November 1, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

taxed

Investors: ObamaCare’s Medicaid Expansion Limits Medical Choices

The national debate over the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is nowhere close to being finished. Just ask my patients, who were forced off their private insurance and into the failing, government-run health care program.

This was one of the ACA’s (or ObamaCare’s) many unintended consequences.

In the 27 states that have expanded Medicaid — including my state, Arizona — many middle-class individuals and families with private health insurance shopped around on Healthcare.gov for their 2014 health care plans.

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Crains: Illinois Lottery manager scratches off $20 million investment

One of the two partners in the joint venture that runs the Illinois Lottery took a $19.7 million writeoff on its investment after Gov. Pat Quinn decided to terminate its management contract last summer.

State lottery officials plan to replace Northstar Lottery Group LLC by June after years of battlingover market strategy and lower-than-expected revenues.

New York-based Scientific Games Inc., which has a 20 percent interest in Northstar, said the Northstar writeoff was a noncash impairment charge, according to a news release issued yesterday reporting third-quarter results.

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Calpensions: Bankruptcy judge explains pension cut hurdles

A federal judge, who earlier ruled CalPERS pension contracts can be overturned in bankruptcy, yesterday outlined the difficulty of cutting pensions while approving Stockton’s plan to exit bankruptcy with pensions intact.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein issued a ruling on Oct.1 that CalPERS pensions, despite attempted safeguards in state law, can be cut in a municipal bankruptcy much like any other debt.

“Nobody should think that Chapter 9 (municipal bankruptcy) is an easy or inexpensive process,” Klein said yesterday, one of several remarks aimed at any thought that bankruptcy might be a painless way out of financial problems.

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WUIS: Illinois Provides Data On Schools Via Award-Winning Report Card

When you think of a report card, you think of a basic form that provides average test scores and little more. But the new online report cards for each Illinois public school offer more granular data, such as teacher retention and principal turnover rates, the percentage of high school freshmen deemed “on track” for graduation, and even survey results for how safe students feel at school.

The Illinois State Board of Education will release online the latest data on school achievement later this week. The news varies by community, but the website itself has already earned an A+.  Mary Fergus, spokesperson for the board, said the new format earned Illinois recognition from the national Education Commission of the States

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Chicago Sun Times: CPS wants to delay new standardized exam; state’s answer is still ‘No’

The standardized tests Illinois schoolchildren had taken for years have been handed in for the last time.

The 2013-14 school year marked the last time students would take the Illinois State Achievement Test (commonly called the ISAT) or Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE).

In their place is a new test, the PARCC (it stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers). State officials say they’re ready to roll out that new test this spring for all 3rd- through 8th-graders and some high schoolers, with the Illinois State Board of Education about to place an order to have enough tests for every public school student in Illinois.

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Chicago Tribune: Most public school students aren’t prepared for college work, data show

With top test scores and high graduation rates, Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook sees almost 90 percent of its graduates go off to college.

But it’s another story in a small community just south of the Wisconsin border, where only about half of Harvard High School graduates enrolled in college in recent years, well below the state average. At a few dozen schools in Chicago and downstate, even smaller percentages of students moved on to higher education.

The college-going statistics, released for the first time by the state for each public high school, reveal wide variations in how many students continue their schooling after walking down the aisle to get their diplomas.

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Crain’s: Divvy employees seek to unionize

Employees of the city’s bike share program want to unionize, saying their concerns about worker safety and scheduling are not being addressed.

Mr. Bedell said New York’s bike-share workers have seen results since unionizing. Some workers have had wage increases, and Alta has been making changes based on other concerns raised by the employees.

Workers at Alta’s bike-share programs in Washington, D.

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US News: How Seriously Should You Take Retirement Savings Calculators?

You punch some numbers into a retirement calculator, and the results are so frightening you want to run away: It says you should have $500,000 saved by now. Or $1 million. Or is that $2 million for a couple? Or maybe it’s eight times your salary.

How seriously should you take all those stories about how much you need to save for retirement? Very seriously, no matter what your age is, experts say.

How far you’re falling short is scarier than any horror movie. While the amount you need to save for retirement varies, the truth is that few people are saving enough.

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CARTOON OF THE DAY

business