Retirement Security May Be Sacrificed To Avoid Government Shutdown

Ken O’Brien

As defined-benefit pensions gradually disappear from the U.S. workplace, workers are increasingly relying on 401(k) plans for retirement security.  One casualty of the House budget talks to avert a government shutdown may be a proposed rule requiring investment advisers to act in the best interests of their clients, according to multiple House Democratic sources.

Backers of the fiduciary rule say it would give workers some basic protection by discouraging 401(k) brokers from pushing plans based on the fees going to those brokers' firms -- fees that, over the course of a worker's career, can significantly eat into a retirement plan's potential growth. 

ATM’s At Risk

Ken O’Brien

95% of the ATM’s in the U.S. run on Windows XP.

Tomorrow, April 8, Microsoft will no longer provide support for that operating system.

That means Microsoft will no longer issue security updates to patch holes in Windows XP, leaving those ATMs exposed to new kinds of cyberattacks.

If banks fail to upgrade their ATMs to a newer version of Windows, customers might be at risk. If hackers discover new flaws in Windows XP, those bugs will go unaddressed, leaving attackers free to exploit them.

School Hires Armed Guard - Forgets His Gun In Bathroom

Ken O’Brien

“The only thing that will stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”, or so the head of the NRA tells us.

Following this sage advice a Lapeer County Michigan school hired an armed security guard. As the local television news reported three days ago:

So what could go wrong?