A unidentified flying object recently spotted soaring over Hawaii prompted calls to local police and the Federal Aviation Administration.

© Provided by People abc7

Multiple eyewitnesses called 911 after seeing a bright blue object above Oahu on Tuesday around 8:30 p.m., Hawaii News Now reported.

The mysterious object appeared to be a glowing‚ oblong mass in multiple videos captured by onlookers, according to the local news outlet.

A witness only identified as Moriah said she spotted the mysterious object hovering over the Princess Kahanu Estates in the Nanakuli neighborhood.

"I look up and then I was like, 'Oh s—!' " she told the station. "I started calling my husband and them because they were all in the garage. I was like, 'Hey, come look up there. See if you see what I see.' They all said, 'Yeah!' "

She told the outlet that she and her husband then jumped into the car and followed the object for three miles. She said they last spotted the object, which was described as being larger than a telephone pole, around Farrington Highway when it appeared to fall into the ocean without a sound.

© abc7 The mysterious object appeared to be a glowing‚ oblong mass in multiple videos captured by onlookers

Moriah said she called the police and when police arrived, they saw similar object omitting white light from the sky.

"The white one was smaller. Was coming in the same direction as the blue one," she said.



Another eyewitness, Misitina Sape, told Hawaii News Now that she captured footage of the blue mass near Haleakala Avenue in the Nanakuli neighborhood.

While Moriah said she is unsure what the object could be, UFO enthusiasts online believe the glowing mass bears resemblance to an LED kite.

The FAA did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment, though Ian Gregor, a spokesperson for the agency, told Hawaii News Now that there are "no reports of overdue or missing aircraft" in the area.

A Mysterious Blue UFO Was Spotted Over Hawaii — and the Whole Thing Was Caught on Camera

Stefanie Waldek 

Remember how we had “alien invasion” on our 2020 bingo card? Well, we might just be able to check off that box. On Dec. 29, at roughly 8:30 p.m. local time, eyewitnesses on the Hawaiian island of Oahu spotted an unidentified flying object in the night sky, prompting several 911 calls. As reported by Hawaii News Now, the UFO, which was caught on video, had a glowing blue oblong form, described by one onlooker as “larger than a telephone pole.” It sailed across the sky for several miles before crashing silently into the sea. 

One witness, identified by Hawaii News Now as a woman named Moriah, saw a second UFO — this one with a whitish hue. “The white one was smaller. Was coming in the same direction as the blue one,” Moriah told Hawaii News Now. It disappeared from her sight as it flew over a neighboring town.

Local police reported the UFO sightings to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in the event there was a downed aircraft, but the FAA said that no planes had disappeared from radar in the area, nor were any deemed overdue or missing.

But don’t go putting on your tinfoil hat just yet. These sightings are not likely extraterrestrial in nature, as is the case with most UFOs. In fact, some internet sleuths have already proffered a plausible explanation: The floating blue object bears resemblance to an LED kite, as demonstrated in this video by fact-checking Twitter account UFO of Interest. 

So, as it turns out, 2020 just wasn’t the year for aliens, but who knows what 2021 will bring.

Neanderthal burials: Child's skeleton buried 41,000 years ago may solve mystery

Is burying the dead a practice unique to Homo sapiens? Or did other early humans such as Neanderthals lay their loved ones to rest under the earth?

© Emmanuel Roudier This artist's reconstruction shows a child's burial by Neanderthals at La Ferrassie in southwestern France. © Emmanuel Roudier

By Katie Hunt, CNN 

It's a topic of long-standing debate among archaeologists. Now, evidence of funerary behavior could shed light on the cognitive abilities and social customs of Neanderthals and whether, like modern humans, they were capable of symbolic thought.

Dozens of buried Neanderthal skeletons have been discovered in Europe and parts of Asia over the course of 150 years. The most well-preserved ones, however, were found at the beginning of the 20th century and weren't excavated using modern methods. This has led to skepticism about whether Neanderthal burial practice was deliberate.

© Antoine Balzeau/CNRS/MNHN A researcher from the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale in France examines material from excavations of the La Ferrassie Neanderthal site in southwestern France. Thousands of bone remains were sorted and 47 new fossil remains belonging to a Neandertal child were identified.

A new analysis of a 41,000 year-old skeleton of a Neanderthal child, found in a French cave in the 1970s, provides fresh evidence that the Stone Age hominins intentionally buried their dead.

French and Spanish researchers re-examined the remains using modern high-tech methods, re-excavated the original archaeological site where the bones were found in La Ferrassie, southwestern France, and reviewed the notebooks and field diaries from the original dig.

Their conclusion? The corpse of a 2-year-old Neanderthal was deliberately laid in a pit dug in the sediment.

The absence of marks from carnivores who may have tried to scavenge an uncovered body and the fact that the bones were relatively unscattered with little weathering suggested that the body was rapidly covered, the researchers said. The remains were also well preserved (better than the bones from animals found in the same layer of earth) despite belonging to a child. Children's skeletons typically have more delicate bones.

The position of the skeleton also suggested the child had been placed there intentionally. The head, which pointed to the east, was raised higher than the rest of the body even though the land inclined to the west.

"The origin of funerary practices has important implications for the emergence of so-called modern cognitive capacities and behaviour," the study said. "These new results provide important insights for the discussion about the chronology of the disappearance of the Neanderthals, and the behavioral capacity, including cultural and symbolic expression, of these humans."

The researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris and the University of the Basque Country in Spain identified 47 bones belonging to the child's skeleton that hadn't been previously identified.

One piece of bone was carbon dated and found to be 41,000 years old. Researchers confirmed the bone belonged to a Neanderthal by analyzing the fragment's mitochondrial DNA.

The child was one of eight sets of skeletal remains found at the site.

Death rites

Potential evidence of burial has also been found in one of the most famous Neanderthal sites, the Shanidar cave in Kurdistan, located in northern Iraq. This site was home to the remains of 10 Neanderthal men, women and children. They were found with ancient pollen clumps, suggesting that Neanderthals may have included flowers as part of their funeral rites.

More recent excavations of the Shanidar cave have turned up more Neanderthal remains, which early research has suggested were deliberately buried.

Other research has suggested that there was considerable diversity in how European Neanderthals treated their dead kin in the period immediately preceding their disappearance roughly 40,000 years ago -- including cannibalism.

The team of researchers said today's analytical standards should be applied to the other skeletal remains at the La Ferrassie site to assess whether they too were buried.

The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports in December.

Caledonia land dispute: Crown withdraws charges against Indigenous jounalist Karl Dockstader

Karl Dockstader has made it as far as his driveway.

But despite having the charges against him dropped, he has not yet returned to Caledonia to continue the reporting on the McKenzie Meadows occupation that got him arrested in the first place.

“In the back of my head I’m like, ‘Is something going to happen this time where I’ll make a mistake and it’ll get on video, and this will be the time the cops will make charges stick?’” said Dockstader, an Indigenous journalist from Oneida on the Thames who hosts a Niagara radio show and podcast.

“Even though I’m not going out there to do anything other than reporting, it’s planted a seed of doubt that I can’t get rid of. I still have a lingering fear that I could be arrested at a moment’s notice.”

Over the summer, Dockstader spent a week embedded at the camp on McKenzie Road, which Six Nations land defenders claim as unceded Haudenosaunee territory. He was subsequently arrested on Sept. 2 for violating an injunction which orders anyone not authorized by Foxgate Developments to leave the disputed construction site.

On Dec. 15, the Crown withdrew all criminal charges, telling the judge there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.

“I was relieved, but it didn’t last long,” Dockstader said.

“It struck me how many people were there who didn’t have their charges withdrawn. So I was happy, but I felt really bad for everyone else who still has charges to contend with.”

Dockstader called his arrest “a gross misuse of police power,” adding that he feels he was treated differently because he is Indigenous.

“I definitely think I was arrested for reporting while Indigenous,” he said. “There was nothing I was doing the week that I was there that was nefarious, that was harmful, that was actively assisting the movement.”

At the time of Dockstader’s arrest, OPP Const. Rod LeClair told The Spectator that while police are “committed to the freedom of the press,” a press pass does not grant journalists immunity.

“Engaging in activities outside of their reporting purpose could subject media personnel to charges in relation to violation of a court order and other applicable offences,” LeClair said.

Dockstader said he felt “vindicated” by the Crown’s decision, but said his arrest continues to have a chilling effect on his work.

He added that his ordeal changed how his family perceives the justice system, deepening the skepticism that his wife and children already felt about how the police and courts treat Indigenous people.

“That’s probably the worst part of all of this – that their faith in the system was destroyed the second the charges got laid,” he said.

“Withdrawing the charges, I think, did nothing to change where they stand. They just see it as a through-and-through miscarriage of justice from beginning to end.”

Dockstader’s lawyer, Emily Lam of Kastner Lam LLP, confirmed that he is “free and clear” to continue reporting at the disputed site, something Dockstader said he looks forward to doing, even with the threat of arrest still nagging at him.

“I’ll be back to report,” he said. “But I’ll have that fear in my back of my mind, always.”

J.P. Antonacci, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hamilton Spectator

Why some gun-control opponents want to 'other' one of Canada's worst mass killers

In recent years, the media has been reluctant to name mass shooters for fear of granting gunmen notoriety or encouraging copycat crimes.

© .THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz Prime Minister Justin Trudeau makes remarks in December 2019 as 14 beams of light point skyward during Montréal ceremonies to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1989 École Polytechnique shooting.

This happened after the mass shooting in Nova Scotia in April 2020 that left 22 people dead. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked media organizations not to name the perpetrator, and many publications have used terms like the “gunman” or the “shooter,” or have taken to using his initials, G.W.

This also now occurs when the Montréal Massacre is discussed. Mainstream media frequently avoid naming Marc Lépine, the legal gun owner who used his Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle to kill 14 women in 1989.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hansen A victim is transported to an ambulance on Dec. 6, 1989, after Lépine opened fire in a packed classroom, killing 14 women before turning the gun on himself.

Some opponents of gun control, however, still name the shooter. But they often employ Lépine’s birth name: Gamil Gharbi. In doing so, these members of the firearms community seek to “other” the gunman — to distinguish him from other gun owners, and to intimate that he was not a “real” Canadian firearms owner.


Invoking his birth name raises the spectre of stereotypes associated with “foreigners,” especially Muslims — themselves the victims of a mass shooting in Québec four years ago this month.

Lépine’s name change

Lépine was born in Montréal. His mother was a French-Canadian nurse; his father was an Algerian businessman. Lépine’s parents split up when he was a child, and his mother returned to work to support the family. At 14, his name was legally changed and he took on his mother’s pre-marital surname.

Groups representing firearm owners frequently seek to define gun violence as mostly a problem of criminal gangs. They argue that the licensed firearms community is responsible for few of the illicit drug-related shootings that grab headlines in Canadian newspapers.

That’s true, though those same groups are reluctant to discuss other kinds of gun violence, including domestic homicide and suicides, which often involve legal firearm owners.

The fact that the Montréal Massacre shooter had acquired a licence to purchase his rifle (then called a Firearms Acquisition Certificate) is problematic for the gun community.
Renaming the shooter

The solution therefore for some Canadian firearms owners is to distinguish Lépine from other gun users by referring to him as Gamil Gharbi.

As historian Karen Dubinsky correctly noted in 2009:

“Right-wing Canadian males seem eager to name Lépine as Gharbi, because to them this means he was a product of North African, not North American, culture … this proves the foreignness of Lépine/Gharbi’s misogyny and tells us everything we need to know about Algerians, Muslims and the rightness of the War on Terror.”

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson A University of Montréal student lays a bouquet of roses at the front entrance of the École Polytechnique de Montréal on Dec. 7, 1989, the day after Marc Lépine shot and killed 14 women before turning the gun on himself.

Some gun owners have been particularly keen to refer to Lépine as Gharbi.

For example, an organization called Justice for Gun Owners wrote in 2017 that “radical feminists like to portray Gamil Gharbi as a typical Canadian male, but this is very far from the truth.” He was, rather, “the son of an Algerian wife beater.”

In 2018, the National Firearms Association published a letter in its official journal that connected several mass shootings to immigrants or people of colour.

The writer admitted that he might be “stepping onto a slippery slope,” but said he could not understand why the media still used the name Lépine when “in point of fact, his actual name is Gamil Gharbi and he was born the son of a reportedly abusive Muslim immigrant from Algeria.” He asked how the home life of Lépine differed “from the average law-abiding Canadian gun owner?”

He added in his letter:

“I am not a racist, but I have to wonder what role such obvious cultural and/or religious differences may have played in these particular mass shootings.”

In 2014, blogger and author Christopher di Armani wrote:

“It comes as no surprise to me, nor should it come as one to you, that December 6th is dedicated to hating men when the official Montreal Massacre narrative says all men are responsible for Gamil Gharbi’s actions.”

Blaming gun violence on immigrants

Blaming immigrants or people of colour for gun violence is not new in Canada. Historically, Canadians have often ascribed a tendency towards violence to people of some races or ethnic origin.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, for example, some Canadians expressed concern about the supposed tendency of southern European immigrants to tote pistols. These concerns contributed to efforts to regulate handguns more stringently.

Today, however, invoking the birth name of the Montréal Massacre shooter is an attempt by some gun owners to avoid taking any responsibility for violence in Canada, and to instead distract by pointing fingers at immigrants and people of colour.

It’s part of an effort to say that law-abiding gun owners (or LAGOs, as some call themselves) are never the problem.

There’s just one problem with this argument. Lépine was a licensed gun owner. That troubling historical fact should not be forgotten.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

R. Blake Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

FCA and PSA merger receives the OK to create fourth largest automaker

Monday brought about big news for the automotive landscape as Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France's PSA Group received the green light from shareholders to create Stellantis, a merged automaker that will soon become the fourth largest automaker in the world.

© Provided by Roadshow Say hello to a French-Italian-American carmaker, folks. FCA/PSA

The two automakers first came to the table to announce their intention to merge operations back in 2019 and agreed the deal, if regulatory bodies and shareholders approved it, would close in the early part of 2021. That date is set for Jan. 16 for a final merger completion, and days later, common shares of Stellantis will list on European stock exchanges and the New York Stock Exchange. Both automakers said in a joint statement stock will trade in Europe on Jan. 18 and Jan. 19 in the US

.

© Provided by Roadshow From left to right: Soon-to-be Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares and Stellantis North American operations chief, Mike Manley. FCA

Although both automakers billed this as a 50/50 merger, PSA is technically taking over FCA in the final deal. PSA's current CEO Carlos Tavares will become CEO of the combined Stellantis, while FCA CEO Mike Manley will head up the automaker's North American operations. Manley will likely play a key role as PSA works to introduce the Peugeot brand back to North America, specifically, the US. Long before FCA and PSA declared their intent to merge, the French automaker was hard at work on creating a footprint to sell the French vehicles in the US once again. The timetable for Peugeot's return is somewhere between 2022 and 2023, though that could certainly change with the merger closing.

© FCA/PSA

Both automakers said the merged automaker will provide a massive bundle of cost savings and synergies as the two work to consolidate vehicle platforms, share powertrains and pour resources into future mobility and electric vehicle technologies. The two companies said they expect to save over $6 billion once FCA and PSA's operations completely streamline under one roof. PSA and FCA both promised to not close any auto plants as part of the merger, but what becomes of the 14 brands that will soon sit under Stellantis is less clear. This automaker will now include everything from Dodge , Chrysler, Alfa Romeo , Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen and more.

Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot shareholders OK merger to create Stellantis



Fiat Chrysler shareholders approved merger Monday with Peugeot to create Stellantis. File Photo John Angelillo | License Photo


Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot said Monday shareholders approved a merger of the two companies to form Stellantis.

Shareholders of Italian automaker Fiat Chrysler and French manufacturer Peugeot, also known as Group PSA, approved the merger to create Stellantis at meetings Monday by an overwhelming majority, with more than 99% of votes cast in favor of it, according to a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles press release.

The companies expect to close the merger on Jan. 16, and have already received the final regulatory clearances over the last month, including from the European Commission and the European Central Bank, according to the release. Following the merger, Stellantis' common shares will begin trading in the markets in Italy and Paris on Jan. 18 and on the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 19.

The merger will include brands ranging from FCA's Maserati, Jeep and Ram to Peugeot's Citreon and Opel. It is expected to provide about $6.1 billion in annual cost savings, according to officials.

RELATED Electric vehicle startup Canoo unveils futuristic delivery van

The companies announced plans for the merger to create the world's fourth-largest automaker, with 400,000 employees and $190 billion in net sales, in late October.

In their joint announcement, the companies pledged to bring the companies together to build on growing technology capabilities to become a "world leader for a new era in sustainable mobility."

The merger will also unite the companies brand strengths across luxury, premium, mainstream passenger car, SUV, trucks and light commercial, according to the announcement.

RELATED Kia recalls 295,000 vehicles due to engine fire risk

Stellantis will be based in the Netherlands at Fiat Chrysler headquarters, and FCA Chairman John Elkann and Peugeot CEO Carlos Tavares will maintain their roles at the new company.

When FCA and Peugeot merge, the combined automaker Stellantis, worth roughly $50 billion, will be the fourth-largest automaker worldwide behind Volkswagen, Renault-Nissan and Toyota.

Tavares called the shareholders approval of the merger "a historical moment" for the company.

China doubles down on COVID narrative 

as WHO investigation looms

By David Stanway

© Reuters/TINGSHU WANG FILE PHOTO: Exhibition on China's fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - As a team from the World Health Organization (WHO) prepares to visit China to investigate the origins of COVID-19, Beijing has stepped up efforts not only to prevent new outbreaks, but also shape the narrative about when and where the pandemic began.

China has dismissed criticism of its early handling of the coronavirus, first identified in the city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, and foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday that the country would welcome the WHO team.

But amid simmering geopolitical tensions, experts said the investigators were unlikely to be allowed to scrutinise some of the more sensitive aspects of the outbreak, with Beijing desperate to avoid blame for a virus that has killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide.

"Even before this investigation, top officials from both sides have been very polarised in their opinions on the origins of the outbreak," said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. think tank.

"They will have to be politically savvy and draw conclusions that are acceptable to all the major parties," he added.

While other countries continue to struggle with infection surges, China has aggressively doused flare-ups. After a new cluster of cases last week, the city of Shenyang sealed off entire communities and required all non-essential workers to stay home.

On Saturday, senior diplomat Wang Yi praised the anti-pandemic efforts, saying China not only curbed domestic infections, but also "took the lead in building a global anti-epidemic defence" by providing aid to more than 150 countries.

But mindful of the criticism China has faced worldwide, Wang also became the highest-ranking official to question the consensus about COVID-19's origins, saying "more and more studies" show that it emerged in multiple regions.

China is also the only country to claim COVID-19 can be transmitted via cold chain imports, with the country blaming new outbreaks in Beijing and Dalian on contaminated shipments - even though the WHO has downplayed those risks.

TRANSPARENCY

China has been accused of a cover-up that delayed its initial response, allowing the virus to spread further.

The topic remains sensitive, with only a handful of studies into the origins of COVID-19 made available to the public.

But there have also been signs China is willing to share information that contradicts the official picture.

Last week, a study by China's Center for Disease Control showed that blood samples from 4.43% of Wuhan's population contained COVID-19 antibodies, indicating that the city's infection rates were far higher than originally acknowledged.

But scientists said China must also share any findings suggesting COVID-19 was circulating domestically long before it was officially identified in December 2019.

An Italian study showed that COVID-19 might have been in Europe several months before China's first official case. Chinese state media used the paper to support theories that COVID-19 originated overseas and entered China via contaminated frozen food or foreign athletes competing at the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019.

Raina MacIntyre, head of the Kirby Institute's Biosecurity Research Program in Australia, said the investigation needed to draw "a comprehensive global picture of the epidemiological clues", including any evidence COVID-19 was present outside of China before December 2019.

However, political issues mean they are unlikely to be given much leeway to investigate one hypothesis, that the outbreak was caused by a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said MacIntyre.

"I think it is unlikely all viruses in the lab at the time will be made available to the team," she said. "So I do not think we will ever know the truth."

Reporting by David Stanway; Additional reporting by Martin Pollard in Wuhan. Editing by Gerry Doyle

Mexico eyes plan to deal with migrants left by Trump policies

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The Mexican government said on Monday it would come up with a plan to deal with migrants stuck in the country as a result of outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump's policies, while stressing that Mexico is not to blame for the flows of people.

© Reuters/DANIEL BECERRIL Migrants rest in an improvised shelter set up outside the Posada Belen migrant shelter, which is closed due to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease COVID-19, in Saltillo

© Reuters/GUSTAVO GRAF MALDONADO FILE PHOTO: Mexico Interior Minister Olga Sanchez Cordero holds a news conference in Mexico City

The interior ministry said it and the foreign ministry would work out how to deal with migrants left inside the country by Trump's so-called Remain in Mexico policy after U.S. President-elect Joe Biden pledged to dismantle the program.

© Reuters/DANIEL BECERRIL Migrant walks with food in their hands at Posada Belen migrant shelter, before being closed due to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease COVID-19, in Saltillo

Mexico would work with the governments of the United States, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to address the migration challenge, Interior Minister Olga Sanchez told a meeting of ambassadors, according to comments shared by the government.

"We're not the cause of the problem, but we reiterate our willingness to be part of the solution," she said.


Video: Hundreds of Cubans protest at Mexico border, seeking entry to US (AFP)


Under Remain in Mexico, migrants with U.S. asylum claims have stayed in Mexico while their requests are processed.

"We will formulate a plan for the migrants still in Mexico with this program," Sanchez said, without elaborating. "It's foreseeable that in the distant future, there will be an increase in the flow of migrants trying to get to the United States via Mexico."

© Reuters/DANIEL BECERRIL A general view shows the home of Honduran migrant Glenda Troches, which she adapted as a migrant shelter during the outbreak of the coronavirus desease COVID-19 in Saltillo

Meanwhile, as Mexico celebrated its accession to the United Nations Security Council as a nonpermanent member, the government said it would work to crack down on arms trafficking, an issue it has often pressed upon Washington.

Mexico will sit on the Security Council from 2021 to 2022.

(Reporting by Raul Cortes Fernandez in Mexico City; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

© Reuters/DANIEL BECERRIL Migrants take caffee outside the Posada Belen migrant shelter, which is closed due to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease COVID-19, in Saltillo

Blake Shelton Faces Backlash Over ‘Tone Deaf’ New Song ‘Minimum Wage’

Blake Shelton's latest song is being criticized for insensitivity.

© Provided by ET Canada Blake Shelton. Photo: CP Images

On New Year's Eve, the country singer and "The Voice" coach debuted his new song "Minimum Wage", inspired by his love for fiancée Gwen Stefani, during NBC's year-end special.

The song, which features the lyric, "Girl, your love can make a man feel rich on minimum wage," was met with a wave of backlash on social media, with many calling out the multi-millionaire singer for referencing working at minimum wage.

Some called the song "tone deaf," while others noted the financial difficulties facing many Americans during the pandemic.

ET Canada has reached out to Shelton's rep for comment.

THIRD WORLD USA

Some states start paying $300 unemployment boost while others lag

Arizona, California, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee are among the first states to begin paying a $300 weekly boost to unemployment benefits.

The $300 enhancement was offered by the $900 billion Covid relief law signed by President Donald Trump on Dec. 27.

Connecticut and Washington state expect to start disbursing the benefit in mid-January. Other states don't appear to have concrete timelines.

© Provided by CNBC

A handful of states have begun issuing a $300 weekly boost to unemployment benefits or signaled workers will get the payments starting this week. Others expect the aid to kick in later this month.

Workers in Arizona, California, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee will receive the first batch of enhanced payments this week, according to state labor agencies. California and New York are the No. 1 and 2 states, respectively, relative to the number of workers receiving jobless benefits.

Connecticut and Washington state aim to disburse the supplement beginning in mid-January, officials said.

© Provided by CNBC

The $300-a-week increase in jobless benefits comes as part of a $900 billion Covid relief package signed Dec. 27 by President Donald Trump.

The stipend is available for up to 11 weeks, to workers unemployed at any time between Dec. 26 and March 14.

Most other states haven't yet offered concrete payment timelines as they work to implement new unemployment rules included in the relief law. Workers will be reimbursed for any gap resulting from delayed aid.

Those provisions include 11 extra weeks of federally funded benefits for workers who exhausted their standard allotment of state aid, and to self-employed and other workers who don't qualify for state benefits.

First payments

Workers in California were paid the $300 weekly supplement as early as Sunday, according to the state Employment Development Department.

However, the first tranche is only available to the 1.3 million Californians who are receiving regular state benefits or aid through the Federal-State Extended Duration program, which kicks in during periods of high unemployment, the agency said.

Benefits will be delayed for others — almost 3 million people — until "revised programming is in place" for the extended federal programs, the agency said.

Those federal programs include Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.

All workers in New York and Rhode Island, including those collecting PUA and PEUC benefits, will begin receiving the $300 boost along with this week's payments, according to state labor officials.

Rhode Island recipients will get the funds as early as Monday, according to Margaux Fontaine, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Labor and Training.

Arizona residents were able to file a weekly claim for the additional $300 beginning Sunday, according to Tasya Peterson, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Economic Security. The payments started flowing this week along with workers' regular benefits, she said.

Tennessee began disbursing the funds on Monday, according to Chris Cannon, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Connecticut, Washington

Connecticut labor officials expect to start paying the $300 enhancement by mid-January, according to a statement issued Tuesday by Gov. Ned Lamont and Kurt Westby, the state's labor commissioner.

Washington state expects to issue two weeks' worth of payments on Jan. 15, according to information on the state's unemployment website. It typically takes a few days for banks to process the payments after being issued, according to information on the Employment Security Department's website.

The New Jersey Department of Labor has reprogrammed its systems to administer the $300 benefit and will soon begin distribution, once user testing is successfully completed, according to spokeswoman Angela Delli-Santi.

The $300 weekly supplement follows two others enacted during the coronavirus pandemic: a $600-a-week stipend provided by the CARES Act through July, and a subsequent $300 weekly Lost Wages Assistance payment offered for up to six weeks through early September.

While some states were able to disburse that aid quickly, many took several weeks — even a few months — to do so.

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Here’s how long the $600 stimulus checks will last for Americans living paycheck to paycheck

The second round of $600 stimulus payments is already hitting Americans' bank accounts. But with holiday debts to cover and increased utility costs as winter sets in, this money may not last very long.

 

© Provided by CNBC

For the average working American living paycheck to paycheck, the latest $600 stimulus check will last three to three and a half months, according to an analysis from Earnin, a mobile app that allows you to access your paycheck early. 

Using data from over a million app users, Earnin analyzed how long it will take for bank account balances to return to the average amount they were prior to the federal payments hitting the account. During the first round of $1,200 stimulus checks, Earnin found that it took bank accounts about six and a half months, or 25 weeks, to return to normal fund levels.

Those who use the Earnin app tend to be living paycheck to paycheck and have lower bank balances, says Ram Palaniappan, CEO of Earnin. "Many of them would be people who work retail, nurses who work at hospitals, government employees such as TSA agents and people in call centers," Palaniappan says. "This is a large group of America."

© Provided by CNBC A look at how long it took the average bank account balance to return to normal levels following the first round of $1,200 stimulus payments.

But the latest $900 billion Covid-19 relief package only allocated up to $600 per individual ($1,200 for married couples filing jointly), including dependent children under age 17, if you earned less than $75,000 ($150,000 for couples) in 2019. Stimulus payments start to phase out if you earned more than that, stopping completely for those with adjusted gross incomes of $87,000 or more ($174,000 for married couples). 

Less money means it will take less time to spend it. And lower stimulus payments will hit those living without any savings much harder, Palaniappan tells CNBC Make It.

For Americans with less than $100 in their checking accounts, Earnin estimates that the stimulus check won't last more than six weeks. About 1 in 5 of those struggling financially will spend the money right away, Earnin estimates.

"The $600 stimulus check will last for different amounts of time for different people. But for the people who are even more distressed financially, it's going to be about one and a half months," Palaniappan tells CNBC Make It.

Of course, this is just an initial estimate, Palaniappan says. The timing of these stimulus payments plays a role as well. "It's a time of higher expenses," Palaniappan says. It's just after the December holiday season, which generally means people are paying off holiday gift expenses, experiencing higher energy bills and potentially earning less income due to time off.

Additionally, unemployment is still pretty high. "Let's not forget that it's still really tough for people to get a job," he says. 

Plus, at the beginning of the pandemic, many Americans were able to defer payments on their credit cards, student loans and mortgages. While programs have been extended for some, for others, those debt obligations are starting to catch up, Palaniappan says.

Joe Biden's Change of Heart on $2,000 Stimulus Checks Shows Power of Bernie Sanders Works

This story is being co-published with The Daily Poster

© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images JANUARY 04: President-elect Joe Biden addresses a campaign rally with Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock the day before their runoff election, January 04, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. In a shift, Biden promised $2,000 stimulus checks if the Georgia Democrats won.

After weeks of progressive pressure, president-elect Joe Biden on Monday promised to immediately deliver $2,000 stimulus checks to millions of Americans if Georgia Democratic senate candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win their races this week. The comments come a month after Biden reportedly told congressional Democrats to accept stimulus legislation that included no checks.

"One state can chart the course—not just for the next four years, but for the next generation," Biden said in a Monday evening speech in Atlanta. "By electing Jon and the Reverend you can make an immediate difference in your own lives, the lives of people all across this country because their election will put an end to the block in Washington on that $2,000 stimulus check, that money that will go out the door immediately to people who are in real trouble."

Biden's change of heart comes only a month after he helped persuade congressional Democrats to support stimulus legislation that did not include the checks, according to The New York Times. At the time, Biden suggested he did not oppose checks, but he pushed Democrats to accept a deal without them, raising concerns that he may revert to his past support for budget austerity.

Biden's shift from endorsing legislation with no checks to now promising $2,000 checks follows a relentless campaign from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has pushed the wildly popular idea of $2,000 checks for most of the last year. His crusade was boosted by House progressives who also supported the measure—and their effort received a late, unexpected boost from President Donald Trump, who threatened to hold up stimulus legislation without more direct aid for workers.

The campaign ultimately reduced its ask to a second round of $1,200 checks and was supported in Congress by Republican Sen. Josh Hawley. It successfully pressured lawmakers to include checks in the stimulus bill that passed Congress. However, Biden's influence once again pushed Democrats into accepting less than they had initially sought, ultimately reducing the checks to just half that.

When Trump suddenly signaled his support for $2,000, House Democrats quickly passed separate legislation for that amount.

In the Senate, Sanders was backed by five Democratic lawmakers who voted to sustain his filibuster of the defense authorization bill to try to force a vote on the $2,000 checks. That tactic was short-circuited by Republican senators and more than 40 Senate Democrats who sided with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in motions to shut down the filibuster. Among the Democrats helping shut down the filibuster was vice-president-elect Kamala Harris.

As Sanders spotlighted the $2,000 checks legislation on Capitol Hill in the last month, Georgia Democrats Warnock and Ossoff began campaigning on the initiative.

This past week, Warnock ran an ad with the line, "Want a $2,000 check? Vote Warnock." Ossoff, meanwhile, tweeted on Monday that "We can pass $2000 relief checks for the people, but we have to win this Senate election."

Under pressure, Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler issued last-minute statements of general support for the $2,000 checks, but never actually pressed McConnell to allow a vote on the proposal. Perdue had previously opposed the entire concept of direct stimulus checks.

During that fight, Biden stopped telling Democrats to accept a deal with no checks, and initially signaled his support for the checks in muted terms; he said only "yes" when asked whether he approved of the proposal. His speech in Georgia on Monday was a much more enthusiastic declaration of support for the legislation—which could be signed by Biden on his first day in office, if the Democratic House and a newly Democratic Senate (if Ossoff and Warnock win) immediately passes the legislation.

"Think about what it will mean to your lives," Biden said of the $2,000 checks. "Putting food on the table. Paying rent. Paying down your mortgage. Paying down the credit card, paying the phone bill, the gas bill, the electric bill."

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