Elizabeth Warren laid into Amazon and Facebook for trying to sideline new FTC chair Lina Khan. Both companies 'fear' Khan's antitrust expertise, she said.

© Provided by Business Insider Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has proposed introducing a wealth tax. Tom Williams/Getty Images

Elizabeth Warren attacked Facebook and Amazon over their objections to FTC chair Lina Khan.

Both companies tried to get Khan recused from antitrust cases involving them, claiming she's biased.

Warren said the companies' concerns were motivated by fear of Khan's expertise.

Elizabeth Warren attacked Facebook and Amazon on Wednesday for trying to get new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan taken off any antitrust cases involving them.

The companies were trying to sideline Khan because they "fear" her expertise in antitrust law, Warren said in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

Warren was joined by Sens. Pramila Jayapal, Richard Blumenthal, and Cory Booker in a letter. The senators said Facebook and Amazon's attempts to sideline Khan "only add to the perception that you are attempting to bully your regulators, disarm the FTC, and avoid accountability rather than to strengthen ethics standards."

Khan, a Yale Law School graduate who published a paper entitled "Amazon's antitrust paradox" in 2017, was nominated to the FTC on June 15. Later that month, Amazon filed a 25-page request to the FTC asking to have Khan removed from any judgement involving the company.

Facebook did the same in July, requesting that Khan be recused from an ongoing antitrust lawsuit filed against the company by the FTC.

Both companies said Khan has displayed bias against them in the past.

Read more: Read the complete NDAs Insider obtained in its investigation and see how Facebook, Google and Apple enforce silence among employees

"The real basis of your concerns appears to be that you fear Chair Khan's expertise and interpretation of federal antitrust law," the senators wrote.

"To argue that federal ethics laws preclude Chair Khan from exercising her expertise is illogical and inconsistent with the plain language of the relevant statutes and with FTC ethics officials' interpretations of recusal requirements," they added.

Warren wrote in a tweet that "Amazon and Facebook want to sideline @linakhanFTC to force an @FTC stalemate and evade accountability for their anti-competitive behavior."

In the letter, the senators also asked the companies to disclose how many of their attorneys had worked at the FTC, the Department of Justice (DOJ), or for a state Attorney General, as well as how many of their lobbyists have worked in Congress.

Warren has attacked Big Tech before, claiming companies like Amazon and Facebook are anti-competitive. During her presidential candidacy run, Warren said she would like to break up the Big Tech companies including Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

Facebook shuts down NYU misinformation study, sparking outrage

Jonathan Greig 
ZDNET

Facebook is facing significant backlash from lawyers and professors at two New York universities after the platform shut down a study being done on political ads and the spread of misinformation.

 Getty Images/iStockphoto

If you're in finance, you probably want the latest security quotes, stock prices of all US companies, and market summaries from S&P 500, DJIA, NASDAQ & NYSE, and other indices updates.

You can do this by adding integrations like Bloomberg Market Data and News or Stock Exchange or CNBC. If you're using Bloomberg's skill, you can say, "Alexa, ask Bloomberg for market updates," or if you're using Stock Exchange, you can say, "Alexa, ask Stock Exchange to quote my portfolio". If you're using CNBC, say, "Alexa, ask CNBC how are the markets doing?"

New York University (NYU) and Columbia University released a statement on Wednesday condemning the decision by Facebook, which decided to shut down the accounts of New York University researchers Laura Edelson and Damon McCoy Tuesday evening.

In a statement, Edelson said they had been negotiating with Facebook for months over a research tool called Ad Observer. The tool is part of work of NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy, where Edelson is lead researcher and a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at New York University Tandon School of Engineering.

Ad Observer is a browser plugin that gave Facebook users the chance to share "limited and anonymous information" about the political ads they see on a daily basis. The tool also allows researchers and reporters to look through political advertising trends on Facebook in their states.

"Yesterday evening, Facebook suspended my Facebook account and the accounts of several people associated with Cybersecurity for Democracy, our team at NYU. This has the effect of cutting off our access to Facebook's Ad Library data, as well as Crowdtangle," Edelson said.

"Over the last several years, we've used this access to uncover systemic flaws in the Facebook Ad Library, to identify misinformation in political ads, including many sowing distrust in our election system, and to study Facebook's apparent amplification of partisan misinformation. By suspending our accounts, Facebook has tried to shut down all this work."

Edelson added that Facebook had effectively cut off access to more than two dozen other researchers and journalists who get access to Facebook data through our project, including work measuring vaccine misinformation with the Virality Project and other partners.

© Provided by ZDNet Facebook: Cambridge Analytica took a lot more data than first thought
The company said it will also inform users if their information was "improperly shared" with the data firm.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment, but Facebook product management director Mike Clark released a blog post accusing the university of studying political ads "using unauthorized means to access and collect data from Facebook" that was in violation of the website's Terms of Service.

"We took these actions to stop unauthorized scraping and protect people's privacy in line with our privacy program under the FTC Order. The researchers gathered data by creating a browser extension that was programmed to evade our detection systems and scrape data such as usernames, ads, links to user profiles and 'Why am I seeing this ad?' information, some of which is not publicly-viewable on Facebook," Clark said.

"The extension also collected data about Facebook users who did not install it or consent to the collection. The researchers had previously archived this information in a now offline, publicly-available database."

Clark corroborated what NYU said, writing that the two sides had been negotiating since Facebook sent both Edelson and McCoy a cease-and-desist letter last fall demanding they stop using the tool. Facebook wanted the two to take down all of their previous research as well.

Clark said they told NYU the tool was against their Terms of Service before they even deployed it in the summer of 2020. He compared the research project to "scraping," a widespread problem many social media sites now face from cybercriminals and political actors who abuse privileges to steal troves of data from sites like LinkedIn and Facebook.

In April, information belonging to 553 million Facebook users was posted online following a scraping incident.

© Provided by ZDNet Facebook prying: Watchdogs hit back on excessive harvesting of your data
Amid concerns over Facebook's use of tracking users with pixels, Belgium joins the Netherlands, France, and EC in legal moves.

The researchers also turned down an attempt by Facebook to give them data collected by the social media platform itself on political ad targeting data from the 2020 US election. Facebook has set up internal programs similar to Ad Observer.

"We made it clear in a series of posts earlier this year that we take unauthorized data scraping seriously, and when we find instances of scraping we investigate and take action to protect our platform," Clark said, arguing further that the violations of privacy outweighed the research's value.

"While the Ad Observatory project may be well-intentioned, the ongoing and continued violations of protections against scraping cannot be ignored and should be remediated."

Edelson said the work they were doing to "make data about disinformation on Facebook transparent" was "vital to a healthy internet and a healthy democracy."

She added that Facebook is "silencing" the two because they were calling attention to the platform's issues dealing with misinformation in political ads, which has become a sensitive topic for the social media giant.

"Worst of all, Facebook is using user privacy, a core belief that we have always put first in our work, as a pretext for doing this," Edelson said. "If this episode demonstrates anything it's that Facebook should not have veto power over who is allowed to study them."

McCoy pointed out that Facebook made this decision right as it is facing widespread backlash from the US government for the spread of COVID-19 vaccine disinformation. Last month, President Joe Biden made waves when he said Facebook was "killing people" through COVID-19 misinformation.

McCoy also criticized Facebook for citing privacy violations considering advertisers "consented to making their ads public."

The two noted that reporters across the country used the tool to write about the 2020 election and that Facebook waited months to shut down their accounts. Hours before their accounts were shut down, they told Facebook they were "studying the spread of disinformation about January 6 on the social media platform."

The researchers' lawyer, Seth Berlin, called it "remarkable" that Facebook would argue political advertising is private considering its purpose and disputed the platform's claims that the Ad Observer team collect private user information.

"Facebook's primary justification for trying to shut down this important research simply doesn't hold up," Berlin said.

Mary Simon officially becomes Canada’s first indigenous governor general


Mary Simon was officially sworn in last week as Canada’s 30th governor general — the first indigenous person ever to hold the position.

“I’m so proud of [Simon],” says Shuswap Band Chief Barb Cote. “What she’s accomplished as an indigenous woman, she’s done a lot in her life. This is a step forward for Canada.”

In the ceremony, Simon said Canadians need to learn the country’s real history in order to move forward with indigenous communities. “Our society must recognize together our moments of regret, alongside those that give us pride, because it creates space for healing, acceptance and the rebuilding of trust,” Simon said. “My view is that reconciliation is a way of life and requires work every day. Reconciliation is getting to know one another.”

Simon, born Mary Jeannie May in Arctic Quebec, now known as Nunavik, brings an impressive resume to her new role as representative of Her Majesty The Queen in Canada. Her appointment follows a career that includes various positions as an advocate and ambassador.

She helped negotiate the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975 – a landmark deal between the Cree and Inuit in Quebec’s north, the provincial government and Hydro-Québec.

Simon was also an Inuit representative during the negotiations that led to the patriation of the Constitution in 1982, which included an acknowledgement of indigenous treaty rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In 1986, she led the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC), a group created in 1977 to represent the Inuit in all the Arctic countries. At the ICC, she championed two priorities for northern indigenous peoples: protecting their way of life from environmental damage and pushing for responsible economic development on their traditional territory.

In 1994, former prime minister Jean Chrétien appointed Simon as Canada’s first ambassador for circumpolar affairs. She was later appointed as Canada’s ambassador to Denmark.

While she is fully fluent in English and Inuktitut, Simon is not fluent in French. Traditionally, the governor general is expected to have a complete command of both official languages. Hundreds of French-speaking Canadians have written complaints to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages. In her address, Simon reiterated her commitment to learning the French language.

On Thursday, Simon spoke with the Queen. In a short clip of the conversation posted on The Royal Family’s Instagram account, the Queen said it was good to speak with Simon. “You’re taking over a very important job.”

James Rose, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Columbia Valley Pioneer

Fort McMurray SPCA launches emergency fundraiser as packed shelter strains finances

The Fort McMurray SPCA’s shelter is almost full, straining the organization’s finances after COVID-19 restrictions caused most fundraising efforts to be cancelled. To care for the growing number of animals at the shelter, the SPCA is launching an online emergency fundraiser with the goal of hitting at least $50,000.

There are at least 85 animals at the shelter, but the SPCA usually cares for no more than 60 animals during a normal period. The SPCA’s annual masquerade ball usually raises between $30,000 and $50,000 annually, but the 2020 ball was cancelled because of the pandemic. The SPCA voted not to hold a ball in October because if COVID-19 restrictions returned, the organization cannot afford to absorb cancellation costs.

“We have a lot of office cats at the moment,” said Melanie Schneider, acting executive director for the SPCA, in an interview.

“All our animals need to be vaccinated, dewormed, health-checked and spayed or neutered. All that comes with a cost and on top of that we are seeing an increase in people wanting to surrender their animals. For us to keep caring for all the animals, we need the funds to be able do that.”

The SPCA had seen a rise in adoptions during the pandemic, but in recent months there has been an uptick in animals dropped off at the shelter. Schneider said it is difficult to determine the shelter’s maximum capacity for animals. The organization has to consider variables such as litter sizes, and health-related concerns that could demand more financial support and services.

The stressed capacity is pushing the organization to a financial breaking point. In 2019, the SPCA raised more than $219,000, but in 2020 pulled in $85,000. The Fort McMurray SPCA had raised $32,000 this year before launching its online fundraiser.

“We need to make sure we get ahead of this financially,” said Schneider. “We are seeing a lot more animals come in that aren’t healthy animals. Those animals need more from us than standard care. We just had four animals come in that required dental work and that’s roughly $1,500 to $2,000 per animal.”

Schneider added much of the recent uptick has been caused by unplanned litters arriving at the shelter. The economic and social fallout of COVID-19 is also making it harder for some people to care for animals.

“Some of our intake is coming from people losing their jobs due to COVID and not being able to afford supporting an animal,” said Schneider. “But we are also seeing a lot of juvenile animals and I can’t stress enough how important it is to spay or neuter your pets so that you don’t have an unplanned litter.”

smclean@postmedia.com
Scott McLean, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Fort McMurray Today

Where is the Fort McMurray SPCA charitable number?

Fort McMurray SPCA 155 MacAlpine Cres Fort McMurray, AB T9H4C5. Phone: (780) 743-8997 Fax: 780-791-3772 Email: info@fortmcmurrayspca.ca. The FMSPCA Charitable Number is: 893333575RR0001

Fort McMurray SPCA – Save lives! Spay or Neuter

fmspca.ca/

Feds have options to revisit Coalspur ruling

While the Government of Canada is still reviewing and deciding its next steps following the Federal Court’s decision to quash the designation of the Coalspur Mining (Bighorn) projects, Coalspur could technically move ahead with the projects pending approvals from the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).

David Percy, a professor of Energy Law and Policy at the University of Alberta, explained that the mine projects cannot currently be subject to a federal assessment, but this can be changed in two ways.

“Firstly, Canada could take an appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal. However, unless there is some form of special application, the federal assessment would remain invalid unless, after the appeal, the Court of Appeal were to reverse the decision of Justice Brown,” he said.

Secondly, Percy continued, the federal government could remedy its failure to consult Ermineskin Cree Nation in the decision to designate the projects by beginning to consult with Ermineskin in good faith and taking those consultations all the way to conclusion.

The reasoning in the judge’s decision to quash the designation was due to a lack of consultation with the Ermineskin Cree Nation, who entered into an Impact Benefit Agreement with Coalspur that provides economic, community, and social benefits to Ermineskin.

The judge stated that the only Indigenous groups consulted by the Minister were those requesting the designation order and that a duty to consult Ermineskin was breached.

Percy explained that remedying the identified failure in a court quashing is what also happened when the courts first quashed the TransMountain pipeline permits.

“When the Federal government properly completed consultation, and after another series of appeals, TMX could proceed with the project,” he said.

This means if Coalspur’s projects have been fully approved by the AER and has obtained all the necessary permits, Coalspur can proceed with the mine, subject to its financial ability to do so under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) protection proceedings. The company recently filed for creditor protection in April and was granted an extension of the protection in early May. This extension ran out on July 23, 2021. No new updates have been released on the company’s status in that process.

The projects in this case include the Phase I Vista Test Underground Mine and Vista Mine Phase II Expansion Projects. The minister of Environment and climate change, Jonathan Wilkinson, said they are determining the implications of the quashing and identifying the next move.

He stated that the federal government is committed to working with Indigenous peoples in a meaningful way that advances reconciliation, respects Indigenous rights and culture, and protects and ensures consideration of Indigenous knowledge.

“That’s why we delivered on our promise to put in place better rules for major projects that support reconciliation, while restoring public trust, protecting the environment and ensuring good projects get built,” stated Wilkinson.

Despite that statement, the judge in this case stated that the duty to consult regarding the loss of the agreement between Ermineskin and Coalspur “also results in value to the Crown in terms of its stated goals in relation to reconciliation.”

Wilkinson went on to state that the continued mining and use of thermal coal for energy production in Canada and around the world runs counter to what is needed to effectively combat climate change.

A policy statement was released by his office on thermal coal mining in June, noting that new thermal coal mines or expansions are likely to cause unacceptable environmental effects, and will inform how these projects will be assessed.

“Going forward, I will continue to consider this policy in deciding whether to designate thermal coal projects under the federal Impact Assessment Act,” Wilkinson said.

Masha Scheele, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hinton Voice

Biden nominates first LGBT federal appeals court nominee


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is nominating a Vermont judge who played a critical role in paving the way for the legalization of same-sex marriage to become the first openly LGBT woman to serve on any federal circuit court.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The White House announced Thursday that Biden has tapped Beth Robinson, an associate justice on the Vermont Supreme Court since 2011, to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. The court's territory includes Connecticut, New York and Vermont.

In 1999, before she was appointed to the Vermont Supreme Court, Robinson helped argue the case that led to Vermont’s civil unions law, the first legal recognition in the country of same-sex relationships — a forerunner of gay marriage.

Robinson served as counsel to Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, from 2010 to 2011. From 1993 to 2010, Robinson was a civil litigator in private practice at Langrock Sperry & Wool where she focused on employment law, workers’ compensation, contract disputes and family law.

Robinson previously worked at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington, D.C., focusing on white-collar criminal defense. She was a law clerk for Judge David Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia from 1989 to 1990.

The White House also announced that Biden is nominating employment law attorney Charlotte Sweeney for the U.S. District Court in Colorado. She would become the the first openly LGBT woman to serve as a federal district court judge in any state west of the Mississippi.

Biden thus far has announced 35 judicial nominees to serve on the federal bench.

Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press

Return of the fat cats? Bank bonuses rise as profits rebound

By Lawrence White and Iain Withers

 Reuters/Lawrence White FILE PHOTO: Protestors wearing costumes pose outside the venue for the HSBC AGM in London

LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's banks are stashing cash to pay bumper bonuses to top performers, amid a deal frenzy driven by pent up demand from the COVID-19 pandemic and rebounding bank profits.


Banks have added billions of dollars to bonus pools as they try to reassure restless staff they will be rewarded in 2021 after a lean 2020.

The planned payouts are more modest than the bonus bonanza on Wall Street, but European banks nonetheless risk a public backlash at a time when many businesses and individuals are still struggling in the pandemic, advocacy groups for fair pay said.

Britain-based Barclays increased its bonus pool by 46% to 1.1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion), up from 749 million pounds a year earlier, while HSBC topped up its bonus pool by $900 million in the first half.

Standard Chartered said a "normalisation of performance-related pay" during the first half drove an 8% jump in costs, to $5.1 billion.

Senior bank executives and recruiters said the market is the most competitive they have seen in a decade, as rebounding economies worldwide, pent-up demand and the fad for investing via Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) drives dealmaking activity.

Swiss bank UBS boosted pay for its financial advisers by $242 million in the second quarter after booking higher revenues, while Deutsche Bank upped pay and benefits in its investment bank by 6% compared with the same period a year ago.

Bonuses and pay increases are likely to continue to build in the second half of the year, said Sophie Scholes, head of the UK financial services practice at headhunters Heidrick & Struggles.

"Banks are anticipating that the next bonus round will be one where they need to pay out, driven by two factors," she said.

"One is the sheer competition for talent, and that means retaining good people, and two is that because of all the market activity people have a good pipeline and some good wins behind them, and banks are trying to prepare for that."

The trend is global, Scholes said, with banks in Europe and Asia playing catch-up to the United States.

Goldman Sachs has increased its compensation by $3.5 billion on the prior year, while JPMorgan has added $2 billion.

Goldman has also raised base pay for juniors to $110,000 after rivals such as Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan increased first-year pay.

This is prompting European rivals to follow suit, with HSBC this week telling staff it would pay newly hired analysts in its U.S. investment bank $100,000 a year.

"The U.S. is extraordinary in terms of activity, which comes from their economic recovery being seen as more robust, and it has always been a highly acquisitive market in terms of talent," Scholes said.

'MORALLY DUBIOUS'

While big payouts are back, in Britain rules that cap payouts at twice the level of base pay and concerns about public perception of banker bonuses during a global crisis mean lenders are showing some restraint.

"Paying out huge bonuses at a time when businesses and households are struggling and the economic outlook remains so uncertain is not only morally dubious but financially irresponsible," said Simon Youel, head of policy and advocacy at Positive Money.

Youel said much of banks' recent profitability could be traced to state support measures for the economy. British newspaper reports have suggested UK banks are lobbying to remove the cap on bonuses of twice base pay, which Youel said the government should reject.

The volatile nature of investment banks' revenues means they must lower variable pay to manage profitability in tough times, Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley said, and also pay up when business is booming.

"When we have in fact delivered very strong revenue growth, that's reflected in the compensation... we think we are being prudent in how we manage it," he told reporters last week on a conference call.

One bank board rejected an executive's rating of their team as too generous and told them to downgrade it for fear of otherwise having to pay out too much, Scholes said.

Even traditionally more conservative retail banks are increasing pay.

Lloyds, Britain's bellwether mortgage lender, said it would spend an extra 100 million pounds on bonuses this year, after axing them for all but its lowest paid staff last year.

Bank executives said they would have to keep paying up despite concerns about public perception.

"We have to reward people," the Chief Executive of a British bank said, without wanting to be identified. "People have had a difficult time, and if you've stayed in a role and you've been locked away and had to go above and beyond, you expect to be rewarded."

($1 = 0.7189 pounds)

(Reporting by Lawrence White and Iain Withers, additional reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich and Tom Sims in Frankfurt. Editing by Jane Merriman)

GOP governors are kicking people off unemployment - if 

BUT not getting them back to work

bwinck@businessinsider.com (Ben Winck,Andy Kiersz) 9 hrs ago

A man fills out paperwork while waiting for his number to be called at an unemployment event in Tulsa, Oklahoma on July 15, 2020. 

Nick Oxford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

States ending extra unemployment benefits early are seeing a plunge in claims, Insider calculates.

The trend suggests GOP governors' plans to push more people into the workforce are working - but a rise in employment hasn't followed.

Some economists say virus fears and school closures also play a major role in slow hiring.

Republican governors began cutting federal unemployment benefits in June. 

Some argued the move would push jobless Americans back into the workforce, while others more bluntly criticized the federal enhancement for disincentivizing work.

Early signs suggest they're getting exactly what they wanted: A big cut to the social safety net. 

They're not getting a jobs boom, though.

By the end of July, 26 states will have prematurely ended the federal government's $300-per-week expansion to unemployment insurance. All but one are led by Republican governors, and the other is a Democrat governing the deep-red state of Louisiana. The first rollbacks started in mid-June. In total, about 4 million Americans will see some or all of their benefits cut off ahead of the planned September deadline.

The boost to UI payments had come under intense scrutiny in May after a dismal jobs report appeared to validate anecdotal accounts of a "labor shortage." Economists have blamed reluctance to work on a handful of factors, ranging from school closures to virus fears. Yet enhanced UI caught the most flak from conservatives who have long critiqued the relief program, if not the very concept of a stronger safety net.

Continuing claims data published in recent weeks reveal a considerable gap in UI use between states ending the supplement early and those not. Continuing claims, which track Americans receiving benefits, took on more relevance as states began to cancel the UI expansion. In early August, that number hit a pandemic-era low.

Separating the two groups of states shows continuing claims down roughly 14% from early June to mid-July. By comparison, continuing claims are up about 5.5% in states set to let the UI boost run until its September expiration.

To be sure, a large share of the decline on the week ended July 3 came from Florida, which canceled the federal boost on June 26. Weekly claims data are also fairly volatile.

The employment situation isn't terrible in Republican-governed states. Of the 15 states to recover the most of their lost payrolls, 13 prematurely ended the federal UI enhancement. The only two states to boast employment above pre-pandemic levels - Idaho and Utah - cut the boost in June. Meanwhile, the five states furthest behind in their labor-market recoveries are all letting the enhancement run through September.

Of course, it's worth noting that those states were seeing more job recovery well before announcing cuts to unemployment benefits, suggesting that there may be other factors at work.

Some economists have warned against tying hiring to cutting UI payments, however. There's "little sign" that ending the boost drives jobless Americans back to the workforce, JPMorgan economists said in a July note. A previous note from the bank said ending the benefit early was "tied to politics, not economics," Insider's Juliana Kaplan and Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported.

And an analysis by University of Massachusetts economist Arindrajit Dube using frequently updated data from the Census Bureau found that states which cut benefits didn't see big increases in employment in the following weeks, casting doubt on the idea that those cuts would immediately push people back into work.

The coming weeks will shed more light on whether the GOP governors' plans are truly working as intended. So far, the gap suggests they have reason to celebrate.

[Editor's note: A previous version of this article said in its headline that it appeared GOP governors were successful in forcing people back to work. That has been revised to state they are successful in kicking people off unemployment, as subsequent data shows little to no increase in hiring.]

Read the original article on Business Insider

Unemployment aid will vanish for 7.5 million workers in September. There's no plan to extend.

insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan,Joseph Zeballos-Roig) 

© Provided by Business Insider Unemployed people at a rally last year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cory Clark/NurPhoto via Getty Images

A report from the Century Foundation found 7.5 million Americans will lose their unemployment benefits in September.

Those workers will lose all of their unemployment benefits, not just $300 weekly.

As the Delta variant rises, politicians in DC aren't putting forward plans to extend the benefits.

Come September, 7.5 million Americans are projected to lose all of their unemployment benefits - not just the $300 a week boost from federal pandemic relief.

That number comes from a new report by Andrew Stettner from the left-leaning Century Foundation, which looks at the looming fiscal cliff that jobless workers are facing. With the rise of the Delta variant, and the current pace of recovery, the report argues that benefits are getting cut off too early.

"We've been trying to undo the mistakes of the past by having a more aggressive program of assistance, but we're still making that mistake of pulling back too soon from assistance and economic stimulus," Stettner told Insider.

That won't just yank benefits away from jobless workers, Stettner said. "It's going to take consumer spending out of the economy, it's going to slow the rate of GDP growth."

But the White House hasn't done anything about it yet, even as the Delta variant unmoors economic policies designed to end as the pandemic winds down. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The Delta variant is on the rise as millions stand to lose all of their unemployment benefits

Those millions of jobless workers have been collecting benefits through two pandemic-era federal programs: Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which expanded eligibility for benefits to gig workers and self-employed workers, among others; and Pandemic Extended Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which extended how long recipients could collect benefits for.

Per the report's estimates, 4.2 million workers will be collecting PUA when benefits expire, and 3.3 million will be collecting PEUC.

Then there's more than 3 million workers who are still receiving $300 weekly supplements to state unemployment insurance. When that's cut off, $3.5 billion less will be flowing through the economy.

Stettner said it would make more sense to maintain benefits until we reach closer to pre-pandemic levels of unemployment - not when millions are still filing unemployment claims.

Senate Democrats are in the early stages of assembling a $3.5 trillion party-line package that isn't likely to attract any GOP votes. That means all 50 Senate Democrats must stick together for the package to pass over unified GOP opposition in the Senate.

So far, an extension of federal unemployment benefits seems unlikely. But in the weeks ahead, Democrats may recognize the dire situation facing many jobless Americans.

"I'm sure that many have thought about that - I have - as to what the next stage is as the economy gets stronger and jobs are available, what we should do with unemployment," Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranked Democrat, told Insider. "It's a tricky question because it's different - by worker by state, by region. But you know there's still need for a helping hand."

And that extension, if it comes to fruition, would likely come in the reconciliation bill. Stettner said it would be better late than never.

There could be logistical issues to reinstating unemployment, of course. State unemployment systems have struggled to disburse benefits on time, and an extension would keep those claims high. A more notable challenge is that 26 states - 25 of them governed by Republicans - have opted out of federal benefits early. That means workers in many of those states were already cut off from PUA, PEUC, and $300 extra per week - adding another layer of complexity to getting those benefits up and running again.

Even so, millions of workers could get relief for a little bit longer. As Stettner said: "If we can't do it now, when congressional offices have been bombarded for a year-and-a-half with constituent complaints, when are we going to be able to do it?"

#VOTENO TO FIREWALL ALBERTA 2.0
Province finalizes referendum questions

EQUALIZATION SAVED ALBERTA DURING THE GREAT  DEPRESSION

Albertans will not only be voting for their municipal leaders on Oct. 18, but also for Senate nominees, whether equalization payments should be removed from the Constitution, and whether to abolish changing clocks twice a year.

DON'T TOUCH OUR CPP OR OUR ALBERTA PENSIONS

The provincial government has not added referendum questions regarding a potential provincial police service and an Alberta pension plan, but they are further analyzing these topics before further steps are determined.

“Through the Fair Deal Panel, Albertans who are policed by the RCMP said that they want to see Alberta build its own provincial police service to improve policing in their communities” stated Kaycee Madu, minister of Justice and Solicitor General.

Madu held several town hall meetings in July to hear concerns about crime prevention in Albertan communities.

The Alberta Urban Municipalities Association (AUMA) reviewed Madu’s presentation from the meetings and believe that instead of gathering information on crime prevention, the presentation appears to be selling the idea of creating a provincial police force.

“The AUMA finds this development deeply troubling given that the government’s feasibility study has not been made available to the public,” stated the AUMA.

They believe the provincial government has already decided to create a provincial police service despite promising Albertans a referendum on the idea.

AUMA pointed out that Premier Jason Kenney assured Albertans that his government would not decide to establish an Alberta pension plan or provincial police service unless a majority of Albertans endorsed those proposals through a referendum.

A provincial police service would mean that Alberta forfeits roughly $160 million a year in federal government funding for police services through the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

The government is completing analysis of an Alberta Pension Plan in order for Albertans to make an educated and well-informed choice, said Travis Toews, Alberta’s minister of Finance.

“We look forward to putting this important decision on the table when the time is right,” he stated.

Turning to issues that will be on the ballot, Albertans will elect three Senate nominees to fill two vacancies and one in case of early retirement.

The Senate nominee election allows Albertans to choose the individuals who represent them in Parliament and increases senators’ accountability to Alberta voters.

Following the Senate nominee election, the Government of Alberta provides the names of the elected nominees to the prime minister for consideration of the Senate vacancies.

Between 1989 and 2012, Alberta was the only Canadian province to elect nominees for appointment to the Senate of Canada, according to the province.

The first referendum question included on the ballot this year asks Albertans if the principle of making equalization payments should be removed from the constitution.

The Government of Canada manages an equalization program to address fiscal disparities between provinces and ensure that all provincial governments can provide public services at an equal level. The program uses a formula that establishes a baseline fiscal standard; provinces that exceed the fiscal standard do not receive equalization payments and those that do not reach the fiscal standard receive equalization payments.

The fiscal standard is determined using financial indicators such as personal incomes taxes, property taxes, natural resource revenue, and others. Payments to qualifying provinces are based on individual fiscal measures in relation to the fiscal standard, and other factors like the population.

All money sent from the province to the federal level is through federal income and sales taxes.

Several other political parties in Alberta have spoken out against this referendum question, stating that the federal government is not obligated to make any changes in regards to the outcome.

Among others, the leader of the Alberta Party noted that having Albertans vote on an equalization formula, which was previously supported by Federal Minister Kenney, will not change anything.

“Even if this referendum is successful, it will have zero impact on the equalization program. Even if a clear majority of Albertans support it, the federal government has no requirement to act on it,” stated the Alberta Party in June.

Alberta has not received an equalization payment since the 1964-65 fiscal year, despite contributing more than $100 billion between 2014 and 2019 alone through federal taxes, according to the province.

The provincial government stated that the current program has many issues, including a formula that requires it to grow automatically with Canada’s economy, even if contributing provinces like Alberta are experiencing immense economic challenges.

The second referendum question asks Albertans if there should be an end to the practice of changing clocks twice a year to permanently remain on daylight saving time (DST) throughout Alberta.

Service Alberta asked Albertans in 2019 if they thought Alberta should shift to DST and 91 per cent of more than 141,000 Albertans were in favour of year-round summer hours.

As some locals have pointed out, there was little consultation on whether to change permanently to DST or standard time. Alberta’s minister of Service, Nathan Glubish, did not respond to questions around this lack of consultation.

DST is currently observed in nine provinces and two territories in Canada, with exceptions in several municipalities and Nunavut. Most of the province of Saskatchewan observes year-round Central Standard Time.

Alberta first adopted DST following a referendum in 1971. The specific wording of this year’s referendum question will be finalized this summer, the province stated.

Masha Scheele, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Hinton Voice