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* * * * * WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013 ~ VOL. CCLXII NO. 67 WSJ.com HHHH $2 .00

Since the 1940s, health bene-fits have been a key part of manyemployees’ compensation. A longtrend of rising health spendingand a wave of changes to thehealth care system are prompt-ing many employers to rethinktheir roles in financing care foremployees and their dependents.

Like the shift from pensionPleaseturntopageA6

new law as a reason for the switch.Walgreen is the latest in a grow-

ing list of companies makingchanges to their benefits. Interna-tional BusinessMachines Corp. andTime Warner Inc. both said in re-cent weeks they will move thou-sands of retirees fromcompany-ad-ministered plans to privateexchanges. Sears Holdings Corp.and Darden Restaurants Inc. saidlast year theywould send employ-ees to a private exchange.

pany-backed health programs. OnWednesday, the drugstore giant isexpected to disclose a plan to pro-vide payments to eligible employ-ees for the subsidized purchase ofinsurance starting in 2014. Theplan will affect roughly 160,000employees, and will require themto shop for coverage on a privatehealth-insurance marketplace.Aside from rising health-care costs,the company cited compliance-re-lated expenses associatedwith the

Rising health-care costs and aclimate of change brought aboutby the new federal health law areprompting American corpora-tions to revisit the pact they’velong had with employees overmedical benefits.

Walgreen Co. is set to becomeone of the largest employers yet tomake sweeping changes to com-

Surfing the Internet severalyears ago, Alan Solomon wasshocked to see his 29-year-oldself staring back at him from thescreen.

Now 63, he found people halfhis age drawing inspira-tion from him in de-signing interactive con-tests. Mr. Solomonhappens to love gamesand has spent most ofhis career designingthem, working on lot-teries and shows suchas “Love Connection.”But the influence on theyoung designers camefrom a fictional charac-ter he played in the1980 box-office flop“Midnight Madness.”

Back then Mr. Solomon was ascruffy, bespectacled musicianwho answered a casting call for anew Disney teen film. The two

young writer-directors, DavidWechter and Michael Nankin,plucked him out of the crowd.They had found “Leon.”

The script they wrote wasbased on “The Game,” an under-ground event that led teams ofcontestants around Los Angeles

in an all-night race thatinvolved solving puzzlesto find the next clueand, eventually, the fin-ish line. Leon would bethe mad genius in thefictional version, re-cruiting five teams ofcollege classmates forhis “Great All-Nighter.”The movie featured athen unknown MichaelJ. Fox and Paul Reubens(aka Pee-wee Herman).

The movie had a di-sastrous showing at the box of-fice. Then cable channel HBO pro-ceeded to broadcast it constantly,cementing cult status for the film

PleaseturntopageA6

‘Leon’

BY SPENCER JAKAB

Flop at the Box Office SpawnsA Generation of ‘Midnight Madness’

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All-Nighters Still Have Fans Who ChannelTheir Inner ‘Leons’ at Annual Fetes

WASHINGTON—New revela-tions about the Navy contractorwho killed 12 people at a securemilitary installation here haveexposed serious shortfalls in se-curity screening and base protec-tion, prompting the White Houseand Pentagon to order a globalreview.

President Barack Obama andDefense Secretary Chuck Hagelcalled for a broad security as-sessment as the administrationand law-enforcement officialstried to determine how a Navyreservist with a yearslong his-tory of mental-health problemsand run-ins with the law wasable to carry out the deadly at-tack.

Officials investigating Mon-day’s shooting painted a portraitof a troubled assailant who saidhe was hearing voices and be-lieved as recently as last monththat adversaries were using a“microwave machine” to preventhim from getting sleep.

Aaron Alexis, the 34-year-oldformer Navy reservist killed byofficers responding to the attack,had sought treatment earlier thisyear from the Department ofVeterans Affairs for paranoia andother complaints, said officialsfamiliar with the investigation.

What appeared to be growingPleaseturntopageA4

By Dion Nissenbaum,Devlin Barrett

and Siobhan Hughes

ShootingExposesScreeningLapses

On a hill overlooking the Susquehanna River,two big wind turbines crank out electricity forKroger Co.’s Turkey Hill Dairy in rural LancasterCounty, Pa., allowing it to save 25% on its powerbill for the past two years.

Across the country, at a big food-distributioncenter Kroger also owns in Compton, Calif., a tanksystem installed this year uses bacteria to convert150 tons a day of damaged produce, bread andother organic waste into a biogas that is burned onsite to produce 20% of the electricity the facilityuses.

These two projects, plus the electric output ofsolar panels at four Kroger grocery stores, andsome energy-conservation efforts are saving theCincinnati-based grocery chain $160 million a yearon electricity, said Denis George, its energy man-

ager. That is a lot of money that isn’t going intothe pockets of utilities.

From big-box retailers to high-tech manufactur-ers, more companies across the country are pro-ducing their own power. Since 2006, the numberof electricity-generation units at commercial andindustrial sites has more than quadrupled toroughly 40,000 from about 10,000, according tofederal statistics.

Experts say the trend is gaining momentum,spurred by falling prices for solar panels and natu-ral gas, as well as a fear that power outages causedby major storms will become more common.

“The battle cry is Hurricane Sandy,” said RickFioravanti, vice president of energy-storage tech-nology at DNV Kema, a Netherlands-based consult-ing company.

The growing number of companies that are atPleaseturntopageA14

BY REBECCA SMITH AND CASSANDRA SWEET

POWER PLAY

Companies Unplug FromGrid,Delivering a Jolt to Utilities

WASHINGTON—The LaborDepartment extended minimum-wage and overtime pay to nearlytwo million workers in the homehealth-care industry, in a long-fought victory for unions, but amove some business officialssaid could make home care unaf-fordable for many consumers.

The workers—often known aspersonal-care aides, home-healthaides or certified nursing assis-tants—typically bathe, dress andfeed elderly or disabled patients.

A large percentage of theworkers are hired directly bypeople with disabilities or theirfamilies. Others are employed byprivate companies that provideservices. Workers typically arepaid with Medicaid funds admin-istered by states.

The Labor Department’s newrule will take effect on Jan. 1,2015. Many home-health workers

Pleaseturntothenextpage

BY MELANIE TROTTMANAND KRIS MAHER

RegulatorsBoost Wages,Overtime forHealth Aides

DJIA 15529.73 À 34.95 0.2% NASDAQ 3745.70 À 0.75% NIKKEI 14311.67 g 0.65% STOXX600 311.95 g 0.5% 10-YR. TREAS. À 7/32 , yield 2.850% OIL $105.42 g $1.17 GOLD $1,309.50 g $8.40 EURO $1.3359 YEN 99.13

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What’sNews

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World-Widen The White House andPentagon ordered a globalreview of military-base secu-rity in the wake of Monday’sdeadly attack at the Wash-ington, D.C., Navy Yard. A1nMedian family income inthe U.S. stabilized last yearfor the first time since therecession, easing 0.2% to aninflation-adjusted $51,017. A3nWomen earned 76.5 centsfor every dollar that men didlast year, moving no closerto narrowing a wage gap. A3nHouse GOP leaders areconsidering options to fundthe government amid a revoltby conservatives who want toundercut the health law. A9nNo telecom company hasever challenged orders to turnover records in the NSA phone-data-collection program, a se-cret court opinion said. A2n Brazil’s president calledoff a U.S. state visit in reac-tion to allegations that theU.S. spied on Brazilians. A10n Japan’s Premier Abepressed the case for expand-ing his country’s strictly lim-ited military role. A10n The EU proposed tighten-ing curbs on legal substancesthat officials say are used byyoung people to get high. A12n A U.S. appeals court willconsider whether someonecan be excluded from a jurydue to sexual orientation. A6nMexico scrambled to re-cover from weekend stormsthat killed at least 47. A10n Died: Eiji Toyoda, 100, ledToyota to the top of theglobal auto industry. B1

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Walgreen will becomeone of the biggest firms

yet to make sweeping changesin its health program with aplan that gives employeespayments to buy insurance. A1Medical costs rose 1% inJuly from a year earlier, theslowest annual rate ofgrowth in a half century. A6n J.P. Morgan is being investi-gated by the CFTC over possi-ble market-index manipulationand faces an FBI probe overthe “London whale” trades. C1n The U.S. is extending min-imum-wage and overtimepay to nearly two millionhome health-care workers. A1nThe Dow climbed for the11th time in 14 days, rising34.95 to 15529.73, ahead of theFed bond-buying decision. C4nMicrosoft boosted its quar-terly dividend by 22% andrenewed a $40 billion share-buyback authorization. B1nHedge-fund firm Jana ac-quired a 6% stake in Safeway.The supermarket chain saidit put in place a poison pill. B1nEnergy Future’s creditorsare clashing over their hold-ings in the utility as it movescloser to a bankruptcy filing.C1n China bought a recordamount of U.S. governmentagency debt and mortgage-backed securities in July. C3n Four defense contractorsbuilding the F-35 fighter havesigned onto securing big cuts,the program’s head said. B3n The EU unveiled a plan totoughen regulation of Libor andother market benchmarks. C3

Business&Finance

A High-Wire Rescue Over Flood-Ravaged Colorado

CHOPPERED OUT: A Black Hawk helicopter hoisted two women near Jamestown, Colo., on Tuesday. More than 3,000 have been evacuated since lastweek’s devastating floods. With airlifts tapering, officials turn to assessing the costs of rebuilding homes, roads, collapsed bridges and twisted rails.

JoeAmon

s/DenverPo

st/A

ssociatedPress

BY TIMOTHY W. MARTINAND CHRISTOPHER WEAVER

Burden Shifts on InsuranceFirms Change Health Coverage; Walgreen to Give Workers Payments to Buy Plans

Twelve lives cut short............... A4 Health-care inflation slows..... A6

TODAY IN PERSONAL JOURNAL

A (Very Short) Family DinnerPLUS The New iPhones: A Review

Getty

Images

U.S. Households See Some Relief

40,000

30,000

20,000

10,000

$50,000

1970 ’80 ’90 2000 ’10

2012 $51,017

Average annual change, 2007-12†U.S. median household income*

Paychecks largely stabilized last year for the firsttime since the recession but remain depressed.

*in 2012 dollars †Average income, adjusted for household sizeSource: Census Bureau The Wall Street Journal

Lowest 5th

–3.3%

Fourth 5th

–2.2%

Middle 5th

–1.6%

Second 5th

–1.0%

Top 5th of all households

–0.5%

Americans’ incomes are leveling off, but higher poverty rates persist. A3

FIND AWAY FORWARDON PAGE A5.

THE 30-YEARBULLMARKETFOR BONDSMAY BE OVER.

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