In today’s rundown: Unemployment in Ward 8. | Help for Maryland residents facing foreclosure.

— Even though Ward 8’s unemployment rate is not the highest in the nation or even DC writes the Brookings Institution’s Benjamin Orr on the DC Fiscal Policy Institute blog. The post responds to Bloomberg’s recent article that stated that Ward 8 had the highest jobless rate in the country.

— Maryland is receiving $40 million in federal assistance to fight foreclosures, reports the Washington Informer. The funds are for homeowners facing foreclosure due to job loss or a decrease in wages.

After a Women’s History Month blogging blitz, we’re back with your daily rundown of news impacting women and girls locally!  In today’s rundown: How Mayor Gray’s proposed 2012 budget will impact family programs. | Low-wage jobs don’t provide families in the U.S. with economic security. | A computer skills course in D.C. for low-income adults. | Women aren’t “pet rocks.”

— The New York Times features Wider Opportunities for Women — a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner — in an article about that ways in which low-wage jobs fail to provide families with economic security.  The article refers to WOW’s “The Basic Economic Security Tables for the United States” report.

— According to Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray’s budget for the 2012 fiscal year proposes that “a disproportionate amount of money [be] taken out of programs that help keep families stable and healthy.”  Click here to read more.

— WAMU.com profiles a woman who just graduated from Byte Back, a computer skills program for low-income adults in D.C.

— Kathleen Parker says “women aren’t pet rocks” in a Washington Post column that suggests that empowering women and girls can lead to more secure societies.

In today’s rundown: A profile of a Women’s Foundation grantee. | A Grantee Partner explores the credit needs of low-income families at tax time. | A new D.C. commission to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the District. | Bringing the Girl Effect to the U.S.

— DCentric profiles Our Place D.C., a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner that provides gender-specific services and advocacy to help current and formerly incarcerated women return home.

— This year, tax filers are expected to accumulate more than $1.5 billion in credit fees for refund anticipation loans or refund anticipation checks.  Urban Institute, a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner, is holding a panel discussion about the credit needs of low-income families at tax time.  Click here for more details and to register for the event.

— A Mayor’s Commission on HIV/AIDS has been created to help end the HIV epidemic in D.C.  According a press release from the mayor’s office, the commission “will focus on treatment, the needs of people living HIV/AIDS and prevention to stop new infections.

— Bring the “Girl Effect” to low-income women in the United States, writes Nicole Skibola on The Huffington Post. Skibola points out the similarities between the struggles of under-resourced women in the U.S. and in developing countries.

In today’s rundown: Exploring the lack of women candidates for the D.C. Council. | A look at the impact the District could feel when the city’s largest needle exchange provider closes. | What happens when mean girls grow up.

— “There’s a D.C. Council race on.  Why aren’t any women running?” asks Loose Lips in Washington City Paper. Former and current women council members weigh in and discuss the difficulties of running for and serving on the city council.  “…[I]f D.C. voters want more women in office, we need to tell them,” writes Amanda Hess on TBD.com.

— D.C.’s largest needle exchange provider is closing for good and one former employee  of PreventionWorks tells WAMU the closing is a “death sentence.”

— “What happens when mean girls grow up?” asks The Washington Post. As it turns out, many of them become well-adjusted, nice women.  The ones who don’t participate in The Real Housewives… series.

In today’s rundown: Scholarships for women over 40. | A D.C. Councilmember says there aren’t enough men in leadership positions in one city department. | Less than a year after taking over the only hospital east of the Anacostia River, D.C. seems eager to sell it to private owners.

— The AARP Foundation is now taking applications for their 5th Annual Women’s Scholarship Program.  The scholarships go to women who are 40 and older and who are able to demonstrate financial need.  The program allows older women to participate in education and training opportunities that they could not otherwise afford.  Click here for details.

— D.C. Councilmember Marion Barry wants more men in leadership positions in the city’s Department of Employment Services.  The Washington City Paper has details of an exchange between Barry and Rochelle Webb, who was nominated to head the DOES.  According to the paper: “Barry is upset over the fact that Webb’s ‘executive committee’… is all female.”

— D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray is “making moves to privatize” the city’s only hospital east of the Anacostia River, reports The Washington Examiner. He’s trying to expand the board of directors at United Medical Center and sell the hospital to private owners.  The city took over the hospital just eight months ago.

Photo credit: AARP Foundation

In today’s rundown: Helping low-income residents file taxes and claim their credits. | A new report on the working conditions of local restaurant workers. | The changing income and ethnicity of Washington. | Raising awareness about the right to breastfeed in public.

— The D.C. Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign kicked off today.  The mission: to encourage low-income District residents to “file their taxes and claim their credits for free at 11 sites in the city,” reports The Washington Post.  The campaign is managed by Capital Area Asset Builders, a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner.

— If you eat out today you certainly won’t be alone: Valentine’s Day is typically the busiest day of the year for the restaurant industry.  And that’s why Restaurant Opportunities Centers United – DC (a Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner) has released a report detailing the working conditions of restaurant employees.  Among the info in the report: the minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13 per hour; paid sick days and access to health insurance are also limited.  Click here for more details.

— A job market that is creating high-paid, high-skilled positions is  changing the face of Washington, D.C. reports NBC Washington, citing information from the Brookings Institution.  There’s an increase in the number of households with incomes of $75,000 or higher, while the city lost a nearly equal number of households with incomes under $50,000.  There’s also an ethnic change in the city: the city’s proportion of black residents has gone down while the proportion of white residents grew.

— A weekend demonstration at the Hirshhorn Museum raised awareness about a mother’s federally-protected right to breastfeed in public, reports The Washington Post. The demonstration was organized after a Smithsonian guard told a woman to stop nursing on a bench and g0 into a restroom.

In today’s rundown: The D.C. council ranks low when it comes to the number of women members. | The District is once again paying for hotel rooms for homeless families. | Details about a summit on working conditions at area restaurants. | New regulations are in the works for commercial colleges. | What one teenager thinks about being “ladylike.”

— In a 15-city ranking of city councils, D.C.’s council ranked fourth from the bottom for the number of women members.  The Washington City Paper reports that 53 percent of the District is female, but 25 percent of seats on the city council are held by women.  Ranking beneath D.C. were Phoenix, Boston and L.A.  And a new report from The Women’s Foundation takes a look at women in leadership positions across our region. Click here for details in Portrait Project 2010.

— The District has started paying for hotel rooms for families that need shelter, according to The Washington Post. A 145-unit shelter in Southeast Washington is currently the only shelter in the District for families and it is difficult to get into.  “The practice of using hotels for emergency shelter for the homeless fell out of favor under Mayor Adrian M. Fenty,” reports the Post.

— On Monday, February 14th, you’ll have an opportunity to take a look behind the kitchen door.  Women’s Foundation Grantee Partner Restaurant Opportunities Center-DC (ROC-DC) is hosting “Behind the Kitchen Door Summit: Inequality and Opportunity in Washington, DC’s Thriving Restaurant Industry.”  Speakers include D.C. Councilmember At-Large Phil Mendelson, Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, and Andy Shallal, owner of Eatonville & Busboys & Poets.  Click here for details and to RSVP.

— The U.S. Department of Education is preparing to issue final regulations on federal student aid eligibility for commercial colleges, and new reports and litigation show how contentious the new regulations may be, reports The New York Times. Officials from for-profit schools say their efforts to help low-income and minority students may be stymied.  Critics say that many commercial colleges leave students with huge loans they can’t re-pay.

— McKinely Technology High School senior Katisha Frederick has a lot on her plate right now: graduation is approaching, she’s waiting to hear back from colleges, and she’s navigating the dating world.  On top of that, she wonders what expectations people will have of her as a woman now, and as she gets older.  She shares her thoughts on WAMU.

In today’s rundown: A call for equality between girls and boys in Maryland’s juvenile justice system. | A look at whether the new health care law will force insurance providers to cover birth control. | Tax season job and volunteer opportunities.

— A bill that would mandate equal treatment for girls in the juvenile justice system is expected to be filed tomorrow in Maryland, reports WTOP.com. “The bill, being introduced by Delegate Kathleen Dumais, D-Montgomery, requires that the state ‘provides females with a range and quality of services and programs substantially equivalent to those offered to males.'”  Gov. Martin O’Malley is expected to support the legislation.

–“The Obama administration is examining whether the new health care law can be used to require insurance plans to offer contraceptives and other family planning services to women free of charge,” reports The New York Times. The law says that insurance providers have to cover preventative health services.  Opponents argue that pregnancy isn’t comparable to a disease that should be prevented.  Congress has left it up to the administration to define the benefit and has adopted an amendment by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) that requires that special attention be paid to the “unique health needs of women.”

— Montgomery County’s top attorney says that a law requiring “pregnancy centers to post information about the care they provide is constitutional,” according to The Gazette. However, one Silver Spring center says that could change because a similar law was recently overturned in Baltimore.  The county law requires pregnancy centers that do not provide abortions or referrals to abortion clinics post disclaimers.

— Looking for job or volunteer opportunities during tax season?  The DC EITC Campaign needs volunteers. And Community Tax Aid has some seasonal positions available.

In today’s rundown: The controversy over redefining rape. | Increasing the number of contracts for women-owned businesses in Fairfax County.  |A Supreme Court Justice talks about her experience on the high court.

— The Washington Post‘s Jonathan Capehart gives a quick overview of the Not Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3) and the controversy surrounding efforts to “redefine rape.”  And Sady Doyle has a more thorough look at the language in H.R. 3 and its historical significance on Salon.com.

— A new initiative in Fairfax County aims to increase the number of women-owned businesses in federal contracting.  The county is setting aside certain contracts for women-owned businesses in the hopes that five percent of contracts will go to them, reports WAMU.

— In an appearance at the University of Chicago Law School Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke candidly about being a woman of color on the Supreme Court.  In addition to taking questions and giving advice to students, “she said that she disagreed with Chief Justice John Roberts’s approach to cases concerning racial equality,” reports The New York Times.

Photo credit: Amanda Walker via Creative Commons