New UW chancellor will earn $495k — and a mansion

By   /  April 15, 2013  /  Education, Featured, News, Wisconsin  /  3 Comments

rebecca Blank

Rebecca Blank takes the reins of University of Wisconsin-Madison with a homecoming in mind.

Blank, named UW-Madison chancellor earlier this month, leaves her post as acting U.S. Secretary of Commerce to return to academia. The economist and researcher previously taught at Princeton, MIT, Northwestern and the University of Michigan, and spent six months as a faculty visitor at UW in 1985.

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Illinois lawmakers invest state retirement dollars in junk bonds

By   /  February 5, 2013  /  Commentary  /  No Comments

Illinois gambling

The state is turning to increasingly risky investments in an effort to make up its shortfall.

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KS: Total cost of public pension blunder unknown

By   /  January 7, 2013  /  Featured, Finances, Kansas, Kansas Government, News, Pensions, Public records, public sector, State Government  /  2 Comments

COSTLY MISTAKE: Officials with the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System say it could take them weeks to determine how much has already been distributed to former state employees under an incorrect interpretation of state statute.

OSAWATOMIE — Kansas public pension plan officials say there’s a simple explanation why they don’t know how much pension money has been given to a small group of terminated state employees based on an erroneous interpretation of state law.

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WI: Seidel steps down early for her benefits’ benefit, source says

By   /  January 3, 2013  /  2012 General Election, Elections, Featured, News, Pensions, Politics & Elections, public sector, State Government, State Politics, Wisconsin  /  No Comments

STEPPING DOWN: State Rep. Donna Seidel, D-Wausau, steps down days before her term expires.

Just days before her term is set to expire, state Rep. Donna Seidel, D-Wausau, has resigned, effective Dec. 28, Wisconsin Reporter has learned.

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KEEGAN: New ‘issue brief’ ignores government pension ‘pathology’

By   /  December 10, 2012  /  Commentary  /  No Comments

IGNORE IT: the most repulsive aspect of the NIRS brief is extensive explanation of how destitute private sector workers — the ones who will be taxed into oblivion to pay government pensions — are when it comes to retirement.

By Frank Keegan | State Budget Solutions
Only three things are missing from a National Institute on Retirement Security ”issue brief” released last week on proposals to freeze local and state defined benefit pension plans in a shift to defined contribution plans that limit taxpayer risk.
First is the “pathology” that more than any other factor put America in a [...]

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