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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

"Listening Project" Reveals Deep Concerns about Federal Budget

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Wednesday, April 15, 2015   

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - As Missourians join the nation in paying their share to the government on this Tax Day, one group says it's time to take a hard look at exactly what Uncle Sam is doing with that money.

For the past year, Mary Hladky has met with dozens of Kansas City-area leaders as part of the American Friends Service Committee's Listening Project. It's an effort to find out what those who work and serve local communities think of the way their federal tax dollars are being spent.

Across the board, she said, from those who work in education to housing, hunger, health care and transportation, local leaders say their priorities are not lining up with what they see in the federal budget.

"As a nation," she said, "many people said we spend so much more after the fact to fix a problem instead of prevention that would cost so much less."

According to the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, in 2014 the federal government allocated more than $615 billion, or 55 percent of its discretionary budget, to military spending.

While the amount of military spending often is said to be a necessary part of national security, Hdlaky said she thinks it's time to redefine what that term means.

"People need the security of shelter, food, health care and an education," she said, "and we're just kind of forgetting all that, because we're totally focused on spending so much money on the military."

Among the more surprising things Hdlaky said she and the other members of the Listening Project heard is that life expectancy in some parts of Kansas City is 12 years less than in neighboring ZIP codes. She said community leaders feel those disparities are very telling.

"There are two different economies: the economy of the rich and the economy of the poor," she said. "It's prosperity and budget-cutting - helping one, and killing the other."

A "Move the Money" forum will take place Sunday at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Kansas City.

More information is online at afsc.org.


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