Michigan Department of Treasury Now Accepting Home Heating Credit Tax Forms

The Michigan Department of Treasury has begun processing home heating credits for low-income residents.

Residents can apply for the credits for 2011 heating payments on their state income tax return or by filing a Michigan Home Heating Assistance Claim if they don't file a return. Links to both are on the state's heating assistance and income tax websites.

Forms are available at many libraries and post offices in Northern Michigan and at Department of Human Services branch offices around the state. Residents also may get forms and assistance by calling 517-636-4486.

NOTE:

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and AARP Volunteer sites throughout the state can assist low income and senior citizen clients with IRS certified volunteers for no cost.   Direct deposit refunds can be obtained in as few as 8-10 days.

www.wwmt.com/news/heating-1400923-home-residents.html


The list of VITA sites throughout Michigan can be found at:

www.michiganeic.org/freetaxprep

Niles Area Meals on Wheels Celebrates the Holidays and 39 Years of Service

 

The Niles-Buchanan Meals on Wheels was first established 39 years ago. Since that time, volunteer drivers have travelled almost one million miles to deliver nutritious meals to elderly and shut-in individuals.

 This Christmas, in appreciation of their work and with a desire to serve and cheer their clients, an Edwardsburg woman decided to decorate recipients’ Christmas tables. In the true spirit of Santa’s elves, she chose to remain anonymous when donating the 40 handcrafted, one-of-a-kind Christmas centerpieces. Her work was greatly appreciated by all those who received her handiwork, this week, in addition to their daily meal delivery.
Taking to the road with Meals on Wheels director Thom Christie and new board member Marcia Rifengberg as they traveled, delivering some meals and the holiday centerpieces, gives one a special appreciation for the program and those they serve.

First stop: Four Flags Plaza and Dotty Waterbury.

“Oh my land! Thank you so much. That is so beautiful. What a nice Christmas gift!” Waterbury said, adding, “If it wasn’t for these people I don’t know what I would do. I can’t cook anymore. I get a nice balanced diet but then I have to put up with that!”

She laughs as she motions toward Christie. They have a special relationship and each gives as good as they get.
“Life is too short to be too serious,” Waterbury said.

“She’ll haul off and take a poke at me if I get out of line,” Christie said.

 www.nilesstar.com/2011/12/22/on-the-road-with-meals-on-wheels/

Another face of the U.S. recession: homeless children

As her moth­er sat in a home­less shelter in downtown Miami, talking about her eco­nom­ic struggles and loss of faith in the U.S. po­lit­ical system, 3-year-old Aeisha Touray blurted out what sounded like a new slogan for the Occu­py Wall Street protest move­ment.

"How dare you!" the girl said abruptly as she nudged a toy car across a confer­ence room table at the Chapman Partner­ship shelter in Miami's tough and predom­inantly black Overtown neighbor­hood.

There was no telling what Aeisha was think­ing as her 32-year-old moth­er, Nairkahe Touray, spoke of how she burned through her savings and wound up living in a car with five of her eight chil­dren earli­er this year.

But how dare you indeed? How does anyone explain to kids like Aeisha and count­less oth­ers how they wound up home­less in the world's richest nation?

www.ongo.com/v/2619528/10586/32EA3B8072364161/another-face-of-the-us-recession-homeless-children

Hospitals That Serve The Poor Struggle With Readmissions

Hospitals across the country are trying to clamp down on frequent readmissions in anticipation of new penalties Medicare is readying. But it's a bigger probolem at hospitals that treat lots of low-income patients.

Poorer folks are more likely to be readmitted, so hospitals that treat a lot of them face special challenges at the same time those hospitals often have fewer resources, researchers have found.

Indeed, places that have the highest proportion of poor patients are nearly three times as likely to have high heart readmission rates, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. That's the case with New York-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, Howard University Hospital in Washington and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. (KHN has an interactive chartwhere you can look up hospitals in your region to see their heart failure readmission rate and the poverty level of their patients).

www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/12/20/144008734/hospitals-that-serve-the-poor-struggle-with-readmissions

NY Times: Now That the Factories Are Closed, It’s Tee Time in Benton Harbor, Mich.

On the northern edge of Benton Harbor, just beyond the grim grid of housing projects, shuttered storefronts, boarded-up homes and junk-laden yards that dominate much of the town, sits an emerald oasis known as Harbor Shores. As the name suggests, Harbor Shores is a resort development. At its heart is a pristine Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course that meanders along a river and creek; through woods and wetlands; and, most striking, across tall, white sand dunes overlooking Lake Michigan.

The golf course was built largely on fallow, polluted land that was once crowded with factories: holes No. 4 and No. 5 were the slag pit for a company that made automobile brakes. Holes No. 14 and 15 were a former Superfund site once occupied by a company that used radium and mercury to manufacture components for fighter planes.

www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/magazine/benton-harbor.html

Niles Food Drive Today

The Niles Athletic Department has combined forces with the Niles High School SADD, N Club and Athletic Booster Club to help support the Niles Salvation Army.

If you would like to join Niles Community Schools in their fight against hunger, please bring non-perishable food items to this Friday night’s matchup between the Niles Vikings and the Benton Harbor Tigers. By joining in the support of the Salvation Army, donators will receive a discount for entering the game and complimentary popcorn.

Currently the biggest needs for the Salvation Army are: powdered milk, anything canned with meat (tuna, Chili, Dinty Moore beef stew/chicken and dumplings) and cereal.

“The Salvation Army food bank is at an all-time low, and it is the goal of the Niles Community Schools to help in whatever way possible,” said Taylor Campbell, N-Club President and varsity voys basketball student athlete. “This a great opportunity for Niles High School students to give back to the local community in ways we didn’t know we could. There is a direct impact by our donations to the food bank right here in our area. It is a good feeling knowing we can help make somebody’s holiday season a little better."

www.nilesstar.com/2011/12/08/niles-food-drive-friday/

Coalition for Community Development in Muskegon Heights Works to Re-Open School Libraries

“Will you read to me?” the small girl with large dark eyes asked politely.

Five-year-old Tunna Gay was standing among other excited kindergartners at Martin Luther King Elementary School's new library. Eyeing the woman who had just entered the library, Tunna approached, holding out the book she had chosen.

Soon other students crowded in to hear the stranger read a story on a bright morning at the Muskegon Heights school.

Around them other women were reading to clusters of children — women who volunteered their time to reopen the school's library that had fallen victim to budget cuts.

Muskegon Heights school officials, faced with deficit spending, were forced to close all the school libraries last year. There was no money to pay librarians, so books were boxed up, library rooms put to other use, and schoolchildren were left without that mainstay of learning.

www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2011/12/closed_muskegon_heights_school.html

State's child poverty rate is shameful

For the first time ever, the federal census of 2010 will produce demographic data for each school district in Michigan. In the past, census figures were available with detail data for all counties, cities and townships, but not for school districts. When the data is fully released for the first time the census will present details on population, poverty, income, etc. for each school district in the state.

Poverty in Michigan has increased in the past decade. Dramatically. In 2009, the U.S. Census estimated that one in five school-age children in Michigan were poor. That's more than 340,000 school age children living in poverty. The final release of the 2010 census will or will not confirm this number. Still, if the census estimates were even close to being right, and if one child living in poverty is a shame, 340,000 Michigan children living in poverty is tragic.

The federal poverty guidelines defines a family of four as being poor if their annual income is $22,050 or less. That isn't a lot of dough to pay the rent or mortgage, buy groceries, put gas in the car in order to get to work or grocery store, let alone buy school clothes and school supplies for the children.

In the past, the best gauge of the number of poor children in a school district was the district's total free and reduced lunch count participation. This data has been available for more than a decade and is published annually by the Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information in Lansing. The federal free school lunch guidelines are only slightly higher than the poverty guidelines. A child from a family of four qualifies for free school lunch (and breakfast in most districts) if the child's family makes $28,665 or less per year.

While it is true that in the United States our poverty is not the same kind of poverty one finds in third world countries, it is also true that a family living on less than $28,665 per year probably isn't living the life of Bill (Gates, Cosby or Clinton).

www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/11/30/opinion/editorials/7508108.txt

Note: source of the above graph:
http://www.project.org/info.php?recordID=467

Friar in Detroit puts soup kitchen on wheels

As reported by the AP:

A Franciscan friar lost the brick-and-mortar headquarters for his Detroit-based charitable operations earlier this month.

But that hasn't stopped Brother Al Mascia from serving the homeless, elderly and others in Detroit.

Mascia raised $4,000 to buy two specially designed tricycles with vendor carts in front and storage trailers in back so he wouldn't miss a beat in serving his clientele.

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, Mascia pedals into the outdoor waiting area of the Rosa Parks Transit Center on the tricycle.

He comes loaded with hot drinks, sandwiches and fruit, small packets of toiletries and clothing.

Mascia tells the Detroit News he wants the disadvantaged in Detroit "to know that someone is thinking about them."

detnews.com/article/20111124/BIZ/111240393/Detroit%E2%80%99s-Brother-Al-Mascia-puts-soup-kitchen-on-wheels

Class and the courts

There, perhaps, is no moment in life when the difference in class is more apparent than when you are accused of a crime. The wealthy hire the best lawyer they can. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided. But, the kind of attorney you get in Michigan all depends on where you live.

So, imagine this. You’ve been accused of a crime. You know you didn’t do it. But, the police think you did. You cannot afford a lawyer. So, you are appointed a lawyer. In a few counties, it might be someone from a public defenders office. In other counties, your lawyer might be someone who was appointed by a judge- which some see as a conflict. The lawyer got the job because of the judge which puts the lawyer’s independence in question. In almost half of Michigan counties, it might be a lawyer who put in the lowest bid for a contract with the county. Critics say for most counties, not enough resources are provided to a public defense lawyer to put together a proper defense.

“We are out to prove what everybody knows and that is the public defense system in this state is broken.”

That’s Michael J. Steinberg with the Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has a case before the courts to get adequate legal defense for low-income people charged with a crime.

In a 2008 report, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association found Michigan ranks 44th of the 50 states in public defense funding. That means only five states spend less.

In fact, state government doesn’t pay for public defense. Michigan requires each county to pay the cost. And for most counties, it’s just not a big priority.

http://www.michiganradio.org/post/class-and-courts