New California relief program for undocumented overwhelmed by demand [NPR]
California’s first-of-its-kind effort to get cash aid into the hands of undocumented workers affected by the coronavirus got off to a bumpy start over the past week. Across the state, tens of thousands of immigrants calling to apply encountered busy signals, crashed phone lines and frustration. … The scramble is part of a basic math problem: There’s only enough aid money for 250,000 people. But there are an estimated 2 million workers in the state illegally, potentially leaving some 1.75 million people in need without aid.
Hunger program’s slow start leaves millions of children waiting [New York Times]
As child hunger soars to levels without modern precedent, an emergency program Congress created two months ago has reached only a small fraction of the 30 million children it was intended to help. The program, Pandemic-EBT, aims to compensate for the declining reach of school meals by placing their value on electronic cards that families can use in grocery stores. But collecting lunch lists from thousands of school districts, transferring them to often-outdated state computers and issuing specialized cards has proved much harder than envisioned, leaving millions of needy families waiting to buy food.
‘What the heck is going on?’ County supervisors demand answers on Vernon coronavirus outbreaks [Los Angeles Times]
Alarmed by a rising number of coronavirus infections among meatpacking workers in Vernon, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday gave local health officials and plant operators one week to review worker safety protocols and report back. The order, introduced by Supervisor Hilda Solis and passed by a 5-0 vote, followed reports this weekend of coronavirus clusters in at least nine facilities in the small industrial city south of downtown Los Angeles, including five meatpacking plants.
Coronavirus outbreak hits Morgan Hill fish packing plant [Bay Area News Group]
A coronavirus outbreak with nearly 40 confirmed cases so far has been traced to a fish-packing plant in Morgan Hill, according to health officials. … In addition to testing all other workers, and retesting all those who tested negative, a Lusamerica spokesperson added in a statement that the company has also closed down shared facilities where social distancing is “a challenge” like its cafeteria and locker rooms and is taking the temperature of every employee upon arrival at the facility. Some employees’ relatives, who asked not to be identified because they feared getting them in trouble, disputed that account and said workers had little access to sanitizing equipment and that social distancing and hygiene measures weren’t enforced.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/26/coronavirus-outbreak-hits-morgan-hill-fish-packing-plant/
Thousands of U.S. immigration agency employees could face furloughs without emergency funds [CBS News]
Thousands of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees could be furloughed in late July unless the cash-strapped government agency, which oversees the nation’s legal immigration system, receives more than a billion dollars in emergency funds from Congress. Without congressional action, USCIS, which relies mostly on application fees to finance day-to-day operations, could furlough “a portion” of its employees starting on July 20, the agency’s deputy director for policy, Joseph Edlow, said in a message to staffers Tuesday afternoon.
Winter ‘will lose much of its punch’: Climate change may diminish big snowstorms in the US [USA Today]
Big snowstorms might be few and far between later this century as the climate warms, a new study released Monday suggests. In fact, global warming is expected to affect the frequency, intensity and size of snowstorms across much of the U.S., according to the study. … Milder temperatures would not only reduce the number of snowstorms each year, scientists said, but the warmth would also reduce the size of the snowstorms when they do happen.
