Poverty Rate Climbs in Recession, One in Seven Now Poor

One in seven Americans are living in poverty, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today -- the highest level since 1994. But the increase in the federal poverty rate, to 14.3 percent last year from 13.2 percent in 2008, was notably smaller than the 15 percent many experts had been predicting as the country has struggled to emerge from a painful recession. "The bad news is that poverty is high and it's going up, but not as dramatically as we had feared," said Sheldon Danizger, director of the...Full Story