New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, will travel to DC to speak to a public policy thinkers and shapers in his effort to raise awareness on poverty. Poor people can use all the help they can get. Poverty is a fact of life for millions of Americans from all walks of life, yet the topic of Poverty is the least addressed public policy issue and uncovered topic in media, which explains how reporters were “shocked” that some people really don’t have credit cards and automobiles or food or regular stuff like that. Any person, organization that raises public awareness about Poverty is doing their part. If the NAACP can take a break from television appearances about multi-million dollar football players involved in crime, a cartoonist who created a racially offensive’ cartoon, and burying the N-Word, maybe they would find the time to keep the issue of poverty on the front burner of the national public policy debate and the media – especially during a national election season.  More...

(ND) When the power company cut off his electricity Wednesday afternoon, Steven Vaughn hooked up a gas generator in the basement of his family's Mastic Beach home and told his 19-year-old son to turn it off before going to bed, Suffolk County police said Thursday. But when Vaughn and his wife woke up about five hours later, they found Emmanuel Cassaberry unconscious on the kitchen floor and all five other children, and themselves, suffering from varying degrees of carbon monoxide poisoning. Cheryl Cassaberry, Emmanuel's mother, and Vaughn's wife, called 911 and tried reviving her teenage son with CPR at around 8 a. m. Thursday morning.  More...

Federal Government subsidies for farms favor big over small and white over black. . . . .  More...

Infant deaths in poor communities in the south have increased in the last several years, reversing what was a decrease in infant mortality. The Culprits of the turnaround: Poverty, inaccess to prenatal care and healthcare, complicated healthcare enrollment, premature and low-weight births, accidental deaths, obesity and abysmal public policy. (View source for the full article) . . .  More...

(NYT) Seeking new solutions to New York’s vexingly high poverty rates, the city is moving ahead with an ambitious experiment that will pay poor families up to $5,000 a year to meet goals like attending parent-teacher conferences, going for a medical checkup or holding down a full-time job, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday. Under the program, which is based on a similar effort in Mexico, parents would receive payments every two months for family members meeting any of a series of criteria. The payments could range from $25 for exemplary attendance in elementary school to $300 for a high score on an important exam, city officials said. The officials said the program was the first of its kind in the country.  More...