United States
Even critics of the safety net increasingly depend on it
LINDSTROM, Minn. — Ki Gulbranson owns a logo apparel shop, deals in jewelry on the side and referees youth soccer games. He makes about $39,000 a year and wants you to know that he does not need any help from the federal government....
Education gap grows between rich and poor
WASHINGTON — Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is ...
Farmers still fighting for immigrant guest-worker program
WASHINGTON — California and Southern farmers renewed their case Thursday for some kind of an agricultural guest-worker program, but they're sailing against the wind.Make that a hurricane....
Unemployment drop still leaves low skill workers behind
ROCKLEDGE, Fla. — The nation’s jobless rate has declined to its lowest level in three years, a fact that has left Jamie Bean...
As jobs go global, US workers pay
NEW YORK — Mitt Romney’s thumping victory in the Florida primary this week is bringing us closer to a Romney-Obama face-off in the autumn. While we do not know for sure if Mr. Romney will clinch the Republican nomination, if he does, we can already say what the central question in November will ...
Gates Foundation gives $750 million to Global Fund to Combat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave $750 million Thursday to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help assure that the organization can keep supplying AIDS drugs while it seeks to adjust to the economic downturn....
Obama says nation must address inequality
President Obama warned the nation Tuesday that the decades-old promise of a secure and rising middle class is under threat because of growing disparities between the rich and everyone else in America....

For a jobless, struggling South Carolina man, reality isn’t a political debate. Entitlement society? Opportunity society? Steven Murdock sees little...
He awoke to his alarm on Monday morning at 6, just like always, even though his handwritten schedule for the day read only: “Find something to do!” Steven Murdock, 39, poured himself a cup of coffee and rummaged through the defrosted Thanksgiving leftovers in an otherwise barren refrigerator. He...
Harder for Americans to rise from lower rungs
WASHINGTON — Benjamin Franklin did it. Henry Ford did it. And American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. “Movin’ on up,” George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion....
After three decades, tax break for ethanol expires
WASHINGTON — A federal tax credit for ethanol expired on Saturday, ending an era in which the federal government provided more than $20 billion in subsidies for use of the product....
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