NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Employers cut jobs in July for the seventh straight month, while the unemployment rate hit a four-year high, according to a government report released Friday.

This is not surprising at all. Locally I have seen way too many retail and fast food businesses going under. Part of this has been do to the rapid expansion in these areas and keeping them understaffed while overworking the few employees they maintain. Lack of insight into the human behavior, poor management and the general economic down turn has truly hampered many of these businesses. I expect the trend will continue.

The best example of how dense some of these companies are can be seen in my small 40k person town. Currently in a three mile radius There is a K-mart, Super Wal-mart, Target, and a Super Miejers. None of the stores show any outward signs of doing well, and I have inside information that both the superstores are losing money hand over fist. Despite those issues Target is planning a new superstore of their own right between the other two despite having just done a multi-million dollar remodel. If trends continue, the currently understaffed Target will add fifty percent more floor space yet not increase their staff. Any lay person can see this won’t work, but somewhere in the minds of mid level executives they obviously are too afraid of losing marketshares to understand you can’t build up when your base is a fragile house of cards.

If that wasn’t enough of an example of over reaching another local area will be getting three new McDonalds in a five mile radius. Inside that radius they already have two stand alone stores, and two more inside of Wal-Marts. Why might they think they need the extra stores? The reason is obvious to them, blot out your competetion. These new stores are all going in next to existing or new fast food restaurants. Maintaining market shares at the expense of profits and employee retention is short sighted and likely to result in the further economic of already depressed areas.

Costumes part of annual fun

By Amanda Wells
Special to The Clinton News

Melanie Thortis | The Clinton News

Five-year-old Ellie Scott and her sister, Emma Scott, 9, put on their best pirate face for the upcoming Halloween holiday. Ellie and Emma’s cousins will also dress as pirates this year for trick-or-treating fun.

HALLOWEEN SAFETY TIPS

# Plan bright, reflective costumes. Make sure shoes fit and costumes are short enough to prevent tripping, entanglement or contact with flame.

# Consider adding reflective tape or striping to costumes and trick-or-treat bags for greater visibility. Because a mask can limit or block eyesight, consider instead non-toxic and hypoallergenic makeup or a decorative hat.

# When shopping for costumes, wigs, and accessories, purchase only those with a label indicating they are flame resistant.

# Think twice before using simulated knives, guns, or swords. If you must, make sure they do not appear authentic and are soft and flexible to prevent injury.

# Children and their escorts should use flashlights with fresh batteries. Plan ahead to use only battery-powered lanterns or chemical light sticks in place of candles in decorations and costumes.

# Review with your children the principle of “stop, drop and roll” should their clothes catch on fire.

# Eliminate tripping hazards on your porch and walkway. Check for flowerpots, low tree limbs, support wires or garden hoses that are hazardous to young children rushing from house to house.

Despite the tough economy, parents are still purchasing Halloween costumes for their little goblins or making them by hand.

That’s the finding of Angie Hicks, founder of the consumer awareness Web site www.angieslist.com.

She finds many people spend between $25-$50 on Halloween costumes.

At Party City on East County Line Road in Jackson, the economy hasn’t spooked off customers.

“Sales are really good. They’re comparable to last year,” said co-owner Alice Harrigill.

“You hear more people saying that it’s going to be one night of having a little bit of fun. They’re looking forward to it.”

Party City’s big sellers for kids: Characters such as Cody and Rex from Star Wars: The Clone Wars; Hannah Montana; and Sharpay from High School Musical.

“The adults like the couples’ costumes, like Fred and Wilma, or the funny ones, like ‘The Freshman 15,’ ” Harrigill said.

She’s had to reorder the Star Wars characters already. “Darth Vader is still a huge hit, too, with the young boys,” she said.

Prices start at $9.99 and go up from there, with the average price at about $19.99, Harrigill aid.

Heather Head said she enjoys making costumes for her children – Jake, 5, and Elizabeth, 3 – and saving money in the process.

“I enjoy being creative, and my kids love the outcome,” said the Byram mom. “I don’t sew, but I have found that you can do a lot with a cardboard box.”

Head credits her husband Keith with contributing imagination and energy in making sure the boxes will withhold the wear and tear of harvest carnivals and trick or treating.

“Last year, Elizabeth was Sally from the Cars movie and Jake was Underdog from the Disney movie,” Head said. “I fashioned an empty Pull-Ups box into Sally, which required a lot of cutting, taping and stapling.

“For Underdog, I bought red sweatpants and sweatshirt, cut out a ‘U’ in white felt, found some blue fabric for a cape and purchased a dog mask.”

Sarah Broadus of Clinton coordinates costumes for her two daughters, Madyson, 2, and Aubrie Kate, 7 months, to match those of their cousins.

This Halloween, the Broadus girls will be pirates. Madyson is fascinated with Dora the Explorer’s Pirate Adventure, Broadus said.

“Halloween has always been a fun holiday around our house,” she said. “Instead of walking the neighborhood this year, we are going to do a hayride with a pirate ship theme.”

Adults in the family join in the fun by dressing up, she said. “Madyson’s first year, we all went as a litter of kittens,” Broadus said.

“I added fur to her costume that year, but as for sewing, I usually leave that up to my mother-in-law.”

Broadus appreciates the once-a-year whimsy that Halloween offers.

“How many days of the year can you walk around as a pirate, princess, bottle of mustard or a pumpkin and not feel out of place?” she said.

Staff writer Ruth Ingram contributed to this article.

Surprisingly enough John McCain has been choosing the side of evolution when it comes to his politics. He goes along in his own little world unaware that anything is actually broken and needs fixed. The system will evolve at its own pace and take care of the richest. The weakest, meaning the poorest, will get screwed, simply because they don’t matter to him or his process of governing.

On the side of creationism is Barack Obama. He takes as firm a stand as any creationist that we need change and it is to be started by the guy in charge. Like the biblical God he wishes to smite down the unworthy, take his people out from under the thumb of foreign powers, and empower the lowest of us to be our own messiah.

When you go to the polls, you need to ask yourself if you can survive this economy moving along letting the world sort itself out, or do you need someone who can in with the seeds of change already planted.

It’s been suggested several times in the media that Palin, the so-called “average-joe American” who is a self-proclaimed middle class citizen, tends to have loose pockets. Wearing $50,000 dresses, spending over $150,000 on attire and make up for herself and her children over the last three months and most recently brought to light, spending over $20,000 on travel and hotel expenses for her three daughters, citing that they were with her on un-founded “state business”.

We can all brush these issues aside and say that this should not be the focus of the election…but since when is someone’s integrity not an issue for possible presidency?

-from: Are Palin’s Spending Habits Relevant? // General Discussion // BlogCatalog

The question is are these legitimate issues? Of course they are. These are people who want to have the highest offices in the land, everything about these people are legitimate issues. Their spending habits, personal family choices, and favorite foods are all as relevant as their stance on abortion, the economy, evolution and foreign policy.

These extraneous issues are even more important for Sarah Palin than possibly any other candidate in our history. She claims to be the quintessential middle class All-American mom. This would be a non-issue except she uses it as a qualification as to why she is qualified to speak for Joe the Plumber and his family. Of course the more we look at what she does and what she claims her credibility keeps slipping further and further away.

How many All-American middle class mothers do you know who have a staff of nannies? The last time Sarah Palin only had one nanny on her payroll was when she only had one child. She currently has 4 nannies and a private nurse for baby Trig. Why is this relevant? She tells us she knows what it is to be a mother. I am sorry, squeezing a kid out of you and then handing it off to someone else to do all the work doesn’t make you a parent. She probably loves her children, but so parents who molest their children most of the time, so that isn’t a good test either. Providing Trig with a private nurse and listening to her claim to know our pain while backing McCain’s health care plan is a joke.

Sarah Palin might show up a hockey games, take her kids out all dolled up for photo opportunities, and talk about being a middle class bake cookies with your girls kind of mom, but the facts say she is either delusional or a fraud. My guess is she is a delusional fraud, but either way when you look at all of the facts she is unfit to be the vice president, much less the president.

Mid-Iowa Newspapers – Ames students get practice exercising voting rights in mock election

Ames students get practice exercising voting rights in mock election
By: Teresa Kay Albertson, Special to The Tribune
10/31/2008
Updated 10/31/2008 11:09:01 AM CDT
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By Nirmalendu Majumdar/The Tribune
Ames High School students cast ballots during a mock election Tuesday in the school’s library.

And the winner is …

Barack Obama.

At least at Ames High School where students participated in a mock election this week.

Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, received 64 percent of the votes while Republican nominee John McCain received 24 percent. Ralph Nader received 3.5 percent, and all other presidential candidates received a combined 8.5 percent.

In the Iowa race for a seat in the U.S. Senate, Democratic incumbent Tom Harkin received 64 percent support, and Republican Christopher Reed received 28 percent. Write-in candidates received 8 percent.

In Iowa’s Congressional 4th District race, Democratic challenger Becky Greenwald edged GOP incumbent Tom Latham with 46.5 percent of the votes compared to Latham’s 46 percent. Write-in candidates received 7.5 percent.

The issue most important to Ames High students was the economy, which received 39 percent. Energy and the environment was second at 21 percent, while education received 15 percent, homeland security/war 9 percent, health care 6 percent and other 10 percent.

The election was Web-based and conducted through the University of Virginia. More than 65 percent of the student population turned out for the election.

“I picked this program because of its structure,” said Denny Cullinan, Ames High chair of the social studies department. “The results gave us national, statewide and high school specific results.”

Cullinan said many different voting programs were available, including one from the Iowa Secretary of State.

Of the results, Cullinan said he it turned out about like he expected, except for the Congressional race.

“Greenwald won, which we didn’t expect,” he said. “It was close, but she still won.”

The voting was set up in the school’s library and was open to all students on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week. To vote, students registered by having their names checked off a list, then they stepped to the computers to make their selections. Afterward they received an “I Voted” sticker.

“We try to make it as close as we can to the real thing,” Cullinan said.

He believes that once someone has voted, their likelihood of voting again is increased based on “the foot in the door phenomenon.”

Cullinan teaches psychology along with various government classes.

In the national mock election among high school students, Obama won 60 percent of the votes while McCain won 36.

Nationally, the economy received the most votes as the issue most important to voters with 39 percent. Energy and the environment was second with 17 percent, and homeland security/war and health care tied for third with 13 percent.

This doesn’t just mean brown, black, yellow skinned people in other countries either. This is something that must be advocated right here at home to white voting Americans. I don’t devalue the pleasure one gets from children, but like anything we have for pleasure there comes a point when enough is enough, just like the sex that produces them (or so I am told on that one). Sure, we will always have people who have no kids who help keep the population down, but any population growth is bad for the environment and the economy. if you want more than one child adopt, if you can afford to have one, you can afford to adopt.

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Crime up as economy declines Area police report increase in thefts as times get bad
BY JONATHAN SHUGARTS REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WATERBURY — Michael Seifert, a New Milford resident, was collapsing under financial strain in 2007. His credit cards were maxed out, bill collectors were closing in and his children’s private school tuition was due. His debt had reached an overwhelming $145,000.
Authorities say Seifert would go on a serial bank robbery spree after he became cash-strapped, knocking over 13 banks in two states. Due to a weak economy, more people might be considering the path that police say Seifert chose to solve his problems.
Area police say they have seen an increase in petty crimes and burglaries recently. Car break-ins, shoplifting and drivers taking off without paying at the gas pump are on the rise, authorities say, and more of those crimes could be coming.

If this could happen to an ordinary guy probably from an ordinary family in a small Connecticut town, could it happen in your community?  What is the breaking point for your average everyday ordinary parent?  Could the financial stress get so much you would rob a bank?  Could it get so much that you kill your kids and yourself?  You might say it could never happen to you, but I would almost bet Michael Seifert said that about himself too at some point in time.

If we were smart people we would use the money to pay off debts. However many of even the smart people are in such desperate straights that the cash infusion of a few hundred bucks means a lot. What will you be spending yours on food or gas?

When we look at the truth of this situation, we should not have this money to get back in the first place. If we were figuring our taxes right with our employers or as the self employed we would almost never be paying in extra, or very little of it to start with. The economic reality of the situation is, it is probably better to get a big refund for many people if you have trouble saving anything out of your paycheck. A couple of grand come tax time helps a lot of people meet major expenditures.

All in all we need to look at why we are in this mess. What tanked the economy? Well there are a number of things, bad credit, tax cuts for the wealthy, the war in Iraq, the sub prime crisis, and lots of other things the Bush administration either furthered or did nothing to stop until even members of his own party were shouting, “What the fuck!”

When it comes time to vote this fall ask yourself if you are better now than you were eight years ago and remember which party put all this in motion.