by: Robert Reich | RobertReich.org

The Labor Department reports that 85,000 jobs were lost in December. The official rate of unemployment (which measures how many people are looking for jobs) held steady at 10 percent nonetheless. That’s because so many more people have stopped looking. Reportedly, 661,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force last month, deciding there was no hope of finding a job. Had they continued to look, the official unemployment rate would have been 10.4 percent.

Op-Ed Columnist
The Other Plot to Wreck America
By FRANK RICH
THERE may not be a person in America without a strong opinion about what coulda, shoulda been done to prevent the underwear bomber from boarding that Christmas flight to Detroit. In the years since 9/11, we’ve all become counterterrorists. But in the 16 months since that other calamity in downtown New York — the crash precipitated by the 9/15 failure of Lehman Brothers — most of us are still ignorant about what Warren Buffett called the “financial weapons of mass destruction” that wrecked our economy. Fluent as we are in Al Qaeda and body scanners, when it comes to synthetic C.D.O.’s and credit-default swaps, not so much.

New York Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, shown with quarterback Mark Sanchez, could be in the Bills' future plans despite his protests that he'd like to remain with New York.
Getty Images

The stats don't lie. Buffalo was abysmal across the board in '09, specifically the offense. Here's a look at the big numbers from this season...

For the first time ever, the top 20 picks in the NFL Draft will be made up exclusively of teams that didn't make the playoffs. The playoff teams will make the final 12 picks, depending on the results of the postseason.


1. St. Louis (1-15)

2. Detroit (2-14)

3. Tampa Bay (3-13)

Want to know how far Joe Lieberman has fallen in the wake of the health care vote last month? Barack Obama's approval rating with Connecticut Republicans is higher than Lieberman's with the state's Democrats.
81% of Democrats now disapprove of Lieberman's job performance with only 14% approving, and he's not real popular with Republicans who disapprove of him by a 48/39 margin or with independents who do so by a 61/32 spread either. It all adds up to a 25% approval rating with 67% of his constituents giving him bad marks.

* Study finds 91 pct conviction rate in US terrorism cases

* Group says Guantanamo prisoners could be tried in US


MIAMI, July 23 (Reuters) - Guantanamo prisoners could be successfully tried in the United States because an overwhelming number of terrorism cases in U.S. courts since the Sept. 11 attacks have led to convictions, a study released on Thursday said.