Tennessee State Senator Bill Powers Passes on Bid for TN-07 U.S. House Seat

Bill Powers

Tennessee State Senator Bill Powers (R-Clarksville) has announced he has “no plans” to run for Congress in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District amid the announcement of incumbent U.S. Representative Mark Green’s (R-TN-07) retirement.

“For me, family is more important than any congressional title in Washington DC. I’m honored to be your state senator and have no plans to run for congress,” Powers wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.

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Dr. Omar Hamada Will Decide on Possible Bid for TN-07 U.S. House Seat ‘Sooner than Later’

Omar Hamada

Former chair of the Williamson County Republican Party, Dr. Omar Hamada, said he plans to decide on launching a bid for Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District “sooner than later” following incumbent U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) announcing his retirement.

Hamada, who said he spoke with  Green shortly after he announced his retirement, explained how he feels he is being “thrust” into the race in a way, adding, “I feel like the Lord is leading me in that direction.”

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Tennessee GOP Chairman Scott Golden Assesses 7th Congressional District Race amid U.S. Rep. Mark Green’s Retirement

Scott Golden

Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden said he was surprised when Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced his retirement from Congress.

Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, announced his retirement on Wednesday, just one day after leading the House in a historic vote to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

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Tennessee U.S. Rep. Mark Green Announces Retirement from Congress

Mark Green Retiring

U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) announced his retirement from Congress on Wednesday, just one day after leading the House in a historic vote to impeach Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Green, who served as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he is “ready to return home” after delivering on his promise to “pass legislation to secure our borders and to hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable” by leading the passage of H.R. 2 and two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.

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Border Patrol Facing Loss of Agents from Retirement, Flat Recruitment as Border Crisis Intensifies

CBP Agent

The nearly 10,000 border patrol agents eligible for retirement by 2028 and static recruitment numbers threaten to undermine future efforts to secure the Southern border, even as the current immigration crisis escalates.

By 2028, a total of 9,828 current border patrol agents will be eligible for retirement, according to numbers provided to Transport Dive by a Customs and Border Protection official. The agency, which has been plagued by a recruitment shortfalls for years, says it is preparing to deal with the fallout if even a fraction of the eligible agents retire on schedule.

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Study: More Americans over the Age of 65 are Heading Back to Work

Old People Working

A new study released on Thursday by the Pew Research Center reveals that a rising number of Americans over the age of 65, the normal age for retirement, are heading back to work to earn higher wages.

According to Axios, the number of older Americans returning to the workforce has been consistently rising since the late 1980s, with one major decline during the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic. Some of the reasons for this increasing return to work include changes in Social Security law forcing older Americans to keep working even past 65 in order to receive their full benefits; additionally, there has been a shift away from pension plans that normally would force most Americans to retire by a certain age, in favor of 401(k) plans that allow for ongoing workforce participation.

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Commentary: Our Republic Endures Only When Political Enemies Can Retire in Peace

Sometime during the latter part of the 18th century politics took an unprecedented turn in the English-speaking world: it ceased to be dangerous. Although little appreciated by scholars for its historical consequence, perhaps because it consisted of non-consequences, things that didn’t happen, it was essential to the development of modern democracy. Up to that point, in just about every time and place, politicians who lost high office, or failed in grasping at it, faced the possibility of imprisonment, confiscation, exile or death. Now in Britain and America, then increasingly elsewhere in Europe, and eventually in places even further afield, loss of office, while not pleasant, was no longer lethal.

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Iowa Congressman Zach Nunn Introduces Bill Aimed at Protecting Retirement Investments from Woke Politics

Amid rising concerns about the liberal political agenda driving environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment decisions at the expense of retirement income, U.S. Representative Zach Nunn (R-IA-03) has introduced the “Protecting Retirees’ Savings Act.”

The bill, according to proponents, will help eliminate conflicts of interest for financial managers that cost investors by lowering investment returns.

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Long-Serving Wisconsin Secretary of State La Follette About to Cash in on Lucrative Taxpayer-Subsidized Pension

Secretary of State Doug La Follette’s sudden retirement from the post he’s held for nearly half a century raised questions, particularly when Governor Tony Evers swiftly appointed former state treasurer and Democratic Party political climber Sarah Godlewski to take La Follette’s place. 

But it’s the millions of dollars La Follette — and his survivors — could take home in retirement benefits that may really raise eyebrows. 

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Public School Workers Say ‘Dignified’ Retirement Now Out of Reach in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania educators say the “dignified” retirement promised to them decades ago no longer exists thanks to record inflation and benefits “frozen” in time for the last 20 years.

Thomas Curry, a former art teacher who worked for the Punxsutawney Area School District for 40 years, said he’s watched his pension benefits cover less and less since he retired in 1999. He no longer buys Girl Scout cookies or supports charitable organizations in the neighborhood and his family clips coupons to afford groceries.

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Arizona Department of Public Safety Director Announces Retirement After Not Being Retained by Hobbs Administration

Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) Director Colonel Heston Silbert announced Tuesday that he would retire from his position effective Friday.

“I am announcing my retirement from the Department of Public Safety effective Friday, January 6, 2023. It has been an honor of a lifetime to have served the men and women of the Department of Public Safety, and the citizens of this great state. As Director I observed firsthand the selflessness, dedication, and bravery of our Arizona State Troopers and professional staff,” Silbert said. “I would like to thank Governor Ducey for his support and faith in me.”

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Cincinnati Ranked in the Top Five Places to Retire in the United States: Report

One Ohio city ranks in the top five of best places to retire in the nation, and four others rank among the best of the nation’s largest cities, according to a new report from WalletHub, a personal finance website.

Cincinnati ranked third – behind only Charleston, South Carolina and Orlando – in the report that compared the retiree-friendliness of more than 180 cities using 46 metrics, such as cost of living to retired taxpayers to the state’s health infrastructure.

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House Republicans Vow to Investigate Anthony Fauci After Resignation

On Monday, Republican members of the powerful House Oversight Committee announced their intentions to pursue investigations of Dr. Anthony Fauci when they reclaim the majority, even after Fauci announced his plans to step down in December.

As reported by The Daily Caller, Fauci will be leaving his positions at the White House, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in December, after spending 38 years in government. The 81-year-old Fauci said that he will remain active in public health to some degree, and that after leaving government he will enter the “next chapter” of his career.

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Justice Breyer to Retire From Supreme Court: Report

Justice Stephen Breyer

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will step down from his post at the end of the court’s current term, according to a report from NBC News.

Breyer is one of the three remaining Democrat-appointed justices on the high court. Should he retire, it will present President Biden with an opportunity to appoint a liberal-leaning justice who could sit on the court for many years to come, and for the moment, preserve the 6-3 split between conservative-leaning and liberal-leaning justices.

Breyer, who is 83, is the oldest member of the court. He had faced consistent pressure from liberal groups to retire, especially following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose passing allowed then-President Donald Trump to appoint Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

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Jackson, Tennessee Ranked as One of the Top U.S. Cities for Retirement

two people sitting next to a lake

AARP, the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization for Americans 50 and older, has ranked Jackson, Tennessee as one of the best places to live and retire in the country.

Jackson, located in Madison County, has a population of 68,205. According to AARP, Jackson made the list of best places to live and retire due to it’s “affordable and accepting” vibe. The organization also cites median home costs of $1,071 per month and the median home cost burden of 29.5% of income spent on housing. The city is also great for those who enjoy an outdoor lifestyle, with 74% of the population living near parks and recreational facilities.

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‘Effectively Overcharges Seniors’: AARP Rakes in Record Profits Selling Brand Royalties While Overcharging Members

old man and woman walking outside together

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) raked in massive profits in 2020, mostly from royalties on branded health insurance policies, not memberships, according to company financial documents.

AARP’s 2020 Form 990 shows that the organization reported $1.6 billion in revenue, with roughly $1 billion, or over 60%, from royalty revenue. Meanwhile, membership dues contributed under 20% of total revenue.

AARP’s 2019 Form 990 reported $1.72 billion in revenue, with royalties making up nearly 56% of revenue while membership dues contributed just 17%.

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Patrick Leahy, Vermont Senator Since 1975, Announces Retirement

Patrick Leahy

Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy announced his retirement Monday morning in his home state.

Leahy, 81, was first elected in 1975 and is in his eighth term. He is the president pro tempore of the Senate, making him third in the line of presidential succession after Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and he is the chamber’s longest-serving member.

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Wisconsin Democrats Renew Efforts to Rollback Act 10

Chris Larson

Ten years after Act 10 became law and changed what Wisconsin school teachers can include in their school contracts, Democratic lawmakers in the state continue to try and roll it back.

Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, and a handful of Democrats this week introduce what they are calling the Collective Bargaining for Public Education Act.

“Wisconsin’s public education sector has a unique and critical role to play in our state. To ensure the effectiveness of these institutions, we rely on highly qualified individuals and their talents to move our state forward,” Larson said in a statement. “The legislation we have introduced establishes the right of employees of school districts, CESAs, technical college districts, and the UW System to collectively bargain over wages, hours, and conditions of employment.”

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Tennessee’s Pension System Has the Third Smallest Funding Gap in the Nation

In much of the country, public pension funding has been one of the most persistent public policy problems. For years, many state governments have failed to make necessary investments in their retirement system, resulting in funding gaps that increasingly present a looming reckoning for taxpayers.

According to a recent report published by The Pew Charitable Trusts, a public policy think tank, many states are now taking earnest measures to reduce their pension funding gap. These measures include increased contributions, cost reduction strategies, and more sophisticated pension management tools. States have also benefited from once-in-a-generation investment returns following the COVID-19 market crash in March 2020.

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Fed Up with COVID: 44 Percent Increase in Michigan Teacher Retirements

teacher in the classroom

Michigan has seen a huge spike in teacher retirements during the past year, with many of those teachers citing COVID-19 restrictions as the reason for calling it quits. 

“From August through February, there was a 44 percent increase in midyear retirements compared with the same period in 2019-2020 as 749 teachers left public school classrooms in the middle of the school year, state data show,” Crain’s Business Detroit reported. 

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Almost 100,000 Coal Miners at Risk of Losing All or Part of Pension by 2022

  More than 85,000 coal miner retirees and 20,000 working miners are at risk of losing all or part of their pension by 2022 if more coal companies declare bankruptcy. Within the next four years, a handful of major coal-fired power plants in the Ohio Valley are expected to shut down. The Conesville coal generation facility in Ohio, and the Elmer Smith Plant and EW Brown Plant in Kentucky are both expected to close in 2020. In 2021, the Bruce Mansfield plant in Pennsylvania will close as well as the W.H. Sammis Power Plant in Ohio in 2022. The Pleasants Power Station in West Virginia, originally expected to close this year, will remain open until 2022, according to FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young. “In April 2018, FirstEnergy announced that it had reached an agreement in principle to transfer ownership of Pleasants Power Station to creditors in the bankruptcy of [First Energy Solutions] and its subsidiaries, and [FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company],” Young said. “The agreement was approved by the bankruptcy court in late September. The settlement agreement was intended to fully release FirstEnergy and related parties from all claims.” The fate of coal miners’ pensions have been in the balance since the…

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