Maybe this will be a big step forward. A research team led by [UT chemistry professor Xiaoyang] Zhu, who refers to his Center for Materials Chemistry as the XYZ Lab, has shown that it’s possible to convert much more of the sun’s energy to electricity than conventional solar cells are able to generate. The conventional [...]
Search Results for 'food stamps' ↓
The State of Texas and IBM: Not getting any better
No group hugs are expected any time soon. Agencies that help Texans renew their automobile registrations, draw unemployment benefits and apply for food stamps and Medicaid face crushing demands – and IBM, the technology contractor for those agencies, isn’t even providing mundane services, a top state technology official testified today. “We’ve experienced significant service delivery [...]
Feds fine Texas for food stamp failures
Our longstanding food stamp problems continue to cost the state of Texas millions of dollars. Federal officials have fined Texas $3.96 million for errors in issuing food stamp benefits, according to a letter sent to House Speaker Joe Straus. The penalty is for exceeding 105 percent of the national average rate of payment errors — [...]
Rhetoric is the easy part
There are two things that I wonder about as I read this story about poverty and the Texas schools and the alarming trends we’re seeing in things like the dropout rate. First and foremost, will anyone ever listen to former State Demographer Steve Murdock? The state’s public schools have more and more low-income kids and [...]
The food banks pitch in
It’s great that they’re making such a difference. It’s a crime that it took so long and that the problem got to be so bad before they were called in to help. Last year, food banks had to step up to help hundreds of families when the recession and a meltdown of Texas’ food stamp [...]
State auditor issues recommendations for fixing food stamps
It’s about what you’d expect. The state agency that oversees Texas’ food stamp program is outdated and staffed by inexperienced workers, leading to long delays and inaccurate processing, said the state auditor in a report released Tuesday. “To improve the timeliness and accuracy of (food stamp) eligibility determinations, the commission must modernize its eligibility determination [...]
Texas blog roundup for the week of March 15
The Texas Progressive Alliance heads into March Madness with its own bracket of news and links for the week. Click on for more.
Making money on both ends
I’m glad to hear that the food stamp backlog should be cleared up soon. I’m not so glad to hear that one of the guys who bears responsibility for getting us into that mess in the first place now stands to benefit from the work to get us out of it. Gregg Phillips was the [...]
Food stamp application backlog to be cleared by April
Here’s a little bit of good news. Texas’ food stamp application backlog is now expected to be cleared by the end of April, Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs told lawmakers today. [...] The commission had projected it would clear the backlog by February. That didn’t happen. Though the backlog disappeared in the [...]
Food banks to help with food stamps interviews
This sounds like a good idea. Houston’s food bank will begin helping qualify eligible Texans for food stamps on Monday under special authority from federal officials designed to shorten long wait times. The waiver will allow food banks in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth to handle food stamp applications directly. Food bank officials [...]
Those evil, dirty, federal dollars
Rick Perry loves ‘em. Which of the following revenue sources has grown the most since Rick Perry became governor? A. Sales tax, driven by a strong economy. B. Natural gas production tax revenue, driven by a strong economy and the Barnett Shale discovery. C. Federal income. The answer is C, though you’d never know it [...]
Texas takes a stand in favor of global warming
There was a time when stuff like this would have surprised me. But then, there was a time when being anti-science wasn’t a point of pride for the Republican Party. Texas on Tuesday became the first state to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that gases blamed for global warming threaten public health. Gov. Rick [...]
More food stamps fail
The dimensions of this failure are just staggering. Texas has the worst performing food stamp program in the nation, says the federal director who oversees the project designed to help desperate people get nutritious meals. Texas ranks last among the 50 states and U.S. territories in processing food stamp applications and also does a poor [...]
Another food stamp lawsuit
Back in August, a federal lawsuit was filed over the interminable delays that food stamp applicants face in Texas getting their forms processed. That suit was dismissed in October by Judge Sam Sparks on the grounds that the federal law didn’t allow for suits, so now the same lawyers as before have refiled in state [...]
The Speaker knows what we’re up against
I’m sure House Speaker Joe Straus is looking ahead to the 2011 session and stockpiling the Maalox and Excedrin. Among the “interim charges” to 31 committees handed out by Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio – issues for lawmakers to study and consider – are examinations of tax changes that could boost state revenue and reinvigorate [...]
We’re not the only state with food stamp issues
We all know by now that Texas has had many problems with its administration of food stamps. Apparently, so have other states, according to a letter, signed by Kevin Concannon, the department’s undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, sent to state officials. Of interest to me is where he points at least some of [...]
Easing eligibility requirements on food stamps
I suppose you could consider this to be a small benefit of the food stamps snafu. Texas is easing a requirement that most families on food stamps must be interviewed every six months, a step that will relieve pressure on the system for determining who receives state aid, officials said Tuesday. The story doesn’t go [...]
A slow solution is bad but no solution is worse
Same song, yet another verse: The food stamp situation in Texas is truly terrible. As Texas begins hiring hundreds of food stamp workers to help erase an application backlog that has left families waiting months for aid, no one expects the problems to disappear any time soon. The new state workers are entering a system [...]
Monitoring the food stamps problem
State Sens. Judith Zaffirini and Tommy Williams will be keeping an eye on the food stamps situation. Zaffirini said in an interview that she and Williams will work with Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs on hiring more enrollment workers — as well as training and retaining them — and improving communication between [...]
Feds to Texas: Fix food stamps!
Yet another (bad) way in which our state has distinguished itself. Federal officials say Texas should appoint a food stamp czar to take charge of fixing the application backlogs and high error rates plaguing the program. “All states are feeling the pinch right now because of the economic recession, but I’m not aware of any [...]
State to grudgingly hire a few more food stamps workers
Don’t strain yourselves, fellas. State leaders announced late Friday that more employees will be hired to help process food stamp applications. [...] “In these tough economic times, the state of Texas must do everything in its power to ensure Texas families that truly can’t make it without state assistance get help without delay,” Lt. Gov. [...]
Food stamps fail
News item: Budget board denies request for more food stamps workers. The Legislative Budget Board has denied a request from the Health and Human Services Commission to hire about 650 state workers to relieve the state’s food stamp enrollment system, which is struggling with backlogs and errors. The additional workers could help address both of [...]
The continuing HHSC saga
Most of what’s in this Chron story about the problems with the Health and Human Services Commission and its problems processing food stamp applications is stuff we’ve seen before. Just a couple of things to highlight: Some welcome a recent class-action lawsuit that accuses the state of violating federal rules requiring food stamp applications to [...]
More on food stamps lawsuit
The Chron now has a story about the lawsuit that has been filed over Texas’ inability to process food stamp applications in the federally-required 30 day time period. There’s not much in the story that we don’t already know, but I want to point this out: “We have an obligation to do better for Texas, [...]
HHSC sued over food stamp delays
This will definitely bear watching. Legal services lawyers for the poor have filed a class-action lawsuit demanding immediate repair of Texas’ much-criticized eligibility screening system for health and welfare programs. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Austin late Friday by two impoverished Irving women who applied for food stamps more than two [...]
Endorsement watch: Harris County Commissioners for Sharp
Senate candidate John Sharp has a press release out touting the endorsements of Harris County Commissioners Sylvia Garcia and El Franco Lee. It’s printed beneath the fold. As far as endorsements like these go, they’re pretty good gets – if nothing else, they give Sharp some key supporters in Bill White’s back yard, and should [...]
Operation Border Star
During the 2007 legislative session, $110 million was appropriated at Governor Perry’s urging for border law enforcement agencies to combat drug smuggling and gang activity. How’s that working out? The state’s $110 million Border Star program, designed to help local authorities combat violent crime and drug smuggling, has been ineffective and a waste of resources, [...]
Lege versus Gov on unemployment funds
Showdown time. The House committee charged with recommending how to use the federal stimulus money does not see eye to eye with Gov. Rick Perry on the $555 million for unemployment insurance. In a 5 to 1 vote, the committee on Thursday endorsed enacting the necessary changes to state law so that Texas would be [...]