QUOTE OF THE DAY
WSJ: Companies Try to Escape Health Law’s Penalties
With companies set to face fines next year for not complying with the new mandate to offer health insurance, some are pursuing strategies like enrolling employees in Medicaid to avoid penalties and hold down costs.
The health law’s penalties, which can amount to about $2,000 per employee, were supposed to start this year, but the Obama administration delayed them until 2015, when they take effect for firms that employ at least 100 people.
Now, as employers race to find ways to cover their full-time workers while holding a lid on costs, insurance brokers and benefits administrators are pitching a variety of options, sometimes exploiting wrinkles in the law.
Chicago Tribune: Chicago blows through police OT budget by $23 million
The city of Chicago is blowing through its allotted police overtime budget for the second year in a row as Mayor Rahm Emanuel continues to grapple with high levels of violent crime, officials said Monday.
Budget Director Alexandra Holt told aldermen during the first day of budget hearings that the city expects to spend up to $95 million on police overtime this year. That’s $23 million more than the $72 million set aside for this year.
Last year, the city ended up spending more than $100 million on police overtime after estimating it would spend $32 million.
Chicago Sun Times: CPS to sell headquarters for $28 million
As employees began moving out Monday, Chicago Public Schools confirmed it has found a buyer for its headquarters at 125 S. Clark Street in a $28 million deal expected to be approved by the Board of Education on Wednesday.
Tom Tyrrell, the district’s chief operating Officer, said CPS reached an agreement with Blue Star Properties, which plans to keep offices and some retail spaces in the building. He was happy with the price, saying CPS estimated the building’s worth is about $18 million.
The deal is expected to be put to a vote after discussion during the board’s closed session, district spokesman Bill McCaffrey said.
Crain’s: Former mayoral, Preckwinkle aide likely new city treasurer
A former trusted lieutenant to the past two mayors of Chicago and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle appears in line to take over as city treasurer.
City Hall sources say they believe Mayor Rahm Emanuel will appoint veteran municipal activist Kurt Summers to the $134,000-a-year post.
Mr. Summers would replace Stephanie Neely, who told her staff this morning that she will step down from her job as the city’s chief investment officer to accept a private-sector position. Ms. Neely has been considered a fast-rising political star and had been eyed for lieutenant governor. But Gov. Pat Quinn instead tapped former Chicago Public Schools chief Paul Vallas as his running mate, and Ms. Neely apparently has decided to take her life in a different direction.
Chicago Sun Times: Emanuel’s cable tax hike to cost average consumer $28.80 a year
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to wipe out the amusement tax exemption that has long benefited cable television companies will cost the average cable customer $2.40 more-a-month and $28.80 more-a-year, a top mayoral aide disclosed Monday.
“That’s assuming they pass it along to consumers,” Budget Director Alex Holt said.
“Which they will,” said Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd).
Chicago Sun Times: Fioretti tries to put heat on Emanuel over short yellow lights
Mayoral challenger Bob Fioretti is urging his supporters to sign petitions demanding that Mayor Rahm Emanuel “restore the public trust by refunding” $7.7 million in fines generated by red-light cameras after the timing of yellow lights was reduced from 3 seconds to 2.9 seconds.
“The mayor said he has not ‘made a judgment’ on whether to refund drivers the $7.7 million in tickets that were racked up after his administration lowered the length of yellow lights,” the alderman wrote in an email to his supporters.
“The reduction in the length of yellow lights resulted in 77,000 tickets! Tell the mayor that he should restore public trust by refunding the money that was a result of his administration lowering the yellow light length.”
Chicago Sun Times: Fix pot law conflicts so industry can grow
Here’s what’s clear: A marijuana gold rush is coming to Illinois.
Here’s what’s not so clear: How will fundamental conflicts between state and federal laws governing marijuana be resolved?
Because until those conflicts are worked out, too much of this lucrative industry will be a cash business, ripe for fraud and organized crime, and nobody — consumers or suppliers — can feel completely safe from federal snooping and sanctions.
Huffington Post: Trust in Media Returns to an All-Time Low — Is Anyone Surprised?
A recent Gallup poll revealed that Americans’ confidence in the media’s ability to report “the news fully, accurately, and fairly” has returned to its previous all-time low of 40 percent.
Is anyone surprised? With the major news shows parading out the same pundit hacks who were wrong the first time about Weapons of Mass Destruction pre-Iraq invasion, Americans everywhere are probably having severe flashbacks. In a perfect world, there would be a rule that if you are grotesquely wrong about one war, you have to sit the next war out. You’re benched. Come back the following season and don’t lie next time.
Here we are. Again. And Bill “American Forces Will Be Welcomed In Baghdad As Liberators” Kristol is back to say, no really, ISIS is mere seconds away from knocking on your front door (even though it’s difficult to remember the last time Bill was right about, well, anything). For the sake of viewers, instead of stating the publications for which pundits write, networks should instead broadcast their records on issues. For example: Bill Kristol: Wrong about Iraq War. Wrong about Afghanistan. Just a heads up. This man is 0 and 2.
If there’s a silver lining for McDonald’s in Tuesday’s dreadful earnings report, it is that perhaps union activists will begin to understand that the fast-food chain cannot solve the problems of the Obama economy. The world’s largest restaurant company reported a 30% decline in quarterly profits on a 5% drop in revenues. Problems under the golden arches were global—sales were weak in China, Europe and the United States.
So even one of the world’s most ubiquitous consumer brands cannot print money at its pleasure. This may be news to liberal pressure groups that have lately been demanding that government order the chain known for cheap food to somehow pay higher wages.
Unions have made McDonald’s a particular target of their campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage and have even protested at corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill. The pressure was enough to cause CEO Don Thompson this summer to capitulate and endorse President Obama’s call to raise the federal minimum to $10.10 an hour from $7.25. Many states have already enacted wage floors above the federal minimum.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
