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May is Older Americans Month, a time to acknowledge the contributions older people have made and continue to make to our country, and to highlight our work to ensure that older Americans are able to live with dignity and security.

This year's theme for Older Americans Month is health care. Although Medicare provides health insurance coverage for people 65 or older, many seniors have difficulty getting the health care that they need.

One particular concern is prescription drugs, for which Medicare covers only part of the cost. A recent survey by The Senior Citizens League found that in the past year, 42 percent of respondents had postponed filling prescriptions or took less than the prescribed amount of a drug because of financial hardship.

Some states have programs that help low-income seniors and people with disabilities afford their prescription drugs, but the current financial crisis is causing some states to consider cutting funding to those programs.

Another concern for many seniors is being able to find a primary care doctor that will accept Medicare. Doctors are not required to accept Medicare insurance, and some choose not to because of low payments and complex paperwork requirements.

Combined with a nationwide shortage of primary care doctors, many seniors are faced with making dozens of phone calls before finding a doctor who will see them - or sometimes not finding one at all. A 2007 survey by The Commonwealth Foundation found that about a third of Medicare patients had trouble finding a doctor who would take Medicare.

Last Thursday, local broadcasters conducted "soft tests" of the nation's switch to digital television signals to remind the 3.3 million unprepared households to get ready for the transition on June 12th.

During the tests, viewers who were receiving analog over-the-air TV signals stopped getting their signals for a few minutes and were told to take action before June 12, the date when all analog signals will switch to digital. Calls to the FCC nearly quadrupled with people asking about the government coupon process, reception issues and problems with installing their converter box, showing that even people who had converter boxes still faced problems getting their TVs to work correctly.

"This soft test did exactly what it was supposed to do," said acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps.  "It was a wake-up call for consumers who are unprepared, alerting them to the fact that they need to take the necessary steps before the June 12 DTV transition."

If you don't yet have a converter box for your analog TV, you can still apply for the government's $40 coupons toward the cost of a converter box by applying online or calling 1-888-388-2009 (voice) or 1-877-530-2634 (TTY).

If you have any spare coupons, send them to LCCREF's national coupon exchange program so that we may get them to people in need.

Make sure your TV sets are DTV ready!

You may think that not owning a home will protect you from foreclosure - but an estimated 40 percent of households facing eviction due to foreclosure are renters, not homeowners. Many renters have been evicted from their homes with little or no notice - sometimes with no idea that a foreclosure was pending - after their landlords were unable to pay their mortgages.

But renters now have some protection against eviction under the foreclosure prevention bill signed by President Obama last week. The new law, which took effect immediately, requires the new owners of a property to allow tenants to remain in the home, as long as the tenants pay their rent on time. Renters will be able to stay until the end of their lease, or will get at least 90 days notice if they do not have a lease or if the new owner intends to reside in the home.

Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the State Department will guarantee equal benefits and protections to same-sex partners of American foreign service workers.

Many benefits provided to married couples have been long denied to same-sex partners, such as life insurance, health insurance, diplomatic passports, transportation expenses to overseas posts, and emergency evacuation of high danger posts.

Gay and lesbian diplomats and heterosexual diplomats have called upon the State Department to provide these benefits for several years. In February, Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affair Agencies (GLIFAA) sent Clinton a letter signed by 2,200 foreign service workers, calling for equal benefits for same-sex partners.

The State Department has not said when the new policy will take effect. 

Today, LCCR honors the service of soldiers serving in the U.S. military –  citizens and immigrants alike. 

Legal permanent residents have long served in the U.S. military –  and gotten citizenship in return.  But loopholes in U.S. immigration policy often hinder legal permanent residents' ability to achieve citizenship even in this case.  Approximately 8,000 legal, permanent immigrants join the military each year, and nearly 29,000 foreign-born people currently serve but are not American citizens.

In this video, Rene of Atlanta shares his struggle of obtaining U.S. citizenship despite his years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps. While Rene fortunately became a permanent citizen after filming the video, his story represents the great struggle of so many immigrant servicemen and women who continue to experience difficulties with achieving citizenship within our broken immigration system.  

A new report released by the National Council of La Raza and the Campaign for Youth Justice yesterday finds that the U.S. justice system incarcerates more Latino youth than White youth and treats them more harshly for similar offenses.

The justice system incarcerates nearly 18,000 Latino youth each day and holds nearly one in four in an adult jail or prison. The report shows that holding Latino youth in adult facilities subjects them to significant dangers, such as suicide and rape, and causes severe emotional damage due to unjust treatment and the lack of therapeutic care.

The report calls on Congress to provide funds for community-based programs and alternative treatments to incarceration that effectively promote educational and emotional development among Latino youth and to reauthorize and update the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act this year to reduce racial disparities in the justice system and ban youth from being housed in adult jails.  It also recommends that state and local policymakers stop housing Latino youth in adult jails and transfer resources from incarceration to effective, community-based programs.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has launched a petition calling for the Department of Justice to file federal hate crime charges against the teenagers responsible for the brutal murder of Luis Ramirez in Shenandoah, Pa.

On July 14, 2008, Ramirez died of injuries he suffered during an attack by a group of teenagers.  The teenagers reportedly yelled racial epithets at Ramirez as they beat him.  On May 1, 2009, a jury found two of the defendants accused of beating Ramirez guilty of simple assault, but acquitted the defendants of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation, despite evidence showing that the attack was racially motivated.

Under current law, the Department of Justice has the authority to bring federal charges on hate crimes motivated by the victim's race, color, religion, and national origin.

Here are a few interesting civil rights related items:

• New data shows that about three percent of households are not ready for the digital television transition - Nielsen
• Editorial: We must invest in programs that prevent students from dropping out of school - The New York Times
• The Supreme Court ruled that a Pakistani man who suffered abuse while detained in New York after the 9/11 attacks could not sue top Bush administration officials because he lacked evidence that they were directly involved - SCOTUSblog

In this video by Artists for Workers Choice, 47 performers who work in film, television, and theater explain why unions are important and why the Employee Free Choice Act will be good for American workers.  The video was developed by some of the major unions for American artists, and features stars like Jerry Stiller, Amy Brenneman, and James Cromwell. 

All 47 performers are members of a union.

Nationally, nearly 500,000 children are currently in foster care. Children from families in crisis are some of the most vulnerable members of our society, and the foster care system gives many of these children a safe place to stay, whether it be for a few days or many years.

National Foster Care Month recognizes all the people who serve as foster parents, relative caregivers, mentors, advocates, social workers, and volunteers.

However, the foster care system faces a lot of challenges, such as a lack of available foster parents, and a shortage of funding for child protection agencies that don't have the resources and staff they need to make sure that all foster homes are safe homes.

Another challenge is helping the more than 25,000 young people who age out of the foster care system each year - at anywhere between age 18 and age 21, depending on the state. The first years of adulthood are a challenge to all young people, but especially for those without family support. States provide some assistance to youth who are making the transition from foster care to living on their own, but many of these young people still face an increased risk of homelessness, poverty, health problems, and unemployment.

Visit the National Foster Care Month website to find out ways you can help children and teens in foster care by volunteering, by advocating for laws and policies that help foster children, or by becoming a mentor, respite care provider, or foster parent.