The number of Americans at or near the federal poverty level is set to reach an all-time high in 2012, a point Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has used to bolster his election case against President Obama. Poverty has grown as high unemployment persists and wages remain stagnant, driving up income inequality and slowing down the nation’s economic recovery.

Sister Pat Farrell, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, joined a group of 102 other faith leaders this week urging Republican governors to drop their opposition to the Affordable Care Act and accept the law’s Medicaid expansion. “Depriving struggling families of healthcare is wholly incompatible with the teachings of our faiths and the ideals of our nation,” the statement reads.

Steve Bogira talks about the poverty data that came out yesterday, and discusses poverty trends over the last few years as well as the Democratic and Republican platforms as they relate to reducing poverty in our country. The article “5 things you need to know about the 2011 poverty data” by Half in Ten’s Melissa Boteach is referenced, showing how since 2000, poverty has crept upwards in good and bad times - meaning that economic growth has not trickled down to poor.

Catherine Dodge and Mike Dorning discuss the new 2011 poverty data, which show that while poverty has remained stable, the gap between the rich and the poor has expanded to the widest it has been in more than 40 years. Melissa Boteach is quoted. saying that gains from economic growth have not reached working families struggling at the bottom.”

The U.S. Census Bureau today released new data on poverty in 2011. Just looking at these headline numbers, however, misses some of the most important things the data tells us about growing income inequality, the state of the middle-class and more.

Many books have been written about poverty in America. As part of the Shadow Conventions 2012, we’ve talked to experts across the country, in academia and thinktanks, authors and an Occupy Wall Street librarian, to track down the best reads about this serious and growing problem in the richest country on earth.

For all the talk by the presidential candidates about producing jobs, fixing the economy, and bolstering the country’s middle class, a dispiriting prospect looms ahead of November’s election: The nation’s poverty rate is poised to rise to its highest level since President Lyndon B. Johnson launched his war against it. New Census Bureau estimates are expected to be released this week, and even a small two-tenths tick upward would push the 2011 rate to the highest level since 1965. With nearly one in every six Americans now living in poverty, advocates for the poor say little attention is being paid to the issue and express concern over how this fall’s elections could influence government programs meant to aid the poor.

Last night San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro made an impassioned argument that investing in opportunity today leads to prosperity for all tomorrow. Telling the story of his own journey from a struggling family to the mayor of a major U.S. city, he underscored that, “My family’s story isn’t special. What’s special is the America that makes our story possible.” Unfortunately, today that American Dream is at risk for too many young people. Data today released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture underscores that we have a long way to go in starting children off on an equal playing field, particularly Latino kids, but also reveals that investments made by the Obama administration have made an enormous difference in moving the ball forward.

The Republican presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is knowingly misleading the American people about President Barack Obama “gutting welfare reform” in a series of TV ads that falsely say the president is eliminating the work requirement so that “they just hand you your check.” The lie earned the Romney attack ad a maximum Pinocchio status from all nonpartisan fact-checkers, yet Romney pollster Neil Newhouse acknowledges that whether or not the ad is true is immaterial because “we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers.”

Even though many levers exist with the potential to relieve poverty among the American Indian Alaska Native population, education is one area where the federal government itself has the immediate power to focus its resources and leverage change in these communities.