90 Miles From Tyranny

Monday, April 13, 2015

U.S. food stamp dependency continues at unprecedented levels

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its monthly data showing national use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. The data show that usage has topped 46 million Americans for 40 consecutive months. Dependency on SNAP has risen sharply under the Obama administration, with no end in sight.

The data for the latest month available, December 2014, shows a total of 46,252,064 Americans dependent on SNAP. This continues a disturbing trend, with dependency topping 46 million since September 2011. It should be noted that while the White House says the recession ended in 2009, a record number of Americans are seeking financial assistance in the form of SNAP benefits.

If the standard unemployment rate has dropped to 5.5 percent and the economy is “recovering,” why are so many Americans more dependent on help from the government? The answer lies in the workforce participation rate and also in the lack of work requirements for...

(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left intact an appeals court ruling that school officials in California did not violate the free speech rights of students by demanding they remove T-shirts bearing images of the U.S. flag at an event celebrating the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo.

The court declined to hear an appeal filed by three students at Live Oak High School in the town of Morgan Hill, south of San Francisco. School staff at the May 5, 2010, event told several students their clothing could cause an incident. Two chose to leave for home after refusing to turn their shirts inside out.

The school had been experiencing gang-related tensions and racially charged altercations between white and Hispanic students at the time. School officials said they feared the imposition of American patriotic imagery by some students at an event where other students were celebrating their pride in their Mexican heritage would incite fights between the two groups.

Lawyers for the students said that the fear that the T-shirts would offend others did not trump free speech rights because the act of wearing the shirts did not rise to the level of incitement to violence.

Three of the affected students – Daniel Galli, Matt Dariano, and Dominic Maciel – were involved in the lawsuit, which was filed on their behalf by their parents.

In the February 2014 ruling, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said...