All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

A Nixon-Era Food Program for Babies and Pregnant People is Running Out of Cash – Mother Jones (Me: GOP in House does not care…)

…In any given month, about 1.63 million women, 1.71 million infants, and 3.52 million children under the age of 5 receive federal food assistance from a program colloquially known as WIC.

Among the recipients of that aid is the 3-year-old daughter of Emily Church in Athens County, Ohio. Three years ago, when her daughter was born, Church wasn’t producing a sufficient volume of breast milk and her income made special formula hard to swing on her own, so the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) uploaded coupons to a debit-like card that completely covered multiple kinds, allowing her family to find the formulation that worked best for their baby’s stomach.

Now that Church’s daughter is a toddler, that WIC card pays for fruits and vegetables, milk, whole wheat bread, cereal, eggs, juice, and peanut butter, amounting to an estimated $60-90 off Churchs’ grocery bill every two weeks…

The extra money doesn’t allow Church to indulge in self-care splurges like manicures or massages, says the mom, a 41-year-old sales manager at a dairy company who is also studying to become an elementary school teacher. “It’s just making sure that I can more easily pay the water bill each month,” she says.

Even that may soon be a luxury. After months of congressional squabbling over funding the government, the three short-term spending bills Congress has so far passed have effectively put the WIC program in the red. If Congress does not pass a permanent funding bill with $1 billion in additional funding for WIC soon, the program’s administrators in all US states and territories are expected to put pregnant and postpartum women and their children on waiting lists. It would be the first time in roughly 25 years that the 50-year-old program was not fully funded to serve all eligible applicants.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a center-left think tank in Washington, estimated in December that approximately 2 million young children, pregnant adults, and postpartum adults would be forced off the program or denied access to it by September if Congress doesn’t appropriate the $1 budget increase.

At risk, experts say, are children’s’ growth and educational performance, the future stability of household budgets already stretched thin, and even the livelihoods of farmers, whose bottom lines have been strengthened by an estimated $1.3 billion annually, thanks to the sales of the minimally processed goods WIC subsidizes, like milk and eggs.

WIC’s potential budget shortfall, says Nell Menefee-Libey, senior public policy manager for the nonprofit National WIC Association, is “unprecedented in this millennium,” adding that for two-and-a-half decades, “there’s been a bipartisan commitment among Congress and the White House to treat WIC like a mandatory program, even though we’re discretionary funding.”

The federal commitment to funding the nutritional needs of pregnant women, new mothers and young children stemmed from a 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health—led by one Richard Nixon.

“Malnutrition is a national concern because we are a nation that cares about its people, how they feel, how they live,” then-President Nixon said. “This nation cannot long continue to live with its conscience if millions of its own people are unable to get an adequate diet.”

Based on a program recommended by conference attendees, WIC started as a pilot program in 1972. Five decades later, it serves 6.3 million people in low-income families every month, including roughly 40 percent of all newborn infants, as well as pregnant people, postpartum people up to six months after childbirth, and breastfeeding people up until their child’s first birthday.

Scientific studies have shown WIC participation results in fewer infant deaths and fewer premature births. WIC participation is also correlated with lower health care costs. Nixon discussed these advantages more than 50 years ago.

“A child ill-fed is dulled in curiosity, lower in stamina, distracted from learning. The mounting cost of medical care for diet-related illnesses, remedial education required to overcome diet-related slowness in school, institutionalization and loss of full productive potential—all of these place a heavy economic burden on a society as a whole,” Nixon said at the 1969 conference, the first one he led as president.

Outside of the food benefit, WIC also provides nutrition-related health referrals and guidance to recipients. Pregnant people are taught about the benefits of breastfeeding and how to increase their chances of a full-term pregnancy, says Stephanie Bess, an associate director in the family wellness office of the Illinois Department of Human Services. “Without WIC, our families may not get connected to a health care provider, which, for instance, would impact their ability to know their child has low hemoglobin–impacting their ability to learn,” she adds.

Multiple factors have led to the program’s current predicament. Food costs for the program are rising, both from general inflation and because WIC has increased the amount that families can put toward fresh fruits and vegetables in recent years.

Meanwhile, WIC has begun allowing many required meetings between caseworkers and WIC recipients to be virtual, rather than in-person, a convenience which has made it easier for parents to sign up for WIC stay on the program longer.

Normally, Congress would supply the amount needed to keep WIC fully operations in annual appropriations bills. But in the three short-term funding bills passed this year, none have allotted the estimated $1 billion it will take to help every WIC-eligible applicant. The continuing resolution passed earlier this month gives Congress until early March to act.

In the interim, state WIC administrators have been told to act is if Congress will come through with the money they need to keep every eligible participant enrolled. If that extra $1 billion over last year’s appropriation doesn’t come through, states will likely have to reduce their recipient pools by tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands to stay under budget for the year.

“As we get deeper into the fiscal year, the potential impacts and the cuts that would need to be made to make up the shortfall get much bigger because they would have to be made over a shorter amount of time,” says Katie Bergh, a CBPP senior policy analyst…

Source: A Nixon-Era Food Program for Babies and Pregnant People is Running Out of Cash – Mother Jones

Desperate families of Gaza hostages push for a cease-fire – Los Angeles Times

…But as the families of hostages grow increasingly active and Israeli causalities mount — with 24 soldiers killed in Gaza in a single day this week — even some military leaders have begun questioning Netanyahu’s strategy and urging him to negotiate.

Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, a senior minister in Israel’s wartime Cabinet, said this week that’s Netanyahu’s vow to eradicate terrorists from Gaza is unrealistic. “We didn’t topple Hamas,” he said.

Eisenkot, whose son was killed while fighting in Gaza in December, said preserving the lives of captives should be the priority, whatever the cost.

“It’s not possible to return the hostages alive without a deal,” he said…

Source: Desperate families of Gaza hostages push for a cease-fire – Los Angeles Timesl

Trial Over Black Student’s Dreadlocks to Be Held in February – theroot.com

Image for article titled Who Will Decide the Fate of the Black High School Student Suspended Because of His Hairstyle?
Photo: Juan A. Lozano /AP (AP)

It’s been one hell of a school year for Darryl George. Thinking the fall of 2023 would just be the first of a couple of more semesters before he graduated high school, it turned out to be a semester filled with roadblocks and struggles — all because of his hairstyle…

Source: Trial Over Black Student’s Dreadlocks to Be Held in February

‘Keep your socks on your feet’ What to know about Russian rapper Vacio, who was jailed and then drafted into the military after attending the ‘almost naked’ party in nothing but a sock — Meduza

Russian rapper Vacio (Nikolay Vasilev) attended TV presenter Nastya Ivleeva’s now-infamous “almost naked” party in Moscow. His costume? A single Balenciaga sock covering his penis. This became somewhat of a symbol for the whole debacle, and the authorities decided to make an example of him. At first, he was jailed for 15 days and fined 200,000 rubles (around $2,250) for “LGBT propaganda.” Then, as he was leaving the police station, he was stopped and thrown back in jail for another 10 days — this time, allegedly, for swearing. That same day, the rapper was taken to a military recruitment center and handed a military summons, according to social media. Rumor has it that he’ll be serving in the military orchestra. In light of the fallout from the “almost naked” party, music critic Denis Boyarinov re-examines Vacio’s music. Meduza in English is publishing an abridged translation…

Source: ‘Keep your socks on your feet’ What to know about Russian rapper Vacio, who was jailed and then drafted into the military after attending the ‘almost naked’ party in nothing but a sock — Meduza

Humza Yousaf ‘deeply frustrated’ by Boris Johnson’s government during Covid | openDemocracy

First minister Humza Yousaf arrives at the Covid inquiry in Edinburgh/Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images 

Humza Yousaf said he was “deeply frustrated” by the Boris Johnson government’s failure to collaborate with the Scottish government during the pandemic.

Scotland’s first minister, who served as both justice secretary and health secretary in the devolved government during the pandemic, told the Covid inquiry information was often arriving “at the absolute last minute before a meeting”.

“Five, ten minutes before the meeting was to start,” he explained. “Or we were reading about an announcement of a decision already been made by the UK government.”

Source: Humza Yousaf ‘deeply frustrated’ by Boris Johnson’s government during Covid | openDemocracy

Helping each other – Frits Ahlefeldt: Art, stories & hiking

drawing one helping story shelters hiking by frits ahlefeldt

Not wanting help feels like an instinct, I think both to me, and to the hikers by the shelter, not to need help, not to ask, or accept it, if we can avoid it. I can both see why, and I can see the problem in it.

Still amazed and thankful for all the help I got I found a pencil in my backpack and some paper, to see if I could somehow sketch up the story, here it is:

Source: Helping each other – Frits Ahlefeldt: Art, stories & hiking

Lula’s ambitious green agenda runs up against Congress’s agribusiness might

Nilto Tatto, coordinator of the environmentalist caucus in the Chamber and a Lula ally, has been facing the agribusiness power firsthand and says that Lula’s administration is weak and has no power to stop environmental setbacks. Image courtesy of Zeca Ribeiro/Chamber of Deputies.Nilto Tatto, coordinator of the environmentalist caucus in the Chamber and a Lula ally, has been facing the agribusiness power firsthand and says that Lula’s administration is weak and has no power to stop environmental setbacks. Image courtesy of Zeca Ribeiro/Chamber of Deputies.Source: Lula’s ambitious green agenda runs up against Congress’s agribusiness might

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