Welfare

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

Do you remember the case of Amanda Clayton? She's the Michigan woman who made headlines last month when it was revealed that she'd won $1 million in the state lottery -- and kept collecting welfare. Well, that alleged double-dipping has cost her: Clayton was arrested Monday on fraud charges and spent the night in the slammer before being arraigned Tuesday morning. She pleaded not guilty to charges that she improperly collected more than $5,475 in food stamps and public medical benefits over an eight-month period, according to the Associated Press.

As the congressional "super committee" works to overcome divisions on a deficit reduction deal, a leading conservative lawmaker is blasting billions wasted on "welfare for the well-off. " Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who served on the president's bipartisan fiscal commission and has been a member of the so-called Gang of Six, released a report Monday detailing the kinds of subsidies and loopholes that he says benefit those least in need of a government safety net. Coburn calls his 37-page report, which features a number of charts along with clip art of the Monopoly man, "Subsidies of the Rich and Famous.

Los Angeles County officials are counting on a surprising source of revenue to fill their expected $76-million budget shortfall: shrinking welfare rolls. As the economy soured, the number of people receiving general relief from the nation's largest local government had swelled from nearly 63,000 in fiscal year 2007 to an estimated high of almost 108,000 in 2011. But county officials expect that figure to shrink by almost 7,000 people this year, which could lead to an estimated $27.4 million in savings.

Under the Supreme Court's wrongheaded Citizens United decision, corporate spending on independent political advertising may not be limited. So it's not surprising that Democrats are organizing two so-called super PACs, similar to ones already created by Republicans, that can raise huge amounts of money from corporations and wealthy individuals. The best that can be said about these new organizations is that they must make some disclosure of the identities of their contributors. That isn't the case with another sort of organization, known as a 501(c)

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

Regarding Frank Furstenberg's Column Left, Aug. 23: It appears that the retro-conservatives, such as Charles Murray, are determined to whip the character of the poor into shape by abolishing welfare. Since the retro-conservatives are so committed to such a notion of character development, why stop with the poor? Why not broaden the proposal to abolish welfare for the non-poor, a great deal of which is accomplished via tax deduction? Is it fair to deny to the non-poor this marvelous opportunity for character enhancement?

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?

Kilpatrick should be pleased to learn that real welfare payments (in constant dollars) have been falling since the late '70s. Thus, there should have been a decline in the poverty rate, but the opposite has been observed. This less-than-pleasing result should serve as a caution to all those interested in reducing poverty. If the wrong figures are used, one can "prove" that business cycles cause sunspots, or that welfare causes poverty. Kilpatrick is right to be suspicious of statistics, given how poor his analysis of them seems to be. His credulous reporting of the differences in poverty between the 10 highest- and 10 lowest-benefit states is hard to take at face value.

The Bureau of State Audits reported in late March on troubling but familiar problems in Los Angeles County's child welfare system: Abuse investigations continue to take longer than the state's standard 30 days to complete. Although the county had a temporary waiver allowing social workers here to take twice as long, there was confusion over the applicable standard, and too many investigations remained untimely even with the extra time. The problem was exacerbated, if not caused, according to the report, by constant churning of leadership in the department and, as a result, by constant changes in marching orders from the top to front-line child welfare workers.

Access to affordable cars proved a crucial leg-up for working families, even during the depths of the worst recession in decades, a new study has found. The survey of 445 recipients of loans offered from 2007 to 2010 by the nation's largest low-income car ownership program, Ways to Work, found that 82% were able to get off welfare and other public aid as a result. That led to an estimated savings to taxpayers of $18.2 million a year, more than double the amount donated to the group.

A Michigan woman who won a $1-million lottery jackpot last fall admits she's continued to collect $200 a month in public assistance. That's not all: The 24-year-old also says she deserves the financial aid because she's now saddled with expenses related to two houses. Can you hear that bellowing and clanging of pitchforks? That's the sound of Michigan taxpayers' outrage. The situation came to light this week after the Detroit-area Local 4 station received a hot tip : "Please do a story on lottery winners on welfare.

When Genivive Jones lost her job last year and started bouncing between friends' homes and motels with her toddler daughter, she inadvertently joined one of the fastest-growing groups of state welfare recipients: homeless families who receive aid known as CalWorks. Over the last five years, the number of CalWorks families without a permanent place to live has grown by 98%. That's nearly four times the growth of non-homeless families who are also getting assistance. The increase shows how difficult it is for people on the lower rungs of the financial ladder to improve their situation in the current tough economy, experts say, especially because the average amount that Los Angeles County families get from the state has shrunk from $560 a month three years ago to $490 last October.

As the congressional "super committee" works to overcome divisions on a deficit reduction deal, a leading conservative lawmaker is blasting billions wasted on "welfare for the well-off. " Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who served on the president's bipartisan fiscal commission and has been a member of the so-called Gang of Six, released a report Monday detailing the kinds of subsidies and loopholes that he says benefit those least in need of a government safety net. Coburn calls his 37-page report, which features a number of charts along with clip art of the Monopoly man, "Subsidies of the Rich and Famous.

Mention "social welfare organization" and the last thing that comes to mind is a group that expends millions of dollars to influence a federal election. But Crossroads GPS, which spent more than $17 million in 2010 to elect Republicans to Congress, claims to be a social welfare organization — which gives it tax- exempt status and allows it to conceal the identities of its donors. Now two campaign-reform groups have written to the Internal Revenue Service challenging the right of Crossroads GPS and three other organizations to 501(c)

After the shooting stopped and panic subsided, only a monkey was still at large. The death toll was 49. The carnage included one baboon, six black bears, eight lionesses and 18 rare Bengal tigers. The owner of the private menagerie was also dead. He apparently shot himself after loosing the wild animals on a small community in rural Ohio. "It's like Noah's ark wrecking right here in Zanesville, Ohio," said Jack Hanna, a former director of the Columbus Zoo. PHOTOS: Dangerous exotic animals But residents and animal activists nationwide didn't speak of this sad story in Old Testament terms.

Large government agencies with vital missions, such as the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, can run properly only on the strength of selfless work, courageous leadership, responsible oversight — and data. Managers and policymakers need accurate, consistent and complete statistics, and they need to demonstrate that they have chosen the right outcomes to measure. Otherwise, there is no way for them, or the public, to know whether they are succeeding. In October 2010, county supervisors found themselves unable to measure the performance of DCFS because they believed they lacked consistent data from year to year on the number of children who had died as a result of abuse or neglect.