Al's Morning Meeting

More than 23 million Americans now use food stamps, according to The Food Research and Action Center. The group said this week that the number of food-stamp recipients nationwide rose by 24.1 percent over the last three years.

You should find out why, in some states, half or even less than half of the people who are eligible for food stamps take advantage of the program. Is it lack of access, social stigma, pride, or a combination of all of these that keeps people away from the program? How are food stamp recipients treated when they use their stamps?

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While states are increasing their use of food stamps, are the states also increasing the investigation of food stamp fraud at the same rate?

The center says some states have stepped in to encourage people to use food stamps after a steep decline in participation in the mid-1990's.

The center issued this chart showing which states have gained and lost participation recently:

Percent Change in Number of Food Stamp Participants, January 2000-January 2004
Top 10 States	Lowest 10 States
Arizona: 108.0%	Connecticut: 16.0%
Nevada: 105.5	Wyoming: 13.3
Indiana: 75.8	West Virginia: 11.3
Oregon: 72.8	New York: 7.1
Delaware: 70.7	District of Columbia: 6.0
Wisconsin: 70.4	Rhode Island: 3.2
South Carolina: 66.3	New Jersey: 1.9
Texas: 63.9	California: -5.4
Missouri: 63.8	Vermont: -5.4
Oklahoma: 60.0	Hawaii: -16.9

These are states where, the Food Research and Action Center says, the majority of eligible citizens don't use food stamps ("Because these numbers are estimates," says the FRAC, "USDA expresses each state's percentage as a range, with a 90 percent confidence interval"):

Georgia	49-58%
Colorado	47-57
North Carolina	48-54
Arizona	46-56
New Jersey	47-53
Texas	46-52
Idaho	44-53
Florida	45-51
Nevada	42-50
Massachusetts	40-50

And look at the chart below -- the percentage of children in states who are poor enough to receive free lunches. It is such a statement about how important this program is to kids. What happens during summer vacation, spring break, emergency out-of-school days? Would it be possible to spend some time with cafeteria workers/teachers/guidance counselors/school nurses to find out what they hear from children about the importance of school lunches?

Ratio of Students in Free and Reduced Price Breakfast for Every 100 Students in Free and Reduced Price School Lunch
Top States	Lowest States
Oregon: 55	New Hampshire: 34
West Virginia: 55	New York: 34
Mississippi: 54	Connecticut: 33
Kentucky: 54	Nebraska: 32
Oklahoma: 53	Colorado: 31
Arkansas: 53	Alaska: 31
Texas: 53	Illinois: 28
Georgia: 51	Utah: 28
New Mexico: 51	New Jersey: 24
Vermont: 51	Wisconsin: 28

The same study I cited above includes these fairly stunning passages — each of which sounds like a seed for a story to me.

According to analyses of data from the University of Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics, reported by Jacob Hacker, year-to-year instability of family income was five times greater in the late 1990s than in 1972. Government and the private sector are making the situation worse. Government programs for low-income people have been cut substantially, the number of Americans without employment-based health benefits has been rising, and workplace benefits have been restructured to impose more risk on workers. While the economy has grown as a whole, incomes for the middle class and the working poor have grown little, and wages have become less stable.

• Economic mobility from generation to generation has decreased, locking more Americans into the income class into which they were born. According to one economist, it now is two or three times more difficult for children of low-income families to rise above their economic circumstances than economists calculated in the 1970s and 1980s.

• As inequality grows and more families are locked into unstable, lower-wage jobs, very high proportions of Americans are falling into poverty at one point or another in their lives — as many as 60 percent by age 75. A study by Professor Mark Rank of Washington University in St. Louis, which appeared last year in a publication of the American Sociological Association, found that 60 percent of Americans will have fallen into poverty for at least one year by the time they reach age 75. Forty-two percent will have experienced poverty by age 50. A different, federal study found that, in a single decade between 1987 and 1996, 25 percent of Americans, including 34 percent of children, had experienced poverty.

• Many Americans now fear personal poverty. An annual survey commissioned by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development found in 2003 that 56 percent of American adults are concerned they will be poor at some point in their lives, 5 percent more than in 2002.

The (Rochester) Democrat & Chronicle looked at train-car crashes and found what it says is a chronic problem involving one of the nation's largest freight railroad companies:

A Democrat and Chronicle investigation has found that CSX, the largest freight railway in the eastern United States, has suffered chronic problems with highway crossings, especially in this part of the country. Many of these problems are attributable in part to the effects of rain and snow on crossing equipment. On March 26, for example, it rained on and off all day.

But employees and union officials say the underlying problem is a reduction in the work force that over the last decade or so has decimated maintenance crews locally and nationally. CSX has been criticized repeatedly by federal regulators in recent years for shortcomings in maintenance and staffing.

The paper said:

Data maintained by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), the industry regulatory agency, indicate there were 7,377 accidents nationwide between 1999 and 2003 at crossings protected by gates. The records show that railroads reported only about 200 cases in which the gates were proved or alleged to have been down longer than a minute, suggesting they activated falsely. Critics say those records are not accurate.

Over the last five full years, there have been 91 instances nationwide in which it was verified that crossing equipment did not activate and an accident resulted, according to a review of FRA data. In seven other cases, equipment failed to activate quickly enough to prevent accidents, and in 23 other instances, gates were reported to have stayed down for a lengthy period of time before the accidents.

Those incidents resulted in five deaths and 47 injuries, the data show. Only four of the 121 cases, and one injury, involved CSX trains.

In 90 other cases nationwide, it was alleged, but not proved, that accidents occurred after crossing equipment did not work properly, the data show.

Weather can be a factor.

Crossing equipment malfunctions for various reasons, but some experts point to weather-related problems. Accumulations of rain or snow can interfere with electric circuits that trigger crossing gates and lights as a train approaches. Road salt can exacerbate the problem by melting snow and making water more conductive and more likely to cause interference.

This is the third anniversary edition of Al's Morning Meeting. We started publishing April 24th, 2001 and have not missed a week day since (except for a few days after September 11 when we did tons of special editions). As we start year FOUR, I want to thank the hundreds of you who have sent me stories. Keep them coming. You are the lifeblood of this column, which is now read by something like 11,000 people a day worldwide.

Read more about how we got started by clicking here.

The Akron Beacon Journal has been tracking a story about an Ohio school district that installed fake TV security cameras in a middle school bathroom to "detour vandals." Parents and kids were not amused. This eBay item shows what the cameras (sort of) look like.

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Normally Al's Morning Meeting is against cheap commercial plugs, except when free ice cream is involved.

Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, story excerpts, and other materials from a variety of websites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed, and a link will be provided, whenever possible.