Earlier this week, Gov. Rick Scott of Florida singled out the field of anthropology as one that should receive less state funding because he thinks it doesn’t help “create jobs” or spur the economy. “You know, we don’t need a lot more anthropologists in the state,” Scott said in a radio interview. “It’s a great degree
Continue reading …The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits inched down last week, but remains high. Four hundred and four thousand people filed initial unemployment claims, the Labor Department said. That’s down by just 1000 from last week. Analysts had predicted a slightly bigger decline, to around 401,000. Economists say that with weekly claims
Continue reading …Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor announced Wednesday that he will resume prosecuting domestic battery and other misdemeanors in Topeka, Kan., after a national outcry from domestic violence activists. Taylor announced on Sept. 8 that due to budget cuts, he would not longer prosecute Topeka’s misdemeanors. Topeka city council members said they did not have
Continue reading …The Wall Street protesters are finally getting the attention they have been seeking, it seems. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, denounced the Occupy Wall Street protests Friday as “mobs,” and Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, charged demonstrators with “trying to take away the jobs of people working in this
Continue reading …The Obama administration is appealing a federal judge’s decision to let much of Alabama’s immigration law to go into effect last week by asking the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to hear the case to block its enforcement. The Justice Department says the law will “expose persons lawfully in the United States, including school
Continue reading …Think you could survive a month in poverty without winding up broke? An innovative online game, Spent, lets you find out. The project of a North Carolina ministry and an ad agency, Spent asks users to make the kind of choices that low-income people routinely face: whether to pay the electric bill or the phone
Continue reading …Young illegal immigrants in California can now compete for state-funded scholarships and grants in order to attend the state’s prestigious universities and community colleges. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure into law this Saturday. Illegal immigrants who graduated from the state’s high schools could already attend college at in-state rates and compete for privately funded
Continue reading …Last week, we wrote about young people who have been forced by the sour economy to put major life steps on hold. Now, via the Wall Street Journal, here’s a statistic that reinforces that bleak picture. In 2000, according to Census Bureau data, the median annual earnings of a college grad (without a graduate degree)
Continue reading …A majority of state governments have cut funding to K-12 schools this year as they struggle to balance their budgets without the $100 billion infusion from the federal stimulus that has now dried up. Illinois, Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin have cut overall funding by more than 10 percent since the last fiscal year, according to
Continue reading …About 200 Americans are living in a decommissioned Marine training base in the middle of the California desert called “Slab City.” Evelyn Nieves profiles some of the squatters–most of them victims of the recession–here. (Via Gawker)
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