skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, December 23, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Bill Clinton is hospitalized for observation and testing after developing a fever; Biden commutes most federal death sentences before Trump takes office; Proposed post office 'slowdown' threatens rural Americans; Report: Tax credits shrink poverty for NM's kids, families; Tiny plastic pieces enter the body in ways you'd never think of.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Biden commutes the sentences of most federal death row inmates, the House Ethics Committee says former Rep. Gaetz may have committed statutory rape and the national archivist won't certify the ERA without Congressional approval.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural folks could soon be shut out of loans for natural disasters if Project 2025 has its way, Taos, New Mexico weighs options for its housing shortage, and the top states providing America's Christmas trees revealed.

Thousands in Wisconsin Could Lose Federal Unemployment Benefits

play audio
Play

Tuesday, December 3, 2013   

MADISON, Wis. – There could be a lump of coal in the Christmas stockings of tens of thousands of Wisconsinites.

A new analysis by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Budget Project says 24,000 Wisconsinites could lose extended federal benefits at the end of December.

"Then, over the next six months another about 42,000 Wisconsinites will exhaust their state-funded unemployment benefits and not have the federally funded unemployment benefits to move to,” says Tamarine Cornelius, who compiled the report. “So total over the next six months about 66,000 Wisconsinites will be affected."

Cornelius puts that number in perspective.

"That's about as many people as live in the city of Eau Claire,” she points out. “And for many of those people unemployment benefits are their only source of income."

Wisconsin and many other states pay unemployment benefits for a maximum of 26 weeks, but if the federal extension of 28 additional weeks in Wisconsin is allowed to end, Cornelius says a lot of people will feel the pinch.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, eliminating federal unemployment benefits would cost the national economy 310,000 jobs next year.

Cornelius says unemployment checks go right back into the economy.

"Unemployment benefits are one of the most reliable forms of boosting a sagging economy,” she explains. “That's because people who get unemployment benefits spend it right away on things like groceries and clothes and housing and other necessities."

The analysis shows Wisconsin's rural northern counties will be hardest-hit. Cornelius says it's too early to end federal unemployment benefits.

"The economy is still not in a place, job creation is still not in a place where we want to be where we can cut off federal unemployment benefits,” she maintains. “More than a third of jobless workers have been unemployed for six months or more and the average unemployed worker has been looking for a job for 36 weeks."




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The Federal Trade Commission reported older adults are less likely to report scams than those ages 18-59. Because the majority of fraud cases are not reported, the commission estimates national losses last year alone may be as high as $61.5 billion. (fizkes/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

The holidays are the busiest time of the year for many people, including scammers. Oregonians lost $136 million to holiday shopping scams last year…


Environment

play sound

Across Pennsylvania and other northern U.S. states, climate change -- from burning oil, coal and methane gas -- is increasing the number of winter …

Social Issues

play sound

Alabama is part of a national program aimed at diversifying early childhood education. The Enriching Public Pre-K Through Inclusion of Family Child …


Six million U.S. students attend a school where there is a School Resource Officer but no school psychologist on staff, according to a Brookings Institution report. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

West Virginia schools' reliance on zero-tolerance policies are driving more kids into the juvenile justice system - with lifelong consequences…

Social Issues

play sound

Recent changes to Florida's education laws have removed information on consent, contraceptives and prenatal development from many health lessons at …

Surveys by the National Alliance on Mental Illness have found 64% of people living with some form of mental illness say the holidays tend to make their conditions worse. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

If you find yourself in a less than festive mood this holiday season, you are not alone. In Wisconsin, the recent school shooting tragedy in Madison …

Environment

play sound

By Jennifer Oldham for Civil Eats.Broadcast version by Eric Galatas for Colorado News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public…

Environment

play sound

From declining commodity prices to unpredictable weather, American farmers are at a crossroads - especially smaller operations. And they're …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021