SD has highest rural poverty rate in Great Plains, By Marcus Traxler, May 23, 2012, Mitchell Daily Republic: “South Dakota has the highest rate of rural poverty in a 10-state region of the Great Plains, and more than one-fourth of the state’s rural children live in poverty, according to a report by the Center for Rural Affairs. According to 2010 census data used in the report, 20.6 percent of South Dakotans in rural counties live in poverty. That’s 44,973 of the state’s 218,821 rural residents. Montana was the next closest state with a rural poverty rate of 17.8 percent. A rural county is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a county with a population center less than 10,000 residents in size and is not in a metropolitan or micropolitan area…”
Day: May 23, 2012
Teenage Pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy: High US rates due to poverty, not promiscuity, By Stephanie Hanes, May 22, 2012, Christian Science Monitor: “Why is a teenage girl in Mississippi four times as likely to give birth than a teenage girl in New Hampshire? (And 15 times more likely to give birth than a teen in Switzerland?) Or why is the teen birth rate in Massachusetts 19.6 per 1,000, while it’s 47.7 per 1,000 in Washington, D.C.? And why, despite a 40 percent drop over two decades, are teen moms still far more common in the US than elsewhere across the developed world? (And nope, it’s not that American teens have more sex. Many studies have found that US teenagers have less sex than compatriots in Europe.) The answer, according to a study published today in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, may well lie in social inequality…”
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – New York City
Cuomo pushing city to end food-stamp fingerprinting, By John Eligon, May 17, 2012, New York Times: “New York City would have to stop requiring the electronic fingerprinting of food stamp applicants under regulations proposed on Thursday by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who has sided with advocates for the hungry who say it discourages people from seeking benefits. New York State stopped requiring the fingerprinting of food stamp recipients in 2007, but granted an exemption to the city at the request of the Bloomberg administration, which said fingerprinting was the best way to prevent fraud. Mr. Cuomo said many New Yorkers eligible for the federal food stamp program did not receive them in part because of the stigma associated with being fingerprinted…”