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The demand for mail-in ballots is surging. Election workers need training. And polling booths might have to be outfitted with protective shields during the COVID-19 pandemic.As officials prepare for the Nov. 3 election, one certainty is clear: It’s coming with a big price tag.“Election officials don’t have nearly the resources to make the preparations and changes they need to make to run an election in a pandemic,” said Wendy Weiser, head of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “We are seeing this all over the place.”The pandemic has sent state and local officials scrambling to prepare for an election like few others, an extraordinary endeavor during a presidential contest, as virus cases continue to rise across much of the U.S.COVID-related worries are bringing demands for steps to make sure elections that are just four months away are safe. But long-promised federal aid to help cash-starved states cope is stalled on Capitol Hill.The money would help pay for transforming the age-old voting process into a pandemic-ready system. Central to that is the costs for printing mail-in ballots and postage. There are also costs to ensure in-person voting is safe with personal protective equipment, or PPE, for poll workers, who tend to be older and more at risk of getting sick from the virus, and training for new workers. Pricey machines are needed to quickly count the vote.Complicating matters is President Donald Trump’s aversion to mail-in balloting. With worrisome regularity, he derides the process as rigged, even though there’s no evidence of fraud and his own reelection team is adapting to the new reality of widespread mail-in voting.“As cases of coronavirus in this country rise, it’s vital that all voters be able to cast their ballots from home, to cast their ballots by mail,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.A huge COVID response bill passed by the House in May contains a whopping .6 billion to help states with their elections, but the Senate won’t turn to the measure until late July. Republicans fought a 0 million installment of election aid this March before agreeing to it.But key Senate Republicans seem likely to support more election funding, despite Trump’s opposition, and are even offering to lower a requirement that states put up “matching” funds to qualify for the federal cash.“I’m prepared not only to look at more money for the states to use as they see fit for elections this year, but also to even consider whatever kind of matching requirement we have,” said Roy Blunt, R-Mo., chairman of the Senate panel with responsibility for the issue. “We can continue to work toward an election that produces a result that people have confidence in and done in a way that everybody that wants to vote, gets to vote.”The pandemic erupted this spring in the middle of state primaries, forcing many officials to delay their elections by days, weeks and even months. They had to deal with a wave of poll worker cancellations, polling place changes and an explosion of absentee ballots.Voting rights groups are particularly concerned with the consolidations of polling places that contributed to long lines in Milwaukee, Atlanta and Las Vegas. They fear a repeat in November.As negotiations on the next COVID relief bill begin on Capitol Hill, the final figure for elections is sure to end up much less than the .6 billion envisioned by the House. That figure followed the recommendations of the Brennan Center to prepare for an influx of absentee ballots while providing more early voting options and protecting neighborhood polling places.Even before the pandemic, election offices typically work under tight budgets. Iowa Secretary of State Paul D. Pate, who serves as president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, said the group has been calling on the federal government to provide a steady source of funds, particularly to help address ongoing costs of protecting the nation’s election systems from cyberthreats.For Georgia’s primary last month, election officials spent .1 million of the roughly .9 million the state has received in federal funds. The money was used to send absentee ballot applications to 6.9 million active registered voters and print absentee ballots for county election offices. Some of it also was used to purchase PPE and secure drop-off boxes for counties.Meanwhile, the state elections division has seen a ,000 reduction for the current budget year as Georgia — like the rest of the nation — deals with a decline in revenues due to the pandemic.The state’s remaining federal funds will be used to help cover the costs of developing an online system for voters to request absentee ballots, a less expensive option than sending ballot applications to every voter, and exploring whether installing plexiglass dividers around voting machines could allow more voters in a polling place at one time.In Colorado, which is already a universal vote-by-mail state, the Denver election office has had to reduce its budget by 7.5%, which amounts to nearly 0,000. Jocelyn Bucaro, Denver’s elections director, said the federal funds sent earlier this year helped with purchasing PPE and other pandemic-related supplies.Iowa similarly spent its federal dollars on mail-in ballots and pandemic supplies, Pate said.Vote-by-mail veterans and vendors of the equipment, software, ballots and envelopes that will be needed in November say the window to buy them is quickly closing.“Right now, what I’m seeing in most places is just this kind of indecision. What are we supposed to be planning? Vote by mail or in-person or combination?” said Jeff Ellington, president of Runbeck Election Services, which prints ballots and the special envelopes used to mail them and also supplies high-volume envelope sorters.“Decisions just need to be made so people can start to put a plan into place,” he said.BlueCrest, a Pitney Bowes spinoff, sells high-volume sorting machines that handle up to 50,000 ballot envelopes per hour. That’s the kind of crunch big counties can expect to face on Nov. 3 in states including Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Rick Becerra, a vice president at the company, said he’s been talking to officials. The machines average 5,000 each.“I tell them the time is now,” he said.___Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Frank Bajak in Boston contributed to this report. 6414

The coronavirus pandemic and the renewed focus on systemic economic inequality in our country are bringing new attention and support to community-based nonprofit lenders.Community development financial institutions, or CDFIs, focus on rural, low-income and minority communities.Around 300 CDFIs made more than billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans to help small businesses, many of which had been left out previously.By comparison, JPMorgan Chase, which is nine times the size of the entire CDFI industry, made only four times the amount of PPP loans.“Many CDFIs we are in many ways like small businesses, we didn't come into this situation strong in terms of our capital,” said Luz Urrutia, CEO of Opportunity Fund. “Now more than ever, during the rebuilding, we've got to have the balance sheet strength because we are supporting these low-income communities, small businesses and communities of color.”Opportunity Fund is one of those CDFIs. It's been raising millions of dollars since March, specifically to help minority, immigrant and women-owned businesses.Serena Williams and MacKenzie Scott have both donated recently. But there are questions about how long all the support these nonprofit lenders have been getting will last.“What I would say for the minority-owned businesses right now, timing is perfect and when timing is perfect, you need to strike while the iron is hot,” said Maurice Brewster, CEO of Mosaic Global Transportation. “And right now, there's a lot of support, a lot of ground swelling with dealing with small and minority-owned businesses.”Maurice Brewster’s business received loan payment deferral from Opportunity Fund during the pandemic. His advice for other minority-owned businesses: if you can, have a relationship with a lender way before you need the money.He says education is also going to be key for minority-owned businesses going forward.That financial coaching is something opportunity fund is pushing for too, along with more money from congress to support CDFIs. 2026

The drop in gun sales has lead to deep job cuts at Sturm RugerOn Wednesday, the company reported a 21% sales decline for 2017. Thursday it disclosed that it has cut 700 jobs, or more than a quarter of its staff, over the last 13 months. That leaves it with 1,750 workers."When we reduced production in 2017, we had to make some difficult decisions," said CEO Chris Killoy, on a call with analysts Thursday. Many of the jobs were eliminated through attrition. The company also had 320 temporary employees a year ago who have since left the company. In January, the company needed to further reduce staff, prompting it to lay off an additional 60 workers.Gun sales have been sharply lower across the industry since President Donald Trump was elected. Fears that Hillary Clinton would win the presidency and seek tougher gun control laws drove record sales through 2016, and encouraged retailers to stock up on inventory. With the election of Trump and Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, those fears greatly abated.Killoy said that 2017 FBI background checks, which correspond roughly to purchases, fell 11%. Retailers also cut back on purchases to reduce inventory."2017 was a challenging year for the firearm industry," Killoy. But he said as a result of the job cuts, "we're better positioned to compete in 2018."There has been more talk about gun control in the week since the shooting of 17 students and staff at a Florida high school, led by many of the students and families from that school.President Trump and some Republicans, including Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, have voiced new support for some gun control measures. But it's too soon to say whether those efforts will affect gun sales.Killoy did not mention the gun control debate during his conference call, although he did express sympathy for victims of the Florida shooting."Like all Americans, we struggle with the shock and sadness of these terrible events," he said.Sturm Ruger is not the only company to report a drop in sales. Overall the industry has reported a sales decline of more than 0 million in 2017.Gun maker Remington has warned it plans to file for bankruptcy protection soon. Killoy was asked about whether Sturm Ruger would be interested in buying Remington, given that it has a strong balance sheet. Ruger's cash on hand fell by nearly million during the year, but it still has .5 million and no debt. He wouldn't rule out a deal for Remington, but wouldn't comment on it directly."We're watching that closely," he said the coming bankruptcy case. "We wish them well going through that process. With million cash on hand, it may provide some opportunities down the road." 2727

The COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. surpassed 300,000 people Monday afternoon, according to a database kept by Johns Hopkins University. Earlier in the day, the country also surpassed 16 million confirmed cases of coronavirus.The U.S. continues to vastly outpace the rest of the world in terms of caseload and deaths linked to COVID-19.The U.S. recorded its 16 millionth COVID-19 case over the weekend, meaning more than 1 million people are confirmed to have contracted the virus since Tuesday. According to the COVID Tracking Project, the U.S. is currently averaging more than 211,000 new cases of the virus every day — or more than a million cases every five days. Seven million Americans have contracted COVID-19 since Oct. 30 — representing 45% of all cases that have been recorded in the country since the virus arrived in January.In recent days, the U.S. has been averaging more than 3,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 a day — a figure that represents more lives lost than in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The U.S. reached the grim milestone of 300,000 deaths the same day it began distributing Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. Health officials hope that inoculating higher-risk individuals first will cause death totals to drop in the coming weeks.However, health officials warn that things will likely get much worse in the weeks to come. The U.S. is just now seeing the expected spike in cases brought on by travel from Thanksgiving, and more deaths are sure to follow.Hospitalizations are also expected to rise, even at a time when a record 110,000 people are battling the virus in a hospital. Some hospitals may struggle to treat an influx of patients when they are already at capacity. 1712

The coronavirus pandemic, and the resulting lockdowns, travel restrictions and business closures, have caused many people to adjust their living situation either temporarily or permanently. As a result, the number of young adults, those ages 18-to-29, who live with their parents is at an all-time high.The Pew Research Center reports 52 percent of young adults lived with one or both of their parents in July. That translates to about 26,6 million young adults living with parents. The percentage of young adults living with their parents was 47 percent in February, and for most of 2019. The new data was released Friday.The research firm compared the data to available census data, and found the census of 1940, taken toward the end of the Great Depression, reported 48 percent of young adults lived with their parents."The peak may have been higher during the worst of the Great Depression in the 1930s, but there is no data for that period,” researchers stated.The percentage of young adults living with their parents has been above 50 percent since April, slowly climbing. This is the first time the percentage has been above 50 since data became available in 1976.Earlier research from the group found one-in-ten young adults reported relocating temporarily or permanently because of the coronavirus pandemic. More than any other age group.The 18-to-29 age group was hit hard with pandemic-related job losses, service-sector job furloughs and college campus shutdowns. The younger half of this demo saw the biggest increase in moving back in with parents; 71 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds now live with their parents.These new living arrangements, where adult children are living with their parents, could have a trickle down effect on the US economy. Pew Research Center suggests the results of the majority of young adults moving in with parents could lead to a slowdown in demand for housing and household goods.“There also may be a decline in the number of renters and homeowners, and in overall housing activity,” they stated.The overwhelming majority of young adults who live with their parents live in their parents’ home, roughly 88 percent. The remaining either had their parents move in with them or the head of the household is another family member. 2276