Relationships and Going Places

There were only three black lawyers in the entire state of Mississippi and white lawyers wouldn’t take these cases. They were assisted by law students, for which this was a summer job. Gil was one of those students, having completed his first year at the University of Pittsburgh Law School. He returned committed to becoming a public interest lawyer. He joined the Pittsburgh ACLU, and after graduation, became its first executive director. About a quarter of the book is about his work with the ACLU. In 1970 Gil moved to Arizona to become Assistant Dean of the ASU law school. He stayed to raise a family while involved with social justice issues. This book tells you about more than his legal work. You learn a lot about his ancestors and his girlfriends. more »

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found actual losses and attempts at elder financial exploitation reported by financial institutions nationwide were $1.7 billion in 2017... studies published from 2016 to 2020 from three states — New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia — estimated the costs of financial exploitation could be more than $1 billion in each state alone. HHS does not currently ask states to submit cost data from APS casefiles to NAMRS, though officials said they have begun to reevaluate NAMRS with state APS agencies and other interested parties, including researchers, and may consider asking states to submit cost data moving forward. Adding cost data to NAMRS could make a valuable contribution to the national picture of the cost of financial exploitation. Recognizing the importance of these data, some APS officials GAO interviewed said their states have developed new data fields or other tools to help caseworkers collect and track cost data more systematically. more »

Between 1941 and 1955, the Folly Cove Designers participated in 16 museum exhibitions. They also supplied designs to a number of well known wholesalers and retailers including Lord & Taylor, F. Schumacher, Rich's of Atlanta and Skinner Silks. In 1948 the Designers expanded their operations into a barn owned by the Demetrios family in Folly Cove. The barn was open from August 1 through Labor Day for demonstrations and sales. In 1959, the season was extended from early March through December. Virginia Lee Burton Demetrios died in 1968; within one year, the Folly Cove Designers ceased operations. As a group, they agreed to stop selling their designs under the name Folly Cove Designers and in 1970 they donated their sample books, prints and remnants to the Cape Ann Museum. Since that time, the Museum's Folly Cove Collection has continued to grow, becoming the single largest repository of work by this talented group of individuals. more »

Even as average personal incomes rose during the pandemic largely because of government aid, millions of people who didn’t receive such help have fallen into poverty, struggling to pay for food and other basic expenses. That group, trying to get by with the help of local charities, may have been excluded from the federal payments because of immigration status, lack of time in the labor force needed to claim unemployment benefits, or just red tape in states that have been slow to pay jobless claims. And lawmakers in some states such as New York are proposing measures that would create relief funds for workers shut out of jobless payments. Houston-area food banks are employing some out-of-work restaurant employees to help with food distribution, regardless of immigration status, through a relief initiative called Get Shift Done. more »