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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

"Oregon Wants to Work"

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Friday, February 11, 2011   

PORTLAND, Ore. - As Oregon's unemployment figures continue to fly above the national average, new networks are springing up to help jobless individuals cope, and perhaps change their luck. The latest networking effort is called "Oregon Wants to Work." It's a collaboration of labor groups that want to help all workers - whether they have jobs or not.

The first meeting is in Portland, and Harold Treinen plans to be there. He is a financial analyst who's been without work for almost two years. He hopes the meetings will prompt Oregon companies to take a closer look at the high caliber of workers who never expected to be idled by the economy.

"We want to open up the public's eyes and employers' eyes to the fact that the workforce here in Oregon is a place where you have a wealth of human resource assets. They should be using them. They don't need to go abroad."

Even before his 2009 layoff, Treinen worked as a "temp" or contractor for three years. He says he has encountered more and more companies that simply no longer offer employee benefits, and he sees that as part of a troubling trend.

"Big employers and the banking institutions out there are sitting on a lot of cash. They've been making profits for the last year or two - and yet, they're reluctant to hire, invest in the infrastructure, invest in this country. They need to invest in this country, because that's going to hold the country together."

The Oregon AFL-CIO plans monthly meetings of "Oregon Wants to Work" to find out what unemployed workers need, bring in speakers to address those topics and advocate for legislation that creates jobs. The kick-off meeting is Wednesday, Feb. 16, at 5:30 p.m. at the PCC Workforce Training Center, N.E. 42nd and Killingsworth Ave., Portland.

Organizers of "Oregon Wants to Work" are the Oregon AFL-CIO, Labor's Community Services, Northwest Oregon Labor Council and Working America.


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