Report: Greater number of Hudson County’s poor not receiving representation in civil cases, By Daniel Reyes, June 19, 2012, Jersey Journal: “An increasing number of the poor in Hudson County and across the state are finding themselves without legal assistance in civil cases, according to a recent report. The Civil Legal Assistance Gap, an annual report compiled by the Legal Services of New Jersey, says that cuts in funding combined with an increase in poverty has led to a higher percentage of people going without legal representation in civil cases…”
Day: June 20, 2012
Health Assistance Program
Needy patients get ‘prescriptions’ for food and shelter through volunteer program, By Sandra G. Boodman, June 18, 2012, Washington Post: “Treshawn Jones was desperate. Jobless for four months, she had burned through her meager savings, was running low on food for her two young children and barely scraping by on weekly unemployment checks of $307 that didn’t begin to cover her overdue $600 utility bill and monthly rent of $900. So in March, while at Children’s National Medical Center with her 2-year-old son, Jones asked a sympathetic staff member if she knew of any resources that could help her family. Within minutes, Jones was meeting with Shalesha Lake, a junior at the University of Maryland at College Park who volunteers for Health Leads, an innovative program that has operated at Children’s since 2001. Three months later, with guidance from Lake, the 35-year-old single mother had completed a free job training course offered by Byte Back, a nonprofit group that provides computer training to underserved District residents, obtained free food and clothes for her children, applied for utility and rental assistance. . .”
Food Deserts – Washington, D.C.
Planting fresh produce in D.C.’s ‘food deserts’, By Tim Carman, June 19, 2012, Washington Post: “To reach Jimmy Singleton’s “corner store” at the Marbury Plaza Apartments in Ward 7, residents must take the elevator down to the basement and navigate a series of barren, unmarked hallways until they find a nondescript doorway that leads to Marbury Market. For the hundreds of residents here, this is their nearest grocery store. The co-owner learned the dangers of trying to survive on the market’s junk food-heavy stock — chips, sodas, candy bars, sticky buns and the like. Not long after he bought the store in 2005, Singleton turned it into his primary feeding trough. “In a year’s time, I had gained about 75 pounds,” he says. “I got so big, customers started talking about me.” He decided he needed to silence them; he made a New Year’s resolution to lose the pounds — by not eating at his market. . .”