Japan based electronics maker Toshiba, who was caught out last year cooking its own accounting books revealing that it was actually losing money (over the past seven years), is now under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  The U.S. investigation is about Toshiba’s U.S. subsidiaries lying about their revenues to avoid paying U.S. taxes, and includes the U.S. nuclear power plant maker/operator Westinghouse (which is now owned by Toshiba).  Toshiba has recently been fined a record $66-million USD by Japan’s Financial Services Agency for lying about their revenues.

Incomplete list of job loss announcements and shutdowns.

California: In Sacramento, after more than 20 years furniture store Three Women & an Armoire shutting down by April, blaming jacked up rent and jacked up competition.   In San Mateo, after 60 years Kaufmann’s Cameras shutting down due to the new landlord quadrupling the rent: “… it was very difficult finding someplace in the new economy. I almost kind of doubt we’ll open up a brick and mortar again. We’ll look for it and if we find it we’ll do it, but that’s not our thought right now.”-Warren Kaufmann

Connecticut:  The mayor of Bridgeport laid of the city’s Health Director, who says he doesn’t have the authority to do that and will sue. This is just one of many recent controversal personnel issues that the mayor’s administration claims are attempts to save money, but many critics say it’ll cost the city more money fighting legal actions.

Florida: In Naples, after 45 years, and several armed robberies, Thalheimers Jewelers shutting down due to injuries the owner suffered in a bike accident last year.

Idaho: An update on that false organic seed selling operation that ripped off dozens of farmers east of the Rockies for five years; one of the co-owners of Saul Farms/Bliss Seed pled guilty to mislabeling products.  Prosecutors say the seed sellers sold ‘inorganic’ seed at organic seed prices, getting at least $1 USD per pound more than they should have, resulting in $1.9-million USD in fraudulent sales!  And there’s even more fraud from the Christian dominated Gem State; this time illegal drugs involving a doctor and his family.  In Coeur d’Alene a doctor, his wife and his son appeared in federal court and pled not guilty to charges of running a meth/heroin/oxycodone op that covered the states of Idaho, Washington, Montana, Nevada and North Dakota!    Two of the doctor’s other children pled not guilty at an earlier court appearance.  The FBI and multiple local police agencies from several states made the bust, describing it as a massive drug running-money laundering op. The investigation also included the U.S. Border Patrol.  Local news reports say the doctor was “prominent” in the area and was part of the larger multi-state operation.  This isn’t the first time huge drug running ops have been shutdown in Idaho.

Indiana: In Fort Wayne, Gropp’s Famous Fish of Stroh shutting down  due to the retirement of the owners.  The family hopes to make money by licensing its secret recipes.

Louisiana: In Baton Rouge, restaurant supplier Ready Portion Meat shutdown their 56 years old retail operation this past Friday, and eventually will end wholesale ops as well.  It’s connected to the 2013 sale of the company to Washington based government contractor Mobius Industries.  Administrators with Mobius refused to give job loss numbers, but blame the shutdown on crashing sales to the restaurant industry, a 20% crash just last year: “We put a tremendous amount of effort into increasing sales in the last year or two and haven’t been able to get that magic to happen.”-Brian Clayton  (the claim of crashing restaurant industry sales is interesting because every year the National Restaurant Association claims sales are way up)

New York: Lack of funding and students forcing Kenmore Town of Tonawanda District to shutdown the Roosevelt and Hamilton elementary schools and Kenmore Middle School (Junior High damn it, we’re not supposed to be part of the bloody British empire!) next school year.  Local news reports say the district has been trying to figure out a way to cut taxpayer costs since 2012, and this was the best they could do.

North Carolina: The 3rd largest cigarette maker in the U.S. International Textile Group (ITG Brands) laid off 20 salaried employees in Greensboro, as part of their recent massive layoff announcement blamed on declining cigarette sales.

Ohio: In Cleveland, Playmatters Toys shutting down its 20 years old Shaker Square store.  It’s the third Playmatters store to shutdown, apparently there are only two stores left.  Don’t blame competition, local news reports say ever since 2008 dozens of mom-n-pop toy stores in the region have shutdown, Playmatters owner Michael Ziegenhagen confirmed by saying “…we had really strong years before the recession hit in 2008…”

Pennsylvania: In Philadelphia, Perch Pub shutting down next week, the building’s owner wants to construct a hotel.

South Dakota: The state level corruption investigation into the U.S. Department of Education’s GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) has revealed that contractors are lying about employment data, using old employment rosters to pad current employment numbers in order to get more taxpayer money! (in Nigeria it’s called creating Ghost Employees, and they claimed they learned it from the U.S. government) Those bogus employment records were part of contracts with “…former top officials of the state Department of Education, the University of South Dakota and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education.” What’s really scandalous is that no criminal charges have yet to be filed!

Texas: Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco are splitting up their oil refinery ops in the United States, the result is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia now controls the largest U.S. refinery located at Port Arthur!

Virginia: In Richmond, tonight is the last picture show at the 78 years old Regal Westhampton Cinemas.  Local news reports said the manager told them she was not allowed to publicly say why.

Washington DC: Independently operated Law School Transparency has revealed that only 56% of law school graduates find full employment after graduating, which challenges the official employment placement claims made by the top law schools in the U.S.

Wisconsin: Food service company and construction industry supplier Mantiwoc Company announced layoffs for their operations in Manitowoc and in the state of Pennsylvania. No numbers were given but it’s part of Mantiwoc Company’s “right sizing” which recently included the spinning off it’s construction crane maker subsidiary called Cranes.  In Milwaukee, after 28 years Paintball Dave’s shutting down due to operational costs that now exceed revenues.

Wyoming: In Casper, oil equipment maker Power Service eliminated more than 50 jobs. Administrators admitted that since 2008 they’ve been struggling to control operational costs, but the oil industry downsizing pushed them over the edge.

WARN=Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification

18 March 2016: “If the plant goes out this town will dry up!” States admit to ignoring federal unemployment laws!

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.”