Congress passed the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act to make it easier for small businesses and other PPP borrowers to qualify for full loan forgiveness.  The biggest changes found in the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act include:

Also last week, the SBA issued new rules for determining payroll costs and owner compensation in calculating PPP loan forgiveness under the new 24-week covered period.

The Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act tripled the duration during which PPP recipients could spend the funds and still qualify for loan forgiveness - a span of time called the "covered period". The  interim final rule adjusts and adds to previous guidance for calculating loan forgiveness under the original 8-week covered period.

The PPP allows loan forgiveness for payroll costs, including salary and wages, for up to $100,000 annualized per employee, or $15,385 per individual over the 8-week period. The new interim final rule establishes the 24-week maximum for full loan forgiveness at $46,154 per individual. Eligible payroll costs also include the cost associated with continuing health care coverage for employees, retirement contributions and state taxes imposed on employee payroll that are paid by the employer .

This means that until further notice, employers must reasonably determine whether employees, who have COVID-19, contracted the illness at work. If the COVID-19 illness is deemed work-related, it is currently considered a recordable illness under OSHA. Recording a COVID-19 illness does not, of itself, mean that the employer has violated any OSHA standard. Also, as with existing recordkeeping requirements, employers with 10 or fewer employees and certain employers in low hazard industries have no recording obligations; they only need to report work-related COVID-19 illnesses that result in a fatality or an employee's in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye.

Please  click here for an understanding of how OSHA's recently updated enforcement affects your store and when you are required to report and/or record employee COVID-19 Illnesses as work-related .

Phase 4 is scheduled to begin on Friday, June 26. Phase 4 allows for the safe reopening or expansion of several key business segments such as health and fitness, movies and theater, museums and zoos, as well as indoor dining at restaurants. Phase 4 also allows for expanded gathering sizes, increasing the limit from 10 in Phase 3, to 50 people or fewer. This expanded gathering limit extends to key activities like meetings, events, and funerals.

For essential retailers like hardware stores, little will change from Phase 3. Employees are still being asked to wear face coverings (cloth masks preferred) over their face and mouth when within 6-feet of others. Customers are being asked to continue to wear face coverings. Also, stores are expected to operate at a maximum of 50% store capacity.

The complete set of Phase 4 guidelines for Illinois retailers may be found  here .

What is a Covid-19 Preparedness Plan? It is a written document which explains the conditions, policies and practices which your store has implemented in order to meet recommended guidelines related to a safe and healthy workplace during the pandemic.

Your store's COVID-19 Preparedness Plan does not need to be published or publicly displayed, but it must be made available to customers and employees if they request to see it.

The State of Minnesota has a template which may be used to develop your store's plan. That template may be found  here. While businesses are not required to use this template, all plans must address the components included in the state of Minnesota industry guidance developed for their type of business.

Specific guidance for all retailers (both critical and non-critical) may be found  here.

Developing a plan may seem overwhelming. However, for most hardware stores, it is a matter of documenting the policies developed and put in place since the outbreak began with regards to employee hygiene, workplace cleaning, social distancing, sick employees staying home, etc. For hardware stores, plans should address the components found under industry guidance for retailers.

In summary of the 2020 electoral landscape, there are a total of 21 open seats (10 Republicans, 11 Democrats) where incumbents have either announced they are not running for re-election or are running for a different office. Of those, one-third of them are current members of the 33-member State Senate. The Senate will be a much different looking body next year. Spring 2020 brought about the unexpected announcement from State Sen. Fred Risser (D-Madison), America's longest serving state lawmaker in history, that he will retire after an historic 64-year run serving in the legislature. Six other members of the State Senate will be leaving at year's end, including Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald who is running for Congress to replace Jim Sensenbrenner who is retiring. Eighteen incumbent lawmakers have no opponent in their re-elections (11 Republicans, 7 Democrat); 4 legislators will only have a primary election (2 Republican, 2 Democrat); 68 legislators have a general election only; 33 districts have both a primary and a general election and 10 seats have a 3rd party candidate also running.

See an an unofficial list of all candidates  here.

The 2020 elections are sure to be historic with a hotly contested Presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden setting the stage at the top of the ticket. Even more unprecedented for candidates and voters alike will be the unique nature of these elections in particular amid concerns and uncertainty over COVID-19. Already, countless events around the state have been cancelled and customary campaign tactics and strategies have been put on hold which pose challenges for candidates to effectively reach voters. National and state polls this far out from election day are unlikely to be accurate indicators of what will happen. And what also remains to be seen is the mood of the electorate come August and November and how it will impact new candidates versus incumbents the ramp up to the election.