Expiring jobless benefits in depressed economy a recipe for disaster

Holland, MI — Neisha understands where people are coming from when they say people abuse unemployment benefits. But for her, that’s simply not the case. After getting laid off at a retail store in June 2009, she went back to school for a dental assistant certificate. She knows jobs are out there, but plenty of dental assistants are, too. “Honestly, it’s really hard to find anything comparable to what you had before, especially when you’ve been out of work for a year,” said Neisha, who uses the Michigan Works office in Holland. She did not want her last name used. Unless Congress votes to retroactively extend federal unemployment benefits, Neisha will get her last check in January. She’s not alone. In fact, 11 percent of all Ottawa and Allegan county residents...

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'Carmel fire in most stable state since blaze broke out'

Firefighter spokesman says fire will take days to put out; int'l aircraft resume operations to put out flames; 5 million trees destroyed.   The Carmel Mountain Range blaze was under better control on Sunday morning, Fire Chief Shimon Romah told Army Radio. While saying that this was the best state the fire-fighting teams had found themselves in since the blaze began on Thursday, he added that only cautious optimism should be exercised as fires still raged. In a statement on Sunday morning, Boaz Rakia, spokesperson for the firefighters, said that although there was a...

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Chromebook: Coming Next Week?

By now you've probably heard that Google is hosting a Chrome event on Dec. 7 in San Francisco. The press invite promised "exciting news about Chrome." Does that mean the Chromebook is finally upon us? Maybe and maybe not. The rumor mill has been churning for months. Most recently, Digitimes, a Taiwanese Website, reported that smartbooks featuring Chrome operating system would debut this month. Back in August, a newly released beta of Chome 6 hinted at a tablet possibility. Menus were optimized for touch and reports said we might see a Chrome tablet in November. Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, blasted both rumors. He told reporters...

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America's Next Top Model crowns deserving winner in high fashion cycle 15

I really enjoyed the 15th cycle of America's Next Top Model, which went high fashion for the first time. Ann was a favourite from early on because of her ability to take amazing photos and her humble attitude, but I didn't like Chelsey all that much until the finale. She is a beautiful model, but I found her to be a little off-putting. In the finale I came to appreciate her drive to succeed. After losing to Ann, Chelsey commented on how she didn't think the winner had what it takes to be America's Next Top Model. But what she's missing is that Ann was high fashion and that's exactly what the judges were looking for. Not that Chelsey wasn't wasn't a great model — she probably could have won any other season. Both Ann and Chelsey deserved to be in the top 2 and I really hope we see...

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