Present day Headlines: An unemployed worker’s nightmare

California’s unemployment agency was not well prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, a condition audit confirmed this week. Here’s why.

Major Stories

An Unemployed Worker’s Nightmare

It’s been practically a year given that the COVID-19 pandemic started to knock the overall economy for a loop. But California’s unemployment added benefits system continues to be mired in dysfunction.

That has still left several jobless employees in dire straits, waiting for funds they need to feed and dress their people and keep away from ending up on the streets. When attempting to access the state Employment Improvement Division, they’ve encountered jammed cell phone strains, overwhelmed staff and failed technologies.

Though hundreds of thousands put up with, payments have rather long gone to fulfill fraudulent promises submitted in the names of jail inmates, infants, retirees and folks dwelling in other states. Apps for advantages have come from felony gangs working in Russia, China and Nigeria in a deluge.

What went completely wrong? Condition audits say the department failed to prepare for the flood of unemployment promises, neglected to fix complications officers identified a lot more than a decade in the past and all but ignored warnings of popular fraud for months.

Yet another Likelihood at Wellness Coverage

President Biden has requested government health insurance markets to reopen for a specific signal-up window from Feb. 15 as a result of May well 15, featuring uninsured Us residents a prospect to get included as the unfold of COVID-19 remains dangerously significant and vaccines aren’t nonetheless greatly obtainable.

Biden signed an government order directing the Health care.gov insurance plan markets to consider new applications for backed rewards, a little something the Trump administration refused to do. Biden also instructed his administration to consider reversing other Trump health care policies, which includes curbs on abortion counseling and the imposition of get the job done needs for lower-cash flow folks getting Medicaid.

The steps had been only the first actions by Biden, who has promised to build out previous President Obama’s healthcare law to realize a purpose of coverage for all. But Biden’s strategy will have to have congressional buy-in, and opposition to Obamacare runs deep among the Republican lawmakers.

Additional Politics

— Democrats in Congress and the White Residence rejected a Republican pitch to break up Biden’s $1.9-trillion COVID-19 rescue approach into lesser chunks, with lawmakers showing up primed to transfer the sweeping economic and coronavirus support forward without the need of GOP help.

— Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentioned that lawmakers encounter threats of violence from an “enemy” inside Congress and that much more funds is essential for safety. Pelosi did not say whom she meant by her reference to an “enemy” within the Property.

— Pelosi intensified strain on Property Republican leaders for their dealing with of first-expression Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has expressed assist for baseless QAnon conspiracy theories and has preferred Facebook posts that advocated violence from Democrats and the FBI. Just one article advised taking pictures Pelosi in the head.

— The 1st Amendment’s security of free of charge speech sets a large bar, but constitutional gurus say Trump will have problem pressing a robust totally free-speech protection in his forthcoming Senate impeachment trial.

The Second-Dose Frustration

The directions upon obtaining a initial dose of COVID-19 vaccine are very clear: People ought to get the next shot 3 or 4 weeks afterwards. But items get a great deal murkier when it comes to in fact having an appointment to fulfill that deadline.

As a lot more Los Angeles County people acquire their first doses, tightening vaccine materials and on the net scheduling issues are hampering their means to end the two-dose vaccination system.

On Thursday, some L.A. County inhabitants who have been scheduled to receive their initially shot found out they will have to wait around extended after officers pulled back again some doses allocated for Ralphs pharmacies. Officials with the supermarket chain explained the L.A. County Community Health Department, performing at the ask for of the California Department of Public Wellness, has “recovered” 10,000 doses from Ralphs pharmacies that were supposed for future appointments.

Quite a few other residents are dealing with problems navigating the county’s on the net scheduling technique, a confusing and aggravating procedure that can end result in several hours of wasted time. So lots of folks have problems about next doses that the county’s simply call heart is jammed with 1,000 phone calls an hour at times, according to community officers.

Additional Top Coronavirus Headlines

— California lawmakers voted to extend COVID-19 eviction protections by means of June.

— State officers adopted sweeping unexpected emergency steps intended to safeguard minimal-wage personnel from COVID-19. But employees say implementation of the new rule has been a letdown.

— A new coronavirus variant determined in South Africa has been found in the United States for the to start with time, with two scenarios identified in South Carolina.

— It is time to start out putting on two masks or better ones, gurus say.

For a lot more, sign up for Coronavirus Nowadays, a distinctive version of The Times’ Wellbeing and Science publication.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Beachfront residences come with at minimum one incredibly large risk: storm surges.

On Jan. 30, 1998, Instances photographer Alan Hagman was sent to Faria Beach in Ventura County after a storm when a wave strike his vehicle on Pacific Coastline Highway at Solimar Seaside. He hiked to a nearby house, where by the occupant, Marilyn Lane, enable him hold out for a tow truck.

But her house was also at hazard as the ocean ongoing to swell. Hagman grabbed his digital camera just in time as drinking water started to pour by the doorway. The resulting image received awards and was featured in publications all-around the earth.

YOUR WEEKEND

— The biggest plant tendencies of 2021: gothic, bizarre and neon.

— The touring seedling display Tomatomania is again with hundreds of tomato selections.

— Looking for some tradition? Right here are 21 on the internet concert events, theater, artwork and other displays, furthermore six push-in or normally socially distanced outside functions.

— Maybe you’re not hosting a Tremendous Bowl occasion this year, but you can continue to enjoy some hen wings. Get The Times’ tips below. Or how about some frozen pizza? We’ve obtained you lined way too.

CALIFORNIA

— UCLA has shattered national information for freshman purposes — and is on track to noticeably widen access to underrepresented minorities — as the number of students looking for admission for tumble 2021 soared.

— With a $3.65-million grant and a trove of Los Angeles Police Office data relationship back again a long time, students at UCLA have released a new archival challenge aimed at independently preserving and dissecting the background of mass incarceration in L.A.

— Major rains along the Central Coastline have induced mudslides and particles flows this 7 days. Previously this month, winds at Yosemite National Park toppled 15 huge sequoias, triggering “the most damage” calculated in the park’s recorded historical past.

— For Gov. Gavin Newsom, there is some good and some bad information from an expert on recall elections.

Country-Environment

— Some QAnon adherents have concocted at any time more elaborate stories to maintain their religion alive after Trump’s defeat. Some others are turning to remedy and on line guidance groups to address the problems finished when their beliefs collided with fact.

— Europe’s COVID-19 vaccines are in brief offer and so is persistence in the European Union as officers and citizens position fingers about who is to blame for the delays.

— A Russian courtroom turned down opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s attractiveness from his arrest, as authorities detained quite a few of his allies and issued warnings to social media businesses about protests planned for this weekend.

— Pakistan’s Supreme Court docket requested the launch of a Pakistani male convicted and later on acquitted in the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

— Cicely Tyson, acknowledged for her elegant phase existence and capturing the electricity and grace of Black females in The usa, has died.

— As an actor, Jared Leto is not a guy of 50 % actions. In the movie “Little Items,” he goes all out to heighten the creepiness.

— Wendy Williams is the queen of “I really don’t treatment.” How do you think she built it this much?

— Can studios compete with streaming expert services to invest in this year’s Sundance hits? They are heading to attempt.

Enterprise

— Trading platform Robinhood moved to prohibit investing in GameStop and other shares that have soared amid an intense getting campaign by compact investors. But even with the sector stress, there’s nothing new about traders teaming up and placing off a frenzy, writes columnist Michael Hiltzik.

— Standard Motors has set a intention of creating the broad majority of the vehicles it produces electric by 2035.

Athletics

— If Jared Goff goes, a single of these quarterbacks could be the Rams’ 2021 starter.

— Candace Parker might be leaving, but she will eternally be a Spark, columnist Invoice Plaschke writes.

Impression

— Disabled people today are disproportionately dying of COVID, writes Tim Jin, who serves on the board of Disability Voices United. California’s age-based vaccine plan ought to be altered to make them a priority.

— L.A. County voters elected George Gascón as district lawyer to transform the criminal justice procedure. Enable him do it, The Times’ editorial board urges.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE Looking through

— Corky Lee, a photographer and activist who documented New York’s Chinatown, has died of COVID-19 at age 73. (The Village Solar)

— The bizarre fatalities of hikers at Russia’s Dyatlov Move have encouraged conspiracy theories, but science might have solved the secret. (National Geographic)

— Probably you can not take in in the lodge restaurant these days. But you may possibly be ready to eat a food from the hotel cafe by on your own in a lodge place upstairs. (Eater)

ONLY IN L.A.

The Westin Bonaventure Resort & Suites, with its elevators on the outside. The Triforium, a 60-foot-tall “polyphonoptic” sculpture. Wat Thai, the biggest Thai Buddhist temple in L.A. County. The “Brady Bunch” home. All of these landmarks are from the 1970s. The Los Angeles Conservancy has 3 self-driving architectural tours showcasing properties, cultural web sites and landmarks from this pivotal (and groovy) ten years.

Comments or tips? Electronic mail us at [email protected].