Last days of work

Nobody has to tell Matthew Goff that the economy is sick. Late last month, at the employee meeting, Matthew and several others were told that they would be laid-off the end of March. March 27, to be exact.



Matthew has worked for a local health care facility that offers mental health care for Pinellas County, FL. His job for the past 5 1/2 years was as a donation intake worker, taking in donations and sorting them for the facility's thrift shop. Several years ago, the thrift store took in donations at the store as well as three other donation sites. The last donation site closes on March 27.



Matthew's last job was at Goodwill Industries, where he worked for almost 5 1/2 years before being laid-off with about 150 other employees. He has already contacted the Division of Blind Services for help in finding another job.

AIG's Bonuses Higher Than Thought

New Haven, Conn.-The financially ailing American International Group, Inc. actually paid out $218M in bonuses after receiving bail-out money from the federal government, according to headlines on BayNews9's website Saturday. The increase of $53M came out in documents recieved by Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's office Friday.

To read more on this news, check out http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2009/3/21/451126.html. For MSNBC's story, check out http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29812224/.

USF-Medical School's Graduating class

An article on baynews9.com Thursday evening stated that "Of the 113 future doctors who learned their residency assignments (from University of South Florida's medical school), 53 are men and 60 are women." (Future doctor gets perfect residency, perfect proposal; http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2009/3/19/450489.html .) It gives one pause to think that the first U.S. woman doctor, Elizabeth Blackwell, graduated from Hobart College (Geneva, New York) in 1849. Now, over half the class at USF's medical school learning their residency are women.

What would be interesting would be to find out the national ratio of male/female ratio of doctors graduating from the nation's medical schools and what the male/female pay rate looks like. Women, on average, earn approximately 73 cents for a man's dollar in the United States.

Sounds like something for me to check into.

Vigil Commemorating Iraqi war

Largo, Fla.--A vigil commemorating the sixth anniversary of the start of the U.S./Iraq war took place at the southeast corner of East Bay Drive and Seminole Boulevard Tuesday. The vigil, which began at 7:00 a.m. and was slated to go until 7:00 p.m., was one of many held across the country.

Mike Fox, of MoveOn and Progress Democrats of America, an energetic activist, helped set up the vigil, sending out emails to encourage other activists to show up to support the protest/vigil. To the sound of horns honking and passers-by shouting encouragement to protestors, he explained why he felt it important to be here. "Six years is too long," he said. "Let's hope it's not another six."

BetteJo Indelicato, a peace activist and relief worker in Iraq, was actually in Iraq when the bombing began six years ago. In the accompanying video, she describes trying to comfort children during the early days of the war.

From 10 a.m. until noon, approximately 8-10 people drifted in and out to help with the vigil, holding signs; Fox expected more to arrive during the afternoon.

A protest in Washington, D.C. over the weekend is expected to bring thousands to the streets.

Have you seen the Coen Brothers' new ad?

Folks, I'm on an email list from from Care2 news.

So what? you ask. Isn't everyone on an email list these days?

Care2 news is an environmental email list. The lastest one had a link to the Coen brothers' latest ad, which is on YouTube. It's about "clean coal" and very important. Usually, I don't want to put someone else's YouTube post on here, but, darn it folks, this is important. (And yes, it is from the Coen Brothers. Please, do not think that I made this; they did. But it is still important.)

Video from January 14

Here is a video from January 14.

More Buffalo Soldier Photos

More photos of St. Petersburg's Buffalo Soldiers, taken shortly before St. Pete's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade on January 19, 2009. This year's parade had few marching bands than usual, as many of the regular bands were gathering in Washington, D.C. for Barack Obama's inauguration.