L&I will provide up to $4 million in funding for the DCWTGs to create and develop training programs that increase the quality of services, offer specialty certifications, and create viable career opportunities for personal care assistants, home health aides and certified nursing assistants.

As demand increases in Pennsylvania for long-term care services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the quality of care and safety of workers must be maintained.

The Pennsylvania Long-Term Care Council, which advises the Department of Aging and other agencies on long-term care issues, last year developed the Blueprint for Strengthening Pennsylvania’s Direct Care Workforce. This report recommended the establishment of standardized core training for direct care workers to provide career pathways throughout the continuum of long-term services and supports.

“Direct care workers are the cornerstone of long-term care, so I’m pleased to see how the important work of the Long-Term Care Council and its recommendations in the Blueprint for Strengthening Pennsylvania’s Direct Care Workforce has helped inform the goals and strategies of the DCWTG program,” said Secretary of Aging Robert Torres, who chairs the Council. “The Wolf Administration recognizes that creating pathways for more individuals to enter and remain in the direct care workforce is critical to ensuring that the long-term care needs of our citizens can be met both now and in the future.”

Eligible applicants include local workforce development boards, non-profit and non-governmental entities, community-based organizations, education and post-secondary organizations, healthcare organizations, labor organizations, business associations, trade associations of long-term services and supports providers, and economic development entities. Grant awardees are expected to be notified by the end of November 2020, and the grants will operate between January 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022.

Direct Care Worker Training Grants of up to $2 million are available through L&I’s reemployment funding to assist individuals become employed or improve their employment, including job search and placement services, educational enhancement, job training and job readiness and workplace skills training.

The deadline to apply is October 2, 2020. Additional details and the grant application can be found on L&I’s website.

Additional information is available on the L&I website at www.dli.pa.gov or by following us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Harrisburg, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced today that its Automated Work Zone Speed Enforcement Program (AWZSE) program was named as one of the Top 12 projects nationwide in the America’s Transportation Awards competition. PennDOT administers the AWSZE program collaboratively with the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

AWSZE works by deploying a mobile unit to an active work zone to detect any vehicles going at least 11 miles over the speed limit. When a vehicle goes over the limit, its license plate is captured, and a violation is mailed to the address on file.

“We continue to deal with the devastating injuries and loss of life that can occur when motorists speed through active work zones,” said PennDOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian. “We are honored that this program to keep our workers safe has been met with this important national recognition.”

Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, (AASHTO), AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the competition evaluates projects in three categories: Quality of Life/Community Development; Best Use of Technology & Innovation; and Operations Excellence. AWZSE was nominated in the Operations Excellence Category, Small Project Group, and is competing for the national Grand Prize and the People’s Choice Award.

An independent panel of transportation industry experts will select the Grand Prize winner, while the general public will decide the People’s Choice Award winner through online voting. Online votes will be weighted to each state’s population, allowing for greater competition between states with larger and smaller populations. The winners will be announced at the virtual AASHTO Annual Meeting the week of November 9-13, 2020. Online voting began on September 8 and ends at 11:59 p.m. on October 25, 2020.

Votes can be cast online. Individuals can vote every day but can cast no more than one vote per day.

More info on the AWSZE program can be found at workzonecameras.PennDOT.gov.

Amazon to hire 100,000 to keep up with online shopping surge
By JOSEPH PISANI AP Retail Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is hiring another 100,000 people to keep up with a surge of online orders. The company said Monday that the new hires will help pack, ship or sort orders, working in part-time and full-time roles. Amazon says the jobs are not related to its typical holiday hiring. Business has been booming at the Seattle-based online behemoth. It made record profit and revenue between April and June, as more people turned to it during the pandemic to buy groceries and supplies. Amazon said it needs the people at the 100 new warehouses, package sorting centers and other facilities it’s opening this month.

Today should have been the first day for ballots to be sent out to voters who are voting absentee or mail in ballot in Pennsylvania. None of Pennsylvania’s counties will be able to send out ballots to voters today, the first day counties are able too.

Due to lawsuits and other issues, The state’s Democratic Party remains in court battling to keep the Green Party off the ballot. The pending legal dispute has led to a delay in certification of the November ballot, and as a result, all Pennsylvania county election officials who this year could have started offering absentee or mail-in ballots, as well as in-person early absentee voting, starting September 14 are in a holding pattern.

Pennsylvania has not finalized its ballot less than eight weeks before Election Day.

2 California deputies shot in apparent ambush in patrol car
COMPTON, Calif. (AP) — The shooting of two sheriff’s deputies in California in an apparent ambush has prompted a search for the shooter, reaction from President Donald Trump, and a protest. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released video Saturday showing a gunman open fire on the deputies’ patrol car. President Trump responded on Twitter, “Animals that must be hit hard!” The deputies were taken to a hospital where both underwent surgery. The sheriff’s department says protesters showed up outside and were yelling, “We hope they die.” Officers were searching the area for the gunman. An official says the description of the suspect is “very generic.”