There are plenty of ways to cheer up somebody you love, many of them only involving your time.

Morning Call - Pennsylvania residents who apply for pandemic unemployment assistance will be asked to work with an outside company to verify their identity as part of an ongoing effort to combat fraud, state officials said Tuesday.

The state Department of Labor & Industry earlier this month announced it contracted with the security firm ID.me to develop a more stringent identity verification process for PUA applicants.

Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak said applicants for PUA will now receive a notification that they must contact ID.me to verify their identities before payments are made. After the verification process is complete, payments may be released.

Pennsylvania officials said they halted payments to new applicants Sept. 21 after flagging a surge in suspected fraudulent applications while they worked to beef up identification checks.

A group of housing rights advocates were distributing info to tenants facing an eviction hearing at Magisterial District Court 12-1-01 in Susquehanna Township on Wednesday.

Pennlive.com - The group, Greater Harrisburg Area Tenants United, was out to ensure that those tenants facing eviction know their rights – and that thanks to federal action they might be able to protect themselves from eviction if they have been struggling to make rent. “We’re here today to help keep tenants in their home this winter,” said Veronica Adams, a member of Greater Harrisburg Area Tenants United. “About 20 evictions are happening here at this court today, and we’re going to try to give them the CDC forms that allows them to stay in their homes until the end of December.”

On Sept. 1, the Center for Disease Control announced a temporary halt nationwide on evictions due to failure by the tenants to pay rent. The moratorium on such evictions was to last through the end of 2020 and was designed to protect those financially impacted by the coronavirus pandemic from suddenly finding themselves homeless – and at even higher risk of catching and spreading COVID-19.