(June 6) – Dear Speaker Ryan, I read that you will roll out your new poverty task force’s proposal tomorrow, and I wonder if you remember me. I testified at one of the hearings you hosted on the War on Poverty two years ago.

(June 2) – David Cross had been such a fixture at Five Points Park, a patch of green in the prospering heart of this city, that residents dubbed the homeless man “the mayor.” But that was before the city removed the park bench where he held court. Before a new panhandling ordinance made it illegal to ask for money in most places. Before he was given a written infraction for sleeping outside.

(June 2) – Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released new regulations to help take harmful financial products off the shelf. This rule is expected to help struggling families avoid $8 billion in fees from predatory lenders each year. And yet, it faces an uphill battle.

(June 2) – For low-income households, it’s no surprise that a large proportion of their spending goes to basic needs, such as housing and food, while high-income households have traditionally had more discretionary spending. But how do families cope when the cost of housing goes up?

(June 1) – When you have a baby, everyone tells you how expensive your life will become. They aren’t wrong. When I’m shopping, one of the first things I do is pull out my calculator to figure out the cheapest option. It quickly becomes apparent how much you can save by buying in bulk.

(May 31) – Why doesn’t the government just give everybody money? Figure out a reasonable amount — the official poverty line amounts to about $25,000 for a family of four; a full-time job at $15 an hour would provide about $30,000 a year — and hand every adult a monthly check. The minimum-wage worker stretching to make it to payday, the single mother balancing child care and a job — everybody would get the same thing.

(May 31) – They lean unsteadily on canes and walkers, or roll along the sidewalks of Skid Row here in beat-up wheelchairs, past soiled sleeping bags, swaying tents and piles of garbage. They wander the streets in tattered winter coats, even in the warmth of spring. They worry about the illnesses of age and how they will approach death without the help of children who long ago drifted from their lives.

(May 16) – If you are arrested for a serious crime, you’re supposed to be taken to jail and booked. Then there’s some sort of hearing, and if the judge doesn’t think you will skip town or commit more crimes, you are either released on your own recognizance, or you post bail, and you are free until a pre-trial hearing. After that, you either go to trial, or plead guilty and accept punishment.

( May 16) – Poverty continues to wreak havoc in many of our cities and communities around the country. During this week’s installment of the CBC’s Message to America, Representative James Clyburn (D-SC) discusses his 10-20-30 proposal, which seeks to reduce persistent poverty around the country.

(May 16) – Rural child poverty fell by 3 percentage points from 2012 to 2014. Over the past seven years, USDA and the Obama Administration have taken action to address the root causes and reduce the devastating effects of rural child poverty.