AGC: Jacksonville Lost 7,000 Construction Jobs

The Jacksonville area lost 19 percent of its construction workers last year, Associated General Contractors of America reported.

Construction employment declined by 7,000 to 36,000 workers from January 2009 to January 2010, ranking Jacksonville No. 266 out of 337 metro areas for job growth in the industry.

Only nine out of 337 metro areas nationwide added construction jobs between January 2009 and 2010, the construction industry association’s report said.

The Recovery Act

The evidence is clear – and growing by the day – that the Recovery Act is working to cushion the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression and lay a new foundation for economic growth. Public and private forecasters ranging from the Council of Economic Advisors to Moody’s Economy and IHS Global have said the Recovery Act was responsible for 2 million jobs or even more nationwide in the first year alone. These jobs have also laid the groundwork for a new clean energy economy, revitalized infrastructure and transportation, helped transform health information technology, and helped make America more competitive for generations to come.

This is What Change Looks Like

President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and senior staff, react in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, as the House passes the health care reform bill, March 21, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Posted by Jesse Lee on March 22, 2010 at 12:04 AM EDT

After a historical vote in the House to send health reform to the President, he speaks to all Americans on the change they will finally see as they are given back control over their own health care:

Good evening, everybody. Tonight, after nearly 100 years of talk and frustration, after decades of trying, and a year of sustained effort and debate, the United States Congress finally declared that America’s workers and America's families and America's small businesses deserve the security of knowing that here, in this country, neither illness nor accident should endanger the dreams they’ve worked a lifetime to achieve.

It's a 'Hard Land' for Locked-Out Miners

by Mike Hall, Mar 21, 2010

Several hundred Los Angeles-area union members recently came together to lend support and solidarity to the nearly 600 members of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 30 locked out at Rio Tinto’s Borax mine in Boron, Calif. Now, you can get a firsthand look at this union solidarity in action with this slide show set to the word and music of Bruce Springsteen’s “This Hard Land.”