Putting Things into Perspective

From the WSJ, byline, Minneapolis, putting a face on welfare spat.

Latisha Cunningham, an unemployed 30-year-old, carries an activity log in her pink backpack so she can document every hour she spends in temporary work, looking for jobs or at community college.

If she is missing signatures from a teacher or doesn't have the right mix of activities, she could lose the $437 a month she receives in cash assistance. If the state doesn't have the right documentation for her, it could lose federal funding for its welfare program. Counselors say that assembling the paperwork is so time-consuming that helping her land permanent employment takes a back seat to perfecting her time sheet.

Minnesota's frustrations with federal-welfare regulations are at the center of a campaign-trail fight over how much leeway Washington should give states to run the program. It and a handful of other states contend too much emphasis is being placed on documentation and not enough on whether recipients actually find jobs. 

Bureaucrats.

From Teegue, the Pugh clause. 

" The answer was generally yes but we need stratigraphic relief to optimally continue our explorations" translates into 'we want the freedom to go deeper without having to buy new vertical leases in areas where we have shallower wells already drilled and holding higher formations by production." So, end result is IF the NDIC grants them that "stratigraphic relief"  then these operators will most certainly be exploring into areas not on the radar at the time of permitting... and since they will not have to secure another formational permit, neither will they be required (or compelled, or even morally prompted) to put the time and resources into investigating who does and who does not have a workable and viable Pugh Clause --

Greed.