In New Jersey, North Bergen recycling went bankrupt.  Company officials pled guilty to illegal dumping and got hit with massive fines.

AM General laid off at least 350 people in Indiana!  Company officials blame the bad global economy on crashing Hummer/Humvee orders!  Yet, at the same time they claim there is a big demand for their military type vehicle, it’s just that the expected orders haven’t come in.

In Kentucky, automotive parts supplier, GECOM, laid off 85 employees.  Company officials blamed it on “…current and projected business needs…”, adding that for the foreseeable future “…only a handful of employees…” will be kept working.

In Tennessee, Volkswagen laying off 500 people!  Last year VW thought they were going to add 800 jobs to their U.S. Passat factory, but sales crashed!  VW officials say sales are only good in major metro areas, in the rest of the country sales are down.  And in a bit-o-irony, the Department of of Labor and Workforce is restructuring its Career Centers, and as many as 125 people could lose their jobs!

At least 180 people lost their jobs with L3 Communication Systems-West in Utah!  Company officials blamed Department of Defense spending cuts.  Maybe this is a good thing, as L3 is “…a leading provider of networked communication solutions for high-performance intelligence collection, imagery processing and satellite communications for the Department of Defense (DoD) and other government agencies. We provide high-data rate, wideband, secure, real-time communication systems for surveillance and reconnaissance.”  In other words they’re being paid to spy on you!  (for some reason hi-tech spying operations are setting up shop in the heart of Mormon-land, soon the World’s largest personal information collection center will be operational. It’s located in the Utah Army National Guard’s Camp Williams)

Publicly funded (meaning donations) KCET TV, in California, laid off 22 employees and eliminated five vacant positions.  It’s the result of a merger with publicly funded (donations) Link Media.  In June 2012 KCET posted a loss of $7.4 million USD.

More bad news for Disney owned Lucasfilm.  20 more people laid off in what is supposedly the last round of layoffs since the Disney takeover.

In Maine, SPX Communications Technologies ended antenna operations, laying off 57 employees.

The Puma athletic store in Pennsylvania closed down.

In Oregon, The Elephant’s Trunk toy store closed at the Salem Center Mall.

267 people out-o-work in Ohio, after Turf Products closed its Streetsboro operations!  Another 23 people laid off in the company’s distribution center.   Apparently the company made too many products (like lawnmowers) at other factories, and is calling a production halt.  ESCO Technologies closing its Aclara plant in Solon.  The company saw a 85% drop in profits for its 2nd quarter this year.  No word on how many people will be unemployed.

In Little Rock, Arkansas, Faux Pas closed after 20 years in business.  The owners of the fashion store decided it was time to change careers.

Wonderland Books shut down in Connecticut. The owners blamed competition from big name stores and the internet.

In Mississippi, Bayside Furniture & Appliances shut down.  The longtime family owners (since 1970) blamed the bad economy.

After 64 years Smith’s Gardentown Farms closed in Wichita, Texas.   The family owners blame the long drought, and hope to re-open when the rains return: “The drought has everyone worried. I think there were some misunderstandings about the [city’s] watering rules, but the drought is a reality. Much of our business depends on selling bedding plants in the spring to help get us through the summer and into the fall. Business has just been way off because people are guarded about the future, and rightfully so.”-Steve Smith

In New Mexico, the Albuquerque Public Schools District has lost $100 million since 2010, and is now looking at closing down several schools.  The district has already laid off 1000 employees since 2010!  One plan is to get rid of Middle schools (Junior Highs).  The irony is that the district just built two new schools!

The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) doesn’t count the hundreds of layoffs involving less than 50 people each, in its mass layoff reports. It also doesn’t count all the little ‘mom & pop’ businesses that shut down.