Welfare

Bread and circuses? Welfare and Democrats! JERRY CAO San Pedro

Anthony Wardlaw was fresh out of foster care three years ago when he went on general relief, Los Angeles County's $221-a-month welfare program for the destitute. When he tried to use the money to buy his mother a hamburger, his government debit card didn't work. And he had no idea why. According to a $7.9-million settlement agreement announced Tuesday, Wardlaw was one of thousands of people who were knocked off the welfare rolls without proper notice when applications swelled during the Great Recession.

Re "Healthcare bill targets big firms," June 1 I take great exception to the notion that a large retailer whose employees are on Medicaid "puts a burden on taxpayers. " Offering a job to an adult should not impose a societal burden on the employer to care for the adult. By proposing to penalize employers for employing people without providing health insurance, legislators are likely to incentivize employers not to hire as many people. What would this accomplish? If a burden is placed on the taxpayers, it is placed by the Legislature.

SACRAMENTO - Millions of dollars in welfare benefits are ending up in banks' pockets each year when poor Californians access their taxpayer-funded benefits, according to state statistics and a report released Tuesday. Like many other states, California issues electronic cards to welfare recipients so they can withdraw public assistance from ATMs. Last year, $18.9 million was spent on ATM fees. The year before they topped $19.4 million. The state welfare system allows recipients to make four free withdrawals per month at ATMs run by MoneyPass, part of U.S. Bank.

A blue-ribbon commission on child protection, set to meet Thursday for the first time, was formed in response to the death earlier this year of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez of Palmdale after county Department of Children and Family Services workers missed or ignored warning signs and complaints that the boy was being regularly and severely abused. This week, county officials announced that they had taken steps to fire four workers involved in the Palmdale boy's case, and that others had received warning or reprimand letters.

"Octomom" Nadya Suleman, who drew international attention in 2009 when she gave birth to octuplets, could face years in jail for allegedly failing to disclose nearly $30,000 in earnings when she applied for welfare last year, prosecutors announced Monday. Suleman, 38, is only the second U.S. woman to deliver a healthy set of octuplets. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said prosecutors recently charged her with one count of aid by misrepresentation and two counts of perjury by false application for aid. Suleman, who has a total of 14 children, filed for welfare in Lancaster in January and February of last year, but in the following months didn't report all of her income from personal appearances and video royalties, Deputy Dist.

Effective justice: The federal judiciary rejects welfare cuts because they affect poor families (July 14)--yet sanctions retroactive income taxes that negatively affect the general welfare of almost every family. HUGH GLENN Irvine

Re "Nightmares are coming true," Column, June 8 George Skelton has indeed penned a tear-jerker, but he somehow missed the gorilla in the room. Eighty years ago, Americans were in the habit of taking care of themselves and their own. Families rallied around unfortunates like "Jean," as did their friends and neighbors. Private charities abounded. Now, after four generations of welfare, millions of Americans look to government for the necessities of life. Wards of the state, they are at the mercy of politicians who promise more than they can deliver.

In response to Charles Krauthammer's Column Right, "Pull the Plug on Welfare to Solve Poverty," Nov. 21: Decent jobs that provide day care for poor mothers will stop poverty, not denying them and their illegitimate children health benefits, school lunches, and money with which to survive. Krauthammer's narrow-minded solution does nothing to solve the real problem of illegitimacy: namely, the lack of a father in the home. Instead of penalizing children, why not force men to take equal responsibility for the kids they father?

Los Angeles County supervisors gave a six-month extension to a citizens' commission that was asked to recommend reforms to the county's frequently troubled Department of Children and Family Services and other agencies responsible for child welfare. The Board of Supervisors voted in June to create the 10-member commission , which is made up of educators, child advocates, retired judges and law enforcement officials, and includes former DCFS head David Sanders. The move was prompted by the death of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez in May. The boy's mother and her boyfriend were charged with murder and torture.

Last November, the Internal Revenue Service asked for public comments on proposed rules to rein in political activity by tax-exempt "social welfare" groups that don't disclose their donors. The agency has gotten an earful of negative reaction, not only from conservatives who long have accused the IRS of political bias, but also from some liberal and civil-liberties groups. (The Republican-controlled House has voted to delay the rules for a year.) A few of the criticisms are justified and easily addressed.

WASHINGTON - Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the former Republican vice presidential nominee, launched an attack Monday on the nation's poverty programs, provoking an election-year confrontation with the White House amid a growing focus on income inequality. Drawing on his political roots as a student of conservative anti-poverty thinkers, the House Budget Committee chairman said many aspects of the expansion of the federal safety net since President Johnson's "War on Poverty" 50 years ago were "making it worse.

We expect cities hosting the Olympic Games to take extreme measures to be presentable and safe for the world to descend on, but Sochi's mass killing of stray dogs is appalling.  Many European cities have a problem with roaming cats or dogs: a stray, unsterilized population of animals left to fend for themselves. And I understand officials of the Russian city that sits on the Black Sea, just south of the Caucasus Mountains, worrying about stray dogs wandering onto snowboarding courses.

" Octomom " Nadya Suleman, who drew international attention in 2009 when she gave birth to octuplets, has been  charged with an additional count of welfare fraud, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said Wednesday. The amended felony complaint includes an additional count of aid by misrepresentation, and alleges Suleman, 38, received nearly $10,000 in Medi-Cal benefits she was not entitled to. Prosecutors said earlier this month that Suleman received $16,481 in state welfare payments during the first half of 2013 that she would not have been sent had she properly disclosed nearly $30,000 in earnings during that same period.

Responding to recent high-profile deaths and injuries, a special county commission on child welfare is proposing a far-reaching overhaul of the Los Angeles County child protection service. The plans would impose greater oversight on private foster care agencies and improve coordination among the many agencies who deal with child welfare cases, officials said. In addition, representatives of the commission drafting reforms are calling on the county to establish a position of child welfare czar empowered to coordinate services between the Department of Children and Family Services and other county agencies involved in child abuse cases, including health services, social services and mental health.

"Octomom" Nadya Suleman, who drew international attention in 2009 when she gave birth to octuplets, could face years in jail for allegedly failing to disclose nearly $30,000 in earnings when she applied for welfare last year, prosecutors announced Monday. Suleman, 38, is only the second U.S. woman to deliver a healthy set of octuplets. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said prosecutors recently charged her with one count of aid by misrepresentation and two counts of perjury by false application for aid. Suleman, who has a total of 14 children, filed for welfare in Lancaster in January and February of last year, but in the following months didn't report all of her income from personal appearances and video royalties, Deputy Dist.