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I wish I’d refused her angry charity. I didn’t. |
Instead, I avoided looking at my classmates and sat quietly through a movie I didn’t see. |
I don’t know how Bob and Carolyn fared when they confessed they were without movie money. We never talked about it, and I never mentioned my embarrassment to my mother. |
But I learned an important lesson from Mrs. Peterson. We must choose our words carefully and be ever thoughtful about the impact they have. |
We can speak words that understand and support or that hurt and discourage. |
Confusing and constantly changing marching orders from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services managers will get the blame for last year’s HealthCare.gov debacle under an independent government review, the Associated Press said Wednesday. |
Quoting unnamed sources, the AP said the report is due Thursday from the Government Accountability Office, Congress’s investigative agency. The news agency said the GAO conducted a months-long probe into the matter. |
— Contractors did not get a plan set in stone, as CMS officials jumped from issue to issue, driving up costs. |
— CMS did not follow up to make sure contractors performed their tasks. |
— The contract to build HealthCare.gov was open-ended, which may have helped drive up costs. |
The site, designed to help individuals get coverage in states without their own health exchanges, ended up serving 36 states when only 14 states and the District of Columbia set up their own systems. HealthCare.gov was unable to function for the vast majority of applicants as it was essentially locked up during the fir... |
Troubleshooters came in to get the system up and running by December and HealthCare.gov was able to enlist more than 5.5 million of the 8 million Obamacare applicants by the time enrollment ended March 31. |
Mumbai: Indian federal bond yields dropped to 8 month lows on Friday as slowing inflation and tight cash conditions in the money market raised hopes policy makers may take fresh liquidity boosting measures. |
At 10:15 a.m. (0445 GMT), the 10-year federal bond yield was at 7.43%, a level it last tested in mid-February and 8 basis points below Wednesday’s close of 7.51%. Thursday was a market holiday. |
The yield has fallen 37 basis points so far this week and is down nearly 2% points since late July. |
Volume was a normal Rs28 billion ($566 million) on the central bank’s electronic trading platform with the 10-year bond the most active. |
“Falling inflation and oil prices have raised expectations that policy makers will follow up their recent measures with more liquidity boosting steps such as an additional cash reserve ratio cut," said Satish Jeurkar, head of fixed income at Saraswat Bank. |
India’s annual inflation rate eased to a 4- month low of 10.68% in mid-October and could be in single digits before the end of 2008, giving the central bank room to cut rates further to shore up growth, analysts said on Thursday. |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Vanderbilt defensive lineman Rutger Reitmaier has received a waiver from the NCAA that enables the Oregon transfer to play for the Commodores this fall. |
School officials announced Wednesday that the NCAA had granted a waiver for Reitmaier. |
Reitmaier, who is from Nashville, initially signed with Oregon and participated in the Ducks’ 2017 spring practice. He left Oregon after spring practice and sat out the 2017 season but didn’t enroll at Vanderbilt until January 2018. |
He participated in Vanderbilt’s 2018 spring practice. |
In brief: Wonderland, directed by Michael Winterbottom and written by Laurence Coriat, puts an impressive amount of kitchen-sink realism to work on a rather shopworn multistoried scenario about all the lonely people looking for love in the big city, in this case South London. Gina McKee and Shirley Henderson give the g... |
Athletics legend, Yussuf Alli, has described the decision of the Lagos chapter of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to organise a road race as one of the best things that happened to marathon and road races since Governor Akinwunmi Ambode revived the culture in February 2016 with the Lagos City Marathon. |
Alli who was within the Top 10 ranking in the world during his active years in the men’s long jump alongside legends like Carl Lewis and Mike Powell for a decade is now the poster face for the organisation of top road races across Nigeria, including the Lagos City Marathon which is an IAAF Bronze Label race, Okpekpe Ro... |
He said that when media practitioners sing the gospel of walking, jogging, running, general exercise and its immense health benefits more and more citizens will embrace it thus leading to a healthier and more productive workforce and less spending by the government on healthcare. |
Alli said he would be more than willing to also help with the Lagos Media Marathon to make it a success right from its first edition. |
Amid the incessant crackle of gunfire, the soldiers usher the cowering men through darkened rooms. |
The men are barefoot, most of them wearing long robes, some with large stains. As voices holler at them in the darkness to move quickly, they hurry across the debris-littered floor, past the gun-wielding soldiers. |
The frantic scene is from a newly released video showing parts of the mission in northern Iraq on Thursday in which U.S., Kurdish and Iraqi forces freed around 70 hostages from an ISIS-controlled prison. |
The rescue of the hostages, who the Pentagon said were facing “imminent mass execution,” cost the life of one of the U.S. soldiers taking part in the operation — Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler. |
A member of the U.S. Army’s elite Delta Force, Wheeler was the first American to die in combat in Iraq in nearly four years. His death has raised questions about the nature of U.S. involvement in the fight against ISIS. |
The new video showing scenes from the raid near Hawija, in northern Kirkuk province, was released by the Kurdistan Regional Government. A U.S. military official confirmed its source and authenticity to CNN. |
It was filmed from the helmet camera of one of the Kurdish soldiers, whose gun can be seen pointing at a barred window through which a glow is emanating, possibly from a fire. |
Soldiers are also seen moving around in a dark office in which a huge black-and-white ISIS flag hangs at the far end. In another scene, four men wearing robes and with their hands on their heads — presumably hostages — are ushered through a doorway and then searched. |
The person wearing the body camera empties the freed men’s shirt pockets and pats them down before hurriedly moving the men farther down the hallway. |
Thirty troops from Delta Force on an “advise and assist role” participated in the raid when Kurdish commandos were overwhelmed after entering the walled compound on their own, a U.S. official with direct knowledge of details of the operation told CNN last week. |
A U.S. Special Forces commander on the ground made the decision to directly engage ISIS fighters during the overnight mission, the official said. Wheeler was shot inside the compound, badly injured and flown to Irbil, where he died, according to the official. |
The hostages who were freed were reported to include members of the Iraqi Security Forces, local residents and several ISIS fighters accused of spying. |
U.S. officials have said the decisions were made quickly because time was believed to have been running out for the hostages. |
“We knew the hostages would soon be murdered,” said Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the U.S. military operation against ISIS. |
“We knew this because we saw freshly dug graves,” he told reporters Sunday in Baghdad. |
What Happened After Raw Went Off-Air, Debra Update, Divas - Wrestling Inc. |
-- WWE Divas Candice, Eve and Maria will be signing copies of the WWE Encyclopedia this Thursday. They will be at Borders Books located at 3700 Torrance Blvd in Torrance, CA , Torrance, CA from 7 to 9pm. |
-- For those of you that love WWE Diva pics, DivaShots.com has put together a section with tons of new WWE Diva photos. |
-- Former WWE Diva Debra has recently opened an official MySpace page. Her page is located at www.myspace.com/officialdebra. |
-- After Raw went of air, HBK came out to save Cena and Edge Sweet Chin Music. HBK then gave one to Big Show and celebrated with the hometown crowd to close the show. |
Candice Responds To 'Haters', Contract Is Not Expiring This Year? |
Error (USA Today, 5/23/11): Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had rejected the idea of basing Israel’s western border on the armistice lines that have existed since the end of the Six-Day War in 1967, and have yet to be resolved. |
Correction (5/27/11): A story Monday on President Obama’s speech on Israel-Palestinian peace talks misstated the location of the armistice line between Israel and the West Bank. It is along eastern Israel. |
CAMERA commends USA Today for its prompt correction. |
Confidence among small U.S. business owners touched its highest level in almost three years in November, reflecting improvements in the labor market and a pick-up in capital spending, a survey showed on Tuesday. |
The National Federation of Independent Business' optimism index rose 1.5 points to 93.2, the highest reading since December 2007 when the recession started. |
The downturn, which was the longest and deepest since the Great Depression of the 1930s, officially ended in June 2009. The index was up for a fourth straight month in November and continued to outperform all recovery periods since 1973, the NFIB said. |
Seven of the index's 10 components posted gains, with job creation and spending plans accounting for half of the rise. The survey also found that more businesses raised compensation and job creation turned positive after being negative for 32 of the last 35 months. |
About 9 percent of the 807 small businesses that took part in the survey conducted through Nov. 30 reported unfilled job openings, down one percentage point from the prior month. |
Over the next three months, 9 percent of businesses plan to increase employment, up one point, while 12 percent intended to lay off workers, down one point from the previous survey. |
"Overall, job creation is likely to continue but at a tepid pace, far below the 300,000 plus figure needed each month for the next three years to keep up with population growth and restore most of the jobs lost in the recession," the NFIB said. |
About a fifth of respondents planned spending on capital and many said their credit needs were met. Businesses also indicated they continued to liquidate inventories and more firms were raising prices. |
If the price increase pattern holds, it could ease the Federal Reserve's the fear of deflation, a harmful downward spiral in prices. |
"The trend is clearly supportive of higher prices in future months," the NFIB said. |
The pay for Texas lawmakers is low, but the pension benefits are sweet. Some say, though, that lawmakers who break the law should have to forfeit their pensions. |
Texas legislators get paid less than the people who sack your groceries, which, when you think about it, seems perfectly rational. But lawmakers’ bennies are sweet, starting with guaranteed pensions after eight years on the job. |
That doesn’t sit well with everyone, including a couple of this year’s candidates for the Legislature, who think the benefits — if they continue at all — should be cut off if lawmakers break the law. |
Jim Pruitt, a former criminal judge in Dallas County who is running for an open House seat in North Texas, wants lawmakers convicted of felonies to forfeit their pensions, and he is questioning whether lawmakers ought to collect any pensions at all. In a nearby open seat, Amber Fulton (who has the same political consul... |
Serving in the Legislature, while enormously time-consuming, is supposed to be a part-time gig for the civically interested Texan. Keep the 9-to-5 job that pays the mortgage and feeds the family and, for 140 days every two years, come to Austin and legislate on behalf of your fellow citizens. In between, you and your s... |
That arrangement obviously requires some forbearance at work. At a minimum, a lawmaker will spend at least four days a week in Austin in January through May of every odd-numbered year. It’s not easy, but neither is serving on a school board or a city council or doing volunteer work. |
The pay genuinely stinks. It’s $600 per month, plus a daily allowance of $150 for those days when a lawmaker is in Austin or on the road for official business. Voters have turned back various attempts to turn these into full-time jobs with full-time pay. |
That doesn’t mean it’s not lucrative in the long term. |
Texas legislators who serve at least eight years are entitled to start collecting pension benefits at age 60. If a lawmaker has at least 12 years of service, the benefits can start when the lawmaker is 50. |
The benefits aren’t based on that $600-per-month paycheck, either, but on the salary paid to state district judges. That salary, set by the same legislators whose pensions depend on it, is $125,000. There’s a formula ($125,000 x .023 x years of service), but the bottom line is that retired Texas lawmakers get an annual... |
It adds up. That eight-year lawmaker would get $23,000 annually starting at age 60. After 12 years? $34,500, starting at the ripe old age of 50. |
Every case has particulars — adjustments and deductions for this and that — but it’s easy to figure a lawmaker’s base benefit just by knowing the years in office. For instance, former Speaker Tom Craddick — the longest-serving state legislator in office and the second-longest in state history — took office in 1969 and ... |
Under the rules, he’s earned it. But what about felons? Rep. Joe Driver, R-Garland, got caught reimbursing travel expenses from his campaign accounts that had also been reimbursed by the state. He pleaded guilty last year to a third-degree felony and isn’t seeking re-election. Former Rep. Terri Hodge, a Dallas Democrat... |
Should they still collect their pensions? |
Under current law, there’s no question: yes. But some of this year’s candidates in other races are making an issue of it. Flores served for 14 years, Hodge for 13, and Driver will have 20. |
Know a grocery sacker with a pension like that? |
Hardman Darlene Real Estate is located on 34 W Walnut St in Hanover. They can be contacted by calling (717) 632-9570 . Services offered include: Real Estate Listings. Hardman Darlene Real Estate has not yet been reviewed on MojoPages.com. |
Millennials are increasingly skeptical that Social Security will be there for their retirement. They're right to be. |
Millennials are worried that Social Security won’t be there for them at retirement, and they have good reason. For them the promise of retirement is looking increasingly weak. |
Retirement in 20th Century America was built on what financial advisors call the three legged stool: 401(k)s and other retirement accounts, pension funds and Social Security. Together these ensured that most retirees could live comfortably despite their years out of the work force. The trouble is, as longevity has incr... |
It’s the subject of a forum hosted today by the Museum of American Finance and Bank of America, and an issue that should concern Millennials the most. |
First, companies began eliminating pensions, dropping them in favor of matching retirement contributions or nothing at all. Then personal finances began to strain Americans’ abilities to make meaningful contributions to their own retirement funds. Most recently, Social Security has increasingly come under attack as an ... |
The strain of supporting a population that will only work for about half of its life is beginning to show, and for Millennials, the danger is distant but acute. |
In fact, it’s already begun. |
As Bob Kerrey, former Democratic Governor and Senator of Nebraska, explained, Congress has already acted, cutting Social Security benefits by 25% for everyone currently under 40. This isn’t the only new change to the New Deal program either, as Congress has also acted to restrict flexibility by limiting popular options... |
It’s a move that would be politically unthinkable for current or imminent beneficiaries, but with Millennials and younger Gen X-ers, it’s a safe bet. Safe enough, in fact, that many members of this cohort don’t even know what’s happened. |
Politically, the question of how entitlements work has been toxic enough to earn its status as the third rail in American politics, because the system is built around a polite fiction. We call them “entitlements,” because Social Security and Medicare are built around the idea that they operate as a sort of government-m... |
The well documented reality, however, is that these days seniors withdraw an average of $7 for every one that they’ve paid into the system. |
The result has put financial strain on the guaranteed entitlement system that Social Security operates on, while at the same time making it virtually impossible to cut benefits for near-retirees who feel that they’ve earned their money. Millennials, as voters with retirement a long way off, are less likely to revolt. |
As a result, Millennials need to start planning for this leg of the tripod to get pretty wobbly. |
Part of the trouble with planning for a retirement without Social Security is that it removes the last constant. Retirement planning is a game of shifting variables. How much money can you squirrel away? What will be your employer contributions over a career? How long will you live? When can you pay off student loans? ... |
All of these questions are largely unanswerable, but at least Social Security has given Americans a baseline of reliability. |
According to David Leland, a wealth advisor with Merrill Lynch who specializes in this Social Security planning, that doesn’t mean that 25-year-olds need to put away their dreams of retirement. Instead, they just have to realize that what was a guarantee to their parents has become a variable for them. |
Meanwhile their FICA tax hasn’t changed a dime. |
“I think it’s a big deal from a fairness standpoint,” Leland said. At the same time, he pointed out, Social Security’s weaknesses can be planned around. |
“I think the Millennials look at it and say, ‘Fine, in fact I’ll agree right now, don’t give me any Social Security benefits. Just stop making me contribute in,’” Leland said. |
The first step, he suggested, should be for any young worker who can do so to create and maximize a Roth IRA. For most Millennials, it’s a safe assumption that they’ll be earning considerably more by the time they hit retirement, kicking them into a much higher tax bracket than the one they enjoyed in their 20s. Since ... |
It’s a powerful enough tool that many Baby Boomer parents Leland works with have begun to incorporate it into their estate planning. |
It isn’t pure generosity, he pointed out. The parents who create these savings accounts for their children do so, because they don’t think Social Security will still be there in 40 years. |
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