- Lawsuit: Arizona’s neglect of foster kids shocking, By Mary Jo Pitzi, February 4, 2015, Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s neglect of children in foster care ‘shocks the conscience’ and amounts to official apathy toward the plight of nearly 17,000 children, a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court alleges. ‘It is time that someone gives voice to the thousands of children in foster care who have no say about where they live, where their siblings go, or what happens in their future,’ Kris Jacober, president of the Arizona Association for Foster and Adoptive Parents, said in a statement accompanying the suit…”
- Don’t let foster-care lawsuit get us off track, Editorial, February 4, 2015, Arizona Republic: “It’s hard to be dispassionate after reading the stories that led to a class-action lawsuit against the state on behalf of nearly 17,000 children in foster care. Sobs or howls of anger come more easily. The lawsuit uses the state’s own data to show how children often remain in limbo after being shunted around multiple placements, separated from siblings and denied medical, dental, behavioral and mental-health treatment…”
Category: Editorial/Opinion
Localizing Minimum Wages
A minimum wage that makes more sense, By Jared Bernstein, June 27, 2014, New York Times: “Travel around this country a bit and, assuming your purchases are not confined to airports and big hotel chains, you will find that prices vary a great deal. Prices in New York State are 15 percent above the national average, while those in Arkansas are 12 percent below average. Housing is about twice as costly in Massachusetts as in Mississippi. These estimates arrive courtesy of the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ regional price parities, or R.P.P.s. The much better known Consumer Price Index, or C.P.I., tells us how national prices change over time. The R.P.P.s tell us how prices differ at a particular time across the country. . .”
Childhood Obesity – South Carolina
SC needs more action on obesity, August 26, 2013, Greenville Online: “South Carolina is moving backward in its fight against childhood obesity, at least according to one set of data that was recently released. The information suggests that more effort is needed to encourage healthier diets and more exercise for children — especially children in low-income families.In the four years from 2009 to 2012, the percentage of South Carolina children between 2 and 4 years old in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant and Children who are obese increased to 15.6 percent from 13.3 percent. It was a higher increase than any of 40 states included in a study of WIC…”