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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.

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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 Myorkas.

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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.

North Dakota has Second Lowest Child Poverty Rate

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Friday, September 19, 2014   

BISMARCK, N.D. - With the oil boom pushing one of the strongest economies in the country, new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show North Dakota saw a slight increase in the poverty rate last year, but also has one of the lowest rates of child poverty. Karen Olson, program director with North Dakota Kids Count, says nationally more than one-in-five children live below the poverty line, while in North Dakota about 12 percent are in families that can't cover the basic needs.

"Researchers agree that, on average, families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to meet those needs," Olson says. "In North Dakota that translates to 31 percent of children living in families that don't meet that level, that are below 200 percent of the federal poverty level."

The 2013 federal poverty line was $23,550 for a family of four.

When it comes to having health insurance, more than 90 percent of children in North Dakota are covered, although Olson notes that the rate is up a little and means some 13,000 kids are still going without.

"When we look at the uninsured, about half of them have lower incomes, which makes them potentially eligible for some form of public health coverage, whether that's Medicaid or Healthy Steps," says Olson. "So awareness and education of eligibility and existing programs would be an important step."


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