I scooped the MSM!

The Florida Masochist did just that. It wasn't till yesterday that any of the local media outlets finally acknowledged the massive screwup concerning hurricane foodstamps here in South Florida.

Frustrated over Food Stamps. Thousands of you waited hours in line to apply for those disaster food stamp debit cards, and even though you were told you'd have them in a week, some of your are still waiting. And getting through to anyone to get answers has been nearly impossible.

Michael Attanasio/Frustrated over the Delay: "All of our agents are presently busy, please call again later and automatically, they hang up on you. Just now? Just now."

Michael Attanasio is about fed up, so is Colleen James.

Colleen James/Still Waiting: "I am so ridiculously aggravated with all this automated stuff on the phones. Everywhere you call, it's automated."

They are trying to find out what's going on with their disaster food stamps. They were among the thousands who stood in these lines to apply for the emergency debit cards nearly three weeks ago. The paperwork clearly shows, they were supposed to get their cards in just 7 to 10 days, but neither Michael nor Colleen and her family had their cards by the time they needed it most.

Michael: "I would have loved to have eaten like a king on Thanksgiving, like everybody else should have."

Suzanne Boyd/Reporting: "While DCF is in charge of the disaster food stamp program. The cards are actually issued and mailed out by the bank, JP Morgan Chase. And while JP Morgan Chase told some people their cards had been mailed out weeks ago, that just wasn't the case."

Attanasio was told that his was mailed on November 13th.But when he finally got his card this week, the envelope was postmarked November 21st, more than a week later.

Michael: "I'm not trying to point the finger at anyone, but I wish everyone would work together a little bit better to give out the right information."

Complicating the situation, the Department of Children and Families website and automated line which lets you look up the status of your case, led many people to believe, including Colleen, that they were denied. But DCF officials say that information means they are denied for *regular* food stamps.

Marilyn Munoz/DCF: "When they left their sites when they came here to apply, they were given a yellow sheet and it showed right there if they were approved or denied and that's what they should go on."

DCF says JP Morgan Chase told them all the cards have been mailed out, so everyone should have theirs in the next few days. In the meantime, because the state hotline was so overloaded, the local DCF office has now started accepting calls about the food stamp cards, so at least now people like Colleen can get an answer.

This was on WPEC Channel 12 yesterday December 1st. If you'd check back, I blogged on
this topic on November 28 and 29. Hell I'm the one who tipped off Channel 12.

So where is the rest of the local MSM? The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, The Sun-Sentinel, all are silent. I've spoken to Kathleen Chapman at the Post. Two days after I left a message. They may be slowly getting caught on to the story.

So one little blogger scooped media outlets owned by Cox Communications, Knight-Ridder, Washington Post Co., Tribune Co., to name just four. I was able to get two friends results, after speaking to about 10 people on the subject. Even Channel 12 hasn't gone that far, or they'd know about Connie Reinhardt at EBT. I gave them that name, talking to DCF as the station suggests is a waste of time.

By the way Governor Bush is lined up for tomorrow's knucklehead. His communications office is ignoring my phone calls despite promising me a return call from some one. Let krista.moody@myflorida.com aka Krista Moody know the apathy in Tallahassee is unacceptable.

Oh and to all the snobbish bloggers out there feeling threatened by Open trackbacks, when's the last time you scooped the media? How about it NZ Bear? Glenn Reynolds? I'm not a real blogger to Bear because of my open trackbacks. Reynolds compares us to parasites This would point out the reverse. How often do either of them produce anything original? I mean news, not something based off the MSM. Tell me you two? You're parasites living off what you read in the MSM. They just feel threatened and maybe they ought to. Go eat tahe all of you.

Update- Suzanne Boyd of Channel 12 called me this morning to ask what retail stores in the are are taking making Food Stamp Card numbers.

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