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People age 65 and up carried an average of $10,235 credit card debt in 2008, according to a study released Tuesday by Demos, a public policy research group. That's an increase of 26% since the organization's last survey of low- and middle-income borrowers in 2005. The average debt for all borrowers in the survey rose just 3%, to $9,827, during that same time period.

Washington, DC — As the United States Congress considers the Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009, which aims to establish national regulatory reforms for American ground transportation, a newly published study details the widespread failures of port trucking deregulation. Port Trucking Down the Low Road: A Sad Story of Deregulation, published by Demos, a national public policy research center

Americans spurning luxuries in favor of shoveling money into savings accounts.

Brenda Wright, director of the Democracy Program at the nonprofit group Demos, one of the groups behind the lawsuits, said 2.6 million people were registered through public assistance offices in 1995-1996, the first two years the law was in effect. But she said registration has dropped precipitously throughout the nation since then, as much as 90% or more in some states.

Voting rights groups sue NM officials for failing to comply with the National Voter Registration Act

SANTA FE, NM — Citing clear evidence that New Mexico public assistance agencies and moter vehicle offices have violated their federally mandated responsibility to offer tens of thousands of New Mexicans each year the opportunity to register to vote, a coalition of voting rights groups filed suit today against officials in New Mexico for violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

Lawsuit filed today to force state social service agencies and election officials to comply with the National Voter Registration

INDIANAPOLIS, IN — Citing clear evidence that Indiana public assistance agencies have violated their federally mandated responsibility to offer tens of thousands of clients the opportunity to register to vote each year, a coalition of voting rights groups filed suit today against officials in Indiana for violations of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA).

Lew Daly, senior fellow at Demos, a New York City-based public policy organization and author of God's Economy: Faith-Based Initiatives and the Caring State, praised the text as "a turning point for the church and particularly for the American church, because our nation and our society is both the epicenter of wealth and the epicenter of inequality.

Low-income voters in Missouri will see increased access to voter registration at Missouri public assistance offices as a result of a settlement agreement filed today in federal district court.

Columbus, Ohio — The League of Women Voters of Ohio, the League of Women Voters of Toledo-Lucas County and a dozen Ohio citizens reached a historic agreement with the State of Ohio to fix defects in the way Ohio conducts its elections. The League of Women Voters of Ohio will hold a press conference at 11 AM on Wednesday June 17, 2009 in the Ladies Gallery of the Ohio Statehouse to discuss details of the historic settlement agreement reached on the Ohio Elections System.