Welfare in Oregon: Audit paints detailed portrait, By Yuxing Zheng, April 25, 2014, The Oregonian: “An audit released this month on Oregon’s dismal track record shifting people off of welfare and into jobs offers a detailed look at the effects of the recession. The audit from the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office includes maps and charts that illustrate the downturn’s toll, including a sharp rise in welfare recipients and a reduction in state services. The graphics also show how state cuts contributed to welfare recipients’ low rate of working or looking for work. Oregon welfare recipients spent just 14.1 hours a month on work-related activities in 2010 – the lowest in the nation…”
Day: April 25, 2014
Unemployment Insurance System – Tennessee
Unemployment fix could take two years, By Chas Sisk, April 24, 2014, The Tennessean: “Although state officials have known about problems in the state’s unemployment insurance program for more than a year, outside observers say it could take them at least two more to straighten things out. The Department of Labor and Workforce Development says it already has begun to address mistakes raised in an audit of the program, some of them coming up for the second time…”
Foster Children and Psychotropic Drug Prescriptions – Colorado
Colorado responds slowly to psychotropic drug use among foster kids, By Jennifer Brown and Christopher N. Osher, April 13, 2014, Denver Post: “Diego Conde was 12 when his mother died, devastated and bursting with rage at the rotten way life was treating him. The only living thing left that mattered to him was his tiny dog, Littlefoot. Then, three months later, Littlefoot died. Diego was sent to live with strangers — a string of foster families in Denver and Aurora. He got in fights at school, started drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, and exploded in anger at his teachers and temporary parents. At 13, he overdosed on borrowed prescriptions because he ‘couldn’t take it anymore.’ And so the state medicated him heavily, with twice-daily doses of potent mood-altering psychotropic drugs he says he did not want to take. Diego spent most of his teenage years numbed by a combination of Risperdal and Prozac to tame his rage and drown his grief. Now 18, he has aged out of the foster-care system and is speaking up for the thousands of foster children in Colorado who are medicated with psychotropics because of mental and behavioral problems…”