Displaying items by tag: pandemic

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing up to $200 million to provide relief to timber harvesting and timber hauling businesses that have experienced losses due to COVID-19 as part of USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative. Loggers and truckers can apply for assistance through USDA’s Farm Service Agency July 22 through Oct. 15, 2021. The Pandemic Assistance for Timber Harvesters and Haulers program is administered by FSA in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service.

We are quickly getting past the midpoint of summer. Schools will re-open in just five or six weeks. It’s time to take the masks off our kids. With mitigation measures, COVID is not much of a risk them and they are not a risk to us. There is little scientific reason to have masks in schools, especially among vaccinated kids, and certainly no scientific reason to keep them closed. 

WASHINGTON — Livestock and poultry producers who suffered losses during the pandemic due to insufficient access to processing can apply for assistance for those losses and the cost of depopulation and disposal of the animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack announced the Pandemic Livestock Indemnity Program in [recorded] remarks at the National Pork Industry Conference in Wisconsin Dells, WI. The announcement is part of USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative. Livestock and poultry producers can apply for assistance through USDA’s Farm Service Agency July 20 through Sept. 17, 2021. 

RALEIGH — Erik Hooks has announced his retirement from Gov. Roy Cooper's Cabinet, ending a long career in state public safety.

The worst part of COVID may be behind us, but that doesn’t mean we’re driving off into the sunset — at least not without a lot of baggage.

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service (Tuesday) began its “Dirty Dozen” list for 2021 with a warning for taxpayers, tax professionals and financial institutions to be on the lookout for these 12 nefarious schemes and scams. 

HAMLET — Richmond County Schools held a Strategic Planning Meeting Thursday at the Cole Auditorium  with a group of district administrators, board members, principals, school staff, parents and community members.  

In the name of safety and at times part political theater, North Carolinians spent over a year following stringent emergency orders because of the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses shuttered, citizens lost their livelihood, millions eschewed social events or celebrations of any kind. Many young people are still hampered by mask mandates in schools. A silver lining amidst all that sacrifice, North Carolina is uniquely positioned coming out of this pandemic to offer state income tax cuts. Lawmakers must make it happen for myriad reasons.

If more people are getting vaccinated because of the governor’s handouts and giveaways, I sure can’t tell.

ROCKINGHAM — The sign on the door reads “Opening Soon!”