HR 3326 was signed into law this week. The bill (actually a DOD bill) provides the following benefits to those going onto COBRA (or currently in their first 9 months of COBRA):
1. Subsidy on federal COBRA will be extended from 9 months to 15 months at 65% paid by the employer (no information yet on Cal-COBRA)
2. Subsidy qualification has been extended to 2/28/2010 and notification is required to anyone who exhausted the 9 months subsidy already (and is still within the 15 month window)
3. Extends unemployment benefits an additional 6 months
COBRA Subsidy Extended
New Tourism Deal Between Argentina, Brazil and Isra
Tourism agreement to be signed between Israel and Argentina (www.jpost.com):"Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov and his Argentinean counterpart Carlos Enrique Meyer will sign a tourism agreement in the near future, after Misezhnikov, who was accompanying President Shimon Peres on his South American tour, said on Tuesday that "Israel considers Argentina to be a country with great tourism potential."
This adds to the services when "In May 2009, El Al began to operate a direct flight route between Tel Aviv and Sao Paolo," Brazil's economic center.
This adds to the services when "In May 2009, El Al began to operate a direct flight route between Tel Aviv and Sao Paolo," Brazil's economic center.
Meyer said he aspires to promote code-sharing agreements on the Brazil-Israel route and encourage the inception of direct flights between Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv." Lots of potential tourism options!However, Argentina authorizes industrywide air fare hike (Reuters)
which might affect travel plans.
View of Buenos Aires's iconic Obelisk and Avenida 9 de Julio is displayed with the kind permision of Roberto Ingledew.
View of a busy street in São Paulo is displayed with the kind permission of Ron Miller - author of Escape from the Happy Cannibal.Source: http://gosouthamerica.about.com/b/2009/11/25/new-tourism-deal-between-argentina-brazil-and-israel.htm
CA Healthy Families In Jeopardy Again
There is renewed fear that the state may have to shutter the Healthy Families program and remove hundreds of thousands of California children from the health insurance plan (SCHIP).
Apparently, CMS has "determined" that a special tax extension plan adopted by the CA Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Scharzenegger (a 2.35% tax paid BY health insurers) fails to meet the CMS reading of the rules regarding such taxes.
If resolution is not found before the end of 2010, hundreds of thousands of children in California could be removed from the plan.
High housing price defies traditional real estate picture in Beijing
BEIJING, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- There are many riddles in Beijing's property market this year, and the most recent one is the much higher sales price for apartments than for office buildings in the same district, China Daily reported Monday.
Industry experts said that in a healthy real estate market, the unit price of commercial property is usually 30 percent higher than that of residential buildings in the same region.
But in Beijing, the situation is just the opposite. In some areas, the price of high-end apartments is even 50 percent higher than that of office buildings.
A major reason for the abnormal purchasing patterns is too much speculative buying of high-end apartments, mainly by individual investors, the newspaper said, citing Li Wenjie, general manager of the property agency Centaline China (North China region).
Since the mortgage policy for office buildings is stricter, the purchase of office space requires bigger cash flow from investors, thus pushing some individual buyers away from the market.
According to the China Index Institute, the average property price in Beijing reached a record high of 17,509 yuan (2,574.9 U.S. dollars) per square meters in November, up 9.74 percent month-on-month.
Meanwhile, the floor space of available apartments dropped 30.3percent on a yearly basis to 13.6 million square meters at the end of November, the lowest since 2008.
Industry experts said that in a healthy real estate market, the unit price of commercial property is usually 30 percent higher than that of residential buildings in the same region.
But in Beijing, the situation is just the opposite. In some areas, the price of high-end apartments is even 50 percent higher than that of office buildings.
A major reason for the abnormal purchasing patterns is too much speculative buying of high-end apartments, mainly by individual investors, the newspaper said, citing Li Wenjie, general manager of the property agency Centaline China (North China region).
Since the mortgage policy for office buildings is stricter, the purchase of office space requires bigger cash flow from investors, thus pushing some individual buyers away from the market.
According to the China Index Institute, the average property price in Beijing reached a record high of 17,509 yuan (2,574.9 U.S. dollars) per square meters in November, up 9.74 percent month-on-month.
Meanwhile, the floor space of available apartments dropped 30.3percent on a yearly basis to 13.6 million square meters at the end of November, the lowest since 2008.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/14/content_12644057.htm
Public Option Waning, Now Annual Benefit Caps?
It appears that the public option portion of the health care reform legislation may be coming off of the table soon, if not already. There is talk of replacing it with a private insurance, non-profit version overseen by the government. Also, there is talk of at least a temporary reduction in the Medicare age to 55.
Apparently part of todays' compromise has to do with trying to keep premiums "reasonable". Since the bill would uncap lifetime maximums, the Senate has agreed (behind closed doors again) to allow and implement annual benefit caps on health plans.
California domiciled health plans currently do not impose an annual benefit maximum and PPO plans allow that number to be set at the lifetime maximum benefit of the plan. Only the MRMIP and compatible MRMIP "graduate plans" involve annual maximum benefits, and those are capped at $75,000 per year.
Senate Bill To Allow Benefit Caps
California Healthy Families Back In Business
In the summer I blogged about the closing of new enrollments in the Healthy Families program for children (SCHIP). Recently the program received additional funding and has re-opened to new enrollments. This is very good news for thousands of California families who need this low-cost health insurance coverage for their children. For current information on the California Healthy Families program, follow the link below.
California Healthy Families (SCHIP)
Closer on Healthcare Reform
It looks like we are getting very close to a final version of the Senate reform bill. Broad agreement has been reached on the Senate version, which is very close to the already-passed House version.
CNN Story Dec 8th
Leasing Space to the Government
GSA, the nation's largest public real estate organization, provides workspace for more than 1.2 million federal workers through its Public Buildings Service. Approximately half of the employees are housed in buildings owned by the federal government and half are located in over 7,100 separate leased properties, including buildings, land, antenna sites, etc. across the country. An updated listing of this inventory is posted after the 15th of each month at the Monthly Lease Inventory. Its downloadable excel spreadsheet contains 35 data elements per lease including the information most requested under the Freedom of Information Act.
GSA prepares an annual turnover analysis on its lease inventory as requested by the commercial realty community. This is the latest analysis; however, GSA does not recommend that business decisions, in particular portfolio and financing decisions, be based upon this analysis.
GSA leases space in diverse locations when leasing is the best solution for meeting federal space needs. More than 50 percent of GSA leases are for 10,000 square feet or less, so owners do not have to be corporate giants to compete for lease contracts.
Applied Research
Applied Research strives to:
- Generate recommendations to improve PBS operations, strategies, and policies
- Lead research to formulate strategic use of new and existing technologies to advance the PBS mission
We have seven active projects in two key research areas:
- Adopt sustainability practices and high performance building strategies
- Improve workplace effectiveness
Security
The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Protective Service (FPS) provides law enforcement and security services to over one million tenants and daily visitors to federally owned and leased facilities nationwide. The FPS has established itself as the center of expertise for physical security operations. From the installation of alarm systems, x-rays, magnetometers and entry control systems, to monitoring those systems 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, providing uniformed police response and investigative follow-up, the FPS is organized to protect and serve. The provision of contract security guard services, crime prevention seminars tailored to individual agency and employee needs, facility security surveys, and integrating intelligence gathering and sharing.
For more information, click on the links below.
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement website (ICE). ICE is the investigative arm of the Border and Transportation Security Directorate (BTS), the operational directorate within the DHS tasked with securing the nation’s borders and safeguarding its transportation infrastructure.
- FPS Security Services
- Code Adam Alert Program
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