New jobless claims in Washington drop slightly but unpaid backlog remains
OLYMPIA — The number of Washington workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits continued to drop last week, leading state officials to conclude two things:
• The economy is improving and some people forced out of work by the COVID-19 shutdowns are returning to the job. Some sectors of the economy are showing drops in the number of workers seeking first-time claims, and Spokane County is among those where new claims dropped in the week ending June 13.
• The massive identity theft that grabbed more than a half-billion dollars or more through phony claims is being thwarted. An estimated $350 million of it has been recovered.
But the backlog of claims that still must be processed before any benefits will be paid — caused by a combination of record requests and the fraudulent claims using stolen identity information — continues to grow. On Thursday, 50 Washington National Guard soldiers joined more than 400 members of the Employment Security Department staff to help clear the backlog.
Commissioner Suzi LeVine said about 81,000 claims for benefits filed between March 8 and June 15 have not received a payment because of one or more issues that must be resolved.
Many were flagged because of questions about the claimant’s identity. In slightly more than half the cases, the claimant received some payments before being notified there was a problem that needed to be resolved and payments stopped; in other cases, the claimant has yet to receive a payment.
“Those waiting the longest” will get priority in resolving their unpaid claims, LeVine said.
The estimate for the amount of money initially lost to fraudulent claims remained the same as it has been for several weeks, between $550 million and $650 million because recent efforts by state and federal officials have been successful. Meanwhile, the state has managed to claw back an additional $13 million taken by the schemes, bringing the recovered total to $350 million.
“There will be some of that we won’t be able to get back,” LeVine said.
By July 13, the department expects to resolve about 33,400 claims that were filed before May 2, when the state took new precautions to fight the massive number of fraudulent claims.
New claims for state unemployment benefits last week totaled 29,028, down 2.3 percent statewide from the previous week, as were initial claims for special federal benefits approved by Congress in response to the pandemic. But the state paid out nearly $455 million to about 400,000 individuals filing some type of new or continuing claim.
Since the pandemic shutdowns started in March, nearly 1.2 million individuals have filed claims and the state has paid out $5.4 billion in benefits, from a combination of state and federal sources.
The sharpest increase in new claims came from the manufacturing sector, while the health care, retail trade and construction sectors all saw decreases.
Laid-off workers in Spokane County filed 1,617 new unemployment claims the week ending June 13, an 8% decrease compared to 1,765 claims filed the prior week, according to the employment security department.
Workers in the county have filed a total of 83,409 initial jobless claims since the pandemic took hold in the state in mid-March.
In data released Thursday, the greatest number of unemployment benefit applications in the county were from health care and social assistance workers, who filed 264 new claims. Employees in the food services and accommodation sector filed 211, and specialty trade contractors filed 83.
Spokane County is seeing a decrease in both initial and continuing unemployment claims, indicating people are going back to work, said Doug Tweedy, regional economist for the Washington State Employment Security Department.
Before the county entered Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Safe Start reopening plan, laid-off workers had filed 36,112 continuing jobless claims. That number has dropped nearly 40% to 21,981 claims last week.
— The Spokesman-Review
Coronavirus cases climbing among front-line workers in Congress
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Democrats and Republicans quarrel about the best path forward to open the House, coronavirus cases are increasing on Capitol Hill among those who make the legislative business possible: front-line workers.
Since April 29, the number of coronavirus cases among construction workers assigned to the Cannon House Office Building renovation project has climbed from 17 to 28, according to Ashley Phelps, spokesperson for Rep. Rodney Davis, ranking member on the House Administration Committee. In that same time frame, coronavirus cases among the Capitol Police rose from 12 to 18.
Cannon, which was completed in 1908, is enduring a massive, multi-year renovation project estimated at more than $800 million.
The Architect of the Capitol did not provide numbers of their total workforce’s coronavirus cases in April. CQ Roll Call only has the total number of cases within the agency to date, which is 20, according to Phelps.
House Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren said she is concerned about the health of all in the legislative branch and cited the coronavirus cases as a reason to work remotely when possible.
“We in Congress have an option that many vital frontline workers do not: we can do much of our work remotely in a safe, secure, online format,” the California Democrat said in an emailed statement. “When we maximize our remote work, we minimize needless exposure of everyone who works on Capitol Hill —police, cleaning staff, other institutional staff, press, legislative staff, and Members.”
The increase in coronavirus cases is part of the reason Republicans are calling for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, to implement programs to quell the virus.
“It’s one of the reasons Ranking Member Davis and the other committee Republicans have asked for Speaker Pelosi to implement a health monitoring program that includes some level of testing as many other companies and agencies have done,” Phelps said in an emailed statement.
One House Democratic staffer said the increase in cases is “deeply concerning.”
“As we see Congress ramp up work in D.C., I’m concerned for my safety and the safety of everyone who works on the Hill. I’m thankful my member and chief have allowed us to work from home and continue to do so for the foreseeable future,” this staffer said. “But it’s troubling to see some Republican leaders politicize common-sense safety measures, like wearing a mask, when it can help minimize the spread of the coronavirus.”
A Republican aide in the House said: “I don’t think anyone feels extremely unsafe” working on the Capitol grounds, noting that their office allows no more than four individuals in at one time.
However, the risk is there when going through security screening, the staffer said.
“Going through security is something that’s gonna raise a little more hairs,” they said. “The bottleneck when people are going into work is going to get a lot of people to be uncomfortable. But to me, it’s the same risk as if you were to go into a grocery store.”
Representatives for Senate Rules and Administration Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and ranking member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., did not respond to a request for comment.
The Capitol Police and Architect of the Capitol require their employees to wear face coverings in certain situations but masks are not required to be worn by members at all times. Masks are “strongly recommended” to be worn by the attending physician, Brian Monahan.
Monahan issued a memo on June 16, which notes masks are required in House committee hearing rooms: “For U.S. House of Representatives meetings in a limited enclosed space, such as a committee hearing room, for greater than 15 minutes, face coverings are REQUIRED.”
Although the Senate returned in early May, the House has yet returned in the same vein. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy —along with Davis, an Illinois Republican, and Rules ranking member Tom Cole, R-Okla., —offered a plan to reconvene the chamber so they can meet in person. House Democrats were scheduled to return at the beginning of May, but they reversed course, citing advice against it from Monahan.
To avoid the potential spread of the virus, Democrats changed House rules to allow virtual hearings and markups, and proxy voting. House Republicans sued Pelosi over the rule change on the grounds it is unconstitutional.
— CQ-Roll Call
OSHA sends workplace safety notice of allegations to ilani casino
Days after ilani confirmed a case of COVID-19 in an employee, the casino west of La Center received notice from the state of worker allegations over safety measures to protect employees from coronavirus.
A June 15 letter from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s Washington office outlines the allegations.
“There was an outbreak of coronavirus, and they have yet to clean the environment where the person was located,” the complaint reads. “They are not monitoring the amount of people allowed in the establishment … exposing people to coronavirus.”
Washington’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration office has no plans to inspect the facility at the moment, according to the letter, but it is requiring the casino to conduct an internal investigation and supply OSHA with documentation and findings by early next week before deciding on any further action.
ilani closed temporarily earlier this year to put restrictions in place to protect employees from COVID-19. The casino reopened on May 27. The Cowlitz Tribe has sovereign rights and is not required to follow the state’s COVID-19 reopening plan.
Other casinos across the state opened around the same time as ilani. Gov. Jay Inslee said he felt the reopenings had come too soon, but he said he appreciated that the tribes were putting precautions in place.
ilani President and General Manager Kara Fox-LaRose said in a prepared statement that the casino disputes the claim that it did not clean the area where the infected employee worked. The statement said the casino is operating at 50 percent capacity.
Fox-LaRose also said the casino has implemented a number of safety precautions to enforce social distancing, such as powering off certain gaming machines and removing seating from machines. The casino is frequently sanitizing high-touch areas and has also placed Plexiglas barriers at gaming tables to separate patrons. The casino is also taking the temperatures of staff and guests before they enter the facility.
“We understand that in these unprecedented times, concerns for safety precautions are extremely heightened,” Fox-LaRose said. “Our concern for the well-being of our team members and guests has never been higher.”
— The Columbian
In shift, Florida Keys now requiring face masks until June 2021
ORLANDO, Fla. — Visitors to the Florida Keys will need to bring along face masks or face a $500 civil fine.
In a Wednesday vote, the Monroe County Commission shifted from an earlier stance on face coverings, and now requires everyone including employees and customers to wear face coverings in any establishment.
The city of Key West already had this stricter ruling in place, but unincorporated parts of the Keys had relaxed such requirements, following the guidelines set forth by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ statewide Phase 2 of his reopening plan that began on June 5.
The ordinance also allows other city governments in the Keys to opt out of the ordinance.
Now, though, facial coverings are mandatory, and will be until June 1, 2021, although the commission will revisit the restriction on a quarterly basis.
“Facial coverings over the nose and mouth must be worn in business establishments and other public settings where there is a roof overhead,” said county spokesperson Kristen Livengood in a press release.
There are exceptions including for those eating and drinking in a restaurant in bar, as well as while exercising in a gym as long as a six-foot social distance is maintained.
Also children ages 6 and younger are not required to wear a mask.
Coverings can be face masks, homemade masks, other cloth, silk or linen coverings like scarves, bandanas or handkerchiefs. The county stated that surgical face masks such as the N95 masks should be left for those on the front lines.
Officers that encounter people or businesses violating the face covering restrictions can issue a citation for up to $500, according to the draft ordinance adopted by the commission. Businesses won’t be held liable as long as they had asked customers in violation to adhere to the ordinance or otherwise vacate the property.
The county had been shut down to nonresidents until this month with checkpoints that went up in April to block tourist access coming down June 1.
At that point, the county had only seen 108 cases of COVID-19 and four deaths, according to the Florida Department of Health. As of Wednesday, the case total has risen by 19 more cases to 137 and no further deaths.
Miami-Dade to the north has 23,273 positive cases and 850 deaths, up from 18,000 positive cases and 700 deaths as of May 31, the most in the state.
— The Orlando Sentinel
Comcast extending free internet for low-income customers as pandemic drags on
PHILADELPHIA — Comcast will continue to offer 60 days of free internet service for new low-income customers, as the coronavirus pandemic drags on and forces consumers to study and work from home.
The cable giant is extending the broadband offering through the end of the year. It was initially set to expire June 30. The company cited schools possibly relying on remote learning when they reopen in the fall.
The 60 days of free service are for customers who sign up for Comcast’s low-income broadband program, called Internet Essentials. The service costs $9.95 a month after that period and provides download speeds of 25 mbps and upload speeds of 3 mbps.
As of March 31, roughly 32,000 customers signed up for the free service during the first quarter of this year, according to an earnings report.
“Now more than ever, connectivity has become a vital tool for families to access educational resources for students, important news and information about their community and the world, telehealth applications, or to stay in touch with family and friends,” Dana Strong, president of consumer services for Comcast’s Xfinity unit, said in a statement.
The extension comes as the coronavirus continues to keep many students and employees at home, forcing them to rely on their own internet service for work and class. Thousands of students in Philadelphia were without internet access when the pandemic first hit. The School District has distributed tens of thousands of Chromebooks to students to promote remote learning, with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts donating $5 million to help pay for them.
Still, school officials, lawmakers, and activists have asked Comcast —the nation’s largest home internet provider —to do more to help close the digital divide during the pandemic. Last month, Philadelphia School District Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said he asked Comcast and other internet providers to open residential WiFi networks to others so all students could learn through their laptops, but they all refused. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) signed a letter in May urging Comcast to open all WiFi hot spots for schoolchildren, too.
“Comcast has taken important steps to help Americans get connected during this global public health emergency,” the letter said. “But it can —and should —do more to help children and teachers.”
Comcast has said its residential WiFi networks were not engineered for broad public use. The company has made business and outdoor WiFi hot spots free for everyone.
“Our residential access points are designed to support our customers and their guests in the home,” Comcast spokesman John Demming said in a statement. “They are not intended for broad, public use and are not engineered to support the high volume of users that our business and outdoor hot spots can handle.”
To qualify for Internet Essentials, customers must be eligible for public assistance programs such as the National School Lunch Program, Medicaid, or SNAP. They also must not have been a Comcast internet subscriber within the last 90 days, though that restriction doesn’t apply to Philadelphians.
For the rest of the year, Comcast is waiving another requirement that typically prohibits customers with an outstanding debt from signing up for the program.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
