Randy,
The Randman, The Randsterrrr, Randorama!
Dude, so sorry to hear about the troubles. I was in the same boat not too long ago... was laid off in a wave of cutbacks in November and have been searching for employment ever since. I had to jump through all of the hoops with Unemployment as well. They tried to come up with a thousand reasons not to pay. It took me two months of staying on them and pointing out their own mistakes for it to finally go through. The wait is HORRIBLE, I know man... bills don't stop coming when the income does. Keep your head up!!! Your persistence (and secretly casting curses and hexes on the Unemployment System if you're anything like me) will pay off and, if it's like the NYS system, it's retroactive so you should be reimbursed back through the time that you should have started receiving their payments. Quite the clusterf*&k, I know... but once it goes through you'll be groovy!
We're here for ya bro. Keep fightin the good fight!