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All 50 States

States and Poor Families Caught by New Punitive Federal Welfare Rules

PSN on July 13, 2006 - 10:23am
With new federal rules slipped into the recent reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, families in poverty are going to be suffering more -- and states have seen their flexibility in helping them significantly curtailed by new rigid federal rules. As this Stateline.org story highlights, most states are now scrambling to meet these stiff requirements and many are protesting that the poor will be the victims:

The Political Landscape

PSN on July 6, 2006 - 12:57pm
As November 2006 approaches, political observers have their eyes on changing political winds. A number of observers are also keeping a close eye on the states, where many outcomes are up in the air and the stakes are high. Control of 29 legislative chambers -- almost one in three -- is up for grabs and leaders of both the Republicana and Democratic parties are pledging to put major resources into winning legislative seats.

Institutional Investors, Including State Funds, Demand Disclosure on Financial Risks from Climate Change

PSN on June 15, 2006 - 9:35am
Companies are required to calculate the risks to their businesses based on a range of potential threats to their business models, but there is currently no requirement that they calculate the potentially catastrophic costs of climate change. A few U.S. companies do so voluntarily, but most do not.

More on Defining Down Health Care

PSN on June 15, 2006 - 9:35am
The Washington Post details some of the changes states are making in the Medicaid program, party based on federal waivers and partly due to a new federal law passed last December that allows states to offer unequal benefits to different Medicaid recipients.

 

Backwards Conservatism: Feds Routinely Move to Limit State Power

PSN on June 8, 2006 - 9:47am
A new Congressional report by minority staff in the House found that the House and the Senate have voted 57 times in the last five years to preempt state laws and regulations. These votes, the authors declare, make clear "that there exists a wide gulf between the pro-states rhetoric...and the actual legislative record."

Wal-Mart Increases Poverty

PSN on June 1, 2006 - 10:05am
Paying terrible wages was never likely to be a route to economic growth, so it's hardly surprising that research continues to show that Wal-Mart's growth undermines local economies. The most recent study is in the June 2006 issue of Social Science Quarterly (subscription).

Welfare Doesn't Breed Poverty

PSN on June 1, 2006 - 10:05am
One of the stated defenses of cutbacks in aid to poor families in the last decade in the US was the idea that welfare spending traps families in poverty from generation to generation. But new studies, as detailed in this week's Economist magazine (subscription) show that countries with MORE spending on the poor have LESS persistent poverty than in the US.

Feds Fail on Immigration...Again

PSN on May 18, 2006 - 1:03pm
The Bush Administration's latest move on immigration reform is yet another attempt likely to fail, at least in part because it ignored input from the people most impacted. Stateline reports that a number of Governors from both parties are upset both by the continued federal dependence on the Guard and by the lack of consultation from the White House before Bush proposed using National Guard forces as a stop-gap measure:

Cleaning Up Our Statehouses

PSN on May 16, 2006 - 1:09pm
Americans are fed up with big money dominating and corrupting the political process. Voters are fed up; community organizations are fed up; even most politicians locked in the endless fundraising chase are fed up. As Joel Barkin, our Executive Director, wrote last week for New Hampshire's Union Leader, "Now is the Time to Tackle Corruption in Government."

US: Protecting State Health Care Standards

PSN on May 11, 2006 - 2:15pm
Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) has a truly bad idea. He wants the U.S. Senate to adopt a bill (S. 1955) that would gut state insurance mandates and allow for price discrimination by insurance companies -- all under the guise of lowering the cost of health care (note -- it will not actually lower the cost over the long-term). More importantly, the bill punts on the fundamental question: how do we achieve health care for all Americans?