I’ve run across stories of interest but my family is more interested in making certain I don’t slab the turkey; and, so, like Sop, I’ve got cooking at the top of my agenda.
I’ll start with one still up on my screen and hope others will add items of interest or comments.
Left out of the Bailout: The Poor
As the roster of corporations and financial institutions in line for government bailouts seems to grow, some public-policy advocates in Washington are calling on policymakers to focus more efforts on the nation’s poorest. The ranks of the destitute are growing quietly but alarmingly as much of the world focuses on troubles surrounding Wall Street. “Recent data show poverty is already rising quite substantially,” says Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “There is a strong potential for more hardship and destitution than we have seen in this country in a number of decades.”
…Signs of the recession’s impact on America’s impoverished are increasingly apparent, Greenstein says, pointing to a dramatic rise in food-stamp caseloads in recent months. The number of people using food stamps has risen 9.6%, or roughly 2.6 million people, from August 2007 to August 2008, the last period for which data are available. Food banks around the country are reporting longer lines even as donations are falling….
A reminder on the eve of a day of Thanksgiving that Main Street is not the only street in town.