The Trump administration wants to tighten the rules governing who qualifies for food stamps, which could end up stripping more than 3 million people of their benefits.
The Agriculture Department issued a proposed rule Tuesday that curtails so-called broad-based categorical eligibility, which makes it easier for Americans with somewhat higher incomes and more savings to participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the formal name for food stamps.
.
It is the administration’s latest step to clamp down on the food stamps program, which covers 38 million Americans, and other public assistance services. It wants to require more poor people to work for SNAP benefits, and it is looking to change the way the poverty threshold is calculated, a move that could strip many low-income residents of their federal benefits over time.
.
Broad-based categorical eligibility allows states to streamline the food stamps application process for folks who qualify for certain benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Some 40 states, plus the District of Columbia, use this option, which lets them eliminate the asset test and raise one of the income thresholds.
The NAACP, the country’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, enthusiastically passed a resolution Tuesday calling for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Delegates from NAACP chapters across the country voted unanimously to move forward with the resolution during the group’s 110th annual convention held in Detroit.
In a statement following the vote Tuesday, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson accused Trump of leading “one of the most racist and xenophobic administrations since the Jim Crow era.”
“The pattern of Trump’s misconduct is unmistakable and has proven time and time again that he is unfit to serve as the president of this country,” he said. “Trump needs to know that he is not above the law and the crimes that he has committed and he must be prosecuted.”
Boris Johnson, Britain’s brash former foreign secretary and standard-bearer for leaving the European Union, on Tuesday won the contest to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May, with his party handing the job of resolving the country’s three-year Brexit nightmare to one of its most polarizing politicians.
Mr. Johnson beat Jeremy Hunt, his successor as foreign secretary, in the battle for the leadership of Britain’s governing Conservative Party, winning with a substantial 66 percent of the postal vote held among its membership. Although the Conservatives’ working majority in Parliament is very small, it appears to be enough to ensure that Mr. Johnson will succeed Mrs. May as prime minister on Wednesday.
He would take office at one of the most critical moments in Britain’s recent history, immediately facing the toughest challenge of his career, to manage his nation’s exit from the European Union in little more than three months. But his policy swerves, lack of attention to detail and contradictory statements leave the country guessing how things will unfold.
.
Boris Johnson is the new leader of the Conservative Party and is set to be Britain’s next prime minister. The former foreign secretary is a hard-line supporter of Brexit.Credit Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
At 4 a.m. on June 21, South Philadelphia residents were awoken by the sound of a large explosion: The Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery was on fire for the second time in two weeks. Neighbors watched as the flames turned into a giant mushroom cloud and as the mushroom cloud turned into a thick blanket of black smoke. The explosion was so big it was recorded by a satellite in space.
“I could hear it from my house,” said one resident, PennEnvironment Executive Director David Masur. “We were two blocks out of the shelter-in-place radius.”
The explosion occurred close to where a large volume of hydrofluoric acid was stored ― and if that had caught fire, it could have done devastating damage to the community, Masur explained.
“If that had exploded, you would have had a huge hydrofluoric acid cloud, which has all sorts of negative health effects depending on exposure. We would have had to evacuate a 7- to 10-mile radius, that’s 1.1 million people. It would have been catastrophic.”
.
Matt Rourke/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A South Philly resident watches as the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery goes up in flames on June 21.
Last December, a series of presidential hopefuls began courting Yvanna Cancela.
At 31, the former political director of the state’s legendarily powerful culinary workers’ union and campaign operative for then-Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is Nevada’s first Latina state senator.
Ultimately, it was former Vice President Joe Biden who won the sweepstakes: When he called shortly before announcing his candidacy in April to talk about the state’s politics, Cancela cut him off and offered her endorsement, citing his “leadership” qualities as the determinative factor.
Any campaign would kill to have her making its case in this city’s union halls and community centers because her endorsement comes with much more on-the-ground political know-how and muscle than most, and, as a young woman of color who has fought for workers and gone to war with drug companies, she’s both a practitioner of the David-vs.-Goliath populism that ignites the party’s base and an embodiment of sought-after demographics.
.
Biden aides believe his position on health care will appeal to Latino voters.Frederic J. Brown / AFP – Getty Images
After years in which efforts at resolving America’s longest war ambled slowly forward, if at all, they now appear to be galloping toward the finish line.
American and Taliban negotiators are thought to be close to a deal that would see the 14,000 American troops remaining in Afghanistan return home, after they lost more than 2,400 of their ranks and had thousands more maimed.
But the Trump administration’s rush to withdraw will leave Afghanistan at the mercy of an extremely ascetic Islamist movement that has done little to change its ways since the U.S. invaded nearly 18 years ago.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
.
.
.
.
.
James' World 2 