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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.

VA Group Joins National Fight to Cut Poverty in Half

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Monday, June 6, 2011   

RICHMOND, Va. - Tough times call for even tougher measures, and one Virginia organization is working with a national campaign called "Half in Ten" to cut poverty rates in half over ten years.

Holly Coy, director of programs for The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, says that while this may sound like a lofty goal, it can be done in Virginia and across the country. Her agency is working closely with the campaign and she says that with high unemployment, foreclosures and high food and gas prices, there is a crucial need to strengthen social programs, create jobs and make sure local and federal officials are focused on this.

"One in ten Virginians lives in poverty and one in 20 Virginians lives in deep poverty, which means that they earn an income that's half of the federal poverty level."

Melissa Boteach, campaign manager with the Half in Ten Campaign, Center for American Progress Action Fund, says the gap between the wealthy and the poor is greater than at any time since 1929. She says a major focus of the campaign is the deficit reduction debate, and low and moderate-income people have a huge stake in it.

"And while everyone acknowledges that we do need to do something about our national debt, how we do it is going to define us as a nation. And so one of the things we are doing is trying to bring the voices and the faces of low- and moderate-income people into this debate."

Boteach says that if Americans change priorities as a nation, it will not only help to lift people out of poverty, but will improve the country's overall economic health too.

"One week's worth of tax cuts for millionaires would more than offset the cuts that were just made to the Women, Infants and Children nutrition programs that help at-risk pregnant women, babies and children."

According to the Half in Ten Campaign, more than 43 million Americans live below the poverty line, which is about $22,000 per year for a family of four. The campaign released an on-line map with real-life stories of people, which features two Virginians.

More information is available at www.halfinten.org


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