skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

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.

Migrant Worker Health is Focus of Nat'l. Conference in CO

play audio
Play

Wednesday, May 9, 2012   

DENVER - The 2012 National Farmworker Health Conference begins today in Denver, marking the 50th anniversary of the Migrant Health Act.

The law was designed to improve health care and working conditions in farmworker communities. What it does and does not accomplish is one focus of the conference.

Today, much of that care comes from community health centers such as Fort Lupton-based Salud Family Health Centers. Its president and chief executive, Jerry Brasher, says migrant-worker health is an important issue because the whole community benefits when there are no barriers to affordable care.

"That's why migrant farmworkers programs like ours exist - to help out, to provide health-care services to these folks while they're working up here."

Brasher is an organizers of the conference. Some of the issues its participants will consider include understanding how coverage and care might be transformed under the Affordable Care Act, and creating a vision for migrant health care in the future.

The Migrant Health Act means some conditions, such as field sanitation, have improved since 1962, Brasher says, but other requirements, such as housing standards, meant many farmers stopped providing temporary housing for workers - leaving workers and their families no option but to rent rooms in cheap hotels.

"The fact that we've tried to increase the housing for farmworkers has, in fact, kind of backfired on us."

Migrant workers play an important role in America's $297 billion food industry and deserve the same health standards and options as do other Americans, Brasher says.

The conference runs through Friday at the Westin Denver Downtown, 1672 Lawrence St.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021