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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.

Changes in Economic Stimulus Package: Good for NY?

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Thursday, January 31, 2008   

Washington, DC - A Senate committee worked overtime Wednesday on President Bush's economic stimulus package, looking to provide more support for the nation's poor and unemployed. The House of Representatives adopted a compromise that follows Bush's priority for corporate and upper-income tax cuts and rebates, but some Senators want to expand rebates for low-income workers and seniors on Social Security. The Senate plan would also boost unemployment benefits, which is good news for New Yorkers, according to Joan Entmacher with the National Women's Law Center.

"For places like New York that have higher rates of unemployment, it will mean an immediate extension of benefits for folks who have already exhausted their unemployment benefits. The extension is an additional 13 weeks with potentially 13 additional weeks, if unemployment is very high in New York."

Entmacher believes providing funds for the poor will help drive the economy.

"The most effective stimulus puts money in the hands of people who will spend it quickly. And people who are unemployed are obviously people who will spend any money you give them very quickly. So, that's a very effective form of stimulus that the administration objects to. Hopefully, this won't slow down the whole package."

Entmacher says the enhanced stimulus package is as important to women as it is to the poor.

"Women disproportionately head low-income families. They are the ones hardest-hit by job loss. They also are being especially hard-hit by the sub prime mortgage problem. So this stimulus release is especially important for them."

The full Senate is scheduled to debate the new stimulus package today.


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