California unemployment rate hits 12.1% as employers slash jobs
State employers reduce payrolls in August for the second month in a row as they see signs of a faltering economy, pushing the jobless rate up from 12% in July.
What does it mean to be poor in America?
We learned Tuesday that a record number of Americans are living in poverty, and that the poverty rate--15.1 percent--rose for the fourth straight year.
But those raw numbers leave out some key details that can help us understand the fuller implications of how poverty affects individual Americans. For instance, how is poverty defined? What specific hardships do the poor suffer? And what does it mean to be poor in America today?The Census Bureau defines as poor any individual living on an income of less than $11,139, or any family of four living on less than $22,314. But that measure, developed over 40 years ago, is inexact at best. It doesn't include non-cash benefits--things such as food and housing subsidies--that can play a key role in supporting families. Nor does the Census definition take into account the large differences in the cost of living in different part of the country, or expenses such as child-care.
U.S. Drug-Related Deaths Outnumber Traffic Fatalities
Drug-related deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the U.S., with the rise driven by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses, The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
Government data showed there were more deaths caused by drug use than there were motor vehicle fatalities in 2009. There were at least 37,485 drug-related fatalities that year, according to preliminary data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most major causes of preventable death are in decline, the newspaper reported, however drugs were an exception.
The death toll from drugs has doubled in the past decade, with one life lost every 14 minutes. Traffic accidents, however, have been dropping for decades due to investments in auto safety, the report said.
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