Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
States On The Brink Of A Budget Crisis (CNN Money)
California is hurtling into the budgetary abyss — and it’s not alone.
Across the nation, state tax collections in the first three quarters of 2009 posted their steepest decline in at least 46 years, according to a report this month from the public policy research arm of the State University of New York.
At least 30 states [...]
THE STORY THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: U.S. Home Foreclosures Set Another Record In July
U.S. home loans failed at a record pace in July despite ongoing federal and state programs to avoid foreclosures, which have severely strained housing and the economy.
Foreclosure activity jumped 7 percent in July from June and 32 percent from a year earlier as one in every 355 households with a loan got a foreclosure filing, [...]
Tanking Labor Market Takes Its Toll On Small American Towns
Pablo Garcia describes himself as a hard worker and has the broad shoulders and thickly muscled arms to prove it. But like so many people in this timeworn former mill town, he’s been involuntarily idle for months.
“There’s a lot of people looking for work. They’re in the same situation I am,” Garcia says. “I’ve been [...]
REALITY WATCH: Arizona, California, Indiana, Mississippi And Pennsylvania Ready to Shutdown
Reporting from Indianapolis and Denver — The last time Indiana missed its deadline for passing a budget and had to shut down the government was during the Civil War.
But on Monday, as lawmakers raced to hammer out an agreement over school funding, state agencies began preparing 31,000 workers to be temporarily out of a job. [...]
Can the U.S. Government Afford to Let California Fail?
With his round face and sad eyes, Oracio Sandoval, 33, sits at a Los Angeles County welfare office in Carson, Calif., armed with a thick pile of job-application forms. Out of work since January, Sandoval is struggling to stay afloat financially. Married with two children, he and his wife used to make $3,000 a month. [...]
Mexican Drug War – Increases Activity On U. S. Soil
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, a 54-year-old drug cartel leader whose nickname means “Shorty,” is the most wanted man in Mexico. He’s also one of the most wanted men in the United States.
For five years, the State Department has kept a $5 million bounty on his head, calling Guzman a threat to U.S. security.
Guzman, who [...]
Real Estate: Buy or Rent?
A city-by-city guide will help you decide.
Designer Delia Seaman is fashionable, successful and regretful. Her clothing and jewelry label, Decolette, has been catching on with celebrities such as Hilary Duff, but sales at her West Hollywood boutique are still suffering amid the recession. Eager for rainy-day funds, Seaman, 40, has put her 1920s Spanish-style bungalow [...]
Why Some Stimulus Money Goes Unspent
The federal government has made available more than $74 billion in stimulus funds, but the majority of that money has yet to hit the streets.
That’s because states have to jump through hoops before they can claim the funds and put them to use. Some have to get approval from their legislatures before they can spend [...]
SWINE FLU UPDATE: Flu Shuts Schools, But Are Officials Going Too Far?
Health officials said Thursday that they had confirmed 111 cases of the newly identified swine flu in the USA but still just one death — that of a toddler in Texas who was visiting from Mexico, where the virus originated.
The scare, however, was spreading far more rapidly than the virus — particularly in America’s schools. [...]
U.S. Center For Disease Control On High Alert Over ‘Swine Flu’ Epidemic
US medical authorities expressed strong concern Friday about an unprecedented multi-strain swine flu outbreak that has killed at least 60 people in Mexico and infected seven people in the United States.
“It’s very obvious that we are very concerned. We’ve stood up emergency operation centers,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spokesman Dave Daigle told [...]
