MSNBC "Unemployment rate jumps to 9.7 percent"

Associated Press
Sept. 3, 2009

WASHINGTON - The unemployment rate jumped almost half a point to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since 1983, reflecting a poor job market that will make it hard for the economy to begin a sustained recovery.

While the jobless rate rose more than expected, the economy shed a net total of 216,000 jobs, less than July’s revised 276,000 and the fewest monthly losses in a year, according to Labor Department data released Friday. Economists expected the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5 percent from July’s 9.4 percent and job reductions to total 225,000.

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Debate over Fate of 5th Street's Old Station 23

(photo courtesy of LA Times/ UCLA Library)

By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Blogdowntown

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Historic Fire Station 23 was decommissioned in 1960, but nearly 50 years later the building's future is still a topic of debate at City Hall.

Prompted by a developer's wish to purchase the building and renovate it, a city council committee today instructed the General Services Department to get an appraisal for the structure and to explore what it would take to sell the nearly century-old fire house.

Before it did so, though, it heard three different visions of what the building should be.


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