This story breaks my heart. I cannot believe that this is happening in the United States in the 21st century. Since my husband and I are unemployed, I know we are just one disaster away from being transient, too. I cannot call myself homeless, ever.
By Jennifer Brooks • and Shelley Mays • July 12, 2009
It’s a sweltering summer afternoon, and the children are hot and miserable in the tent that’s been their home since they lost their house last month.
“You feel about as small as you can as a man, trying to take care of your family and watching your children have to go through something like this,” said Troy Renault, 39, a homebuilder and father of five boys who lost his job, then his home, when the recession hit the construction industry.
Home these days is a cluster of tents covered by a blue tarp in a back corner of the Timberline Campground in Lebanon. Surrounding them are the tents, campers and recreational vehicles of other families in similar straits, living full time in campgrounds because they can no longer afford to live anywhere else.
No one knows how many people are living in campgrounds in Middle Tennessee. But visit any area campground and it’s easy to pick out the permanent residents among the vacationers.
Look for the decks built on to campers with scrap lumber, and gardens planted next to campfire pits. Look for the air-conditioning units hooked up to tents. Look for the children boarding school buses at the front gates, and parents closing up the camper before they head off to work.
Tags: Family | Tennessee | US Economy | Tech & Biz
I could not certify for my unemployment check via the internet today, as I normally do. I was told that my benefits had run out. Later I certified by phone. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I get a check on Tuesday.
From the morning Tennessean:
McNair, who was still very active in local charity work after retiring from the Baltimore Ravens in 2008, was working on a state government public service announcement for Tennessee, warning against the dangers of suicide.
Tennessee law a gauge for gun rights support In conservative Murfreesboro, gun rights are sacred, but some say allowing permit holders to carry weapons into city parks is going too far. Tourism is a concern too. By Richard Fausset
July 9, 2009 Reporting from Murfreesboro, Tenn. — Like many Tennesseans, Mary Beth Sauls supports the right to bear arms. But as she sat by a public pool full of splashing kids recently, the 54-year-old grandmother said she was worried about a new state law that may soon allow gun-permit holders to carry their weapons into city parks like this one.
“I don’t think this should really be a place for guns, with all these children around,” said Sauls, as she watched a grandson competing in a swim meet.
The Tennessee law, which takes effect Sept. 1, is the latest in a nationwide push by gun-rights advocates to tear down the legal walls that have prevented permit holders from packing their weapons into previously forbidden territory.
In May, Congress voted to allow guns in America’s national parks. A number of similar bills were introduced in state legislatures this year to allow guns in parks, bars, college campuses and churches.
In Murfreesboro, a fast-growing city 40 minutes southeast of Nashville, the guns-in-parks law has emerged as a test of how far even a deeply conservative community will go to uphold gun rights. The law allows local governments to opt out and keep their parks gun-free — a move that the City Council will consider today.
Some residents, like Henry Banks, 58, said they had seen enough “crazy adults” at children’s sporting events to support the ban.
Tags: Tennessee | guns | World | US Politics
When I lost my job last November, I never dreamed that I would still be unemployed in July. I have a job generating small amounts of commission, but it is not enough to get off unemployment. My husband John who has been unemployed since last September has sunk into a funk about his status. He spends sleepless nights reading, surfing the net, weightlifting and walking.
Ten years short of retiring, I found myself in a dead industry, print production, after 35 years. I do not subscribe to newspapers and magazines any more. Print production directors are as marketable as American auto workers. I have not drive an American made car in years either.
During past years when Born in the U.S.A. was played during fireworks shows, John and I were often puzzled why this song was being played to celebrate our country. It is a song about despair, not celebrating the Red, White and Blue. This year, we are living the song.
Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
Till you spend half your life just covering up
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says “Son if it was up to me”
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said “Son, don’t you understand”
I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go
Born in the U.S.A.
I was born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I’m a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.
Maybe Sarah Palin should have kept her day job. She may not find another.
By Don Lee • LOS ANGELES TIMES • July 4, 2009
WASHINGTON — Even as the nation’s economy begins clawing its way out of the worst recession in 60 years, there are growing signs that this recovery could come with an unsettling twist. The wheels of commerce may begin to turn again without any substantial boost in jobs.
Not only is the national unemployment rate, now 9.5 percent, likely to climb into double digits later this year, it is expected to remain there well into 2010, economists say. That would prolong the misery of the unemployed, squeeze retailers and other businesses, and add millions of dollars in government costs and lost productivity. It could even threaten the recovery itself.
While it’s common for the jobless rate to keep climbing for a time after economic output turns positive, the aftermath of the last two downturns, in 1990-91 and 2001, introduced the idea of a “jobless recovery.” Even though the economy improved, many unemployed workers found that jobs as good as the ones they had lost were almost impossible to find.
This time, many economists say, there are new factors that could make the problem worse. Many more layoffs in this recession have been permanent, not temporary.
And mass layoffs are continuing at a record pace; in June they cost nearly 467,000 workers their jobs. Since the recession began in December 2007, the U.S. economy has shed nearly 6.5 million payroll jobs.
Tags: Layoffs | Tech & Biz
I do not believe that she has resigned to run for President in 2012. I am waiting for a scandal, some investigation. She has been under too much questioning in the past. I believe her when she says that she can be more effective outside government.
I just hope that her resignation gets Wacko Jacko out of the news for a while.
I just tried to watch her speech on Huffington Post. It was too painful to watch. She was Bobby Jindaling. I really smell scandal now.
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Thursday, July 2, 2009 — 8:34 AM ET
—–
Unemployment at 9.5%; 467,000 Jobs Lost in June
The American economy shed 467,000 jobs last month, and the
unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent, its highest level in
26 years, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.
