Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

State pension fund falling far short of ability to pay retirees� By JC Reindl� Publication: The Day�� 12/04/2011�� Connecticut has only half the money needed to meet its obligations.�� Hartford - The pension-funding sins of Connecticut's past are now catching up to us, threatening the state's fiscal stability and the comfortable retirements of future retirees. That was the message to state legislators last week from Benjamin Barnes, secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's top budget official, although he spared his audience the fire and brimstone. But what the show lacked in hellfire, it made up with red-ink. Connecticut has one of the lowest pension funding levels of all 50 states. According to the most recent audit, the State Employees Retirement System, which covers more than 42,000 retirees, had $11.7 billion in unfunded liabilities last year. The audit found just 44 percent of the money that's needed to meet the state's future obligations, far below the general guideline of 80 percent.� Continued at �. http://www.theday.com/article/20111204/NWS12/312049900/1070/rss/State-pension-fund-falling-far-short-of-ability-to-pay-retirees

Fiscal analysts leave large question mark over small budget surplus

Malloy: State Employees Defrauded Federal Food Assistance Program� CTNewsjunkie.com, Christine Stuart, Dec 5, 2011 They lined up by the thousands after Tropical Storm Irene in the hopes of obtaining $200 to $1,200 in federal food assistance, but not everyone who received the benefits qualified for the program. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced Sunday that about 800 of the 23,000 applicants were state employees and an unknown number of them may have committed fraud in applying and receiving federal funds. Continued at �. http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/state_employees_defrauded_federal_food_assistance_program/

New Legal Argument Surprises In UConn FOI Case

A lawyer for the state Freedom of Information Commission abandoned an argument his office had been making for the past three years when he got to the Supreme Court on Monday, confusing the Supreme Court Justices and the man who filed the FOI complaint. Up until Monday, the case had been expected to be the first time the Supreme Court would consider whether public entities can use an exemption in the state�s freedom of information statutes to withhold trade secrets.The case stems from a 2008 freedom of information request made by former state Rep. Jonathan Pelto, who asked the University of Connecticut for databases including lists of customers who purchase athletic department tickets or tickets for the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts.� Continued at �.. http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/new_legal_argument_surprises_in_uconn_foi_case/

America's army of jobless The real number of unemployed or underemployed people in the U.S. is a stunning 26.9 million. November 30, 2011|By David B. Grusky When President Obama announced that 40,000 troops now in Iraq would come home by the end of the year, the initial excitement quickly turned to concern that our already struggling economy couldn't easily handle the shock of an additional 40,000 job seekers. Although we should, of course, care deeply about returning Iraq war veterans, we ought not to think for a moment that adding 40,000 workers to the job-seeking pool will break the back of the economy. It's already broken. The nation is laboring under the weight of a reserve army of nearly 27 million women and men who don't have a full-time job, but most surely want one.� Continued at �. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/30/opinion/la-oe-grusky-workers-20111130

Audit finds inadequate monitoring of US arms sales

http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Audit-finds-inadequate-monitoring-of-US-arms-sales-2276739.php

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OFF THE HOOK: Official Says Financial Execs. Likely Won't Face Criminal Prosecution� The Huffington Post Jillian Berman First Posted: 12/ 6/11 12:27 PM ET Updated: 12/ 6/11 12:27 PM ET

The Justice Department has decided that prosecution of financial executives is "better left to regulators" to take civil-enforcement actions, David Cardona, who was a deputy assistant director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation until last month, told the Wall Street Journal.

"There's been a realization and a more deliberate targeting by the Department of Justice before we launch criminally on some of these cases," Cardona told the WSJ. Cardona's comments come nearly eight months after Senator Carl Levin released a report on Goldman Sachs' role in the financial crisis, which found the investment bank profited off purposefully deceiving its own clients at the height of the financial crisis. Levin then said he would recommend some of the investment bank's executives for possible criminal prosecution. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/06/criminal-prosecution-financial-crimes_n_1131639.html

How Financial Crime and Exploitation Led to the Economic Crisis

Crime and Exploitation Led to the Economic Crisis - Sam Gustin hosts Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, author of Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking � http://www.5min.com/Video/How-Financial-Crime-and-Exploitation-Led-to-the-Economic-Crisis-517141433

Banks face U.S.-backed claims process over foreclosures� Connecticut residents are expected to be among the millions filing compensation claims against the nation's largest banks and mortgage servicers for using defective and faulty foreclosure practices between 2009 and 2010.� On Monday, Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and State Banking Commissioner Howard Pitkin announced the federal review process was open and ready to accept claims against the banks and servicers designated by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and other federal agencies as having deficient foreclosure procedures. http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Banks-face-U-S-backed-claims-process-over-2346893.php

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Redistricting gets more time, focuses on Bridgeport

Ex-Countrywide Exec Blows The Lid Off The Systemic Fraud At The Company� Julia La Roche|December 05, 2011| Eileen Foster, a former senior executive at Countrywide Financial, told CBS's "60 Minutes" Steve Kroft that mortgage fraud was a way of business. Continued at http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-12-05/wall_street/30476779_1_mortgage-fraud-countrywide-employees-foreclosure-mess

Aunt Midge Reveals $14B Hospice Market� By Peter Waldman - Dec 6, 2011 12:01 AM ET Bloomberg� Janet Stubbs was grateful when the nursing home recommended hospice care for her aunt Midge. Although Stubbs knew her aunt wasn�t dying, the offer of free, Medicare-paid hospice visits from a nurse and chaplain, plus an extra weekly bath, was too good to pass up.�� Stubbs didn�t know that her aunt, Doris Midge Appling, was admitted to Hospice Care of Kansas during the company�s �Summer Sizzle� promotion drive, which paid employees as much as $100 a head for referrals, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Stubbs also said she had no clue that the nursing home doctor who referred her aunt for hospice moonlighted as medical director for the hospice company. ��Continued at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-06/hospice-care-revealed-as-14-billion-u-s-market.html?cmpid=yhoo

Groups prepare to bring Occupy protests to Congress

Carriers Admit to Installing Hidden App | Save the Internet� The cellphone spying saga is heating up. On Friday, Rep. Ed Markey joined Sen. Al Franken in demanding answers from Carrier IQ, the company that has worked with mobile carriers to install a hidden application that has the ability to secretly track nearly everything users do - including the keys they press, the numbers they dial and the websites they visit - on more than 140 million cellphones. Researcher Trevor Eckhart uncovered the secret app. Continued at �. http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/11/12/02/carriers-admit-installing-hidden-app

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Bosses Still Doing Well Despite Recession� Posted by LaborUnionReport (Diary) Sunday, December 4th at 7:30AM EST

Every year, the Teamsters for a Democratic Union compiles the list of Teamster bosses earning six-figure salaries.� The 2011 $150,000 Club was released on Friday and shows, unlike many of their members who have suffered job and pay cuts, Teamster bosses are still doing quite well for themselves.

According to the TDU�s Report:

123 Teamster officials made over $150,000 in salary in 2010; 35 made over $200,000. The total paid to that group went up $259,636 over the previous year.
129 Teamster officials got paid a multiple salary by the International Union , most of them appointees of James Hoffa.
For the first time since he took office, James Hoffa did not get a salary increase. This is
because his salary goes up by a percentage equal to the rate of inflation, and inflation did not rise.
Hoffa did take a $6,000 hike in his total compensation: Hoffa is paid a very lucrative �housing allowance� on top of his salary.

Below is the listing of the Teamsters� Top Ten Money Makers, based on salary and total compensation. Teamsters� 2011 $150,000 Club Full Report

Continued at �.. http://www.redstate.com/laborunionreport/2011/12/04/tdus-new-150000-club-shows-teamster-bosses-still-doing-well-despite-recession/

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The 5 Biggest Failures of the 112th Congress - Chris Good - Politics ...� Nov 30, 2011 ... Partisan stalemate has held America hostage. A look at the most significant instances of legislative dysfunction this year. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/11/the-5-biggest-failures-of-the-112th-congress/249056/#slide1

The Iran Oil Embargo Epitomizes The Transfer Of Power From West To East� Does Thursday's announcement that the EU is considering to ban oil imports from Iran epitomise the draining of power from west to east? The big winners here will be China and India, who do not fear rising Iranian influence and who will gladly soak up any additional oil exports they may have to offer. However, ending this small dependency upon Iranian oil imports in Europe (Figure 2) does clear the way for military action without the need to ponder the immediate consequences on oil imports. Continued at �. http://www.businessinsider.com/conflict-between-iran-winners-china-and-india-2011-12