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Bill extends jobless benefits by 13 weeks
WASHINGTON -- The Iraq war funding bill that Congress is sending to the White House will extend weekly benefits for jobless Americans hurt by the tough economy and rising unemployment.
The legislation, upon President Bush's signature, will give an extra 13 weeks of unemployment benefits to jobless workers who have exhausted their regular 26 weeks of benefits.
Unemployment benefit checks average $299.14 a week nationwide, but they vary widely from state to state -- ranging from $404.39 in Hawaii to $178.67 in Mississippi.
The extension will run through March, although unemployed workers who have started to get the extra benefits by then could get them for the entire 13 weeks.
Extending the benefits follows five straight months of falling payrolls and an unemployment rate that jumped half a percentage point to 5.5 percent in May, the biggest one-month increase since 1986.
A-B to get out of buzzed-beer business
ST. LOUIS -- Anheuser-Busch Cos. has agreed to stop selling caffeinated alcoholic beverages to settle an investigation brought by 11 states, the New York Attorney General's Office said. The agreement means that St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch will no longer produce Tilt, Bud Extra or other energy drinks that contain alcohol, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
The investigation showed that the brew was making false or misleading statements about the health and energizing effects of Tilt and Bud Extra and that the ads were being aimed at consumers under the age of 21, according to the statement.
"Although Bud Extra and Tilt met all regulatory requirements, they had much less caffeine than a Starbuck's coffee, and had received all necessary federal and state agency approvals, we are reformulating these products in response to the AG's concerns," Francine Katz, vice president, communications and consumer affairs for Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement.
"We have ceased production of the original caffeinated versions of Bud Extra and Tilt. It may take several weeks for the original versions to sell out at retail accounts, and then the reformulated products will be available for purchase at retail. Both Bud Extra and Tilt will continue to be available in different alcohol-by-volume varieties, depending upon state laws," the statement said.
In addition to New York, other states involved in the investigation are Illinois, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico and Ohio. The states are conducting ongoing investigations into other producers of alcoholic energy drinks.
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