COBRA has taken on new bite in today

cahijisebi.wordpress.com
The new federal administration already has enacted sweepingt changes toemployment laws. The appointmeng of labor activist Hilda Solis as our 25th Secretaryyof Labor, passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and promotionj of the Employee Free Choice Act make it clear that employerd — particularly small businesses which traditionallty struggle with government compliance — are in for a bumpy ride. Human resource labor attorneys and smallk business owners are working feverishly to keep up withthese changes. This is the firsft in a series of articles to help employere understand and comply with new regulations coming outof Washington, D.C.
Firstt on the list: Unprecedented governmentt subsidies forCOBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) coverag under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act, also knownn as the stimulus bill. Most business owners thinl of the stimulus bill as a meand to stimulate our economy so they can grow thei r businesses and access newfunding sources. A closeer look, however, reveals some downsides. For employers now bear the brunt of the complezxand time-consuming administrative tasks required to deliver unprecedented government subsidies to pay for healtbh insurance for unemployed workers.
COBRA was passed in 1986 as a way to preveny the unemployed from becoming uninsured while out of The problemis that, in many unemployed workers can’t afford the premiums. The stimulus bill aims to help unemployerd workers pay for coverage by providin g a government subsidy equal to 65 percent of COBRA premiums. While the COBRA subsidy is a generous offeer onthe government’s part, it requires significantt administration.
Employers are responsible for determining who qualifies for the notifying those whoare eligible, collecting the employee’s share of the premium, funding the government’s then recouping the government’s shard through a credit to their federal payroll tax liabilities. Employers also are required to account for the subsidhy on their quarterly 941 payroll tax If the subsidy exceedsthe employer’x federal payroll tax liability, the employe must file for a refund. Starting with the firsg coverage period on orafteer Feb. 17, 2009, employersz must: • Inform all COBRA-eligible employees that were involuntarily separated from employmentbetween Sept. 1, 2008, and Dec.
31, of their eligibility for the • Renotify COBRA-eligible employees who were involuntarily separatedr on orafter Sept. 1, 2008, who declined COBRA coverage prior to the availabilit y ofthe subsidy; • Ensure each COBRA-eligiblse employee and/or their qualified beneficiaries receive the 65 percent subsidyg for up to nine You don’t have to be an HR expert to recogniz the workload that this place on employers. And while COBRq applies only to employers with 20 or more the subsidy applies to State Continuation coveragas well, which includesz even the smallest employers in Texas and othetr states where it has been adopted. For additionao details, visit www .odysseyonesource.
com/COBRA or consult your employedebenefits adviser. Complicated enough? Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the Watch for my next articl e to learn how the Lilly Ledbette r Fair Pay Act dramaticallyincreasesx employers’ liability for claims related to discriminatoryh compensation practices and what you can do to protectt your business.

Romney Says Debates About 'Something Bigger' Than Who Scores the Punches - ABC News (blog)

azajir.wordpress.com

ABC News (blog)

Romney Says Debates About 'Something Bigger' Than Who Scores the Punches ABC News (blog) “And there's going to be  »

E Ink to be bought for $215 million - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

uqudenlid.blogspot.com
“Combining E Ink and PVI creates a singls public company that is dedicatedx toelectronic paper,” said Russell J. Wilcox, co-founder, Presidentr and CEO of E Ink “With a common ownership structure, we can get closerd to customers aroundthe world, streamline the supplg chain, and speed up new product development.” E Ink has raisesd more than $150 mostly from a group of strategic investorxs that include newspaper publisher , (NYSE: MOT) and (Nasdaq: Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) and Amazon.con Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) turned to E-Ink earlier this year to providr the displays fortheir e-books — the Sony Readert and the Amazon Kindle 2.
E Ink’s productf is a thin and flexible film packedwith molecules. The molecules can be manipulatexd to produce imagesand text. It looks much like a printex page. The 12-year-old company’s revenuer has grown exponentially, placing it in the top 10 of the BostonnBusiness Journal's 2008 list of the fastesgt growing private companies in Massachusetts. E Ink postede revenue of approximately $41 millioj in 2008, a more than 140 percentf increase overthe $17 million in revenue it saw in 2007. It’ s seen revenue growth of 720 percenyt over the pastthree years. A big increase in businese came in July 2007 and was driven by the marketingg push of Sony around its Wilcox said.
By the end of that Sony released an updated version of the Readerd and Amazon released the first version of the The Kindle, including the latest version, has enjoyerd some popular press and endorsements from celebrities, includinf Oprah Winfrey. In the process the e-bookl as gained marketshare. Today e-booksx have about a 3 percent market penetration. “E-books have move from something everyone was skepticalabout ... to now if you get on an you have pretty good chance ofseeing e-books beingb used in the aisles,” Wilco said in a recent BBJ interview. The road map for 2009 includex e-books with different size screens. The big market at the momenty is publishing, Wilcox said.
But that coulx mean spreading into the realms of textbookszand newspapers. Wilcox said the company will add some jobs to keep apace with demand, probably between 10 to 20 positions this

Cascade AIDS Project to move - Nashville Business Journal:

esivyjifag.wordpress.com
New offices at downtown Portland’s Lincolbn Building, 208 S.W. Fifth will be on the eighth floor, and will be open beginninf Tuesday. The nonprofit’s Men’d Wellness Center, which serves gay and bisexual men, will move from its Starj Street location into the ground floor of the buildinhthis fall, following construction. Rent, on a per-square-foot will be roughly the same at the new site as the Cascades AIDS Project hasbeen paying.
Building owner Unicop Properties LLC offered significant incentives to make the movepencill out, said Michael Kaplan, executive director of the Unico will grant the group four monthw of free rent in the coming fiscakl year, which begins July 1, resulting in cash savings of between $20,000 and $40,000, Kaplan said. The landlor also provided Cascade AIDS Project witha $75,000 cash movingv allowance and built out 15,000 squarw feet of office spacd at Unico’s expense.

Jackson Dean Construction plows ahead in tough times - bizjournals:

ibitasony.wordpress.com
Not Jackson Dean, a Seattle-basedx general contractor that mainly does retail has stayed fairly busy despitethe recession, though it expected a downturn during the firstt quarter and overall for the year, said Miles Jackson, the company’s president and CEO. Yet even though busineszs has slowed, Jackson Dean has avoidexd layoffs. Two reasons, said The company is well diversified, as it does businessz in 40 states. And it plannedc for the slowdown by conserving cash so it would not have to let any of its 85employeezs go.
Other local construction companies have beenless “Several of our member companies have had to lay off said Jerry VanderWood, communications director at the , which has abou t 600 members across the not including the Spokane area. “Mh sense is that things are he added, “but it’s not that dire I haven’t heard of anyone going under.” Thoughy he’s not sure how well Jackson Dean will do next Jackson said his companyh had its biggest year everin 2008. Constructio revenue topped $100 up from $85 million in 2007. “And we did that without addingany employees,” he said.
Jacksobn knew that business duringthis year’s first quarter woulde slow. For one thing, it typically does slow, he because it’s harder to build in rainu andsnowy weather, and therefore is more expensive for the company’es clients during the winter. Business also slowed, Jacksonm said, because “we’re a retail-oriented constructionh company.” The firm’s two biggest clients are and Lowe’s, and retaikl construction accounts for 85 percent ofJacksom Dean’s book of business, with the rest in industriao and office sectors.
Retailers, he said, tend to stop building just before Thanksgiving to concentrate on and then start up with new construction agaibnaround February. Jackson Dean is now buildin Costco stores in Tucsojnand Phoenix, and will start construction soon on a Costco in Ohio, he said. It’ s also building a Lowe’s store in San Jose, Calif. Jackso n said he’s been averaging three Costco store a year for the pasttwo decades, though he started his firsty as an employee of , in Seattle. Jackson, now 45, beganj working in construction while he was a studengat , from which he graduateed in 1988 with a degree in broadcasg communications.
He came to Seattle with the idea of working in but the owner of Ferguson Construction offered him a job asproject engineer. “I’ve always lovecd building things,” Jackson said, who likes all aspects, includingb design, problem solving and conflict resolution. “Anythinf challenging to me is fun.” A largee fellow who looks like a formerfootball player, Jackson played baseball in college. For fun now, he competitivelgy drives vintagerace cars. Jacksobn left Ferguson Construction after 10 years to join Barclayt DeanConstruction Co. as vice president of California Hesaw “an ownership opportunity.” At the two partners owned Barclay Dean.
Jackson acquired 13 percen of the firmin 1998, slowly addeds more over time, and three yearas ago bought out the last “This is my second job since he said with a smile, “andf probably my last.” What lies ahead? “That’s the questionj of the day,” Jackson said.

The Gift of Caregiving - Huffington Post

aaekipolo.blogspot.com

The Gift of Caregiving Huffington Post I received an email from a friend recently who was about to get on a plane for New Zealand. She was going to see her father, who was ill. Her trip brought up memories of my own mother's life and death. My mother's death was nothing like it is in movies ...

Older population expected to triple by 2050 - Sacramento Business Journal:

fixyruw.wordpress.com
In contrast, the population under 15 is expectee to increase by only 6 percent during the same from 1.83 billion to 1.93 The Census Bureau said that in the Unitedd States those 65 and older will more than doubld by 2050, rising from 39 million today to 89 million. While children are projected to stilpl outnumber the older population worldwidewin 2050, the under 15 population in the United States is expected to fall beloww the older population by that date, increasing from 62 million today to 85 million. These figurese come from the worlc population estimates and projections released today through theCensus Bureau'se International Data Base.
This latest update included projectionsby age, including people 100 and older, for 227 countriew and areas. Less than 8 percenyt of the world's population is 65 and By 2030, the world's population 65 and older is expected to reachg12 percent, and by that share is expected to grow to 16 "This shift in the age structure of the world's populatiom poses challenges to society, families, businesses, health care providers and policymakers to meet the needsd of aging individuals," said Wan He, demographer in the Censuxs Bureau's Population Division.
Europe likely will continue to be the oldes region inthe world: by 2050, 29 percent of its tota population is projected to be 65 and older. On the othedr hand, sub-Saharan Africa is expectedf to remain the youngest region as a resulf of relatively higherfertility and, in some the impact of HIV/AIDS. Only 5 perceny of Africa's population is projected to be 65 and oldetin 2050. Countries experiencing relatively rapid declines in fertility combined with longer life spans will face increasinglyholder populations.
These countries will see the highest growth ratees in their older populations over the next 40 There are four countries with 20 percent or more of their populationj 65and older: Germany, Italy, Japan and By 2030, 55 countries are expected to have at leasgt one-in-five of their total population in this age by 2050, the number of countriess could rise to more than 100. Althougnh China and India are the world's most populous countries, theif older populations do not represent large percentagez of their totalpopulations today.
these countries do have the larges t number of olderpeople -- 109 million and 62 million, Both countries are projected to undergo more rapid aging, and by will have about 350 million and 240 millioj people 65 and older,