Page 6 - Pat Daugherty News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

It is a phenomenon with its roots in the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Many businesses were forced to shut down and send employees home, and the federal government began providing funds to supplement state unemployment checks. Florida was one of the first states to reopen, and business owners eager to turn a profit and recoup losses rushed to beef up their work force and return to normalcy. But with other states slower to open, stimulus dollars continued to flow from the U.S. Treasury. Even though federal unemployment insurance payments have been cut from $600 to $300, a Floridian wh...

Nashville businessman and philanthropist Ben R. Rechter, whose behind-the-scenes efforts involving civil rights, education, nonprofits, public media and the arts were integral in making the Middle Tennessee region a national model the past 50 years, died May 7. He was 83. Rechter was president of Rogers Group Investments Inc. and was a founder and the second-ever board chair at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, where he remained an active member of its Board of Trustees. CFMT honored him and other founders with the Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award in 2001. In 2016, he shared the initi...

Ben R. Rechter, a Nashville businessman and philanthropist whose background included work in civil rights, education, nonprofits and the arts, died on May 7. He was 83. Rechter was the former president and CEO of Rogers Group Investments Inc., a co-founder of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee and board member of multiple entities, including as chair of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. CFMT honored Rechter and other founders of the entity with the Joe Kraft Humanitarian Award in 2001. In 2016, he shared the initial Bridge to Equality Award along with his close friend, the lat...

Last spring, just after schools pivoted to virtual learning, dozens of parents from the School District of Lancaster signed an op-ed calling attention to the plight of our district in light of the pandemic (“Public school funding at risk during pandemic,” April 25 LNP | LancasterOnline). In February 2020, School District of Lancaster Superintendent Damaris Rau announced that our district was facing a $10 million deficit. Knowing that communities of color would bear the brunt of the pandemic, we feared the impending wreckage. Accordingly, we asked our lawmakers to fund our public sch...