New payday lending law takes effect in Wash. state, By Manuel Valdes (AP), December 31, 2009, Washington Post: “After a new law imposing stricter regulations on the payday lending industry takes effect Jan. 1, Ken Weaver is not optimistic his two check-cashing stores in eastern Washington will remain open. The new law limits the size of a payday loan to 30 percent of a person’s monthly income, or $700, whichever is less. It also bars people from having multiple loans from different lenders, limits the number of loans a person can take out to eight per 12 months, and sets up a database to track the number of loans taken out by people…”
Day: January 5, 2010
Poverty as a Health Risk
- Poverty, poor education shave years off the life span, By Jennifer Thomas, January 4, 2010, BusinessWeek: “Smoking and obesity are known to lead to a host of life-threatening conditions from cardiovascular disease to cancer, but poverty may be even worse for your health, new research suggests. According to a study by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, people whose household earnings are in the bottom one-third of the U.S. population, or up to twice the federal poverty level, lost 8.2 years of perfect health. Obesity related to a 4.2 year loss in perfect health, while smokers lost 6.6 years. Healthy life lost is a measure that includes health and life expectancy…”
- Poverty shortens healthy years, By Jeannine Stein, December 28, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “Poverty appears to trump smoking, obesity and education as a health burden, potentially causing a loss of 8.2 years of perfect health. In a new study, researchers looked at health and life expectancy data from the National Health Interview Surveys and the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys and came up with various behavioral and social risk factors that affect quality of life, then used a formula to estimate the quality-adjusted years of life that would be lost…”
Temporary Housing after Hurricane Katrina
In Katrina’s aftermath, still a struggle to help, By Shaila Dewan, December 29, 2009, New York Times: “When Renaissance Village, the vast trailer park that housed Hurricane Katrina evacuees outside Baton Rouge, was closing down in May 2008, Theresa August was one of the last to leave. Babbling, singing and wearing a baby’s onesie on her head, she had to be coaxed into packing up the clothes and trash that crammed the trailer she called home. Now, Ms. August, 40, lives in a small apartment in New Orleans that she decorated with flowers and Christmas lights. A team of social workers ensures that she takes her anti-psychosis medication and gets treatment for H.I.V. infection. Still shy and fettered by a speech impediment, she can carry on conversations far more coherently than at any other time since the storm…”