Excerpt: "UnitedHealth Group Inc. and its former chief executive William McGuire will pay $925 million to resolve an investor class-action lawsuit accusing the health insurer of improperly backdating stock options, Reuters reports. . . . Given that there was 'significant risk' to the plaintiffs recovering nothing had the case been fully tried, 'the $925.5 million settlement amount is substantial,' U.S. District Court Judge...  Read more...

Excerpt: "UnitedHealth Group Inc. and its former chief executive William McGuire will pay $925 million to resolve an investor class-action lawsuit accusing the health insurer of improperly backdating stock options, Reuters reports. . . . Given that there was 'significant risk' to the plaintiffs recovering nothing had the case been fully tried, 'the $925.5 million settlement amount is substantial,' U.S. District Court Judge...

It's a difficult concept to grasp -- that at a time of massive unemployment, good paying jobs remain unfilled.  Read more...

It's a difficult concept to grasp -- that at a time of massive unemployment, good paying jobs remain unfilled. And yet despite unemployment in nearly 30 states running 8 percent or higher, nearly 2 million jobs remain vacant because employers can't find enough qualified workers. Earlier this year, I wrote a piece of the Business2Business Magazine about the growing gap between the skills of the unemployed and the skill requirements of the jobs. These issues were also discussed in a recent article in theNew York Times on job retraining and another article in USA Today. What’s the basic problem?  A Washington Post article suggests that maybe it’s job retraining that needs to be retooled. Some high unemployment America faces today is cyclical, meaning that hard times wiped out jobs that will be restored when conditions improve. But many of the job losses this time were structural – we just don’t need them anymore or other countries can do them better or cheaper or both.  So the difference between this economic recovery and those in the past is that this time there is a dramatic mismatch between the kinds of jobs that millions of Americans have historically held and the kinds of jobs that we will generate moving forward. Traditionally we addressed this problem by advocating worker retraining. No unexpectedly t is a cornerstone of the Obama administration's jobs policy. In 2009, the Department of Labor spent a little more than $4 billion on adult workplace training; about one-fifth of that came from the stimulus package. Millions of Americans are undergoing such training every year in an effort for them to go back to work. And what are workers being retrained to do? It seems that a significant portion of the money is focused on "green jobs" and health-care industry jobs. But the Times article makes clear that current job retraining is inadequate, and hints that it may never really work. So why doesn't the training produce its intended results? The Times ...

General Andrew Cuomo began a fraud probe against Prudential (the second largest life insurer in the country) and MetLife (the largest). In a statement, he built on seemingly unanimous outrage: 'It is shocking and plain wrong for these multinational life  Read more...

General Andrew Cuomo began a fraud probe against Prudential (the second largest life insurer in the country) and MetLife (the largest). In a statement, he built on seemingly unanimous outrage: 'It is shocking and plain wrong for these multinational life

A reader writes:

I had a conversation with the HR Director about something happening in my department. She went to my boss with the issue, citing me as the source. This was not an official complaint by me, as we were not in her office but in the lunchroom. However, I considered conversations with HR professionals to be in confidence. Was I in error?
...

m. central time. Interested parties can listen to the conference call via a live audio webcast at www.aon.com. About Aon Aon Corporation (NYSE: AON) is a leading global provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human  Read more...

m. central time. Interested parties can listen to the conference call via a live audio webcast at www.aon.com. About Aon Aon Corporation (NYSE: AON) is a leading global provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human

andy_griffith_health_law Washington (SmartAboutHealth) - Classic television star Andy Griffith, best known for The Andy Griffith Show, has made his return to TV to support a new health care law. The new health care law has been proposed ...  Read more...

andy_griffith_health_law Washington (SmartAboutHealth) - Classic television star Andy Griffith, best known for The Andy Griffith Show, has made his return to TV to support a new health care law. The new health care law has been proposed ...

BCBS Tennessee concludes hard drive theft investigation Examiner.com BCBS members who could be affected by the breach have been offered a year of free credit monitoring. Chattanooga police spokeswoman Jerri Weary told the ...  Read more...

BCBS Tennessee concludes hard drive theft investigation Examiner.com BCBS members who could be affected by the breach have been offered a year of free credit monitoring. Chattanooga police spokeswoman Jerri Weary told the ...

1 in 4 women suffering 'unreasonable' workplace stress Hr Morning Just over half (56%) of the women polled said their stress level was reasonable, according to the Kenexa Research Institute. But more than one in four (26%) ...  Read more...

1 in 4 women suffering 'unreasonable' workplace stress Hr Morning Just over half (56%) of the women polled said their stress level was reasonable, according to the Kenexa Research Institute. But more than one in four (26%) ...

Interview Don’ts: Corporate Socrates – watch more Funny or Die videos  Read more...