Author: WHES

Promising African development fund collapses

The initiative began two decades ago, with the best of intentions, after apartheid fell and southern Africa’s future brightened.

Today that program, the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund, is in its death throes, apparently victimized by mismanagement, insider dealings and a lack of oversight by federal officials. Current and former fund officials are fighting over money, and the eventual cost to American taxpayers of the fund’s missteps could run into the tens of millions of dollars, public filings indicate.

Richest 20 percent get half the overall savings from US tax breaks, Congressional Budget Office says

The 10 largest breaks in the U.S. tax code will save taxpayers more than $900 billion this year, with a little more than half the benefits flowing to the richest 20 percent of households, congressional budget analysts said Wednesday.

Disability is an important risk factor for food insecurity

In 2011, close to 15 percent of U.S. households were food insecure. At some time during the year, these households lacked adequate food for one or more household members due to insufficient money or other resources for food. Disability has emerged as one of the strongest known factors that affect a household’s food security. Recent ERS research found that in 2009-10, one-third of households with a working-age adult who was unable to work due to disability were food insecure and one-quarter of households that included a working-age adult with a disability that did not necessarily prevent employment were food insecure. In comparison, 12 percent of households that had no working-age adults with disabilities were food insecure in 2009-10.

children are at risk of underperforming at school because of chronic malnutrition, Save the Children says

Missing out on a nutritious diet could severely damage a child’s ability to read and write, it said.

The study found that malnourished children suffered irreversible damage; they grew up smaller and weaker, and their brains might not develop fully.

A quarter of the world’s children are at risk of underperforming at school because of chronic malnutrition, Save the Children says

A quarter of the world’s children are at risk of underperforming at school because of chronic malnutrition, says UK charity Save the Children. Missing out on a nutritious diet could severely damage a child’s ability to read and write, it said.

Seeking food ingredients that aren’t gene-altered

Food companies big and small are struggling to replace genetically modified ingredients with conventional ones.Pressure is growing to label products made from genetically modified organisms, or “G.M.O.” In Connecticut, Vermont and Maine, at least one chamber of the state legislature has approved bills that would require the labeling of foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, and similar legislation is pending in more than two dozen other states. This weekend, rallies were held around the globe against producers of genetically altered ingredients, and consumers are threatening to boycott products that are not labeled.

Half of America in poverty—and it’s creeping upward

The Census Bureau has reported that 15% of Americans live in poverty. A shocking figure. But it’s actually much worse. Inequality is spreading like a shadowy disease through our country, infecting more and more households, and leaving a shrinking number of financially secure families to maintain the charade of prosperity.