Scholarships Grants

Sacramento, CA, United States (AHN) – Teachers in the Golden State began a week-long effort on Monday to urge lawmakers to prevent more education cuts by extending current taxes.

Members of the 325,000-strong California Teachers Association and other allied groups gathered at the Crest Theatre at the state capitol to protest an all-cuts budget that has resulted from an impasse between the governor and Republican lawmakers.

The protests under a campaign called “state of emergency” are scheduled to continue the rest of the week.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a budget reducing spending by $12 billion to plug a record $26.6 billion deficit. His proposal includes a $1.4 billion cut to higher education, and requires a June ballot to extend taxes expiring this summer.

The tax extensions are the main source of revenue in the proposal, and would prevent further cuts to education.

Under the state constitution, tax extensions require the approval of two Republicans from the Assembly and two from the Senate before a special election is held. Unions are now asking lawmakers to pass the tax extensions themselves since the deadline for putting the proposal on the June ballot passed last month.

The governor ended negotiations with Republicans after what he said was “an ever changing list of collateral demands” in return for support for a special election, such as giving a $1 billion tax break to out-of-state corporations so the companies would bring jobs to California.

The state GOP, however, said that Brown had agreed to the demands but backtracked after unions expressed opposition.

A budget that does not continue the 2009 taxes will double the cuts for community colleges to $800 million. In addition, California State University officials have warned that an all-cuts budget could lead to a reduction of $1 billion, or 35 percent of state funding, that in turn would result in higher tuition and reduced enrollment.

State Finance Director Ana Matosantos said last Friday that tax receipts were higher than anticipated but that current efforts to address the deficit should continue.

“We have to account for lost savings based on the timing of the Legislature’s actions to-date on the Governor’s January proposal,” she said.

Matosantos added that officials are working with the governor to revise the budget on the revenue side as well as the spending side. Brown is scheduled to present the updated proposal next Monday.

View full post on Education Stories

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The number of jobless Americans filing first time claims for unemployment compensation benefits fell by 6,000 to 388,000 for the week ending March 26, the Labor Department said Thursday.

While the weekly number fell, the four-week moving average rose slightly by 3,250 claimants to 394,250, from the previous week’s revised average of 391,000. The jobless rate bounces around slightly from week-to-week, but it has generally been trending downward since the beginning of the year.

The percentage of unemployed Americans covered by unemployment compensation insurance remained stable at 3 percent for the week ending March 19, unchanged from the previous week.

The number of people filing ongoing claims for jobless benefits dropped by a modest 51,000 claims to 3,714,000 during the week ending March 19, the most recent week that data is available.

A total of 8,770,443 Americans claimed benefits in all jobless programs for the week ending March 12, the latest week for which such data is available.

In addition, extended benefits were available in 35 states and the District of Columbia for the week ending March 12. That number has remained stable since last year.

Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

View full post on Labor Stories

Sacramento, CA, United States (AHN) – California’s community colleges could turn away more than 400,000 students next year because Republican lawmakers refused to let voters decide in a June ballot whether to temporarily extend taxes.

Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed a budget cutting spending by $12 billion, including $400 million for the state’s 112 community colleges.

The plan also called for tax extensions, which under the state constitution requires the approval of two Republicans from the Assembly and two from the Senate before a special election.

The governor, a Democrat who served two terms as governor three decades ago, had been in negotiations with the GOP about the tax extensions since announcing his budget two months ago. Talks broke down on Wednesday, after what Brown said was “an ever changing list of collateral demands” from Republicans.

Without a June ballot to approve the revenue-generating extensions, Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott quickly warned that an “all-cuts budget” would “devastate our ability to train th[e] workforce.”

A budget that does not continue 2009 taxes expiring this year will double the cuts for community colleges to $800 million. This reduction would force some districts to offer fewer classes in the summer and fall and deny access to 400,000 students, the same number enrolled in the state university system.

The state has already increased fees at community colleges for the fall from $26 to $36 per unit. Fees could rise to $66 if an all-cuts budget is approved, preventing even more students to attend a community college.

Brown continued to seek support from Republicans while calling them out for demands that he said would undermine the budget, such as giving a $1 billion tax break to out-of-state corporations so the companies would bring jobs to California.

In a letter to state Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton on Wednesday, he said, “Democrats have swallowed hard and done their part—they have approved painful cuts… I was very surprised (and frankly, disappointed) that you came today with a very long list of demands (53 separate proposals), many of which are new and have no relationship whatsoever to the budget.”

The demands included moving the U.S. presidential primary to March and extending taxes for only a year and a half instead of five years.

California, the world’s eighth-largest economy and the nation’s most populous state, is facing a $26.6 billion deficit. Last month, Brown slashed the number of state-owned vehicles and cell phones by 50 percent and ordered a hiring freeze to help end the budget crisis.

Republicans say the governor’s budget plan actually has only $7 billion of cuts, a small sum compared to the $60 billion from tax extensions, and far from a balanced proposal.

“Gov. Brown and the Dems can’t have it both ways,” GOP state chair Tom Del Beccaro said in a statement. “They asked for ideas — and then complained there were too many. They wanted specific budget solutions — and then complained there were too many details.”

“The list that Republican leadership gave the governor… included a number of proposals to which Brown has publicly agreed — but obviously angered the public unions that control our state government,” Beccaro added. “Not coincidentally, Brown, unlike Democrat Andrew Cuomo of New York, is refusing to reduce the state bureaucracy — demonstrating that he values bureaucracy more than essential services.”

View full post on Education Stories

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Both the number of Americans filing first time jobless claims and the number filing ongoing claims have dropped, the Department of Labor announced Thursday.

Initial unemployment claims filed during the week ending March 12 were 385,000, representing a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 401,000.

The four-week moving average dropped to its lowest rate since July 2008. It was 386,250, a decrease of 7,000

Ongoing jobless benefits claims dropped by 80,000 to 3,706,000 during the week ending March 5, the most recent week for which data is available. That was below the 3,750,000 continuing claims economists had expected and it was the lowest number of continuing claims since September 2008.

Although the amount of time that individuals can claim jobless benefits varies by state, the maximum benefit period in 99 weeks. In addition, not every jobless American qualifies for unemployment benefits. The percentage of Americans covered by the unemployment insurance compensation program remained unchanged at 3.0 percent for the week ending March 5.

For the week ending Feb. 26, the number of people claiming benefits in all jobless programs was 8,953,610.

Extended benefits were available for the jobless in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

View full post on Labor Stories

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The ongoing recovery in the nation’s financial service sector still has not reached the rest of the economy, causing the number of Americans filing first time jobless claims to rise to 410,000 for the week ending Feb. 12.

That was an increase of 25,000 from the previous week’s revised 385,000 jobless workers who filed initial claims for unemployment compensation insurance, the United States Department of Labor said Thursday.

Some analysts had expected jobless claims to remain below the 400,000 mark. Economists say that if initial jobless claims fall below 400,000 weekly and stay there for a prolonged period that would signal the general economy had begun a recovery.

However, for now, it is the financial services sector of the economy, including the banks that started the economic crisis, that are recovering. The rest of the nation’s economy lags behind, meaning it is still a jobless recovery.

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said Thursday that continued high unemployment coupled with low inflation meant that the Fed had missed both of its policy objectives and that the nation’s economy still needed help and time to dig its way out of the hole created by the recession.

In the meantime, the percentage of jobless workers covered by the unemployment compensation insurance program remained unchanged at 3.1 percent for the week ending Feb. 5 compared to the previous week, the latest dates for which that data is available.

A total of 9,250,156 people claimed benefits in all jobless programs for the week ending Jan. 29, the latest week for which such data is available.

Extended jobless benefits were still available in 35 states and the District of Columbia during the week ending Jan. 29. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Feb. 5 were in Michigan (+2,693), North Carolina (+1,222), New Jersey (+877), Maryland (+527) and Pennsylvania (+475).

View full post on Labor Stories

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – First time claims for unemployment compensation payments fell last week to 415,000, a decrease of 42,000 from the 457,000 initial claims filed during the week ending Jan. 22, U.S. Department of Labor officials announced Thursday.

It was better than some economists expected. It wasn’t enough to put a dent in the nation’s unemployment rate, although the figures are at least moving in the right direction. However, the percentage of unemployed workers covered by the unemployment compensation program is also edging downward.

Advance seasonally adjusted figures for Jan. 22, the latest week for which such statistics are available, showed that the insured unemployment rate was 3.1 percent, down by 0.1 percentage point from the 3.2 percent for the previous week.

The total number of people claiming jobless benefits in all programs was 9,298,859 during the week ending Jan. 15, the latest week for which those statistics are available.

Unemployment rates were still high enough in 35 states and the District of Columbia that jobless workers there qualified for extended benefits during the week of Jan. 15.

Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

DOL officials said the highest insured unemployment rates by percentage in the week ending Jan. 15 were in:

• Alaska, 7.1 percent
• Montana, 5.5 percent
• Pennsylvania, 5.4 percent
• Idaho, 5.3 percent
• Oregon, 5.3 percent
• Wisconsin, 5.3 percent
• Puerto Rico, 5.2 percent
• Illinois, 4.9 percent
• Rhode Island, 4.8 percent
• Connecticut, 4.7 percent.

View full post on Labor Stories

Bangalore, India (AHN) – The Indian government slammed U.S. authorities on Sunday for putting electronic monitoring anklets on Indian students suspected of buying student visas.

External affairs minister S. M. Krishna strongly condemned the actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and demanded that the electronic monitors be removed from the ankles of the Indian students of Tri-Valley University in Pleasanton, California.

The university, where most of the 1,555 students enrolled are from India, had been closed for allegedly selling student visas.

Krishna also demanded that the U.S. government punish officials responsible for the inhuman act.

The Indian government also sent a protest to the U.S. deputy ambassador in New Delhi.

The Telugu Association of North America reported to the Indian media that the ICE required some Indian students to wear the radio tracker so it could monitor their movements.

View full post on Education Stories

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims rose for the week ending Jan. 22, reversing a decline in initial filings the week before that many observers had hoped signaled an improvement in the jobs picture.

Initial claims for unemployment compensation benefits rose by 51,000 to 454,000 last week, up from 403,000 the week before, the U.S. Department of Labor announced in a statement Thursday.

Although the number of Americans filing initial jobless claims often goes up and down on a weekly basis, the increase in claims was more than many economists had expected. Many observers had become optimistic after initial jobless claims dipped below 400,000 four weeks ago and had hoped the figures would stay below that threshold, but that did not happen.

Moreover, it looks unlikely that the jobs picture will improve much as many state governments announced plans to cut state workers. Georgia plans to cut 14,000 state jobs, New York plans to cut more than 10,000 workers and Texas lawmakers plan to cut 9,300 jobs.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 15, the latest week such data is available, were Florida (+6,646) and Nevada (+242), while the largest decreases were in New York (-28,714), Georgia (-19,429), North Carolina (-16,132), Pennsylvania (-14,859) and California (-14,309), according to DOL.

The total number of Americans claiming benefits in all unemployment compensation programs for the week ending Jan. 8 was 9,410,977.

In addition, extended benefits were still available in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

View full post on Labor Stories

Annapolis, MA, United States (AHN) – A California graduate school instructor believed to have profited from fake military and academic credentials for a decade has been charged with mail fraud.

According to a criminal complaint, William Hillar has been offering workshops, accepting paid speaking engagements and conducting training for government agencies under fraudulent pretenses.

Hillar allegedly claimed for the past 10 years to be a retired colonel of the U.S. Army Special Forces who served in Asia, the Middle East and South America. His padded resume includes training in tactical counter-terrorism, explosive ordnance and psychological warfare.

He claimed to have a master’s degree in education, a doctorate in health education, and an honorary doctorate in intercultural relations.

The 66-year-old maintained a business called Bill Hillar Training as well as a website that outlined his alleged service record and university degrees. The Maryland resident taught a workshop at the Monterey Institute for International Studies from 2005 until he was removed by the school last year.

California-based Monterey Institute is a graduate school of Middlebury College that offers courses and workshops on areas such as international policy and sustainable development.

The school completed an investigation in November that found Hillar’s claims to be false. The institute said Hillar was not subjected to a pre-employment background check because he was an independent contractor who taught a one-credit workshop every semester.

The FBI says Hillar received a total of $32,500 from the school for 12 courses he taught.

Hillar has no service records with the Army and was never sent to any of the places he claimed to have been deployed. He served as an enlisted sailor for the Coast Guard reserves from 1962 through 1970. He attended the University of Oregon but has no post-graduate degree.

View full post on Education Stories

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – First time jobless claims fell by a modest 37,000 to 404,000 for the week ending Jan. 15, according figures released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

That drop in initial claims for unemployment compensation payments was slightly better than analysts expected and continues a trend downward in new unemployment claims.

However, not every worker who loses a job is covered by jobless benefits. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate remained at 3.1 percent for the week ending Jan. 8, the latest week such data is available, according to the DOL.

Observers say that the number of new jobless claims must fall below 400,000 and stay there before there will be much improvement in the jobs picture. Unemployment remains at 9.8 percent.

The economy is still not creating enough jobs to provide employment for the 120,000 to 200,000 new workers who enter the U.S. labor force every month. Officials say that it could take 10 years to create enough jobs to absorb the people who have lost their job since the beginning of the recession.

Here are some other unemployment facts from the DOL for the latest weeks available:

• The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 8 were in New York (+24,363), California (+17,536), North Carolina (+16,873), Texas (+13,828), and Illinois (+11,211), while the largest decreases were in Oregon (-9,579), Iowa (-3,122), Michigan (-3,101), Wisconsin (-2,029) and Kentucky (-1,006).
• The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Jan. 1 were in Alaska (7.2 percent), Puerto Rico (6.1 percent), Idaho (5.6 percent), Oregon (5.6 percent), Wisconsin (5.6 percent), Pennsylvania (5.4 percent), Montana (5.1 percent), Connecticut (5.0 percent), Rhode Island (4.9 percent), Illinois (4.7 percent) and New Jersey (4.7 percent).
• Extended unemployment compensation benefits for the week ending Jan. 1 were still available in 35 states and the District of Columbia, which was unchanged from the week before. Those states were Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

View full post on Labor Stories