Monitor Weekly - September 15, 2012
| The Leadership Conference Education Fund | September 15, 2012 |
Latest News2011 Poverty Data Released. The latest census data show the rate of poverty in the U.S. holding steady at 15 percent in 2011 thanks to more people finding full-time work and the effectiveness of federal programs such as Social Security and extended unemployment benefits. The Census Bureau also reported that the percentage of Americans lacking health insurance fell from 16.3 percent in 2010 to 15.7 percent in 2011. Still, the data show the persistence of large racial disparities and widening inequality, with incomes rising for the top 5 percent of households in 2011, but falling for those in the middle. The Leadership Conference has joined the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Coalition on Human Needs in the Half in Ten anti-poverty campaign aimed at cutting poverty in half in 10 years. *** The Fight for Voting Rights. As The New York Times reported this week, legal battles over laws affecting early voting, provisional ballots and voter identification requirements are playing out in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other states. And while laws that require voters to show valid ID at the polls have been drawing a lot of attention, the Times says the counting of provisional ballots is “[o]ne issue that is likely to lead to lawsuits after Election Day.” There is also concern about groups such as True the Vote that intend to train poll watchers to aggressively monitor voting on election day. Leadership Conference coalition members Demos and Common Cause have released a new report, “Bullies at the Ballot Box,” that warns of “a real danger that voters will face overzealous volunteers who take the law into their own hands to target voters they deem suspect.” *** Capping Exorbitant Prison Phone Rates. In a recent letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Representatives Henry Waxman, D. Calif., and Bobby Rush, D. Ill., are urging the agency to cap exorbitant charges for prisoners making interstate phone calls. The letter, which notes that “a one hour call from prison often costs as much as a month of unlimited home phone service,” points to the backing of a diverse coalition – including The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and conservative leaders such as Gary Bauer and David Keene – that says the high cost of keeping in touch with family members undermines the goal of prisoner rehabilitation. Rush and Waxman also reference a recent study by the Prison Policy Initiative, which “concludes that high prison phone rates harm society both economically and socially.” ***
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