• Colleges aim to boost low grad rates; many students unprepared, By Lori Higgins, October 24, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Colleges today face a dilemma: They can get students in the door. But keeping them enrolled, and getting them to graduate, is a tough task. In Michigan, just a little more than half the students who enter college as first-time students graduate within six years. At individual universities, the rates are even lower: 32% for Wayne State University, 38% at Saginaw Valley State University, 40% at Eastern Michigan University. The rates are worse for minorities. The reasons: too many academically unprepared students, financial struggles forcing students to drop out, part-time students who take longer to graduate. Officials are working to turn around the numbers with tutoring, mentoring and academic counseling…”
• Report: ‘Horrendous’ black-white gap at Wayne State, By Lori Higgins, October 24, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Graduation rates overall show a need for improvement, but they’re particularly dismal for some minority groups. In Michigan, about 59% of students who enrolled in 2002 graduated within six years, but the rate is only about 36% for African-American students. In contrast, white students have a graduation rate of about 61%. Similar gaps can be seen between white and Hispanic groups at some universities, though the overall rate for Hispanic students, 56%, is more comparable to that of white students…”

• Many Lansing babies ‘at high risk’, By Louise Knott Ahern, October 13, 2010, Lansing State Journal: “More than 60 percent of all births in Lansing are paid for by Medicaid, and babies here are nearly twice as likely as the statewide average to be born to a mom without a high school diploma, according to a report released Tuesday. It’s an indication, say some social service advocates, that the effect of rising poverty, falling incomes and cuts to programs for poor moms is finally reaching the most vulnerable among us: babies…”
• Report calls city ‘high risk’ for health of moms, infants, By Tarryl Jackson, October 12, 2010, Jackson Citizen Patriot: “The number of babies born pre-term and to unwed mothers and black teens in Jackson jumped during the past decade, according to a statewide report released today. The Right Start in Michigan report, produced by the Michigan League for Human Services, measured maternal and infant health from 2000 to 2008 for 69 Michigan communities. It declared Jackson one of 13 that are ‘high risk.’ Of 934 births to mothers who lived in Jackson in 2008, Medicaid paid for 64 percent. Medicaid typically covers the cost of prenatal care and delivery for pregnant women without health insurance and in households with income below 185 percent of the federal poverty level…”

Debit card refunds for lower-income folks should work in Michigan, By Susan Tompor, September 12, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “The U.S. Treasury plans to test the delivery of tax refunds in plastic for lower-income individuals who do not have bank accounts, and Michigan seems to me like a no-brainer for a pilot program. ‘I think Michigan would provide fertile ground,’ said David Marzahl, president of the Center for Economic Progress, the nation’s largest tax-preparation provider for low-income families. The Chicago-based center leads the National Community Tax Coalition, a group of community-based tax and financial services programs that serve more than 1 million low-income families nationwide. Marzahl noted that communities in Michigan offer racial, ethnic and economic diversity. Assistant Treasury Secretary Michael S. Barr has a Michigan connection, too, having taught at the University of Michigan Law School. More important, consumers in metro Detroit — and other cities in the Midwest — have long been targeted by tax-preparation companies that pitch high-cost refund-anticipation loans to individuals who do not have bank accounts…”

Flint eyes drug tests for public housing, By Kim Kozlowski, September 13, 2010, Detroit News: “Flint’s public housing authority, in an effort to fight crime in the projects, is considering a requirement for all current and prospective residents to take a drug test to keep their federally subsidized apartments. Flint Housing Commission Executive Rodney Slaughter said he wants a drug-testing program modeled after the city of Indianapolis, where public housing residents are required to take annual drug tests. If a resident tests positive, they would have 30 days to test negative or seek help. ‘We’re trying to change the mindset,’ Slaughter said. ‘There is a reasonable amount of negative events that take place … drug dealing, gambling, dice throwing. People should have the right to live in a drug-free, clean community.’ But civil rights advocates said they will fight the effort. ‘Being poor is not a crime in Michigan,’ said Rana Elmir, director of the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. ‘To treat all tenants of public housing as criminals is bad public policy. And it’s unconstitutional.’ Flint’s drug arrests have been steadily declining, from 1,257 in 2005 to 618 in 2009, according to statistics provided by the mayor’s office. But in 2009, Flint had the second-highest violent crime rate among the nation’s largest cities, second only to St. Louis, according to an analysis of data police provided to the FBI…”

• Feds offer aid to renters as well as homeowners, By Kathleen Pender, August 15, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle: “Congress and the Obama administration have committed tens of billions of dollars to keep homeowners in their homes. Renters, who make up about one-third of households nationwide - and close to two-thirds in San Francisco and other large cities - wish the government would do a little more for them. For homeowners, Obama’s Making Home Affordable program obtained $50 billion from the Troubled Assets Relief Program plus $25 billion, mainly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Originally this money was supposed to help homeowners refinance or modify subprime mortgages (which qualified as troubled assets). More recently it has been used to help those who can’t pay their mortgage because they are unemployed. Last week, the Treasury said it is using $2 billion to help unemployed homeowners in 17 states, including California…”
• Habitat for Humanity uses federal funds to rehab metro Detroit homes, By Tammy Stables Battaglia, August 16, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Habitat for Humanity, an agency known for building new houses, is using funds from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program to rehab old ones. The program, created in 2008 under President George W. Bush, provides communities and organizations funding to redevelop residential properties. That money must be allocated to projects by Sept. 19. In 2006, seven of 52 Habitat homes in Michigan were rehabs. The organization rehabbed 104 of its 221 homes during the first three months of this year, and there are dozens more projects to be completed, Habitat officials said…”
• Red tape slows North Texas agencies in disseminating federal funds to fight homelessness, By Neena Satija, August 15, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Getting federal stimulus money to those in need had a slow start in North Texas, with understaffed agencies bogged down in paperwork. Now that the initiative is in full swing - the job has only gotten harder. North Texas received $25 million for the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing program in September. As of March, it had only spent $2 million. Now, it has spent $7 million and helped 7,800 households. But a faster flow of dollars means a bigger maze of red tape…”

No vacation from hunger in Metro area, By Catherine Jun, July 26, 2010, Detroit News: “Access to nutritional food becomes dicey in the summer for many impoverished families, who are forced to go without the free or reduced-cost breakfast and lunches they depend on during the school year. Though a federal program serves free lunches in poorer neighborhoods in the summer, it continues to drawn just a small fraction of these families. And as more households fall into poverty, experts say childhood hunger is growing more acute, and agencies, churches and community centers are taking matters into their own hands to fill the hunger gap. ‘We are hearing more and more about kids suffering,’ said Susan Goodell, president and CEO of Forgotten Harvest. The Oak Park-based food rescue agency this summer is using donations to deliver 1,000 brown bag lunches a day to children in Detroit and Pontiac, including the Spring Lake Village Apartments on Carriage Circle. The effort amounts to a 56 percent increase in food distribution this summer over last, Goodell said…”

Too old for foster care, youths struggle, By Catherine Jun, July 21, 2010, Detroit News:”A growing number of youths in Michigan are reaching adult age while in foster care, a situation experts fear leaves them vulnerable to homelessness, poverty and incarceration.
State and welfare agencies say a lack of funding has been the greatest obstacle to getting these youths the safety net they need when they age out of the system. When they’re pushed out onto the streets at age 19 after years of jumping from home to home, the trauma of being separated from their families and getting inconsistent adult guidance destines them to multiple problems, said Paul Toro, professor of psychology at Wayne State University…”

Unemployment rate in Michigan dips to 13.2%, By John Gallagher, July 15, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Michigan’s unemployment rate dropped in June to 13.2%, a sign that economic recovery was slowly taking hold. The four-tenths-of-a-percentage-point decline from May’s 13.6% rate marked the latest improvement since Michigan’s unemployment peaked at 14.5% in December 2009. But the overall gains remained modest. Employers added a net 3,000 new jobs to the state’s roughly 4 million jobs during June. On a brighter note, manufacturing employment was up 30,000 jobs over the depressed levels of mid-2009, thanks to slowly improving automotive sales…”

Unlikely mentors give felons hope, By Kevin Johnson, June 21, 2010, USA Today: “James Churchill was nearing the end of a 10-year prison term for armed robbery last year when he struck an unusual bargain with an unlikely partner. If Churchill, a career criminal at age 34, could stay out of trouble during his first months of freedom, police Lt. Ralph Mason pledged to help find him a job. The collaboration between cop and criminal in a state with the nation’s highest unemployment rate is remarkable and so far, successful. Eleven months after his release, Churchill has been employed for nine months - without incident - by a industrial plumbing company, earning up to $21 per hour. Churchill says he was ’shocked’ by Mason’s help, but the officer’s intervention is a sample of the untraditional methods Michigan officials are using to help ex-offenders re-enter society and slash troubling rates of those who return to prison. As communities across the nation struggle to assimilate about 700,000 ex-offenders who leave prison each year, according to the Justice Department, local Michigan officials are recruiting doctors, clergy, business leaders and even police as mentors to help keep them out…”

Fed housing assistance stalled in Detroit, By Catherine Jun, June 21, 2010, Detroit News: “Eight months after desperate crowds elbowed each other at Cobo Center for federal emergency housing money, less than 8 percent of Detroit’s $15.2 million has been spent, according to federal reports. That amounts to help for just 330 households, far less than the 3,400 Detroit families targeted through the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program. It also means Detroit is lagging in the national program designed to get money to homeless or nearly homeless families, falling behind Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City. The federal stimulus dollars help with utility bills and up to 18 months of rental assistance. But observers worry that for some, delays mean the help is coming too late…”

• Number of uninsured jumped by nearly 3 million in 2009, By Steven Reinberg, June 20, 2010, USA Today: “For some Americans, health care reform may be arriving none too soon: The number of U.S. adults not covered by health insurance jumped by 2.9 million people from 2008 to 2009. In 2009 - the year in which the latest statistics are available - 46.3 million American adults had no health insurance, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This means one in five working-age adults is uninsured, and the situation is still worse in some states: nearly one in four Texans, for example, lack any form of health coverage…”
• 4 in 10 in Michigan uninsured, on public plan, By Patricia Anstett, June 20, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “The impact of the state’s sour economy is clear in a new report: More than 3.8 million Michiganders — nearly 4 of 10 people who live here — were uninsured or covered by a public program. Michigan also sank from best in the nation to sixth-best among states with the most uninsured children between 2005 and 2008, according to the annual Cover Michigan report to be released Monday by the Ann Arbor-based Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation. A partnership of the University of Michigan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the center compiles some of the most comprehensive data in the state on health insurance coverage. Michigan still has some of the nation’s most affordable rates, ranking ninth-lowest in yearly premiums, the report found…”
• Health aid urged for low-wage workers, By Kay Lazar, June 20, 2010, Boston Globe: “Thousands of uninsured Massachusetts workers in low-wage jobs are ineligible for state-subsidized health coverage, but they will qualify for these low-cost plans under the new national health care overhaul - in 2014. Now, some consumer advocates, arguing that the wait is unfair and a black eye for the state, want the Patrick administration and legislators to launch a program to cover at least part of this group. Administration officials, already facing huge budget deficits, say the state can’t afford the tens of millions of dollars it would cost to subsidize additional workers’ insurance…”

High lead levels hurt learning for DPS kids, By Tina Lam and Kristi Tanner-White, May 16, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “More than half of the students tested in Detroit Public Schools have a history of lead poisoning, which affects brain function for life, according to data compiled by city health and education officials. The data also show, for the first time in Detroit, a link between higher lead levels and poor academic performance. About 60% of DPS students who performed below their grade level on 2008 standardized tests had elevated lead levels. The higher the lead levels, the lower the MEAP scores, though other factors also may play a role. The research — the result of an unusual collaboration between the city’s Department of Health & Wellness Promotion and DPS — also reveals that children receiving special education were more likely to have lead poisoning…”

Many low-wage workers eligible for unemployment benefits aren’t receiving them, By Jackie Headapohl, April 26, 2010, MLive.com: “A new University of Michigan study suggests that provisions in the economic stimulus fall short of helping low-wage and part-time workers receive unemployment benefits, even when they qualify. The Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided a pool of $7 billion for states that adopted measures to increase eligibility for unemployment insurance. These measures included allowing workers to include recent earnings in their eligibility calculations, expanding eligibility to those who quit for ‘compelling family reasons’ such as domestic violence and enhancing eligibility of part-time workers. A new University of Michigan study suggests that provisions in the economic stimulus fall short of helping low-wage and part-time workers receive unemployment benefits, even when they qualify…”

Welfare caseloads rise, cause frustration, By Catherine Jun, April 5, 2010, Detroit News: “State welfare workers are juggling an astronomical number of requests for help, causing delays in emergency benefits to families and in some cases kicking them erroneously off welfare, according to state employees and welfare recipients. And in crowded welfare offices around the state, the frustration of families waiting for food, medical or cash assistance is reportedly boiling over, with threats and assaults against caseworkers. ‘They’re just frustrated with us. We can’t get their work processed fast enough,’ said Nancy Opatich, who works at the Michigan Department of Human Services office in Warren and who testified before a Michigan House subcommittee in the fall. Since 2001, the welfare assistance caseload in Michigan has dramatically swelled to 2.4 million cases, triple that of 2002, raising per-worker caseloads to 740 from 320…”

Jobless fear end of their benefits, By Scott Davis, March 5, 2010, Lansing State Journal: “Even with unemployment benefits, Tyson Cowles is feeling a financial vise tighten around him. Jobless for 15 months, the Lansing man is four months behind on his mortgage, and a few weeks ago, he glanced out of his window to see Lansing Board of Water & Light workers about to shut off his utilities for nonpayment. He quickly borrowed $250 from a relative to avoid shutoff. Cowles, 38, a laid-off database designer, worries what will happen if his unemployment benefits expire in May, and he still can’t find work. ‘I have no idea what’s going to happen,’ said Cowles, a husband and father of a 12-year-old girl. ‘There’s other bills to pay.’ Cowles is among more than 16,000 mid-Michigan residents whose unemployment benefits are set to expire in coming months unless Congress takes action to extend the aid…”

Earned-income credit boosts Michigan’s low-income workers, By Brian J. O’Connor, February 16, 2010, Detroit News: “Michiganians struggling to just get by in this dismal economy are getting a helping hand from an unlikely source: the tax man. Federal and state tax agencies have anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars to give low-income workers and their families through the Earned Income Tax Credit. Last year, more than 720,000 Michigan residents collected $1.5 billion from the federal credit, at an average of $2,047 apiece. More than 40 percent of those getting the credit lived in Wayne, Oakland or Macomb counties. Michigan gave out $145 million under the first year of its own state credit, which matched 10 percent of the federal cash, and this year the state is set to match 20 percent of the federal amount…”

Fixing our schools, series homepage, Detroit Free Press:

• How do we prepare our kids for jobs, future?, By Lori Higgins, February 7, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Renee Boogren of Troy has two compelling reasons for wanting Michigan to make its schools more challenging. She’s a mother. She’s also a biology teacher at Wayne State University who sees the results of kids who come to college unprepared. It’s most notable in their writing skills…”
• What it’s like inside the Detroit Public Schools, By Chastity Pratt Dawsey, February 8, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “On a recent Wednesday, only 11 of the 29 students enrolled in Karanji Kaduma’s second-hour environmental science class at Pershing High School in Detroit showed up. He didn’t know where the rest were, but he said some of the stories of their homelife could make a grown man cry. ‘When middle school hits, parents’ hands go off. These kids in my classroom — most have no curfews, go to bed when they want to go to bed; they don’t have any particular time to do homework. They’re raising themselves,’ said Kaduma, who has lost six former students to gun violence…”
• Big ideas for Michigan schools, By Chastity Pratt Dawsey, Robin Erb, and Lori Higgins, February 9, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “In Charlotte, N.C., the best principals and teachers are handpicked to lead the worst schools. In Washington, D.C., the mayor appoints the schools chancellor. In New York, Wisconsin and Florida, parents on public assistance lose a chunk of their welfare benefits if their kids continually miss school. These are some of the drastic solutions for schools with low student performance, chronic truancy and other issues affecting achievement. But the innovative changes have made a difference: Students are showing up for class and doing better on tests, and teachers are being held accountable for making sure students succeed…”
• How Marcus Garvey Academy rises above, By Chastity Pratt Dawsey, February 10, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “At Marcus Garvey Academy in Detroit, the week begins with the recitation of black history facts followed by the sounds of drummers summoning students to an assembly. Students sing the black national anthem and recite the school creed, which starts, ‘I will have faith in myself. … I can learn! I will learn! I must learn!’ This is before any reading, writing and arithmetic. Garvey is an African-centered educational environment, and in 2008, its students outperformed the state average in most categories on the MEAP. Three other African-centered schools in Detroit serving students in kindergarten through eighth grade fared better than the Detroit Public Schools average…”
• About 1 in 5 students need remedial help in college, By Robin Erb, February 11, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “It should have been a simple math question. But it stumped more than half of Michigan’s fourth-graders last year. Many of them never catch on, even by high school. As a result, remedial education classes are flourishing at colleges and universities. Walk onto any of the state’s 28 community colleges, and one of every five students is enrolled in a remedial education course. National data suggests that one in five students at four-year colleges seek remedial coursework, too. And it’s a costly problem. In Michigan, more than $28 million is spent on remediation at the community college level alone…”

• More people struggling to stay warm, taxing agencies, By Steve Neavling, February 2, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Working just eight hours a week, Cynthia Caruthers can barely afford to keep her heat on for a few hours a day. ‘I’ve never had anything like this happen to me,’ said Caruthers, 42, who lives with her 14-year-old son in Detroit and can’t find a better job. ‘It’s scary.’ Caruthers is among an increasing number of metro Detroiters at risk of losing heat this winter because they either can’t find work or are struggling with small paychecks. Compared with last year, the problem this winter is particularly brutal: The number of unemployed residents rose 33%. State and local agencies are responding with extra money and resources to help down-on-their-luck families pay their utility bills, but officials fear it won’t be enough…”
• Utilities ordered to ease shutoffs, By Ryan Carter, February 4, 2010, San Gabriel Valley Tribune: “The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday required utility companies to curb a trend toward increased power shut-offs at a time when many customers are having a tough time paying the bills. Commissioners unanimously required Rosemead-based Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas Co. to inform customers with past-due bills - but who can keep current on their current payments - that they have three months to arrange a plan to pay the utility. That could be extended to 12 months depending on a customer’s situation, Commissioner Michael Peevey said. To further ease the payment burden, any disconnected customer who has established credit with a utility would not be required to pay reconnection fees…”

• Kids Count: Report card mixed on the welfare of Saginaw County children, By Barrie Barber, January 12, 2010, Saginaw News: “The welfare of Saginaw County children received mixed grades in an annual report card released today. The Kids Count in Michigan Data Book 2009 report compiles federal and state information to chart children’s well-being. The county counted more kids in poverty and more child abuse and neglect cases, but the number of fourth- and eight-graders deemed proficient in state standardized math test was up and the high school drop-out rate declined, the report said…”
• Child health signs mixed in Michigan, By Elizabeth Willis, January 12, 2010, Battle Creek Enquirer: “It is no surprise that more children in Michigan were born into poverty in recent years, and that their health has been affected by it, according to a report released today. Calhoun County’s youngest children were among the most vulnerable in Michigan, according to the Kids Count in Michigan Data Book 2009, an annual project of the Michigan League for Human Services. The infant death rate increased significantly in Calhoun County, though the state rate declined. The county had the third-worst infant mortality rate among the 54 counties reporting. There are 83 counties in Michigan…”
• Report: Poverty rates for rural Michigan higher than Wayne County, Associated Press, January 11, 2010, MLive.com: “Some of Michigan’s relatively rural northern counties have a higher percentage of children living in poverty than the state’s big urban counties, according to a study released Tuesday. The latest Kids Count report says one of every five children in Michigan lived in a family with income below the federal poverty level in 2007. Poverty was defined as income below roughly $17,000 for a family of three led by a single parent or $21,000 for a family of four with two parents…”
• Child poverty, neglect on rise in Michigan, By Catherine Jun, January 12, 2010, Detroit News: “Childhood poverty, neglect and abuse continue to rise in Michigan, troubling signs that children continue to bear the brunt of the state’s economic woes, according to a report released today. More than 40 percent of Michigan students were eligible and received free or reduced federal lunches in 2008, according to Kids Count in Michigan, a report released by the Michigan League of Human Services. That’s up from 30.7 percent in 2001. Even in Oakland County, the state’s wealthiest county, more children (age 17 and younger) are falling into poverty: 11 percent compared with 8.6 percent in 2005. Statewide, one in five children lives in poverty…”
• Growing child poverty in Michigan must be addressed, Editorial, January 12, 2010, Detroit News: “A new Kids Count report shows that growing poverty is taking a toll in Michigan and serves as a reminder of the importance of a healthy education system. The report released today by the Michigan League for Human Services and Michigan’s Children finds state childhood poverty rose 6 percent between 2005 and 2007, with nearly one in every five children in Michigan living in poverty. The number of students receiving free or reduced-priced lunches increased 14 percent between 2006 and 2008 — meaning more than two of every five public school K-12 students participate in the school lunch program at free or reduced prices…”

Muskegon Chronicle Series, Starting Over:

• State program aims to keep parolees out of prison, By Teresa Taylor Williams, January 9, 2010, Muskegon Chronicle: “Lost. Broken. Alone. Those words often describe parolees who leave prison only to commit a fresh crime shortly thereafter. But a statewide program implemented locally two years ago aims to stop that pattern. The Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative was introduced in 2005 to help equip parolees with tools they need for success in their communities. One of the cornerstones of those ‘tools’ is pairing men and women prisoners with adult mentors with the goal of helping them make a successful transition back into society. Anecdotally and statistically, the program appears to be working…”
• Children, family of prisoners pay hefty price, By Teresa Taylor Williams, January 10, 2010, Muskegon Chronicle: “When Patti Brewer drives by Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility near her home, her 6-year-old son Bryan often says, ‘That’s Daddy’s house, isn’t it?’ The last several years, the father of her two sons has been in and out of prison. Single parenting has been rough on Brewer. She works during the day in a bakery and has to get her boys to the family daycare provider before dawn. Her car is barely running, and the electricity in her home was shut off last month. Brewer is thankful for help she gets from family. But the financial challenges and ‘missing’ her boys’ father - Joseph Martin Morales, who is in prison for armed robbery and drug possession - is wearing down Brewer…”

Agencies must team up to serve poor better, Editorial, January 9, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “With one in seven Michigan residents now living in poverty and metro Detroit leading the nation in unemployment, state government must maintain a safety net and do more to move people out of poverty. That doesn’t always mean spending more, but it does mean working smarter — and more effectively. Government anti-poverty programs have for too long worked in silos. Narrowly focused agencies work on one set of issues, such as job training, day care or transportation. But training for a job that a worker can’t get to, for example, or can’t take because she lacks day care or has a drug problem isn’t going to help much. Michigan has aggravated the problem by gutting the adult education system over the last decade, decreasing funding from about $100 million to $22 million…”

Nearly half of Detroit’s workers are unemployed, By Mike Wilkinson, December 16, 2009, Detroit News: “Despite an official unemployment rate of 27 percent, the real jobs problem in Detroit may be affecting half of the working-age population, thousands of whom either can’t find a job or are working fewer hours than they want. Using a broader definition of unemployment, as much as 45 percent of the labor force has been affected by the downturn. And that doesn’t include those who gave up the job search more than a year ago, a number that could exceed 100,000 potential workers alone…”

• Jobless Floridians encounter delays in getting extended unemployment benefits, By Jeff Harrington, December 16, 2009, St. Petersburg Times: ” Nearly six weeks after President Barack Obama extended unemployment benefits in hard-hit states like Florida, Janet Husted of St. Petersburg is still waiting for her first check. Like thousands of Floridians, Husted can blame the waiting game on slow technology and bad timing. Floridians who happened to exhaust their unemployment benefits after Nov. 1 were automatically enrolled to receive the new round of extended benefits, so their weekly checks kept flowing. Those whose benefits had expired before November, however, had to reapply with the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation…”
• State’s computers hold up extension of jobless benefits, By John Diedrich, December 13, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The federal government’s latest extension of unemployment benefits passed in early November, but jobless people in Wisconsin have yet to see the money. State officials said Friday the delay was because of computer programming requirements that come with federal funds. They expect the first checks to be mailed Wednesday. President Barack Obama signed the extension at the end of the first week of November - the sixth extension of unemployment benefits during the recession. A delay of more than 30 days is not unusual, said Chris Marschman, spokesman with the state Department of Workforce Development…”
• Bill would extend programs for unemployed, By Deb Price, December 15, 2009, Detroit News: “Congress would extend the cut-off dates for two critical programs for laid-off Michiganians by two months under a deal announced today. House-Senate conferees working on the Department of Defense appropriations bill reset the expiration dates for expanded unemployment benefits and for a federal subsidy to help laid-off workers pay the premium on COBRA health insurance. ‘It is vital that we maintain these programs for people who are unemployed and actively looking for work,’ said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Royal Oak. The two-month provisions in the DOD bill are critical to Michigan, which is reeling from an unemployment rate of 15.1 percent, the highest in the nation. The national unemployment rate is 10.2 percent…”

Michigan rules derail child support payments, By Catherine Jun, December 7, 2009, Detroit News: “Scores of Michigan parents have fallen behind on their child support payments, and state regulations prevent some from ever catching up. A large percentage of the debt is due to a surcharge the state began applying to delinquent payers in 1996, officials acknowledge. Though designed to encourage parents not to skip the payments, the surcharge has pushed some parents into such a deep hole they can’t climb out. About $9.2 billion in back child support is owed in Michigan, affecting more than 600,000 children. That’s about two-thirds of child support cases in the state. With state unemployment at 15 percent, courts and prosecutors that hunt down deadbeat dads are finding some fathers don’t have the money to pay. ‘Yeah, I have been falling behind,’ said Jeremy Deron, 38, of Westland, who was ordered to pay at least $5,000 in back payments by January. Deron, who lost his job a year and a half ago as a union bricklayer, said he regularly paid child support for his two sons until his unemployment checks ran out a few months ago. Now he faces a felony charge if he misses the January deadline. ‘I don’t have the five grand,’ he said. ‘Now I’m fighting to stay out of jail.’ Michigan ranks third among states with the highest amount of uncollected child support funds. The state surcharge is a key culprit, compounding the debt of delinquent payers by essentially adding interest onto overdue back payments, said Marilyn Stephen, director of the state Office of Child Support…”

• Michigan jobless crowd state aid offices, By Chris Christoff, November 22, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “Michigan’s welfare system is gorged with new clients who often wait hours in crowded state offices to get food stamps and medical care. People such as Tricia Baysdell, 30, of Troy, who, like many, is battling the worst economy of her life. Last week, she waited five hours with her 9-year-old son at the Department of Human Services office in Madison Heights to apply for food assistance and Medicaid. She gave up waiting so she could pick up her other two children from school. Baysdell’s husband was laid off this month from his $70,000-a-year job at an auto supplier. He has been diagnosed with chronic leukemia and can’t receive unemployment pay because he can no longer work…”
• Demand for public assistance tied to job losses, By Joan Barron, November 23, 2009, Casper Tribune: “With Wyoming’s unemployment rate topping the 7 percent mark, workers in Department of Family Services field offices in Wyoming are seeing more and more people lining up for food stamps and other public help. Heather Babbitt, Family Services economic assistance administrator; Coleen Collins, deputy economic assistance administrator; Jacqueline Petroski, consultant with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, and Juliette Rule, public information officer, gave an update last week on what the department is doing to help field workers handle the higher workload. ‘I think what happens is we see more people walking in the door, with the recession, to see what they’re eligible for,’ Collins said. The increase has been primarily in the food stamp and Medicaid programs…”

• State pushed to restore dental aid, By Kim Kozlowski, November 16, 2009, Detroit News: “Advocates for the disabled, poor and elderly say the state needs to restore Medicaid dental benefits before more people suffer or another person dies. ‘We’ve got to start to thinking about these policy decisions and how they affect real lives, not just what they represent in budget numbers,’ said Sharon Parks, president and CEO of the Michigan League for Human Services. Gov. Jennifer Granholm eliminated dental benefits to adults in July to help shore up the $1.3 billion deficit in last year’s budget. They weren’t restored in this year’s budget, so only emergency dental work is now paid for by Michigan’s Medicaid program, even though advocates argue that dental care is essential to good health. Before the cut, the program paid for routine exams and fillings. Research has shown that dental services are essential to good health…”
• Planned Medicaid cuts hit dental, home care, By Kay Lazar, November 14, 2009, Boston Globe: “More than a million low-income Massachusetts residents covered by Medicaid would be required to pay more for visits to certain doctors and receive prior approval for some expensive psychiatric medications under a plan announced yesterday by the Patrick administration to narrow a $307 million shortfall in the state’s MassHealth program. Some of the biggest changes are in dental care for adults, who would no longer receive dentures or other oral care except for cleanings, X-rays, and emergency services…”

Computer issues cause Medicaid payment lags, By Patricia Anstett, November 5, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “Dozens of Michigan nursing homes, hospices, dental offices and hospitals have encountered problems with two new state Medicaid computer programs, including payment errors, lengthy reimbursement lags and delays enrolling patients in the Medicaid program. The problems coincide with large increases in people applying for Medicaid, a program that serves 1.8 million low-income Michigan children and adults…”

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…”

From healthy kids to healthy adults, By Megha Satyanarayana, October 12, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “Jamel Bomer of Redford Township, a Westin Book Cadillac valet, is the father of a 1-year-old on Medicaid. ‘He can go to any doctor that accepts it,’ Bomer said of son Ryan. ‘Without it, we wouldn’t be able to provide him care.’ Even with publicly funded Medicaid, which many doctors don’t take, Bomer and his fiancée are working off a $230 bill for the part of Ryan’s birth that wasn’t covered on Bomer’s $5.15 per hour plus tips. ‘Our income is tight to the penny.’ Although Ryan is covered, neither Bomer nor his fiancée, a TV news intern, have insurance. While Congress and the president debate over comprehensive health care reform, local and national experts say making sure all children have coverage now will mean they have a better chance of growing into healthy adults who will be less of a burden on the health care system…”

• Rate of enrollment in Medicaid rose rapidly, report says, By Kevin Sack, September 30, 2009, New York Times: “The recession is driving up enrollment in Medicaid at higher than expected rates, threatening gargantuan state budget gaps even as Congress and the White House seek to expand the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, according to a survey released Wednesday. The annual survey of state Medicaid directors, conducted for the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, found that the program had been spared the worst effects of massive state budget shortfalls because of federal aid in the stimulus package. But it also revealed grave concerns about what will happen when that relief dries up at the close of 2010…”
• 100,000 Ohio workers getting Medicaid, By Catherine Candisky, September 30, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: “They might work for some of Ohio’s largest employers but more than 100,000 low-wage employees rely on taxpayers for their health coverage. Legislation that soon will be introduced in the General Assembly would require the state to publish annually the names of companies with the most employees receiving Medicaid and other government subsidies…”
• Feds may pay for R.I. Medicaid expansion, By Ted Nesi, September 29, 2009, Providence Business Journal: “The federal government would pick up the full cost of expanding Medicaid coverage in Rhode Island for five years under a special provision of the Senate Finance Committee’s health care reform bill. Increasing the number of Americans eligible for Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor, is a key provision of all the various health bills moving through Congress…”
• Medicaid on chopping block, By Chris Christoff, September 29, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “A major hurdle to enacting a new state budget by the Thursday deadline could be resolved this afternoon with expected approval of major cuts in Medicaid and state help for the mentally ill. That will intensify lobbying for a 3% assessment on all Michigan physicians to offset the Medicaid reductions. ..”

• 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…”

Michigan struggles to insure kids, By Kim Kozlowski, September 15, 2009, Detroit News: “Michigan’s budget crisis is expected to prevent expansion of children’s health insurance coverage because the state can’t afford to match an extra $100 million in federal funds. Michigan has to come up with a 26 percent match, or about $33 million, for its MIChild program to get federal funds from the recently renewed Children’s Health Insurance Program, state health officials say. But the need comes as lawmakers scramble to close a $2.8 billion deficit for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. Democratic and Republican lawmakers agree it is unlikely the state can come up with the $33 million at a time when budget talks are focused on cuts, and millions of federal dollars for other health programs have been bypassed due to cuts made earlier this year…”

Jobless claims overwhelm state workers, By Mark Hornbeck, August 31, 2009, Detroit News: “While most state workers are about to take their last unpaid furlough day, Unemployment Insurance Agency employees are racking up overtime. The 800 employees, including call center and problem resolution staff, recently received a memo saying they’ll have to put in 140 more hours of overtime before the end of the year to keep up with the crush of applications from Michigan’s legions of jobless. They’ll have to work seven Saturdays or holidays and then another 80-plus hours of overtime during regular workdays. The overtime will cost $3.4 million, about $4,300 per employee, a tab picked up by the federal government. Michigan has an unprecedented 450,000 residents receiving unemployment compensation and ‘hundreds of thousands’ waiting to get benefits, said Norm Isotalo, spokesman for the Unemployment Insurance Agency. The state’s 15 percent jobless rate is the highest in the nation…”

State seeds fresh food delivery in Detroit, By Kimberly Hayes Taylor, August 22, 2009, Detroit News: “Imani Abba got choked up Friday as she purchased fruits and vegetables from a delivery truck. ‘We don’t have to go to the liquor stores and get dried-up vegetables,’ said the 54-year-old Detroiter, while taking strawberries, bananas and grapes her excited daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughter handed off. ‘For a long time, people around here didn’t have fresh food, and there are children around here that just know food from cans.’ The MI (pronounced “my”) Neighborhood Food Movers, a fresh food delivery program that officially launches Tuesday, is designed to change that for some Detroit residents. Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s office has invested $75,000 in seed money for the pilot program, which they plan to develop into a larger initiative that will include urban gardens, more delivery services, cooking classes and other programs…”

• Proposed cuts to Mich. budget hurts poor, By Karen Bouffard, August 6, 2009, Detroit News: “Services for the poor would be decimated under cuts proposed to close Michigan’s $1.8 billion budget hole, according to more than two dozen groups who asked Lansing lawmakers Wednesday to protect vulnerable people from shouldering the state’s economic woes. The coalition of faith-based and human services organizations — from the Food Bank Council of Michigan to the Association of United Ways and the Michigan Catholic Conference — said disproportionate cuts to the state departments of Human Services and Community Health would obliterate the social safety net at a time when unemployment in the state has spiked to 15.2 percent…”
• Welfare to work program is latest budget victim, By Susan Haigh (AP), August 9, 2009, Hartford Courant: “A 13-year-old initiative that helps needy people move from welfare to work is the latest victim of Connecticut’s budget impasse. Programs ranging from on-the-job training to child care stopped as of July 1 for thousands of people - mostly women - who receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, a state cash assistance program that can last 21 months. The July and August executive orders, issued by Gov. M. Jodi Rell to run the state without a permanent two-year budget in place, slashed funding for the Jobs First program, leaving just enough money to cover some staff at the state Department of Labor.

Hunger hits Detroit’s middle class, By Steve Hargreaves, August 6, 2009, CNNMoney.com: “On a side street in an old industrial neighborhood, a delivery man stacks a dolly of goods outside a store. Ten feet away stands another man clad in military fatigues, combat boots and what appears to be a flak jacket. He looks straight out of Baghdad. But this isn’t Iraq. It’s southeast Detroit, and he’s there to guard the groceries. ‘No pictures, put the camera down,’ he yells. My companion and I, on a tour of how people in this city are using urban farms to grow their own food, speed off. In this recession-racked town, the lack of food is a serious problem. It’s a theme that comes up again and again in conversations in Detroit. There isn’t a single major chain supermarket in the city, forcing residents to buy food from corner stores. Often less healthy and more expensive food…”

• 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…”

• New jobless claims are lowest since January, July 16, 2009, New York Times: “The number of American workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week to the lowest level since January, the government said on Thursday, but the data was distorted by an unusual pattern of automotive industry layoffs that amplified the drop…”
• Number of jobless in Mich. hits 740,000, By Louis Aguilar, July 16, 2009, Detroit News: The state’s nine-year battle with unemployment reached a bleak milestone in June, when the number of residents officially counted as jobless rose to 740,000.  That’s the highest monthly jobless total since 1976, when the state began using a new methodology for calculating labor figures, and helped push the state’s unemployment rate to 15.2 percent last month…”
• State jobless rate rises; 740,000 out of work, By Barbara Wieland, July 16, 2009, Lansing State Journal: “Michigan’s unemployment rate, already the highest in the nation, rose another 1.1 percent in June. The Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth said Wednesday that the state’s June unemployment rate stood at 15.2 percent in June, up from 14.1 percent in May and 8.1 percent one year earlier. Michigan’s jobless rate is at the highest level since May 1983…”

• Food stamp use in R.I. tops 100,000, By Ted Nesi, July 8, 2009, Providence Business News: “The number of Rhode Islanders receiving food stamps was up 19.3 percent in April compared with a year earlier, topping 100,000 for the first time, according to new government figures…”
• Lean times mean heavy food stamp increase, By Ivy Farguheson, July 6, 2009, Muncie Star Press: “Leslie Barnhouse hopes that one day she won’t need to receive food stamps, but today is not the day to make that break — for her or thousands of other aid recipients…”
• Detroit’s food banks strain to serve middle class, By Alex P. Kellogg, July 10, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Battered by massive layoffs, home foreclosures and nearly a decade of economic decline, more residents of Detroit’s middle-class suburbs are having a tough time putting food on the table. State agencies and nonprofit groups that serve the poor in southeast Michigan say they are seeing an unprecedented rise in demand for food assistance across the region. They point to a pronounced increase in those seeking aid for the first time, often families unaccustomed to depending on food-aid programs. And they expect the numbers to grow as Michigan’s jobs picture worsens…”