Enter Bob Jones, an opportunistic businessman in El Paso, Texas. When journalists from THE OREGONIAN took a closer look at his non-profit — JWOD’s number one contractor, the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled — they found he was using the system, and federal tax dollars, to his advantage. In 2005 alone, NCED had been awarded federal contracts worth $276 million.
JWOD requires that two-thirds of an employer’s workforce be blind or severely disabled before it can qualify for federal funds. Jones slipped through the cracks by claiming his Spanish-speaking workers from over the border were “disadvantaged.”
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