Free Republic

A state employee has been fired in the emergency food stamp fraud scandal after receiving $200 in benefits, officials said Wednesday. The union worker was terminated for understating her income while applying for the federal benefits, said her attorney, Rich Rochlin. She has been employed as a healthcare worker for the past six years at Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Rochlin declined to release the worker's name, citing attorney-client privilege and saying he has not been authorized by the client to release her identity. Rochlin's client, who is single, claimed...

Nine more state employees are suspected of filing "false and misleading" applications for post-Irene food stamps, the governor's office announced Monday. This brings to 24 the total number of employees under suspicion of fraud in the emergency food stamp program known as D-SNAP. The 15 already announced have been notified of the dates of their individual disciplinary hearings, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said in a statement. The administration has not publicly announced the identities of the employees. Monday's announcement said "several agencies" were notified of the latest names to surface. Sunday night, The Courant's Dave Altimari reported that a 13-year...

Long lines formed early Monday morning outside state Department of Social Services field offices, as low-income residents sought one-time payments for losses incurred during Tropical Storm Irene. By mid-morning Monday, more than 400 people stood in line outside the DSS office on North Main Street, next to the Connecticut Works center. The office is one of 12 statewide where state officials are distributing ATM-style cards allowing people to make approved purchases. But many of those standing in the long, snaking line early Monday said it wasn't clear who was eligible for the one-time payments or who needed to stand in...