As the economic downturn hits the Sooner State, we are seeing a steadily increasing number of hard-pressed families turning to the Food Stamp Program (now renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) for help in making ends meet. Food stamp participation…
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The New York Times has been running a series of front-page Sunday articles examining the impact that the great wave of recent immigration – both legal and illegal – is having on various sectors and institutions. This week’s piece explored…
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As we showed in the March edition of Numbers You Need, the number of laid-off Oklahomans receiving unemployment benefits is skyrocketing. An average of 4,881 workers filed first-time claims in January, an increase of 149 percent compared to September 2008.…
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If you’re anything like me or most anyone I know, chances are you’ve spent a good part of the last year reading and listening to stories about “collateral debt obligations” and “credit default swaps” and “toxic assets” and “zombie banks”…
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The Oklahoman had an editorial today about the increase in the numbers of Oklahomans needing assistance to get by. Food stamp usage has reached an all time high in Oklahoma. It is a sobering editorial, but an issue that needs…
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Sunday’s edition of the New York Times had a front-page report on the steep drop in drilling activity that has followed plunging oil prices in recent months. Since last summer, the number of oil and gas rigs deployed to tap…
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Last week I sat down with the editorial board of the Tulsa World to discuss the state’s worsening fiscal outlook. Julie Delcour’s column in today’s Opinion section sets out some of our main messages about the severity of the problem…
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An editorial in yesterday’s Oklahoman notes how the worsening economy is having a growing impact on schools as children and families grapple with problems ranging from food insecurity to purchasing school uniforms to homelessness. The Oklahoman concludes:
Schools and children…
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Yesterday’s New York Times had a sobering profile of the housing market in Cleveland, which has experienced the post-boom collapse earlier and more deeply than most of the rest of the nation. While the situation in Cleveland, as elsewhere, has…
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New U.S. Census Bureau data revealed a drop in Oklahoma’s poverty rate in 2007 – from 17.0% to 15.9% – and a significant increase in median household income. While this showed that Oklahoma’s strong economy was finally providing benefits to…
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