Hundreds of people who lost jobs during the coronavirus crisis but have been unable to get their unemployment insurance checks converged at the Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort early Wednesday to seek in-person help. Margaret Wells worked in retail in Louisville and has been unemployed since April. States have been overwhelmed with the tens of millions of unemployment insurance benefits claims filed during the crisis, with the surge in demand crashing computer systems, clogging phone lines and creating backlogs of pending applications.
