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…'”
Day: August 16, 2011
Long-Term Unemployment and Mental Health
Long-term unemployment wreaks mental toll on jobless, By Daniel Lippman, August 16, 2011, Miami Herald: “Lisa Banks feels hopeless. She’s lost an essential part of her identity: Her status as a proud full-time employee is gone. Ever since the 44-year-old Germantown, Md., resident was laid off from her job as an administrator for a federal contractor in May 2009, she’s sent out hundreds of resumes, but only had four interviews. She says she’s depressed enough to try to seek out psychological help. But no luck there either: She doesn’t have insurance to pay for it. ‘I’ve worked all my life. I’ve been a decent person,’ she said. ‘(But now) I feel as if I’m invisible. Like I’m not worth anything to society anymore.’ The one consolation she can take is that she’s not alone. Statistics show that 14 million unemployed Americans still suffer the effects of the recession. Of the jobless, more than 44 percent have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, a time frame the Bureau of Labor Statistics considers long term. The average unemployed American has been out of a job for a record 40.4 weeks, a figure that’s grown steadily in the past 31/2 years – from 17.5 weeks in January 2008…”
Infant Mortality – Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee-based researchers study prenatal exposure to toxins, By Kelly Hogan, August 15, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Scientists are learning that health is the function of genes and environment. The work of Milwaukee-based researchers suggests that this principle also applies to the health of a growing fetus and a premature infant. Michael Laiosa, assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Public Health, and neonatologist Venkatesh Sampath, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin, want to understand how genetics and the environment affect the health of humans during the most vulnerable stages of development. In Milwaukee, there were 807 infant and fetal deaths between 2005 and 2008, according to the city’s Fetal Infant Mortality Review. A disproportionate number were African-American. Of the 499 who were not stillborn, nearly 54% died from complications of being born too soon…”