North Dakota Legislators Support Changing State Pensions To Defined-Contribution Plans

Retirement: The new retirement -- am I saving enough?
Start with the assumption that you will need to replace about 85 percent of your pre-retirement income from a combination of savings and Social Security. If you expect income from other sources -- perhaps a Pension or part-time work -- or if you plan to pay off your Mortgage before Retirement, your replacement target may be lower. Next, divide the amount you have already saved for retirement by the current income from your job. If you earn $50,000 per year, for example, and you have saved $100,...

Geragosian and Ward named new state auditors
For the first time in nearly two decades, State Government will start the year with a new team of fiscal and programmatic Watchdogs with Tuesday's naming of Democrat John C. Geragosian and Republican Robert M. Ward as the auditors of public accounts. Geragosian's appointment also opens another key position in the legislature: The New Britain lawmaker currently serves as co-chairman of the Budget-writing Appropriations Committee. Sources said the post will go to Veteran Rep. Toni Walker, D-New ...

Remarkable Run Ends for Team North Dakota
Senator Byron L. Dorgan, at left, and Senator Kent Conrad, right, helped campaign for Representative Earl Pomery in October. By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN NYT WASHINGTON — By now, Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Senator Kent Conrad and Representative Earl Pomeroy — best friends and Democrats who spent the last 18 years serving as North Dakota’s entire Congressional delegation — are the stuff of so much political lore in their home state, it can be hard to separate the tall tales from reality.

North Dakota GOPers Target Conrad Seat
Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad may be in for a wild ride next year. Though the North Dakota Democrat hasn't announced whether he'll run for re-election, at least half a dozen Republicans have been mentioned as Conrad opponents and it seems someone is already polling voters about potential Candidates. Conrad hasn't struggled for re-election in the past, and his 2006 re-election was even easier than previous races. After popular Republican Gov. John Hoeven decided to finish his Second Term as ...

Baby Boomers Fear Outliving Medicare, New Poll Suggests
WASHINGTON — The first Baby Boomers will be old enough to qualify for Medicare Jan. 1, and many fear the program's obituary will be written before their own. A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that Baby Boomers believe by a ratio of 2-to-1 they won't be able to rely on the giant Health Insurance plan throughout their Retirement. The boomers took a running dive into adolescence and went on to redefine work and family, but getting old is making them nervous. Now, forty-three percent say...

Baby boomers near 65 with retirements in jeopardy
(12-27) 18:33 PST Chicago, (AP) -- Through a combination of procrastination and bad timing, many Baby Boomers are facing a Personal Finance disaster just as they're hoping to retire. Starting in January, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers a day will turn 65, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years. The boomers, who in their youth revolutionized everything from music to Race Relations, are set to redefine Retirement. But a generation that made its mark in the tumultuous 1960s now faces a ...

Promises and Riots
Economists are the real "Party of No." They keep saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch -- and politicians keep on getting elected by promising free lunches. Such promises may seem to be kept, for a while. There are ways the government can juggle money around to make everything look OK, but it is only a matter of time before that money runs out and the ultimate reality hits: that there is no free lunch. We are currently seeing what happens, in fierce riots raging in various countries...

Ohio and New York state pensions named plaintiffs in BP case
NEW YORK | Tue Dec 28, 2010 9:27pm EST NEW YORK (Reuters) - State Pension funds in Ohio and New York were named lead plaintiffs in a shareholder suit against BP Plc that alleges losses due to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill, according to a U.S. District Court ruling. The case seeks damages for investors that bought shares of BP or American depository receipts of the company from 2005 through 2010. Keith Ellison, U.S. District Judge for the southern district of Texas, named Ohio State Attorney Genera...

Report: Colorado's Low-wage Workers Lag Even Further in Recession
The number of working poor families in our state has grown by 51 percent, from 32,124 families living in Poverty, representing 5.8 percent of Working Families, to 48,410 (8.3 percent). More than 25 percent of working families do not earn enough to meet their basic needs. That's 151,875 families. Six years ago, 20 percent were in this boat. More low-wage workers have little security for the future, with the number of workers without any type of employer-provided Pension growing by almost 275,00...

Highest-paid UC execs demand millions in benefits
Three dozen of the University of California's highest-paid executives are threatening to sue unless UC agrees to spend tens of millions of dollars to dramatically increase Retirement Benefits for employees earning more than $245,000. "We believe it is the University's legal, moral and ethical obligation" to increase the benefits, the executives wrote the Board of Regents in a Dec. 9 letter and position paper obtained by The Chronicle. "Failure to do so will likely result in a costly and unsucc...

Demography and the economy: As boomers wrinkle
FROM the moment they entered the Workforce in the 1960s, baby-boomers began to shape America’s economy and politics. They will do the same as they leave. The first of the estimated 78m Americans born between 1946 and 1964 turn 65 in 2011, the normal age for Retirement. As their ranks swell in coming years, the burden of financing their retirement will mount. So will their electoral importance. Retiring boomers will squeeze The Economy from two directions. The number of people enrolled in ...

AP-GfK Poll: By a 2 to 1 Ratio Baby Boomer Believe They Won't Be Able To Rely on Medicare Thoughout Their Retirement
43% say they don't expect to depend on Medicare, only 20% say it's secure Associated Press WASHINGTON - The first Baby Boomers will be old enough to qualify for Medicare Jan. 1, and many fear the program's obituary will be written before their own. A new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that Baby Boomers believe by a ratio of 2-to-1 they won't be able to rely on the giant Health Insurance plan throughout their Retirement . The boomers took a running dive into adolescence and went on to re...

Priorities
Priorities by digby Yikes: State Legislators in 25 states (see list below) planned to introduce SB 1070 clones in upcoming legislative sessions, according to Immigration Impact. Of course, not all — or even most — of these laws will pass. However, Republicans picked up the most seats in the modern era of State Legislatures in 2010 — more than Republicans did in 1994 or Democrats in the post-Watergate wave of 1974. Republicans hold both houses and the governorship in fifteen states (sixt

Arkansas Legislation update 12/27/10
Hope everybody had a great Christmas. I took some time away from political stuff. I got an email about another UN Agenda 21 effort. Metro 1313 has been suspected of writing several Sustainable Development Bills. HB 1027, the Arkansas Sustainable Development Bill, came from a book of suggested state model Legislation authored by the National Council of State Legislators (NCSL), a Metro 1313 organization. According to the email, the bill has been removed from being voted on. Metro 1313 organizatio...

Illinois governor floats $15B debt recovery plan
CHICAGO -- As Illinois' stack of unpaid bills grows, Gov. Pat Quinn is floating the idea of borrowing roughly $15 billion to alleviate the pressure, though Taxpayers would be saddled with loan payments for years. The Governor has approached several State Legislators with a plan he is calling a "Debt bond." While the name is somewhat redundant, the thinking is the state can pay back what it owes and plug its big Budget hole - if only for a year. Supporters say the loan would provide instant cash ...

There Is No Free Lunch, Except In Politics
           Everyone has their favorite College Football team, whether it be Wake Forest from the ACC, or Boise State from the WAC. Football has become one of Americas favorite pass times, but what does this have to do with politics you may ask? A lot actually. Remember in grade school when your economics teacher would quote, “There is no free lunch…”? Well, that doesn’t seem to have much influence on some politicians these...

Ed Koch: Unfinished Business
December 27, 2010 Looking back on 2010 and the Great Recession, I continue to be enraged by the lack of accountability for those who wrecked our economy and brought the U.S. to its knees. The shocking truth is that those who did the damage are still in charge. Many who ran Wall Street before and during the debacle are either still there making millions, if not billions, of dollars, or are in charge of our country's economic policies which led to the debacle. Yes, in the recent mid-term electi...

Shocker: NYT Hates the Repeal Amendment Idea
The Repeal amendment would restore the balance of power between the states and the Federal Government. By a vote of two-thirds of State Legislators, any federal law could be overturned. (NYT)- With public attention focused on taxes, the Deficit, Gays in the Military and nuclear arms reduction, little attention has been paid, so far, to the Tea Party’s most far-reaching move to remake American governance. It is contained within a bill, called the Repeal amendment, that was introduced in Co...

A program grows beyond reason
Public sympathy may be in short supply for Virginia's thousands of registered Sex Offenders, but that shouldn't prevent state leaders from acting rationally and responsibly on matters related to Public Safety. Such caution inspired the 2003 law to fund a civil commitment program aimed to keep the worst of the worst - offenders convicted of Rape, forcible Sodomy or aggravated sexual battery - from re-entering society if they were deemed a danger. Under the program, an offender who fulfilled his p...

Housing activists see hope for change for mobile home residents
Iowa lacks any statewide program to upgrade housing or relocate families who live in the most decrepit Mobile Homes, unlike several other states, and attempts to better protect buyers of the homes have failed in the Iowa Legislature. But housing advocates and some State Legislators say momentum for change has picked up this year in the wake of a Des Moines Register series underscoring the questionable sales practices and unsafe conditions that Iowa families in those homes often encounter.

Mailbag: On Haleys Priorities
(Editor’s Note: This is a letter to the editor from a FITS reader. It does not necessarily reflect the editorial position of FITSNews.com. To submit your letter for consideration - anonymously or otherwise - click here ). I read with interest Tim Smith’s report about Gov.-elect Nikki Haley’s legislative priorities ( click here to read Smith’s report). The goal to eliminate the corporate Income Tax is a good one but it doesn’t comply with her desire to &#...

More states following Arizona in push for tougher immigration laws
WASHINGTON — Arizona’s get-tough approach to illegal Immigration has sparked court challenges likely to take years to resolve. Randy Terrill, a Republican state lawmaker from Oklahoma, won’t be waiting to see what judges decide. Terrill is among dozens of State Legislators drafting measures that match or go further than the Arizona law, which requires police to check the Immigration status of people stopped for questioning. He is readying Legislation to allow Oklahoma authorit...

State legislator wants Maryland to have their own DREAM Act
On Tuesday, incoming Maryland State Senator VictorRamirez (D-Prince George’s) announced s plans to introduce Legislation which would give in-state College Tuition to Illegal Aliens who have graduated from Maryland High Schools. Ramirez said: “After we have invested in their education, it makes sense to treat them equally when it comes to college Tuition.” said As an example of the tremendous financial break that Illegal Aliens would receive, tuition and mandatory fees at the Un...

Judge clears way for Murkowski Alaska Senate win
By Yereth Rosen ANCHORAGE, Alaska | Wed Dec 29, 2010 1:27am EST ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A Federal Judge on Tuesday dismissed a Lawsuit by conservative Tea Party favorite Joe Miller that challenged his loss in Alaska's election for a Senate seat, clearing the way for state officials to certify Lisa Murkowski's historic write-in victory. District Judge Ralph Beistline lifted an injunction he imposed last month that delayed certification. "The injunction is lifted and the Division of Elect...

Judge clears way for Murkowski Alaska Senate win
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - A Federal Judge on Tuesday dismissed a Lawsuit by conservative Tea Party favorite Joe Miller that challenged his loss in Alaska's election for a Senate seat, clearing the way for state officials to certify Lisa Murkowski's historic write-in victory. District Judge Ralph Beistline lifted an injunction he imposed last month that delayed certification. "The injunction is lifted and the Division of Elections may certify the Election Results immediately," Beistline said...