Top 10 Headlines from All Regions On December 23, 2008, President Bush signed the Worker, Retiree,and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (H.R. 7327) (the "WRERAct"), which provides that owners and beneficiaries ofIRAs and other defined contribution plans who are required to takerequired minimum distributions ("RMDs") from their plans in tax year 2009, will generally be able to leave their money in their plans (hopefully to grow) without suffering anypenalty for failure to withdraw. The normal rules still apply for 2008. How do you spell "America" in 2009? The names of the championship finalists of the National Spelling Bee may tell us something important. This article provides some tips for maintaining your personnel files so that they don't come back to haunt you. Two recent enforcement actions have set new records for penalties for violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Last week the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 360, which enacted sweeping changes to Florida’s growth management laws. In these tough economic times, many employers have been compelled to let some employees go. Other employers need to cutcosts but are looking for lawful alternatives to layoffs. This article highlights a planning opportunity, which allows you to achieve considerable inheritance tax savings without impacting on your current or future financial security. Last December, as the recession was beginning to deepen, Littler published an Insight, Furloughs and Reduced Hours: Cost-Cutting Strategies Other Than Layoffs, discussing several alternatives to layoffs, particularly mandatory furloughs of exempt employees, mandatory use of vacation/PTO during furloughs, and reduced workweeks, based on the limited legal precedent available at that time on these subjects. On March 25, 2009, the Government Accountability Office ("GAO") released a report which found that the Wage and Hour Department of the U.S. Department of Labor ("WHD") consistently falls short in properly investigating claims of wage and hour violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA"). The National Credit Union Administration (“NCUA”) approved a joint final rule addressing unfair or deceptive acts or practices (“UDAP”) relating to credit cards written by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (“Board”), the Office of Thrift Supervision and the NCUA (collectively, the “Agencies”). | 
