Friday Round-Up: This Week in the News

“The procedural vote in the Senate came as the two parties jockeyed over the political issue of rising income inequality, with Democrats pushing more aid for the jobless and an increased minimum wage.” Senate moves ahead with measure to extend long-term unemployment benefits (Washington Post)

“One example of a cost-effective approach [to mental health treatment] employs a case worker to help mentally ill people leaving a hospital or shelter as they adjust to life in the outside world. Randomized trials have found that this support dramatically reduces subsequent homelessness and hospitalization.” First up, Mental Illness. Next Topic Is Up to You (New York Times)

“If it wins ballot approval and passes in the fall, the Right to Housing Act of 2014 would require the District to provide housing for anyone who’s homeless or makes less than $40,000 a year. If the District couldn’t provide housing to someone, they could sue the city.” Initiative Would Force City to Provide Housing to Anyone Making Less Than $40,000 (Washington City Paper)

“The official US poverty rate tracked by the US Census Bureau was 15 percent in 2012 (most recent available), compared with 19 percent of the population in 1964 when President Johnson delivered his “war” remarks in a State of the Union message.”  Fifty years after ‘war on poverty’: Who’s Poor Now? (Christian Science Monitor)

“For the millions of American women who live this way, the dream of “having it all” has morphed into ‘just hanging on.’” The Female Face of Poverty (The Atlantic)