#kentucky rural development loan

[superkentuckyblr]

(via Kentucky Rural Development Loans 100% Financing.)

[recoveryrehab94]

Farm Safety - National Government Resources Part 2

The federal government in the United States has a special place in being able to provide both federal and local advice and help with specific focus on the agricultural industry. This applies both to advice and guidance in a theoretical sense about all business activities, and in a specific sense to dedicated areas of the agricultural and farming industry.

Agricultural safety and health centres, come under the brief of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Health and safety on farms is a major issue, and this government agency focuses on research and policies regarding the prevention of all workplace injuries on a national level, including agriculture.

Agricultural safety and health centers take this work one stage further, providing help at a more local level, albeit still in a very wide geographical area. Some of the centres based in Washington, California, Colorado, Texas, Kentucky, New York and Ohio.

There are a few other centres as well and their work may even be subcontracted further down the line if necessary. The intent is to be able to provide more localised information and help on a geographical basis, and each center may decide on specific ways of doing this.

Their main role is to provide safety education programs, that take into account the broad locality of where they are based, and can thereby focus on specific issues that have a local bearing.

They are an excellent resource because they can combine both federal and local experience and policies, targeted much more specifically around the locality of an area.

The National Children's Centre for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety is a dedicated centre, which as its name implies focuses on providing farm safety in relation to children.

Unlike a lot of other industries, the use of children and young people in agricultural work is still seen as a really good thing, providing valuable experience for young people in a safe environment, providing holiday jobs, and often lifestyle and community experience.

Many young people who work on farms also live there, either as part of the family who own the farm, or as part of a family who work there.

In any event, it is acknowledged there needs to be a special focus on how best to protect children and young people in terms of workplace safety, in ways that do not necessarily apply to other businesses.

This agency oversees that, and try to develop a framework that allows children and young people to grow up and be involved in the nature of the work in a safe and appropriate manner.

The United States Consumer Production Safety Commission is a regulatory agency whose focus is on setting standards for consumers to have confidence in, in terms of the safety of all products within the industry.

This agency tries to work closely with farmers and producers of agricultural products in order to achieve this. It is in everyone's interests that consumers feel safe in the products they are buying, and this can be an ongoing challenge for the farming and agricultural industry.

The other main government agency worth mentioning is the Environmental Protection Agency. This agency has a broad remit to protect all areas of the environment, most notably the air, water and natural resources of the United States.

This agency has responsibility for overseeing and implementing laws and regulations that apply to pesticides and air and water pollution.

There can be heavy financial penalties if these regulations are not adhered to, and it can be a major challenge for many farms and agricultural businesses to make sure that all their business practices conform to current legislation.

The EPA should not be thought of as purely being a policeman enforcing government law.

It can also be a very effective resource for providing help and advice on what laws and regulations apply particular environment or area, and advising farmers on how best to meet their responsibilities.

Dealing with all types of pollution, either airborne or waterborneit is a responsibility that everyone working in the industry has, and in an ideal world would want to adhere to.

Business pressures can often lead to people taking shortcuts in the hope of getting away with it. This sadly does happen, although hopefully infrequently. It is important that all these government agencies work in a collective and collaborative manner in order to both support and regulate all farms and agricultural practices throughout the country.

Peter Main is a freelance writer who specializes in agriculture and related matters with all major manufacturers,  such as farm machinery, tractors, utvs, lawn and garden tractors, and snowblowers. He also writes extensively about all areas of tractor finance, including credit scores, insurance and  loan pay offs.

[khalilhumam]

The new politics of bluelining

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/the-new-politics-of-bluelining/

The new politics of bluelining

By David F. Damore, Robert E. Lang, Karen Danielsen For generations, redlining was used to designate neighborhoods—typically in urban areas with high concentrations of minority residents—as places banks should avoid offering home mortgages. The term originates from Federal Housing Administration maps developed in the 1930s where “red” labeled high-risk lending zones. To be “redlined” meant that households were structurally denied home loans and lost the opportunity to build wealth. Today, based on analysis in our book Blue Metros, Red States: The Shifting Urban-Rural Divide in America’s Swing States, a new type of discriminatory line is forming at the regional rather than neighborhood level. We label these “bluelines” to delineate the demographic, economic, geographic, and political divisions between blue, Democratic-leaning, million-plus metropolitan areas from the rest of their more Republican-dominated red states. In addition to considering how the twenty-seven metros in the thirteen swing states covered in our book affect electoral outcomes, we show how tensions between big metros and the balance of their states animate intrastate political and policy conflicts between the two. Examples of bluelining highlighted in our book include the Georgia “fetal heartbeat” and North Carolina “bathroom” laws, which were imposed by state legislatures on metros such as Atlanta, Charlotte, and Raleigh. These bills damaged industries in both states—film and television production in Georgia and pharmaceutics in North Carolina—and demonstrate how gerrymandering of legislative districts that overrepresent rural constituencies at the expense of urban interests distort policy agendas. Other forms of bluelining we identify are limited home rule authority[1] and aggressive state preemption[2] that constrain metros’ capacities to chart their own courses, as well as the siphoning of tax revenue generated in million-plus metros to support government services elsewhere. Also note that because many major metros constitute large shares of their state populations, millions of Republicans living in such places are subject to bluelining and its negative impact on metro constituencies. Pennsylvania, which prognosticators expect could be the “tipping point” state that will provide either Donald Trump or Joe Biden with a majority of Electoral College votes, exemplifies the politics of bluelining. In fact, the Keystone State’s blueline is so well established that it is featured on a tee shirt depicting to “Make Pennsylvania Great Again” by “Build[ing] a Wall” around metro Philly. Philadelphia’s “otherness” relative to the rest of Pennsylvania is not just a consequence of the density and diversity that underlies its strong Democratic voting, but also stems from its socio-cultural connection to the liberal Northeast Corridor that runs along the Eastern Seaboard from Boston to Washington. Consequently, Philadelphia’s politics more closely align with Mid-Atlantic states such as Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. Without Philadelphia, Pennsylvania would be a red state, rather than a swing states. By contrast, central and western Pennsylvania are demographically and culturally similar to the Midwest. Consider that Pittsburgh is one of the largest Republican-leaning metropolitan areas in the country. In 2012, Mitt Romney carried it by two points. Four years later, Donald Trump’s 59,000 vote advantage in the region exceeded his statewide margin of victory. The demographic, political, and cultural differences between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are at odds with the long-held notion that Pennsylvania’s two major metros differ from its rural central section, what is known pejoratively as “Pennsyltucky” (a portmanteau of Pennsylvania and Kentucky) or what James Carville once described as “Alabama without the Blacks.” Rather, the state’s politics are now being shaped by an emerging east/west division. The 2019 county elections are indicative of these shifting dynamics. The Democrats won all seats on the Delaware County Commission in suburban Philadelphia for the first time since the Civil War. The party also gained commission majorities in Bucks and Chester, two other Philadelphia metro collar counties. Just recently, The Morning Call ran a story with the headline: “Disgusted voters in Philadelphia suburbs could help Biden offset Trump’s gains in Pennsylvania.” Meanwhile, in 2019, Republicans in western Pennsylvania won a majority of seats on the Washington County commission for the first time in decades. More generally, the shifts occurring in Pennsylvania are consistent with our book’s thesis that the denser and more diverse the locality and the more proximate a place is to the metropolitan center, the greater the Democratic support. While these effects are more apparent in the Sun Belt’s fast-growing and urbanizing suburbs, they can also be seen in the Northeast Corridor. For instance, Census data analyzed by Brookings demographer William Frey shows that between 2000 and 2019, metro Philadelphia, which encompasses parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Maryland, grew by more than 130,000 people even as the number of whites decreased by more than 150,000. Conversely, Frey finds that metro Pittsburgh shrunk by roughly 40,000 residents and its white population decreased by over 80,000. Even as Philadelphia grows, the institutional structures in Pennsylvania limit the city’s ability to control its own destiny. Pennsylvania has one of the lowest local government autonomy rankings in the country. Pennsylvania’s state government has preempted local authority in a number of policy areas including gun safety, minimum wage, ride sharing, and broadband. Philadelphia’s ability to develop and implement a metro-scale policy agenda is hindered by the region’s municipal fragmentation, which disperses power across more than two hundred local governments, each with its own constituencies and interests. Moreover, during the 2011 legislative sessions, Republicans used their unified control of state government to aggressively gerrymander Pennsylvania’s U.S. House and state legislative districts, provoking legal challenges to both sets of maps. After the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the U.S. House maps unconstitutional and ordered new maps drawn, the Democrats gained one seat in the state’s congressional delegation in the 2018 midterm elections. Still, despite these and other obstacles, metro Philadelphia—and most other million-plus metros—continue to succeed in the face of bluelineing. Imagine how much more could be achieved if these metros did not have to fight so many red state roadblocks. Robert Lang is the Lincy Endowed Chair in Urban Affairs at UNLV’s Greenspun College of Urban Affairs. He is also the Executive Director of Brookings Mountain West and The Lincy Institute. David Damore is a Professor and Chair in Political Science at UNLV. He is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. Karen Danielsen is an Associate Professor in Public Policy and Leadership at UNLV. Their new book Blue Metros, Red States is available from the Brookings Institution Press.

[1] Home rule establishes the level of authority that is afforded to local governments by either a state’s constitution or in statute. [2] Preemption occurs when state governments pass laws that eliminate local control over a particular policy area. A recent analysis by the National League of Cities reports an increase in preemption, particularly in states where Republicans control both chambers of the statehouse and the governorship.

[easyfoodnetwork]

Dispatches From Food Service Workers Across the U.S.: ‘I’m Trying Not to Panic’

Shutterstock/Kondor83

Restaurant employees from Kentucky, North Dakota, New York, Oregon, and Minnesota share their stories

Last week, President Trump formed the Economic Revival Industry Group, a collection of 200 experts and industry leaders to inform the (possibly ill-advised) campaign to re-open the economy. The group, focused on restaurants, included numerous chain CEOs and celebrity chef-owners like Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller. And though the latter could hardly be expected to advocate for the needs of restaurant owners whose restaurants don’t have Michelin stars, there is another group notably absent from the committee: restaurant workers.

Independent restaurant owners are struggling with the realities and uncertainties of life in a pandemic, whether it’s having to lay off employees or trying to keep people paid as the business pivots to take-out only. But for your average food service worker — servers, bartenders, line cooks, and baristas — there is even less support. Restaurant employees made up 60 percent of the jobs lost in March. Twenty-two million people filed for unemployment in the past four weeks, leaving unemployment websites overwhelmed. The Paycheck Protection Program, which offers federal loans in exchange for keeping employees on payroll, is out of money. All this adds up to millions of food service workers being left without a paycheck.

Despite Trump’s plans, no one knows what the restaurant industry is going to look like on the other side of the pandemic. And so workers wait, hoping their restaurants will reopen, hoping they or their coworkers will be rehired, hoping there will be a workplace to come back to. As chains and fine-dining chefs are the only ones with access to the White House, it’s important to remember their experiences do not represent the restaurant industry as a whole. Whether or not restaurant workers, not merely restaurateurs, feel supported will be the true test of any government program’s success. With that in mind, we spoke to five restaurant workers across the country on what they’re experiencing right now. These are stories in their own words, edited lightly for clarity.

Gregg Adams, line cook at J Harrods, Louisville, Kentucky

The chef and I are the only kitchen staff left of four full-time and two part-timers. He takes a salary, I am on reduced hours, which means less money to repair the house and cars, much less save anything. Since this began we have been steadily losing customers. Our food isn’t geared for takeout, though we changed the menu some. Also, we made a lot of our money through drinks. Initially, the state only allowed the sale of closed alcohol containers, and some restaurants started selling flight bottles and half pints with soda or cup mixer on the side. Within a week, open alcohol sales were allowed rather than just packaged liquor, but it was too late for those who followed the rules.

I’m hanging in there, but I’m lucky. Not much has changed for me and my family. My wife is on medical disability with fixed income and doesn’t leave the house much. My teenager already practiced social distancing. My 26-year-old is working 60 hours a week at a local coffee chain. My 25-year-old works for UPS. I’m blessed to have employment. I know three other cooks and two chefs who are unemployed. But I can’t plan anything for anything now. I’m wondering about my concert tickets and my child’s education if my older children will get sick, and what my options are in general. I’m trying to not panic.

Massoud Violette-Sheikh, sous chef at the Heights, Ithaca, New York

I am 23 years old and have been working in the industry for five years, starting as a dishwasher at the Heights. My start in the industry was mainly out of necessity — dishwashing offered good hours and the possibility of upward mobility in the restaurant. But the work ethic and our local food community was contagious; I wouldn’t want to be in any other industry, even in these times. I rose to sous this past year. In an area where we are financially dependent on Ithaca College and Cornell as our main contributors to economic stimulation, this has train-wrecked the local economy.

At the Heights, all staff with the exception of our chef de cuisine have been temporarily let go. I think the post-pandemic dining landscape is going to be entirely different — staff cuts, wage cuts, and mandatory seating reduction will absolutely affect how we are able to eat. Even the most luxurious restaurants will have to cut back on menus, garnishes, and available reservations. I’m hopeful that diners will come out in droves after restaurants open up, but realistically that’s not likely. The social habits that we develop will linger. I spend a lot of time talking with my close friends and coworkers. Everyone just wants to be back in the kitchen — to be back home. As an individual I’m grateful for private grants such as the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund — programs like that are going to be our saviors. But our primary concern is how long our local independent restaurants, farms, and purveyors will be able to stay open. The debt to equity ratio in our industry is very high, and I expect to see places sink into irreversible debt. I hope customers will be patient as we get back on our feet; without their support, all that will be left is Chili’s and McDonald’s.

Marlena Chaboudy, cook at A Frame Bar & Grill, Westhope, North Dakota

Busy season is the beginning of spring through the end of summer. We are situated on Lake Metigoshe, and when the snow melts people start moving in their boats and readying their docks to enjoy their summer. We were all gearing up for that when the spread of the virus hit hard and hours were cut. Our place was then shut down for dine-in service and we tried to stay positive. I found out the secret was really not to make eye contact, because if I saw one of us start to tear up, it opened the floodgates for me.

I’m behind in rent, my vehicle is in need of a few repairs. I had planned on moving closer to work — I live about 40 miles away — and found a place, but will have to come by money for the utility and house deposits and rent in order to do so. My fiancé and I live together, and he also works at the A-Frame as a dishwasher. He has filed for unemployment but has a limited work history and hasn’t paid in enough in the quarters to draw unemployment. And he won’t get the one-sum stimulus check either, and that’s going to hurt. Living in a rural community, you can’t count on anything for relief. You can’t count on the small town store to get a delivery truck, or go to the store the same day and be able to buy a roll of toilet paper or a dozen eggs. I can’t guarantee that my internet will be functional much less my phone service, and trying to even access the unemployment website can take all day. You go to the gas station for a treat and you never know if they are open because if they haven’t had enough business that day to justify keeping the lights on, or paying an employee to sit there, they close early.

I don’t think the aid the government is giving is enough. Not at all! It’s getting bad everywhere. The people in the foodservice industry are the “blue collar��� workers that everyone forgets about. We are not paid as much as the blue collar norm and making ends meet isn’t looking possible for most.

Rae Bullinger, former front of house at Rise Bagels, Minneapolis

We closed our dining room around March 16th, but kept our online and takeout phone ordering systems the same. After closing the dining room, it was fairly slow that first week, but we kept advertising the online and pick-up ordering and by the weekend our system just couldn’t keep up. On my weekend shift, we were so overwhelmed with online orders overnight that we actually had to turn the first customers away, because we were still trying to catch up with the online orders. The next day is when the owners decided to temporarily close. Before coronavirus, we had a good sense of how many bagels we needed each day of the week to fill our normal amount of orders. Once we started advertising more about online and phone ordering mid-March, our demand shifted to a point we couldn’t have predicted.

Before I started my job at Rise Bagel, I was a graduate student in the psychology field. I had to take a leave of absence in October due to an inpatient stay for my mental health, and decided to put school on pause and pursue a new career in food sustainability. I thought getting my foot in the door at a local restaurant that focuses on local, organic ingredients and sustainable practices would provide me with some great insight. The job finally gave me a sense of purpose and control when I hadn’t had that in a long time. However, when we suddenly had to close, it was like my sense of purpose also disappeared. My job was the one thing that kept me feeling certain about my future. Uncertainty about my future at Rise has led to an increase in my anxiety around leaving school and my future career. I have many fears of having to start all over again, and it’s hard to stay motivated when I can’t gain restaurant experience from my home.

Here in Minnesota, individual unemployment benefits are only given if you had made $3,000 or more before unemployment. Because I was in graduate school and had only been at my job at Rise for a few months, I did not meet this requirement and will not be receiving any unemployment benefits. For those making minimum wage (aka many of those in the food service industry), prerequisites like this may have some major impacts. I’m incredibly thankful to be living at home during this time with great support, but I couldn’t imagine being in a more dire situation and then denied benefits based on something I may not have had control over. I’m really glad something is being done for small business owners, but what really matters is what happens after this. A restaurant will only survive if better legislation is passed and people continue to visit even after social distancing orders are lifted. The attention and support food service employees and places are getting right now is amazing, but systematic change needs to occur for them to continue to survive.

Ashton Long, bartender, Portland, Oregon

We were all in an especially odd situation because we had just all been through training and had opened the restaurant, Bar King, to the public Monday, March 9th. Our restaurant closed down to the public on March 15th and began only providing takeout orders. Luckily, right now it is looking like we’ll be opening back up and all have our jobs back, but when? I don’t think anyone has even a clue. And that is terrifying.

My partner and I moved here in early January of this year. Luckily, he works from home, but I set out to find a job as soon as I got here, and even with my experience and my resume, it took me nearly two months to find something because of how competitive the service industry staffing is in Portland. I exhausted nearly all of my savings and threw all of my faith into the fact that I’d find a job when I got here, and then I worked for literally two weeks and then lost my job. I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t have two jobs and work anywhere from 40 to 70 hours a week, so having this much free time, and on such an incredibly STRICT budget of one income, has been extremely challenging to fill.

While I think the stimulus money is great, and quite literally a life saver for many — including me — unemployment has been a literal shit show and a nightmare to deal with. I still have yet to see any benefits or correspondence from either Michigan or Oregon to figure out what I need to do in this situation where I lived and worked in Michigan last year and Oregon now. While I do understand that having 2.2 MILLION people sign up for unemployment in the last month is overwhelming, if it weren’t for the stimulus check and my partner, I could very well be on my way back to Michigan right now to live with family. And as a 25-year-old who has never had to consider an option like that because I’ve always had work and savings, that is a horrifying and scary scenario.

If you’re a food service worker, Eater wants to hear your story. Please fill out this survey.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3cz9Lic https://ift.tt/2KmWSfe

Shutterstock/Kondor83

Restaurant employees from Kentucky, North Dakota, New York, Oregon, and Minnesota share their stories

Last week, President Trump formed the Economic Revival Industry Group, a collection of 200 experts and industry leaders to inform the (possibly ill-advised) campaign to re-open the economy. The group, focused on restaurants, included numerous chain CEOs and celebrity chef-owners like Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller. And though the latter could hardly be expected to advocate for the needs of restaurant owners whose restaurants don’t have Michelin stars, there is another group notably absent from the committee: restaurant workers.

Independent restaurant owners are struggling with the realities and uncertainties of life in a pandemic, whether it’s having to lay off employees or trying to keep people paid as the business pivots to take-out only. But for your average food service worker — servers, bartenders, line cooks, and baristas — there is even less support. Restaurant employees made up 60 percent of the jobs lost in March. Twenty-two million people filed for unemployment in the past four weeks, leaving unemployment websites overwhelmed. The Paycheck Protection Program, which offers federal loans in exchange for keeping employees on payroll, is out of money. All this adds up to millions of food service workers being left without a paycheck.

Despite Trump’s plans, no one knows what the restaurant industry is going to look like on the other side of the pandemic. And so workers wait, hoping their restaurants will reopen, hoping they or their coworkers will be rehired, hoping there will be a workplace to come back to. As chains and fine-dining chefs are the only ones with access to the White House, it’s important to remember their experiences do not represent the restaurant industry as a whole. Whether or not restaurant workers, not merely restaurateurs, feel supported will be the true test of any government program’s success. With that in mind, we spoke to five restaurant workers across the country on what they’re experiencing right now. These are stories in their own words, edited lightly for clarity.

Gregg Adams, line cook at J Harrods, Louisville, Kentucky

The chef and I are the only kitchen staff left of four full-time and two part-timers. He takes a salary, I am on reduced hours, which means less money to repair the house and cars, much less save anything. Since this began we have been steadily losing customers. Our food isn’t geared for takeout, though we changed the menu some. Also, we made a lot of our money through drinks. Initially, the state only allowed the sale of closed alcohol containers, and some restaurants started selling flight bottles and half pints with soda or cup mixer on the side. Within a week, open alcohol sales were allowed rather than just packaged liquor, but it was too late for those who followed the rules.

I’m hanging in there, but I’m lucky. Not much has changed for me and my family. My wife is on medical disability with fixed income and doesn’t leave the house much. My teenager already practiced social distancing. My 26-year-old is working 60 hours a week at a local coffee chain. My 25-year-old works for UPS. I’m blessed to have employment. I know three other cooks and two chefs who are unemployed. But I can’t plan anything for anything now. I’m wondering about my concert tickets and my child’s education if my older children will get sick, and what my options are in general. I’m trying to not panic.

Massoud Violette-Sheikh, sous chef at the Heights, Ithaca, New York

I am 23 years old and have been working in the industry for five years, starting as a dishwasher at the Heights. My start in the industry was mainly out of necessity — dishwashing offered good hours and the possibility of upward mobility in the restaurant. But the work ethic and our local food community was contagious; I wouldn’t want to be in any other industry, even in these times. I rose to sous this past year. In an area where we are financially dependent on Ithaca College and Cornell as our main contributors to economic stimulation, this has train-wrecked the local economy.

At the Heights, all staff with the exception of our chef de cuisine have been temporarily let go. I think the post-pandemic dining landscape is going to be entirely different — staff cuts, wage cuts, and mandatory seating reduction will absolutely affect how we are able to eat. Even the most luxurious restaurants will have to cut back on menus, garnishes, and available reservations. I’m hopeful that diners will come out in droves after restaurants open up, but realistically that’s not likely. The social habits that we develop will linger. I spend a lot of time talking with my close friends and coworkers. Everyone just wants to be back in the kitchen — to be back home. As an individual I’m grateful for private grants such as the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund — programs like that are going to be our saviors. But our primary concern is how long our local independent restaurants, farms, and purveyors will be able to stay open. The debt to equity ratio in our industry is very high, and I expect to see places sink into irreversible debt. I hope customers will be patient as we get back on our feet; without their support, all that will be left is Chili’s and McDonald’s.

Marlena Chaboudy, cook at A Frame Bar & Grill, Westhope, North Dakota

Busy season is the beginning of spring through the end of summer. We are situated on Lake Metigoshe, and when the snow melts people start moving in their boats and readying their docks to enjoy their summer. We were all gearing up for that when the spread of the virus hit hard and hours were cut. Our place was then shut down for dine-in service and we tried to stay positive. I found out the secret was really not to make eye contact, because if I saw one of us start to tear up, it opened the floodgates for me.

I’m behind in rent, my vehicle is in need of a few repairs. I had planned on moving closer to work — I live about 40 miles away — and found a place, but will have to come by money for the utility and house deposits and rent in order to do so. My fiancé and I live together, and he also works at the A-Frame as a dishwasher. He has filed for unemployment but has a limited work history and hasn’t paid in enough in the quarters to draw unemployment. And he won’t get the one-sum stimulus check either, and that’s going to hurt. Living in a rural community, you can’t count on anything for relief. You can’t count on the small town store to get a delivery truck, or go to the store the same day and be able to buy a roll of toilet paper or a dozen eggs. I can’t guarantee that my internet will be functional much less my phone service, and trying to even access the unemployment website can take all day. You go to the gas station for a treat and you never know if they are open because if they haven’t had enough business that day to justify keeping the lights on, or paying an employee to sit there, they close early.

I don’t think the aid the government is giving is enough. Not at all! It’s getting bad everywhere. The people in the foodservice industry are the “blue collar” workers that everyone forgets about. We are not paid as much as the blue collar norm and making ends meet isn’t looking possible for most.

Rae Bullinger, former front of house at Rise Bagels, Minneapolis

We closed our dining room around March 16th, but kept our online and takeout phone ordering systems the same. After closing the dining room, it was fairly slow that first week, but we kept advertising the online and pick-up ordering and by the weekend our system just couldn’t keep up. On my weekend shift, we were so overwhelmed with online orders overnight that we actually had to turn the first customers away, because we were still trying to catch up with the online orders. The next day is when the owners decided to temporarily close. Before coronavirus, we had a good sense of how many bagels we needed each day of the week to fill our normal amount of orders. Once we started advertising more about online and phone ordering mid-March, our demand shifted to a point we couldn’t have predicted.

Before I started my job at Rise Bagel, I was a graduate student in the psychology field. I had to take a leave of absence in October due to an inpatient stay for my mental health, and decided to put school on pause and pursue a new career in food sustainability. I thought getting my foot in the door at a local restaurant that focuses on local, organic ingredients and sustainable practices would provide me with some great insight. The job finally gave me a sense of purpose and control when I hadn’t had that in a long time. However, when we suddenly had to close, it was like my sense of purpose also disappeared. My job was the one thing that kept me feeling certain about my future. Uncertainty about my future at Rise has led to an increase in my anxiety around leaving school and my future career. I have many fears of having to start all over again, and it’s hard to stay motivated when I can’t gain restaurant experience from my home.

Here in Minnesota, individual unemployment benefits are only given if you had made $3,000 or more before unemployment. Because I was in graduate school and had only been at my job at Rise for a few months, I did not meet this requirement and will not be receiving any unemployment benefits. For those making minimum wage (aka many of those in the food service industry), prerequisites like this may have some major impacts. I’m incredibly thankful to be living at home during this time with great support, but I couldn’t imagine being in a more dire situation and then denied benefits based on something I may not have had control over. I’m really glad something is being done for small business owners, but what really matters is what happens after this. A restaurant will only survive if better legislation is passed and people continue to visit even after social distancing orders are lifted. The attention and support food service employees and places are getting right now is amazing, but systematic change needs to occur for them to continue to survive.

Ashton Long, bartender, Portland, Oregon

We were all in an especially odd situation because we had just all been through training and had opened the restaurant, Bar King, to the public Monday, March 9th. Our restaurant closed down to the public on March 15th and began only providing takeout orders. Luckily, right now it is looking like we’ll be opening back up and all have our jobs back, but when? I don’t think anyone has even a clue. And that is terrifying.

My partner and I moved here in early January of this year. Luckily, he works from home, but I set out to find a job as soon as I got here, and even with my experience and my resume, it took me nearly two months to find something because of how competitive the service industry staffing is in Portland. I exhausted nearly all of my savings and threw all of my faith into the fact that I’d find a job when I got here, and then I worked for literally two weeks and then lost my job. I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t have two jobs and work anywhere from 40 to 70 hours a week, so having this much free time, and on such an incredibly STRICT budget of one income, has been extremely challenging to fill.

While I think the stimulus money is great, and quite literally a life saver for many — including me — unemployment has been a literal shit show and a nightmare to deal with. I still have yet to see any benefits or correspondence from either Michigan or Oregon to figure out what I need to do in this situation where I lived and worked in Michigan last year and Oregon now. While I do understand that having 2.2 MILLION people sign up for unemployment in the last month is overwhelming, if it weren’t for the stimulus check and my partner, I could very well be on my way back to Michigan right now to live with family. And as a 25-year-old who has never had to consider an option like that because I’ve always had work and savings, that is a horrifying and scary scenario.

If you’re a food service worker, Eater wants to hear your story. Please fill out this survey.

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[fast-loan-online]

2014 Kentucky County Income Limits USDA Rural Development Loan | Louisville Kent…

[nightmare-afton-cosplay]

A-Plus Idea: More Schools Providing Teachers With Subsidized Housing

iStock; realtor.com

This spring, schoolteacher strikes spread like wildfire across the nation as fed-up educators from a half-dozen states took their frustration over low salaries and dwindling budgets out of the classrooms and into the streets. The most recent example is North Carolina, where hundreds of schools were closed last month. Many of these public servants are struggling with the math: How can they make ends meet when both rents and home prices have risen so sharply in recent years?

Some cities are experimenting with a possible solution: creating subsidized housing specifically for teachers and school staff. In pricey districts, the allure of discounted housing can give recruitment and retention efforts a boost. Projects like this already exist or are in the works in cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Silicon Valley’s Santa Clara, CA. And local and school officials in San Francisco and Miami are looking into getting on board.

“Providing subsidies and housing is a smart incentive,” says Sandi Jacobs, a principal at EducationCounsel, a Washington, DC–based education consulting group that works with states, school districts, and nonprofit organizations.

“There are certain metro areas where home prices … are so high compared to the average teacher’s salary,” Jacobs continues. “So it means teachers may have to live a significant distance from the school they’re teaching in, or they live with five roommates to afford their rent.”

She added that the problem can be just as bad in rural areas where there isn’t enough available housing—at any price range.

Most public school teachers are solidly middle-class. Nationally, elementary school teachers make a median $57,100 annually, while high school teachers earn a little more, at $59,170, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. That’s more than the national median of $50,620 across all professions. But teachers make quite a bit less in some of the regions where strikes have erupted.

In Oklahoma, elementary school teachers made an average $40,530 annually. They earn an average $44,220 in Arizona, $45,530 in West Virginia, $45,690 in North Carolina, $52,390 in Colorado, and $53,140 in Kentucky. Teachers in every striking state but Kentucky have since won raises and cost-of-living bumps.

But that doesn’t mean it’s easy—or even possible—to afford housing on these salaries. The median home price nationally is $279,900, while it costs about $1,170 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, according to realtor.com® and Apartment List data.

“Teaching is already more than a 40-hour-a-week job,” says Kerrie Dallman, president of the Colorado Education Association and a former high school social studies teacher. “If you also throw into the mix that educators are commuting over an hour each way to get to school because they can’t afford to live where they teach, then combine that with the fact that many are struggling to repay student loans, it’s really troubling and contributing to the teacher shortage.”

Teacher housing could soon be coming to San Francisco and Miami

These difficulties have led San Francisco and Miami to explore building subsidized housing for their educators and staff. Last fall, San Francisco city and school officials pledged $44 million to build 130 to 150 subsidized apartments for 60 to 90 teachers and up to 60 additional units for school staff on the same site on the city’s west side. It’s expected to take at least three years before the project is completed.

The development is a result of surging housing prices in San Francisco, where the median home list price is a jaw-dropping  $1,300,000, according to the most recent realtor.com data.

For inspiration, San Francisco can look southward to Santa Clara, where the school district has been offering 70 one- and two-bedroom apartments at about 60% of market rate since 2002. Given that rents for closet-size units routinely top $2,000, this is a big help for many cash-strapped public servants.

In Miami, the county is looking into building a middle school with one floor reserved for residential units for teachers. If the project is a success, a housing complex of up to 300 apartments could also be constructed on the grounds of Phillis Wheatley Elementary, near downtown Miami.

Subsidized housing can make a big difference, if North Carolina’s Outer Banks are any indication. Dare County’s school district offers two housing complexes with 36 below-market, two-bedroom rental apartments for teachers.

“Historically, housing has been a challenge on the Outer Banks because it’s a resort community and housing is very expensive,” says Keith Parker, director of digital communications for North Carolina’s Dare County Public Schools. “Those units [we built] have been an unbelievable advantage in recruitment.”

That’s particularly true for harder-to-fill positions such as those in math, science, and foreign languages.

Subsidized housing can be a lifesaver for teachers

Spanish high school teacher Geoff Harte struggled to find rentals when he moved to the Outer Banks community of Hatteras, NC, in 2016.

“I’m from New York City and I lived in Miami for 15 years, so I know what expensive is,” says Harte, 44. But even in North Carolina, “living on the beach isn’t cheap.”

Luckily, he was able to move into the school district–run building in Hatteras, which is a five-minute walk from First Flight High School, where he teaches. He pays $750 a month for the two-bedroom he shares with his wife and 4-year-old daughter. That’s just over half of what a mortgage would cost for a similarly sized home.

“It makes it affordable to live down here,” says Harte. “I wish there were more places that offered it.”

For Aspen School District Superintendent John Maloy, offering teachers affordable housing is key to addressing the unique challenges of being an expensive resort area in Colorado, a state with relatively low teacher pay. Aspen already has 44 units of affordable housing renting for $850 to $1,500 a month (market rates here easily exceed $2,000). The district has also been in discussions for the past year to bring 10 to 15 more units into the fold.

Here’s how Maloy sees the main challenges of attracting educators: “It’s a shortage of teachers, No. 1; a high cost of living, No. 2; and salary, No. 3. You’ve got to try to tackle all of those simultaneously. You can’t really pinpoint one without having a conversation about the others.”

Creating affordable teacher housing may be easier said than done

But while helping teachers stay in the communities where they work may sound like a no-brainer, challenges have cropped up—and the impact on longer-term job retention isn’t yet known.

California, one of the first places to build subsidized teacher housing, has encountered more than its share of hiccups.

The Los Angeles Unified School District built three complexes with government money only to discover, after completion, that its teachers made too much (around $50,000) to qualify for any of the housing (max income: $34,860), according to governmental regulations.

In Cupertino, in the heart of Silicon Valley, plans by the Union School District to convert a former elementary school into teacher housing in 2015 fizzled out. Local residents objected to giving up school land for residential development.

“To have employees be part of the community fabric, they needed to find a way to have affordable housing,” says Aspen’s Maloy. “You can come up with a great plan, but you have to have your community buy into that plan.”

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How to buy a house in Kentucky with Zero Down Payment Mortgage Loan

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Shutterstock/Kondor83 Restaurant employees from Kentucky, North Dakota, New York, Oregon, and Minnesota share their stories Last week, President Trump formed the Economic Revival Industry Group, a collection of 200 experts and industry leaders to inform the (possibly ill-advised) campaign to re-open the economy. The group, focused on restaurants, included numerous chain CEOs and celebrity chef-owners like Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller. And though the latter could hardly be expected to advocate for the needs of restaurant owners whose restaurants don’t have Michelin stars, there is another group notably absent from the committee: restaurant workers. Independent restaurant owners are struggling with the realities and uncertainties of life in a pandemic, whether it’s having to lay off employees or trying to keep people paid as the business pivots to take-out only. But for your average food service worker — servers, bartenders, line cooks, and baristas — there is even less support. Restaurant employees made up 60 percent of the jobs lost in March. Twenty-two million people filed for unemployment in the past four weeks, leaving unemployment websites overwhelmed. The Paycheck Protection Program, which offers federal loans in exchange for keeping employees on payroll, is out of money. All this adds up to millions of food service workers being left without a paycheck. Despite Trump’s plans, no one knows what the restaurant industry is going to look like on the other side of the pandemic. And so workers wait, hoping their restaurants will reopen, hoping they or their coworkers will be rehired, hoping there will be a workplace to come back to. As chains and fine-dining chefs are the only ones with access to the White House, it’s important to remember their experiences do not represent the restaurant industry as a whole. Whether or not restaurant workers, not merely restaurateurs, feel supported will be the true test of any government program’s success. With that in mind, we spoke to five restaurant workers across the country on what they’re experiencing right now. These are stories in their own words, edited lightly for clarity. Gregg Adams, line cook at J Harrods, Louisville, Kentucky The chef and I are the only kitchen staff left of four full-time and two part-timers. He takes a salary, I am on reduced hours, which means less money to repair the house and cars, much less save anything. Since this began we have been steadily losing customers. Our food isn’t geared for takeout, though we changed the menu some. Also, we made a lot of our money through drinks. Initially, the state only allowed the sale of closed alcohol containers, and some restaurants started selling flight bottles and half pints with soda or cup mixer on the side. Within a week, open alcohol sales were allowed rather than just packaged liquor, but it was too late for those who followed the rules. I’m hanging in there, but I’m lucky. Not much has changed for me and my family. My wife is on medical disability with fixed income and doesn’t leave the house much. My teenager already practiced social distancing. My 26-year-old is working 60 hours a week at a local coffee chain. My 25-year-old works for UPS. I’m blessed to have employment. I know three other cooks and two chefs who are unemployed. But I can’t plan anything for anything now. I’m wondering about my concert tickets and my child’s education if my older children will get sick, and what my options are in general. I’m trying to not panic. Massoud Violette-Sheikh, sous chef at the Heights, Ithaca, New York I am 23 years old and have been working in the industry for five years, starting as a dishwasher at the Heights. My start in the industry was mainly out of necessity — dishwashing offered good hours and the possibility of upward mobility in the restaurant. But the work ethic and our local food community was contagious; I wouldn’t want to be in any other industry, even in these times. I rose to sous this past year. In an area where we are financially dependent on Ithaca College and Cornell as our main contributors to economic stimulation, this has train-wrecked the local economy. At the Heights, all staff with the exception of our chef de cuisine have been temporarily let go. I think the post-pandemic dining landscape is going to be entirely different — staff cuts, wage cuts, and mandatory seating reduction will absolutely affect how we are able to eat. Even the most luxurious restaurants will have to cut back on menus, garnishes, and available reservations. I’m hopeful that diners will come out in droves after restaurants open up, but realistically that’s not likely. The social habits that we develop will linger. I spend a lot of time talking with my close friends and coworkers. Everyone just wants to be back in the kitchen — to be back home. As an individual I���m grateful for private grants such as the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund — programs like that are going to be our saviors. But our primary concern is how long our local independent restaurants, farms, and purveyors will be able to stay open. The debt to equity ratio in our industry is very high, and I expect to see places sink into irreversible debt. I hope customers will be patient as we get back on our feet; without their support, all that will be left is Chili’s and McDonald’s. Marlena Chaboudy, cook at A Frame Bar & Grill, Westhope, North Dakota Busy season is the beginning of spring through the end of summer. We are situated on Lake Metigoshe, and when the snow melts people start moving in their boats and readying their docks to enjoy their summer. We were all gearing up for that when the spread of the virus hit hard and hours were cut. Our place was then shut down for dine-in service and we tried to stay positive. I found out the secret was really not to make eye contact, because if I saw one of us start to tear up, it opened the floodgates for me. I’m behind in rent, my vehicle is in need of a few repairs. I had planned on moving closer to work — I live about 40 miles away — and found a place, but will have to come by money for the utility and house deposits and rent in order to do so. My fiancé and I live together, and he also works at the A-Frame as a dishwasher. He has filed for unemployment but has a limited work history and hasn’t paid in enough in the quarters to draw unemployment. And he won’t get the one-sum stimulus check either, and that’s going to hurt. Living in a rural community, you can’t count on anything for relief. You can’t count on the small town store to get a delivery truck, or go to the store the same day and be able to buy a roll of toilet paper or a dozen eggs. I can’t guarantee that my internet will be functional much less my phone service, and trying to even access the unemployment website can take all day. You go to the gas station for a treat and you never know if they are open because if they haven’t had enough business that day to justify keeping the lights on, or paying an employee to sit there, they close early. I don’t think the aid the government is giving is enough. Not at all! It’s getting bad everywhere. The people in the foodservice industry are the “blue collar” workers that everyone forgets about. We are not paid as much as the blue collar norm and making ends meet isn’t looking possible for most. Rae Bullinger, former front of house at Rise Bagels, Minneapolis We closed our dining room around March 16th, but kept our online and takeout phone ordering systems the same. After closing the dining room, it was fairly slow that first week, but we kept advertising the online and pick-up ordering and by the weekend our system just couldn’t keep up. On my weekend shift, we were so overwhelmed with online orders overnight that we actually had to turn the first customers away, because we were still trying to catch up with the online orders. The next day is when the owners decided to temporarily close. Before coronavirus, we had a good sense of how many bagels we needed each day of the week to fill our normal amount of orders. Once we started advertising more about online and phone ordering mid-March, our demand shifted to a point we couldn’t have predicted. Before I started my job at Rise Bagel, I was a graduate student in the psychology field. I had to take a leave of absence in October due to an inpatient stay for my mental health, and decided to put school on pause and pursue a new career in food sustainability. I thought getting my foot in the door at a local restaurant that focuses on local, organic ingredients and sustainable practices would provide me with some great insight. The job finally gave me a sense of purpose and control when I hadn’t had that in a long time. However, when we suddenly had to close, it was like my sense of purpose also disappeared. My job was the one thing that kept me feeling certain about my future. Uncertainty about my future at Rise has led to an increase in my anxiety around leaving school and my future career. I have many fears of having to start all over again, and it’s hard to stay motivated when I can’t gain restaurant experience from my home. Here in Minnesota, individual unemployment benefits are only given if you had made $3,000 or more before unemployment. Because I was in graduate school and had only been at my job at Rise for a few months, I did not meet this requirement and will not be receiving any unemployment benefits. For those making minimum wage (aka many of those in the food service industry), prerequisites like this may have some major impacts. I’m incredibly thankful to be living at home during this time with great support, but I couldn’t imagine being in a more dire situation and then denied benefits based on something I may not have had control over. I’m really glad something is being done for small business owners, but what really matters is what happens after this. A restaurant will only survive if better legislation is passed and people continue to visit even after social distancing orders are lifted. The attention and support food service employees and places are getting right now is amazing, but systematic change needs to occur for them to continue to survive. Ashton Long, bartender, Portland, Oregon We were all in an especially odd situation because we had just all been through training and had opened the restaurant, Bar King, to the public Monday, March 9th. Our restaurant closed down to the public on March 15th and began only providing takeout orders. Luckily, right now it is looking like we’ll be opening back up and all have our jobs back, but when? I don’t think anyone has even a clue. And that is terrifying. My partner and I moved here in early January of this year. Luckily, he works from home, but I set out to find a job as soon as I got here, and even with my experience and my resume, it took me nearly two months to find something because of how competitive the service industry staffing is in Portland. I exhausted nearly all of my savings and threw all of my faith into the fact that I’d find a job when I got here, and then I worked for literally two weeks and then lost my job. I don’t remember a time in my life where I didn’t have two jobs and work anywhere from 40 to 70 hours a week, so having this much free time, and on such an incredibly STRICT budget of one income, has been extremely challenging to fill. While I think the stimulus money is great, and quite literally a life saver for many — including me — unemployment has been a literal shit show and a nightmare to deal with. I still have yet to see any benefits or correspondence from either Michigan or Oregon to figure out what I need to do in this situation where I lived and worked in Michigan last year and Oregon now. While I do understand that having 2.2 MILLION people sign up for unemployment in the last month is overwhelming, if it weren’t for the stimulus check and my partner, I could very well be on my way back to Michigan right now to live with family. And as a 25-year-old who has never had to consider an option like that because I’ve always had work and savings, that is a horrifying and scary scenario. If you’re a food service worker, Eater wants to hear your story. Please fill out this survey. from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3cz9Lic

http://easyfoodnetwork.blogspot.com/2020/04/dispatches-from-food-service-workers.html

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Kentucky USDA Rural Development Guaranteed Section 502 Loans…

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VA Loans in Willow Park Texas

Contents

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Agents. veterans united realty works

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NYT — WAPO’S ASHLEY PARKER: “Ukraine, if you’re listening . . .: How Trump. “There are even camping grounds, where supporters of former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke spent friday night. The festival.

VA Loans in Stamford Texas VA Texas valley coastal bend health care System: 2601 veterans drive harlingen, TX 78550 956-291-9000 Or 855-864-0516 519: West Texas VA Health Care System: 300 Veterans Blvd. Big Spring, TX 79720 432-263-7361 Or 432-263-7361 549

11 at 58 Shining Willow. an industrial park adjacent to Waldorf’s commercial center. It is five minutes from U.S. 301, providing easy access to the rural areas of Southern Maryland and to the metro.

VA Loans in Webster Texas The VLB Veterans Land Loan Program is the only one of its kind in the nation-giving Texas Veterans and Military Members the opportunity to borrow money to purchase land at below-market interest rates while only requiring a minimum 5% down payment.

VA loan limits in Austin and the rest of Texas are right at the $417,000 limit and with the median home price at $197,600 VA loans can be used for the bulk of the homes in Austin. Austin is an hour and a half drive away from the Central Texas Veterans health care system located just north in Waco, Texas and an easy trip to the VA regional.

Wilmer Texas FHA Loan HUD works under the federal government. An FHA loan in Wilmer, TX is a type of loan that is made available to every borrower in the area, not just those who are looking to purchase their first home. If the borrower defaults on the loan, the lender has the backup of the government to pick up the slack. VA Loans in Texas.

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Get help planning a burial in a VA national cemetery, order a headstone or other memorial item to honor a Veteran’s service, and apply for survivor and dependent benefits. Careers and employment Apply for vocational rehabilitation services, get support for your Veteran-owned small business, and access other career resources.

Actually, FHA is a great loan for everyone. willow park texas fha loan 5800 W. Plano Pkwy, Suite #105, Plano, TX 75093 Willow Bend Mortgage is an Equal Housing Lender. WBM (NMLS #117371) is a Texas Limited Liability Company.

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A VA loan in Cedar Park, or anywhere for that matter, is a loan that is backed by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and they were enacted as part of the GI Bill. These loans are offered to retired veterans, active military, honorably discharged, and widowed spouses of military members killed in action.

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How Much Is A Va State Inspection

Contents

Unfurnished 2-story duplex apartment #202. heat

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Pre-Qualifying for Your Loan Pre-qualifying for a loan is the best way to determine how much borrowing power you. as it varies greatly by state and locality. Because the loan amount may not exceed.

Neither Washington nor virginia requires home inspectors to be licensed. Maryland is one of just a few states that require classroom home inspection training to become a state licensed home.

NORTON, Va. – Pills by the tens of thousands. The mayor, Joseph Fawbush, said one major reason for joining the litigation is to calculate how much the opioid epidemic has cost his community.

Caledon State Park in King George County is one of the best places in Virginia to see bald eagles. If you could go back and figure out how much it cost to save the bald eagle, how much would be too.

Veterans Affairs First Time Home Buyer Programs Home-buying grants for veterans are available at the national, state and local level, as well as via various nonprofit organizations. Most of these grants, with the exception of those geared toward severely disabled veterans, are slated to help with down payments and closing costs.

And you can find it pretty much anywhere. A simple web search. development in children and fetuses isn’t known. Virginia’s allowance for registered patients to use medical marijuana extracts from.

CHARLOTTESVILLE – The Madison County Animal Shelter is being investigated by the Virginia State Police. Assembly and for more resources for the state Office of Veterinary Services, which inspects.

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But other political analysts told News4 they believe Virginia is still very much a swing state. "The best measure of a swing state is whether both parties think it’s viable," says Stephen Farnsworth,

full-service food operation can routinely avoid any violations," notes the Virginia Department of Health. Here are full results for the latest inspections around Vienna, including restaurants that.

Some out-of-state drivers have. expatriates who spend much of their time in Mexico. Barsketis is one of those expats. Rather than drive his car 2,400 miles back to Utah for a required emission.

“It’s a terrible peril for a rural state like West Virginia to have so much drilling,” Rockefeller said in an. and pay permit fees to help fund the state’s inspection program. But language was.

Kathy Bartlett watched helplessly this spring as Kentucky lawmakers cut back on mine safety inspections and. by law to conduct four inspections a year on underground mines. In West Virginia, a.

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DTI) ratio requirements for different types of mortgage loans in Kentucky, including FHA, VA, USDA, Fannie Mae, and Kentucky Housing loans

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(via Kentucky Rural Housing Development Mortgage Guide for 2019 USDA Loans)

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Trump backers applaud Warren in heart of MAGA country

Contents

Badly broken podimetrics raises $13.4 million

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Texas rep. jack bergman:

Tulsi gabbard: burn pits

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Trump backers applaud Warren in heart of MAGA country Warren didn’t come to rural West Virginia primarily in search of votes. The tiny state likely won’t decide the nomination, and is all but certain to back Trump in the general election.

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Trump backers applaud Warren in heart of MAGA country It was a startling spectacle in the heart of Trump country: At least a dozen supporters of the president – some wearing MAGA stickers – nodding their heads, at times even clapping, for liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren.

Alex Thompson of Politico – It was a startling spectacle in the heart of Trump country: At least a dozen supporters of the president – some wearing MAGA stickers – nodding their heads, at times even clapping, for liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren. The sighting alone of a Democratic presidential candidate in this town of fewer.

KERMIT, W. Va. – It was a startling spectacle in the heart of Trump country: At least a dozen supporters of the president – some wearing MAGA stickers – nodding their heads, at times even clapping, for liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren.

T-rump backers applaud Elizabeth Warren in heart of MAGA country KERMIT, W. Va. – It was a startling spectacle in the heart of Trump country: At least a dozen supporters of the president – some wearing MAGA stickers – nodding their heads, at times even clapping, for liberal firebrand Elizabeth Warren.

Preview: Bombshells & Brews aids women veterans City reaches accord on Kilbourn Tower settlement – In 2003, the City of Milwaukee turned over a small parcel of green space at the corner of Prospect and Kilbourn Avenues to aid in the construction of Kilbourn Tower. Many neighbors showed up to.Film fest explores veterans’ wellness Legislation seeks to restore state benefits to LGBTQ veterans dishonorably discharged Podimetrics Completes $13.4 Mln Funding for Disease-Detecting Foot Mat Rep. tulsi gabbard: burn pits, the Agent Orange of our generation For all the hoopla surrounding iowa sen. joni ernst’s military service, one must remember that her Democratic predecessor, Tom Harkin, lied about his own military career. decades ago, in 1979,Ivy tech community college grads told to celebrate, support others Mayor who was refugee from liberia plans run for US Senate Governor’s executive order helps military spouses, veterans find work, training Courtesy WA Governor’s Office. OLYMPIA, Washington – Governor Jay Inslee signed an executive order monday that builds upon the state’s efforts to support military spouses and veterans with employment and training opportunities as families transition to civilian life in Washington state.Poll: VA the least-liked federal agency — FCW 3 days ago · For the fourth time running, the Department of veterans affairs ranks as the least-liked federal agency in a Gallup poll. The U.S. Postal Service was picked as the most-liked for the third.ST. LOUIS (AP) – A Missouri man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after admitting that he beat his brother to death with a hammer. Keandre Washington, of Northwoods, was sentenced Monday for. · The Update lists not only which colleges have openings for freshmen and transfer students but also has an update on housing availability and financial aid opportunities. The list is updated frequently and will be available until june 30. vist www.nacacnet.org and type in College Openings Update in the search box.Legislation seeks to restore state benefits to LGBTQ veterans dishonorably discharged (Reuters) – Podimetrics, the maker of a smart foot mat that detects warning signs of diabetic foot ulcers, said on Thursday it raised $13.4 million in a funding round led by a group of investors, including venture capital firm Scientific Health Development. The company said the proceeds will be used to reach out to more.The sophomore feature from Ted Geoghegan is a far cry from the haunted house tropes of his debut, “We Are Still Here,” but it explores a much more realistic. at the 2017 Fantasia International Film.

But the debates on a theater stage in Detroit, Michigan, the heart of the country’s auto industry. either-or outcomes with Trump. Debate topics Tuesday night’s debate includes both Warren and.

Kentucky WWII Veteran to Receive French Legion of Honor Vermont VA hospital to host ‘Blessing of the Bikes’ McALLEN, Texas (AP) – Hundreds of children are waiting away from their parents inside a border patrol holding facility in South Texas, with groups of 20 or more children to a single cage. There are.A 95-year-old World War II veteran in Kentucky will be awarded the French Legion of Honor, that country’s highest distinction. The Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs says Alvin H. Perry of Wilmore will receive the medal June 6 at the Thomson-Hood Veterans Center in Wilmore for his participation.

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[bountyofbeads]

Food stamps, housing subsidies and other services for America’s poor at risk as shutdown drags on

https://wapo.st/2Fm9KRw

#Trump, and the #GOP, have for a long time wanted to get rid of these programs. The GOP, and especially Trump, have not one human cell of empathy and compassion for the most vulnerable among us.

#TrumpShutdown #trumpgop #impeachtheMFNow

Food stamps, housing subsidies and other services for America’s poor at risk as shutdown drags on

By Tracy Jan and William Wan | January 09 at 3:40 PM EST | Washington Post |

Posted January 9, 2019 |

The waterlogged ceiling of Betty Gay’s rural Kentucky home sags so low that she hits her head on the light fixture. She’s only 5-foot-1. When it rains, the retired nurse’s aide covers her bathroom floor with buckets and towels. Mold festers on the damp walls.

Gay, 70, was counting on a $20,000 loan from the Agriculture Department this winter to patch the hole in the roof of the ranch-style Mount Sterling home she’s lived in for 30 years.

But the money is on hold.

The agency can’t process Gay’s application because its workers have been furloughed. Also suspended: the processing of thousands of USDA loans to low-income rural Americans to help them build or buy homes.

As the partial government shutdown continues into its third week, the impacts are falling hardest on those who can afford it the least — and the effects will grow even more punishing if key agencies remain paralyzed beyond Feb. 1 and into March. At risk: food on the table for millions of vulnerable households, rental assistance and other safety net programs.

“I’m just at my wit’s end,” said Gay, who’s been living with the leaky roof for a year, and now the front door hardly closes. Still, she counts herself among the lucky. “I just thank the Lord I don’t have small kids to feed.”

Trump last week threatened to keep the government partially closed for months, even years, if the impasse over the border wall continues.

Under criticism, the Trump administration this week moved to shore up one of the most important pillars of the social safety net, the food stamp program, which benefits 38 million Americans and whose funding was due to run out at the end of January.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Tuesday that the agency would rely on a little-known budget provision to give states the money for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for the month of February ahead of time — by Jan. 20 — to circumvent the expiration of federal appropriations.

Perdue also ensured that other nutrition assistance programs, including school meals and a program for mothers and young children, would be funded through February. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides food, baby formula and breast-feeding support to 7.3 million mothers and children under 5 years old.

But officials could not promise that those benefits would continue if the shutdown lasts until March. The food stamp program has a $3 billion reserve, which would cover less than two-thirds of the $4.8 billion in benefits distributed each month.

Beginning in March, families could see an average cut of at least $90, or close to 40 percent, assuming the agency spreads the $1.8 billion shortfall evenly across the 19 million households receiving SNAP benefits, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The USDA has not said what it would do in the event the shutdown lasts that long. When the SNAP contingency money runs out in April, the food assistance program will probably be closed altogether, anti-poverty advocates said.

“At that point, it will take Congress taking some sort of emergency action to fund the program if the government doesn’t reopen,” said Rebecca Vallas, vice president of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. “We will see hunger in America skyrocket. It’s going to take more than just flipping a switch to make things right after this.”

Already, more than 2,500 grocers and other retailers are no longer accepting food stamps because their SNAP licenses were not renewed before the shutdown started Dec. 22, according to the Food Marketing Institute, an industry group.

Federal funding has also been shut off for cash welfare benefits, known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), for 3.4 million of the poorest Americans, the majority of whom are children. For now states are picking up the financial burden — $4.2 billion they were to have received from the Department of Health and Human Services to cover January through March. States are providing benefits by cobbling together previously unspent federal funds with state dollars.

“We don’t know at what point states will start to panic and that will start to affect people relying on TANF,” said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, a social safety net expert at the Center for Law and Social Policy.

If the government does not fully reopen by Feb. 1, nearly 270,000 rural families who receive federal rent subsidies through the Agriculture Department would also be at risk of eviction because their landlords would no longer be paid, said Bob Rapoza, executive secretary of the National Rural Housing Coalition.

“These are the poorest rural people in the country,” Rapoza said. “They’re farmworkers, they’re senior citizens, they’re disabled.”

An additional 2.2 million low-income households receiving rent assistance could be put in jeopardy in March when funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Section 8 voucher program runs out.

State and local public housing agencies would also stop receiving money to operate more than 1 million public housing units in March.

And another 100,000 low-income tenants are already at risk because HUD did not have staff in place during the shutdown to renew at least 1,150 affordable housing contracts that expired in December.

That means apartment owners will not be paid and must now dip into their reserves to cover their mortgages — which they may not be able to do indefinitely.

HUD officials told The Washington Post this week that furloughed staffers have been called back to work to scour agency accounts for money that could be used to cover contracts that expired before the shutdown. But those that expired after Dec. 22 remain in limbo, with payments possible only after the earlier batch of contracts are renewed.

The agency sought to downplay the impact of the expired contracts.

“No one has ever been evicted because of a shutdown, and the landlords have always been made whole,” said HUD spokesman Jereon Brown.

But he acknowledged that more contracts expire with each day that the government remains closed. Another 500 contracts are scheduled to expire by the end of January, and 550 in February, the agency said.

The risk of eviction for low-income tenants grows the longer the government remains closed, say housing advocates.

“The longer the shutdown continues, the more the lowest income people will be hard hit,” said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “If we get to March, we’re going to be looking at a potentially significant number of evictions.”

HUD also announced Wednesday there could be major delays in the disaster relief funding it sends to Puerto Rico, Florida, and a number of other places because of the shutdown, saying it likely would not be able to meet a timeline set by Congress.

The shutdown has hit Native American tribes especially hard because so many of their basic services depend on federal funding, as a legacy of their negotiated treaties with the U.S. government.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.) — a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and one of two Native American women newly sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives this month — said one tribe witnessed a member die during the shutdown because road crews did not plow snow-filled roads and an ambulance could not get through. She did not provide further details, saying she wanted to respect the tribe’s privacy.

Several tribes have reallocated funds to keep hospitals and clinics open on their lands. But staff at those hospitals has already grown thinner, Davids said.

“For many in these communities, this is the only way people can access health care,” she said.

Kerry Hawk Lessard, executive director of Native American Lifelines — a Baltimore-based group that provides health assistance to Native Americans living in urban areas — said she’s had to turn away members seeking rides to doctor’s appointments and halt funding for previously promised eyeglasses as a result of the shutdown.

Nonprofit groups in Washington, D.C., say they are making contingency plans after facing an uptick in calls from furloughed federal workers — with 362,000 of them living in the area — as well as families starting to panic about losing a slew of social safety benefits.

The Capital Area Food Bank in Northeast Washington revamped its website to lead with a tutorial on how to get food during the shutdown. The food bank sought assurances from federal authorities that the government will continue supplies of food and is trying to persuade grocery stores and other partners to help shore up dwindling supplies.

“We’re hearing from first-timers trying to understand how we work, what the hours are, whether there’s any near their homes,” said Radha Muthiah, the nonprofit’s president and chief executive.

Valerie Beaudin, 51, who was furloughed from her job as U.S. Census geographer, spent Tuesday morning handing out supplies at a food pantry in Huntingtown, Md., during a special event for federal workers.

Some were young, newly hired workers with no savings. Others were couples where the husband and wife both worked for the federal government.

“They were grabbing everything from luncheon meat to oranges to diapers and baby supplies,” Beaudin said.

Muthiah said Capital Food Bank has started talking about creating a fund for future shutdowns.

“We have an emergency cushion we use for natural disasters like floods, tornadoes,” Muthiah said. “We’ve never had to allocate for shutdowns before, but given how things are shaping up, this may be the new norm.”

Jeff Stein, Damian Paletta and Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.