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  • How Germany Saved Its Workforce From Unemployment While Spending Less Per Person Than the U.S.

    June 03, 2020 |

    ProPublica |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Germany

    Germany's creative workshare approach to stemming unemployment has prevented mass layoffs, unlike rising numbers in the United States. The German government provides payroll subsidies which allow an employer to keep on its staff by cutting back hours for everyone. Unemployment funds that would usually go to those who are laid off are instead directed to employers' payrolls, preventing the inconvenience and uncertainty of layoffs and allowing workers to seamlessly return to work full time when the health crisis is under control.

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  • Is Germany Doing Enough to Ensure Small Businesses survive the Coronavirus crisis?

    June 02, 2020 |

    The Local |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Germany

    The German government has spent billions to keep small businesses and freelancers afloat during the pandemic. Entrepreneurs who qualified were sent funds, often within 2 business days, specifically for business-operating costs such as commercial rent. Some businesses are hoping for more support in the form of rent freezes depending on how long the lockdown continues while others lost out on funding by waiting too long. The program ran out of money but the government has announced additional aid packages.

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  • 'Stopgap' or life saver?: Italy's scheme to help the self-employed survive the coronavirus crisis

    May 30, 2020 |

    The Local |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: Italy

    The Italian government's attempt to assuage the financial fallout of the pandemic on small businesses, freelance workers, and the self-employed did not achieve the desired results despite the enormous size of the aid package: 25 billion euros. Delays, technical glitches, and language barriers for international workers have plagued the application process from the day it was launched and over half a million applications have yet to be processed. Italians also criticized the 600-euro amount which is the average rent in the country, often higher in some areas. The government has announced additional aid.

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  • Coronavirus crisis in France: The battle to save the livelihoods of the self-employed

    May 22, 2020 |

    The Local |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: France

    The French government has spent billions to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus lockdown in hopes that the stopgap funding will ensure a quick economic recovery once the health crisis abates. The funding has been on a national and regional level, with extra funding for those who have been rejected for bank loans and are suffering the most. Small businesses are also exempt from rent, gas, or electricity payments until the country reopens. The distribution of funding has come with its challenges as some business fall through the bureaucratic cracks.

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  • COVID-19 dining out: Restaurants take to the streets to create socially distanced dining rooms as nation reopens

    May 21, 2020 |

    USA Today |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Warrenton, Virginia

    As the U.S attempts to reopen, restaurant owners from California to Florida are expanding their restaurants into nearby outdoor space, including sidewalks and parking lots. In doing so, they are able to offer patrons a safer dining environment, as there is more room to keep tables further apart and follow social distancing precautions, and it also helps restaurants earn more revenue than if they were limited to indoor space. Some city governments are streamlining the process, including Brookhaven, Georgia, which made it free to access short-term permits for outdoor dining.

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  • COVID-19 Sparks a Rebirth of the Local Farm Movement

    May 21, 2020 |

    Yes! Magazine |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, California

    To help small farmers stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, some organizations in California are aiding in their transition to community supported agriculture, or CSA, models that directly connect farmers to consumers. Since converting to a CSA, one restaurant supply business went from selling 90 boxes of food to 450. This collaborative effort, along with new digital marketplaces and local grassroots networks, could become a longterm business model for farmers.

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  • How Louisiana cities are using the CARES Act to save small businesses, keep people in homes

    May 19, 2020 |

    The Current (Louisiana) |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Louisiana

    The Cares Act is a federal program providing $46.6 million dollars of emergency aid which cities in Louisiana are spending on a combination of a mortgage and rent relief or on the needs of small businesses. For most cities throughout the state, the first priority is keeping residents in their homes as the stay on evictions approaches, at which point landlords will expect rent as well as backpay. Louisiana faces the triple threat of a pandemic, the economic fallout from it, and a series of tornados. Keeping people in their homes has been the foremost priority to stop the spread of the virus.

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  • Louisiana cities are doing what they can to both save small businesses and keep people in their homes

    May 18, 2020 |

    The Current (Louisiana) |

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    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Lafayette, Louisiana

    Several large cities in Lousiana used federal funds for small businesses and housing. Cities like Monroe, Shreveport, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans balanced the needs of small businesses with the needs of families who were provided rent and mortgage assistance. Fayette, however, is opting to focus almost entirely on small businesses. Most cities are prioritizing the need to keep residents in their homes to stop the spread of coronavirus.

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  • In an Attempt to Help Struggling Restaurants, Cities Regulate Food Delivery Apps

    May 15, 2020 |

    Route Fifty |

    Text |

    Under 800 Words

    Response Location: United States

    To provide financial relief to restaurants during Covid-19 related closures, officials in several cities have capped the commission food delivery apps can take from restaurants. Some apps normally take as much as 40% from restaurants but in order to remain viable while in-store dinning is shut down some cities have capped commissions between 10-15%. Although the apps claim that mandated caps are damaging their business and will force them to alter operations, local restaurants have expressed enthusiasm that the caps will allow them to use third-party delivery apps and stay open.

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  • No COVID outbreak yet in New Hampshire prisons, jails

    May 11, 2020 |

    Monadnock Ledger-Transcript |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New Hampshire

    Through the first week of May 2020, New Hampshire prisons and jails had avoided a COVID-19 outbreak after taking only modest prevention measures. There were no deaths and no reported cases among the more than 2,400 people held in state prisons, nor in any county jails, and only a handful of prison and jail staff had tested positive. Prisons screened employees entering facilities, engaged in extensive cleaning, suspended visits, and limited transfers and programs. Though the prisons followed CDC guidelines on testing, critics say they have not tested enough to track the virus' spread.

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