Staff cuts at the state unemployment office may not matter to most of us, but to many of Rhode Island’s most unlucky residents (the ones who were laid off during the down economy) efficient unemployment insurance payments can make the difference between being foreclosed or not. Here are the stories Jonathan Jacobs has filed for RI Future on the situation.

Also, just in case you missed it, Aaron Regunberg has also been covering the unemployment crisis in Rhode Island. Every week he profiles a local person who is out of work (here’s a list of all his stories on the crisis). The idea is to show that unemployment is more than just a a quarterly percentage sent out by the state to compare our woes with Michigan and Nevada. There are real Rhode Islanders whose lives are being severely scarred by this crisis.

And speaking of unemployment, the Projo reports that WPA plaques are disappearing from sites where the government put people to work building up the commons and our shared infrastructure that we still use to get to the office and other places today … maybe trickle-down Republicans are taking them hoping we won’t remember what got the country out of the last big economic downturn?

Here’s hoping employees of Citizens Bank don’t have to join them on the unemployment line as a result of RBS’ issues. Either way, it’s high time we start talking about relocalizing banks.

All this talk about the economy has taken the focus away from climate change – something humanity can little afford to do, GoLocal’s Rob Horowitz reminds us this morning.

Awesome sentence about the Navy testing unmanned military drones in Narragansett Bay: “The bay known as a playground for the rich is the testing ground for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, where the Navy is working toward its goal of achieving a squadron of self-driven, undersea vehicles.”

Speaking of completely unnecessary military endeavors … today in 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, “giving President Lyndon B. Johnson nearly unlimited powers to oppose “communist aggression” in Southeast Asia.”

I love the irony in Fox News seeming to care more that US Olympic uniforms look American than they do that they actually be American.

For instance, I checked Twitter on Friday and discovered all the secrets of the Olympic opening ceremony; Daniel Craig’s entrance, the NHS celebration, that some MP had complained about all the “multicultural crap”, that there was a tribute to British terrorism victims, etc. See, I follow a few British accounts, and they were reacting in real-time. Since I’m not particularly excited about the Olympics, I just assumed I was missing the opening ceremony and got on with my life.

Until it got to be about prime time, and NBC decided to finally show it in America. It was an eery experience, one made really goddamn annoying by Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera attempting to outdo each other with inane commentary. While we here in Rhode Island experienced the global event with only a three-hour delay, in California there was a six-hour delay. Naturally, quite a few people were pissed off, and made their displeasure felt; with such Twitter trends as #NBCfail, “Shut Up, Matt Lauer” and #Costasfacts (named for Bob Costas’ wonderful additions like reminding everyone that Uganda was once ruled by Idi Amin—as though everyone didn’t already know; thanks Last King of Scotland).

It wasn’t any better on Saturday, because by 3:00 PM anyone with access to the Internet and paying attention knew that the US beat South Korea, that Ryan Lochte took gold and Michael Phelps finished fourth, and that Elizabeth Beisel had taken silver. But instead airing all of that live, as it happened, NBC decided they would rather show that after 8:00 PM. Keep in mind, prior to 8:00 PM, NBC Nightly News reported those results anyways. You could’ve watched it online (assuming you subscribe to cable) or on your smartphone, but those two things were down most of the day as people tried to do exactly that.

I can understand why NBC would want to put high profile events on after 8:00 PM. That’s actually reasonably convenient. However, in this modern era, there’s absolutely no reason you can’t broadcast things live first, and then broadcast them again at a more convenient time.

There’s also absolutely no reason, if you have three hour time delay, to be an idiot and not look up who Tim Berners-Lee is (he’s the inventor of the World Wide Web). But instead of doing that, NBC decided to treat America to Meredith Viera going “if you don’t know who he is, well, we don’t either.” Or now, just on Monday night, NBC had its own commercial spoil the information that it’s withholding. This kind of idiocy isn’t forgivable.

Neither is what NBC did to The Independent’s Guy Adams; getting Twitter to suspend his account because he was criticizing them. Deadspin (linked above) has the best summation, but essentially, Mr. Adams posted a corporate email to an NBC’s Olympics executive. Even though the email account is public and corporate, upon prompting from NBC (which Twitter has partnered with to provide real-time coverage of the Olympics—irony!), Twitter decided to suspend the account due to a policy which bans sharing personal and private emails!

Somehow, you’d think Twitter, which has watched similar stories play out countless times on its own service, would know better. That NBC is a domineering jerk isn’t surprising, given the way it’s behaved. But Twitter, seriously, this is like a Facebook-style move. Guess that’s been working out though; treat your customers like garbage and somehow profit.

Anyway, at this point, it seems like the only thing on television with a greater time delay than the Olympics on NBC is HBO’s The Newsroom. And it’s also garbage.

One of the main reasons our nation’s economy is failing is because people don’t buy stuff that Americans make anymore. Indeed, even the U.S. Olympic team has its uniforms made in China, by Ralph Lauren no less. Congressman David Cicilline, speaking at Northwest Woolen Mills in Woonsocket yesterday, said parts of those uniforms could be made right here. The company said they could get the uniforms to the athletes before the start of the games, but the US Olympic Committee said maybe next time. Thus, China gets to thrill of victory and American manufacturing the agony of defeat.

Two developmentally disabled men, a war veteran and the RI ACLU are challenging a state law that forbids sex offenders from living within 300 feet of a school. They say that if the state makes them move, they are likely to become homeless. It’s a very interesting constitutional question about cruel and unusual punishment and exclusion zones.

Self-described progressive Linda Dill Finn is challenging Dan Reilly to represent Portsmouth in the General Assembly … this will be an interesting race.

You’d think the Rhode Island Republican Party would be sympathetic to the plight of the poor, being how they are the most cash-strapped GOP in the nation.

Like Mitt Romney, I’d like to retain the right to retire retroactively … therefore if RI Future happens to do or say anything that, in hindsight, I might second guess, I can just say it has nothing to do with me.

Speaking of Romney, one of the myriad of reasons that his success at Bain Capital doesn’t translate into good experience for public service is the rules are different … as president, you can’t improve the economy by outsourcing jobs overseas, like Romney did at Bain.

Get ready for a hot and humid one today … any maybe do like this egret did and get on the water: