Title: Boston Globe Page One Podcast for Mar 30, 2009

" Thank you for downloading today's podcast from the newsroom of the Boston school. Here's a look at today's top stories."

" This is Stuart Clark with the front page news summary on Monday march 30. Just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse. The federal agency that insures the retirement funds a 44 million Americans. Departed from its conservative investment strategy. The pension benefit guarantee corporation. Decided to put much of its 64 billion dollar insurance fund into stocks. Switching from a heavy reliance on bonds. The agency put billions of dollars in to speculative investments. Such as stocks in so called emerging foreign countries. Real estate and private equity funds. Michael crash of the globe's Washington bureau reports that the agency declined to say how much of its new investment strategy has been implement it. Or how the fund has figured during the downturn. It would only say that it's fund was down six point 5%. And all of its stock related investments were down 23%. As of last September 30 the end of the fiscal year. But that was before most of the recent stock market decline and just before the investments which was scheduled to begin in earnest. No figures on the subsequent performance fund were released. Analyst expressed concern that large portions of the trust fund. May have been lost at a time when many private pension plans are suffering major losses. They guarantee fund within be the only way to -- the plants if their companies go into bankruptcy. Peter Orszag. Head of the white house Office of Management and Budget. Has serious concerns about the agency according to an Obama administration spokesman. Last year as director of the Congressional Budget Office or -- expressed alarm that the agency was. Investing a greater share of its assets in risky securities. However Charles EF Millard the former agency director who implemented the strategy until the Bush Administration departed on January 20. Dismiss such concerns. Miller a former managing director of Lehman Brothers said the new investment policy isn't riskier than the previous one. He said the prior strategy of relying mostly on bonds would never garner enough money to eliminate the agency's deficit. Union canvassers in Boston are pursuing two urgent missions. Organizing the city's big teaching hospitals. I'm trying to rally support for federal legislation. That could enhance the strength of unions nationwide. Passage of the bill currently before congress with mixed success more likely for the Massachusetts chapter of the service employees international union."

" Writes Joseph Williams of the globe's Washington bureau."

" For the past two years. The SE IU has been involved in a hospital organizing effort which is focusing first on Beth Israel deaconess Medical Center. Mike -- Dell executive vice president of local 1199. Said the law would be needed if there wasn't a problem. That this feels CEO Paul Levy a harsh critic of the bill. Has said it would eliminate free choice from the workplace and has said a union would do nothing to improve patient care at the hospital. Major business groups and labor unions have spent more than 225. Million dollars in the battle over the check card bill. Which organized labor considers its best chance in a generation to stem decline in membership. The bill is backed by President Obama as well as many leading Democrats. If passed it would allow a majority of employees at a company to organized by signing cards. The current law gives management the right to demand that workers ratify that decision through a secret ballot. With a spate of ship hijacking is posing a growing threat to global trade. The Massachusetts Maritime Academy is expanding its security training to deter crime on the high seas. The globe's Peter swarm writes that the foreign based 1000 student academy since many graduates into seafaring careers where they might travelers. Pirate plagued waterways. Most notably off the horn of Africa. And joins other maritime academies in campaigns to thwart villagers. Increasingly. Pirates are not only college -- ships but holding the crew hostage and successfully demanding huge ransoms. The growing scope and brazen -- of the attacks has persuaded some companies to reroute ships around the southern tip of Africa. About 10% of cadets at the Mass Maritime Academy which is structured as a military academy. Will pursue military service college officials said. Basic weapons training is increasingly required for a range of other maritime careers. And college officials believe it will give graduates a leg up in the job market. It was quite useful language when Harvard was founded nearly four centuries ago. At that time all students read and spoke Latin. Largely because they had -- most lectures were delivered in Latin and the classics was pretty much all students could study. Today the number of students conversant in the town of Cicero and Plato has dwindled. With only 42. Less than 1% of Harvard's 6640. Undergraduates. Teasing classics as a major. Then there sanskrit and Indian studies which has three students and astronomy and astrophysics. With five. Although most students may view the under subscribe subjects as impractical. The bastion of liberal arts education has in recent years begun promoting learning for learning sake as a worthy and enriching pursuit. The globes Tracy Chan writes that rather than viewing a major solely as a stepping stone to a career. The university is pushing students to broaden your interest and explore more esoteric topics."

" To get the full report on these and other news feature sports stories. And Condit lost. Or visit want to. If you have comments about the -- podcast. Send me an email at dean Clark and globe. Dot com."