People across Texas are struggling to navigate a maze-like system to get unemployment benefits. Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas was opting out of some federal assistance programs, which ended June 26. Here are the answers to the most common questions about getting benefits from the Texas Workforce Commission.
Sally Beauvais
Sally Beauvais was an engagement reporter with the ProPublica-Texas Tribune investigative unit. Previously, she worked at Marfa Public Radio in various capacities since 2014. As the station’s engagement reporter, she launched West Texas Wonders, its first ongoing engagement initiative, and introduced a quarterly town hall series with her community in collaboration with a local newspaper. She also worked for years with Marfa public school students to produce radio stories about their lives and issues that matter to them. Her community-sourced reporting about the lack of health care resources for seniors in Far West Texas won a 2019 National Edward R. Murrow Award, and she was a producer and editor on several episodes of Texas Monthly’s 10-part podcast about the Permian Basin. Before starting her radio career in Texas, Beauvais lived in New Orleans, where she worked with a collaborative community arts group.
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Coronavirus in Texas
Here are the acronyms and terms you need to know to get unemployment benefits in Texas
The state’s unemployment system is confusing and frustrating. Getting familiar with the Texas Workforce Commission’s jargon may help you access assistance.
Posted in
Coronavirus in Texas
Hungry and homeless Texans are waiting anxiously for Congress to act. The day after Christmas, pandemic jobless aid expires.
President Donald Trump has suggested he will veto COVID-19 aid legislation, creating uncertainty about when assistance may reach Americans. Meanwhile, Texans are living in cars and the state is sitting on unspent relief money.
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Coronavirus in Texas
She lost work to the pandemic. Now she helps thousands of jobless Texans maneuver through the state’s unemployment system.
While struggling to figure out the state’s unemployment system, Alia Kirschner found a Facebook group for thousands of jobless Texans. Now she spends hours a day online, helping others with their benefit claims during the COVID-19 recession.
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Health care
A week after hurricane evacuation, nursing home residents with COVID-19 are still waiting to return to East Texas
More than 500 residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other long-term care centers who were evacuated are still waiting to come home, according to the state.
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Energy
This Texas school that inspired “Friday Night Lights” is overcrowded amid oil boom. One class has 63 kids.
Record enrollment is putting a strain on the already low-performing Ector County Independent School District. In Odessa, school administrators and teachers are parents are asking: Where are we going to put all of these kids?