Free Republic

A good report from 60 minutes on how the federal disability system is being gamed at mega taxpayer expense: Steve Kroft reports on the alarming state of the federal disability program, which has exploded in size in the last six years and could become the first federal benefits program to run out of money.

When he was caught selling crack in San Francisco's Tenderloin in April, the Honduran immigrant who called himself Javier Martinez first told police he was 18. Then he said he was 16. Because he insisted he was underage, police were duty-bound to take him to Juvenile Hall, where he would be shielded from deportation under the city's long-standing policy of not reporting juvenile offenders to federal immigration authorities. He was soon put up in a $7,000-a-month group home in Southern California at city taxpayer expense. In short order, he became one of the eight offenders who walked away from unlocked...

...The family of Alba Somoza, who has cerebral palsy and speaks only with the help of a computer, filed one such case. Alba drew national attention in the 1990s when her family successfully pushed to include the then-third grader in a regular classroom. Then-President Bill Clinton backed her cause, and Alba, now 23, graduated with honors from a New York City high school in 2002. Last year, Alba and her family filed an administrative case claiming her education was a sham. A school report prepared weeks before she graduated showed she had language and math skills at an elementary school...