Valero officials cite poor economic conditions paired with significant capital spending requirements and high operating costs as reasons for the closure.

"The decision to permanently close the Delaware City refinery was a very difficult one,” said Valero Chairman and CEO Bill Klesse in a written statement. "We have spent the last year diligently trying to avoid this situation, and I have worked closely with Gov. Markell in an effort to find a different outcome. Earlier this fall, we shut down the gasifier and coking operations in an attempt to improve reliability and financial performance, but the refinery’s profitability did not improve enough. Additionally, we have sought a buyer for the refinery, but feasible opportunities have not materialized. At this point, we have exhausted all viable options."

Valero started informing employees of the decision today and is negotiating with union officials at the plant to determine severance terms.  Valero will begin the process of shutting down the plant, which had been producing 210,000 barrels per day, immediately.  It expects closing the refinery will save the company approximately 450 million dollars next year.

Governor Jack Markell says the state will move quickly to address the closure.  He's directed the Departments of Labor and Health and Social Services to assist workers effected by putting together rapid response teams similar to the ones used earlier this year when the GM Boxwood Road plant closed.

"We need to help those hundreds of dedicated workers put their time and talents to work in a way that helps them and their families." said Markell.

Governor Markell is also asking the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to identify any environmental issues at the facility and work with Valero to catalogue issues the company has responsibility to resolve.

"To protect the health and safety of everyone who lives near the facility, we need to ensure accountability for environmental issues that come from closing a refinery, and we will," Markell said.

DNREC secretary Collin O'Mara has assembled a team of environmental scientists and engineers to over see the shutdown.

"We have been working with the refinery on issues associated with a planned maintenance shutdown of the entire refinery for weeks  and are prepared for it." said O'Mara.  "The orderly shutdown of  the equipment has already begun with the shutdown in October of one of the refinery's major processing units.  the remaining units have been operating at reduced rates and will be taken offline in a manner portective of health, safety and the environment."

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Hundreds of union workers rallied in the shadow of Pier 98, which is nothing more than a run down remnant of what was the past of the shipping business in Philadelphia. State Representative Bill Keller is a dredging supporter. He says environmentalists who are against the deepening of the river channel need to know research shows the work won't cause any problems.

Keller: There's 12,000 pieces of paper that say this dredge is safe, it's good for the economics it create jobs and has zero environmental impact. There's 12,000 pieces of paper that say that. Science says that. What do they say they want one more piece of paper, it's all bull *bleep*.

Union officials say the dredging could provide thousands of jobs and revitalize the port and the region's economy.

New Castle County still has the highest regional unemployment rate in the state at 8.7%.  Unemployment in both Kent and Sussex County is at8.3%.  For Sussex, unemployment jumped a full percentage point from September to October.  Wilmington's unemployment rate is now up to 13.3%, up from last month's rate of 13%.

Since October 2008, more than 18,000 Delawareans have lost their jobs.  The biggest losses in over the last year were in professional and business services, which were down 4,600.  Wholesale and retail trade lost 3,600 jobs, while the manufacturing sector lost 3,400 jobs.

The national unemployment rate now stands at 10.2%, up from 9.8% last month.

The Philadelphia School District disagrees with the Auditor General's view that it is involved in risky financial investing.

The state's Auditor General Jack Wagner recently says more than a hundred of the state's 500 school districts are engaging in complex financial swap agreements with investment banks that amounts to nothing more than gambling.

Michael Masch, Chief Business Officer for the Philadelphia School District doesn't see it that way.

Masch: The debt policy that the school commission adopted last year recognizes that there can be a place in a diversified portfolio of a public institution for some level of variable-rate debt. But it has to be managed carefully.

Masch says the Philadelphia School District currently has $1.1 billion dollars tied up in swap agreements. The money is for new construction and building renovations.

He says no money has been lost as a result of the investment bank agreements brokered between 2004 and 2005, but that the District doesn't plan on making any new ones.

Pennsylvania's Auditor General says he wants to repeal the law that allows schools to get involved in these swaps. He says, the Bethlehem Area School District has already lost $10 million dollars using swaps.

The remodel comes more than three years after the mall went through a rough patch with two anchor stores, Strawbridge's and Lord and Taylor shutting down.  Their departure made space available to give the mall a much needed revamp, according to mall manager Steven Chambliss.

"It appeared dated.  Although the mall had high traffic, and its sales were some of the highest in the country, you couldn't tell when nobody was here because it looked tired and dated."  Chambliss says the new stores reflect the move o more high end offerings.  "The tenants are a little more sophisticated."  He says it's all part of an effort to provide a wide variety of stores to meet every shoppers needs.

The mall's reconstruction didn't come together without help.  New Castle County Executive Chris Coons says it took a partnership of state and county officials to encourage redevelopment.  "It was the predictable business environment, and the cooperation between the state, the county and all the different agencies, that convinced them to continue to invest in this redevelopment."  Coons says the reconstruction created hundreds of construction jobs.  It's also helped reinvigorate a property that he says is "hugely important to our state's economy."

The reinvestment effort isn't over yet.  "It's just gonna get better from here," says Chambliss.  About 80% of the new stores are now open.  Thursday, mall officials announced plans for brand new stores, many of them will be brand new to Delaware.  They include LEGO, White House Black Market, and The Cheesecake Factory, which will all open in 2010.  Coming in 2011 is Delaware's first Nordstrom store.  The department store will occupy 138,000 sq. ft.

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The ads are everywhere: get cash back for using a credit card to purchase gas or groceries. But merchants pay for those programs by raising their bottom line prices.

A study by the Hispanic Institute and University of Pennsylvania shows that low income consumers are paying for the programs, but not receiving the benefits.

Efraim Berkovich is an economist at the University of Pennsylvania who was an author of the study. He says poorer customers don't have credit cards but still pay a fee for the incentive programs.

Berkovich: The prototype of the person that would be impacted the most is someone who pays for everything completely in cash. So that would certainly cover a lot of lower income people.

The Hispanic Institute is calling on merchants to offer cash discounts or discounts for people who don't benefit from the incentive programs.

There were more job losses in New Jersey last month.

The state Labor Department says employment in the Garden State dropped by 1800 jobs in October. Labor Commissioner David Socolow says the retail trade industry had some of the biggest job declines.

Socolow: It shows up as a loss of more than 5,000 retail jobs in the month of October and that's certainly consistent with what we've heard about the beginnings of the retail season in October. The start up certainly was not as strong as it has been in the fall of previous years.

The financial and business services industries each lost more than 3000 jobs.

The biggest job gains were in construction and manufacturing which each added 1600 workers.

A separate survey of households shows the unemployment rate dropped slightly to 9.7%. Socolow says it may be months before there's strong job growth.

Now more families are getting food for free in one blue collar riverfront Philadelphia neighborhood.

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Bridesburg food pantry

Patrons push shopping carts through an aisle stocked with stuffing mix, baby food, canned sweet potatoes, and plenty more. It's not a grocery store; it's a room in Bridesburg United Methodist Church, where a food pantry opened in September.

Volunteer Florence Rogers says 15 families came at first. Now there are more than 100 and she says many have never been to a food pantry before.

Rogers: We're trying to make everyone feel comfortable. A lot of people that do come in, once you break the initial smile you can tell that they're relieved because they didn't really want to come, but they need to come.

Food pantries, once seen as a resource mostly for senior citizens and the chronically poor, now draw plenty of newcomers.

Bill Clark is the President of Philabundance, the region's largest hunger relief organization.

Baby food at the food pantry

Clark: The majority of people we see are probably either employed or have someone in their household that's employed.

Back at the food pantry, Tracie Roth's making her way through the room, as a baby cries and shopping carts roll by.

Roth, a crossing guard, needs help supporting her three daughters and their father – who's struggling to find work in construction. Roth says a lot of people in the neighborhood need food, but she worried they wouldn't show up.

Bridesburg resident Tracie Roth at the food pantry

Roth: I just know Bridesburg. I know we're proud people, you know we don't like to ask for help. Born and raised her 38 years I know a lot of people are like me – just too proud to go elsewhere you know. This helps because it's family. We all know each other.

Bridesburg resident Jack Howard says he'd never been to a food pantry before a handful of recent trips here. He works as a cashier at WaWa.

Food pantry patron Jack Howard donating clothes

Howard: I'm just lucky to even have a job because there are people out there who don't have anything.

Howard wants to give back what he can. Rather than coming to pick-up food, he walks in with a full plastic bag. It's packed with clothes he wants to donate.

"These benefits will help Delawareans who have been hit hard by the national economic recession get back on their feet," said Governor Jack Markell (D).  He says turning around the state's economy takes time.

The Department of Unemployment Insurance will be sending out notices to unemployed residents who may be eligible for the benefit extension along with instruction on how to receive those benefits.  The maximum unemployment insurance for Delaware works is now 93 weeks, compared to 79 weeks before this emergency extension.  Workers who recently started receiving benefits or who start collecting between now and the end of the year may not be eligible for the extension.

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The National Urban League is using Philadelphia and Los Angeles as test beds for its new program. Darryl Vereen is Director of Development for the Urban League of Philadelphia. He says the program is designed to loan money to small businesses that don't have the best credit – or don't qualify in other ways.

Vereen: If you qualify or meet the criteria, we will put in an application through our entrepreneur center and they will base it off their gross receipts for the businesses, look at little bit at their credit and it will be an alternative opportunity for those entrepreneurs.

The loans range from five to $100,000 dollars – but are only for a one year time period.

At between 18% and 36%, the interest rates for the loans are higher than those of typical bank loans.