A World War II-era tugboat that was built in Deland is one step closer to returning home. ST 479 “Tiger” is moored at the end of Pier 1 at Green Cove Springs in Clay County, just south of Jacksonville.

Until the pandemic upended the operations of American companies, from factories to family diners, weekly jobless aid applications had never exceeded 700,000 in the U.S. They’ve topped 700,000 for 26 consecutive weeks. An extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits ran out July 31, squeezing households that had depended on the beefed-up payments. President Donald Trump issued an executive order Aug. 8 providing a scaled-back version of the expanded jobless aid. “Layoffs remain widespread and a historically high number of individuals are still receiving some type of jobless benefits," Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a resarch report. The extra $600 in weekly jobless benefits didn’t replace all her lost income but helped.