UPDATE- The Senate has voted 60-40 to advance a bill to extend unemployment benefits through November just moments after newly appointed Senator Carte Goodwin was sworn in.

(WASHINGTON, DC) Newly minted Senator Carte Goodwin (D-WV) will likely provide the 60th vote to pass an extension of expired unemployment benefits, but the bill won’t include any of the $48 million that New Hampshire lawmakers are counting on to balance the budget.

Goodwin will fill the seat held by recently deceased Senator Robert Byrd until West Virginia holds a special election, likely to take place this November. West Virginia Watchdog reports that a bill clarifying the West Virginia’s succession laws has cleared the House of Delegates and is headed to the State Senate for approval.

In this week’s installment of “New Hampshire Watchdog on WGIR”, Grant Bosse will discuss yesterday’s exclusive story that the Unemployment Trust Fund is out of money.

Tune in to the Charlie Sherman Show at 7:35. Listen live at WGIRam.com.

(CONCORD) New Hampshire’s Unemployment Trust Fund is out of money. Employment Security Commissioner Tara Reardon says that the fund reached a zero balance yesterday. In an exclusive interview with New Hampshire Watchdog, Reardon says the state expects to receive a $50 million no-interest loan from the federal Department of Labor within a week, in order to pay benefits to the 35,000 Granite Staters currently receiving unemployment.

(Concord) – In his recent speech to the NH Legislature Governor Lynch proposed tapping into the unemployment compensation fund to pay people who are still working but who’s hours have been reduced. However the Concord Monitor is reporting that the fund is currently insolvent and the state is planning to borrow money from the federal government just to meet current obligations. The only way to pay back that borrowing, or to pay for new programs, is to raise fees paid by employers.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor there are more than 31 Million Americans currently unemployed. How do we make sense of such a large number? This video shows a map of the US with the unemployment rate color coded by county. Watch as the colors change month by month over the last two years to see the impact of the current recession.

Grant Bosse joins “Meet the New Press“, which airs 9-11 on WEMJ, and streams live at GraniteGrok.com. Grant will be on at 9:35am. Check out their complete lineup.