Poverty Facts Released
The Urban Institute recently released a report called “Poverty Facts, 2004.”
According to the report:
In 2004, 36.6 million people—or 12.6 percent of the U.S. population—were poor. The “poverty gap”—the amount of additional income required to remove all Americans from poverty—was $105.6 billion. Poverty rates were highest for African Americans, Hispanics, women, and persons under 25. Without government benefits, 61 million people would be poor. Social Security and other social insurance programs remove 21 million people from poverty. Means tested programs remove 3 million people from poverty. If food and housing assistance were counted as income for poverty purposes, an additional 7.6 million people would be counted as not poor.
Full report: Poverty Facts, 2004
Portland Considered Most Bicycle-Friendly City in North America
Portland has become an urban planner’s dream lately–with their urban growth boundary and celebrated environmental planning.
Now Portland’s considered North America’s most bicycle-friendly city.
Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now, recently interviewed Scott Bricker, Executive Director of Portland’s Bicycle Transportation Alliance and Elly Blue, a Portland-based transportation activist about what makes Portland so bicycle friendly.
Amy’s guests were there to promote the Towards Carfree Cities Conference coming up in June.
Interview: Portland Considered Most Bicycle-Friendly City in North America
Above image from www.StreetsBlog.org.
Capitalism IS Charity?
On the Neoliberal Attack on Philanthropy
You would understand it if you heard a right-wing libertarian like Ron Paul or Paul Wolfowitz say:
I believe that ‘government,’ as we know it today, should pull out of most things except for law enforcement and justice, national defense and foreign policy, and let the private sector, a social-consciousness-driven private sector, take over their other functions.
But Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner, wrote that in his book Banker to the Poor. Read more
Air Powered Car in US by 2010
According to www.BusinessGreen.com, “Fresh from securing a deal with Indian automotive giant Tata to build its innovative air powered car on the subcontinent, French green car firm MDI has revealed details of how it plans to crack the US market.”
The cars (the OneCat, pictured above, and the CityCat) run on air below 20mph and then begins to burn small amounts of fuel. It can travel 800 to 1,000 miles on one tank of compressed air and only takes an hour to charge.
We can expect the cars to cost around $17,800 when they release in late 2010.
