Southeast Alabama Medical Center (SAMC) has a particularly insidious tactic: it forces incoming patients to sign a waiver allowing the hospital to garnish their wages to settle hospital charges and legal fees. Normally, those making less than $30,000 a year are exempt from garnishments, but SAMC and other hospitals skirt this consumer protection with the waiver.   read more

Twelve companies have been asked to bid on the four lease areas within the 1,160-square-mile patch south of Martha’s Vineyard. The auction, to be held Thursday, will be the largest such sale to date by the federal government. If built out, the project would generate enough electricity to power 1.5 million homes.   read more

The National Housing Trust Fund, created by Congress in 2008 to support affordable housing projects across the country, has not received any funding since its inception. But the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced late last year that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now strong enough, now that the housing crisis has abated, to contribute to the National Housing Trust Fund. The decision will result in $325 million in block grants being distributed to states starting next year.   read more

A mere 80 individuals control nearly $2 trillion, reported Oxfam. That amount is nearly the same as what’s owned by 3.5 billion people at the bottom of the scale. Oxfam also reported that the poorest 80% of people have only 5.5% of all wealth on the planet. “Do we really want to live in a world where the 1 percent own more than the rest of us combined?” said Oxfam director Winnie Byanyima. “The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering.”   read more

A study by the nonprofit advocacy group Public Citizen says the U.S. lost nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs following the adoption of 16 free trade agreements. U.S. food exports have stagnated while U.S. food imports have more than doubled in the wake of the agreements. They have been especially difficult on family farms. About 170,000 small family farms have gone under since NAFTA and the 1995 WTO (World Trade Organization) agreement took effect, down 21%.   read more

The Justice Department program called “Equitable Sharing” was part of the War on Drugs and allowed police departments to confiscate personal property deemed to be connected with a drug crime, share a fraction of it with the federal government and keep the balance for use within the department. Because the program did not require police to prove any connection between the property owners and any criminal act, it was, from the beginning, open to law enforcement abuse.   read more

The funding reductions have forced the loss of 12,000 positions at the tax agency. Fewer workers will mean longer times on hold for Americans calling the IRS for help. One estimate said the IRS may be able to answer only 43% of the 100 million calls it's expecting this year. Those who do get through to an IRS official will first have to wait an average of 30 minutes on the phone. The budget cut will also mean that taxpayers will have to wait an extra week or more to receive refunds.   read more

The inspector general says its office can’t really be sure just how many millions of taxpayer dollars were spent unnecessarily by FEMA because the agency’s insurance reviewers failed to properly document their decisions. The $177 million figure could actually be much higher because it was based on just a sampling of claims. The report suggests that FEMA make an effort to recoup those funds from the insurer. The seven hurricanes collectively resulted in $4.4 billion in insurance payments.   read more

“Once again, the majority of members of Congress are millionaires," reported CRP. “At a time when income inequality is much debated, the representatives we choose are overwhelmingly affluent,” CRP executive director Sheila Krumholz said. “Whether voters elect them because they are successful or because people of modest means do not run, or for other reasons, is unclear, but struggling Americans should not assume that their elected officials understand their circumstances.”   read more

At least one city has already put butt recycling into practice. Salem, Massachusetts, has placed receptacles around the city and sends the butts to be recycled into items such as plastic shipping pallets and even ash trays. The recovered tobacco is composted. Cigarette butts are considered a prime contributor to litter and local pollution, generating up to 1.7 billon pounds of environmental waste annually, according to one study. KAB says smoked cigarettes account for 38% of all litter.   read more

“It's another horrible example of the governor taking money that was designated for an important purpose and putting it in the general fund,” said Arnold Cohen. The decision to divert the money, which was used to pay state bills, left the lead fund nearly empty. Lawmakers have yet to approve legislation to restore it. Meanwhile, thousands of children have been left at risk to lead exposure and poisoning, which can result in brain damage, learning disabilities and other health problems.   read more

A report (pdf) from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that only 0.7% of charities were audited in 2013, and that’s down from an already-low 0.81% in 2011. This drop came while returns filed by charitable organizations went from 725,888 to 763,149, an increase of 5%. For comparison, about 1% of individuals and about 1.4% of corporations were audited in 2013.   read more

The fact that these companies are selling such a large percentage of coal back to themselves constitutes “a fundamental shift in how the coal industry does business,” wrote Claire Moser. The scheme involves companies that mine coal using other companies they own to sell the resource at below-market value. That's how the government determines its royalties collected from coal producers leasing federal lands. The lower the sale price of coal, the lower the payment to the U.S. Treasury.   read more

The cutoffs will come in 2016 as a result of federal welfare reform law adopted in 1996, which imposed a three-month limit on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamps) eligibility for those aged 18-50 who aren’t disabled or don’t have minor children. The Agriculture Department estimates nondisabled childless individuals on SNAP earn 19% of the federal poverty level, or $2,200. About 40% of those who will lose benefits will be women and a third will be older than 40.   read more

DHS’ Inspector General says in a new report that CBP has not delivered the kinds of results it promised from spending at least $62.5 million so far on drones. The unmanned aircraft were supposed to help law enforcement do a better job of capturing those crossing the border illegally, but the report says CBP’s drones assisted in only 2% of these efforts in 2013. Drones were involved with only 1% of Arizona marijuana seizures and 4% of those in Texas.   read more

For policymakers looking to rectify this situation and improve economic growth, the focus should be on lifting up the bottom 40% of society, which includes much of the struggling middle class, says Cingano. “Many social policies are aimed at poverty alleviation. [However,] it is not just poverty...that inhibits growth. Policymakers need to be concerned about...the vulnerable lower middle classes at risk of failing to benefit from the recovery and future growth."   read more