The economy is giving local charities a double dose of bad news this holiday season. Charity leaders say more people are seeking help with fewer people able to make donations. ...more

November 24, 2009

Our recession is tough, but imagine an America where the jobless rate was 25 percent instead of 10 percent, where the blue-plate special was 25 cents and many people still couldn't afford it, where there were no unemployment checks or food stamps, where farmers couldn't afford to feed their cattle. ...more

November 8, 2009

I can't believe how some of the media are comparing our current recession to the Great Depression of the 1930s when there were no Social Security checks, no Supplemental Security Income checks, and no unemployment checks. ...more

April 27, 2009

Unemployment checks are going up $25 a week for jobless Floridians. ...more

March 24, 2009

Many people are used to having to take a drug test when applying for a job. Now a Bay-area state senator wants to extend the same idea to those applying for unemployment benefits. ...more

March 10, 2009

With unemployment numbers soaring, people who lost their jobs last year might have a lot of questions about how that will impact their tax return. ...more

February 27, 2009

There are several inescapable realities of our ever-worsening economy that all point to the conclusion that the federal government must take on the role of an employer of last resort. 1. In addition to the already unemployed, the rest of us are also basing our purchasing and investing decisions on a real possibility of losing our own sole source of income. Jobs are the missing ingredient that the private sector can no longer reliably provide if left to its own resources. 2. The nation can also ill afford the luxury of increasing millions of laid-off workers collecting unemployment compensation, while sitting idle and contributing nothing to the economy. 3. The prospect of deficit spending without foreseeable end carries with it far too much negative baggage to ever provide the sorely needed catalyst for a renewal positive mindset. ...more

February 24, 2009

With no end in sight to economic bad news, President George W. Bush on Friday ensured that millions of laid-off workers will keep getting their unemployment checks as the year-end holidays approach. ...more

November 22, 2008

Jarred by new jobless alarms, Congress quickly approved legislation Thursday to keep unemployment checks flowing through the holidays in December and into the new year for a million or more laid-off Americans whose benefits are running out. ...more

November 21, 2008

A long-delayed Iraq war funding bill sailed through the House on Thursday, along with historic increases in college aid for returning troops and help for the unemployed and Midwestern flood victims. ...more

June 20, 2008