GOP's New Estate Tax Break For Millionaires: Tax-Free Inheritance! (Tax Reform NOW!)

The tax law that could make your grandchildren super-rich


Sometimes Congress hands out a break that is so generous it seems it must be a mistake. This one’s a doozy: the ability to receive a tax-free inheritance of $400 million or more.

Thanks to two recent changes in the tax code, investors with huge 401(k) accounts have a way to turn them into tax-free income for their grandchildren’s lifetimes.

This is by far the biggest estate-planning break on record, created even as lawmakers debate over which tax giveaways should be killed to help shore up the federal budget.

“I call this tax break the government’s going-out-of business sale,” says IRA guru Ed Slott, who travels the country teaching advisers and accountants how to squeeze benefits out of the Roth IRA. “This is a tax break you could drive 10 Mack trucks through. It’s an incredible opportunity to do a totally tax-free transfer of wealth.”

This massive estate-tax break was created last year in two steps. First Congress lifted a $100,000 income restriction on who can convert a 401(k) or IRA to a Roth IRA, allowing even the wealthiest investors to convert. Then late in the year, it raised the generation-skipping transfer tax exemption (GST) to $5 million until 2013. The exemption was previously $3.5 million, and was scheduled to drop to $1 million this year before Congress stepped in.

Both of these provisions on their own create possibilities for significant tax savings. But used in combination, the results are exponentially greater.

The Roth IRA has always been on a different playing field compared with alternatives because it allows gains to be withdrawn tax free. Money taken out of a 401(k), regular IRA or other retirement accounts are subject to income-tax rates.

Also, the Roth doesn’t require that minimum distributions be taken after turning age 70½, as other plans do. So if you don’t need retirement plan assets to live on, the Roth preserves it best for heirs.

Not everyone jumps at the chance to convert to a Roth IRA because you have to pay income taxes on the assets moved into the account. So if you plan to live off of retirement account assets, a conversion might not make sense. But from an estate planning perspective, when there are decades of gains ahead, the tax bill can be a small price to pay for big benefits down the road.

With the new GST exemption, the estate planning benefits that can be wrung out of a Roth are eye-popping. Consider an extreme case: A wealthy individual converts a large 401(k) account to a Roth IRA and names a grandchild as the beneficiary. The grandchild, at age 1, inherits the Roth, whose assets have grown to $5 million. Because of the new $5 million GST, the Roth assets would not be subject to estate tax or generation-skipping transfer tax.

Under Roth rules, an heir must take required minimum distributions, but the distributions can be stretched over a lifetime, and assets left in the Roth can continue to grow tax free. Based on a 1-year-old’s life expectancy of 81.6-years, assuming an average annual return of 8 percent, Slott calculates that the grandchild’s lifetime income from the Roth would be $408 million — “completely free of estate, gift, income and capital gains taxes,” he says.

If both grandparents left a big Roth account to the same grandchild, the tax-free inheritance would be almost twice that amount, depending on the age of the grandchild when the second Roth is inherited.

You don’t have to have stratospheric wealth to get in on these great estate planning benefits. Consider: A $100,000 Roth inheritance would let a grandchild pocket more than $8 million, tax-free. This would have been possible even under the old GST tax exclusion, but the old Roth rules, which prohibited conversions from IRAs and 401(k)s for those with incomes above $100,000, would have prevented many from taking advantage of the opportunity.

With the new $5 million estate tax exemption, passed along with the GST exemption last year, the Roth has become a turbocharged, tax-favored inheritance tool for any generation. But the benefits are even more pronounced when the Roth income is spread over the long expected lifetime of a grandchild.

Grace Allison, senior vice president and tax strategist at Northern Trust, cautions that the upfront tax bill on Roth conversions can take the shine off of this strategy, so it’s critical to crunch the numbers. If you convert $5 million, at the highest tax rate of 35 percent, you’ll have to hand over about $1.7 million.

That kind of tax bill is mind-numbing for most people, but in the universe where ultra-wealthy people are trying to preserve their multimillions, $1.7 million may seem like a small amount, considering how much will be saved in taxes in the long run.

In the extreme example above, the total tax savings would be in the neighborhood of $100 million over the grandchild’s lifetime, probably much more

Did Congress intend for this big generational benefit? Although the government could surely use wealthy taxpayers to pay big upfront tax bills on Roth conversions right now, the amount it would forgo in taxes on inherited money over decades would be staggering.

Whether intentional or not, opportunities to combine the Roth with the GST exemption are limited: The exemption is scheduled to drop to $1 million in 2013.

And it’s always possible that tax reforms will rescind these tax breaks before that. Roberton Williams, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, says that if any drastic changes are made, it will be Congress’s mess to figure out how to honor previous tax breaks in Roth accounts. In the meantime, get ’em while you can.


Sources: Daily Beast, Fiscal Times, Fox News, MSNBC, Washington Post, Youtube, Google Maps

Bob Gates Predicts Moammar Gadhafi's Fall; Taliban Talks (Videos)

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France Passes Pension Reform Law: Protests & Riots Continue

French Senate Approves Pension Reform Measure

The French Senate Friday defied tens of thousands of protesters and approved its version of a controversial pension reform measure with a vote of 177-153, bringing the package one step closer to implementation.

A conference committee of seven senators and seven members of parliament will meet early next week to reconcile the differences between the Senate and National Assembly bills. Each house will then vote for or against the bill proposed by the conference committee. A final vote on the reform is expected early Tuesday or Wednesday in both the Senate and National Assembly, according to a spokesman in the Senate.

As is the custom in the Senate, senators voted Friday by placing plastic credit-card sized tokens into one of three different urns indicating a vote for, against or in abstention. The cards were then poured out into a scale and the vote was calculated by the total weight of tokens in each urn.

Labor Minister Eric Woerth said Thursday that the retirement reform has been the single most debated bill in terms of the number of hours the Senate has spent examining it since the creation of the fifth republic in 1958.

Protesters have scuffled with police and blockaded oil refineries and terminals for days as tensions flared over the proposal to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 -- a measure that the government says is necessary to save money.

"It was our job to do this reform," Woerth said after the Senate vote. "It's to assure that our children can have the same pension benefits that we do."

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has said the country cannot continue to pay its debts -- to retirees and others -- by borrowing at current levels. The government's announced goal is to cut the deficit from 8 percent to 6 percent of gross domestic product by next year, an ambitious goal.

The lower house of parliament passed the pension reform bill in September, by a vote of 329 to 233.

More than a million people have turned out nationwide to protest the proposal.

Six major French unions have called for further nationwide demonstrations on October 28 and November 6, saying that protests so far show the people are ready to dig in for the long haul.

The country has faced fuel shortages because workers are on strike at all 12 of the nation's refineries, and protesters are blocking 14 of the country's 219 oil terminals.

French riot police ended the blockade of an oil refinery near Paris early Friday morning as members of the Gendarmerie Nationale instructed strikers to free the facility, a police spokesman said.

The spokesman said they encountered no resistance, and strikers continue to protest in front of the refinery.

Energy Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said Friday that the situation was slowly getting better.

"We're headed for improvement," he said, noting that about 80 percent of the country's service stations were functioning normally.

A union leader told CNN affiliate BFM that the police action at the refinery Friday morning was a "disgrace."

"Taking advantage to come in the middle of the night like that. What country are we in? What country are we? The country of human rights?" said Charles Foulard, a local union official for the General Confederation of Labor.

Officials countered that they were doing their jobs.

"When we intervene, we try to do it in the hours when it is the calmest, because our wish is that things go well. We are not here to provoke trouble ... we are here to execute a government decision through a legal process which is requisitioned," said Seine-et-Marne Prefect Jean-Michel Drevet.

One of the problems for strikers who are blocking fuel shipments is that France is entering a two week school holiday period and thousands of French families will want to fill their tanks for vacation trips.

While polls have shown a majority of the French people back the strike, political observers have said that could shift quickly if the strikers are seen as blocking French families from taking their vacations.


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Sources: CNN, Google Maps

GOP Won't Rule Out SCOTUS Nominee Filibuster

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Republicans Cautious On U.S. Supreme Court Filibuster But Won't Rule It Out


With no SCOTUS nominee to scrutinize, Republicans were on the defensive Sunday over the possible use of a filibuster against President Barack Obama’s upcoming Supreme Court pick – saying they wouldn’t go nuclear unless they really, really had to.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, didn't rule out using the filibuster during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press," saying he would require Democrats to muster 60 votes only if the White House tapped someone like Goodwin Liu, a liberal nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Will there be "a big fight?" host David Gregory asked?

"The answer to that is in the president's hands," said Sessions. "If we have a nominee that evidences a philosophy of judges know best... then we are going to have a big fight about that because the American people don't want that."

Sessions added that "every power should be utilized to protect the Constitution" if Obama chose a nominee "outside the mainstream."

Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), who laid down a marker on Friday for a quick nomination and confirmation, kept his foot on the accelerator, telling Gregory he wanted "a nomination very soon so we can wrap it up this summer."

Other Republicans kept open the possibility of a filibuster, but played down the likelihood the White House would actually nominate anyone so objectionable to conservatives.

Obama’s aides have narrowed their short list down to about ten names. None of the names known to be under consideration appear to be as controversial as Liu – and an administration official told POLITICO on Friday that the goal was to tap someone who was “confirmable.”

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), a key conservative on the committee, said the four most mentioned potential Obama seemed acceptable on the surface and wouldn't likely be filibustered.

Jake Tapper, host of ABC’s "This Week," asked Kyl what he thought of potential nominees Elena Kagan, Diane Wood, Merrick Garland and Janet Napolitano, who have all been listed in press accounts as potential successors to Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced his retirement on Friday.

"They are all nominally qualified," said Kyl, who voted against Sonia Sotomayor for the high court last year.





"The question, I think, to present is, 'Do candidates like this approach judging on the basis of each case presenting its unique facts of law... rather than with a judge coming to the bench with an ideological position?' ‘’

"It is unlikely that there will be a filibuster unless it’s an extraordinary circumstance," Kyl said, adding that "President Obama himself attempted to filibuster Justice [Samuel] Alito."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), appearing with Kyl, said he was sure Obama would pick someone in the "mainstream" – dismissing the likelihood of a filibuster as “tiny” -- but emphasized the need to counterbalance an increasingly conservative high court.

Schumer, who opposed the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts, suggested Roberts misled senators by claiming he would respect existing precedent.

"In my view at least, Justice Roberts has tried to move the court very far to the right, much farther than we envisioned," said Schumer, adding that Stevens, who dissented bitterly in several recent cases, agreed.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, speaking earlier on CNN, predicted that Obama would pick a "liberal" and suggested a nomination fight could energize the party’s conservative base.

A few minutes into a discussion about the court pick, "Meet the Press" host Gregory made a startling admission.

Garland, a federal judge reportedly being considered by Obama, performed the wedding ceremony for Gregory and wife Beth Wilkinson, a prominent corporate lawyer who once worked as a prosecutor under Garland’s supervision.

Wilkinson, Gregory said during his questioning of Sessions, "worked for [Garland] at the Justice Department. He also performed our wedding ceremony."

Wilkinson became an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1991, serving under Garland as part of the team that prosecuted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. She later served as Fannie Mae's executive vice president and is now a white collar criminal defense attorney in the Washington office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.


Sources: Politico, Meet The Press, MSNBC

Byah's Exit Proves Dems' Agenda Too Liberal; Congress Dysfunctional

Evan Bayh Burns Democrats



Sen. Evan Bayh, a leading moderate Democrat from Indiana who was once thought to be a rising national political star, won’t run for a third term, a decision which imperils his party’s hold on the seat.

Bayh’s stunning decision – announced Monday afternoon in Indianapolis – came as he geared up for what may have been his most difficult campaign in an otherwise gilded political life.

The son of a senator, Bayh never lost a race over a career in which he was elected as secretary of state at the age of 30 and served as governor and senator for two terms each.

Until Monday morning, Bayh gave no hint that he was thinking about giving up his Senate seat. Just the opposite: he had nearly $13 million on hand, had taken on a new role as the de facto head of a Senate moderate rump group and Democratic operatives in Washington and Indiana had already launched a withering series of attacks against former Sen. Dan Coats, whose seat Bayh took when the Republican retired in 1998 and who had begun exploring taking on the incumbent earlier this month.

After briefly running for president in 2008 and being considered but passed over for vice-president in three consecutive elections, it seemed that Bayh, 54, had settled into his role as a senator and outspoken voice for his party to hew toward the political center.

He becomes the fifth Democratic senator to retire, a decision which puts his party, already facing a tough election year, in a difficult position.

It will be hard enough for Democrats to hold the Senate seat in conservative-leaning Indiana. Thanks to his golden name, moderate positioning and aggressive fundraising, Bayh has proven to be a political force. Now that he’s not on the ballot, Democrats will be forced to come up with a far lesser-known replacement.

Attention immediately turned to a pair of moderate House Democrats, Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth, as potential prospects to fill the seat. But a Hill or Ellsworth Senate candidacy would in turn imperil Democratic prospects of keeping their conservative-leaning southern Indiana seats from slipping to the GOP.

Democratic sources in Washington and Indiana signaled Monday that Ellsworth, as the fresher face of the two, may be the establishment favorite.

In a statement, the second-term Democrat indicated he was open to the prospect of a statewide run.

"I appreciate the support of those Hoosiers who have already encouraged me to run for Senator Bayh's seat," Ellsworth said. "The next step will be taking a few days to talk to my wife and to folks in Indiana about where I can best serve our state."

Beyond the practical impact of keeping the Bayh seat and the House seat of whichever member might decide to run for the Senate, the retirement also offers a fresh reminder about Democrats’ declining fortunes this year.

That such a prominent and still relatively young figure as Bayh would retire, rather than battle to keep his seat, illustrates both the deepening fears among Democrats about the shape of the election cycle and the frustration among moderates that the party has veered too far left.

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Stunned Democratic officials said it was a last-minute, personal decision. Bayh was polling as recently as last week – and enjoying a sizable lead – and had already gathered the petitions necessary to be on the ballot this fall. He had even scheduled his first TV ad shoot for this Wednesday and his notarized filing document was sitting on the desk of Indiana Democratic Chairman Dan Parker, a longtime friend.

But on Saturday, Bayh called Parker with the stunning message: he was sick of the partisan rancor in Washington and calling it quits.

“That is something Evan regrets, but I think that the actions over the last few weeks in the Senate and the filing deadline was approaching forced his hand,” said a top Indiana Democrat.

Candidates in Indiana must declare their intentions with the state by Feburary 19th – Friday – but must have signed petitions in to county registrars by Tuesday.

In Washington, senior Democrats were all under the impression Bayh would seek a third term.

"He was giving every sign of running again," said a Democratic leadership aide.

Senate Democratic leaders, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) were not informed of Bayh's decision until Monday morning, according to several Democratic insiders. Bayh was even scheduled to appear on a CNN Sunday show, but canceled his appearance, said these sources.

Aside from Coats, the favored candidate of the national GOP, former Rep. John Hostettler and a handful of lesser-known candidates were already vying for the Republican nomination.

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence, who had earlier considered challenging Bayh, said Monday he would not seek the Senate seat.

Coats, in a statement, said: “I will continue to run just as hard and take nothing for granted."

Among the complications of Bayh’s decision is a looming logistical nightmare for Democrats.

To get on the Indiana ballot for the May 4th primary, statewide candidates need signatures from 500 verified voters in each of the state’s nine congressional districts. Those must be turned in to the Indiana secretary of state by noon Friday.

But before that happens, candidates must first submit the signatures for verification to registrars in each of the state’s 92 counties. Only after the signatures are verified can the candidate then file with the secretary of state.

In the event that no Democrat can scramble quickly enough to get that done, the Democratic State Central Committee would then have to nominate a candidate by June 30 to fill the ballot spot for the general election—effectively giving the state party the ability to forestall a primary and allow top party officials to hand-pick their nominee.

The state central committee is comprised of 32 Democrats in the state and serves as the ruling body of the state party.

In a statement announcing his decision, Bayh insisted that his retirement “was not motivated by political concern.”

“Even in the current challenging environment, I am confident in my prospects for re-election,” he said.

Instead, Bayh continued, he was weary of the partisan sniping that has become so common in the capital, citing recent failures in the Senate to pass a deficit commission and jobs legislation.

“All of this and much more has led me to believe that there are better ways to serve my fellow citizens, my beloved state and our nation than continued service in Congress,” he said.

In his speech Monday afternoon, Bayh even went so far as to castigate the institution in which he and his father served in for decades.

"To put it in the words most people can understand: I love working for the people of Indiana, I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives, but I do not love Congress,” Bayh said in Indianapolis.

Bill Moreau, a former Bayh chief of staff, said the senator made the decision over the weekend.

“I think the last few years have been frustrating for him,” said Moreau.

Surely not far from Bayh’s mind, however, was the fate of his father, Birch Bayh. Like his son, Birch Bayh was widely viewed as an up-and-comer in the 70s-era Democratic Party—a talented pol who had the potential to steer the often-fractious party to the center.

But after an unsuccessful bid for his party’s presidential nomination in 1976, Bayh was upset in the Reagan landslide year of 1980 by a young Republican congressman named Dan Quayle.

Some Democrats also speculated that his father wasn’t the only family member Bayh had in mind in announcing his decision. Since Coats’ entry into the race, Republicans have, in pushing back against the onslaught of opposition research against the former senator-turned-lobbyist, made plain that they would target Bayh’s wife, Susan. An attorney, like her husband, Susan Bayh has made millions in recent years from sitting on a number of corporate boards, including those in the health and insurance industry.

Republicans, fending off questions about Coats’ Virginia residence, also signaled that they would hammer Bayh on the issue about where he lives. A recent National Republican Senatorial Committee email pictured the Washington, D.C., mansion where Bayh and his family reside.

His national ambitions apparent since his arrival in the Senate in 1999, Bayh "was never close to the leadership, he wasn't seen as a real team player," said one Democratic lobbyist close to Senate Democrats.

While Bayh's retirement stunned Reid and the rest of the leadership, there were some private signs that he might step down. Following the surprise decision last month by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to retire, Reid and other top Democrats circled back to members of their caucus up for reelection to get them to firmly commit to run.

Bayh, however, would not make that declaration, although Reid and his top lieutenants remained firmly convinced that he fully intended to run and win.

"Even three weeks ago, [Bayh] would not commit to running again," said a Senate Democratic insider. "I don't think anyone thought he was going to retire, but it now seems clear that he was on the fence. I just don't think anyone was able to interpret what he was signaling there."















Why Bayh's Exit Matters


Obama’s win in Indiana was proof that he was transcending the traditional red-blue divide. Peter Beinart on how the retirement of Sen. Evan Bayh endangers a Democratic dream.

To understand why Senator Evan Bayh’s surprise retirement is such a big deal, it’s important to realize that Indiana has always held a special place in the Democratic Party’s heart. It was the state, more than any other, which created the legend of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential bid.

In the late 1960s, the state had a reputation for racism, a reputation built from decades of Klan power, and from its heavy support in 1964 for the presidential bid of arch-segregationist George Wallace. It was widely considered hostile to the kind of social transformation that liberal presidential candidates desire. Indiana, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote to RFK, was “a middle-class, small-town, suburban state, fearful of challenge, seeking consolation and reassurance.” Not a good state for him at all.

But Kennedy spent the primary’s final days in a motorcade through the state’s gritty industrial north, flanked by Richard Hatcher, the young African-American mayor of Gary, and Tony Zale, a middleweight boxer and son of Eastern European immigrants beloved by the white ethnics who worked northern Indiana’s steel mills. In the end, Kennedy won, not only by sweeping the black vote but winning blue-collar whites as well. This “black-blue” coalition died alongside Kennedy in a Los Angeles hotel a month later, but for decades—as the nation’s politics moved right—liberals kept the dream alive.

It is partly this history that made Indiana so important to Barack Obama.

Republicans had taken the state in the 1968 presidential race, and held it ever since. But in the late Bush years, as economic distress in the state mounted, there were signs that perhaps a black-blue coalition was possible there again. In 2006, Indiana elected three new Democratic congressmen. Bayh, its Democratic senator, was a commanding figure in the state. In 2008, Obama went into the Indiana primary following painful losses in Ohio and Pennsylvania, losses that led many in the chattering class to wonder if he could ever win over the white beer and bowling crowd. But Obama came out of Indiana with a virtual draw, and more shockingly, he beat there John McCain there in the fall—becoming the first Democrat to win the state in more than 40 years.

Obama’s general election win in Indiana, along with his victories in North Carolina and Virginia, were central to his claim that he was transcending the red-blue divide, creating a new, less polarized political map, an enduring Democratic majority of the kind that had been lost when Robert Kennedy was gunned down.

It’s this dream that, for the foreseeable future, Evan Bayh’s retirement likely forecloses. Republicans will probably take the seat, given them both of the Hoosier state’s seats in the Senate, along with its gubernatorial mansion. Obama’s climate change agenda is unpopular in Indiana and his health-care reform effort is not faring much better. If a conservative Democrat like Evan Bayh fears he can’t win reelection in the state, it’s hard to imagine how Obama himself can win it again, absent a major shift in economic conditions.

For a party bracing for big losses in Congress, any retirement of a popular sitting senator is a blow. But this one represents something more: the death, once again, of the Democratic Party’s Indiana dream. After his primary victory, RFK remarked that, “The people here were fair to me. They gave me a chance. They listened to me. I could see this face, way in back in the crowd, and he was listening, really listening to me.” For Barack Obama, they don’t seem to be listening anymore.



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Sources: The Daily Beast, MSNBC, Politico, Google Maps

Larry Shaw, Another NC Democrat Senator Steps Down

Sen. Larry Shaw Won't Seek Re-election

Sen. Larry Shaw, a Cumberland County Democrat, announced Thursday he will not seek re-election this year. Shaw has served in the Senate's 21st district since 1995.

"A wise man once said the greatest one among you, is the greatest servant among you," Shaw said in a written statement. "My public service duty has been fulfilled and now the torch of community servitude must be passed on. Now more than ever, Cumberland County needs an individual with an executive mindset to harness the resources necessary to allow it to continue to develop into a competitive region of the state.”

Shaw's departure is the latest in a wave of longtime senators announcing their retirements. Tony Rand, the former Majority Leader, resigned his seat representing a Cumberland County district at the end of last year.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Under The Dome, NC General Assembly, Google Maps

GOP's Andrew Murray Joins Charlotte DA Race; Peter Gilchrist Retires

Andrew Murray To Run For Charlotte DA; Peter Gilchrist Announces Retirement


For the past 35 years, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County voters have made Peter Gilchrist their District Attorney; the top Lawyer tasked with going after Charlotte's bad guys, these days, no easy job.

"It's really time for someone else to assume the leadership of this office,” said Gilchrist at a news conference. Gilchrist, a Democrat, says he's leaving the office in the best shape it's ever been. But he acknowledges there is still plenty of room for improvement: "We are way behind technologically. We still deal with paper files. We have multiple people in the office who's only job is to find a file a get it to the right person,” says Gilchrist.

The workload Gilchrist oversees is staggering: 79 assistant district attorneys to manage. 12,000 felony cases. And more than 200,000 misdemeanors every year. "I've still got lawyers that are carrying 20 murder cases. One lawyer. That's an impossible task,” says Gilchrist.

"There's got to be focuses on efficiency in the court system,” says Julie Eiselt. For Eiselt, stream lining the courts is personal. She's a crime victim but never got her day in front of a judge.

She, along with the group Neighbors For A Safer Charlotte, hope new blood will bring about change and points to Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe as a success story. "He's shaken some things up and he took a lot of heat for it in the beginning," says Eiselt. Monroe, who has voiced frustration with repeat offenders in Mecklenburg County, declined FOX Charlotte’s request for comment on the DA's retirement.

Charlotte lawyer Adam Seifer urges voters to be practical about what any DA can realistically accomplish. "The laws are what they are. You could have a district attorney that has certain viewpoints on punishment and sentencing, but they can't do anything more than what the laws allow them do to,” says Seifer.

So far, only Republican Andrew Murray says he will run for DA. As for Gilchrist, the 70-year-old says he'd like to take woodworking classes and travel.




Andrew Murray's Profile:


R. Andrew Murray is a partner at GCLLM. Before being hired as a partner in 2000, he was a partner in the firm of Ledford and Murray, P.C., from 1996 until 2000. Prior to that, Mr. Murray was an Assistant District Attorney for 3 1/2 years for the Mecklenburg County (North Carolina) District Attorney's office.

Attorney Murray received his Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1989 and then received his Law Degree from The University of North Carolina School of Law in 1992. Mr. Murray has been practicing in Charlotte since 1992.

Mr. Murray is a Commander with the United States Coast Guard Reserves, having served from 1980 to the present. He presently holds a top secret clearance and is assigned to the Department of Defense Strategies and Counter-Terrorism at the Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D. C. In addition to the practice of law, Mr. Murray is on the Executive Board of Lake Norman Christian School and is an active member, along with his family, of Lake Norman Baptist Church . He has been married for 26 years and has 3 children.




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Sources: GCLLM.com, WCNC, Google Maps

NBC Drops Jay Leno's Prime Time Experiment...Retirement Looms

Perhaps its time for Jay Leno to retire. Hasn't he already made enough money? Just a thought.






NBC Ending Leno's Prime-Time Show


NBC decided to end the Jay Leno experiment when some of its affiliates started talking about dropping the nightly prime-time show, its top entertainment executive said Sunday.

NBC Universal Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin said Sunday that Leno's nightly prime-time show will end with the beginning of the Winter Olympics on Feb. 12. NBC wants Leno to do an 11:35 p.m. show each night, a return to his old time slot, Gaspin said.

Gaspin said despite lower ratings for NBC at 10 p.m. compared with last year, the network was making money off the show.

But affiliates were upset that the show was leading fewer viewers into their late news programs, costing them significant advertising revenue. Some affiliates told NBC in December they would go public soon about their complaints if a change wasn't made, or even take Leno's show off the air.

"The drumbeat started getting louder," Gaspin said.

Gaspin has proposed moving Conan O'Brien's "Tonight Show" to 12:05 a.m., and Jimmy Fallon's show, "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," would start an hour later. But the late-night hosts had not agreed to the move. Gaspin said he expected NBC's late-night situation to be cleared up by the start of the Olympics.

Asked if O'Brien and Fallon expressed anger at his proposal, Gaspin said both men were professional and understanding when they talked.

"Beyond that, it was a private conversation," Gaspin said.


Sources: AP, MSNBC, Youtube, Wikipedia

David Hoyle Announces His Retirement From NC Senate...Bye, Bye

David Hoyle to retire


NC State Sen. David Hoyle, one of the most powerful lawmakers in the Senate, plans to retire.

Hoyle, 70, a Gaston County Democrat who has been in the Senate for 18 years and is consistently placed near the top in effectiveness rankings of legislators, said he will finish his current term, but won't run again.

"Public service has always been a central part of my life and my commitment to our community and our state remains strong," Hoyle said in a news release. "Having had the honor and privilege to serve my community and state in every way that has been asked of me, beginning 45 years ago as mayor of Dallas, it is now the time and the season to welcome the next phase of my life."

Hoyle, who rooms with Senate Leader Marc Basnight in Raleigh during sessions, is one of the leading voices for business interests in the Senate. His district is competitive and his decision not to run again gives Republicans a legitimate shot at claiming the seat.

Hoyle's decision continues what is shaping up to be a changing of the Democratic guard in the Senate chamber. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand is leaving the chamber this month. Sen. R.C. Soles Jr., the longest serving member, has not yet announced whether he intends to run again, but has been plagued with personal issues that make a run difficult.

Soles, Rand and Hoyle represent three of the longest-serving and most powerful lawmakers in the chamber. Another Democrat, Sen. Julia Boseman of Wilmington, has also announced she won't seek re-election.

Boseman's district is also considered a swing district where Republicans or Democrats could be competitive.



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Under The Dome, News & Observer, NC General Assembly, Google Maps

SC Supreme Court Orders State To Pay Back Retirees $40 Million Dollars

The State----

The South Carolina Retirement System must pay back about $40 million in retirement contributions it improperly took from the paychecks of state employees who participated in a program that lets them continue working after retirement, a state judge ruled this week.

The ruling — which affects 12,688 people who retired from their state jobs before July 1, 2005 — stems from class-action lawsuits filed in Georgetown and Richland counties. Those eligible for the refunds should receive a letter.

“I’m excited about the ruling and looking forward to getting that money back,” said James Arnold, a former captain with the Georgetown city police department. “This whole thing has been pretty ludicrous.”

Arnold’s lawsuit against the retirement system, originally filed in 2005, became a class-action case that covered police, firefighters, judges and other public safety officials. It was combined with a second lawsuit that covered other state employees.

The state Retirement System will ask Judge James Williams to reconsider the ruling, said system spokesman Michael Sponhour. The ruling also can be appealed to the S.C. Supreme Court.

The ruling affects workers who were caught in changes to state law that require retiree-to-work participants to make contributions to the retirement system starting July 1, 2005.

Those contributions are not credited to the retirees who make them, but are used to supplement the state’s retirement fund.

The retiree-to-work program was created so state agencies can retain skilled workers beyond retirement age. The program lets workers retire after 25 years and then return to the same job for up to five more years — earning both a salary and pension benefits.

Prior to July 1, 2005, retirees who went back to their state jobs did not have to pay into the retirement system.

When the new law took effect, state officials started taking money from the paychecks of those people who had entered the retiree-to-work program under the old rule.

“When we retired, we were promised no more money would be taken out because we would derive no further benefits,” Arnold said. “It was a promise that didn’t happen.”

Williams said this week that changing the law for workers who already were participating in the program was improper. He ordered the state to refund all the money taken. That money has been held in an escrow account since the lawsuits were filed.

“We’re not looking for any damages. All we want is the money that we’ve already paid,” said Arnold, whose deductions amounted to about $300 every two weeks. “Police and firefighters don’t make a lot of money to begin with, so that’s a big chunk.”

Gene Connell, a Surfside Beach lawyer, and Conway lawyer Brana Williams represented the 2,088 public safety officials covered by the ruling.

Sponhour said he believes the ruling is “in error because we believe the General Assembly has the constitutional authority to amend the law.”

The retirement system lost a similar case in 2006 when the S.C. Supreme Court ruled state officials improperly took retirement deductions from workers participating in the Teacher and Employee Retention Incentive, or TERI, program. The court ordered a refund of all deductions.


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Sources: The State, The (Myrtle Beach) Sun News, Wikipedia, Google Maps