Respect the religious beliefs of others.

The Way to Happiness is comprised of 21 precepts, each one predicated on the fact that one's survival depends on the survival of all others—and that without the survival of others, no joy and no happiness are attainable.

Undocumented Immigrants draining social services? A Lie or a Fact?

Let the sunshine in!!!! How many times did you hear undocumented Immigrants draining the social services like Medicare, Medicaid, Medical, etc?
Well Thousands of Children migrate to the United States each year. Many of these children’s come fleeing war, violence, abuse, or natural disaster; other comes to reunite with family members already here, or to seek a better life for themselves. They undertake difficult journeys, often across International borders, and often alone. Children and woman are the most vulnerable who cross our borders, the desert, and are in need of special appropriate to their situation. Yet they faced additional hurdles upon arrival. They are in detention centers placed like prisons intended for the incarceration of criminals, many were commingled with the delinquent population, subject to handcuffing and shackling, forced to wear prisons uniforms and locked in prisons cells like you see the of Inhumane and civil right violations like Joe Arpaio demonstration, while their immigration cases proceed through the courts and they must undergo adversarial immigration proceedings, often without a help or a Lawyer or Guardian.
Well many were de facto denied to legal and social services critical to their pursuit of asylum or other forms of relief of care because they were housed in detention centers far from hospital, and care available services.
Something that Society do not understand Latinos are the trend to be the youngest population so they're going to be part of a work force that will be supporting the Medicaid programs and all these senior programs. As a proportion, they'll be paying more and more of these taxes. Their taxes are going to be far more important to our economy than their parents' taxes are. So the contrary the Anti Immigrants, Nativist, and Protectionists claiming that Undocumented Immigrant will overcrowded classrooms and emergency rooms. Overwhelmed police and fire departments. Bankrupt Social Security, Medicare and welfare programs. Skyrocketing taxes but is it fact or fear-mongering?
I will say Fear mongering; they based those arguments with estimation, fiction, calculations on fictitious numbers. My theory is based on facts and there it goes..
A review of the arrest warrant declaration is a detailed lesson in health care fraud and how it begins and occurs at every level. It also is a lesson for those in the health care business (physicians, therapists, nurses, patients, marketers, purchasers of businesses, and others) that they need to be careful or they can get caught up working at or for a facility that is committing health care fraud and those nativist, protectionists, Minuteman members, and Anti Immigrants groups stop blaming undocumented Immigrants because If you buy the shares of a business, you could also be liable for prior illegal billing and overpayments. Social services is being taken advantage of by everyone, no matter who they're affiliated with; And I can't say it's just individuals or companies who are doing it. It's subjective. The ironic thing is that these providers try to involve the undocumented Immigrant as a scapegoat and make them seem like part of the main problem.

1.- A married couple from Groton were charged Friday as fugitives from justice for a $1.3 million health care fraud scam in California. The couple with multiple counts of heath benefits fraud, grand theft, receiving stolen property, identity theft, and money laundering, all felonies.

2.- Six Miami-Dade County residents have been indicted in connection with an alleged $10 million Medicare fraud scheme operated out of Midway Medical, a Miami clinic that purported to specialize in treating HIV/AIDS patients.
The indictment alleges that the physicians ordered medically unnecessary infusions and injections, and falsified medical records to make it appear that the HIV services were necessary. The indictment also alleges that many of the infusions or injections were never actually provided. Midway Medical billed more than $10 million to the Medicare program for services that were medically unnecessary and not actually provided between September 2002 and June 2005. During that time frame, Medicare paid more than $4.8 million on those fraudulent claims submitted by Midway Medical.

3.- State auditors recovered more than $269 million in Medicaid fraud and waste between October 2007 and March 2008, officials from the state's Office of the Medicaid Inspector General told The New York Sun. He said that going forward, his auditors would look at "every sector that gets significant public funds," including hospitals. He also described a method for rooting out Medicaid billing problems known as "data mining," in which a computer identifies mistakes or cases of fraud.

4.- It was created 40 years ago to provide health care for the poorest New Yorkers, offering a lifeline to those who could not afford to have a baby or a heart attack. But in the decades since, New York State's Medicaid program has also become a $44.5 billion target for the unscrupulous and the opportunistic. It has drawn dentists like Dr. Dolly Rosen, who within 12 months somehow built the state's biggest Medicaid dental practice out of a Brooklyn storefront, where she claimed to have performed as many as 991 procedures a day in 2003. After The New York Times discovered her extraordinary billings through a computer analysis and questioned the state about them, Dr. Rosen and two associates were indicted on charges of stealing more than $1 million from the program.


5.- A Concord, N.H., mental health counselor has been convicted of defrauding Medicaid, getting reimbursed for services that he never performed.
Fifty-five-year-old Lee Bird provided therapy services to clients who were eligible for Medicaid benefits. The Attorney General's office says after he stopped seeing some clients, Bird continued billing Medicaid for therapy services. That happened between January 2004 and February 2007.

6.- The state has overpaid day care providers at least $13.7 million in recent years - including millions of dollars spent on bogus child care that was never delivered, according to the state's own records.
When regulators have tried to collect the misspent taxpayer-funded money, parents and providers have stiffed the state to the tune of $6.4 million, the Journal Sentinel has found.
A four-month Journal Sentinel investigation published last month detailed a million Wisconsin Shares child-care lack of regulatory controls within the $340 Millions subsidy program - a system prone to abuse and fraud that can go undetected. Even with lax oversight, state regulators have identified millions of dollars that should not have been paid to providers.
The state of Wisconsin shut down 20 providers suspected of fraud in the last five years who owed $1.3 million. More than $1.2 million of that amount has gone uncollected.
For instance in one eight-month period, Wiley-Jorgensen (U.S. Citizen) appeared to have overbilled the state by $103,575, regulators calculated. The state didn't believe she was actually caring for the 24 kids she claimed in her reports
And so far I had not seen any document stated that any undocumented Immigrants has been part of this problem.

7.-According to their 2008 SEC filings, the largest hospital chain in the U.S., the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) - founded by the family of former Senator and Majority Leader Bill Frist; After his Senate career, Frist became a partner with health-care investment firm, and chairman of a nonprofit (????) charitable (???) foundation focusing on Global health initiatives and Education issues- reports that in 2008 about 49% of their revenues and 59% of their hospital admissions were Medicare and Medicaid "related." In 2007, HCA reported revenues of $26.9 billion, approximately $16 billion of which was paid for by American taxpayers.

What most people may not know is that HCA plead guilty to 14 felonies and was hit with a $1.7 billion fine – far and away the largest such fine in history - for Medicare fraud. These fines, it seems, were a minor bump in the road for HCA, on their way to grabbing hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars in the years to come. Doctors and hospitals reap the financial benefit of surgeries, whether they are warranted or not. American taxpayers, both in terms of Medicare/Medicaid payouts and higher insurance premiums, pay the real price.

Minuteman says Mexico did the 911 attack

See for yourself how minuteman are rant by ignorance and Anti Immigrant sentiment against Mexico and Mexicans.
They sure that 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by Mexico and Mexicans.. That's so pathetic that people claimed to be educated making those assessments..

Chinese provinces battle worsening drought - 12 Feb 09

I am hoping that this can take as an example that the worst droughts is not only here because Nativist, Anti Immigrants blaming undocumented Immigrants.
Parts of northern and central China have been hit by one of the worst droughts in 50 years, and the government has moved quickly to irrigate fields and revive crops.

Illegals Immigrants draining social services? A lie or a Lie.!!

There is no such as Illegal Immigrant either someone as undocumented Immigrant caugh draining or commited any fraud against any social services. Why continue blaming them for God sake. This is the main problem in America. Some have eyes but cannot see," "Some have tongues but cannot speak the truth. They have ears but can't hear. That's where the problem is".

According to their 2008 SEC filings, the largest hospital chain in the U.S., the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) - founded by the family of former Senator and Majority Leader Bill Frist; After his Senate career, Frist became a partner with health-care investment firm, and chairman of a nonprofit (????) charitable (???) foundation focusing on Global health initiatives and Education issues- reports that in 2008 about 49% of their revenues and 59% of their hospital admissions were Medicare and Medicaid "related." In 2007, HCA reported revenues of $26.9 billion, approximately $16 billion of which was paid for by American taxpayers.

What most people may not know is that HCA plead guilty to 14 felonies and was hit with a $1.7 billion fine – far and away the largest such fine in history - for Medicare fraud. These fines, it seems, were a minor bump in the road for HCA, on their way to grabbing hundreds of billions of American taxpayer dollars in the years to come. Doctors and hospitals reap the financial benefit of surgeries, whether they are warranted or not. American taxpayers, both in terms of Medicare/Medicaid payouts and higher insurance premiums, pay the real price. Source



A former Oklahoma pharmacist faces up to five years in prison on a federal fraud charge for making a false claim to Medicaid.

Sentencing for Gary Wayne Nichols, 33, is expected in the next 60 days, said Bob Troester, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Oklahoma City.
Nichols was charged in September with one count of making a false claim, and pleaded guilty to the felony in November. As part of a plea deal, he’s agreed to pay $180,000 in restitution, said his attorney, Jean Paul Bradshaw.
Bradshaw said his client wants to take responsibility for his actions.
"He’s a very hard-working guy who got caught up in what he was doing and made some mistakes,” he said. "He’s sorry for what he did and is trying to make amends.”

Billed Medicaid $339,436 for prescriptions for nursing home patients that were not prescribed or filled.

Bought $100,000 in drugs for $25,000 in the parking lot of one of his pharmacies and tried to use the drugs to fraudulently get a refund from a drug company. They belonged to a tribal health clinic.

Man had six pharmaciesT

he case stems from a 2006 investigation by the state Board of Pharmacy and the state attorney general’s office that resulted in Nichols losing his pharmacist license.
He was licensed in 2001 and had been owner or part owner of six pharmacies in Moore, Oklahoma City, Altus, Guthrie, Allen and Lexington.
John Foust, executive director of the Board of Pharmacy, said Nichols’ case is one of the larger fraud cases investigated by his office.
Nichols lost his license and was fined $11,000 by the board.

Why blaming undocumented immigrants for draining social services?.

TWO AREA PHYSICIANS AMONG FOUR DEFENDANTS CHARGED IN THREE SEPARATE FEDERAL HEALTH CARE FRAUD SCHEMES.


CHICAGO – Two Chicago area physicians are among four defendants who have been charged recently in three separate, unrelated federal healthcare fraud cases, federal law enforcement officials announced today. Each of the physicians, who were charged in separate cases, allegedly defrauded either Medicare and/or private health care insurers – in one case for more than $13 million – by either billing for services they never provided or inflating the services they did provide to patients. In the third case, the operator and manager of two former suburban Chicago durable medical equipment providers allegedly defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by providing power wheelchair or orthotic devices that were not prescribed or medically necessary and the recipients were not qualified to receive.

“Health care fraud remains an important priority of federal law enforcement. We will use all of our resources to ensure that dishonest physicians and other medical providers do not profit from cheating Medicare and private insurers,” said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Mr. Fitzgerald announced the cases, all three of which were charged or unsealed this week in U.S. District Court, with Robert D. Grant, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of Federal Bureau of Investigation; Lamont Pugh, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General in Chicago; and James Vanderberg, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General in Chicago. The Office of Personnel Management Office of Inspector General also participated in the investigations.

The defendants in all three cases were charged with one or more counts each of health care fraud. If convicted, each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The Court, however, would determine the appropriate sentence to be imposed under the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

In each case, the public is reminded that charges are not evidence of guilt. The defendants are presumed innocent and are entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The details of each case follow:

United States v. Sushil Sheth

Dr. Sushil Sheth, a cardiologist with privileges at three unnamed Chicago area hospitals, was charged with health care fraud in a criminal information filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Between January 2002 and July 2007, he allegedly received approximately $13.4 million – $8.3 million from Medicare and $5.1 million from other health care insurers – in fraudulent reimbursement for the highest level of cardiac care when those services were not performed, and then used the proceeds for his own benefit.

Sheth, 47, of Burr Ridge and whose business office is in Flossmoor, will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court.

According to the charges, Sheth used his hospital privileges to access and obtain information about patients without their knowledge or consent. He then hired individuals to bill Medicare and other insurance providers for medical services that he purportedly rendered to patients whom he knew he never treated. Typically waiting almost a year after the treatment was purportedly provided, Sheth submitted false claims for reimbursement for providing the highest level of cardiac care – requiring hands-on treatment in an intensive care unit – on multiple days during patients’ hospital stays.

The charges seek forfeiture of approximately $13.4 million and two parcels of real estate in Scottsdale , Ariz. The Government has seized or restrained approximately $11.3 million in various bank and investment accounts held by Sheth and his wife.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven J. Dollear. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Inspector General’s offices of the Department of Health and Human Services and the Labor Department.

United States v. Otto Garcia Montenegro

Dr. Otto Garcia Montenegro, a general practice physician who owned and operated a private medical clinic, Montenegro Clinic, Inc., in Elmwood Park, where he treated dozens of patients each week, was charged with health care fraud in a criminal information filed yesterday in U.S. District Court. Between early 2003 and May 2007, he allegedly submitted false health insurance claims totaling approximately $500,000 to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and other private medical insurance providers. The insurers paid Montenegro approximately $373,000 based on the false claims, the charges allege.

Montenegro , 47, of Elmwood Park , will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court.

According to the charges, Montenegro did not collect deductibles and co-payments from patients and, instead, submitted hundreds of fraudulent insurance claims to insurers for services and treatments that he knew he did not actually provide in order to exhaust patients’ deductibles and copays and obtain money for himself. As part of the scheme, he allegedly created hundreds of bogus bills falsely identifying visits and treatments that never occurred.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Stern. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General.

United States v. Stephen Anthony Pam and Shavon Keyona Williams

Stephen Anthony Pam, who controlled and operated two former durable medical equipment companies in suburban Chicago that supplied motorized wheelchairs, scooters, reclining lift chairs and orthotic devices, and Shavon Keyona Williams, who at various times worked as office manager or salesperson for both business, were each indicted on 34 counts of health care fraud for allegedly fraudulently billing millions of dollars to Medicare and Medicaid and other health care benefit programs.

Pam, 47, of Sugarland , Tex. , was arrested on January 23 in Houston after returning from a foreign trip. He remains in federal custody while being transferred to Chicago to face prosecution.

Williams, 30, of Chicago , will be arraigned at a later date in U.S. District Court. They were indicted by a federal grand jury on December 11 and the indictment was unsealed following Pam’s arrest.

Pam controlled and operated the former Alliance Healthcare Services & Medical Equipment, Inc., in Glen Ellyn , and the former Medlinc Concepts, Inc., in Oak Brook.

Between 2004 and 2008, the defendants allegedly falsely claimed to Medicare and Medicaid that power wheelchairs or orthotic devices were medically necessary for beneficiaries when they knew that physicians had not ordered or prescribed such equipment and that beneficiaries did not qualify to receive them under Medicare and Medicaid rules. As part of the fraud scheme, Pam and Williams allegedly submitted hundreds of claims for reimbursement to Medicare and Medicaid totaling more than $5 million, falsely stating that Alliance and Medlinc had delivered equipment to beneficiaries when they knew that either no equipment was actually delivered; beneficiaries received less expensive scooters or reclining lift chairs instead of more expensive power wheelchairs; or beneficiaries received orthotic devices that were less in quantity or Medicare-approved quality than what was billed.

In one aspect of the fraud scheme, the indictment alleges that between February 2005 and May 2006, approximately 99 percent of the Alliance claims submitted to Medicare and Medicaid were for power wheelchairs and accessories that were never supplied. These claims totaled approximately $4.7 million. Pam, through Alliance , allegedly received reimbursements from these claims totaling more than $1.8 million, and the indictment seeks forfeiture of that amount.

The government is being represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Felicia Manno Alesia and Ryan Hedges. The case was investigated by the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Inspector General and the FBI.

Undocumented Immigrants draining Welfare system? A lie or a Lie.

Again is beyond belief the Anti Immigrants group are narrow minded towards facts and myths regarding draining social services like Welfare, Medicare, and Medicaid. Just a few facts for them; Are you there Lou Dobbs? Glenn Beck, Minuteman Groups? Read these facts:

A former Alabama Department of Human Resources employee from Prichard pleaded guilty this week to using her position to steal hundreds of dollars in food stamps, the attorney general's office announced Tuesday.

Three other Mobile County women also were convicted this week on charges of welfare fraud, according to a news release from Attorney General Troy King.

Elanda Stallworth, 57, admitted to charges of second-
degree theft of food stamp benefits or money from DHR and that she intentionally used her position for unlawful personal gain, the release states. She pleaded guilty in Mobile County Circuit Court on Monday. Stallworth apparently used her own computer to steal six checks worth $149, or a total of $894, King said. Source:


Attorney General Troy King today announced the convictions of three women in Mobile County Circuit Court for charges of welfare fraud.
“When people lie to receive welfare benefits to which they are not entitled, they are committing a crime against the State, the taxpaying public, and those who are truly deserving of welfare benefits,” said Attorney General King. “I take seriously my responsibility as Attorney General to protect public funds on behalf of the people of Alabama and pledge to prosecute those who break the law by abusing the welfare system.”

Chantell Robinson, 33, of Mobile, pleaded guilty today to third-degree theft of property in the amount of $1,401. She was sentenced to one year, which was suspended, and placed on probation for two years. The court ordered her to pay full restitution to the State of Alabama.

Tosha Lee, 32, of Chickasaw, pleaded guilty today to third-degree theft of property in the amount of $4,867. She was sentenced to one year, which was suspended, and placed on probation for two years. The court directed her to pay full restitution to the State of Alabama.

Shirley Ann Blackmon, 44, of Mobile, pleaded guilty yesterday to second-degree theft of property in the amount of $4,617. She was sentenced to three years, which was suspended, and placed on probation for three years. The court ordered her to pay full restitution to the State of Alabama.

The Attorney General commended Assistant Attorney General Noel Barnes and Senior Special Agent Assie Webb for their work in handling these cases. Attorney General King also thanked the Department of Human Resources in Mobile County for its assistance in preparing information and referring the matter to the Attorney General’s Office for review and appropriate action, noting in particular Rose Johnson, director of Mobile County Department of Human Resources; Avis Buford, caseworker, Mobile County DHR; Leon Kennedy, claims worker, Mobile County DHR; and Geraldine W. Turner, claims supervisor, Mobile County DHR.

Johnson stated, “We work to have our Food Stamp program deliver timely benefits to eligible individual’s and appreciate the Attorney General prosecuting those who illegally receive benefits. Every dollar given fraudulently takes away from those truly in need. We want the public to have confidence in the administering of these programs and appreciate prosecution when appropriate.”

The Mobile County cases are part of a continuing statewide effort by Attorney General King to aggressively investigate and prosecute welfare fraud. Prosecutions are pending in approximately 38 counties, including Baldwin, Clarke, Monroe, Escambia and Conecuh counties. Source:


Couple plead guilty to welfare fraud

A Shingletown couple have pleaded guilty to welfare fraud and are due to be sentenced March 24, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

William Wallner, 34, pleaded guilty Monday to welfare fraud and perjury in two separate cases, and is to be sentenced to three years in prison, Deputy District Attorney Michael Hemker said.

Teresa Wallner, 34, pleaded guilty to two counts of welfare fraud and is to be sentenced to 180 days in jail, he said.

Between 2004 and 2008, the couple were overpaid nearly $30,000 in welfare benefits for failing to report job and unemployment income, Hemker said. Source:

Polygamous Sect are the largest funded groups from Medicare and Medical.

If you are going to have three wives and 15 children, you need to figure out a way to support three wives and 15 children. Source:

Undocumented Immigrants draining the Medicare program? A lie or a Lie.!!!

If you put all the different sources of funding together today- the SSI, the IHSS, the child care, welfare and Section 8 - they can make a family income of $5,000 to $8,000 a month without having to really work. That's up to $100,000 a year tax-free. They can live in very nice homes and drive nice cars but the Goverment, Nativist, Minuteman Groups and Anti Immigrants blaming undocumented immigrants when to the contrary are not eligible to receive any "welfare" benefits and even legal immigrants are severely restricted in the benefits they can receive.

As the Congressional Research Service points out in a 2007 report, undocumented immigrants, who comprise nearly one-third of all immigrants in the country, are not eligible to receive public "welfare" benefits -- ever.

In the months since the Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury found that "scam artists" are "embedded" inside the county's in-home care program, an investigation has uncovered widespread fraud, including county employees involved in the schemes.

More than 700 instances of suspected fraud have been referred to the state Department of Health Care Services for investigation, and arrests of In-Home Supportive Services employees are pending, prosecutors said.

"I think the extent of the fraud is greater than anyone ever realized," said James Baker, assistant head deputy in the Welfare Fraud Division of the county District Attorney's Office.

He said officials in the Department of Public Social Services are re-examining the whole in-home care program and protocols.

"They have started an internal review of all IHSS and DPSS employees (involved)," he said.

As the number of county residents receiving in-home care has doubled to 174,000 in the past decade, officials say fraud in the $1.6 billion program has also grown exponentially.

Last summer, the little-noticed section of the grand jury's report found that the entitlement program, which provides in-home care to elderly and disabled people, is rife with fraud.

"The IHSS program is not supposed to be a cottage industry for scam artists, especially those embedded within the ranks of DPSS itself," the report authors wrote. The scams "start inside the organization itself," said

John Gleiter, chairman of the grand jury's Investigative Committee and co-author of the report.
"It's the old Mafia game," said Gleiter, a retired businessman who lives in North Hollywood. "You look inside to see who is watching the chickens, and it's the fox who is watching the chickens."

County Social Services Director Philip Browning, who previously served as the state fraud director in Alabama, said fraud will not be tolerated among the department's 14,000 employees.

"It's heartbreaking to hear situations where employees have done things they shouldn't have and misused the program," he said. "I personally don't believe we have very many employees who are abusing the system, but when we do find these individuals, we want to take every disciplinary action possible and prosecute them to the fullest extent."

Growing concerns about fraud in the in-home program arose after the settlement of two lawsuits involving DPSS workers who blew the whistle.

Earlier this month, the county Board of Supervisors approved a $148,000 settlement for DPSS employee Sandra Siedenburg, who said she suffered retaliation for reporting many instances of elder abuse, theft of government funds and fraud, according to the lawsuit filed by Beverly Hills attorney Leo James Terrell. In the lawsuit, Siedenburg, who lives in Palmdale, complained about failures to investigate after she reported the incidents to her superiors.

In 2006, the supervisors approved a $250,000 settlement with former DPSS welfare case reviewer Gamil Youssef, who alleged he was retaliated against after making allegations of fraudulent activity inside the department.

Last month, the Service Employees International Union permanently banned Tyrone Freeman, former president of the union representing in-home care workers, from union membership, according to an SEIU statement. The SEIU said an independent hearing officer, former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin, found that Freeman had engaged in a pattern of financial mismanagement and self-dealing in violation of union bylaws. The union demanded that Freeman pay $1.1 million in restitution.

David Kline, spokesman for the California Taxpayers Association, said the grand jury report, the lawsuit settlements and the union president's ouster point toward the need for a statewide investigation.

"It seems like this is exactly the kind of investigation that is needed in every corner of the state because this program has grown very rapidly," Kline said. "If this much waste and fraud is going on in Los Angeles County, then we can only imagine what is going on in the other 57 counties."

In the report, grand jurors wrote that the "well-intentioned" aid program employs more than 120,000 people - mostly family members and relatives - paid $9 an hour to provide care and domestic services to elderly and disabled people.

The care is provided to people unable to take care of themselves. When effective, the program saves the state money by enabling elderly and disabled people to remain in their homes, rather than in far more costly nursing homes and medical facilities.

But county grand jurors found that the program has had mixed effectiveness: on the one hand, helping the "truly needy (and) the thought-to- be-needy," but on the other hand, inadvertently supporting criminal behavior.

"The mission of DPSS-administered aid programs is to ameliorate the plight of the poor and otherwise needy, not to cultivate their situation," jurors wrote.

Baker said his office has prosecuted dozens of people in IHSS scams costing taxpayers millions of dollars - as when people pretended to be blind or schizophrenic to receive benefits, or when some used multiple identities.

Baker said many involved in in-home care scams are also involved in abuse of programs to help the needy with child care, Section 8 housing and food stamps, as well as income assistance through federal and state welfare and Supplemental Security Income programs. In all, it may cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually in fraud, Baker said.

In July, Baker's office filed criminal charges against 21 men and women accused of an IHSS scheme that cost taxpayers more than $2 million.

Among those facing welfare-fraud charges is Kim Johnson, 40, of Palmdale. While receiving $194,000 in IHSS benefits for 24-hour protective supervision due to claimed disability, Johnson was observed driving a Cadillac Escalade, investigators said.

Prosecutors also accused Johnson and others of being involved in a conspiracy to buy a home in the Antelope Valley with profits and $100,000 in Section 8 benefits.

One of the big problems with in-home care is that people can qualify for "any type of disability," including ones "hard to really prove or disprove," Baker said.

"For instance, someone can have someone take them to the doctor and say, `I hear voices,"' he said. "The doctor writes a diagnosis of schizophrenia. They take that to DPSS or SSI, and they get benefits based on the doctor's note."

To crack down on fraud, grand jurors recommended fingerprinting, photographing and conducting criminal-background checks of recipients and providers. They also called for enhanced computer technology to cross-reference program participants and periodically reassess the recipient's actual needs.

In response, the DPSS sponsored a recent meeting with prosecutors and officials from state and federal agencies. The group drafted 29 recommendations to reduce fraud but not eliminating.

Both Browning and Baker say a big problem is that the state Department of Health Care Services, responsible for investigating IHSS fraud, has only a few investigators. Of the 747 fraud referrals DPSS made to the state since 2005, only 142 have been investigated.

A bill was introduced earlier this year to allow counties to conduct their own IHSS investigations, but it did not pass.

"Most of these recommendations are not within our authority," Browning said. "It will take the state Department of Social Services or the Department of Health Care Services to allow us to take some action."

A little help but not enough. Streamline Modification Program.

Fannie Mae today said that the Streamlined Modification Program (SMP) announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in November is now available to Fannie Mae servicers and borrowers as an option to help prevent foreclosures. Fannie Mae on December 12, 2008, provided information and guidelines to its servicers regarding the implementation of the SMP.

The SMP is designed to be a streamlined process for modifying the loans of
a large number of borrowers who are delinquent in their mortgage payment and may be able to avoid a foreclosure through the program. As FHFA has indicated, SMP was intended to help set standards in the mortgage servicing industry for conducting loan modification programs on a large scale as a foreclosure prevention measure.

Fannie Mae has been working with FHFA and 27 lenders and servicers in the
HOPE NOW alliance to implement the SMP. Under the program, borrowers who meet
certain eligibility criteria and demonstrate financial hardship may be eligible for a loan modification that reduces their monthly principal and interest payment.
The streamlined process allows a borrower to sign a single document at the outset of the workout process that both establishes a new monthly payment during a three-month trial period, and sets forth the modification terms that will take effect if the borrower makes the new payments during the trial period. The program is available to borrowers who have missed at least three monthly payments on their existing mortgages.

"By bringing the collective efforts of FHFA, Treasury, HOPE NOW, Fannie
Mae, Freddie Mac and other mortgage industry participants together through the
SMP to confront the foreclosure challenge, we'll be able to help more families
across America stay in their homes," said Herb Allison, Fannie Mae president
and CEO. "Along with other recently announced initiatives by Fannie Mae to
reach and help financially troubled borrowers earlier, including our Early
Workout program, the SMP is a critical component of our company's foreclosure
prevention efforts. These efforts are helping more than 10,000 delinquent
borrowers every month get back on track."


Modification Options


Through the SMP, servicers may change the terms of a loan to reduce a
borrower's first lien monthly mortgage payment, including taxes, insurance and
homeowners association payments, to an amount equal to 38 percent of gross
monthly income. The changes in terms may include one or more of the following:

-- Adding the accrued interest, escrow advances and costs to the principal
balance of the loan, if allowed by state law;
-- Extending the length of the mortgage loan as appropriate;
-- Reducing the mortgage loan interest rate in increments of 0.125 percent
to an interest rate that is not less than 3 percent. If the new rate is
set below the market interest rate, after five years it will step up in
annual increments to either the original loan interest rate or the
market interest rate at the time of the modification, whichever is
lower;
-- Forbearing on a portion of the principal, which will require the
borrower to make a balloon payment when the loan matures, is paid off,
or is refinanced.


Eligibility


Highlights of the SMP's eligibility requirements communicated to servicers
include:

-- Conforming conventional and jumbo conforming mortgage loans originated
on or before January 1, 2008;
-- Borrowers who are at least three or more payments past due and are not
currently in bankruptcy;
-- Only one-unit, owner-occupied, primary residences; and
-- Current mark-to-market loan-to-value ratio of 90 percent or more.



Servicers will be sending modification solicitation letters beginning this
month to thousands of borrowers believed to be eligible for the program. It is
critical that eligible borrowers respond to these letters and reach out to
their servicers to determine if they can receive SMP assistance. Also,
borrowers who don't receive a letter are encouraged to contact their servicer
to see if they may be eligible for SMP help. Fannie Mae will be working with
servicers to monitor and improve implementation of the program as necessary.


Fannie Mae exists to expand affordable housing and bring global capital to
local communities in order to serve the U.S. housing market. Fannie Mae has a
federal charter and operates in America's secondary mortgage market to enhance
the liquidity of the mortgage market by providing funds to mortgage bankers
and other lenders so that they may lend to home buyers. In 2008, we mark our
70th year of service to America's housing market. Our job is to help those who
house America.

Latin Immigrants makes heavy use of Welfare. Stir it up your Anti Immigrant Soup.!!!!

This is my response to Steven Camarota from the Think Tank group Center for Immigration Studies regarding blaming Undocumented Immigrants as the major source of draining social services like Welfare, Medicare and MediCaid.

Steve Camarota:

Estimate that 90% of Mexican and Latin American households have at least one worker. Their heavy welfare use reflects their low education levels and resulting low incomes – and not an unwillingness work.

Wrong...For low Education just .click here: and here, Here. My main focus is to find the true and not guessing or estimate like Steve Camarota, Lou Dobbs, and so on and on. Let's focus on facts.

Myth: Mexicans and Latin Americans makes heavy use of Welfare?

Facts: To the contrary, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to receive any "welfare" benefits and even legal immigrants are severely restricted in the benefits they can receive.

As the Congressional Research Service points out in a 2007 report, undocumented immigrants, who comprise nearly one-third of all immigrants in the country, are not eligible to receive public "welfare" benefits -- ever.

Legal permanent residents (LPRs) must pay into the Social Security and Medicare systems for approximately 10 years before they are eligible to receive benefits when they retire. In most cases, LPRs can not receive SSI, which is available only to U.S. citizens, and are not eligible for means-tested public benefits until 5 years after receiving their green cards.

A 2007 analysis of welfare data by researchers at the Urban Institute reveals that less than 1 percent of households headed by undocumented immigrants receive cash assistance or Welfare for needy families, compared to 5 percent of households headed by native-born U.S. citizens.

Facts: Six people suspected of allegedly defrauding child care welfare programs of more than $1 million were arrested Friday, the District Attorney's Office reported.

Total of nine defendants, including a county employee of the agency that administers welfare programs, are charged in three separate cases, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Beatrice Harvey, 28, was arrested Nov. 26 at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services office in Lancaster, where she works, officials said.

She has pleaded not guilty and remains jailed on $181,000 bail.

Harvey allegedly applied for and received more than $136,000 in aid between Nov. 30, 2001, and June 30, 2006. She allegedly failed to report that she was married and that her husband was fully employed by the county Department of Children and Family Services, the District Attorney's Office reported.

Harvey is due at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse next Monday. She is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require her to stand trial on one felony count of grand theft of personal property and five felony counts of perjury by declaration.

Those arrested Friday by investigators from the District Attorney's Office were:

Erica Manesha Dunn, 27, of North Hills;

Tammi Howard, 41, of Los Angeles;

Sannice Lavette Arthur, 41, of Los Angeles;

Cedric Dale, 41, and Darlene Jenkins, 46, who were arrested near Fort Worth, Texas.

Greta Marie Brown, 36, who was arrested in Long Beach.
Prosecutors allege Dunn, Howard and Arthur allegedly collected more than $665,000 for child care services that were not provided.

Dale is charged with orchestrating the theft of more than $340,000 of child care funds with Jenkins and Brown. The three allegedly worked with defendants connected with Harvey, according to the District Attorney's Office.

And for more Facts just click here: CIS, CIS2, CIS3, CIS4, CIS5.