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ST. LOUIS NEWS TODAY - Sunday, January 20, 2008
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Sprint Nextel to Cut Jobs and Retail Locations
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), January 20, 2008 - Anticipating continued downward pressure on subscriber trends, revenues, and profitability in 2008, Sprint Nextel has announced initial plans to streamline the business in coming months.
These plans call for job reductions across the company including approximately 4,000 internal positions and reduced utilization of outsourced services and contractors. The company also expects to eliminate more than 4,000 third-party distribution points and to close approximately 125, or 8 percent, of its company-owned retail locations. The company has approximately 20,000 total distribution points, including nearly 1,400 company-owned retail locations.
Sprint Nextel currently expects these actions to reduce its internal and external labor costs by an annualized rate of $700-$800 million by the end of 2008. The employee headcount reductions are expected to be completed in the first half of the year and will include management and non-management positions throughout the company.
The company will offer a voluntary separation plan for its employees, and displaced employees will receive separation pay and outplacement and other services. The company expects to record a first-quarter charge for severance costs associated with the workforce reduction.
For the fourth quarter Sprint Nextel reported a net gain of 500,000 subscribers through wholesale channels, growth of 256,000 Boost Unlimited users and net additions of 20,000 subscribers within affiliate channels. These gains were offset by net losses of 683,000 post-paid subscribers and 202,000 traditional pre-paid users.
Plan to Reduce the Uninsured Receives Federal Okay
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), January 20, 2008 - The first phase of Gov. Matt Blunt's plan to reduce the number of uninsured Missourians by 30 percent received the official go-ahead from federal authorities. The Department of Health & Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the first phase of the governor's innovative plan to expand care to the uninsured.
"Insure Missouri's first phase will help more than 54,000 working Missourians purchase their own personal health insurance beginning next month," Gov. Blunt said. "Insure Missouri relies on the proven Missouri values of work, personal responsibility and free enterprise. Federal approval for this innovative plan to increase the number of Missourians who have health insurance demonstrates Insure Missouri's value and viability."
Through phase one, working parents and caregivers with children in the home with incomes up to 100 percent of poverty or $20,650 for a family of four will have access to insurance coverage. Phase I is estimated to bring coverage to about 54,500 Missourians.
In a letter, CMS approved Phase I of Insure Missouri. The approval will allow Missouri to move forward with Phase I by adding an alternative benefit package of services for custodial parents and caretaker relatives at least 19 years of age and including up to 100 percent of Federal Poverty Level.
With support from the General Assembly, the governor's Insure Missouri initiative will help nearly 200,000 Missourians purchase their own insurance. The health care plan addresses the fact that while more than 5 million Missourians have access to insurance 700,000 are yet to be covered.
Gov. Blunt Orders Nixon, Childers To Block Federal Plan to Divert Portion of Missouri River
ST. LOUIS, (SLFP.com), January 20, 2008 - Gov. Matt Blunt has ordered Attorney General Jay Nixon and Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers to jointly pursue every legal option to block a federal plan that will divert a significant portion of the Missouri River out of its natural channel into North Dakota.
"Too many Missourians depend on the water from our nation's largest river system for drinking water, electrical power, crop irrigation and transportation to have this water needlessly wasted in a $1 billion taxpayer-funded project hatched in Washington," Gov. Blunt said. "I am ordering Attorney General Nixon and Director Childers to immediately use every available legal option to block this ill-advised federal plan."
Gov. Blunt noted that even now, before the projected diversion takes place, Kansas City already is being forced to relocate water intake structures for its treatment plant, and there are reports that several of the state's power plants have had to purchase expensive power off the grid to meet customer demands because their plants could not access sufficient river water.
The Bureau of Land Reclamation has issued a final environmental impact statement, clearing another hurdle for the Red River Valley Diversion project. This plan could pump up to 2,000 gallons per second from one of the upper reservoirs on the Missouri River into a series of canals, lakes and rivers to develop a new water supply for Grand Forks and Fargo, ND, as well as improve the fisheries on the Red River, which flows north into Canada. The 2,000 gallon per second rate is one quarter of the winter flow of the Missouri River at Lake Sakakawea in North Dakota.
The Red River Valley Diversion project has been actively opposed by the states of Missouri and Minnesota, the Canadian Federal Government, and the Province of Manitoba for well over a decade.
Under terms of the North Dakota Water Resources Act passed by the Senate in 2000, Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne must report to Congress by the end of March how the proposed plan meets international agreements with the Canadians and how it will impact the states, including Missouri.
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