Tim Daisy; Matt Piet at the Hungry Brain pre-COVID Photos by Marek Lazarski and Morgan Ciesielski
The COVID-19 pandemic has put tens of millions of Americans out of work, but even considering that bleak landscape, musicians have been hit especially hard most of their jobs only barely exist now, and the infrastructure that might allow them to return someday is in danger of collapsing. Festivals have been canceled, larger concert halls closed, and smaller clubs either shuttered or restricted to fractions of their usual audiences. At least in the States, no one is touring. In Chicago, many of the venues that stage jazz and improvised music have either been streaming pay-what-you-will concerts or sitting dark since March. The disappearance of in-person performance opportunities hurts worse in this context, since the music thrives upon and in fact usual
everyone. i m erin burnette. is the president hiding up to 200 layoffs. assistant labor secretary jane oates posted this update. now, it was quietly posted to the labor department s website just yesterday. as we reported 46 days ago the law called the warn act calls for employers to announce layoffs of employees 60 days before hand. we re talking about ones like the ones related to the defense industry thanks to the 2 hnt $1 trillion in sequestration cuts. since they take effect on january 2nd, here s a calendar. layoff announcement that the depence contractors would go out november 3rd. as you can see, that s three days before the presidential election. obviously those are not headlines barack obama wants. enter the labor department. here s the letter. the warn act notice to employees of federal contractors including defense industry is not required 60 days in advance of january 2nd 2013 and would be inappropriate. yes, the administration is reinterpreting the law on the sly