1.   An effort to end the fingerprinting of welfare applicants, an anti-fraud measure that the Texas House voted to end two months ago, died Thursday.

2.   But lately, Tuman said, his caseload of welfare applicants, including people who have lost their jobs, has been creeping up.

3.   Efforts to link drug treatment to welfare reform have been struck down in the United States because they required mandatory testing of all welfare applicants.

4.   Electronic fingerprinting of welfare applicants, an anti-fraud measure, would become mandatory in all counties.

5.   First-time welfare applicants usually respond positively, caseworkers say.

6.   In a draft report, the department criticizes the city for not immediately telling welfare applicants they could apply for food stamps.

7.   In selected counties, it will allow the state to begin several experiments aimed at placing welfare applicants in jobs before they are placed on the benefit rolls.

8.   Indeed, that is what Maryland proposes for welfare applicants who test positive.

9.   It is designed to prevent welfare applicants from using assumed names to collect benefits in more than one place.

10.   Officials in Albany County disagreed, saying that they had a right to demand that welfare applicants like Scott try to find work.