Thousands of Mainers told to repay pandemic-related jobless benefits

March 27, 2022 National, New England

Joseph Parker collected jobless benefits in 2020 as society grappled with an unprecedented public health emergency and economic disaster. Parker, a then-sidelined contract worker on a lobster boat, gratefully received benefits through an emergency federal program for workers who didn’t qualify for state unemployment insurance. The checks continued for about six months before Parker was able to return to work, and he said he hasn’t filed a claim since. Then he was caught up in the state’s attempt to recoup $46 million from 11,000 Mainers it says were overpaid federal unemployment benefits distributed during the pandemic. >click to read< 08:42

contract worker on a lobster boat, during the pandemic, emergency federal program, funded by Congress, maine, Maine Department of Labor, overpayment notice, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, received benefits, sternman Joseph Parker

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The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

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