Retirement

America's workers are delaying retirement, human-resources executives said in a recent survey. Consultancy Towers Perrin said 59% of those surveyed said they believed employees were delaying retirement, while 43% said workers were increasing loans and hardship withdrawals from company retirement savings plans. In addition, 38% said fewer employees were participating in defined-contribution plans. Nearly half said they had closed or soon would close company plans to new participants, and an additional 10% were considering doing so. Only 8% said their companies had suspended matching contributions -- although 19% were considering it. Towers Perrin polled a random group of 480 HR and benefit executives from its client base in February.

Thieves stole German Health Minister Ulla Schmidt's official limousine from near the Spanish town of Alicante while she was on holiday. Schmidt, a Social Democrat in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition government, had been using the black Mercedes for official appointments, including meetings at retirement homes, hospitals and schools, a spokeswoman said. She said the thieves broke into the driver's room and took the keys. Alicante, on the Costa Blanca in southeastern Spain, is a popular retirement and holiday spot for Germans.

Wayne Newton is telling fans "Danke schoen" after 50 years in Las Vegas and hinting that his latest run could be his last. But the singer synonymous with Sin City says he's leaving himself an opening in case he wants to perform after April. The man known throughout the world as "Mr. Las Vegas" says retirement is possible, but that decision won't hinge on the success of his new show that opened Wednesday night at the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Instead, he says, it depends on whether his itch to keep working conflicts with his desire to spend more time with his 7-year-old daughter.

President Nelson Mandela will step down as head of the ruling African National Congress next year ahead of his intended retirement as head of state in 1999, the ANC said. A statement said Mandela told the party of his decision not to stand for reelection as ANC leader during a weekend meeting of its National Executive Committee. Mandela said early last year that he would step down as head of state in 1999, when the five-year term of the country's first all-race government expires.

In Ferrell Buckels' 21-year parade of the dead, the ice cream man with a bullet in his chest was first in line. Buckels was new to the Santa Ana Police homicide unit when he crouched over the hapless robbery victim in the back of his ice cream truck on a summer day in 1975. It would take Buckels seven years to cuff the killer on his first murder case, making it one of his toughest. "Sometimes they take awhile," Buckels recalled. "That's just how it is.

Ray Van De Warker and Bob Penfield had just graduated from Anaheim High School and were out looking for summer jobs when they drove by a sign that said Disneyland was hiring. It was June 1955. The two 18-year-old former high school football teammates drove up to the old Anaheim farmhouse serving as Disneyland's personnel office and applied for jobs as ride operators.

At the request of employee unions, the Board of Supervisors Tuesday postponed action on a proposal to transfer control of deferred compensation accounts of county workers from the treasurer's office to a private firm. The move comes after Treasurer John M.W. Moorlach expressed concerns about the plan, which would make the National Assn. of Counties and two other firms responsible for the $83 million that some employees have set aside voluntarily for retirement.

Insurance company Conseco Inc. said Monday that it will concentrate on the retiree market by acquiring all or parts of four life and health insurance companies for about $1.76 billion in cash, stock and debt. With the acquisitions, about 80% of the business of Carmel, Ind.-based Conseco will be aimed at the retiree market, Chairman Stephen Hilbert said.

When Tom Lasorda retired as Dodger manager, we heard more than one person say, "Too bad Healy isn't around." It was only a few days after the second anniversary of radio broadcaster Jim Healy's death. Voice-tracks of Lasorda (along with Charles Barkley, Howard Cosell and others) were a big part of Healy's long-time show. But, in a sense, Healy is still here.