I just received my annual TCP-1 letter from LLNS and a summary of the LLNS Pension Plan. Looked in pretty good shape in 2013. About 35% overfunded (funding target attainment percentage = 134.92%). This was a decrease from 2012 where it was 51% overfunded (funding target attainment percentage = 151.59%). They did note that the 2012 change in the law on how liabilities are calculated using interest rates improved the plan's position. Without the change the funding target attainment percentages would have been 118% (2012) and 105% (2013). 2013 assets = $2,057,866,902 2013 liabilities = $1,525,162,784 vs 2012 assets = $1,844,924,947 2012 liabilities = $1,217,043,150 It was also noted that a slightly different calculation method ("fair market value") designed to show a clearer picture of the plan' status as December 31, 2013 had; Assets = $2,403,098,433 Liabilities = $2,068,984,256 Funding ratio = 116.15% Its a closed plan with 3,781 participants. Of that number, 3,151 wer...
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I'm not sure what will happen to the lab/science beat at the newspaper. With so many people leaving, I don't know how they'll manage to fill all the holes. It may be a while before someone is watching the lab consistently again. This was one of the reasons it was a hard decision for me to leave the paper.
I'll send a note to the blog when I have a new email address.
Betsy
Keep in touch.
In reporting the news truthfully as you did over the years, you served your community and your country well. Given the pressures that always emerge to protect the powerful, it must have been difficult for you to publish the unvarnished truth and survive. I always enjoyed reading your columns and found them to be perfectly correlated with my own knowledge of events at the lab.
I would like to join my colleagues in wishing you the very best in the future. May God bless and protect you always.
PS: I was laid off on May 23rd, 2008.