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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

More Than an Act of Congress Needed to Extend Florida Unemployment Benefits

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Friday, July 16, 2010   

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - As early as Monday, Senate leaders in Washington could vote to re-authorize extended unemployment benefits, but Florida workers won't receive those benefits unless state law is changed. That's according to Florida AFL-CIO executive director Rich Templin, who says state law currently has an expiration date of June 5 for Floridians to qualify; he's calling on the legislature to fix the problem during next week's special session by dropping that cut-off date.

Templin says that according to the Agency for Workforce Innovation, 35,000 Floridians exhaust their unemployment benefits every week, losing what he calls a vital lifeline.

"It's not just a lifeline for individual workers and their families; it's also a lifeline for communities because every worker who exhausts their unemployment benefit is a lost customer to local business."

Templin says the unemployment program was built during the Great Depression to give unemployed workers buying power, which helped keep business afloat. He says it's needed now as much as ever.

"We're seeing people unemployed for such a long period of time because the jobs are just not in the marketplace to put them to work."

Templin says every unemployment benefit dollar generates 1.6 dollars in economic activity.

"So, Florida is looking to lose $470 million of economic activity in the state by not extending this program, assuming the federal government acts, which again we have every indication that they will."

The federal law would provide 100 percent of funding for workers who have exhausted regular state benefits, an estimated $290 million. State legislative leaders are waiting to see if Congress approves the extension before they include unemployment benefits in the upcoming special session.



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