December 10, 2009 -
Yesterday the National Conference on State Legislatures released a report on how the recession is hitting state budgets, and the news was grim: "The states are facing nearly unprecedented declines in revenuecollections," said William Pound, executive director of the NCSL."Coupled with probable declines in federal stimulus support over thenext two year, the state fiscal picture is bleak. We're heading intoan era of retro budgeting, where state spending is receding to levelsfive to 10 years ago."
December 10, 2009 -
By Michael Grabell, ProPublica
December 9, 2009 -
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson, New America Media The bad news is that the more than one out of three young blacks out ofwork matches the figure for joblessness at the peak of the 1930s GreatDepression. The worse news is that the jobless figure for young blacks,especially young black males, is not much different from what it waseven before the economic meltdown. During the Clinton era economicboom, the unemployment rate for young black males was double -- and in
December 9, 2009 -
Attendees of the United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen will get a chance to watch a new Google video about the effort to stop mountaintop removal mining on Coal River Mountain in West Virginia and to build a wind farm there instead. The environmental advocates at iLoveMountains.org are asking people to watch the video -- which uses innovative new Google Earth technology -- and send it along to friends and family.