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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Scrooged: "Horrible" Holiday for 26,000 in Connecticut

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Tuesday, December 24, 2013   

HARTFORD, Conn. – A dark cloud is hanging over the heads of 26,000 Connecticut residents this holiday as they face the end of their emergency unemployment benefits on Saturday.

So far, Congress hasn't voted to continue funding the benefits and it isn't likely, since House members already are home for their holiday break.

Lori Pelletier, executive secretary-treasurer of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, says the emergency unemployment compensation – put in place in the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008 – still is needed for thousands.

She says letting it expire is absolutely horrible.

“I can't think of any other word,” she adds. “It's just compounded that it's around, you know, this time of year."

Nationally, some 1.3 million people will lose benefits. The federal emergency benefits are intended to help people who still can't find a job after state benefits run out.

Barring an agreement in Congress, in July almost 2 million more people across the nation will suffer a similar fate, about 28,000 of them in Connecticut.

By the end of 2014, just over 85,000 Connecticut residents will have lost unemployment benefits.

Pelletier says she is disgusted.

"It's just not what Congress should be doing,” she emphasizes. “Congress, especially the House of Representatives – it's 'the people's house – and you know, it's just shameful."

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that, despite the economy's progress since 2008, there are still 1.3 million fewer jobs available.

About 4 million Americans have been looking for work for more than six months.





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