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

Day: September 24, 2012

Child Welfare and Kinship Care – Ohio

State may allow the families to receive foster-care money, By Rita Price, September 24, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “For Regene Denton to become the grandparent of her dreams — retired, relaxed, happy to host and spoil the grandkids occasionally — she would have had to allow seven of them to go into foster care.  ‘I run into a lot of people who say, ‘You’re crazy,” said Denton, who now has legal custody of four girls and three boys ages 1 to 13 years.  She and her husband, Paul, are tired, pressed for money and certain they did the right thing. ‘I guess some people do turn away,’ Mrs. Denton said. ‘We couldn’t.’ As child-welfare agencies in Ohio and throughout the nation work to increase such kinship placements as the preferred alternative to foster care, advocates say the families need more financial support to manage households that double, triple or even quadruple overnight. Thirty states now have kinship-guardian assistance programs that allow the families to receive foster-care money. Ohio is considering joining them…”

Minimum Wage – New Jersey

Minimum wage hike may be decided by NJ voters, By Angela Delli Santi, September 23, 2012, Cherry Hill Courier Post: “The Democrat who leads the New Jersey Senate plans to introduce a measure Monday that would put a minimum wage increase before voters next year. The resolution will ask voters to increase the wage by $1, to $8.25 per hour, and tie future yearly increases to national economic data, known as indexing, Senate President Steve Sweeney of Gloucester County told The Associated Press. Gov. Chris Christie indicated that he would not sign a bill with for indexed adjustments, Sweeney said. He said that’s why he hasn’t advanced the bill the Assembly passed in May hiking the minimum wage to $8.50 per hour and creating annual adjustments based on the Consumer Price Index. Sweeney said his 2005 minimum wage legislation was approved only after he agreed to remove such a provision…”