Opinion: Commentary: Hazard Pay in Honor of Frontline Workers in Fairfax County
We are putting our lives on the line; Hazard pay honors our sacrifices.
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Loan Sharks in the Water
Lawmakers crack down on predatory lending, although reform won’t happen for eight months.
The LoanMax on Mount Vernon Avenue in Arlandria is open for business during the pandemic, and colorful signs in the windows announce in English and Spanish that the car-title lender remains open during a stay-at-home order — offering loans at 200 percent annual interest during a time when unemployment claims in Alexandria are skyrocketing. Those kinds of interest rates will be illegal under the Fairness in Lending Act, which Gov. Ralph Northam signed last week after lawmakers signed off on some last-minute changes. But the ban on such high-interest lending won’t take effect until New Years Day 2021, which means high-interest lenders have eight months to engage in an unprecedented lending spree during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
This Week in Fairfax County in Coronavirus
U.S. has 973,000 Covid-19 Cases as of Monday, with over 50,000 deaths, while here at home we cope with business task forces, food shortages, medicaid expansion, expired licenses and more.
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Mounting Layoffs
Businesses notify state officials of 5,000 layoffs in Northern Virginia.
Businesses across Northern Virginia are flooding the Virginia Economic Commission with thousands of layoff notifications, an indication of how deep the region’s economic uncertainty is becoming as the COVID-19 crisis continues its devastating path. Since the beginning of March, the commission has received notification of about 5,000 layoffs in Northern Virginia. That’s more layoffs in one part of the state than all the other regions in Virginia combined.
Covering Fairfax County Concerns
Twitter Q & A with Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.
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