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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.” ....
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. ....
Public records survey highlights unevenness of government tracking, responses By Andrew Schotz and Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi A one-month test of government agencies in Maryland revealed a patchwork of approaches in how public records are tracked and how requests for access are filled. The Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association in February filed requests for public information with 31 state agencies, counties, municipalities and school systems. The idea was to look at trends in the number of public records requests they received over a three-year period and what effect the COVID-19 pandemic had, if any, on their responses. Asked for their average response time each year in filling or denying Maryland Public Information Act requests and whether it changed during the pandemic only about one-fifth of the 31 government entities that MDDC surveyed provided a full answer, or data to easily figure out the answer. ....