EKB News

KENTUCKY....
Nearly 75,000 Kentuckians are at risk of losing their jobless benefits in the next eight weeks. An extension would cost $33.9 billion in borrowed money that would be added to the budget deficit. Labor activists and unemployed workers lashed out at Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell as they carried signs and chanted in the summer heat Wednesday outside the federal courthouse in Louisville where the Senate Republican leader has an office. The protest was in response to a Republican filibuster that blocked an extension of federal jobless benefits. McConnell spokesman Robert Steurer says McConnell offered several alternatives, including a two-month extension of benefits paid for with spending cuts once suggested by Democratic senators. Gail Helinger, who used to make $17.28 an hour at a company that makes parts for the pipeline industry before being laid off, and fellow unemployed worker George Boyd, who was laid off in May 2009 from his job helping job corps students find employment, walked into McConnell's office in the federal courthouse to express their unhappiness with the senator. McConnell wasn't there, but aide, Bradley Atzinger, politely assured them the senator is committed to passing the benefits in a "fiscally responsible manner."