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The staggering, taxpayer-funded figure comes amidst Fauci – who sent U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund risky bat coronavirus research at a Chinese Communist Party-controlled lab in Wuhan – announcing he’d step down from his National Institutes of Health (NIH) position in addition to the role of Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden in December. “I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career,” Fauci added. “It has been the honor of a lifetime to have led the NIAID, an extraordinary institution, for so many years and through so many...

NEW YORK, Jan 31 (Reuters) - U.S. public pension funds will likely have to switch to more aggressive investment strategies in the coming years to fill funding gaps despite assets held by sovereign investors having grown to record levels amid the 2021 equity market boom, a new report said. On average, the difference between assets and liabilities at U.S. public pension funds, known as the "funded ratio," remains "unsatisfactory" at less than 75%, sovereign investor specialist Global SWF said in a report. To boost returns, many will likely have to focus on alternative assets, including private equity and private credit,...

Consumers’ Research, the nation’s oldest consumer advocacy organization, sent a Dec. 2 letter (pdf) to ten U.S. governors warning them about the reliance of their states’ pension funds on BlackRock’s strong ties to China. BlackRock, under its CEO Larry Fink, is the first foreign-owned company to receive a license to operate in China’s $3.5 trillion mutual fund industry, Forbes reported. Consumers’ Research executive director William Hild sent the warning to the governors of Washington, Florida, New York, Nevada, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Montana, Nebraska, and West Virginia—the ten states with the most investments in BlackRock. Washington has invested the most...

Hours before he was scheduled to retire in 2018, Andrew G. McCabe, then the F.B.I.’s deputy director, was fired by the Justice Department, depriving him of his pension and prompting cheers from President Donald J. Trump, who had been hounding him over his role in the Russia investigation. On Thursday, the department reversed Mr. McCabe’s firing, settling a lawsuit he filed asserting that he was dismissed for political reasons. Under the settlement, Mr. McCabe, 53, will be able to officially retire, receive his pension and other benefits, and get about $200,000 in missed pension payments. In addition, the department agreed...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has joined the FBI in the investigation of Pennsylvania’s biggest pension fund, subpoenaing records about its board’s adoption of a false figure for its financial performance — and about improper “compensation and gifts” possibly offered staff. State employees are forbidden from accepting such gifts under a ban imposed by Gov. Tom Wolf. The subpoena issued to the PSERS school pension plan Friday was the first indication that investigators are looking into possible presents or money from investment advisers and consultants. The FBI and federal prosecutors launched a criminal probe of the $70 billion PSERS...

A man in Austria kept his mother's "mummified" body in the basement for more than a year after she died to continue collecting her pension and care benefits, Tyrol police said in a news release on Thursday. The unidentified 66-year-old man from Tyrol in West Austria told police that his 89-year-old mother died at home in mid-2020, per the news release. Officials said the mother was believed to have had dementia, Austrian national public service broadcaster ORF reported. The man stored his mother's body with ice packs to prevent odor and used bandages to soak up fluids, police officer Helmuth...

“The fact of the matter is that when he left the White House, Truman was loaded,” says Paul Campos, a law professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who has done what no Truman historians seem to have bothered to do — examine the financial records in the Truman archives in Independence, Mo. “He wasn’t just comfortably well off. He was Rich with a capital ‘R,’ and way into the 1%.”

A few years ago, my father passed away… He was a brilliant physician… but unlike most surgeons, he didn’t have a lucrative private practice to support him in retirement. He was a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill… a state employee. And his wife, my stepmother – whom I’ve known and loved for more than 30 years – depends on the survivorship benefits from his pension. The problem was, that pension was hanging by a thread. I’ve seen headlines for years about a “pension crisis” (as I’m sure you have too) and read occasional notes about small towns...

The New York Times reported this week that the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion “coronavirus relief” bill includes $86 billion for failing pension funds: Tucked inside the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday is an $86 billion aid package that has nothing to do with the pandemic. Rather, the $86 billion is a taxpayer bailout for about 185 union pension plans that are so close to collapse that without the rescue, more than a million retired truck drivers, retail clerks, builders and others could be forced to forgo retirement income. The bailout targets multiemployer pension plans, which bring...

Tucked inside the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill that cleared the Senate on Saturday is an $86 billion aid package that has nothing to do with the pandemic. Rather, the $86 billion is a taxpayer bailout for about 185 union pension plans that are so close to collapse that without the rescue, more than a million retired truck drivers, retail clerks, builders and others could be forced to forgo retirement income.

Two key House Democrats will roll out legislation Thursday that would revoke a lifetime pension and other taxpayer-funded perks from former presidents who are convicted of felonies during or after office. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who leads the Democrats’ campaign arm, and Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) have authored the Restoring and Enforcing Accountability of Presidents (REAP) Act. It would reform the Former Presidents Act of 1958 by stripping past presidents convicted of felony of their $219,200 annual pension, office space and a budget to pay for staff. The legislation does not impact lifetime Secret Service protection for...

The proposed legislation heads to the French Senate amid criticism that it stigmatizes Muslims PARIS—France’s National Assembly approved a bill Tuesday that aims to strengthen government oversight of mosques and religious schools and crack down on other practices—from online hate speech to forced marriage—that President Emmanuel Macron says are rooted in Islamist separatism. The proposed legislation passed the National Assembly, or lower house of Parliament, with a vote of 347-151, garnering support from lawmakers in Mr. Macron’s ranks as well as other centrist parties. It now heads to the Senate. Mr. Macron and his supporters in Parliament have framed the...

A New York City firefighter has been moonlighting as a stuntman — while also raking in a $136,684-a-year disability pension, The Post has learned. Firefighter John A. McGinty retired with the lucrative annual payout in 2016 after 25 years with the FDNY. But it turns out McGinty, 58, has been working for years as a professional movie stuntman, according to his own LinkedIn page. McGinty — who also goes by the stage name John Mack — says he is adept at fighting, driving stunts, falls below 30 feet and small fires, according to a profile on management site CMG Talent.

The future of our nation is at risk if we don't take action to reverse the damage that has been done to marriage, family, and parenting in 21st-century America. Perhaps the most important document to come out of the U.S. Senate this year was released last month, and while a report on President Donald Trump’s tax returns, another COVID-19 relief package, or infrastructure legislation likely would have gotten major media attention, this important document flew under the radar. The report, titled “The Demise of the Happy Two-Parent Home” and produced by the Social Capital Project of the Joint Economic Committee...

North Chicago, IL – Three former North Chicago police officers who retired on disability after being injured in the line of duty will possibly have their pensions revoked for failing to comply with the city’s order to return to work for the department’s 911 center. North Chicago city leaders invoked a rarely-used state law to order a total of nine retired, disabled officers back to work in May of 2019, the Chicago Tribune reported. Use of the law is so infrequent, it is unclear whether it has ever been utilized in the past.

llinois Democrats are demanding $41 billion from the federal government for coronavirus relief, including $10 billion for Illinois's cash-strapped and underfunded public pension plan. The most fiscally mismanaged state in the union, which has criminally neglected funding its public pension fund for two decades, wants Washington to pull its chestnuts out of the fire? Certainly, states should get something. But what Illinois is asking for is shocking. “I realize I’ve asked for a lot, but this is an unprecedented situation, and we face the reality that there likely will be additional, unanticipated costs that could result in future requests for...

The president of the State Senate asked for $40 billion to help the pension system, fund unemployment insurance and aid hospitals and cities. Illinois needs more than $40 billion in relief from the federal government because of the coronavirus pandemic — including $10 billion to help bail out its beleaguered pension system, according to a letter the Illinois Senate president sent to members of Congress. The letter, sent this week by State Senator Don Harmon, also seeks a $15 billion grant to “stabilize the state’s budget,” $9.6 billion in direct aid to Illinois’s cities, $6 billion for the state’s unemployment...

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Thursday said that he has written a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to voice concerns over the state's public pension fund chief and his connections with China. The Indiana congressman is calling out the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest state pension fund in the U.S., for allegedly investing in numerous select blacklisted Chinese companies that manufacture military products. The California-based fund invested $3.1 billion into 172 different Chinese companies, Banks said in an appearance on Fox Business Network. He said that some of the companies invested in have been blacklisted...

"Brown highlighted what he feels are low pensions for older retired players. For those who retired before 1993, the rate is about $2,500 a month for a player who spent seven years in the league. Brown called it “shockingly, immorally, low.”

Due to a pension sweetener available only to veteran Illinois lawmakers, Cullerton’s annual pension will soon be more than he ever made from his Statehouse salary. Illinois’ second-longest serving lawmaker announced Nov. 14 that he will retire in January 2020. But the departure of Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, highlights one example of how pension sweeteners Illinois lawmakers passed decades ago are putting taxpayers on the hook for extravagant benefits today. Cullerton is set to receive more than $2 million in state pension payments over the course of his retirement, should he live to age 85. He will take home...