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Obama reiterates call for equal pay for women

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 13 April 2014 | 00.48

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is making his case for equal pay for women — a leading election-year issue for Democrats.

Obama says in his weekly radio and Internet address that it's an embarrassment that women earn less than men even in the same professions and with the same education.

Obama issued an executive order this past week that bars federal contractors from retaliating against employees who discuss their salaries.

Such an order is considered a way for women to become better informed about their pay.

In the Republicans' weekly address, Cathy McMorris Rodgers — a congresswoman from Washington state — says the economy under Obama is hurting women.

She says Republican proposals to help small businesses and increase jobs will benefit all.

___

Online:

Obama address: http://www.whitehouse.gov

Republican address: http://www.youtube.com/user/HouseConference


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Video: Did HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius resign due to Daily Show interview?

Photo by: 

The Associated Press

President Barack Obama and his nominee to become Health and Human Services secretary, Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell, right, listen as outgoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Friday, April 11, 2014, where the president made the announcment.


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North End penthouse offers views, amenities

This loft-style penthouse duplex at the former ­Christopher Columbus high school in the North End has Venetian plaster walls and lots of custom built-ins.

The penthouse units at Columbus Court on 20 ­Tileston St. were added to the top of the school when it was converted into 33 condos in 1998, and the exterior of the brick property is nicely landscaped behind wrought-iron fences and gates. The common hallways are wide and there's a daytime concierge on duty.

The two-bedroom Penthouse 3 condo — on the market for $1,399,000 — features a sunny, oak-floored double-height living room with skylights and a gas fireplace. In one corner is a built-in wine rack with a wine cooler.

The walls of the living area and an adjacent half bathroom were redone with shimmering Venetian plaster, and the room has surround sound.

Off the living room behind a wall of windows and glass doors sits a 40-foot private balcony with new wood decking and views out over the North End.

The recessed-lit kitchen, with Uba Tuba granite counters and a rust-colored granite island, has brown cabinets, and its LG stainless-steel appliances were replaced in 2004.

The master bedroom suite is also on this level and has glass doors that open out to the balcony. The oak-floored bedroom has a wall-length built-in with drawers and bookshelves. The suite has a good-sized walk-in closet and an en-suite beige ­ceramic tile bathroom with a tall linen built-in with drawers.

There's a stacked washer/dryer in a utility closet that also has the unit's gas-fired heating and central air systems.

Stairs lead up to a loft bedroom with walk-in closet that overlooks the living room. There's a second full ceramic tile bathroom, with a rather jarring stainless- steel sink and toilet. Also on this level is a home office with a built-in desk, a skylit alcove and a full-wall built-in with bookcases and drawers.

The unit comes with one deeded garage parking space as well as a 12-foot-by-5-foot private storage room in the basement.

  • Address: Columbus Court, 20 Tileston St., Penthouse 3, North End
  • Bedrooms: Two
  • Bathrooms: Two full, one half
  • List price: $1,399,000
  • Square feet: 1,204
  • Price per square foot: $1,162
  • Monthly condo fee: $1,249
  • Annual taxes: $13,145
  • Location: Half-block from restaurants and shops along Hanover Street in North End. A half-mile to Haymarket Orange and Green Line T stations.
  • Built In: 1903; penthouse floor added during conversion to condos 1998; updated 2004, 2013
  • Broker: Jonathan Radford at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage at 617-335-1010

Pros:

  • Venetian plaster walls in double-height living room and half bath
  • Private balcony with wood deck
  • Lots of custom built-ins and surround sound
  • Large private storage room in basement

Cons:

  • Stainless-steel sink and toilet in upstairs bathroom
  • Condo fee on high side but includes one garage parking space

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Indie games can level up at PAX East

PAX East is a veritable wonderland for gaming fanatics that also gives local independent developers a chance to showcase their video games alongside industry giants.

The three-day extravaganza pulled into the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center yesterday, and some 70,000 enthusiasts, many dressed as their favorite characters, are expected to attend the only event on the East Coast that caters to the $67 billion game industry.

"This is huge for us," said Chris Venne, lead artist for Decoy Games, a three-person company in Boston.

Decoy planned to launch its Kickstarter campaign for "Swimsanity" last night to coincide with the exposure that comes from having a booth at PAX East.

"If we're going to get any kind of buzz, it's going to come from meeting face to face and getting people's hands on the game," Venne said.

Decoy is counting on the publicity to boost its crowdfunding and allow Venne and his colleagues to commit to Swimsanity full-time.

"We've worked on this part time every night for the past year and a half," he said.

Tim Loew, executive director of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute, which promotes game development in the state, said PAX East can be the big break for many small companies. The Indie Mega Booth is where small- to mid-sized independent developers gather to show off their games.

"This is really their only chance at this scale to get this experience," Loew said. "This gives developers an opportunity to take advantage of getting their game in front of everyone."

Giant Spacekat is back at PAX East showing off "Revolution 60," but it's been tweaked to reflect last year's feedback and suggestions from gamers.

"Making a personal connection with the players is very important," said Brianna Wu, head of development at Giant Spacekat. The game is "a lot better than last year."

Other companies are debuting games that they're still developing.

Dejobaan Games is showing off "Elegy for a Dead World," which involves writing a story based on apocalyptic scenery. It had only been played by a dozen people before PAX, and the company hopes more players and opinions will give it guidance.

"You don't have to ask people if they've enjoyed a game if they've spent an hour on it," said Rohit Shenoy, director of business development for Dejobaan.


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PAX East: Xbox One, Ubisoft, Riot booths stand out

Xbox One and Riot Games had the most eye-catching booths at PAX East yesterday as the gaming convention kicked into high gear.

Ubisoft was another attention grabber and I'm hoping to see more from Blizzard this weekend with the release of the new expansion Warlords of Draenor.

If you love video games, this is the place to be. The convention center in the Seaport District is crawling with gamers looking for the newest trend. I'm also loving the new card ring from CritSuccess for tabletop gaming.

Follow along on Twitter all weekend using the hash tag #PAXeast and tell us what you're seeing on the floor.

Bennett Rush is a high school freshman tweeting on the convention for the Herald.


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Oil pipe leak blamed for tainted water in China

BEIJING — An oil pipe leak caused excessive levels of the toxic chemical benzene in a major Chinese city's water supply, prompting warnings against drinking from the tap and sending residents to queue up to buy bottled water.

The scare, which has affected more than 2.4 million people in the northwestern city of Lanzhou, has once again raised concerns over safety of China's oil pipes.

Last year, a ruptured oil pipeline resulted in explosions in the eastern city of Qingdao, killing 62 people.

In Lanzhou, a crude oil pipeline run by the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. had a leak that tainted the source water feeding a local water plant, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Phone calls to the oil company's local and national offices rang unanswered on Saturday.

The city of Lanzhou said it has been monitoring levels of benzene in water pipes to ensure public safety, while local residents have been lining up to stock up on bottled water.


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High fees eroding many 401(k) retirement accounts

WASHINGTON — It's the silent enemy in our retirement accounts: High fees.

And now a new study finds that the typical 401(k) fees — adding up to a modest-sounding 1 percent a year — would erase $70,000 from an average worker's account over a four-decade career compared with lower-cost options. To compensate for the higher fees, someone would have to work an extra three years before retiring.

The study comes from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Its analysis, backed by industry and government data, suggests that U.S. workers, already struggling to save enough for retirement, are being further held back by fund costs.

"The corrosive effect of high fees in many of these retirement accounts forces many Americans to work years longer than necessary or than planned," the report, being released Friday, concludes.

Most savers have only a vague idea how much they're paying in 401(k) fees or what alternatives exist, though the information is provided in often dense and complex fund statements. High fees seldom lead to high returns. And critics say they hurt ordinary investors — much more so than, say, Wall Street's high-speed trading systems, which benefit pros and have increasingly drawn the eye of regulators.

Consider what would happen to a 25-year-old worker, earning the U.S. median income of $30,500, who puts 5 percent of his or her pay in a 401(k) account and whose employer chips in another 5 percent:

— If the plan charged 0.25 percent in annual fees, a widely available low-cost option, and the investment return averaged 6.8 percent a year, the account would equal $476,745 when the worker turned 67 (the age he or she could retire with full Social Security benefits).

— If the plan charged the typical 1 percent, the account would reach only $405,454 — a $71,000 shortfall.

— If the plan charged 1.3 percent — common for 401 (k) plans at small companies — the account would reach $380,649, a $96,000 shortfall. The worker would have to work four more years to make up the gap. (The analysis assumes the worker's pay rises 3.6 percent a year.)

The higher fees often accompany funds that try to beat market indexes by actively buying and selling securities. Index funds, which track benchmarks such as the Standard & Poor's 500, don't require active management and typically charge lower fees.

With stocks having hit record highs before being clobbered in recent days, many investors have been on edge over the market's ups and downs. But experts say timing the market is nearly impossible. By contrast, investors can increase their returns by limiting their funds' fees.

Most stock funds will match the performance of the entire market over time, so those with the lowest management costs will generate better returns, said Russel Kinnel, director of research for Morningstar.

"Fees are a crucial determinant of how well you do," Kinnel said.

The difference in costs can be dramatic.

Each fund discloses its "expense ratio." This is the cost of operating the fund as a percentage of its assets. It includes things like record-keeping and legal expenses.

For one of its stock index funds, Vanguard lists an expense ratio of 0.05 percent. State Farm lists it at 0.76 percent for a similar fund. The ratio jumps to 1.73 percent for a Nasdaq-based investment managed by ProFunds.

"ProFunds are not typical index mutual funds but are designed for tactical investors who frequently purchase and redeem shares," said ProFunds spokesman Tucker Hewes. "The higher-than-normal expense ratios of these non-typical funds reflect the additional cost and efforts necessary to manage and operate them."

Average fees also tend to vary based on the size of an employer's 401(k) plan. The total management costs for individual companies with plans with more than $1 billion in assets has averaged 0.35 percent a year, according to BrightScope, a firm that rates retirement plans. By contrast, corporate plans with less than $50 million in assets have total fees approaching 1 percent.

Higher management costs do far more to erode a typical American's long-term savings than does the high-speed trading highlighted in Michael Lewis' new book, "Flash Boys." Kinnel said computerized trades operating in milliseconds might cost a mutual fund 0.01 percent during the course of a year, a microscopic difference compared with yearly fees.

"Any effort to shine more light (on fees) and illustrating that impact is huge," Kinnel said. "Where we've fallen down most is not providing greater guidance for investors in selecting funds."

The Investment Company Institute, a trade group, said 401(k) fees for stock funds averaged 0.63 percent in 2012 (lower than the 1 percent average figure the Center for American Progress uses), down from 0.83 percent a decade earlier. The costs fell as more investors shifted into lower-cost index funds. They've also declined because funds that manage increasing sums of money have benefited from economies of scale.

"Information that helps people make decisions is useful," said Sean Collins, the institute's senior director of industry and financial analysis. "Generally, people pay attention to cost. That shows up as investors tend to choose — including in 401k funds — investments that are in lower than average cost funds."

But many savers ignore fees.

In a 2009 experiment, researchers at Yale and Harvard found that even well-educated savers "overwhelmingly fail to minimize fees. Instead, they placed heavy weight on irrelevant attributes such as funds' (historical) annualized returns."

The Labor Department announced plans last month to update a 2012 rule for companies to disclose the fees charged to their 401(k) plans. Fee disclosures resulting from the 2012 rule proved tedious and confusing, said Phyllis Borzi, assistant secretary for the Labor Department's Employee Benefits Security Administration.

"Some are filled with legalese, some have information that's split between multiple documents," Borzi said.

Americans hold $4.2 trillion in 401(k) plans, according to the Investment Company Institute. An additional $6.5 trillion is in Individual Retirement Accounts.

For years, companies have been dropping traditional pension plans, which paid a guaranteed income for life. Instead, most offer 401(k)-style plans, which require workers to choose specific funds and decide how much to contribute from their pay. Workers also bear the risk that their investments will earn too little to provide a comfortable retirement.

The shift from traditional pensions threatens the retirement security of millions of Americans. Many don't contribute enough or at all. Some drain their accounts by taking out loans and hardship withdrawals to meet costs. Sometimes their investments sour. And many pay far higher fees than they need to.

Of all those problems, fixing the fees is the easiest, Center for American Progress researchers Jennifer Erickson and David Madland say.

They are calling for a prominent label to identify how a plan's fees compare with low-cost options. That information, now found deep inside documents, shows the annual fees on investing $1,000 in a plan. Yet that figure, usually only a few dollars, doesn't reflect how the fees rise into tens of thousands of dollars as the account grows over decades. The researchers say the Labor Department could require more explicit disclosure without going through Congress.

Part of the blame goes to employers that offer workers high-fee plans.

"The good options are out there," said Alicia Munnell, director of the Boston College's Center for Retirement Research. "But when you introduce bad options into a plan, you attract people to them. There are a lot of people who think they should buy a little of everything, and that's diversification.

"I want the world to know that fees can really eat into your retirement savings."

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Contact Josh Boak on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/joshboak and Paul Wiseman at https://Twitter.com/PaulWisemanAP


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'Obamacare' under attack at conservative gathering

MANCHESTER, N.H. — President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is coming under renewed attack as some of the nation's leading conservatives gather in New Hampshire for a summit that some consider the unofficial kickoff for the state's 2016 presidential selection process.

Several potential Republican White House contenders — among them Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — headline a conference Saturday in Manchester, N.H., hosted by the conservative groups Citizens United and Americans for Prosperity.

Scheduled speakers also include real estate mogul Donald Trump, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Utah Sen. Mike Lee and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte. The gathering highlights the role of Koch Industries, the giant conglomerate headed by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

The Koch-affiliated Americans for Prosperity has already spent millions of dollars on health care-related attack ads aimed at Democratic senators in New Hampshire, North Carolina, Alaska, Colorado, Iowa and elsewhere. That's made the Koch brothers a prime target for Democratic criticism.

The summit comes as prospective presidential candidates begin to step up appearances in key states ahead of the 2016 presidential contest, even though New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary isn't planned for another two years.

"It's the unofficial kickoff of the 2016 process," said Republican operative Mike Biundo, who managed Rick Santorum's last presidential campaign.

The early speakers bashed the Democratic-backed health care overhaul, a central issue in the GOP's midterm election strategy despite reports of strong enrollment figures. Some noted this week's resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who presided over the law's implementation.

Ayotte asked, "What took so long?"

"I have heard from the people of New Hampshire, and the people of New Hampshire want us to work to repeal this law and replace it with common-sense reforms," she said.

Sebelius resigned on Friday, days after the Obama administration announced that enrollment in the Affordable Care Act had grown to 7.5 million Americans, a figure that exceeded expectations and gave Democrats a surprise success after a disastrous rollout. It was welcome news for Democrats who've been forced to defend their support for the unpopular law derided by critics as "Obamacare."

As potential presidential candidates jockey for position, the stakes are high for the November midterm elections, where Republicans are fighting to claim the Senate majority. The shift could block Obama's legislative priorities in the final two years of his presidency.

In a conference call Friday, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., insisted that "Democrats are not running away from the Affordable Care Act."

Democratic National Committee spokesman Mike Czin noted that Republican opposition to the health care law was the foundation of the GOP's unsuccessful political strategy in 2012. He said that the debate has changed now that the law has been implemented and millions of people are enjoying its benefits.

"That's a debate that we're going to have, and we're eager to have," Czin said.

At the same time, Van Hollen, who leads House Democrats' campaign efforts, called for Republicans to defend their support for a GOP budget plan introduced this week that would repeal the health care law, transform Medicare, reintroduce the "doughnut hole" for prescription drug costs and enact deep cuts in education.

"Republicans in Iowa and New Hampshire are supporting an agenda that hurts middle-class families, hurts women and will benefit billionaires like the Koch brothers," Van Hollen said.


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A guide through the complexities of 401(k) fees

Where to find the fees charged by your 401(k) retirement funds?

"Sorry to say there isn't an easy answer to where to find all expenses on retirement accounts, which is definitely part of the problem," says Jennifer Erickson, co-author of a new study of 401(k) fees by the Center for American Progress.

Your quarterly statement may not show all the fees and "can be even more confusing," Erickson says.

Most fees —more than 80 percent of them — are covered by a plan's "expense ratio." The expense ratio includes recurring fees you're charged when you invest in a fund. The ratio is disclosed in a document — form 404(a)(5) — sent annually to participants in 401(k) plans.

The expense ratio appears as a percentage of assets. It's also shown as an annual dollar amount for every $1,000 you invest. But the $1,000 figure can be misleadingly low. It doesn't illustrate how fees pile up year after year as you put more money into the plan.

For example, a 1 percent expense ratio comes out to $10 per $1,000 invested. Yet as you contribute more money and your investment grows over several decades, that 1 percent will likely add up to tens of thousands of dollars.

Among the fees some funds collect that aren't included in the expense ratio: Sales charges. These are also known as "loads" or commissions. These fees can vary from plan to plan and can be hard to find in the fund documents.

Erickson and co-author David Madland suggest asking your human resources department to help you compare fees among different plan options.

How else to minimize what you pay in 401(k) fees?

Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, suggests favoring index funds that track broad market measures, such as the Standard & Poor's 500, rather than costlier funds that actively buy and sell investments.

And McBride has another suggestion: Lobby for lower-cost options from your employer's human resources department and from the company that sponsors your employer's 401(k) plan.


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Lawmakers look to combat seafood fraud

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. — Lawmakers in state capitals and in Washington are working to see that consumers are getting what they think they are getting when buying seafood.

More than 90 percent of America's seafood is imported and mislabeling is rife.

The conservation group Oceana reported last year that 33 percent of the more than 1,200 seafood samples it purchased and tested nationwide were mislabeled. Only seven of the 120 samples of fish purported to be red snapper really were red snapper based on DNA testing.

Lawmakers in states including Maryland and South Carolina have introduced truth in labeling bills.

And the Safety and Fraud Enforcement for Seafood Act has been introduced in both chambers of Congress. It would require information, such as where and when seafood was caught, to follow seafood through final sale.


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