PBGC Announces Maximum Insurance Benefit for 2009
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) has announced that the maximum insurance benefit for participants in underfunded pension plans terminating in 2009 is $54,000 per year for those who retire at age 65, up from $51,750 for 2008. The amount is higher for those who retire later and lower for those who retire earlier or elect survivor benefits (see chart). If a pension plan terminates in 2009 but a participant does not begin collecting benefits until a future year, the 2009 maximum insurance limits still apply. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 provides that the maximum benefit payable is determined by the legal limits in force on the date of the plan sponsor's bankruptcy and not on the date of plan termination. See also PBGC's fact sheet, Pension Guarantees

District Court Rules in Favor of Media Group in CIA FOIA Decision
News release: Judge Gladys Kessler of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the CIA's view that it--and not journalists--has the right to determine which Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests are newsworthy. Reconsidering its earlier decision deferring to the CIA's written assurances that the agency would cease illegally denying the National Security Archive's news media status, the court ordered the CIA to treat the Archive as a representative of the news media for all of its pending and future non-commercial requests. Finding that the CIA "has twice made highly misleading representations to the Archive, as well as to [the] Court," the court explained that the CIA's position "is truly hard to take seriously" and enjoined the CIA from illegally denying the Archive's news media status."

Steve Lowes is a coral farmer
He doesn’t live on an island in the Caribbean or even within spitting distance of an ocean. Rather, his farming takes place in 100-gallon saltwater tanks in the basement of his neat and tidy house the color of a warm Sargasso Sea in upstate New York. Lowes, who grew up landlocked, developed his fascination with corals by watching Jacques Cousteau documentaries as a kid. Since 2002, he’s farmed coral in his basement. There, he propagates, nurtures, and then sells his captive-raised livestock--about 50 species of coral--to aquarium supply firms and pet stores throughout the Northeast. Lowes is one of about a dozen commercial coral farmers in the United States. Captive-raising coral helps limit the amount of coral poached from wild reefs.
Lowes stands before a 125-gallon saltwater tank--his display aquarium--that holds a glorious array of coral, anemones, and colorful fish. “These are all Indo-Pacific corals--it’s illegal to take corals from American waters,” says Lowes. Lowes does not collect his own coral--that requires a license--but all the coral farmers he knows trade with one another for different species to keep stock varied. Lowes points to the top of the display tank. “Look at how that green coral is right up against the pink coral,” said Lowes. “It will eventually grow over the pink one in an effort to grab all the light.”
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/10/31/a-coral-farmer%e2%80%99s-harvest-of-%e2%80%98living-stones%e2%80%99/

Quote You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.
Mario Matthew Cuomo (born 1932), governor of New York from 1982 to 1994

She raised the status of chamber music, founded the Berkshire String Quartet and started the Berkshire Music Festival: Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge.
The most lasting memorial to Coolidge's patronage of music are the compositions which she commissioned from practically every leading composer of the early 20th century. The Shaker song, Simple Gifts, which spread quickly across the United States, was played in Appalachian Spring—one of her commissioned pieces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Sprague_Coolidge

November 8 is the birthday of Indian novelist Raja Rao, (books by this author) born in Hassan, in southern India (1909). His native language was Kanarese, but he wrote all of his books in English. At the time, India was still under British colonial rule, and Rao was one of the first Indian writers to try to capture the rhythm of Indian life in English. He said: "The tempo of Indian life must be infused into our English expression, even as the tempo of American or Irish life has gone into the making of theirs. We, in India, think quickly, we talk quickly, and when we move we move quickly. We have neither punctuation nor the treacherous 'ats' and 'ons' to bother us — we tell one interminable tale. Episode follows episode, and when our thoughts stop our breath stops, and we move on to another thought. This was and still is the ordinary style of our storytelling."
The Writer’s Almanac