Issues In The News
"State lawmakers and regulators in recent years have moved to rein in the practices of payday lenders, which watchdog groups say often charge exorbitant fees for low-income consumers with little financial sophistication."
"The state spends more on health care each year than on anything other than education. Both the House and Senate have proposed cuts to Medicaid, the federal- and state-funded health program for low-income people."
"The truth is that opponents know how bad it would look to vote against a program that has helped low-income, minority children get a better education."
"`The allocation among states for many programs is based on population counts, or parts of the population like the number of kids in poverty. It's a zero-sum game, so it's in every state's interest to raise its population numbers.'"
"The Quick and the Dead and their gigs are mainly at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, rescue missions and food pantries — anywhere the homeless gather."
"After researching community needs, nine philanthropy boards decided to offer funding this semester to 501(c)(3) groups that help, among others, the homeless, abused women and at-risk children."
"Gov. David Paterson dropped a proposed tax on sodas last year in the face of industry opposition, and lobbyists for soda companies are already denouncing the new proposal as unfair to lower-income families struggling through a recession."
"When government pays for young people to work as counselors or child care providers, it's a bargain, a win-win-win: good for the young people like Christopher who get transformed into the 'indoor baseball guy;' good for the low-income children who learn to love indoor baseball..."
"Canada provides public funding for low-income rental housing. In the United States, home ownership is encouraged but the Community Reinvestment Act forces banks to lend to possibly less creditworthy borrowers."
"HelloWallet costs $4 a month for an annual contract and $5 a month for shorter-term use. San Franciscans will have a discounted rate of $3.20 a month, and many low-income residents will be able to use it for free."
"The commission would then evaluate whether they met the standard of "inclusionary," meaning they demonstrated an opportunity for low- or moderate-income housing."
"The total for the Chicago area included funding for programs ranging from low-income housing to literacy initiatives in public libraries."
"A 12-year-old state program to help children in low-income families get off to a healthy start and get ready for school has such scattered oversight that it could be prone to fraud, according to the state budget director."
"There are now 2.56 million Floridians on food stamps. More than one out of every eight residents, 13.6 percent of the population, rely on the program to help put food on the table"
"Students from low-income families who graduate from high school scoring in the top testing quartile are no more likely to attend college than the lowest-scoring students from wealthy families."
"An elementary school student in the Kenai Peninsula asked her teacher this question recently, just before a long weekend. For this girl and her younger brother, one of the most important things that school provided them was reliable breakfast and lunch."
"Truancy prevention, summer-school programs for at-risk youth and tax-preparation help for low-income people are among the programs the state Department of Social Services is planning to eliminate as it tries to shrink its budget in the upcoming fiscal year."
"Mayor Nutter last week proposed the trash fee and a 2-cent per-ounce soda tax - moves he described as the best way to balance the city budget without service cuts or changes to the major city taxes. Some low-income families could qualify to pay a reduced $200 trash fee..."
"For-profit higher-education companies have tripled enrollment to 1.4 million students and revenue to $26 billion in the past decade, in part through recruitment of low-income students and active-duty military."
"'People just buy what they need to,' he said, noting that they forgo luxury items such as cosmetics and CDs to continue sending money to their impoverished families back home."
"Only in the last couple of weeks have city officials and advocates for the elderly become fully aware of Gov. David A. Paterson's decision because it was not the typical budget reduction that becomes part of the annual jousting between Albany and New York City."
"In a Charlie Rose interview, Weingarten referred to teachers as 'powerless.' As a group? Hardly. 'Powerless' describes low-income students trapped in miserable schools."
"For eight years parishioners at the United Church of Christ in Medfield cooked up hearty batches of chili and chicken soup and brought them to the streets of Boston, handing out bowls of sustenance to the city's homeless."
"We found the highest rates of overweight or obesity in kids who were black (41.1%), Spanish-speaking Hispanic (45%), living below the poverty level (44.8%), publicly insured (43.2%) and those who did not participate in activities outside of school (40.3%)."
"They come here because Watts is one of the city's poorest neighborhoods, and abortion rates tend to be higher in low-income areas, according to the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute, a leading authority on sexual health issues."
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