NPR -
September 2, 2020
The Trump administration has given employers the option to stop collecting payroll taxes for most workers through the end of this year. President Trump announced the move three weeks ago, after failing to reach a deal with Congress on a more comprehensive pandemic relief package. "This will mean bigger paychecks for working families as we race to produce a vaccine," Trump said. The move applies to workers whose biweekly pay is $4,000 or less. But as new guidance from the IRS makes clear, the windfall is merely a temporary loan. Unless Congress decides to forgive the taxes, employees will have to repay the money early next year.
11ALIVE -
September 2, 2020
11ALIVE -
September 2, 2020
Flagpole -
September 2, 2020
CNBC -
September 1, 2020
Coronavirus cases are rising across more than half of the nation even as the outbreak slows across former hotspots in Arizona, Florida, California and Texas. New cases are up by at least 5%, based on a seven-day average, in 26 states as of Sunday, compared with just 12 states a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. In Arizona, Florida, California and Texas, new cases are declining by at least as much, though those states still accounted for nearly 10,000 new cases combined on Sunday — or about a fourth of all new U.S. cases.
AP -
September 1, 2020
The U.S. CDC did not “backpedal” on the number of deaths caused by COVID-19, reducing the figure from nearly 154,000 to just over 9,000, as social media posts claimed. The term “Only 6%” trended widely on Twitter over the weekend as supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory promoted tweets that falsely suggested the CDC had updated its records to show that only 6% of U.S. deaths tied to COVID-19 were legitimate. President Donald Trump was among those who tweeted the information, which was later taken down by Twitter for violating platform rules.
The Hill -
September 1, 2020
Coronavirus-related hospitalizations and deaths of children and teens are on the rise, according to data compiled by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Although data indicate younger children are less likely to catch or transmit the virus, the May 21-Aug. 20 dataset shows a similar rise across states. Complicating matters is the fact that states use different grouping strategies, with many putting infants and teens in the same category, The New York Times notes. Sean O’Leary, vice chairman of the AAP’s committee on infectious diseases, said that infections among children appear to increase with general community spread. He added that, as with adults, Black and Latino children appear to be at disproportionate risk of hospitalization.
People -
September 1, 2020
Preventing the spread of the novel coronavirus among children returning to school this year is only one concern among health officials — another is preventing the flu. Earlier this month, Massachusetts became the first state to establish a mandate, which requires that students under the age of 30 get the flu shot before December 31. This applies to children over the age of 6 months attending childcare, K-12 students — even those participating in remote learning — as well as full-time undergraduate and graduate students who plan on attending any on-campus classes or activities.
Kaiser Health News -
September 1, 2020
Daly teaches elementary students with special needs. The children in her class, who have a variety of diagnoses and intellectual disabilities, are at even higher risk — they can’t work independently and need more hands-on instruction. … Online learning is interfering with the students’ individualized education programs, or IEPs — legal agreements among families, school districts and specialists that set academic and behavioral goals for students and the services they’re entitled to.
CNBC -
September 1, 2020
Not only do many children need assistance with school work and scheduling but, at the very least, they require basic supervision, which means an adult must be at home to help. To that point, 21% of parents said that they had to change or reduce work hours due to changes in school or child care as a result of the coronavirus crisis, according to a new report from Country Financial. Another 7% of parents had to leave a job altogether.
AP -
September 1, 2020
As the Summer of COVID draws to a close, many experts fear an even bleaker fall and suggest that American families should start planning for Thanksgiving by Zoom. Because of the many uncertainties, public health scientists say it’s easier to forecast the weather on Thanksgiving Day than to predict how the U.S. coronavirus crisis will play out this autumn. But school reopenings, holiday travel and more indoor activity because of colder weather could all separately increase transmission of the virus and combine in ways that could multiply the threat, they say.
NPR -
September 1, 2020
Latinos are more likely to deal with a more severe illness from COVID-19 — and when they're undocumented, they're less likely to be able to get the medical care they need to address it. It's hard to track how many undocumented immigrants get COVID-19. But they are high risk, says David Hayes-Bautista, who directs the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Not only do they often lack health insurance, many live in crowded homes with multiple generations of families. And many work in jobs where exposure to the coronavirus is high — as aides in nursing homes, as farm workers or in meat-packing plants or, like José, in restaurants.
TIME -
September 1, 2020
Now, the beginning of September looms as yet another deadline as utility companies resume cutting power to customers who have fallen behind on their bills. In some states, moratoriums preventing them from doing so are ending, and in other states, utility company pledges to keep customers connected are winding down. Residents in Ohio, Florida, Maryland, Indiana, and Illinois are all at risk of shutoffs in early September; shutoffs can resume in late September or October in North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas