Detroit police officers, firefighters and other municipal union members picketed around City Hall Thursday to protest of a 10-percent pay cut and changes in health care benefits under contracts imposed by Mayor Dave Bing.

The long-held expectations of financial returns as seen in a decade ago are beginning to paralyze the nation's largest public pension plans, and their future.

Coke and Pepsi are chasing after the sweet spot: a soda with no calories, no artificial sweeteners and no funny aftertaste. The world's top soft drink companies hope that's the elusive trifecta that will silence health concerns about soda and reverse the decline in consumption of carbonated drinks. But such...