Q: TEXT: A massive winter storm has left at least 17 people dead and more than a million homes across the Midwest without power, according to reports from several state emergency management agencies. A tree pulls on utility lines Wednesday in Louisville, Kentucky, in a photo from iReporter Jacek Jasinski. Almost half those households are in Kentucky, where 45 shelters have been set up to help residents battling icy conditions, a spokesman for the governor's office said. "One of our biggest concerns is [providing] power generators, especially for nursing homes out in the western part of the state that are without power," Jay Blanton, spokesman for Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, said Wednesday. The storm dumped ice and snow on a region that extends from Texas to Kentucky and left "absolutely everything in northwest Arkansas ... at a standstill," an Arkansas police officer said.  Watch ice damage trees in Arkansas ». "It's hard to walk, let alone drive," Fayetteville, Arkansas, police officer Dan Baker said. "It looks like tornado damage." He added, "Our officers are wearing metal cleats just so they can walk the streets." iReport.com: Send your wintry weather photos, videos. Northwest Arkansas has been hit hard, and schools and universities were closed throughout the state.  See the impact of the storms ». "It's like a ghost town," Barbara Rademacher of Rogers, Arkansas, said Wednesday morning. "It's just white and ice," Rademacher said while looking out her kitchen window at a street devoid of traffic and littered with the ice-weighted branches of oak trees. "The roads are impassable, and there are shelters set up in every community because there are so many people with power out," she said. The storms were extending their reach into the New England states Wednesday. The National Weather Service issued freezing rain, ice and winter storm warnings from Texas up through the Ohio Valley and into New England.  Watch how to have fun in the snow ». As of Wednesday, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission reported at least 27,621 homes and businesses affected by power outages across the state. The commission office was closed Wednesday because of the icy conditions. Heavy snow fell in many areas Tuesday into early Wednesday. Parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland were hit with 4 inches; parts of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana were struck with 6 inches; and areas of Ohio were covered with 12 inches of snow, forecasters said. Ice storms blast the heartland. Weather-related flight delays were reported at New York's LaGuardia and Washington Dulles International airports as well as in Dallas, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Newark, New Jersey, a Federal Aviation Administration Web site indicated. Check on your airport. For Dorenda Coks, assistant manager at City Bites in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the winter blast was a completely new experience.  Watch the terrible driving conditions in Oklahoma and Arkansas ». The Jamaica native is experiencing her first winter in Oklahoma and wasn't prepared for the cold. "You just try to stay warm," Coks said. Oklahomans were due for some relief Wednesday as temperatures were expected to rise above freezing, according to meteorologist Andy Wallace of CNN affiliate KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City. CNN's David Ariosto contributed to this report.
A: Highlights: At least 17 deaths blamed on icy winter storm. Kentucky opens 45 shelters for thousands without power. "Everything in northwest Arkansas is at a standstill," police officer says. Storms drop ice, sleet and snow from Texas to Ohio Valley to New England.

Q: TEXT: A California 'beach bum' has no job, surfs and drinks when he wakes up every afternoon and has no intentions of finding employment anytime in the near future - yet, he eats lobster or gourmet sushi everyday. Jason Greenslate, 29, owes his successful culinary mooching to one thing: food stamps. Greenslate recently was profiled on Fox News for a special segment about the abuses of the nation's food stamp program. And despite mooching off American taxpayers for a living, Greenslate is remarkably unapologetic, nor does he feel any shame for abusing a system designed to help people who truly are in need. Beach bum: Greenslate doesn't plan on getting a job - and why would he? He gets free lobster. Dig in: Greenslate and his friends enjoy some taxpayer-funded lobster as they drink beer and play guitars. 'This is the way I want to live and I don’t really see anything. changing,' Greenslate said in the interview. 'It’s free. food; it’s awesome.' During a later interview with the Huffington Post, Greenslate added that 'I don't feel like a bum. I pull hot chicks, drive nice cars,. dress nice and wear the most baddest jewelry in the world.' During the segment, Greenslate is seen driving expensive cars, drinking beer and grilling lobsters with his friends. Before the cookout, cameras followed Greenslate into a grocery store and watched him purchase the food with his government-issued Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) card. SNAP: Greenslate is given $200 a month for food on his SNAP card, which features the California coast. With the card - which only needs to be renewed once a year - Greenslate is given $200 a month for food. There is no requirement that he even look for employment. Previously, there were stipulations that food stamp recipients with no family could only receive food stamps for three months every three years unless they had part time employment or were involved in a jobs program. The goal was to help people who couldn't make ends meet, not supplement income so people could surf and drink beer. Many of those types of restrictions were eliminated when President Barack Obama signed the 2009 stimulus bill, which allows people like Greenslate to abuse the system. On Thursday, Congress passed a bill that would reduce food stamp spending by five percent. Prior to the vote, Congressional leaders were shown the video featuring Greenslate. Video source The Roger Hedgecock Show. Wisdom: 'I don't feel like a bum. I pull hot chicks, drive nice cars, dress nice and wear the most baddest jewelry in the world.' 'You can no longer sit on your couch or ride a surfboard like Jason in California and expect the federal taxpayer to feed you,' Congressman Tim Huelskamp said following the vote. Republicans in Congress have used Greenslate as the poster-child for the need for entitlement reform. But Democrats have cast aside that notion, claiming that he doesn't represent the majority of the people who receive assistance. 'I don't give a damn about surfer dude,' Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern said. 'As far. as I'm concerned, he can walk off the nearest pier. To suggest that. he's the face of SNAP is offensive.' As for the Congressional vote, Greenslate noted, 'I don't think that one person should be the decision for 47 million people.'
A:
Highlights: 29-year-old Jason Greenslate is given $200 in food stamps a month despite his not even attempting to find a job. He has no job, surfs and drinks when he. wakes up every afternoon and has no intentions of finding employment. anytime in the near future - yet, he eats lobster or gourmet sushi. everyday. Of his lifestyle, Greenslate says, 'I don't feel like a bum. I pull hot chicks, drive nice cars,. dress nice and wear the most baddest jewelry in the world.'