ANYTOWN, USA - The precipitous increase in the ranks of the unemployed throughout the country over the last year has revealed a patchwork of state and federal jobless programs for workers and families that provides little in the way of a level playing field.

Despite the passage of extended unemployment benefits, help with COBRA payments and other assistance provided in the federal stimulus bill passed earlier this year, an article in the Wall Street Journal reveals an uneven situation in which some benefits are provided for some workers, but not for others.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Frank Nothaft, the chief economist of Freddie Mac, said yesterday that, despite the fact that a third of all housing sales are foreclosures, the market is nearing a bottom. Speaking at a conference in Nashville, he tempered that rather optimistic claim with the reminder that delinquency risks remain, with unemployment a major contributor to homeowners ending up delinquent and threatened with foreclosure.

TORONTO - An article on IPOsgoode.com, a new site that explores legal governance issues at the intersection of intellectual property and technology, relates the case of Jackass.com, a domain that Viacom wanted to acquire for content related to it TV show "Jackass."

IPOsgoode.com is operated by Toronto-based Osgoode Hall Law School.

Viacom soon discovered that "a serial cybersquatter based in the Virgin Islands (owned by Future Media Architects) had beat them to it instead. In fact, it was discovered that the company had registered more than 100,000 domain names on words such as ‘jackass,’ most of which sites show at least a few pay-per-click ads."

MIAMI - World airlines are expected to lose $4.7 billion in 2009 due to the economic crisis, a projection that eclipses revenue losses from the  Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S., a major industry association predicted Tuesday.

The revised loss estimate, nearly double the previous forecast issued in December, reflects "the rapid deterioration of the global economic conditions," said the International Air Transport Association.