About 300 companies that received as much as half a billion dollars in pandemic-related government loans have filed for bankruptcy, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of government data and court filings.

Many of the companies, which employ a total of about 23,400 workers, say the funds from the Paycheck Protection Program weren’t enough to keep them going as the coronavirus and lack of additional stimulus payments weighed on their businesses.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that most California counties will soon be in the state's most restrictive COVID-19 tier amid a surge in cases and that the state is considering a curfew.

"California is pulling an emergency brake," he said in announcing that 41 counties, which comprise over 94% of the state's population, will be in the purple tier, effective Tuesday. Last week, 13 counties were in the state's most restrictive tier.

“We are sounding the alarm,” Newsom said in a statement. “California is experiencing the fastest increase in cases we have seen yet -- faster than what we experienced at the outset of the pandemic or even this summer. The spread of COVID-19, if left unchecked, could quickly overwhelm our health care system and lead to catastrophic outcomes."

When counties are in the purple tier, indoor operations for places like museums, houses of worship, gyms and restaurants are not allowed. When counties move into the less restrictive red tier, they can resume indoor operations at several businesses -- but with modifications.

My husband and I (as well as our daughter, “Chloe”) moved to a new state about a year and a half ago. We live in an extremely White suburb that is surrounded by a large, non-White city. We wanted to live in the city, but the crime rate caused us to look elsewhere. As a result, everyone in our neighborhood is White. There are eight other children that live in our neighborhood that are around my daughter’s age (she’s 7). The first few months were great, and she was constantly going over to other kids’ houses to play or inviting them here. She was a little socially behind in our last town, so I was happy she had made friends. But then I started to notice that her friends were terribly racist, and after inviting the kids’ parents over for dinner … the parents are racist too. Not just microaggressions or an off-color joke (which would be bad enough by itself), but just full-on, blatant racism. Even my husband, who is from a small town that still has Klan activity, was shocked and appalled.

I don’t want my daughter spending time with these children. When the pandemic happened, we didn’t have to worry about it too much because no one was seeing anyone. But the neighborhood kids have started spending time together again (at a distance), and my daughter has been asking to go outside and play. The kids have also come and knocked on the door a few times asking for my daughter, but I made up an excuse. On the one hand, I don’t want to deprive my daughter of friends (she goes to an extremely small magnet school and isn’t really fitting in there, not to mention her classmates live 30-plus minutes away). On the other hand, I don’t want her to befriend racists! My daughter recently told me she had been feeling left out. What do I do?

—Not Raising a Racist

I am currently in the very shady shitty midst of a divorce. Our marriage ended for a lot of valid reasons (incompatibility, mutual depressions, denial, etc.) that truly don’t have much to do with the following bit of info. My husband had a very (very!) close friendship with a female mutual friend of ours. They’d been friends since childhood (20+ years) and she subsequently became a really good friend of mine in the 10 years of our relationship. BUT in the last eight months of my marriage they engaged in an “emotional affair.” It was very unsubtly inappropriate and disrespectful. The extent of which I may never fully know because, they, obviously, both turned out to be disappointing, dishonest, and shitty people.

He moved in with her (sorry, “rented a room” from her) six weeks after we decided to end our marriage and now three months later is in a public relationship with her. This has been a fully awful and emotionally devastating experience for me. I’ve been heartbroken, angry, humiliated, stressed the fuck out.

My actual question revolves around how I can express my feelings about this devious gash. My husband will pay (a fucking lot) in our divorce settlement, and he has enough self-awareness to know he is a bad man and a miserable shit. His personal shame kind of settles my animosity towards him.

But her! I am a sex positive person who is pro-sex-work and loudly disparages people who attempt to besmirch strippers, porn actors, or prostitutes. YET, all I want to do is call this dumb bitch a stupid whore. Ditsy hoe. Dirty slizz. Etc.

How can I reconcile my feminism with my need to hate on this horrid bitch? Especially since now that I am single af, I am ‘bout to hit up all the dick?

Signed,

Not So Feminist

A new study indicates a majority of teens have increased their social media use during the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts say you can reduce social media use for teens by not allowing them to use devices in the bedroom or sleep by devices.

At this point in the coronavirus pandemic, there is plenty of evidence that it’s taken a toll on children’s mental health.

Mental health experts who work with kids say that, anecdotally at least, all of this on the rise. So if your child is regressing during the pandemic, they’re in good company. Here’s what parents need to know.

Children (and adults!) go through regressive episodes because they’re feeling anxious, unsure, and because they’re looking for a bit of reassurance and comfort. In some ways, these momentary behavioral regressions are a typical part of childhood development: Kids grow and change, they maybe get a bit rattled, and they retreat for a bit.

Other times, like during an ongoing global pandemic, regressions are a clear response to a particular stressor.

“It’s not limited to early developmental stages,” said Julie Ross, executive director of Parenting Horizons and author of “Practical Parenting for the 21st Century.” “You might have a kid who is 13, 14 coming into mom and dad’s bed every night. They’re returning to an earlier time when they felt safe in the ‘cocoon’ of mom and dad.”

A U.S. District Judge has ruled that a former Disney Streaming Service employee “isn’t a member of a protected class” in a lawsuit claiming the employee was fired after the company possibly found out his wife was pregnant by hacking into his personal emails and phone. Obviously, this is not normal workplace behavior, but apparently does not fall under the umbrella of pregnancy discrimination law.

“‘By way of example, Plaintiff was expecting a child but had not disclosed that information to anyone at the Company’ states the complaint, which was filed in New York federal court. ‘Yet, Mr. McConnell [Soeren’s supervisor], in an unrelated conversation, blurted out to Plaintiff, ‘maybe you shouldn’t have a kid.’ Likewise, Mr. Paglia [a co-worker] sent Plaintiff an unsolicited video of children developing in utero. The same sentiments were harbored by Jennifer Kaufmann, Associate Director of UX & Design, who asked if Plaintiff had a good reason for having a child. Mr. McConnell also stated, within hearing distance of Plaintiff, ‘I don’t know why he [Plaintiff] decided to have a kid. At 30 my wife and I thought about it but decided that we’d wait until 40.’”

In a matter of months, the foster care system found itself drowning in hundreds of new cases. By 2017, the state needed space for 6,000 additional foster children – an influx equivalent to the size of the entire foster population of the state of New Jersey.

But lawmakers, child welfare leaders and Scott did not hire more caseworkers or increase the money paid to foster families to make more homes available. And they failed to tackle the root problems driving most of the removals: lack of access to drug treatment, mental health care and domestic violence services for parents.

Instead, they stood by as foster care agencies packed children into overcrowded homes and sent nearly 200 boys and girls to foster parents previously accused of abusing or neglecting the children in their care, a USA TODAY investigation found.

The 50 richest Americans now hold almost as much wealth as half of the U.S., as Covid-19 transforms the economy in ways that have disproportionately rewarded a small class of billionaires.

New data from the U.S. Federal Reserve, a comprehensive look at U.S. wealth through the first half of 2020, show stark disparities by race, age and class. While the top 1% of Americans have a combined net worth of $34.2 trillion, the poorest 50% — about 165 million people — hold just $2.08 trillion, or 1.9% of all household wealth.

The 50 richest people in the country, meanwhile, are worth almost $2 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, up $339 billion from the beginning of 2020.

Covid-19 has exacerbated inequality in the U.S., with job losses falling heavily on low-wage service workers and the virus disproportionately infecting and killing people of color. Meanwhile, many upper-middle class professionals are working from home, watching their retirement accounts rise in value after the U.S. Treasury and Fed pumped stimulus into the economy and markets.

Hundreds of thousands of people with mental health conditions in 60 countries are still being chained, according to a comprehensive and damning new study.

Human Rights Watch says that men, women and children – some as young as 10 – are regularly shackled or locked in confined spaces for weeks, months, and even years, across Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas.

The report, Living in Chains: Shackling of People with Psychosocial Disabilities Worldwide, examines how people with mental health conditions are often shackled against their will by families in their own homes or in overcrowded and unsanitary institutions because of widespread stigma and a lack of mental health services.

I’m a professional chef, and up until three years ago, I had no idea what barbacoa really meant.

I thought I did. I’d eaten my fair share of “barbacoa” at Chipotle, where its shredded-beef burrito was my splurge order. But on a tour of Xochimilco, a tapestry of canals and artificial islands that was once a major source of local produce for Mexico City, Paco, my tour guide, took me to his favorite barbacoa stall, where we were greeted with three juicy tacos and a bowl of lamb broth to wash it all down. When I mentioned that I’d thought barbacoa was only beef, he gave me a quizzical look: “Oh yeah? Where have you been eating barbacoa?”

As a chef, I was a little embarrassed by my lack of knowledge. But as someone deeply convinced that food is an extension of identity, who has experienced first-hand the harmful impacts of stereotypes seeping into cultural norms and is now actively working toward changing them, I was horrified at how easily I accepted something completely stripped of cultural context sold to me by a chain.

These are stressful times—among the most stressful in history—and people need help. Often, they turn to their employers and specifically their leaders. But they don’t always get what they need. A new global study reports people actually prefer robots to humans for help with mental health issues. So what’s going on, and how can leaders be more empathetic, supportive and preferable to robots?

It’s important to know the issues plaguing employees are significant. In a just-released global study involving more than 12,000 people across 11 countries by Oracle and Workplace Intelligence, 78% of people reported their mental health had been negatively affected during the pandemic. In addition, people said stress, anxiety and depression were reducing their productivity (42%) and increasing poor decision making (40%).

And interestingly, 68% say when they have stress or anxiety at work, if given a choice between a robot or their boss, they would rather talk to a robot than their own manager. While the results may not indicate our future managers will all be robots, they do illustrate important ways leaders can improve and support their employees.

For many working mothers, Jill Krause’s story might sound familiar. In the midst of the pandemic, she says she became the 24/7 “default parent” that her kids would run to for their every need (and then some), while their dad worked more traditional hours. “My presence and flexibility sent out a clear signal to my four kids: ‘Mom may or may not be working, so cling away! Ask away! Tantrum away!’” she tells InStyle.

Tampa-based, Akemi Sue Fisher had been working from her single floor home with two yappy Yorkies, her 11-year-old daughter, and her work-from-home husband. Akemi, CEO of Amazon Consulting agency Love & Launch, was used to lots of action — early morning international calls, full days of clients and planning — anything the day brought, she conquered with high energy and zest. But when quarantine orders came down, she found herself ill-prepared for the chaos of a full house. She began to look for office space with poor results. Frustrated, she and her husband went to regroup over lunch at a new local hotel. While at the Current (with rates in the $150 per night range), they met the manager, who shared the property’s 20% occupancy rate. Her husband suggested they take a look at a room, and according, to Akemi, it was love at first sight. She struck a deal with the manager for a reduced rate on a room, and signed the lease through the end of the year. Akemi and her assistant quickly settled into their new rhythm. The suite was comfortable and the hotel a constant source of buzz — just the right recipe to feed Akemi’s extroverted personality. “My productivity has gone through the roof — I feel the energy again, and that is exactly what I needed.”

Dear Annie: I love my wife. We’ve been married for 11 years, but recently, she hasn’t been taking my side with anything involving our 14-year-old son. She tells me that I am overreacting or being stubborn. OK, I know I can be stubborn, but I firmly believe a child should show respect to his parents. Right now, my problem is that I can’t do a thing in my own house without asking permission from the 14-year-old.

Say someone calls and he asks me, “Who are you talking to?” Or, if I go outside, he asks, “Where are you going?” When I tell him that I’m the adult, that I don’t answer to him, he replies that his mother gets onto me for getting onto him, so I just need to tell him everything. And if I get onto him and yell because I’ve told him over and over not to do something, then I’m the bad guy because I lost my temper.

I’m just tired of being ignored and disrespected all the time. Anyway, I try to talk to my wife about showing a united front in front of our son, but since he isn’t biologically mine -- I just adopted him -- she tells me that she won’t because I’m wrong all the time. What should I do? -- Frustrated and Tired Dad and Husband

Humans, like nature itself, abhor a vacuum—and there’s been no vacuum lately quite like the tedious months of COVID-19 quarantine. In nature, air rushes in to fill the empty space. In the time of pandemic, it’s been alcohol. That, at least, is the finding of a new survey of American adults conducted by the RAND Corporation and published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open. But the study bears close reading.

From the very start of the pandemic, it was clear that alcohol was going to be the medication of choice for a lot of Americans, especially during the early days when panicky shoppers were hoarding toilet paper, hand sanitizer, bottled water, and groceries. During the week ending March 21, national alcohol sales increased 54% from the same week a year before and online sales leapt a staggering 262%.

The question was, with more alcohol on hand—and plenty more available as soon as stores began to reopen but stay-at-home guidelines remained in place—would people actually consume more? The answer, according to the RAND researchers, who surveyed a sample group of 1,540 adults, was: And how.