Job Loss and Recovery explained in simple terms

Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, and sometime stand-up comedian, has returned to his white board for a video to discuss the Obama Administration's role as a job-creator.  Goolsbee speaks in simple direct terms anyone can understand, and he uses pictures, what' s not to love?

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Cities offer homeless free storage

Last Thanksgiving, Phillip Black says most of his belongings were thrown away by the police.

Police told Black they mistook the bags in a Whole Foods shopping cart for trash. "I couldn't even enjoy my Thanksgiving," he says.

Finding a place to safely leave possessions is one of many challenges homeless people face each day, homeless advocates say. Some cities, including Portland, Ore., St. Petersburg, Fla., New York, San Francisco and Chicago are trying to help people in Black's situation by offering free storage space to the homeless.

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Recovery Act: Oregon solar company expands, hires soldiers

With six kids and a wife, 32 year-old Tobin Tidwell of Hillsboro, Ore., didn’t want to pick up and move for a new job. But the Army reservist, who worked on tanks while on active duty, had years of maintenance experience. He felt those skills could be put to good use fixing wind turbines – found more often in the heartland, like Nebraska or Missouri.

Fortunately a local company, SolarWorld was in the process of expanding production and adding hundreds of new jobs with support from a 48C Advance Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit worth $82 million through the Recovery Act.

In May, Tidwell was hired as a maintenance technician at the plant.

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