Alabama Town’s Failed Pension Is a Warning

This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry.
Multimedia
Slide Show
Where the Pension Checks Stopped
Enlarge This Image
Meggan Haller for The New York Times

Last week, retirees asked the City Council for some help before Christmas. More Photos »

Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full.

By MICHAEL COOPER and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/business/23prichard.html?_r=1&hp