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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is set to announce on Wednesday a pilot project to expand broadband access for people who live in public housing, in his administration's latest push to bridge the "digital divide" between the rich and poor. Working with mayors, internet service providers and other companies and nonprofits, the Department of Housing and Urban Development will make it cheaper and easier for more than 275,000 low-income households with almost 200,000 children to get home internet, the White House said in a statement on Wednesday. Obama is set to speak about the program in Durant, Oklahoma...

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - The Oklahoma Republican Party on Tuesday removed a Facebook post that compared people who receive food stamps to wild animals after it set off a social-media storm. Titled a "lesson in irony," the post from Monday night says the U.S. government is proud that its food stamp program, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, this year reached 46 million people. "Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us 'Please Do Not Feed the Animals.' Their stated reason for the policy is because 'The animals will grow dependent on...

There are 314,000 fewer people in Michigan collecting unemployment benefits than six years ago, a nearly 90 percent decline. Some see this as another indicator of the state’s economic rebound. There were 363,212 people collecting unemployment as of Jan. 24, 2009. That number dropped to 49,060 as of June 20, 2015, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. “Michigan’s growing economy is putting people back to work,” said James Hohman, the assistant director of fiscal policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “Fewer people on unemployment insurance is one of the added benefits.” From 2006 to 2010, Michigan led...

One of the things that I have been trying to point out around here is that the United States doesn’t actually have poverty by the way that the rest of the world understands this word, “poverty”. Most certainly, there are people in the US, in America, who have more than others. This is inequality. And yet we have myriads, almost myriads of myrmidons, telling us that this equals poverty. And I’m sorry, but these two things are just not the same. Inequality is not poverty: poverty is not inequality. And now we’ve got this latest set of numbers from Pew...

In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act. Like the road to hell, it was paved with good intentions. The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is now rife with fraud. Consider this: the NSLP currently serves 60 percent of all students in both public and private schools. We know that two-thirds of all Americans do not live at or below the 130 percent of the poverty level required for free school lunches. For every person who signs up for free and reduced lunch the school district gets extra benefits beyond the subsidy for the food itself. When...

Originally posted on Coach is Right in April of 2010, the information contained in this piece is at least as chilling today. The St. Patrick’s Day festivities meant something much different for the couple in their 80s from Minneapolis than for the other revelers at the local American Legion Post on Florida’s Treasure Coast. Within days the couple would be returning home to a Minnesota suburb now changed forever by the huge influx of Somali immigrants whose behavior had forced them to move from their familiar neighborhood. “They are taught how to flush,” Marie (not her real name) said. She...

A new experiment in California aims to solve two problems with one program. A pilot program backed by the California Air Resource Board is offering some big kick backs for residents of the Greater Los Angeles area and San Joaquin Valley if they turn in old gas guzzling vehicles for more energy efficient ones. The lower their income the more money could be coming their way. In fact, in the right situations, residents could get an electric or hybrid car for nothing. Literally $0. According to the press release from the Air Resource Board: The program works by providing increasingly...

Like many people at the Supreme Court last month, I was deeply moved by the historic ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges recognizing the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry. At such a transcendent moment, it is difficult to do anything but celebrate the triumph of what Justice Anthony Kennedy called the “dignity” and “profound hopes and aspirations” of the many loving couples who had been denied the recognition of marriage. But Kennedy’s moving language was more than just aspirational thoughts on dignity. He found a right to marriage based not on the status of the couples as homosexuals but...

We still don't know the full US total, but it's increasing every year with Muslim immigration. The methodology is simple and financially devastating. Ahmed imports Wife No. 2, passes her off as a cousin or niece, she gets pregnant, is on the books as a single mother, collects every benefit there is, meanwhile she's bringing along every family member. The men import their own wives and the cycle continues. The UK sees this trend being very high among young Muslims and estimates a large number of Muslim polygamous marriages. “As many as 100,000 couples are living in such marriages,...

It’s a progressive paradise.Public employees get 30 vacation days a year. Anyone who works over eight hours in a day gets paid time-and-a-half. Employees have strong rights.The minimum wage is high: 77 percent of the median wage.Environmental regulations are settled beyond the pressure of local economic interests. The forests and mountains are pristine destinations for ecotourism.Energy costs are kept high, pushing consumption down to a level deemed “socially beneficial”. Utilities have strong public backing and provide jobs to thousands.Union jobs in shipping are protected from outsourcing to cut-rate foreign competitors.The social safety net is buoyant and provides a solid working-class standard...

Well, Doctor [Franklin], what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?” “A Republic, if you can keep it.” (Franklin's reply) This week’s Independence Day celebrations mark quite the contrast with the modern bureaucratic nanny state, with the all-powerful centralized government we actually have. We’ll wave flags symbolizing commonality with our nation’s founders who threw off the yoke of Britain and declared themselves independent at great cost and blood. While the Fourth of July holiday celebrates individual liberty and the freedoms and rights that allow us to achieve and prosper, we jettisoned the decentralized government the founders secured for us. We...

Editor’s note: This column was co-authored by Roger Bezdek. The Obama Environmental Protection Agency and environmental activists frequently claim that climate change will disproportionately affect poor and minority communities. In their view, this justifies unprecedented environmental regulations, like EPA's pending “Clean Power Plan” (CPP) to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fueled power plants 30% by 2030. But what effect will the regulation itself have on poor and minority communities? The plan will result in higher electricity costs for businesses and families, lost jobs, lower incomes, higher poverty rates, reduced living standards, and diminished health...

Killer Mike has become a vital Hip Hop representative when it comes to discussions about injustice, police brutality, and racism. The Atlanta-based rapper has addressed those topics as one half of Run The Jewels, a guest on CNN, a lecturer at M.I.T, and a columnist for Vox. Mike returned to television to once again speak on relevant social topics. He stopped by the PBS program The Tavis Smiley Show. The conversation included Mike and Smiley debating the idea of African-Americans offering forgiveness for racial discrimination. “After we reconcile, why don’t I own any of the land? Why does De Beers...

And probably leave the Eurozone too. If you want to know what happens when a nation absolutely refuses to reform its insane spending - even when it finds itself at the brink of fiscal collapse - I give you Greece. Not that you want it. The International Monetary Fund doesn’t. The Eurozone doesn’t. The Greek banking system is now shut down, and we’re a day away from Greece defaulting on its IMF bailout loans. When the Europeans presented Greece with an ultimatum - reform the spending now or be cut off - the most the Greek politicians were willing to...

Millions of low-income Americans will soon be able to access the Internet as part of the Lifeline program. That’s because the Federal Communications Commission, the agency responsible for its oversight, wants to add broadband to its suite of services. Established in 1985, Lifeline provides a discount on traditional phone services for eligible consumers, giving them the ability to connect to jobs, family members and emergency services. The program was updated to include wireless phone services in 2005, and the move to now include broadband for people to access the Internet reflects our changing communications ecosystem. Yet this month’s efforts by...

Study indicates stagnating incomes of the poor and middle classes could have been instrumental in the financial crisis.The idea that increased income inequality makes economies more dynamic has been rejected by an International Monetary Fund study, which shows the widening income gap between rich and poor is bad for growth. A report by five IMF economists dismissed “trickle-down” economics, and said that if governments wanted to increase the pace of growth they should concentrate on helping the poorest 20% of citizens. The study – covering advanced, emerging and developing countries – said technological progress, weaker trade unions, globalisation and tax...

BALTIMORE A few Notes on Riots April 29, 2015 Rea L. Ginsberg, LCSW-C, ACSW, BCD **** The moment we cease to hold each other, The moment we break faith with one another, The sea engulfs us and the light goes out. – James Baldwin My town is on fire. Spreading now to Washington D.C., New York City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia. No wonder. This is not just a Baltimore problem. This is a USA problem. This is a worldwide problem. Long ago, I worked in those inflamed communities. I worked there for a year, 1966-67. When Dr. King was murdered in 1968...

The Obama Administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is working on new regulations that would tie federal aid to the placement of low-income public housing within white suburbs. HUD Secretary Julian Castro explained that “ensuring diversity in every community is a key goal of this Administration. People on welfare shouldn’t be denied the right to live in nice communities just because there is no affordable housing available. Likewise, racists shouldn’t be allowed to insulate themselves from having neighbors of color merely by moving into areas with expensive housing.” A possible fringe benefit for whites under this initiative, according...

The title as designated and fixed by the Board is as follows: STATE TAXES SHALL BE INCREASED $25 BILLION ANNUALLY IN THE FIRST FULL FISCAL YEAR, AND BY SUCH AMOUNTS THAT ARE RAISED THEREAFTER, BY AN AMENDMENT TO THE COLORADO CONSTITUTION ESTABLISHING A HEALTH CARE PAYMENT SYSTEM TO FUND HEALTH CARE FOR ALL INDIVIDUALS WHOSE PRIMARY RESIDENCE IS IN COLORADO, AND, IN CONNECTION THEREWITH, CREATING A GOVERNMENTAL ENTITY CALLED COLORADOCARE TO ADMINISTER THE HEALTH CARE PAYMENT SYSTEM; PROVIDING FOR THE GOVERNANCE OF COLORADOCARE BY AN INTERIM APPOINTED BOARD OF TRUSTEES UNTIL AN ELECTED BOARD OF TRUSTEES TAKES RESPONSIBILITY; EXEMPTING COLORADOCARE...

The U.S. and other wealthy nations have spent trillions of dollars over the past half-century trying to lift the world’s poorest people out of penury, with largely disappointing results. In 1966, shortly after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty, 14.7% of Americans were poor, under the official definition of the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2013, 14.5% of Americans were poor. Finally, after decades of failure there is a movement afoot to launch “a new generation of experimental programs focusing not on large-scale social support and development but on helping the poor and indebted to save more, live better...