The issue of unemployment benefits will be hashed out by a House-Senate conference committee . . .
Legislative leadership uses a last-minute switch to finesse the passage of a bill that would reduce jobless benefits for laid-off workers . . .
Legislation reducing the number of weeks that Georgia pays unemployment benefits is approved by a House committee, as is Sen. Don Balfour’s anti-picketing bill . . .
Democratic lawmakers say legislation moving through the General Assembly will give Georgia the weakest unemployment insurance system in the country . . .
The Labor Department develops some options for lawmakers to consider as they try to decide how the state will pay back $721 million in federal funds it borrowed to pay unemployment benefits to laidoff workers . . .
