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In an effort to stop fraud in the use of welfare benefits more states are insisting that federal benefits, including food- stamp cards, include a photo identification.

Usually on The Lookout I share my views on at least five stories concerning Black folks in the media but this week, all anybody is talking about is Donald Sterling — the hopefully soon-to-be former owner of the L.A. Clippers. So, I figured, my column this week had to focus on what we should really ‘Lookout’ for in Sterling’s comments. As you know NBA commissioner Adam Silver threw the book at the longest tenured owner in franchise history Tuesday following TMZ’s release of a racist recording where — like a modern-day plantation owner — Sterling can be heard talking about...

Maine is starting to issue welfare benefit cards with photos on them despite a request from the federal government to wait. ... the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked Maine to delay its plan, saying that it risks a loss of federal funding or litigation if it violates regulations in the program. But DHHS said it will move forward with its plan designed to combat fraud and abuse in the program.

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is still a cause célèbre for the right-wing, drawing praise from Tea Party activists, Republican politicians, and conservative media outlets. Kevin Williamson of National Review called him a “dissident” like Mohandas Gandhi or Henry David Thoreau, Nevada Sen. Dean Heller hailed him as a “patriot,” and Sean Hannity has praised him as somebody that’s “willing to fight.” This was bad enough as an instance of conservative recklessness when Bundy was just a lawless rancher backed by armed militamen. It’s even worse now that we know that Bundy is full of racist bones. Here he is, as...

Aslam Khawaja, 48, of Iranistan Avenue, the owner of the SK Grocery at 856 Fairfield Ave., was charged Wednesday with first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. From March through December 2013 Khawaja paid cash to 128 of his customers who are on the state's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for their SNAP benefits at 50 cents to a dollar of benefit, the arrest affidavit states. ... Khawaja is a Pakistani national. In December he was shot during a robbery at his store and at that time asked detectives to file...

Chicago Public School parents received robocalls last week encouraging them to sign their children up for food stamps and free or low-cost health insurance. “Currently there are 68,000 children in the Chicago Public Schools that are not enrolled in free or low-cost health insurance and SNAP also knows as food stamps,” the recording, obtained by The Daily Caller, says. “Your child may be one of them. To find out more about your eligibility call the Children and Family Benefits Unit at 773-553-KIDS.” “Or visit your child’s school and ask the clerk for a Children and Family Benefits Unit flier,” the...

The Guilford County Department of Social Services (DSS) scandal has left a mountain of questions in its wake as to how it came about, and now county officials investigating the matter are finally starting to get some answers. **SNIP** One Guilford County DSS employee told the Rhino Times this week that the problems in the department go very deep and this latest crisis is just one manifestation of those issues. “No management manages,” the employee wrote in an email. “No policy is completely followed. People are authorized benefits that are not thoroughly evaluated. Workers have to keep authorizing clients that...

Here's a statstic that, taken by itself, doesn't really say much. More American are recieving government assistance for food via the SNAP program (formerly known as food stamps) than there are women working full time. CNS: In the average month of 2012, according to the Department of Agriculture, there were 46,609,000 people participating in the food stamp program (formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). That contrasts with the 44,059,000 women who worked full-time, year-round in 2012, according to the Census Bureau’s report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States. For each woman who worked...

People participating in the food stamp program outnumbered the women who worked full-time, year-round in the United States in 2012, according to data from the Department of Agriculture and the Census Bureau. In the average month of 2012, according to the Department of Agriculture, there were 46,609,000 people participating in the food stamp program (formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). That contrasts with the 44,059,000 women who worked full-time, year-round in 2012, according to the Census Bureau’s report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States. For each woman who worked full-time, year-round in 2012,...

The saga of a surfing, lobster-eating food stamp recipient continued on "Hannity" as the 29-year-old refused Sean's assistance in finding a paying job. You may remember Jason Greenslate from his interview with Bill O'Reilly's producer Jesse Watters. Greenslate was first captured on camera by Fox News while purchasing lobster with taxpayer-funded food stamps.

A south Louisiana lingerie store has posted on its front door to indicate it accepts most credit cards, including the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card. Kiss My Lingerie, in Gonzales, sells adult specialty items. The store moved into the Magnolia Shopping Center on South Burnside Avenue a few years ago. However, accepting the EBT payment is something that happened eight months ago, according to the owner. The owner went on to say the store accepts every form of payment and does not discriminate against customers. A woman who works near the store and asked not to be identified said in...

What does that even mean? That some shall-remain-unnamed Republican colleague literally told her, presumably when asked why he supported the one percent budget cut to the federal food stamp program recently passed in the farm bill or why he did not support extending unemployment benefits or something, that his entire party’s policy platform is based off of its collective and utter indifference to the plight of families in poverty? …Why do I feel skeptical? Via RCP:(VIDEO-AT-LINK) "I asked a Republican friend why his party remains so opposed to extending the vital lifelines for struggling families and really hungry children. This...

On Tuesday, Jon Stewart attempted to "slay" arguments regarding food stamp fraud on The Daily Show. In the video, Stewart spoke about the supposed hypocrisy of conservatives criticizing food stamp usage using a collection of Fox News videos. When taken at face value, the comments may actually seem quite hypocritical. However, Stewart misses the real point: some items that can be purchased with SNAP ("food stamps") completely lack nutritional value, or are "luxury" foods like lobsters, steak, and organic salmon that don't really present an economically-friendly meal choice for someone who has trouble paying for food without government assistance. Also,...

Three people were charged Wednesday in connection to an extensive welfare fraud scheme. The scheme involved using EBT cards to purchase products in the Twin Cities and then ship them overseas for sale in Africa. According to the Ramsey County Attorney's Office, 39-year-old Noni Shanita Snider of Eden Prairie was charged with one count of wrongfully obtaining public assistance and one count conspiracy to commit a felony; 38-year-old Walter Carr Cooper of Plymouth was charged with one count of wrongfully obtaining public assistance and one count conspiracy to commit a felony; and 40-year-old Nyla Jean Newburgh of Minneapolis was charged...

Last week, as Ukrainian emigre- turned-tech tycoon Jan Koum prepared to cash a multibillion-dollar check from Facebook — acquirer of his startup “WhatsApp” — Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich was checking out of his Gatsby-esque estate where he’d cached his stolen plunder. That the two Ukrainians derived their riches under diametrically opposed systems — free enterprise versus banana republic — illustrates why all income inequalities are not created equal. Most don’t resent the rich — only the undeservedly rich — as a recent Venezuelan protest sign conveyed: “These Castro-Chavistas speak like Marx, govern like Stalin, and live like Rockefeller, while the...

I don’t think pot is covered by food stamp cards, but by the time the left gets done with Colorado, it probably will be. During the first month of Colorado’s experiment with legal marijuana, welfare beneficiaries withdrew thousands of dollars in public-assistance cash from ATMs at weed shops, according to records obtained by National Review Online.At least 64 times, public-assistance benefits were accessed at businesses selling marijuana. A total of $5,475 in public benefits was withdrawn at ATMs in establishments that sell pot.The amounts withdrawn ranged from $20 to $400, averaging $85.55, according to the transaction records. In Colorado, the...

Louisiana’s social services department says it stripped food stamps from six people who deliberately overspent their monthly benefits when the electronic service was down in October. The Department of Children and Family Services said Monday it also is working to disqualify another 25 food stamp recipients. Several Louisiana retailers allowed food stamp recipients to make unlimited purchases on Oct. 12, when the electronic card system was down and balances couldn’t be checked. DCFS says some took advantage of the computer snafu and spent more than their available benefits. The department says it is pursuing 500 people who misspent $315,000. No...

The nation’s newest billionaire is a rags-to-riches success story who escaped communist Ukraine as a teen and lived on food stamps in the United States before hitting it big with a messaging app that has become the hottest thing in social media. Meet Jan Koum, the 37-year-old college dropout who, with his partner and mentor, Brian Acton, just sold their startup, WhatsApp, to Facebook for $19 billion in cash and stock. Koum is now worth $6.8 billion. It’s a long way from the government-assisted, two-bedroom apartment in Mountain View, Calif., where he came of age with his mom, and even...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)DENVER — Colorado welfare recipients are using ATMs located inside marijuana retail shops to withdraw cash. The money was given to them by taxpayers to help their families survive, but an exclusive Fox31 Denver investigation found some cash benefits most likely going toward marijuana purchases. FOX31 Denver asked the Colorado Department of Human Services for its “Quest card” database of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cash transactions for the month of January, 2014. That is the first month in which Colorado marijuana dispensaries were regulated and open for recreational sales. The FOX31 Denver investigative team matched the addresses of EBT cash...

President Obama was in Michigan last week to sign a 10-year, $1 trillion farm bill. While much of the debate has centered around the spending on food stamps, buried in the 1,000-page plan are many other provisions that are indefensibly bad policy. While some are praising, and others complaining, about slightly rolling back spending on food stamps and eliminating some of the direct payments to "farmers" (who did not actually farm), the bill goes far beyond that. This bill continues special subsidy deals to farmers in every area in the country — from corn and beans to rice and peanuts...