Fewer Americans count on retiring by 65 - Life Inc. on Today - Allison Linn - January 31, 2013 - If you’re planning to work past age 65, you may find that you have a surprising amount of company among your peers. A larger chunk of Americans are working into their late 60s and even beyond, part of a long-term trend that has continued despite the tight job market of the past five years and is expected to increase in coming decades. “It’s one of the most important changes in the labor force over the last generation,” said Richard Johnson, director of The Urban Institute’s Program on Retirement Policy. Most Americans still stop working by the time they hit 65. But about 18.5 percent of Americans age 65 and over were working in 2012, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a nearly 8 percentage point increase from a low in 1985, when just 10.8 percent of Americans over age 65 were still at work. The trend toward working past age 65 is an about-face from the decades that followed World War II. From the late 1940s through the mid-1980s, the percentage of people over age 65 who were in the labor force generally fell as workers took advantage of pensions and Social Security payments that gave them plenty of financial incentive to quit working by age 62 or even before....
Duke Energy to close Riverbend, Buck plants in April - The Charlotte Observer - Bruce Henderson - February 3, 2013 - Duke Energy will close two of its oldest coal-fired power plants, Riverbend west of Charlotte and Buck in Rowan County in April, two years ahead of schedule.
Both plants date to the 1920s and had been planned for retirement in 2015. They’re among a wave of older, smaller coal plants closing down rather than investing in new pollution controls to meet federal environmental regulations. The plants had been little used in recent years as larger, more efficient plants came online and falling natural gas prices shifted generation to gas.
Efficiencies in Duke’s management of a larger power plant fleet, following its merger last year with Progress Energy, also contributed to the early retirements, the company said. “These stations played pivotal roles in the 1920s and 1930s in helping to electrify the industries and homes of the Carolinas, and we honor all those employees who contributed their time and talents over the years to ensure safe, reliable operations,” Keith Trent, chief operating officer of Duke’s regulated utilities, said in a statement..... Duke said it would try to find new positions within the company for the 65 people who work at Riverbend and Buck.
Kraft: No more Cracker Barrel grocery products - The Tennessean - Duane Marsteller - February 3, 2013 - Consumer foods giant Kraft Foods is suing to block Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores from selling a new line of branded products in grocery stores. Legal experts say a Kraft victory could threaten the restaurant chain's brand expansion efforts if a resolution isn't reached. Kraft said it has sold cheese products branded "Cracker Barrel" in grocery stores for nearly 60 years, and that the Lebanon, Tenn.-based restaurant chain's planned move into supermarkets would unfairly infringe on that trademark, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday in Chicago. "(The chain's) actions threaten to destroy the substantial goodwill that Kraft has created in its Cracker Barrel trademark, and to create significant confusion and cannot be permitted," the lawsuit said. Cracker Barrel said Friday that it's reviewing the lawsuit but otherwise had no immediate comment. The chain already sells various food products, such as cornbread mix and pancake syrup, under its name exclusively through its retail stores and on its website. Kraft said it never objected to the practice because of that limited availability. That changed in November when Cracker Barrel signed a licensing agreement with John Morrell Food Group to sell Cracker Barrel-branded food products through grocers, mass merchandisers and other retail outlets.
Rising beef prices threaten $1 McDouble - Reuters - Lisa Baertlein – February 2, 2013 - McDonald's popular $1 McDouble cheeseburger, which has lured customers to the Golden Arches since 2008, is getting hard to sustain as rising beef prices threaten the company's profit margin.... The dilemma for McDonald's Corp restaurant operators is that the McDouble has the highest ingredient costs on the Dollar Menu, making it a bad financial proposition unless customers add high-margin sides such as french fries or soda. "If the McDouble is all the customer buys, you lose money," said Richard Adams, a former franchisee who now advises the chain's restaurant operators. "Depending on what happens to beef prices, McDonald's management should be open to taking the McDouble off the Dollar Menu." The decision would be a significant one. McDonald's gets 10 to 15 percent of its sales from the Dollar Menu and experts say the McDouble is one of the most popular items on it.... The Dollar Menu food and marketing changes are part of McDonald's plan to stop two consecutive years of margin declines at its 14,000 U.S. restaurants. They come as new McDonald's Chief Executive Don Thompson sharpens the company's focus on its famed Dollar Menu to lure cash-crunched diners and fend off resurgent rivals such as Yum Brands Inc's Taco Bell chain and Burger King Worldwide Inc .
They also hint at strategies that U.S. restaurants could use to contain the damage from higher beef costs. McDonald's has a history of shaking up the Dollar Menu lineup in response to food cost spikes..... Beef prices are expected to rise above recent highs and to stay high for at least the next two years as the effects of last summer's historic U.S. drought ripple through the food system, said Jim Robb, an economist at the Livestock Marketing Information Center.
Ground beef prices already are up 6 percent to 8 percent so far this year, said John Davie, CEO of Consolidated Concepts, a firm that helps restaurants negotiate purchases. To be sure, McDonald's is known for using its massive size to squeeze better prices out of suppliers. The company forecast commodity inflation of just 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent this year for its U.S. business, far less than the National Restaurant Association's expectation for 2013 wholesale food price inflation in the low 4 percent range. But analysts are skeptical that McDonald's can control rising prices as well as it thinks, meaning there could be even more pressure on the McDouble's bottom line....
Audit shows North Carolina wastes millions on Medicaid - WTVD 11 - Durham, NC -
RALEIGH, N.C. - January 13, 2013 - Governor Pat McCrory and State Auditor Beth Wood held a rare joint news conference Thursday to discuss the findings of a scathing audit commissioned by the General Assembly about North Carolina's Medicaid program. Legislators directed Wood's office in last year's budget bill to conduct a performance audit of the Division of Medical Assistance and the Medicaid system it runs. Medicaid provides health coverage for more than 1.5 million North Carolina residents - most of them poor children, older adults and the disabled - and spends $12 billion in state and federal funds annually. Wood said she found hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid cost overruns because of administrative inefficiency, lack of oversight of contracts, lax cost-control and cost-management measures and disjointed accounting practices that have led to inaccurate financial projections. Click here to download Wood's audit (.pdf).
The audit shows the state is spending nearly 40 percent more than the national average just to administer Medicaid, and that's costing taxpayers an extra $180 million a year. Last year, the state's Medicaid program was $1.4 billion over budget. It was the same in 2011, and even more in 2010. "The people of North Carolina have sent us here to fix broken system and that's what we're going to do. These issues should be of concern to everyone. This is taxpayer money," said McCrory...
Medicaid bureaucracy pinching some NC group homes - WRAL - Raleigh, NC - January 29, 2012 - The operators of adult group homes across North Carolina report increasing delays in the Medicaid reimbursements that they depend on to keep their doors open. The delays result from a combination of a new billing system the state implemented this month and a growing backlog of appeals by people seeking to retain their Medicaid coverage under new eligibility rules. As of Jan. 1, group home residents were no longer eligible to receive Medicaid payments for personal care services, such as assistance with bathing, feeding or other daily chores. Federal regulators pushed for the changes to ensure the same personal care eligibility standards exist for people no matter where they live, instead of having rules that may steer people toward institutional care. The new eligibility requirements came with new Medicaid billing forms that operators say are more complex, and some providers aren't filling them out correctly or completely. That means their reimbursements are held up until the paperwork errors are fixed. "No one really knows what's going on and what we should do about it," Jenny Gadd, manager of Booth Road Group Home in Chatham County, said Tuesday......
Some families to be priced out of health overhaul - WWLP - Springfield, Massachusetts - January 30, 2013 - Some families could get priced out of health insurance due to what's being called a glitch in President Barack Obama's overhaul law. IRS regulations issued Wednesday failed to fix the problem as liberal backers of the president's plan had hoped. As a result, some families that can't afford the employer coverage that they are offered on the job will not be able to get financial assistance from the government to buy private health insurance on their own. How many people will be affected is unclear. The Obama administration says its hands were tied by the way Congress wrote the law. Officials said the administration tried to mitigate the impact. Families that can't get coverage because of the glitch will not face a tax penalty for remaining uninsured, the IRS rules said. "This is a very significant problem, and we have urged that it be fixed," said Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, an advocacy group that supported the overhaul from its early days. "It is clear that the only way this can be fixed is through legislation and not the regulatory process." But there's not much hope for an immediate fix from Congress, since the House is controlled by Republicans who would still like to see the whole law repealed. The affordability glitch is one of a series of problems coming into sharper focus as the law moves to full implementation. Starting Oct. 1, many middle-class uninsured will be able to sign up for government-subsidized private coverage through new health care marketplaces known as exchanges. Coverage will be effective Jan. 1. Low-income people will be steered to expanded safety-net programs. At the same time, virtually all Americans will be required to carry health insurance, either through an employer, a government program, or by buying their own plan. Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus, an advocacy group for children, cited estimates that close to 500,000 children could remain uninsured because of the glitch. "The children's community is disappointed by the administration's decision to deny access to coverage for children based on a bogus definition of affordability," Lesley said in a statement. The problem seems to be the way the law defined affordable....
Buying your own health insurance will never be the same - AP through Vitals on NBC News - RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR - January 27, 2013 - This fall, new insurance markets called exchanges will open in each state, marking the long-awaited and much-debated debut of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The goal is quality coverage for millions of uninsured people in the United States. What the reality will look like is anybody's guess — from bureaucracy, confusion and indifference to seamless service and satisfied customers. Exchanges will offer individuals and their families a choice of private health plans resembling what workers at major companies already get. The federal government will help many middle-class households pay their premiums, while low-income people will be referred to safety-net programs they might qualify for....
Guess Who's Driving the Demand for Rental Apartments? - CNBC - Diana Olick - January 29, 2013 - The housing market is supposedly roaring back. Home prices are seeing their biggest annual gains since 2006. Renters must be rushing back to buy, right? Not exactly.
In fact, even as housing and the greater economy improve, a shift in demographic trends will likely favor the rental apartment market for the foreseeable future. It is all about women. "I rent in an apartment building because it gives me a certain amount of freedom: I'm not positive that I want to stay in D.C. long term so I could leave at year's end if I wanted to," says 25-year-old Caitlin Huey-Burns, a working journalist. "My building has nice, built-in amenities, and it's in the location I want, but where I know I wouldn't be able to afford to buy.".....
No, according to a recent Raymond James report:
The home ownership rate declined yet again in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a new report from the U.S. Census today. It now stands at 65.4 percent, down from 66 percent a year ago and from a high of 69.2 percent in 2004. If you include the 5.3 million borrowers who are delinquent on their mortgages or in the foreclosure process, per Lender Processing Services, the real home ownership rate is even lower.....No, according to a recent Raymond James report:
Renter household formation remains at the strongest level in decades. Roughly 1.32 million new renter households were formed in the past year (including owner conversions), while the number of owner-occupied households declined by 175,000. Resident turnover and move-outs to homeownership remain near historic lows for most operators. Incoming leasing traffic is more than offsetting move-outs while paying higher rates.
Economy Could Be 'Significantly Worse' Than US Says - Money News - January 30, 2013
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