Reversal of Fortune: A New Look at Concentrated Poverty in the 2000s
The Federal Reserve System and its 12 member banks partnered with the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program to produce a new, in-depth look at concentrated poverty in America. The two-year study, The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America - Case Studies from Communities Across the U.S., October 2008, profiles 16 high-poverty communities across the United States, investigating the historical and contemporary factors associated with their high levels of economic distress.
Related postings on poverty

Committee Holds Hearing on the Role of Federal Regulators in the Financial Crisis
"The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held holding a hearing titled, The Financial Crisis and the Role of Federal Regulators on, Thursday, October 23, 2008. The hearing examined the roles and responsibilities of federal regulators in the current financial crisis. A preliminary hearing transcript (201 pages, PDF) is available for download." Related postings on financial system

Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008
"The final Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 finds more people are reporting problems with health care bills, and paying for health care retains a solid hold on the public’s list of their top economic concerns. About one in three Americans now report their family has had problems paying medical bills in the past year, up from about a quarter saying the same two years ago. Almost one in five (18%) of Americans report household problems with medical bills amounting to more than $1,000 in the past year.
Nearly half (47%) of the public reports someone in their family skipping pills, postponing or cutting back on medical care they said they needed in the past year due to the cost of care. For example, just over one-third say they or a family member put off or postponed needed care and three in ten say they skipped a recommended test or treatment – increases of seven percentage points from last April’s tracking poll which asks the same question." Key Findings: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 – October 2008

ABA Journal Examines FDA and Pre-emption
ABA Journal, November 2008: The Pre-emption Prescription - The FDA is claiming total responsibility for drug and medical device safety.
"The FDA had been signaling its new attitude of tort reform regarding prescription drugs and medical devices since 2001, when a new administration at the FDA began gearing up to file “friend-of-the-court” briefs in state and federal courts claiming that federal regulations pre-empted the power of states to enforce deficiencies—or even deceptions—in prescription drug warnings. To critics like James O’Reilly [Univer¬sity of Cincinnati College of Law], FDA pre-emption is part of a series of legal and political maneuvers that all but neu¬tered the federal agency in the public eye as a regulator of public health and safety. To supporters, the agency has become far more responsive to the public need for development of new drugs and medical devices."

More on palinode, palindromes
From Steve Benko (steve.benko gecapital.com) "Is Wasillah all I saw? Si!"
From Walter Desmond (w.desmond sbcglobal.net) In anticipation of one of the VP words (palindrome), I quote candidate Biden, in comparing how many time he's been around the foreign policy track vs. his opponent: “Palin I lap." She in all grace, shows her bubbling informality by replying: "Yo, Joe, O joy!"
From Michael Shpizner (mshpizner us.fujitsu.com) "Wasilla's all I saw."
(I wish I could take credit for it, but alas, I didn't create it.) Regardless of one's political persuasion, that's a thing of beauty, is it not? A.Word.A.Day

On October 28, 1636 Harvard University was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just 16 years after the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth.
October 28 is the birthday of Evelyn Waugh, (books by this author) born in London, England, in 1903. He's the author of Brideshead Revisited (1945) and Decline and Fall (1928).
October 28 is the birthday of poet John Hollander, (books by this author) born in New York City in 1929. His newest book, A Draft of Light, was published in 2008. John Hollander said, "I want my poems to be wiser than I am, to know more about themselves than I do." The Writer’s Almanac