One in eight Americans needed emergency food help in 2009—–one of five children in New York City are relying on emergency food.

These sad statistics come from Feeding America and the Food Bank for New York City.

“Food insecure” is the bureaucratic term for hungry people — and New York is, unfortunately, a textbook case in food insecurity. Our food pantries and soup kitchens are overloaded. Yet, without a healthy infusion of federal stimulus money, it could be a lot worse. So says Joel Berg, executive director of the NYC Coalition Against Hunger.

Berg says 37% of South Bronx residents had trouble affording food in the last year. “The federal stimulus money is helping us avert disaster,” Berg continued. “We are fortunate to have that money at this time.”

Source/Full Story: NBC New York

The Huffington Post has come up with a nice little protest movement. Let’s pull our money out the the bailed-out banks and put it in local banks that lend to locals. Who are the locals? People just like us.

This makes sense economically. If you ever want a loan, get it from your own banker. If it’s a local bank, you will be treated well.

The FDIC insures all accounts up to $250,000. Your money is as safe in a local bank as a bailed-out mega-bank.

The folks at Huffington are on the Left. But we can all agree when we see insider bailouts like the ones in September and October 2008.

They have produced a video. This video is biased, mean-spirited, and simplistic I love it! The more of these low-budget YouTube videos on the Big Bank bailout, the better.

Source/Full Story: garynorth.com

The share of the U.S. population aged between 40 and 65, when people typically prepare for retirement by building their biggest pile of financial assets, peaks in 2010 and this ratio has shown an uncanny link with real equity prices for 40 years.

Source/Full Story: Reuters

The federal program now feeds one in eight adults and one in four children, with more than 36 million people using inconspicuous plastic cards to buy staples, Concannon told The Washington Post.
…
The program is expanding by about 20,000 out-of-work and underemployed people a day, the Post reported, noting the growth has been swift in once-prosperous communities effected by the housing bust.

Source/Full Story: UPI.com

In a sign that more foreclosures could be on the horizon, 23% of people with mortgages owe more than their home is worth, according to a report released Tuesday.

Almost 10.7 million U.S. mortgages were “underwater” as of September, said research firm First American CoreLogic.

Another 2.3 million homeowners are within 5% of negative territory, the report said. The two figures combined comprise almost 28% of all residential properties with mortgages.

Negative equity, also called an “underwater” or “upside down” mortgage, has become more common as home values plummet. The report is closely watched because borrowers who are underwater are more likely to be foreclosed.

Source/Full Story: money.cnn.com

Lone Simonsen is Research Professor and Research Director in the Department of Global Health.

COHEN: Well, it’s an interesting question, though. Would you be against mandating?

SIMONSEN: Well, I think this is very interesting because, I mean, especially for the health-care worker example. I mean, there are many, many good reasons why health care workers should be considering immunization for their own safety but also to protect and, first, do no harm to the patients that they are treating. Having said that, does it work to mandate?

I think what would work better would be to say that there was a shortage and people tend to buy more of something that’s in demand. (Laughter.) We saw that — there was one season where, really, people lined up all night to get a flu shot.

COHEN: Right.

SIMONSEN: And I mean —

COHEN: Well, there is shortage.

SIMONSEN: No, actually, because we thought we were going to need two doses for every adult and since we are – only one dose, so, actually, we have twice as many doses and enough for the whole population at this point, I understand.

Source/Full Story:: Session I of a Council On Foreign Relations Symposium on Pandemic Influenza: Science, Economics and Foreign Policy – Council on Foreign Relations

The number of Americans receiving food stamp assistance soared above 36 million for the first time in August, the eighth month in a row that enrollment set a record, the U.S. Agriculture Department said on Wednesday.

USDA said 36.492 million people were receiving food stamps, also known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. In July, enrollment stood at 35.851 million. At the current rate, an estimated one in eight Americans receive benefits.
…

Source/Full Story: Reuters
Technorati Tags: food stamps

After weeks of partisan debate, the Senate voted on Wednesday to lengthen unemployment benefits by up to 20 weeks and to extend the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit.

The closely watched legislation would extend jobless benefits in all states by 14 weeks. Those that live in states with unemployment greater than 8.5% would receive an additional six weeks. The proposal would be funded by extending a longstanding federal unemployment tax on employers through June 30, 2011.

The measure would apply to those whose benefits will run out by Dec. 31, which is nearly two million people, according to Senate estimates. Those whose checks have already stopped would be able to reapply for another round.

The vote was 98 to 0.

Source/Full Story: money.cnn.com
Technorati Tags: unemployment

In Ukraine, schools have been closed, all public events have been banned and restrictions imposed on people’s movements after the country confirmed its first death from H1N1 swine flu.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced a three-week period of precautionary measures and health officials are said to be considering introducing quarantine across the country..

An outbreak of flu and pneumonia has killed 30 people in western Ukraine since mid-October, but until now officials have been insisting the H1N1 strain was not the cause.

A health ministry spokeswoman said not all the dead were tested, but checks on one body have proved positive.

In western Ukraine more than 5,000 flu cases have been registered during the last week. Tests are now being carried out to determine the origin of the virus.

Source/Full Story:  euronews
Technorati Tags: Ukraine, H1N1

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that the individual health insurance mandates included in every health reform bill, which require Americans to have insurance, were “like paying taxes.” He added that Congress has “broad authority” to force Americans to purchase other things as well, so long as it was trying to promote “the general welfare.”

The Congressional Budget Office, however, has stated in the past that a mandate forcing Americans to buy health insurance would be an “unprecedented form of federal action,” and that the “government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”

Hoyer, speaking to reporters at his weekly press briefing on Tuesday, was asked by CNSNews.com where in the Constitution was Congress granted the power to mandate that a person must by a health insurance policy. Hoyer said that, in providing for the general welfare, Congress had “broad authority.”

“Well, in promoting the general welfare the Constitution obviously gives broad authority to Congress to effect that end,” Hoyer said. “The end that we’re trying to effect is to make health care affordable, so I think clearly this is within our constitutional responsibility.”

Source/Full Story: CNSNews.com
Technorati Tags: Steny Hoyer

The government plans to rush through measures allowing people with suspected mental health issues to be quickly detained because of fears over staff shortages in any forthcoming swine flu outbreak, it has been revealed.

The temporary changes to the Mental Health Act, as laid out in an unusually short consultation lasting just one month, would mean it would only take one doctor, rather than two, to have a person sectioned and put on medication without their consent.

The measures could have a serious effect on the thousands of patients with psychiatric issues who currently live outside state care, meaning many could be detained against their will on the word of just one health professional.

Source/Full Story: Management in Practice

Unemployment has jumped to its highest level since mid-1995, pushing the jobless rate up to nearly 8%, official data showed today.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless total on the broad International Labour Office measure rose by 210,000 in the three months to July, taking the total to 2.47 million. That rise was broadly in line with those of recent months and economists said there was little to suggest that the rises in unemployment were slowing.

The narrower claimant count measure, which only picks up those claiming unemployment benefit, rose by 24,400 in August to 1.6 million, the highest since May 1997, and a rate of 5%, the worst since September of that year. That increase was in line with those of the previous two months too.

The ONS also reported that average earnings growth slowed sharply to just 1.7% in the three months to July versus the same period last year, down from 2.5% in the three months to June.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “There are now over a million people out of work for more than six months, one in three of them under 25. There are no signs of recovery here.

Source/Full Story:: guardian.co.uk
Technorati Tags: Unemployment

A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.

The letter from the Health Protection Agency, the official body that oversees public health, has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, leading to demands to know why the information has not been given to the public before the vaccination of millions of people, including children, begins.

It tells the neurologists that they must be alert for an increase in a brain disorder called Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS), which could be triggered by the vaccine.

GBS attacks the lining of the nerves, causing paralysis and inability to breathe, and can be fatal.

The letter, sent to about 600 neurologists on July 29, is the first sign that there is concern at the highest levels that the vaccine itself could cause serious complications.

It refers to the use of a similar swine flu vaccine in the United States in 1976 when:

• More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
• 500 cases of GBS were detected.
• The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
• The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
• The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.

Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.

Source/Full Story: Mail Online

Unemployment climbed by a record 281,000 to hit 2.38 million in the three months to May, the highest level since October 1995.

The bigger-than-expected jump in unemployment, which includes those not claiming jobless benefits, is the largest rise since records began in 1971.

The jobless rate has climbed to 7.6 per cent — the highest since January 1997.

However, the number of people claiming jobless benefits rose by a smaller than expected 23,800 in June, lower than May’s increase of 30,800. Analysts had expected a rise of around 41,000.

Economists said that despite this lower than expected rise in the claimant count, the rise in unemployment was unlikely to stop. Vicky Redwood, UK economist at Capital Economics, said: “we doubt that unemployment will start falling again until GDP growth has got back towards its trend rate — and that is unlikely to happen for a long time yet.”

Unemployment is expected to continue growing until next year, when economists predict it will peak at more than 3 million.

The number of people out of work has already risen by 753,000 over the last year alone.

Source/Full Story: Times Online

Britain faces a projected 100,000 new swine flu cases a day by the end of August and must revamp its flu strategy, the nation’s health minister said Thursday.

Britain has officially reported 7,447 swine flu cases and three deaths, but officials acknowledge the real number of cases is far higher, since many with the virus have not been tested.

Britain is the hardest-hit nation in Europe amid the global swine flu epidemic. Many flu experts believe numbers could jump exponentially now that the virus is entrenched. Because swine flu, or H1N1, is a new virus, few people have any natural immunity, allowing the virus to spread rapidly.

“Cases are doubling every week and on this trend we could see over 100,000 cases per day by the end of August,” Health Minister Andy Burnham told the House of Commons on Thursday.

Britain has been reporting several hundred new swine flu cases daily for the last several weeks. If that surges to 100,000 cases a day by the end of August, there could be 6 million people infected by the fall, or 10 per cent of Britain’s 60 million population.

Source/Full Story: MSN News