The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.cam
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 9A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Wednesday, October 21, 2009 - 9A
New formula
shows poverty
in U.S. worse
than thought
GUILLERMO ARIAS/AP
People walk in a neighborhood as Tropical Storm Rick approaches Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, yesterday.
Tropical Storm stirs concerns over
floods and landslides in New exico
Forecasters say
Tropical Storm Rick
could dump as much
as six inches of rain
LOS CABOS, Mexico (AP) -
Tropical Storm Rick threatens to
trigger dangerous flash floods and
mud slides when it makes landfall
in western Mexico after sparing
Baja California's glitzy resorts a
direct blow.
InSinaloa,whereRickisexpect-
ed to make landfall Wednesday,
authorities suspended classes for
two days in cities along the state's
southern coast.
Gov. Jesus Aguilar asked resi-
dents in a radio message to pay
close attention to civil protection
advisories and said soldiers were
ready to help with possible evacu-
ations.
The U.S. National Hurricane
Center in Miami put Rick on a
projected path south of the tip
of the Baja California Penin-
sula overnight, on course to hit
the mainland near Mazatlan on
Wednesday.
Forecasters said Rick could
dump 3 to 6 inches (7.5 to 15 cen-
timeters) of rain in some areas
in the states of Baja California,
Sinaloa and Durango and warned
of possible flash floods and mud
slides.
Over the weekend, Rick's winds
were clocked at 180 mph (290 kph)
- making it the strongest hurri-
cane in the eastern North Pacific
region since 1997 - and it kicked
up high waves hundreds of miles
(kilometers) away that killed at
least two people. But the storm
spent its force far out at sea and
weakened over cooler waters.
Rick's maximum sustained
winds were down to 65 mph (105
kph) Tuesday night,the Hurricane
Center said. It was centered about
135 miles (215 kilometers) south-
southeast of Cabo San Lucas and
moving to the north-northeast at
12 mph (19 kph).
Los Cabos Mayor Oscar Rene
Nunez said officials would close
schools there and urged residents
living in makeshift homes and
those in flood zones to seek shel-
ter.
Caravans of police cars, mili-
tary vehicles and buses fanned out
to "high-risk neighborhoods" in
low-lying areas across Los Cabos
to evacuate residents.
Carlos Guevara, the Cabo San
Lucas civil defense coordinator,
said people became complacent
as the afternoon rains dissipated
and the sky began to clear.
"We have this storm in front
of us. It has not passed," he cau-
tioned in a meeting of government
officials.
Alejandro Flores, a 28-year-old
waiter, said Tuesday night that he
spent the last few days piling dirt
around the side of his house to
guard it from floodwaters. He and
his wife were preparing to leave
their neighborhood, where the
pitted dirt roads are commonly
inundated during hurricane sea-
son.
"I am very afraid of the flood-
ing," Flores said.
Meanwhile, far out in the Pacif-
ic Ocean, Hurricane Neki was
centered about 630 miles (1,015
kilometers)southwestofHonolulu
and about 340 miles (547 kilome-
ters) east-southeast of Johnston
Island. Maximum winds were at
about 75 mph (120 kph).
Forecasters predicted Neki
would brush by tiny Johnston
island on Wednesday.
The uninhabited island, which
is part of the isolated Johnston
Atoll, is under the primary juris-
diction and control of the U.S. Air
Force. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service has a national wildlife
refuge there.
Revised calculation
shows poverty rate
to be at 15.8 percent,
nearly one in six
WASHINGTON (AP) - The level
of poverty in America is even worse
than first believed.
A revised formula for calculating
medical costs and geographic varia-
tions show that approximately 47.4
million Americans last year lived
in poverty, 7 million more than the
government's official figure.
The disparity occurs because
of differing formulas the Census
Bureau and the National Acad-
emy of Science use for calculat-
ing the poverty rate. The NAS
formula shows the poverty rate to
be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6
Americans, according to calcula-
tions released this week. That's
higher than the 13.2 percent, or
39.8 million, figure made avail-
able recently under the original
government formula..
That measure, created in 1955,
does not factor in rising medical
care, transportation, child care or
geographical variations in living
costs.Nordoes it considernon cash
government aid when calculating
income. As a result, official figures
released last month by Census may
have overlooked millions of poor
people, many of them6 and older.
According to the revised NAS
formula:
-About 18.7 percent of Ameri-
cans 65 and older, or nearly 7.1 mil-
lion, are in poverty compared to 9.7
percent, or 3.7 million, under the
traditional measure. That's due to
out-of-pocket expenses from rising
Medicare premiums, deductibles
and a coverage gap in the prescrip-
tion drugbenefit.
-About 14.3 percent of people 18
to 64, or 27 million, are in poverty,
compared to 11.7 percent under the
traditional measure. Many of the
additional poor -are low-income,
working people with transporta-
tion and child-care costs.
-Child poverty is lower, at about
17.9 percent, or roughly 13.3 mil-
lion, compared to 19 percent under
the traditional measure. That's
because single mothers and their
children disproportionately receive
non-cash aid such as food stamps.
-Poverty rates were higher for
non-Hispanic whites (11 percent),
Asians (17 percent) and Hispan-
ics (29 percent) when compared to
the traditional measure. For blacks,
poverty remained flat at 24.7 per-
cent, due to the cushioning effect
of non-cash aid.
-The Northeast and West saw
bigger jumps in poverty, due large-
ly to cities with higher costs of liv-
ing such as New York, Boston, Los
Angeles and San Francisco.
The Census Bureau said it expe-
dited release of the alternative
numbers for this month because of
the interest expressed by lawmak-
ers and the Obama administration
in seeing, a fuller range of num-
bers. Legislation pending in Con-
gress would mandate a switch to
the revised formula, although the
White House could choose to act
on its own.
Arloc Sherman, a senior
researcher at the nonprofit Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities,
said that because the revised for-
mula factors in non-cash govern-
ment aid, the amount of increase
in poverty from 2007 to 2008 was
generally smaller compared to the
current measure.
"Food stamp participation rose
during the first year of recession
and appears to have softened what
could have been an even greater
increase in financial hardship,"
he said.
University Housing could ditch
same-hall, same-room policy
From Page 1A
not yet been decided how it will
determine which students will be
eligible to return.
Housing also plans to reserve
rooms for the University's seven
residential Michigan Learn-
ing Communities. Each learning
community decides which stu-
dents can remain in the program.
Unlike other residents, students
returning to a learning commu-
nity will have the opportunity to
stay in their current hallway, but
whether they will have the choice
to stay in their same room is not
yet known.
After adding up the space allo-
cations from all residence halls,
Logan said Housing could not come
up with a plan that would permit
students to keep their same room
or hall if they so wished, while also
giving other students a choice of
where they want to live.
"One of the biggest concerns
we've had is that if we try to shuffle
around the number of spaces to
accommodate the students who
had been living in Baits or Mark-
ley or Couzens, and give them an
upper hand in the selection process
in some other hall, then it really
complicates the process for the stu-
dents in those other halls wanting
to reapply," he said.
With these compounding prob-
lems before them, the University
has been discussing changes for the
sign-up policy during the last sever-
al months. Part of that process has
been an analysis of how the process
has played out in the past.
According to Logan, the number
of students applying for the same
room and same hall has continu-
ously declined over the last four
years. Comparing the process in
2006 to that in 2009, 115 fewer stu-
dents applied for the same room,
while 593 fewer students applied
for the same hall and learningcom-
munity.
On the other hand, the number
of students participating in the
campus-wide lottery has increased
526 students - from 1,202 in 2006
to 1,728 in 2009.
Logansaid the increasingpartic-
ipation in the lottery has indicated
that more students are interested
in switching halls and that elimi-
nating the same room-same hall
option would solve some of the
problems. ,
The lottery will be determined
based on the number of consecutive
years a student has lived in cam-
pus housing - with students with
more years receiving a better lot-
tery bracket. Logan said he believes
students who have lived in the resi-
dence halls for a longer period of
time won't experience a difference
in their housing placements.
"We feel that the students who
have been living with us for a
couple years, and who have that
advantage of lower lottery brackets
because of their seniority probably
won't notice much in the way of
outcomes," he said.
LSA junior Caitlin Sadler,
president of the Residence Halls
Association, said she thinks the
campus-wide lottery will keep the
sign-up system "relatively fair" and
that the policy willbe well received
in the future.
"I think overall, looking at this in
three or four years, it's going to be
really well-accepted, and it's going
to be part of the overall policy,"
Sadler said. "I think the shift might
be a little bit difficult, but it is a bet-
ter system I feel in the long run, so
it's worth making that shift."
Engineering freshman Mina
Georges is a member of MCSP
in Couzens. He said he wants to
return to MCSP next year - even
if it's in another location - because
he enjoys learning about the urban
policy and environmental issues
the program teaches.
"If the program is going to con-
tinue, and we're just going to live in
a different place, it won't matter for
me that much," Georges said.
But he said he does not agree
with Housing's proposal that would
prevent students from returning to
the same hall.
"I think they should just leave it
(the way it is)," he said. "If someone
feels comfortable at some place,
why do you have to make them
change?"
LSA sophomore Tatiana Hortig
also expressed concern about the
new plan. Hortig is living in Alice
Lloyd Residence Hall for a second
year with a few friends she met in
Alice Lloyd last year. She said it
would have been terrible if they got
split up and couldn't live together
in the same hall.
"I can't imagine if this year
they put me in some random dorm
because I would have lost contact
with them," she said.
According to Logan, a final deci-
sion about the new process will be
made within the next few weeks.
Information regarding housing
applications will be available in
November.
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