Tag: social services

Trying to Eat Healthier This Year? Eat Less Sugar With These Tips
World

Trying to Eat Healthier This Year? Eat Less Sugar With These Tips

Listen to article(2 minutes)One of the best strategies for good health in the new year: Reduce the amount of sugar you eat.Sugar sneaks into our diet in surprising ways, from coffee drinks you don’t realize are sugar bombs to small amounts that add up in bread or sauces. Looking more closely at nutrition labels and little tricks like putting a few cookies onto a plate rather than eating them straight from the bag can help.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The Welfare-Industrial Complex Is Booming
Business

The Welfare-Industrial Complex Is Booming

Dec. 31, 2023 11:23 am ETDrill into the nation’s 3.7% unemployment rate, and you’ll find a growing welfare-industrial complex beneath the seemingly strong labor market. Government, social assistance and healthcare account for 56% of the 2.8 million net new jobs over the past year, and for nearly all gains in blue states such as New York and Illinois.The tens of thousands of migrants pouring into big cities need to be tended to. So do the hundreds of thousands of drug-addled and mentally ill homeless living on the streets. Progressive government doesn’t do anything on the cheap. America’s welfare state has thus become a proverbial Big Dig, and it keeps getting bigger.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Surge of Migrants Heading North Has Chicago, New York at a ‘Breaking Point’
World

Surge of Migrants Heading North Has Chicago, New York at a ‘Breaking Point’

The mayors of New York, Chicago and Denver said a nonending flow of migrants arriving from the southern border has pushed their cities to the breaking point heading into the New Year, as border crossings swell and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott keeps finding new ways to torment his Democratic rivals.Abbott, a Republican who began sending migrants on buses to other states in spring 2022, doubled down on the strategy in recent weeks. He sent his first planeloads of migrants to Chicago and New York in part to flout regulations on where and when bus operators can drop off the migrants.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Congress’s College Financial Aid Fiasco
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Congress’s College Financial Aid Fiasco

Next to paying tuition bills, parents of college-age students dread few things more than completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, aka FAFSA. So it would seem to be good news that the Education Department this month is rolling out a new and supposedly simpler form. But government makes nothing free or simple.Members of Congress from both parties have long complained that the FAFSA is unduly complicated and makes college less accessible. The feds use the form to determine student eligibility for Pell grants and federal loans. Many colleges use it to determine how much institutional aid to award students.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Some Good News, for Once, From 2023
Business

Some Good News, for Once, From 2023

Writing a newspaper column necessarily is a dour exercise most of the time. The point is to highlight things going wrong that ought to be fixed. Occasionally, however, it’s worth noting some things that are going right that one hopes can continue. Here, in the midst of a season that calls for reflection and gratitude, is my list:• The world’s population keeps getting larger. We’re on track to welcome our 8,100,000,000th global neighbor in 2024, after population growth of around 70 million this year.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
U.S. Homeless Count Surges 12% to Highest-Recorded Level
World

U.S. Homeless Count Surges 12% to Highest-Recorded Level

Updated Dec. 15, 2023 3:33 pm ETThe U.S. count of homeless people surged to the highest level on record, reaching more than 653,000 people early this year as Covid-19 pandemic-aid spending faded, new federal data show.The increase reflects a collision of factors: rising housing costs; limited affordable housing units; the opioid epidemic; and the expired pandemic-era aid that had helped keep people in their homes, federal officials said Friday. A surge of migrants into shelters in places such as New York City, Massachusetts and Chicago also contributed to the challenge.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Why It Took 17 Years to Build 49 Housing Units in Los Angeles
World

Why It Took 17 Years to Build 49 Housing Units in Los Angeles

Listen to article(2 minutes)A Los Angeles nonprofit was given government land in January 2007 to build a few dozen units of affordable housing. They’re finally hoping to open the building next year. Lorena Plaza, a 49-unit development rising in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Boyle Heights in eastern Los Angeles, is taking longer to complete, a city official said, than practically any other residential building this size in the history of Los Angeles. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
San Francisco Is Building to Bring Residents Back
World

San Francisco Is Building to Bring Residents Back

Real-estate developers are launching a series of residential projects in San Francisco, responding to new efforts by the state and city to create more housing in one of the country’s most expensive places to live. In what would be the city’s most ambitious residential development in several years, local property developer Bayhill Ventures last month announced plans for a 71-story rental tower in San Francisco’s ailing financial district. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Cities Use Covid Funds to Run Guaranteed-Income Experiments
Business

Cities Use Covid Funds to Run Guaranteed-Income Experiments

Alexandria, Va.Dozens of cities around the country have launched welfare experiments called guaranteed-income pilots to send monthly checks of up to $1,000 to needy people. The goal is to demonstrate that giving the poor direct cash aid can improve their economic stability, their children’s educational attainment, and even their mental health. Most of the pilots are “no strings attached,” meaning that the cash aid doesn’t come with any restrictions on how it can be spent or any work requirement. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8