Neb. bill would expand foster care benefits, Associated Press, February 5, 2012, Fremont Tribune: “Children who age out of Nebraska’s foster care system could qualify for medical benefits, financial aid for school and caseworker help until they turn 21, under a measure in the Legislature. Advocates said the measure would help young adults in foster care adjust to adulthood when they have no other support. But the bill will likely face strong resistance from budget-conscious lawmakers as they sort through a priority list that includes the governor’s tax cut plan, funding for higher education and other child welfare reforms…”

Number of asset-poor Americans rising, By Becky Yerak, January 31, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Luz Pagan, 45, has been working as a part-time cashier at a discount store in downtown Chicago for nearly three years, her requests to become a full-time employee with benefits having gone nowhere. The single mom and her 12-year-old son, Marvin, have been living in a $575-a-month studio apartment on the North Side since November. But with a work schedule averaging 15 to 20 hours a week, in a job paying about $8.75 an hour, Pagan is struggling to cover living expenses and has to scrape together money from friends and family. Her last paycheck netted $64. ‘I’m underemployed,’ said Pagan, who previously lived in a shelter for two months. She has an associate’s degree and would love an office job. Marvin’s dad helps with expenses, but she said she and her son - a mostly A and B student who wants to be a doctor - are living paycheck to paycheck, with no savings. Pagan’s plight is becoming more commonplace. Nationwide, 27 percent of households are ‘asset poor,’ meaning they don’t have enough money tucked away to cover basic expenses for three months in case of a layoff or other emergency that saps income, according to a study to be released Tuesday by the Washington-based Corporation for Enterprise Development…”

• Report: N.J. subsidized child care program hobbled by poor oversight and long waits, By Susan K. Livio, January 25, 2012, Star-Ledger: “New Jersey could be wasting millions of dollars a year on its subsidized child care program for thousands of working poor families by overpaying day care providers and failing to catch parents lying about their income, according to an audit state Comptroller Matthew Boxer released today. The comptroller’s team found glaring problems with the oversight of the N.J. Cares for Kids day care assistance program that eluded the state Department of Human Services and 15 regional agencies that manage its vast referral network, according to the audit…”
• NJ comptroller criticizes state-administered child care program in audit, By John Reitmeyer, January 25, 2012, The Record: “Parents who cheated a $124 million state-administered program that helps low-income families afford child care - a program that has 8,000 children on a waiting list - could face criminal prosecution. An audit of the state Child Care Assistance Program released Wednesday by the Office of the State Comptroller found a series of other problems not detected by administrators, including overpaying child care centers with inflated attendance figures and enrolling children without proper Social Security numbers. In some cases, Comptroller Matthew Boxer said, the errors were likely honest. But others could eventually give rise to a criminal case, he said…”

• Welfare drug testing bill whips up debate in state legislature, By Mike Sluss, January 25, 2012, Roanoke Times: “A House of Delegates committee has advanced legislation that would require drug testing of Virginia welfare recipients, despite objections from Democrats who argued that the proposal amounts to a targeted attack on poor people. The legislation - House Bill 73 - would require local social services agencies to screen recipients in the state welfare program to determine whether they use illegal drugs. Those who refuse to comply or fail a drug test would lose Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits for one year unless they enter a drug treatment program. A recipient would have one opportunity to be reinstated to the program by complying with screening, assessment and treatment requirements…”
• Welfare drug-testing bill passes on to vote from full House, By Maureen Hayden, January 25, 2012, News and Tribune: “Indiana lawmakers are pushing forward on legislation that would cut off cash assistance to welfare recipients who fail drug tests. In a 15-5 vote that crossed party lines, the House Committee on Ways and Means approved a bill that would require the state’s Family and Social Services Agency to test out a drug-screening program on a small scale before it was launched statewide. It now goes to the full House for a vote. The focus is narrow: The FSSA would implement the drug-screening program in three test counties for a two-year period, then report back to the legislature. The drug-screening would only apply to adults who are receiving cash payments through a program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF…”

Welfare issue makes political comeback, By Dawn Turner Trice, January 22, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently offered to attend an NAACP convention to explain why African-Americans ’should demand paychecks instead of food stamps.’ And he has described President Barack Obama as ‘the most successful food stamp president in American history.’ While the Republican presidential race has brought the welfare issue to the forefront, critics say it has also resurrected stereotypical images of the black ‘welfare mother’ having out-of-wedlock babies so she can stay home and live large off the taxpayers. When it comes to welfare, perceptions have often trumped reality…”

• Food stamp recipients to critics: Walk in our shoes, By Jesse Washington (AP), January 20, 2012, Charlotte Observer: “Some have advanced degrees and remember middle-class lives. Some work selling lingerie or building websites. They are white, black and Hispanic; young and old; homeowners and homeless. What they have in common: They’re all on food stamps. As the food stamp program has become an issue in the Republican presidential primary, with candidates seeking to tie President Barack Obama to the program’s record numbers, The Associated Press interviewed recipients across the country and found many who wished critics would spend some time in their shoes. Most said they never expected to need food stamps, but the Great Recession, which wiped out millions of jobs, left them no choice. Some struggled with the idea of taking a handout; others saw it as their due, earned through years of working steady jobs. They yearn to get back to receiving a paycheck that will make food stamps unnecessary…”
• The Americans no one wants to talk about, By Michael Gerson, January 19, 2012, Washington Post: “It is an achievement of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements to have raised large issues of economic freedom and economic inequality. It is a paradox that their arguments have generally been vague, ideological and unhelpful. Elements on the right reject the whole ideal of distributive justice - opposing most taxation as theft and embracing a utopian project involving the abolition of the modern state. Elements on the left seek a substitute for capitalism - a utopian project that has been tried and found frightening. The political debates on free markets or the privileges of the 1 percent seldom touch on the actual struggles of citizens - say, living in the shadow of foreclosure, or attending a failing school, or surviving in a gang-occupied neighborhood. Ideology is abstract. Hardship is lived concretely. I like a good political philosophic debate as much as the next columnist. Give me a soy latte and a libertarian, and I’m set for the night. Ideas do have consequences. But many Americans are being overlooked in this bipartisan conspiracy of economic abstraction. A significant and growing portion of the population lives in poverty…”
• GOP presidential candidates wade into politically tricky territory of food stamp spending, By Associated Press, January 9, 2012, Washington Post: “Politicians normally shy away from saying they want to cut food stamps, but this year’s Republican presidential candidates are using domestic food aid as an example of a welfare state gone awry. Supporters of the program say it is one of the most reliable safety nets for families who suddenly find themselves unable to pay for food, and politically the program has proved almost untouchable over many decades. More than 45 million people received the benefit last year at a $75 billion cost to the government, a record number as the economy has flailed. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and fellow contender Rick Santorum, both heavily involved in congressional welfare reform efforts in the mid-1990s, say the government should stop promoting a welfare-like state and convert food stamp spending to block grants to states, a move that could freeze spending and cut the benefit to many who now receive it. A spokesperson for Republican Mitt Romney says the former Massachusetts governor also supports turning the nation’s food stamp program into state block grants, though he rarely mentions it…”

Investigator finds overpayments in food-stamp system, By Jason Stein, January 15, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In just two months, private investigators found nearly a half-million dollars in overpayments and cost savings in two state aid programs for the needy in Milwaukee County, with much more expected to be added up in the coming weeks. The findings of fraud in public food assistance and health care programs come after budget cuts left such investigations painfully neglected in many parts of the state, including Milwaukee County - the state’s largest urban area. For the past year, the Journal Sentinel has been reporting about fraud and other problems in the FoodShare program. The contractor looked at 111 suspicious cases in FoodShare and Medicaid health programs such as BadgerCare Plus and found overpayments in every case. So far, the total overpayments have been tallied up in only 62 of those cases, or just over half. But the total overpayments and future cost savings will likely come close to $1 million when it’s all added up, with most of that due to fraud, said Ed O’Brien, who heads the investigative firm O’Brien & Associates…”

• After a contentious political year, Republicans may moderate their approach, By John Gramlich, January 9, 2012, Stateline.org: “From the moment he took office last year, Florida Governor Rick Scott made clear that a new and unabashedly conservative administration had taken power in Tallahassee - just as it had in state capitals around the country following an historic election haul for Republicans in 2010. Scott, a Tea Party-backed Republican, stood before a cheering crowd and introduced a state budget that contained more than $4 billion in tax cuts for corporations and property owners, even as it slashed funding for K-12 education…”
• Washington and the states: a year of uncertainty and foreboding, By Pamela M. Prah, January 10, 2012, Stateline.org: “A long siege of deadlock and dysfunction in Washington has left states frustratingly unclear what to expect from the federal government in the coming year. About the only thing they know for sure is that it is not going to be a year of generosity. In fact, it’s likely to be quite the opposite. As a result of last summer’s deal to raise the federal debt ceiling, and the consequent failure of the congressional ’super committee’ to decide on budget cuts, states are bracing for automatic across-the-board cuts in education, social welfare and other programs for the upcoming 2013 fiscal year. Those cuts would come atop federal cuts in 2011 and 2012, not to mention the continuing wind-down of federal stimulus aid…”
• Medicaid: a year of excruciating decisions, By Christine Vestal, January 11, 2012, Stateline.org: “In health care history, 2012 will be remembered for the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on the Obama administration’s health overhaul. But in the states, 2012 will likely be remembered less as an historic turning point than as a gradual continuation of their longstanding struggles to get Medicaid costs under control. That’s not to say the states aren’t watching the Supreme Court closely. The case set to be heard in March and decided in June was brought by 26 states who argued the federal law’s ‘individual mandate,’ as well as a massive expansion of Medicaid in 2014, were unconstitutional. While the outcome could have long-term consequences for states, it likely won’t change their most pressing short-term budget considerations…”
• Unions adapt to new rules, even as they fight to reverse them, By Ben Wieder, January 12, 2012, Stateline.org: “It took nearly a year for Dale Kleinert to negotiate his first teachers’ contract. When Kleinert started his job as schools superintendent in Moscow, Idaho, the talks were already underway. Then, discussions reached an impasse. There were disagreements over pay and health care costs, and the pace slowed further when first an outside mediator and later a fact-finder didn’t render a decision. It wasn’t until May of 2011 that Kleinert and his union counterparts finally reached an agreement. Just before then, while Kleinert and the teachers were still stuck, Republican lawmakers in Boise were finishing work on plans to take away much of the leverage that Idaho teachers had long enjoyed in these kinds of negotiations. So for Kleinert’s next round of talks with Moscow’s teachers, which began pretty much right after the previous ones wrapped up, the rules were very different…”
• At last, a state budget year when the sky is not falling, By Daniel C. Vock, January 13, 2012, Stateline.org: “During the depths of the Great Recession, states had to do many unsavory things to balance their budgets. But few things left a more bitter taste than Arizona’s decision to sell off the office space of its state Capitol complex. It helped lawmakers close a gap in one year’s budget, even though it meant taxpayers would essentially have to pay rent on the property for the next two decades. Now, Arizona’s budget outlook is showing some improvement: For the first time since 2006, the state finished its last fiscal year with a surplus, which came as a surprise to state financial forecasters…”

• Cuts to MaineCare, welfare approved in spring 2011 taking effect, By Kathryn Skelton, January 5, 2012, Lewiston Sun Journal: “Changes in the state budget approved last spring and now in effect include cutting MaineCare coverage for hundreds, stopping food stamps for some and, in two weeks, telling 2,500 people receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: Your time’s up. Also coming soon: new rules that end TANF benefits for some immigrants and a measure to drug-screen TANF recipients with drug-related felonies dating back to 1996. With three of the five changes affecting legal noncitizens who have been in the U.S. fewer than five years, one advocate said Portland and Lewiston will be hardest hit…”
• New study disputes LePage administration on MaineCare’s childless adults, By Jackie Farwell, January 9, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “The childless adults Gov. Paul LePage has proposed dropping from MaineCare are far from young and healthy, despite rhetoric to the contrary, according to a report released Monday by an advocacy group for the poor. More than 40 percent of childless adults covered through MaineCare are older than 45 and many have serious medical conditions, states the report prepared by Maine Equal Justice Partners. Known as ‘noncategoricals’ because they don’t fall under categories of mandatory coverage, the childless adult group consists of beneficiaries ages 21-64 with no dependents in the home who don’t qualify as disabled under federal guidelines…”

• Extended jobless benefits likely to end soon for 4,777 in area, By Richard Craver, January 7, 2012, Winston-Salem Journal: “The final unemployment-benefit lifeline for about 23,000 North Carolinians appears likely to be cut off as scheduled on Jan. 28. Although Congress agreed Dec. 23 to extend federal benefits for two months, it appears unlikely that the General Assembly will agree to allow North Carolina to borrow more money from the U.S. Labor Department. As of Dec. 29, North Carolina had borrowed $2.67 billion from the federal government - the fourth-highest amount among 27 participating states - to pay up to 20 weeks of state-extended unemployment benefits. Those benefits are available only after claimants exhaust up to 26 weeks of initial state benefits and up to 53 weeks - representing four tiers - of federal benefits. There are 4,777 people in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina in the extended state benefit level. The state’s unemployment rate was 10 percent in November. The national rate was 8.5 percent in December, officials announced Friday…”
• Extra jobless benefits in peril, By Catherine Candisky, January 7, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “More than 20,000 long-term unemployed Ohioans will lose up to 20 weeks of jobless benefits unless state lawmakers agree to take advantage of a more-favorable formula for determining which states qualify for the federal aid. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is urging legislators to make the fix, which will cost the state nothing because the benefits are funded entirely by the federal government, said Benjamin Johnson, spokesman for the state agency which oversees unemployment benefits. The Republican-controlled General Assembly is expected to oblige…”

Nation’s largest welfare state makes deep cuts, By Sheila V Kumar (AP), December 28, 2011, Sacramento Bee: “Advocates of welfare reform in California often cite one, eye-popping statistic as they have pressed for cuts and changes to the program in recent years: The state has one-eighth of the nation’s population but one-third of all welfare recipients.Yet steps taken in recent years to cut costs and get more recipients back in the workforce have run head-on into the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. Recipients have been left with fewer training programs, shrinking welfare checks and a shorter period during which they are eligible to receive assistance at a time when employment prospects for even highly qualified job-seekers are dim.That has led to fear and uncertainty among welfare recipients, many of whom have spent a year or more in job-preparation programs without success…”

• States get $845 million in home heat aid from feds, By Andrew Miga (AP), December 22, 2011, Boston Globe: “States got more than $845 million in federal home heating aid on Thursday, but the latest round of government funding won’t take the chill from the fuel assistance program, which is being cut by about a quarter this winter. New England, with its reliance on costly home heating oil, is expected to be especially hit hard by the spending cut. Several Northeast states already have reduced heating aid benefits this winter…”
• Home heating help slashed by $1 billion, By Pamela M. Prah, December 22, 2011, Stateline.org: “Just in time for the cold weather and holiday season, states have learned that Congress cut $1.2 billion from a program to provide heating and cooling assistance to low-income families. The large spending bill that Congress approved this month for 2012 contained about $3.5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Advocates of LIHEAP had hoped Congress would fund the program at its 2010 level of $5.1 billion; it was funded at $4.7 billion for 2011, an amount that several governors urged Congress to maintain for this year. President Obama’s budget proposal would have cut LIHEAP funding by nearly 50 percent to $2.6 billion, so the congressional figure came down somewhere in the middle…”

Grass-roots efforts aim to pull people out of poverty, By Dave Aeikens, December 21, 2011, USA Today: “In one of this city’s poorest neighborhoods, Jerry Sparby is among those trying to help people pull themselves out of poverty and help their children do better in school. Sparby and a group of volunteers have launched a local version of Promise Neighborhood, a growing national program aimed at connecting struggling families with the services they need, from job training to car repairs. If people start to understand the importance of relationships, I honestly think we can turn this community around,’ says Sparby, a professor at St. Cloud State University and retired school administrator in nearby Cold Spring, Minn. Promise Neighborhood programs are popping up across the country in mostly urban areas that have high poverty and low student success…”

• Report: Child homelessness up 33% in 3 years, By Marisol Bello, December 12, 2011, USA Today: “One in 45 children in the USA - 1.6 million children - were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year, according to the National Center on Family Homelessness. The numbers represent a 33% increase from 2007, when there were 1.2 million homeless children, according to a report the center is releasing Tuesday.  ’This is an absurdly high number,’ says Ellen Bassuk, president of the center. ‘What we have new in 2010 is the effects of a man-made disaster caused by the economic recession. … We are seeing extreme budget cuts, foreclosures and a lack of affordable housing.’ The report paints a bleaker picture than one by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which nonetheless reported a 28% increase in homeless families, from 131,000 in 2007 to 168,000 in 2010…”
• Child homelessness continues to rise, By Lindsay Fiori, December 14, 2011, Racine Journal Times: “Child homelessness has gone up across the nation including in Wisconsin and Racine since the Great Recession began in 2007, according to figures released Tuesday. Nationwide child homelessness went up 38 percent from the 2006-07 school year to the 2009-10 school year, the most recent year for which national data is available. During that same time, the number of homeless children in Wisconsin grew 48 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness. Locally, the number of homeless students attending Racine Unified grew 3 percent between 2006-07 and 2009-10. But 2006-07 had an usually large number of homeless students so a more accurate increase is found by looking at 2005-06 to 2009-10, when the number of homeless students increased by 26 percent, according to district data…”
• Homelessness hits families as shelters feel squeezed, By Annysa Johnson, December 12, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Robyn Greif lay beneath the covers in an Oak Creek motel, the sounds of her small children around her, thinking for the first time in days: ‘We don’t have to rush somewhere. We can feed our kids. We can shower today.’ The family of seven had driven from South Carolina in search of work for Greif’s husband, Sean, but had run out of money. They had spent three nights sleeping in their minivan because the area shelters were full. The Salvation Army paid to house them at the motel, at least through last weekend, and their prospects for permanent housing look good. But the Greifs represent a troubling trend in this time of economic turmoil: the growing number of homeless families - at a time when shelters are filled beyond capacity and state and federal dollars earmarked to run them are being cut…”
• Report: Confusion over ‘homelessness’ can mean less food aid to needy, By Pamela M. Prah, December 13, 2011, Stateline.org: “Many low-income Americans who have lost their homes to foreclosure and are living with friends could be eligible for more food stamp assistance and not even know it, says an advocacy group that is urging states to ask better questions to ensure people get the proper level of assistance. The federal food stamp program allows, but doesn’t require, states to offer a “homeless shelter deduction” that essentially increases the level of benefits for anyone without a permanent residence. Currently 26 states offer the deduction ‘and in those states, very few households claim the deduction,’ says a report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C…”

• Dave Camp: Bill would reduce federal unemployment benefits, crackdown on welfare fraud and abuse, and create jobs, By Barrie Barber, December 12, 2011, Saginaw News: “U.S. Rep. Dave Camp has introduced broad legislation to reduce the maximum number of weeks of federal unemployment compensation, extend a payroll tax holiday, reform some Medicare provisions and extend a welfare program set to expire at the end of the year. Camp, R-Midland, said the provisions, among other changes, would encourage employers to hire new employees, and crackdown on fraud and abuse in welfare and tax credit programs…”
• Unemployment benefits remain hot topic in Michigan, By Tim Martin (AP), Detroit Free Press: “In Michigan, where the unemployment rate has soared above the national average for years, any proposal with the potential to affect jobless benefits stirs emotions at the state Capitol. That’s certainly the case with Republican-sponsored legislation recently approved by the Senate and awaiting a vote in the House. The bills would help stabilize Michigan’s sagging unemployment trust fund, which because of the high jobless rate has shelled out more money in benefits than it has collected in payments from employers financing the system. Michigan has borrowed money from the federal government to help make jobless benefit payments, racking up a $3 billion debt…”
• Unemployment benefits on the chopping block in D.C., By Daniel Malloy and Dan Chapman, December 12, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Laid off from her temp job in Virginia last March, Lynette Green moved with her two kids to Atlanta in June in search of a job. She ran through her state unemployment payments and got a federal extension. ‘The benefits are very important; they help me pay my bills,’ said Green, 32, who lives in Atlanta’s West End and finally found work three weeks ago. ‘I used the money mainly for my kids, for their transportation and clothing when they started school.’ Extended federal unemployment benefits, which can last up to 73 weeks, expire Dec. 31. The U.S. House will vote Tuesday on continuing to pay the benefits through January 2013. Supporters of the extension say it’s needed in the toughest job market in generations. Those who want to reduce the benefits, mainly Republicans, say payments that can run nearly two years are disincentives to work…”
• The state of the long-term unemployed, By John Ydstie, December 12, 2011, National Public Radio: “Millions of Americans wake up each morning without a job, even though they desperately want to work. It’s one of the depressing legacies of the financial crisis and Great Recession. NPR and the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a poll of people who had been unemployed or with an insufficient level of work for more than a year. The results document the financial, emotional and physical effects of long-term unemployment and underemployment. The federal government currently counts 5.7 million Americans as long-term unemployed, which it defines as people out of work for 27 weeks or more. The NPR/Kaiser poll used a slightly different measure, surveying people out of work for a year or more…”

Northeast states cut heating aid to poor, By Andrew Miga (AP), December 11, 2011, Boston Globe: “Mary Power is 92 and worried about surviving another frigid New England winter because deep cuts in federal home heating assistance benefits mean she probably can’t afford enough heating oil to stay warm. She lives in a drafty trailer in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood and gets by on $11,148 a year in pension and Social Security benefits. Her heating aid help this year will drop from $1,035 to $685. With rising heating oil prices, it probably will cost her more than $3,000 for enough oil to keep warm unless she turns her thermostat down to 60 degrees, as she plans. ‘I will just have to crawl into bed with the covers over me and stay there,’ said Power, a widow who worked as a cashier and waitress until she was 80. ‘I will do what I have to do.’ Thousands of poor people across the Northeast are bracing for a difficult winter with substantially less home heating aid coming from the federal government…”

• In Ohio’s poorest county, people do what it takes, By Jessica Alaimo, December 4, 2011, Coshocton Tribune: “Brock Brewster’s truck dominated the single-lane road in western Pike County and rumbled over an extension cord. This extension cord has been strung across this Latham road for two years. It powers the lights of a white-and-brown trailer, using the electricity from a home across the road. It’s the only source of electricity for the trailer’s owner, who said she uses it to power her lights. She uses a wood stove to stay warm…”
• The new poor: Situational poverty on the rise locally, By Kristina Smith Horn, December 3, 2011, Port Clinton News Herald: “For most of his life, Gilbert Turner was a successful businessman. At 16, his family moved from Mississippi to Danbury Township, where he worked two jobs — one at U.S. Gypsum and one at the now-closed Standard Products. Turner worked hard, saved his money and built a prosperous hotel and restaurant business in Port Clinton and Toledo that he ran with his wife. Turner, who still retains a bit of the Southern drawl of his youth, reminisces about buying a new car in the 1940s and parking it in downtown Port Clinton…”
• Education a fresh start for those in poverty, By Kurt Moore, December 6, 2011, Marion Star: “When Kalya Wiseman got pregnant as a teen, her first plan was to be a young housewife. ‘It totally didn’t work out,’ she said. The search was on for a new plan. ‘I realized I needed to get an education so I could go to college and have a better life for me and my son.’ Wiseman, 20, is among students enrolled at Marion County Jobs for Ohio’s Graduates. Its students refer to it as their second chance, and sometimes as their only hope as many struggle to not fall into a cycle of poverty…”
• Poverty: Charity care on rise in county, By Leonard Hayhurst, December 6, 2011, Coshocton Tribune: “Coshocton Hospital won’t turn a patient away. But with the economy still struggling, fewer come in with adequate medical insurance or the money to pay. Uncompensated care at the hospital has risen more than $3 million since 2008, hospital spokeswoman Mary Ellen Given said. Factoring inpatient and outpatient charity care and cases where the hospital absorbed the leftover cost from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, the hospital spent $8.8 million in 2010 for uncompensated care compared with $7.1 million in 2009 and $5.1 million in 2008…”
• Poverty: Mental illnesses compound issue, By Russ Zimmer, December 5, 2011, Lancaster Eagle Gazette: “Tim Schrack walks 20 minutes, rain or shine, to his second-shift job coating and shipping seat-belt brackets. He’s estranged from almost his entire family and on his own for the first time in his 56 years of life. Schrack is bipolar, a condition he’s ignored — to his detriment — for decades. Schrack, by his own account, is the happiest he’s ever been. ‘I just never thought I could make it on my own,’ a grinning Schrack said inside his new apartment…”
• More Licking County kids getting lunch aid, By Seth Roy, December 4, 2011, Newark Advocate: “The soles of a student’s shoes were coming apart one day at school, and a teacher asked when he might get a new pair. ‘He said, ‘We’re poor; we can’t get new shoes,” Stevenson Elementary art teacher Shannon Montgomery said. ‘At this age, the kids are much more open about it.’ Schools across the country have seen their population of students in poverty rise in recent years. Heath’s population of students receiving free or reduced price lunches rose from 26 percent to 37 percent from 2006 to 2010; 42 percent of Stevenson’s population receives some lunch assistance…”
• Seasonal employment makes winter difficult, By Kristina Smith Horn, December 5, 2011, News-Messenger: “Each year, Val Kochensparger is laid off from her job just before Christmas. She collects unemployment for 8 to 10 weeks, and she and her husband rely on his income to help get them through the winter. When the ice clears off Lake Erie, usually in March, Kochensparger goes back to her job managing the ticket booth at the Miller Boat Line on Catawba Island…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Genesee County judge halts cash assistance cutoff; State attorney general files appeal, By Kristin Longley, November 1, 2011, Flint Journal: “A Genesee County judge Monday halted the state from cutting some cash assistance benefits, a move that could affect an estimated 1,500 families here and 11,000 families statewide. Circuit Court Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut granted a temporary injunction that would prevent the Michigan Department of Human Services from using a five-year time limit based on federal regulations to end benefits for some welfare recipients. Benefits would have ended this month for those who received termination notices. The Michigan League for Human Services has said that Genesee County would feel the effects of the assistance cutoff more than almost any other part of the state, since an estimated 13 percent of all families that lost benefits live in the area…”

Facing hardship, jobless still say they have hope, By Michael Cooper and Allison Kopicki, October 26, 2011, New York Times: “The nation’s lingering unemployment crisis has forced many people without work to dip into their savings, borrow from relatives and do without necessities including health insurance, and most people who receive unemployment benefits said that the money was not enough to meet their basic needs, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll of jobless Americans. Still, despite enduring hardships and being even more pessimistic about the nation’s economy than the general public, unemployed Americans remained optimistic about eventually landing jobs. A little more than half of those polled said they were either very or somewhat confident they would find long-term employment in the next year, and a majority said they expected that when they did find permanent work, it would be at a similar or higher salary than they had received in the past. But the poll found deep unease about unemployment benefits…”

Florida’s welfare drug testing halted by federal judge, By Rebecca Catalanello, October 25, 2011, Miami Herald: “A federal judge in Orlando on Monday temporarily blocked Florida’s controversial law requiring welfare applicants be drug tested in order to receive benefits. Judge Mary Scriven issued a temporary injunction against the state, writing in a 37-page order that the law could violate the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on illegal search and seizure. ‘The constitutional rights of a class of citizen are at stake,’ Scriven wrote. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state last month on behalf of Luis Lebron, a 35-year-old Navy veteran and single father from Orlando who is finishing his college degree. Lebron met all the criteria for receiving welfare, but refused to submit to a drug test on the grounds that requiring him to pay for and submit to one is unreasonable when there is no reason to believe he uses drugs…”

• Washington region has nation’s lowest poverty rate, By Carol Morello and Luz Lazo, October 20, 2011, Washington Post: “The Washington region had the lowest poverty rate of any major metropolitan area in the country during the past two years, even though poverty is up significantly and continues to rise. About 8.4 percent of the region’s residents lived in poverty in 2010, compared with 6.8 percent before the recession began in 2007. Although the rate represents a steep increase, it is far below the 15 percent national figure and that of urban areas in the West and the South, including Fresno, Calif., and El Paso, where more than 20 percent of people are poor. The region’s poverty rates have been among the lowest in the nation for many years. But although its rate has risen since the recession, other places have struggled more. Even the District, where the poverty rate is a staggering 19 percent, falls midway among other urban centers…”
• Fresno County poverty near nation’s highest, By Russell Clemings, October 20, 2011, Fresno Bee: “Driven by rising unemployment, poverty increased sharply in Fresno County between 2009 and 2010, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The percentage of people living below the poverty line, the exact value of which depends on family size and age of the householder, rose almost everywhere in those two years. Nationwide, that percentage was 14.3% in 2009 and 15.3% in 2010. But the Fresno metropolitan area, which consists of Fresno County, had a bigger rise - from 21.5% to 26.8%. That means more than 1 in 4 people here now live in poverty, compared to a little more than 1 in 5 before the recession-induced unemployment spike hit its peak. Because the census data is based on a survey that goes only to part of the population, the numbers are considered accurate only within 1 or 2 percentage points. But even that uncertainty is not enough to account for the change in Fresno County’s fortunes…”
• As poverty climbs, Utah’s cash handouts hold steady, By Brooke Adams, October 20, 2011, Salt Lake Tribune: “More Utah families slipped into poverty last year, but that wasn’t reflected in the estimated number of households receiving cash help from the government. An analysis of American Community Survey data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday found about 3.3 million households nationwide received public assistance in 2010, an increase of about 300,000 households from 2009. The analysis looked only at cash assistance, not such benefits as Supplemental Security Income or food stamps. Participation rates increased in 14 states, decreased in 25 and stayed flat in another 11 states - including Utah. That is likely because of Utah’s three-year, lifetime limit on welfare through the general assistance and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF] programs, said Terry Haven, Kids Count director at Voices for Utah Children. While federal law sets a 60-month, lifetime limit on cash assistance, states can set shorter limits or no time frame. In Utah, the limit is 36 months…”
• Census data show NH has nation’s lowest poverty rate, By Lisa Lambert, October 20, 2011, New Hampshire Union Leader: “The ranks of the poor rose in almost all U.S. states and cities in 2010, despite the end of the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression the year before, U.S. Census data released on Thursday showed. Mississippi and New Mexico had the highest poverty rates, with more than one out of every five people in each state living in poverty. Mississippi’s poverty rate led, at 22.4 percent, followed by New Mexico at 20.4 percent. New Hampshire had the lowest poverty rate, at 8.3 percent, making it the only state with a poverty rate below 10 percent. Twelve states had poverty rates above 17 percent, up from five in 2009, while poverty rates in 10 metropolitan areas topped 18 percent, the data showed…”
• Maine’s poverty rate isn’t the highest, but it’s No. 2 on public assistance list, By Eric Russell, October 20, 2011, Bangor Daily News: “New Census data show that Maine had one of the highest rates of households accepting public assistance in 2010 despite the fact that the state’s poverty rate was not among the highest. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey released this week compared rates of public assistance for all 50 states. In 2010, Maine saw 28,213 households accept public assistance, or 5.2 percent of the state’s population. That was an increase from the 4.9 percent of households that collected assistance in 2009. Maine’s rate trailed only Alaska (6.7 percent) and was significantly higher than the 2.9 percent national rate of households accepting public benefits in 2010. At 1.5 percent, Wyoming had the lowest rate. No state saw a decrease in the number of households accepting assistance from 2009 to 2010…”

States retool food stamp, benefits systems, By Pamela M. Prah, October 21, 2011, Stateline.org: “Food stamp applicants in California and Texas no longer have to be fingerprinted, a change both states hope will save money and improve the process of distribution. That makes Arizona and New York City the only remaining jurisdictions that fingerprint - a requirement that opponents say scares off the needy from applying for food stamps while doing little to combat fraud. The changes in California and Texas reflect a larger movement at the state level, spurred on by the recession and a record number of Americans getting food stamps and other public assistance: States are trying to make it easier for those seeking help and cheaper for state workers who process the applications and provide the benefits…”

Drug tests for welfare recipients raise debate, By Jennifer Brooks, October 21, 2011, The Tennessean: “As the economy drives more and more people to seek public assistance, an increasing number of states are debating whether that aid should go only to applicants who can pass a drug test. This year, 36 states have introduced bills to require drug testing for welfare recipients. Tennessee is one of them…”

FSSA hopes new hybrid system aids service, By Dorothy Schneider, October 16, 2011, Lafayette Journal and Courier: “Richard Graves has had his share of frustration in dealing with the local office for the Indiana Department of Families and Social Services Administration. He can recount tales of lost paperwork and unreturned phone calls, as he has worked to oversee his granddaughter’s Medicaid coverage. ‘I haven’t talked to the caseworker in two years,’ Graves said. Complaints about the state’s FSSA case management are nothing new, but Indiana officials are hoping they lessen as ongoing improvements to the application system are rolled out across the state…”

States adding drug test as hurdle for welfare, By A.G. Sulzberger, October 10, 2011, New York Times: “As more Americans turn to government programs for refuge from a merciless economy, a growing number are encountering a new price of admission to the social safety net: a urine sample. Policy makers in three dozen states this year proposed drug testing for people receiving benefits like welfare, unemployment assistance, job training, food stamps and public housing. Such laws, which proponents say ensure that tax dollars are not being misused and critics say reinforce stereotypes about the poor, have passed in states including Arizona, Indiana and Missouri. In Florida, people receiving cash assistance through welfare have had to pay for their own drug tests since July, and enrollment has shrunk to its lowest levels since the start of the recession…”

• Delay in welfare cuts could cost Michigan $2.5 million, By Karen Bouffard, October 6, 2011, Detroit News: “The delay in ending welfare to nearly 41,000 Michiganians could cost the state at least $2.5 million. The Department of Human Services must rewrite and resend letters to everyone who was scheduled to lose their cash assistance on Saturday after U.S. District Judge Paul Borman on Tuesday blocked the cutoff of benefits. After the letters are sent, clients have 10 days to appeal the move. ‘We are working diligently to comply with Judge Borman’s order,’ DHS spokeswoman Colleen Rosso said Wednesday. ‘I anticipate that the notices will be mailed in the coming days, but will have a more definitive time frame (today).’ Republicans, who have control of the Legislature and the Governor’s Office, figured savings from the cuts into the budget for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1…”
• Judge delays welfare cuts, says state didn’t follow the rules, By Kathleen Gray, October 4, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “A federal judge ordered the state Tuesday to temporarily stop enforcing a new law ending cash assistance to 11,162 poor Michigan families who have collected welfare for at least 48.months. The state did a poor job of notifying the recipients, giving them less than three weeks to plan for the end of assistance, Borman wrote in his opinion, granting a temporary restraining order against the cuts. The state passed a law in July that capped cash assistance at 48 months during a recipient’s lifetime. It was supposed to take affect Oct. 1, but U.S. District Judge Paul Borman in Detroit delayed the implementation until he ruled. The 11,162 families represent about 40,000 people, two-thirds of whom are children or teenagers…”

Judge halts welfare cuts for 41,000 Michigan residents, By Doug Guthrie, October 4, 2011, Detroit News: “A federal judge today accused the state of ’slight of hand,’ and halted plans to end welfare benefits to nearly 41,000 Michigan residents. U.S. District Judge Paul Borman determined after a hearing today that the state failed to give proper notice to those it planned to cut off, and although the issue was brought to the federal court in a lawsuit filed by just three plaintiffs, the judge also granted class status to include everyone affected by the state’s decision…”

• 2010 data show surge in poor young families, By Sabrina Tavernise, September 19, 2011, New York Times: “More than one in three young families with children were living in poverty last year, according to an analysis of census data by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University. At 37 percent, it was the highest level on record for the group, surpassing the previous peak of 36 percent in 1993, according to the analysis by Ishwar Khatiwada, an economist at the center. By comparison, the rate was about 25 percent in 2000. The economic distress among the country’s youngest families - defined as under the age of 30 - is in contrast to the poverty rate for elderly families, which remained low in 2010, at 5.7 percent, according to the analysis. In the 1970s, poverty was only slightly higher for younger families than for families headed by someone age 65 or over…”
• Some of the faces behind the new US poverty figures; for many it’s first brush with being poor, Associated Press, September 18, 2011, Washington Post: “At a food pantry in a Chicago suburb, a 38-year-old mother of two breaks into tears. She and her husband have been out of work for nearly two years. Their house and car are gone. So is their foothold in the middle class and, at times, their self-esteem. ‘It’s like there is no way out,’ says Kris Fallon. She is trapped like so many others, destitute in the midst of America’s abundance. Last week, the Census Bureau released new figures showing that nearly one in six Americans lives in poverty - a record 46.2 million people. The poverty rate, pegged at 15.1 percent, is the highest of any major industrialized nation, and many experts believe it could get worse before it abates. The numbers are daunting - but they also can seem abstract and numbing without names and faces. Associated Press reporters around the country went looking for the people behind the numbers. They were not hard to find…”

• Kansas proposes welfare changes, By Brad Cooper, September 16, 2011, Kansas City Star: “Kansas is undertaking a series of welfare reforms, including one measure that would remove a financial advantage for unmarried couples on the welfare rolls. The head of social services, Rob Siedlecki, revealed the reforms Friday, saying they’re intended to level the playing field in several programs that serve tens of thousands of people. The goal is to strengthen the agency’s efforts to help Kansans find employment and achieve self-sufficiency, he said…”
• Kansas reforming some welfare rules, By Scott Rothschild, September 16, 2011, Lawrence Journal-World: “Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Robert Siedlecki Jr. on Friday announced a host of policy changes for programs that provide assistance to low-income Kansans. ‘These changes represent a significant change in policy, in that they treat all households equally, and create fairness across the system,’ Siedlecki said in a news release. Siedlecki said the changes would help eliminate fraud and abuse, and save from $10 million to $15 million, which would expand SRS’ programs to get folks back to work. ‘Getting people jobs is our first priority,’ Siedlecki said. The new policies will affect programs that provide tens of thousands of Kansans with food stamps, child care assistance and temporary assistance. They are set to take effect starting Oct. 1 and should be fully in place by Jan. 1…”

Tennessee boomers face growing threat of hunger, By Stephanie Toone, September 11, 2011, The Tennessean: “Therese Marrs has learned the art of stretching a link of smoked sausage, a jar of cheese and a box of macaroni into three meals every week. The 56-year-old Smyrna mother struggles to make the meals come together for her husband and 16-year-old daughter each week, since she was laid off from her quality assurance job at a factory in February. She spends almost every day looking for jobs, but she fears the worst once her unemployment benefits run out in a few months. ‘I’ve learned how to cut my meals. My food stamps only stretch about three weeks, so the food bank helps,’ Marrs said. ‘I’ve been working in factories since I was 15, but I can’t seem to get anybody to hire me.’ Marrs is among the 1 in 6 Tennesseans and 15.6 million older adults who face the threat of hunger as a result of a lingering weak economy in America, according to a recently released AARP report, ‘Food Insecurity Among Older Adults…’”

Families feel sharp edge of state budget cuts, By Monica Davey, September 6, 2011, New York Times: “Stretched beyond their limits and searching for new corners of their budgets to find spending cuts, states are now trimming benefits for residents who are in grim financial shape themselves. Some states, including Florida and Missouri, have decided to shrink the duration of state unemployment benefits paid to laid-off workers, while others, including Arizona and California, are creating new restrictions on cash aid for low-income residents. Here in Michigan, more than 11,000 families received letters last week notifying them that in October they will lose the cash assistance they have been provided for years. Next year, people who lose their jobs here will receive fewer weeks of state unemployment benefits, and those making little enough to qualify for the state’s earned income tax credit will see a far smaller benefit from it…”

As economy remains weak, working-age adults make up record share of Americans in poverty, Associated Press, September 6, 2011, Washington Post: “Working-age America is the new face of poverty. Counting adults 18-64 who were laid off in the recent recession as well as single twenty-somethings still looking for jobs, the new working-age poor represent nearly 3 out of 5 poor people - a switch from the early 1970s when children made up the main impoverished group. While much of the shift in poverty is due to demographic changes - Americans are having fewer children than before - the now-weakened economy and limited government safety net for workers are heightening the effect. Currently, the ranks of the working-age poor are at the highest level since the 1960s when the war on poverty was launched. When new census figures for 2010 are released next week, analysts expect a continued increase in the overall poverty rate due to persistently high unemployment last year. If that holds true, it will mark the fourth year in a row of increases in the U.S. poverty rate, which now stands at 14.3 percent, or 43.6 million people…”

Scanning 2.4 billion eyes, India tries to connect poor to growth, By Lydia Polgreen, September 1, 2011, New York Times: “Ankaji Bhai Gangar, a 49-year-old subsistence farmer, stood in line in this remote village until, for the first time in his life, he squinted into the soft glow of a computer screen. His name, year of birth and address were recorded. A worker guided Mr. Gangar’s rough fingers to the glowing green surface of a scanner to record his fingerprints. He peered into an iris scanner shaped like binoculars that captured the unique patterns of his eyes. With that, Mr. Gangar would be assigned a 12-digit number, the first official proof that he exists. He can use the number, along with a thumbprint, to identify himself anywhere in the country. It will allow him to gain access to welfare benefits, open a bank account or get a cellphone far from his home village, something that is still impossible for many people in India…”

Country wrestles with spike in food stamp use, By Kristina Cooke, August 22, 2011, MSNBC.com: “Genna Saucedo supervises cashiers at a Wal-Mart in Pico Rivera, Calif., but her wages aren’t enough to feed herself and her 12-year-old son. Saucedo, who earns $9.70 an hour for about 26 hours a week and lives with her mother, is one of the many Americans who survive because of government handouts in what has rapidly become a food stamp nation. Altogether, there are now almost 46 million people in the United States on food stamps, roughly 15 percent of the population. That’s an increase of 74 percent since 2007, just before the financial crisis and a deep recession led to mass job losses…”

Welfare reform law faces revision at 15, By Cheryl Wetzstein, August 21, 2011, Washington Times: “Don’t expect much hoopla or cake-cutting as the landmark welfare reform law passed by President Clinton and congressional Republicans in the mid-1990s celebrates its 15th anniversary Monday. Even though the widely touted overhaul of the national safety net for the poor and unemployed has touched the lives of virtually every American family, the Obama administration and Congress are debating new changes to the system, and a temporary extension of the main welfare programs is likely again with another funding deadline looming Sept. 30. But another round of welfare reform is not being ignored on Capitol Hill. Both the House and Senate have had committee hearings, and in March, a group of House Republicans introduced a bill to begin ‘managing’ welfare by requiring a public accounting of the costs of 70-plus federal anti-poverty programs…”

Many live in poverty in oil country due to high rent, food prices, By Teri Finneman, August 14, 2011, Dickinson Press: “In one of the state’s wealthiest counties, the line of people waiting for the food pantry to open shows another side of the state’s oil boom story. The oil and gas industry has contributed to the state’s nationally known prosperity and created high-paying jobs in western North Dakota. But those who don’t make oilfield wages face the boom’s negative side effects, including the increasing cost of rent, services and goods. ‘I think the common misconception is that since we are in what most people call ‘oil country,’ that everybody is wealthy,’ said Holly Flatau of the Great Plains Food Bank in Fargo. ‘What it’s actually caused is a greater gap in those that are wealthy and those who are not. It’s harder for people that aren’t wealthy to make it on their own…’”

Demand for safety-net care remains high in Massachusetts, By Noam N. Levey, August 8, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Massachusetts, whose 2006 healthcare overhaul provided a template for the landmark national law signed by President Obama last year, has already demonstrated that it is possible to achieve almost universal health coverage. Now, the trailblazing state is providing another clue about what may happen when the federal government begins guaranteeing health insurance for all citizens starting in 2014. Massachusetts community health centers and so-called safety-net hospitals - originally created to serve the poor and uninsured - have seen no let-up in demand, even after the state’s reforms, according to new research published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine…”

‘Charity’ care, bad debt rise for Iowa hospitals, By Rod Boshart, August 2, 2011, Cedar Rapids Gazette: “The prolonged U.S. economic downturn has contributed to a rise in the level of uncompensated ‘charity care’ and unpaid medical debts that Iowa hospitals have incurred in recent years, officials said Tuesday. Overall, the 118-member Iowa Hospital Association provided more than $850 million worth of care last year for which the facilities were not fully compensated, association spokesman Scott McIntyre said. That level, based on a member survey, was up $54 million, or 6.8 percent, from 2009. The total stood at $252 million in 2000, he said…”

State shaves funds for health, social services, By Alexandra Zavis, July 30, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Cynde Soto dreads the arrival of yet another benefit notice. Her cash assistance has been cut four times in two years. State medical coverage is getting more expensive and no longer includes dental care or podiatry. And the in-home help she needs to take care of basics has been cut by about 20 minutes a day. ‘That doesn’t sound like a lot to people but … I’m a quadriplegic,’ said the 54-year-old Long Beach resident. ‘I can’t even scratch my own nose.’ Faced with years of recession-driven budget shortfalls, state lawmakers have made deep cuts to health and social services. The reductions, including a round that took effect this month, translate into sizable state savings but are sharply scaling back the safety net for California’s most vulnerable residents: the elderly, the disabled and the poor…”

A rising hunger among children, By Kay Lazar, July 28, 2011, Boston Globe: “Doctors at a major Boston hospital report they are seeing more hungry and dangerously thin young children in the emergency room than at any time in more than a decade of surveying families. Many families are unable to afford enough healthy food to feed their children, say the Boston Medical Center doctors. The resulting chronic hunger threatens to leave scores of infants and toddlers with lasting learning and developmental problems…”

• Health care providers, advocates feel budget sting, By Madeleine Baran, July 21, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Advocates, nonprofits and health care providers continue to scrutinize a state Health and Human Services budget that could restructure social services and public healthcare in Minnesota for years to come. Gov. Mark Dayton signed the department’s $11.4 billion budget into law Wednesday along with other bills that ended the state government shutdown. The budget bill that emerged Wednesday preserved health insurance coverage for the state’s poorest residents. It made slight cuts in welfare spending and services for people with disabilities. And it cut payments for health care providers and created incentives for hospitals to reduce emergency room visits and readmissions…”
• Budget deal means big changes for schools, health, By Baird Helgeson, Mike Kaszuba and Eric Roper, July 21, 2011, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Minnesotans awoke Wednesday to a new state budget that clamps down on spending, makes big changes in education and health care, and borrows heavily to make ends meet. The $35.7 billion budget ends a nearly three-week state government shutdown and sends 22,000 laid-off workers back to their jobs, where today they will begin reopening state offices and digging through the backlog of work. They will return to an operation transformed by changes forced largely by sagging revenues, as the state finds itself still trying to emerge from the worst economy in decades…”

After decades of hard-fought progress, black economic gains were reversed in Great Recession, By Jesse Washington (AP), July 9, 2011, Washington Post: “Growing up black in the segregated 1960s, Deborah Goldring slept two to a bed, got evicted from apartment after apartment, and watched her stepfather climb utility poles to turn their disconnected lights back on. Yet Goldring pulled herself out of poverty and earned a middle-class life - until the Great Recession. First, Goldring’s husband fell ill, and they drained savings to pay for nursing homes before he died. Then Goldring lost her executive assistant job in the Baltimore hospital where she had worked for 17 years. The cruelest blow was a letter from the bank, intending to foreclose on her home of almost three decades. Millions of Americans endured similar financial calamities in the recession. But for Goldring and many others in the black community, where unemployment has risen since the end of the recession, job loss has knocked them out of the middle class and back into poverty. Some even see a historic reversal of hard-won economic gains that took black people decades to achieve…”