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Full carts abandoned at Chicago grocery stores were a common sight as shoppers in Illinois and many other states have been unable to use their food stamp debit cards. More than two million people in Illinois use a so-called Link Card. That's one in six residents in the state. So when suddenly the system went down Saturday morning many customers just walked out of the store. "Now I'm going to have to unfortunately do the fast food thing now. No cooking tonight," said Link Card user Rob Lee. "That's how people starve," said shopper Sean Wright. "People starve if they...

People in California, New Jersey and 15 other states found themselves temporarily unable to use their food stamp debit-style cards on Saturday, after a routine test of backup systems by the vendor Xerox resulted in a system failure. Illinois residents began reporting problems with their cards — known as LINK — on Saturday morning, said Januari Smith, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Human Services. “It really is a bad situation, but they are working to get it fixed as soon as possible,” she said.

VIRGINIA - The Electronic Benefit Transfer system malfunctioned across Virginia and several other states Saturday, but service was restored by around 10 p.m. "It's just frustrating how I've been to several different stores right in around to get groceries for my family," said Jessica Perkins, an EBT customer. Perkins has five kids she was grocery shopping for Saturday. Perkins went to Farm Fresh, Save-A-Lot, and Food Lion before figuring out she could use her EBT card at WalMart. Perkins said she could only use the $50 at a time. "I just thank God that I have some type of provisions,"...

BANGOR — The Electronic Benefits Transfer system that allows welfare recipients to buy groceries and other necessities experienced issues on Saturday. In some cases, people weren’t able to buy groceries. The website for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the EBT system, is offline because of the government shutdown.

ATLANTIC CITY - If you tried to use your electronic benefits transfer card Saturday, and was having problems, you're not alone. "I feel its going to leave a huge dent in these families because there is people who have 3 or 4 children," the Atlantic City woman said. "I think its horrible that people aren't able to get their food stamps. There are families out there that depends on these things, to feed their families," explains an Atlantic City man. As for store owners like Mohammed Ali of the 7–11 in Atlantic City, he says he has already lost hundreds...

Sheree Powell, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, started receiving calls around 11:30 a.m. about problems with the state's card systems. More than 600,000 Oklahomans receive SNAP benefits, and money is dispersed to the cards on the first, fifth and 10th days of every month, so the disruption came at what is typically a high-use time for the cards. Oklahoma also runs a separate debit card system for other state benefits like unemployment payments. Those cards can be used at ATMs to withdraw cash. Powell said Xerox administers both the EBT and debit card systems, and they...

The government benefit cards that allow people on public assistance to buy food went down Saturday, impacting welfare recipients in Los Angeles and other cities across the country. Distressed shoppers began calling and emailing the KTLA 5 newsroom Saturday morning to report the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system wasn’t working. A Food 4 Less store in Hollywood confirmed that the EBT system went down at about 7 a.m. A Stater Bros. Market in Downey also said the system was not working. The California and federal government EBT websites remained out of service as of Saturday afternoon.

DETROIT - Michigan residents in a federal food program are being denied purchases with their debit-style cards because of technical problems. A woman from Fenton, who asked not to be identified, spoke with WWJ about her experience. “I’ve been in two different stores and in both stores, I was told that food stamps could not be authorized so I was not able to make a purchase. I’m absolutely outraged and furious,” she said. “Today is Saturday, my only day off to go grocery shopping for my children and I’m very, very angry that this has happened.” Officials said they’re not...

The number of Erie County residents in the food stamp program is the highest its been in 20 years. One in 5 people, or 20.5 percent, in the county are on food stamps. In all, more than 57,000 Erie County residents are on food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. About 38,000 city of Erie residents, or nearly 37 percent, are on food stamps, a 24 percent increase from 2009.

Kelly Ishaq, manager of Broadway Food Center on Broadway Street in Toledo, said the system hasn’t allowed customers to use their cards to buy food. A message comes up saying “unavailable,” he said. Brian O'Connor, a central Toledo resident, said he ran into a similar problem at the VIP food market, Bancroft Street and Ashland Avenue, and that other residents in the apartments where he lives were "panicking" about their food-stamp cards not working.

Customers at BJ’s Wholesale Club, Hannaford supermarkets and other grocery stores in Maine abandoned their carts at registers and headed home empty-handed earlier Saturday. Lou Craig, the owner of College Carry-Out in Augusta, said he had to turn away about 50 customers Saturday because the system wouldn’t accept their EBT cards. “They just won’t go through,” he said. “It just prints out ‘declined.’ ” Craig said its a particularly busy time for those using food stamps, because their cards are usually reloaded with cash value from the 10th through the 14th. Jason Quincannon, acting store manager at Hannaford on Forest...

Will Obama Stop the Music This November? The current “shutdown” of 17% of the federal government has primed America for chaos with constant left-wing rhetoric and news media reports couched in apocalyptic terms such as crisis, brink, catastrophe, hostage, arsonist and terrorist. But a catastrophe is useful to a would-be tyrant only as long as it can be blamed on a hated enemy. In 1933 Hitler’s agents burned the Reichstag, not just to sow fear and confusion, but primarily in order to charge his Communist enemies with treason as an excuse to obliterate them. The German “mainstream media” dutifully parroted...

In my work, I see more people who want to focus on losing weight rather than gaining weight, so I don’t often stop to think about the problem of hunger. It’s easy to overlook the fact that hunger is still a big problem in in the United States. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2011 about 50 million Americans were living with food insecurity — 33.5 million adults and 16.7 million children. What is food insecurity? It’s the inability to provide adequate food on a consistent basis. For adults, not getting enough food can have harmful...

A federal grand jury indicted nine Baltimore retail storeowners for a food stamp fraud scheme that netted at least $7 million over the last three years. According to officials, the storeowners would allegedly debit food stamp cards for cash instead of food and split the proceeds. The food stamp scheme has been going on since 2010, officials said during a Sept. 17 news conference. U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein, Special Agent in Charge William G. Squires Jr. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General and Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of...

From the art of selling excess food stamp dollars at the end of each month, to JP Morgan profiting from the program as a line of business, Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger introduces the following micro-documentary on the rise of our food stamp nation. Produced by Future Money Trends, this video covers it all, exposing the dismal and far-reaching consequences to society.[Disturbing 12.5 minute documentary video in article]

Senator Susan Collins say a proposal in Congress to slash food stamps funding would hurt Mainers who need it most. House lawmakers passed a bill Thursday that would make around $4 billion dollars in cuts each year to the almost $80 billion dollar-a-year food stamp program. Maine is among the top five states with the biggest share of people on food stamps at 18-percent. Collins says the program needs to be reformed but the proposed cuts are too deep. “We have a lot of elderly people living in rural Maine who really depend on food stamps in order to get...

Washington, DC – Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement today: “House Republicans’ vote to deny nutrition assistance to hungry, low-income Americans is shameful. The Senate will never pass such hateful, punitive legislation. “Under the leadership of Chairwoman Stabenow, the Senate forged a bipartisan compromise that saves $23 billion without taking food out of the mouths of hungry Americans. Whenever the House gets serious about passing real legislation, they should follow the lead set by Chairwoman Stabenow.”

The House is expected to consider a bill this week that would cut food stamps by an estimated $4 billion annually and allow states to put broad new work requirements in place for recipients. The legislation also would end government waivers that have allowed able-bodied adults who don’t have dependents to receive food stamps indefinitely. The vote comes after the House defeated a wide-ranging farm bill in June because many conservatives believed the cuts to the nearly $80 billion-a-year food stamp program weren’t high enough. That bill would have made around $2 billion a year in cuts. …

NEWARK— The owner of four dollar stores in Essex and Union counties pleaded guilty today to defrauding the food stamp program out of $5 million by letting customers use the federal subsidy to pay for electronic devices and other non-food items, prosecutors say.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Food stamp fraud is a “significant problem” in Rhode Island. That was the message U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha sent Thursday when he announced that nine people are facing criminal charges for allegedly defrauding the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program out of more than $3 million. During a two-year undercover investigation, Neronha said eight Rhode Island residents and one New York man were found to be illegally allowing food stamp recipients to use their EBT cards to obtain cash in exchange for a large surcharge at five Providence convenience stores. ... Six people were charged by...