NY Times: New Spending bill makes it easier to save for retirement (no paywall)

Tara Siegel Bernard
By Tara Siegel Bernard
Dec. 20, 2022
Updated 4:45 p.m. ET
The federal spending package unveiled on Tuesday includes new provisions that would alter how millions of Americans save for retirement, including older people who want to stash away extra money before they stop working and those struggling under the weight of student debt.

Many of the policy changes in the bill, which is expected to pass this week, will extend help to Americans who can already afford to save or have access to workplace plans. But lower- and middle-income workers will receive a new benefit that amounts to a matching contribution — up to $1,000 per person — from the federal government. Another provision will make it easier for part-time workers to enroll in workplace retirement plans.

“It is really meaningful progress,” said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “We can’t expect Congress to solve all of our nation’s retirement challenges in one piece of legislation, but this includes a host of provisions that will move the ball forward.”

The changes were included in a bipartisan bill, known as Secure 2.0, which was folded into the vast federal spending package that will keep the government running.

New Spending Bill Makes It Easier for Americans Saving for Retirement https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/your-money/spending-bill-401k-retirement-savings.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhlSlUZAybEWsU96xiBg_Xeh6cki3nyLS6aDDxDy-BQX9DZ-ALXaLZifdY20jKHAcRILr4pS-c0zvNaOwYlbTiUlaa-ucZPJTQp-8X0V3kq3pnJUPdlq2-wNGfmIqInm7Gx-k_daWj1CKfZ0WklI1oyoZNkJlCriXwY1-ySRL4Or9p63_YkD599QS5RJ3XZ-qm1VGgtfYmOfRre6QIpW-pGWjm1nNaU6bIIdQ06GkuRBTokoj56sIUATYtRaKXvLBcget78gaETDwFqLISoD543R-vEhnRsSGG07TxyQd2eP0lFcU8

Patron Instagram video

The Storm (A poem for Ukraine) by Sarah Ruden

One drop comes down
Beside another.
This is the child,
This is the mother.

But all are family
In this flood:
A net of flesh,
A mesh of blood.

How can you go
Beyond recall?
How can you fall,
And we not fall?

How can you go
Beyond reprieve
While we continue
To believe

Justice can turn
A wind around
And drive a torrent
From the ground?

NYTimes (no paywall): Melitopol in the south is Ukraine's next target.

Just guessing, but I expect the next offensive to begin in January. Melitopol is 40 miles from the present front lines. If Ukraine can liberate it, the area from Crimea to the Donbas will be freed. All Russian supply lines in the south run through Melitopol. Ukraine has been gathering an army in the area for an offensive since the summer. Russia is already digging defensive trenches in Crimea.

Targeting One Southern City, Ukraine Hints at the Next Front in the War.
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine is stepping up efforts to isolate and degrade Russian forces in and around the strategically vital city of Melitopol, ahead of what is widely expected to be the next major phase of the war, a Ukrainian offensive to drive Russian forces from southern Ukraine.

Kyiv has been using long-range precision missile strikes, sabotage missions and targeted assassinations to home in on the city, which lies about 40 miles behind the front lines in the Zaporizhzhia region. Melitopol is known as the gateway to Crimea because of its location at the crossroads of two major highways and a crucial rail line linking Russia to that peninsula and other territory it occupies in southern Ukraine.

A bridge in Melitopol across the Molochna River was sabotaged Monday night — an act that both Ukrainian and Russian officials attributed to Kyiv’s forces — with video showing that two pillars supporting the span had been blown up. The bridge’s destruction compromised a key Russian supply route to Melitopol from the south.

Both Ukrainian and Russian officials have acknowledged the recent Ukrainian strikes and attempts to hit Russian command centers, ammunition depots and supply routes in Melitopol, whose prewar population was about 150,000. The aftermaths of some of the recent attacks have been captured on video broadcast on social media by Russian soldiers.:
Targeting One Southern City, Ukraine Hints at Next Front in the War https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/13/world/europe/ukraine-russia-melitopol.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuonUktbfqYhlSlUaACbKWsIjolqLmOLI2LF7m3zkJSmTRHNY0v8OAoHF_krJZLZkf9w3mTSHQdsLeJkeeMtP9M4NdUp8V1vv5ZKehJUOJyhypI_tD25o1smIBLph_Hq3YzPpbe0lz-L65x_bazPrXPHbgiZ3Nx8l9cU-DSyi3nYCwKbBFuJniJIpjbp6WMcMFXpXbzKKvvLoFx1-JN2ACxjc4QQ2UOxeMirByZ_es_lTNVUPVi-VCS938m0-69hDONgIP6eZLhUofcH2hLl5GXWIr9BGBK0Ys0ucRU18lbKd

Yale Prof Timothy Snyder, last lecture, The Making of Modern Ukraine

US Capitol Police Gold Medal ceremony snub for GOP leaders

Kyiv one year ago.

Flu season. Yikes!

Patron: Safe in the arms of the Major General!

Boat trip from Rotterdam to Amsterdam. They have amazing bridges!