BROKEN HEARTLAND

Kelly and Scott Nichols know the pain and uncertainty of unemployment after the pair was laid from their jobs more than a year ago in Elkhart, Ind., once called the RV Capital of the world. Life and living slow to a crawl, relationships are strained and the challenge of raising a 2-year-old and a teenage boy on unemployment add to the overall gut punch of the decade. They move to the dark and dank basement of her mother's home in Jackson, Mich., where unemployment rate is just as high.