- Study: Rich, poor Americans increasingly likely to live in separate neighborhoods, By Carol Morello, August 1, 2012, Washington Post: “Rising income inequality has led to a growing number of Americans clustering in neighborhoods in which most residents are like them, either similarly affluent or similarly low-income, according to a new study detailing the increasing isolation of the richest and the poorest. A report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center said the percentage of upper-income households situated in affluent neighborhoods doubled between 1980 and 2010, rising to 18 percent. In the same time frame, the share of lower-income households located in mostly poorer neighborhoods rose from 23 percent to 28 percent. The percentage of neighborhoods that are predominantly middle class or home to a wider mix of income levels shrank…”
- Segregation by income in Houston is among the starkest in U.S., By Mike Tolson, August 2, 2012, Houston Chronicle: “Roll back the clock to 1980 and Greater Houston looks quite a bit different. Some of the tall buildings, meandering toll roads and shiny professional sports venues aren’t there, of course, but of more significance is the absence of many places that Houstonians now call home. As the metro area’s population doubled over the past three decades, extensive developments and master-planned communities popped up or expanded to serve those with the means to buy spanking new homes on the suburban fringe. As for those of little means – many of them immigrants, legal and otherwise – they increasingly crowded into older, low-income neighborhoods abandoned by residents who lost jobs or found better housing elsewhere…”
Day: August 2, 2012
State Medicaid Cuts – Maine
LePage administration files plan for Medicaid cuts with feds; federal permission remains uncertain, By Matthew Stone, August 1, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “The LePage administration Wednesday laid out what it says is a clear-cut legal argument for allowing Maine to make cuts to its Medicaid program despite a provision in the Obama administration’s health care reform law that prohibits states from scaling back existing Medicaid services. Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday filed paperwork with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requesting approval for Medicaid cuts that Republican lawmakers approved this spring and Gov. Paul LePage signed into law as part of a supplemental budget package…”