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TexasTowelie's JournalPandemic piles on woes for many Akron-area Black-owned businesses
Bob Lanier keeps his eyes on Black-owned businesses in the Greater Akron area.
He's the Akron-based publisher of The Summit Magazine and The Black Pages business directory and for decades has been a part of the local Black business community. He's been through numerous business cycles, watched people open mom and pop shops, manufacturing sites, technology and professional offices, hire employees, expand, contract and create.
Lanier, along with others, knows the coronavirus pandemic caused significant hardships that are hurting all kinds of businesses — and minority-owned businesses in particular that in many cases lack resources needed to help them weather bad times. The stress the pandemic has created is seen in part through the number of closures, fewer customers, people put out of work for lack of business, empty offices and applications for financial help.
"The whole economy needs to be jump-started," Lanier said.
That needs to be done before businesses are at the point of no return, he said.
Read more: https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2021/01/31/akron-black-businesses-struggle-during-covid-19-pandemic/4282779001/
(Akron Beacon Journal)
'Forever chemicals' found in 24 drinking water systems in Southwest Ohio region
A group of so-called forever chemicals were detected in more than 20 public drinking water systems throughout Southwest Ohio but only one — Aullwood Audubon Farm Discovery Center — exceeded the federal recommended levels.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency sampled more than 1,550 public drinking water systems to determine if the contaminants, known as PFAS, were present. The testing, which wrapped up in late December, is part of Ohio’s action plan that’s aimed at addressing potential threats to both public and private drinking water systems.
The Dayton Daily News Path Forward project digs into solutions to the biggest issues facing our community, including the safety and sustainability of our drinking water. In this story, we examine the results of the state’s PFAS tests in area drinking water systems.
Low levels of the contaminants were detected in 24 Southwest Ohio public water systems in counties such as Greene, Montgomery, Clark and Warren, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Read more: https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/forever-chemicals-found-in-24-drinking-water-systems-in-region/3VFPJ45T3FBTZEJBNV2IE2MFCY
Thousands flee Hong Kong for U.K., fearing China crackdown
HONG KONG (AP) — Thousands of Hong Kongers have already made the sometimes painful decision to leave behind their hometown and move to Britain since Beijing imposed a strict national security law on the Chinese territory last summer. Their numbers are expected to swell to the hundreds of thousands.
Some are leaving because they fear punishment for supporting the pro-democracy protests that swept the former British colony in 2019. Others say China’s encroachment on their way of life and civil liberties has become unbearable, and they want to seek a better future for their children abroad. Most say they don’t plan to ever go back.
The moves are expected to accelerate now that 5 million Hong Kongers are eligible to apply for visas to Britain, allowing them to live, work and study there and eventually apply to become British citizens. Applications for the British National Overseas visa officially opened Sunday, though many have already arrived on British soil to get a head start.
Britain’s government said some 7,000 people with British National Overseas passports — a travel document that Hong Kongers could apply for before the city was handed over to Chinese control in 1997 — have arrived since July on the previously allowed six month visa. It estimates that over 300,000 people will take up the offer of extended residency rights in the next five years.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-beijing-hong-kong-coronavirus-pandemic-china-7d3497f187a251a9ca7655fce308c470
Advocates For Social Services And Education Say It's Time To Tap Ohio's Rainy-Day Fund
A coalition of more than 100 unions and progressive advocacy groups is calling on state leaders to avoid making cuts to front-line workers serving Ohio’s communities during this pandemic.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently signed an Executive Order for an across the board $390 million budget cut. Last year, when he made three quarters of a billion dollars in cuts to Medicaid and education, he said he thought the budget would actually be worse off than it is now. But revenues have been coming in ahead of estimates lately.
But Nick Bates, budget and public policy director for One Ohio Now, says this pandemic has hit Ohioans who depend on the state’s social services hard. Bates thinks DeWine should tap some of the $2.7 billion dollars now in the state’s rainy-day fund.
“We cannot cut our way to solutions. Ohio needs a balanced approach to balancing the state budget. Ohio should use the rainy-day fund now to prevent further pandemic budget cuts,” Bates says.
Read more: https://www.statenews.org/post/advocates-social-services-and-education-say-its-time-tap-ohios-rainy-day-fund
Ohio's Democratic Party Is Making Changes
Multiple sources confirm there have been some big staffing changes at the Ohio Democratic Party in recent days.
Sources confirm several key employees at the Ohio Democratic Party have been let go. New Ohio Democratic Party Chair Liz Walters won’t talk about why staffers are being fired or divulge how many are being let go, but she does say changes shouldn’t be unexpected.
“There will be a realignment of strategy and structure and we will be working on our stakeholders to really outline what that is in the next month or two," Walters says.
Walters was named to the post last week by the party’s executive committee after receiving the endorsement of Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Read more: https://www.statenews.org/post/ohios-democratic-party-making-changes
State Working On Plan For Private Sector To Help Run Unemployment Filing System
Thousands of Ohioans says they're struggling to file unemployment claims through the state's system that is slow and unresponsive. Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) says the state is doing a complete overhaul to address the issue.
The high number of people in Ohio filing for unemployment, the extension of unemployment benefits, and the additional federal benefits have put a strain on the state's system.
This has led to many people reporting significant challenges when trying to file.
"It is abundantly clear the state government cannot fix this the way I want it fixed. And so we're going out into the private sector," says DeWine. "We've already had several meetings. We'll have something to announce shortly. We're going to bring some people in from the private sector, quite candidly, to run the unemployment section."
Read more: https://www.statenews.org/post/state-working-plan-private-sector-help-run-unemployment-filing-system
Biden's executive orders aren't the problem. A broken Congress is.
It was tough not to chuckle at a New York Times editorial this week chastising President Joe Biden for the barrage of executive orders that have gone flying out of the Oval Office during his first week behind the Resolute Desk, as if he were the first president ever to do so.
“This is no way to make law. A polarized, narrowly divided Congress may offer Mr. Biden little choice but to employ executive actions or see his entire agenda held hostage,” the Times’ editorial board soberly inveighed. “These directives, however, are a flawed substitute for legislation.”
They’re not wrong — but more on that in a minute.
Biden has, indeed, been busy. He’s committed to the United States rejoining the Paris Climate agreement; undone a ban on transgender Americans serving in the armed forces; killed the Keystone XL pipeline; halted construction on the border wall, ended a hateful Muslim travel ban, and he took action Thursday on a variety of healthcare-related measures.
Predictably, Republicans have grumbled about what they see as wild executive overreach by the 46th president of the United States. On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, complained on Twitter: “30 executive orders and actions signed in only 3 days’ time. @POTUS, you can’t govern with a pen and a phone,” according to Newsweek.
Read more: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2021/02/01/bidens-executive-orders-arent-the-problem-a-broken-congress-is-friday-morning-coffee/
Here are the proposals to raise the minimum wage for Ohio workers
There are multiple efforts underway to raise the minimum wage for Ohio workers to $15 an hour.
The plans differ slightly on the timeline to reach that goal, but Democrats in the Ohio Statehouse, in Congress and in the White House are simultaneously pushing for an increase they say is necessary to benefit low-income Americans.
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour for non-tipped employees, but states are allowed to set theirs higher.
Ohioans approved a constitutional amendment in 2006 to automatically increase the state minimum wage each January. Since then, it’s gone up about a dime per year; the most recent increase was from $8.70 per hour in 2020 to $8.80 this year.
Read more: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2021/01/29/here-are-the-proposals-to-raise-the-minimum-wage-for-ohio-workers/
Ohio man who kicked in U.S. Capitol window during riot arrested
An Ohio man who kicked in a reinforced window shutter at the U.S. Capitol during the violent insurrection Jan. 6 was arrested in connection with his role in the raid.
Footage from the crowd captures Troy Faulkner, of Reynoldsburg, kicking in a reinforced window shutter that prosecutors say was worth $1000.
While Faulkner turned himself into the FBI, it was only a matter of time before authorities would identify him — he wore a sweatshirt with “Faulkner Painting,” his personal business, on the back, along with the company phone number.
As federal authorities noted in charging documents, he also essentially admitted to the allegations in an interview with this outlet.
Read more: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2021/02/01/ohio-man-who-kicked-in-u-s-capitol-window-during-riot-arrested/
Troy Faulkner, seen in khaki jacket, kicks in a enforced, shuttered window at the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. during the insurrection Jan. 6. Photo from YouTube.
Judge Denies Teacher Union Efforts To Halt In-Person Learning At Schools
A West Virginia judge has denied attempts to halt or slow a return to in-person learning for pre-K through 12th grade classrooms across the state.
Kanawha County Judge Carrie Webster denied a temporary restraining order filed by the state’s two largest teacher unions. The unions wanted the court to reverse a recent ruling made by the West Virginia Board of Education that no longer allows fully remote learning in pre-K through 8th grade.
That ruling by the state board also requires high schools to return to in-person instruction unless a county is red on the state’s COVID-19 risk map. Virtual school is still available to all counties and grade levels.
The West Virginia Education Association and the West Virginia chapter of the American Federation of Teachers filed the injunctions in an attempt to allow teachers and school service personnel time to receive both doses of a coronavirus vaccine before being forced to return to classrooms.
Read more: https://www.wvpublic.org/section/education/2021-01-27/judge-denies-teacher-union-efforts-to-halt-in-person-learning-at-schools
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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