🥫 SNAP benefits: Amid a continuing legal fight, Ohio said it will start sending partial SNAP benefits this week.
🏛️ Shutdown vote: The Senate passed legislation Monday to reopen the government, bringing the longest shutdown in history closer to an end. The House vote should come within a few days.
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The last of the greatest: WWII veterans fade from view, but their legacy endures
For Veterans Day, writer Mary McCarty spoke with a 98-year-old Navy veteran and the deputy director of the Montgomery County Veterans Service Commission on the area’s few remaining World War II vets.
• Signing up: Paul Hughes, 98, was only 17 when he enlisted in the Navy in 1944, having recently dropped out of high school to secure a factory job that paid the princely sum of 75 cents an hour.
• The purpose: Deputy director Bryan Suddith said that the WWII veterans fought in a war where the country was united behind a single purpose.
• His duties: Hughes did not see combat, but as the resident barber he was quite the shipboard celebrity. “They didn’t want to work, so they didn’t mind the long lines for a haircut,” he recalled with a chuckle.
• Respect: Only two WWII vets have been served by the Veterans Service Commission in Montgomery County this year: “When one of these vets comes in, the entire office takes note,” Suddith said. “People will come by and shake their hand.”
Ohio SNAP recipients expected to receive partial benefits this week
Ohio will start sending partial SNAP benefits this week, with some payments going out as early as Wednesday.
• How much? The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said the payments could be up to 65% of the normal maximum benefits.
• Legal battle: The change came after a number of flip flops from a legal battle to force the Trump administration to use emergency funds set aside for SNAP benefits after they were paused Nov. 1 during the government shutdown.
• Instructions: This week, ODJFS said the federal government instructed it to reduce the maximum amount households can receive by 35%, though nearly all recipients will receive less than 65% of their normal benefits.
• Those impacted: In Montgomery County, more than 83,000 residents rely on SNAP, with 23,661 people on SNAP in Clark County and 40,064 in Butler County.
FREE CONTENT: Flu season is going viral: What has everyone searching (and sniffling)
Cold and flu season has officially arrived, and we are answering commonly searched questions like how you catch the flu and whether flu A or B is worse, as well as discussing the flu shot and what to know about the vaccine’s side effects.
What to know today
• The first snow: How much did you get Monday morning?
• Tip of the day: Here is a guide to free things you can do in Dayton and around the area.
• Flyers and Bearcats: UD and UC are set to face off tonight, and this is what to know before the game.
• Sweets to beat: The Dayton Daily News Holiday Cookie Contest is back, and here is how you can enter your own sweet treats.
• Stat of the day: Family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose 6% this year and are expected to keep rising next year.
• Happening today: Here is a list of places offering current or former military members free meals for Veterans Day.
• Coming this week: Here are local events this week in honor of Veterans Day in Montgomery County.
• Photo of the day: Multiple inches of snow fell across the area in the first snowfall of the season. See photos of the area’s first flakes from staff photographers Nick Graham, Bryant Billing and Joseph Cooke here.
