On Wed., May 11, three Colorado Springs elementary schools are receiving free books for all of their K-5 students via the "If You Give A Child A Book program."
Walmart sales soared, essential workers got scant protection
by Gracie Todd, Molly Castle Work, Natalie Drum, Nick Mcmillan, Kara Newhouse, Jazmyn Gray, Aneurin Canham Clyne, Jack Rasiel, Sahana Jayaraman And Haley Chi-sing/the Howard Center For Investigative Journalism, The Associated Press
Posted May 12, 2021 12:32 pm EDT
Last Updated May 12, 2021 at 12:44 pm EDT
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) Sandra Kunz had been worried for her safety while working as a cashier at a Walmart in Aurora, Colorado, during the pandemic, said her sister, Paula Spellman.
The 72-year-old had lung disease, Spellman said. She was “uncomfortable because so many people (were) coming in with coughs.”
9,000 employees sick as COVID overwhelms Arkansas workplaces
By MARY HENNIGAN, ABBY ZIMMARDI AND RACHELL SANCHEZ-SMITH/The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism May 12, 2021 GMT
SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) Poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc., the third-largest employer in Arkansas, reported 2,866 COVID-19 cases at its workplaces, nearly one-third of the state’s 9,065 sickened workers across all industries from May 19, 2020, to April 8, 2021, according to an Arkansascovid.com analysis of Arkansas Department of Health data.
The state health department publishes COVID-19 occupational illness reports that show businesses with five or more active cases. In less than one year, Tyson had 281 appearances in these reports. Comparatively, Walmart Inc., the largest employer in the state, had two appearances that totaled 12 sick workers.
COVID-19 protections not offered to migrant seafood workers
By VANESSA SÁNCHEZ PULLA, TRISHA AHMED, BRITTANY NICOLE GADDY, LUCIANA PEREZ URIBE GUINASSI, CARMEN MOLINA ACOSTA, SOPHIA SORENSEN AND AADIT TAMBE/The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism May 12, 2021 GMT
FISHING CREEK, Md. (AP) For thousands of miles and over two days in April, 59 workers from Mexico traveled together on a bus despite the pandemic to their legal, seasonal jobs as crabmeat pickers and seafood processors in Maryland’s rural islands.
Lindy’s Seafood Inc., the wholesale crab and oyster company in Maryland that hired the workers, paid for their cross-country trip. The company put them to work the day after they arrived without quarantining or waiting for COVID-19 test results. Those safeguards are not required under state or federal law.
Mass. health boards overwhelmed, unready to protect workers
Mass. health boards overwhelmed, unready to protect workers
SHANNON IRIARTE, SHWETHA SURENDRAN AND MAGGIE MULVIHILL/The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism , The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism
May 12, 2021
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BOSTON (AP) With federal regulators missing from the field and state leaders scrambling to manage the COVID-19 crisis, Massachusetts’ 351 overtaxed local boards of health were unwittingly thrust into a new role last year overseers of workplace safety.
The challenge created by forcing that responsibility on the municipal agencies, some staffed with only one or two people, may have contributed to at least one chairman’s heart attack and highlighted the fragility of the workplace-safety landscape in Massachusetts.