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Context Student and supporting organizations wrote a letter to the USDA recommending that the SNAP application interview requirement be removed, with the accompanying press release here. A news article that summarizes the entire P.R. push for this is accessible here through Fortune magazine. Why We Should Rethink the SNAP Interview Requirement: A Former Caseworker’s Perspective is an op-ed from The Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) which argues SNAP interviews should be made optional. Based on the author’s experience as a caseworker, the mandatory interviews are largely a pretense for detecting fraud, and the time could be better spent providing holistic assistance to SNAP participants. These “unnecessary interviews that are ineffective at finding what infinitesimal fraud exists” only serve to increase the stigma associated with accessing food stamps by treating applicants as if they “are thieves that must be watched”.1 Unfortunately, the lack of any evidence for or against the effectiveness of SNAP interviews (whatever their purpose may be), the confusing use of statistics, and the wider focus on stigmas associated with SNAP participation resulted in an unconvincing argument. While I agree with the author’s wider points that we should take steps to minimize stigmas of government benefits and that a primary purpose of mandatory SNAP interviews is to verify information, further study of the consequences is warranted before SNAP interviews are made optional. ...

Summary: many warnings about EBT payment scams and theft, alongside a proposal to improve security state bills (and national) continue to propose work requirements and refuse additional SNAP funding for the summer upcoming Farm Bill renewal is stalled by SNAP discussions and funding National Jobs and Opportunities for SNAP Act of 2023 proposed by Senator John Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. The companion U.S. House bill is here. The following is copied from the summary: ...

Written by Larry Gonick & Woollcott Smith Note: This is based on the “Revised and Updated Edition”. Cover page of The Cartoon Guide to Statistics Deriving, and learning when to apply, statistical formulas is always going to be difficult. It turns out that including cartoons does not make it any easier. I would put statistics writing into three general categories: teaching statistical literacy, e.g., How To Lie With Statistics; deriving the principles of statistical concepts, e.g., any college-level textbook; and applying statistical methods, e.g., an academic study. The Cartoon Guide To Statistics tries to do a bit of all three of these, and is worse off for it. The guide covers probability, random variables, sampling, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, experimental design, and regression in just over 200 pages. ...

Written by Darrell Huff and illustrated by Irving Geis. Originally published in 1954. In a sentence: a quick, worthwhile general knowledge read that explains how people misuse statistics through familiar and useful examples (that could use an update). I’ll face up to the serious purpose that I like to think lurks just beneath the surface of this book: explaining how to look a phony statistic in the eye and face it down; and no less important, how to recognize sound and usable data in that wilderness of fraud… ...

The following is a curated list of news articles by U.S. state and nationally that discussed SNAP benefits in February 2024. National Letter from Secretary Vilsack to Governors on SNAP Performance and Operations Poor performance on the SNAP efficiency measures meant 44 states got letters from the USDA expecting improvements. Congressional leaders agree on ag funding as Vilsack talks about SNAP pilot The SNAP pilot they discuss is the SNAP-choice pilot, limiting purchasable foods to “nutrient-dense” foods. Unsurprising that a paternalistic policy with the name “SNAP-choice” is being pushed by a Republican. See the next article for the industry’s response. ...

Microsoft Teams provides an integration with Microsoft Viva, which schedules daily check-ins to record your perception of your mental state. Once a day, at 4pm, I get a notification that asks me to select one of five emojis that reflects how I feel. Clearly, the last few weeks have not been particularly excellent, but I’m not sure what the value of this type of check-in or chart provides. We can come up with reasonable estimates of our own satisfaction with our work. I frequently journal, and I believe that the self-reflection forced through written inquiries gives way to a better sense of being, rather than an even shorter point-in-time indicator with almost no ambiguity. ...

I recently went on a weekend trip, where I counted each time that I interacted with a person who was a citizen of the country I was visiting. I did not include any interactions with individuals at the airport prior to landing at the destination, nor once I reached the airport to return. Non-verbal interactions were not considered, e.g., making room for someone on the sidewalk, or gesturing for a car to go first at an intersection. ...

I started to post SNAP performance indicators from the USDA in machine-readable format, aggregating and cleaning the data from the many PDF tables. This repository includes quick-access to cleaned, FIPS-linked CSV long-format tables of yearly state reported indicators for Application Processing Timeliness, Program Error Rates, and Case and Procedural Error Rates (coming soon). USDA Descriptions as follows: Application Processing Timeliness “measures the timeliness of states’ processing of initial SNAP applications. The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 entitles all eligible households to SNAP benefits within 30 days of application, or within 7 days, if they are eligible for expedited service.” ...

I took about 70 classes over a one-year unlimited class subscription with Babbel Live for Spanish from mid-2022 to 2023. My level was beginner to low intermediate over the course of the year, and I only took classes in the A1, A2, and B1 range. Prior to the classes, I was working with Anki flashcards and Duolingo lessons. What follows are some thoughts I had wrote down while taking the courses. Some aspects of the course may have changed since I took them. ...

If you’ve got the framework installed, and just want to deploy the static pages, skip to below. Note - my first time doing this, but it works. You can always deploy directly to Observable. Observable Framework is not supported on Windows, according to an issue in their GitHub. (Update Mar 2024: Observable Framework is now supported on Windows). To use it, you need to use WSL. If you want to use it through WSL, then the following still applies. Fortunately, it is very easy to do. Steps I had to take to do this: ...