When Unemployment Runs Out

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:00:00

When Unemployment Runs Out

Paula Stein

Last week, the government released January unemployment data, and it was worse than analysts expected: almost 600,000 Americans lost their jobs last month.

State agencies that administer unemployment benefits are struggling to keep up, and some are cutting off assistance. Paula Stein's last unemployment check came in January. As she tells Dick Gordon, she's desperate to work, but she's getting no bites in this economy. Paula suspects it has something to do with her age. Now, just when she'd like to be thinking about retiring, Paula is wondering is she can hang on to the only asset she has left: her house.

Poems for Obama

Rachel Zucker

Rachel Zucker was on the phone with a friend the day before President Obama's inauguration, when the two poets had a eureka moment. They decided to find 100 poets who would sign up to write a poem for each of Obama's first 100 days in office.

Rachel talks with Dick about her trepidation approaching her own poem, on Day 16. She says she grew more confident thinking of the poem Elizabeth Alexander read at the inauguration - and her sense that undertaking this project contributes, in a sense, to the days of hard work ahead for Barack Obama.

Follow Rachel's 100 poems at her blog
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The Story from American Public Media - When Unemployment Runs Out

When Unemployment Runs Out

When Unemployment Runs Out

Poems for Obama