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

Day: June 7, 2019

June 3 – 7, 2019

The number of jobs added was well below the three-month average. Manufacturing, a key sector that is affected by trade tensions, showed weak growth. But the unemployment rate held steady, at 3.6%.

 

The US economy added only 75,000 jobs in May, a surprisingly low number that was well below what experts had predicted.

 

In a setback for efforts to fight homelessness, the number of people on the streets and in shelters rose in 2019. Officials blame a lack of affordable housing.

 

The new King County one-night count found a steep decrease in chronically homeless people living on the streets, a decrease so steep that people are questioning the report.

 

Republicans say Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration is bypassing state limits on food assistance.

 

Trump’s farmer bailout sends beef, grapes, lentils and other items to food banks.

 

The expansion of the Medicaid program — a major part of the Affordable Care Act — has helped to improve black cancer patients receive timely treatment in states where expansion took place, according to new research.

 

Medicaid clients told lawyers with the charity Georgia Legal Services that they had received notices that they would be losing their benefits.

 

A booming economy is one reason, along with state and local family-friendly policies, but also a fraying federal safety net.

 

The flexibility to have an extra person at home, even for a few days, offers significant postpartum benefits, new research shows.

 

Severing parental rights is the nuclear option of child protective services.

 

More people are believed to be relying on family and friends to watch their kids. Minneapolis is helping to educate those informal providers.

 

At one school, black and Hispanic enrollment plummeted to 14 percent from 50 percent. At another, it went to 4 percent. “What has happened?” a black alumna asked.

 

From Washington to West Virginia, the number of children born in withdrawal from opioids and other drugs has skyrocketed, and those babies — now elementary-school students — present challenges that teachers say they have never encountered at such a scale.