Utility shut-offs soar for poor PG&E customers, By David R. Baker, November 20, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “The number of low-income households cut off by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. after they fell behind on their utility bills jumped 75 percent this year, according to a state report released Thursday. For the 12 months that ended in August, 91,393 low-income households lost their utility service, compared with 52,202 in the previous 12-month period. Most soon paid to have service restored. The report, from a division of the California Public Utilities Commission, found that shut-offs increased throughout the state as the recession devastated home finances…”

Computer issues cause Medicaid payment lags, By Patricia Anstett, November 5, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “Dozens of Michigan nursing homes, hospices, dental offices and hospitals have encountered problems with two new state Medicaid computer programs, including payment errors, lengthy reimbursement lags and delays enrolling patients in the Medicaid program. The problems coincide with large increases in people applying for Medicaid, a program that serves 1.8 million low-income Michigan children and adults…”

Eligibility for LIHEAP slashed; 20,000 families may be left out, By Rick Wills, November 2, 2009, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “With Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate at its highest in more than 20 years, fewer low-income residents will be able to receive help paying their heating bills this winter. That is largely because income eligibility for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, was reduced to $33,075 for a family of four - more than $11,000 less than last year’s maximum. At least 20,000 families who received assistance last year could be left in the cold this year because of the lower income limits, said Michael Love, president and CEO of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, a trade association that represents the state’s utility companies…”

• Fuel poverty ‘continues to rise’, October 21, 2009, BBC News: “Up to 4.6 million households in England could be in fuel poverty in 2009, new figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change show. The government has vowed to end fuel poverty in England by 2016. Fuel poverty is defined as those who spend more than 10% of their household income on heating their homes. The projection comes within data that reveals the number fuel-poor households in the UK rose from 3.5 million in 2006 to four million in 2007. The data, based on the latest figures for England and Scotland along with extrapolated estimates for Wales and Northern Ireland, suggest that 16% of all UK households were in fuel poverty in 2007…”
• Households in fuel poverty to hit 4.6m, By Sandra Haurant, October 21, 2009, The Guardian: “The number of households living in fuel poverty in England is likely to reach 4.6 million by the end of the year, figures published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) showed today. A household is said to be “fuel poor” when more than 10% of its income is spent on fuel to maintain an “adequate level of warmth” - usually 21C in the living area and 18C in other rooms. The latest figures show that 3.25 million households in the UK lived in fuel poverty in 2007, an increase of half a million compared with 2006. In England 2.8 million households were fuel poor in 2007, up from 2.4 million in 2006. The DECC said the jump in fuel poverty was caused by an increase in fuel prices, which continued to soar in 2008…”

• Welfare ‘hybrid’ to emerge, By Angela Mapes Turner, October 18, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “More than $360 million into the state’s largest private contract, Indiana faces uncertainty about how it will rebuild from its failed welfare privatization attempt and what it has actually gained. The state’s Family and Social Services Administration also faces the task of replacing its dinosaur of a core computer system down the road - a cost that had not even been included in the IBM contract. Gov. Mitch Daniels announced Thursday he was firing IBM Corp. as administrator of the state’s food stamp, Medicaid and welfare benefits and that the state would assume IBM’s role at the helm of a ‘hybrid’ system…”
• Daniels, GOP could face welfare deal fallout, By Mike Smith (AP), Chicago Tribune: “Democrats to Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels: We told you so. The gloating was to be expected after Daniels announced Thursday that he was canceling a contract with IBM Corp. to automate applications for food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare benefits. The project introduced in the spring of 2007 had been fraught with complaints of lost documents, delays in approving benefits, lengthy call hold times and severed eligibility for Medicaid and food stamps. Federal officials had closely scrutinized the state’s performance, and the state had put IBM on notice that it needed to improve…”
• Welfare critics await new system, By Eric Bradner, October 18, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “A human touch could have eased the anguish of Omega Young, an Evansville woman who fought for six months with Indiana’s welfare agency to have her Medicaid benefits reinstated at the same time she was fighting a losing battle with cancer. No one took note in time to help Young, whose benefits were approved March 2, the day after she died. But her struggle was vindicated when Gov. Mitch Daniels decided last week to cancel the state’s 10-year, $1.34 billion contract with IBM Corp. that created the modernized system she tried so hard to navigate, said her sister, Christal Bell. ‘She needed all the help she could get,’ Bell said. ‘But there are other people who need help, too.’ Now, thanks in part to Young’s story, others who face hardships such as disease, poverty and disability might get the personal assistance they need from Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration under a newly-announced hybrid system…”
• Firms downplay local impact of canceled IBM contract, By Dave Stafford, October 18, 2009, Anderson Herald Bulletin: “Companies in Anderson and Daleville that expanded two years ago when IBM won a contract to privatize Indiana’s welfare system downplayed local effects after the state canceled the deal. An IBM call center in Daleville and an Affiliated Computer Services facility at the Flagship Enterprise Park had expanded as part of an IBM pledge to create 1,000 jobs in exchange for getting a $1.34 billion contract to handle welfare applications and provide other services for the Family and Social Services Administration…”

• The lesson to learn from failure of IBM contract, Editorial, October 21, 2009, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel: “Gov. Mitch Daniels’ cancellation of IBM’s $1.37 billion contract to deliver welfare services will undoubtedly win praise from Republicans (he realized a mistake and corrected it) and criticism from Democrats (there was evidence to end it a lot sooner). There is some truth in both those positions, but the governor should be given credit for the honesty of his announcement. Daniels said it wasn’t a lack of resources that made the experiment in privatization fail. Nor was it a lack of effort…”
• Much to learn from state’s FSSA mistake, Editorial, October 18, 2009, South Bend Tribune: “There have been many concerns voiced throughout Gov. Mitch Daniels’ experiment in privatizing the Family and Social Services Administration intake process. Undoubtedly there will be many more in the months to come. But now, as Indiana pulls the plug on its $1.34 billion, 10-year contract with IBM to deliver crucial welfare services, the top priority must be the transition back to a state-operated system…”
• Welcome move to fix privatization of welfare, Editorial, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Last Thursday, after almost three years of missteps that interrupted vital services for some, Gov. Mitch Daniels admitted the welfare-privatization concept didn’t work and canceled the contract with IBM. The governor deserves credit for owning up to the failure. His persistence in getting problems fixed in the Bureau of Motor Vehicles suggests he will now redouble efforts to improve services provided through the Family and Social Services Administration. We wish him only success…”
• Back to the state for personal touch, Editorial, October 17, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Large, troubling questions remain about the fate of a public assistance system that affects one in every six Hoosiers. How will the transition back to the state from a failed privatization effort be accomplished? Will IBM express its ire over losing a $1.34 billion contract in the form of legal action, or a threat of legal action serious enough to prompt an expensive buyout? How long will it take, and at what cost, to clean up a mess that has cost countless elderly, poor, sick and disabled people vital services and imperils countless more?…”
• Local lawmakers got FSSA job done, By Mizell Stewart III, October 18, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ move to cancel the contract that privatized many of the intake functions of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration is a victory for benefit recipients and Southwestern Indiana lawmakers alike. The move was a disaster by nearly every account, notably because it turned much of the work of determining benefit eligibility over to call centers and Web sites. That’s fine for doing business in most instances, but it didn’t work at all for the poor, frail and elderly…”
• Cancelled contract, Editorial, October 18, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels was right to cancel the state’s deal with IBM Corp., for privatizing the welfare application process. But let us not kid ourselves: the problems will not be corrected overnight. Daniels will be returning welfare application operations to the control of the Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration. However, remember that before privatization, applications were the responsibility of the state agency and it was a mess, fraught with errors and fraud. It was that way for years before Daniels came to office. It was that poor record of performance that led Daniels, an advocate of privatizing government services and assets, to seek a business-run welfare program. Unfortunately, that private system came with its own flaws…”

Indiana axes welfare contract with IBM, By Mary Beth Schneider and Bill Ruthhart, October 16, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Calling it an endeavor that ‘just did not work,’ Gov. Mitch Daniels on Thursday canceled Indiana’s 10-year, $1.34 billion contract with IBM to deliver welfare services. In its place, Indiana will develop a hybrid structure that keeps some elements of the modernized welfare system, Daniels said, while restoring the best of the past system: personal contact. The decision marked a major setback for the governor, who has championed efforts to privatize some areas of state government, and a rare admission that — this time — his critics were right. As he announced his decision, Daniels thanked those who had raised concerns that the system resulted in too many errors and too many people waiting too long for help they desperately needed. ‘In many respects, they were right,’ he said. ‘The system wasn’t working, and it wasn’t getting better, despite best efforts.’ Critics say it was a lesson that could have been learned long before Thursday’s announcement. Texas, for instance, pulled the plug in 2007 on a similar welfare privatization effort after thousands of people lost benefits they deserved. Critics here had argued that Texas had tried to do too much too fast, and said a slower rollout in Indiana would ease in the new system. The state’s rollout, though, was never completed…”

• Feds nix welfare data use in hiring, By Ken Kusmer (AP), October 14, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Indiana’s human services agency considered letting a private contractor use the state’s welfare database to screen potential employees until federal food stamp officials told them it was inappropriate and not allowed. Documents provided to The Associated Press under an open records request show that Affiliated Computer Services Inc. sought permission from the Family and Social Services Administration to use the state’s welfare data to screen job applicants for fraud or other welfare program violations. The U.S. Food and Nutrition Service, which oversees the food stamp program, objected when it learned from FSSA in July that the state agency might share the data…”
• Fixing the welfare fix, By Eric Bradner, October 13, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Critics of Indiana’s $1.34 billion contract to modernize the state’s human services agency on Tuesday called for a new approach that puts a premium on face-to-face interaction between welfare applicants and caseworkers. Pressure is mounting on Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration to either produce positive results or move toward altering or canceling the 10-year contract with a team led by Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp. and Dallas-based Affiliated Computer Services Inc. However, with the new system implemented in Indiana Family and Social Services Administration offices in 59 of Indiana’s 92 counties, changing paths would be a messy process. Those who have called for the contract to be canceled have left one major question unanswered: What happens next?…”
• State cancels IBM/FSSA contract, By Eric Bradner, October 13, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Saying the idea looked good on paper but did not work in practice, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels announced this afternoon that the state has abandoned its attempts to modernize its welfare delivery system. Daniels said he informed Armonk, N,Y.-based IBM Corp., the lead vendor in the 10-year, $1.34 billion deal, that he is canceling the contract. ‘It was a concept that looked user-friendly and efficient on paper, but sometimes those things don’t work when you take them out on the road,’ Daniels said. However neither Daniels nor officials in Indiana’s FSSA were able to provide many details…”

Tough choices for feds giving out broadband money, By Joelle Tessler (AP), October 11, 2009, Washington Post: “The federal government will soon start handing out the first $4 billion from a pot of stimulus funds intended to spread high-speed Internet connections to more rural communities, poor neighborhoods and other pockets of the country clamoring for better access. The challenge is that the government has received $28 billion in requests. So the reviewers at the Commerce and Agriculture Departments who will award the broadband money must make hard choices. The 2,200 applications each envision something different - more fiber-optic lines, for example, or computer labs or municipal wireless networks. But they all promise that their proposals will create jobs and bring new economic opportunities…”

Some job seekers work without Net, By Steve Giegerich, October 9, 2009, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Two job-hunters, two stories. Laid-off marketing executive Michael Clutts fires up his computer and begins his online search for a new job at 8 each morning, a routine that continues - with interruptions to attend to meals and family matters - well into the night. It’s a process Gail Spencer knows well, ever since losing her job as a concierge at a downtown hotel last year after 21 years in the hospitality industry. But in order to avail herself of the online functions Clutts accesses countless times a day from the comfort of his home in Ballwin, Spencer must travel from her residence in Hanley Hills to libraries and career development centers that provide computers and Internet hook-ups…”

• In rural Africa, a fertile market for mobile phones, By Sarah Arnquist, October 5, 2009, New York Times: “Laban Rutagumirwa charges his mobile phone with a car battery because his dirt-floor home deep in the remote, banana-covered hills of western Uganda does not have electricity. When the battery dies, Mr. Rutagumirwa, a 50-year-old farmer, walks just over four miles to charge it so he can maintain his position as communication hub and banana-disease tracker for his rural neighbors…”

• Special report on telecoms in emerging markets, By Tom Standage, September 24, 2009, The Economist:
  • Mobile marvels: “Bouncing a great-grandchild on her knee in her house in Bukaweka, a village in eastern Uganda, Mary Wokhwale gestures at her surroundings. ‘My mobile phone has been my livelihood,’ she says. In 2003 Ms Wokhwale was one of the first 15 women in Uganda to become ‘village phone’ operators. Thanks to a microfinance loan, she was able to buy a basic handset and a roof-mounted antenna to ensure a reliable signal…”
  • Eureka moments: “How did a device that just a few years ago was regarded as a yuppie plaything become, in the words of Jeffrey Sachs, a development guru at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, ‘the single most transformative tool for development’? A number of things came together to make mobile phones more accessible to poorer people and trigger the rapid growth of the past few years. The spread of mobile phones in the developed world, together with the emergence of two main technology standards, led to economies of scale in both network equipment and handsets…”
  • The mother of invention: “Providing mobile services in a developing country is very different from doing the same thing in the developed world. For a start, there may not be a reliable electrical grid, or indeed any grid at all, to power the network’s base stations, which may therefore need to run on diesel for some or all of the time. That in turn means they must be regularly resupplied with fuel, which can be tricky in remote areas. Then there is the challenge of running the network profitably…”
  • Up, up and Huawei: “In the 1960s, when Japan emerged as a manufacturing exporter, it soon became a byword for low cost and low quality. Much fun was made of unreliable Japanese watches and cheap Japanese cars. But quality improved and Japan became a powerful force in electronics, carmaking and other industries. Today Toyota is held up as a model of efficient manufacturing, and Japanese firms lead the world in clean technology, carmaking and consumer electronics. China hopes to make a similar transition…”
  • Beyond voice: “In a field just outside the village of Bumwambu in eastern Uganda, surrounded by banana trees and cassava, with chickens running between the mud-brick houses, Frederick Makawa is thinking about tomatoes. It is late June and the rainy season is coming to an end. Tomatoes are a valuable cash crop during the coming dry season and Mr Makawa wants to plant his seedlings as soon as possible. But Uganda’s traditional growing seasons are shifting, so he is worried about droughts or flash floods that could destroy his crop. Michael Gizamba, a local village-phone operator, offers to help using Farmer’s Friend, an agricultural-information service. He sends a text message to ask for a seasonal weather forecast for the region. Before long a reply arrives to say that normal, moderate rainfall is expected during July. Mr Makawa decides to plant his tomatoes…”
  • Finishing the job: “How long will it be before everyone on Earth has a mobile phone? ‘It looks highly likely that global mobile cellular teledensity will surpass 100% within the next decade, and probably earlier,’ says Hamadoun Touré, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union, a body set up in 1865 to regulate international telecoms. Mobile teledensity (the number of phones per 100 people) went above 100% in western Europe in 2007, and many developing countries have since followed suit. South Africa passed the 100% mark in January, and Ghana reached 98% in the same month. Kenya and Tanzania are expected to get to 100% by 2013…”

Heating aid could fall short of needs, By Judy Keen, October 4, 2009, USA Today: “Record numbers of low-income people and senior citizens who can’t afford to heat their homes are applying for help, say some local agencies that distribute aid and struggle with the recession’s fallout. ‘The overwhelming need we have (for heating aid) far surpasses any of our resources,’ says Dave Dexheimer of Douglass Community Services in Hannibal, Mo., which is getting 25% more calls than a year ago. It has $60,000 in state heating funds, down from $100,000 last year…”

Conditions placed on completing Indiana’s welfare rollout, By Ken Kusmer (AP), September 29, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “A federal food stamp administrator has told Indiana’s human services chief that his staff must be consulted before the state rolls out its troubled welfare automation program to additional regions. Regional Administrator Ollice Holden of the U.S. Food and Nutrition Service also said in the letter that his staff has ongoing concerns about the food stamp program, now known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…”

• State’s social services suffering, panel learns, By Mary Beth Schneider, September 25, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Too many errors and delays and too little face-to-face contact with clients are hampering Indiana’s privatized welfare delivery service, the state acknowledged Friday to lawmakers. Despite those persistent problems, Anne Murphy, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, told the bipartisan State Budget Committee that no decision has been made on whether to end the $1.34 billion, 10-year contract that Indiana has with an IBM-led group to manage food stamps, Medicaid and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program…”
• Indiana welfare problems linger, budget committee told, By Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, September 25, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Significant problems remain in Indiana’s welfare application system, and no decision has been made about whether to sever a controversial contract with the private firm handling the work, a key state official told lawmakers Friday. Some parts of the system have improved since Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered the private consortium - which includes IBM and Affiliated Computer Services - to fix problems or face losing a 10-year, $1.3 billion contract, said Anne Murphy, secretary of the state Family and Social Services Administration…”
• Political, geographical lines divide welfare solutions, By Eric Bradner, September 26, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration is working to improve its human services agency’s troubled attempt to modernize, and state lawmakers are grappling with how and where their pressure can be applied best. But geographic and political differences have made it impossible for all parties to agree on an approach that is suitable statewide. In some pockets, such as Evansville, frustration with the new system has reached a boiling point. Some lawmakers say the project is hopeless and the best choice is to cut losses and abandon it. In other places, such as Indianapolis, the changes have not been rolled out yet. In other areas, the new system is working relatively well, according to Indiana Family and Social Services Administration officials…”

• Fending off the chill, Editorial, September 3, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Wholesale changes this year in Pennsylvania’s annual heating-aid program seem designed to make every needy homeowner and utility stakeholder hot under the collar. Maybe it’s part of some secret plan to keep low-income families warm this winter? The changes make little sense, otherwise. No wonder they’ve sparked widespread criticism from utility company officials and low-income advocates alike…”
• Heating aid in a LIHEAP of trouble, By Signe Wilkinson, September 3, 2009, Philadelphia Daily News: “The Annual cold war starts early this year. We’re referring to the annual battle for people to get help with their heating bills through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Usually, it’s not until October or November that we begin hearing signs of worry that the state-administered LIHEAP, managed by the Department of Public Welfare, will not be able to cover as many needy people as the year before. The federal government establishes the appropriation for LIHEAP, and sends money to the states. Most states also add their own funds to the program, though Pennsylvania is an exception…”

• Indiana weatherization set to begin, By Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, August 27, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Indiana can start spending nearly $132 million in federal stimulus funds to help low-income Hoosiers weatherize their homes after the U.S. Department of Energy approved the state’s plan for the money. The new money provides an 11-fold increase in the size of the state’s weatherization program. The approval announced Thursday means more than 30,000 households could get new energy savings equipment, including programmable thermostats, insulation, new furnaces or hot water heaters…”
• Indiana gets stimulus green light, By Eric Bradner, August 27, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “The federal government has green-lighted Indiana’s plan to spend $131 million in stimulus money to equip homes of low-income Hoosiers with energy-saving furnaces and insulation. The decision ends a monthslong snag that had frustrated state officials and put the project behind schedule…”

Flu could hit poor schools hardest, By Kristi Jourdan, August 25, 2009, Washington Times: “If the flu outbreak this fall is as widespread as some experts fear, students who stay home should use Web conferencing and podcasting technologies to try to stay current - a federal recommendation that could be too advanced for some poorer school districts to take advantage of. The six-page guidelines issued by the Department of Education on Monday suggest closed-circuit television, DVDs and Internet usage, among other technology, to get information to students in anticipation of high absentee rates and temporary school shutdowns because of a flu outbreak. But some families in inner cities like the District, where the announcement was made, might lack the means to follow the suggested federal guidelines…”

Proposal shortens heating aid program, By Elwin Green, August 25, 2009, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “A federally-funded program that assists homeowners with their heating bills will run for a shorter period of time this winter, reducing the availability of benefits by six weeks, according to a proposal by the state agency that administers the program. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or Liheap, administered by the Department of Public Welfare, offers two types of assistance: the cash component and the crisis component. In years past, both were available from early November through the end of March…”

• State gets $56 million for weatherization from stimulus, By Beccy Tanner, August 26, 2009, Wichita Eagle: “Bernice Jones made history Tuesday when her house on East Second Street became the first in Kansas to be weatherized using federal stimulus funds. Workers were installing a furnace, central air-conditioning unit and refrigerator in her 1920s-era bungalow Tuesday as she ushered in the Kansas governor and other state and city officials…”
• Pa. gets weatherization funds held up by impasse, By Tom Infield, August 26, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “After months of delay caused by state inaction, the federal government finally was able to announce yesterday that it had awarded $101 million in stimulus funds to Pennsylvania for home weatherization. E. Craig Heim, in charge of weatherization for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, said that while Pennsylvania was “unquestionably behind” many other states in launching its program, “I think we’ll be able to catch up.” The funds from the U.S. Department of Energy, together with some earlier money that has been on hold, comprise nearly half of the $253 million that the state expects to receive to weatherize the homes of nearly 30,000 low-income Pennsylvanians over the next 21/2 years. The funds represent a sevenfold expansion of the decades-old Weatherization Assistance Program…”

Hoosiers may find it harder to pay for heat, By Nicole Blake, August 19, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Thousands of Hoosiers already struggling to make ends meet may find less money available to help them pay their winter heating bills. A pilot program offered by Citizens Gas and other utilities that helped more than 50,000 people last year is in jeopardy. The Universal Service Fund program, which expired in May, needs approval by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission before it can be restarted…”

Companies face heat on welfare modernization, By Eric Bradner, August 12, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Southwestern Indiana lawmakers, hospitals and social services agencies ramped up the pressure on the companies hired to modernize Indiana’s welfare agency during a closed-door meeting earlier this week. Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Anne Murphy brought officials from IBM Corp. and Affiliated Computer Services Inc., the companies working on a 10-year contract that now tops $1.3 billion, to Tuesday’s meeting so they could hear from those who are affected by the problems plaguing the new system…”

States weigh in as feds prepare to spend billions on broadband for remote areas, By Daniel C. Vock, August 12, 2009, Stateline.org: “With the state’s help, an increasing number of residents in rural Washington County in Down East Maine are using high-speed Internet connections to run their blueberry farms and lobster fleets, educate their children and communicate with doctors from remote areas. But it’s a large county and its 34,000 residents are spread out: At twice the size of Rhode Island, it takes four hours to cross in a car, and yet there’s only one traffic light. That means it’s slow going for local Internet provider, Axiom Technologies, which is working town by town to set up wireless access points, sometimes serving as few as 12 households per connection…”

Glitches mar Indiana’s effort to outsource social services, By William M. Bulkeley, August 12, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Processing of welfare, food-stamp and Medicaid claims in Indiana was plagued with difficulties when the state outsourced the system to International Business Machines Corp. and Affiliated Computer Services Inc. two years ago. The problem hasn’t been resolved since then. ‘There’s a myriad of problems,’ said Anne Murphy, secretary of the state’s Family and Social Services Administration. ‘Error rates are too high. We’re not processing claims within federal guidelines.’ Naomi Mundy, a 59-year-old homemaker, said it took 15 months after she developed melanoma to get Indiana to pay her health-care benefits under Medicaid because of outsourcing snafus…”

• Glitch leaves 7K NV food stamp recipients without, By Sandra Chereb (AP), August 5, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “State welfare officials were scrambling Wednesday to contact about 7,000 food assistance recipients who didn’t receive a 45-day notice before their benefits expired July 31. A June 16 computer glitch is blamed, and officials were trying to contact participants to re-evaluate their continued eligibility under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…”
• Computer error caused rent woes for public housing tenants, By Manny Fernandez, August 5, 2009, New York Times: “The city’s public housing agency overcharged hundreds of welfare families because of a rent calculation error and took many of them to court, threatening them with eviction for failing to pay the higher amount. The computer problem at the agency, the New York City Housing Authority, is in the process of being corrected and none of the tenants were evicted, officials said. But the error, which began last September and continued until May, had serious legal, financial and personal consequences for many low-income families…”

• State welfare contract ballooning, By Ken Kusmer (AP), August 4, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Indiana will spend nearly $180 million more than it initially planned to privatize and automate many of its welfare functions just two years into a closely watched 10-year deal that is one of the most lucrative contracts in state history. The cost of the $1.16 billion contract Gov. Mitch Daniels signed in late 2006 has risen 15 percent, to $1.34 billion, under changes made to the agreement with a group led by Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp…”
• Welfare woes, Editorial, August 4, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “Call us naive, but we thought the cost of adjustments to Indiana’s privatized welfare application system would be on the backs of the contractors - not the taxpayers - given that the businesses had agreed in late 2006 to give the state a modern, automated operation for $1.16 billion. But now we learn that the privatized system is costing Indiana an additional $180 million, some of it to fix the basic program, which has come under harsh criticism from advocates for welfare clients…”

Weatherization: Feds leave state out in the cold, By Mary Beth Schneider, August 2, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Homeowners in some states, including Ohio, already are getting new furnaces and their houses insulated, thanks to federal stimulus dollars. But not in Indiana. No homeowner here has received a penny from Indiana’s $131 million share of federal weatherization funds. The federal government has only ‘conditionally’ awarded Indiana its funding — meaning none of it, including nearly $53 million this year, can be put to use…”

• Joy, skepticism greet IBM’s plan, By Angela Mapes Turner, July 24, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “State lawmakers and social service providers welcome Indiana’s extensive plan to correct its failing welfare system.  But they aren’t convinced it provides the right guidance for private welfare vendor IBM Corp. to resolve widespread problems…”
• IBM to add humanity to welfare, By Ken Kusmer (AP), July 24, 2009, Evansville Courier and Press: “IBM Corp.’s 362-page plan to fix problems with Indiana’s privately run welfare system calls for providing more face-to-face help and no longer “forcing clients to self-service channels” such as telephone call centers and online applications.  The plan, obtained by The Associated Press, also describes myriad mechanical and human errors such as an automatic call distributor that “inappropriately fails” about twice a month, losing all telephone calls in progress and infighting within IBM’s coalition of partners…”

• Food stamps, now paperless, are getting easier to use at farmers’ markets, By Katie Zezima, July 19, 2009, New York Times: “Natasha Smilansky comes to the farmers’ market here each Thursday because she enjoys ripe tomatoes and cucumbers. Now there is the added benefit of using food stamps for her purchases. ‘It helps me a lot,’ said Ms. Smilansky, 53, who is on disability. ‘I like the freshness of the vegetables here. I spend all year waiting for the market.’  The use of food stamps at farmers’ markets has been authorized for some time. But the program has been limited because the federal government in 2004 replaced the traditional paper food stamp coupons with debit cards that were processed through electronic benefit transfer terminals…”
• Food stamp users get fresh food options, By Catherine Jun, July 21, 2009, Detroit News: “On her visits to the local farmers market over the past two years, Denise Hicks, who receives food stamps, could spare only a few dollars for vegetables and a cookie each for her two children.  That changed this summer.  Starting in June, the Northwest Detroit Farmers Market began accepting Electronic Benefit Transfer cards. On a recent visit, Hicks swiped her card and bought a modest bagful of farm fresh groceries: a seven-grain loaf of bread, reduced-fat hamburgers, salmon, baby cucumbers and organic tomatoes…”

• Stimulus Watch: Neediest areas not first for money, By April Castro (AP), July 20, 2009, Washington Post: “Under the Obama administration’s economic stimulus plan, needy communities were supposed to be first in line for money to rebuild highways and jump start the economy. It hasn’t worked out that way.  The rules required that states give priority to counties considered “economically distressed.” Yet less than half the federal highway money announced so far is directed toward those high-unemployment, low-income areas, according to an Associated Press analysis of more than $16 billion in spending announced by the U.S. Transportation Department…”
• Pa. trails N.J., others in plans for stimulus spending, By Tom Infield, July 20 , 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Five months into the federal stimulus program, Pennsylvania is lagging behind its neighbor New Jersey and other states in preparing for a deluge of money to do energy-saving home improvements for low-income families.  The state has received about $25 million of $253 million it expects to get over three years for the massive expansion of its Weatherization Assistance Program, which dates to the ’70s…”

Privatizing welfare means more fall through cracks, critics say, By Will Higgins, July 20, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Omega Young lay in her hospital bed, her body wracked with disease. The cancer that started in her ovaries had spread to her kidneys, breast and liver. She’d lost her appetite to the chemotherapy; she weighed 98 pounds. Then came more bad news: After a botched round of telephone tag with welfare officials, the state of Indiana pulled the plug on her Medicaid benefits and food stamps…”

Schwarzenegger proposes private, centralized system for public assistance eligibility, By Michael Rothfield, July 16, 2009, Los Angeles Times: A proposal that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been pushing in closed-door budget talks would tie the state, with little oversight or review, into a multibillion-dollar computer system likely to be run by the private sector to enroll low-income Californians in welfare, food stamp and healthcare programs.  A draft of the plan obtained by The Times shows that Schwarzenegger would replace existing county-run processes, which use four different computer systems across the state, with a single one. Administration officials say the new Internet-based system would allow them to save money on overhead and spend more on recipients…”

• 13-week unemployment benefits extension held up by U.S. rules, tech glitch, Texas agency says, By Robert T. Garrett, July 15, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “As many as 82,000 unemployed Texans won’t receive an immediate 13-week extension of benefits as they expected because of federal rules and state computer problems, the Texas Workforce Commission said Tuesday…”
• In Texas, thousands face a lengthy gap in unemployment benefits, By Dave Montgomery, July 14, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Up to 15,000 jobless Texans are expected to exhaust their unemployment benefits by the end of July and could be without benefits for more than a month and possibly longer as state officials struggle to implement a 13-week extension…”
• 15,000 Texans to lose checks, By Peggy Fikac, July 14, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “In a sign of lingering hardship, more than 15,000 Texans will lose their unemployment checks at the end of the month because they have exhausted their benefits after 59 weeks without a job…”

• Thousands ‘facing fuel poverty’, July 12, 2009, BBC News: Rising unemployment and higher energy prices are likely to push hundreds of thousands more homes into fuel poverty, a key government advisory body says. The Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG) says about 4m households in England are already in fuel poverty, spending more than 10% of their income on energy…”
• Damning report condemns lack of action on fuel poverty, By Lauren Thompson, July 13, 2009, The Times: “Rising unemployment, high energy bills and the cost of “green” measures could push hundreds of thousands more households into fuel poverty, a Government advisor warned today. There are already 4 million households in fuel poverty – where one tenth or more of income goes on gas and electricity bills – compared with 1.2 million in 2004. Almost half of fuel-poor households are pensioners…”

• Medicaid problems swell in new system, By Angela Mapes Turner, July 12, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Indiana’s nearly 2-year-old experiment with a privatized welfare system appears to be failing. The backlog of pending Medicaid applications has ballooned in counties where welfare is handled by private contractors. From May 2008 - after the most recent wave of counties joined the new system - to December 2008, pending cases increased 86 percent. In counties working under the old system, the backlog increased only 16 percent, according to a Journal Gazette analysis of state data…”
• No Plan B for welfare contractors, By Ken Kusmer (AP), July 12, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Indiana welfare officials considering canceling the state’s privately run welfare system have no backup plan in place, and critics say it will be hard to undo the privatization of 1,500 state case workers more than two years ago…”
• State prods contractor into action, By Eric Bradner, Evansville Courier and Press: “Gov. Mitch Daniels’ administration is using a carrot-and-stick strategy to try to pressure contractors hired to modernize the state’s welfare agency into producing better results…”
• The welfare privatization debacle, Editorial, July 12, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “Gov. Mitch Daniels likes to say that he inherited ‘the worst welfare system in the nation.’ But two extensive reviews of data by The Journal Gazette suggest it has grown worse under his watch. The latest shows staggering increases in Medicaid application backlogs in the counties where the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration turned eligibility processing over to IBM Corp…”

• $1B privatization deal at risk, By Will Higgins, July 8, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Nearly two years into the privatization of Indiana’s welfare system, state officials are considering scrapping it amid widespread concerns that include the mishandling of nearly one in five food-stamp cases.  State welfare officials acknowledge that in about three-quarters of those cases, eligible Hoosiers are being denied aid they should be receiving…”
• AP Exclusive: IBM on notice over Ind. welfare deal, By Ken Kusmer (AP), July 7, 2009, Idaho Statesman: “Indiana’s privately run welfare project has so many problems that the state could start taking steps to cancel its $1.16 billion contract with IBM as early as this fall, a state official said Tuesday.  Secretary Anne Murphy of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration said she asked lead vendor IBM Corp. to submit a ‘corrective action plan’ as part of a process that could result in canceling the 10-year deal if promised improvements don’t occur by the end of September…”

What happens when you don’t own the land, By Chuck Shuford, July 3, 2009, Daily Yonder: “The national broadcast media rarely grapples with the interplay of concentrated wealth and power and the functioning of democracy when it attempts to explain the widespread, stubborn poverty in rural Central Appalachia. ..”