Monday: The Unlimited Liability Facing Health Insurers; Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Tonight; Doris Lessing Dies

Active rigs: 184

RBN Energy: How all that crude will be distributed across the Gulf Coast (a continuation of the series)

We estimate that over 4 MMb/d of new crude transportation capacity will have opened up to the Texas Gulf Coast by the end of 2015 – to a region with just under 3.7 MMb/d of nameplate refining capacity. With crude exports restricted by Federal law, some of that crude is going to need to find a home – most likely at Eastern Gulf refineries in Louisiana and Mississippi. Today we look at how some of the incoming flood of crude could be redistributed across the Gulf Coast region.

Three companies, including MDU announce increased dividends/distributions.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment decisions based on anything you read here or think you may have read here.

The Wall Street Journal

Military eyes cuts for military benefits.

Off the table for now are changes in the retirement system. Because the military hopes to allow current service members to keep their existing retirement plans, it will be two decades until any savings from changes in military retirement are realized, making shifts in the program less urgent. 

We've been blogging about this from the beginning: ObamaCare's death spiral and high-risk patients. Now a front page story in TWSJ: high-risk patients fuel more health-law worries.  For now, some states are keeping the pools, but long-term will probably result in higher rates for everyone. Good news for insurers for now.

So-called high-risk pools for people rejected by commercial health-insurance companies were supposed to be largely phased out when President Barack Obama's health law kicked in. Instead, they are gaining a brief second life in some states due to the problems with the federal health-insurance exchange created by the law. The development may represent short-term good news for the law, because it would keep some people with costly medical conditions out of the new policies, at least temporarily. But it adds to the uncertainty for insurers, analysts say, increasing concerns that could cause rates to rise for everyone next year.

Health-law fracas leaves Congress in limbo. 

Furor over the botched implementation of President Barack Obama's health-care law has allowed Congress to engage in a familiar activity: procrastination. Prospects already were dim for substantial legislation in the dwindling days of 2013, but the headline-grabbing fights over the federal health exchange and canceled insurance policies have given House Republicans no incentive to change the subject. The issue has drowned out talk of an immigration overhaul, taken the focus off high-stakes budget talks and stalled efforts to rewrite the tax code.

Nobel author Doris Lessing dies at age 94. 

Insurance costs may hurt customer spending -- Wal-Mart. This may be the big story in 2014. Yellen doing everything she can to prevent a downturn in the US recovery due to high health care insurance premiums.

Bloomberg's news division to lay off about 50 employees. What interesting timing, see my post on BloombergBusinessweek from yesterday. There was one interesting "dot-to-connect" in that issue; if I remember, I will post it later. It actually has something to do with the Bakken.

The Los Angeles Times

The Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight. The Leonid meteor shower occurs each November when the Earth passes through a stream of debris left in the wake of comet Tempel-Tuttle. The icy comet orbits the sun once every 33 years, shedding dust and detritus as it zips through space. When bits of that detritus burn up in our planet's atmosphere, we see meteors. Apparently, the viewing might be in prime time, 7:00 to 10:45 pm.