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May 1st, 2011, Denis Blesford  Update: Sunday 23:43 EST
President Obama has addressed the nation in a televised broadcast, confirming that Osama bin Laden is dead, as the result of a US military operation earlier today. President Obama confirmed that when he came to Office, he gave orders to the CIA to capture or kill bin Laden. Obama said that the CIA had received a lead on bin Laden’s whereabouts late last year. Earlier today, after months of following that lead, all the evidence pointed to bin Laden being holed up in a compound in Abbotabad, about 40km outside of Islambad. In response, he (Obama) authorized a covert strike by special forces. After a brief firefight, bin Laden was killed and his body taken into possession by the US. President Obama said on the telecast that “Justice has been done…Today’s achievement is testament to the greatness of our country.” → Read More April 30th, 2011, Denis Blesford  While other states are cutting back on unemployment payments, on Wednesday Oregon passed two bills that will extend federal and state unemployment benefits. Senate Bill 637, which authorizes the state to keep on drawing emergency unemployment benefits under a recent Federal offer on changing the “look-back” rules, was passed by an unanimous vote in the House. Additionally, the House also passed Senate Bill 638, which offers Oregonian 99’ers a further 6 weeks of state unemployment benefits. 99’ers are classed as those jobless workers who have been unemployed for 99 weeks and have exhausted all unemployment benefits, state and federal. Officials say that more than 17,000 of the states unemployed will be eligible for the 6 week emergency extension. They expect the money for the program to last until July 2nd. History: Oregon Emergency Benefits-3 (OEB-3) is an unemployment extension paid for solely by state funds. OEB is only available when the Oregon Legislature passes specific legislation which specifies when such benefits are available. During the 2011 legislative session, the Oregon legislature passed Senate Bill 638, authorizing the payment of OEB. OEB-3 provides 23% of your regular claim’s maximum benefit amount. The weekly benefit amount is the same as your regular claim. OEB-3 starts with the week of April 17-23, 2011, and ends July 2, 2011, or when the money allocated to the program runs out.
→ Read More April 20th, 2011, Denis Blesford  The face off between the Democrats and the GOP legislators over budget cuts brought over 37,000 jobless people to Raleigh on Tuesday to vent their anger at the “third-grade posturing — you either do it my way or else” as one protestor described the current standoff between the Dems and the GOP. Democratic Governor Beverly Perdue slammed the Republicans for “extortion” in their demand for deep budget cuts in return for passing legislation that would allow the unemployed workers to receive their final 20 weeks of benefits under the federal Extended Benefits program. The EB program is being phased out in N.C., as the stae no longer qualifies for the federal EB program. The EB program gives 20 weeks extra benefits to those jobless workers who’ve exhausted their initial 26 weeks of state unemployment insurance benefits. Even though the N.C. unemployment rate remains at 9.7%, one of the federal requirements of the EB program is that the unemployment rate must be at least 10% higher then the average jobless rate over the previous two years. Under that rule the N.C unemployment rate hasn’t risen enough to satisfy that requirement. → Read More April 18th, 2011, Denis Blesford  It may at first sound rather trite to suggest that one American technology company could have any noticeable influence on the nation’s unemployment levels. But last Friday, speaking on unemployment from the House Floor, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr, (D,IL) made the connection between Apple’s iPad and the current state of unemployment in the US. Jackson said “This new device, which is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs. Now Borders is closing stores because, why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad and download your newspaper, download your book, download your magazine,” Jackson went onto say that in his congressional district the Chicago State University is now issuing freshman classes with iPad’s instead of text books. He quoted university President Wayne Watson as saying “he [Watson] aims to have a textbook-less campus within four years, where they don’t have textbooks.” → Read More April 10th, 2011, Denis Blesford  President Barack Obama will lay out a long-term deficit reduction plan this week, White House senior adviser David Plouffe said Sunday. Earlier today, on NBC’s “Meet the Press, White House senior advisor, David Ploufe said that the President will present a long term plan to reduce the national deficit. ‘The president will be laying out his approach to long-term deficit reduction later this week,” said Plouffe. He went on to point out that the administrations 2012 budget already had in the pipeline a forward a plan for reducing the deficit by a trillion dollars over the next 10 years. It’s expected that President Obama will deliver his deficit reduction plan in a speech this coming Wednesday. While Plouffe said that Obama has already put in place much of his deficit commission’s recommendations, in this week’s speech Obama plans to set out additional measures that need to be taken. → Read More April 1st, 2011, Denis Blesford  Last week in Polk County, Wisconsin, at a meeting with constituents Republican Representative Sean Duffy answered a question from audience as to whether Duffy would consider cutting his own salary, seeing as the Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker was hell-bent on cutting state employees wages and benefits. In reply, Duffy went on to bemoan the fact that he struggles on a base salary of “only” $174,000 – not including all the perks of office. When the questioner replied in obvious amazement at Rep. Sean Duffy’s salary, saying it was over 3 times what he earns (last Census figures show that the median wage in Wisconsin is $50,000), Duffy shot back that he was still paying of student loans, drove a minivan and had a mortgage to cover. → Read More February 23rd, 2011, Denis Blesford  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that a drug popular among pregnant women has “the potential for serious maternal heart problems and death.” The drug terbutaline is widely prescribed by doctors as treatment for preterm labor, a report by USA Today said. The FDA now requires stronger safety warnings for terbutaline – a drug the agency originally approved for treatment of specific respiratory conditions. Obstetricians say for a long time the drug’s off-label use was to prevent early births. According to Reading OB/GYN’s founder and Medical Director, Dr. Dominic Cammarano, terbutaline acts as a muscle relaxer of smooth muscle: “the airways of the lungs is smooth muscle” and the drug “relaxes them” during an asthma attack. Cammarano said, “The uterus is a smooth muscle so it relaxes the uterus just like the lung.” → Read More February 22nd, 2011, Denis Blesford  “Reckless.” That is how some senior Democratic Senators described the threat made by Republicans to shut down the government amidst the boiling debate over the federal budget. On Saturday, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives successfully passed a proposal cutting spending by the federal government by as much as $61 billion through September. However, the House vote is unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, a Reuters report said. Democrats in the Senate are likely to endorse a more conservative proposal that cuts the federal budget compared to the measure pushed by the House. → Read More | Listen to Mike Colliss Interviews |
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