• Indiana trims Medicaid payments to hospitals, By Mary Beth Schneider, November 10, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Hospitals would get 5 percent less money from the state for caring for Medicaid patients under cuts announced today by the state. Gov. Mitch Daniels last week called for emergency budget cuts as the state’s revenue continues to fall short of projections. State tax collections already are a half-billion dollars short of what was collected at this time last year. To make the cuts, Daniels said state employees would not be getting pay raises, and asked agencies to come up with cuts, including the Family and Social Services Administration which administers Medicaid in Indiana…”
• Pain of budget cuts is hitting home, By Mary Beth Schneider, November 11, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “State budget cuts will begin to take a tangible toll on Hoosiers, from the pay in prison guards’ pockets to possibly the level of service people receive at hospitals. Faced with withering revenues, Gov. Mitch Daniels last week ordered state agencies to slash their expenses by 10 percent this fiscal year, on top of 10 percent cuts made last year. On Tuesday, the Family and Social Services Administration announced that it will reach some of its goal by cutting the amount it pays hospitals for caring for Medicaid patients by 5 percent beginning Jan. 1, a move that will save the state $10.6 million in this fiscal year…”
• Ind. budget cuts include $34 million in social services, By Ken Kusmer (AP), November 10, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Indiana’s human services agency said Tuesday it will slice $34 million from its budget by paying hospitals less to treat Medicaid patients, renegotiating contracts with most of its vendors, moving some offices and leaving about 400 jobs unfilled. However, the Family and Social Services administration will not reduce its Medicaid payments to doctors or cut ‘vital services’ to the young, elderly, disabled and needy Indiana residents who receive social safety-net benefits, agency officials said…”

• Food stamp workers work longer hours and get less training, By Corrie MacLaggan, October 29, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “As Texas begins hiring hundreds of food stamp workers to help erase an application backlog that has left families waiting months for aid, no one expects the problems to disappear any time soon. The new state workers are entering a system in crisis. They’ll have far fewer experienced colleagues than they would have five years ago. Training is shorter. Mentoring has mostly fallen by the wayside. And employees are working an average of 13 hours of overtime per week - which, in some cases, is mandatory…”
• Judge orders Indiana to improve Food Stamps processing, By Ken Kusmer (AP), October 28, 2009, Louisville Courier-Journal: “A federal judge has ordered Indiana’s partially privatized welfare intake system to speed up decisions on food stamp applications, but the state has a year to meet its first target. U.S. District Judge Robert Miller issued a preliminary injunction last week in a class-action lawsuit covering every food stamp applicant in Indiana over the past 19 months. The order represents the latest setback to one of nation’s most ambitious welfare privatization efforts and came just days after Gov. Mitch Daniels fired vendor IBM Corp. from its $1.34 billion contract to lead the project…”

• 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…”

More Hoosiers feeling the pain of poverty, By Bill Ruthhart, October 5, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Indiana is one of only eight states that last year had a statistically significant increase in its poverty rate — likely yet another troubling effect of devastating layoffs in the auto and RV industries, experts said. The percentage of Hoosiers living in poverty increased to 13.1 percent in 2008, up from 12.3 percent the year before, according to the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. That survey estimates that more than 807,000 Hoosiers were living in poverty in 2008, up from 757,000 in 2007. The numbers are particularly disturbing for black and Hispanic Hoosiers. In 2007, 25.5 percent of blacks and 22.2 percent of Hispanics lived below the poverty line, compared with 10.4 percent of whites. But this year’s survey shows those numbers have climbed to 28.1 percent of blacks and 23.7 percent of Hispanics. The percentage of whites rose more slowly, to 11 percent. Experts who work with the homeless and help distribute food stamps say Indiana’s increased poverty rates reflect what they’ve seen since last year: More Hoosiers are struggling to make ends meet and feed their families…”

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…”

• Voter ID decision resurrects debate, By Bill Ruthhart and Jon Murray, September 18, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “The Indiana Court of Appeals’ rejection of the state’s controversial voter ID law Thursday has reignited a political firestorm over its merits and left Gov. Mitch Daniels accusing judges of playing politics. The ruling fanned the flames on a debate that has raged since 2005, when Indiana became the first state to require voters to show government-issued photo identification at the polls. Republicans have long held that the law strengthens the electoral process and prevents fraud, while Democrats have insisted that it disenfranchises elderly, disabled and poor voters…”
• Indiana court strikes down voter ID law, By John Schwartz, September 17, 2009, New York Times: “An Indiana law requiring voters to show identification, declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court just last year, was struck down Thursday by a state appellate court. The state court said the law violated the Indiana Constitution by not treating all voters equally. The legislature passed the voter ID law in 2005, and it was challenged in federal court. The Supreme Court upheld it in April 2008, but that July the League of Women Voters brought a new suit in state court…”
• Indiana court strikes down state’s voter ID law, By Charles Wilson and Mike Smith (AP), September 17, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “The state Court of Appeals on Thursday struck down an Indiana law requiring government-issued photo identification for voters, overturning on state constitutional grounds a strict law that previously had been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said he would appeal the ruling. ‘The state’s long-held view is that the Voter ID law is constitutional, and we will vigorously defend the statute in arguing that position before the Indiana Supreme Court,’ he said…”

Healthy Indiana Plan to reopen to childless adults, By Ken Kusmer (AP), September 1, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Indiana wants to enroll more childless adults in its state-funded medical savings account program and will reopen enrollment for them in the future, a state consultant told lawmakers Tuesday. The federal government, when it approved the Healthy Indiana Plan, said the state could enroll no more than 34,000 childless adults, consultant Seema Verma told the Medicaid Oversight Commission. However, HIP has proven most popular among such non-caretaker adults, and the Family and Social Services Administration closed the program to that group in March. At the end of July, they made up more than 26,000 of the nearly 46,000 people enrolled, Verma said. The program, partially funded by the Medicaid program for needy and disabled people and a state cigarette tax increase, was designed to enroll a total of 130,000 people, mostly parents…”

• 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…”

Debit cards reward Medicaid patients for care, By Tom Murphy (AP), August 31, 2009, Washington Post: “Some Indiana Medicaid patients can now earn money to spend on health care simply by visiting the doctor or seeking routine preventive care. Managed Health Services on Monday announced a new debit card program that rewards patients for making regular trips to the doctor, taking their babies in for checkups and getting screened for several conditions. Participants can earn between $10 and $20 on their cards for each visit or screening. They can then use the funds to buy health-related items like cough syrup or thermometers…”

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…”

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…”

• Rural Indiana is seeing high rates of uninsured, By Daniel Lee, August 4, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Rural counties as well as areas in manufacturing-heavy Northern Indiana have some of the state’s highest rates of residents lacking health coverage, according to county-by-county data on the uninsured released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Marion County and its surrounding suburban counties, however, all have uninsured rates under the state’s average of 14.3 percent…”
• Tulsa-area uninsured rates rank low in state, By Kim Archer, August 4, 2009, Tulsa World: “The percentage of uninsured residents in Tulsa County and Oklahoma County are among the lowest statewide, but still well above the 15 percent national average, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Monday. The state average is 21 percent…”
• Census: 1 in 6 Utahns in ‘06 lacked health plan, By James Thalman and Lee Davidson, August 3, 2009, Deseret News: “As Congress debates health-care reform, the U.S. Census Bureau released estimates Monday that one of every six Utahns under age 65 had no health insurance in 2006. And that was before the recession began. Compiling such data from numerous studies and sources takes time and is routinely delayed a few years. Some more up-to-date estimates from newer annual census surveys, which just added questions about whether people are insured, are expected later this year…”
• Fifth of state residents lack health insurance, By Brian Hicks, August 4, 2009, Charleston Post and Courier: “U.S. Census estimates show that nearly 20 percent of South Carolina residents had no health insurance in 2006, but some experts say the recession likely has pushed that figure closer to one in every four people today. That would put the number of Palmetto State residents without health insurance at more than 1 million. While the nation debates a plan to provide health insurance to all Americans - and many argue over the impact that would have on existing medical care - the Census Bureau study shows that many people don’t have existing medical insurance to begin with…”

• 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…”

• Holes in the safety net: Medicaid falls short just as some need it most, By Tom Curry and JoNel Aleccia, July 27, 2009, MSNBC.com: “Doctors at the Maple City Health Care Center, a neighborhood clinic where the toddler’s family receives most care, couldn’t diagnose the problem. The child needed to see a specialist, but no local dermatologist would agree to accept Medicaid, the government’s safety net plan. Instead, Antonia Mejorado, 33, has to drive nearly two hours to see a dermatologist willing to treat her daughter’s potentially serious illness…”
• Colorado Medicaid list swells to record, By Tim Hoover, July 28, 2009, Denver Post: “Colorado had a 14 percent spike in Medicaid enrollment in the budget year that ended in June, a record-setting rate that capped a year with the largest-ever number of people in the health insurance program. As of June 30, there were 467,556 Coloradans on Medicaid. That’s 79,488, or 20.5 percent, more than in the same month a year before. The June figure represented the highest total in the 40 years Colorado has been participating in the state and federally funded program, which covers low-income pregnant women, children, the elderly and the disabled. Nearly 10 percent of the state’s residents are now enrolled in Medicaid…”

• 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…”

• To minimum-wage workers, this raise makes a difference, By Dana Hunsinger, July 23, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Will Farrington folds clothes, helps customers find just the right jeans and toils daily in the world of retail. For his work at Aeropostale, he makes $7 an hour. But Friday, his pay will jump when the federal minimum wage rises to $7.25 an hour from $6.55. For Farrington, that means $2 more a day for eight hours of work. But he says it’s nothing to scoff at…”
• Minimum wage goes up tomorrow, but pay is heading down in South Florida, By Harriet Johnson Brackey, July 23, 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Caroline Bartha’s last employer in Fort Lauderdale reduced staff, from about 80 a few years ago to eight. Next came the pay cut, followed by hours being pared back. Then workers were told they’d have to take two weeks off without pay. ‘Morale was dragging on the floor,’ she said. ‘Because of the pay cuts, I didn’t feel they were treating the employees the way they should.’ And in a final blow, Bartha’s company extended the unpaid leave to three weeks. A full paycheck is no longer a certainty for many South Florida workers…”

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…”

• 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…”

• State is sued over voter registration, By Amanda Hamon, July 10, 2009, Indianapolis Star: “Voters’ rights groups filed a lawsuit Thursday charging that Indiana fails to provide public assistance applicants the chance to register to vote, violating federal law.  The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, names as defendants eight state officials, including Anne Murphy, secretary of the state Family and Social Services Administration, and Thomas Wheeler, chairman of the Indiana Election Commission…”
• Groups say states violating voter registration law, By Nedra Pickler (AP), July 9, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “States across the country are violating part of the federal “motor voter” law requiring voter registration help for low-income residents, according to a coalition of advocacy groups trying to force change through the courts. The groups filed lawsuits in Indiana and New Mexico on Thursday on the heels of a successful settlement in Missouri. They say the problem is not isolated in those few states but widespread across the nation, and they are trying to help other states follow the law without litigation…”

• Food stamp use in R.I. tops 100,000, By Ted Nesi, July 8, 2009, Providence Business News: “The number of Rhode Islanders receiving food stamps was up 19.3 percent in April compared with a year earlier, topping 100,000 for the first time, according to new government figures…”
• Lean times mean heavy food stamp increase, By Ivy Farguheson, July 6, 2009, Muncie Star Press: “Leslie Barnhouse hopes that one day she won’t need to receive food stamps, but today is not the day to make that break — for her or thousands of other aid recipients…”
• Detroit’s food banks strain to serve middle class, By Alex P. Kellogg, July 10, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Battered by massive layoffs, home foreclosures and nearly a decade of economic decline, more residents of Detroit’s middle-class suburbs are having a tough time putting food on the table. State agencies and nonprofit groups that serve the poor in southeast Michigan say they are seeing an unprecedented rise in demand for food assistance across the region. They point to a pronounced increase in those seeking aid for the first time, often families unaccustomed to depending on food-aid programs. And they expect the numbers to grow as Michigan’s jobs picture worsens…”

• $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…”