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Online shopping has long been a boon for most Americans, whether they hate the scrutinizing stares of fellow shoppers, the chaos of big stores, or simply can't get out the door. Soon, modifications to the federal food stamp program, SNAP, might make the benefits of online shopping available to some who could need it most: the many recipients who live in areas where there are fewer healthy grocery stores, known as "food deserts." On Thursday, the Department of Agriculture began asking for companies to join a pilot project to allow SNAP recipients to purchase their groceries online. If successful after...

Shortened title. Full title: Following arraignment on food stamp fraud, deli owner Muslim immigrant’s wife and daughter flip the bird and yell ‘F**k America’ Deli owner Ahmed Alshami is being held on $2 million bond in Erie County New York, on multiple charges of food stamp fraud and burglary. He’s accused of criminal possession of public benefit cards, misuse of food stamps and criminal use of a public benefit card for defrauding the welfare system. Alshami’s little scheme consisted of buying food stamp cards (EBT cards) from people willing to sell them for cash, and would generally pay them half...

BALTIMORE (WBFF) -- More than a dozen Baltimore-area retailers are accused of misusing food stamps and defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) of millions of dollars. The indictments, announced Tuesday, come roughly three years after nine local retailers were charged in what prosecutors described as a "$7 million scheme" of trading food stamps for cash. All the defendants in that case were convicted. "Last year the Dept. of Agriculture Inspector General brought to our attention that many Baltimore-area retailers were continuing to rip-off the food stamp program," United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein said...

Retailers have blamed the weather, slow job growth and millennials for their poor results this past year, but a new study claims that more than 20 percent of Americans are simply too poor to shop. These 26 million Americans are juggling two to three jobs, earning just around $27,000 a year and supporting two to four children — and exist largely under the radar, according to America’s Research Group, which has been tracking consumer shopping trends since 1979.

An Arizona Democratic lawmaker who once voted against welfare fraud protections in her state has been indicted on felony charges of defrauding the food stamp program. According to the indictment unsealed earlier this week, state Rep. Cecilia Velasquez was charged with three felony counts: unlawful use of food stamps, fraudulent schemes and practices, and theft. The Arizona Department of Economic Security began investigating Velasquez in 2014. According to the Arizona DES, Velasquez fraudulently used $1,726 worth of food stamps between 2013 and 2015. This past February, Velasquez had voted against a bill aimed at giving the same state agency stronger...

There are stories that confirm our worries that the whole industrial system is about to come apart; and then there are stories that scare the crap out of us because they indicate that the collapse is ongoing and accelerating. This is one of those latter stories, one of those pre-apocalyptic cracks of doom that, like thunder, tell you it’s time to get ready. A Google search this morning finds no mention of this story in the industrial media, but it rages in the alternative sources (many of whom are weaving it into their previously established conspiracy theories as a deliberate...

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog, Widespread reports continue to pour in from all over the nation of “glitches” with the food stamp system. It is eight days into the month and large numbers of people still have not received their benefits, and in other instances it is being reported that EBT cards are simply not working correctly. So what in the world is going on here? On downdetector.com there are scores of reports of problems with the EBT system from people all over the nation. Could this simply be another example of government incompetence, or is...

Widespread reports continue to pour in from all over the nation of “glitches” with the food stamp system. It is eight days into the month and large numbers of people still have not received their benefits, and in other instances it is being reported that EBT cards are simply not working correctly. So what in the world is going on here? On downdetector.com there are scores of reports of problems with the EBT system from people all over the nation. Could this simply be another example of government incompetence, or is something else at work here?

A woman destroyed a convenience store in the US after being told her benefits card would not be accepted. Shocking footage shows the woman throwing stock from shelves and screaming before being restrained and physically removed from the store.

President Obama’s expanded food-stamp program certifying flea market retailers as vendors to provide low-income neighborhoods with fresh produce has ripped open a Pandora’s Box of fraud and corruption. This week federal authorities in south Florida busted the largest food-stamp fraud operation in U.S. history. Twenty-two defendants in the largely black and Hispanic areas of Miami-Dade County known as Opa-Locka and Hialeah swindled the government out of $13 million by fraudulently trading food stamps for cash. The crooked vendors operated food and produce stands at a local flea market as part of First Lady Michelle Obama’s initiative to eradicate “food deserts,”...

Immigrants are supposed to be beneficial to the U.S. — so much so that federal law requires them to prove they won’t end up on the public dole if they are legally admitted. But it’s a stricture honored more in the breach than in compliance, according to statistics obtained by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which found that of the millions of legal immigrants living in the U.S. and collecting welfare or other public benefits, only a single person was kicked out of the country over the last three years for becoming a public burden. That seems to fly...

Nebraska is desperate to stop the runaway growth of its prison population, but doing so depends a lot on people like Ronald Tillman. Tillman, 54, a paroled drug dealer who suffers from bipolar disease and a debilitating back injury, has lived since his 2013 release solely on his monthly $733 disability check. When his food runs short, he faces a choice that has costly implications for the state — if he gets caught. “Sometimes when you need food, you have to steal it,” said Tillman, a Navy veteran. “I’ve shoplifted a couple of times, just to eat that night and...

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday that it expects to surpass last year's record number of uncovered welfare fraud. "We're seeing an awful lot of welfare fraud," Director of Fraud Operations Tom Roth told WCSH-TV. "We definitely have more calls coming in than we have people to handle. Having the support from the state and the public is paramount, I think, to our success."

The Federal Communications Commission has announced plans to fine a mobile provider $51 million for defrauding its Lifeline program, which subsidizes wireless service for low-income Americans. The FCC accused California-based Total Call Mobile of fraudulently enrolling tens of thousands of duplicate and ineligible consumers in the Lifeline program. The company received an estimated $9.7 million dollars in improper payments since 2014, according to the FCC. In the fourth quarter of that year, 99.8% of the company's enrollments allegedly involved overriding a system designed to stop the registration of duplicate customers.

The Republican bill would hold those who intentionally make illegal purchases under the law to existing penalties for violations including making false statements on forms. A first violation is a one-year suspension, the second is two years, and the third is a lifetime ban. Democrats have said that is too harsh for a violation as small as buying a pack of cigarettes. In their version, the penalty for a first violation would be restitution, the second would be a maximum three-month suspension, and it would be a six-month maximum for subsequent violations. Advocates of the bill have said the department...

MADISON COUNTY, MS (Mississippi News Now) - Thousands of Mississippians receiving food stamp benefits no longer qualify for them under new government requirements. The new policy requires that single people between the ages of 18 and 49 who are able to work put in at least 20 or more hours on the job, volunteer, or enroll in a job-training program. While many folks admit they are not happy about this change, Food banks are bracing for the large number of low income families in need. "I thought it was rude and mean," said Mary Riley Walker. "You say if we...

There used to be a rule in place – part of the sadly abandoned movements toward welfare reform in the 80s and 90s – which required food stamps recipients to do at least some work in order to receive the benefits if they were childless and able bodied. That rule was suspended in most places since the beginning of the crash in 2007, but now that unemployment is allegedly back down to nominal levels and the economy is “stable” across most of the country, that exception is being rolled back. This, of course, has liberals up in arms. (WaPo) The...

About 45 million people receive benefits in the food stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning research and advocacy group, estimates that 500,000 to 1 million people will lose benefits this year. The federal Food and Nutrition Service said many adults would need to take steps to meet work requirements or risk losing aid. . . . Ellen M. Vollinger, legal director of the Food Research and Action Center, an advocacy group, noted that the poet T.S. Eliot had described April as "the cruelest month," and...

The [PA] state Department of Human Services will pay about $390,000 a year to rent space in Liberty Place for its newly opened call center there, a state official said Monday. . . . The call centers field calls from consumers seeking or receiving various types of public assistance. Consumers typically call to report changes in their address, income or household, to request replacement of EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards and to inquire about the status of an application for benefits.

Before voting nay, Rep. Edith Ajello, D-Providence, said she supported the thrust of the bill, but felt — as the state's director of human services does — that the proposed penalties are too harsh. First offense: a one-month reduction in benefits; second offense: a three-month reduction in benefits. Anyone caught three times would be disqualified from the direct cash assistance program for a year.