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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.

Will Congress Step Up to Help Raise OR Grandkids?

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Tuesday, May 6, 2008   

Portland, OR – About 22,000 Oregon grandparents have stepped up to raise their grandkids, and in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, some of them will "step up" to ask Congress for help. One focus of the third annual "GrandRally" is a bill called the "Kinship Caregiver Support Act." For grandparents of more than 37,000 children here in Oregon, it would mean additional funding to states to provide more support services. Ed Shelleby of the Children's Defense Fund says it also would address some practical legal concerns, to keep kids out of foster care.

"The Kinship Caregiver Support Act would do things like require child welfare agencies to let relatives know when parents lose custody of their children and are about to enter foster care, so that they can intervene beforehand."

Shelleby says across the country, the number of kids left with relatives continues to grow, for reasons that include drug abuse, domestic violence, divorce, and parents who are in jail, or have simply fallen on hard times.

"Nearly one in 12 children in this country live in a household that is headed by someone other than a parent. It's a very important issue. This is not something that is often talked about, but it's something that does affect many, many children."

The bill was introduced three years ago this week, and "GrandRally" participants will tell lawmakers it's time to get moving on it. It also would apply to other relatives raising children who are not theirs. In Oregon, that's the case for another 14,000 kids.


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