When a panhandler approaches a car in the intersection — his hand out, his eyes wide — that physical interaction is protected by the First Amendment, a federal district judge ruled Monday when he threw out an Arkansas city's panhandling ban.
It's the latest such ban to be found unconstitutional since a 2015 Supreme Court decision made it harder for the government to pass laws having to do with the content of speech. That case, Reed v. Town of Gilbert, had to do with regulating church signs, but courts around the country have cited the case as they strike down panhandling laws.
In recent years, you see a lot more pan handling in Downtown Albany and not only in poor neighborhoods. It seems like panhandlers nowadays are more white, working class folk like you might see working construction years ago. I wonder if it has more to do with the heroin epidemic and people loosing their jobs and their homes, getting left behind on the street in the city.
"Child poverty in the U.S. could be cut in half over the next 10 years with a few simple steps, according to a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The cost would be high — at least $90 billion a year. But the National Academies report warns that the price of not doing anything would be far greater."
"The Opportunity Atlas is a publicly available atlas of children’s outcomes in adulthood by Census tract using anonymized data covering nearly the entire U.S. population."
"Studies have shown it hasn’t really lifted people out of poverty. But it’s still made a difference in the lives of the poor."
"On paper alone you would never guess that I grew up poor and hungry. My most recent annual salary was over $700,000. I am a Truman National Security Fellow and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. My publisher has just released my latest book series on quantitative finance in worldwide distribution."
"None of it feels like enough. I feel as though I am wired for a permanent state of fight or flight, waiting for the other shoe to drop, or the metaphorical week when I don’t eat. I’ve chosen not to have children, partly because—despite any success—I still don’t feel I have a safety net. I have a huge minimum checking account balance in mind before I would ever consider having children. If you knew me personally, you might get glimpses of stress, self-doubt, anxiety, and depression. And you might hear about Tennessee."
"In Heartland, author Sarah Smarsh explores what working class looks like in the United States while reflecting upon her own life experiences growing up in the Midwest."