"Mélancolie" Created by Albert György

“Albert György was born in 1949 in Lueta, Romania (Transylvania, a region with a Hungarian minority). The sculptor's career is marked by a double human and artistic adventure, which has always been a sort of tension between contrary aspirations...

“He creates his own foundry to obtain the best bronze quality. But despite his travels abroad for his exhibitions in Warsaw, Berlin, ex-Yugoslavia, Chile, he lives in isolation [and] sadness [when his first wife died]…

“Albert György's work illustrates the tension between character and emotion. Nothing is acquired; nothing comes automatically. Creation is a struggle, both material and spiritual. If today his works reflect a new impetus, they remain marked by a pathetic temperament, [and] by a fiery sensitivity…

“In its complexity and diversity, the visionary art of Albert György testifies to a personal dialectic between suffering and happiness: nothing decorative or talkative in this game of creative tension leading to a living alloy imbued with the purest necessity” (Albert György Biography).

A Rather Short Conversation with a Trumpite on Facebook Today

...Jerry: So all you have to do is make an unsubstantiated claim that the president is a criminal and pursue him with a baseless FBI investigation that can’t produce evidence to prevent him from picking a Supreme Court nominee? What’s to stop politicians that don’t like the next president from doing the same thing they are doing to Trump?

Glen: Well Jerry, read through these 94 articles and watch a few videos before we have a discussion. Trump’s character, the people who surround him, and the investigation are well substantiated: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/.../dru...

TEACHERPOETMUSICIANGLENBROWN.BLOGSPOT.COM

Jerry: No, How about I avoid the 94 articles of stupidity that got you to here and just stick with my own critical thinking skills?

Jerry: Remember critical thinking skills? The thing most every educated person relied upon to decide for themselves what is and what isn’t relevant inside of a normal news cycle? Granted there’s nothing normal about reading 94 articles to get at one simple political solution to use when considering the nomination of a Supreme Court Justice.

Glen: https://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.com/.../how...Manage

TEACHERPOETMUSICIANGLENBROWN.BLOGSPOT.COM

“How exactly are Trump loyalists psychologically or neurologically different from everyone else? What is going on in their brains that makes them so blindly devoted?”—Bobby Azarian

Jerry: I take it you left out this article. Didn’t you mean “Read through these 95 articles?” You said there were only 94.

Glen: It is part of the 94.

Jerry: No contradictions in any of them right? Not one of them pointing the finger at the other for spreading “fake news,” right?  Before the internet and social media if you didn’t agree with the contents of a given article you formed an opinion based your own personal critical thought, not 94 articles that were written to convince you that you aren’t sufficiently informed until you “click on me.” It’s a news funnel that you are trapped inside of where you’re just a receptor that regurgitates filtered sewage designed to misinform. Again, I don’t like Trump. I just don’t let my dislike for him rob me of my critical thinking skills to the extent that I feel compelled to foist 94 articles designed to “prove my point” onto my Facebook friends.

Glen: This is the type of “critical thinking” I use before making my inferences: How do we know matters of fact? What is the distinction between relationships among assumptions and matters of fact? For instance, how often do we attempt to explain the occurrence of an event by reference to antecedents which rendered its occurrence probable (as in the fallacy of “Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc”)? How often do we mistake correlation for cause (as in the fallacy of “Cum Hoc Propter Hoc”)? How often do we reduce a complex causal inquiry to simplicity and confuse the necessary cause with the sufficient cause (as in the fallacy of “Reductive Fallacy”)? Most people “Beg the Question” (or assume as true what has yet to be proved empirically). Thus, their belief is used both as a premise and as the conclusion of their argument. Most people use the fallacy of "Wishful Thinking" (it must be true because we want it to be true) to rationalize their beliefs and oversimplify cause-and-effect relationships to establish their proof of argument. In other words, people support their conclusions by choosing evidence or instances which back them up and disregard evidence that does not support their belief. I do not obtain my information from “fake news.” As a matter of fact, I watch “Fox News” (and other news outlets) in addition to researching and reading books before formulating my opinions.

Jerry: Go fuck yourself Glen. Now check that against your stupid fuckin research to see if it makes perfect sense to follow through on my advice.

Glen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y6Es3lL8tsManage

YOUTUBE.COM Does this mean we aren't friends anymore?

Glen: It is anatomically impossible to do what you told me to do, Jerry. Take my advice on this one too...

Rhino Poachers Were Eaten by a Pride of Lions after Breaking into a Wildlife Reserve In South Africa by Ishmael N. Daro

“A wildlife reserve in South Africa says that a group of rhino poachers got eaten by a pride of lions after the poachers broke into the park earlier this week.

“Nick Fox, the owner of the Sibuya Game Reserve, told BuzzFeed News that a staff member spotted human remains near a pride of six lions on Tuesday. The following morning, the veterinarian used a dart gun to tranquilize the big cats, giving a police forensic unit and the reserve's anti-poaching unit time to investigate. ‘That's when they found the axe, various pieces of clothing, shoes,’ Fox said. ‘Everything was very spread out.’

“Fox said he's not sure how many of the suspected poachers were eaten, but the crew must have included at least three people since that's how many pairs of shoes and gloves were found. He said the poachers had come equipped with a high-powered rifle with a silencer, wire cutters, an axe for cutting out the rhino horns, and enough food to last several days.

“A police spokesperson told the Herald that a forensic team will examine the human remains recovered on the scene. The rifle will be tested by a ballistics lab to see if it has been used in other crimes.

“This is not the first time poachers have targeted the Sibuya Game Reserve. In early 2016, three of the park's rhinos were killed for their horns. Fox said that the loss was devastating, especially as one of the animals had been ‘hand-reared’ by staff.

“It is estimated that there are fewer than 30,000 rhinos in the world, and South Africa is home to more than 80% of the remaining population. Poaching is continually shrinking that number, however, as more than 1,000 rhinos were killed in South Africa in 2017, according to National Geographic.

“‘It’s a massive problem. Rhino horn has now become more valuable than gold per gram,’ Fox said. ‘I just thank my lions,’ he added. ‘They saved our rhinos from another onslaught’” (Buzzfeed). 

“The evidence we already have suggests that Donald Trump is a traitor”-Pulitzer-winning reporter David Cay Johnston

“The saga of President Donald Trump consists of several parallel and intersecting stories. There is the structural dimension. Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton was not entirely unpredictable or shocking. America's crisis in civic literacy, political polarization, rampant anti-intellectualism, deeply embedded sexism and racism, greed, broken schools and weakened democratic institutions, as well as a hollowed-out public sphere where people confuse celebrity with human worth, made the election of someone like Trump nearly inevitable.

“There is Donald Trump the man, who seems to revel in the very worst human values. His closest family members -- including his father and grandfather -- taught him the ‘value’ of unrepentant greed and ambition. He also displays the symptoms of malignant narcissism, as well as sociopathy. In all, Trump is a master of manipulation who leads a political cult.

“How do these factors combine to form Donald Trump's presidency and the type of society that he and the Republican Party want to create? Are matters actually worse than they appear, in terms of how we assess the political and social crisis of Trump's presidency? What strategy should Democrats use to stop Trump and the Republican Party? If Trump is removed from office because of his increasingly obvious efforts to obstruct justice, how will his public respond? Will there be violence?

“In an effort to answer these questions, I recently spoke with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston. For 30 years, Johnston has covered Trump's life and career, as detailed in the bestselling book ‘The Making of Donald Trump.’ His new book is ‘It's Even Worse than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America.’

“…You have studied and written about Donald Trump for three decades. What does the public need to know about his background, to understand his behavior as president?   

“Here are the key things people should know about Donald Trump. He comes from a family of criminals: His grandfather made his fortune running whorehouses in Seattle and in the Yukon Territory. His father, Fred, had a business partner named Willie Tomasello, who was an associate of the Gambino crime family. Trump's father was also investigated by the U.S. Senate for ripping off the government for what would be the equivalent of $36 million in today's money. Donald got his showmanship from his dad, as well as his comfort with organized criminals.

“I think it is very important for religious Americans to know that Donald Trump says that his personal philosophy of life is revenge. He has called anyone who turns the other cheek -- which is a fundamental teaching of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount -- a fool, an idiot or a schmuck. Trump is a man who says things that are absolutely contrary to the teachings of the New Testament. He also denigrates Christians. Yet you see all of these ministers endorsing him.

“I've followed Donald for 30 years. I don't see any evidence that he has changed, and he certainly hasn't repented, which is a fundamental Christian obligation. He is a racist through and through. He has been found in formal judicial proceedings to discriminate against nonwhites in rentals and employment. It's important to understand that Trump is aggressively anti-Christian, despite claiming to be one. He is bluntly a racist. Most importantly, he is literally ignorant about almost everything.

“Trump's voters will not abandon him under any circumstances. He leads the Republican Party and thus has its news media and other resources at his disposal. Some folks believe that there will be a ‘blue wave’ of Democratic votes that will wash him and the Republican Party out to sea in 2018 and 2020. I don't see that happening. I think Trump wins in 2020. Am I being too cynical?

“Well, he may win again in 2020. The November elections are the most important American elections since the Civil War, and I'm including 1932. Based just on normal historic averages, the Republicans should lose control of the House by about four seats. They should lose control of the Senate as well, although the map is pretty awful for the Democrats. If Republicans retain control, then I believe what will happen over time is that someone who shares Trump's dictatorial and authoritarian tendencies but doesn't have his baggage -- someone who is a competent manager and just as charismatic -- will eventually arise and you can kiss your individual liberties goodbye. That will take time, but it's the trend we are heading towards.

“On the other hand, if enough people go to the polls -- remember, roughly 100 million people did not vote in 2016 -- if the Democrats get organized, if they can persuade the public they have an agenda that goes beyond just getting rid of Trump and they get control of Congress, they will move to impeach him. They need a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict him, but they will certainly move to have public hearings.

“Is Trump an ideologue?

“No. That's the whole point of the first chapter of my book, ‘President Like No Other.’ The 44 previous presidents were all over the map. There were smart people and dumb people, there were people of impeccable integrity such as Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter; there were absolute scoundrels like Warren G. Harding. We had a murderous racist in the White House whose painting hangs in the Oval Office, now looking down on Trump. What distinguishes all those presidents, particularly Chester Arthur, the one closest to Trump, is that they tried in the context of their times to make America better.

“Donald Trump is a man with this desperate need for adoration. He is an empty vessel, the exact opposite of Henry David Thoreau -- a ‘life unexamined.’ His only philosophy is the glorification of Donald.

“If you were going to consult with the Democratic Party about how to defeat Trump and the Republican Party, what would you suggest?  

“I think most of what Hillary said came across as ‘blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.’ What I would say to the Democrats is, ‘Your first and fundamental mission is to tell people what you are for.’ Not that you're against Trump. Being against Trump doesn't get you very far. It will get you some people who hate Trump. But what are you for? What you want to say is: We will get the incredible burden of health care off the back of small businesses. We will make it so you don't have to stick with an employer because you have health care and you don't want to run the risk of switching or losing it. We want to relieve business of the burden of health care like every other modern country, and it will save everyone money.

“We want to invest in the future of America. So we will put more money into education and basic science. Did you know that half the economic growth in this country since the end of World War II can be traced to taxpayer investments in science? We want investments at home that will create jobs. Our country is falling apart in front of our eyes. That will create an enormous number of jobs, but it will also make the economy more efficient. We want to invest in that future, which will make us all much better off. We're about building a prosperous future. We're not about looking back, as Donald Trump is, to the past.

“This is a crucial point. People who've been had by con artists are ashamed, and the world is full of cases. I've written about some of them; you see it in movies and TV shows. They just can't face the fact that they were tricked. It makes them feel stupid and foolish. Well, people who got conned by Trump -- it's painful for many of them and they will do anything to avoid it. You don’t want to confront them, you don't want to make them feel stupid.

“What do you think will happen with the Mueller investigation? Trump is not acting like an innocent person.

Well, Mueller has assembled an extraordinarily talented team. Here is what Mueller is going to find. Mueller has the Trump tax returns. A competent prosecutor would have them by now. The Trump tax returns are the beginning point. You have to get the books and records -- Donald has a long history of hiding books and records when they're sought by auditors. As for the Russians, it is beyond dispute at this point that the Trump campaign was actively involved in a conspiracy.

“He's not exactly what Putin wanted, but most importantly, Trump's not Hillary Clinton, who would have gone up to the edge of war to make Putin give up Crimea. She made that very clear in a campaign. He would be in severe pain if he didn't give up the Crimean peninsula in eastern Ukraine. So he didn't want her, under any circumstances.

“Mueller is going to report on tax fraud; he's going to report on the Russians, and he is going to show that the Trump campaign was knowingly being helped by the Russians. Remember that the Australian, Dutch and British intelligence agencies, and maybe others, went to the FBI, State Department and other contacts and said, ‘You folks have a problem.’

“Where exactly Mueller will go beyond that, I don't know. His mission is the Russians, and the Russians are tied in with the tax returns. But remember this: the job of a prosecutor is not to bring the perfect case, it's not to bring the case that should be brought for political reasons. It's to bring the easiest, most solid case that wins. Mueller will do that. There is nothing that prevents indicting a sitting president, but it is an untested issue. Mueller is going to have to decide whether to indict him or to go to Congress.

“If the overwhelming conclusion of the Mueller report is that the Russians put Trump in the White House, then you face a second terrible problem: What do you do about Mike Pence, who is also the beneficiary of Russian interference?

“If the Congress impeaches and removes Trump and Pence, it will only be because the Democrats control Congress. So unless something else changes, we get President Nancy Pelosi. You can just imagine the people who will be in the streets screaming coup d’état if she's president. I think the only way to address that is for her, or whoever is speaker, to announce they will be a caretaker president who is not going to do anything extreme.

“There is no good ending to the story. America will survive this, we'll get past it, but whenever Trump leaves, there's no good ending. If Trump is removed by impeachment or by the voters, whether in a Republican primary or a general election, I know what he will do. He's already told us what he will do by his actions. Trump will spend the rest of his days fomenting violence and revolution in this country.

“He's careful not to directly say ‘revolution,’ but he will call the government illegitimate. He might even call it criminal, since he called Democrats who didn't stand up during his State of the Union speech treasonous. If they're going to impeach Trump, I believe they have to have a plan to indict, try, convict and imprison him. But Trump will be a role model for some people, and there may well be violence over it.

“As Malcolm Nance and others have warned, Russia's interference in the 2016 election and likely infiltration of Trump's inner circle could be one of the worst intelligence disasters in American history, a failure of Benedict Arnold or Rosenberg proportions.  

“Let me be very clear and quotable about this. At an absolute minimum, Donald Trump has divided loyalties, and the evidence we already have suggests that Donald Trump is a traitor. In fact, I would say that the evidence we already have, the public materials such as emails for example, strongly indicate that Donald Trump is a traitor. However, I don't even think he understands what he's done.”

For the complete interview by Chauncey DeVega, click here. 

Chauncey DeVega is a politics staff writer for Salon. His essays can also be found at Chaunceydevega.com. He also hosts a weekly podcast, The Chauncey DeVega Show. Chauncey can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.

“I am having a real problem with the Fourth of July this year. I'm sure that others do, too” by Ken Previti/Rockets’ Red Glare and Bombs Bursting in Air by John LaForge

“It was always celebrated in my family as my grandmother's birthday and a glorious holiday. This was my little Irish grandmother, my mother's mother, who helped raise me and let me live in her attic as I attended college. I loved her deeply as she loved me.

“Even during Vietnam and the other insanities of the corruption called government, I came to terms; I rationalized my thoughts and behavior regarding the Fourth of July. However, ever since Reagan it has become more and more difficult for me.

“This year, the children in cages, the scapegoating of all who followed my chosen career in teaching, the homeless I see in the streets daily, the financial assistance I contribute to my daughter's college debt and non-affordable affordable healthcare which has deductibles and co-pays, the sanctification of our thoroughly indoctrinated armed forces, the manner that people jealously view my pension, the obscene amount of money charged for my heart medications, the justifiable fear of ignorant thugs in police officer uniforms, the single party system of government wearing two disguises, and so much more have stopped any inclination for me to say the Pledge of Allegiance, sing the National Anthem, and flag wave or set off firecrackers made in China on the Fourth of July.

“I will never sincerely perform those three acts of travesty again. Fortunately, I learned a lesson repeated by Voltaire when he was about my age: ‘Appear as the many, and think as the few.’

“The Fourth of July is now a date on my calendar and memories of celebrations gone by” -Ken Previti. 

Rockets’ Red Glare and Bombs Bursting in Air by John LaForge

“A June 27 Pew Research Center poll says world opinion of the United States has plummeted since Donald Trump took office. Surveying people in 37 countries, 49 percent held a positive view of the United States, down from 65 percent at the end of 2016. Maybe we could cancel the fireworks this 4th of July considering the insensitive symbolism of vicariously enjoying war.

“With the Pentagon’s rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air smashing seven majority Muslim countries — Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen — negativity toward the United States is easy to understand. US drone attacks originating in Nevada, 7,200 miles from Iraq, and jet fighter-bomber strikes launched from supercarriers in the Persian Gulf are killing hundreds of frightened bystanders month after month. At least 25 civilians were killed in Mosul, Iraq on Sat., June 24 when US bombs destroyed four houses…

“[O]ne need only consider the globalized, mechanized, mass US military reaction to 9/11 — and the country’s demonization of whole groups and religions — to know that demands for revenge, retribution, and retaliation always follow the deaths of innocents.

“If your business is peddling weapons, you could be smugly satisfied about every civilian wedding party, funeral procession, hospital, or Sunday market hit by US drones, gunships or F-18s. One StarTribune headline on April 2, 2017 directed attention away from our arms dealers. It read, ‘Civilian deaths a windfall for militants’ propaganda.’ Never mind the windfall for war profiteers…

“In the world of weapons sales, nothing is better for business than TV footage of the anguished and grief-stricken after civilians are indiscriminately attacked by ‘foreigners.’ In the countries being bombed, we are those foreigners, occupiers, and militarists accused of cheapening human lives. You decide: when a US gunship obliterated the hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan Oct. 3, 2016 killing 42, the Pentagon offered $6,000 for each person killed, and $3,000 for each one injured.

“The government and munitions makers say our bombs are saving people by killing terrorists, and — being a world away from the torn limbs, the burning wounds, the screaming parents — Americans want to believe it. The US dropped 26,171 bombs across the seven countries during 2016, according to Jennifer Wilson and Micah Zenko writing in Foreign Policy. Each explosion is guaranteed to produce enough newly minted militants to insure steady orders for more jets, bombs and missiles.

“Even with a stockpile of 4,000 Tomahawk Cruise missiles, some in the military say the store could be run low by the bombing of Syria, Iraq and the others. ‘We’re expending munitions faster than we can replenish them,’ Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told USA Today in December 2015. ‘Since then, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter has asked Congress to include funding for 45,000 smart bombs in the [Pentagon’s] 2017 budget,’ Public Radio International reported in April 2016. And now Trump’s Sec. Def, Gen. James Mattis has asked for far more in the 2018 budget for what he calls an ‘annihilation campaign.’

“Lockheed Martin Corp. was paid $36.44 billion for weapons in 2015, and $47.2 billion in 2016, according to the Stockholm Int’l Peace Research Institute’s February 2017 report. SIPRI says that half of all US weapons exports in 2015 went to the Middle East. Last May’s $110 billion US sale to Saudi Arabia alone is bound to bring peace and stability to the region. Obama’s $112 billion in arms to the Saudis over eight years certainly did. The Kingdom’s fireworks in Yemen will cause ‘oooohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ of a different sort than our holiday firecracker fakery.

“This cheering of faux bombs on the 4th while denying that our real ones produce enemies and prolong the war is why terrified villagers, refugees and the internally displaced of seven targeted countries will go on cringing and crouching over their children as US drones and jets howl overhead. But ‘Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, and this be our motto — ‘In God is our trust’ — And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave’” (John LaForge, Counterpunch). 

"Adjuncts should have proportional representation in union-leadership positions and on negotiating teams"-Keith Hoeller

“The debate over Janus v. AFSCME, on which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled [last] week, appeared to be between the conservative view that unions can do nothing right and the liberal view that unions can do nothing wrong. Consequently, the court’s five conservatives voted in favor of striking down ‘agency shop fees,’ while the four liberal justices voted to retain ‘fair share’ fees for nonmembers of public-sector unions.

“Missing from the debate have been important critiques of the union movement from the labor perspective. To regain their relevance, faculty unions at public colleges and universities will need to shed their historic approach of privileging tenure-track members over contingent faculty members, and instead embrace a new kind of organizing unit that finally deals with the needs of adjuncts and part-timers, who shoulder most of the teaching load in higher education.

“For contingent faculty members, the question about union representation has long been: Should they be coerced into paying their ‘fair share’ when they do not receive their fair share at the bargaining table, where their numbers are not equitably represented and their voices not heeded? Under Janus, they will no longer be required to do so.

“The National Labor Relations Board has made it clear that tenure-track faculty members at private colleges cannot be in the same bargaining unit as their non-tenure-track colleagues. But conflicts of interest abound in the two-tier system at public institutions, where the majority of adjuncts are represented in "mixed units" with their tenured colleagues.

“Not surprisingly, conflicts are usually resolved in favor of the tenured faculty. Pay, benefits, and job security are obvious examples of those conflicts, but one of the more egregious ones occurs when the union places limits on adjunct teaching below full-time work while allowing full-timers to teach overtime, as has been the practice in Washington State and California.

“In [Hoeller’s] journal article Against Tenurism, colleges and the unions together have created a two-tier ‘system of privileged ‘haves’ and unprivileged ‘have-nots,’ whereby tenure-track faculty members form a minority, now less than 25 percent of all college professors, who rule over the majority of faculty who have little job security, low wages, few benefits, and virtually no way out of this academic ghetto. … It is not fair to force adjuncts, who have no job security, into the same bargaining unit with tenured faculty, especially when these tenured faculty function as supervisors, hiring, evaluating, and rehiring and/or firing the adjuncts.’

“With the Janus decision, unions at public colleges will inevitably lose members and money and clout. Having ignored contingents for so long, they will undoubtedly make the pitch that unions can improve their lot. But unions’ historical approach — bargaining small improvements in union contracts, campus by campus, every three years, while tenured faculty members continue to make larger gains — is unlikely to make a dent in the two-tier system. In mixed units, it is more likely that tenured faculty members will continue to use contingents’ dues to feather their tenured nests.

“What should faculty unions do now? At a minimum, they should admit that tenured faculty members often serve as supervisors of contingent faculty members and, where this situation exists, insist that adjuncts have separate bargaining units. They should also insist that where adjuncts outnumber tenured faculty members, the adjuncts should have proportional representation in union-leadership positions and on negotiating teams.

“Unions should insist that contingents elect their own officers, representatives, and contract negotiators, and that they bargain for their own contracts. If the unions truly want to represent contingent faculty members, their eventual aim should be to abolish the two-tier system and ensure full equality for all professors. Their model should be not American unionism, but the one-track model established in British Columbia by the Vancouver Community College Faculty Association.

“And what should contingent faculty members do? While some unions have made some gains for them, the situation still remains dire for the more than one million college professors who teach off the tenure track. But unions are not the only options. The Washington State Part-Time Faculty Association… and the California Part-Time Faculty Association have achieved results independently of the unions. They have worked successfully for sick-leave bills, increased pay, class-action lawsuits to obtain health-care and retirement benefits, and higher limits on adjuncts’ workloads.

“What we still need, though, is an independent national organization to provide vigorous representation for all contingent faculty members, no matter where they teach.”

Keith Hoeller retired in 2016 after 25 years as an adjunct professor of philosophy at Green River College, in Auburn, Wash. He is the editor of Equality for Contingent Faculty: Overcoming the Two-Tier System (Vanderbilt University Press, 2014).

Why the Supreme Court Ruling on Unions Could Be Good for Adjuncts by Keith Hoeller

Illinois Legislators: Take a Look at North Carolina’s and Oregon’s Solvency Funds for Pension Unfunded Liabilities

“North Carolina has a new trust fund to help pay down unfunded liabilities for the pension system and health-care costs, thanks to a law signed Monday by Gov. Roy Cooper.

“The Unfunded Liability Solvency Reserve Act creates a reserve that will be funded through several sources, including General Assembly appropriations, overflows from the state's rainy day fund, or savings from refinancing of general obligation bonds. Between pension and health care, the state has $50 billion in unfunded liabilities, $35 billion in health care alone.

“The solvency fund is believed to be the only one of its kind in the nation, according to state Treasurer Dale Folwell, who credited the General Assembly and the governor for their leadership. ‘Today, we begin to make a generational difference for all North Carolinians and lead the nation in addressing $50 billion in unfunded pension and health-care costs. Our office didn't create or discover these liabilities, but we have an obligation to fix them,’ Mr. Folwell, sole trustee of the $97.9 billion North Carolina Retirement Systems, Raleigh, said in a statement.”

North Carolina creates solvency fund to pay down unfunded liabilities by Hazel Bradford

“The Oregon Legislature passed a bill aimed at reducing the $74.6 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund's unfunded liability.

“The bill sets up two new funds, a side account for school districts to be invested alongside pension assets to reduce school district's pension contributions, and an incentive fund to match certain lump-sum employer contributions to the pension plan.

“Gov. Kate Brown, who helped champion the legislation, is expected to sign it in the next couple of weeks after the bill undergoes the typical legal review process, said Bryan Hockaday, press secretary for Ms. Brown, in an email.

“Some of the revenues to be directed to the school district fund include some proceeds from debt collection, capital gains tax, estate tax, marijuana tax, alcohol taxes and lawsuit settlements, as well as lottery revenues.

“The incentive fund is designed to give employers an incentive to make an additional one-time contribution. Oregon would match the extra contribution 25 cents on the dollar.

“The bill also directs the state treasurer to study the feasibility and prudence of borrowing money in the Oregon Short Term Fund, a $15.7 billion short-term cash investment pool in which a number of local governments and state agencies participate, to be redeployed into investments. The state treasurer is to report the results of the study to the Legislative Assembly no later than Sept. 30, 2019.”

Oregon Legislature passes bill creating new funds to help with pension contributions by Arleen Jacobius