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Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Sometimes, a picture really is worth a thousand words. Thumbs up, then, to local Post Office employees who generated more than 10,000 pounds of supplies recently during the Stamp Out Hunger drive. Their success was plainly evident when The Post-Journal’s Meghan Siperek went to the Salvation Army early last week. She found shelves that had been empty weeks earlier full thanks to the postal carriers’ drive. Unfortunately, the letter carriers’ efforts are a temporary reprieve. Salvation Army officials told The Post-Journal they still have needs, however, particularly for personal hygiene items, “simple meals,” and just everyday items that a person may need for survival. To help, contact Liz Lopez at 664-4108 email Elizabeth.Lopez@use.salvationarmy.org.

Thumbs down to a troubliing trend in safety net programs in the county. Work participation among those in temporary assistance programs is declining while the number of beneficiaries exempt from work activities continues to rise. Particularly troubling is the continued increase in the number of people deemed exempt from employment activities from 701 in January 2012 to 1,002 in March 2017. County officials are starting to look at medical records they receive from doctors to get a feel for what’s going on and will see what other counties are doing with their exempt populations.

Thumbs up to the Robert H. Jackson Center and its Defenders of Freedom project for making local veterans’ stories accessible. While the Defenders of Freedom project is available online via YouTube, this week four of the project’s videos will be shown this week on Cable Access Channel 19. Stories will be aired commercial-free starting at noon Friday and running until 10 p.m. daily through Monday. Then beginning Tuesday, the interviews will run from noon until 2 p.m. everyday and change weekly over the following five weeks. The stories the veterans tell are riveting and well worth some of your time.

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