NDDOT activity: by the way, NDDOT has a huge amount of information at their site, including news that highway 23, from where this photo is being taken, is in the process of being widened. Also, at the NDDOT site, there is a photograph of the new Lewis and Clark bridge going up southwest of Williston; the photos are refreshed every 60 seconds. This saves me a lot of time not having to drive up to Williston to see progress on the bridge. When you get to the linked site, scroll down to see the photograph.
Active rigs:
| 5/18/2016 | 05/18/2015 | 05/18/2014 | 05/18/2013 | 05/18/2012 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active Rigs | 26 | 82 | 190 | 189 | 209 |
RBN Energy: how more NGL storage would help balance supply/demand and boost northeast netbacks.
Suncor shuts oil sands mine again as Alberta fires spread. Bloomberg/Rigzone story here.
Oil outages (Canada, Venezuela, Libya, Nigeria) speeding up new world energy order. -- CNBC, talking heads talking.
Update on Turkey-Israel natural gas pipeline; Russia, more than ever, will do what it can to stop it. -- oilprice.com.
Major health care insurer sues US over ObamaCare. -- Wall Street Journal. Another footnote in this sorry saga.
Major insurer Highmark Inc. is suing the federal government, arguing it is owed money under the Affordable Care Act, a move that opens yet another front in the continuing legal battles over the 2010 health law.
Highmark, the insurance arm of Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Highmark Health, said in the suit that the U.S. failed to live up to obligations to pay the insurer nearly $223 million owed under an ACA program known as “risk corridors,” which aimed to limit the financial risks borne by insurers entering the new health-law markets. The suit claims “violations of the mandatory risk-corridor payment obligations prescribed” in the health law.
The suit is likely to draw close attention because it comes from a company that continues to be a major player in the ACA health-insurance marketplaces in three states. Many other insurers also suffered major shortfalls in risk-corridor payments.Number of uninsured in US drops below 10% for first time since 2015. -- WSJ. Wasn't 2015 just last year?
With 99% of Kentucky vote in, Sanders led Clinton by about 2,000 votes. Then, all of a sudden, just as the last 1% of votes were tallied ... "they" found a carton of votes for Hillary. Hillary squeaks by in a win in Kentucky, but huge loss in Oregon.
President Obama re-defines "over-time" eligibility. He now correlates "over-time" with how much an individual earns, not his job is classified. I understand President Obama's emotional thinking. Unfortunately he doesn't understand job classifications. President feels that it is unfair that "by definition" "managers" who are salaried often work more hours than their minimum-wage employees and therefore, on an hourly basis, managers may earn less than some of their employees. The big difference is this: the manager is guaranteed his job (all things being equal), his salary, his contractual benefits (vacation time, etc). Minimum-wage employees are guaranteed very little. They are guaranteed their hourly wage, but they are not guaranteed minimum hours.
Other benefits of being a manager is resume enhancement as one climbs the corporate ladder.
In the big scheme of things, President Obama's most recent executive order may not change much in America, but make no mistake about it, all employers will take a much closer look at salaried managers vs minimum wage employees. Note: President Obama's executive has a $48,000 threshold. President Obama has just set an artificial glass ceiling / threshold / whatever you want to call it for those aspiring to be managers and work themselves up the corporate ladder. Employers will do all they can to stay below the threshold. I doubt that will be difficult in "fly-over America, but in the northeast and along the west coast, it will be difficult to recruit quality managers if there is a salary cap.
If the numbers work "right," I'm sure the first thing larger employers will do is cut the number of managers. Like so much in life, there is always a bit of fat. My hunch is that for every three "managers" only two are needed. Once the new executive order takes effect, a fair number of "managers" in the US are going to be worried of their "guaranteed" salary and benefits are at risk, or if they might become a glorified minimum wage employee with a title to match, hindering transfers to other employers as they work themselves up a career ladder.
In the military, the best example is the moat that exists between enlisted men/women and the officer corps.
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