What We Will Be Talking About Thursday; Another #1 For North Dakota -- October 1, 2014

North Dakota's answer to the rail backlog: build a bigger mill! This is an incredibly good story. The Dickinson Press is reporting:

Agriculture officials and wheat producers are welcoming a planned expansion to the North Dakota Mill and Elevator in Grand Forks.

The $27 million expansion, approved by the North Dakota Industrial Commission in mid-September, is the result of increased demand from customers, mill officials said. The addition will increase its capacity by 11,500 hundredweight of flour produced per day to roughly 49,500 hundredweight, making it the largest single milling operation in the country, said Vance Taylor, the mill’s president and general manager.

The expansion will mean the addition of at least six jobs, Taylor said.

Taylor hopes to finish the expansion by the fall of 2015. Current flour production won’t be affected by construction, he said in a press release.

Taylor believes there’s a Nabisco facility in Toledo, Ohio, that’s roughly the same size as state mill currently, but the expansion will make North Dakota’s the largest in the country.

Six more jobs than the Obama administration has created, some might suggest. Certainly not me.

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Off With Her Head

Henry VI, Part III -- Shakespeare
Yes, I know -- insensitive

Secret Service chief fired; fastest firing in this administration. Fortunate for her this was not in the land of ISIL.

Regular readers know what's coming next:

Immigrant Song, Karen O, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

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Scalped

Yes, I know -- insensitive

This is a biggie. This would have been the top story in The Los Angeles Times today had it not been for the Secret Service story. California public service pensioners at risk when a city declares bankruptcy:

A federal bankruptcy judge dealt a serious blow to California's public employee pension systems by ruling Wednesday that payments for future worker retirements can be reduced when a city declares bankruptcy -- just like its other debts.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein ruled that bankruptcy law supersedes California pension laws that require cities to fund their workers' future retirement checks.

"I've concluded the pension could be adjusted,” Klein said.

tockton does not want to reduce its pension payments, but Klein ruled that it can be on the table in the bankruptcy proceeding. The judge must still rule whether to accept Stockton's bankruptcy plan, which does not include the cuts.

The decision came after a large creditor of Stockton, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012, asked the judge to reduce the amount the city owes to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the nation's largest public pension fund.

Until now, CalPERS had argued successfully in the bankruptcy cases of other California cities that amounts it requires for public worker pensions could not legally be reduced.

I assume this has an appeal process.  Certainly public service pensions are 100% safe in California. If I were this judge, I would request Secret Service Ferguson City police protection. Wow.

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