Tag Archives: oil

Business/Economics

“I can’t believe it’s…the end.” No more Sears? Washington booze tax makes big sales in Idaho & Oregon! Old Navy shocks the ‘experts’! : U.S. Job Losses & Closings 09 February 2016

Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.

France based clothier Comptoir des Cotonniers shutting down all three(?) of its U.S. stores.  Reports say the stores will be shutdown by the end of the month, and one store has already closed for good.

California:  More proof you brick-n-mortar store owners can’t blame the internet for your demise; after 13 years Santa Monica based internet video game new media pioneer Game Trailers shutdown.  In 2014 Game Trailers was taken over by Defy Media, which immediately began killing jobs.  One report said the remaining employees were not warned about the sudden shutdown.   And then there’s Sunnyvale based Yahoo which is shutting down its BOSS (Build Your Own Search Service) in March.  Administrators say it’s because they need to “streamline and simplify”.  San Francisco based GAP owned Old Navy brand clothing store revealed that the last two months of the Xmas holiday shopping season of 2015 was its worst ever for record setting sales declines.  But then in January 2016 Old Navy suffered a 6% sales decline from December!  The news shocked clothing retail ‘expert’ analysts.  What housing market recovery?  San Francisco based Too Big to Jail Wells Fargo eliminating an additional 581 mortgage related jobs across the U.S.!

Georgia: In Thomasville, after 71 years hunting supply store Stafford’s shutting down. The store is for sale, the owner wants to retire.

Illinois:  Hoffman Estates based Sears Holdings announced it will “accelerate” the shutdown of 50 more Sears and Kmart stores, blaming continued crashing sales.

Indiana:  In South Bend, 88 years old (surviving The Great Depression and numerous recessions) Dainty Maid Bake Shop shutting down this weekend due to the death of the owner.  The popular shop is for sale and the employees hope any potential buyer will re-open it.

Maryland:  In Hagerstown, the last Hometown Gifts Hallmark store shutting down.  At one point there were six Hometown Gifts Hallmark stores in the ‘tri-state’ area.

Massachusetts:  Price Chopper shutting down the New Adams grocery store by the end of the month, 57 jobs lost.  Administrators basically said it wasn’t worth it to keep the food store open.

New Hampshire: More proof brick-n-motors can’t blame the internet for their demise; internet security company DataGravity laid off an undisclosed number of people, in an effort to cut $850-million USD costs.

Oklahoma: Employees of oil company TD Williamson went to local news media to reveal they’d been laid off without warning.  One employee said he was escorted off the work site within 15 minutes of showing up.  TD Williamson only confirmed the layoffs after being questioned by local news media, but refused to give numbers.

Pennsylvania: In State College, long time The Shoe Fly (aka The Shoe Box) shutting down because “When the numbers don’t work for five to ten more years, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”  Northwest Bank shutting down three York County offices by the end of April.

Tennessee: After a wave of mass layoffs across several states aluminum maker Noranda now chapter 11 bankrupt busted and selling-off part of its operations.

Texas: Pennsylvania based oil company Sunoco eliminating 161 corporate jobs from its Corpus Christi based Stripes convenience store chain!  Apparently it has to do with the Stripes HQ being moved from Corpus Christi to Dallas, starting in April.   In Pleasanton, C&J Well Services laying off 78 oil workers.   Massachusetts based Thermo Fisher Scientific issued a shutdown WARN for their Houston operations, 67 jobs lost by April.  Last year they shutdown their Sugar Land operation.  The bio-tech company is consolidating operations.

Washington:  After creating booze selling ‘privatization’ rules which jacked up the cost (including taxes) of your favorite hard drink by 15% new data shows that the idiot ‘lawmakers’ of The Evergreen State actually drove booze buyers into neighboring Oregon and Idaho.  The Idaho State Liquor Division credits at least 7% of its state run store sales to buyers from Washington.  For Oregon the jump in hard drink sales was even bigger, with ten border booze stores reporting between 17% and 67% increase in sales to Washingtonians since 2011!  After 35 years Shields Floral Boutique in Hazel Dell shutting down, and not because the owner wants to: “It really kills me to do this. I can’t believe it’s at the end.”-Carol Shields

Fort Hunter Liggett chow hall. I spent a few California National Guard summer training seasons at Hunter Liggett, very scenic.

Washington DC: The U.S. Army announced it must shutdown, or reduce in size, one out of every three chow halls due to “changing soldier demographics, satisfy soldier desire for selection/taste or nutritional requirements … or meet commander mission requirements”.

West Virginia:  McDowell County Board of Education eliminating 30 jobs due to losing $1.5-million in state and local tax funding, caused by losing an average of 1-hundred students per year!  (that’s what I call Disappearing Students Syndrome)

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

07 – 08 February 2016: “This agency has run amok!”  

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.”

Idaho

Saudi Arabia cuts funding for Idaho State students!

09 February 2016 (14:24 UTC-07 Tango 01) / 20 Bahman 1394/29 Rabi’a’-Thani 1437/02 Geng Yin 4714

Pocatello, Idaho, is home to Idaho State University (ISU) which readily admitted last year that the majority of their ‘international’ students come from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Kuwait.

ISU also revealed that it suffered a net decline of more than 6-hundred students, even with an increase in students from KSA.  Now the oil rich country of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is losing its financial ass, caused by crashing oil prices which are the result of Iran boosting oil production (on purpose, I recently wrote how Iranian oil administrators said they could make a profit even if oil sunk to $10 per barrel!), and as a result is slashing their higher education funding for Saudi students attending foreign universities.

CNN reports the 12% reduction in funding will force many Saudi students to end their studies in the U.S. as 90% of Saudis attending foreign schools are doing so on their government’s oil revenues.  Not good news for a struggling U.S. higher education system that’s been losing domestic students for the past several years.

Business/Economics, Idaho

“This agency has run amok!” Nebraska shuts down 160 restaurants! No more University of Phoenix! The Rapture shutters 100 Chicago churches! : U.S. Job Losses & Closings 07 – 08 February 2016

Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.

Alabama: What real estate market recovery? Birmingham continues to crash & burn as news reports say an additional 6-thousand 5-hundred square feet of retail space is now available for rent or sale.  That’s because Cosi Restaurant and advertising agency Centigrade are refusing to renew their leases.

Arizona: In Tucson, after 38 years Navajo Rug Repair shutting down so the owners can retire.  They tried to sell the successful business but there were no buyers.  Phoenix based Apollo Education Group selling off its failing University of Phoenix after losing more than 50-thousand students in 2015!  The loss of students was the result of the U.S. Department of Education investigating claims of false promises of finding jobs after graduation, and the U.S. Department of Defense banning military personnel from taking University of Phoenix courses!

Florida:  Forever 21 issued a shutdown WARN for their Jacksonville store number 6002, about 63 jobs lost by mid-March.

Idaho: After jacking up the state fuel tax in 2015 (claiming there wasn’t enough money for never ending road work) state ‘lawmakers’ revealed the federal government increased 2016 federal funding for Idaho road repairs by $16-million USD!  Watchdog group Boise Guardian has revealed that the state Department of Corrections is short-changing county jails for housing state level prisoners.  The state pays counties about $45 per inmate per day, less than the cost of a cheap hotel/motel.  The result is that county level taxpayers are picking up the slack, on top of paying for their own county level prisoners!

Illinois:   Reports say Alliance Partners notified about 235 coal miners that they’ll be losing their jobs due to “Prolonged weak market conditions…”!   God seems oblivious as ‘his’ Archdiocese of Chicago threatens to shutdown at least 1-hundred churches (parishes) due to lack of money, lack of priests and The Rapture, I mean lack of church goers.

Indiana: In South Bend, after 20 years Top Notch Restaurant & Bakery shutdown.  News reports say it will be replaced with a grocery store.  But don’t get excited, the new grocery store is actually an old grocery store moving to a new location, so it’s a net loss of jobs.

Kansas: In Topeka, the Dillions grocery store on Huntoon Street shutting down this week.  City administrators are fearful of increased food insecurity based on U.S. Department of Agriculture data that says residents in the area around the Dillions are now living in a “food desert”.

Kentucky:  Reports say Alliance Partners notified at least 40 coal miners that they’ll be losing their jobs due to “Prolonged weak market conditions…”.

Massachusetts: Federally created ISO New England is warning of huge electricity rate increases for the ‘New England’ states; $3-billion USD in 2017 and $4-billion in 2018, due to shutdowns of outdated power plants.  In Lee, Wave Systems now chapter 7 bankrupt busted.  Administrators said they even tried to sell the data protection software company but nobody wanted to buy.  Chapter 7 usually means the company is officially dead.

Michigan:  In Kalamazoo,  after 40 years Van Sweden Jewelers shutting down in May.  The owner lost two primary employees at the end of last year and tried to sell the store, but nobody wants it.

Montana:  Washington based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) estimates that shutting down its coal fired Colstrip power plant will cost $200-million USD (of course the cost will be passed onto utility customers).  Reports say PSE want it shutdown by 2022, as well as wanting to sell off its newer power plants.  Environmentalists think the clean-up costs will hit $500-million.  There was no mention of the economic-employment impact to the small city of Colstrip.

Nebraska:  Douglas County must have an economic suicide wish as they’re shutting down 160 food joints, for operating without a license!  Administrators with the county Health Department claim they do it every year as licenses lapse, however, the interim prosecutor for the city of Omaha says as far as he knows such an operation has never been “enforced”.  Chris Janicek, the owner of Cupcake Omaha and Cake Box, exclaimed “This agency has run amok!”

New Jersey: Moonachie based bankrupt clothier Joyce Leslie announced it will shutdown all 42 stores: “Unfortunately, our efforts to find a strategic partner to help save the business were not successful. We are saddened to say that we now have to close our doors after 65 years.”-Celia Clancy, ceo

New York:  Professional Transportation Incorporated (PTI) issued a WARN, however, at this point the state Department of Labor has failed to publish the details of the WARN.

Ohio: In West Chester, after 68 years bakery supplies maker Bakery Crafts shutting down, 119 jobs lost starting in April!

Virginia: In Richmond, Pier 1 Imports shutting down their store on West Broad Street, by March.  In Lynchburg, after less than three years locally made handicrafts store Pastiche shutting down.

West Virginia: For the third time in the past month bankrupt coal miner Alpha Natural Resources conducting more mass layoffs.  This time 230 people will loss their jobs!  Last week 93 people lost their jobs and last month 831 people were laid off!

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

05-06 February 2016: 74 restaurants shutdown without warning! Another company admits it “over-hired” in 2015!

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.”

International

Iran rescues NATO member Greece!

08 February 2016 (02:28 UTC-07 Tango 01) / 19 Bahman 1394/28 Rabi’a’-Thani 1437/01 Geng Yin 4714

“Greece will become an energy, economic and trade bridge between Iran and European Union.”-Alexis Tsipras, prime minister of Greece

After thousands of years the Iranian empire finally captures Greece!

In an historic visit to Iran, the prime minister of NATO and European Union member Greece will sign a ground breaking Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) with the government of Iran!

Alexis Tsipras wants deals that cover just about everything from oil to food to technology.  Obviously the European Union’s and the IMF’s and World Bank’s forced bailout loans and austerity measures have failed.

Iran rejects U.S. Dollar for oil payments!

International

Cry Me a River: Conflicting reports about refugees & migrants flooding into Europe!

07 February 2016 (10:57 UTC-07 Tango 01) / 18 Bahman 1394/27 Rabi’a’-Thani 1437/29 Wu Yin 4713

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) claims an ‘estimated’ 68,023 migrants and/or refugees flooded into Europe in January.  Some European news sources are claiming this to be an increase in migration, however, a German newspaper published a conflicting report.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reports that in January there was an actual decrease in the number of Syrians coming into Germany, and a slight increase of people seeking asylum from Afghanistan and Iraq.  Many other migrants are coming from the Balkans (in Europe) or North Africa.

The newspaper used data from the European Union’s own European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (aka FRONTEX).  Apparently as many as 40% of the people coming into Europe are not considered war refugees, but economic migrants and cannot qualify for political asylum.

Refugees flooding into Europe could increase as NATO member Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus warned that his country had “reached the limit of its capacity to absorb the refugees.”

However, as I’ve written before tiny Lebanon is ‘hosting’ an overwhelming majority of war refugees from Syria.  So the Europeans and Turks can go cry me a river!

Business/Economics

74 restaurants shutdown without warning! Another company admits it “over-hired” in 2015! : U.S. Job Losses & Closings 05 – 06 February 2016

Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.

According to some reports, 70% of the jobs ‘created’ in January were minimum wage, temp jobs!   The so called increase in wages was a piddly-ass half a percent (0.05%) compared to December!

California:  More proof the internet is not recession resistant; San Francisco based Indiegogo admitted it eliminated an undisclosed number of jobs “A few weeks ago…..to invest in growth.” (it used to be that layoffs were not seen as a sign of growth)  And San Francisco based Marinello School of Beauty shutting down its 56 schools across the U.S., due to it being caught ripping off the U.S. Department of Education!  In Oxnard, after 27 years frozen veggie food maker Coastal Green Vegetable shutting down, 137 jobs lost by March!  The owners blamed currency wars, crashing sales and gave out a list of increasing costs; water, regulations, wages and ObamaCare health care.  In Malibu, expensive clothier Banana Republic shutting down, the general manager said the high rent is not justified.  In Redding, God refuses to stop ‘his’ Simpson University from laying off ten people.  Administrators blame The Rapture, I mean crashing enrollment of students which I call Disappearing Students Syndrome.

Delaware: What housing market recovery? Without warning, Too Big to Jail Capital One eliminated more than 1-hundred jobs at its mortgage operations in Wilmington.

Georgia: Fayette County Schools laying off 18 people. Administrators say the layoffs are not connected to the fact the school system is lacking money, but that student enrollment has declined by 1-hundred!  God refusing to stop the shutdown of ‘his’ British empire based Salvation Army second hand Family Store in Decatur.  But it’s not due to lack of sales, instead the heating system in the building never works so they’re looking for a new location.

Hawaii: In Honolulu, Tsukiji Fish Market and Restaurant shutdown due to the landlord demanding the keys to the store by Monday.  The landlord is one of my former evil employers, GGP (General Growth Properties).  A rep for the operator of the restaurant said there were three years left on the lease.

Illinois: Sycamore School District 427 says it must eliminate a yet to be determined number of teaching jobs, as part of their three year plan to reduce expenses.  Administrators blame “financial constraints and unknown enrollment”.  TFC Bank replacing 33 offices with ATM machines.  Number of jobs being killed was not disclosed.

Kentucky:  Delta Airlines eliminating 120 jobs and reducing hours for another 185 at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport!  Administrators claim they “over-hired” in 2015.  Alliance Coal warning of another 75 layoffs at several of its mines.

Louisiana: California based Chevron eliminating 385 jobs between April and June!  Chevron revealed it is selling off its oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico.  While The Empire State of New York bribed Alcoa to stop mass layoffs there, the cash strapped state of Louisiana isn’t so lucky.  Alcoa eliminating dozens of jobs at its Lake Charles operations, on top of the 130 job cuts announced back in September!

Michigan:  The Bradley Kmart has a new owner who is shutting it down.  Retailer Meijer bought the Kmart property for $5-million USD. The Kmart will be shutdown in May, but the new Meijer store won’t be ready until 2018.

Minnesota: Egan based Ovation Brands suddenly shutdown 74 restaurants!  Apparently the only warning was given back in August when company administrators warned they were about to begin shutting down ‘underperforming’ restaurants (August is also when Ovation Brands was taken over by Food Management Partners).  The shutdown restaurants include Home Town Buffet (three just in the San Francisco area of California), Old Country Buffet, Ryan’s, Fire Mountain and Country Buffet (as opposed to Old Country Buffet?).

New Jersey:  New York Life Insurance issued a WARN, 70 people in Lebanon and Parsippany losing their jobs by April.

New York: Despite a massive taxpayer funded bribe to stop the mass layoffs at Alcoa’s Massena operations (as I reported back in November), Alcoa will still layoff 37 unlucky employees by the end of the month.

Oklahoma:  Without warning oil exploration company Helmerich & Payne laid off about 40 employees in Tusla.

Ohio:  The 28 years old Sears and its Auto Center in New Philadelphia shutting down by mid-April, 46 jobs lost.

Oregon: Perfect example of what I call Ripple Effect Layoffs (REL); in Springfield, after 32 years Thurston Book Exchange shutting down.  The owner blames loss of customer traffic on the shutdown of the next door Haggen grocery store (which was caused by Haggen being tricked into buying up hundreds of failing Albertsons grocery stores).

Pennsylvania: In Heidelberg, after 63 years Target Cleaners shutting down.  The owners say their business is great, but they need to retire.  Customers (including schools and churches) are upset because Target Cleaners is one of the last dry cleaners in the area.

Texas:  Houston based natural gas company Ryckman Creek Resources and its sibling company Peregrine Rocky Mountains both chapter 11 bankrupt busted.  Operations in Colorado and Wyoming could be affected.

Virginia: Genworth has halted its life insurance operations and as a result 330 employees  will become unemployed starting within 60 days of now!

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

04 February 2016: “…deteriorating beyond repair for…several years.” Layoffs skyrocket 218%! 

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.”

International

Takes One to Know One: Government anti-terrorism advisor turns out to be a Terrorist?

06 February 2016 (14:28 UTC-07 Tango 01) / 17 Bahman 1394/26 Rabi’a’-Thani 1437/28 Wu Yin 4713

A man who advised several United Kingdom prime ministers, and even George W. Bush, about fighting terrorism has made an elitist list of potential terrorists himself!

Liberal Democrat Maajid Nawaz advised Tony Blair (convicted war criminal), Gordon Brown and the current PM of U.K. David Cameron.  He co-founded a group known as Quilliam Foundation which is supposedly anti-radical Islam, however, Nawaz is himself on the privately managed terrorist watch-list-to-the-elites known as World-Check.

World-Check was started in 1999 (yes, two years before 9-11) by U.K. based news media outlet Thomson Reuters to provide wealthy clients with a ‘risk managment’ tool to identify possible ‘risky’ individuals or organizations.

This revelation was revealed by U.K. internet news source VICE News.  Their investigation actually focused on the perviously secret World-Check list. 

Nawaz even thanked VICE News on his Twitter account for revealing the list with his name on it.  It turns out that in Nawaz’s distant past he was a member of a group that became labeled as a terrorist organization, but he swears he is no longer part of it.

VICE News says World-Check now lists at least 2.7-million terror suspects, and that since 2007 the number of individuals and groups being accused by Thomson Reuters of being terrorists jumped five-fold.

The World-Check list is not just used by the elites and their Too Big to Jail banks, but by your government.  Did you make the list?

African countries refuse to arrest Convicted War Criminals Bush Jr & Blair

International

Catholic & Orthodox churches to unite, thanks to Islamic State!

05 February 2016 (16:22 UTC-07 Tango 01) / 16 Bahman 1394/25 Rabi’a’-Thani 1437/27 Wu Yin 4713

For the first time in 962 years the leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox ‘christian’ churches will officially meet, next week in Cuba!

Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill will meet to discuss an end to the Great Schism which began in the Gregorian year 1054.  Reports say a major motivation for re-unification is the U.S., U.K., Israeli, Saudi created Islamic State-ISIS-ISIL-DAIISH (DA for al-DAwla, I for al-Islamiya, I for al-Iraq, SH al-SHam [al-Sham=Syria]).

However, I’ve documented that Pope Francis is part of a group that has been pining to bring all ‘christian’ denominations under the control of the Vatican.

Pope says Christians will be united through bloody persecution! 

coming Civil War among Christians and failure of the War with Islam 

International

Iran refuses U.S. Dollar for oil payments!

05 February 2016 (15:54 UTC-07 Tango 01) / 16 Bahman 1394/25 Rabi’a’-Thani 1437/27 Wu Yin 4713

“In our invoices we mention a clause that buyers of our oil will have to pay in euros……  Iran shifted to the euro and cancelled trade in dollars because of political reasons.”-unnamed administrator with National Iranian Oil Company

The true reason the U.S. invaded Iraq was because Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti stopped taking U.S. dollars for oil, and started taking euros.  The true reason the U.S. and U.K. allowed the destruction of a stable Libya was because Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi  refused to join the U.S. created United States African Command, and wanted to create a new African currency based on gold.

Now the National Iranian Oil Company has signed a deal with several European oil companies in which the U.S. dollar is banned!  Only euros will be used.

Not only does Iran want euros for oil payments, but all past international debts now owed to Iran under the nuclear agreement must be paid in euros.

Wells Fargo home foreclosures covering bad U.S. oil industry debts

Iran to push oil to $10 per barrel! U.S. to impose new sanctions! 

Destroy U.S. Dollar: China & Iran deal in Rial & Yuan, only? 

Proof the oil industry is full of shit, oil company hands out $100,000 bonus to all employees! 

Destroy U.S. Dollar: U.S. petrodollar meet the new Iran Petroleum Contract! 

Louisiana movie theater shooting….Oil industry involved? 

man who helped the U.S. & U.K. assasinate Gaddafi is tortured to death!

U.S. ambassador to Libya assassinated, blowback for assasinating Gaddafi! 

Libyan Rebel leader says Western Powers wanted Gaddafi killed, because of his knowledge of the evil secrets of Europe & United States 

NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTS LIBYA NOT INVOLVED WITH PAN AM LOCKERBIE BOMBING! GADDAFI WAS INNOCENT?

Gaddafi died after being stabbed with a bayonet in the anus and not in a firefight as originally claimed

U.S. & U.K. were paying Gaddafi to torture suspects in the U.S. led War on Terror 

Western sanctions not about Iran’s nuclear industry…it’s all about controling the international oil market 

Gaddafi right, Rebelion came from outside, not Arab Spring!

Business/Economics, Idaho

“…deteriorating beyond repair for…several years.” Layoffs skyrocket 218%! Idaho beggars for donations! : U.S. Job Losses & Closings 04 February 2016

Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.

Arizona: In Yuma, a local business is blaming currency wars for its demise.  After two years restaurant Carnivores of Yuma shutting down due to lack of Snow Birds from Canada.  The Canadian dollar has dropped in value against the U.S. dollar, making it too expensive for many Canadians to travel within the United States.  I lived in hot-as-hell Yuma for almost two years and I can tell you that Snow Birds from the north, during winter, are a major source of revenue for local mom-n-pops.  The rest of the year revenues come from taxpayer funded Yuma Marine Corps Air Station and Yuma Army Proving Grounds.

Arkansas:  In Little Rock, non-profit Lewis Burnett Employment Finders shutting down after 29 years of helping former prisoners find jobs.  It’s blamed on health problems of the founder.

Connecticut: Governor Dannel Malloy is calling for the elimination of thousands of state jobs, by July!  The gov’na also wants cuts to state benefits and pay in order to cut $500-million USD from the state budget.   The first state employees to be laid off will be non-union members.  Ohio based Xpect Discounts shutting down the last three of its stores in The Constitution State, 178 jobs lost by April!

Florida: BlackBerry issued a WARN for its Sunrise factory, 75 jobs lost by the end of the month.

Idaho: It’s been revealed that state Department of Parks and Recreation has been running on $70-thousand USD in private donations after running out of normal fees and taxpayer funding!  The majority of the donations came from corporations Airstream and Cabela’s.  State ‘lawmakers’ allowed Parks & Rec to beggar for donations last year, in order to offset massive state funding cuts.

Illinois: Chicago based employment analysts Challenger, Grey & Christmas report a 218% increase in U.S. job losses from December 2015 to January 2016! Even compared year to year (January 2015 vs January 2016) U.S. layoffs jumped 43%!

Indiana: In Fort Wayne, drugs pusher Walgreens shutting down their 20 years old store on Pettit Avenue.  But don’t cry, local news reports say Walgreens has a monopoly on the Fort Wayne market, with at least 15 other drug pushing stores in the city.

Iowa: What automotive industry recovery?  Ireland based Eaton announced it’s no longer worth it to continue its transmission factory in Shenandoah, 250 jobs lost within six months!  Local news reported that at one point there were at least 1-thousand employees at the factory, between October 2015 and now hundreds were let go! 

Kansas: After 50 years friend to unwanted pets Merriam Great Plains SPCA’s Lost Pet & Intake Center shutting down by the end of the month: “After being the center point of animal welfare in Johnson County for 50 years, the building just simply can’t keep up with the volume of animals. It’s been deteriorating beyond repair for the past several years.”-Courtney Thomas, CEO

Michigan:   Flint based McLaren Medical Group eliminating 89 jobs by April.  The layoffs will hit medical operations in four cities.  In Muskegon County, maker of printing inks and paints SunChemical laid off 20 employees without warning, and then had them escorted off the work site.

New York: CNN forcing Maslow Media Group to issue a shutdown WARN for several NYC locations, 97 jobs lost by the end of April.

North Carolina: California based Too Big to Jail Wells Fargo continues to kill jobs, this time 87 people in Raleigh losing their jobs to “better align with current market volumes.”

Ohio: Oil pipe maker TMK-IPSCO laying off 106 employees, in Brookfield, within 60 days!

Pennsylvania: Texas based upChuck Cheese, I mean Chuck E. Cheese pizza joint shutting down in the Clearview Mall by the end of March.

South Carolina: South State Bank shutting down two Orangeburg offices, as part of bigger plans to shutdown offices across South Carolina and Georgia.  It’s the result of South State Bank taking over failed Bank of America offices in 2015.

Tennessee: What automotive industry recovery? In Bristol DlhBOWLES shutting down, 1-hundred jobs lost by April!  The company makes parts for the automotive and other industries, the shutdown is the result of two companies merging;  DLH and Bowles Fluidics.

Texas: In Austin, restaurant Arro shutting down on Friday, apparently it’s being turned into a bar.

Virginia: Catabwa Hospital shutting down as part of the governor’s plan to shutdown mental health hospitals.

Washington DC: National debt now at record $19-trillion USD!  $1-trillion in debt added in the past 13 months!

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

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.”