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"McKee, who voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election—said she’d likely vote for him again in 2024 if he runs—although she isn’t completely happy with the job he’s doing."

OAKLAND -- The Bay Area has fewer concentrations of extreme poverty than a decade ago, according to a report released Thursday. That may not console the people living in the Bay Area's five poorest neighborhoods. In five census tracts, four of them in the East Bay, more than 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line, according to the Brookings Institution report. The neighborhoods are in downtown Berkeley, uptown Oakland, Alameda Point and parts of West Oakland and San Francisco's Hunters Point. Two are business districts where many homeless congregate; one, the area around Oakland's Frank H. Ogawa Plaza,...

What do the top ten cities (over 250,000) with the highest poverty rate all have in common? Detroit , MI (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961. Buffalo , NY (2nd) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1954. Cincinnati , OH (3rd) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1984. Cleveland , OH (4th) hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1989. [More...]

GENEVA (Reuters) - Record growth in the world's poorest countries has failed to prevent an increase in their total numbers of poor people, the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on Thursday. Recent rising food costs threaten to undercut what modest progress has been achieved, while three quarters of people living in least developed countries (LDCs) still survive on less than $2 a day, it said in a report. Income under $2 a day does not allow most people to meet basic needs for food, water, shelter, health or education, the Least Developed Countries Report 2008 noted. The...

The Census Bureau ranks Brownsville as the most impoverished city in the nation, according to the bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey released on Tuesday. More than 40 percent of the city’s 171,000 residents live below the poverty line, the bureau’s figures show. The bureau’s poverty threshold for an individual is a $10,294 annual income. For a family of four it is $20,614. Despite the last-place standing, there are slight gains being made in this area. In 2005, the poverty level was 42.6 percent, compared to 40.6 percent in 2006. Median household income in Brownsville, the fourth lowest in the nation,...

DETROIT (AP) - The U.S. Census Bureau says that Detroit continues to be among the nation's poorest large cities. The bureau says an estimated 32.5 percent of Detroit residents lived in poverty in 2006. Detroit had about 871,000 people last year. The poverty rate for Buffalo, N.Y., was estimated at 29.9 percent. The figures were close and based on sampling, so it's unclear which city had a higher poverty rate. The Census Bureau's report on poverty in cities with at least 250,000 residents listed the rate for Cincinnati at 27.8 percent and Cleveland at 27.0 percent.

There is a shadow population among the estimated 14,000 homeless who live on Skid Row. A growing number of immigrants are bedding down each night in parks, abandoned buildings and cardboard boxes, finding refuge in camouflaged encampments under freeway overpasses and bridges. Mostly from Mexico and Central America, many entered the United States illegally in search of a steady job - and fell far short. They largely shun the free meals and beds offered on Skid Row, and according to service providers are less likely to be drug addicted or mentally disturbed than other homeless in the destitute area on...

DETROIT - Before the Super Bowl kickoff this weekend, private planes will land here, limousines will clog the streets, and lavish parties will be thrown for those with famous names or lots of money. The kitchens of Ford Field will be stocked with two tons of lobster. Much of the rest of Detroit, though, is a landscape dotted with burned-out buildings, where liquor stores abound but supermarkets are hard to come by, and where drugs, violence and unemployment are everyday realities. Officials in the nation's poorest big city see hosting the game as a huge boost. They say it will...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Population shifts caused by the exodus of hurricane victims from the Gulf Coast could have ripple effects for years to come in Louisiana political races and perhaps beyond. How big depends on how many people stay away, which ones stay away and where they end up putting down roots. The early thinking is that the evacuees least likely to return to their homes in Louisiana may be the poorest -- and thus, Democrats for the most part. That would hurt the party in a state where Republicans already were making inroads. If the lion's share of those...

Louisiana, Mississippi Dioceses Devastated By Hurricane; Poorest Dioceses Hurt The Most WASHINGTON (September 1, 2005)—Dioceses in Louisiana and Mississippi face unparalleled devastation from Hurricane Katrina, reports from bishops in several of the dioceses indicate. The reports came in to the offices of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops shortly after USCCB officials e-mailed and faxed the bishops of Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama August 30 to advise them that USCCB president, Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane (WA), had called for a national collection and prayers in churches for those afflicted by the disastrous hurricane. Some bishops in the affected...