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Delays in COVID-19 relief funds threaten upgrades to tribal health care
Part of the federal funding sent to Native American tribes for COVID-19 relief could be used to build long-sought health infrastructure, though conditions placed on the federal aid and delays in its arrival threaten tribes’ ability to capitalize on it. The $2.2 trillion CARES Act Congress passed in March included $8 billion directly for tribes […]
From call center workers to national guard, states recruit contact tracers
As states seek to loosen wide-ranging restrictions imposed to constrain the novel coronavirus, they’re also looking to deploy a huge new fleet of workers to keep cases under control. Enter the contact tracers. With interpersonal contact certain to increase as states lift COVID-19 restrictions, tracing the who infected people had contact with — and then […]
Can lessons from the Great Recession help states avoid budget disasters?
As they face massive budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 pandemic, states are looking for federal money to help stave off the kind of drastic cuts they enacted during the last economic downturn. State budget officers and economists generally agree that cuts to state spending worsened the Great Recession in the years following 2008. Layoffs, […]
Pandemic fuels state feuds over gun rights
COVID-19 has ignited the debate over gun rights as states grapple with whether to allow gun sales while other retailers are forced to shutter. Stores selling guns and ammunition remain legally open in 45 states that include sellers and manufacturers as essential services that are exempted from orders shutting down most commercial activity or have […]