from the St Petersburg Times By RICHARD DANIELSON;TAMPA -- Even in kindergarten, R.J. struggled in school, saying he often felt like a "bad boy" who was "dumb."His problems included behavioral or emotional disabilities, frustration at not keeping up with classmates and a lack of coping skills.Within two years, he was suspended regularly for being disruptive. But an advocacy group says Hillsborough schools failed to give him adequate counseling and support.Now three civil rights groups say that kind of missed opportunity deprives R.J. and students like him of the chance to learn.The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities and the NAACP filed a 20-page complaint Wednesday with the state Department of Education over Hillsborough's treatment of students...
from WINZ Minneapolis St Paul had the highest percentage at 40%. This is from a Miami radio station, so if focuses on the local area. KaleMiami residents earn last place in a national survey rating the amount of residents who volunteer.Chances are you won't find many people volunteering in Florida.The state average of 20% decreases the further south you go.In fact, the Miami area ranks dead last in volunteerism among 50 major U-S cities, with fewer than 15% of South Florida residents donating their time.The study cites Miami's higher than average poverty rate and commuter times as well as lower than average home ownership and education levels as possible causes for the low volunteer rate.Corporation for National and Community Service's chair Stephen Goldsmith reports the national...
from the News Press, Florida This 8-year-old Diver has the hands of an 80 year old. They've been damaged from chemicals in the landfill. Photo exhibit delves into child povertyby by Charles RunnellsChip Hoffman had never seen such staggering poverty in his life: Poor Dominican kids wandering the garbage heaps, barefoot, digging for metal scraps to sell. Their hands wrinkled and scarred from who knows what chemicals in the trash."Seeing this, you begin to realize how privileged you are," the North Fort Myers photographer says. "You stand there in absolute shock."Tears start running down your face."Once the tears dried, Hoffman set to work photographing those 8- and 10-year-old kids called Divers. As in diving in the trash heaps.The result - along with other photos he shot in Santiago,...
from the South Florida Sun Sentinel By Harriet Johnson BrackeySouth Florida Sun-Sentinel6:47 PM EDT, June 20, 2008Mary Manuel, who turned 73 last month, figures it out, ride by ride.To get to the doctor, she needs $2.50 to take a bus service for seniors and the disabled. Then another $2.50 to ride home. If she needs to see the kidney doctor and the dentist, that's $10. This month, she has appointments with the eye doctor and her primary physician. That's another $10.Seniors in South Florida, like others, say they're feeling the financial pinch. In response, they are making changes to their spending habits in ways both big and as small as planning ahead for a $10 bus fare. That's exerting pressure on South Florida's economy, which already is reeling from falling home values."The Lord...
from the St Petersburg Times By Nicole Hutcheson, Times Staff WriterIn another sign of worsening economic times, Floridians increasingly are turning to the state for the most basic of necessities: food.Statewide, there was a 21 percent jump in families receiving food stamps in the past year — one of the highest increases in the nation.Record high food and gasoline prices, an escalating unemployment rate and fallout from the mortgage crisis are fueling the trend."It used to be when you opened the paper (there) used to be 10 to 15 ads for construction jobs," said Stephen Honey, 50, a Safety Harbor father of three. "Nowadays there isn't one."A gloomy job market and medical problems has the laborer venturing into corners of life he never thought he would see.On a recent Thursday, Honey...
from the Orlando SentinelThe mortgage crisis and other factors imperil the American dream.Kate SantichSentinel Staff WriterA decade ago, Mary and Jim Thompson were the epitome of America's middle class. They had a home in an Orlando suburb, two cars, good jobs, good benefits and a line of credit.Six months ago, they were plotting how they could live out of their Jeep Cherokee."She was going to sew drapes so we could sleep in it," Jim said."We were hoping to hang on to our computers so we could keep looking for work," Mary said. "But everything else would have to go."They had fallen behind on their mortgage payments. Mary, 45, was working only part time. Jim, 47, couldn't find work at all.But the story of how the Thompsons tumbled to the brink of homelessness is not just about one family....
from the Daytona Beach News JournalImagine being able to help fight poverty by shopping. Members of the Fair Trade Federation have taken that idea and turned it into a network of businesses that offers products from sources that directly benefit workers in impoverished nations.On May 10, people in 70 countries will mark World Fair Trade Day to highlight the importance and advantages of fair trade. The event will include an attempt to break the record for the world's biggest coffee break, a feat designed mainly to bring more attention to the cause.Participating locally will be the Gifts With Humanity, a fair trade store at 2808 Hibiscus Drive (Units 4 and 5) in Edgewater."When 50 percent of the world's populations live on less than $2 a day, it really doesn't take that much to make a...
from the South Florida Sun SentinalBy Josh HafenbrackHe's only 11, but South Florida's Jack Davis has accomplished a feat few can match: He's poised to get a Florida law named after him.The sixth-grader's cause: Making it easier for restaurants to donate their leftover food to homeless shelters and charities.Jack, of Coconut Grove, started writing letters to legislators after a family vacation last summer in Tennessee, where a hotel manager told him the leftovers at a breakfast buffet would be thrown away. The hotel, the manager explained, couldn't risk a lawsuit if someone got food poisoning or had an allergic reaction.Later, during a trip to his mother's native Peru, Jack saw a nation with widespread poverty and came home determined to salvage leftovers headed to the garbage bin."I...
from the Palm Beach PostBy WILL VASHPalm Beach Post Staff WriterBOYNTON BEACH — Palm Beach County may be one of the wealthiest in the state, but a new report finds an alarming number of families with children living in poverty.The cupboard in one in three households with an annual income of $35,000 or less in Palm Beach County goes empty before money is found to fill it again, according to an analysis by the Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County.The report's findings from 2007 were "depressing" and it would take a combined effort of social agencies and organizations to meet the needs of poor and hungry families, Perry Borman, assistant administrator for the Department of Children and Families' 15th District, said during a panel discussion Friday."Whatever we do, we have to...
from the Florida Times UnionDoreen Flippen of the Southside came from a family of Filipino educators and was alarmed at a report that cited the following statistics about Philippine education: one in seven students doesn't have a classroom; one in five doesn't have a desk; two to eight students share a single set of textbooks and one in three doesn't have a single textbook.In an online discussion with Filipinos around the world, she learned that they, too, wanted to do something. Nine "online friends" from the U.S., Japan, Australia and the Philippines formed the nonprofit Move On Philippines International (www.moveonphil.org).Roy Vicente of Memphis became the first president and Flippen the chief financial officer.They provide used books, refurbished computers and school supplies for...
from the South Florida Sun SentinelStaff reportMillions lack health insurance and access to care. The problems are many, but University of Florida faculty and students are trying to break down some of these barriers.It was five minutes until 6 p.m. and nearly two-dozen people had lined up outside the downtown building. Some limped, using canes to steady themselves. Others cooed at infants tucked in their arms."Sorry guys, we can only take 15 tonight," a man called from inside the doorway of the UF Equal Access Clinic, a free student-run clinic medical students and faculty hold every week.Tammy Gunn stood 15th in line."Take my place, please," she said, offering her spot to a mother waiting with her preteen daughter. "No ma'am," the woman replied. "My daughter's healthy. You go ahead."In...
from the Orlando SentinelA study says housing, child-care and other costs hurt families.Kate SantichSentinel Staff WriterThe economic chasm between the haves and have-nots in Florida is wide and getting wider, fueled by low wages that fail to cover the most basic needs, especially for families with small children, according to a report released Tuesday.The report sets "self-sufficiency" standards for each county in the state -- a measure of income needed to survive without public assistance.In Orange County, for instance, a single parent of two children -- a baby and a school-aged child -- needs to earn $18.71 an hour just to live a "bare-bones, no-frills" existence.That's about $39,500 a year -- and nearly three times the state's minimum wage of $6.67 an hour."There's something wrong...
from The Bradenton HeraldBy DUANE MARSTELLERBRADENTON --The search for the Manatee Community Action Agency's next executive director will begin early next month, the poverty-fighting organization's board of directors said Tuesday.The board approved a job description, evaluation procedure and search process for the post, which became vacant last month when Joan Hill was fired after a critical state review. The agency, formerly known as Manatee Opportunity Council, oversees more than a dozen programs for children and the poor.And, in a departure from the past, the public will get the chance to meet the three finalists during a community gathering, board members said."We want a person who's going to interact with the community," said board member Tim Polk, who suggested the idea. "That's...
from The Miami HeraldMore than a dozen Liberty City business owners and residents demanded accountability for the failures in Miami-Dade's largest poverty program.BY JASON GROTTO AND SCOTT HIAASENLocal leaders are moving to salvage the county's largest poverty program and recoup millions of tax dollars doled out by the troubled nonprofit agency created to help Miami-Dade's neediest neighborhoods, Assistant County Manager Cynthia Curry told a group of Liberty City business owners and residents on Tuesday.The empowerment zone program has been rocked in recent months by reports of insider deals, bad loans and other questionable projects undertaken by the Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust, the tax-funded agency tasked with managing the federal program.In the aftermath of a Miami Herald...
from The Miami HeraldA Miami-Dade anti-poverty agency touted successes that actually include failed firms and nonexistent jobs.BY SCOTT HIAASEN AND JASON GROTTOOn paper, it's a Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust success story.Four years ago, the government-funded poverty agency loaned more than $400,000 to four businesses -- a diaper store, a catering service, a pizzeria and a gas station with a cafeteria. The results: 47 jobs created or saved, according to a report submitted to federal officials in July.Here's what the trust didn't tell the feds: The diaper store closed down. So did the pizza restaurant. So did the catering company. The gas station opened -- but the cafeteria hasn't yet. The real number of jobs: seven.To federal monitors and to the public, the Empowerment Trust has portrayed...
from The Miami HeraldThe anti-poverty trust went beyond the nine neighborhoods it was supposed to serve and loaned money to a variety of outside businesses.BY SCOTT HIAASENshiaasen@MiamiHerald.comThe Miami-Dade Empowerment Trust was founded to target nine specific neighborhoods with millions of dollars in federal and local anti-poverty money.But over the years, the trust routinely bankrolled projects outside the empowerment zone boundaries, often at the urging of County Hall.About $3.6 million has gone from the trust to nearly a dozen businesses or agencies outside the empowerment neighborhoods, records show.These deals include $200,000 to the Hialeah Chamber of Commerce, a $150,000 loan to a North Miami television production company, and a $150,000 loan to an acupuncture clinic in North...
from CBS 4 MiamiA Miami-Dade County audit made public on Friday accused a nonprofit anti-poverty group funded with more than $68 million in public money failed in the most basic oversight of loans.The audit, reported by CBS4 news partners The Miami Herald explained how some monies went to shaky startup companies and friends and relatives of the group's trustees. The report was written by county auditor Cathy Jackson.The agency in question is called The Miami-Dade Empowerment Zone Trust, closely tied to county government since its creation in 1999. Jackson writes that it helped few businesses, created few jobs and met few goals, while its staff ran a haphazard bookkeeping operation that spanned 44 accounts at 10 banks.Trust Chairman T. Willard Fair and President and CEO Aundra Wallace did...
from the Miami HeraldBy CASEY WOODS AND JACQUELINE CHARLESVenezuelan media mogul Gustavo Cisneros called on the hemisphere's wealthiest to meet in Miami next year to help eliminate poverty in the region by giving the poor the tools they need to get out of misery and stop electing populist leaders.Cisneros, a controversial figure in the ideological battle involving Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, never mentioned the leftist leader but instead reserved much of his criticism for U.S. policy toward Latin America.But before going into his prepared speech at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Cisneros first attempted to clear up his image by rejecting critics' claims that he cut a deal with Chávez to obtain a license to keep his Venevisión network on air, while one competing TV station...
from The Gainesville SunBy JEFF ADELSONCollege students driving luxury cars down W. University Avenue may not seem impoverished, but they likely are being counted as part of Gainesville's poverty rate, which is more than triple the national average, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released Tuesday. Though statistics show that 32.3 percent of Gainesville residents were below the poverty line in 2006, an increase of more than 5 percentage points since the 2000 census, economists and even officials with the Census Bureau caution that the figures may only reflect part of the story.The 66,000 students at the University of Florida and Santa Fe Community College - many of whom report little or no income because they are full-time students - may skew poverty figures for Alachua County,...
from Hernando TodayBy JOHN HERBERT Special to Hernando TodayA college freshman from Spring Hill wants to eliminate poverty in Africa and the rest of the world, one efficient step at a time. That’s fine by the United Nations, whose goal is to halve global poverty by 2015.Unlike many do-gooders who just throw money at a problem and hope it will go away, 18-year-old Steve White would prefer to give poor Africans clean water wells, school books and teaching aids that might help them to sort out an issue at its origin. “We can show them how to spend their money better,” Steve reasons.A recent graduate of Hernando County’s Central High School, Steve is currently settling in for his first year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on both scholarships and financial aid.Ever...
from The Independent Florida AlligatorBy ALEX TIEGENThe Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of equality is still just a dream for Americans trapped in the nightmare of poverty, Martin Luther King III told students and community members Tuesday night."I say we can and we must do better," he said. "We are a better nation than the behavior we exhibit."King, speaking in the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, told about 500 students and city residents about the continuing pursuit of his father's dream.King's speech touched on a broad range of topics, ranging from the war in Iraq to racism and poverty in the United States.He said Americans should wage a war on the poverty in their own country instead of the war in Iraq. He said the war is diverting money that should be spent on...
from The Orlando SentinelMIAMI -- The bomb-sniffing dogs are training. Fleets of limos are on the way. The ink is dry on anti-gouging pledges. Thousands of volunteers are on the march. Concierges are hustling to fill every VIP whim.And Miami's newest homeless camp, a plywood and pallet shantytown, is gussying up to take center stage, if only for a moment.With South Florida gearing up to host its record-tying ninth Super Bowl next Sunday, community titans have the drill, the details and the mission down pat. Their primary aim is to show off South Florida's best side, then revel in the estimated $350 million tourism bonanza.As hundreds of posters and banners hanging on windows and from streetlights in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties say, "One game. One dream. One chance to...
The University of Florida's Marston Science Library houses the collections for agriculture, life sciences, engineering, physical sciences, mathematics and earth sciences for the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville, Florida. Marston also includes the Documents Department and the Map & Imagery Library. Documents is a regional federal, state, and European Union documents depository serving Florida and the Caribbean. The Map & Imagery Library Collection contains more than 497,800 maps, 266,500 aerial photographs, 2,250 remote sensing images, and 7,215 atlases and reference books. Specialties of the collection include Florida, Latin America, the United States, Africa, and the Holy Land. It is the largest academic map collection in the Southeast, and among the top five academic map...