Archive for September, 2011
Poverty affects 46 million Americans (USA Today, September 28, 2011)
Friday, September 30th, 2011LEESBURG, Va. â Billy Schlegel plunged from middle class into poverty in the time it took his daughter to play a soccer season.
In January 2010, he was making ,000 a year as a surveyor, meeting the mortgage payments on his three-bedroom home in the nation’s wealthiest county and paying for his children to play hockey and soccer.
Then came February. Schlegel, 45, was laid off. During the next 18 months, the divorced father of three almost lost his house, had to stop paying child support and turned to the local food bank for basic necessities.
“You’ve got to swallow your pride,” Schlegel says. “Especially around here, people lose their status and they feel they don’t fit in.”
This is the face of poverty after the Great Recession. Millions of Americans such as Schlegel now find themselves among the suddenly poor.
The recession that led to an explosion in poverty began in December 2007 and ended â officially, anyway â in June 2009. It not only made the poor poorer, it snagged those who thought they had worked themselves out of poverty and blindsided those who never thought they would be caught in its net.
Today, 15% of the USAâ one in six Americans â are considered poor, the highest rate of poverty since 1993. Now among the poor are the college-educated, the former middle-class worker, the suburbanite and the homeowner.
They’ve been hit by layoffs, cuts in work hours, health problems and other crises. They’ve gone through savings and 401(k)s. They live off food stamps or other government benefits and rely on help from family members and friends.
Numbers released this month by the Census Bureaushow staggering trends:
â¢A record number of Americans are living in poverty â 46 million. That’s more than at any time since the Census Bureau began tracking poverty data in 1959.
â¢The number of families below the poverty line rose 18%, from 7.3 million in 2006 to 8.6 million in 2010. The poverty line last year was a household income of ,314 or less for a family of four.
â¢More people living in the nation’s suburbs are poor. The number of poor people living in the suburbs of metropolitan areas rose 24%, from 14.4 million in 2006 to 17.8 million last year. By comparison, the number of poor living in central cities rose by 20%.
â¢Those who have not worked during the previous 12 months make up an increasing share of the poor. The number of poor people 16 and older who had not worked during the previous year increased by 28% from 2006 to 2010.
“It’s all about joblessness,” says Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“There’s just not enough work.”
The solution to poverty is simple, Smeeding says: It’s a job.
‘It was the only thing I had left’
Schlegel had always had a job.
He started after high school as a chainman, making .25 an hour holding the chains that helped surveyors measure land distances. He worked his way up to lead a crew and earned enough that he and his wife could buy a 5,000 duplex in 1991 in Leesburg, the county seat of Loudoun County in Northern Virginia.
The couple divorced in 2004 and now share custody of their three children. “I had a good job, so everything was OK,” Schlegel says.
In 2007 he was laid off for two months, but quickly found work. That was the job he lost in 2010, when the construction industry took a dive.
He sent résumés online to construction companies across Northern Virginia, but none were hiring. He found himself with ,500 in monthly bills that included his mortgage, car payments, utilities and food. The only money coming in was 8 a week he received in unemployment benefits.
So he stopped paying almost ,000 in child support. Thankfully, he says, his ex-wife was still working. He also didn’t pay his ,000 mortgage for nine months. When the bank started to foreclose on the house, he filed for bankruptcy to keep from losing the property.
“It was the only thing I had left,” he says. “I’ve been there 20 years. It’s where the kids grew up.”
He turned to his parents, who helped him pay bills. He applied for food stamps and went once or twice a month to Loudoun Interfaith Relief, the local food pantry that gave him and his children enough fruits, vegetables, bread and canned food to last at least a week.
“It was depressing,” he says. “The kids would go in the house and there was no food in the cupboard. When I saw all the food and bread, I was so happy.
It was like a gift from God.”
Food pantries a savior for many
Relying on food pantries has become the new normal for families such as the Schlegels, says Ross Fraser of Feeding America, which serves 61,000 food pantries. A study by the organization found that more than one-third of its clients have used a pantry every month during the last year.
Schlegel’s family is one of 21,000 the Loudoun pantry helped in the last year. The demand has increased markedly since 2007, when the pantry helped 9,000 families, says Wanda Moloney, the pantry’s client relations manager.
Loudoun County, about 40 miles west of the nation’s capital, is known for rolling hills, farms, horses and wineries. In Loudoun, where the median annual income is 0,000, the number of poor people rose from 7,680 in 2006 to 11,000 in 2010.
The increase in poverty there is following a national trend in the rise of the suburban poor that began in 2000 and accelerated during the recession, says Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior research associate at the Brookings Institution.
During the early 2000s, the increase occurred in metropolitan areas in the Midwest that were hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs. During the recession, the trend shifted to communities in the West and South that were hurt by the real estate bust, she says.
More low-income families moved to the suburbs looking for better jobs, cheaper housing and better schools for their children, she says.
They were families like that of Mirna Ventura, 30, who came to the United States from El Salvador in 2001 and moved to Loudoun County four years ago with her husband, Josue Zelaya, 27, his mother and his younger siblings.
The family speaks little English. Zelaya worked in construction, making an hour with health care benefits; Ventura was a fast-food cashier earning an hour, and her mother-in-law made more than an hour cleaning rooms for a hotel. They lived in a 0,000 townhouse with a mortgage that Ventura now acknowledges was too expensive for people with their income.
“We almost had the American dream,” she says in Spanish. “We had a house.
We had jobs. We were helping our families back home.”
But suddenly everything changed. In April 2008, an electrical fire ruined the house. They had no fire insurance because Ventura says the family didn’t realize they were supposed to renew it after two years in the house, so it expired. They did not have money to fix the house, so they walked away from it. The mortgage company is still looking for payment on what they owe on the house, but Ventura says they don’t have the money.
Two months after the fire, Ventura’s husband was laid off. He was called back but his hours and benefits were cut. Then last year, her mother-in-law developed a brain tumor and lost her job, and because she couldn’t take Ventura to work anymore, Ventura lost her job, too.
The family found a house in Great Falls that would accommodate the nine members of their family. The owner gave them a break on the rent, but it’s still ,500 a month. The family made do with Zelaya’s part-time work and the income from part-time landscaping jobs of two of his teenage brothers.
Ventura’s mother-in-law started making tamales and other El Salvadoran treats and selling them to friends and family.
In August, Zelaya got full-time work again, making an hour with no benefits. Ventura is looking for work at the fast-food restaurants and retail stores near their house, but so far no one is hiring, she says.
They, too, have turned to the food pantry to help make ends meet.
“We’re starting new again,” Ventura says.
Hispanics, blacks are hit hard
Hispanics and blacks living in poverty remain disproportionate to their population. So do people in families headed by single women, where more than one-third live below the poverty line.
As a black woman and a single mother of three, Dwanna Myree, 38, worked hard not to become a poverty statistic. Born and reared in Detroit, she graduated from Marygrove College in 1995 with a degree in business administration.
She worked in payroll departments in architectural firms and nursing homes, making upward of an hour and earning health care benefits.
Eleven years ago, she bought her three-bedroom, ranch-style home in a middle-class section of Detroit where city workers, teachers and other professionals live.
In 2003, she was fired after a disagreement with her boss, and since then she’s been working full-time temporary jobs that lasted up to a year at a time.
But as the recession bore down on Detroit and its unemployment rate rose to 13%, fewer temp jobs were available.
Her job outlook is complicated because she has multiple sclerosis, an unpredictable chronic disease that can cause extreme fatigue and loss of vision and use of limbs.
So here she is, suddenly poor.
It’s been almost two months since Myree had a temp job. She tracks her bills using a spreadsheet that shows the ,246.93 she owes every month and the ,732 she receives in unemployment and child support to pay the bills.
“I don’t have dreams; I have numbers,” she says.
Myree makes up the 7 difference by juggling when she pays the bills, keeping an eye out for the best grocery sales, returning soda bottles for cash and turning to her father, a retired General Motors worker. She says she wouldn’t be able to make ends meet without him.
Myree has filed for bankruptcy, exhausted the ,000 she had left in her 401(k) and almost lost the house three years ago when she couldn’t pay the mortgage. She ended up working out a deal to lower her monthly bill from ,500 to 0.
“You talk about the whole American dream thing,” she says. “It’s very overrated.”
‘We are barely getting by’
For some, success was barely within reach before it was snatched away.
Sandra Jackson’s family had managed to hover above the poverty line.
Jackson, 34, lives in Columbia, S.C., with her husband of 12 years, Michael, 37, and their five sons.
She has been disabled since 1998, when a chunk of her spine was removed because of a tumor. She had been attending a technical college at the time and had to quit, and she has been unable to work since. Jackson has 10-year-old triplets with cognitive problems â they weighed only 2 pounds each when they were born.
Still, the family was managing, living off ,642 in disability checks and her husband’s ,800 monthly paycheck from the construction job he had for 16 years.
“We were making it,” Sandra Jackson says. “We didn’t have everything we wanted, but we had everything we needed.”
That changed quickly when Michael Jackson lost his job five months ago. “Now, we are barely getting by,” she says.
They’ve cut cable, the Internet and the house phone. He has applied for jobs with the city, at the recycling plant and nursing homes. So far, no luck.
It has caused tremendous stress on the family, Sandra Jackson says. “I’m trying to hold it together.”
Like those in many struggling families, she is hopeful. “We’re going to work it out,” she says.
In Virginia, Schlegel was one of the lucky ones. This summer, he finally found a full-time job as a surveyor. He’s making ,000 a year now.
But the last 18 months have left their mark. He says he’s budgeting to live off only ,500 a month â the amount he received in unemployment.
Just in case.
“I’m afraid I’m going to lose my job again,” he says. “I guess that comes with what we’re all going through now.”
National Alliance to End Homelessness
1492 Grant Competition Spurs Students, Alumni Toward Entrepreneurship
Thursday, September 29th, 2011CCAD’s Career Services office is at the forefront of an accelerated competition to launch the next great company in Central Ohio and is simultaneously hosting a startup “crash course” to spur innovation among entrepreneurs.
The competition, tagged 1492, is a collaboration among TechColumbus, Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD), and Columbus State Community College (CSCC) with support from Ohio’s Third Frontier.
Just prior to 1492’s mid-October deadline, CCAD also is hosting Startup Weekend Columbus, an intense 54-hour event that focuses on entrepreneurs and how to produce a product or idea from artistic, design, and product perspectives. The weekend can form the basis of a credible business.
Cynthia Gravino, director of CCAD’s Career Services office, said 1492 will help fund and coach five start-up finalists.
“The tech community recognizes the need for creative minds and CCAD is the place to go for creativity,” she said. “There is tremendous support around launching technology and medical devices companies, but often what is missing is the creative element.”
“Our students are creative, a process which doesn’t have ‘rules.’ They’re comfortable thinking outside the box and are becoming more tech oriented, so the energy and synergy are fantastic.”
Greg Pugh, director of IT Commercialization at TechColumbus, said an ideal 1492 candidate is someone who has new ideas to bring to market. “We absolutely are looking to draw on the student, faculty and alumni base of the two schools. We work with mainstream relationships and in our attempt to diversify contacts are reaching out to CCAD and Columbus State, in particular.”
“The whole idea and 1492’s reason-to-be is economic development in Ohio,” Pugh said. “Facilitating innovation means reaching out to other groups, getting their ideas, and giving people who aren’t mainstream entrepreneurs a shot at investment dollars.”
The broader base that 1492 seeks ultimately will be whittled to 10 finalists, who are selected based upon written business briefs to make formal pitches before the 1492 judging committee.
From those 10, five will be chosen to receive up to ,000 each in startup funding, along with business coaching services to help launch the enterprises. The focus of 1492’s first effort a couple of years ago was on mobile technologies, but this time organizers will competitively evaluate any business idea.
In addition to financial assistance and mentoring, this year’s finalists will benefit from the experience of 1492′s first business launch: MobileXpeditions, founded by Mark Gilicinski.
Pugh said Gilicinski is active on the current committee and will participate in the mentoring and educational series.
“Mark rose to the top because of his passion and his vision,” said Pugh. “He communicated what he wanted to do and why. And he did that well. He conveyed confidence that he could pull [his plan] off.”
“You talk to Mark for just two minutes and you understand the passion,” Pugh said.
The 1492 competition deadline is Oct. 12. In order for applicants to compete for the ,000 grant, they must meet two other contingencies: supply ,000 of their own money so that, in the end, they will have ,000 to start their business; and secondly, commit to 12 weeks of coaching and mentoring services that will take place on CCAD’s campus beginning Oct. 15.
Pugh said finalists have to be able to commit to 12 Wednesday work sessions from 4-7 p.m. The training is purposely structured so that somebody working a regular or full-time job has an opportunity to participate. “It will be like going back to school,” he predicts.
“Starting your own company is an incredible amount of work,” Gilicinski said. He describes it as “a foolhardy exercise that can be truly rewarding,” thanks to the tools that 1492 gave him to bring his idea to reality.
Gilicinski believes “no one can get a business started without focus, deadlines, and mentoring.” He said deadlines impose a finite amount of time to demonstrate the viability of an idea, while mentoring offers opportunities to vet a company or product with others who can objectively determine if the idea is interesting and compelling. He said mentoring also limits risk.
The MobileXpeditions founder credits 1492 as giving him “critical mass of resources and focus” for his smart phone mobile apps. Gilicinski found a quick way to tell a story and created an app to share content. For example, a zoo or museum can use the app to help visitors explore physical space or food or art or architecture. In other words, a good description is “a docent in a pocket.”
The company has created four apps for Celebrity Cruises, available in multiple languages, to describe the art aboard cruise ships and the artists to passengers. The product also can be used in a business-to-business application as a sales tool.
“No matter who uses our apps, it gets back to storytelling,” Gilicinski said. He describes his company as “making significant progress with successes along the way.” In the early stages he recalled asking his wife to bear with him for just “another three or four months.” Now, only two years later, he’s passionately advocating on behalf of other entrepreneurs while focusing on more successes for MobileXpeditions.
Just prior to the 1492 deadline, CCAD is hosting Startup Weekend Columbus, which also coincides with CCAD’s Family Weekend & Homecoming on Oct. 7 and 8. Startup Weekend brings together people with different skill sets—primarily software developers, graphic designers, and business people—to build applications and develop commercial cases around them.
Pugh said 1492′s deadline is timed specifically so that Startup Weekend participants can enter. The two efforts are unrelated but the relationship benefits both groups, he explained.
CCAD’s Gravino said students who participate in Startup Weekend will be encouraged to apply for the 1492 funding. “All the energy of the alumni, students, and parents will be very supportive of the entrepreneurial mindset,” she predicts.
“With Startup Weekend and 1492 counseling taking place on campus, Career Services is confident that students, faculty, and alumni will feel especially encouraged to start their own businesses and pursue their entrepreneurial dreams,” Gravino said.
Information on applying for the 1492 grant can be found at http://www.onefourninetwo.com/.
Startup Weekend Columbus can be found at http://columbus.startupweekend.org/.
Columbus College of Art & Design Blog
Discretizations
Thursday, September 29th, 2011Illinois’ "consumer expectation test" does not excuse a plaintiff from proving causation.
Chinese chrysotile asbestos workers have more than a threefold increase in lung cancer risk.
What doesn’t kill you makes you live longer.
Toxicology is rethinking recent dogma and its gaze is turning towards Goldilocks and hormesis.
Market economics explain otherwise inexplicable plant-fungi interactions.
Columbus Dispatch: Ohio’s Best “Home” Newspaper
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Columbus Dispatch
I guess it is “Ohio’s Greatest Home Newspaper” Columbus only newspaper. Well almost. The Columbus Business First article by Dan Eaton tells the story of local news change - Columbus Dispatch buys Columbus Monthly, the Other Paper and then some… The Columbus Dispatch owns both the Suburban News and the This Week News now. Both SNP and This Week News have a Dublin paper, a Hilliard paper, a Westerville paper, a Worthington paper… and others.
“Home” newspaper as in home town?
Personally I heard about it on Twitter.
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Open thread for night owls
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Top Comments for today are here.
First lady Michelle Obama, âExtreme Makeover: Home Editionâ rebuild house for female …
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011LOS ANGELES â Michelle Obama found an unusual ally â reality TV â in her effort to bring attention to the needs of military families.
The first lady, appearing Sunday on the two-part season premiere of âExtreme Makeover: Home Editionâ (7-9 p.m. EDT) says the program was the right platform for the cause.
âWe live in a media age, and one of the things we still share is our love of televisionâ and the stories it can tell so effectively, Obama said. âWe thought this was an extraordinary venue to highlight the struggles and challenges and triumphs of a special family.â
Barbara Marshall of Fayetteville, N.C., who served in the Navy for 15 years, was dismayed by the number of homeless female veterans and established Steps-N-Stages Jubilee House to provide shelter, counseling and other aid. When the house grew cramped and inadequate, âExtreme Makeoverâ and the first lady stepped in.
She joined with series host Ty Pennington, a local builder and community volunteers on the Jubilee House project and was on hand at the unveiling to surprise Marshall.
The episode focuses on a âpowerful story, powerful woman, powerful group of women who are coming together and helping one another. So weâre pretty excited about this as a vehicle for telling their story,â Obama said.
Marshall is evidence that many military families who face their own challenges âstill find ways to serve others,â Obama said.
The show should also carry the message that strong, independent veterans might not ask for help and seek assistance, she said. Obama said she hadnât seen the program in its finished version.
âSo itâs incumbent upon us to not make them ask for help. And, hopefully, by watching this show, viewers will get some ideas in their heads of how they can come together, whether itâs as individuals, or as church groups, or as school groups, or as teachers or as employersâ and find ways to help military families, she said.
The first lady is also seen on more familiar ground in the show, giving Pennington a tour of the White House grounds.
She and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, help lead Joining Forces, an initiative intended to increase public awareness and support of families of the men and women serving in the military.
National Alliance to End Homelessness
Worthington Market Day
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
This is it. Today on High Street in Old Worthington visit our office for two drawings, balloons,popcorn, HER Cookbooks… see our pretty, new, OLD office….
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Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: the Rick Perry damage control edition
Monday, September 26th, 2011
Visual source: Newseum
“Perry’s showing in the [FL] straw poll was disastrous. He was here, he worked the crowd, and it just proves that the debate performance really undermined his support,” said Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, who was at the straw poll in Orlando this weekend. “Perry’s gotta retool, reorganize and retrench very quickly.”
Said one prominent conservative activist: “They’ve really got to go into damage control mode and right this ship, and they’ve got a relatively brief amount of time to do it. And if they don’t, I think he’s done.”
Rick who? The not-ready-for-prime-time stumblebum from Texas?
Luckily for him, conservatives still hate Romney.
What’s more, Perry continues to have the advantage of a flawed rival. A number of Florida delegates who said they had new reservations about Perry also indicated that they were wary of Romney. And by the time the Presidency 5 results were announced, Perry had already moved on to the next contest against Romney: a GOP conference in Michigan where Republicans will cast ballots in another straw poll Sunday.
In fact, one of Obama’s biggest strengths is the weakness of the Republican field.
Ed Golder, pre-straw poll:
Is Perry their guy?
I asked that question everywhere this weekend as Michigan Republicans gathered for the Republican Leadership Conference, the biennial event that this year featured Perry and Romney as marquee speakers.
Answers varied. Most of the uncommitted seemed willing to give Perry a hearing. But it’s clear the Texan has an uphill battle to overcome Romney’s considerable organization and support.
In Michigan, the state where Mitt Romney was born and raised and where his father, George, served as governor, the former Massachusetts governor won the Michigan Straw Poll 2011. Romney claimed an easy victory over Texas Governor Rick Perry.
But Perry is now going to have to grapple with the very Palin-esque idea that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about on issues of foreign policy. And in fact, the issue had already been raised quite a bit even before Thursday’s debate.
Jennifer Rubin on why Romney v Christie v Santorum and why not Perry:
After Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s meltdown in last week’s debate, conservatives were stunned and shaken.Stephen Hayes reported on disillusioned conservatives whose support Perry lost by “misstatements of fact, missed opportunities and general incoherence.” His collapse continued with a loss to Hermann Cain by a huge margin of 37 to 15.43% percent in the Florida straw poll on Saturday.
What Rubin can’t admit to herself is that they all suck:
Texas Governor Rick Perry’s debate performance could be indicative of an overall weak group of GOP front-runners in the 2012 race, analysts said Sunday.
WaPo on obnoxious GOP debate audiences:
The audience’s outspokenness has in many ways served a positive purpose by illustrating the energy of the base, GOP strategists say. But it has also conveyed a somewhat unsavory image to less ideological people at home watching on television.
“You have very partisan people come to these events, and in some ways it is just human nature,” said Ed Rollins, former campaign manager for Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), one of the Republican hopefuls for president. But some of the more controversial moments “to the mainstream audience [are] not very appealing.”
Enik Rising on perception v reality:
So, just to review, Obama has received more than seven times as many donations at this point in the 2012 cycle than he did by this point in the 2008 cycle. What’s more, the share of his donations coming from small (under 0) contributions is now greater than it was four years ago.
What Dentists Want You to Know About Gum Disease
Sunday, September 25th, 2011
Article by Aloysius Aucoin
Gum disease is one of the conditions that dentists devote the most time fighting and working to avoid in their practice. When patients end up with gum disorder, they are at higher risk for a lengthy list of conditions, including physical problems as properly as oral ones. If your dentist could sit in your living room and give you assistance about gum disorder, this is most likely what you would hear.
First, gum disease has two basic forms. Gingivitis is the more common, much less severe issue. Patients with gingivitis have red, swollen gums that bleed easily. It normally does not hurt, but it will progress if left untreated. Most patients can remedy their gingivitis with therapy from their dentist followed by careful at residence care.
Periodontitis is the far more severe form of dental troubles. It occurs when gingivitis is not treated. When the plaque on the teeth begins to grow below the gum line, it creates toxins in the gums. These toxins signal the body’s immune program, which begins to attack the gum tissue and the bone supporting the teeth. Over time the teeth loosen and can fall out. Also, pockets form between the teeth and gums, and these can effortlessly be infected, which also creates problems.
Dentists want their patients to recognize the primary approaches to fight gum illness. Primarily, keeping plaque at bay will help stop this common oral dilemma. The very first step to take is to regularly brush and floss your teeth. You really should do this at least twice a day, but it is even better if you can brush soon after each meal. Also, pay attention to the quantity of starchy foods you eat or foods that are high in acids, like soda pop, candies, and carbohydrates. These feed the bacteria in the plaque, which can trigger it to grow and multiply.
Some medical conditions can put people at greater risk for gum illness. For instance, specialists have located a link between individuals struggling with heart conditions and gum disease. Down syndrome and diabetes can also improve a patient’s risk of the condition.
If you notice any signs of gum illness, you need to schedule a dental appointment as swiftly as achievable to make certain that the dilemma is dealt with prior to it can progress. When gums bleed when brushed or flossed, it can indicate gum illness. A discoloration of the gums is also an indicator. If you notice that your gums are pulling away from your teeth, it is time to schedule a check out. Chronic poor breath or loose adult teeth also indicate a problem. For most people, it is not painful, which is why they do not seek therapy ahead of it becomes a critical issue.
One of the very best techniques to stay away from gum disease is to maintain your typical dental appointments. Professionals screen for this condition every single time a patient sits in their chairs, and they are very trained at what to appear for to discover and treat gum disease. If you are critical about keeping your teeth exactly where they belong – in your mouth – then talk to your dentist about gum disease and the actions you require to take to avoid or remedy it as the case may be.
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Periodontal disease, or gum illness, can be minimized at residence by brushing the teeth, flossing and employing mouth rinses. Flush out the toxins and acid underneath the gums to stop a disease with details from a common dentist in this free of charge video on dental care and gum illness. Professional: David Wagner Bio: Dr. David Wagner is a general dentist with more than 25 years of experience. Filmmaker: Christopher Rokosz
Video Rating: four / 5
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The Nashua NH Dentist Resource
Alliance Online News: New Webinar from the Alliance and USICH
Sunday, September 25th, 2011New Webinar from the Alliance and USICH
National Alliance to End Homelessness