Rural Poverty News
"The doctoring Wednesday was part of a military program to provide free health care in poor areas of the South and whose latest mission came to one of Alabama's most impoverished regions, where the teams have treated more than 12,000 people in less than two weeks."
"This sprawling Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is a Connecticut-sized zone of prairie and poverty, where the have-nots are defined less by the money they lack than by suffocating hopelessness."
"The doctoring Wednesday was part of a military program to provide free health care in poor areas of the South and whose latest mission came to one of Alabama's most impoverished regions, where the teams have treated more than 12,000 people in less than two weeks. "
"Premont I.S.D. is one of just two Texas districts facing possible closing this year -- the other is North Forest I.S.D in northeast Houston. Located in Jim Wells County, which has struggled with high teen birth and poverty rates, Premont is a primarily Hispanic town of 2,600 sandwiched between the relative hubs of Alice and Falfurrias on Highway 281. "
"It's not unusual that families of low income can't afford to live in the city, and so they end up buying homes that are older, less well-insulated or perhaps have some problems with the septic system, so it's a nasty spiral."
"Findings from that study released last week show that public schools play a major role in North Carolina’s pre-K program. In 17 counties, 100 percent of the pre-K slots were in public schools as of January of this year. Those counties are rural and most are high-poverty."
"On Friday in Orlando, Vilsack will also announce that the USDA is accepting applications from lenders to help finance the construction, acquisition and rehabilitation of affordable multi-family rental housing for rural residents. The USDA also has money available to help low income residents secure affordable rental housing."
"Nearly 80 percent of the 3,830 post offices under consideration are in sparsely populated rural areas where poverty rates are higher than the national average, according to data analyzed by Reuters."
"The town's poverty rate is 27%, nearly double the 15.1% national rate, itself the highest in two decades. The median income here is a paltry $20,600, or $2,000 below the federal poverty level for a family of four."
"They’re often places where two-lane highways wind around wooded hills, where mining or manual farm labor once put food on the table, and access to medical care has long been limited. Poverty begets bad health and greater rates of disability, experts say, and disabilities often lead to deeper poverty."
"The center participates in the Better Beginnings ratings, a state-run program, and has a rating of one star out of a possible three. There are only two child-care centers with a Better Beginnings rating in Franklin County, according to the state's Child Care and Early Childhood Education Division."
"Many parents in Merced County, especially those in rural areas, could soon have to start driving their children to school, as state budget cuts eliminate significant funding for K-12 bus systems. School districts will have to absorb cuts in other areas as well, such asper pupil funding, also called a school's revenue limit, child development and preschool programs."
"Fish says the county has attempted for nearly two years to work with Olson, allowing her all this time to either move or build a house, put in a mobile home, something with an approved water supply and wastewater system that meets zoning codes. 'Our goal,' he says, 'is compliance, not fines or jail, which is rare.'"
But how do you build a home when you are homeless?"
"But moving online is not an option for the many rural families living in the poorest parts of the country, where Internet service and cell phone reception are spotty or nonexistent, and few have computers."
"The common thread repeated by most of the speakers and from among those in the audience was of the many opportunities that expanding access to high speed Internet will bring to people living in rural areas of Nevada and those living in low-income communities where the digital divide is at its greatest."
"One in eight Mainers lived below the poverty line in 2010, according to recently released U.S. census data. Maine's poverty rate hit 12.5 percent in 2010, up from 11.4 percent the year before."
"State Director Jasper Schneider says the Red River Regional Council is getting $44,000 to repair 14 low-income homes in Grafton, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa is getting $91,000 to fix up 18 homes on the Turtle Mountain Reservation and Rolette County."
"Money from the program has helped put new heaters in cold houses, replace leaky roofs on senior citizens' manufactured homes and install new septic systems in low-income rural communities. In New Castle County, funds flow to about 50 nonprofits that provide emergency utility assistance, child-care subsidies for the homeless and transportation for low-income seniors"
"Rural populations tend to be low-income, elderly and disabled, and many small-town residents receive their prescription medications by mail. They worry that if their post office were to close, they would have to drive to the closest town with a post office or pay a neighbor to make the trip."
"But even as Preble Street, a multi-service agency serving homeless and low-income residents in the Portland area, sees demand rising for its food pantry and three soup kitchens, federal funding that helps buy those meals has been slashed."
"Just how much of an impact the new laws will have is a matter of some dispute. Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who held a hearing on the new laws last month, said they 'will make it harder for millions of disabled, young, minority, rural, elderly, homeless and low-income Americans to vote.'"
"The contamination strikes at the poorest families in California. Poverty-level Latinos are the population group most affected by the degraded water, according to a study by the University of California at Berkeley."
"Still, economists like Lionel Beaulieu, the director of the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University, said financing for rural programs might have prevented even deeper levels of poverty and unemployment."
"In addition, Delta Dental will contribute another $50,000 to each dentist for a total of $100,000 in loan repayment funds. The recipients also must provide dental care to under-served populations in their communities including Medicaid, disabled, elderly, nursing home residents, refugees and the homeless."
"It is in the spirit of Kennedy's 1968 Kentucky tour that Princeton University professor Cornel West and syndicated talk show host Tavis Smiley have embarked on a 16-city poverty tour.
The activists, both African-American, have been consistent critics of President Barack Obama's response to poverty in general and black poverty and unemployment in particular. "
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