50 years ago on this date in 1962, James Meredith entered the University of Mississippi, defying segregation.

September 30 ...

In 1777 the Congress of the United States -- forced to flee in the face of advancing British forces -- moved to York, PA. In 1791 Mozart's opera The Magic Flute premiered in Vienna, Austria. In 1846 dentist William Morton used ether as an anesthetic for the first time on a patient in his Boston office. In 1882 the world's first commercial hydroelectric power plant began operation on the Fox River in Appleton, WI. In 1935 the Hoover Dam was dedicated. In 1938 British and French leaders decided to appease Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. In 1946 an international military tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, found 22 top Nazi leaders guilty of war crimes. In 1949 the Berlin Airlift came to an end. In 1954 the first atomic-powered vessel, the submarine Nautilus, was commissioned by the Navy. In 1962 James Meredith entered the University of Mississippi, defying segregation. In 1993 an estimated 10,000 people were killed when an earthquake measuring a magnitude of 6.4 struck southern India.

September 29 ...

In 1547 novelist, poet, and playwright Miguel de Cervantes was born in Alcala de Henares, Spain. In 1758 Admiral Horatio Nelson was born in Norfolk, England. In 1789 the US War Department established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men. In 1829 London's reorganized police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty. In 1918 Allied forces scored a decisive breakthrough of the Hindenburg Line during World War I. In 1943 General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship Nelson off Malta. In 1978 Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1979 Pope John Paul II became the first pope to visit Ireland as he arrived for a three-day tour. In 1982 seven people in the Chicago area died after unwittingly taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. In 1988 the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral, FL, the first manned space flight following the Challenger disaster. In 2000 the privately built SpaceShipOne rocket plane hurtled past the edge of earth's atmosphere, completing the first stage of a quest to win the $10 million Ansari X Prize. In 2005 the US Senate confirmed John Roberts to be the next Chief Justice of the United States.

September 28 ...

In 551 BC thinker and philosopher Confucius was born in Qufu, China. In 48 BC after landing in Egypt, Pompey the Great was assassinated on orders of King Ptolemy of Egypt. In 1066 William the Conqueror invaded England to claim the English throne. In 1542 Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo arrived at present-day San Diego. In 1781 American forces, backed by a French fleet, began the Siege of Yorktown, VA, which eventually ended the Revolutionary War. In 1787 Congress voted to send the just-completed Constitution of the United States to state legislatures for their approval. In 1850 flogging was abolished as a form of punishment in the US Navy. In 1920 eight members of the Chicago White Sox were indicted for throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, in what was called the "Black Sox" scandal. In 1924 two US Army planes landed in Seattle, having completed the first round-the-world flight in 175 days. In 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on a plan to partition Poland. In 1989 deposed Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii at age 72. In 1991 jazz great Miles Davis died in Santa Monica, CA at age 65. In 1995 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed an accord to transfer much of the West Bank to the control of its Arab residents. In 2000 the Al-Aqsa Intifada begins after Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount. In 2004 terrorists in Iraq released two female Italian aid workers, Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, and five other hostages.

September 27 ...

In 1779 John Adams was named to negotiate the Revolutionary War's peace terms with Britain. In 1854 the first great disaster involving an Atlantic Ocean liner occurred when the steamship Arctic sank with 300 people aboard. In 1928 the US said it was recognizing the Nationalist Chinese government. In 1939 the city of Warsaw surrendered after weeks of resistance to invading forces from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II. In 1940 the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis was set up. The military and economic pact was for 10 years between Germany, Italy, and Japan. In 1942 Glenn Miller and his Orchestra performed together for the last time, at the Central Theater in Passaic, NJ, prior to Miller's entry into the Army. In 1954 Tonight! hosted by Steve Allen, made its debut on NBC TV. In 1964 the Warren Commission issued a report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy. In 1979 Congress gave final approval to forming the Department of Education, the 13th Cabinet agency in US history. In 1989 Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. agreed to a $3.4 billion cash buyout by Sony Corp. In 1994 more than 350 Republican congressional candidates gathered on the steps of the US Capitol to sign the "Contract with America," a 10-point platform they pledged to enact if voters sent a GOP majority to the House. In 2004 North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon announced that North Korea had turned plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons.

From a letter to the editor in the Austin American-Statesman:

Norquist pledge

After reading about ugly fighting and infighting in newspapers and on TV, I feel obligated to remind everyone that since Grover Norquist instigated the pledge that committed certain elected officials to promise to never raise new revenue (taxes) for government, our national debt has steadily increased. Perhaps it is time that this petition should be outlawed.

Leaders in Congress who vowed to uphold the Constitution of the United States cannot act as a representative of, for and by the people after signing an oath that contradicts their oath of office. It stands to reason that this oath is in opposition to the spirit and intent of the Constitution. Those elected officials who pledge "no taxes" should either resign or be indicted.

This issue is a major obstacle to the "general welfare" of our citizens as the Constitution requires and should be considered and taken care of before the coming election.

Conrad Black, in the National Post:

The fact that Willard M. Romney is still running almost even in the polls despite his demiurgic implausibility as a candidate, afflicted by a one-person pandemic of foot-in-mouth disease, illustrates the concern of the American voters. Either Romney lucks through and numerate sanity starts to return to American public life, or the most self-destructively incompetent regime since James Buchanan brought on the Civil War, will come back and stoke up a truly spectacular inferno that will purify America in a mighty economic Jonestown. There will be no more tugging at a trouser leg from Canada -- either a comradely pat on the back, or a neighbourly blast with a fire extinguisher, but this operatic crescendo can't continue for one more full act.

Read the whole piece.

September 26 ...

In 1774 Johnny Appleseed was born in Leominster, MA. In 1777 British troops occupied Philadelphia during the American Revolution. In 1789 Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's first secretary of state, John Jay was appointed the first chief justice of the US, and Edmund Randolph was appointed the first United States Attorney General. In 1888 poet T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis, MO. In 1914 the Federal Trade Commission was established. In 1918 the final Allied offensive on the western front during WWI, the Meuse-Argonne offensive, began against the Germans. In 1944 Operation Market Garden, which landed troops behind German lines in the Netherlands, failed.In 1950 UN troops recaptured the South Korean capital of Seoul from the North Koreans. In 1952 philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist George Santayana died. In 1955 following word that President Eisenhower had suffered a heart attack, the New York Stock Exchange saw its worst price decline since 1929. In 1960 the first televised presidential debate, between candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon, took place in Chicago. In 1980 the Cuban government abruptly closed Mariel Harbor, ending the "freedom flotilla" of Cuban refugees that had begun the previous April. In 1986 William H. Rehnquist was sworn in as the 16th chief justice of the US, while Antonin Scalia joined the Supreme Court as its 103rd member. In 2000 Slobodan Milosevic conceded that his challenger, Vojislav Kostunica, had finished first in Yugoslavia's presidential election and declared a runoff -- a move that prompted mass protests leading to Milosevic's ouster. In 2001 in Kabul, Afghanistan, the abandoned US Embassy was stormed by protesters in the largest anti-Amercian protest since the September 11 terror attacks on New York City and Washington, DC.

The Illinois Teachers' Retirement System announced that it lowered the expected annual return for its portfolio to 8%.

The Chicago Tribune's Ray Long reports:

The Teachers' Retirement System lowered what it expects from investments from 8.5 percent to 8 percent. The pension fund's leadership also increased a variety of other assumptions, including how long it expects retired teachers to live. The fund covers teachers outside Chicago.
...

The state is paying $2.7 billion into the fund in its current budget. Without any adjustments, the state would have owed about $2.89 billion in the new budget year that begins next July 1.

But the changes approved Friday increased that price tag to $3.37 billion. All told, the state will have to pay $670 million more than this year.

Trouble is, the 80-plus year real, historical return on stocks alone is about 7%. However, a retirement portfolio is comprised not just of stocks, but also of treasury bonds (which have an historical yield of about 2%-3% after inflation), along with other debt instruments, and cash and cash instruments. Therefore a realistic predicted return would be more like 5% (a portfolio mix of say 60/40, stocks to bonds) -- and many people believe that may be too optimistic, preferring to use the long-term treasury interest rate for the estimate.

So if a downward readjustment for expected returns of 0.5% results in an additional $650 million needed for the fund, imagine how much more would be needed if a more realistic rate of 5% (or lower) was used? It's in the billions of dollars. Each and every year.

Maybe the state of Illinois should just go to this site, from England, to help fund the shortfall: partybingo.com.

Long continues:

Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan, both Chicago Democrats, recently suggested that changes to the pension system would have to get done in January at the earliest. That's a post-election period when more lame ducks are freer to take politically risky votes, and the bar to pass legislation with an immediate effective date drops from three-fifths to a simple majority.

A little info: IL Speaker of the House Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) has been Speaker of the IL House for almost 28 of the last 30 years, and has been in the IL House since 1970 (his daughter is IL Atty Gen. Lisa Madigan); IL Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago), the relative newcomer, has been IL Senate President since 2009 and has been in the IL Senate since 1991 (he was in the IL House before that from 1979-1991) -- his family has been a fixture in Chicago politics since the Chicago Fire, with a Cullerton sitting in the Chicago City Council for all but 40 of the last more than 140 years.

September 25 ...

In 1690 the earliest of the multi-page American newspapers, Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, published its first -- and only -- edition in Boston. In 1775 American Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen was captured by the British as he led an attack on Montreal. In 1789 the first United States Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. (Ten of the amendments became known as the Bill of Rights.) In 1897 novelist William Faulkner was born in New Albany, MS. In 1890 President Benjamin Harrison signed a measure establishing Sequoia National Park. In 1919 President Wilson collapsed after a speech in Pueblo, CO, during a national speaking tour in support of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1957 with 300 US Army troops standing guard, nine black children, forced to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, AR, because of unruly white crowds, were escorted to class. In 1973 the three-man crew of the US space laboratory Skylab 2 splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean after spending 59 days in orbit. In 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor was sworn in as the first female justice on the Supreme Court. In 1995 Ross Perot announced he would form a new Independence Party that would field its own White House candidate and would try to be the swing vote in congressional races. In 2004 US warplanes, tanks, and artillery repeatedly hit at Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror network in the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, Iraq.

September 24 ...

In 1755 former Secretary of State and fourth Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court John Marshall was born near Germantown, VA. In 1789 Congress passed the First Judiciary Act, which provided for an Attorney General and a Supreme Court. In 1869 thousands of businessmen were ruined in a Wall Street panic after financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market. In 1896 author F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, MN. In 1929 Lt. James H. Doolittle guided a Consolidated NY2 Biplane over Mitchel Field in New York in the first all-instrument flight. In 1934 Babe Ruth made his farewell appearance as a regular player with the New York Yankees in a game against the Boston Red Sox. (The Sox won, 5-0.) In 1948 Mildred Gillars, accused of being Nazi wartime radio propagandist "Axis Sally," pleaded innocent in Washington, DC, to charges of treason. (Gillars ended up serving 12 years in prison.); also on this day, the Honda Motor Company was founded. In 1955 President Eisenhower suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Denver. In 1957 the Brooklyn Dodgers played their last game at Ebbets Field. In 1960 the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, was launched at Newport News, VA. In 1963 the US Senate ratified a treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union limiting nuclear testing. In 1969 the trial of the "Chicago Eight" (later seven) began. (Five of the defendants were convicted of crossing state lines to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention, but the convictions were ultimately overturned.) In 1976 newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was sentenced to seven years in prison for her part in a 1974 bank robbery. (She was released after 22 months after receiving clemency from President Carter.) In 1991 Theodor Seuss Geisel -- Dr. Seuss -- died at the age of 87. In 1995 Israel and the PLO agreed to sign a pact at the White House ending nearly three decades of Israeli occupation of West Bank cities. In 2000 for the first time, citizens of the Yugoslav federation "Serbia and Montenegro" voted directly for president. (Supporters of opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica declared victory the next day, but the election commission said a runoff was needed, prompting massive protests that toppled President Slobodan Milosevic.

60 years ago on this date in 1952, Republican vice-presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon went on television to deliver what came to be known as the "Checkers" speech as he refuted allegations of improper campaign financing.

Also on this date, 55 years ago in n 1957, nine black students who had entered Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas were forced to withdraw because of a white mob outside.