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Endless Obstacles Delay Veteran Benefits

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Miller-McCune - By Aaron Glantz - Nov. 12 (Special Report) - The Department of Veterans Affairs routinely delays disability claims by wounded soldiers for months and years, often shunting them into homelessness. But there’s a simple way for the government to get disabled veterans the help they deserve. It can trust them.

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Trade Your Job

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Valerie Saturen - Oct. 22 (News) - high school students who aren't headed for college are learning to retrofit houses; they stand to make up to $50 an hour once they're experienced journeymen. In Lansing, Michigan, unemployed auto workers can get up to $10,000 to train for new careers in renewable energy. .read more

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Kenya: Waiting for El Nino

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Global Voices - By Samuel Maina - Oct. 09 (Special Report) - Kenyans are waiting for the El Nino rains anticipated between now and December 2009 with mixed feelings. Inasmuch as the El Nino is itself a natural disaster that in it's ‘moderate' form is expected to displace at least 100,000 people and leave 750,000 in need of humanitarian aid according to IRIN, most Kenyans actually want [...]

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Fairtrade coffee farmers battle for survival in Colombia

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

knowledge.insead.edu - By Rahilla Zafar - Oct. 08 (Special Report) - As the third-largest coffee producer behind only Brazil and Vietnam, more than 76 per cent of Colombia’s coffee is produced by small-holder farmers like Antonio. With over four million coffee farmers (10 per cent of the population), Colombia exports nearly 12 million 60 kilogramme bags per year; just over one million bags consist of specialised coffees such as organic and Fairtrade.

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Doctors With Borders Licensed for U.S. Practice |

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Frank Nelson - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - After spending seven years studying to become a doctor in her native Mexico, Nidia Payan found herself having to sell tamales to make ends meet when she first arrived in Los Angeles. Later, just to be considered for a part-time job as a medical assistant, she had to start as a volunteer.

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Top 1 Percent of Americans Reaped Two-Thirds of Income Gains in Last Economic Expansion

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

cbpp.org - By Avi Feller, Chad Stone - Sep. 09 (Special Report) - Two-thirds of the nation’s total income gains from 2002 to 2007 flowed to the top 1 percent of U.S. households, and that top 1 percent held a larger share of income in 2007 than at any time since 1928, according to an analysis of newly released IRS data by economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.[1] During those years, the Piketty-Saez data also show, the inflation-adjusted income of the top 1 percent of households grew more than ten times faster than the income of the bottom 90 percent of households.

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Feingold to Obama: Announce Withdrawal Timetable from Afghanistan

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

blogs.abcnews.com - By David Chalian - Aug. 25 (News Report) - "After eight years, I am not convinced that pouring more and more troops into Afghanistan is a well thought out policy," said Feingold. The liberal Democrat said he has expressed his reservations with President Obama, Admiral Mullen, and others inside the administration and he says he has "never been convinced they have a good answer." "I think it is time we start discussing a flexible timetable so that people around the world can see when we are going to bring our troops out," said Feingold.

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DEVELOPMENT: Soaring Population May Swamp Anti-Poverty Goals

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Inter Press Service - By Thalif Deen - Aug. 17 (Special Report) - The goal of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 could be jeopardised by soaring population growth, mostly in the developing world. World population is expected to reach seven billion by 2011, a year earlier than expected, according to the latest figures released by the Population Research Bureau last week.

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Foreign aid flowing to Taliban

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Jean MacKenzie - Aug. 16 (Special Report) - It is the open secret no one wants to talk about, the unwelcome truth that most prefer to hide. In Afghanistan, one of the richest sources of Taliban funding is the foreign assistance coming into the country. Virtually every major project includes a healthy cut for the insurgents. Call it protection money, call it extortion, or, as the Taliban themselves prefer to term it, “spoils of war,” the fact remains that international donors, primarily the United States, are to a large extent financing their own enemy.

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Life After the Death of the Public Option

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

FiveThirtyEight - By Nate Silver - Aug. 16 (News Analysis) - From the President on downward, the White House now seems resigned to losing the fight over the "public option", a government-run insurance plan that would complete against private plans. It's time to re-assess the playing field in light of this development.Is the public option really dead?

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Pakistan's Kids Work As Garbage Collectors To Make Ends Meet

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Zeinab Khan - Aug. 07 (News) - For eight-year-old Hayatullah and Abdul Haq, the day begins early in the morning. They take a wagon down to Islamabad from Faizabad (the main gateway between the twin Pakistani cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad), where they, amongst several others, begin their work rummaging and sifting through heaps of garbage, lying on the floor, or, in dumpsters. Their large, intelligent bright eyes stare at me as I ashamedly, and, as subtly as possible, turn off the air conditioner in the car and step out into the scorching heat, into their world. Flies continuously buzz around them and sit on their faces, yet, the children do not flinch. Their clothes are tattered and filthy, fingers blackened and rough, whilst the stench emanating from them is unbearable. The children, following their fathers footsteps, have been garbage pickers for three years now. "I don't want to go to school" said Hayatullah boldly. "This is easier and more rewarding. I earn 200 rupees (equivalent to $2) a day."

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Feingold Set to Oppose Further Troop Boost for Afghanistan

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Aug. 05 (News Report) - “I don’t think the case has been effectively made for continuing to send more and more troops into Afghanistan,” Feingold said in a Wednesday interview. “I am very unhappy with the answers I’ve received about the issue of whether constantly increasing troops is helping the situation in Pakistan or making it worse. I suspect it could be making things worse.” Feingold fears that increasing troops in Afghanistan might lead insurgents to cross the border into Pakistan, which is engaged in its own fight against a distinct but affiliated insurgency,

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G8 Risks Derailing Global Progress on Poverty | OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

OneWorld - Jul. 09 (News Analysis) - Unless immediate action is taken, climate change could reverse 50 years of progress in the fight against global poverty, warns a humanitarian group calling on G8 leaders to prioritize climate change at their first in a series of meetings today.

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North Korea Food Aid Slashed | OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

OneWorld - Jul. 08 (News Report) - Due to a lack of funds, the United Nations is cutting back an emergency food aid program in North Korea, where an estimated 9 million people may go hungry due to cereal shortages this year.

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The 'Real' Uninsured

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Jess Henig - Jun. 24 (Special Report) - Some critics say fewer people lack access to health coverage than official statistics make it appear. We break down the numbers.

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The poor ye shall always have with you — or at least as long as we have conservatives who pretend to care about them

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

climateprogress.org - By Kalen Pruss, Carlin Rosengarten - Apr. 20 (Special Report) - Conservatives have suddenly painted themselves as the dedicated protectors of America’s poor in protesting global warming legislation on the House and Senate floors. After careers spent voting against measures to help low-income families, conservative legislators have abruptly rushed to attack programs that would reduce greenhouse gas pollution, falsely claiming that such cuts inherently hurt low-income households. Examining these conservatives’ voting records, however, confirms that their newfound concern for America’s poor does not extend beyond hollow rhetoric. And the programs they oppose would actually assist low-income families with energy costs and create new domestic jobs.

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Somalia Piracy Began in Response to Illegal Fishing and Toxic Dumping by Western Ships off Somali Coast

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Mohamed Abshir Waldo, Amy Goodman - Apr. 14 (News Analysis) - While the pirates story has dominated the corporate media, there has been little to no discussion of the root causes driving piracy. We speak with consultant and analyst Mohamed Abshir Waldo. In January, he wrote a paper titled “The Two Piracies in Somalia: Why the World Ignores the Other?”

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The global economic downturn makes more African children go hungry.

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Tristan McConnell - Apr. 02 (News Report) - NAIROBI, Kenya — El Wak in northeastern Kenya is more than 7,000 miles from Wall Street, and some 4,000 miles from world leaders meeting today at the G20 summit in London. But the children there are already feeling the pinch from the global economic meltdown.

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The Solution to End Chronic Homelessness Is Simple: Housing

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Frank Koza - Mar. 31 (Special Report) - From the federal down to the local level, hundreds of service providers and government agencies have embraced a groundbreaking approach that greatly reduces — and might eventually all but eliminate — chronic homelessness.

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A 21st Century Hooverville

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Mar. 30 (Special Report) - As the nation’s economic and housing crisis worsens, homelessness is also on the rise, and an increasing number of people are setting up roving encampments or shanty towns that are popularly known as tent cities. Seattle’s newest tent city is called Nickelsville. The encampment is made up of over 100 fuchsia tents and is named to protest Mayor Greg Nickels’s policies toward the homeless.

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Somali refugees' path of hardship

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Tristan McConnell - Mar. 30 (News Report) - The escalating violence in Somalia has meant that in the past year 165 people a day fled to the camps. At least 13 percent of the refugees in the camps are malnourished. Disease outbreaks are common. In February, cholera struck.

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UN names critical areas in reviving global economy

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Business Daily Africa - By Wandera Ojanji - Mar. 22 (News Report) - The UN has identified energy, transport, infrastructure and agriculture as the most critical areas in reviving the global economy and fighting poverty and the effects of climate change. The United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep) and other UN agencies cite the multiple economic, environmental and social benefits of investing a significant amount of the $3 trillion-worth of stimulus packages in renewable energies. These include wind, solar, geothermal and biomass; hybrid vehicles, high speed rail and bus rapid transit systems; ecological infrastructure including freshwaters, forests, soils and coral reefs and organic production.

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Global Meltdown: Human Fallout

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - Mar. 20 (News Analysis) - (Global Pulse: March 19, 2009) As the waves of the financial meltdown pound banks and governments, the human cost is easily lost in the background. From layoffs to shattered dreams, the global crisis becomes a personal crisis. Do we really see how deeply it reaches into the global community? Sources: Al Jazeera English, Qatar; CNN, U.S.; Deutsche Welle, Germany; South Asia Newsline, India; Russia Today, Russia; KBS, South Korea

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Modern-Day Hoovervilles

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

KALW - By Thea Chroman - Mar. 05 (Special Report) - Fresno, CA has the highest levels of concentrated poverty in the nation. In some neighborhoods, nearly half of all residents are living below the federal poverty line. Over the past year, many of those poor residents have slipped out of housing completely. Now shanty towns are springing up along the railroad tracks, an image that recalls shanty towns of a different era: the so-called Hoovervilles of the Great Depression.

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Letter from Atlanta

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Ebony - By William Jelani Cobb - Feb. 23 (Special Report) - There is no single number, no weighted index to explain what it means to have the real possibility of a black president, and while 40% of black children remain below the poverty line and a million black men languish in prison. There is no index, but there is a case study of these irreconcilable developments, a place where the balance sheet of progress and failure is as simple as a zip code. And that place is Atlanta.

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