CA Lawmakers Demand Immediate Unemployment Reform

Lawmakers Demand Immediate Unemployment Reform There are new demands for immediate reform at the state’s Employment Development Department which is in charge of providing unemployment benefits to Californians who’ve lost their jobs. Those demands are coming from more than 60 California lawmakers. Reporter: Mary Franklin Harvin, KQED  Nancy Pelosi Calls For Extension Of Federal Unemployment Benefits House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says additional unemployment payments for people who lost their jobs because of COVID are crucial as the country tries to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic. Reporter: Katie Orr, KQED Advocates Say Early End to Census Strategically Targets Under-Resourced Communities The U.S. census bureau will now end its counting efforts on September 30th, a month earlier than previously announced. this puts local census efforts in San Diego, already constrained by the pandemic, under even more pressure to get the count done quickly and accurately. Reporter: Max Rivlin-Nadler, KPBS L.A. County's COVID Cases Might Be Higher Than Reported Los Angeles county’s COVID-19 cases are growing by more than 2000 cases a day, but the real number may be much higher. As technical issues on the state level may have led to under-reporting of cases for the last two weeks. Reporter: Jackie Fortier, KPCC Californians' Views on the Pandemic Fall Along Party Lines A poll from UC Berkeley finds that Democrats and no party preference voters overwhelmingly believe the state moved too quickly to ease pandemic-related restrictions on businesses. But a strong majority of Republicans say the business restrictions needed to be lifted because of the damage they were doing to the economy Reporter: Marisa Lagos, KQED Local Business Owners Bring Entire Staff To Mission District Testing Site In San Francisco's Mission District activists convinced public health officials to set up a pop-up testing site after research revealed that Latinos make up 15% of the city's population, but half of all its COVID cases. The owners of a local tortilla business recently brought their entire staff to get tested together.  Guests: Theresa Pasion and Aida Ibarra, Owners, La Palma Mexicatessan CA Attorney General Sues Uber and Lyft Over Worker Status Uber and Lyft are being sued by the state Attorney General for how they classify workers, and now California’s Labor Commissioner is suing the companies, too. The lawsuit comes after over 5,000 drivers filed claims of wage theft for being misclassified as contractors. Reporter: Sam Harnett, KQED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices