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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.

Report: California’s Children Leading In Poverty And Uninsured Rates

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Monday, January 12, 2009   

California's troubles go beyond a growing budget deficit and unemployment rate. It turns out California kids are hurting, too, according to a new report from the Children's Defense Fund (CDF). It says the state has the largest number of poor children in the nation, and the second-highest number of children without health insurance.

Ed Shelleby, spokesman with Children's Defense Fund, says another alarming California statistic is the rising cost of center-based child care -- the kind of care working parents depend on, that helps get kids ready for school.

"In California, it actually costs more to send a preschooler to a year of day care than it does to send a student to a year of college at a public university. It's almost one-and-a-half times more expensive."

The report, which compiles key kid data from state and national sources, also found that about 75 percent of California 4th graders are not performing at grade-level in reading or math. These findings, Shelleby says, mean children must be included in any federal economic stimulus plan.

"We really want Congress and the new administration to ensure that these children get the resources they need, to ensure that more children do not fall into poverty, more children do not lose their health coverage. This is going to be a really pivotal year, not just for California but for the rest of the nation as well."

Nationally, the number of poor children has increased by nearly half a million to 13.3 million, and the number is expected to increase due to the recession.

The entire CDF report, "State of America's Children 2008," is available at www.childrensdefense.org.




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