When you listen to news reports on health care, do you know there are FIVE different health care bills under active consideration in Congress?  The different bills originate from the following committees: the Senate Finance Committee, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions(HELP), and the House Ways and Means, Education and Labor, and Energy and Commerce committees. The three House bills were mercifully consolidated into a 2000 page behemoth entitled the TriComm Bill(warning: very large file). Which one is the news media talking about? And how care you decide which bill is the best one? The Commonwealth Fund, one of the premier charitable health foundations in the country, has published a side-by -side comparison of these bills broken into many separate components ranging from prescription drugs to malpractice reform. It has also issued its own report on these bills.  And do not forget the Kaiser Family Foundation, another major charitable organization, and its own side-by-side analysis. The American Public Health Association also has its own comparative version as well(this one is dated mid-September whereas the other two are current through early November). The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Project has issued its Comparing Health Care Plans. The Wall Street Journal takes into consideration the just-released Republican outline. The entire proposed Republican plan is available along with their comparison to the “Pelosi”(read TriComm) bill.

As anyone who has done research on private companies knows, getting information on them can be daunting at times. Forbes alleviates some of this frustration by publishing its annual America’s Largest Private Companies, sortable by rank, company, state, industry, revenue, and employees. Rankings back to 2002 can also be accessed here. Find out what large companies call New Jersey home.

If you want to find out how many students from the age of three through graduate school are enrolled in U.S. schools, then this is the place to go to – School Enrollment from the Current Population Survey. Tables are broken down by race, age, sex, and family income; historical information from as early as 1947 is also available. To see New Jersey’s enrollment picture, please use this New Jersey Public Schools Fact Sheet and its attendant links.

The New York Times has a whole section on Christie. You will also find useful information at Park Place Magazine, PolitickerNJ and nj.com.

The results from all the races are here. The New York Times provides a county by county breakdown of the votes for the governorship.   C-SPAN has both  Governor-elect Christie’s victory speech and Governor Corzine’s concession speech. Analyses of this race can be found at philly.com, the Associated Press, nj.com, northjersey.com,  and CNN.

If you are not sure where you can cast your vote today, please go to this New Jersey Division of Elections site. Election results down to the municipal level will be found here. And if you want to refresh your memories as to where the three major candidates stand on the issues, this Voters Guide : Decision Day should be consulted.

America’s New Post-Recession Employment Arithmetic (Rutgers); Corporate Governance Report 2009: Boards in Turbulent Times (Heidrick & Struggles); World Economic Outlook 2009 – Sustaining the Recovery(International Monetary Fund); 50 Free Ivy League Lectures on the Economy(onlineclasses.org); Foreclosures: A Crisis in Legal Representation (Brennan Center for Justice); Financial Development Report 2009 (World Economic Forum);  Geography of Jobs (tipstrategies); Failures of Small Banks Grow, Straining FDIC (New York Times); Assessment of Foreclosure Mitigation Efforts After Six Months (Senate. Congressional Oversight Panel); Consumers in a Post-Recession World (Nielsen); Asia and the Global Financial Crisis (speech by Chairman Bernanke); Bailout Helps Fuel a New Era of Wall Street Wealth (New York Times); Federal Beige Book for October (Federal Reserve Bank); 100th Bank Failure Fact Sheet (FDIC); Executive Compensation Issues (FinancialStability.gov); Financial Stability Improvement Act (House draft);  Key Parts of Financial Stability Improvement Act (Wall Street Journal);  and Effect of the Economic Crisis on HR Programs (Watson Wyatt).

As with everything else in this country, the concept of daylight saving time is attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Just remember that we gain an hour on Sunday; heed the mantra: “spring ahead, fall behind.” For additional information, we recommend: Daylight Saving Time (WebExhibits); Saving Time, Saving Energy (nationalatlas.gov); Does Daylight Saving Time Conserve Energy? (Scientific American); Daylight Saving Time (CRS); Advancement of Time or Changeover Dates (US Code); and  Does Daylight Saving Time Save Energy? Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Indiana (National Bureau of Economic Research). And although most of us say “daylight savings time,” it technically is “daylight saving time.”

This redacted operations manual is made available courtesy of The New York Times. The stated purpose of this manual, in conjunction with the Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations, “…is to standardize policy so that criminal, national security, and foreign intelligence investigative activities are accomplished in a consistent manner, whenever possible….”(Preamble, xi).  The Times provides additional explanatory information presented via highlighted sections.

In keeping with the macabre, forbes.com has released its list of the top-earning dead celebrities. Michael Jackson makes the list, but he is surpassed by a fashion designer. Who is it do you ask? Just follow the link.