Michigan Votes Forum

VJNXqY hi! hice site!

I received my application on 7/17. Filled out and mailed back the same day. Went to Mich Works office and did everything I was suppose to do. I tried calling on my call in date 7/22 but MARVIN told me I couldn't certify until after 7/27 so I just called today and Marvin did not tell me how much I would be getting or when the check would be mailed (like he usually does at the end). He said something about 10 days and that I could call the 866-500-0017 and push the inquiry option. What is that all about? I did not take any job or make any money except my unemployment. Anyone else have this experience?? I would like to know the amount of my check and when I should expect it. Not sure what to do next.

TsEhUe hi! hice site!

If you continuously get a "all circuits are busy" when you call Marvin, I found a better way! Say for instance, if you are supposed to call from 3:00-4:00. Never, ever call right at 3:00. Try about 3:15. Hang up, if you get the recording. Call back right away. Keep doing that until it goes thru. It usually takes about 3-4 tries, but it works. Hope this helps Sarah

When I got through to Marvin on the 22, He didn't tell me either how much or when I would get the money. But i had to do the direct deposit after the call. But I did get my claim notice in the mail of how much I will get and how many weeks. Today is the 29th and still no deposit in my account.Its just taking time to process everyone. Don't give up it will be there .

I also got my claim approval in the mail today. Remember, our payments are retro-active back from July 6th. We will get a large check, when they actually come. Unfortunately, I chose to have mine mailed. Don't give up faith. If you get your approval letter, the check will come eventually. It also says how much you will receive. They are just backed up... terribly. Have a great day :-) Sarah

I received my explaination of benefits in the mail today (8/2) along with a check for three weeks of benefits. They must just be very, very busy but the checks will arrive.

I received my determenation form, but no check yet, so I will call on my regular call date and will probably receive a check for 4 weeks. Thanks for everyone's input, I think it helps all of us going through these tuff times!!! :)

Hi. Just to let you know they no longer mail the checks . You have to call that # and press 2 and have it direct deposit or a debit card. Maybe that is what you meant by mail??? Iam still waiting for my deposit from last call and my call day is tomorrow Aug.5. I will see what it tells me tomorrow. Patricia

I received a check in the mail so they are still mailing checks out.

Thanks for the update . Yes when I did call Marvin on 8/5 they did say a check would be in the mail. So it should be for 4 weeks. Thanks everyone for all your input

Has anyone received a check yet? I am still waiting and I have called Marvin 2 times now.

Yes, I have finally received a check for the last 2 weeks, I have 11 more to collect, however it says that I have to file a new claim again, while collecting the 13 wks because my benefit year ended on 7-26-08. Hope this helps out! :)

Lets just have the government take all the businesses dole out what they think you are worth, tell you where to live, what to drive and where you can shop. You folks keep fighting against the supreme nanny state when all they want is what's best for you. If you were smarter you could understand this.

I have also certified with Marvin twice, and also talked to two women at Unemployment. Unfortunately, I worked for two weeks and the place closed up! If you worked anywhere and either quit or were let go, for any reason, you will be put at "the end of the line" for waiting for your check. Because of the number of people trying to collect money with the Extension, they were overwhelmed with paperwork. Just keep calling Marvin. You will receive a check with a retro-active amount back to July 6th, per the UI customer service people. You had to have received a letter from them though, stating that you qualify for it. Hope this helps! Don't give up and don't stop calling Marvin. Your calls have to be in every two weeks!! Sarah

Sarah, Thanks for the info. I did receive the claim that i would be receiving 9 weeks. I haven't called them to check up on my checks. Like you say they will come soon for all the back weeks. Sara

I also got a letter stating that I am entitled to 13 weeks extension.. but.. I am still calling Marvin and haven't gotten a check yet. My year ends August 30th, so I will have to file a new claim. I wonder what date to actually do that? A couple of days before??? I realize they are all very busy because of the number of people that have Extensions, but this is getting very confusing :-( Sarah

Is there anyone else that hasn't received their first Unemployment extension check? Sarah

I have not received my unemployment yet. I did everything I was supposed to. They said I had to wait 1 to 4 weeks. I keep trying to call through because it has been 5 weeks today. On July 31 I received a letter stating my weekly check amount, but no check yet. Anyone else having the same issue?

I have been waiting three months. I can't pay my bills i am losing things, and cannot find a job! I don't know what to do.

dems/libs want to grow the government and hand over health care and who knows what else to these incompetant fools???? Anyone that doesn't vote republican/conservative deserves what they get.

I wish we would have elected the Governor of Alaska as our Governor instead of the {W]itch from Canada. Bad mistake.

yor Palin: A Rough Record Tuesday, Sep. 02, 2008 By NATHAN THORNBURGH / WASILLA, ALASKA Sarah Palin as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, in 1996 Mat-Su / Valley Frontiersman / APArticle ToolsPrintEmailReprintsSphereAddThis RSSYahoo! Buzz John McCain was clear about why he picked half-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate. "I found someone with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests and entrenched bureaucracies," he said in introducing her in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday. Palin was someone, he noted, "who reached across the aisle and asked Republicans, Democrats and independents to serve in government." Photos Sarah Palin The Republic Veep pick is the first female vice presidential candidate in GOP history Related Articles The Palin Media-Sexism Debate: A Preview Call Of the Wild They called themselves the elite six and the name was meant to be ironic. This was Wasilla, Alaska, ... Why McCain Picked Palin John McCain needs to persuade swing voters that he’s willing to take on the Republican establishment... Transcript: TIME’s interview with Sarah Palin Time’s Jay Newton Small interviewed Alaska Governor Sarah Palin by phone on Aug. 14, less than two w... 10 Things to Know About Sarah Palin The first woman to run on a Republican Presidential ticket (and the second woman, after 1984 Democra... It is a powerful reinforcement of McCain's own political brand: tough, reform-minded, willing to break with his own party for the right cause. And it's true that her high-profile crusade against corruption and complacency in her own state party over the past few years has made Palin the Frank Serpico of Alaska politics: she publicly ratted out her state party chairman; whupped the good old boys' network, as she likes to put it, in a gubernatorial primary; and fought a general election in which the scandal-stained state GOP didn't lift a finger on her behalf. She won only because she had the enthusiastic backing of independents and grass-roots activists. But in the first major race of her career — the 1996 campaign for mayor of her hometown, Wasilla — Palin was a far more conventional politician. In fact, according to some who were involved in that fight, Palin was a highly polarizing political figure who brought partisan politics and hot-button social issues like abortion and gun control into a mayoral race that had traditionally been contested like a friendly intramural contest among neighbors. In the early '90s, Wasilla was little more than half as big as it is today, and much more loosely confederated. The main issue then, says longtime resident Chas St. George, was public safety. "We needed a police department," he says. "So we set up a group to make it happen." That group — Watch on Wasilla — included a handful of the town's most influential figures: St. George; the town's mayor, John Stein; and Palin, who wasn't in elected office yet. Her father-in-law Jim Palin and his wife Faye were also in the group. Eventually, they started a police department, led by chief Irl Stambaugh. Kaylene Johnson, author of Sarah, a Palin biography published earlier this year, says one place where the power group met was a step-aerobics class that Stambaugh and Stein took along with Palin. That class signed the original petition for Palin's first political race, for city council in 1992, which she won. Four years later, she took on her former workout buddy in a race that quickly became contentious. In Stein's view, Palin's main transgression was injecting big-time politics into a small-town local race. "It was always a nonpartisan job," he says. "But with her, the state GOP came in and started affecting the race." While Palin often describes that race as having been a fight against the old boys' club, Stein says she made sure the campaign hinged on issues like gun owners' rights and her opposition to abortion (Stein is pro-choice). "It got to the extent that — I don't remember who it was now — but some national antiabortion outfit sent little pink cards to voters in Wasilla endorsing her," he says. Vicki Naegele was the managing editor of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman at the time. "[Stein] figured he was just going to run your average, friendly small-town race," she recalls, "but it turned into something much different than that." Naegele held the same conservative Christian beliefs as Palin but didn't think they had any place in local politics. "I just thought, That's ridiculous, she should concentrate on roads, not abortion," says Naegele. St. George worked on Stein's campaign at the time, and while he says he has no reason to dispute Stein's recollection of events, he doesn't remember Palin's conduct being beyond the pale. "Our tax coffers were starting to grow," he says. "John was for expanding services, and Sarah wasn't. That's what the race was about." One thing all sides agree on is that the valley was in flux. The old libertarian pioneer ethos was giving way to a rising Christian conservatism. By shrewdly invoking issues that mattered to the ascendant majority, Palin won the mayor's race. But while she may have been a new face, says Naegele, she was no maverick — not yet. "The state party gave her the mechanism to get into that office," says Naegele. "As soon as she was confident enough to brush them off, she did. But she wasn't an outsider to start with. She very much had to kowtow to them." Governing was no less contentious than campaigning, at least to begin with. Palin ended up dismissing almost all the city department heads who had been loyal to Stein, including a few who had been instrumental in getting her into politics to begin with. Some saw it as a betrayal. Stambaugh, the police chief and a member of Palin's step-aerobics class, filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination, alleging that Palin terminated him in part at the behest of the National Rifle Association, because he had opposed a concealed-gun law that the NRA supported. He eventually lost the suit. The animosity spawned some talk of a recall attempt, but eventually Palin's opponents in the city council opted for a more conciliatory route. At some point in those fractious first days, Palin told the department heads they needed her permission to talk to reporters. "She put a gag order on those people, something that you'd expect to find in the big city, not here," says Naegele. "She flew in there like a big-city gal, which she's not. It was a strange time, and [the Frontiersman] came out very harshly against her." Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor. St. George, however, points out that Palin couldn't have seen everything through an Evangelical lens. She did, he says, notably resist calls to restrict operating hours for the bars in town. And even if faith did play an unusually large role in her decision-making as mayor, it may have only reflected the continued rise of Evangelicalism in the valley, a growth that continues to this day. "We like to call this the Bible Belt of Alaska," says Cheryl Metiva, head of the local chamber of commerce. Churches proliferate in Wasilla today, and among the largest and most influential is the Wasilla Bible Church, where the Palins worship. At the 11:15 a.m. Sunday service, hundreds sit in folding chairs, listening to a 20-minute sermon about the Book of Malachi and singing along to alt-rock praise songs. The only sign of culture warring in the whole production is an insert in the day's program advertising an upcoming Focus on the Family conference on homosexuality in Anchorage called Love Won Out. The group promises to teach attendees how to "respond to misinformation in our culture" and help them "overcome" homosexuality. When Palin, who went on to win re-election by a landslide, was forced out of the Mayor's office by term limits in 2002, her husband Todd's stepmother Faye Palin ran for mayor. She did not, however, get Sarah Palin's endorsement. A couple of people told me that they thought abortion was the reason for Palin not supporting her family member — Faye, they say, is pro-choice, not to mention a Democrat. A former city council member recalls that it was a heated race, mainly because of right-to-life issues: "People were writing BABYKILLER on Faye's campaign signs just a few days before the election." Faye Palin lost the race to the candidate that Sarah backed, Dianne Keller, who is still mayor of Wasilla. (Over the weekend, Faye Palin told the New York Daily News that she liked listening to Barack Obama speak and that she wasn't sure who she would vote for in November.) By the time Sarah Palin was entering state politics, the hottest issue in Alaska wasn't gay marriage or even abortion. It was corruption and cronyism. Andrew Halcro, a noted Palin critic who ran against her as an independent in the governor's race, says she knew instinctively that the issues were changing. Plus, he says, her opponents, such as incumbent governor Frank Murkowski, whom she defeated in the primary, were just as hard-right on abortion and guns as she was. She needed a new political identity to make it to the next level, so ethics reform became her calling card. "She's a very savvy politician," says Halcro. "So wedge issues were not part of the portfolio." "If anything," he says, "she got tired of answering questions about them." Halcro recalls one debate in October 2006 in which, after repeated questions about her opposition to abortion even in cases of rape or incest, she looked at the moderator with exasperation and asked if they were going to talk about anything besides abortion. It was detracting from her new message: cleaning up the capitol. Nor has Palin made social issues the cornerstone of her governorship. When a parental consent law was struck down by Alaska's highest court in 2007, Palin called the decision "outrageous" but refused calls from conservatives to remedy the defeat by introducing antiabortion legislation in a session that was supposed to be about drilling rights. Wearing her faith quietly fits more with Palin's personality, says St. George. "In all the years I've known Sarah and her parents, we never talked about right-to-life or any of that," he says. "She doesn't let those issues get in the way of getting things done for the community." In the end, her political journey from banner-waving GOP social conservative to maverick reformer may simply be about good timing. It's what former journalist Bill McAllister, who now works for Palin's press staff, used to call "Sarah-dipity" — that uncanny gift of knowing exactly what voters are looking for at a particular moment. And, of course, the political will to give them what they want.

Save the Polar Bears Book is on there. lol

bookmark you thx

great work man thx

Have anyone here about more benefits coming in september 08 my extension ran out i need more time

house pass a bill even more time for 20 more weeks but he white threat to veto and senate wont even look at it i hate mccain vote for obama

your right how deep do we wanna go I know alot of people have it worse than me I donot and should not blame w (who took very good care of all americans thats all americans for the last two terms it isnt up to him or any one else to give me anything I actualy had a number of guys say they voted for granholm because she looks better are they nuts this is the same thing that happened in 81 economy wise history is repeating itself but all the dumacrats insist upon taxing the people that hired them to do the jobs we DiD looks like michigan got the pipe because all the biz owners are moving there companies out of the state/country high paid manufacturing jobs are dying through out the world that is a fact and mich knew this in 81 but turned a blind eye well now would be a great time for mi citizens to wake up turn up the squelch on their bs filter Iam sorry for the punc errors but Im not saying vote for this or that this is america but you should tune in because all these I dont vote or I dont care yahoos will be whinning the loudest when the election is decideded true and proud to admit it Iam a conservative but I do think we should all agree on all and I mean all the pork being cut out of mich/and federal budgets lower every tax not to 0 but biz tax should be close to attract what we need here wich is a miracle economicly the history channel said it best "WHAT HAPPENS OVER THERE MATTERS HERE" please everyone just pay attention this is your state/country were talking about THANX

couldnt have said it better thanx for being a clear thinking AMERICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lee Iaccoca did it why not (did spell that right) thanx for saying the truth

You have been the most help by posting the website for questions on the EUC. And for the person who thinks we are collecting YOUR money to survive while unemployed ~ you are an idiot. If you need a reason to gripe, go to your job, gripe all you want, get canned, and then collect unemployment. You need some humble pie, jerky.

i live in michigan ,i got laid off in march of 08,my unemployment rins out 11/15/08, what am i to do, i am a student and with a good work history, i have sent resume out for the last 10 month..will there be aqn extention

I live in Michigan also. My husband and I are both out of work. My company went bankrupt last January and he was forced out of the auto industry. We are both college educated and have spent the last nine months sending out resumes and searching everywhere (even out of state) for a job. There is NOTHING and it's only getting worse every day. At first we thought it might be our age (we are both over 50) but either way there are no jobs available. Our daughter graduated from college last May and she is unable to find employment. We can't sell the house because no one is buying so we are stuck here. I hope another extension will pass but most of all I just want a job.

I opened the yellowpages and mailed resumes to all the Tool & Die shops but I have not received any phone calls or emails. If the people cant find work we can't pay taxes. How are the people and our government going to survive? When is our government going to stop our jobs from going to other countries? Maybe some politicians should be laid off.

left the couch and went into one of these businesses you would do better. Maybe offer to work free for a week, I've done this and when an owner sees you are willing to prove yourself it works out well. Just an idea but when I get resumes in the mail I usually pitch them unless times are really booming.

The unemployed in Michigan need support. I have been laid off since October of last year and have been seeking work, but had no luck. My recent extension has run out and now I left to will high debt, mortage payment, car payments, and utilities I am unable to afford. I have a college education and cannot even find work at local department stores. I took initiative to start a business, but am unable to find clients due to the economy and high unemployment rates. I didn't ask to be let go, nor do I want to rely on unemployment; however, when it comes to putting food in my child's mouth I need help. WE NEED CONGRESS TO PASS THE EMERGENCY EXTENSION AND GIVE HOPE TO OUR STATE!

"I have a college education and cannot even find work at local department stores." Excuse me if I don't believe you but I know three folks that have quit jobs and found better ones in the last month. Quit waiting for free gubmint money, it ain't coming until the spring when the socialist moves into his new crib.

"I opened the yellowpages and mailed resumes to all the Tool & Die shops" Businesses don't put ads in the yellow pages trying to hire people. They put ads in the yellow pages to sell things.

I hope you loss your job so you know how it feels to go from making enough money to pay the bills to having no money to not pay the bills. If you can find me an automotive job in Michigan i'll take it. Oh and by the way the employers pay into the unemployment and I paid taxes for 10 years at my job. I truly hope I will not have to leave my friends and family in Michigan to find a job.