Federal jobless payments extended
Some recipients may get six more weeks
As Nevada awaits approval for the federal $300-a-week unemployment benefit application, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday it will double the three weeks of pay initially guaranteed to jobless Americans.
FEMA said it will provide payments “for a full six weeks,” based on U.S. Department of Labor projections and current state spending rates.
Under the Lost Wages Assistance program made available by President Donald Trump’s Aug. 8 executive action, states were initially allowed three weeks’ worth of benefits upon approval retroactive to Aug. 1.
“Regardless of where the states and territories are in their process to receive and distribute the FEMA funding, FEMA will fund six weeks in $300 supplemental unemployment benefits to every state and territory that has applied for this assistance by September 10,” a FEMA spokesperson said Thursday in a statement to the Review-journal.
Nevada, which is awaiting approval for the LWA program by FEMA, was the last state to apply for the firstcome, first-served program.
Spokespeople for Nevada’s employment agency and Gov. Steve Sisolak did not immediately respond to a request for comment on FEMA’S decision.
More than 221,000 unemployed Nevadans continue to file weekly for jobless benefits as of Aug. 29, according to the Nevada Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation’s latest figures. Over 104,000 self-employed
Butler and her husband, who called their son to say they were going to try to escape the flames by finding shelter in a pond.
More bodies could be found as crews manage to make their way into devastated areas. A team of anthropologists from Chico State University were helping in the search, sheriff’s Capt. Derek Bell said.
The weeks-old fire was about 50 percent contained when winds thrashed it into explosive growth on Tuesday, driving it through rugged Sierra Nevada foothills and destroying much of the town of Berry Creek.
More than 2,000 homes and other buildings had burned in the lightning-sparked collection of fires now known as the North Complex burning about 125 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Forecasters said there was some good news on the weather front: winds were expected to remain lighter this week in the fire area, while dense smoke actually knocked down the temperature slightly and was expected to keep the humidity somewhat higher.
The fire is among five this year that have set records for the most land ever burned, including a blaze that broke the mark Thursday as the largest ever.
Hundreds of campers, hikers, and people spending Labor Day weekend at mountainside reservoirs and retreats had to be evacuated by military helicopter when they got stranded by a fast-moving fire that broke out in the Sierra National Forest in the center of the state during record-setting high temperatures.
President Donald Trump spoke with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday “to express his condolences for the loss of life and reiterate the administration’s full support to help those on the front lines of the fires,” according to White House spokesman Judd Deere.
Some 14,000 firefighters continued to try to corral 29 major wildfires from the Oregon border to just north of Mexico, though California was almost entirely free of critical fire weather warnings after days of hot, dry conditions and the threat of strong winds.
Numerous fires continued to burn in Washington and Oregon, and dense smoke blanketed much of the West Coast on Thursday morning, darkening skies with hazardous air pollution.