California unemployment: State legislators grill EDD officials about failures

California lawmakers grilled state labor officials on Thursday amid rising concerns about the government’s inability to pay unemployment claims that have soared amid widespread business shutdowns — and learned that decades-old technologies underpin the creaky payments system.
During a state legislative hearing on Thursday, the Employment Development Department was portrayed as inept and unresponsive to the needs of jobless workers who have lost work in record numbers because state an