He repeatedly called out the company web-services divisions for failing to pull their own weight, and suggested that fixing them may require running them as though the profits from the dial-up business didn't exist. “Healthy companies throw off cash,” he said. “What you should be focusing on is, how does the web services business throw off cash?”

Two important businesses, AOL Mail and MapQuest, have both been mismanaged, though in different ways, he said. The former was “overrun by monetization,” driving users away. “”The first day I started, I logged into AOL email and I got 15 to 20 ads, some of them pop-ups,” he said. “When you sent a nice message to your friend, you usually sent them a nice ad as well, and that's not really a nice user experience.” He added, “It's kind of product hygiene.”

MapQuest, meanwhile, was the victim of technological neglect, which, in turn, relates to a failure by AOL to recruit top engineers. That issue, he said, is being addressed aggressively. “Engineers love to solve big problems, and AOL is a big problem on that side,” he said. “If anyone in this room has relatives who are engineers and who are good, send them to AOL. We'll make them very happy.”

But while it may be looking to hire geeks, AOL is also in the midst of a huge workforce reduction, one that will shrink the company's payroll by 2,500 employees. That downsizing, Armstrong said, is the reason he declined to accept a bonus of between $1.5 million and $4 million he was due for 2009. “I don't think I should've gotten paid for laying off a third of my employees,” he said.

“We are running the company in a very rigorous way,” Armstrong added. “I think the morale at the company has turned around a lot, even with the reductions.”

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Is 99 weeks of unemployment checks enough? Or should it be extended? If extended, where will the money come from?

How can they extend the benefits when they have no money? Eventually these people getting unemployment are going to have to get off their ass and take a job that they may think is “beneath them”.Getting unemployment for 99 weeks is MORE than enough time to find a job, even if it's a crappy job at Walmart. Enough is enough.

(12-08) 16:28 PST — Nearly 600,000 jobless Californians could run out of unemployment benefits by April unless Congress extends a series of special assistance measures that expire at the end of December, says the National Employment Law Project.

The 65 percent federal subsidy for Cobra benefits will also expire at year's end, said the Law Project and allied groups at a press conference Monday in Washington.

Law Project chief Christine Owens said that nearly half of those now enrolled in the health insurance program could lose coverage unless the Cobra subsidy is reauthorized and extended.

Unemployment benefits normally last a maximum of 26 weeks and laid-off workers typically pay for continuing their old employment-based health insurance under Cobra.

But under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or the Obama stimulus plan, Congress allocated $40 billion to make unemployment benefits available for up to 79 weeks, and another $25 billion to subsidize Cobra.

Lawmakers recently added up to 20 weeks of unemployment checks, for a total of 99 weeks of benefits in California.

But those provisions expire at the end of December, and the groups holding Monday's press conference said that by the end of March, about 3 million Americans are projected to exhaust their benefits as the unemployment coverage maximum reverts to 26 weeks.

Making 99 weeks of unemployment benefits available throughout 2010 would cost about $85 billion, and extending the Cobra subsidy could be another $25 billion decision, said a Capitol Hill source.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she wants to extend both programs before the end of the year. New bills H.R. 4183 and S. 2381 would address jobless benefits.

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• Whoo, three finals down, one left! Yaaayyyy. I think I made A's on all of them, and I should have two A's for final grades, at least. Woot woot.

  I finally got my first unemployment check yesterday! That means I can pay for stuff! And buy DVDs like Harry Potter, and Glee! And also Christmas presents!

  You guys should tell me if you want Christmas cards. I need to get on that. Leave me your address if you want one – comments are obvs screened. And also if you did the Christmas list meme thing, link me! I might be able to send you a pressie! ^_^

  You know what's really annoying? My older sister owes me $560, 'cause last year she got into a lot of trouble for driving with expired tags and without insurance, so she had to pay like, $640 in fines and stuff. I lent her the money because I had it from my refund check and she didn't have any money, so I did the nice thing and helped her out. It's been nearly a year and she has paid me like, $80. She works at a costume shop, like dancewear and Halloween stuff, and I kind of expected her to give me a little in October when they were staying open later and she was working more days… but no. And every time I ask her for money ('cause I don't even have a job, and I have to pay my cell phone and help James with everything else) she makes a big deal and is like "Well, I JUST BARELY have enough for rent, so I GUESS I can spare like, $20. YAYYYY." And then she goes out and drinks every night and buys really stupidly expensive things for no reason… grrr.

  So yeah. We went to a burlesque show the other night (which was awesome, btw – I want to be a burlesque girl! I'm too shy and too fat, though.) and it was $8 to get in, which Kelly paid for both her and her boyfriend, and then started drinking as soon as we walked in and didn't stop till after we left. She was all "Want a ride home?!" and I was like "…. NO." -_- But yeah, so she spent at least $25 that night, which she could have been giving to me so I could pay my overdue phone bill. >_< Sometimes she really annoys me.

  Sorry. I'm just annoyed at a lot of people right now. But GLEEEEEE tonight you guys! GLEEEEE! <3 I love it, omg. I have to go do laundry so I can be done before Glee comes on. -_- Bah.

WASHINGTON – The recession has hit middle-income and poor families hardest, widening the economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans as rippling job layoffs ravaged household budgets.

The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans — those making more than $138,000 each year — earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.

Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade’s worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997.

Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.

“No one should be surprised at the increased disparity,” said Richard Freeman, an economist at Harvard University. “Unemployment hurts normal workers who do not have the golden parachutes the folks at the top have.”

Analysts attributed the widening gap to the wave of layoffs in the economic downturn that have devastated household budgets. They said while the richest Americans may be seeing reductions in executive pay, those at the bottom of the income ladder are often unemployed and struggling to get by.

Large cities such as Atlanta, Washington, New York, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago had the most inequality, due largely to years of middle-class flight to the suburbs. Declining industrial cities with pockets of well-off neighborhoods, such as Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Buffalo, N.Y., also had sharp disparities.

Up-and-coming cities with growing middle-class populations, such as Mesa, Ariz., Riverside, Calif., Arlington, Texas, and Henderson, Nev., were among the areas showing the least income differences between rich and poor.

It’s unclear whether income inequality will continue to worsen in major cities, said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. Many Americans are staying put for now in traditional cities to look for jobs and because of frozen lines of credit.

“During the years of the housing bubble, there was middle-class movement from unaffordable metros with high-income inequality,” Frey said. “Now that the bubble burst, more of the population may be headed back to the high-inequality areas, stemming their middle-class losses.”

As to poverty, the biggest shifts last year were increases in metropolitan areas in Florida and central California. Stockton, Calif., jumped from 14.1 percent to 16.8 percent, while Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla., rose from 12.7 percent to 15.4 percent. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Orlando, Bradenton and Palm Bay — all in Florida — also saw gains in the share of poor residents.

Among other findings:

—Income at the top 5 percent of households — those making $180,000 or more — was 3.58 times the median income, the highest since 2006.

—Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia had higher poverty rates than the national average, many of them in the South, such as Mississippi (21.2 percent), Kentucky, Arkansas and Louisiana (each with 17.3 percent). That’s compared with 19 states and the District of Columbia that ranked above U.S. poverty in 2007.

—Use of food stamps jumped 13 percent last year to nearly 9.8 million U.S. households, led by Louisiana, Maine and Kentucky. The increase was most evident in households with two or more workers, highlighting the impact of the recession on both working families and unemployed single people.

—Pharr, Texas, and Flint, Mich., each had more than a third of its residents on food stamps, at 38.5 percent and 35.4 percent, respectively.

—Between 2007 and 2008, income at the 50th percentile (median) and the 10th percentile fell by 3.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, compared with a 2.1 percent decline at the 90th percentile. Between 1999 and 2008, income at the 50th and 10th percentiles decreased 4.3 percent and 9 percent, respectively, while income at the 90th percentile was statistically unchanged.

—Plano, Texas, a Dallas suburb, had the highest median income among larger cities, earning $85,003. Cleveland ranked at the bottom, at $26,731.

The findings come as the federal government considers new regulations to rein in executive pay at companies in which it has invested. President Barack Obama also typically cites the need for higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for health care overhaul and other measures, arguing that the wealthy have disproportionately benefited from tax cuts during the Bush administration.

The 2008 figures come from the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey, which gathers information from 3 million households. The government first began tracking household income in 1967.