Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.

Alaska: In Juneau, the nine years old Holly’s Hallmark gift store shutting down. The owner said sales went south in 2013 and got worse in 2014.

Florida: For profit Mattia College shutting down, 1-hundred jobs lost and more than 7-hundred nursing students looking for a new home.  No word on an official shutdown date, but local news says pay for teachers has been cut off!  This is the second nursing school in The Sunshine State, in the past two years, to shutdown.  The top administrator of that nursing school, Dade Medical, was recently arrested.  This is all part of the U.S. Department of Education’s crackdown on schools that promise their students ‘The Moon’.

Idaho:  More fraud in The Gem State.  The state Attorney General says a former Idaho boat builder owes customers several millions of USD after failing to deliver the boats.   The state and financier KeyBank have joined multiple customers in suing Christopher Bohenkamp, accusing him of taking customer’s money for pre-ordered boats, but then pulling stakes and moving to New York without building the boats!  It was revealed in 2015 that Bohenkamp was being sued by numerous customers for taking their money and running to The Empire State.   Fraud by hybrid and electric car owners in The Gem State as many are just now waking up to the fact that last year the state imposed additional vehicle registration fees for motorized vehicles that use very little or no petroleum based fuel.  There is now a push by the unfair tax avoiding environmentalist crooks to repeal the fees.  Here’s why owners of hybrids and electric cars are crooks; state road repair work is paid for mainly with the state tax on fuel, and partly by vehicle registration fees, if you’re driving a vehicle that doesn’t use fuel you are not paying your fair share of road maintenance tax!   The only way the state can fairly charge (pun intended) electric and hybrid car users for road maintenance is by greatly jacking up the vehicle registration fee.  As one commentator in the state of Georgia wrote “We now have a class of people (mostly well-off) who can choose to get around without having to pay the gas tax.”)   By the way, this why bicycle fanatics piss me off! They think they own the roads but they pay nothing towards maintaining the roads, especially their special ‘bike lanes’. And don’t give me your crap about ‘you drive cars too’, the roads were built for cars not pedestrians or bicycles.  In Boise, the Ada County Highway District responds to criticism about bike lanes by saying “…it’s fair to assume that bicyclists in and around downtown Boise are contributing some amount to the upkeep of Ada County roads.”  But they admit they have no way to prove that statement!  You know what they say about ass-u-me…..

Illinois:  In Alqonquin, the Stride Rite shoe store in Algonquin Commons shutting down by April.  It’s the third retailer to leave Algonquin Commons in the past 12 months.  Publisher Costar Group laying off 44 employees in Chicago, by mid-March.   God powerless to stop ‘his’ Lutheran Social Services from shutting down ‘his’ Chicago nursing home services, 109 job lost by the end of March!  Walmart shutting down two Chicago stores by mid-April, at least 110 jobs lost!  What automotive industry recovery? Danville Area Community College eliminating at least four jobs, offering early retirement and eliminating their Automotive and Sustainability programs: “These are challenging times, and it’s challenging because of the uncertainty”-Alice Jacobs, DACC President

  Sycamore School District 427 eliminating at least 56 jobs: “We see other businesses where employees are just being told to do more with less, and unfortunately, that seems to be the mentality of our state government when incomes to education.”-Jim Dombek, District 427

Missouri: Spain based bio-energy company Abengoa Bioenergy now chapter 11 bankrupt busted, affecting their administrative office in Chesterfield, and their ethanol production in the state of Illinois.  In Hannibal, after more than 50 years Kirlin’s Hallmark shutting down their Huck Finn Shopping Center gift store, blaming “today’s challenging economic climate”.

New York:  That Which Cannot Be Named powerless to stop Jewish Home Lifecare from shutting down and selling out to a competitor, 997 jobs lost by the end of May!  General Electric (GE) updated their shutdown WARN for their Fort Edward operation, 128 jobs lost between now and the end of May!  Near Star Lake, the Padgett’s Hometown IGA shutting down after 35 years of grocery sales: “Sales keep going down, expenses keep going up and I’m having a hard time just paying my bills, so it’s just time.”-Mark Padgett

Ohio: Columbus based Bravo Brio Restaurant Group is warning it must shutdown Bravo Cucina Italiana and Brio Tuscan Grille restaurants after a third straight year of revenue losses!

Texas: In Houston, Cobalt International Energy issued a layoff WARN, 50 oil industry jobs lost by the end of April.  Pioneer Natural Resources shutting down their Victoria oil ops, 148 jobs lost by mid-April!  Transocean Offshore shutdown two Gulf of Mexico rigs, 180 jobs gone!  IPSCO Tubulars issued a layoff WARN for their Chambers oil pipe ops, 112 jobs lost by the beginning of April!  In Pleasanton, C&J Energy Services eliminating 78 oil industry jobs by the beginning of April.

West Virginia: Cabell County Schools eliminating 61 jobs and transferring another 97! It’s blamed on the loss of 2-hundred students since 2014!

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

23 February 2016: “….a slowdown in the market, we can’t say for sure what will happen next.”

Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed

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.”

Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.

California: Chevron is about to layoff 237 people at its beautiful Kern County oil ops!  Administrators say it’s necessary to maintain “long-term business objectives”.

Colorado:  Missouri based mattress maker Leggett & Platt eliminating 64 jobs at its Colorado Springs factory.  The factory is being shutdown by June.

Idaho:  Despite the U.S. petroleum industry slashing-n-burning jobs and drastically cutting production, the very same industry is pushing ‘lawmakers’ to create a new law that will allow them to accelerate oil and natural gas production in The Gem State.   The proposed regulation would change the way the state Department of Lands and the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission handle the approval process for drilling.   A former manager at Aberdeen’s Idaho Select potato processing plant has been sentenced for his crime of ripping off the company.  He admitted to using company money to buy cars, homes, go on vacations, send his daughters to college and even pay his daily bills.  He must now repay $1.7-million USD within seven years, as well as spend time in prison.  Embezzlement crimes are very common here in the ‘christian’ dominated Idaho (2010 U.S. Census Bureau data says at least 80% claim to be Christians).  

Perhaps the former shed manager at the potato processor wasn’t being paid enough?  According to United Way, one in three workers in the Right to Work (you over) Idaho cannot afford to live on what they are paid!

Illinois:  Mass layoffs at Eastern Illinois University is creating what I call Ripple Effect Layoffs; the Test Center had to shut down temporarily “in order to train the remaining staff in the building to assume the duties of the lost positions”.  127 years old (surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions) Bernzen Lumber store shutting down next month.  It was sold-off due to the health problems of the owner, it’s hoped the buyer will re-open the lumber store.

Massachusetts: MassMutual Financial Group about to eliminate 360 jobs at its operations in Springfield and Enfield, despite record dividend payouts and a 9th consecutive year of growth!  Administrators would only say that the layoffs were their way to “effectively and efficiently deliver the greatest value to our policy owners”.

Michigan: What automotive industry recovery?  Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) furloughed more than 3-thousand people at its Sterling Heights factory!  They’ll be back to work in mid-March, but only for a couple of weeks when they’ll be laid off in April for an unknown amount of time!  FCA is ending production of its slow selling Chrysler 200.     Local news are also reporting that the Right to Work (you over) Michigan government has cut in half what it normally pays furloughed auto industry workers!

Minnesota:  Richfield based Best Buy continues killing jobs, this time 24 corporate HQ employees were kicked to the curb, despite that fact Best Buy is advertising that they have 90 open jobs at their HQ.  In the past few years Best Buy has eliminated at least 4-thousand jobs!

This happened in Serbia, but U.S. regulators fear it’ll happen in the U.S.

Montana: Another saw mill blames lack of trees for shutting down.  Stoltze Land and Lumber revealed they shutdown their night shift last week, due to lack of lumber to be milled.  The lack of lumber isn’t because we’ve run out of trees, rather it’s related to load limits placed on logging trucks.  The load restrictions are blamed on ‘global warming’, meaning warmer winter temps resulting in muddy roads, which are normally frozen now.

New York:  God powerless to stop ‘his’ Albany Roman Catholic Diocese from shutting down ‘his’ Saint Augustine school in  Lansingburgh.   Church leaders blamed the state government for refusing to give them taxpayer funding (which would be a violation of the U.S. 1st Amendment).  Germany based Deutsche Bank eliminating about 30 NYC jobs, blaming new laws and competition from U.S. banks.  Alternative clothing store Trash and Vaudeville shutting down its 40 years old Saint Marks Place location.  The owner blames “perpetual rent increases”.

Ohio: U.S. Department of Energy forcing Centrus Energy to shutdown operations at the American Centrifuge Project by the end of the week. However, about 150 people will remain to take part in decontaminating the nuclear energy project.  The DoE ended funding claiming it was a waste of taxpayer money.  In Cheviot, Vitor’s Bistro shutting down on Sunday, the owner blames low sales on a bad location.   The Fort Rapids Indoor Waterpark Resort and Seafood Buffet & Grill shutdown after a long history of violating local health codes, which resulted in several customers getting sick.  In Cleveland, decades old iconic the DINER on clifton shutting down next Monday, due to the greedy landlord: “We’re being thrown out on the street! Next to my parents dying this is the most stressful time of my life!   …..This feels personal when it’s something that’s been such a huge part of my life.”-Perry Drosos, operator

The landlord claims the eviction was coming for at least a year, primarily due to planned radical remodeling of the building.

Pennsylvania:  After 104 years (surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions) God is powerless to stop the shutdown of ‘his’ SS. Cosmas and Damian Church, in Conshohocken.   Church administrators say it just cost too much to maintain the old building, proving that the real ‘god’ is money.

South Dakota: Yes Virginia, franchised Blockbuster video stores still exist, but no longer in Rapid City.  The last franchised Blockbuster store there is now dead.  The corporate operated stores all shutdown in 2011.

Texas: Houston based oil driller Schlumberger eliminated at least 25-thousand jobs in 2015, claiming it was losing money due to low prices, then paid its CEO a bonus of $18-million USD, which was the same amount the CEO got for his 2014 bonus!  How does low prices kill 25-thousand jobs, yet has no effect on the CEO’s bonus?

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

20-21 February 2016: “We need more time to….heal…”

Former employees who receive severance are not counted as unemployed

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.”