As the number of unemployment claims continues to rise, states are turning to big tech companies for help, and Rhode Island is working with Amazon Web Services on the issue.
"They stepped into the crisis and really helped us out in real-time," Director of the Rhode Island Labor Department, Scott Jensen told Cheddar.
In "normal" times, Jensen explained that the state's system worked just fine, but said this is not "normal times." Amazon's cloud-based solutions have helped the state handle the recent spike in traffic that the state has seen as unemployment numbers rise.
"Old infrastructure isn't going to handle it … and that's where Amazon stepped in for Rhode Island and helped us supply in a couple of really smart ways," he said.
A majority of Americans support higher pay for auto workers who are on strike against Detroit's Big Three carmakers, although approval of the workers' other demands is more mixed, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
The ongoing United Auto Workers strike expanded Thursday in a major blow to Ford as the union ordered 8700 workers to walk off the job at the automaker giant's largest plant.
A retired bank official testified that former president Donald Trump obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in loans based on financial statements that have since been deemed fraudulent.
