Homeless numbers 'alarming'

More families with children are becoming homeless as they face mounting economic pressures, including mortgage foreclosures, according to a USA TODAY survey of a dozen of the largest cities in the nation. Local authorities say the number of families seeking help has risen in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle and Washington. "Everywhere I go, I hear there is an increase" in the need for housing aid, especially for families, says Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates federal programs. He says the main causes are job losses and foreclosures. Other factors have been higher food and fuel prices hitting families with "no cushion," says Nan Roman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. "We saw family homelessness began to increase last winter," says Sally Erickson, Portland's homeless program manager. "There's definitely a spike in the last six months." The number of requests for emergency shelter doubled from fiscal year 2007 to fiscal 2008, which ended in June. Darlene Newsom, who runs United Methodist Outreach Ministries' New Day Centers, which provide shelter programs for families in Phoenix, says the number of requests is "alarming."

The surge in families seeking housing aid or shelter has followed rising home foreclosures nationwide. The number of foreclosures in the U.S. over the past three years from January to August have increased by around 150% (801,354 in 2006, 1,341,295 in 2007 and 2,049,782 in 2008).

Suicide on the Rise for Middle-Aged Whites

Suicide rates in the USA are up after more than a decade of dropping, and middle-aged whites primarily account for the increase, a report says. The rate for whites 40 to 64 years old jumped 19% for women and 16% for men from 1999 to 2005, say researchers from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Suicides had dropped 18% from 1986 to 1998, says Susan Baker, co-author of the report with Guoqing Hu. The new figures, the most recent available, show a major shift from teens, young adults and the elderly having the highest risk for suicide, Baker says. Suicide prevention has not focused on middle-aged adults, and nobody knows why more are taking their lives. There were 32,637 suicides in 2005, the fourth-leading cause of death in the USA. About 90% of adults who commit suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder, says Bonnie Bear of the San Diego-based Survivors of Suicide Loss, an education and support group. Some in middle age had been getting professional help, "but then you add a divorce or financial stress, and it just pushes them off the edge."

British Leaders Say Recession is Likely in the U.K.

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that the world economic downturn is likely to cause a recession in the United Kingdom. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King on Tuesday also warned that Britain is likely entering a recession. Accounting firm Ernst & Young published a report Monday saying Britain has been in a recession since July, and predicting that the country would not see economic growth again until 2010. Britain's Office for National Statistics is expected to report formally on Friday that the economy shrank for the first time since 1992 during the July to September quarter. Two consecutive quarters of negative growth are one common definition of a recession.

Economy Rocks China Factories

Thousands of Chinese factories have shuttered in the past year, done in by the export-killing global slowdown that began with the collapse of the U.S. housing market and the ensuing financial crisis. Rising materials costs that have also squeezed profit margins. "China is being hit over the head by both the global crisis and the domestic slowdown," says Stephen Green, economist at Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai. Exports account for nearly 38% of China's economic output. JPMorgan Chase calculates that Chinese exports fall 5.7 percentage points every time global economic growth shrinks by a percentage point. What happens to China has big implications globally: China contributed 17% of world economic growth last year, the same as the United States, according to the United Nations.

Mortgage Losses Plunge Wachovia into $23.9B Loss

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Wachovia on Wednesday posted a $23.9 billion third-quarter loss, a record for any U.S. lender in the global credit crisis, underscoring the challenges Wells Fargo will face after it acquires the big lender. The loss totaled $11.18 a share, and stemmed mostly from an $18.7 billion write-down of goodwill because asset values declined, as well as a big increase in reserves for soured loans. Much of Wachovia's troubles stem from a fast-deteriorating $118.7 billion portfolio of "Pick-a-Pay" option adjustable-rate mortgages it largely took on when it bought California lender Golden West Financial for $24.2 billion in 2006. Wachovia said it now expects cumulative losses on that 438,000-loan portfolio of $26.1 billion.

Leading Economic Indicators Temporarily Rise

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. economy's health improved for the first time in five months in September as supplier deliveries and new orders strengthened, a private research group said Monday. The New York-based Conference Board said its monthly forecast of future economic activity rose 0.3%, a better reading than the 0.2% drop expected by Wall Street economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR. The index had fallen a revised 0.9% in August and 0.7% in July. A one-time jump in the money supply as the federal government undertook a series of expensive bailouts helped September's index, said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. "The trend is still downwards, and October's index will plunge," Shepherdson said. Down 3.3% for the year, the index is "consistent with recession, and it has not hit bottom yet."

Kids Allergic to Food up 18%

The number of children with food allergies has increased 18% in the past decade, according to a large national study. About 4% of kids under 18 — or 3 million children — had food allergies in 2007, according to a report released today from the National Center for Health Statistics. Some children had particularly severe reactions. About 9,500 a year were hospitalized for food allergies from 2004 to 2006 — more than 3½ times as many as in 1998 to 2000, according to the study. The foods most likely to cause allergies are milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts such as walnuts, fish, shellfish, soy and wheat, according to the study. Researchers noted that children with food allergies are two to four times as likely to have related conditions, such as asthma or other allergies, compared to kids without food allergies.

White Supremacists Target Middle America

The white-power movement is changing its marketing strategy to broaden its appeal. The USA's largest neo-Nazi group is ditching its trademark brown Nazi uniform with swastika armband for a more muted look in black fatigues. In Pennsylvania, the Keystone State Skinheads is changing its name to Keystone United to attract members. The nation's largest white-power website, Stormfront, has a new feature that lets members create social-networking pages. The site has had as many as 42,700 unique visitors in a 24-hour period this month, a steady rise since it started in 1995. Supremacist groups are on the rise as they market themselves to middle America, according to leaders of the groups and organizations that monitor them. They are fueled by the debate over illegal immigration and a struggling economy. From 2000 to 2007, the number of such groups rose by 48% to 888, says the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks them through news reports and other sources. The FBI knows of about 24 domestic terrorist groups. Spokesman Richard Kolko would not say how many are white supremacists.

2012 Deadline to Scan All Port Cargo Won't be Met

The Homeland Security Department says it will not meet a 2012 deadline set by Congress to scan the contents of every cargo container headed to U.S. ports. Instead, it plans to gather more information about who made the goods in the containers and who packed them. Under that proposal, only a small fraction of the 11 million containers shipped to the U.S. each year — those from unknown companies and countries known to harbor terrorists — would be flagged to be scanned for nuclear or radiological materials. Secretary Michael Chertoff says there are countless obstacles to the 100% scanning mandate passed by Congress in 2006. Among them: some countries don't want U.S. Customs officers operating scanning equipment in their ports; scans could slow trade; the program would be costly. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., counters that the only way to guard against deadly weapons being shipped to the U.S. is to scan every container before it's loaded on a ship overseas. "It is vital to our nation's security," he says. "The more time the secretary spends on excuses, instead of solutions, the longer our nation's ports remain vulnerable."

India Launches First Moon Mission in Asian Space Race

NEW DELHI (AP) — India successfully launched its first lunar mission Wednesday, putting the country in an elite group of nations with the scientific know-how to reach the moon, while heating up a burgeoning Asian space race. The Chandrayaan-1 will join Japanese and Chinese crafts in orbit around the moon for a two-year mission designed to map out the whole lunar surface. Chandrayaan means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit. As India's economy has boomed in recent years it has sought to convert its new found wealth — built on its high-tech sector — into political and military clout and stake a claim as a world leader. It is hoping that a moon mission — coming just months after it finalized a deal with the United States that recognizes India as a nuclear power — will further enhance that status.

Piracy Continues off African Coast

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Armed pirates in speedboats have hijacked an Indian dhow with 13 crewmembers off the northern coast of Somalia, a maritime official said Tuesday. The attack comes despite increased international cooperation to crack down on pirates in the African waters. The hijacking pushed the number of attacks this year in the African waters to 74. A total of 30 ships have been hijacked, and 10 remain in the hands of pirates along with nearly 200 crewmembers. NATO has sent warships to the area to help U.S. navy vessels already patrolling the region. India also announced it will send warships to the area, and several European countries have said they would launch an anti-piracy patrol. Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991, has been impoverished by decades of conflict, and piracy by Somali gangs has emerged as a lucrative racket that brings in millions of dollars in ransoms.

Middle East Arms Race Reaches New Highs

For the first time in years and in the face of Iran's nuclear drive, Israel surpassed Saudi Arabia in arms purchases in 2008, reaching just over $20 billion according to The Jerusalem Post. "This is the year with the greatest defense spending in the history of the Middle East," Yiftah Shapir, an Israeli national security expert said Sunday. "There are several reasons but the main one is, of course, Iran and its development of a nuclear capability."

Data Show U.S. Riding Out Worst Storms on Record

More frequent and powerful hurricanes from the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico since the mid-1990s have created one of the most dangerous and costliest storm eras in recorded history, a USA TODAY analysis of weather data shows. Since 1995, there have been 207 named storms in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Gulf of Mexico — a 68% increase from the previous 13 years, according to statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Of those storms, 111 were hurricanes, a 75% increase over the previous period. The increased activity has also led to increased federal relief. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent more than $63 billion since 1988 in emergency recovery and public assistance funds following hurricanes and tropical storms. A preliminary report says Hurricane Ike caused about $8.5 billion in damage to Harris County houses, apartments and mobile homes in Texas.