First Draft: Jobs, jobs, jobs
Today, as ever, it’s all about jobs. War, pestilence (in the form of the H1N1 flu), a big gas explosion at a shopping mall outside Washington, the re-opening of the Statue of Liberty’s crown – all these take a back seat to jobs, especially in a recession. And especially after this week’s “stress test” results for banks, when the unemployed might well be asking, “OK, the big banks got their bailout. Where’s ours?”
The latest jobless numbers offered some signs of relief: U.S. employers cut 539,000 jobs in April, thousands fewer than the 590,000 jobs analysts predicted. But the unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent from 8.5 percent in March, the highest in more than a quarter-century.
President Barack Obama is largely out of sight today, but is due to emerge for a late-morning speech on job creation and job training.
That’s clearly the administration’s theme for the day. When Interior Secretary Ken Salazar traveled to New York Harbor for a televised appearance inside the crown of the Statue of Liberty, to announce the crown will open to the public on July 4, he played up the job-creation angle.
“This Statue of Liberty really is about hope and optimism for America,” Salazar told NBC’s “Today” program. “It’s also about jobs that come with tourism all over this country and it’s about President Obama’s agenda …”
Regular Reuters readers already figured the Statue of Liberty’s crown would open on Independence Day, because Salazar told correspondent Jasmin Melvin that this was possible in an interview on March 24.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Joshua Lott (The Statue of Liberty is seen as a woman sits on a bench and another walks by in New York, March 5, 2008.)
First Lady — drum roll please
Some places put out the red carpet. The Interior Department got creative and put the drums out for first lady Michelle Obama’s visit. She was treated to a traditional drumming tribal honor song played by a 7-member Black Bear Tribal Group band on Monday.
”I am completely humbled and moved by all of you,” said the first First Lady to visit the department probably since Eleanor Roosevelt. She also announced that her husband would appoint a White House policy adviser on tribal issues.
Michelle Obama has been making the rounds of government agencies to listen and learn and show an interest in what they do. She previously visited the Education Department and the Housing and Urban Development office.
“So this is the third agency that I visited since we’ve arrived, and each of the agencies that i’ve seen have had a different flavor,” Obama said. (Now was that pineapple crunch or rocky road?)
Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman at the Interior Department, draped a bright lavender shawl with native designs over the first lady’s shoulders. Obama was only too pleased to model it.
The Obama family got a chance to appreciate some of the nature that the Interior Department oversees at the presidential retreat of Camp David in the Maryland mountains.
there were 100 000 thousand temporary jobs created by the government to help with the census ,that made the figures look better than they were.employment is still getting worse,the Uaw running chrysler and possibly GM this is an indication of the doctrinaire policies of this government.the only glimmer of common sense is obamas cabinet going after tax cheats,they will have a good insight to the various dodges because they have tried them.