LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday outlined her priorities for spending billions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief aid, saying the focus should be on long-lasting initiatives to help students and small businesses hurt by the pandemic.
Other priorities include upgrading neglected infrastructure, boosting public health funding, and making child care more affordable and accessible.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a bill 92-7 on Thursday to extend the deadline for business owners to apply for forgivable loans through the Paycheck Protection Program, giving applicants two more months to apply for federal aid.
The bill had already passed the House, so it now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. Congress started the loan program last year to help businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — The new head of the Small Business Administration says she expects to make changes at the agency that she says will enable it to further help small companies devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Friday, two days after she was sworn in, Isabella Casillas Guzman said her immediate focus is implementing the small business provisions in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package President Joseph Biden signed into law last week.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — As New Mexico's annual legislative session came to a close Saturday, legislators charted an economic exit from the COVID-19 pandemic and checked off progressive priorities on policing reforms, abortion rights, medical aid in dying and child poverty.
In the final hours of a 60-day session, legislators ramped up state tax breaks for working families — a finishing touch on a broad package of economic relief measures.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation on Wednesday pointed to the estimated $9 billion that New Mexico is expected to receive from the massive federal pandemic relief package as an unprecedented opportunity to lift the state out of poverty.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $7.6 billion coronavirus relief package on Tuesday that will give at least $600 one-time payments to 5.7 million people while setting aside more than $2 billion in grants for struggling small businesses.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced changes Monday to target more federal pandemic assistance to the nation’s smallest businesses and ventures owned by women and people of color.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Millions of low-income Californians would receive $600 checks under a $9.6 billion coronavirus aid package announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders.
The plan announced Wednesday would cut checks to about 5.7 million people who earn less than $30,000 per year, as well as some immigrants living in the country illegally who were excluded from federal COVID-19 relief payments made during the Trump administration.
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona attorney general has ruled that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey did not violate state law when he encouraged small business owners to vote no on a ballot measure calling for a tax surcharge on high-earners to boost education funding.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Senate pressed forward Wednesday with pandemic-related financial relief measures, including minimal-interest loans to small businesses that have been battered by the virus and emergency health restrictions.
The Democrat-led chamber overwhelmingly approved a trio of bills that also would offer tax breaks for restaurants and a temporary waiver on liquor license fees.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Lennise Germany’s personal and professional lives were twisted, tangled and turned upside down in a matter of minutes last year.
Germany was sitting in a hospital room with her husband and their 12-year-old son when she got an email that forced her small catering company to temporarily close its doors because of the coronavirus pandemic. What should have been gut-wrenching news barely caused Germany to flinch because doctors had just diagnosed her son with cancer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration promised Black business executives on Friday that it planned to make sure that the government's economic support programs were able to reach minority-owned businesses.
Scores of Roman Catholic dioceses in the U.S. had more than $10 billion in cash and other readily available funds when they received at least $1.5 billion from the nation’s emergency relief program for small businesses slammed by the coronavirus, an Associated Press investigation has found.
Taxpayer-backed aid from the Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to help recipients that lacked the kind of financial safety net that cash and short-term assets provide.
When the coronavirus forced churches to close their doors and give up Sunday collections, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte turned to the federal government’s signature small business relief program for more than $8 million.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's governor is urging legislators to approve increased spending on public schools, health care and aid to small businesses in her annual State of the State address.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced new details of her economic relief platform Tuesday and touted state achievements in coronavirus testing. She also set a Feb. 8 deadline for allowing school districts to reopen classrooms to students of all ages.
NEW YORK (AP) — For Nancy Sinoway, a second coronavirus relief loan would increase the chances that her dressmaking business will survive.
“I could use it for marketing, for new samples. I could use it as a lifeline,” says Sinoway, who designs and makes dresses for occasions like weddings and proms. She was flooded with order cancellations starting in early March as the virus spread and large gatherings and events were abandoned.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The $900 billion economic relief package that President Donald Trump signed over the weekend will deliver vital aid to millions of struggling households and businesses. Yet his nearly one-week delay in signing the bill means that it will take that much longer for the financial support to arrive.
NEW YORK (AP) — Clay Reynolds is starting to make peace with a gut-wrenching reality: He may have to once again close his business, Arrichion Hot Yoga and Circuit Training.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Companies affiliated with California Gov. Gavin Newsom received nearly $3 million in federal loans created to help small businesses survive the pandemic, more than eight times the amount originally reported, according to newly released information from the U.S. government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is defending his decision to close down a number of emergency Federal Reserve loan programs at a time when coronavirus cases are surging.
Democrats were unconvinced, however, saying that Mnuchin’s actions are politically motivated and intended to remove tools that the Biden administration could use to support the economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Promising news about a coronavirus vaccine has small business owners feeling more upbeat despite cases of the virus surging in many parts of the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin denied on Friday that he is attempting to limit President-elect Joe Biden's options for reviving the pandemic-damaged economy by ending several emergency loan programs being run by the Federal Reserve.
Mnuchin said the programs were not being heavily utilized and Congress can make better use of the money by re-allocating it toward small-business grants and extended unemployment assistance.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President-elect Joe Biden (all times local):
2:45 p.m.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is proposing that Congress funnel $455 billion of unspent small business lending funds toward a new COVID-19 aid package.
NEW YORK (AP) — When Chris Hyland caught the coronavirus, his ordeal went beyond being sick and exhausted — he couldn’t help his business partners manage the virus’s impact on their company just as the outbreak was sweeping across the world.
Hyland and his wife and children became ill in early March. Customers were cutting back orders at his employee management software business, The Happiness Index. Revenue was plunging and the London-based company was forced to furlough 12 of 20 staffers.
NEW YORK (AP) — When asked about Google, Bryan Clayton voices a familiar lament among small business owners.
“You keep getting squeezed further and further down the search results page,” says Clayton, CEO of GreenPal, a company that operates an app to help homeowners find lawn care. “As a startup, you don’t have a million-dollar advertising budget.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — JPMorgan Chase said Thursday it will extend billions in loans to Black and Latino homebuyers and small business owners in an expanded effort toward fixing what the bank calls “systemic racism” in the country’s economic system.
NEW YORK (AP) — There’s little evidence of Americans’ passion for fitness at the tens of thousands of small and independent gyms around the country.
Gyms, health clubs and workout studios began reopening in late spring following government-ordered shutdowns aimed at halting the coronavirus spread. But most are only allowed to have a fraction of their regular clientele onsite at one time. And some clients are staying away for fear of catching the virus.
U.S. restaurants are moving warily into fall, hoping their slow recovery persists despite the new challenge of chilly weather and a pandemic that's expected to claim even more lives.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The modest cash grant Iguehi James received from the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce helped the clothing designer defray costs, including surge prices on elastic and fabric that jumped dramatically due to the pandemic.
The application process was simple and she qualified for a $5,000 “resiliency” grant, despite being a solo practitioner with no employees or storefront.