The Broadmoor hotel on Friday was awarded a five-diamond rating from AAA for the 34th consecutive year, while The Penrose Room at The Broadmoor earned its third five-diamond rating.

John Washko, the Broadmoor’s vice president for sales and marketing, said even after 34 years, the hotel doesn’t take the award as a given.

“Whether it’s 34 years or your third year, you can’t take it for granted because it’s a blind inspection,” he said. “So much of what they rate you on is the human component (and) we all wake up and have a bad day sometimes.”

Because of that, he said, it’s the staff, not the building, that earns the prize.

“It’s a big piece of pride for our employees to work at the longest-running five-diamond hotel in the country,” Washko said. “It’s part of our DNA.”

The Broadmoor is one of just three five-diamond hotels in Colorado — along with the Little Nell in Aspen and the Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek. The Penrose Room is the only five-diamond restaurant in the state. AAA said that only 113 hotels and 52 restaurants out of the 60,000 restaurants and hotels it surveyed earned a five-diamond rating. Several other local hotels and restaurants have earned four diamonds from AAA in the past. The four-diamond ratings will be released Nov. 13.

Yeah, we’ve been saying for months that this was coming, but it’s still a queasy milestone to pass. Another 190,000 jobs lost. The worst unemployment rate since 1983.

It is worth keeping in mind that Colorado’s unemployment rate is much, much better than the national average - 7 percent statewide, 7.4 percent in the Colorado Springs area (those are September numbers, compared to the October national number). As Colorado Department of Labor and Employment chief economist Alexandra Hall told me yesterday, however, the state rate is unlikely to improve much, if any, in the immediate future.

Here’s what people are saying:

Brad DeLong - “If you had told everyone last election day what would happen, economically, in 2009, what policies would they have adopted then to stem this disaster?”

Felix Salmon - “This is truly awful, and makes it obvious why the Fed will keep rates at or near zero for the foreseeable future. You just can’t raise rates when unemployment is in double digits.”

Calculated Risk - “The economy is still losing jobs at about a 2.2 million annual rate, and the unemployment rate is finally above 10%. This is a very weak employment report - just not as bad as earlier this year.”

Barry Ritholtz - “We stand at one of those odd junctions, when bad news will be perversely good news. A weak NFP report will be more confirmationt hat QE will continue deep into 2010, and the Fed will keep the liquidity spigots wide open. Too strong an improvement — a less bad report — raises the spectre of the end of easy money.”

As part of the big housing/jobless/random benefits bill, unemployed workers will be eligible for another 14 weeks of unemployment benefits.

States with an unemployment rate above 8.5 percent will be eligible for another six weeks, for a total of 20.Colorado’s unemployment rate, however, has dipped in recent months to 7 percent, so we won’t get the full package. It’s a good news/bad news kind of thing.

With the change, Coloradans would be eligible for a total of 86 weeks of unemployment benefits.

Alexandra Hall, chief economist Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, said the state’s economy appears to be stabilizing, but that its unemployment rate is unlikely to see rapid improvement.

“Like the nation, we are in a better spot than we were six months ago, because job losses have slowed,” she said.

 However, she said, the recent improvement in Colorado’s unemployment rate (from a peak of 7.8 percent in July), is due as much to people dropping out and no longer seeking work as it is from employers hiring.

 “We still haven’t seen the turning point where instead of seeing job losses, we see jobs added,” Hall said.

This seems problematic. Fannie Mae is setting up a rental program to keep foreclosed homeowners in their homes. Since the program is only open to homeowners who voluntarily give up ownership, it’s basically jingle mail without the jingle. Former homeowners would have to pay market rents, but would get at least a year lease, and Fannie is hiring a third party property manager. Freddie Mac has a similar month-to-month program.

First-time buyers will still get $8,000, but existing homeowners will be able to get up to $6,500 under new legislation the Senate approved Wednesday and the House is due to vote on today.

During the week of Veterans Day, Nov. 8-14, State Farm Insurance will donate $1 to a military support organization for every “thank you” sent via a new Web site the has company established: www.ThanksForBeingThere.com.

Internet users can create messages to service men and women on the site. State Farm’s donation, up to $50,000, will go to the Fisher House, which supports military families whose w0unded  loved ones are undergoing treatment at military of Veterans Affairs medical centers throughout the nation and in Germany.

In addition to having their messages on the Web site, people can share their messages via e-mail and on their personal social media pages.

Freedom Communications, the parent company of the Gazette, announced today that it would close the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Ariz., by Dec. 31. The move will cost 140 employees their jobs.

The 100,000-circulation Tribune was switched to a free circulation, four-day-a-week model in January in a bid to cut costs, then cut to three days a week in April. Those changes cut about 140 jobs.

In announcing the closure, a Freedom Communications press release said it was unable to find a buyer for the paper.

Freedom Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September.

The Tribune won a Pulitzer prize earlier this year for a series on controversial Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Gazette real estate writer Rich Laden reports that single-family home building permits totaled 105 last month, a 52.2 percent increase over October 2008, although he adds the caveat that October 2008 had one of the lowest totals for a single month in many years.

All the talk today is around Ford’s unexpected profit, but if you really want a sign of the times, look no further than Clorox’s robust quarter - earnings up 23 percent, driven by the need for plenty of disinfectant.

CEO Don Knauss: “W exceeded our earnings expectations due to strong sales of disinfecting products related to the H1N1 flu pandemic.”