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Learn more about Muck RackStephen is a senior at Northwestern University, where he studies journalism, economics, and creative writing. His journalistic passions lie in people-focused economic reporting.
Wall Street Journal Profile: https://www.wsj.com/news/author/stephen-council
CNBC Profile: https://www.cnbc.com/stephen-council/
Daily Northwestern Profile: https://dailynorthwestern.com/staff_profile/stephen-council/
CalMatters Profile: https://calmatters.org/author/stephencouncil/
For the story, "How Bank of America helped fuel California’s unemployment meltdown," published in CalMatters. https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/11/how-bank-of-america-helped-fuel-californias-unemployment-meltdown/
“How Bank of America Helped Fuel California’s Unemployment Meltdown,” CalMatters It seemed like a good idea at the time: Give unemployed Californians a kind of debit card loaded with their benefit payments. The cards would be distributed by Bank of America at no cost — so they said — to the state. Instead, the program became a scammers paradise, as skillfully outlined by Lauren Hepler and Stephen Council. Their reporting highlighted the many aspects of this story — from an overwhelmed state agency, to a bank that yields little information about its workings, to the victims of fraud.
https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/11/how-bank-of-america-helped-fuel-californias-unemployment-meltdown/