Farm Worker Justice: A Report on NPR's Religion & Ethics Newsweekly

 For decades, religious organizations such as the National Council of Churches, the Catholic bishops, and others have been working with labor organizers to try to improve conditions for farm workers, and there’s been some success, most recently in the tomato fields of south Florida, where immigrants harvest nearly all the winter tomatoes this country grows. Our report is from Saul Gonzales in Immokalee, Florida.

Watch Farmworker Justice on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/february-3-2012/farmworker-justice/10207/

Study finds few have enough savings to get through emergencies

More than a quarter of Americans have little or no savings to help them survive an emergency that leads to a three-month loss of income, according to a new report on the health of Americans' finances.

And that's only if they can sell their homes or cars to get fast cash.

The number jumps to 44 percent when researchers exclude assets like homes, businesses and cars that could be sold to raise cash, according to the Washington-based nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development, which got an assist from Ohio Policy Matters.

In other words, lots of us are asset poor, even if our incomes may look OK on paper.

www.cleveland.com/consumeraffairs/index.ssf/2012/01/study_finds_few_have_enough_sa.html

Niles special needs dance class a hit

Kelsey Wolff put her hands in the air and stretched them way up high toward the ceiling, smiling wide as she did it. Beside her, another dancer laughed and raised her hands, too.

It was just another night in the Niles-Buchanan YMCA’s special needs dance class.

YMCA dance director Maycie Boyle said the class is a great way for special needs kids to get out and have fun.

“It is a great social network for them because they are meeting people just like themselves and finding friends outside of class,” Boyle said. “That is so important because, at home, they might not have someone they can relate to.”

Boyle helped start the class new this year at the request of a parent with a special needs child. She had no experience with special needs kids and didn’t know what to expect.

She found out really quick.

“I have to say this is my favorite class. I just love it,” Boyle said. “They are so much fun and so carefree. When my class is having fun, I am having fun.”

The class, which is for special needs kids 18 and older, takes place at 6:30 p.m. every Tuesday.

www.nilesstar.com/2012/01/31/special-needs-dance-class-a-hit/

Earned Income Tax Awareness Day

When times get tough in low-income households, the food budget is usually the first thing families cut. We can’t end hunger as long as people lack the financial resources they need to put food on the table.

A series of tax cuts will expire at the end of 2012, including two provisions that are critical for low-income working families: the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). These tax credits boost household earnings and lift millions of people out of poverty each year.

Additional information about EITC and the Child Tax Credit are in the full article at:

www.bread.org/ol/2012/tax-credits/

Michigan Department of Education Looking for Partners for Summer Feeding Program

Education leaders in Michigan are looking for help keeping kids healthy even when school is not in session.

More than a half million kids in Michigan are eligible for summer food assistance, but only about 15 percent of them do (participate).

Now, the Michigan Department of Education is looking for organizations to help change that.  “We know it works, we know healthy kids are healthy learners and the results are better results educationally,” said Martin Ackley, Michigan Department of Education.

The Department of Education says a recent report found that more than half of kids in Michigan are living in poverty. Now the department is asking for churches, summer camps and other organizations to volunteer to be sponsors and act as sites for the summer lunch program.

Sponsors receive federal compensation for both the meals and administrative costs.

www.wwmt.com/articles/leaders-1401004-look-education.html

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