Tag: Paid

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Health

Nursing Properties Face Dilemma: Vaccinate Employees or Don’t Get Paid.

Nursing Homes Face Dilemma: Vaccinate Staff or Don’t Get Paid.

Marita Smith runs a nursing home in Seattle while Janet Snipes runs one in Denver. They share years of industry experience and painful memories of Covid-19, but have vastly different views on a new federal policy making vaccinations mandatory for all care home workers.

Ms. Smith said unvaccinated people should not be caring for a vulnerable population that has already been hit hard by the pandemic. The industry is seeing rising infection rates and deaths among residents again, but not reaching the highs of last year, and the mandate is expected to avert further increases.

“It’s great,” said Ms. Smith, administrator of the St. Anne Nursing and Rehab Center, calling the policy a “pretty big deal” that would “flush out health professionals who shouldn’t be in the health service.”

Such exits are exactly what worries Ms. Snipes, executive director of the Holly Heights Care Center in Denver. She, too, wants all homeworkers to be vaccinated, but not at the risk of losing employees who fail to do so in the midst of a labor shortage in an already high turnover industry.

Of the 1.5 million nursing home workers in the United States, approximately 540,000 – 40 percent of the workforce – are unvaccinated. Their fate could be directly affected by a directive announced by President Biden on Wednesday mandating vaccination of all nursing home workers, with the rules expected to go into effect in September. Institutions that fail to meet this goal could face fines or lose federal reimbursement, a major source of income for many.

The practical effect of the policy is that workers must be vaccinated or lose their jobs. Ms. Snipes said several employees told her they could leave. One who referred to her as her best nurse told her she was “very, very scared” of the vaccine, partly because she is black and worried about past medical experiments.

Getting vaccinated “is the safest thing for our residents and staff, but we believe he must contract all health care facilities,” Ms. Snipes said of President Biden. “We cannot afford to lose staff to hospitals and assisted living facilities.”

Several large nursing home chains and some states have already issued vaccination mandates. Industry officials said vaccinations were highly recommended, but their position on the new policy mirrored that of Ms. Snipes.

“We’re going to lose tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of workers,” said Mark Parkinson, president and chief executive officer of the American Health Care Association, a large nursing home trade group. He said he was hoping for policy changes and had already worked with Dr. Lee A. Fleisher, Chief Medical Officer of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, talked about it and looked for a meeting with Xavier Becerra, Secretary for Health and Human Services.

The most important change the industry is seeking is a signal from the administration that at some point there will be a mandate for all healthcare facilities so that nursing home workers can see there is nowhere else they can go. “Make it a commitment for everyone,” said Mr. Parkinson.

In fact, around 2,000 hospitals have already placed vaccination orders, reducing job opportunities for unvaccinated healthcare workers.

Dr. Fleisher said the CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saw a “direct link” in the latest data between rising infections in nursing homes and unvaccinated staff.

Updated

Aug. 19, 2021, 6:01 p.m. ET

“The higher the percentage of unvaccinated workers, the higher the percentage of cases we have seen in these homes,” said Dr. Butcher. “There was a strong relationship.”

Currently, 60 percent of nursing home workers nationwide are vaccinated, well below the previous industry target of 75 percent by the end of June.

Parkinson said the industry is also lobbying the government to “launch a much more intense media campaign to influence workers” that vaccines are safe and effective. The trade organization also wants the government to create a grace period for hesitant employees.

Uy, a geriatrician and medical director of a Philadelphia nursing home, said he had seen the human resource challenges and was “excited about the mandate.”

“I’m exhausted,” he said. “The vaccine is like a small fortress around the weakest, in which the people inside remain safe even though a fire is raging outside.”

The mandate aims to avoid an increase in Covid cases and deaths in a high risk population.

Of the 625,000 Covid deaths to date in the US, almost a fifth – 133,700 – were residents of nursing homes, according to the CDC

Understand the state of vaccination and masking requirements in the United States

    • Mask rules. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July recommended that all Americans, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in public places indoors in areas with outbreaks, reversing the guidelines offered in May. See where the CDC guidelines would apply and where states have implemented their own mask guidelines. The battle over masks is controversial in some states, with some local leaders defying state bans.
    • Vaccination regulations. . . and B.Factories. Private companies are increasingly demanding coronavirus vaccines for employees with different approaches. Such mandates are legally permissible and have been confirmed in legal challenges.
    • College and Universities. More than 400 colleges and universities require a vaccination against Covid-19. Almost all of them are in states that voted for President Biden.
    • schools. On August 11, California announced that teachers and staff at both public and private schools would have to get vaccinated or have regular tests, the first state in the nation to do so. A survey published in August found that many American parents of school-age children are against mandatory vaccines for students, but are more supportive of masking requirements for students, teachers and staff who do not have a vaccination.
    • Hospitals and medical centers. Many hospitals and large health systems require their employees to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, due to rising case numbers due to the Delta variant and persistently low vaccination rates in their communities, even within their workforce.
    • new York. On August 3, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that workers and customers will be required to provide proof of vaccination when dining indoors, gyms, performances, and other indoor situations. City hospital staff must also be vaccinated or have weekly tests. Similar rules apply to employees in New York State.
    • At the federal level. The Pentagon announced that it would make coronavirus vaccinations compulsory for the country’s 1.3 million active soldiers “by mid-September at the latest. President Biden announced that all civil federal employees would need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo regular tests, social distancing, mask requirements and travel restrictions.

And a recent CDC study of 4,000 nursing homes found that the effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines among nursing home residents dropped from 75 percent in the spring to 53 percent by midsummer, when the delta variant spread further. “The results underline the crucial importance of the Covid-19 vaccination for employees, residents and visitors,” stated the authors of the study.

Health experts fear that unvaccinated employees could bring Covid-19 into a nursing home and infect residents. Nationwide, more than 80 percent of residents of nursing homes are vaccinated, but the number of cases in this population group is already increasing. In the week ending August 15, 354 care home residents died of Covid-19, the highest number since mid-March, and 3,585 tested positive, according to the CDC

The CDC has found that more employees are getting sick. In the week ending August 15, 5,810 nursing home employees contracted Covid-19, five times more than a month earlier, and 25 employees died.

Earlier this month, the Good Samaritan Society, which operates 142 nursing homes nationwide, announced that all 15,000 employees must be vaccinated by November 1, a position the company took after in homes where unvaccinated workers also tested positive , an increase in infections among residents was recorded. So far, the workforce has remained stable, said Randy Bury, the company’s CEO, who has argued in the past that such mandates would create safe and desirable jobs.

However, he argued that the Biden government’s new policy was wrong unless it was applied to the health sector as a whole. “What’s the difference in a nursing home versus a hospital?” Said Mr. Bury. “They are susceptible to the virus when they come into contact with unvaccinated employees.”

LeadingAge, a non-profit organization that represents 2,000 nursing homes and had previously requested mandates in individual homes, criticized the Biden policy for its narrow focus.

“The administration is right,” said Katie Smith Sloan, president and chief executive officer of LeadingAge, in a released statement. “We are at war. It would be a tragic misstep for the nurses who continue to struggle on the front lines to withdraw funds. “

Ms. Snipes, the director of Holly Heights in Denver, said she spent months training the staff and promoting vaccinations. She said most of her unvaccinated employees agreed to obey the mandate, but she mentioned three that she feared might leave. One told her that she did not want to put anything strange in her body. A second Catholic said he did not want an mRNA vaccine for religious reasons and that he had a letter of support from his bishop.

The third was the black nurse, who “sounds the most fearful of all the people I have spoken to,” said Ms. Snipes. “I want to save you as an employee.”

Categories
Politics

Matt Gaetz’s marketing campaign paid $20,000 to Trump crony Roger Stone’s firm

Matt Gaetz's campaign paid $20,000 to Trump crony Roger Stone's company

Florida Republican Republican Matt Gaetz’s campaign committee paid at least $ 20,000 to a company the Justice Department claims was used by GOP politician Roger Stone and his wife to avoid taxes, such as campaign funding reports showed.

Gaetz’s campaign paid Drake Ventures LLC for three months for “Strategic Campaign Consulting,” according to the quarterly filings of the Federal Electoral Commission committee, the latest of which was released Thursday.

That filing showed that the campaign raised approximately $ 1.45 million and spent more than $ 1.9 million between April and June, and also revealed that more than $ 825,000 was spent on the Logan Circle Group , who hired PR firm Gaetz when news surfaced that he was involved in a federal investigation into sex trafficking. Gaetz is not charged with criminal law and denies any wrongdoing.

The Logan Circle Group is run by Harlan Hill, who was banned from appearing on Fox News after tweeting that Vice President Kamala Harris “comes across as such an unbearable lie.”

Gaetz’s campaign also paid $ 50,000 in legal fees for the quarter, half of which went to the law firm of Marc Fernich, the defense attorney whose notable clients include the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, convicted drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and the long-dead belong gang boss John Gotti.

The Gaetz campaign paid Stone’s company in four separate portions of $ 5,000, the documents showed. The FEC filings list a Fort Lauderdale address for Drake Ventures associated with Stone, who lives near the coastal city of Florida.

The first of those rates came in late March, less than a week before the New York Times first reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and was paying for her travel with him. Three days after the news broke, a second payment of $ 5,000 was made to Stone.

Gaetz’s friend, former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, pleaded guilty to a number of crimes in May in the case that reportedly led to the investigation of Gaetz. Greenberg cooperates with the federal prosecutor’s office.

The other two payments to Drake Ventures came after the DOJ filed a civil lawsuit against Stone and his wife, Nydia Stone, in mid-April alleging the couple used the company as an “alter ego” to “get their personal income off the ground.” protect”. forced collection and finance a lavish lifestyle. “

“They used Drake Ventures to obtain payments to be made to Roger Stone personally to pay for their personal expenses, protect their assets and avoid reporting taxable income to the IRS,” the DOJ wrote in its appeal .

The Stones owe nearly $ 2 million in unpaid federal taxes and other fees, the DOJ alleged in the lawsuit filed in Fort Lauderdale federal district court.

Federal prosecutors also accused the Stones of “defrauding the United States” by using assets in Drake Ventures’ accounts to buy their home on behalf of a separate trust.

Stone has described the lawsuit as “politically motivated”.

“Our FEC filings speak for themselves,” said a Gaetz spokesman on Thursday evening in an email to CNBC. “Despite an endless barrage of lies from the media, Congressman Gaetz continues to be one of the greatest fundraisers in Congress and the only Republican not to accept donations from federal lobbyists or PACs. He thanks his tens of thousands of donors and pledges “to always fight for them.”

Hardly any information was given about the company’s “strategic campaign advice” for the Gaetz campaign.

“I’m not interested in talking about the case or anything on record,” said Brian Harris, an attorney representing Stone and Drake Ventures on the DOJ lawsuit, in a brief phone call with CNBC before hanging up .

Stone did not respond to CNBC’s inquiries about Gaetz’s campaign committee payments. Two other attorneys representing the Stones and Drake Ventures, Derick Vollrath and Jeffrey Neiman, made no comment.

Stone and Gaetz are both Florida based and both are loyal to former President Donald Trump, who has lived at his Palm Beach golf club since leaving office in January.

In late December, Trump pardoned 68-year-old Stone, who had been convicted of lying to Congress under oath.

– CNBC’s Brian Schwartz contributed to this report.

Categories
Politics

Colonial Pipeline paid $5M ransom someday after hack, CEO tells Senate

Colonial Pipeline paid $5M ransom one day after hack, CEO tells Senate

Joseph Blount, JR., President and Chief Executive Officer, Colonial Pipeline is sworn in as he attends a hearing to examine threats to critical infrastructure, focusing on examining the Colonial Pipeline cyber attack at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., June 8, 2021.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | Reuters

WASHINGTON — Colonial Pipeline’s CEO told a Senate committee on Tuesday the company paid the $5 million ransom one day after Russian-based cybercriminals hacked its IT network, crippling fuel deliveries up and down the East Coast.

Joseph Blount Jr. told members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in prepared remarks that the company learned of the attack shortly before 5 a.m. on May 7, when an employee discovered a ransom note on a system in the IT network.

The note said hackers had “exfiltrated” material from the company’s shared internal drive, and it demanded approximately $5 million in exchange for the files.

The company was attacked by a ransomware program created by DarkSide, a cyber criminal group believed to operate out of Russia.

Blount said that shortly after discovering the ransom note, the employee notified a supervisor and the decision was made to immediately shut down the entire pipeline.

“At approximately 5:55 A.M. employees began the shutdown process,” Blount wrote. “By 6:10 A.M., they confirmed that all 5,500 miles of pipelines had been shut down.”

The decision to shut down the entire pipeline was driven by “the imperative to isolate and contain the attack to help ensure the malware did not spread to the Operational Technology network, which controls our pipeline operations, if it had not already.”

The shutdown caused major disruptions to gas delivery up and down the East Coast, as trucks struggled to restock gas stations, and long lines developed at pumps, especially in the Southeast. Airline operations also were disrupted.

Blount’s testimony revealed just how quickly the company decided to suspend operations, and it provided new details about the first few days after the attack.

The company believes attackers “exploited a legacy virtual private network profile that was not intended to be in use,” Blount told senators.

But he admitted that the account was not protected by multifactor authentication, which is currently the company standard in most of its operations. Blount said the password was complicated, though. “It was not a ‘Colonial 123’-type password.”

Blount also testified about the approximately $5 million in ransom that the company paid to the DarkSide hackers. He revealed that Colonial Pipeline paid the ransom one day after the attack.

“I made the decision that Colonial Pipeline would pay the ransom to have every tool available to us to swiftly get the pipeline back up and running,” Blount said in his opening statement. “It was one of the toughest decisions I have had to make in my life.”

“At the time, I kept this information close hold because we were concerned about operational security and minimizing publicity for the threat actor,” he said.

In response to a question about whether the company paid ransom to an entity under U.S. sanctions, Blount said the company checked the sanctions list maintained by the Office of Foreign Asset Control before making the payment.

The day before Blount testified, U.S. law enforcement officials announced that they were able to recover $2.3 million in bitcoin from the hacker group.

Blount also told senators that the company contacted the FBI within hours of discovering the attack.

This story will be updated throughout the Senate hearing.

Categories
Politics

U.S. recovers $2.3M in bitcoin paid

U.S. recovers $2.3M in bitcoin paid

A sign warns consumers on the avaliability of gasoline at a RaceTrac gas station on May 11, 2021, in Smyrna, Georgia.

Elijah Nouvelage | AFP | Getty Images

WASHINGTON – U.S. law enforcement officials said Monday they were able to recover $2.3 million in bitcoin paid to a criminal cybergroup involved in the crippling ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline.

“Today we turned the tables on DarkSide,” Lisa Monaco, Department of Justice deputy attorney general, said during a press briefing, adding that the money was seized via a court order.

Alongside Monaco, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate explained that agents were able to identify a virtual currency wallet that the DarkSide hackers used to collect payment from Colonial Pipeline.

“Using law enforcement authority, victim funds were seized from that wallet, preventing Dark Side actors from using them,” Abbate said.

The FBI declined to say precisely how it accessed the bitcoin wallet, citing the need to protect tradecraft.

But Elvis Chan, assistant special agent in charge, told reporters that even foreign-based cybercriminals like DarkSide typically use American infrastructure at some point in the course of a crime. When they do, it gives the FBI a legal window to recover the funds.

DarkSide operates as a “ransomware as a service” business model, which means its hackers develop and market ransomware hacking tools, and sell them to other criminal “affiliates” who then carry out attacks.

It is still unclear who DarkSide’s affiliates were in the Colonial Pipeline attack.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco announces the recovery of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from the Colonial Pipeline Co. ransomware attacks as she speaks during a news conference with FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate and Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Stephanie Hinds at the Justice Department in Washington, June 7, 2021.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Last month DarkSide launched a sweeping ransomware assault on Colonial Pipeline. The cyberattack forced the company to shut down approximately 5,500 miles of American fuel pipeline, leading to a disruption of nearly half of the East Coast fuel supply and causing gasoline shortages in the Southeast.

Ransomware attacks involve malware that encrypts files on a device or network that results in the system becoming inoperable. Criminals behind these types of cyberattacks typically demand a ransom in exchange for the release of data.

Colonial Pipeline paid nearly $5 million ransom to the hackers, one source familiar with the situation confirmed to CNBC. It was not immediately clear when the transaction took place.

The FBI has previously warned victims of ransomware attacks that paying a ransom could encourage further malicious activity.

The government has stopped short of moving to ban ransomware payments altogether, out of concern that it would have little impact on whether or not companies pay ransoms and simply discourage them from reporting attacks.

The public announcement was part of a broader effort to counter the private sector’s longstanding reluctance to publicly report cyberattacks and involve the government in its responses.

“The message here today is that [if you report the attack], we will bring all of our tools to bear to go after these criminal networks,” Monaco said.

Officials stressed the advantages to be gained by companies that report cyber breaches quickly to the FBI.

“Victim reporting not only can give us the information we need to have an immediate real-world impact on the actors … it can also prevent future harm from occurring,” Abbate said.

“The private sector also has an equally important role to play and we must continue to take cyber threats seriously and invest accordingly to harden our defenses,” Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount said in a statement Monday evening.

“As our investigation into this event continues, Colonial will continue its transparency in sharing intelligence and learnings with the FBI and other federal agencies,” he said.

After the attack by DarkSide, President Joe Biden told reporters that the U.S. did not currently have intelligence linking the group’s ransomware attack to the Russian government. Although, the assault is believed to have originated from a criminal organization in Russia. 

“So far there is no evidence from our intelligence people that Russia is involved although there is evidence that the actor’s ransomware is in Russia, they have some responsibility to deal with this,” Biden said on May 10. He added that he would discuss the situation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two leaders are slated to meet in Geneva on June 16.

The Kremlin has denied that it launched cyberattacks against the United States.

“The President’s message will be that responsible states do not harbor ransomware criminals, and responsible countries must take decisive action against these ransomware networks,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in advance of the summit.

The Biden administration is also putting pressure on the private sector to shore up its defenses against ransomware.

“All organizations must recognize that no company is safe from being targeted by ransomware, regardless of size or location,” wrote Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, in a June 2 memo.

“To understand your risk, business executives should immediately convene their leadership teams to discuss the ransomware threat and review corporate security posture and business continuity plans to ensure you have the ability to continue or quickly restore operations,” she added.

At the same time, the White House is grappling with how to modernize cybersecurity protocols and banking laws to respond to cryptocurrency and its growing role in financial crimes, from ransomware to corruption.

The prevalence of cryptocurrency in crimes like ransomware attacks has also drawn the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. 

“We have a lot of cash requirements in our country, but we haven’t figured out, in the country or in the world, how to trace cryptocurrency,” Missouri GOP Sen. Roy Blunt said Sunday on the NBC program “Meet the Press.”

“You can’t trace the ransomware — the ransom payment of choice now. And we’ve got to do a better job here,” he added.

Categories
Politics

Colonial Pipeline paid $5 million ransom to hackers

Colonial Pipeline paid $5 million ransom to hackers

WASHINGTON – Colonial Pipeline paid hackers a ransom after the company fell victim to a widespread cyber attack, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to CNBC.

A US official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to NBC News that Colonial had paid nearly $ 5 million in ransom to the cybercriminals.

It wasn’t immediately clear when the transaction took place. Colonial Pipeline did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment. The ransom payment was first reported by Bloomberg.

The previous Thursday, President Joe Biden declined to comment when asked if Colonial Pipeline had paid the ransom. White House press secretary Jen Pskai told reporters during a briefing that it remains the federal government’s position not to pay ransom as this could encourage cybercriminals to launch further attacks.

Last week’s attack, carried out by a cyber criminal group called DarkSide, forced the company to shut down about 5,500 miles of pipeline, causing half the fuel supply on the east coast and gasoline shortages in the southeast.

Ransomware attacks are malware that encrypts files on a device or network and causes the system to become inoperable. Criminals behind such cyber attacks usually demand a ransom in return for releasing data.

On Monday, White House National Security officials labeled the attack financially motivated but did not say whether the Colonial Pipeline agreed to pay the ransom.

“Usually this is a private sector decision,” Anne Neuberger, deputy national security advisor on cyber and emerging technologies, told White House reporters when asked about the ransom payment.

Anne Neuberg, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber ​​and Emerging Technologies, speaks about the colonial pipeline failure following a cyber attack during the daily press conference at the White House in Washington, USA, on May 10, 2021.

Kevin Lemarque | Reuters

“We recognize that cyber attack victims often face a very difficult situation and often only have to weigh the cost-benefit ratio when they have no other choice but to pay a ransom. Colonial is a private company, and we will postpone information about your decision. ” about paying a ransom to them, “said Neuberger.

She added that the FBI had previously warned victims of ransomware attacks that paying a ransom could encourage further malicious activity.

On Monday before, the DarkSide group described its actions as “apolitical” in a Cybereason statement to CNBC.

“We are apolitical, we do not participate in geopolitics, we do not have to be tied to a defined government and look for our motives,” wrote the group.

“Our goal is to make money and not create problems for society. Starting today, we are introducing moderation and reviewing every company that our partners want to encrypt in order to avoid social consequences in the future,” added the statement.

Biden told reporters on Monday that the US currently has no information linking the DarkSide group’s ransomware attack to the Russian government.

“So far there is no evidence from our intelligence officials that Russia is involved, although there is evidence that the actor’s ransomware is in Russia. You have a certain responsibility to deal with it,” Biden said from the White House on Monday.

He added that he would continue to discuss the situation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin has previously denied claims that it launched cyberattacks against the United States.

On Wednesday, the Colonial Pipeline said in an evening statement that it had resumed operations days after its entire system was shut down due to the cyber attack. The company described its decision to temporarily close its pipeline service as a precautionary measure.

“Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may or continue to experience intermittent business interruptions during the launch phase. Colonial will and will continue to move as much gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as possible until markets return.” normal, “added the company.

The Colonial Pipeline hack is just the latest example of criminal groups or state actors exploiting US cyber vulnerabilities. Last year, software from IT company SolarWinds was breached, allowing hackers to access communications and data in multiple government agencies.

In April, Washington officially made the Russian foreign intelligence service responsible for carrying out the SolarWinds cyberattack. Microsoft President Brad Smith described the incident as “the largest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen”. Microsoft’s systems were also infected with malicious software.

The Russian government denies all allegations behind the SolarWinds hack.

Categories
Business

Colonial Pipeline Paid Roughly $5 Million in Ransom to Hackers

Colonial Pipeline Paid Roughly $5 Million in Ransom to Hackers

In a separate ransomware attack on the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, DC, hackers said the price offered by the police was “too low” and this week posted 250 gigabytes of the department’s data online, including databases of gang members become.

In his remarks on Thursday, Mr Biden used the Colonial Pipeline hack as further evidence that the United States needs to improve its critical infrastructure and urged lawmakers to end its $ 2.3 trillion proposal for road rebuilding, Support bridges, pipelines and other projects.

Republicans have defied the size of Mr Biden’s proposals, accusing the president of wanting to levy taxes to pay for things they don’t see as infrastructure, like housekeeping programs. Mr Biden has suggested raising taxes for wealthy people and businesses to pay for his expenses, but has said he is open to other ideas.

“I am ready to negotiate, as I indicated to members of the House and the leadership yesterday,” said Biden. “But it is clearer than ever that doing nothing is not an option.”

Gasoline prices in South Carolina and Georgia rose around 3 cents Wednesday through Thursday, about half what it had in the past few days. But prices in Tennessee, which depend on an offshoot of the pipeline, rose 6 cents to $ 2.87 for a gallon of regulars. Nationwide, the average price for a gallon of regular guests rose by 2 cents to $ 3.03, according to the AAA car club.

Gasoline supplies vary from state to state along the pipeline, partly because some locations have more storage than others. New Jersey was only 1 percent missing from gas stations early Thursday morning, while more than half of gas stations in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina ran out of fuel, according to GasBuddy, a fuel monitoring app. Friday is traditionally the biggest day for gasoline sales.

It will likely take at least a whole weekend for supplies to return to normal at all gas stations as it will take some time for fuel to flow through the pipeline.

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Business

Paid go away of as much as $4,000 a month for 12 weeks a part of Biden proposal

Paid leave of up to $4,000 a month for 12 weeks part of Biden proposal

aquaArts studio | E + | Getty Images

It would be one of the largest expansions to the US Social Security Network in decades – a new policy of federal paid leave for all workers.

That’s what President Joe Biden is expected to propose on Wednesday night when he launches his $ 1.8 trillion spending and tax credit plan to get the country’s economy back on its feet after a devastating year.

The national paid family and sick leave program would cost around $ 225 billion in a decade, and the White House says it would be paid for primarily by increasing taxes on the rich.

Within 10 years, Biden’s plan would guarantee workers 12 weeks of paid vacation that they could use to “bond with a new child, care for a critically ill loved one, cope with a relative’s military mission, find safety from sexual assault and.” Stalking. ” or domestic violence, healing from their own serious illness or taking time to deal with the death of a loved one, “according to a draft published by the White House.

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Workers could earn up to $ 4,000 a month while on vacation, with at least two-thirds of their average weekly wage replaced. The low-wage workers would receive 80% of their previous income. Biden’s plan also provides that workers have three days of bereavement leave per year from year one. Grief was a major theme of Biden’s presidency. He often talked about losing his son Beau to brain cancer at the age of 46.

The President also called on Congress to pass a law requiring employers to give workers seven paid sick days a year.

Currently, companies with 50 or more employees are required to grant up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off thanks to the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. However, the United States is one of the few countries that does not guarantee workers paid time off when they have a new child or deal with an illness.

In Japan and Norway, new parents receive more than a year of paid leave.

Why is the US different from other countries? “We have had low taxes and a tight safety net in the past,” said Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

For the same reason – corporate opposition – the US lacks universal health coverage, said Ruth Milkman, a sociologist and labor expert at the City University of New York.

“You are allergic to government intervention in the job market,” said Milkman.

The vast majority of American voters – around 80% – support the idea of ​​a national paid vacation program.

But while Americans want access to paid family and sick leave, “a government program is not the solution,” said Rachel Greszler, research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

“Most would much rather have flexible and accommodating guidelines from their employers than deal with government bureaucrats and the constraints of a unified government program,” Greszler said.

In the absence of a federal paid vacation policy, some states – including California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island – have implemented programs of their own to compensate workers who take time off.

As most workers are at the mercy of their employers’ policy, fewer than one in five have access to paid family or parental leave. Less than half of the paid leave is now offered. Access is even rarer among people of color and low-income workers.

“Too many people have been forced to make impossible choices between the incomes they need and the families they love because they don’t have paid vacations,” said Ruth Martin, senior vice president of the MomsRising community.

“It has become an even more devastating problem during the pandemic that has made millions sick, brought hospital stays to unprecedented levels and forced even more people to take time off to care for relatives with Covid-19,” Martin said.

By one estimate, the typical working-age adult will lose more than $ 9,500 after taking 12 weeks off without pay.

A national paid vacation program would likely be funded through payroll taxes, much like the unemployment system funded, Sawhill of the Brookings Institution said.

In shaping its policies, the federal government should learn lessons from states that offer paid vacation, said Linda Houser, a professor at Widener University.

“One of the many fascinating elements of the state’s paid vacation laws is how they’re paid,” said Houser. “Most of them are funded mainly through employee bonuses.

“In some cases, both employees and employers contribute,” she added. “As with other social security programs in the US and elsewhere, the idea is that everyone pays in.”

Another feature of the state programs that the federal government should investigate is how they have found a way to engage the growing numbers of freelancers, gig workers, and the self-employed, Milkman said.

“It’s pretty cheap, so the self-employed and gig workers choose to do it by just paying the tax, just like some do with Social Security,” Milkman said. “These programs are an insurance model.

“When you pay the tax, you can make a claim when an insured event such as a new baby occurs.”

While Republicans endorse certain paid vacation policies, they oppose Biden’s plan to collect taxes to fund the program. This could make such laws difficult to pass, although Democrats could also use the budget vote process to introduce paid vacation.

This avenue enables them to pass laws by simple majority, which is all they have. Other bills typically need 60 votes to move forward, thanks to Senate procedural rules. The next budget vote process is expected to take place in autumn.

“Paid leave certainly has an impact on the budget so it can go through the reconciliation process,” said Martin.

Categories
Politics

Biden asserting paid depart tax credit score for companies

Biden announcing paid leave tax credit for businesses

President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a tax credit for employers offering paid vacation-related vaccines as the White House urges more Americans to check for Covid shots amid a slight drop in vaccinations.

The small and medium-sized business tax credit will fully offset the cost of paid employee time off for vaccination as well as recovery from potential vaccination side effects, the White House said.

The Biden government also urges employers to use their resources to promote vaccinations by sharing accurate information and offering possible incentives such as product gifts and discounts for vaccinated individuals.

CNBC policy

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“Every employee should be given paid vacation to get a shot, and companies should know they can offer it without affecting the bottom line,” Biden said in a White House speech. “There’s no excuse not to do it.”

The tax credit, which is part of the $ 1.9 trillion Covid stimulus plan that went into effect last month, applies to nearly half of all private sector workers, according to the White House.

For businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 500 employees, the tax credit covers paid vacation of up to $ 511 per day per employee for up to 10 work days or 80 hours between April 1 and September 30, 2021.

President Joe Biden speaks at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC on Wednesday April 21, 2021.

Sarah Silbiger | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Biden announced the tax credit after touting the fact that the U.S. will hit 200 million Covid shots given since he took office.

The president said if the pace of vaccinations had stayed the same as when he replaced former President Donald Trump, it would have taken 220 days to reach the same milestone.

“It’s an incredible achievement,” said Biden, “but we still have something to do with our target groups.”

The president urged everyone over the age of 16 to look for a Covid vaccine. “When you’ve been waiting for your turn, don’t wait any longer,” said Biden. “Now is the time.”

The president had originally tried to get 100 million shots in 100 days – a goal that has been criticized for being far too modest. The Biden government exceeded that number in 58 days.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 26% of the US population is fully vaccinated. Health experts have signaled that the percentage required to achieve what is known as herd immunity is much higher.

But the vaccination rate has dropped slightly in the past few days, although every U.S. adult is eligible for a Covid shot starting this week.

According to CDC data, the US reports an average of 3 million daily vaccinations over the past week, up from about 1.8 million in early March.

That level has fallen slightly in recent days, from a high of 3.4 million reported shots per day on April 13 to just more than 3 million on Tuesday.

The slight decrease in daily pace may be due in part to ongoing research into the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The US Food and Drug Administration advised states earlier this month to suspend the use of J & J’s shot “out of caution” after six women developed a rare bleeding disorder.

Although the J&J vaccine accounts for less than 4% of the total of 213 million vaccines administered in the U.S., it was used for an average of nearly 425,000 reported shots per day at peak levels in mid-April.

Unlike what Pfizer and Moderna offered, J & J’s vaccine only required one dose, making it ideal for certain communities that may have more difficulty accessing vaccination sites multiple times over several weeks.

Government officials said the country has enough Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to maintain a pace of 3 million shots a day.

The Biden government has maintained the urgency of vaccinations, stressing that Covid remains a serious threat – especially as highly contagious variants spread across the US

“It’s almost a race between vaccinating people and this surge that is apparently about to increase,” said leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, earlier this month.

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Politics

Massive Firms Like FedEx and Nike Paid No Federal Taxes

Big Companies Like FedEx and Nike Paid No Federal Taxes

Just as the Biden government is pushing to raise taxes on businesses, a new study found that at least 55 of the largest Americans didn’t pay taxes on billions in profits in the past year.

The comprehensive tax bill, passed by Republican Congress in 2017 and signed by President Donald J. Trump, lowered the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. But dozens of Fortune 500 companies have been able to further reduce their tax burden – sometimes to zero, thanks to a number of legal deductions and exemptions that the analysis has found have become an integral part of tax law.

Salesforce, Archer-Daniels-Midland, and Consolidated Edison were among the names named in the report produced by the Institute of Taxes and Economic Policy, a left-wing research group in Washington.

26 of the listed companies, including FedEx, Duke Energy, and Nike, have avoided paying federal income tax over the past three years despite reporting combined income of $ 77 billion. Many also received tax breaks in the millions.

Company tax returns are private, but publicly traded companies are required to file financial reports that include federal income tax expense. The institute used this data along with other information that each company provided about its pre-tax revenue.

Catherine Butler, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy, responded in an email that the company is “fully compliant with federal and state tax laws as part of our efforts to invest for the benefit of our customers and communities.”

She noted that the bonus write-off, intended to encourage investments in areas such as renewable energy, “resulted in Duke’s cash tax obligations being postponed to future periods, but not eliminated”. According to a filing in late 2020, Duke has $ 9 billion in deferred tax payable in the future.

DTE Energy, a Detroit-based utility company that had not paid federal taxes for three years, said large investments in modernizing aging infrastructure as well as new solar and wind technologies were the top drivers last year. “For utilities, the benefits of these federal tax savings will be passed on to utilities in the form of lower electricity bills,” a statement said.

A provision in the 2017 tax bill enabled companies to write off the cost of new equipment immediately.

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April 2, 2021, 12:40 p.m. ET

The $ 2.2 trillion CARES bill passed last year designed to help businesses and families survive the economic devastation caused by the pandemic also included a provision that temporarily allowed businesses to Use losses in 2020 to offset gains made in previous years.

DTE used that provision to receive an expedited refund of credits equivalent to $ 220 million in previously paid alternative minimum taxes, the company said.

FedEx also took advantage of the provisions of the CARES Act and used losses in 2020 to reduce tax burdens from previous years when the tax rate was higher. These regulations “helped companies like FedEx navigate a rapidly changing economy and market while continuing to invest in capital, hire team members, and fund employee retirement plans.”

The report is the latest fodder in a debate on whether and how tax legislation should be revised. Politicians, business leaders, and tax experts argue that many deductions and credits are in place for good reason – to fuel research and development, fuel expansion, and smooth the ebb and flow of the business cycle, allowing profit and loss to be viewed in longer than possible a single year.

“The fact that many companies don’t pay taxes shows that there are many regulations and preferences,” said Alan D. Viard, a resident scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research group. “It doesn’t tell you whether they are good or bad or indifferent. It is at most a starting point, certainly not an end point. “

He pointed out that the Biden government itself supports tax credits for investments in green energy.

Supporters of more aggressive corporate tax policies pointed to the study’s findings. “This is not rocket science: giant corporations reporting billions in profits shouldn’t be able to pay $ 0 in federal taxes,” Massachusetts Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren said on Twitter.

The Institute for Taxes and Economic Policy has published some form of its report on corporate taxes for decades. During the 2020 presidential campaign, the focus was on the results, with Democratic candidates arguing that tax legislation was deeply flawed.

Tax avoidance strategies include a mix of old standards and new innovations. For example, companies have saved billions by allowing top managers to buy discounted stock options in the future and then deduct their value as a loss.

The Biden government announced this week that it intended to raise the corporate tax rate to 28 percent and set some sort of minimum tax that would cap the number of zero payers. The White House estimated the revisions would raise $ 2 trillion over 15 years, which will be used to fund the president’s ambitious infrastructure plan.

Proponents say the rewriting would not only generate revenue, it would also help make tax laws fairer and that individuals and businesses at the top of the income ladder would have to pay more. However, Republicans have signaled that the tax hikes in the Biden proposal – Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, the “massive” minority leader – will preclude support from both parties.

Regarding the proposed changes, Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at the Tax Institute said, “If I were to make a list of the things that corporate tax reform is supposed to do, this draft will address all of those issues.”

Deductions and exemptions wouldn’t go away, but other changes like the minimum tax would reduce their value, he said.

Categories
Health

New Zealand Approves Paid Depart After Miscarriage

New Zealand Approves Paid Leave After Miscarriage

AUCKLAND, New Zealand – New Zealand’s parliament unanimously passed a law on Wednesday granting three days of paid leave to couples who suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth, making the country the vanguard of those performing such services.

Ginny Andersen, the Labor MP who drafted the bill, said she could not find legislation like it anywhere in the world. “We may be the first country,” she said, “but all of the countries where New Zealand is usually compared to legislation for the 20 week mark.”

Employers in New Zealand, as in some other countries, were already required to grant paid leave in the event of a stillbirth if a fetus is lost after a pregnancy of 20 weeks or more. The new legislation will expand this possibility to anyone who loses a pregnancy at any time, removing any confusion. The measure is expected to take effect in the coming weeks.

“I felt that it would give women the confidence to apply for this vacation when they need to, rather than just being stoic and getting on with life when they knew they needed time, physically or mentally, to read about it to get over grief, ”said Ms. Andersen.

The new law does not apply to those who terminate pregnancies, Ms. Andersen added. New Zealand decriminalized abortion last year, ending the country’s status as one of the few wealthy nations to limit reasons for terminating a pregnancy in the first half.

In Australia, people who have a miscarriage are entitled to unpaid leave if they lose a fetus after 12 weeks, while in the UK prospective parents who have a stillbirth after 24 weeks are entitled to paid leave. The United States does not require employers to take vacation leave for anyone who experiences a miscarriage.

According to the Mayo Clinic, up to 20 percent of all known pregnancies in the United States result in a miscarriage. In New Zealand, which has a population of five million, the Department of Health estimates that one to two pregnancies in ten will result in a miscarriage.

Sands New Zealand charity, which supports parents who have lost pregnancies, says 5,900 to 11,800 miscarriages or stillbirths occur each year. According to the New Zealand College of Midwives, more than 95 percent of miscarriages occur in the first 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

A miscarriage or stillbirth remains a difficult and painful topic that health lawyers say is difficult to talk about in public or seek support.

“If you call the hospital and say,” I think I miscarried my baby, “so many women will say,” I felt like the first person in the world to miscarry, “said Vicki Culling. an educator on baby loss who advocated better support for the bereaved in New Zealand.

“The very foundations of your world are crumbling just because you expect to have this beautiful baby, and when that baby dies, whether in the womb or shortly after birth, everything is broken.”

Ms. Culling welcomed New Zealand legislation as a first step, but said more needed to be done.

“You get three days of paid vacation, maybe you bury your baby or you have a job, and then you go back to work and carry on – and then what? That’s my concern, ”she said.

“I celebrate, but I want us to maintain that compassion and delve deeper into the needs of these parents.”