DeMint joins national effort to keep feds from bailing out state pension systems

Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn is getting hit with a nationwide backlash over his suggestion that the federal government bail out the state employees’ pension program.

Critics have in the past several days pounced on the suggestion, made last year when Quinn, in announcing the state’s fiscal 2012, said part of Illinois' long-term effort to reduce the estimate $167 billion in under-funded liabilities would be to seek “a federal guarantee of the debt.”

Among those leading the charge is Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. The South Carolina senator has joined the Illinois Policy Institute’s national “No Pension Bailout” campaign -- an effort to stop Congress from attempting to rescue failing state and municipal pension plans.

“Our greatest concern is states will assume they can run their pension systems into bankruptcy and then turn to the federal government for bailout,” DeMint said Thursday.

He also suggested the problem is the result of state legislators trying for decades to win over voters through pension promises based “on accounting methods that would put any business in jail.”

The conservative policy group estimates the total amount of under-funded pension liabilities in states is at least $2.5 trillion, with Illinois leading the nation.

The basic plan floated by Quinn would be for the federal government to rescue the pension program through buying the state’s bonds, which critics say are too financially risky to attract investors.  

Quinn said after announcing the budget that seeking the federal guarantee was only a precaution, then later called the related wording a “drafting error,” according the non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste, which nevertheless gave the governor its September 2012 “Porker of the Month” award.

The governor’s office could not be reached for comment this weekend.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial writers recently said: “Sooner or later, we knew it would come down to this since the Democrats who are running Illinois into the ground can’t bring themselves to oppose union demands.”

In addition, an editorial Tuesday in the Chicago Tribune argued that saving Illinois will “start a stampede of demands for equal treatment from other financially troubled states” with public pension debts ranging from $1 trillion to $25 trillion.

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Administration doubles down on plea to contractors amid pending layoffs

The Obama administration has doubled down on its plea to defense contractors not to warn employees about possible layoffs due to looming budget cuts --  going so far as to offer to cover legal fees in compensation challenges.

The move drew a stern rebuke Friday from South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune.

"For the second time, the Obama administration has now encouraged government contractors to ignore the WARN Act and hold off on warning employees about possible layoffs due to the looming sequestration cuts,” Thune, lead author of the Sequestration Transparency Act, said Friday.

The offer to pay the legal fees was included in a memorandum issued by the administration Friday that also restated the Labor Department's position from July that contractors should not issue written notices to employees because of the "uncertainty" over the across-the-board cuts to the defense budget and other federal spending that will occur Jan. 2 unless Congress reaches a new deal.

The notices are required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and generally require employers with more than 100 employees to provide 60-day notices of "mass layoffs if they are reasonably foreseeable."

The projected $500 billion in Pentagon cuts under the so-called sequestration will occur because Congress failed to agree on a deficit-reduction plan this summer.

The guidance issued by the Labor Department this summer stated "it is neither necessary nor appropriate" for federal contractors to issue the warnings.

The memorandum states the federal government would cover employee compensation under the WARN Act – "irrespective of the outcome" as long as the contractor follows the Labor Department guidelines.

Still, defense contractor Lockheed Martin -- which might have to lay off employees should the cuts kick in -- is still considering whether to send out the notices, according to The Hill newspaper.

Rep. John Kline, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, suggested last week that the Labor Department is trying to conceal the full impact of the cuts. 

"The Labor Department is trying to hide the consequences of sequestration from workers," Kline, R-Minn., said in a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

The letter was the second in two months by Republican committee leaders in which they asked for an update and more detailed information about the obligations federal contractors have in giving the advanced notice.

On Friday, Republican Sens. John McCain, Ariz.; Lindsey Graham, S.C.; and Kelly Ayotte, N.H., issued a similar statement, saying in part, "The president should insist that companies act in accordance with the clearly stated law and move forward with the layoff notices."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Ex-Rare Devs Planning Banjo-Tooie Spiritual Successor

Ex-Rare employees have apparently reunited to try and create a spiritual successor to Banjo-Tooie.

The group, which includes series composer Grant Kirkhope and artist Steven Hurst, have set up a new Twitter account under the handle Mingy Jongo to gauge support.

“

That same kind of humour, silly characters, fun game play, great tunes and all that stuff.

It's unclear what format the game would be released on, though as Rare was bought by Microsoft and is currently helming its Kinect Sports series, it's not unreasonable to think it'll be an Xbox exclusive.

Not much is known about the project as yet, but we can glean some information from the account's tweets.

As regards to what engine will be used in the new game, it seems the team is interested in using Unity as they've tweeted, "#unity will probably be perfect for our spiritual successor. I'm thinking keeping level of detail and googly eyes close to the original..."

There are also mutterings of a Kickstarter project, as well as the clarification that the game wouldn't be a new title in the Banjo-Kazooie series, but rather a brand new IP that shares " that same kind of humour, silly characters, fun game play, great tunes and all that stuff."

The original Banjo-Kazooie released on N64 in 1998 and a sequel, Banjo-Tooie, followed in 2000. Both of these games were later re-released via XBLA in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

If you're interested in supporting the team in their endeavours, make sure to follow their Twitter account to show your support.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant, and was a great fan of getting Jiggy with it. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

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