Ryan offers proposal to merge aid programs
WASHINGTON – Rep. Paul Ryan proposed a new plan Thursday to merge up to 11 anti-poverty programs into a single grant program for states that he said would allow more flexibility to help lift people out of poverty.
Programs that would be merged include food stamps, cash welfare, housing subsidies, and heating aid for the poor.
His new “Opportunity Grant” plan would impose work or job training requirements on aid recipients and require states that choose to participate to set up at least two service providers, a move he says would encourage partnerships with locally-based nonprofits and community groups that may better know the needs of their communities.
Ryan said current anti-poverty programs are “fragmented and formulaic” and that his new grant program would allow greater collaboration within communities to help lift people out of poverty.
Businesses laying off fewer workers, U.S. says
WASHINGTON – The risk of losing your job is getting smaller and smaller.
As the U.S. economy has improved and employers have regained confidence, companies have been steadily shedding fewer workers. Which is why applications for unemployment benefits have dwindled to their lowest level since February 2006 nearly two years before the Great Recession began the government said Thursday.
The trend means greater job security and suggests a critical turning point in the economic recovery. It raises the hope that workers’ pay will finally accelerate after grinding through a sluggish recovery for the past half-decade.
Air base lockdown blamed on mistake
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Little Rock Air Force Base officials are blaming a case of mistaken identity for an alarm that led them to lock down the base for several hours following the report of a suspicious individual.
Officials said Thursday the 6,100-acre base was locked down Wednesday after they received a report that a suspicious individual tried to forcibly gain access to a base building. No one was allowed to enter or leave the base in Jacksonville.
Associated Press
