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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Day: December 17, 2010

American Community Survey

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  • Southern Indiana’s education gains fail to stem poverty rise, By Ben Zion Hershberg, December 14, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Despite recent gains in education, poverty rates in Southern Indiana counties have climbed and average household incomes have dropped. Those findings released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau show more adults with high school diplomas in Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties and more who are college graduates in Clark and Floyd for the 2005-09 survey period, compared with 2000 Census data. But household incomes, adjusted for inflation, are down in all three counties, and poverty rates are higher in Clark and Floyd…”
  • Tiny city tops lists for poverty and youth opportunity, By Sasha Aslanian, December 16, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “Landfall is a tiny city east of St. Paul, right behind a Harley Davidson dealership on the edge of a small lake. It’s a mobile home park of about 700 residents. More than a quarter of them live in poverty, which the federal government defines as just short of $11,000 for an individual in 2009. ‘You cannot live cheaper than living in Landfall,’ said Greg Feldbrugge, mayor of Landfall. Everyone knows him as ‘Flash’, a nickname he earned during his days as a stockcar racer. He moved here 13 years ago, and has been mayor for the last 4…”
  • Data show households in southern, eastern Oklahoma get most public assistance dollars, By Gavin Off, December 15, 2010, Tulsa World: “According to U.S. Census Bureau data, public assistance payments to households in some southern or eastern Oklahoma counties nearly doubled the state’s average household payment in 2009. However, the top individual recipient counties were outside those areas. On average, households in Logan and Jackson counties received more than $130 in public assistance last year, the most of any county. Households in McCurtain and Choctaw counties received more than $90 in public assistance last year. The state average was $50. Tulsa County households received an average of $60, data show…”
  • Census numbers bear out rise in poverty, By Dorothy Schneider, December 15, 2010, Lafayette Journal and Courier: “Jennifer Bickett knows firsthand that more people are struggling to make ends meet in Tippecanoe County, as was confirmed by new U.S. Census data released Tuesday. The Lafayette resident cited shopping at Goodwill as one of the ways she’s tried to save money on clothes and household items. Bickett’s husband worked in the auto industry until 2008, ‘when everything went kerplunk,’ she said. Now, she said, he’s in an electrician apprenticeship, earning about half of his former salary. Meanwhile, Bickett’s own job as a real estate agent hasn’t been paying dividends, given the ongoing sales lag and foreclosure crisis. ‘For now we definitely have to cut back on spending,’ she said. That’s a common refrain among Tippecanoe County residents, according to information released Tuesday from the American Community Survey…”
  • Census: Segregation hits 100-year lows in most American metro areas, By Patrik Jonsson, December 14, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “A drive through Atlanta’s older “intown” residential areas quickly bears out new Census findings: That segregation by race in the US is fading in many, though far from all, American neighborhoods. Atlanta is one of several predominantly Southern and Western cities that showed a noticeable integration trend over the last five years as both middle-class blacks and whites moved into each other’s neighborhoods, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey of 10 million Americans, released Tuesday. The ACS is the largest demographic survey ever done in the United States…”
  • Census data show ‘surprising’ segregation, By Haya El Nasser, December 14, 2010, USA Today: “Despite increased racial and ethnic diversity, American neighborhoods continue to be segregated and some of the progress made toward integration since 1980 has come to a halt this decade, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data released Tuesday. ‘This is a surprising result,’said Brown University sociology professor John Logan, who analyzed 2005-09 Census numbers. ‘At worst, it was expected that there would be continued slow progress.’ The five-year data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey provide the first opportunity to gauge post-2000 demographic trends all the way down to small neighborhoods…”
  • Milwaukee area tops Brookings segregation study of census data, By Tom Tolan and Bill Glauber, December 14, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Burdened by history and shaped by demography, Milwaukee remains one of the most racially segregated large metropolitan areas in the nation, according to U.S. census data released Tuesday and analyzed by the Brookings Institution. The city and surrounding area, including Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee counties, sit atop a black-white segregation index of America’s top 100 metro areas. Milwaukee is in a virtual tie with the Detroit and New York metro areas, and just ahead of Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and St. Louis. While the study was getting national attention, two University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researchers cast doubt on the findings, saying the way segregation is defined defies common sense…”

2009 Child Maltreatment Report

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Despite predictions, new report shows decrease in number of US children suffering abuse, By David Crary (AP), December 16, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The rate of child maltreatment in the U.S. decreased in 2009 for the third consecutive year, according to new federal figures. Although the decrease was slight, it ran counter to the predictions of some experts that the onset of the recession in late 2008 would trigger an upsurge of abuse. The annual report from the Department of Health and Human Services, issued Thursday, said the estimated number of victimized children dropped from 772,000 in 2008 to 763,000 last year. That’s down from 903,000 in 2006. The rate of abuse was 10.1 per 1,000 children, down from 10.3 in 2008, to reach the lowest level since the current tracking system began in 1990. The number of fatalities arising from abuse and neglect, however, rose slightly, from 1,740 in 2008 to 1,770 last year…”