A company in Austin, Texas is looking to dock pay from workers who receive government stimulus checks, according to an anonymous employee. With the historic $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus deal signed, Americans can look forward to receiving some economic relief during the pandemic. An unnamed company in Texas, though, appears to be looking to use the stimulus to relieve their payroll strain. On Wednesday, the company sent out a form titled "Employee Acknowledgement of Government Assistance' Pay Reduction." The form was reported by an employee who wished to remain anonymous, but the employee spoke to local news KXAN about the situation. "The form says they are preemptively deducting funds from our paychecks. That number is based on what they're anticipating the government relief fund to be," the worker told the outlet.
But immigrant rights advocates say leaving this group out of the $2 trillion plan isn't merely a matter of dollars and cents, and it isn't something that only affects undocumented workers and their families. It's a dangerous decision, they argue, that puts the whole country's health at risk as the novel coronavirus spreads. Critics counter that it's not the US government's place to bankroll someone who broke the law, and that as unemployment skyrockets, American workers should come first read more
rises clarify. The bigger the crisis, the more the clarity, which is why the incompetence, dishonesty, and sheer callousness of the Trump Presidency have been clearer in recent days than ever before. As the coronavirus, as of Wednesday an official pandemic, spreads, the lives of Americans depend on the decisions made"or not made, as the case may be"by a President uniquely ill-suited to command in this type of public-health catastrophe. In that sense, the last few weeks may well have been the most clarifying of Donald Trump's Presidency. In a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday night, Trump declared war on the "foreign virus," blaming first China and then the European Union for spreading it, and insisting that it carried "very, very low risk" for Americans. read more
WHO Director-General's Remarks: In the past two weeks, the number of cases of COVID-19 outside China has increased 13-fold, and the number of affected countries has tripled. There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people have lost their lives. Thousands more are fighting for their lives in hospitals. In the days and weeks ahead, we expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher. WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic. Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death. Describing the situation as a pandemic does not change WHO's assessment of the threat posed by this virus. It doesn't change what WHO is doing, and it doesn't change what countries should do. We have never before seen a pandemic sparked by a coronavirus. This is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus. And we have never before seen a pandemic that can be controlled, at the same time. WHO has been in full response mode since we were notified of the first cases. And we have called every day for countries to take urgent and aggressive action. We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear. read more
I've yet to see a thread dealing squarely with this topic so I figured I'd write one myself. I'm a Democrat. I'm a Liberal and a Progressive. I reject the type of corporate big money 'centrist' Democrat personified by people such as Hillary Clinton, Stop N Frisk Bloomberg and to a lesser degree other politicians such as Klobuchar, Steyer and Buttigeig. I really feel that of the current crop of candidates the only ones who really speak to me are Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. And Warren appears to be sinking like a stone. (I wish Gavin Newsom or Jerry Brown were running, but that's not happening.) That seems to leave Bernie as the candidate for people like me to support. read more
If true, this is a new low even for Texas with it's long history of exploiting workers. Hopefully this will not stand.