Daily Archives: December 13, 2019

The Prime Minister spoke on pension reform on Wednesday (December 11), clarifying some details on the governments plan to consolidate the current 42-plan system into one single, universal plan.

Mr Philippe confirmed that the new system would go ahead, with people born in 2004 - and turning 18 in 2022 - becoming the first workers to enter directly into the new points-based plan. He also confirmed that the plans would only apply to workers born after 1975.

The PM said that the minimum age of retirement would remain at 62, but there would be financial incentives for those who continue to work longer, gradually increasing with each extra year worked, with the full amount per month available from age 64. The police will continue to be allowed to leave from age 52.

The minimum pension amount for those drawing their full pension was confirmed at 1,000 from 2022 onwards, compared to the 980 amount currently offered.

The new system will use points, collected per year worked, to calculate final pension amounts, with the point values fixed according to a golden rule, based on a system of average salaries, Mr Philippe said.

Anyone living in poverty will benefit from extra points, the PM said, without adding further specific details yet. This will mean affected people will benefit from three extra years of part-time work, paid full-time. This will apply particularly to nurses and carers, and similar professions that take on night shifts, with up to 20-30% of nurses expected to qualify for this extra, the PM said.

Mr Philippe has said that he remains firm, but not closed ("ferme, mais pas ferm") to further debate and discussion, even as he continues to push through most of the controversial reforms.

Yet, some unions have said that they are not satisfied with Mr Philippes response, with train workers from the CGT-Cheminots saying that there will be no truce [break] over Christmas as long as the stalemate remains.

Laurent Brun, from the CGT-Cheminots, said: "No break for Christmas, except if the government discovers its reason before then."

Yves Veyrier, from Force Ouvrire, said today that there will be no "stoppage" for Christmas, and Sud-Rail federal secretary Fabien Dumas said that it was even planning "a larger strike movement" to force pension reform.

Mr Veyrier said: "The right to strike is fundamental."

However, some unions said they would support a break over Christmas, including Unsa, and CFDT; the latter of which saying they want to "talk" as much as possible, and "leave people free to move around as they wish" while also "seeking all possible ways to make ourselves heard".

Former transport minister (and current ecology minister) Elisabeth Borne said: Announcing that you want to ruin the holiday season for the French public is irresponsible. Public service should firstly help users, and especially those who want to go on holiday for Christmas.

More than three quarters of SNCF and RATP workers will not be affected by the reforms. I urge them to understand the difficulties of the public.

Yet, Laurent Berger, secretary general of union CFDT, called the plans useless and unfair, while Philippe Pivet, retirement secretary at the Force Ouvrire (FO) union said: Theyre hypocritical because yes, we are keeping the legal retirement age at 62, but while still saying that its better not to leave at this age because youll lose points.

Dress it up however you like, but it still comes down to a rise in [retirement] age of two years.

Other unions including UNSA, have said that they are unhappy with the extent of the provision for people living in poverty, and said that Mr Philippes announcement had not been clear enough.

And even though the government has clarified that the plans will only apply to those born after 1975 and not the initially-planned 1963, and after 1985 for public sector workers - in a move that has been called the grandfather clause- some unions say this does not go far enough.

Didier Mathis, general secretary at the UNSA railway union, said: This still applies to 40% of our staff, especially SNCF and RATP drivers, meaning 52,000 people who are losing calculations on their pensions over the past six months.

Some unions are arguing that the grandfather clause should mean that the new system would only apply to individuals entering the workplace market from now on, and would never be applied to existing workers.

The police have called off their strike action after they were granted an audience on Thursday, December 12 with the minister for the interior Christophe Castaner, his junior minister Laurent Nuez, and the pensions high commissioner, Jean-Paul Delevoye.

They agreed that their minimum retirement age should stay at 52, for those whose career has seen them work a number of years in dangerous roles and situations.

Almost two thirds (70%) of French people remain unconvinced by the Prime Ministers speech on pensions, a new poll by Odoxa-Dentsu Consulting for news source FranceInfo and newspaperLe Figaro has found.

A similar number (67%) say that he has not made significant concessions, and 60% say that they do not believe that the reforms will usher in a fair or sustainable pension system.

Almost two thirds (68%) say that strike action against the reforms is still justified, a percentage that has not dropped since a similar poll a week ago.

Unsurprisingly, support for the PM is highest among supporters of the ruling party LREM (82% said they were convinced by his words), and much lower among opposition parties (59% of LR supporters said they were not convinced, along with 61% of PS, 68% of EELV, 82% of Insoumis, and 83% of RN).

The poll was undertaken online on December 11-12 2019, over a representative sample of 1,002 French people aged 18 and over.

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Unions: Strike may continue in France over Christmas Strikes are continuing in France today - The Connexion

Provided by The Motley Fool How Does Your Credit Score Compare to the Average?

Credit scores affect your ability to borrow, your cost of borrowing, and all kinds of transactions with any company that checks your credit.

Since these scores are so important, it's important to know what yours is. It can also be helpful to know where you stand relative to your peers.

Fortunately, new research from The Ascent is packed with information about credit scores in the United States. You can check out how you compare to the average American, as well as people in your age group and your state. And if your score is below average, we also have some tips to help improve it so you can excel when it comes to credit.

According to The Ascent's data, the average FICO Score in the United States hit 704 in 2018. This is a four point increase from 2017 and a 14 point increase from the average score a decade before. It's also considered to be a good score that would qualify the average American for loans at reasonable rates from most lenders.

We also looked at the average FICO Score by age. Those who are 60 and over have the highest average of 747, while pre-retirees aged 50 to 59 have an average score of 713. Both of these scores are considered good to excellent.

Younger Americans tend to have lower average scores than their older counterparts, though. Young adults aged 18 to 29 average a score of 659, while adults age 30 to 39 have an average score of 677. Americans between the ages of 40 and 49 have an average score of 690.

The Ascent's research also revealed that the average VantageScore was 694 as of the first quarter of 2018. VantageScores are an alternative to FICO Scores. FICO Scores are determined using a formula created by the Fair Isaac Corporation, while VantageScore's formula was developed in 2006 by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

If your score is below average, you may have more trouble getting approved for financing and you may have to pay above average rates for credit cards, personal loans, or other types of financing.

But you don't have to just accept a lower score. You can be proactive and take steps to try to increase it. To do this, you need to understand that your score is based on a number of factors: your payment record, how much of your available credit you use, the age of your credit history, the types of credit you have, and how many inquiries are on your credit report (inquiries go on your report when you apply for new credit).

If you can improve your payment history by making payments on time and paying down debt, you can hopefully earn a score that's at least as good as the average Americans -- or perhaps even better.

Knowing how your score compares can help you to determine where you stand when it comes to your credit -- and whether there's room for improvement. Hopefully, your score is above average or at least equal to it. But if not, responsible behavior can boost it over time and put you on par with your peers. Then you'll be able to qualify for competitive financing from a lender of your choice.

The Motley Fool owns and recommends MasterCard and Visa, and recommends American Express. Were firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team. SPONSORED:

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How Does Your Credit Score Compare to the Average? - msnNOW

By Michelle KeyPublisher

Mayor Gary Fuller and the Opelika City Council recognized Lamar Baker as the Opelika Police Officer of the 4th Quarter during last weeks city council meeting. Also during the meeting, Opelika firefighter Chuck Riddle was named Firefighter of the Year. Fuller also read a proclamation honoring the community clean-up efforts in Ward 2. Councilwoman Tiffany Gibson-Pitts and Golden Rule Lodge #11 members Darryl Mitchel, Derric Baker and Demarcie Whatley were present to accept the proclamation on the communitys behalf.Michael King was also recognized in the proclamation, posthumously for his service to Ward 2. Michael was kind, loyal and committed to make sure that Ward 2 was clean, Fuller read. King passed away in November 2018. Also during the meeting, the council: approved a request 2019 Victorian Front Porch Tour for street closures during the event approved a request from Mama Mocha Coffee for a street closure for the Longest Table Event denied a revised request from Opelika Main Street for Christmas in a Railroad Town pertaining to the times of the road closure for 8th Street approved the Tru Blu Sports Bar request for a lounge retail liquor class I and an on-premise beer license held public hearings and subsequently voted to approve the weed abatements on the following properties:

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Opelika City Council recognizes Lamar Baker as 'Officer of the Quarter', issues a proclamation thanking community members for cleanup efforts in Ward...

Here are all the new Legendary items confirmed in the upcoming Borderlands 3 DLC, Moxxi's Heist Of The Handsome Jackpot.

Weve already got a bit of a sneak peek with FL4Ks Legendary class mod, St4ckbot, which looks like it will single-handedly rejuvenate their critical hit build. Now thanks to Reddit, we have a list of all the new Legendary Class Mods, as well as some returning Legendaries from previous Borderlands games.

But first, a big thanks to Reddit user CREmACquesOM for compiling this image of all the new items. Now lets jump into the Class Mods!

Zane gets some love thanks to the Dastardly Cheap Shot Seein' Dead (which will likely be just Seein Dead with the rest being prefixes). This Class Mod is all about kill skills, boosting Donnybrook, Playing Dirty, and Violent Violence to increase dun damage, fire rate, health regen, and have a chance at firing twice per trigger pull. On top of that, the Class Mod's special ability now makes it possible to activate kill skills on merely damaging an enemy (with a 25% bonus too), making him way more viable in boss fights.

Amara, on the other hand, gets even tankier with the help of the Aware Golden Rule. Laid Bare, Mindfulness, and Helping Hands all get a boost, which provides movement speed, shield regen, and increases damage after using her action skill. The unique ability increases her action skill cooldown whenever she's damaged, which just helps all those skills even more.

RELATED:Borderlands 3: Moxxi's Heist Of The Handsome Jackpot DLC Adds OP FL4K Class Mod

And finally, Moze just does more of what she loves: shooting things. The Investing Blistering Green Monster increases Scorching RPMs, Click Click, and The Iron Bank, which all just make her shoot longer and harder. The mod also gives bonus corrosive damage the longer she holds down the trigger. Can't go wrong with that.

We also have a whole list of returning Legendary weapons from Borderlands 2, including the Nukem, Creamer, Heart Breaker, Slow Hand, Aim, and Boomer. Several of these weapons were Moxxi weapons in the previous game, which means they might also heal the user whenever theyre used to deal damage.

The new weapons are Scoville, Craps, Lucky 7, ION LASER, and Cheap Tips, which all fit into the casino theme. We dont know what they do, but theyre sure to be epic.

Moxxi's Heist Of The Handsome Jackpot arrives on December 19th.

Source: Reddit

NEXT: Borderlands 3: Everything You Need To Know About The New Patch

Laura Bailey Left The Game Awards Early To Play In Critical Role

Actually a collective of 6 hamsters piloting a human-shaped robot, Sean hails from Toronto, Canada. Passionate about gaming from a young age, those hamsters would probably have taken over the world by now if they didn't vastly prefer playing and writing about video games instead.The hamsters are so far into their long-con that they've managed to acquire a bachelor's degree from the University of Waterloo and used that to convince the fine editors at TheGamer that they can write "gud werds," when in reality they just have a very sophisticated spellchecker program installed in the robot's central processing unit.

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Check Out All The New Legendaries Coming In The First Borderlands 3 DLC - TheGamer

Despite enduring more trials and tribulations than most of us will experience in our entire lifetime, Texas youngster Jonah insists on being relentlessly optimistic.

The spirited 12-year-old made quite the impression on local Dallas TV station WFAA-TV when he appeared their Wednesdays Child segment in a full three-piece suit. The networks short features aim to highlight the stories of foster children who are seeking after an adoptive home.

I am a person who likes to uplift people, Jonah told the station. The golden rule is treat somebody the way you would like to be treated.'

Mature beyond his years, the inspiring young man said he desired to have knowledge and wisdom, and opened up about how his faith in God has helped him get through the suffering of his past.

Hes brought me through many, many things. As far as abuse before I came into CPS.. hes brought me through a lot, overall, he said.

As for how he has coped with four years in foster care, Jonah said he adopts a ruthlessly positive mindset that is rooted in his Christian faith.

Waking me up this morning, you know what I mean? Starting me on my way, Im in my right mind, I know what Im doing, I know who I am, and Im proud of the person that I am, he said.

And hes no slouch in the classroom, either. I am an honor roll student, Jonah explained. When Im in school, I focus. I got an award last year for being a multi-tasker.

As for finding a forever home, the astonishingly poised young man is assured that the right family is just around the corner.

The reason why I want to be adopted is because I know theres a family out there that fits me in the best possible way that they can, he said.

Closing out the segment, the reporter commended Jonah to prospective families and wished him well for the future.

No, you dont meet a kid like this every day, she narrated, which is why the parents who adopt him will be one lucky family.

Jonah, may they be your fiercest protectors and your never-ending source of strength.

For more information on Jonah, WFAA urged people to send all approved home studies to La Queena Warren at [emailprotected], if youre already licensed.

What a guy!

More here:

Hopeful 12-Year-Old Foster Child Trusting God to Find Him a Forever Home: 'I Know There's a Family Out There' - Faithwire

The word conservative is doing a lot of unspoken work in this story. It serves, among other things, as both an accusation and a defiant confession.

North Dakota county may become USs 1st to bar new refugees

If they vote to bar refugees, as expected, Burleigh County home to about 95,000 people and the capital city of Bismarck could become the first local government to do so since President Donald Trumpissued an executive ordermaking it possible.

Trumps executive order this fall came as he had already proposed cutting the number of refugees next year to the lowest level since Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980. He declared that refugees should be resettled only in places where the state and local governments counties gave consent. Since then, many governors and counties around the country have declared that they would continue taking refugees.

Republican Gov. Doug Burgum said last month that North Dakotawould continue accepting refugeeswhere local jurisdictions agreed, and his spokesman said the governor saw it as a local decision. Soon after, Cass and Grand Forks counties, which are home to the states largest city, Fargo, and third-largest city, Grand Forks, respectively, declared they would continue taking refugees. Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said refugees were needed to boost the citys economy, and that 90% were fully employed within three months of resettling in his city.

But the idea was quickly opposed in more conservative Burleigh County. Among the opponents was Republican state Rep. Rick Becker, of Bismarck, an ultraconservative who took to social media to criticize the program as unrestrained and a possible drain on social service programs, schools and law enforcement.

Burleigh County is likely to bar refugees because Burleigh County is conservative. The most outspoken opponent to permitting refuge for those fleeing violence and persecution is a local Republican state representative who is ultraconservative.

We are presented with an identity: conservative equals inhospitable to outsiders and those in need. Rick Becker is opposed to accepting refugees because he is a conservative. Rick Becker is conservative because he opposes accepting refugees.

AP reporter James MacPherson attempts to employ the word conservative as a dispassionate, disinterested descriptor a label that strives for accuracy, not for evaluation. This is in part because the article is discussing Republicans, and the generally agreed-upon consensus view is that Republicans are the conservative party in America. This is, in fact, how the Burleigh County Republicans describe themselves, so MacPhersons use of conservative is also deferential allowing those he discusses to describe themselves as they see fit.

But despite all of that despite the fact that this use of conservative here is customary, chosen, and embraced by the subjects of the article it describes here the use of the term here is still likely to be regarded by some as judgmental, pejorative, or biased. Thats due to the unavoidable substance of the article, which reports the facts of the matter, namely that in Burleigh County, North Dakota, conservatives seek to deny refuge to those in need.

Thats simply a blandly accurate description of what is happening. That this will strike many readers including many self-identified conservatives as pejorative or judgmental has nothing to do with MacPhersons or my predisposition toward these self-declared conservatives. Nor does it have anything to do with MacPhersons or my evaluation of their behavior.

I will happily add my opinion and evaluation to that simple description: Conservatives in Burleigh County seek to deny refuge to those in need and in my opinion that is a shitty, sinful, blasphemously evil thing to do.

But it doesnt matter whether or not I add that, or even whether or not I think that. What matters is that everyone thinks that including the ultra-conservative Rep. Rick Becker, his fellow anti-refugee Republicans in Burleigh County, and all of their fellow anti-refugee Republicans across America. I dont have to tell you or them that I think this because it is what everyone recognizes to be the case. Banning refugees is just shitty behavior an ignorant, selfish, dishonest, indecent violation of the Golden Rule.

This creates an uncomfortable situation for poor Rick Becker. He is defiantly proud of his self-chosen identity as a conservative. And he is adamant that being a conservative entails denying refuge to people in need. If you were to accuse him of going soft on his proposed refugee ban, he would vehemently deny that was the case, insisting that no one takes a harder line against providing refuge to refugees than he does. He will not abide the suggestion that anyone could possibly be to the right of him on this point, or that anyone else might be more conservative than he is when it comes to the conservative belief that refugees should be turned away.

And yet, at the same time, he is inescapably aware that his position is utterly gross and shameful. This is what leads him to defend that position as unwaveringly conservative rather than attempting the impossible task of defending it as good or as wise or truthful or beautiful.

Perhaps Im overstating the matter when I say that even Rick Becker and the rest of the anti-refugee Republicans of Burleigh County agree that banning refugees is shameful, sinful, ugly and evil. Maybe they dont agree with that at all. Maybe they think its good and right and just to ban refugees.

But I dont buy that, because look what happens even if we follow MacPhersons example and attempt to be as neutral as possible, stating only the stark facts of the matter and refraining from any evaluation or judgment of those facts. We could say:

1. People who describe and identify themselves as conservatives seek to ban refugees in Burleigh County, North Dakota; and

2. These same self-described conservatives insist that banning refugees from Burleigh County is the conservative thing to do.

3. Banning refugees is a shitty thing to do.

Folks like Rick Becker will try to distance and insulate themselves from that recognition by attributing that third fact to the mere opinion of specific others. Points 1 and 2 are an attack on conservatives, they will say, because most liberals think that banning refugees is a shitty thing to do.

And thats not wrong. Most liberals do think that. Because most liberals are humans and most humans think that.Most conservatives are also humans, and so most conservatives think that too.

We humans all of us, liberal, conservative, whatever tell stories about this very thing. In some of these human stories people offer refuge to others who are fleeing violence, disaster, or destruction. In other of these human stories, people refuse to offer such refuge. We humans can tell either version of that story. But what we cannot and do not ever do is tell a story in which those who refuse to offer refuge are the Good Guys.

It is impossible to tell such a story, or to hear it, or to imagine it. By definition because that is what the Good Guys means.

Rick Becker knows this. Thats why hes so defensive about proudly defending the indefensible.

Becker is quite aware that the policy hes proposing looks really bad:

This isnt about skin color, said Becker, a plastic surgeon and former gubernatorial candidate. In the past, nobody had any say whatsoever. Now we have something that should have been in place decades ago.

Now, if they want to accept them, they can, and if they dont want to they shouldnt.

So this isnt about skin color, Becker says, as everyone seems to say when theyre doing something explicitly about skin color. Becker says, rather, this is about states rights. The past isnt dead. It isnt even etc.

Im still unclear as to what it would even mean for Burleigh County to withhold its official consent for the resettlement of refugees there. Trumps executive order dreamed up by his white supremacist senior legislative aide, Stephen Miller seems illegal or unenforceable or, at best, simply beside the point. When the conservative fundamentalist Baptist church I grew up in signed up to resettle a refugee family of Boat People back in the early 1980s, we didnt seek or require the consent of Union County, N.J. We were just a group of citizens acting as such. The county government had no role, no jurisdiction, no say, and no involvement in any of that.

In providing refuge for that family, we were also a local church acting as such. Had our local county government imagined they had any legal right to muck about with our doing that, wed have taken them to court and every lawyer they tried to hire against us wouldve advised them to back off, drop the matter, and apologize to avoid losing a slam-dunk First Amendment case.

I note that Burleigh County, North Dakota, is home to many local churches that belong to traditions with a long history of welcoming refugees as an intrinsic expression and requirement of their faith. There are dozens of Lutheran congregations there that have long supported the work of Church World Service. There are local Catholic parishes that have long contributed to support refugee resettlement through the UCCB and Catholic Charities. There are scads of nondenominational white evangelical congregations that have, up until recently at least, wholeheartedly supported the refugee resettlement work of World Relief. And thats just the Christians there are also at least three synagogues in Bismarck, and Americas Jewish congregations have always way outperformed us American Christians when it comes to offering refuge to those in need.

I dont know, specifically, if any of these many many religious congregations in Burleigh County are directly involved in helping to resettle refugees in their community, but the odds are that at least some of them are or plan to be. Does the Burleigh County government imagine it has the authority to stop them by denying them its consent? Does the Republican-controlled Burleigh County government imagine that it has any hope of defending itself against the lawsuit that these congregations are likely to bring?

Yes, I realize Trump has had three years to cram hundreds of Federalist Society ideologues onto the courts, and that those bozos do not recognize religious liberty as a constitutional right, only as a political slogan having to do with letting bakeries refuse to sell baked goods or allowing pharmacists to refuse to sell Monistat because they pretend to believe its abortion cream. But even so, theres no legal basis for a county government barring local congregations from practicing their faith in the way that American congregations have done for more than a century.

The idea of a local government withholding its consent for refugee resettlement just seems confused. This is not an activity that has ever required that governments consent.

But now, according to Trumps strange executive order, were told that government consent will be required even for activities in which that government has no role or involvement. Religious groups who seek to continue doing that which religious groups have been doing will first need to seek and secure the governments permission.

There are many words that might be used to describe that state of affairs, but conservative really shouldnt be one of them.

The rest is here:

North Dakota conservatives seek to deny refuge to those in need - Patheos