AAWA

  AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN'S AGENDA EDUCATION FOUNDATION

I Am Woman, Hear Me...

MONITOR NOTES  (May, June 2003)

SENIORS

Many seniors are missing out on benefits they are eligible to receive.  Now there is a quick way to find out whether they might be able to get help with paying for prescription drugs, health care, utilities, food and other essential items and services.  They can do it through national computer programs that are called Benefitscheck UP and Benefitscheck UPRx.  Both are free and confidential screening tools. (The Alert: May-June)

The Alliance for Aging Research is reporting rampant age discrimination in the U.S. health care system.  Some of their findings state that people over suffer the highest suicide rate in the nation, but are rarely diagnosed as being depressed.  They are routinely discouraged from participating in clinical trials even for treatment that might help them.  And they rarely receive preventive medical screenings to which they are entitled.  (P.D. 5/19/03)

HEALTH

The health insurance policy known as “limited benefit”, means that it will often pay only $1,000 a year, so little that some question whether it amounts to health insurance at all.  The policies are among the fastest-growing health-insurance offerings in the workplace.  Sold by half a dozen insurance companies, they cover an estimated 750,000 employees and family members for about $10.00 per week.  Wal-Mart, McDonald’s Corp and Lowe’s Co. are among major companies making them available to their employees.  (P.D. 5/19/03) 

BUSINESS

Ann Fudge was named chairwoman and chief executive of Young & Rubicam in New York She is the first black woman to lead a large division of a global advertising agency company. (P.D. 5/2003)

Walt Disney Co., said it may sell its Disney Stores unit in North America and Europe.  (5/23/03)

HOUSING

Saying that Cleveland’s foreclosure rate is astonishingly high, City Council has approved paying outside financial counselors to help residents renegotiate high-cost home loans and work through money problems (P.D. 5/21/03)

Rates on 30-year mortgages have dropped to a new low for the eighth time this year. (P.D. 5/2003)

CRIME

North Collinwood is the first in the city to use video cameras to help authorities catch and prosecute criminals.  There are 21 cameras in all, recording day and night; they can make out license plate numbers and faces. (5/29/03)

Four of every five inmates who have received special parole hearings in the last 2 ½ months as a result of an Ohio Supreme Court ruling have been notified that they are being freed.

EMPLOYMENT

Legislation has been signed making unemployment benefits available through December.  People who have exhausted all their state aid are eligible for 13 weeks of emergency benefits. (5/29/03)

The Bush administration has announced a plan to save tax dollars by giving contractors a better chance at taking over jobs performed by nearly half of all federal civilian workers. (P.D. 5/30/03)

More Americans sought unemployment benefits the week of May 23, in part because some businesses were forced to shut down after tornadoes wreaked damage upon the Midwest.  The labor department reported that new applications for state unemployment insurance rose by a seasonally adjusted 7.000 to 428,000 for the workweek ending May 17, that marked the highest level in two weeks and pushed claims to a higher point than the 420,000 level economists were predicting.

Last modified: 08/25/05