CONCORD – Gov. John Lynch today announced that starting Monday workers and businesses will able to enroll in the first part of New Hampshire Working, the Governor’s jobs initiative.

Gov. Lynch, joined by lawmakers and Employment Security Commissioner Tara Reardon, announced the launch of the enrollment process that will allow workers to participate in up to six weeks of on-the-job training from a potential employer while continuing to collect unemployment benefits. This launch represents one part of the Governor’s three-part jobs initiative.

“This initiative will reduce the upfront costs companies bear in training new workers – making it easier for them to hire. And it will allow workers to get their foot in the door at company looking to hire, giving them the opportunity to show their skills,” Gov. Lynch said.

New Hampshire Working leverages existing resources to help businesses and workers recover from the recession.

“The funding required for these programs is money we are already spending – but with New Hampshire Working we’re spending it better, in a way that is helping companies and workers, and reducing costs for taxpayers,” Gov. Lynch said.

For Immediate Release

Federal Funds Will Be Used to Implement Two Innovative Workforce Development Programs

CONCORD – Gov. John Lynch and the Executive Council today approved the use federal Workforce Investment Act funds to establish two new innovative programs to help North Country residents build their own businesses and connect North Country workers with jobs.

White Mountain Community College in Berlin will administer the two new programs: The North Country Business Launch Pad and the New Hampshire Talent Team.

“Even before the onset of this recession, the North Country’s economy lagged behind the rest of the state. We must work to ensure economic recovery comes to every part of New Hampshire, which is why are launching these two new efforts to help North Country citizens build their own businesses and to connect North Country workers with jobs,” said Gov. Lynch.

The North Country Launch Pad will assist residents of Coos, northern Grafton and Carroll counties in starting their own businesses. The college will work with entrepreneurs to develop business plans, to help them develop marketing plans, and to connect them with financing and other resources.

I don't, typically, hog the front page with blog posts. However, Gregg prompts me to make an exception and use the tools that will provide exposure of his posturing for the longest period of time.

For Immediate Release

Gov. Lynch Lauds Senate’s Initial Passage of NH Working Jobs Initiative

Governor’s Initiative Aims to Help Companies Avert Layoffs, Help Unemployed Find New Jobs

CONCORD – Gov. John Lynch today applauded the Senate’s passage of legislation implementing New Hampshire Working, the Governor’s jobs initiative that will help companies and workers in the current economic downturn.

“Our number one focus continues to be helping companies and workers recover from this recession. New Hampshire Working will help companies and employees work together to avoid layoffs, make it easier for companies to hire new workers and for workers to find new jobs and ensure New Hampshire workers have the skills they need to compete for good jobs,” Gov. Lynch said. “I want to thank senators for supporting this legislation that will help get New Hampshire people working again.”

New Hampshire Working leverages existing resources to help businesses and workers recover from the recession.

SOURCE: AlterNet

The Unemployed Now Have Their Own Union, and It's Catching on Quickly

The Unemployed Now Have Their Own Union, and It's Catching on Quickly, By Harry Kelber, Labor Educator, Posted on February 24, 2010

It's been only a month that a union for the unemployed has come into existence through an ingenious grassroots organizing campaign. In case you haven't heard about it, the union's name is "UR Union of the Unemployed" or its nickname, "UCubed," because of its unique method of organizing.

UCubed is the brain-child of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), whose leaders feel that the millions of unemployed workers need a union of their own to join in the struggle for massive jobs programs.

The idea is that if millions of jobless join together and act as an organization, they are more likely to get Congress and the White House to provide the jobs that are urgently needed. They can also apply pressure for health insurance coverage, unemployment insurance and COBRA benefits and food stamps. An unemployed worker is virtually helpless if he or she has to act alone.

SOURCE:Senator Jeanne Shaheen

Press Release:

February 24, 2010

(Washington, D.C.)-U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen today called on WellPoint CEO Angela Braly to explain the increase in New Hampshire health insurance rates despite the company's substantial profits. According to a report released today by the Center for American Progress, WellPoint, under the banner of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, intends to increase individual insurance rates in New Hampshire by 12 percent to 13 percent and has already increased premiums in the small group market by 17 percent. Meanwhile, the company posted a 700 percent increase in profits in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the same time period the previous year.

SOURCE: Boston.com

February 21, 2010

THE NUMBERS are in, and there can no longer be any doubt that President Obama’s stimulus bill, passed just over a year ago, helped pull America from the brink of economic catastrophe, in part by creating millions of jobs that would not otherwise have existed. All of the major economic research firms that have studied the stimulus’ effect have come to this conclusion. The specific estimates vary, but it’s clear that the stimulus created somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.6 million jobs so far, and will generate around 2.5 million in the long run. (The administration’s generous estimate is 3.5 million.)

Joblessness is still sky-high, of course, and the United States is by no means out of the woods economically. It’s understandable that Americans whose situations haven’t been visibly improved by the bill want to rail against it and outsized government spending, and the stimulus certainly wasn’t without its flaws.

Still, though, it’s ridiculous to deny, as many have, that adding 2.5 million jobs was a poor use of government funds, or that the bill’s other features, which ranged from expanded COBRA health benefits for laid-off workers to money to forestall layoffs of teachers, firefighters, and police officers, helped many Americans to stay on their feet.

Stimulus opponents, often motivated by strictly ideological or political concerns, have repeatedly claimed that the bill didn’t create a single job that the economy wouldn’t have created anyway. This isn’t true, and it should be beyond the bounds of political debate to claim it.

En Espanol

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Governor Discusses New Hampshire Working, New Jobs Initiative to Help Companies And Workers

CONCORD – Gov. John Lynch and Employment Security Commissioner Tara Reardon today met with unemployed workers in Portsmouth to discuss how the Governor’s new jobs initiative will help companies and workers.

The initiative, New Hampshire Working, is a three-part approach to help businesses in this economic downturn and help New Hampshire citizens stay at work if they already have jobs, return to work if they are unemployed and ensure that they are ready to work at new jobs.

“There are signs that our economy is beginning to recover from this national recession, but we cannot rest until every New Hampshire citizen who wants a jobs, gets a job,” Gov. Lynch said. “As we begin the recovery, we are mindful that there are still business owners who are struggling to keep their workers on the job, workers who have lost their jobs, business owners who need to train workers in new skill and workers who don’t have the skills they required for new jobs.”

In a previous diary I called attention to the fact that our (the American people's) generosity, dispensed via low interest loans from the Commerce Department's Fisheries Program, had been repaid by the Shafmaster enterprises by polluting the waters of Great Bay. That is, to recap, Jonathan S. Shafmaster, either in his own name or as Lordco Pier Associates, had collected, over a period of six years, at least nine million dollars in low interest loans from the U.S. Department of Commerce and yet couldn't manage to keep from fouling the Bay.

Since I don't have health insurance and haven't been to a hairstylist in over fifty years, it took me a while to bother reading this KOS diary. It is not to be missed and needs to be passed on to everyone you know.

SOURCE: PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

April 7, 2009

Gov. Lynch Kicks Off Workshop Designed To Ensure Federal Stimulus Funds Are Used Effectively

Nearly 1,000 Municipal and Education Officials, Business and Non-Profit Leaders Participate In Stimulus Training Session

DURHAM - Gov. John Lynch today opened a statewide stimulus workshop at the University of New Hampshire aimed at ensuring federal stimulus funds are being used for their stated purpose - putting people back to work, helping families, protecting essential services and building the foundation for a stronger economy in the future.

For Immediate Release

CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch announced today that he has signed an agreement with the federal government increasing unemployment benefits for New Hampshire citizens. The increase is part of the federal stimulus package signed into law by President Obama last week.

"This is the worst national recession since the Great Depression. New Hampshire families and businesses are being impacted and I believe strongly we should do what we can to assist families through these difficult economic times and increasing unemployment benefits is one way we can do exactly that," Gov. Lynch said. "This modest increase will better enable our hard-working men and women to provide for their families as they look for a new job."

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, unemployment benefits are increasing $25 a week through calendar year 2009. The increase, which is federally funded, begins this week and will appear in checks within the next couple of weeks.

The $25 increases applies to all benefit payments including first 26 weeks of regular unemployment benefits and the 20-week federal extension.

The AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION ads on KOS are hard to miss. Either they're at the top of the page or somewhere on the left-hand side. Which is not to say I object to them. Really, the only thing that's objectionable is that they're really hard to capture. FLASH is not susceptible to copy and paste. So, I ended up refreshing the page about a dozen times to get the exact verbiage. The reason I bothered is because I really don't think the ads here ought to go without the critique we apply to other media offerings.

So, below the fold we'll consider this addition to our universe in detail. I will admit up front that I am not an admirer of anything aerial.

This is a story of the needle that wasn't found. For some time now, I'm been referring to the Homeland Security war on terror effort as searching for needles in haystacks that haven't yet been built. That's how the whole rigamarole at the airports and screening at the entrances of public buildings, in addition to the electronic home invasions and surveillance, come across when I consider the matter objectively.

But now I'm thinking of the three nations in the "axis of evil" whose possession or yearning for nuclear weapons of mass destruction was the motivation for our search and destroy mission into Iraq; as well as some apparently fruitless negotiations with South Korea and Iran. Because now that we know there were no weapons to find in Iraq, it raises the question of what recourse anyone has when a search and destroy mission not only comes up empty, but was actually undertaken with full knowledge that the search would be fruitless.

It also raises the question of motivation. Why search when you know there's nothing there?