What’s a myRA?

In his SOTU (State of the Union) address Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama announced what he billed as a new retirement savings plan for low and middle-income wage earners.  He calls it “myRA.”  (Whoever came up with that moniker?) 

 

Highlights:  The President has directed the U.S. Treasury to create this government-backed retirement account.  It will be administered by a private-sector money manager.  There will be no fees for depositors of this new savings plan.

 

However, since money management firms don’t work pro bono, Uncle Sam is likely to pick up the tab for the firm that Treasury chooses to administer the plan.

A pilot program will go into effect by the end of 2014.  All workers will be eligible to set up a myRA, even employees who currently are participating in a 401K plan, so long as their household income does not exceed $191,000 per year. (Is this considered low-income?)

PRIOR POPE FIRED ABUSIVE PRIESTS

RECENT  DATA:  While he was in office, Pope Benedict XVI fired at least 571 priests over four years.  All were found guilty of child molestation under canon law of the Roman Catholic Church and were terminated.
 

Of that number, 400 were defrocked in 2011 and 2012.  That represents an increase of 134% over the 171 men who were fired in 2008 and 2009.

This information came to light this week as Archbishop Silvano Tomasi appeared before the United Nations Committee on Human Rights, a U.N. panel looking into the matter. Tomasi is the Vatican’s U.N .ambassador.

BACKGROUND:  Before he was elevated to the papacy, Benedict XVI – then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- took action in his role as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, after he determined “that bishops around the world weren’t following church law (by putting) accused clerics on trial in church tribunals.”

The Intensification of Political Retribution.

The scent of blood is running in the water, and traces of vengeance are wafting in the air over Trenton.  Governor Chris Christie has run up against his first real drag-down, take-no-prisoners assault. 

There are now at least several special committees within the Democrat-controlled New Jersey Legislature that are being established to determine the causes of the unannounced closure of lanes at the George Washington Bridge.

In addition, investigations into this matter have been started in Washington, and the U.S. Attorney for the State of New Jersey is also getting into the picture.

An Assumption of Dishonesty?

At first thought, it seems like a rather simple thing.  You find yourself in the checkout lane at a supermarket with a cart full of groceries and other assorted items of all sizes and types.

PAID, Thank You!

The checkout person faithfully passes every one of your purchases over the glass of the cash register’s laser-beam scanner.

The point-of-sale computer works flawlessly as it tallies your order, presents you with the total, whereupon you swipe a piece of plastic that has become a substitute for cash, and you close out the transaction.  Done.

Perhaps – as I have until recently – you never gave a second thought to those little orange and black stickers which read PAID, Thank You that the cashier dutifully makes sure get glued to certain bulky items.

Too Cold for Comfort

Our back yard planters disguised as wintry, vanilla topped cupcakes.

 

 

Just as I was about to set foot outside this evening to attend a meeting in Martinsville, I took one look at the temperature and thought the better of it.  The reading:  3.6 degrees Fahrenheit and falling.  Tomorrow, think I’ll listen to the tape of that meeting instead.

My prospective father-in-law once described the conditions under which I showed up at his home in the darkness of a New England blizzard.  I had trudged through the snow and wind, following one of the deep ruts of a car that had dared to challenge that storm.

School Board Meeting Cancelled Tonight

Due to the impending snowfall that is expected to hit Central Jersey beginning this evening, the re-organization meeting  of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education has been cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday, January 7.

If you would like to see the agenda, you can view it from this link.  As of this writing it still bore today's date -- just ignore that.  Although the agenda is 37 pages long, the first few pages deal with the very early part of the session.  The rest is necessary boilerplate.

The initial pages are worth your reading time, especially if you'd like to get an idea of how the process works.  Remember, education is the spot where most of your real estate tax dollars get spent.

Specifically, the beginning of the meeting deals with swearing in the three board members who were elected in November:  Jeffrey Brookner, Jill Gladstone, and Lynne Hurley ran unopposed.  It's also the time when the new board elects its president and vice-president.