Alabama hit hard by Food Stamp glitch

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Department of Human Resources says the state is among several in the U.S. affected by a glitch that's temporarily left people unable to buy groceries with food stamp debit-style cards. A statement by the Alabama agency Saturday afternoon said the cards should be operational within a few hours. It also stressed the problem isn't associated with the partial shutdown of the federal government. States from Maine to Mississippi were also reporting problems Saturday with the Electronic Benefits Transfer system. Xerox Corp., which runs EBT card systems for 17 states, said a routine check resulted in a system failure and its technical staff was fixing the problem.