Excerpted from OC Breeze
In an effort to keep high-paying jobs in the state and maintain a robust laboratory force to provide COVID-19 testing, the Legislature has passed Assembly Bill 1327 with bipartisan support.
Excerpted from Coast Online
By Oceana Christopher
Share Our Selves (SOS), the Costa Mesa-based community health center, celebrated its 50th anniversary this August with the unveiling of a new mobile health unit.
Excerpted from Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s unemployment agency is not answering 60% of the calls it receives for help as the overwhelmed department struggles to work through a backlog of more than 1 million pending claims five months into the pandemic.
Employment Development Department Director Sharon Hilliard told a panel of frustrated state lawmakers on Monday that the agency is on pace to have 3,700 people working in its call center by January, up from the 350 employees prior to the pandemic.
Excerpted by Daily Pilot
By Sara Cardine
For the past 50 years, community health center Share Our Selves has made strides to serve as many vulnerable and low-income people as possible, offering medical, dental and social services throughout Orange County with a main office in Costa Mesa.
Excerpted from OC Breeze
Sixty-one California lawmakers sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom advocating for immediate and structural reforms at the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD). Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, EDD has displayed a shocking inability to disperse unemployment benefits as millions of Californians struggle without income. (Full Letter Attached)
Excerpted from Associated Press
The agency is working to merge the call centers and train more workers to handle complex calls to eliminate the need for call backs, Hilliard said. But she could not give a timeline for when that would happen despite repeated questions from Democratic Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris. Other lawmakers said it was unacceptable that so few workers are able to answer questions about claims over the phone.
Excerpted from the San Francisco Chronicle
By Chronicle Editorial Board
Excerpted from the San Francisco Chronicle
By Carolyn Said
This week, I sent a letter to Supervisor Steel and the OC Board of Supervisors, to discuss the critical delay in COVID-19 testing being experienced by first responders. This is a problem we must address urgently.
Excerpted from Orange County Register
By Theresa Walker
A first-of-its-kind legislative hearing in Buena Park Tuesday covered a wide range of issues related to homelessness in Orange County, from the cost of operating emergency shelters to support for medical-based treatment for jailed addicts to the dynamics some people face for being viewed as ‘resistant’ to accepting services.