Recession swells Medicaid roles...

October 5, 2009

The financial crisis has driven more Americans to seek Medicaid health-care coverage, an increase many states worry they can't afford, says a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, Reuters reported Sept. 30 (see Medicaid story). In response, some states are cutting benefits to patients and limiting payments to providers.

The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news organization, received $500,000 from the Houston Endowment, which once owned the Houston Chronicle and was lambasted for allegedly forbidding negative coverage of the endowment and certain other groups, The Hair Balls blog posted in the Houston Press Oct. 2 (see nonprofit journalism story).

Billionaire David M. Rubenstein, managing director of private-equity firm Carlyle Group, donated $10 million to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for its redevelopment project, The New York Times reported Sept. 30 (see Lincoln Center story). The center's new ticket space on Broadway in New York City will be named in his honor.

With newspaper circulation down 7 percent in 2008 and 10,000 journalists out of work since 2001, now may be the time for philanthropic and government support of the news industry, William F. Baker said in a column in The Nation Oct. 1 (see nonprofit news story). ProPublica, supported by tycoons Herbert and Marion Sandler, and the Untold Stories Project, funded by story sales and a partner university, are examples of new models of operation.

The recent natural disasters in Samoa and the Philippines are straining Hawaiian givers who already have been stretched by rising recession-related demand, The Honolulu Advertiser reported Oct. 4 (see Hawaii givers story). The rising needs from multiple fronts come at a time when Hawaiians are struggling to sustain their own livelihoods.

The U.K.'s Department for International Development is sending staff, rescue and medical equipment and water-purifying equipment to Indonesia to aid rescue and relief efforts in the wake of the recent earthquake, BBC News reported Oct. 2 (see Indonesia rescue story).

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