Housing aid: End of a lifeline, By Kevin Duchschere, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “With two emergency housing aid programs slated to end this week, officials are worried that homelessness figures, especially among single adults, will rise. By his own count, Victor Gomez has lived in 28 states since leaving his native Indiana. He’s been homeless for the better part of 20 years. He worked odd jobs in construction before damaging his wrist in a drunken leap off a bridge in downtown Minneapolis four years ago. ‘I don’t know what got into me,’ he says about the jump, although he knows why he used to drink so much: ‘I didn’t feel no cold.’ For the past three months Gomez, 44, and his wife, Linda, have shared a two-bedroom apartment in south Minneapolis. St. Stephen’s Human Services found the place for them, and Minnesota’s Emergency General Assistance (EGA) program got them in the door — it provided the funding for Hennepin County to cover the Gomezes’ $939 damage deposit…”

Tough choices for feds giving out broadband money, By Joelle Tessler (AP), October 11, 2009, Washington Post: “The federal government will soon start handing out the first $4 billion from a pot of stimulus funds intended to spread high-speed Internet connections to more rural communities, poor neighborhoods and other pockets of the country clamoring for better access. The challenge is that the government has received $28 billion in requests. So the reviewers at the Commerce and Agriculture Departments who will award the broadband money must make hard choices. The 2,200 applications each envision something different - more fiber-optic lines, for example, or computer labs or municipal wireless networks. But they all promise that their proposals will create jobs and bring new economic opportunities…”

• Obama aides act to fix safety net, By Jackie Calmes, October 5, 2009, New York Times: “With unemployment expected to rise well into next year even as the economy slowly recovers, the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are discussing extending several safety net programs as well as proposing new tax incentives for businesses to renew hiring. President Obama’s economic team discussed a wide range of ideas at a meeting on Monday, following his Saturday radio address in which he said it would ‘explore additional options to promote job creation.’ But officials emphasized that a decision was still far off and that in any event the effort would not add up to a second economic stimulus package, only an extension of the first…”
• States offer route for jobs spending, By Gerald F. Sieb, October 6, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “The really bad news for Democrats isn’t that the unemployment rate hit 9.8% last week. The really bad news for the party in power is that the last time unemployment reached that level, it was there or higher for exactly one year. That was between July 1982 and June 1983. If you are thinking of this precedent in political terms, it is important to note that smack in the middle of that dreary stretch, the party then in control — the Republicans — lost 26 House seats in the 1982 midterm elections. Today’s downturn is even harsher, and there is some evidence that the American job-creating machine doesn’t work quite as well now as it did then, even in good times…”

Report: States using stimulus to replace, not boost school aid, By Libby Quaid (AP), October 2, 2009, USA Today: “An internal watchdog at the Education Department says states are using money from the economic stimulus to plug budget holes instead of boosting aid for schools. President Barack Obama did not intend for state lawmakers to simply cut state education spending and replace it with stimulus dollars. But Congress made that tough to enforce, and the Education Department’s inspector general said in a memo Thursday that some states are doing it. That means instead of getting extra help to weather tough times, school districts and colleges could wind up with the same level of state aid or with cuts, even as local tax revenues plummet…”

Texas got less stimulus money per resident than almost every other state, By Dave Michaels, September 28, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Texas has received less funding per resident from the stimulus package so far than almost any other state, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis of federal grants and contracts. Texas lawmakers have long complained about one reason for the disparity: Federal funding formulas, often written by small-state lawmakers, disadvantage big states like Texas. But Texas is also a victim of its own thrift: With fewer research universities, less subsidized housing, and a smaller contribution to programs like Medicaid and unemployment insurance, it stands to receive less emergency funds than if it spent more of its own money on the programs…”

Teens lack jobs despite job effort, By Garance Burke (AP), September 23, 2009, Washington Post: “The Obama administration’s economic stimulus program to find jobs for thousands of teenagers this summer couldn’t overcome one of the bleakest job markets in more than 60 years that had desperate adults competing for the same kind of work. Almost one-quarter of the 297,169 youths in the $1.2 billion jobs program didn’t get jobs, as more adults flooded the labor market seeking similar low-wage positions at hamburger stands and community pools, according to an Associated Press review of government data and reports from states. Congressional auditors warned Wednesday that the government’s plans to measure the success of the federal program are so haphazard that they ‘may reveal little about what the program achieved.’ The new report from the Government Accountability Office also said many government officials, employers and participants believe the program was successful…”

Louisiana bypasses federal funds for needy, By Mike Hasten, September 10, 2009, Shreveport Times: “Louisiana is not taking advantage of federal stimulus dollars to help its poorest residents because it can’t afford to put up the matching funds needed to claim the money, the head of the state Department of Social Services says. DSS Secretary Kristy Nichols also says unless programs are created at a time when the state is looking for ways to cut existing programs, Louisiana doesn’t qualify for the funds. A ProPublica/USA Today story published earlier this week singles out Louisiana as one of 23 states not utilizing tens of millions of dollars each that’s available for helping the poor even though Louisiana has the second highest poverty rate in the nation. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act put $5 billion into an emergency fund for states to use through their federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs. The emergency fund could be used to help states handle increased welfare caseloads, pay rent for families facing eviction, create temporary jobs for the unemployed or put cash in people’s pockets…”

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…”

States: We can’t afford costs tied to $5B emergency fund, By Michael Grabell and Chris Flavelle, September 7, 2009, USA Today: “Many states are walking away from a $5 billion federal fund that some economists say is a swift and effective way to help people hurt by the recession and stimulate the economy. The states say they can’t collect their share of the emergency fund for needy families because they can’t afford to put up the 20% of costs required by the federal government. Six months after the money was made available under the $787 billion federal stimulus program, only 27 states have applied for funds, according to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Most have tapped only a small fraction of the money they’re entitled to - less than 15% in most cases. As a result, as much as $1 billion could be left on the table when the program ends in September 2010, estimates Jack Tweedie of the National Conference of State Legislatures. The fund can be used to help states cope with growing welfare caseloads, create temporary jobs for the unemployed, pay rent for families facing eviction and immediately put cash in people’s pockets…”

Good news, bad news for Colo. low-income health clinics, By Allison Sherry, September 3, 2009, Denver Post: “Health clinics for the poor must chop $32.9 million from their budgets at the same time they are receiving millions in stimulus dollars to expand - creating a situation where new buildings may stand empty. Mountain Family Health Centers received half a million dollars in federal stimulus money to build a new clinic in Rifle, but director Dave Adamson said he’s not sure he will be able to staff it. In fact, he may have to cut staff at his existing clinic in Glenwood Springs. The Metro Community Provider Network clinics will get $1.6 million in new solar panels and medical and dental equipment, but state budget cuts are forcing the director to close three clinics in the next two months - one in Bailey, where there are few other options…”

• Indiana weatherization set to begin, By Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, August 27, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Indiana can start spending nearly $132 million in federal stimulus funds to help low-income Hoosiers weatherize their homes after the U.S. Department of Energy approved the state’s plan for the money. The new money provides an 11-fold increase in the size of the state’s weatherization program. The approval announced Thursday means more than 30,000 households could get new energy savings equipment, including programmable thermostats, insulation, new furnaces or hot water heaters…”
• Indiana gets stimulus green light, By Eric Bradner, August 27, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “The federal government has green-lighted Indiana’s plan to spend $131 million in stimulus money to equip homes of low-income Hoosiers with energy-saving furnaces and insulation. The decision ends a monthslong snag that had frustrated state officials and put the project behind schedule…”

$3.1B set aside for jobless unclaimed, By Matt Kelley, August 30, 2009, USA Today: “More than $3.1 billion in stimulus money for state unemployment insurance programs is sitting in a federal trust fund because 23 states haven’t expanded their jobless benefits, Labor Department records show. Nearly 350,000 out-of-work Americans could get benefits if all those states revamp their unemployment systems to qualify for federal money, according to estimates from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a workers’ advocacy group. In all, the stimulus package offers $7 billion to states that make changes, which can include offering benefits to part-time workers…”

• State gets $56 million for weatherization from stimulus, By Beccy Tanner, August 26, 2009, Wichita Eagle: “Bernice Jones made history Tuesday when her house on East Second Street became the first in Kansas to be weatherized using federal stimulus funds. Workers were installing a furnace, central air-conditioning unit and refrigerator in her 1920s-era bungalow Tuesday as she ushered in the Kansas governor and other state and city officials…”
• Pa. gets weatherization funds held up by impasse, By Tom Infield, August 26, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “After months of delay caused by state inaction, the federal government finally was able to announce yesterday that it had awarded $101 million in stimulus funds to Pennsylvania for home weatherization. E. Craig Heim, in charge of weatherization for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, said that while Pennsylvania was “unquestionably behind” many other states in launching its program, “I think we’ll be able to catch up.” The funds from the U.S. Department of Energy, together with some earlier money that has been on hold, comprise nearly half of the $253 million that the state expects to receive to weatherize the homes of nearly 30,000 low-income Pennsylvanians over the next 21/2 years. The funds represent a sevenfold expansion of the decades-old Weatherization Assistance Program…”

• Cutbacks pinch homeless programs, By Wendy Koch, August 24, 2009, USA Today: “The homeless are having more trouble getting help because of state budget cuts, and federal stimulus funding in September will fill only part of the gap, service providers for the homeless say…”
• New faces of homeless in D.C., By Leila Fadel, August 23, 2009, Seattle Times: “At 6 a.m., a block from the manicured lawns of the White House, Poppy Cali starts his days. Cali, 36, a Navy veteran, wakes up just after dawn, before security can find him sleeping on the steps of the General Services Administration building near the grate he uses to warm himself in the winter…”
• Nashville follows Denver’s lead in homelessness fight, By Angela Patterson, August 25, 2009, The Tennessean: “The Metropolitan Homelessness Commission wants to bring a little of what Denver learned to Nashville. The Mile High City created a 10-year plan to end homelessness called Denver’s Road Home. An accompanying partnership between the private and public sectors helped lower the city’s chronic homelessness rate by 36 percent…”
• Strategy goes beyond housing homeless, By Mark Price, August 24, 2009, Charlotte Observer: ” Project Hope - a groundbreaking program that could change the way Charlotte deals with homelessness - is expected to be unveiled tonight as part of a Charlotte City Council vote to back the project with nearly $2 million in federal stimulus money. Crafted to be a long-term solution rather than a quick fix, the program calls for pulling families and individuals from local shelters, putting them in rental apartments, and stabilizing their lives over 18 months with education, job skills, counseling and support from social workers and teams of volunteers…”

Food stamp system improved with stimulus funds, By Deborah Yetter, August 18, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky will use $2.9 million in federal stimulus money to try to improve service to people applying for food stamps, state officials said. By this fall, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services plans to convert paper files stored in local offices to electronic files state workers will use to complete or renew applications for the federally funded food stamp program…”

States weigh in as feds prepare to spend billions on broadband for remote areas, By Daniel C. Vock, August 12, 2009, Stateline.org: “With the state’s help, an increasing number of residents in rural Washington County in Down East Maine are using high-speed Internet connections to run their blueberry farms and lobster fleets, educate their children and communicate with doctors from remote areas. But it’s a large county and its 34,000 residents are spread out: At twice the size of Rhode Island, it takes four hours to cross in a car, and yet there’s only one traffic light. That means it’s slow going for local Internet provider, Axiom Technologies, which is working town by town to set up wireless access points, sometimes serving as few as 12 households per connection…”

Stimulus helps young people get work in hard times, Editorial, August 6, 2009, The Olympian: “Rare is the day that goes by without an announcement of more federal dollars flowing into the state from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The latest count showed $827 million has been infused into the state economy from the federal economic stimulus plan out of the $4 billion that the state has been formally granted so far…”

Weatherization: Feds leave state out in the cold, By Mary Beth Schneider, August 2, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Homeowners in some states, including Ohio, already are getting new furnaces and their houses insulated, thanks to federal stimulus dollars. But not in Indiana. No homeowner here has received a penny from Indiana’s $131 million share of federal weatherization funds. The federal government has only ‘conditionally’ awarded Indiana its funding — meaning none of it, including nearly $53 million this year, can be put to use…”

• To create jobs, Tennessee looks to New Deal model, By Michael Cooper, July 27, 2009, New York Times: “Critics elsewhere may be questioning how many jobs the stimulus program has created, but here in central Tennessee, hundreds of workers are again drawing paychecks after many months out of work, thanks to a novel use of federal stimulus money by Tennessee officials to help one of the state’s hardest-hit areas…”
• Stimulus creates 12,000 teen jobs, By Clay Carey, July 27, 2009, The Tennessean: “As she searched for what would be her first summer job, Jasmine Frazier hit dead end after dead end.  Clothing stores and boutiques near her family’s home in Wilson County weren’t hiring. In a tight economy, she was competing with older, more experienced workers for low-paying jobs teens typically land…”

Tracking the recession: Lawmakers dreading end of stimulus dollars, By Stephen C. Fehr, July 27, 2009, Stateline.org: “Whether they welcomed or snubbed the federal economic stimulus package, state lawmakers took advantage of the bailout dollars this year to help patch their state’s shaky finances.  Now, as they start thinking ahead to next year’s budget and the 2010 elections, lawmakers are increasingly apprehensive about what will happen when the stimulus money dries up. They predict even deeper cuts in services, higher taxes and raids on rainy day funds to balance budgets…”

• State’s high school graduation rate in ‘crisis’, By Gracie Bonds Staples and D. Aileen Dodd, July 23, 2009, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia’s dismal high school graduation rate has reached a ‘crisis’ level, according to a national report released Wednesday. The authors recommended immediate federal action. Entitled ‘Graduating America: Meeting the Challenge of Low Graduation-Rate High Schools,’ the report puts Georgia among 17 states with the lowest overall graduation rates in the country…”
• Report: State poised to lift graduation rates, By Kathleen Lavey, July 23, 2009, Lansing State Journal: “Michigan is one of 17 states in a ‘make or break’ position as the U.S. strives to improve high school graduation rates, according to a nationwide report released Wednesday.  But the report also says the state - along with Ohio and California - is in a good spot to boost graduation rates if local school districts take advantage of federal stimulus money and other resources as well as tailoring solutions to their individual needs…”

Colorado jobless won’t get extension pay till Aug., By Allison Sherry, July 22, 2009, Denver Post: “Out-of-work Coloradans eligible for a 20-week extension in unemployment benefits will have to wait until the end of August to get paid, even though a new law providing those benefits took effect July 1, state officials said Tuesday. By August, between 5,000 and 6,000 people will be due money, said Steve Fowler, director of unemployment insurance at the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment…”

• Texas averts crisis over extended unemployment benefits, By Dave Montgomery, July 21, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “The Texas Workforce Commission took emergency action Tuesday to continue unemployment assistance to as many as 15,000 jobless Texans who were in danger of exhausting their benefits by the end of the month…”
• Unemployment insurance a two-sided political issue for Perry, By Jason Embry, July 21, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “Gov. Rick Perry’s opposition to federal stimulus dollars for unemployment benefits earlier this year boosted his standing among many Republicans. But other issues surrounding the state’s unemployment program could create political headaches for Perry in the next year and a half…”
• Texas leaders should reconsider the federal stimulus money, By Mitchell Schnurman, July 22, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “At what point does the real world trump politics and principle?  Texas is shaping up as a test case, because more than 23,000 workers are losing their jobs every week and $556 million in federal aid is sitting on the table, unclaimed.  Texas is one of only four states — the others are Alabama, Florida and Virginia — that rejected federal stimulus dollars connected with reforming unemployment insurance. Thirty-six states qualify for the federal money, including more than two dozen that adopted reforms this year, and the rest are still debating the issue…”

• Stimulus Watch: Neediest areas not first for money, By April Castro (AP), July 20, 2009, Washington Post: “Under the Obama administration’s economic stimulus plan, needy communities were supposed to be first in line for money to rebuild highways and jump start the economy. It hasn’t worked out that way.  The rules required that states give priority to counties considered “economically distressed.” Yet less than half the federal highway money announced so far is directed toward those high-unemployment, low-income areas, according to an Associated Press analysis of more than $16 billion in spending announced by the U.S. Transportation Department…”
• Pa. trails N.J., others in plans for stimulus spending, By Tom Infield, July 20 , 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Five months into the federal stimulus program, Pennsylvania is lagging behind its neighbor New Jersey and other states in preparing for a deluge of money to do energy-saving home improvements for low-income families.  The state has received about $25 million of $253 million it expects to get over three years for the massive expansion of its Weatherization Assistance Program, which dates to the ’70s…”

• State plugs budget hole with Medicaid money, By Beth Musgrave, July 21, 2009, Lexington Herald-Leader: “The state was in the black for the fiscal year that ended June 30, but only because it received a loan from the Medicaid program, which had additional money from the federal stimulus program. Now state officials are trying to determine how much money state agencies will have to cut from this year’s budget, which began July 1…”
• CalWORKS: Is it costing too much?, By Steve Wiegand, July 19, 2009, Sacramento Bee: “It’s the kind of statistic that makes radio talk show hosts drool: California is home to about 12 percent of all Americans – and more than 30 percent of all Americans on welfare. Critics of the state’s welfare program, called CalWORKs, say it’s clear proof that the system is flabby and overly beneficent, particularly as compared to other states…”
• Governor, legislative leaders begin building support for their budget pact, By Evan Halper and Shane Goldmacher, July 21, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders will begin working today to line up votes for the budget agreement they reached Monday evening to close a $26.3-billion deficit and allow the state to begin paying all of its bills again…”
• Budget breakthrough solves California’s long fiscal nightmare, By Steven Harmon, July 20, 2009, Contra Costa Times: “A tense, months-long standoff over ever-shrinking resources gave way Monday to a deal to bridge California’s $26.3 billion deficit…”

Stimulus saves, but doesn’t raise, foster care payments, By Janell Ross, July 20, 2009, The Tennessean: “In a typical week, one of the four foster children in Loraine and Ron Copeland’s care might need a new pair of shoes, medicine for an unexpected cough or cold and, of course, diapers. Over the last nine years, the Copelands have provided that and more to 50 children, including a 3-week-old in need of multiple open-heart surgeries. Without families like the Copelands, those children might have had to live in orphanages…”

• Tracking the recession: Stimulus helps revive summer youth jobs programs, By Christine Vestal, July 14, 2009, Stateline.org: “School’s out and young job seekers across the country have a less-than-30-percent chance of finding work. For disadvantaged youths - high school dropouts, teen parents and minors with a criminal record - the odds are worse…”
• Stimulus spending finally starts to trickle down, By David J. Lynch, July 13, 2009, USA Today: “In Indianapolis last month, a state government official named Jacob Sipe finally got the news he’d been anticipating. The U.S. Treasury had approved $164 million to finance affordable housing projects left paralyzed by the credit crisis, using funds from the Obama administration’s increasingly controversial fiscal stimulus…”

Part-time workers mask unemployment woes, By David Leonhardt, July 14, 2009, New York Times: “In California and a handful of other states, one out of every five people who would like to be working full time is not now doing so.  It is a startling sign of the pain that the Great Recession is inflicting, and it is largely missed by the official, oft-repeated statistics on unemployment. The national unemployment rate has risen to 9.5 percent, the highest level in more than a quarter-century. Yet it still excludes all those who have given up looking for a job and those part-time workers who want to be working full time…”

• 13-week unemployment benefits extension held up by U.S. rules, tech glitch, Texas agency says, By Robert T. Garrett, July 15, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “As many as 82,000 unemployed Texans won’t receive an immediate 13-week extension of benefits as they expected because of federal rules and state computer problems, the Texas Workforce Commission said Tuesday…”
• In Texas, thousands face a lengthy gap in unemployment benefits, By Dave Montgomery, July 14, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Up to 15,000 jobless Texans are expected to exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of July and could be without benefits for more than a month and possibly longer as state officials struggle to implement a 13-week extension…”
• 15,000 Texans to lose checks, By Peggy Fikac, July 14, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “In a sign of lingering hardship, more than 15,000 Texans will lose their unemployment checks at the end of the month because they have exhausted their benefits after 59 weeks without a job…”

• Food stamp hike helps families cope, By Bonna Johnson, July 13, 2009, The Tennessean: “Slowly cruising the aisles of her favorite grocery store, Rosa Diaz kept an eye out for specials to help her stock up on staples, like fruit juice and packaged snacks for her 2-year-old son. “That’s a decent price,” Diaz said as she placed a couple of large jugs of orange juice, advertised at two for $3, in her shopping cart…”
• Turning to food stamps difficult for some, By Louis Llovio, July 12, 2009, Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Tonya was living the American dream. The mother of a 10-year-old daughter, she had a steady job at a property management company while her husband was a sanitation worker for a major company in Richmond. “We were middle class. We were working so hard,” Tonya said last week. She’s relying on food stamps now. It all began to fall apart 10 months ago. Her husband lost his job, then two months later, she lost hers…”

• Homeless numbers include more families, By Kevin Freking (AP), July 9, 2009, San Diego Union-Tribune: “The face of homelessness in the United States is changing to include more families and more people who live in the suburbs and rural communities.  The number of homeless has remained steady since 2007, but within the overall count are trends that can tell officials where federal resources would do the most good, the Housing and Urban Development Department says in its annual report to Congress being released Thursday…”
• Homelessness in suburbs, rural areas increases, By Wendy Koch, July 9, 2009, USA Today: “As the recession took hold last year, homelessness shifted toward rural and suburban areas and gripped a growing number of families, the U.S. government reports today…”
• Stimulus money targeted to help the homeless, By Evelyn Nieves (AP), July 8, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “The U.S. expects to send $1.5 billion in stimulus money Thursday to hundreds of communities around the country to prevent homelessness, including $1 million for Fresno to dismantle tent cities and move residents into privately owned apartments…”

• Jobless feel effects of states’ stimulus rejection, By Ianthe Jeanne Dugan and Kris Maher, July 8, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Latunga Childers lost her $8-an-hour job as a McDonald’s manager in April. Soon after, she opened an envelope from Alabama unemployment officials expecting to find a check.  Instead, there was a letter declaring her ineligible for benefits. Behind that letter was a complicated fight over the federal stimulus and the strings that come with it…”
• Report: States aren’t using stimulus funds as intended, By Matt Kelley, July 7, 2009, USA Today: “Under pressure to spend stimulus money quickly, many states are using the federal funds for short-term projects and to fill budget gaps rather than spending on long-term improvements, according to a report by congressional investigators…”
• States using stimulus to stay afloat, audit finds, By Kimberly Hefling (AP), July 7, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “The Obama administration hoped that $787 billion in stimulus spending would jump-start the economy, build schools and usher in an era of education reform. So far, many states are setting aside such grand plans and simply trying to stay afloat, government auditors say…”

Boost in food-stamp funding percolates through economy, By Roger Thurow and Timothy W. Martin, July 7, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “The lush red strawberries caught the attention of Rachel Patrick, a mother of five shopping at a farmers market along the Mississippi River here. She selected two cartons and ignited a little-noticed chain reaction that is an important part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan…”

Tracking the recession: States push job training, By Christine Vestal, July 3, 2009, Stateline.org: “Everyone agrees the way out of this recession is jobs. But even as the recession begins to lift and stimulus projects generate jobs, many unemployed workers will have few prospects because their skills won’t match new openings.  That’s where state workforce agencies come in…”

Safety net is fraying for the very poor, By Erik Eckholm, July 4, 2009, New York Times: “Government ’safety net’ programs like Social Security and food stamps have pulled growing numbers of Americans out of poverty since the mid-1990s. But even before the current recession, these programs were providing less help to the most desperately poor, mainly nonworking families with children, according to a new study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a private group in Washington…”

Stimulus eases community college troubles, By Kimberly Leonard, July 2, 2009, Stateline.org: “States are digging into their federal stimulus money to help finance community colleges, where rising tuition, soaring enrollment and budget cuts threaten to shut students out of the system.  But the $144 billion in stimulus money for state and local fiscal relief won’t make up for budget cuts in every state…“