— At the annual D.C. Veterans Affairs Health Fair for Homeless Vets, a growing number of aid recipients were women. According to the VA, eight percent of homeless vets they help are women. That’s up from two percent before Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Click here to listen to a report with more details.
— More than a year ago, Washington, D.C. became the second city in the country to require most employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers. Today, very few people — employers and employees — know about the law, and it appears that it’s not being enforced. According to this article in the Washington Post, “advocates for low-wage workers and business leaders say the Fenty administration has delayed finalizing new rules that would get the word out to the community. Until those regulations are spelled out, critics say, workers are not guaranteed protection.” The D.C. Employment Justice Center, a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation, also weighs in.
— The unemployment rates in D.C. and Maryland hit new highs in December. The D.C. jobless rate was at 12.1 percent last month, the highest it’s been since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking unemployment numbers in 1976. Maryland’s jobless rate was 7.5 percent. Virginia was at 6.9 percent. Nationwide, the unemployment rate was 10 percent in December. Click here for more details.
— Montgomery County may make cuts to a program that provides low-income seniors and people with disabilities with subsidized taxi rides. The Call ‘N’ Ride program allows seniors making less than $25,000 a year to buy two taxi voucher books a month. Montgomery County officials have proposed limiting the number of books to one per month. The move would save the county nearly $750,000 for the rest of the fiscal year, but opponents say it would be a significant loss for people who rely on the service to get around. Click here for more.
