States to extend welfare services

May 12, 2008

More than a dozen states have announced plans to extend the welfare safety net to thousands of struggling low-income workers. State officials believe the new programs, which typically combine several months of cash assistance with career counseling, health insurance, and subsidized child-care, will help low-wage workers weather family illnesses and cash shortages and deter them from returning to the welfare rolls. Massachusetts gives $7 a month to more than 13,000 food stamp recipients. (New York Times News Service)

Families who think a mercury-based preservative in vaccines triggers autism will take their case to the US Court of Claims today. They are hoping to tap a government fund that helps people injured by shots. Lawyers will try to show that two 10-year-old boys from Oregon were healthy until being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal. In 2004, a panel of the Institute of Medicine found no link in such cases. (AP)

WEST SPRINGFIELD - A minivan crossed an interstate median, overturned, and was hit by another vehicle, in western Pennsylvania, killing six of seven people on board, State Police said yesterday. After the van came to rest, it was hit by an oncoming car, whose driver was treated at a hospital and released after the accident on Interstate 90 Saturday. The sole survivor in the van was also treated and released. The cause was under investigation. (AP)

HOUSTON - The bodies of five people, including three young children, were found on a sprawling property with several structures in northeast Houston, police said. A neighbor spotted a man's body on porch next to a .22-caliber rifle on Saturday. The bodies of a woman between 20 and 30 years old, two boys, and a girl were found in the house. Investigators said there were no signs of a struggle. (AP)

MALABAR - Brush fires forced residents to flee more than 500 homes in central Florida yesterday and closed a major interstate, authorities said. A fire in Volusia County burned between 500 and 600 acres and caused road closures and home evacuations, Timber Weller, state Division of Forestry spokesman, said. Heavy smoke from another fire in Malabar forced authorities to close part of Interstate 95, the major East Coast corridor. (AP)