Free Republic

The longtime head of public affairs at the FBI -- who was a confidant of former director James Comey -- is planning to retire, Fox News has learned. A notice went out this week for a retirement get-together for Michael Kortan scheduled for Feb. 15. Since 2009, Kortan has served as assistant director for public affairs, an influential job that controlled media access. He also served under former director Robert Mueller, now leading the Russia probe. The FBI confirmed to Fox News that Kortan is retiring. It's unclear whether the retirement was long-planned or in any way precipitated by recent...

The shrinkage of employee retirement resources in the US has been well documented, as employers shift more risk onto their workers. Less so is the rate at which employers have been eliminating healthcare benefits for retirees. As the Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported, retiree health coverage is becoming an endangered species. "Employer-sponsored retiree health coverage once played a key role in supplementing Medicare," observe Tricia Neuman of the foundation. "Any way you slice it, this coverage is eroding." The chances of reversing this trend, plainly, are nil. But it's important to keep an eye on it, if only as a...

A dark storm is brewing in the world of private pensions, and all hell could break loose when it finally hits. As the Washington Post reports, the Central States Pension Fund, which handles retirement benefits for current and former Teamster union truck drivers across various states including Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, New York, and Minnesota, and is one of the largest pension funds in the nation, has filed an application to cut participant benefits, which would be effective July 1 2016, as it "projects" it will become officially insolvent by 2025. In 2015, the fund returned -0.81%, underperforming the 0.37%...

She has dominated the airwaves during 30 years as a chart-topper, but now Radio 1 has decided that Madonna is an immaterial girl and just too old for its teenage listeners. Despite her determined efforts to look – and sound – youthful, the 56-year-old has been dropped from the station’s playlist that determines which songs are played by DJs during the day. Madonna’s latest song is Living For Love and has been available for airplay since December 20 last year.

The Defense Department has decided to retire its 19-year-old retiree pay system written in “antiquated” computer code and replace it with a lower cost, easier to use application based on off-the-shelf technology. The Defense Retiree and Annuitant Pay System, or DRAS, maintains military pay accounts for more than 2.6 million military retirees, former spouses and survivor beneficiaries totaling $40 billion a year. The system was introduced in 1995 and is based on Common Business Oriented Language computer code of the time. DRAS uses “antiquated mainframe technology dating back to 1980 that has exceeded the end of its planned lifecycle,” the...

Thousands of retired and current Detroit workers face pension cuts as deep as 34%, and some say they aren't sure how they'll make ends meet if the plan announced Friday is approved. "They have worried me from the day they started this mess. You sit on pins and needles all the time," said 69-year-old Donald Smith, who retired in 2005 after decades of work as a civilian detention officer and other general city jobs. For Smith, the cuts could mean a loss of around $300 a month from his $889 in monthly pension benefits, even as he already struggles to...

For retirees, it can mean owing tens of thousands of dollars. And with little warning, their pension checks are being slashed to cover their debt. In April 2011, New Jersey resident Carol Montague received a letter from American Water Works Co.'s pension plan saying it had overpaid her for more than five years and wanted its money back -- plus interest. Montague, now 67, was told she owed roughly $45,000.

With all the obamascare going on, I wonder about my situation as a retiree ...

A $409 million tab projected for retiree benefit costs looms for the cash-strapped St. Paul Public Schools. Some on the school board are urging the district to tackle the liability more aggressively. But officials say there's little they can do to put a dent in the costs, which have bumped up tax bills and diverted money from the classroom. St. Paul recently started socking away money to help cover the benefits, slated to sunset in 2014. But the investment came later and started out smaller than planned, and recent market turmoil chipped away at it. "I feel we're throwing a...

Retiree Care to Cost City $4.4 BillionBy ELIZABETH LESLY STEVENS Published: December 16, 2010 After months of delays, the San Francisco controller’s office announced Thursday that it expected the city to pay $4.4 billion to provide municipal retirees and their dependents with lifetime health benefits. The city has set aside $9.7 million to cover the costs. The estimate of San Francisco’s unmet health care liability has been closely watched by ratings agencies, labor unions and other groups concerned about the city’s long-term finances. Moody’s Investors Service downgraded San Francisco’s debt rating in November, citing the enormous retiree health-care obligations, among...

Except for those on Social Security and Medicare, government for most middle-class Americans consists mainly of schools, police, fire protection, roads and ambulance service. It's states and localities. How are they faring in the present economy? Conventional wisdom holds that they've been crushed by dramatic declines in tax revenues and have resorted to deep cuts in public services. Well, not exactly. To be sure, there are cases of severe cuts. Newark recently dismissed 13% of its police force. For two straight years, University of California has raised tuition sharply for its 220,000 students to help offset reductions in state aid:...

The health care overhaul will cost U.S. companies billions and make them more likely to drop prescription drug coverage for retirees because of a change in how the government subsidizes those benefits. In the first two days after the law was signed, three major companies — Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Valero Energy — said they expect to take a total hit of $265 million to account for smaller tax deductions in the future. With more than 3,500 companies now getting the tax break as an incentive to keep providing coverage, others are almost certain to announce similar cost...

SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP) ― The state controller's office on Tuesday found that California taxpayers are on the hook for more state government retiree health benefits than previously thought. Controller John Chiang's office issued a report showing the growing divide between what the state owes retirees for health and dental benefits and what it has saved so far. The gap has grown to nearly $52 billion, about $3.6 billion over last year's estimate. ... "Even as we try to claw our way out of the recession and provide needed cash to the state's coffers, we cannot ignore the promise...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2009 – The Army Reserve’s top enlisted soldier retires this month from an Army that’s vastly different from the one he was drafted into almost 40 years ago. Then-Army Staff Sgt. Leon E. Caffie points to a hit during Army Reserve training in Florida in the 1970s. Caffie is finishing his military career at the top enlisted soldier in the Army Reserve. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "The Army Reserve has finally arrived," Command Sgt. Maj. Leon E. Caffie said. The Army has learned hard lessons, he added, and the Army Reserve now is...

Ford retirees worry about future BY ANDREA HOLECEK holecek@nwitimes.com | Friday, November 28, 2008 | No comments posted. Local Ford Motor Co. retirees say they are worried about the fate of U.S. auto makers and how the industry's problems could affect their comfortable retirements. "I'm very much concerned," said Charles Cupp, 50, of Morocco, who retired in 2007. "It's very concerning for every one of the retirees I've talked to. It seems like the first place they always cut is on retirees." Cupp, who worked as an hourly employee at the Chicago Ford Assembly Plant for 30 years, and other...

A state commission is recommending that California's state and local governments begin setting aside money to pay unfunded retiree health benefits that will total at least $118 billion over the next 30 years. That is on top of $63.5 billion in unfunded pension benefits facing state and local agencies. California's public pension systems have set aside money to cover 89 percent of their pension obligations. Otherwise, the $63.5 billion figure would be larger, the Public Employee Post-Employment Commission said Monday. But the commission says governments are just beginning to deal with the costs of retirees' health benefits. Just 22 percent...

SIERRA VISTA — For many young Marines, Saturday night was the first time they celebrated the Corps birthday — its 232nd. For others, the celebration on the day of the founding of the Marines in a Philadelphia tavern — Nov. 10, 1775 — has been part of their makeup for many years. It was the dedication of the Corps in its 23-plus decades of existence that retired Marine Col. Sean Del Grosso spoke about to more than 400 people at a birthday ball at The Palms. It was a night of pageantry, as young Marines assigned to the Marine Corps...

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson on Friday proposed reducing benefits promised to future retirees and establishing a system of voluntary personal retirement accounts under Social Security to help shore up the program's finances. "If somebody's got a better idea let them put it on the table," said the former Tennessee senator in a challenge to fellow Republicans as well as Democrats vying for the White House in 2008. President Bush proposed roughly similar changes three years ago, but they proved so controversial that they never came to a vote in either house of the Republican-controlled Congress. Thompson's proposal...

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted followed its counterpart in the House by rejecting the Bush administration’s call to raise Tricare fees and deductibles for a second year. They also rejected raising Tricare retail drug co-payments. Senators want to delay action on any such changes for at least another year. Lawmakers and their staffs want to study the final report of the Task Force on the Future of Military Healthcare, which is due in December. Here are some other details from the Senate committee bill: * Accumulated leave: The Senate committee voted to allow any servicemember to carry up to...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday he will appoint a bipartisan commission to study the growing cost of funding state public pensions and retiree health benefits. The governor said the mounting costs, mostly due to health care, "remain one of the biggest problems facing governments everywhere" and threaten to take money away from education, public safety, environmental protection and health care for the poor. Over time, the state will have to come up with between $40 and $70 billion to pay for the health benefits promised to retired state workers, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. To do that, the...