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M O N D AY, J U N E 19- J U N E 25, 2023
V I S I T R I V E R S I D E I N D E P E N D E N T. C O M
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V O L U M E 9,
Bill to give jobless benefits to noncitizens prompts debate over cost, equity By Paul J. Young, City News Service
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bill seeking to provide unemployment benefits to noncitizens in California will ensure that “excluded workers” have access to compensation to which they’re entitled, according to a Riverside County lawmaker, while an opponent of the measure counters it will expand the state’s “failing unemployment insurance program” when there’s no money for it. Senate Bill 227, the Excluded Workers Program, was ratified by the state Senate at the end of May and is now under consideration by the Assembly Committee on Insurance. Sen. Maria Durazo, D-Los Angeles, authored the bill, saying “California’s economy suffers by excluding undocu-
California Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia. | Photo courtesy of Eduardo Garcia for State Assembly/Facebook
mented workers from the (unemployment insurance) program.”
“Immigrant workers make up a significant percentage of workers in
many of the industries that experienced the highest rates of joblessness and low
wages predating COVID19,” Durazo wrote. “Without the support of essential
safety net programs, like unemployment insurance, many immigrant families are forced to exhaust their savings ... and compromise their health and safety to afford basic necessities.” Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, is among the chief backers of SB 227. “Access to unemployment benefits can make all the difference in a family affording rent and food to feed their children,” Garcia told City News Service. “Our immigrant communities are Californians, who contribute millions to our unemployment program and economy.” See Jobless benefits Page 28
Trapped under trucks By A.C. Thompson, ProPublica and FRONTLINE, Kartikay Mehrotra, ProPublica, and Julia Ingram, FRONTLINE This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Series: America’s Dangerous Trucks nside the Battle to Prevent Deadly Crashes It was a little after 7 p.m. and Ricardo Marcos was rolling through the darkness in his gray Hyundai Elantra.
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Marcos had spent a long day toiling as mechanic at a trucking company in McAllen, Texas, a sunbaked city nestled right on the U.S.-Mexico border. Now he was headed home on U.S. Route 281, a long swath
of asphalt that runs parallel to the Rio Grande in this part of Texas. His wife, Irma Orive, was waiting for him. But Marcos, 61, never made it. Big commercial trucks are ubiquitous in this part of the world, an endless stream of massive diesel-powered vehicles ferrying goods across the border, and on his drive
home, Marcos encountered a large truck pulling a 53-foot trailer. The truck edged out of a driveway and began, slowly, to turn left onto the road, blocking traffic in both directions. It was as if someone had erected a big steel wall. Video shows what happened next on that night in 2017. Traveling at more than 40 mph, Marcos’s
Hyundai slammed violently into the larger vehicle and became wedged beneath it. The impact ripped the top half of the car apart. Marcos did not survive. The collision did terrible things to his body, breaking his ribs, lacerating his liver and spleen, snapping his neck and damaging the frontal lobes of his brain, according to
the medical examiner’s report. An investigator with the local police department blamed the collision on the truck driver, who was initially charged with negligent homicide, though charges were eventually dropped. ProPublica and FRONTLINE See Trapped Page 14
Riverside receives $2.44M in state funds for affordable housing
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iverside has been awarded $2.44 million in state funds to help finance two affordable housing projects that will create an additional 232 affordable housing units, the city announced Wednesday.
By Staff The award, one of 18 Prohousing Incentive Pilot Program grants made around the state, comes two months after the city was recognized as “prohousing” by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The designation made Riverside eligible
for such state funding for programs designed to speed the process of building housing. More information about that can be found at https:// riversideca.gov/press/ city-riverside-designated-
“prohousing”-state-eligiblefunds. “Our City has made housing a priority, and that commitment has resulted in the award of these coveted state dollars,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said in a state-
ment. “We look forward to putting these funds to work in Riverside creating housing opportunities for our residents.” The money will help cover the costs of two real estate development projects:
Mulberry Garden Apartments, at Mulberry and Holding streets in downtown Riverside; and Sunrise at Bogart, located at Bushnell and Bogart See Affordable housing Page 28