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Louisiana teachers' union concerned about educators' future; Supreme Court hears arguments in Trump immunity case; court issues restraining order against fracking waste-storage facility; landmark NE agreement takes a proactive approach to CO2 pipeline risks.

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Speaker Johnson accuses demonstrating students of getting support from Hamas. TikTok says it'll challenge the ban. And the Supreme Court dives into the gray area between abortion and pregnancy healthcare, and into former President Trump's broad immunity claims.

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The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken, and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

Group says Rising Unemployment Rate Points to Need for Policy Change

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Monday, September 20, 2010   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Latest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate 11 percent of Pennsylvanians now live in poverty and, nationwide, 43 million people are below the poverty line - the most ever recorded.

Mark Price, labor economist with the Keystone Research Center, says unemployment benefits have helped make the difference for many out-of-work Pennsylvanians.

"Our best guess is that, in Pennsylvania, that number works out to be about 120,000 people who were kept out of poverty because they had access to unemployment insurance. And that points to, in terms of policy, things that we can do to mitigate the rise that we're all expecting in poverty over the next few years."

Price says Congress should also extend a subsidized jobs program that will otherwise run out at the end of this month. In Pennsylvania, it's called "Way to Work," and it covers the wages of eligible, lower-income workers hired by companies. He says the program offers a vehicle for Pennsylvanians to get off, and stay off, the unemployment rolls.

"They're obtaining skills on the job, and those skills hopefully will lead to either a permanent position at that firm, or help them get even a better job over time and so, they won't have to either live in poverty or depend on the state for assistance."

Opponents of the national program say its $2.5 billion price tag only adds to the deficit which, in turn, contributes to unemployment.

Price says the costs of the jobs programs are justified when you examine the alternatives.

"It'll get the economy back on its own footing, where it's producing the sort of growth that it needs to move along, as opposed to being in the situation we're in now, with very high unemployment rates and people really struggling to find unemployment who want work."

Price says 30,000 more Pennsylvanians could gain access to unemployment benefits if the Legislature passes House Bill 2400, which would use a worker's most recent earnings to determine eligibility. The current system disregards those earnings.




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