Fortis Plastics Shutting Down Another Plant (Illinois)

image: Downtown Carlyle, Illinois is about to become a little bit deader, thanks to a factory closing.

Back on January 8th, I posted a story about a Fortis Plastics plant closing in Ohio. Well, now it is Illinois' turn, as reported by my all time favorite business publication, Plastics News:

Fortis Plastics LLC is preparing to close its last plant, a custom injection molding facility in Carlyle.

The company sent workers a letter dated April 9 warning that the plant will permanently close within 60 days. Employees were told their last day would fall in the period between June 9 and June 22.

State officials and the mayor of Carlyle have been notified of the imminent closing, and officials will be available to help assist workers who are losing their jobs, the letter said.

The shutdown apparently marks the final chapter for Fortis, which has been closing plants since at the end of 2011. Much of the equipment at the other plants was auctioned off in January and February.

A Fortis worker, who requested anonymity, said employees in Carlyle have been aware of the other plant closings, and had expected their plant to eventually shut down, too.

“I pretty much knew this was coming. It wasn’t a shock to me,” the worker said.

Other workers said the Carlyle plant had seen most of its molding work disappear in recent weeks, and that resin and other materials had occasionally been in short supply.

The Carlyle plant did medical-related work, among other projects.

Fortis Plastics was formed in 2008 when New York private investment group Monomoy Capital Partners LP, acquired and combined the custom molding divisions of Leggett & Platt Inc. and Atlantis Plastics Inc.

In recent months the company has shut down or announced plans to shut down plants in Jackson, Tenn.; Fort Smith, Ark., South Bend, Ind.; Poplar Bluff, Mo.; Wilmington, Ohio; and Ramos Arizpe, Mexico.

I guess that advice that Dustin Hoffman received at the beginning of The Graduate is no longer valid.


Bonus: "Q: Why are we here? A: Plastics, asshole"

International Paper Closing Four Plants, Eliminating 215 Jobs

A corporate merger was the reason for this mass layoff story. The Memphis Business Journal has the details:

Citing the need to eliminate overcapacity and integrate its now-combined container business, International Paper Co. is shutting down four plants across the country in the next two months.

The plants are located in Fort Smith, Ark., Santa Paula, Calif., Chicago and Solon, Ohio. The company will eliminate a total of 215 jobs, according to an International Paper statement. The plants are a combination of facilities owned by Austin, Texas-based Temple-Inland Inc. and International Paper.

The closings come months after Memphis-based International Paper (NYSE: IP) completed its $4.4 billion acquisition of Temple-Inland, which brought an additional 10,000 employees, 59 box plants, 14 building products plants and seven containerboard mills into IP’s group of 23,000 employees, 12 paper mills and more than 140 box plants on six continents.

Sounds to me like someone is trying to monopolize the paper industry.


Bonus: We don't need corporate America to do any more joining together

Illinois ‘Treads Water’ As Unpaid Bills Top $9 Billion

The headline to this article from Bloomberg claims that the State of Illinois is "treading water," when a more apt metaphor would be that the Land of Lincoln is actually drowning in a sea of red ink:

Illinois’s backlog of unpaid bills has risen to more than $9 billion because of pension costs and falling federal aid, leaving the state “essentially treading water,” Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka said.

While revenue grew from higher personal and corporate taxes, “Illinois’ financial position has not improved,” Topinka said in a report today. The combination of unpaid bills to vendors and Medicaid obligations, estimated at $8.5 billion in January, means payment delays will persist, according to the report.

Illinois is second only to California as the state with the lowest credit grade from Standard & Poor’s. S&P may cut the general-obligation rating from A+, fifth highest, “if there is no progress on structural budget solutions and if Illinois does not address the significant pension liabilities and associated cost pressure,” the company said last week.

While tax increases boosted revenue by about $7 billion, or 3.9 percent in the first three quarters of the fiscal year that began in June, the gains were undercut by the loss of federal funding and financing of pension contributions directly, rather than through bonds as in the past two years, Baar Topinka said.

Democratic Governor Pat Quinn has proposed a voluntary 3 percent increase in pension contributions from current employees and a cut in cost-of-living increases for retirees.

“Bold action” is required to save the retirement systems, the governor told reporters in Chicago April 20. In fiscal 2010, Illinois had the lowest-funded state pension in the U.S., with assets equal to 45.4 percent of projected obligations, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

If you are a state government worker in Illinois or a state government retiree, you probably ought to make plans for the eventual day when the state pension system concedes to reality and implodes.


Bonus: Since Styx is from Chicago, this song seems particularly appropriate

Dow Chemical Closing Plant in Charleston (Illinois)

Troubled times at one of the world's leading chemical manufacturers. Here is Fox Business with the details:

Dow Chemical said Monday it will eliminate 900 jobs in the Americas and Europe in the first quarter as part of a plan to save $250 million this year.

The move comes as the Midland, Mich.-based diversified manufacturer struggles amid continued weaknesses in Europe and the broader economic downturn.

The company will close four manufacturing plants in Europe, North America and Latin America, cancel certain capital projects and eliminate positions as part of the latest overhaul.

“These actions, while difficult, are in full alignment with our commitment to continually manage our portfolio to adapt to changing and volatile economic conditions, as we are seeing particularly in Western Europe, and to preferentially invest in our fast-growing, technology-rich businesses” Dow CEO Andrew Liveris said in a statement.

Three Styrofoam insulation plants will be shut in Portugal, Hungary and Charleston, Ill., while a fourth is idled in The Netherlands. The company will also close a plant in Brazil and consolidate other assets in its polyurethanes and epoxy businesses.

Hmmm...this story sure doesn't appear to be in alignment with the predominant economic recovery narrative.


Bonus: Just for Dow, some Chemical Beats from the Chemical Brothers

Northwest Community Healthcare (Illinois) Lays Off 104 Workers

More bad news from the health care industry. Here is Crain's Chicago Business with the details:

Northwest Community Healthcare laid off 104 employees this week after the Arlington Heights-based system lost $13.2 million on operations in 2011, the third-straight year of losses.

The job cuts represent about 3 percent of the workforce, said Jackie Speckin, Northwest's director of strategic marketing, who confirmed the layoffs.

Employees were laid off on Monday and Tuesday, she said. Most of the jobs were eliminated at the 496-bed Northwest Community Hospital, where average occupancy fell to 67 percent during the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, from 70 percent during fiscal 2010.

Nothing terribly remarkable there, but check out this passage:

Ms. Speckin blamed the performance on industry trends.

“We're experiencing what every other hospital nationwide is experiencing, and that's a decrease in the amount of inpatient volume,” she said.

A decrease in inpatient volume, eh? Given that the population continues to both grow and the average age is gradually increasing with the graying of the Baby Boomers, why do you suppose that would be? More people losing their health insurance who can't afford hospital stays?

That would be my guess.


Bonus: In light of this story, here is a good sentiment from the late, great Warren Zevon...too bad he didn't manage to avoid it himself

Illinois Proposed Job Cuts To Total At Least 2,300

Rarely do you see the conundrum faced by state governments spelled out so clearly in a news article. Everyone knows that the finances of the State of Illinois are out of control and need to be reigned in. Governor Pat Quinn, when not debasing himself by taking the "Cinnamon Challenge" on live radio, is actually slowly working his way towards doing something about it. Here is a Quad Cities television station with the details:

Gov. Pat Quinn's own documents suggest his plan to close state facilities would cost Illinois at least 2,300 jobs and $250 million in economic activity.

So far, Quinn has filed economic impact statements on just 8 of the 14 prisons, mental institutions and other facilities he wants to close. When more reports are filed, the total impact could be significantly higher.

For instance, closures planned in Centralia and Joliet will cost another 600 jobs just in state layoffs.

The Democratic governor says Illinois must cut spending to ease budget problems.

And here is the conundrum:

But critics call it short-sighted to make cuts that will eliminate jobs at the same time Illinois is trying to stimulate the economy.

Once again, we see Spoiled Rotten Nation in all of its glory. We just CAN'T live within our means because it would HURT the economy. Yes, it sucks that people are going to lose their jobs due to these budget cuts, but I just wish that for once those "critics" would answer a simple question: if not now, when?


Bonus: A little ditty from the Pride of Rockford, Illinois

When It Comes To Labor Disputes, There Are No Happy Endings In America Anymore

It's been a constant wonder of mine as I've covered these relentless plant closings/layoffs stories here on TDS--why don't more working people get angry and at least protest when their livelihoods are being destroyed? Perhaps its because they know that at the end of the day the effort will be futile. That point was driven home this past week, as reported by the Chicago Tribune:

A group of about 65 workers who occupied a Goose Island window factory in 2008 have once again locked themselves inside the plant in a desperate move to save their jobs.

California-based Serious Energy said Thursday it is closing the plant's doors and consolidating operations in Colorado and Pennsylvania.

"Ongoing economic challenges in construction and building products, collapse in demand for window products, difficulty in obtaining favorable lease terms, high leasing and utility costs and taxes, and a range of other factors unrelated to labor costs, have compelled Serious to cease production at the Chicago facility," the company said in a statement.

What makes this story particularly depressing is that this is not the first time these workers have been down this particular road:

The layoffs come more than three years after a group of about 200 workers from Republic Windows & Doors organized a six-day sit-in demanding vacation and severance pay after being laid off in December 2008.

The battle drew national media attention. After three days, a settlement was reached. Each union worker received a check for about $6,000 just days after Republic Windows filed for protection under Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Serious Energy bought the 268,000 square foot plant in 2009 with the promise of hiring back the former Republic workers. Leah Fried, a spokeswoman for UE Local 1110, said that the new company never hired back more than 75 of the workers.

The lesson here is quite simple, in an age when labor is cheap and disposable, workers have zero leverage and no hope of saving themselves when bosses decide their jobs are no longer profitable enough. Take heed, because we are rapidly reaching the point where this could happen to any one among us who works for someone else.


Bonus: "We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die...the first ones in line for that pie in the sky"

Psychiatric Patients With No Place to Go But Jail

A few days ago, I posted a story about how because of draconian sentences, America's prisons are being turned into retirement homes. Well, now comes a story from The New York Times about how, thanks to state government budget cuts, they may also be being turned into psychiatric wards:

The sounds of chaos bounce off the dim yellow walls. Everywhere there are prisoners wearing orange, red and khaki jumpsuits. An officer barks out orders as a thin woman tries to sleep on a hard bench in a holding cell. This is a harsh scene of daily life inside what has become the state’s largest de facto mental institution: the Cook County Jail.

About 11,000 prisoners, a mix of suspects awaiting trial and those convicted of minor crimes, are housed at the jail at any one time, which is like stuffing the population of Palos Heights into an eight-block area on Chicago’s South Side. The Cook County sheriff, Tom Dart, estimated that about 2,000 of them suffer from some form of serious mental illness, far more than at the big state-owned Elgin Mental Health Center, which has 582 beds.

Mr. Dart said the system “is so screwed up that I’ve become the largest mental health provider in the state of Illinois.” The situation is about to get worse, according to Mr. Dart and other criminal justice experts. The city plans to shut down 6 of its 12 mental health centers by the end of April, to save an estimated $2 million, potentially leaving many patients without adequate treatment — some of them likely to engage in conduct that will lead to arrests.

“It will definitely have a negative impact on jail populations,” said Mr. Dart, who noted that the number of people coming into the jail with mental health problems was already increasing. “It will have direct consequences for us in my general jail population and some of the problems I have here, because a lot of the people with these issues act out more, as you would expect, so that’s a direct consequence.”

It costs an estimated $143 a day to house a typical detainee in the Cook County Jail. The cost to house someone with serious mental health issues is two to three times that amount. Mr. Dart said that prisoners with mental health problems are in a disproportionate number of fights and make more suicide threats, and managing them takes more resources.

“And then there’s the humane side of it,” he said. “Not treating people with mental illness is bad enough, but treating them like criminals? Please, what have we become?”

Indeed, Mr. Dart, what HAVE we become? I ask myself that question nearly every single day.

7-11 Store Owners: Online Lottery Sales Could Mean Massive Layoffs

It has been apparent for many years that the continuing advancements in technology are no longer contributing to progress in our society but have in fact become a zero sum game. Here is CBS Chicago with the latest details:

Owners of 7-Eleven stores are warning of massive layoffs to come, unless the Illinois Lottery protects them from competition from the online sales that are expected to start this year.

As WBBM Newsradio’s John Cody reports, the franchise owners say they online lottery sales could force them to lay off 7,000 employees statewide.

Joe Rossi, the head of the Chicago franchise owners’ association, estimates lottery sales bring in 30 percent of the business at 7-Elevens, because lottery buyers buy an average of $5 in goods on top of their tickets.

Rossi says he is not trying to block internet lottery sales, just suggesting the lottery find a way to protect 7-Eleven lottery business and jobs.

Rossi is recommending that the state Lottery require players to fill up a Lottery credit card at 7-Elevens – leaving the store owners with their present 5 percent cut of the business – rather than allowing players to gamble without limit on their credit cards on line at home.

Memo to Joe Rossi: nothing personal, but go fuck yourself. In case you haven't noticed, countless millions of factory workers have been losing their jobs for the past couple of generations thanks to technological innovations and globalization. If we collectively were not willing to try and protect the livelihoods of people who actually built something for living, why would we suddenly start caring about 7-Eleven clerks?

How many of the items stocked on the shelves at 7-Eleven are made overseas because it's cheaper? Perhaps, while we are needlessly burdening lottery players just to protect your company, we should also enact high tariffs to bring the jobs back to America destroyed by 7-Eleven's insistance on purchasing those imported goods just to maximize your bottom line. In fact, I'd rather do that since I don't give a flying fuck about a predatory lottery system designed to separate lower income people from money they cannot afford to spend.

Funny how everybody in America is all about singing the praises of the "progress" that technology and globalization supposedly brings until the day comes that it actually affects their own bottom line. Then they suddenly get all butthurt and protectionist on us.


Bonus: "When I win the lottery, I'm gonna buy all the girls on my street a color teevee and a bottle of French perfume"

Chicago Called Most Corrupt City...Ooh Look, Boobies!

A story appeared this past week that caught my eye for the right reasons, but reading it filled me with loathing and disgust for the precisely the wrong reasons. As I've mentioned a number of times before on this blog, I originally hail from the Great State of Illinois, and actually lived within the Chicago city limits for three years after college. For someone who grew up in a small town, the Windy City was a stimulating and exciting place to spend my young adulthood. It still had a reputation for corruption, of course, but in the early-90s era in which Mayor Daley the Younger (and far more articulate) was first elected mayor, that all seemed like a relic of the distant past, no more relevant to my generation than were the riots at the 1968 Democratic convention.

Well, apparently Chicago has not buried its history of corruption, as reported by CBS Chicago.com:

A former Chicago alderman turned political science professor/corruption fighter has found that Chicago is the most corrupt city in the country.

He cites data from the U.S. Department of Justice to prove his case. And, he says, Illinois is third-most corrupt state in the country.

University of Illinois at Chicago professor Dick Simpson, who served as alderman of the 44th Ward in Lakeview from 1971 to 1979, estimates the cost of corruption at $500 million.

It’s essentially a corruption tax on citizens who bear the cost of bad behavior — police brutality, bogus contracts, bribes, theft and ghost payrolling to name a few — and the costs needed to prosecute it.

“We first of all, we have a long history,” Simpson said. “The first corruption trial was in 1869 when alderman and county commissioners were convicted of rigging a contract to literally whitewash City Hall.”

In the Northern District of Illinois, which includes Chicago, there have been a total of 1,531 public corruption convictions since 1976, Simpson found. A distant second is California’s central district in Los Angeles with 1,275 public corruption convictions since 1976, Simpson found.

Statewide, that number hits 1,828. Only California and New York have more, but those states have much higher populations. Per capita, only the District of Columbia and Louisiana have more convictions.

Since the 1970s, four of Illinois’ seven governors have been convicted (Otto Kerner, Dan Walker, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich). In addition, dozens of Chicago alderman and other city and county public officials have been found guilty, Simpson said.

Corruption, Simpson said, is intertwined with city politics. Simpson found that about a third of sitting alderman since 1973 have been corrupt.

“We have had machine politics since the Great Chicago Fire of 1871,” he said. “Machine politics breeds corruption inevitably.”

Now that is an important story that ought to be read by every resident of the City of the Big Shoulders so maybe they can be stirred to finally take action and do something about ithis appalling state of affairs, right? Well, not withstanding the fact that very few people actually still read these days, the text of this story was wedged on the website page between a column highlighting other stories labelled, "Don't Miss This," with flashy color pictures on one side and an column of intrusive Google ads on the other.

The Don't Miss This stories included:

Remembering Whitney Houston (with a picture of Whitney singing)

Grammys: Who Looked Good? (with a picture of the relentlessly untalented but big-chested, hypocritical Christian singer Katy Perry)

Oscar Nominees (with a picture of some actress I didn't recognize because I rarely go to the movies anymore. Not because I don't like movies but because most of what Hollywood produces these days is pure shit)

Hottest Celebs With Babies (with a picture of Brittany Spears wearing a releaving outfit showing off her cellulite while "singing")

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show (with a picture of a lingerie clad Victoria's Secret model)

The Google ads opposite also had pictures and the text of the article was actually bent around them. There were also links to other serious news stories, but they were down at the bottom of the page where the reader would actually have to search them out and had no associated pictures.

Now I know some will argue that page view volume is the only way these websites can make money, so they deliberately place the most eye-catching links to their other stories where viewers will be most likely to see them. Britain's Globe and Mail newspaper website is particularly notorious for doing this, running a picture-laden, celebrity-driven column of pap chauvinistically labelled, "Femail Today," down the far right column next to every news story. The overall effect is to subtly indicate that a serious news story like the one above is not any more important than the sheer fluff that is being otherwise highlighted.

I had a cyber conversation the other day on an online forum in which the subject turned to whether the Internet is now serving to destroy people's attention spans even more so than television had already been doing for a couple of generations. Thinking about it, I realized I myself have had a problem with the distracting effects of the Web. I've been an avid book reader my whole life, but I've become so used to clicking from story to story online just long enough to get the gist before moving on that I've noticed my patience for sitting down and reading a serious work of fiction or nonfiction for an hour or two is not the same as it used to be. If that is what is happening to someone with the level of concentration it takes to be a writer, and I am actually aware that it's happening, what corrosive effects are the countless hours of Internet viewing having on the critical thinking skills of those who read books rarely if at all?

I don't think you have to look too hard to see what effect our mass distraction is having on our culture as a whole. The infantile rhetoric spewing forth from the Republican presidential primary campaign and the fact that Obama's approval ratings have been soaring lately despite his manifest failure to keep any of his campaign promises are strong indicators of a society that has completely lost its ability to think critically.

Anyway, food for thought. As for Chicago, it sounds like my former place of residence is in deep do-do. Maybe someday, someone who lives there will give more of a shit about the endemic local corruption than they do about who looked good at the fucking Grammys.


Bonus: Tift Merritt is the anti-Katy Perry

Idiocracy Porn: Illinois Governor Takes the "Cinnamon Challenge"

Though I haven't resided in the great state of Illinois in nearly two decades, I have been perversely fascinated by what an utter basket case my home state has become in recent years. The state's finances are absolutely out of control, unemployment is among the highest in the nation and four of the state's previous seven governors have ended up wearing prison jumpsuits.

I would have thought after the embarrassing spectacle that the previous governor, Rod Blagojevich, had made out himself that his successor might want to avoid ever doing anything to cause him to be seen in a similar light. Sadly, no. Instead, Governor Pat Quinn decided for some bizarre reason to go on the radio last week and take the "Cinnamon Challenge."

For those not familiar with this particular Internet sensation, here is a brief introduction to the phenomenon from Mother Nature Network:

If someone can explain the appeal of the cinnamon challenge, can they clue in the rest of us? The dastardly dare that has the Internet aflutter involves the task of eating a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, without water, in under a minute.

What could be so tough about consuming a mouthful of this innocuous-seeming spice? If cinnamon inspires thoughts of comforting apple pie and cozy cinnamon rolls, switch gears and consider Atomic Fireballs, Lava Hot Cinnamon Balls, and Hot Tamales. Cinnamon is potent, as evidenced by the reactions recorded in many a cinnamon-challenge YouTube video – coughing, choking, gagging, vomiting, crying, cursing and general signs of severe discomfort.

Sounds like a perfectly stupid, but otherwise harmless activity, right? Well, maybe not so harmless:

Parenting experts recommend keeping spices out of reach from children. One of the threats to children who play in the spice cabinet is cinnamon, which when ingested can cause severe burning of the mouth and throat, requiring immediate medical attention. The burning may be so severe that the child can suffer from swelling of the mouth or throat, blocking access to air and potentially leading to death.

Obviously infants aren’t participating in the dare, and it's highly doubtful we'll witness an infant cinnamon challenge trend, but it goes to show that cinnamon is a formidable flavoring. All one needs to see is a few “cinnamon challenge fail” videos on the Web to view the effect on teens and young adults when the powder is inhaled — which is pretty much inevitable following the gasps that occur upon the initial burning. Immediate coughing and choking are de rigeuer.

In many cases, the coughing is so severe that the challenge has difficulty catching his breath. For anyone suffering from asthma or COPD, this can be very serious. And in fact, ground cinnamon can lead to a bronchial constriction — according to the University of Michigan Health System — and that can be life threatening.

Cinnamon also contains as essential oil called cinnamal, which can act as an allergen in a fair amount of people. Those who are allergic to cinnamon can suffer from contact dermatitis — and according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, cinnamon can also cause a severe allergic reaction that can lead to anaphylactic shock. We can only hope that someone who knows they are allergic to cinnamon would politely decline the challenge; but for someone who wasn’t aware of the existence or severity of an allergy, the results could be … challenging.

So, can the cinnamon challenge kill you? Although no accounts of death by cinnamon have been reported, there are indeed risks — and it seems only a matter of time until the challenge delivers a fatal blow to some unsuspecting teen.

In other words, the Cinnamon Challenge is not something that responsible adults, let alone a state governor ought to be encouraging. In fact, school districts around the country have been warning parents about the risks of this fad. Alas, Governor Quinn is not one to set a good example, as reported by the Chicago Sun Times:

Gov. Pat Quinn may have gotten a chilly reaction to his State of the State speech this week, but the Democrat warmed things up Friday by taking down his spiciest obstacle of the year.

The governor swallowed a spoonful of cinnamon at the request of WGN-AM’s Jonathon Brandmeier while doing a guest appearance on his radio show in a stunt that has been appropriately titled the “Cinnamon Challenge.”

The old stunt, which is difficult to pull off without water, has gotten new life online as people post their attempts on YouTube. Add Quinn’s effort to the growing list.

“I want the record to state that I did not kill him, if anything happened,” Brandmeier said before Quinn swallowed the cinnamon.

The governor survived the challenge — but did take a swig of bottled water immediately after taking down the cinnamon.

“The will of the people will be the law of the land,” he said triumphantly — albeit a bit hoarse.

“This guy’s unbelievable!” Brandmeier shouted. “I don’t believe what you just did. The governor! I bow before you!”

In reading that, the first question that immediately comes to mind is: why, for fuck's sake? I understand that politicians are always looking for ways to connect to Joe and Jane Six Pack, as they condescendingly call them. But have we really sunk to such a low level that a 63-year-old alleged adult human being feels the need to stoop to FAIL Blog-type antics in order to appeal to the voters?

Nevermind, I already know the answer to that question.


Bonus: It's just a matter of time

America's Most Miserable Cities, 2012

image: The Machesney Park Mall, Rockford, Illinois...yesterday and today

The new Forbes list of America's Most Miserable Cities is out. Here is Yahoo Real Estate with the details:

Miami is a playground for the rich and famous. Celebrities flock to parties at South Beach clubs and then return to their $10 million mansions in Miami Beach and Key Biscayne. It’s a leading city in culture, finance and international trade. But away from the glitz and glamor, many ordinary Miamians are struggling.

A crippling housing crisis has cost multitudes of residents their homes and jobs. The metro area has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country and workers face lengthy daily commutes. Add it all up and Miami takes the top spot in our ranking of America’s Most Miserable Cities.

The most famous way to gauge misery is the Misery Index developed by economist Arthur Okun in the 1960s, which combines unemployment and inflation. Our take on misery is based on the things that people complain about on a regular basis.

We looked at 10 factors for the 200 largest metro areas and divisions in the U.S. Some are serious, like violent crime, unemployment rates, foreclosures, taxes (income and property), home prices and political corruption. Other factors we included are less weighty, like commute times, weather and how the area’s pro sports teams did. While sports, commuting and weather can be considered trivial by many, they can be the determining factor in the level of misery for a significant number of people. One tweak to this year’s list: we swapped out sales tax rates for property tax rates. Miami would have finished No. 1 under the old methodology as well.

Miami has local company in misery on our list: the West Palm Beach metropolitan division ranks fourth and Fort Lauderdale is seventh. Both areas have been hit hard by the housing crises.

Michigan’s troubled duo of Detroit and Flint clock in at No. 2 and No. 3 among the most miserable cities. The cities have been reeling for decades due to the decline of the U.S. auto industry and in recent years have been demolishing houses to change their city landscapes. Detroit has closed schools and laid off police, while Michigan appointed an emergency manager last year to take over Flint’s budget and operations. Detroit and Flint rank No. 1 and No. 3 when it comes to violent crime, and unemployment over the past three years in both communities has also been among the worst in the U.S.

Last year’s most miserable city, Stockton, ranks No. 11 this year. Stockton got a boost as housing prices have stabilized to some degree after a 45% drop between 2006 and 2008. They also benefited from our replacement of sales tax rates with property taxes in the methodology (Stockton would have finished No. 6 under the old methodology). Stockton still has plenty of problems, though. It ranks among the country’s six worst when it comes to unemployment, foreclosures and violent crime.

The Top 10 List is below, with details for each one at the link:

10. Warren, Michigan

9. Rockford, Illinois

8. Toledo, Ohio

7. Fort Lauderdale, Florida

6. Chicago, Illinois

5. Sacramento, California

4. West Palm Beach, Florida

3. Flint, Michigan

2. Detroit, Michigan

1. Miami, Florida

Interesting that two cities in which I used to reside, Chicago (6) and Rockford (9) made the list. Perhaps that is why I am such a sunny personality. I chronicled Rockford's descent into hell last May 23rd in my post, "Worst City in America" -- How Rampant Globalization Transformed Rockford, Illinois." I'm sure it must be cold comfort to the citizens of Rockford that eight other cities have passed them up in their misery.


Bonus: "They say misery loves company. We could start a company...and make misery"

Jane Addams's Hull House Charity Closes; 300 Employees Laid Off

One of the sadder stories to arise from the ongoing slow motion economic collapse was reported Friday when it was announced that the Hull House, the 19th century charity formed by the famed Chicago icon, Jane Addams, is closing down. Here is the Washington Post with the details:

Hull House, the Chicago social services organization founded more than 120 years ago by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, closed Friday after running out of money.

The agency said the poor economy resulted in more demand for its services but also made it harder to raise money to cover its costs. Hull House has been providing child care, job training, housing assistance and other services for 60,000 people a year in the Chicago area.

The agency had announced plans to close in the spring, but Friday’s shutdown was unexpected, striking some 300 employees with a devastating and unexpected blow. They received layoff notices and final paychecks and then spent the day packing their belongings and saying tearful good-byes. Many said they were startled to learn their insurance ended almost two weeks ago.

“It’s been my life,” said Dianne Turner, who spent 25 years teaching families in Chicago housing projects how to break the cycle of poverty. “It wasn’t about the pay. It was about seeing a family go from feeling hopeless to being hopeful and feeling like they can do things.”Chicago’s Hull House, founded by Jane Addams, closes doors after more than 120 years

Turner said she knows what it’s like to live in the projects and dream of something better. She got her first job as a teenager through Hull House and said the organization helped teach her the value of education, how to save money and how to be a leader.

Founded in 1889, Hull House was the best known of the 400 settlement houses in the United States in the early 1900s. The settlements were designed to provide services to immigrants and the poor while uplifting them through culture, education and recreation. At its peak, Hull House served more than 9,000 people a week, offering medical help, an art gallery, citizenship classes, a gardening club and a gym with sports programs.

Of course, the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression is about the very worst time for this to happen. And note, too, the completely shabby way that the employees were treated. Jane Addams must be rolling over in her grave. The fact that this happened the same week as Obama's State of the Union speech in the very city he calls home could not be more fittingly symbolic.

Just Another Sad Tale of Small Town America

Back during the 2008 presidential campaign, Veep candidate Sarah Palin got a lot of mileage by hyping up "small town values," and insinuating that people who live in the rural areas of the country are somehow more American that those who reside in and around the big cities. As someone who grew up in a small town and have lived most of my adult life in urban areas, I found that line of reasoning particularly daffy. Beyond the offensiveness of questioning the patriotism of people just because of where they live, it was also incredibly dumb from a politics standpoint. For there is no quicker way to consign yourself to the dustbin of history as a politician than purporting to stand up for a constituency that is rapidly dying out.

Unless they are lucky enough to be located in or near a big tourist destination, America's small towns and cities have been slowly decaying for a couple of generations now. My own hometown of Freeport, Illinois, reached peak population in the 1970 census and has been slowly losing ground since then as college educated young people like me have deserted the place because there were few good jobs to be had. I often wonder what my life would have been like had I been able to secure a decent job back home after college. As much as I have enjoyed the excitement of residing first in Chicago and then just outside of DC, and having the opportunity to travel to more than two dozen foreign countries, the long dead ideal of small town living does still hold some appeal for me.

As a result, the recent article below from a local television station in my home state struck a particular chord with me:

There was a time when the general store was the beating heart of the rural American town. Friday, another town lost its heart. Huebotter's Store closed for good.

Now many are wondering how they can pump life back into their town.

Things are done the old-fashioned way at Huebotter's.

"I'm noticing that small-town America seems like it's drying up," said Guy Inman.

People here buy just what they need.

"We kept holding off, praying that we would not have to close," said Candace Ellis.

For years, Ellis helped her mother-in-law Joyce order groceries for the store. Joyce's father Paul Huebotter opened the store back in 1928.

What's inside shows all the history there, pieces of a simpler time, a different life. And for those here, Huebotter's is their community.

"The store is viable. It made a living. But there's nobody here to take it and put their heart and soul in it and run it," said Robert Inman.

Inman is a local farmer. He said he will soon have to drive about 30 miles to the nearest store, making small-town living a thing of the past.

The decision to close came about three weeks ago but the concerns had been around for a while.

The store wasn't making the money to stay open.

"Joyce has been here literally her whole life, ever since she was born and her father started it," said Ellis.

With a heavy heart Joyce Ellis sat, watching the time tick by, unable to talk about the doors closing Friday.

Just to recap, this store survived the Great Depression, World War Two, the Cold War, the oil shocks of the 1970s and well into the Internet age. And now it's gone, along with the traditional American small town lifestyle in general.

But beyond just my own stuffy nostalgia, a question that needs to be asked is what are people who will now have to drive 30 miles just to get their groceries (and perhaps their mail when the post office closes) going to do when gasoline becomes unaffordable in a few years? As I wrote back on January 13th in my post, "Riding the School Bus May Be About to Become a Thing of the Past, Part 2," those who live the farthest from the main centers of population and government services are the ones who need to do a crash course on becoming self-sufficient. Because the day is soon coming when they are simply not going to have any other choice.


Bonus: Sorry John, but that world doesn't exist anymore

Another Globalization Blow to My Home Town

image: The Lincoln Mall in Freeport, Illinois. Built the year I was born, the mall was anchored by Sears and JC Penney when I was growing up and along with the downtown business district was the city's prime shopping destination. Like Freeport's downtown, it is now virtually abandoned.

Back on August 12th of last year in my post, "Friday Rant: A Half-Century at the Local Tire Factory in a Globalizing World", I wrote about the history of the factory in my hometown where my father spent his entire career as a middle manager. The factory in question is currently operating at about one-fourth the capacity it was when my father retired, and just recently ownership locked out the workers to win more wage concessions from the union.

Well, the hits just keep on coming for my hometown of Freeport, Illinois, as reported this week by the Freeport Journal Standard:

As the plan to phase out roughly 170 jobs at the Sensata Technologies/Honeywell plant in Freeport continues to move ahead, local workforce officials are meeting with affected staff in an effort to keep them employed in this region.

“We want to make the transition for them as quick and pain-free as possible,” said Stephenson County Board Chairman John Blum, who is a member of the Local Workforce Investment Board (LWIB). “It’s definitely upsetting a lot of lives.”

In early 2011, Sensata announced it would be closing its local plant at the end of 2012, and relocating the jobs there to a plant in China. Normal operations will continue at the Freeport plant until then, but roughly 170 jobs are being phased out gradually.

About 25 employees at the plant are expected to be laid off over the next six weeks. However, many of these employees have chosen to extend their employment at the local plant by moving to another production line there. Still, all the plant employees will be let go by late 2012, at which time the facility will be decommissioned.

I really have one question for the American management officials who make decisions like this. How the fuck do you sleep at night? Seriously, I really want to know. Has corporate America been completely taken over by psychopaths at this point?

Freeport is a small city of around 25,000 mostly blue collar souls who were already struggling from the loss of much of the town's manufacturing base. This action is going to be a real kick in the nuts for the city.

Sadly, this was all predicted back in 1994 by the late James Goldsmith, who ironically was the financier whose attempted buyout of the Goodyear corporation in 1986 caused my father to be laid off for about six months. His subsequent appearance on the Charlie Rose show a few months after NAFTA was passed in 1994 is a rare example of must-see teevee. Goldsmith very presciently warned that globalization was going to destroy the lives of working people in the United States, even as Rose pooh-poohs the idea.

I've posted this video before, but it deserves to be spread as far and widely as possible:

Government Waste Porn: $45 Million Down the Drain in Illinois Homeland Security Boondoggle

The sad fact is that during much of this past decade, while the federal debt levels were exploding to previously unprecedented heights, you could get the green light from the feds on just about any dumbass project as long as you tied it somehow into combating terrorism. The latest example of just how all those gobs of money thrown at Homeland Security were being pissed down the sewer was reported the other day by the Chicago Sun Times:

Project Shield was supposed to make citizens safer. But in the end, the $45-million Homeland Security program more resembled a disaster, wasting taxpayers’ dollars and failing to make a single citizen more secure.

The failed Cook County initiative was replete with equipment that failed to work, missing records and untrained first responders according to a report by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The report, to be released Monday but obtained by The Sun-Times and NBC5 News, found “millions of tax dollars may have been wasted.”

Under Project Shield, two police squad cars in all 128 Cook County suburbs were to be fitted with cameras capable of feeding live video to a central command. In addition, fixed mounted cameras were to be installed to feed pictures in case of a terrorist attack or emergency in Cook County.

A six-month investigation by the IG found “equipment was not working, was removed, or could not be properly operated.”

Investigators visited 15 municipalities between January and June last year and found “missing records, improper procurement practices, unallowable costs and unaccountable inventory items.”

Funny how no one connected with this boondoggle thought to question why it should cost $45 million dollars to set up some stupid surveillance cameras. Surely, they could have moseyed on down to the local Radio Shack and gotten a better fucking deal than this.

The report goes on:

Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) grants were funneled from DHS to the State and on to Cook County. The report concludes, “FEMA did not adequately ensure that the State of Illinois effectively monitored Cook County’s expenditures...”

And questions remain. “Both FEMA and the State need to improve the review process and perform better oversight,” according to the IG, adding proposed actions to better monitor how funds are spent “remains unresolved and open.”

Another open question might be why no one is sitting in jail for having perpetrated this act of criminal stupidity. But we can't have actual accountability in this country because then there would be no one left to make such idiotic decisions in the first place.


Bonus: Lewis Black isn't a big a fan of FEMA

More Housing Crash Evidence: Building Permits Continue to Fall in Exurban Kane County, Illinois

(Hat tip to reader defshepard for alerting me to this article).

For those of you who may not be familiar with the Chicago area, Kane County, Illinois, which lies more than 30 miles from the downtown Chicago Loop, is one of those far flung exurban areas that built up rapidly during the housing boom era when suburbanites fled farther and farther from the city centers in search of a cheap lot on a cul-de-sac in which they could build their dream McMansions. The fact that these artificial communities were even more car-centric and thereby vulnerable to oil price shocks than even traditional, closer in suburbs never entered their minds. Not surprisingly, in most places the subsequent housing crash hit the exurbs the hardest.

It would stand to reason then that if there is ever going to be a recovery in housing it will have take root in the exurbs at some point. As this article about Kane Country from Sun Times Media shows, however, no such recovery is evident:

Building in Kane County is continuing to slide.

In 2011, the county issued 1,335 building permits from January through November, compared to 1,487 for the same period in 2010.

The drop-off is not as extreme as some years have been since the economy started struggling, but the trend continues as the economy continues to suffer, Kane’s Director of Development and Community Services Mark VanKerkhoff said this past week.

“Like everywhere else, we’re probably down from five years ago,” he said.

For November, the county issued 128 permits, compared to 169 in November 2010. The drop is not too significant, but it does continue the trend, he said. The total number of building permits issued annually has been on a sharp decline for about seven years, he said.

Even more telling, however, is this quote:

The number of permits was significantly higher when the county was in boom times for building. The county could typically see between 400 and 500 permit applications to build single-family homes, VanKerkhoff said. As construction came to a halt, those numbers began to dip significantly.

About three or four years ago, the number of building permit applications for single-family homes barely topped 100. Now, they are routinely fewer than 75, he said. This year, they came in with 41 single-family home building permit applications.

Part of the reason for the decline is that the focus of the market has changed. More people are interested in rental units, since they cannot always afford to purchase housing, VanKerkhoff said.

"Can't always" afford to purchase single family housing? Looks to me like it is rapidly approaching the point where NOBODY can afford to purchase single family housing.

There is a very simple reason why single family home construction has virtually halted in places like Kane County. Few high paying jobs are being created, which means there is little expansion in the number of people who can afford to build a new McMansion anymore. But few people understand that basic fact, as evidenced by the concluding paragraphs of the article:

VanKerkhoff mentioned that the building department has spent more time looking at property maintenance ordinances. A county task force was recently formed to look at ordinances on the books, including how the county addresses abandoned construction projects, and the application process. The task force also is looking at ordinances determining how many vehicles can be left on a property.

The task force began to make sure that ordinances designed to protect the county during boom times were not deterring builders from doing business in Kane now that the economy is suffering, task force chairman Mike Donahue said.

I hate to tell you this, Mr. Donahue, but you could remove all of the building ordinances and allow the builders to cut whatever corners they want and it still wouldn't make any difference because they have no customers. If people can't afford to build new houses at a time when a 30-year, fixed rate mortgage is going for 4% interest, weakening a few building ordinances isn't going to change that basic fact.


Bonus: Looks like the exurbs may die before Chicago does

Illinois Subsidizes Navistar's Indiana Layoffs With Tax Incentives

We're used to sports team owners holding cities and states hostages by threatening to move to a different city in order to get new taxpayer-funded stadiums. But less well known is that other corporations often extort those same governments to get taxpayer incentives and subsidies as well.

It's one thing when it happens to prevent an employer from moving out of state. But what if an employer uses the incentives in order to open a new facility so it can the fire higher paid, unionized employees in another state? Think that can't happen? Well it just did in Illinois, according to this report:

WBEZ has learned that some new jobs Navistar promised under an Illinois incentive agreement are coming to the state at the expense of unionized workers in Indiana.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn announced the Navistar incentives last year after the company threatened to pack up its headquarters in west suburban Warrenville and leave the state. The deal committed Illinois to a $64.7 million bundle of tax credits and job-training subsidies for the company. It committed Navistar to moving the headquarters to Lisle, just a couple miles east, and to adding 400 full-time Illinois employees.

Navistar’s first report to the state about the jobs isn’t due until next year, so it’s hard to tell how many positions the company has created thus far. Employees confirm that dozens of new engineers and designers are working at the Lisle facility.

Navistar is creating those jobs as it phases out its Truck Development and Technology Center in Fort Wayne, Indiana, just three hours southeast of Chicago. The latest Fort Wayne cuts came December 2, when the company laid off 130 employees, mostly engineers and designers who are United Auto Workers members. Before the layoff, some of the Fort Wayne workers had to help train their Lisle replacements.

“They’ve rewritten the job descriptions so the people that used to do the work here — the union folks — don’t qualify anymore on paper,” said Craig Randolph, a Navistar design engineer laid off after 15 years at the Fort Wayne center. “So they’re eliminating the high-seniority, older employees like myself and replacing them with nonunion college kids — guys fresh out of school. And the taxpayers in Illinois are subsidizing the whole thing.”

Okay, that's bad enough, but the Corporate FlackQuote is just priceless:

Asked for a response, Navistar spokeswoman Karen Denning called it unusual for engineers to have union representation in the first place, a claim disputed by auto industry experts. Denning also sent a statement that said the company’s decision to shift the Fort Wayne jobs to Lisle was “based solely on our desire to compete in the global economy.” The statement added that Navistar has allowed many Fort Wayne employees to relocate to the Chicago area and stay with the company.

Because Illinois is just full of sophisticated, well refined workers, don't you know, while those troglodytes over in Indiana have not yet even evolved opposable thumbs.

In summary, lower paid Illinois workers are benefiting from higher paying jobs being transferred from Indiana, while the nearly bankrupt Land of Lincoln loses even more tax revenue it can ill afford to lose. Meanwhile, the top management at Navistar pat themselves on the back for being such shrewd businesspeople while laughing all the way to the bank. And yet people still want to blame the unions for making "unreasonable" demands as being the reason why so many companies are having trouble being competitive.


Bonus: I wonder if R. Dean Taylor used to work for Navistar

College Illinois! Could Need a $1.6 Billion Bailout

Before anyone sends me a message to take me to task for the apparent typographical error in the title of this article, that exclamation point is meant to be there. That really is what the great state of Illinois's dumbass college tuition savings program is called. I say "dumbass" because of the report that appeared in the Chicago Sun Times the other day:

Illinois’ financially tanking prepaid college tuition program could require a $1.6 billion bailout from the state to remain solvent during the next 25 years, a new study shows.

If state lawmakers do nothing to prop up College Illinois!, the fund could be drained completely by 2022, financial consultant Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company reported in its analysis for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

The report, made public Monday, says if no new contracts are sold going forward, the shortfall will develop between 2022 and 2036 to pay for past contracts coming due. The contracts are supposed to allow parents to pay in advance and lock in lower tuition rates for their children to attend state schools, including the University of Illinois.

Just what cash-strapped Illinois needs, another underfunded program that requires bailing out. Given the bubble in student loans and college education costs that I have written about numerous times before, it really doesn't matter that the fund is going to be bankrupt by 2022, as it seems highly unlikely that the American university system as we know it today will still be functioning then.

Moving on with the story, we greet the appearance of one of my favorite creatures grazing out on the plains of cluelessness awaiting the big bad carnivore named reality to slay them unaware. Behold, in all of her glory, the upper middle class nitwit:

Kim Godden, a lawyer who lives in Ukrainian Village, said Tuesday she was “outraged” to learn that there might not be any money by the time her daughter, Hannah, needs it. Godden, 38, enrolled her daughter in the program a month after her birth in 2007.

She said she did her homework before buying the contract to be sure she wasn’t making a risky investment, but figured her monthly $400 payments were safe.

“I said, ‘I’m guaranteed,’” Godden recalled thinking. “‘I don’t have to worry about fluctuations in the stock market.’”

I hate to break this to you, Ms. Godden, but you aren't guaranteed jack shit. In fact, by voluntarily agreeing to turn over control of your own money for 18 years to a state government in which four of the previous seven governors have ended up in prison you have proven once again that a fool and her money are easily parted, even if she should happen to have a law degree. The only sensible thing for you to do is stop paying into the program now and cut your losses. But you won't do that because you continue to naively believe in a system that, if you were to open your eyes just once, you could quite plainly see is crumbling down around you.

The real problem, Ms. Godden is that despite your fancy law degree you are the type of person who is easily taken in by flim-flam artists such as these:

Gov. Pat Quinn told reporters Tuesday that he supported the commission’s decision to suspend the sale of new College Illinois! contracts but gave no other clues about what steps need to be taken to right the fund’s finances.

“We’re going to have to roll up our sleeves. I really feel strongly about the importance of access to college and reducing the bite it takes on many students’ wallets when they have to go to college. That’s an issue we’re going work on in the coming years,” the governor said when asked about the report’s findings and whether College Illinois! can remain a viable program.

“We’ll come up with a plan, a rescue plan, to make it better,” Quinn said.

State Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), who has a College Illinois! contract for his daughter, said the report underscores the need for the Legislature to take decisive action when lawmakers return to Springfield early next year.

“Part of our job is to fix problems,” he said. “There is a problem. I think we can turn this around.”

Durkin said he is working on legislation to submit next year to make the program more transparent.

“We have to convince current contract holders this is still a safe investment and also need to make this an attractive plan for down the road,” Durkin said.

Godden said she is confident any problems will be resolved: “I have faith the state will back their commitment to me, and I hope I’m not disappointed.”

Tell you what, Ms. Godden, I'll bet you any amount you wish to wager that not only will you be disappointed and lose the money you continue to throw into the state's gigantic fiscal black hole, but that the university system will be so crippled by the time your daughter is college age that she will NEVER attend a single class. Why am I so confident that I'll win my bet? Well, maybe this has something to do with it:

...in a letter to contract holders, commission Interim Executive Director John Sinsheimer and board chairwoman Kym Hubbard noted that the $1.29 billion portfolio is 69.8 percent funded, a “slight improvement from the 68.6 percent reported as of June 30, 2010. This is much stronger than any of the State’s pension plans and many corporate pension plans.”

There you go, Ms. Godden. Director Sinsheimer and Chairwoman Hubbard just inadvertently told you how bad things really are even as they were trying to boost your confidence. Now who you gonna believe? The craven politicos, or your lying eyes?


Bonus: A song dedicated to the lovely lawyer, Kim Godden...look what she gets for pretending the danger's not real