,000 men, women and children — fell into poverty in 2008 as the recession tightened its grip on the Ocean State, according to recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. From 2007 to 2008, Rhode Island displaced Massachusetts as the New England state with the highest poverty rate. The state also leapfrogged Maine and Vermont in the process, going from fourth-highest to highest in the six-state region…”
• Quarter of West Virginians live in poverty, study says, By Alison Knezevich, September 12, 2009, Charleston Gazette: “About a quarter of West Virginians are now or will soon be living in poverty — and the situation is even worse for children in the Mountain State, according to a new report. The recession could increase the number of children living below the poverty line by more than a third, to 34 percent, say analysts at the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy. Economists define the poverty line as a household income of $21,910 or less for a family of four. On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released data showing that 13.2 percent of Americans lived in poverty in 2008 — the most since 1997. State and local figures are set to come out Sept. 22…”
• Poverty level rises in region, By Enrique Rangel, September 13, 2009, Amarillo Globe-News: “In 2007, one of every four residents in Potter and Hall counties was poor, a rate twice as high as the rest of the nation. And in all likelihood the number of destitute people in those counties and in most of the Texas Panhandle increased last year. That conclusion is based on the annual poverty report the U.S. Census Bureau issued last week. The agency said the official U.S. poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2 percent, up from 12.5 percent the previous year, and the most affected regions in the nation were the South, Midwest and West. Under the 2009 federal guidelines, a family of four living on $22,050 or less a year is considered poor…”

• 40% of Israeli children at poverty risk, September 22, 2009, Ynetnews.com: “More and more Israelis are poor, hungry, and abstain from seeking medical attention for themselves. This is the bottom line of the report published Monday afternoon by the Central Bureau of Statistics in honor of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The report shows that 40% of children in Israel in 2007 were at poverty risk, as opposed to just 33% in 2001. Risk of poverty is defined as belonging to a household with a disposable income per capita less than 60% of the national median equalized disposable income…”
• Recession increasing gaps between rich and poor, By Ruth Eglash, September 22, 2009, Jerusalem Post: “The gaps between Israel’s rich and poor continued to grow throughout 2007, with more people than ever falling into poverty, a report published Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics revealed. Released ahead of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which takes place on October 17, the report shows that some 40 percent of the country’s children were subjected to poverty-like conditions in 2007, and the socioeconomic gaps between Jewish and Arab populations and between the religious and secular have sharply increased in recent years…”

• Census data show recession-driven changes, By Sam Roberts, September 21, 2009, New York Times: “A smaller share of Americans married, drove to work alone, owned their own home or moved to a new residence last year than the year before. More lived in overcrowded housing. Property values declined. And fewer immigrants arrived, which meant that for the first time since the beginning of the decade, the total number of foreign-born people in the country did not grow. Those were among the findings released Monday in the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, a wealth of data comparing the nation’s profile in 2008 with that of 2007…”
• Census: Recession had sweeping impact on US life, By Hope Yen (AP), September 22, 2009, Washington Post: “A broad survey of Americans has provided striking measures of the recession’s effect on life at home and at work: People are now stuck in traffic longer, less apt to move away and more inclined to put off marriage and buying a house. The U.S. census data, released Monday, also show a dip in the number of foreign-born last year, to under 38 million after it reached an all-time high in 2007. This was due to declines in low-skilled workers from Mexico searching for jobs in Arizona, Florida and California…”
• 2008 Census data: Housing is getting even less affordable, By Stephanie Armour and Barbara Hansen, September 21, 2009, USA Today: “More Americans found housing unaffordable last year, even though home prices across the U.S. have taken a major fall. More than 40 million spent 30% or more of their household income on housing costs, 600,000 more than in 2007, according to 2008 Census data released Monday. That includes homeowners with and without mortgages, as well as renters. The number of renters increased, while the number of homeowners declined…”
• NE Ohio residents are poorer today than decade ago, census data shows, By Robert L. Smith, September 22, 2009, Cleveland Plain Dealer: ” If you feel poorer than yesteryear, well, you probably are. The typical family in Ohio saw its income drop sharply this decade, and Northeast Ohio families lost more than most. Even before the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, household incomes were in steady decline across the state and region, a Plain Dealer review of census data reveals. By the summer of 2008, the median household income in Ohio had plunged by 9 percent in the new millennium, more than double the national rate of decline…”
• Census report shows recession hammers Michigan, By John Flesher (AP), September 21, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Michigan’s already dire economic plight only worsened as the recession kicked in, with incomes and home values plunging while fewer people had health insurance coverage, according to new U.S. census data. The report, for release on Tuesday, offers little hope for a quick turnaround in the state, even if the nationwide situation improves over the next year as some economists predict, demographic experts said…”

Parenting grandparents feel strain, By Catherine Jun, September 23, 2009, Detroit News: “Deborah Stiell has cared for her granddaughter since the girl left the hospital where she was born 22 months ago. When Jaliyah wails in the middle of the night, Stiell gets up, too. ‘Sometimes you get to the point where you feel like you took on a little too much,’ said Stiell, 55, of Detroit, who also cares for two of her other grandchildren. ‘It’s a challenge.’ Stiell is one of thousands of grandparents in Michigan who, after years of raising their own children, find themselves parenting again. Yet several of the dozen or so agencies that help grandparents like Stiell — with the financial and emotional struggle of parenting in their later years — have themselves become strapped. A few are set to close their doors next month as the economic recession has forced a decline in state and foundation dollars…”

• A bad climate for development, September 17, 2009, The Economist: “In late April Mostafa Rokonuzzaman, a farmer in south-western Bangladesh, gave an impassioned speech at a public meeting in his village, complaining that climate change, freakish hot spells and failed rains were ruining his vegetables. He didn’t know the half of it. A month later Mr Rokonuzzaman was chest-deep in a flood that had swept away his house, farm and even the village where the meeting took place. Cyclone Aila (its effects pictured above) which caused the storm surge that breached the village’s flood barriers, was itself a plausible example of how climate change is wreaking devastation in poor countries. Most people in the West know that the poor world contributes to climate change, though the scale of its contribution still comes as a surprise. Poor and middle-income countries already account for just over half of total carbon emissions (see chart 1); Brazil produces more CO2 per head than Germany. The lifetime emissions from these countries’ planned power stations would match the world’s entire industrial pollution since 1850. Less often realised, though, is that global warming does far more damage to poor countries than they do to the climate…”
• 4.5 M kids worldwide in danger of dying, By Ellalyn De Vera, September 18, 2009, Manila Bulletin: “At least 4.5 million children worldwide are in danger of dying from the impacts of climate change unless world leaders agree to increase funds that will mitigate the effects of climate change, non-government aid agency Oxfam International said. Oxfam issued the statement during the launch of its report titled ‘Beyond Aid’ released Wednesday, in time for the United Nations Climate Summit in New York on Sept. 22. The meeting will be followed by the G20 Summit on Sept. 24, where climate finance will be high on the agenda…”

• Cash incentive program for poor families is renewed, By Julie Bosman, September 20, 2009, New York Times: “An experimental antipoverty program that pays poor families up to $5,000 a year for going to regular medical checkups, attending school and keeping jobs has been extended for a third year. Linda I. Gibbs, the deputy mayor for health and human services, said she was encouraged by some early results in the education component of the program that showed students improved their attendance and passed more exams when they were rewarded with cash…”
• Latin America makes a dent in poverty with ‘conditional cash’ programs, By Tyler Bridges, September 21, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “Denise de Oliveira lost her job as a janitor in June when she had to stay home to care for her 13-year-old son, who had pneumonia. The 45-year-old single mother of four has kept food on the table, however, thanks to a government program that pays her family $70 per month. ‘It doesn’t give you enough to buy everything you want, but it sure helps,’ said de Oliveira, who lives on a dirt street in this impoverished town on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Unlike traditional government handouts, however, this popular anti-poverty program, which has spread throughout Latin America and even to New York City, requires that de Oliveira’s children stay in school. The children also must have twice-a-year health exams and be vaccinated against diseases. The program goes by different names - Bolsa Familia (Family Fund) in Brazil and Oportunidades (Opportunities) in Mexico, the most populous countries it’s in - and has slightly different rules depending on the country. Analysts say it’s become the most successful anti-poverty program in years because it requires the poor to do something meaningful and measurable in exchange for government charity…”

• Student homelessness soars in Oregon schools, By Betsy Hammond, September 18, 2009, The Oregonian: “Amid the recession, the number of Oregon students who are homeless surged 14 percent in the past year, rising to 18,000 children and teens without a permanent home of their own, the state reported Friday. Schools are required by federal law to help homeless students find security at school during the upheaval in their lives. And many Oregon educators report they are doing a better job helping children remain in the same school, get basics such as food, and find extra academic support. But they said the emotional and practical needs of students who’ve become homeless are huge, and the ranks of students in those straits are still growing…”
• In school, but no home, By Anne Williams, September 19, 2009, Eugene Register-Guard: “A report from the Oregon Department of Education on Friday offers yet more evidence of the recession’s toll on Oregon families. The number of homeless students attending Oregon public schools surged to more than 18,000 in the 2008-09 school year, up 14 percent over the previous year and 122 percent over 2003-04, the first year the state took a count…”
• Database: Student homelessness rises, By MacKenzie Ryan, September 19, 2009, Statesman Journal: “Two thousand more students in Oregon were homeless last year, a “significant” increase and a troubling trend that reflects the state’s dour economy, rise in home foreclosures and high unemployment rate, state education officials said this week. More than 18,000 students, or 3.2 percent of those in grades K-12 statewide, were identified as homeless last school year. That’s a 14 percent increase from the previous school year, according to education data released Friday…”

Poverty in Fresno carries hidden costs, By Sanford Nax, September 19, 2009, Fresno Bee: ” The apartments along Lowe Avenue in southeast Fresno sound like a good deal. For about $600 a month you can get two bedrooms, and bad credit won’t keep you out. But many costs aren’t in the lease: Some apartments are teeming with roaches and mold, creating a veritable stew pot for illness — and constant doctor bills. It’s in a dangerous neighborhood, so costly possessions — like stereos — have a way of disappearing. People live here because they are poor and can’t afford anything better. But compared to those with just a little more money, they must spend an enormous share of their household incomes on rent. The same is true across the central San Joaquin Valley and the nation: When it comes to housing, being poor is expensive…”

• Global poverty rolls projected to surge, By Annys Shin, September 17, 2009, Washington Post: “The global recession is expected to push 89 million more people into extreme poverty by the end of 2010, the World Bank said Wednesday as it called on the leaders of the 20 largest economies to engage in ‘responsible globalization.’ Although economic data show that the worst recession of the post-World War II era might have ended in the United States, and global trade has begun to pick up, low-income countries are still reeling from the effects of a financial crisis created by their wealthier counterparts…”
• World Bank says don’t forget poor amid crisis, By Tom Barkley, September 17, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Group of 20 nations emerging from recession shouldn’t forget poorer countries, which face funding needs of $11.6 billion just to maintain spending on basic services like health and education, the World Bank said Wednesday. In a report prepared for G-20 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh next week, the bank warned that the global crisis is poised to push an additional 89 million people into extreme poverty by the end of next year if additional help isn’t provided. ‘The poorest countries may not be well represented on the G-20, but we cannot ignore the long-term costs of the global downturn on their people’s health and education,’ World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a statement…”

Recession in rural America by the numbers, September 13, 2009, Daily Yonder: “Once a year the folks at the Economic Research Service publish a report on rural America. It’s called Rural America at a Glance and this year’s edition focuses on the recession. No surprise there. Friday we learned that the recession has ‘plunged 2.6 million more Americans into poverty, wiped out the household income gains of an entire decade and pushed the number of people without health insurance up to 46.3 million,’ according to the Washington Post. These latest Census Bureau figures don’t tell us whether the recession is better or worse in rural America. That’s what the ERS tries to do. Here are some excerpts from the full report…”

Fresh eyes for poverty guidelines, By Josh Gerstein, September 14, 2009, Politico.com: “Two academics who are vocal critics of the federal government’s antiquated system for measuring poverty have landed important jobs in the Obama Administration, though it’s unclear whether they can overcome the political inertia that has left the current system largely undisturbed for more than four decades. The two Obama appointees - Rebecca Blank, former dean of the public policy school at the University of Michigan, and Georgetown Law professor Mark Greenberg - are part of a dedicated band of scholars who have argued for years that the Federal Poverty Guidelines are a badly warped yardstick for poverty because they are derived solely from food costs and don’t take account of a wide array of valuable benefits lower-income Americans get from federal and local governments…”

Governors worry federal health reform could strain budgets in states with many poor, jobless, By Emily Wagster Pettus (AP), September 14, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “States with high levels of poverty and unemployment have been struggling with growing Medicaid budgets during the recession, and some governors worry their financial burdens could get worse as Congress works on a comprehensive health care bill. They’re especially worried about possible expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the needy and disabled…”

• Recession’s cost: More in poverty, without health coverage, By Tony Pugh, September 10, 2009, Miami Herald: “The early impact of the worst recession since the 1930s pushed median incomes down, forced millions more people into poverty and left more Americans without health care in 2008, according to new annual survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau…”
• Recession’s toll: more Americans in poverty, without health insurance, By Mike Swift and Steve Johnson, September 11, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “Surveying the pain of the first full year of the recession, a new U.S. Census Bureau report shows that household income has dropped, millions more are in poverty - and for the eighth year in a row, fewer Americans are covered by private health insurance…”
• Recession takes a toll as US poverty surges, By Mark Trumbull, September 11, 2009, Christian Science Monitor: “America’s poverty rate surged upward last year, underscoring the toll of recession on ordinary households across the nation. Some 13.2 percent of Americans were living below the poverty line in 2008, the Census Bureau said Thursday. That’s a significant jump from the 12.5 percent poverty rate a year earlier. The rise means that nearly 40 million Americans are living in poverty, defined by incomes of less than $10,991 for an individual or $22,025 for a family of four…”
• Government programs helped control tally of uninsured, By Richard Wolf, September 10, 2009, USA Today: “The Census Bureau added some clarity Thursday to the fierce debate over government’s role in health care: Without government intervention, the number of uninsured would have soared last year. Though the 46.3 million people without health insurance in 2008 was slightly more than in 2007, private and employer-based insurance declined significantly. What made up the difference: Medicare, Medicaid and the state Children’s Health Insurance Program…”
• Rolls of privately insured Americans dip, census report says, By Bill Barrow, September 11, 2009, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “As Congress grapples with legislation that could expand health insurance coverage nationally, a U.S. Census Bureau report issued Thursday found that the number and percentage of Americans with private insurance fell from 2007 to 2008. The number of people with employer-based coverage also fell, while the rolls of government insurance programs increased. Altogether, the percentage of people without health insurance of any kind remained about the same, but the numbers reflect the correlation between a weakening economy and access to the private insurance market…”

• Poverty rate rose in 2008, Census finds, By Erik Eckholm, September 10, 2009, New York Times: “In the recession last year, the nation’s poverty rate climbed to 13.2 percent, up from 12.5 percent in 2007, according to an annual report released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The report also documented a decline in employer-provided health insurance and in coverage for adults. The rise in the poverty rate, to the highest level since 1997, portends even larger increases this year, which has registered far higher unemployment than in 2008, economists said…”
• Census: Income fell sharply last year, By Dennis Cauchon and Richard Wolf, September 10, 2009, USA Today: “Household income fell sharply and poverty rates rose in 2008 as the severe effects of the recession took their toll on Americans’ finances, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. Median household income dropped 3.6% to $50,303 in 2008, the bureau reported. That was the sharpest drop since at least 1967 and sent income to its lowest point since 1997…”
• U.S. poverty rate hit 11-year high in 2008, By Don Lee, September 10, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Reporting from Washington - Showing the scars of the deep recession last year, the nation’s poverty level jumped to an 11-year high, household incomes sank and the number of people without health insurance rose slightly to 46.3 million, the government reported today. The Census Bureau said that median household incomes fell 3.6% from 2007 to $50,303 last year. That was the biggest decline since 1991 and represented millions of job cuts by employers in 2008…”
• Growth of gov’t insurance outpaces private care, By Hope Yen and Frank Bass (AP), September 10, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “The number of Americans covered by government-sponsored health insurance plans surged to 87.4 million last year - or 29 percent of the U.S. population - amid a fierce, national debate about whether to create a new U.S.-run plan that any American could join. The number of people covered by federal Medicaid, Medicare and military insurance plans was an increase from 83 million in 2007, according to census figures released Thursday. It partially offset the eighth straight year of declines in the percentage of people with employer-provided plans and highlighted the growing role of a government-offered insurance safety net…”
• Decade of income growth lost, Census report finds, By Carol Morello, September 10, 2009, Washington Post: “The recession has erased an entire decade of growth in household incomes, according to a Census Bureau report released Thursday that also showed more Americans last year were living in poverty and without health insurance. Median household incomes sank 3.6 percent in 2008, to $50,303, and the nation’s poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent, up from 12.5 percent in 2007. In all, 39.8 million Americans were living in poverty, defined as $22,025 for a family of four. That was the highest number since 1960…”
• Recession takes heavy toll on U.S., By Conor Dougherty, September 10, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “The recession has slashed families’ earnings, increased poverty and left more people without health insurance, according to the Census Bureau’s annual snapshot of living standards, offering sharp evidence of how much the falling economy has touched Americans of every income and race. The report released Thursday showed median household income, adjusted for inflation, fell 3.6% last year to $50,303, the steepest year-over-year drop since at least 1967. The poverty rate, at 13.2%, was the highest since 1997, while about 700,000 more people were living without health insurance in 2008 than the year before, although the share of the population living without health insurance was about the same…”

• In New York City, poverty defined in new terms, By Pam Fessler, September 10, 2009, National Public Radio: “New census figures Thursday are expected to show that the poverty rate rose in 2008. But the government still measures poverty the same way it did more than 40 years ago, and many experts think that gives an inaccurate measure of what’s going on. New York City developed a new measure last year based on recommendations by the National Academy of Sciences that takes into account expenses such as child care and health care costs. The result, according to backers of the new formula, is a more realistic picture of today’s world. They’re pushing the federal government to make a similar change…”
• Another word for poverty, By Sarah Chacko, September 10, 2009, Baton Rouge Advocate: “In the coming weeks, the federal government will release 2008 data about family income and economic status. An obvious focus for many will be the poverty rate, the number of people who earn less than an established measure of income needed to cover a family’s basic needs. But in some circles, the word ‘poverty’ has become off limits. Nonprofit organizations and state agencies say they are ‘moving people to self-sufficiency’ or ‘empowering families,’ without mentioning economic status. Avoiding the word has apparently become an international trend too…”
• Move that line, By Dave Schechter, September 9, 2009, CNN.com: “On Thursday morning, the Census Bureau will release data expected to show a “statistically significant” increase in the national poverty rate, the percentage of Americans living below the government poverty line. Based on an Associated Press interview with a Commerce Department official, the expectation is that there will have been nearly 39 million Americans living below the poverty line in 2008 - an increase of more than 1.5 million from the year before - pushing the poverty rate up to at least 12.7 percent, if not higher. In reality, that number and that rate are something of a fraud. In the first decade of the 21st Century, the U.S. government still determines who is poor with a formula created in 1963-64 using data from 1955…”
• New figures on uninsured — but just how accurate are they?, By Kelly Brewington and Stephanie Desmon, Baltimore Sun: “The U.S. Census just released some surprising figures on the number of Americans without health insurance. The agency says the percentage of the uninsured did not grow between 2007 and 2008 — holding steady at 15.4 percent. Meanwhile, the number of uninsured people rose slightly 45.7 million to 46.3 million. During a monster recession, with rising unemployment and so many employers cutting health insurance to their workers — can those figures be right?…”

E. Timor aid _ where did billions go?, By Anthony Deutsch (AP), September 7, 2009, Washington Post: “A decade after tiny East Timor broke from Indonesia and prompted one of the most expensive U.N.-led nation-building projects in history, there is little to show for the billions spent. The world has given more than $8.8 billion in assistance to East Timor since the vote for independence in 1999, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press from the U.N. and 46 donor countries and agencies. That works out to $8,000 for each of East Timor’s 1.1 million people, one of the highest per person rates of international aid. But little of the money, perhaps no more than a dollar of every 10, appears to have made it into East Timor’s economy. Instead, it goes toward foreign security forces, consultants and administration, among other things. In the meantime, data from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Food Program, U.N. Development Program and others show the money has done little to help the poor. In fact, poverty has increased. Roads are in disrepair, there is little access to clean water or health services, and the capital is littered with abandoned, burned-out buildings where the homeless squat…”

Obama would keep $85 billion in tax breaks for working poor, By Lori Montgomery, September 3, 2009, Washington Post: “President Obama is proposing to add more than $85 billion to the nation’s budget deficits over the next decade to extend two tax breaks for the working poor, a move critics on Wednesday blasted as a violation of Obama’s pledge to pay for new policies. The tax breaks were included in the economic stimulus package Obama signed soon after taking office in January, and are scheduled to expire in 2011. But last week, in its midyear update of the federal budget, the White House said it plans to extend the tax cuts through 2019 without covering the cost by cutting spending or raising taxes elsewhere. The reason? Technically, the stimulus amended a series of sweeping tax cuts enacted in 2001 during the Bush administration. Obama has repeatedly said he does not expect Congress to cover the enormous cost of maintaining the Bush tax cuts past their 2010 expiration date. And because the stimulus provisions are now part of the Bush tax cuts, Congress shouldn’t have to pay for them, either, White House budget documents say…”

Nearly 1 in 5 older Americans believed to be in poverty _ almost double the official rate, By Hope Yen (AP), September 4, 2009, Grand Forks Herald: “The poverty rate among older Americans could be nearly twice as high as the traditional 10 percent level, according to a revision of a half-century-old formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations in the cost of living. The National Academy of Science’s formula, which is gaining credibility with public officials including some in the Obama administration, would put the poverty rate for Americans 65 and over at 18.6 percent, or 6.8 million people, compared with 9.7 percent, or 3.6 million people, under the existing measure. The original government formula, created in 1955, doesn’t take account of rising costs of medical care and other factors…”

Fighting blindness may prevent deaths in Ethiopia, By Carla K. Johnson (AP), September 1, 2009, Washington Post: “An antibiotic widely used in Africa to treat eyesight-robbing infections seems to help prevent Ethiopian children from dying of other diseases. A study in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association suggests an unintended benefit from efforts to wipe out trachoma, the world’s leading preventable cause of blindness. The World Health Organization has set 2020 as the target for eliminating trachoma. The United States has been free of the disease since the 1970s, but it persists in 48 countries. In Ethiopia, a hotbed, 40 percent of children under 10 show signs of active trachoma…”

L.A. plans revival for center of crime, poverty, By Jacob Adelman, (AP), September 2, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “Juanita Sims has lived in the notorious Jordan Downs project in Watts for almost four decades, raising eight children behind the barred windows of the cramped barracks-like apartments. She moved in shortly after the Watts riots in the 1960s left almost three dozen people dead and made the South Los Angeles community a national symbol of urban decay. Now Sims fears she’ll have to leave, just as Watts emerges from years of neglect with a proposed urban village of shops, homes and businesses that would force the demolition of Jordan Downs…”