CARSON CITY, Nev. - Veterans living in rural Nevada will likely have the opportunity to meet with a Veterans Services officer without having to leave town. ROVER, which stands for "Rural Outreach for Veterans Enrichment and Resources," is the way the State Department of Veterans Services (DVS) provides Veterans Administration (VA) services in small towns. The ROVER program has upcoming visits scheduled in Battle Mountain, Hawthorne, Silver Springs and Winnemucca.

DVS spokesman Charles Pullen said it involves setting up at an American Legion hall or similar location and meeting with vets.

"That's its primary purpose, to go out and assist veterans with claims for veterans benefits," Pullen said.

Pullen said about 10 percent of Nevadans, some 300,000 people, are veterans. The numbers double by counting a veteran's family members, who are also eligible for VA benefits.

It appears that the word is getting around about the convenience of the ROVER program.

"For instance, down in Douglas County, we have to do it by appointment only. We don't do walk-ins down there because it's been so successful," he said.

It helps if rural businesses and individuals who know about an upcoming ROVER visit promote it by posting flyers and through word-of-mouth, he added.



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New Yorkers are preparing for an impending government shutdown.

State officials are worried about how it could impact the work state agencies have been doing for migrants. Meanwhile, residents are concerned about how a shutdown could affect federal benefits they receive.

Make the Road Action held a press conference this week urging U.S. Rep. Anthony D'Esposito - R-Island Park - to stand up to hard-right Republicans taking budget negotiations hostage.

Angel Reyes Rivas, Long Island organizing coordinator with Make the Road Action, said a shutdown would be financially disruptive for New Yorkers.

"For Social Security and Medicare, the checks are sent out, but benefit verification as well as card issuance would cease," said Reyes Rivas. "Also, SNAP, that many low-income families use on Long Island also would, the ability to send out food stamp benefits could be affected by the shutdown."

The Center on Budget Policy and Priorities finds almost 3 million New Yorkers received SNAP benefits in 2022.

Earlier this week, Gov. Kathy Hochul implored members of Congress to avert a shutdown - noting that among the many other problems it would pose, New York's 51,000 federal employees would be out of work.

The Senate passed a measure to fund the government until November 17, though House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he will not take the measure up as it is.

Reyes Rivas said any kind of budget must be bipartisan and based on what constituents want.

"A solution would be for the people, being Democrat or being Republican, that really care about these communities and understanding the importance of these benefits to pass something, right?" said Reyes Rivas. "There's a government shutdown, it's unacceptable."

The Senate's budget bill would have provided around $6 billion for Ukraine war efforts and another $6 billion for disaster relief in the wake of recent floods, and wildfires in the U.S.

Since the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, a number of cities and counties in Ohio and around the nation have used ARPA funding to retire medical debt.

Over the summer, Akron became the latest community in Ohio to adopt a plan to retire such debts.

The city council allocated $500,000 to purchase debts through the non-profit RIP Medical Debt. RIP in turn negotiates with hospitals and debt collectors to buy old debts for pennies on the dollar and then forgives them.

Akron Ward 1 City Council Representative Nancy Holland said these debts take a toll on the community.

"Medical debt is one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy," said Holland. "It's also a leading cause of divorce, of job disruption, of inability to qualify for most major loans like home loans, it can also cause trouble in a rental application, just to rent an apartment. "

Akron joins Lucas County, Toledo, and Cleveland in using ARPA funds to eliminate medical debts. The anticipated value of retired debts from Akron's allocation is up to $50 million.

After entering into a contract with a local government, RIP Medical Debt reviews hospital debt portfolios to determine which ones will be retired.

Residents who qualify must earn less than 400% of the federal poverty level, and their medical debts must be at least 5% of their annual income.

Allison Sesso is the president and CEO of RIP, and says medical debt can be hard to avoid.

"I think medical debt is different than other kinds of debt, because of the fact that it's inherent in the system," said Sesso. "And it's sort of a trap, you can't avoid it. You can have insurance and yet you still have medical debt. You can do all the right things and you still have medical debt. You don't control the pricing. It is not transparent as a system and so it's really hard to avoid. "

Pre-pandemic research found that 23 million Americans have medical debt, with 3 million owing more than $10,000.

While these debts are accumulated in countless ways, and at different types of healthcare organizations, Sesso said RIP will negotiate with anyone to buy qualifying medical debt belonging to those most financially burdened.

"There's often been questions about whether or not we'll work with certain kinds of hospitals, that maybe are seen as bad actors," said Sesso. "And at the end of the day, we really focus on the patient. If you have debt at a bad actor hospital, you shouldn't be punished for that."

Sesso said to date, RIP has retired $10 billion of debt for 7 million people nationally.

A tight labor market with steady growth and historically low unemployment - those are the findings in the new "State of Working Pennsylvania" report.

In July, Pennsylvania's unemployment rate was 3.5%, compared with 4.3% a year ago.

Report co-author Stephen Herzenberg, an economist and executive director of the Keystone Research Center, said the strong economy should benefit workers even more looking forward. When there are more job openings than unemployed workers, he said, it gives workers greater choice and leverage in the job market.

"Because of the tight labor market, even though inflation was high, workers' wages have actually kept up," he said, "and they're beginning to see increases in real wages in their pay packets. And that should continue into the next year."

He said the tight labor market appears to be driven by continued job growth plus long-term demographic factors which are shrinking the growth rate of the working-age population.

The good news now, Herzenberg added, is that inflation is no longer high and has come down in the last 12 months.

"While inflation was coming down - from the 9% to the current 3% - workers kept up because of that tight labor market," he said. "There's some industries - low-wage industries, like restaurants and hospitality, and retail sector - where you've seen robust wage increases."

He noted that Pennsylvania has been a leader in some areas of workforce training, such as growing apprenticeship programs, and said the state should build on that strength and expand training for the kinds of apprenticeships that connect people to well-paid jobs.