Free Republic

On Christmas Eve, I, my three small children, and my wife, who works the graveyard shift at a truck stop to supplement our meager income, visited our local Kroger store to pick up a loaf of frozen garlic bread to go with dinner. I refrain from writing much about myself in this blog, as it seems somewhat egotistic to assume anyone would want to read about my personal life. However, on this particular night, we ended up checking out behind a group of ladies. Their hair was newly done, obviously at a salon. Each of them had had their fingernails...

Food Stamps Altering How Retailers Do Business Record number of Americans — 37 million — depend upon the benefit By Nicole Maestri and Lisa Baertlein SAN FRANCISCO/LOS ANGELES - At 11 p.m. on the last day of the month, shoppers flock to the nearest Walmart. They load their carts with food and household items and wait for the midnight hour. That's when food stamp credits are loaded on their electronic benefits transfer cards. "Once the clock strikes midnight and EBT cards are charged, you can see our results start to tick up," says Tom Schoewe, Wal-Mart Stores Inc's chief financial...

There has been many problems with the automated system of the FSSA. Indiana's citizens that are on the various programs (medicaid, food stamps, and TANF) have reported missing paperwork, the lack of face to face contact and unqualified call center operatives. The problems got bad enough that the federal government started watching the program.

With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples [...]. Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. [...] While the numbers have soared during the recession, the...

As many families gather for this splendid holiday feast, there are too many others who in the year suffer the American equivalent of hunger. This is more like deprivation and thankfully not the clinical malnutrition and starvation it is in the Third World. At the same time, this super-rich nation is also battling what is described as an epidemic of overweight and obesity. Obesity, according to the experts, is mushrooming faster than any other health problem. If not slowed down, it will exact $344 billion in health care costs in 2018. By that time 43 percent of Americans, or 103...

Forget buying a ton of gifts. A week before Thanksgiving, the holidays are shaping up as a season of no frills. And for some, the joy of family time and gift-giving has been replaced this year by a quest for basic necessities as more jobs are lost and unemployment benefits start to expire. Michigan, with one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation at 14.8 percent in September, has a food crisis going into the holiday season. "We have people coming to the food bank who said they were donating to us last year, but who are now out...

CHICAGO (AP) - Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say. The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis. "Your neighbor may be...

CHICAGO (AP) — Nearly half of all U.S. children and 90 percent of black youngsters will be on food stamps at some point during childhood, and fallout from the current recession could push those numbers even higher, researchers say. The estimate comes from an analysis of 30 years of national data, and it bolsters other recent evidence on the pervasiveness of youngsters at economic risk. It suggests that almost everyone knows a family who has received food stamps, or will in the future, said lead author Mark Rank, a sociologist at Washington University in St. Louis.

PORTLAND, Ore. - With many families suddenly struggling to feed themselves, the big warehouse clubs known for king-size packages of steak and jumbo boxes of Cheerios are increasingly competing with grocery stores for the 36 million Americans now on food stamps. Costco Wholesale Corp. said Wednesday that it would start accepting food stamps at its warehouse clubs nationwide after testing them at stores in New York. That is a big about-face for a chain that has catered to the bargain-hunting affluent with its gourmet foods, and a reflection of the fact food-stamp use has hit new highs.

Note: Video included. SNIPPET: "UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - Twelve local people are under federal indictment for allegedly defrauding the government out of more than $2 million in a food stamp scheme." SNIPPET: "The following, all of Utica, have been indicted: *Muteea Alfahdd, 41 *Najeeb Abdullah, 44 *Hamoud Yafal, 60 *Ali Hamoud Yafal, 21 *Yaser Saet, 27 *Bakri Ali Samet, 33 *Setha Samnang, 42 *Rina Samnang, 36 The following four have been indicted, but are still being sought by police. *Nageeb Alghaheim, 24 *Mohamed Alshuja, 30 *Hassan Mohamed Nagi Alshegaa, 23 *Ali Mulhi Abdullah, 36"

Vote of Confidence A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape—and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama. By Gretchen Reynolds A huge black turnout in November 1992 altered Chicago's electoral landscape-and raised a new political star: a 31-year-old lawyer named Barack Obama. In the final, climactic buildup to November's general election, with George Bush gaining ground on Bill Clinton in Illinois and the once-unstoppable campaign of senatorial candidate Carol Moseley Braun embroiled in allegations about her mother's Medicare liability, one of the most important local stories managed to go virtually unreported: The...

Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do? Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon: The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with...

Alamance County, NC— As excitement builds among children and parents for the upcoming new school year, the Alamance County Health Department's WIC Program is also preparing for exciting changes that will take place in the coming weeks. WIC, the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, is changing for the better! Starting in October, the foods available to WIC participants will reflect the diversity of individual and family dietary needs. The new food package is designed to increase the variety of healthy foods in the diets of participants. Additions to the WIC food package include: * Fresh, frozen,...

An economist is saying the recession is over, Goldman Sachs is making money again and the Dow Jones is up almost 5.5% for the year. But Shangrai-La this is not. According to this telling report, middle class folks in Detroit are hungry. That's right -- they don't have enough food: "The food crunch is intensifying, and spreading to people not used to dealing with hunger. As middle class workers lose their jobs, the same folks that used to donate to soup kitchens and pantries have become their fastest growing set of recipients. 'We've seen about a third more people than...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the first time, more than 34 million Americans received food stamps, which help poor people buy groceries, government figures said on Thursday, a sign of the longest and one of the deepest recessions since the Great Depression Enrollment surged by 2 percent to reach a record 34.4 million people, or one in nine Americans, in May, the latest month for which figures are available.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For the first time, more than 34 million Americans received food stamps, which help poor people buy groceries, government figures said on Thursday, a sign of the longest and one of the deepest recessions since the Great Depression Enrollment surged by 2 percent to reach a record 34.4 million people, or one in nine Americans, in May, the latest month for which figures are available. Article Controls email print reprint newsletter comments (58) share del.icio.us Digg It! yahoo Facebook Twitter Reddit rss Yahoo! BuzzIt was the sixth month in a row that enrollment set a record. Every...

... The president's stimulus plan has been aimed primarily at the top of the economy, pumping money into banks and car companies and state and city governments. But it also has put more money into the hands of the poorest Americans by boosting monthly food-stamp allocations. Starting in April, a family of four on food stamps received an average of $80 extra. Money from the program -- officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- percolates quickly through the economy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture calculates that for every $5 of food-stamp spending, there is $9.20 of total economic...

Citing a backlash from customers who complained that they were finding Indian accents hard to understand, Delta Air Lines has dropped the use of Indian call centers to handle sales and reservations. Delta is retaining its call centers in Jamaica and South Africa, which generate far fewer complaints. Under criticism from angry Florida lawmakers, JP Morgan has also announced that it will no longer route food stamp recipient calls to Indian call centers. The company services Florida’s Electronic Benefit Transfer program. The company directed overflow calls from EBT card holders to two Indian call centers. Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, said,...

Welfare rolls, which were slow to rise and actually fell in many states early in the recession, now are climbing across the country for the first time since President Bill Clinton signed legislation pledging "to end welfare as we know it" more than a decade ago. Twenty-three of the 30 largest states, which account for more than 88% of the nation's total population, see welfare caseloads above year-ago levels, according to a survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal and the National Conference of State Legislatures. As more people run out of unemployment compensation, many are turning to welfare as...

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Barack Obama increased unemployment benefits as part of his economic stimulus, he also made some Americans ineligible for hundreds of dollars a month in food stamps. Under the economic recovery plan, laid-off workers have seen a $25 weekly bump in their unemployment checks as part of a broad expansion of benefits for the poor. But the law did not raise the income cap for food stamp eligibility, so the extra money has pushed some people over the limit. Laid-off workers and state officials are only now realizing the quirk, a consequence of pushing a $787...

When President Barack Obama increased unemployment benefits as part of his economic stimulus, he also made some Americans ineligible for hundreds of dollars a month in food stamps. Under the economic recovery plan, laid-off workers have seen a $25 weekly bump in their unemployment checks as part of a broad expansion of benefits for the poor. But the law did not raise the income cap for food stamp eligibility, so the extra money has pushed some people over the limit.

This October, when Costco, the big warehouse chain, opens its first Manhattan store, it will occupy a brand new mall along the East River Drive at 116th Street that has been developed with $55 million in tax-free bonds and grants. The company will be eligible for millions of dollars in tax credits for creating new jobs. But there’s one kind of government money Costco won’t take: food stamps. That policy effectively cuts off more than 30,000 of its immediate neighbors in East Harlem, who receive food stamps. Throughout the city, 1.4 million people got them in April, an increase of...

Evidence for an SSN Card for an Illegal Alien

WASHINGTON – The increased use of ethanol could cost the government up to $900 million for food stamps and child nutrition programs, a congressional report says. Higher use of the corn-based fuel additive accounted for about 10 percent to 15 percent of the rise in food prices between April 2007 and April 2008 .. The CBO said other factors, such as skyrocketing energy costs, had an even greater impact than ethanol on food prices during that period. .. Ethanol's impact on future food prices is uncertain, the report says, because an increased supply of corn has the potential to eventually...

<p>A record 32.2 million people -- one in every 10 Americans -- received food stamps at latest count, the government said on Thursday, a reflection of the recession now in its 16th month. Food stamps are the major U.S. antihunger program and help poor people buy groceries. The average benefit was $112.82 per person in January.</p>

I read an article on Fox News this morning that shows several states considering random drug testing of recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits and welfare. If you think about it, why not? It’s no different that getting drug tested at your place of employment, as pointed on below. “Nobody’s being forced into these assistance programs,” said Craig Blair, a Republican in the West Virginia Legislature who has created a Web site — notwithmytaxdollars.com — that bears a bobble-headed likeness of himself advocating this position. “If so many jobs require random drug tests these days, why not these benefits?” Blair...

To those hurt by the recession but too proud to seek government help, Gov. Ed Rendell says: If not for yourself, do it for your country. He urged people to view food stamps not as welfare, but as economic stimulus. "Think of it this way: If you avail yourself of these sources of government relief, you'll have money to spend in the economy, and that's exactly what we need to reboot the economy," Rendell said Wednesday at Brashear High School in Beechview. His 45-minute address was televised live to gatherings in six other cities. Property owners should take advantage of...

A record 31.8 million Americans received food stamps at the latest count, an increase of 700,000 people in one month with the United States in recession, government figures showed on Thursday. Food stamps, which help poor people buy groceries, are the major U.S. anti-hunger program, forecast to cost at least $51 billion in this fiscal year ending September 30, up $10 billion from fiscal 2008. "A weakened economy means that many more individuals are turning to SNAP/food stamps," said the Food Research and Action Center. Last summer food stamps were renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The average...

Nadya Suleman, mother of 14, was spotted yesterday shopping for video games. 14 Wii controllers will run you $559.96.

Targeting Obesity Alongside Hunger Obama Administration May Look to Tie Food Assistance to Improved Nutrition In many areas where lots of people receive aid, good, nutritious food can be scarce. The District's Ward 8 went nine years without a full-service grocer. By Jane Black Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 24, 2008; Page A02 The worsening economic crunch is causing the tab for food assistance programs to balloon, and with the rising costs has come an intensifying debate over whether -- and how -- the U.S. government can tackle simultaneously the paradoxically linked problems of hunger and obesity. The statistics...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Food stamps, the main U.S. antihunger program which helps the needy buy food, set a record in September as more than 31.5 million Americans used the program -- up 17 percent from a year ago, according to government data. The number of people using food stamps in September surpassed the previous peak of 29.85 million seen in November 2005 when victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma received emergency benefits, said Jean Daniel of the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. September's tally -- the latest month available -- was also boosted by hurricane and flood aid, Daniel...

Students make up a rising percentage of those who apply for benefits The nation's economic downturn appears to be affecting all ages, as even the number of young, single people seeking food stamps is on the rise. With 23,000 Denver residents receiving food stamp benefits, approximately 4,223, or 18 percent, of them are students. Of that number, a growing 22 percent are single adults enrolled in higher education: community college, trade school or university. In 2006, 1,934 students applied for food stamps as the head of the household and in 2007, the number rose to 2,190. Although only up 1...

The U.S. government and a number of states have adjusted eligibility rules so more people can qualify to receive food stamps. Households with incomes from combat pay, retirement accounts or education savings will have an easier time meeting eligibility requirements, USA Today reported Monday. The new rules are part of the 2008 Farm Bill which changed the name of the food stamp program to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. USA Today says SNAP allows states to adjust eligibility rules and more are doing so in the wake of current economic troubles. "People won't have to sink to ground zero to get...

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm this week is doing something millions of her constituents are being forced to do year-round; she's living on food stamps. "She is one of 300 people who are taking a pledge" to eat like a food stamp recipient, including executives of Michigan-based auto giants General Motors, Ford and Chrysler and dozens of legislators, said the state's human services department chief Ismael Ahmed. "It's my second day on 5.87 dollars a day," Ahmed told AFP by telephone. "I've already calculated that I'll be out of bread by Thursday.

I've repeatedly heard the claim that Obama's mother was on food stamps and welfare, but I've never been able to find out the time period that this occurred. It couldn't have been in Hawaii when Obama was a boy since food stamps weren't available in Hawaii at the time. My guess is that it was near the end of her life if indeed she ever was on food stamps and welfare. If I'm right about the time period what was Obama's income during that period? Did he have the $$$ that he could have helped support his mother? I know...

EDINBURG -- Authorities scrambled Friday to figure out how to arrest, incarcerate and prosecute a woman estimated to weigh nearly half a ton who was indicted on capital murder charges earlier this week. Mayra Rosales, 27, has remained under house arrest since she was charged in March with beating her 2-year-old nephew to death. But now that her case has moved into the state court system, law enforcement officials must address a whole new set of logistical problems before it can go to trial.

Like many immigrants, Carmen Cruz of New York is having trouble making ends meet. “Everything is very expensive,” Cruz said, speaking in her native Spanish. “How does one buy or eat anything? Everything is so expensive.” Cruz did not know that she was eligible for food stamps — $80 a month for herself or $200 or more for her family. At a time when the economic downturn is hitting immigrant communities especially hard, food stamps are the first line of defense against hunger for low-income families. But advocates and government officials have long known that legal immigrants are missing out...

Food inflation is hitting everyone - even if don't have to pay for food. According to the July 2 "CBS Evening News," part of its "The Other America" series - a title strangely similar to former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' liberal anti-poverty mantra of "Two Americas" - food stamp recipients are being hit by the rising the cost of food. "With food prices climbing, more and more Americans these days are struggling to feed their families," anchor Katie Couric said. "Nearly 28 million rely on food stamps for an average benefit that comes to only about $24 a week...

OCEANSIDE ---- While they're out of school for summer, students in Oceanside can pick up a free lunch at various school and community sites throughout the city. Through the federal Seamless Summer Feeding Program, Oceanside Unified School District employees are giving out about 1,000 meals a day at 10 different sites to anybody under the age of 18, district officials said. The program was designed to ensure that students, especially those from poor families, get nutritious meals while they're out of school. "During the whole school year, they get good nutritious meal, but in the summer, some of them are...

Food Stamp Recipients Pinched by High Food PricesFood stamp recipients get pinched by high food prices, struggle to feed familiesBy DON BABWIN Associated Press Writer CHICAGO May 16, 2008 (AP) The Associated Press Danielle Brown stands outside a South Side market at midnight, braving the spring chill for her first chance to buy groceries since her food stamps ran out nearly two weeks ago. Lynda Wheeler shops with her daughter, Jaime, 2, shortly after midnight at One Stop Food & Liquors... (AP Photo/Paul Beaty) Lynda Wheeler shops with her daughter, Jaime, 2, shortly after midnight at One Stop Food &...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNNMoney.com) -- For Phyllis Bean, higher food prices mean going hungry so her 4-month-old baby girl can eat. The Washington resident's $280 monthly food stamp allotment doesn't last very long these days, even though she gets a free lunch at a culinary training program at D.C. Central Kitchen. By mid-month, Bean is often reduced to eating canned ravioli and peanut butter and jelly so she can afford to buy milk and baby cereal for McKiya. By month's end, her refrigerator is empty. "When I go to the counter, I have to put some of my food back so...

It’s long been known that family break-up inflicts massive social costs on communities and children. But what about the burden it imposes on the American taxpayer? It’s a proven fact that family dissolution places children at greater risk of poverty, mental and physical illness, juvenile delinquency, abuse, substance abuse, and educational failure. A few years ago Wade Horn, former director of the federal Administration for Children and Families, revealed, “My agency spends $46 billion per year operating 65 different social programs. If one goes down the list of these programs… the need for each is either created or exacerbated...

McALLEN - A woman accused of robbing two banks this month gave investigators a vital clue to her identity Monday, when she passed a threatening note to a teller with her name and address on the back. Investigators believe Maria Garcia, 33, scrawled the hold-up message on the back of a completed food stamp application moments before entering the Capital One Bank branch in downtown McAllen and making off with an undisclosed amount of cash. Officers arrested her less than two hours later by tracking her to the address on the form. They also linked her to a similar robbery...

Cannot be posted due to copyright issues: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-2008-the-great-depression-803095.html

The racial dimension of Barack Obama's electability problem is now apparent, but no prominent Democrat dares discuss it openly. Similarly expect no discussion of the subject in the major media. The white working class vote I am not referring to the ongoing and intense discussion of The Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright is a separate problem for Obama. Whether Obama has been, or will be, permanently weakened by his long and close association with Wright, or has soared above it with his Philadelphia speech, is not the subject of these thoughts. Something much simpler than the answer to that question has...

McCain's love of amnesty will be a key issue. He supported amnesty in 2003 by name, proposed it in 2006 and 2007 without calling it amnesty, and says that anyone who says that he ever supported amnesty is a liar. He has insulted Americans who advocate border security and has cursed at the thought of building a border fence. The presence of Juan Hernandez in the background of the McCain campaign tells us that John McCain is as weak on border security now as he ever was. Dr. Juan Hernandez, a dual citizen of the US and Mexico, and past...

Raleigh — A state audit has found that hundreds of people have used bogus Social Security numbers to obtain food stamps. From July 2002 to last April, 1,906 people were receiving food stamps from the state Department of Social Services based on invalid Social Security numbers, the audit report stated. Another 1,237 food stamp recipients were using the Social Security numbers of dead people, according to the audit. DSS security measures had previously disqualified 5,840 people from the food stamp program after determining they were using phony Social Security numbers, according to the audit. The error rate was much less...

Maine is one of the top four states when it comes to providing federally-funded food stamps to people who qualify. U.S. Department of Agriculture is awarding Maine with a bonus of nearly $684,000, the state Department of Health and Human Services announced today........ http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/017225.html

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., wants to make a point about food stamps. Ellison was to be joined at a news conference in Washington, D.C., Tuesday by Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. They, and others, plan to live for a week on $21 -- the national average for food stamp benefits. Ellison and others planned to announce a weeklong "Food Stamp Challenge." One of the goals is to raise the minimum food stamp benefit. Ellison is the first Muslim elected to Congress. The week that he and Gutow will join the challenge falls...

There has been a void in the Republican presidential race. The party's candidates have spoken about immigration, taxes, social issues and the war in Iraq. Mitt Romney, Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain have also spoken frequently about Ronald Reagan in order to position themselves as the political heirs to the great president. The candidates, however, have overlooked a central idea that animated Mr. Reagan's view of government. That was federalism, the constitutional principle that the federal government's responsibilities are "few and defined" as James Madison put it. Mr. Reagan believed the federal government had grown too big and swallowed up...