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Quick Takes

Retirement rule: The Obama administration has finalized a new rule intended to encourage states to set up their own retirement plans.

The Department of Labor rule is designed to clarify how voluntary, state-run retirement programs are regulated by the federal government.

Labor Secretary Tom Perez says the state-run plans are a promising new option for people who are saving too little for retirement. He says one-third of U.S. workers don’t have access to employer-based retirement programs.

Eight states have created their own plans, and some require some employers to automatically enroll workers if they don’t offer their own plans.

Perez says his department is also proposing a rule that would allow some large cities to follow suit.

Wary of Russia: Vice President Joe Biden says a new natural gas pipeline planned to stretch from Russia to Germany “looks like a fairly bad deal” for Europe because it increases its energy dependency on Moscow.

Biden says that to lock Europe “into greater reliance on Russia … will fundamentally destabilize Ukraine,” but stressed that the European Union leaders must make their own decisions on the issue.

Russian energy company Gazprom and the EU, which imports a third of its natural gas from Russia, agreed last year on the new pipeline to run parallel to an existing one that runs under the Baltic Sea.

Biden spoke Thursday at a news conference in the Swedish capital Stockholm after talks with Swedish Prime Minister Stephan Lofven.

Who made that?: U.S. retailers like J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart are scrutinizing whether sheets Welspun India Ltd. said were Egyptian cotton are actually knock-offs, sending its shares plummeting.

Target had said Aug. 19 it was pulling the sheets from its stores and online and terminating its relationship with Welspun. It said an investigation confirmed that Welspun had used another type of Egyptian cotton for two years. Since then, retailers including J.C. Penney, Bed Bath & Beyond and Wal-Mart have said they are investigating the company’s certification claims.

Welspun told investors this week it’s conducting an audit. It shares have fallen more than 40 percent since the Target announcement on the BSE, the largest exchange in India.

Pipe ruling: A ruling in the request by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to stop a four-state oil pipeline under construction near their reservation will come by Sept. 9, a federal judge said.

The tribe is challenging the Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, which crosses through four states, including near the reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg listened to argument and said he’d rule next month.

Dakota Access was told by the Iowa Utilities Board to stay away from the properties of 15 Iowa landowners until Monday to give board time to review legal issues involving a lawsuit.

The $3.8 billion pipeline, which will run 1,168 miles through Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota and South Dakota, has generated legal challenges and protests, most aggressively in North Dakota and Iowa. Growing protests and increased tension over the pipeline that will cross the Missouri River near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation has led to 28 arrests.

Wednesday’s hearing in Washington, D.C., attracted dozens of protesters, including actresses Susan Sarandon and Shailene Woodley. Sarandon said the pipeline creates a “dangerous situation” that threatens the tribe’s drinking water.

“Everyone needs water and I’m very grateful to the Standing Rock Tribe for making this clear that this has to stop,” Sarandon said.

 

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