Michael Hiltzik Los Angeles Times December 11, 2014 View the original piece At last the actual language has been released of the backroom, last-minute congressional deal allowing benefits of millions of retired workers to be shredded. It's even worse than its critics anticipated. We've tracked this inexcusably hasty, secretive maneuvering during the last week, reporting that it allows extreme, potentially premature cuts in benefits for retirees who are members of multi-employer pension plans. Such plans...

Matthew Cunningham-Cook International Business Times December 11, 2014 View the original piece Six years after the financial crisis, the economic aftershocks are still rattling the halls of Congress -- this time in a debate over an esoteric pension provision tucked into an end-of-year budget bill. Though that legislation, known as the “cromnibus,” is supposed to be about annual appropriations for government agencies, lawmakers have inserted language that would give private pension plans the power to...

Eugene Mulero Transport Topics December 10, 2014 View the original piece A provision that would suspend parts of an hours of service rule has been included in a $1 trillion bill congressional lawmakers plan to advance to President Obama’s desk this month to keep federal agencies funded through fiscal 2015. The provision, offered by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), would suspend for a year a requirement that drivers take off two consecutive periods of 1 a.m....