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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

The Rich Got Richer in New York

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Friday, August 31, 2007   

New York – New Census Bureau figures show that New York’s metropolitan region had the nation’s highest income disparities, with the richest one-fifth making an average income of $350,000, 40-times more than those in the bottom one-fifth. Bob Cohen is with Citizen Action of New York.

"The disparities of income are greater than they were in the 1920s, during the ‘robber baron’ period. Basically, people are really struggling to survive, particularly at the bottom of the income scale."

Cohen says that the study’s small increase in average household income is misleading because low-income family members are now holding additional jobs, while white-collar professionals continue to widen the gap, placing a heavier burden on social service programs.

Manhattan, Westchester and Long Island are not the only parts of New York affected by the demographic income shift, which has also impacted upstate communities, according to Cohen.

"The so-called ‘recovery’ of last year has left many low- and middle-income families behind. Buffalo and Syracuse, for example, continue to have among the greatest numbers of poor people for cities of their size in the nation."

Cohen says the growing income gap could have serious consequences for the next generation…

"The survey found that 700,000 fewer New York children have health insurance. This is of great concern, that our country is not providing for the health insurance of an increasing number of people, particularly for children."

Cohen supports a bipartisan effort to increase coverage under S-CHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.






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