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Articles for category General News

News Release | Social Security Announces New Online Service for Replacement Social Security Cards in California

Posted Mar 20, 2017 by Jamee V    categoryGeneral News

The Social Security Administration introduced the expansion of online services for residents of California available through its my Social Security portal at www.socialsecurity.gov/myaccount. Nancy A. Berryhill, Acting Commissioner of Social Security, announced that residents of California can use the portal for many replacement Social Security number (SSN) card requests. This will allow people to replace their SSN card from the comfort of their home or office, without the need to travel to a Social Security office.

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2017 CSR Board Election Schedule | Districts A, B, C

Posted Oct 18, 2016 by Jamee V    categoryGeneral News

Do you want to serve on the CSR Board of Directors? If so, now is the time! CSR has officially launched the 2017 Board Election Schedule for Districts A, B & C.

 

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Gus Lease – the ‘voice of CSEA’ – passes away

Posted Sep 06, 2016 by Jamee Villa    categoryGeneral News

Gus LeaseLongtime CSR and CSEA activist Gus C. Lease, also known by many as “The Voice of CSEA,” passed away Sept. 4 at the age of 93.

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CSR hires two new staff members

Posted Jul 11, 2016 by Jamee Villa    categoryGeneral News

Sacramento, Calif. - After an extensive recruitment effort, California State Retirees (CSR) hired two new staff members: Dani Schenone and Jamee Villa.

  

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Supreme Court deadlock upholds win for unions in fee case

Posted Mar 29, 2016 by    categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News categoryLegislation categoryPolitics

In this 2013, photo provided by Center for Individual Rights, Rebecca Friedrichs, a veteran Orange County, Calif., public school teacher, poses for a portrait. A tie vote from the Supreme Court means public sector unions in about half the states can continue collecting fees from workers who choose not to join. The justices on Tuesday, March 29, 2016, divided 4-4 in a case that considered whether public employees represented by a union can be required to pay "fair share" fees covering collective bargaining costs even if they are not members. Courtesy of the Center for Individual Rights via AP Greg Schneider

In this 2013, photo provided by Center for Individual Rights, Rebecca Friedrichs, a veteran Orange County, Calif., public school teacher, poses for a portrait. A tie vote from the Supreme Court means public sector unions in about half the states can continue collecting fees from workers who choose not to join. The justices on Tuesday, March 29, 2016, divided 4-4 in a case that considered whether public employees represented by a union can be required to pay "fair share" fees covering collective bargaining costs even if they are not members. 

Courtesy of the Center for Individual Rights via AP Greg Schneider.

 

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Retirement for all proposal moves ahead

Posted Mar 28, 2016 by    categoryCalPERS categoryGeneral News categoryPolitics categoryRetirement

Sacramento, Calif. - By the end of the decade, millions of California workers could be enrolled automatically in a state-run retirement program viewed by proponents as the most significant attempt to address golden-years poverty since the New Deal.

After more than two years of work, the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board will vote Monday on a slate of recommendations to the Legislature on what a state-managed plan should look like. Those will be folded into pending legislation by Senate leader Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, with the goal of putting a bill on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk this summer.

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CVS is buying Target's drug stores and clinics for nearly $2 billion.

Posted Jun 15, 2015 by    categoryGeneral News categoryHealth Care

CNNMoney (New York) -  CVS Health (CVS) and Target (TGT)announced Monday that they've made a deal for CVS to acquire Target's pharmacy and clinic businesses for $1.9 billion

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Governor unveils revised budget

Posted May 15, 2015 by    categoryCalPERS categoryGeneral News categoryLegislation categoryState Economy

On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) released the revised version of his fiscal year 2015-2016 budget plan, which includes several health care proposals, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The revised $169 billion budget is more than $4 billion larger than the original proposal unveiled in January (Megerian, Los Angeles Times, 5/14). The revised plan would increase health and social services spending by about $1.7 billion (Richman, San Jose Mercury News, 5/14).

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Turbo Tax reports data breach, suspends online filings

Posted Feb 06, 2015 by    categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News categoryState Economy

WALL STREET JOURNAL -- The nation’s biggest online tax-software company halted electronic filing of all state returns amid reports from states of criminal attempts to obtain refunds through its systems.

Intuit said its TurboTax unit took action Thursday after seeing attempts to use stolen personal information to file fraudulent returns for tax refunds.

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Figure in CalPERS corruption case apparently commits suicide

Posted Jan 14, 2015 by    categoryCalPERS categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News categoryRetirement

In failing health and facing up to 30 years in prison, businessman Alfred Villalobos apparently committed suicide before going on trial in connection with the bribery scandal at CalPERS.

Villalobos’ attorneys, appearing at a pre-trial hearing in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, disclosed that Villalobos died the day before. His death ends the government’s criminal case against the Nevada businessman –and largely closes the books on a corruption scandal that roiled the nation’s largest public pension fund.

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Key figure in CalPERS corruption case dies

Posted Jan 14, 2015 by    categoryCalPERS categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News categoryRetirement

The Sacramento Bee reported Jan. 14 that Alfred Villalobos, accused of bribing former CalPERS Chief Executive Officer Fred Buenrostro to influence the fund’s business decisions, has died.

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CalPERS gets $249 million settlement from Bank of America

Posted Nov 04, 2014 by    categoryCalPERS categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News categoryPolitics categoryRetirement

CalPERS said Nov. 3 it has received a $249.3 million payment from Bank of America, the result of a settlement over toxic mortgage securities purchased by the pension fund during the housing bubble. With the Bank of America settlement, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System said it has now recovered more than $500 million from its investments in bad mortgage securities.

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Social Security announces 1.7 percent COLA for 2015

Posted Oct 22, 2014 by    categoryCalPERS categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News

Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for nearly 64 million Americans will increase 1.7 percent in 2015, the Social Security Administration announced today.

The 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that more than 58 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2015. Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 31, 2014. The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as determined by the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Theresa Taylor Named CalPERS Election Winner

Posted Oct 03, 2014 by    categoryCalPERS categoryGeneral News

The election results indicate CSUEU-endorsed candidate Taylor received 55 percent of the valid votes cast during the voting period, which took place from August 29 through September 29. Unofficial election results also indicate that Mathur received 56 percent of the valid votes cast. More than 40,000 active state and public agency CalPERS members voted in the election.

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Chuck Reed suffers another legal blow

Posted Mar 14, 2014 by    categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News categoryRetirement categoryState Employees

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed's statewide pension reform initiative was dealt a major setback Thursday when a judge rejected a lawsuit that could have made it much easier for Reed get his measure on the ballot.

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Reed's pension measure is scrapped

Posted Mar 14, 2014 by    categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News categoryPolitics categoryRetirement

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS -- Mayor Chuck Reed on Friday abandoned what was supposed to be his crowing achievement, saying he had admitted defeat in his bid to get a statewide pension reform measure on the November ballot.

The decision was expected after Reed struggled to attract the well-funded allies he needed to raise the millions of dollars to gather the roughly 800,000 signatures required for the initiative to reach the ballot. Meanwhile, organized union groups mounted a campaign to defeat it, and dozens of other California mayors lined up against it.

The San Jose mayor will be termed out of office at the end of this year and had spent months traveling the state and Washington D.C. in hopes of gathering support for his initiative, which was similar to a city pension measure he championed in 2012.

 

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Chuck Reed sues over summary of pension initiative

Posted Feb 07, 2014 by    categoryCalPERS categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News categoryState Employees

Proponents of a pension-change initiative want a judge to edit key language used to describe their measure, contending that it was written to bias voters against it.

The lawsuit filed this week by San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and four other local government officials behind the proposal accuses Attorney General Kamala Harris of writing a title and summary that “uses false and misleading words and phrases which argue for the measure’s defeat, is argumentative, and creates prejudice against the measure, rather than merely informing voters of its chief purposes and points ...”

 

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CSR succeeds at stopping CalPERS pension data base

Posted Jan 13, 2014 by    categoryCalPERS categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News

    After California State Retirees (CSR) took the lead in calling for legislative hearings regarding pension privacy rights, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) announced Jan. 6 that it will rescind its plan to post on its website the names and pension amounts of 550,000 CalPERS retirees.

   In July, CalPERS agreed to postpone the launching of its searchable pension data base when CSR and other retiree organizations argued that public information should only be released upon individual request under the Public Information Act. Posting the pension information of all CalPERS members on a data base would make it easier for solicitors and identity thieves to obtain information, the groups argued.

   The Jan. 6 statement released by CalPERS Spokeswoman Rita Gallardo said: "After many discussions with our stakeholders and partners, we have come to better understand their concerns about posting this public information in a secure database on the CalPERS website. Next month CalPERS staff will report to the [CalPERS Board of Administration] that we no longer believe the intended benefits of posting the database on our website outweigh the risks and concerns to our members and that we should not move forward with our previous plans.

 

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CSR calls for legislative hearings to protect retirees' privacy

Posted Aug 16, 2013 by    categoryCalPERS categoryRetirees categoryGeneral News categoryPolitics

California State Retirees President Tim Behrens wrote letters this week to legislative leaders urging them to hold special legislative hearings to investigate the many critical issues raised by a now-stalled CalPERS proposal to post a searchable database that provides the name and benefits of all of its 550,000 retirees.

“CSR – the largest state retiree organization in California – is deeply concerned about the potential threats a database searchable by member name poses to our 33,000 members,” Behrens said in letters to Sen. Jim Beall, the chair of the Senate Public Employees and Retirement Committee and to Assemblyman Rob Bonta, chair of the Assembly Public Employees and Social Security Committee. “Many of our members are of an advanced age which makes them vulnerable to scams and rip-offs that seek to separate them from their hard-earned pensions and other assets. Releasing their names will make them susceptible to harassing marketers, fraudulent activity and identity theft.”

A similar letter from Behrens was sent CalPERS President Rob Feckner.

Behrens said that California State Retirees recognizes that CalPERS member information has been considered public information for some time and that there is indeed some value in providing public access to pension data.

“Nevertheless, we do not believe that it is appropriate to release the name and pension data of every recipient in a searchable database that could be used to target individual retirees,” Behrens said.

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Mail Ballot Election Results

Posted Jun 27, 2013 by    categoryGeneral News

CSR Delegates determined, via a mail ballot, whether or not to change CSR Bylaws, Article IX, Section 5(A) reducing the delegate ratio from 1 delegate per 100 active chapter members to 1 delegate per 200 active members. The proposal further specified that no chapter shall have fewer than three delegates.

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