The young and the disconnected: America’s youth unemployment problem, By Robert Samuels, October 27, 2014, Washington Post: “The mentor and mentee sat in a room in the Latin American Youth Center, dreaming of a future neither knew how to fully attain. ‘How many jobs do you think you’ve applied for?’ Jaime Roberts asked her mentee. Manuel Hernandez laughed nervously. The question seemed so important, but the goal seemed so futile. ‘I stopped counting,’ Hernandez said. ‘Maybe 12? Maybe more?’ Hernandez is 24. He has never held a steady job, never went college and has a felony conviction. But he also has a budding artist as a son, who keeps asking for an art set that Dad can’t afford to buy. The mistakes in his past have resulted in him being stuck in a national economic conundrum: how to help young people, between 16 and 24, who are neither enrolled in school nor employed. Policymakers call them ‘disconnected youth.’ Hernandez calls them ‘friends…'”
Month: October 2014
Medicaid Expansion and the Uninsured
Report: Medicaid expansion reduces uninsured patients, By Jesse Balmert, October 23, 2014, Marion Star: “With more people insured by Medicaid, several hospitals are treating fewer uninsured patients and paying less for charity care, according to a Policy Matters Ohio report released Tuesday. That’s good news for Ohio’s poor — especially those without children — and Gov. John Kasich, who spent Monday explaining to reporters that he supported Medicaid expansion while opposing the larger law it’s attached to — the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare…”
Wage Theft – California
California cracks down on wage theft by employers, By Marc Lifsher, October 23, 2014, Los Angeles Times: “State regulators are wielding a new tool to combat the intractable problem of employer wage theft, which costs workers an estimated $390 million a year. The California controller, working with the state labor commissioner, is demanding restitution from suspected violators — and filing lawsuits, if necessary — under California’s Unclaimed Property Law…”