Web Version [link removed] | Update Preferences [link removed] CBRT in the News West Coast Business Groups Form Reopening Coalition

As companies brace for the challenges of reopening their workplaces, West Coast business leaders are forming a coalition to work with governors in California, Oregon and Washington while the three states coordinate their approach to easing restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.

The business leaders — who represent organizations including the California Business Roundtable and the California Manufacturers & Technology Association — shared their support and principles for economic rebound in a joint letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. The three governors have formed a West Coast pact aimed at addressing coronavirus outbreak challenges together, including the economic rebound.

“Business wants to work with you, collectively as a region and individually in each of our states, as we execute a plan for economic recovery,’’ according to the letter from the leaders of six statewide associations representing manufacturers and businesses in the three states.

Read More [[link removed]] Some California Businesses Could Reopen Within Weeks As State Fights Coronavirus, Newsom Says

California businesses seen as presenting less risk of spreading the coronavirus could open in the near future under a plan Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled Tuesday, the first of what he suggested were several slow steps toward easing the statewide shutdown order.

“We believe we are weeks, not months, away from making meaningful modifications” in the current restrictions, Newsom said.

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Newsom acknowledged the balancing act that lies ahead, insisting that not all regions of the state would be allowed to loosen the shutdown rules at the same time. Two additional phases are envisioned in his new plan, including reopening hair salons and personal care businesses and eventually allowing large gatherings such as sporting events. But no certainty was provided that those phases could arrive anytime soon.

Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, said employers need a more detailed list of the kinds of companies that can reopen in each phase. He said business owners may be disappointed, too, with the lack of details about what lies ahead.

“The governor started talking about the economy today, but we really didn’t learn all that much,” Lapsley said. “Other states are way ahead of us in terms of having much more detailed plans.”

Read More [[link removed]] Criticism Grows Over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Management Of The Coronavirus Crisis

Initially applauded for his approach early in the coronavirus crisis, Newsom was the first governor to impose a statewide stay-at-home order, a move that health experts have credited with slowing the spread of the coronavirus and helping California record far fewer deaths than hot spots such as New York. He’s also become a fixture on cable TV, touting how California bent the curve. But Newsom’s recent waffling on the life-and-death decision and other actions have renewed critiques of the impatient, and at times chaotic, governing style that dogged Newsom in his first year in office.

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When Newsom announced a 100-member task force of business executives, heads of labor unions and former government leaders tapped to develop a plan to jump-start the economy, some questioned what it might accomplish. The group of power players, led by former presidential candidate and major Democratic donor Tom Steyer, is meeting twice a month, which some say isn’t frequently enough to devise strategies to provide immediate help to struggling companies and workers.

“We’re coming to a point where people’s fear for feeding their families supersedes the fear of the virus,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable. “He’s working hard and his actions have unquestionably protected the public health. But we have to have a more urgent discussion about the economy.”

Lapsley said the governor has not responded to multiple coalition letters highlighting problems that businesses anticipate as they attempt to recover.

Read More [[link removed]] Opening The Economy? Ask Us How, Business Groups Tell Governors

Business groups from three western coastal states want to be involved in strategies to end the lockdown and open up the economy. From a California perspective, at least, it’s possible that the business coalition was formed because of fear that business concerns would be ignored by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. Alarms were reported in a number of places that leadership of the Task Force will take it in a less than business friendly direction.

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The business organizations that joined together have their own set of criteria they want the government officials to consider as they plan for the reopening of the economy. Rob Lapsley, President, California Business Roundtable and Lance Hastings, President, California Manufacturers & Technology Association signed a letter to the three state governors along with the heads of the Association of Washington Business, Washington Roundtable, Oregon Business & Industry and the Oregon Business Council.

Read More [[link removed]] Business Climate and Job Creation Some Business Owners Say They Have To Defy Coronavirus Closure Orders To Stay Afloat

Despite California Gov. Gavin Newsom's stay-at-home-order, some California business owners have begun reopening their doors to customers, saying their companies -- and livelihoods -- are becoming unsustainable.

Juan Desmarais, the owner of Primo's Barbershop in Vacaville, a Northern California community, told CNN he was forced to close his business after the statewide stay-at-home order went into effect on March 19.

"I took on the risk so I'm the one who is absorbing the costs," Desmarais said. "The only way to mitigate that is to do haircuts under the table and that's exactly what we've been doing."

Desmarais says he's shifted entirely to cutting his clients' hair at his house but is still required to pay rent for his shop that is temporarily shut down.

Read More [[link removed]] Small Businesses Say Rescue Loans Come With Too Many Strings Attached

Christian Piatt finally got a loan to help rescue his brand-new bar and restaurant in Granbury, Texas. But it wasn't easy.

He applied through the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which is meant to help small businesses threatened by the pandemic. One bank told him it couldn't lend through the program. Another told him he might have better luck elsewhere. The third approved his loan and he got the money.

"I understand in principle it's encouraging us to get people back to work," said Piatt, the co-owner of Brew Drinkery, which was forced to shut down only 51 days after opening. "But in practice, when you have a retail storefront that is not being allowed by local authorities to operate in the way that we had before, there should be some consideration to make it to account for that."

Read More [[link removed]] The Geographic Inequity Of Small Business Coronavirus Aid

The second round of Payroll Protection Program loans for small businesses got under way Monday — and disparities between the haves and the have-nots are becoming more stark.

Small businesses in the Midwest, notably Nebraska, got a big share of the loans. But states like New York and California — hit hard by the coronavirus economic shut down — came up comparably short.

Read More [[link removed]] Will Pensions Be ‘On The Chopping Block’ In Recession? California Supreme Court To Hear Case

Former Gov. Jerry Brown predicted two years ago that public pensions would be “on the chopping block” during the next economic downturn.

Next week, with state and local budgets teetering amid the coronavirus outbreak, the state Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could determine in part whether Brown’s prediction will come true.

Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Association v. Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association, scheduled for oral arguments Tuesday, is the next big test of the so-called California rule.

Read More [[link removed]] Governor’s Quandary: Who Should Get California Workers’ Comp Benefits For COVID-19?

Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing intense lobbying from both business and labor as he weighs an executive order that would make it easier for essential workers such as nurses and grocery clerks to get workers’ compensation if they contract COVID-19.

His dilemma: whether to issue an order creating a legal presumption that essential employees were infected with the novel coronavirus at work, rather than in the community — making it easier for them to qualify for benefits. State lawmakers also have introduced two bills that would accomplish something similar, but the legislative proposals differ in their approaches and how many workers would be covered.

Read More [[link removed]] High-Powered Bay Area Group Aims To Outdo DC In Coronavirus Help For Small Business

Deanna Sison employed 30 people at her two San Francisco restaurants and a bar before the coronavirus pandemic struck. Now she employs four, only one establishment remains open, and she’s frustrated by the byzantine application process to obtain federal relief that was supposed to help small businesses like hers survive.

Sison received a federal loan for her bar but can’t spend most of it because it is earmarked for payroll — for a staff that is unneeded until customers return.

Sison has been in touch with a new group of top Bay Area attorneys, Silicon Valley philanthropists, community lenders and UC Berkeley law students who are trying a new way to help small-business owners frustrated by the federal government’s struggles in distributing coronavirus relief efficiently.

Read More [[link removed](Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral] Tech Giants Are Profiting — And Getting More Powerful — Even As The Global Economy Tanks

Tech titans spent much of the last year playing defense, fending off dozens of federal and state antitrust investigations and a public wary of their power.

But the global coronavirus pandemic is prompting a dramatic reversal of fortune for the tech giants. Amazon and Facebook are capitalizing on the fact that they are viewed as essential services for a public in lockdown, while Google and Apple are building tools that will enable state health departments to provide a critical public service, tracing the course of potential new COVID-19 infections.

Read More [[link removed]] Energy and Climate Change California Oil Producers Fighting Newsom Proposal For Stronger Industry Oversigh

A leading energy industry group is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration to hold off on efforts to strengthen oversight of oil and gas production in order to soften the pain fossil fuel companies are experiencing during the coronavirus pandemic.

The California Independent Petroleum Association, a trade organization representing 500 crude oil and natural gas producers, wants the administration to significantly scale back the governor's proposal to increase staff at the agency that oversees oil drilling. The organization is also seeking delays or changes in 11 separate state requirements for testing wells.

"What is at stake is much greater than the viability of local production, tens of thousands of well-paid employees, hundreds of service and supply companies, lost state and local tax revenues, but also a destabilizing of California's energy supply," CIPA CEO Rock Zierman wrote in an April 3 letter to state regulators.

Read More [[link removed]] Dozens Of Oil Tankers Wait Off California's Coast As The Pandemic Dents Demand

The scale of oil market turbulence is on stark display along the California coast. About three dozen massive oil tankers are anchored from Los Angeles and Long Beach up to San Francisco Bay, turning into floating storage for crude oil that is in short demand because of the coronavirus.

About 20 million barrels of crude are on board the tankers, according to Reid I'Anson, global commodity economist at Kpler, a data company. "That is definitely far outside what is normal for the region," he says, referring to California's coastline. "Typically, we'll not see more than, you know, maybe 5 million barrels tops kind of floating."

With dramatically fewer cars on the road and planes in the sky, I'Anson says there is a limited need recently for gasoline and jet fuel. That has caused a glut in the market and a shortage of onshore storage.

Read More [[link removed]] Back Off The Beach And The Rising Sea? No Way, California Cities Say

The view from high up in Del Mar’s 17th Street lifeguard station is a visit-California poster: a sweeping curve of sand, dramatic coastal bluffs, a welcoming sea. What scientists see, though, is somewhat more sobering: the Pacific Ocean as seething menace, a marine battering ram born of climate change that will inexorably claim more and more land and whatever sits upon it.

With rising seas now posing a greater threat to California’s economy than wildfires or severe earthquakes, state authorities are cautioning those who live along some of the Golden State’s famous beaches to do what they’re loath to do: retreat. Turn their backs to the sea and move homes, businesses, schools and critical infrastructure out of harm’s way.

Read More [[link removed]] California's Green New Deal Likely To Be Sidelined By COVID-19; Lawmakers Hope To Salvage Its Goals

Fourteen Democratic lawmakers pushed for a California Green New Deal in January. It was supposed to be bold and big, accelerating the state’s climate goals amid the threat of drought, sea-level rise and deadly wildfires. Many environmental advocates loved the broad bill that was supposed to get fleshed out this session because it aimed to tackle climate change equitably.

“Our disadvantaged communities, our communities of color … may have been an afterthought with respect to the fossil fuel economy and the harm it caused for them,” the bill’s lead author, Oakland Democratic Assembly member Rob Bonta, said in January.

But Bonta’s bill, AB 1839, could be pushed back to next year or massively scaled down in part because the state budget from January is “no longer operable,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom in early April. A revised budget could come out as early as May 15.

Read More [[link removed]] California’s Critical Kelp Forests Are Disappearing In A Warming World. Can They Be Saved?

Kelp need our help. Which is why an unprecedented alliance of scientists, fishers, surfers, entrepreneurs, and experts is coming together to revive California’s vital kelp ecosystem, decimated by a warming ocean.

“The California coast without kelp is like the Amazon without trees,” says Tom Ford, executive director of the Bay Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring Santa Monica Bay and its coastal waters.

Kelp forests don’t just play a fundamental role in curbing climate change. Sea otters and some 800 other marine species depend on them, as do fishers in the state’s abalone and red urchin industries, now devastated by a purple urchin population explosion. Gray whales shelter their young in kelp forests. The algae can also be used as biofuel, and when fed to cows dramatically cuts planet-warming methane emissions from their burps. In California, kelp forests shape waves by absorbing some of their energy to produce optimal conditions for surfing, a multimillion-dollar business.

Read More [[link removed]] Education and Workforce Development Will Child Care Be There When States Reopen?

Emilu Alvarez closed her private preschool and kindergarten in late March as the new coronavirus began to spread and worried parents began to keep their kids at home. She kept paying her staff as she applied for federal small business loans and local foundation grants. But the financial help never materialized.

The next day, she told her team that 53 of them — everyone but her secretary and the kindergarten teacher, who’s teaching remotely — were furloughed until June. Alvarez hopes to reopen the center for summer camp.

Child care centers, home daycares and after-school programs nationwide are struggling to stay open as families stay home to avoid spreading the coronavirus. As some governors prepare to lift stay-at-home orders, child care advocates warn that if businesses like Alvarez’s cannot survive, it’ll be harder for parents to return to work.

Read More [[link removed]] California Teachers Resist Newsom’s ‘Unrealistic’ Call For July Start

California teachers unions are fighting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s suggestion that schools open this summer and making clear that they will have a say at the bargaining table.

The unions say teachers were stunned by Newsom’s suggestion Tuesday that schools could reopen in July in an attempt to help reduce learning gaps caused by the coronavirus and allow parents to return to work in a greater capacity.

In Oakland, the talk has actually been about the opposite: delaying the start of the school year — not opening schools weeks early.

Read More [[link removed]] Anxiety Builds As California Colleges Consider How And When To Resume On-Campus Fall Courses

Millions of California college students and their families are anxiously waiting to hear whether on-campus classes will resume this fall while college administrators are weighing the options to safely return students and faculty to campuses.

So far, no one is saying when these decisions will be made. And that has everyone on edge.

Increasing the anxiety for some students is the impending enrollment deposit deadline for incoming freshman and transfer students to the University of California and California State University institutions. Only eight of 23 CSU campuses extended the deposit deadline from May 1 to June 1 to give students extra time and to preserve enrollments for the 2020-21 school year.

Not knowing if classes will resume on campus delays decisions on where to live or work this fall. These decisions could impact an estimated 3.3 million California college students.

Read More [[link removed]] Students Sue UC, Cal State, Demanding Coronavirus-Related Refunds Of Campus Fees

The University of California and California State University systems are being sued by students demanding refunds of some mandatory fees for services they allege they can no longer access after the coronavirus outbreak forced campuses to shutter classrooms and move to online learning.

The class-action lawsuits, filed Monday in federal courts in Los Angeles and Oakland, allege that UC and Cal State owe millions of dollars to more than 700,000 students they collectively serve who can no longer use health facilities, student centers and services funded by campus fees.

The campuses have shifted to online learning for most students since March and canceled large gatherings — performances, lectures and athletic events — because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read More [[link removed]] California Schools Have Lost Contact With Thousands Of Students More Than A Month Into Closures

More than a month after California schools closed due to the coronavirus, thousands of students are still unaccounted for as teachers struggle to connect with them in the era of distance learning.

The California Department of Education is not tracking student attendance statewide, but districts have adopted their own array of policies to monitor student engagement: Some take weekly headcounts via live Zoom meetings, track student log-ins to online programs or ask parents to check in.

Read More [[link removed]] Infrastructure and Housing California Counties Brace For Post-Virus Property Tax Crunch

The coronavirus pandemic mildly dampened property tax payments to California counties by an April 10 deadline, but counties are bracing themselves for a bigger hit next year if owners seek lower property valuations amid the economic downturn.

County officials resisted calls from business groups to push back the payment deadline because of the crisis, and it appears to have paid off. Several counties told Bloomberg Tax they have collected between 93% and 97% of what is owed. Those percentages are slightly below last year for some counties and may go up as they continue to process payments sent through the mail.

“This is very good, all things considered,” Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector Keith Knox said.

Although revenue for the year seems solid, the economic impact of the crisis could hit harder next year when assessors will likely face a higher-than-normal volume of requests for lower property valuations, and therefore lower tax bills, at the same time that other local tax revenues are falling.

Read More [[link removed]] 'Survival': Tenants, Landlords Brace For Largest Rent Strike In Decades

Kenia Alcocer is used to sitting down at the kitchen table to crunch her family's monthly budget and figure out how she can make ends meet.

But this month is different. Alcocer, 34, gave birth in January to her second child, a boy named Genaro, whose numerous health issues have added a huge financial strain on her family. Now, with the coronavirus pandemic putting millions of people out of work and increasing financial anxiety across the country, she doesn't think she'll be able to make rent.

She added, "Rent is the last thing I want to think about during this crisis, and being evicted is the last thing I want to worry about."

Alcocer is one of tens of thousands across the country who will join one of the largest coordinated rent strikes in decades Friday, affecting three of America's largest cities — Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. Others have already begun.

Read More [[link removed]] Workers Prepare To Strike May 1, Amid Strained Pandemic Working Conditions

The global pandemic has tested the bounds of businesses across the world and transformed the way many of us live our lives. For those among us who are unable to leave our homes at all as COVID-19 virus rages, online retail and food services have been a kind of lifeline.

But as contact-free delivery becomes the norm, it can be easy to forgot all the people working to provide those services at risk to their health. And more often than not, employees are working for low wages or tips.

A number of protests have been organized at companies like Amazon and Instagram in the intervening weeks and months, but a wide-scale, cross-company event hasn’t really surfaced. That could change on May 1, as employees mark the longstanding tradition of International Workers’ Day with a May Day general strike.

Read More [[link removed]] ‘This Isn’t An Acceptable Reality’: L.A. Renters Hit New Levels Of Rage Under Coronavirus

Chris Tyler lost his job at a restaurant on March 15 — the same day Mayor Eric Garcetti banned sit-down food service to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus in Los Angeles. A couple of weeks later, he and his partner decided not to pay rent for the one-bedroom apartment they share in Silver Lake.

“It’s a decision that I have made personally that is both political and very much out of necessity,” said Tyler, 31. “I don’t think it’s an unreasonable choice to make in the middle of a global pandemic.”

As California enters its second full month under stay-at-home orders designed to prevent more coronavirus cases, a growing number of tenants are turning their personal economic situations into mass protests, demanding that legislators at all levels of government pass laws to cancel rent until the public health crisis is over.

Read More [[link removed]] Costa Hawkins: The California Law Renters Want Repealed

For for first the time in history, California has implemented rent control statewide. But it has an old law on the books that curbs how individual cities and counties implement rent control at the local level.

That law is known as the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Established in 1995, it sets limits on the kind of rent control policies cities are able to impose. Right now, more than a dozen places statewide have their own rent control policies—many of them stricter and more comprehensive than the new state law.

In the LA area, rent control policies exist in communities in unincorporated Los Angeles County, along with the cities of Culver City, Inglewood, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and West Hollywood.

There has been movement among tenants right advocates to repeal Costa Hawkins to give the cities the ability to expand and strengthen their rent control policies. Now—as the COVID-19 pandemic pummels the economy—forcing many Angelenos out of work, a half dozen Los Angeles City Councilmembers are joining the chorus and calling for the California governor to suspend Costa Hawkins.

Read More [[link removed]] San Jose Passes Rent Freeze For Thousands Of Apartments, Mobile Homes

In its latest effort to relieve San Jose residents impacted by the spread of COVID-19, the nation’s 10th largest city is freezing rents on tens of thousands of apartments and mobile homes for the rest of the year.

The city joins just a handful of those across California, including Oakland and Los Angeles, that have instituted similar measures to protect tenants and prohibit rent increases during the economic fallout of the current pandemic.

Read More [[link removed]] Los Angeles City Council Adopts Ordinances To Protect Laid-Off Workers; Seeks To Expand Renter Protections

The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday adopted ordinances aimed at protecting the jobs of hospitality, janitorial and tourism workers laid off amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“In the city of Los Angeles, you should not have to work your entire life to pull yourself and your families out of poverty into a good life, only to have it snatched from your grasp in a second, during a pandemic or otherwise,” Council President Nury Martinez said. “Today’s vote tells (those workers) they are not dispensable, something to be tossed away.”

Under the measures, businesses will be required to provide notice to workers that they have started the process of rehiring following pandemic-related closures. Laid-off workers will have 10 days to respond to worker recall notices, with those with the most senior workers getting priority.

Read More [[link removed]] San Mateo County Supervisors Enact Countywide Moratorium On Rent Increases

Landlords in San Mateo County will not be permitted to raise rent on certain residential properties between now and the end of May, following the unanimous adoption of an emergency resolution by the county's Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

The supervisors' resolution temporarily prevents landlords from increasing rent on certain types of housing units if the tenant shows he or she cannot pay the increased rent as a result of COVID-19 related impacts. The tenant would have to prove those impacts within 14 days of receiving a notice of a rent increase through written documentation.

Read More [[link removed]] California To Vote On Realtors-Backed Property Tax Transfers And Exemptions Initiative In November

On April 23, 2020, the office of Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced that a random sample of signatures projected that enough were valid for the California Association of Realtors’ (CAR) initiated constitutional amendment to appear on the ballot for November 3, 2020.

Some of the ballot initiative’s provisions are similar to CAR’s 2018 ballot initiative, Proposition 5, which was defeated. Like Proposition 5, the ballot initiative would increase opportunities for eligible homeowners to transfer their property’s tax assessment to a new home.

Read More [[link removed]] Editorial and Opinion Who Should Pay For Pandemic Impacts?

The COVID-19 pandemic and the severe economic recession it induced are disasters unparalleled in recent generations and it will take years to fully recover from their human and financial tolls.

Already, however, they are spawning legal and political conflicts, over whom, if anyone, should be accountable for their impacts.

There is, for instance, a flurry of lawsuits — so many that there’s even a special website devoted to cataloging who’s suing and being sued. Cruise lines whose passengers became ill are obvious targets, but legal claims also include employers alleged to have provided insufficient coronavirus protections to their workers, entertainment venues and airlines that failed to provide refunds to their patrons for cancelled services, and countless other conflicts.

The prospect of endless litigation, in turn, is generating new political fights over whether limits should be placed on civil liability during the pandemic/recession crisis.

Read More [[link removed]] What Will The World Look Like When COVID-19 Crisis Is Over?

While the world shelters in place from the coronavirus and we all are riveted to the daily news cycle, planning is already starting for what the world will look like when today’s crisis is over.

Will the virus kill Silicon Valley’s seemingly unstoppable engine? How will industries change, and which sectors will emerge from the crisis stronger? While the answers for the macroeconomy remain unclear, patterns for technology are starting to emerge.

Technology companies have taken hits on issues ranging from online privacy to their impact on the cost of housing, but today’s crisis makes clear the centrality of technology to our economy and society. It also brings home the critical importance of the innovation that is happening in Silicon Valley.

Read More [[link removed]] Now Is The Time To Fix Public School Financing To Make It Fairer And More Effective

With a recession imminent and tens of millions of Americans filing for unemployment benefits in the past few weeks, state budgets are taking a beating — and schools could be in serious fiscal jeopardy. In states like Florida, where recently passed budgets promised more funding for education, the optimistic state revenue forecasts underpinning those budgets are set to go up in flames. In Virginia and Utah, for example, multimillion-dollar budget cuts have already been flagged. And while some states, like Arizona and California, keep substantial rainy-day funds that will cushion the downturn’s blow, the relief will be limited. Many states either don’t have similar funds or have already depleted theirs.

A financial crisis like this means it is time to reform America’s outdated school finance system to reduce inequities and make the most of what we spend.

Read More [[link removed]] College Campuses Must Reopen in the Fall. Here’s How We Do It.

Across the country, college campuses have become ghost towns. Students and professors are hunkered down inside, teaching and learning online. University administrators are tabulating the financial costs of the Covid-19 pandemic, which already exceed the CARES Act’s support for higher education.

The toll of this pandemic is high and will continue to rise. But another crisis looms for students, higher education and the economy if colleges and universities cannot reopen their campuses in the fall.

As amazing as videoconferencing technology has become, students face financial, practical and psychological barriers as they try to learn remotely. This is especially true for lower-income students who may not have reliable internet access or private spaces in which to study. If they can’t come back to campus, some students may choose — or be forced by circumstances — to forgo starting college or delay completing their degrees.

Read More [[link removed]] New Wrinkles In Old School Fights

The semi-shutdown of California’s social, economic and institutional life, that was ordered to arrest the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, seems to be working — albeit at immense cost.

Nowhere is that cost more evident than in the abrupt closure of public schools, sending their 6 million students home to continue their educations, as best they can, under the tutelage of teachers on computer screens and bewildered parents.

Under the best of such awkward circumstances, learning is difficult, and for many students, particularly those in poor families, it will be another setback that widens the state’s already embarrassing “achievement gap.”

A nationwide debate has begun on how catch-as-catch-can schooling will be officially recorded — whether students will continue to be graded, will be assigned arbitrary grades just to fill in blanks on their records, or will have grading suspended altogether, long a goal of some educators.

Read More [[link removed]] How The Gig Economy Law Threatens Coronavirus Response And Economic Recovery

Gloria Rivera is among California's front-line health care workers unable to find work in hospitals — even amid the coronavirus pandemic — due to AB5, a controversial new labor law targeting the gig economy.

The native Spanish speaker is a medical interpreter who has taught at major universities and collaborated on top-level projects with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But as an independent contractor in the San Francisco Bay Area, she has been almost completely shut out of work.

"Right now I have zero requests," Rivera stated. "Just having AB5 was bad. But coronavirus has made it even worse for most of us."

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