In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of United States v. Wong Kim Ark that American-born Chinese were U.S. citizens under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The 14th Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
San José, CA – On July 22 the House of Representatives voted 272-152 to extend the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) programs and President Obama signed the extension into law. This came the day after the Senate passed the extension by a 59-39 vote.
_Senate Democrats Promise an Extension Next Week But Nothing is Said About 99ers _
San José, CA – On July 15, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that another 250,000 unemployed were cut from federal unemployment insurance rolls. In the last three weeks alone, almost one million unemployed people were cut from the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) programs. These programs provide benefits for people out of work for more than six month who can no longer collect state unemployment insurance benefits.
San José, CA – On July 8, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that almost 350,000 unemployed were dropped from federal unemployment insurance rolls. This is the second week in a row that the number of Americans collecting Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) and Extended Benefits (EB) has dropped by more than 300,000. Funding for these programs has run out, and Republicans in the Senate have blocked a vote to provide moneys for federal unemployment insurance benefits. As a result, jobless workers are getting cut off of their federal unemployment insurance benefits by the hundreds of thousands each week.
Weak Employment Report Adds to Fears of “Double-Dip” Recession
San José, CA – On Friday, July 2, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that 125,000 jobs were lost in June. While the official unemployment rate fell from 9.7% in May to 9.5% in June, this was due to the 650,000 people that gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed. These signs of weakness in the labor market followed reports that housing and car sales were also weak in June. Altogether these reports increase the danger that the economy could slide back into a “double-dip” recession.
_Republicans in Senate Block Extension for Third Week in a Row _
San José, CA. On June 24, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the number of people receiving Federal Extended Benefits fell by 375,000 in a single week. Between June 5 and June 12, more than 150,000 people stopped getting Federal Extended Benefits (EB), and another 200,000 stopped getting the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC). While some of these people were able to find jobs, the majority were dropped as funding for the Federal extended unemployment insurance ran out.
San José, CA – On June 24, Republican Senators, along with Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson blocked a vote on extending Federal Unemployment Insurance benefits. After the 57-41 vote to end debate (60 votes are needed in the Senate to stop arguing and start voting), Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada pronounced the measure dead.
San José, CA – On June 18, a Republican filibuster, aided by pro-war independent Joe Lieberman and Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson, blocked an extension of federal unemployment benefits. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that more than 900,000 laid-off workers will have had their unemployment benefit checks cut off as of June 19.
San José, CA – On June 4, the Department of Labor reported that there were 431,000 more jobs in May than the month before. But almost all of these new jobs were temporary workers hired for the 2010 Census. Only 41,000 jobs were added by businesses, down sharply from the 218,000 private sector job gain in April. This number was far worse than the 150,000 new jobs that economists expected private businesses to add in May. And of these 41,000 new private sector jobs, 31,000 were temporary help service workers. Despite the job gains this year, the economy is still down some 8 million jobs since the recession began in December of 2007.
San Francisco, CA – El primero de mayo, miles de personas se juntaron en la Misión de la comunidad latina de San Francisco y marcharon al Centro Cívico. Un tema común fue la oposición a la nueva ley de Arizona, SB 1070. Organizaciones comunitarias de latinos y asiáticos, sindicatos y estudiantes universitarios se unieron con familias y con organizaciones religiosas, anti-bélicas y solidarias para la marcha. Se escucharon consignas de “Si se puede!” y “Obama, escucha, estamos en la lucha!” Trabajadores latinos salieron de restaurantes, talleres y lavaderos para ver y apoyar la marcha.
San Francisco, CA – On May 1, thousands of people gathered in San Francisco’s Latino community in the Mission and marched to the Civic Center. A common theme was opposition to Arizona’s new law, SB1070.
San Bruno, CA – In March, 162,000 new jobs were created, according to a monthly survey of businesses taken by the Labor Department. This was the largest number of new jobs created in a month in three years. This positive report may be a sign that the labor market has finally turned a corner following the worst recession in 70 years.
San Francisco, CA – In what was the largest anti-war protest in over a year, thousands of people rallied and marched from San Francisco’s Civic Center to downtown and back again. Growing disillusionment with the war escalation in Afghanistan and economic crisis brought out a diverse crowd with the common demand of “End the war now!”
San Bruno, CA – Hundreds of Skyline College students left class and gathered on the campus quad for their Day of Action protest against budget cuts, on March 4. The action was organized by Skyline Against Cuts, which grew out of the students’ struggle against budget cuts last fall. After a short song, Skyline Against Cuts leader Michelle Araica led off the march. As student marshals held open doors, led chants and stopped traffic, nearly 500 students and a dozen or more faculty and staff supporters marched through almost all the buildings on campus, chanting “Hey hey! Ho ho! Budget cuts have got to go!”
San Bruno, CA – On Feb. 5 the Department of Labor released their report on the January 2010 job market. The good news in the report was that the official unemployment rate fell from 10.0% in December to 9.7% in January. This is the biggest drop in the unemployment rate since the recession began in December 2007.
San Bruno, CA – On Nov. 18, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) announced that the state was facing budget deficits of $20 billion each year for five more years. Over the past fifteen months, California responded to a total budget deficit of $77 billion with a combination of cuts in spending, increases in taxes on working people, federal economic stimulus monies and accounting tricks.
