The U.S. Census Bureau has just released some initial results from the 2010 Census, revealing that the resident population of the United States as of April 1, 2010 was 308,745,538, an increase of 9.7% over the 2000 Census number of 281,421,906.  Leading the way as the most populous state is California with a population of 37,253,956 and the least populous state is Wyoming with 563,626.  Texas gained the most in population over the past decade growing by 4,293,741 persons.

Indiana saw its population increase by 6.6%, up to 6,483,802, which results in 181 persons per square mile which ranks Indiana as 18th in terms of density, which is the same ranking as the previous two Census counts.

As a part of its initial report, the Census Bureau also delivered to President Obama its Apportionment Data, which is used to determine the number of representatives each state is entitled to.  Indiana will see no change to its current 9 representatives.  However, the states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington will all gain one (1) additional seat, while Florida will gain two (2) and Texas will gain four (4).  The States of Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachussetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will all lose one (1) seat, while New York and Ohio will each lose two (2) seats.

Indiana Lt. Governor Becky Skillman announced yesterday that 13 Indiana communities will receive a total of $10,876,512 for storm water infrastructure projects.  The grants are funded by an appropriation for disaster recovery efforts from the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, given to alleviate damages from several large storms in 2008 that caused flooding.  Included in the 13 communities receiving these grants are the two Starke County communities of North Judson and Knox.

North Judson will receive a total of $837,095 while Knox will receive a total of $736,553.  The program is adminstered in Indiana by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA).

In a show of bipartianship  by the United States Congress, the recently enacted and signed legislation extending various tax rate cuts also included an extension of unemployment benefits for an additional 13 months.  HOWEVER, it is important to note that this extension DID NOT ADD any weeks of benefits for an unemployed person like several of the other extensions; rather, it allows those who were already in the system and those who are filing now and in the future to complete the 99 weeks of unemployment benefits that were temporarily halted near the end of November.  For Indiana workers, filing vouchers for retroative benfits began yesterday.

Under the current law, regular state unemployment benefits are paid for the first 26 weeks, followed by four tiers of emergency unemployment compensation, which last between 6 and 20 weeks, followed by up to five additional months of extended benefits.  

For persons in Indiana, there are currently six unemployment tiers:

     Regular State Unemployment (UI) provides up to 26 weeks of benefits;

     Federal Extensiopn Tier #1 (EEUC) provides up to 20 weeks of benefits;

     Federal Extension Tier #2 (EEUC) provides up to 14 weeks of benefits;

     Federal Extension Tier #3 (EEUC) provides up to 13 weeks of benefits;

     Federal Extension Tier #4 (EEUC) provides up to 6 weeks of benefits;

     Extended Benefits (EB) provides up to 20 weeks in benefits.

Thus, it is possible to receive a total of 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Under this new extension if a person had just started on Tier #3 as an example when the previous extension ran out, he or she will now be entitled to complete that tier, aas well as tier 4 and the Extended benefits tier.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development (DWD) released preliminary unemployment figures for the month of November last Friday.  While the U.S. unemployment rate went up during the month, the Indiana rate dipped slightly, while the rate for Starke County rose from 11.0% in October to 11.3% in November.  Despite the rise, the rate for the County has fallen from 13.6% in January to the current rate and is now nearly the lowest rate experienced during all of 2010.

Despite the creation of an additional 39,000 jobs during the month, the unemployment rate for the United States increased during November from 9.6% in October to 9.8%.