Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., appeared to deliver a political death blow to a last-minute push to authorize $2,000 stimulus checks for
Pandemic Relief and the Georgia Elections
By Ben Jealous
Ben Jealous (Courtesy photo)
Fair warning: this isn’t a traditional Christmas-week column. If we think of clarity as a kind of gift, though, we can be grateful that the effort to pass a much-needed COVID-19 relief bill in the waning days of this Congress makes one thing crystal clear: hurting families and small businesses will be abandoned if Republicans keep control of the U.S. Senate by winning Georgia’s January 5 runoff elections.
There is some good news. The $900 billion package includes emergency relief for renters, families, small businesses, and more. That relief, that, includes direct help to individuals, is urgently needed. It will extend some protections against evictions for another month. It will give small business owners a little more breathing space to try to survive the pandemic.
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Claims for unemployment benefits in the US fell slightly to 787,000 last week, still 4 times pre-pandemic level
By Associated PressUpdated December 31, 2020, 8:32 a.m.
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A Help Wanted sign posted at Designer Eyes in Miami.Lynne Sladky/Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) â The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell by 19,000 last week to still historically high 787,000 as a resurgent coronavirus grips the US economy.
While at the lowest level in four weeks, the new figures released Thursday by the Labor Department are nearly four times higher than last year at this point before the coronavirus struck. Employers continue to cut jobs as rising coronavirus infections keep many people at home and state and local governments re-impose restrictions.