Incomplete list of U.S. job loss announcements and shutdowns.

Former White House Counsel (and current attorney at law) Boyden Gray accuses the Obama regime of willfully subsidizing specific ObamaCare insurance companies with your tax dollars!  The accusation is titled Allocation Of Funds Collected Under The Affordable Care Act’s Transitional Reinsurance Program Between Treasury And Reinsurance-Eligible Issuers.  Gray basically says the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is violating ObamaCare rules which say general fund money cannot be used to pay “reinsurance-eligible issuers”.  The HHS has been diverting money that’s supposed to go to the Department of the Treasury to ‘reinsurance’ companies: “….by the time the books close on TRP for the 2014 and 2015 benefit years at the end of 2016, reinsurance-eligible issuers will likely have received 98% of expected payments ($15.6 billion out of an expected $16 billion), whereas Treasury will likely have received only 12% of expected payments ($495 million out of an expected $4 billion).”

Colorado: In Longmont, after 42 years Miller Music shutting down due to crashing sales since 2008.  In Colorado Springs, after three years Curbside Cuisine shutting down multiple lots owned by god’s Young Men’s Christian Association and being rented to independent food trucks.  YMCA administrators said Curbside Cuisine wasn’t making enough money off renting out the YMCA property so they’re being handed back to the YMCA.  One food truck operator said he got three weeks notice of shutdown: “I don’t know where to move. We have been here all winter and didn’t make any money and now the weather is starting to get better and we have to move. It is not fair.”-Hayder Hassan, former U.S. Army translator now food truck operator

Connecticut: Stamford based Phoenix Brands (maker of cleaning products like Ajax and Fab) now chapter 11 bankrupt busted and auctioning-off its name-brands.  Company administrators say there is no economic recovery, proven by their three years in a row of crashing sales!  The company even tried outsourcing most of its production work and selling-off several brands, like popular Rit!

Illinois:  Discount retailer Tuesday Morning shutting down its Fairview Heights location.  Thrift store Marklund Resale shutting down their Wood Dale location, saying sales aren’t good enough to support their mission to help disabled people.  More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t directly blame the internet/high-tech competition for your demise; Chicago based internet loan company Avant laid off 60 people.  CEO  Al Goldstein admitted the economy sucks: “Our biggest competitor [California based Lending Club] just fell down, and the whole space is at an inflection point.”

Iowa: After 95 years (surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions) AIB College of Business shutting down. Because of the bad economy it’s merging with the University of Iowa.  The president of the private college swears their merger with a taxpayer funded university isn’t about the bad economy, yeah right!

Kentucky: In Louisville, Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen shutting down their Frankfort Avenue restaurant, apparently they’ve been asked to relocate to Dixie Highway.

Maine: In Bangor, god powerless to stop ‘his’ addiction treatment Manna shutting down its last two treatment centers.  The “faith based” non-profit owes taxpayers at least $1-million USD!  Government administrators say the christian run addiction treatment center failed to report overpayments from taxpayers, but god’s Manna administrators say “Due to decreasing state funding and declining financial support as a result of recent negative media coverage, it is with great sorrow that we find we must close our faith-based drug and alcohol programs, Elijah’s House and Derek House, on June 15, 2016.” 

Massachusetts: More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t directly blame the internet/high-tech competition for your demise; Boston Weak tech start up Localytics admitted that its recent round of layoffs was an effort to maximize profits in a crashing economy.

Minnesota: In Moorhead, The Red River Valley Academy shutting down so the owner can deal with “changes in our family”. 

New Hampshire: In Lebanon, after 16 years Nouveaute Boutique suddenly shutdown due to the landlord jacking up the rent.

Oregon: The state Department of Environmental Equality and the Oregon Health Authority essentially shutdown Bullseye Glass, 150 jobs threatened: “The set of restrictions that the DEQ is putting on us are unnecessary. They’re causing us to have to lay employees off. This order came nearly 12 hours after DEQ learned of a reported one-time spike in lead levels May 9 in the air near Bullseye Glass.”-company statement

Pennsylvania: In Johnstown, after three years R.J.’s Café and Lounge shutdown, apparently without warning.  Local news media say the owners called it “a business decision”.  In West Hills-Pittsburgh, bowling alley Westmont Lanes shuts down tomorrow, the owner lamented “We used to be double-shifted every day. Now I’m not completely full any time.” 

South Dakota: The only licensed ‘extended hours’ daycare in Pierre shutting down.  The owners of Little Explorers blame it on high employee turnover.

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification.

I found a 2010 AFL-CIO analysis (titled The Public Availability of WARN Notices: Lack of Accessibility and Disclosure…) which proves what I’ve been suspecting in my search of state WARN notices; most states are not complying with federal WARN regulations and are not publicizing or tracking mass layoffs.

Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed!

Employees of religious non-profits might not qualify for unemployment assistance: “If the non-profit organization is a church, you may or may not be entitled to unemployment. It all depends upon state regulations for church employers. In many cases, churches are allowed to set their own rules regarding unemployment benefits, meaning the church can choose whether to offer benefits to former employees.”

The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) no longer issues mass layoff reports: “On March 1, 2013, President Obama ordered into effect the across-the- board spending cuts (commonly referred to as sequestration) required by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended. Under the order, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must cut its current budget by more than $30 million, 5 percent of the current 2013 appropriation, by September 30, 2013. In order to help achieve these savings and protect core programs, the BLS will eliminate two programs, including Mass Layoff Statistics, and all ‘measuring green jobs’ products. This news release is the final publication of monthly mass layoff survey data.”