Kansas Bans Poor People From Spending Welfare On Cruise Ships

Kansas welfare recipients will be unable to get more than $25 per day in benefits under a new law sent this week to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback's desk by the state legislature.

The bill also prohibits welfare recipients from spending their benefits at certain types of businesses, including liquor stores, fortune tellers, swimming pools and cruise ships.

"We're trying to make sure those benefits are used the way they were intended," state Rep. Michael O'Donnell (R) said, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. "This is about prosperity. This is about having a great life."

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, often known as "welfare," is one of several federal programs administered by states at the ground level. The Kansas TANF program, known locally as the Successful Families Program, offers a family of three as much as $429 per month in cash benefits. Kansas is one of at least 37 states that distributes benefits on government-issued debit cards, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/04/kansas-welfare_n_7001116.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Jerry Brown Defends Drought Order That Doesn't Limit Farmers

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday defended his order requiring Californians statewide to cut back on their water use in a historic mandate that spares those who consume the most — farmers.

As California endures a fourth year of drought, Brown's order this week requires towns and cities statewide to draw down water use by 25 percent compared with 2013 levels. While past reductions were voluntary, Brown said he is using his emergency powers to make the cuts mandatory.

Martha Raddatz, host of ABC's "This Week" public affairs program, asked Brown why the order doesn't extend to California farmers, who consume 80 percent of the state's water supply but make up less than 2 percent of the state's economy. Brown said farmers aren't using water frivolously on their lawns or taking long showers.

"They're providing most of the fruits and vegetables of America to a significant part of the world," he said.

Brown said that before the cutbacks, some California farmers had already been denied irrigation water from federal surface supplies, forcing them to leave hundreds of thousands of acres unplanted. Many vulnerable farm laborers are without work, he said. Farmers who don't have access to surface water have increased the amount of water pumped from limited groundwater supplies.



http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/gov-jerry-brown-defends-drought-order-spares-farmers-30109223

San Francisco Jail Inmates Forced Into 'Gladiator-Style' Fights

Inmates at a San Francisco jail were forced into "gladiator-style fights" by sheriff's deputies who bet on the outcomes, according to a public defender.

The accusations are “outrageously sadistic scenarios that sound like its out of Game of Thrones," public defender Jeff Adachi told The San Francisco Examiner.

Adachi said in a news release that the fights were orchestrated by Deputy Scott Neu, who made 150-pound Rico Palikiko Garcia to fight 350-pound Stanly Harris twice this month at the jail in the city's Hall of Justice.

The two were promised hamburgers for winning, and "threatened with Mace, handcuffed beatings, and transfers to dangerous housing quarters if they refused to fight," the news release said. And when both men were injured in the fight, they were told they would be beaten if they sought medical attention.

“They took me down to the hallway and told me to fight another inmate, which was Stanley, and told me if I didn’t fight that I would basically get beat up by themselves, by Deputy Neu. And he told me he was going to Mace me and cuff me if I didn’t." Garcia said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/26/san-francisco-jail-gladiator-fights_n_6952220.html

Al Green - Tired Of Being Alone (VIDEO)