Progressive Party of Washington State

Less than two months after the passage of the health reform bill on March 23, 2010, Nancy Berryhill of the Social Security Administration in Denver joined personally in setting up an office in Libby to sign up these newly eligible people.  “This is a new thing,” Berryhill told the Missoulian.  “No other group like this has ever been selected to receive Medicare.”  Berryhill issued a nationwide alert to inform anyone who had lived or stayed in Lincoln County of their eligibility.  She opened a storefront in Libby at the old downtown city hall where she signed up 60 people on the first day.  She plastered the towns of Whitefish and Eureka with pamphlets explaining the program and added three new staffers to the office in Kalispell.

Court order prevents DSHS from cutting benefits for more than 10,000 households in Washington

By Lisa Wood

University House resident

A federal court order has blocked an attempt by the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to discontinue food stamp benefits for more than 10,000 households in Washington state. DSHS, in the midst of a statewide budget crisis, had moved to terminate the state’s Food Assistance Program, which provides food stamp benefits for thousands of legal immigrants in Washington ineligible for federal food stamp benefits due to their status as resident aliens. About 10,350 households receive funding through the state’s supplemental program. DSHS mailed notices out to affected households on Jan. 18, informing them that their state-funded food stamp benefits would be cut as of Feb. 1.

Nghia Nguyen, who along with his wife receives state food stamp benefits, received a termination letter about twelve days before his benefits were to be eliminated. The couple relies on food stamp benefits and on part-time work to make ends meet. “My wife does part-time babysitting to get money for food,” Nguyen said. With looming questions, Nguyen took the termination letter to Long Luu, who works at the Neighborhood House office in Yesler Terrace.

Luu confirmed that Nguyen needed to update his green card, which would make him eligible for federal food stamp benefits. No longer would Nguyen and his wife have to worry about the uncertainty surrounding the Food Assistance Program — the couple began receiving federal benefits Feb. 10.

Court order blocks termination of food stamp program

For thousands of other Washingtonians, the preservation of their benefits would rest in the hands of a federal judge. On Jan. 27, a Federal District Court Judge entered a temporary restraining order against DSHS in a class action lawsuit filed by legal immigrants in danger of losing their food assistance. The group was represented by Columbia Legal Services. The lawsuit claimed that DSHS violated legal immigrants’ rights to equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The violation occurred when DSHS moved to cut the state-funded Food Assistance Program while continuing to apply state funding to administer the federal food stamp program for other recipients.

Households receiving the notices were only given eleven days to prepare themselves for the stark realization that they would be minus a source of income for an indefinite period of time. The temporary restraining order lasted fourteen days and reinstated food stamp benefits for February and March to thousands of legal immigrants. On Feb. 17, the court issued a preliminary injunction, blocking DSHS from terminating state-funded food stamp benefits for legal immigrants.

“The judge did grant the preliminary injunction. DSHS has been ordered not to terminate the (Food Assistance Program),” said John Camp of DSHS. “We have various ways of letting people know that, all of which will take time. “If you received a notice in January, we will be posting this new information on our website, and other resources as well.” More information is available online at the Columbia Legal Services website, www.columbialegal.org/node/131. Columbia Legal Services advises anyone who did not receive February food stamp benefits to contact DSHS for help by calling 877-501-2233 or visiting the local DSHS office. Anyone in need of additional help may call Columbia Legal Services at 800-260-6260, Ext. 207.

Reprinted with permission from March 2011 issue of The Voice newspaper. For more information visit The Voice

This was originally posted to the WA Prog member list.

I have been ”jokingly” telling folks that the bedbugs are headed this way since my daughter dealt with a bed bug infestation in her Brooklyn NY apartment last year.  Bed bugs have been a fact of life in NYC and other east coast cities for quite a while.  A couple of pieces of information I learned when my daughter was dealing with this are that bedbugs actually live in the joined spaces of wood, like where the baseboards are pressed up against the wall, the joints in wooden furniture, and the like.  Bedbugs can life over a year without food or water, bedbugs used to be killed when apartments were sprayed because of cockroaches (with DDT).  Now that DDT is banned, insecticide that are specific to the cockroach growing cycle are used.  These kinds of specific insecticides do NOT affect bedbugs.  There are specific insecticides for bedbugs, but the process to eradicate them is much more difficult because they can harbor so many ! places.  A “hard” Seattle winter will NOT kill them.  Also, the incidence of bedbug calls to insect eradication business has increased significantly in the last two years.  Here’s a recent article from Seattle Times:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009753326_bedbugs27m.html

Extreme heat kills them and freezing kills them.  One might not want to use extreme heat to kill the ones on clothing if it is an article of clothing one loves.  In addition, they can harbor in shoes.  It was recommended to my daughter that she put all her shoes (even cowboy boots) through a cycle or two in a hot dryer!!!

In England there are now DRIVE-IN freezers where people can bring all their furniture for freezing.  Since furniture over there can have historic and other value, this makes sense.  Bedbugs are epidemic in the larger cities in Europe and US East Coast.  I don’t know about other areas of the worlds.

Bedbugs also harbor in the spines of books and I actually have found dead bedbugs in second hand books over the years.

They can be from 1/4 to 1/2 inch round, have six legs because they are an insect, and are unbelievably flat, unless gorged on blood.  The bites are small dots, but often cause a mild allergic reaction that make them look bigger.  They like the belly and thighs, but will bite anywhere.  The biting pattern is often 3 in a short row (I’ve heard this described as breakfast, lunch, and dinner!).

My daughter simply got rid of just about everything she owned.  (Caveat, she has what she terms bug terror already and this incident kind of put her over the edge).  But, had the most difficult time with her books.  They were sprayed with the insecticide twice (the treatment must be twice because it only kills the actual hatched bugs and the second treatment is to kill any bugs that had hatched since the first treatment).  And, a year later, her books are still in sealed plastic bins that have duct tape around the edges.  Since bedbugs are so thin, they can work their way out of just about anything.  Simply putting clothing in a plastic bag with a twist tie on it will not prevent the bugs from getting out of the bag.

New York has a tenant hotline called 311.  Here’s an article about them:
http://newyorkvsbedbugs.org/2009/04/24/311-finally-has-bed-bug-category/

And, here is the NY 311 bedbug website.  It is full of very interesting information and an online bedbug management course:
http://www.nyc.gov/apps/311/allServices.htm?requestType=service&levelOneId=FEEEB7FE-078D-11DE-AC9C-EF5AFBC474DE&levelTwoId=FEEEB7FE-078D-11DE-AC9C-EF5AFBC474DE-2&serviceName=Bed+Bug+Information+or+Complaint&finalSubLevel=2&intentId=E9E66310-8137-11DE-8E9F-96DAE110FEB8

“Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite” has a bit more meaning now…