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How Germany Saved Its Workforce From Unemployment While Spending Less Per Person Than the U.S.

Alec MacGillis

June 03, 2020 |

ProPublica |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Germany

Germany's creative workshare approach to stemming unemployment has prevented mass layoffs, unlike rising numbers in the United States. The German government provides payroll subsidies which allow an employer to keep on its staff by cutting back hours for everyone. Unemployment funds that would usually go to those who are laid off are instead directed to employers' payrolls, preventing the inconvenience and uncertainty of layoffs and allowing workers to seamlessly return to work full time when the health crisis is under control.

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Is Germany Doing Enough to Ensure Small Businesses survive the Coronavirus crisis?

Rachel Loxton

June 02, 2020 |

The Local |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Germany

The German government has spent billions to keep small businesses and freelancers afloat during the pandemic. Entrepreneurs who qualified were sent funds, often within 2 business days, specifically for business-operating costs such as commercial rent. Some businesses are hoping for more support in the form of rent freezes depending on how long the lockdown continues while others lost out on funding by waiting too long. The program ran out of money but the government has announced additional aid packages.

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Could paying farmers to store carbon help the climate and save farms?

Maddie Oatman

June 01, 2020 |

Mother Jones |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Indigo Agriculture, an ag-tech startup, is looking to pay farmers to draw carbon dioxide from the air and store it in the ground, which could help mitigate the effects of climate change and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Other companies that want to offset their own emissions can purchase credits on a carbon exchange. While the market hasn’t opened yet and some experts are skeptical about how much carbon the soil will absorb, Indigo Agriculture has signed up more than 5,000 farmers representing 19.8 million acres of land.

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'Stopgap' or life saver?: Italy's scheme to help the self-employed survive the coronavirus crisis

Clare Speak

May 30, 2020 |

The Local |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Italy

The Italian government's attempt to assuage the financial fallout of the pandemic on small businesses, freelance workers, and the self-employed did not achieve the desired results despite the enormous size of the aid package: 25 billion euros. Delays, technical glitches, and language barriers for international workers have plagued the application process from the day it was launched and over half a million applications have yet to be processed. Italians also criticized the 600-euro amount which is the average rent in the country, often higher in some areas. The government has announced additional aid.

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Pakistan's solution to the locust invasion? Turn the pests into chicken feed

Rina Saeed Khan

May 28, 2020 |

Scroll.In |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Pakistan, Depalpur, Punjab

As locust swarms threaten crops in Pakistan, a pilot program offers farmers a way to get rid of the pests without using insecticides that harm the environment, while also earning money. Once farmers trap the locusts at night, the creatures are turned into high-protein chicken feed for animal feed mills. During the pilot project, farmers netted up to $125 for one night’s work and the community hauled an average of seven tonnes a night. While harvesting locusts works for some farming areas, it might not be as easy for farmers in desert areas who have to rely on chemical sprays offered by the government.

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How Big Tech is Reshaping the Power Grid

Jake Bullinger

May 22, 2020 |

Bitterroot |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Lunas, New Mexico

As part of a deal with Facebook to build a data center in New Mexico, an electric utility is investing in renewable energy to power the center. Through power purchase agreements, which are contracts to buy renewable energy, the social media company is accelerating the state’s transition away from fossil fuels. These contracts often come with large tax breaks for companies, but Facebook will help finance $800 million worth of wind and solar installations that can generate 396 megawatts of power. These agreements can also be implemented in other states who are hardest-hit by the decline of coal consumption.

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Coronavirus crisis in France: The battle to save the livelihoods of the self-employed

Ingri Bergo

May 22, 2020 |

The Local |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: France

The French government has spent billions to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus lockdown in hopes that the stopgap funding will ensure a quick economic recovery once the health crisis abates. The funding has been on a national and regional level, with extra funding for those who have been rejected for bank loans and are suffering the most. Small businesses are also exempt from rent, gas, or electricity payments until the country reopens. The distribution of funding has come with its challenges as some business fall through the bureaucratic cracks.

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This Nonprofit Helps Small Business Aid Go Where it Usually Doesn't

Oscar Perry Abello

May 21, 2020 |

Next City |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Minneapolis, Minnesota

An American nonprofit called the Community Reinvestment Fund expands access to small business loans by partnering with almost two dozen groups across the country to set up and scale up their community development lending. Founded in 1988, the group essentially takes on the risk of a SBA license so that others could benefit from their license. They created an online platform called Spark that redesigned the user interface of the existing loan processor platform to better facilitate the exchange of money. They have now supported loans for 1,000 communities across 49 states.

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How Louisiana cities are using the CARES Act to save small businesses, keep people in homes

Christiaan Mader

May 19, 2020 |

The Current (Louisiana) |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Louisiana

The Cares Act is a federal program providing $46.6 million dollars of emergency aid which cities in Louisiana are spending on a combination of a mortgage and rent relief or on the needs of small businesses. For most cities throughout the state, the first priority is keeping residents in their homes as the stay on evictions approaches, at which point landlords will expect rent as well as backpay. Louisiana faces the triple threat of a pandemic, the economic fallout from it, and a series of tornados. Keeping people in their homes has been the foremost priority to stop the spread of the virus.

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Formerly Incarcerated Women Launch Worker-Owned Food Business During COVID-19

Oscar Perry Abello

May 14, 2020 |

Next City |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

ChiFresh Kitchen is a worker-owned cooperative that gives formerly incarcerated people an income, and a second chance, under a corporate structure that attacks high unemployment from the ground up. Formed as a catering business on Chicago's West Side just as the pandemic shutdown began, ChiFresh shifted its intended clientele from nursing homes and schools to food-relief programs distributing free meals. The co-op, initially formed by mostly black women with hopes of scaling up to about 100 worker-owners, echoes the sorts of enterprises formed in response to Jim Crow restrictions of the past.

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