A recap of the week’s equity news

 ”Report: Road Home falls short,” - The Times-Picayune

Most storm-beleaguered Louisiana homeowners did not receive enough Road Home money to completely rebuild their homes, and limited recovery dollars will only help replace a portion of the state’s damaged rental units, according to a report to be released today.

The group PolicyLink produced the report, called “A Long Way Home: The State of Housing Recovery in Louisiana 2008,” after analyzing three major federally funded housing-recovery programs: the Road Home and the state’s small and large rental-repair programs. Researchers concluded that “enormous obstacles” blocked the recovery for homeowners, most of whom faced shortfalls to rebuild, and renters, who cannot find moderately priced places to rent.

“More families requesting free or reduced lunch,” - USA TODAY

The troubled economy may be prompting more families to turn to federal school nutrition programs that aid poor children, a survey suggests.

For the first time since 2004, a majority of cafeteria operators say the number of children getting free or reduced-price lunches has risen.

“Can NY infrastructure handle floods, intense heat?,”  - Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Flooded subways. Bridges deteriorating in the hot sun. Rising seas nipping at the edges of Manhattan. Those scenarios are up for review by a panel of scientists, government officials and private sector representatives studying how the city’s infrastructure will hold up to climate change.

The Climate Change Adaptation Task Force met Tuesday for the first time as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to address global warming in New York City, which already includes orders to switch the city’s taxi fleet to hybrids by 2012 and to retrofit city buildings to meet greener standards.

The obesity crisis is spreading worldwide. Obesity and related chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer- once deemed the preserve of industrialized nations - are now major health problems in developing countries as well. In 2000, the world’s population reached a milestone when for the first time in recorded history, the number of adults with excess weight surpassed the number of those who are underweight.

According to the World Health Organization, in 2005 400 million people worldwide were clinically obese. By 2015, that number is estimated to surge to 700 million.

In many lower- and middle-income countries, such as Mexico or India, under-nutrition and infectious diseases are being replaced by diseases of over-nutrition — such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Obesity is growing fastest in up-and-coming countries, and almost half of those who die from chronic disease are still in their productive years. Moreover, health disparities are widespread and the consequences are not equally distributed, as death rates for chronic illness are greater in lower-income than higher-income populations.

This growing epidemic is yet another example of a potential pitfall of globalization. For better and worse, international trade, population migration, technological advances, as well as changes in the production, marketing, and availability of consumer goods have brought about continuous and rapid lifestyle changes.

Read more after the jump…

(more…)