State says it’s still getting a handle on unemployment fraud
The California Employment Development Department said Feb. 18 that it is still working through possible fraud cases after the agency identified 1.4 million unemployment benefit claims that needed additional verification. Out of the 1.4 claims suspended towards the end of 2020, 1.1 million people were directed to verify their identity with ID.me and Thomson Reuters. Read More →
Dubroff: Looking back on a year of pandemic, and the week everything changed
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Ventura County settles most lawsuits over COVID closures
When the state came out from under the last round of stay-at-home orders, Ventura County settled most of its 13 lawsuits against gyms and restaurants that stayed open despite state and local health orders. There are still several active cases open, though, as some businesses continue to defy the orders by holding indoor operations—which are Read More →
Moderna exec tells of company’s pursuit of COVID vaccine
Moderna didn’t expect to go to market with its new vaccine technology for several years when 2020 began, the company’s CFO said in a recent talk, but that changed after the technology Moderna spent almost a decade developing helped fast-forward development for COVID-19 vaccines. More than 1,000 people watched a virtual discussion on Feb. 17 Read More →
Dubroff: More shots, fewer infections mean the worst is likely behind us
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Lack of masks, insufficient translations: Farmworkers tell of COVID response problems
For months, many farmworkers in the tri-county region and the rest of California, especially indigenous workers who speak neither Spanish nor English, were not properly informed of the dangers of COVID-19, leading to outbreaks and poor working conditions. Despite being labeled essential workers by the state, farmworkers often felt ignored, according to a recent study Read More →
Stop-and-start reopening starts again
Restaurants are open outdoors again, as California is back under the county-by-county tiered reopening system after more than a month under a stay-at-home order that split the state into five regions. Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties are all again in the state’s purple tier, the most restrictive one, as cases in the Read More →
