Greene County Democrat

Tag: 2025.

  • Newswire: Ag Sec: Every SNAP recipient is going to have to reapply

    Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins speaks alongside Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., at a news conference to talk about SNAP benefits on day 31 of the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

    Move aims to remove alleged 186K dead people who are receiving aid

    By Polly Davis Doing, Newser AI

    The Trump administration is planning to require all recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to reapply for benefits, citing concerns about widespread fraud, reports the Hill.

    Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the move on Newsmax, saying the administration discovered that 186,000 deceased people were still receiving benefits, based on data from 29 Republican-led states. “Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data what we’re going to find?” Rollins said. “It’s going to give us … a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable, and they can’t survive without it.”

    Rollins described the program as “corrupt” and claimed that “for years, no one has really ever dug into” the issue, but that the Trump administration now has the tools to do so. She also said that 120 people have been arrested for SNAP fraud so far. There is already a recertification process in place in every state that requires SNAP recipients to update their information, typically every six to 12 months.

    Federal officials did not clarify how the new testing would sync with that, notes Politico. A USDA spokesperson said the administration is simply using standard recertification processes to crack down on “fraud, waste, and incessant abuse” of the program. More than 41 million Americans rely on SNAP benefits, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

    The Food Research & Action Center (FRAC) has not issued a specific, direct public comment solely on the recent USDA claims that deceased individuals are receiving SNAP benefits. Instead, FRAC’s recent public statements focus on broader issues of program integrity versus access, particularly in the context of recent government actions and proposals to overhaul the program. 

    FRAC and other advocates have raised “real questions about how they’ve arrived at these numbers,” arguing that statistics regarding fraud need more detail and context to be properly evaluated.

     

  • Newswire : Legendary civil rights attorney Fred Gray honored with statue at Alabama State Bar

    Civil Rights Attorney Fred Gray, right, and his wife Carol Gray look on during the unveiling ceremony of a statue of Fred Gray at the Alabama State Bar Association building in downtown Montgomery, Ala., on Thursday April 24,2025. (Mickey Welsh / Advertiser)

    By Safiyah Riddle, Philadelphia Tribune

    MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Legendary attorney Fred Gray — once deemed the “chief counsel” of the Civil Rights Movement by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — was honored with a statue outside the Alabama State Bar Association on April 24, 2025.
    “Growing up in Montgomery on the west side, I never thought that one day my image would be in stone to honor my professional career,” the 94-year-old said in an impassioned speech at the statue unveiling in downtown Montgomery.
    Gray represented prominent civil rights leaders like King, Rosa Parks and John Lewis throughout the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, allowing activists to intentionally leverage mass arrests and civil disobedience to push for equal rights. Gray also represented participants in Selma-to-Montgomery marches in March 1965, which led to the Voting Rights Act in August later that year.
    On Thursday, Gray emphasized his gratitude for the countless other people he represented who aren’t often recognized — including Claudette Colvin, who was arrested in 1955 when she was a teenager after she refused to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery bus, months before Parks earned worldwide appreciation for doing the same.
    “I humbly accept this award for all those unknown heroes and clients whose names never appear in print media, whose faces never appear on television. They are the persons who laid the foundation so that you can honor me here today,” Gray said.
    The statue is engraved with the words “lawyers render service,” a phrase coined by Gray that is now championed by the Alabama Bar Association. Gray was the first Black president of the statewide organization in 2002.
    Gray’s role in the Civil Rights Movement was the first of many accomplishments in his 70 years practicing law. In 1970, he became one of Alabama’s first Black state legislators after Reconstruction.
    Around the same time, Gray represented Black men who filed suit after the government intentionally let their illnesses go untreated in the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study. His work eventually led to an official apology from President Bill Clinton on the government’s behalf in 1997.
    Gray is currently involved in a lawsuit seeking to remove a Confederate monument from a square at the center of mostly Black Tuskegee.
    In 2022, Gray received the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
    Gray, who is an ordained minister, attributed his successful career to his faith in God and the support of his family, many of whom were in the audience as he spoke.
    He acknowledged Thursday that the court “system doesn’t always deliver justice” but said that he would continue to keep working “until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a stream.”