Earlier this month, the Obama administration delayed implementing one component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – the provision that requires large employers to pay a penalty if they fail to offer health insurance coverage. The decision gives the federal government more time to clarify the rules and gives businesses more time to comply. A recent study by the Urban Institute assures us that it will not slow down the ACA’s goal to reduce the number of uninsured. Continue Reading
“What do we do now?” While marchers chanted “No justice, no peace,” this question kept coming up in interactions along the route. The question was about more than the verdict. Continue Reading
[Disclaimer: As a white male it is virtually impossible for me to fully understand and appreciate the burden of being a black male in this society. Even though I’ve been arrested and in jail and prison, lived in the inner city and rural South, I can only approximate what that experience is because I was always a phone call away from “connections” to the world of privilege and (somewhat limited) power – unlike Travyon Martin and others like him.] Continue Reading
Nationally, SNAP recipients receive an average of less than $4.40 per day. The number is even less in Minnesota, around $3.86/day, about $1.30 per meal. One in seven American families struggles to put food on the table. The vast majority (83%) of households receiving SNAP, formally known as food stamps, are below the poverty line. Most families (90%) receiving SNAP run out of money for food by the third week every month. The program is not a giveaway: able bodied workers without dependents may be unemployed for no more than three months in order to remain eligible for SNAP. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for SNAP. Continue Reading
It’s all about race. It always has been in America and it appears that it continues to be the case. Three events in the news this week, the House cuts food stamps and refuses to act on immigration, along with the acquittal of George Zimmerman (Trayvon Martin), demonstrate that we have not achieved the race-neutral or color-blind society that so many believe we have achieved. Continue Reading
Unless farm groups, community organizations, faith-based groups and state and local governments weigh in on the debacle in Congress, a class warfare battle over who has access to the American pie—and our food—is going to get uglier, costlier and more damaging to future generations of Americans. Continue Reading
On Saturday night, July 14, 2013, the internet has exploded over the results of the George Zimmerman trial. Cries of shock, anger, and dismay resound on Facebook, on Twitter, around the blogosphere. There was a vigil already on Saturday, and there are more being planned.I feel sick to my stomach. We live in a country where a man can shoot another man, a Black man, in the chest, and get off free. How can this be?The laws are wrong, clearly. Continue Reading
I had a busy — for me — day yesterday: an exercise class in the morning, then a visit to the dentist in the afternoon and finally a meeting of the Wyrdsmiths writing group in the evening. The exercise class was enjoyable, and the Wyrdsmiths were really fine. But the dentist told me I need two crowns. My share, after my dental insurance pays its part, will be $2,100. This is disturbing. Continue Reading
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will be in full force sooner rather than later, and U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison says every American will benefit from it. However, he sadly points out that there are “professional misinformation spreaders trying to confuse people” on the law.Approximately 30 people were in attendance at the July 2 NorthPoint ACA forum.Ellison held two separate forums on the ACA July 2, first with local small business owners at the Minneapolis Urban League’s Northside headquarters, then with community folk across the street at the NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center.The first was attended by around 20 business people, but none were Black business owners. “We certainly reached out,” said Ellison of this absence. “We have been in contact with a number of [Black businesses] already.”However, Minnesota Black Chamber of Commerce (MBCC) President Lea Hargett last week told the MSR in a brief phone interview, “We [the Chamber] didn’t receive anything [on the Ellison event], but quite possibly some of our members may have received a notice.”She added that the MBCC a couple of months ago surveyed its membership for interest in learning more about the ACA. “Their primary comments were [that] they did not know how the changes would really directly affect their businesses,” Hargett pointed out. Continue Reading
