http://pensiontsunami.com/blog Monitoring the crises in public employee pensions, corporate pensions, Social Security and health care benefits Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:56:52 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Back in June, an anonymous video producer sent us the link to a humorous production that created quite a stir — mostly generated by an Orange County union official who claimed to be terribly offended by it. Well, we just received another link, and here’s the video: It will be interesting to ... http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=123 Following last week’s conference in DC, your editor is attempting to squeeze in a vacation with family in Massachusetts this week. But since the news never stops — and the volume of pension-related news is, in fact, escalating (along with the pension crisis) — I’ll do my best to keep ... http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=122 Because I will be traveling today to participate in a pension conference in Washington, DC sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, there will be a minimal number of headlines posted today and tomorrow. – Jack Dean http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=121 By Jack Dean Pension reform candidate Shawn Nelson took an early commanding lead in the absentee ballot count Tuesday night and never looked back, winning the special election for Supervisor in Orange County’s Fourth District with 30% of the vote. His nearest challenger, the public employee union-backed candidate Harry Sidhu, ... http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=119 Spending $1 million to defeat Shawn Nelson could save OC’s union members $400 million in retroactive pension benefits By Jack Dean I almost burst out laughing the first time a saw an ad for Harry Sidhu on cable TV. The final frame of the ad featured the appropriate legal disclosure information, which said: ... http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=118 The link to this creative video was sent to me by a subscriber: I suspect that few union officials will be laughing. Be sure to visit the CalPERS $100,000 Pension Club searchable database to see why this issue is such a big problem. [UPDATE AS OF SATURDAY 6/12 AT 11:00 AM: The ... http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=117 Your humble editor was laid low yesterday by a kidney stone and spent about 24 hours in the hospital. I was discharged this afternoon feeling much better and looking forward to getting everyone caught up on the latest news tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who sent inquiries; it’s nice ... http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=115 Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach sent out this e-mail update to his subscribers today regarding yesterday’s post on double-dippers by reporter Jennifer Muir on the Orange County Register’s “OC Watchdog” blog: In my long battle against public defined benefit pension plan abuses, I have been frustrated that the system allows ... http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=108 The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association — California’s largest and most influential taxpayer organization — has launched a campaign to stop the Metropolitan Water District from increasing its employee pensions by 25%. The pension hike is scheduled for a vote at the MWD’s board meeting next Tuesday. You can read about ... http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=106 Council member Denis Bilodeau of Orange says that the city will face bankruptcy if no action is taken to stem the rising cost of pension benefits for its public employees. His remarks were reported in a news story in the September 8th edition of the Foothills Sentry. The publication doesn’t ... http://pensiontsunami.com/blog/?p=105