• Food stamp frustration is valid, state audit report says, By Corrie MacLaggan, March 30, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Applying for food stamps in Texas can be quite a chore, according to a new state auditor’s report. Need to ask a basic question? Forget the phone. Workers often don’t have time to answer questions by phone and their voice mailboxes tend to be full, the report says. Instead, applicants ‘make unnecessary trips to a local office, in which they sometimes sit for hours just to ask a question or submit a document,’ says the report released Tuesday by State Auditor John Keel. ‘Crowded lobbies, long waits, and delays in eligibility determinations clearly resulted in frustrated clients,’ the report said. The report describes an inefficient system in which 80 percent of cases are kept on paper and a lack of experienced workers is contributing to problems processing applications accurately and within the 30 days required by the federal government. It recommends using technology such as automated kiosks and allowing applicants to check the status of cases online, an option the state now makes available only to certain applicants…”
• State auditor questions social services agency’s no-bid deal with ex-colleague to fix welfare problems, By Robert T. Garrett, March 31, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “State Auditor John Keel has questioned why state social services officials awarded work to a former colleague without seeking other bids, when his offer to curtail processing errors is good for only one-fifth of Texas’ 3.3 million food-stamp recipients. Keel also chided Health and Human Services Commission officials for seeking help last summer from former deputy commissioner Gregg Phillips’ company, though they ignored for nearly two years a similar offer by a Plano firm already on contract. Earlier this month, The Dallas Morning News reported that Phillips, who played a major role in the state’s botched privatization of eligibility screening for assistance programs, is making money trying to help Texas fix the problems that resulted…”
• Human Services to lay off 228 workers, By Mary Vorsino, March 30, 2010, Honolulu Advertiser: “The state Department of Human Services will lay off nearly half of its 517 workers who process applications for government benefits and will shut down 31 eligibility offices statewide under a cost-cutting plan set to go into effect June 30. The plan, which has been strongly opposed by advocates for the poor and several lawmakers, is expected to save about $8 million and DHS officials say it will actually speed up wait times by allowing people to apply on-line and over the phone, congregating workers in two main offices and streamlining workloads. The plan comes at a time when DHS is seeing increases in requests for Medicaid, cash assistance, food stamps and child care subsidies as families struggle to make ends meet. The increase in applications has meant significantly longer backlogs in processing requests for help…”
• Disputed welfare practices don’t hold up in court, By Jon Murray, March 31, 2010, Indianapolis Star: “When Gov. Mitch Daniels pulled the plug in October on a privatization contract that was the cornerstone of an aggressive welfare services modernization plan, he said it simply didn’t work. But the arrangement’s inefficiency, lost paperwork and wrongly denied benefits weren’t the only problems. A judge has ruled that parts of the modernization push also violated the law. Two recent rulings from a Marion County judge and a third from Clay County delivered a new slap to the state’s welfare services agency over several practices, including the handling of denials for some benefits and appeals for others. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration is forging ahead by testing a new ‘hybrid’ plan in some places. In the meantime, dozens of counties still operate with vestiges of the aborted modernization attempt — and with one of the two disputed practices…”

Texas slow to spend stimulus money on weatherizing homes of poor, elderly, By Randy Lee Loftis, March 31, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Winter has passed, but the state’s pace of spending federal stimulus money to weatherize poor Texans’ homes is just starting to heat up. Under the 2009 federal stimulus bill, Texas received $327 million from the Department of Energy to help armor 33,908 homes of low-income or elderly people against the cold and heat. Texas must spend the money by March 2012 or lose it. A review in December found that in the first four months, the state had spent only $1.8 million and completed work on just seven homes. At a state House committee hearing Tuesday at Dallas City Hall, Texas officials presented numbers showing progress. Work has been finished on an estimated 2,450 homes or apartments and planning has been started on 2,200 more. About $13 million has been spent…”

• Health-care plan to cost state $7B a year unless lawmakers restore cuts, By Howard Fischer, March 23, 2010, Arizona Daily Star: “The new federal health-care plan could cost Arizona $7 billion a year if lawmakers here don’t restore the cuts they made to health-care programs, critics say. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said the scheduled elimination of KidsCare on June 15 would put the state at odds with a provision in the new federal program requiring states to maintain their programs as they are when President Obama signs the bill. She said the threat isn’t simply losing the $3 of federal money for each dollar of state funds for the program that provides nearly free care for the children of the working poor…”
• Repeal of children’s program puts Arizona’s Medicaid funding at risk under health overhaul, By Paul Davenport (AP), March 22, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “A controversial decision by Arizona lawmakers to eliminate a health insurance program for poor children puts it at risk of losing billions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding under the historic health care bill approved by Congress. Arizona last week became the first state to eliminate its Children’s Health Insurance Program, removing an estimated 38,000 kids from the rolls starting in June in a budget-cutting move by Gov. Jan Brewer and the Republican-led Legislature…”
• Health care bill would bring higher state Medicaid costs, By Cy Ryan, March 22, 2010, Las Vegas Sun: “The health bill passed by the House of Representatives Sunday would cost Nevada taxpayers an extra $613 million from 2014-2019, to provide health care to the needy. According to early state estimates, the bill would make an additional 70,000 residents eligible for Medicaid. The state would be mandated to cover another 8,000 individuals who are now eligible but have not applied to be covered by the state health insurance program for the poor. About 209,000 Nevadans are currently covered by Medicaid…”
• Adding to Medicaid rolls won’t be easy, Texas officials say, By Corrie MacLaggan and Tim Eaton, March 22, 2010, Austin American Statesman: “As Texas considers how to add 2 million people to Medicaid and CHIP over 10 years as part of the federal health care legislation heading to President Barack Obama, state health officials say that won’t be easy. The same enrollment system that is already struggling to enroll Texans in food stamps as quickly as the federal government requires would need to be ramped up soon to prepare for additions to Medicaid and CHIP that would start in 2014. Health reform is a ‘hurricane heading our way in terms of what it would do’ to the enrollment system, said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Commission…”

Number of minimum-wage earners in Texas surges, By Scott Nishimura, March 11, 2010, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “The number of Texans earning minimum wage surged in 2009, after the wage increased to $7.25 from $6.55, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday. Last year, 474,000 Texans earned minimum wage or below, up 200,000 over the year, the bureau said. Those workers accounted for 8.5 percent of hourly wage earners in Texas…”

Almost 25% of children in Bexar live in poverty, By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje, February 13, 2010, San Antonio Express-News: “Almost a quarter of the children in Bexar County lived in poverty and lacked health insurance in 2008, according to a new study on poverty in Texas. And while the numbers dropped slightly compared with a similar study the year before, this still means roughly one in four children struggled with the byproducts of poverty: poor school performance, health woes, hunger and circumscribed futures. ‘Decades of belt-tightening have left us with more poor, uninsured and hungry children than almost every other state,’ said Frances Deviney, director of Texas KIDS COUNT. A poor economy in 2009 means the dismal outlook likely stretched to even more children, Deviney added…”

• House may take Medicaid funds to help with budget, By Deborah Yetter, February 9, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “House leaders are proposing a daring budget maneuver that would strip $227 million in General Fund money from the state’s Medicaid program for the next budget year in hopes that the federal government will approve additional stimulus funds for the program starting in 2011. The federal stimulus money, which has helped keep Kentucky’s $5.4 billion plan in the black, expires Dec. 31, the midpoint of the budget year. Advocates Tuesday were stunned to learn that the House is considering taking state money from Medicaid - with no guarantee Congress will provide extra money for the health plan, which covers the poor and disabled…”
• Medicaid fees may be trimmed to help balance Texas budget, By Robert T. Garrett, February 10, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Doctors, dentists and hospitals would have their Medicaid fees trimmed by at least 1 percent under possible budget reductions offered today by state Health and Human Services Commissioner Tom Suehs. When treating adults, the caregivers would take a 2 percent hit, as would nursing homes, group homes for the mentally disabled and NorthSTAR, which provides mental-health services to some 400,000 low-income residents of Dallas and six nearby counties…”
• Medicaid cuts may affect care in Oklahoma, By Julie Bisbee, February 12, 2010, The Oklahoman: “Budget cuts at the agency that administers the state’s Medicaid program could make it more difficult for patients to get the medical care they need, members of the state’s medical association said Thursday.Cuts to Medicaid reimbursements approved by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority on Thursday will mean doctors get paid less for providing care to people enrolled in SoonerCare. Doctors that provide care to SoonerCare patients will see their reimbursement rates cut by 6.75 percent beginning April 1. Nearly 700,000 people are enrolled in the SoonerCare health care program each month. More than half of those enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program are children…”
• Prenatal care restored for some women in Nebraska, By Mark Andersen, February 10, 2010, Lincoln Journal Star: “Some pregnant legal residents should ignore a recent notice saying Nebraska Medicaid will not cover their prenatal care. New letters going out soon will say that, in fact, Medicaid will cover their care, state Medicaid Director Vivianne Chaumont said Wednesday. Not all pregnant women who got the first notice will get the second one restoring coverage. Notably, no second notices will be delivered to undocumented women, whose coverage of prenatal care will be ending. The issue relates to state efforts to comply with federal guidelines about when an unborn child can be counted in determining Medicaid eligibility…”

• U.S. food stamp official: State could be aiding more Texans, By Corrie MacLaggan, January 12, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Texas could be providing food stamps to 650,000 more people and could increase the amount of federal money it receives for the program each year from $4 billion to $5 billion if the state increased its participation rate to the national average, according to President Barack Obama’s top food stamp official. But Texas officials, who are struggling with a strained application system, say increasing participation is not their goal…”
• Official: Food-stamp application flubs hurt hungry Texas families, By Robert T. Garrett, January 13, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Texas’ botched experiment with privatization of welfare application screening has caused “a five-year slide” in how fast and accurately the state handles food stamp applications, the federal government’s top food and nutrition official says. Now, the problems are punishing middle-class Texans who’ve recently lost jobs and are seeking government help - many, for the first time, says U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon…”
• Official: Texas has worst-ranked food stamp program, By Gary Scharrer, January 12, 2010, Houston Chronicle: “Texas has the worst performing food stamp program in the nation, the federal director for food assistance told state officials here Tuesday. It ranks last among the 50 states and U.S. territories in processing food stamp applications and also does a poor job getting eligible low-income people to apply, said Kevin Concannon, a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary, in an earlier meeting with reporters. And because Texas does not even come close to the national average in enrolling those eligible, grocery retailers like H-E-B and Randalls are missing out on nearly $1 billion a year in food sales, he said…”

• Schools see more minority, poor kids, By Gary Scharrer and Ericka Mellon, January 2, 2010, San Antonio Express-News: “Almost six in 10 Texas public schoolchildren are from low-income families, marking a troubling spike in poverty over the past decade, a state report shows. The increase coincides with a significant jump in the number of Hispanic students, while fewer Anglo students were enrolled last year than 10 years ago, according to the study by the Texas Education Agency…”
• How school districts help families with less, By Kerry Lester, December 22, 2009, Daily Herald: “Melissa Buenik knows that if students are hungry, it’s much harder for them to learn. So, the Mundelein High School social worker helps teachers identify teens who might not be getting enough to eat at home. ‘We look for observable behavior in class. Agitation, sleepiness, little things like that,’ she said. ‘Once we ask, kids are pretty quick to respond and tell us, ‘Yeah, my family is having financial trouble right now…’”
• High numbers of Shasta County school kids living in poverty, By Amanda Winters, December 20, 2009, Redding Record Searchlight: “Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows a high rate of school-aged children living in poverty in Shasta County and school officials aren’t surprised. ‘There’s not a lot of employment here,’ said Merle Stolz, superintendent of Indian Springs School District, where the Census Bureau estimates 31 percent of children live in poverty. Stolz said the Big Bend school’s participation in the free and reduced-price lunch program is near 100 percent. During the 2008-2009 school year, 11 of the school’s 14 students were enrolled in the program…”
• Students cope with poverty, By Iricka Berlinger, December 21, 2009, Tallahassee Democrat: “Brittany White is angry. She is angry that she has to live at HOPE Community, a six-month transitional housing program for individuals and families experiencing homelessness, where she shares a tiny, cramped room with her mother and younger sister, Yolanda. She is angry at her mom that they can’t afford new clothes - or anything new for that matter. She is angry because she doesn’t like feeling different from her classmates…”

• Need for heat aid in Minnesota higher this year, By Maria Elena Baca, December 21, 2009, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “This winter, Art Swanson is thankful to be part of a group he’d just as soon have avoided. The Anoka County resident represents the newest trend among the more than 125,000 Minnesotans who have applied for federal heating assistance since Oct. 1 (the start of the fiscal year): At 50, he’s a first-time customer. He was laid off in January from his job as a union glazier, installing windows and doors mostly in new commercial buildings, and work this year has been inconsistent at best. Statewide, the number of applicants to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is up 8 percent from this time last year, and 19.5 percent from December 2007. Administrators point to a growing number of families dealing with unemployment or underemployment for the first time…”
• Texas agency slow to spend stimulus funds to weatherize homes, By James Drew, December 20, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “The state received millions of federal dollars from the economic-stimulus package to help poor Texans cut their energy bills, but by the end of last month, just seven homes had been weather-treated under the program. The state has spent $1.8 million of $163 million available over the past four months, with most of it going to administrative costs, such as the salaries of state workers. The weatherization program was a key element of the federal effort to revive the economy, billed as a quick way to create jobs, save energy and cut utility bills. In Texas, the task has been heaped onto a midsized agency that must figure how to hand out millions more in federal funds to local agencies and governments, but do it carefully enough to avoid wasting money…”

Feds to states: Don’t privatize food stamps, By Corrie MacLaggan, December 1, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “Six years after Texas embarked on an ambitious social services outsourcing project that hit major problems, the federal agency in charge of food stamps is warning states against such efforts. ‘These projects encountered severe problems in meeting critical performance standards and many eligible (food stamp) applicants have suffered as a result,’ says a Nov. 20 letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the states. ‘We do not support furtherance of such projects, and believe that they put public funds and our clientele at risk.’ The warning comes as the food stamp program is experiencing a recession-related surge across the country - and as Texas is negotiating a new contract with a private company that is already handling some aspects of enrollment. State officials said they don’t expect the contract to be affected. The message from federal officials to the states: We know these are tough times, but privatization isn’t the answer…”

• Food stamp participation hits 11% in R.I., By Ted Nesi, November 13, 2009, Providence Business News: “More than 11 percent of Rhode Island residents were receiving food stamps in August, according to new government figures. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said 116,252 Rhode Island residents were participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in August. (Congress renamed the food stamp program last year.) That was up from 88,423 a year earlier. Rhode Island tied with Florida and Pennsylvania for the fifth-highest monthly increases in food stamp enrollment, with participation rising 3.1 percent in all three states between July and August. Connecticut was highest with a 4.7 percent increase…”
• Texas eases rule requiring six-month reviews of food-stamp eligibility, By Robert T. Garrett, November 11, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Texas is easing a requirement that most families on food stamps must be interviewed every six months, a step that will relieve pressure on the system for determining who receives state aid, officials said Tuesday. The state Health and Human Services Commission also has reassigned about 140 veteran eligibility workers in Dallas and Houston to join front-line workers in taking applications and renewals. That should reduce applicants’ wait times, officials say…”

• Food stamp woes grow with need, By Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje, November 5, 2009, San Antonio Express-News: “Despite efforts to improve the system, food stamp applicants continue to face long delays in assistance amid a recession-fueled surge in demand. In Bexar County, the state processed 22,463 more applications from March to September than it did in 2008. More than 210,000 people received $26 million in food stamps in October in the county, with the average family getting $322 a month. In the vast majority of households receiving food assistance - 82 percent - at least one person is employed. Many have had to wait six months for their first food stamps…”
• Food stamp workers share frustrations, By Corrie MacLaggan, November 5, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “When the new head of the agency responsible for the state’s backlogged food stamp applications sent an e-mail to employees asking for feedback about the agency, he got it. About 500 state workers replied to Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs, telling him about low morale and low pay, poor management, technology problems, insufficient training, long hours away from their families. They wrote about feeling frazzled, crying on the drive to work and actively looking for other jobs…”

• 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…”

Wait for food stamps rises as more people seek assistance, By Celinda Emison, October 8, 2009, Abilene Reporter News: “When Mary Ranjer, a working mother of six, applied for food assistance in June, she had to wait until mid-August to receive the help. Ranjer and her husband both work, but tough economic times have forced them to apply for food stamps. The Ranjers are among a growing number of Abilenians who have had to apply for and wait for help. ‘It has really taken a long time,’ said Ranjer, 37, who was waiting in line Thursday at the Department of Health and Human Services office. ‘I have to take my day off to take care of this.’ Taylor County has experienced an 8 percent increase in the number of individuals receiving food stamps over the past year. There are 15,903 individuals who are receiving benefits through the SNAP program, an increase from last year when 14,674 individuals were being served…”

• Federal officials: Texas needs food stamp czar, By Corrie MacLaggan, October 6, 2009, Austin-American Statesman: “Federal officials say Texas should appoint a food stamp czar to take charge of fixing the application backlogs and high error rates plaguing the program. ‘All states are feeling the pinch right now because of the economic recession, but I’m not aware of any state that is having it to the degree that Texas is,’ said William Ludwig, a Dallas-based regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. Ludwig, who rarely gives interviews, oversees food stamps for Texas and four other states. He attributed the state’s problems last week to a “whole series of missteps, mismanagement over the last four years,” starting with thousands of state workers getting pink slips in advance of a massive privatization effort…”
• Too many Texans are waiting too long for food stamps, Editorial, October 7, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “It is scandalous that Texas is letting so many of its residents go hungry when the resources exist to feed them. But those resources - food stamps - are being processed at a snail’s pace because the state has not been able to get its act together. Texans deserve a better, more compassionate solution than state leaders have proposed so far. The massive backlog that has left low-income families hungry and waiting for weeks and months for government food assistance has reached a critical level. In September 2009, Texas processed 58.6 percent of new applications on time…”

A food stamp fingerprint feud, By Corrie MacLaggan, October 2, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “The federal agency that oversees food stamps wants Texas to stop fingerprinting applicants as a way to save resources and speed up what the agency says is an unacceptably slow application system. But because state law requires the fingerprinting, the Health and Human Services Commission finds itself caught between what the Legislature mandates and what federal officials want. ‘One of the things I think Texas needs to do is streamline their operations,’ said William Ludwig, a regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. ‘Finger imaging is very time-consuming.’ Texas is one of four states with such a requirement, which supporters - including Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst - say is an important way to prevent people from collecting benefits under more than one name. Critics have said it’s invasive and a waste of money and seeks to solve a problem that doesn’t exist…”

Texas got less stimulus money per resident than almost every other state, By Dave Michaels, September 28, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Texas has received less funding per resident from the stimulus package so far than almost any other state, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis of federal grants and contracts. Texas lawmakers have long complained about one reason for the disparity: Federal funding formulas, often written by small-state lawmakers, disadvantage big states like Texas. But Texas is also a victim of its own thrift: With fewer research universities, less subsidized housing, and a smaller contribution to programs like Medicaid and unemployment insurance, it stands to receive less emergency funds than if it spent more of its own money on the programs…”

• More in Rhode Island now living in poverty, By Paul Edward Parker, September 22, 2009, Providence Journal: “More than 3 percent of Rhode Island’s population — some 33,000 men, women and children — fell into poverty in 2008 as the recession tightened its grip on the Ocean State, according to recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. From 2007 to 2008, Rhode Island displaced Massachusetts as the New England state with the highest poverty rate. The state also leapfrogged Maine and Vermont in the process, going from fourth-highest to highest in the six-state region…”
• Quarter of West Virginians live in poverty, study says, By Alison Knezevich, September 12, 2009, Charleston Gazette: “About a quarter of West Virginians are now or will soon be living in poverty — and the situation is even worse for children in the Mountain State, according to a new report. The recession could increase the number of children living below the poverty line by more than a third, to 34 percent, say analysts at the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy. Economists define the poverty line as a household income of $21,910 or less for a family of four. On Thursday, the U.S. Census Bureau released data showing that 13.2 percent of Americans lived in poverty in 2008 — the most since 1997. State and local figures are set to come out Sept. 22…”
• Poverty level rises in region, By Enrique Rangel, September 13, 2009, Amarillo Globe-News: “In 2007, one of every four residents in Potter and Hall counties was poor, a rate twice as high as the rest of the nation. And in all likelihood the number of destitute people in those counties and in most of the Texas Panhandle increased last year. That conclusion is based on the annual poverty report the U.S. Census Bureau issued last week. The agency said the official U.S. poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2 percent, up from 12.5 percent the previous year, and the most affected regions in the nation were the South, Midwest and West. Under the 2009 federal guidelines, a family of four living on $22,050 or less a year is considered poor…”

• Backlog, processing errors bedevil food stamp program, By Corrie MacLaggan, September 24, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “Tens of thousands of Texas families are waiting as long as several months for food stamps as a surge in applications lands on an already strained system. And when state workers do process the applications, they often do it wrong. One out of every six food stamp applications is incorrectly processed by state workers, according to state data. In some cases, that means eligible families are being denied benefits. That error rate has skyrocketed since 2004, rising from 2.8 percent to 21.4 percent last year. For the first half of this year, the error rate fell to 17.4 percent. This comes as Texas is struggling with a food stamp application backlog, failing to process more than a third of applications within the 30 days required by the federal government…”
• More residents using food stamps, By Michelle Saxton, September 24, 2009, Charleston Daily Mail: “About 37,000 more West Virginians were using food stamps this summer than last year, reflecting a historic high nationally in the number of people who need help paying for food. Across the country, more people are using food stamps - and getting more in benefits - due in part to the struggling economy and a financial boost from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, nutrition service officials say. About 35.1 million Americans received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits this past June, up about 22 percent from 28.7 million in June 2008, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Nutrition Service spokeswoman Jean Daniel. For West Virginia, those figures were 315,938 individual participants in June, up from 278,713 in June 2008, Daniel said…”

• Proposing a public health option as a ’safety net’, By Robert Pear, September 19, 2009, New York Times: “Senator Olympia J. Snowe, a pivotal Republican, described on Saturday the changes she wanted to see in a comprehensive health care bill to make insurance more affordable, and she proposed a government insurance company as a possible backup to the private market if coverage remains too costly. Ms. Snowe’s proposal was among 564 amendments filed in the last couple of days by members of the Senate Finance Committee, which plans to take up the legislation this week as the struggle over health care enters a critical new phase…”
• How health overhaul would affect the uninsured, By Christopher Weaver, September 21, 2009, National Public Radio: “How many Americans are uninsured? According to the Census Bureau, in 2008, more than 46 million Americans - about 15 percent of the population - did not have health insurance. Because of the recession, many experts believe the number is now larger. Who are the uninsured? Income is a strong factor in identifying the uninsured. About two-thirds of uninsured Americans earn less than twice the federal poverty level, which is $22,050 for a family of four. Almost 25 percent of the uninsured are poor enough to be eligible for Medicaid but are not enrolled…”
• Uninsured take a toll on all North Texans, By Robert T. Garrett and Jason Roberson, September 20, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Up to one-third of Dallas-area residents don’t have health insurance, and the number is rising. Everybody in North Texas pays the cost, through taxes and higher insurance costs - as much as $1,800 per family. Illegal immigrants pump up the numbers. But even if there weren’t any here, Texas still would virtually lead the nation in percentage of residents without health insurance, according to both conservative and liberal researchers. And Dallas County is close on Harris County’s heels as the major metro county with the lowest rate of health insurance coverage…”

• Flood of food stamp requests drains agency, By Gary Scharrer, September 6, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “State employees can’t keep up with applications for food assistance, and the inadequate staffing to handle the casework is making them frustrated and stressed out, some say. Morale is lousy at the agency that manages the program. Many work long hours, but the cases keep stacking up. The conditions are blamed for high absentee rates and employee turnover. Some welcome a recent class-action lawsuit that accuses the state of violating federal rules requiring food stamp applications to be certified within 30 days. Many applicants must wait months before they get food assistance…”
• Employee turnover high at Texas agency that processes food-stamp applications, Associated Press, September 7, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Employee turnover is running at 16 percent this year at the overwhelmed Texas public benefits agency responsible for processing food-stamp applications. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has seen a huge increase in food-stamp applications this year…”

• Dallas leads nation in repeat teen births, study finds, By Robert T. Garrett, September 1, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Dallas leads the nation in the percentage of teen births that aren’t the mother’s first delivery, a nonpartisan national research group finds in a new report. Dallas had the highest percentage of teen births that are repeat births - 28 percent - among 73 major U.S. cities in 2006, the latest year for which city-level data are available. Texas has the highest repeat rate of any state - 23 percent of teen births. And five of the 15 worst-ranked cities are in Texas, according to the group Child Trends, in a report to be released Wednesday…”
• Houston had the most girls under 15 giving birth in 2006, report says, By Todd Ackerman, August 31, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: ” More girls under 15 give birth in Houston than in any other U.S. city, according to a new national report. And among all births involving teenage mothers, Dallas had the nation’s highest percentage of repeat births, at 28 percent, while Fort Worth was eighth, at 25 percent. The report, by the research organization Child Trends, found that 20 percent more babies were born to girls 14 or younger in Houston than in New York and Los Angeles in 2006, the latest year for which data are available…”
• Texas has restrictive birth control policy for minors, By Robert T. Garrett, September 6, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Texas, a leader in teen pregnancy and the state where more teens give birth to subsequent children than in any other, maintains one of the most restrictive policies in the nation for minors to obtain prescription birth control. Not even young parents in Texas can get birth control without their own parents’ permission at nearly a third of the family planning clinics on contract with the state health department…”

Jobless in Texas fight uphill battle when filing claim, By Peggy Fikac, August 15, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “If you lose your job in Texas, you may be out of luck in more ways than one. The Texas Workforce Commission rejected about a third of all jobless claims last year and 27 percent the first half of this year. When jobless people appealed those initial decisions, their chances of winning this year were only about one in four. The controversial reason for the denials is Texas’ tight list of eligibility standards, which the Legislature refused to expand even when offered $555 million more in federal stimulus money in return. Gov. Rick Perry, who led the opposition to the measure, said it would be bad for Texas in the long run…”

• Texas sued over delay in food stamps, By Gary Scharrer, August 10, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “Rachel Cavazos is getting close to desperate. A pending divorce and no full-time job have left her struggling to feed her four children. She applied for food stamps in April but is still is waiting for approval. ‘It’s very upsetting. It’s very frustrating,’ the 32-year-old Houston woman said. ‘It’s very hurtful, especially when somebody doesn’t give you the benefit of the doubt. The help is not for me. It’s for my babies. I don’t want my children to suffer.’ Cavazos is one of thousands of Texans waiting for food stamps, demand for which has spiked in recent months. The long wait has prompted some advocates to file a class-action lawsuit to try to force Texas to comply with federal regulations requiring that most eligible applicants be certified for food stamps within 30 days…”
• Still more Utahns apply for food stamps, By Julia Lyon, August 10, 2009, Salt Lake Tribune: “As the nation’s economy appears to shift into recovery mode, the number of Utah families relying on food stamps continues to break records. As of July, just over 86,000 households were receiving more than $25 million in food stamps, which provide low-income families money for food each month. The number of households increased 3.4 percent between June and July, slightly more than the 3.2 percent growth rate the month before…”

• State’s jobless confront hurdles, By Peggy Fikac, July 26, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “For Jerry, the chance of unemployment benefits is the chance to breathe a little easier for a few weeks. He’d been used to a good salary as an IT consultant, but he’s been out of work for a year. He and his wife sold a car and cut back, but he still puts more on his credit card than he’d like. At 62, he is looking at jobs in neighboring states. Closer to his Panhandle home, he’s competing with high school kids for work…”
• California’s slow handling of appeals from workers denied unemployment benefits gets worse, By Marc Lifsher, July 28, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “California is so slow in handling appeals from workers denied unemployment benefits that it may take years to catch up, state officials say. And the backlog is getting worse. With unemployment now at 11.6% in California and rising, there is a record backlog of more than 82,500 Californians who have appeals pending on their eligibility for checks of as much as $475 a week. At the same time, the state is about to furlough for three days a month the judges and support staff who handle the appeals…”

• Massachusetts, home of nation’s most ambitious health care law, offers reform ‘dos and don’ts’, By Steve LeBlanc (AP), July 24, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Three years into its experiment with near-universal health care, Massachusetts has some ‘dos and don’ts’ for the nation as it grapples with the best way to cover tens of millions of uninsured Americans.  Do require that virtually everyone have health insurance, the overriding goal in Massachusetts. Don’t ignore rising costs, the single greatest threat to the law’s long-term affordability…”
• Texas Medicaid program likely to surge under health care proposals, By Dave Michaels, July 24, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “The effort to insure tens of millions of uncovered Americans will almost certainly involve a sweeping expansion of Medicaid – with Texas probably feeling the impact more than any other state.  State lawmakers have for years limited Medicaid’s reach to low-income adults, who under Texas rules don’t qualify for the joint state-federal program. One proposal by U.S. House lawmakers would provide federal funding to extend Medicaid to about 1 million Texas adults, according to the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities – a massive jump from the 38,000 who qualify today…”

• Texas averts crisis over extended unemployment benefits, By Dave Montgomery, July 21, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “The Texas Workforce Commission took emergency action Tuesday to continue unemployment assistance to as many as 15,000 jobless Texans who were in danger of exhausting their benefits by the end of the month…”
• Unemployment insurance a two-sided political issue for Perry, By Jason Embry, July 21, 2009, Austin American-Statesman: “Gov. Rick Perry’s opposition to federal stimulus dollars for unemployment benefits earlier this year boosted his standing among many Republicans. But other issues surrounding the state’s unemployment program could create political headaches for Perry in the next year and a half…”
• Texas leaders should reconsider the federal stimulus money, By Mitchell Schnurman, July 22, 2009, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “At what point does the real world trump politics and principle?  Texas is shaping up as a test case, because more than 23,000 workers are losing their jobs every week and $556 million in federal aid is sitting on the table, unclaimed.  Texas is one of only four states — the others are Alabama, Florida and Virginia — that rejected federal stimulus dollars connected with reforming unemployment insurance. Thirty-six states qualify for the federal money, including more than two dozen that adopted reforms this year, and the rest are still debating the issue…”

Texas stalling on extended pay for jobless, critics say, By Robert T. Garrett, July 17, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Critics say the Texas Workforce Commission has overstated the role that federal requirements played in delaying 13 more weeks of unemployment benefits for Texans who have been out of work more than a year.  Andrew Stettner of the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group for low-wage workers, said a requirement that the jobless document their work searches is a quarter-century old and has been partially waived by the Obama administration…”

• 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…”