Free Republic

San Diegans will think this sounds awfully familiar: Eager to avoid making politically difficult decisions and happy to saddle future generations with debt, the state of California has been grossly and systematically underfunding promised benefits for retired employees for years. That's the core truth to emerge from an audit of promised health insurance coverage for state retirees released yesterday by Controller John Chiang. It put total unfunded liabilities at $47.88 billion. State leaders will pretend they had no idea the problem was this severe and will thank Chiang for enlightening them. But it has been an open secret for years...

Since I first starting writing on the subject of airline security (Terror in the Skies) I have received volumes of email on related subjects. Among my correspondence, there are certain incidents that stand out, including the one you'll read about today. It stands out not just because of the incident itself, but because the lack of media coverage as well as the "official" spin on the part of the airline and security personnel in its aftermath, much like my experience, defies belief. But I'm getting ahead of myself… A few days ago, I received an interesting email from Barry Johnson,...

This is Part V of the ongoing series entitled “Terror in the Skies, Again?” A few days ago, WomensWallStreet.com received an important email. It was from Billie Jo Rodriguez, another passenger who was on Northwest Airlines flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles on June 29. Billie Jo is a Certified Public Accountant living in Oxnard, California. She had some additional, disturbing information about flight 327 that she felt someone needed to know. She had been so terrified by what happened on the flight that she sent two emails to the Department of Homeland Security telling them about the experience,...

The 14 Syrians on Northwest Airlines flight 327...To the dismay of many, it's the story that won't go away. The fact that a group of Syrian men acted in a way that terrified some passengers and caused a squad of federal officials to be called out to meet the plane upon landing is of interest to anyone who flies the friendly skies. And that is why this story won't just go away. The 14 Syrians on Northwest Airlines flight 327...To the dismay of many, it's the story that won't go away. The fact that a group of Syrian men acted...

It's been two-and-a-half weeks since the first "Terror in the Skies, Again?" article was posted on WomensWallStreet.com and subsequently set off an international debate.  From the cockpit to the coffee shop, from the water coolers to the halls of Congress, countless numbers of people have been talking -- and shouting -- about this article.  It seems that anyone who reads the article develops a strong opinion, which in turn creates more questions.  Flight #327 has opened Pandora's box.Last week, when the name of the band was revealed (Syrian singer Nour Mehana) one side shouted: See, we told you so!  Then,...

Last Tuesday morning, WomensWallStreet.com (WWS) published my first-person account of a recent Northwest Airlines flight that I took from Detroit to Los Angeles called Terror in the Skies, Again? A heads up about this article went out in our Daily Cents email -- our subscriber newsletter which primarily features financial tips and information for women. On Wednesday morning, the WWS page views were unusually high, something like 10 times the normal amount. Apparently our readers had been emailing the article to their friends, family and colleagues and everyone was reading it. By Thursday morning, that number had again multiplied ten-fold....

A WWS Exclusive Article Note from the Editors: You are about to read an account of what happened during a domestic flight that one of our writers, Annie Jacobsen, took from Detroit to Los Angeles. The WWS Editorial Team debated long and hard about how to handle this information and ultimately we decided it was something that should be shared. What does it have to do with finances? Nothing, and everything. Here is Annie's story. On June 29, 2004, at 12:28 p.m., I flew on Northwest Airlines flight #327 from Detroit to Los Angeles with my husband and our young...