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Storm system to exit US, leaving behind at least 39 dead and vast destruction from tornadoes, wildfires and dust storms; ME farmers, others hurt by USDA freeze on funding grants; SNAP, Medicaid cuts would strain PA emergency food system; Trash 2 Trends: Turning garbage into glamour to fight climate change.

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Secretary of State Rubio pledges more arrests like that of student activist Mahmoud Khalil. Former EPA directors sound the alarm on Lee Zeldin's deregulation plans, and lack of opportunity is pushing rural Gen Zers out of their communities.

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Farmers worry promised federal reimbursements aren't coming while fears mount that the Trump administration's efforts to raise cash means the sale of public lands, and rural America's shortage of doctors has many physicians skipping retirement.

U.S. Poverty Rate Down, Unchanged in WV

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Monday, October 16, 2017   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Economic growth is finally reducing poverty in most of the country - but not in West Virginia, according to a new report.

The research, released jointly by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy and the Coalition on Human Needs, found the U.S. poverty rate has fallen by about 2 percent in the last five years. But Sean O’Leary, senior policy analyst with the Center, said the poverty rate here is all but unchanged over the last decade.

"West Virginia is not making progress. Our poverty rate, just like everyone else’s in the country, went up during the recession, but ours has been flat,” O’Leary said. "Nationally we've seen a decline, but in West Virginia, our poverty rate has remained the same."

O'Leary said much of the job creation in the state has been in low-paying positions. He said the state needs to protect programs that support low-income households while also investing more in education and job training.

O'Leary called education the best cure for poverty.

According to Deborah Weinstein, executive director at the Coalition on Human Needs, the reductions in poverty have been spotty - bypassing Maine and West Virginia, and leaving minority communities behind as well. She called that troubling.

"It's also of concern that, even though we've made this progress, we still have more than 40 million people poor in this country,” Weinstein said. "We still have children disproportionately poor."

She added budget and tax plans now being discussed in Congress risk stalling whatever progress has been made.

"President Trump and his allies want to slash the very programs that are helping,” she said. "And amazingly, they would put trillions of dollars into tax cuts for the very richest among us, and corporations."

The President has argued that the high-end tax cuts would spark more economic growth, although Democrats say increasing tax credits for the working poor would do more good.

According to the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, more than half of the proposed Trump tax cuts would go to the top 5 percent of households in the state.


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