We were hit with the Blaster Worm Friday. The timing couldn't have been much worse for our folks on the Network Services team. When the worm hit, Network Services had already worked all night trying to restore the CC server and half of our Network Services team was in Kenai doing a PC installation. A small team of people were left to do the work of many. Those individuals were:

John Mirelez, Myria Newport, Mike Morris, Sara Nogg, Brady Green and Tammie Rivera who was not only instumental in tackling the Blaster but coordinating the efforts of other staff.

Do you know if a person who is exempt from food stamp work requirements due to receiving unemployment benefits may be disqualified - if they fail to comply with a work requirement by the unemployment program? Can the certification period be extended under special circumstances? Are utility expenses paid by an excluded member allowed in full? Take our New Food Stamp Challenge and put your knowledge to the test!

Network Services worked during the weekend to update many computers statewide to resolve issues related to the Blaster Worm virus infection. Please click read more...

I want to thank those of you who answered the food stamp accuracy survey. Your response was overwhelming! 154 responses were received. That amounts to nearly one third of our total statewide staff. State elections should have that kind of a turnout! When you consider that many of our staff have no direct involvement in eligibility determination or the food stamp program, this is an amazing response rate.

Here are a couple of e-mail responses to the request for suggestions on how to improve the Food Stamp accuracy rate.

E-mail #1

Hello Director Lombardo-

I think your letter was appropriate and correct. As an Eligibility Tech. III in the Coastal unit I have had the opportunity to review several of our Elig. Tech's cases.