The Families First Coronavirus Response Act requires certain employers to provide their employees with paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19. The Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division administers and enforces the new law’s paid leave requirements. These provisions will apply from the effective date through December …
COVID-19: Invisible Frontline
We are now over a month into the COVID crisis. While the disease is new and hard to deal with, what is not new is the social inequities that have only grown during this crisis. This disease has really highlighted the horrific ways in which our country has treated low wage workers, gig workers, and …
COVID-19: MA Eviction and Mortgage Relief Update
Massachusetts is one step (or, well, one signature) away from providing massive relief to commercial and residential tenants. Since our last update, the Massachusetts senate and the house have passed different versions and those versions went into conferencing. The House has released the compromise bill H.4647 which many expect to be signed by the Governor. …
COVID-19: Presentation on Adaptations, Relief Programs, and Resources for Small and Medium Businesses, Nonprofits, and Freelancers
Jason and Francisca presented to the Boulder County Bar Association on COVID-19 Programs and Resources for Small and Medium Businesses, Nonprofits, and Freelancers. In this presentation, they discussed the most important relief granted to small-and medium-sized businesses, nonprofits, and freelancers by the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the Families First Coronavirus …
COVID-19: Summary of Relief from Massachusetts State House of Representatives
On April 2, 2020, the Massachusetts state House of Representatives passed the “Act Providing for a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during the COVID-19 Emergency.” The Massachusetts Senate still needs to pass a version and the two versions will need to be conferenced. The House bill does the following things: Prohibits landlords of residential and …
COVID-19: Paycheck Protection Program Loan
Last updated: August 13, 2020. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (also known as the “CARES Act”) was enacted on March 27, 2020. A key program, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), is a loan designed to enable small and medium-sized businesses to keep workers paid and employed. The Department of Treasury and the …
COVID-19: Collectivism in the Face of Crisis
I won’t soon forget the events of the past week. I watched the world around me completely change in the span of four days as the novel corona virus took hold in the U.S. We are now on track to follow the same path as Italy and it’s hard to grasp and process how much …
Cuba and Cooperatives (Part 4): Reflections
My time in Cuba is now close to a month in the rear-view, and yet the full sensory experience has stuck with me longer than any other trip. I have a few ideas why. Nonetheless, these blog posts are as much to help keep the feeling alive as to honor the profundity of the experience …
Cuba and Cooperatives (Part 3): Social, Economic, Racial, Gender and Sexual Justice Through Constitutional Reform
Information derives from a lecture by Cuban Criminal Justice and Cooperative Attorney Oldalys Perex Martinez, on January 15, 2020 We’re mainly taught in the U.S. that Cuba is “ruled” by a militaristic, one-party, authoritarian regime (e.g. links intentionally omitted). The on-the-ground perspective in Cuba is quite different; so too are the facts. Cuba’s people democratically …
Cuba and Cooperatives (Part 2): Cooperatives in Cuba, a Love Story (of sorts)
Much of the primary information comes from a lecture by Dr. Jesus Cruz Reyes, on January 13, 2020 in Havana, Cuba. Dr. Cruz Reyes is Cuba’s foremost cooperative economist and is on the faculty of economics at the University of Havana. The Cuban “State Enterprise” is undoubtedly the single largest economic consumer and producer in …
