Archives for June 2021

No shirts, pants or undies needed on bike ride, just a mask

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia bike riders won’t need their shirts, pants, skirts or even underwear — just a mask.

Organizers of the annual Philly Naked Bike Ride say this year’s event will take place Aug. 28 and will require masks, based on the city’s earlier coronavirus restrictions.

The city lifted most of its COVID-19 rules this week, citing an increase in vaccinations and a decrease in cases. But ride organizers said they hadn’t had a chance to chat since the city’s guidelines changed so for the time being, they’re “going to stick with our initial mask guidance.” Lead organizer Wesley Noonan-Sessa said they’ll keep an eye on what the city says in the next month or so.

Ride participants, sometimes in the thousands, usually gather in a park to strip off their clothes and paint each other’s bodies before carefully hopping on their bikes. The naked ride is to promote positive body image, advocate for the safety of cyclists and protest dependence on fossil fuels.

Riders pedal a 10-mile (16-kilometer) course while taking in sights including Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s steps, featured in the “Rocky” movies.

The coronavirus pandemic slammed the brakes on the ride that had been planned for last year. Organizers said then that canceling the 2020 event was “the most responsible thing to do.”

Worried about saving enough for retirement? You’re not alone!

Are you saving enough for retirement? Maybe the question nags at you; maybe you wish you thought about it more.

Maybe you have it all figured it out, and planning for retirement is a breeze.

Data tells us it’s a real mixed bag when it comes to how federal employees are feeling about their financial readiness ahead of retirement.

About 60% of Thrift Savings Plan participants are confident they’re saving or have saved enough to live comfortably in retirement, according to a recent Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board survey.

That’s slightly worse than the 69% of American workers who said they were confident about their retirement savings in a 2020 survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

No surprise, feds who are later in their careers or who have stopped working altogether feel more confident about where they are than their younger colleagues.

About 59% of actively working feds are comfortable with their retirement savings, compared to 76% of former feds actually living through retirement, according to the TSP.

But just under half of TSP participants, about 48%, say they have an idea how much they’ll need to live comfortably in retirement, with one-third of current retirees and 40% of late-career feds without a clear sense of what they’ll need to live on after they stop working.

According to the TSP, most feds are more likely to think about their savings in terms of a monthly income they believe they’ll need in retirement, while younger employees more often think about a total dollar amount.

The FRTIB conducted this survey last fall, after much of the stock market volatility subsided and living through the pandemic became the new normal. The agency only surveyed its participants in the Federal Employees Retirement System; military members in the blended retirement system did not answer these questions.

What’s keeping feds up at night as they think about planning and saving for retirement? Most active and retired employees are worried they simply haven’t saved enough, or they’re concerned they’ll outlive their retirement savings.

Some said they see their debt or living expenses as a top reason for worrying about their financial readiness in retirement.

TSP participants said their mortgage or rent expenses, personal debt and student loans were all top reasons why they weren’t saving as much as they would like for retirement.

Beyond the TSP and Social Security, no surprise, most feds envision their their FERS annuity and pension as a key source of income in retirement, but 48% have private savings and investments and 35% have stock holdings and retirement investments from another employer.

A clear majority, or 87% of feds, say they plan or already have sources of retirement income other than their government benefits.

When it comes to how feds plan for retirement, 33% say they’re on their own, but 33% say they attend TSP webinars or informational sessions hosted by their agencies.

Another 32% said they go to their friends or colleagues for retirement planning advice, while 27% consult a professional financial planner or adviser, according to the TSP.

And in the event of an unexpected emergency, 81% of feds say they have funds set aside to pick up all or some of the costs.

Half of TSP participants say they have enough savings to handle an unexpected one time expense of $5,000 or more, without taking out a loan, using a credit card or otherwise borrowing to pay for it.

Those with an emergency fund are twice as likely to be at least somewhat confident in their retirement savings, according to the TSP.

Here’s the good news: A majority of feds in the event of — let’s face it — another government shutdown, pandemic or some other unexpected event, have some savings set aside to at least partially handle the fallout.

But put another way, nearly one in five federal employees do not.

Overall, 55% of surveyed TSP participants say they’re satisfied with their financial wellbeing at this point in their careers. That’s better than the private sector, where 43% of U.S. workers are satisfied with their finances, according to the 2020 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey from Willis Towers Watson.

Again, late career employees and separated or retired feds are more satisfied with their finances compared to their younger colleagues.

Interestingly enough, feds are more satisfied with their overall financial wellness than they are with their confidence in planning for retirement.

Now that you have a glimpse of how your peers are feeling, how do you stack up?

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Alazar Moges

Tennessee and Missouri border the most other states at eight. Missouri borders Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas. While Tennessee borders Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama.

Source: World Atlas

Cruise ships restart in Venice, bring environmental protests

VENICE, Italy (AP) — The first cruise ship since the pandemic wended its way Saturday through the heart of Venice, escorted by triumphant water-spouting tugboats and elated port workers as it traveled down the Giudecca Canal but also protested by hundreds on land and a small armada of wooden boats waving “No Big Boats” flags.

The battle for Venice’s future was stark as the MSC Orchestra set sail with some 1,000 passengers. The voyage heralded the return of cruise ships to the Italian city after more than 18 months, but the vessel reignited an anti-cruise movement that for more than a decade has opposed the passage of the enormous ships through the fragile lagoon city due to environmental and safety concerns.

Italian Premier Mario Draghi’s government pledged this spring to get cruise ships out of the Venice lagoon, but reaching that goal will take time. Even an interim solution rerouting ships away from the Giudecca Canal is not likely before next year. Ridding the lagoon of the ships, which run more than 250 meters (yards) in length and weigh over 90,000 tons, could take years.

Venice has become one of the world’s most important cruise destinations over the last two decades, and in 2019 served as a lucrative turnaround point for 667 cruise ships carrying nearly 700,000 passengers, according to the association Cruise Lines International (CLIA).

Passengers arriving Saturday for the week-long cruise aboard the 92,409-ton, 16-deck MSC Orchestra, with stops in southern Italy, two Greek islands and Dubrovnik, Croatia, were greeted at the port with signs reading “Welcome Back Cruises.”

Antonella Frigo from nearby Vicenza had her departure date delayed multiple times due to the pandemic and was excited to finally be leaving on vacation. But she also sympathized with activists who want the huge ships moved out of the center of Venice.

“I have always said that they should be moved, but I’m sorry, I need to depart from Venice, since I am from nearby,’’ Frigo said after a companion had dropper her off at the cruise terminal. “But I hope they can be rerouted. I ask myself, ‘Is it not possible to come up with another solution, so they don’t pass where they shouldn’t?”

The message for passengers taking in Venice from the ship’s decks was mixed as the ship navigated the Giudecca Canal. Hundreds of Venetians gathered at a noisy canal-side protest to demand an immediate halt to cruise ships moving through the lagoon, citing a series of past decrees they say were never enforced.

The MSC Orchestra responded with noisy blasts of its horn, while two dozen boats filled with port employees and VIPs motored alongside, celebrating the renewal of cruises and the return to work for hundreds of port workers. According to the Venice Works Committee, more than 1,700 workers deal directly with cruise ships, from tug boat drivers to baggage carriers, while another 4,000 jobs depend on cruise traffic.

The long battle over cruise ships in Venice ramped up after the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank off Tuscany in 2012, killing 32 passengers and crew members. And it sharpened after another ship, the MSC Opera, struck a dock and a tourist boat, injuring five people, while maneuvering through the Giudecca Canal two years ago this week.

In all those years, no viable alternative has ever gotten off the drawing board.

The Venice Environmental Association, one of the groups against the ships, is demanding that Venice cultural and port officials immediately ban ships from the lagoon and threatening criminal proceedings if there is no action within 15 days.

“It is a great provocation that a ship has passed,’’ Andreina Zitelli, an environmental expert and member of the association, said. “You cannot compare the defense of the city with the defense of jobs in the interest of big cruise companies.”

The cruise industry’s trade association said it supports moving bigger ships to other areas to avoid traversing the Giudecca Canal but maintains that cruise ships still need access to Venice’s lagoon.

“We don’t want to be a corporate villain,’’ said Francesco Galietti of Cruise Lines International Italy. “We don’t feel we should be treated as such. We feel we are good to the communities.”

Galietti said cruise ships account for only a small percentage of the tourism to Venice, somewhere around 5%, and that many passengers stay in the city before or after their cruises, contributing an average of $200 a day to the tourism-dependent economy.

Prior to the pandemic, Venice struggled with over-tourism, receiving 25 million visitors a year. It was about to impose a tax on day-trippers before the pandemic struck, bringing tourism to an abrupt halt.

In Rome, the Italian government said it is organizing bids for a viable alternative outside the lagoon, and the request for proposals should be posted any day now. Still, even an interim alternative route to the Giudecca Canal – moving larger ships to an industrial port west of Venice – won’t be ready until next year, Italy’s Ministry for Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility told The Associated Press.

Preparing the port of Marghera, which is still within the lagoon, requires lengthening existing piers to accommodate larger vessels as well as dredging a canal on the approach, cruise industry officials say. Under current plans, ships over 250 meters, representing about 70% of cruise traffic, would be rerouted.

While some cruise companies have experimented with Trieste to the west or Ravenna to the south as drop-off points for those visiting Venice during the pandemic, industry officials say the lagoon city with 1,600 years of history remains a key port of call for cruises in the Adriatic Sea and eastern Mediterranean.

But environmentalists say the cruise industry must change.

“Venice is at water level. There are days when Venice is below water level,” said Jane Da Mosto, executive director of We Are Here Venice who was also representing the Global Cruise Activist Network. “We need ships that use renewable energy. We need ships that don’t bring thousands of people into our narrow alleyways at one time. We need visitors that are interested in learning about Venice.’’

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A previous version corrected the last name of CLIA trade association official from Gallieti to Galietti.

Biden turns to Obama to help boost health care enrollment

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden turned to his old boss, former President Barack Obama, on Saturday to help him encourage Americans to sign up for “Obamacare” health care coverage during an expanded special enrollment period in the pandemic.

Biden used his weekly address for a brief Zoom chat with Obama to draw attention to the six-month expanded enrollment period that closes Aug. 15. Meanwhile the government released a report that claims that nearly 31 million Americans — a record — now have health coverage through the Affordable Care Act.

“We did this together,” said Obama, whose administration established the health insurance marketplace. “We always talked about how, if we could get the principle of universal coverage established, we could then build on it.”

The White House effort to spotlight the expanded enrollment and claim strong numbers for the health law comes as the political world and the health care system await a Supreme Court ruling on the law’s constitutionality. The Zoom call was recorded on Friday afternoon and released Saturday as Biden’s weekly address.

The Health and Human Services Department said in a report that nearly 31 million have obtained coverage in 2021 as a result of the law. That’s considerably higher than the more than 20 million estimate that’s commonly cited.

The Biden administration has launched a special sign-up period during the pandemic, and Congress passed a big boost in subsidies for private health plans sold under the law. But that alone doesn’t explain the increased coverage.

The report says 11.3 million people are covered through the health law’s marketplaces, where subsidized private plans are offered. An additional 14.8 million are covered through expanded Medicaid, the report adds. All but a dozen states have accepted the law’s Medicaid expansion, which mainly serves low-income working adults. And 1 million are covered by so-called basic health plans, an option created by the law and offered in a limited number of states.

That accounts for enrollment of about 27 million people. But the Biden administration is also claiming credit for four million people who would have been eligible for Medicaid without Obama’s law.

Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said the law broke down barriers to enrollment among those who were already eligible by simplifying applications and increasing awareness. He also pointed to the establishment of community-based navigators tasked with helping newly eligible people find coverage and conducting outreach to those who were already eligible but didn’t necessarily know it.

“It didn’t require a sweeping law like the ACA to get people who were already eligible for Medicaid enrolled, but the provisions of the ACA did help to get these millions of people covered,” Levitt said

The Supreme Court is soon expected to rule on a challenge to the health law from Texas and other GOP-led states. They argue that because Congress has eliminated the law’s penalty for being uninsured, a now-toothless ACA requirement that almost all Americans must have health insurance is unconstitutional and therefore the law should fail.

Those defending the law say that even if the Supreme Court strikes down the coverage requirement there’s no reason to tamper with the rest of the law.

The White House says 1.2 million people have now signed up for health insurance through the government marketplace during the special enrollment period that began in February. That number includes people who would have qualified for a sign-up opportunity even without Biden’s special enrollment period.

A life change such as losing workplace coverage or getting married is considered a “qualifying life event” that allows people to sign up any time during the year. Last year about 390,000 people signed up because of life changes from Feb. 15 to April 30, the government said.

Biden, in the conversation with Obama, spoke about the 2015 death of his son Beau Biden from cancer.

“I literally remember sitting on the bed with him within a week or so him passing away,” Biden said, “and thinking, what in God’s name would I do if I got a notice from the insurance company saying you’ve outlived your coverage?”

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This story has been corrected to reflect that the name of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s vice president is Larry Levitt, not Leavitt.

Springboks recall Steyn for Lions, keep bulk of WC winners

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Morne Steyn may get a second chance to break the hearts of the British and Irish Lions.

South Africa recalled the 36-year-old flyhalf on Saturday to a 46-man initial squad for the Lions series, 12 years after his last-gasp penalty won an epic 2009 contest between the teams.

Steyn hasn’t played a test in five years but has been “the most consistent” No. 10 in South African domestic rugby this year, Springboks coach Jacques Nienaber said at the squad announcement.

Handre Pollard is still South Africa’s first-choice flyhalf but Steyn has been pushing hard after returning to domestic rugby following a spell in France.

Crucially for the Springboks, they also have 14 of the 15 men who started and won the Rugby World Cup final against England in November 2019 back in their squad. Only prop Tendai Mtawarira, who has retired, is missing. All but three of the entire 2019 World Cup squad return to duty.

Incredibly, that World Cup final in Tokyo was South Africa’s last test as the coronavirus pandemic and a long and strict lockdown ruined their schedule last year.

“We’ve been really hungry to play,” said director of rugby Rassie Erasmus, who has moved upstairs after coaching the Boks to World Cup glory two years ago.

Nienaber, Erasmus’ assistant at the World Cup, was named head coach in January 2020 but hasn’t yet led the team in a test. This was his first squad after more than a year in the job, although he knows most of the players well having been part of the coaching staff since 2018.

“If you look at the squad, there is a lot of experience there,” Nienaber said.

There was one serious doubt for the Boks, however, after experienced No. 8 Duane Vermeulen, man of the match in the World Cup final, injured his left ankle playing in the Pro14 Rainbow Cup on Friday night. Erasmus said Vermeulen, who was named in the squad, needs a scan.

“Duane is a big worry for us,” Erasmus said. “It looked bad.”

Erasmus said World Cup-winning locks Lood de Jager and RG Snyman should recover from injuries in time for the Lions series.

While the Springboks will rely on the core of their World Cup-winning group, there were eight uncapped players in the squad, which will also provide the players for the South Africa A vs. Lions tour game.

Those uncapped players included hooker Joseph Dweba, lock Nicolaas Janse van Rensburg and loose forward Jasper Wiese, who all play for European clubs and are relatively unknown. The most exciting newcomer might be fullback Aphelele Fassi, who is highly-rated.

Nienaber and Erasmus, who work as a team on selection, also added twin brothers Jean-Luc and Dan du Preez of Sale Sharks to further beef up an already hefty forward pack.

Morne Steyn is one of two survivors of the 2009 Lions series in the squad. The other, utility back Frans Steyn, continues an international career that began with a 2006 debut for the Boks at the age of 19.

The Springboks and Lions will play three tests, one in Cape Town and two in Johannesburg, in July and August. The Lions will also play five games against South African domestic teams before the tests.

The tour is almost certain to be played without any fans and sadly robbed of a central part of its tradition because of the virus, unless the government has a late change of heart and eases a ban on spectators at major sports events.

South Africa will warm up with two home tests against Georgia on July 2 and July 9 before the first test against the Lions on July 24.

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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Archives for June 2021

Nearly Useless Factoid

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