Beyond Bread: The Late Edition

The exit polls will be released at 5pm.

~Our little blog got a little help from its friends last week as we tried to spread the word on some pretty important news items. The first is the imminent closure of Whitman Walker's food pantry--many thanks to Washington Grantmakers Daily and DC Blogs for picking it up. We don't yet know what the ramifications will be to the remaining pantries (including ourselves), but the news was very troubling. The second was to VOTE! I have a boss named Kristin, and both I and the Washington CityPaper thought she wrote a very good post on the local elections.

~The Washington Post is reporting that The DC government is dedicated to opening over 170 beds for homeless residents during the winter months. Good thing they shut down the Franklin Shelter, which had 300 beds. Is that snarky?

~And yet, I have to give our city's leaders credit for something--we're better than Alabama! DC does not tax its residents who are trying to survive below the poverty line. I wasn't aware that anyplace did, but a study recently released says that 18 states that collect income taxes on residents living below the poverty line, and Alabama has the highest "poor tax." A family making $21,000 a year pays over $400 of that to the state--by percentage, more than the wealthy pay.

~A number of states have had to cut health coverage for the poor because of the economic downturn. Considering how many more people are unemployed, USA Today points out, this could be a very bad thing.