Americans are feeling more grim about their debt.

Nearly one in five consumers with loans said they think they will never be able to finish paying off their debt, according to survey released Wednesday by CreditCards.com. That is double the 9 percent who said they felt that way last year.

President Barack Obama’s push to cover America’s uninsured faces another big test Monday.

This time, it’s not only how the website functions, but how well the program itself works for millions who are starting to count on it.

Midnight Monday, Pacific time is the deadline for new customers to pick a health plan that will take effect Jan. 1, and for current enrollees to make changes that could reduce premium increases ahead of the new year.

Three new employment laws will take effect for Illinois employers beginning Jan. 1, 2015. The first, the Illinois “ban-the-box” law, was discussed in an earlier GT Alert. The second new law, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), consists of amendments to the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA) that impose new requirements on employers for the treatment of pregnant employees and applicants, and apply to all employers with one or more employees in Illinois. The third new law amends the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (IWPCA) to permit employers to pay employees’ wages using payroll debit cards for the first time; however, the IWPCA amendments contain strict requirements on their use. This GT Alert summarizes the more salient features of PWFA and IWPCA payroll card amendments.

The PWFA

The most significant requirement of the PWFA is the duty of employers to provide reasonable accommodations if requested by an employee or applicant due to pregnancy, defined as pregnancy, childbirth or any medical or common condition related to pregnancy or childbirth, unless the employer can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose undue hardship on the employer’s business operations. This requirement is similar to the duty imposed on employers to reasonably accommodate disabled applicants and employees under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in order to enable them to perform the essential function of the job an applicant seeks or an employee holds. The provisions of the PWFA concerning reasonable accommodations are similar to the rules established by the EEOC in its non-binding July 14, 2014, pregnancy discrimination guidance, but the IHRA amendments are legally binding on all Illinois employers, more specific and somewhat different in certain respects. For example:

Chicago’s continuing push for a bigger slice of trade with China will kick into high gear Tuesday when top negotiators from Washington and Beijing fly in for bilateral talks aimed at easing the flow of cross-border commerce.

While the main show at the U.S.-China Joint Commission of Commerce and Trade summit will be negotiations Thursday among Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, Chicago will play host to an array of ancillary events aimed at promoting the city as a welcoming place to do business.

This is the second time in 25 years that a U.S. session of the annual summit will be held outside Washington, D.C. — not the first, as announced earlier this year. Still, landing the event is a coup for the city, one that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is attempting to mine for opportunities. In the intense race for Chinese investment, Illinois lags states on both coasts and some in the Sun Belt, ranking No. 10, according to data from Rhodium Group, a research firm that tracks Chinese investment in the U.S.

The press release practically writes itself: Gov. Pat Quinn signs legislation raising pay for jurors in Illinois.

He’d better not.

Lawmakers have sent the governor a very bad bill, hatched in the final stretch of a lame-duck veto session and rammed through without input from local governments or other stakeholders.

It’s been sold as a pay raise for jurors, and yes, that’s part of it. They’d get $25 for showing up the first day and $50 a day thereafter if they end up serving on a jury.

Eighteen acute-care hospitals across the United States shut their doors in 2013.

At least 12 more hospitals have closed this year in rural areas alone. More are getting out the plywood to nail over windows and barricades for doors.

Don’t worry, it’s just the new normal under Obamacare, says Lee Hieb, M.D.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/obamacare-blamed-for-killing-hospitals/#XPiH2DXCxwwfW7oo.99

On a Thursday in June, bureaucrats from Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles made their move against Uber Technologies. The fast-growing ride-for-hire company was told that its popular service was, in fact, illegal and that the firm needed to immediately cease all operations in the state.

Far from being intimidated, Uber was ready to fight back. The company immediately called on one of its most potent weapons: its ­ever-growing list of smartphone-wielding customers. A notice sent to Uber users in Virginia included the e-mail address and phone number of the ordinarily low-profile official in charge of the decision. The notice instructed the company’s supporters to demand that the DMV “stand up for you.”

Hundreds of them did and, by Sunday, Commissioner Richard Holcomb’s inbox was flooded. Holcomb did his best to respond — working through the weekend, even crafting e-mails to irate Uber customers as he lay in bed at home.

A $1.1 trillion spending bill that Congress completed action on over the weekend will provide funding to keep Chicago-area mass transit and roadway projects moving forward, as well as expand pedestrian and bicycle safety programs, transportation officials said.

The new funding is especially well-timed for the Chicago Transit Authority, which is competing for grant money that is key to the eventual reconstruction of the Red Line on the North Side and the Purple Line in Evanston and Wilmette.

The Red and Purple modernization project — which CTA officials say will cut travel times by as much as half and accommodate ridership growth — is estimated to cost $4.7 billion, of which at least $1.5 billion would come from the federal government. The CTA has so far received $35 million to conduct environmental studies.