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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.

AZ Elders "Treading Water" with Social Security

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Friday, November 2, 2012   

PHOENIX – In January, one million Arizonans will be getting a 1.7 percent increase in their Social Security checks. That's one of the smallest increases since they started receiving cost-of-living adjustments in 1975. Mark Hornbeck, a regional communications director with AARP, says that money won't be burning a hole in anyone's pocket.

"On the average monthly Social Security check, that adds up to a little more than $20, or about half a tank of gas."

The average monthly check for an Arizona resident is about $1200, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the typical senior's income. Without it, says Hornbeck, nearly half of seniors would fall into poverty. And with health care and prescription costs going up, he adds, many older people are just treading water.

"The modest increase is better than a freeze, that we saw in 2010 and 2011. But it's going to be difficult for seniors who are seeing increases in other costs. It's going to be tough to keep up."

This will be the sixth time in more than 30 years that the cost of living increase will be below 2 percent. This past January, recipients received a 3.6 percent increase, after the two years of freezes.



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