Yesterday, U.S. Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter filed the maximum 2000 petition signatures required to seek Michigan’s 11th Congressional District seat. Rep. McCotter spent filing day the same way he spends every day – working hard for the people of Michigan. While managing the GOP’s time under the House’s Committee of the Whole, his resolution honoring the late Ernie Harwell was sent to the full House.

As the Obama Administration struggles to come to terms with Tuesday’s election of Republican Scott Brown to the US Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy, Americans are seeing another rise in jobless claims. The Department of Labor’s weekly jobless number rose by 36,000 in the report released this morning.

Initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 36,000 to 482,000 in the week ended Jan. 16, according to the Labor Department’s weekly report Thursday. The previous week’s level was revised upward to 446,000 from 444,000.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a decrease of 4,000 initial claims.

The four-week moving average, which aims to smooth volatility in the data, also increased as well last week. The Labor Department said the four-week moving average increased by 7,000 to 448,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 441,250.

The unemployment numbers for December continue to paint a bleak picture.  While the unemployment rate dropped to 10%, the nation still lost 11,000 jobs for the month.
In the meantime, the Obama Administration is preparing “Stimulus II” which looks to be more of the same.  When they rammed the last stimulus through – at a cost [...]