Selected Characteristics of Savings and Thrift Plans for Private Industry Workers

[Excerpt] This issue of Beyond the Numbers looks at the growth in the prevalence and at selected characteristics of employer-provided savings and thrift plans in private industry in the United States. The data for this article come from the National Compensation Survey: Health and Retirement Plan Provisions in Private Industry in the United States, 2012. In some instances, comparisons of 2012 data are made to 2009 data, which came from National Compensation Survey: Health and Retirement Plan Provisions in Private Industry in the United States, 2009

Performance and optimization of a derated ion thruster for auxiliary propulsion

The characteristics and implications of use of a derated ion thruster for north-south stationkeeping (NSSK) propulsion are discussed. A derated thruster is a 30 cm diameter primary propulsion ion thruster operated at highly throttled conditions appropriate to NSSK functions. The performance characteristics of a 30 cm ion thruster are presented, emphasizing throttled operation at low specific impulse and high thrust-to-power ratio. Performance data and component erosion are compared to other NSSK ion thrusters. Operations benefits derived from the performance advantages of the derated approach are examined assuming an INTELSAt 7-type spacecraft. Minimum ground test facility pumping capabilities required to maintain facility enhanced accelerator grid erosion at acceptable levels in a lifetest are quantified as a function of thruster operating condition. Approaches to reducing the derated thruster mass and volume are also discussed

Cathode luminescence light source for broadband applications in the visible spectrum

A device and method for generating cathode luminescence is provided. The device and method generate broad spectrum electromagnetic radiation in the visible. A layer of particles, such as quartz or alumina powder, is exposed to electrons in a plasma discharge. Surface excitation of these particles or the generations/excitation of F-center sites give rise to luminescence

Response to Madison McWithey

In this Response, Jack Foster discusses Madison McWithey’s recent Boston College Law Review E. Supp. Essay Taking a Deeper Dive into Progressive Prosecution: Evaluating the Trend Through the Lens of Geography, Part One. That Essay can be found here

Charges to be Declined: Legal Challenges and Policy Debates Surrounding Non-Prosecution Initiatives in Massachusetts

The election of “progressive prosecutors” introduces new objectives and tools into the traditional “tough on crime” playbook of local prosecution. Newly-elected District Attorney Rachael Rollins of Suffolk County, Massachusetts has proposed one such tool: non-prosecution of certain criminal laws, chiefly non-violent misdemeanors. This Note explores the likelihood of success of legal challenges to categorical non-prosecution, primarily whether non-prosecution unconstitutionally violates the separation of powers. This Note considers whether non-prosecution implicates the rights of victims and notions of justice as a public or private domain. It also analyzes the merits of non-prosecution as a policy. Some critics challenge the ability of progressive prosecutors to change the criminal justice system from the inside, while others claim that non-prosecution of so-called quality-of-life crimes damages communities rather than enriching them. Alternatively, those supportive of reform herald non-prosecution as a means of allowing local communities to influence the conduct of law enforcement, arguing that petty crime reflects public health failures that should be resolved by social services instead of jail-time. As novel as it is controversial, the proposed non-prosecution policy deserves close attention from legal scholars and criminal reform advocates

Review of \u3ci\u3eRiel and the Rebellion 1885 Reconsidered\u3c/i\u3e By Thomas Flanagan

Professor Flanagan\u27s latest revisionist publication heralds the centenary of the 1885 Saskatchewan Rebellion with a series of developmentally related essays, expressed as chapters, that challenge the conventional wisdom as to the factors responsible for one Plains Metis community, under Louis Riel, taking up arms to redress their grievances. At the same time Flanagan fails to address one longstanding deficiency in the literature. Flanagan\u27s scholarly strengths lie in his analyses of political issues and processes. His two chapters on the land issues in relation to the Rebellion are without equal. His discussion of aboriginal title is of interest in its own right but, more important, it serves as a vehicle to define and to explain Louis Riel\u27s role and contribution in the Rebellion. His brief introductory chapter leaves him open to accusations that he has selected his issues to reflect . his revisionist views. Yet the chapter constitutes one of the most useful introductions to the subject. At times, however, the author\u27s choice of descriptive terms and phrases suggests the instincts of a polemicist, as does his last chapter on the current issue of a posthumous pardon for Riel. Nevertheless his examination of Reil\u27s motives, expressed in the chapters on the Metis leader\u27s pursuit of a personal indemnity and on his trial, reflect a penetrating and objective, if unsympathetic, analysis. In his analysis of the issues that he has selected for discussion Flanagan successfully challenges the interpretive drift of the last half century, which has witnessed increasingly shrill though frequently uncritical condemnations of Canadian government culpability and equally uncritical identification with the victimization of the innocent Metis. Rather than concluding discussion, however, Flanagan\u27s book should encourage further research and analysis. The absence of an understanding of the sociocultural ways of the Plains Metis remains a cardinal deficiency in the literature examining the factors responsible for the Rebellion. The bias of Canadian historians, which has seen the events surrounding the colony of Canada\u27s acquisition and increasing control of British North West America as the key historical perspective, has resulted in little scholarly attention being devoted to the history and sociocultural evolution of the Metis. As a result the primitiveness and ignorance of the Plains Metis rather than their cultural values and attitudes have predominated as factors of explanation. Flanagan does much to dispel the image of naivete associated with Metis behavior. On occasion he demonstrates a sense that Riel and the Metis marched to a different cultural drummer. Yet in the final analysis Flanagan does not emphasize the necessity of understanding the Metis views of their experience as it relates to their sense of themselves as an enduring corporate entity. Flanagan does not appear to view the absence of an understanding of Metis ways in the literature as a critical weakness in evaluating the factors responsible for the Rebellion. As a revisionist work Flanagan\u27s book makes a significant scholarly contribution to the study of the Saskatchewan Rebellion. In its failure to take cognizance of one of the principal lacunas in the literature it underlines the necessity of addressing this problem in order to understand all the factors responsible for the Rebellion

Review of \u3ci\u3eRiel and the Rebellion 1885 Reconsidered\u3c/i\u3e By Thomas Flanagan

Professor Flanagan\u27s latest revisionist publication heralds the centenary of the 1885 Saskatchewan Rebellion with a series of developmentally related essays, expressed as chapters, that challenge the conventional wisdom as to the factors responsible for one Plains Metis community, under Louis Riel, taking up arms to redress their grievances. At the same time Flanagan fails to address one longstanding deficiency in the literature. Flanagan\u27s scholarly strengths lie in his analyses of political issues and processes. His two chapters on the land issues in relation to the Rebellion are without equal. His discussion of aboriginal title is of interest in its own right but, more important, it serves as a vehicle to define and to explain Louis Riel\u27s role and contribution in the Rebellion. His brief introductory chapter leaves him open to accusations that he has selected his issues to reflect . his revisionist views. Yet the chapter constitutes one of the most useful introductions to the subject. At times, however, the author\u27s choice of descriptive terms and phrases suggests the instincts of a polemicist, as does his last chapter on the current issue of a posthumous pardon for Riel. Nevertheless his examination of Reil\u27s motives, expressed in the chapters on the Metis leader\u27s pursuit of a personal indemnity and on his trial, reflect a penetrating and objective, if unsympathetic, analysis. In his analysis of the issues that he has selected for discussion Flanagan successfully challenges the interpretive drift of the last half century, which has witnessed increasingly shrill though frequently uncritical condemnations of Canadian government culpability and equally uncritical identification with the victimization of the innocent Metis. Rather than concluding discussion, however, Flanagan\u27s book should encourage further research and analysis. The absence of an understanding of the sociocultural ways of the Plains Metis remains a cardinal deficiency in the literature examining the factors responsible for the Rebellion. The bias of Canadian historians, which has seen the events surrounding the colony of Canada\u27s acquisition and increasing control of British North West America as the key historical perspective, has resulted in little scholarly attention being devoted to the history and sociocultural evolution of the Metis. As a result the primitiveness and ignorance of the Plains Metis rather than their cultural values and attitudes have predominated as factors of explanation. Flanagan does much to dispel the image of naivete associated with Metis behavior. On occasion he demonstrates a sense that Riel and the Metis marched to a different cultural drummer. Yet in the final analysis Flanagan does not emphasize the necessity of understanding the Metis views of their experience as it relates to their sense of themselves as an enduring corporate entity. Flanagan does not appear to view the absence of an understanding of Metis ways in the literature as a critical weakness in evaluating the factors responsible for the Rebellion. As a revisionist work Flanagan\u27s book makes a significant scholarly contribution to the study of the Saskatchewan Rebellion. In its failure to take cognizance of one of the principal lacunas in the literature it underlines the necessity of addressing this problem in order to understand all the factors responsible for the Rebellion