Cited: ABC news

It is Shark Week! Thanks to the Discovery Channel, Shark Week is is dedicated to sharks and runs August 1-7. This is the 23rd annual Shark Week and he gives college students another reason to party because it is just before school begins. So put on your best shark costume and cook up your favorite ocean inspired dishes and invite your friends over for a party!

“It’s kind of a strange week,” said 22-year-old Matt Kelly, a college graduate in San Diego who is hosting marine-themed events every day this week to celebrate Shark Week. “It’s made out kind of as a holiday.”

Shark Week is a week-long series of programming on the Discovery Channel dedicated to — you guessed it — sharks. Aug. 1 marked the start of the 23rd annual Shark Week.

In Illinois, Northwestern University students Terri Shih and Claire Christenson celebrated their first Shark Week with a costume party the evening of August 4 at their apartment in Evanston. Shih, 21, dressed up as a shark and served snacks such as shark-shaped cookies and fish gummies. “[Shark Week] kind of just seems like something that everyone already knows about and talks about,” Shih said. “Everyone’s Facebook statuses are about Shark Week.” After hearing all of her friends talk about the “epic” footage on Shark Week’s shows, Shih said, “It was kind of hard to not get really excited about it.”

In New York, 19-year-old Crystal Blodgett, a student at the Continental School of Beauty in New York, will be hosting her third Shark Week party this Saturday at her home in Rochester. She will serve shark-related snacks, such as cupcakes topped with blue frosting and gummy sharks; “chum punch,” a red fruit punch made to look like fish chum; and cups of blue Jell-O with a gummy shark in it. Guests will play a version of Jeopardy that Blodgett created and dubbed “Jawpardy.” She expects the total cost of the party to be around $50.

Other students spend a little more on their Shark Week celebrations. Miami University student Abby Pautz shelled out about $300 to throw her first Shark Week party in Ohio last Saturday. Many guests wore costumes and temporary shark tattoos. Some even decorated their cars. The menu included Swedish fish, shark fin cupcakes and Twinkies dipped in frosting and decorated to look like sharks. To top it all off, Pautz served a cake featuring a shark popping out with a Barbie doll in its jaws, a creation she and her friend spent hours making. But the shark frenzy doesn’t stop there. Pautz and her friends are ordering T-shirts that say “Shark Week is JAWESOME.”

Blodgett said she’s noticed more of her college friends participating in the event this year: “I used to never see it on Facebook, but this year I saw like 20 people on my friends list were talking about Shark Week.”

So why are college students so fascinated with a week of TV shows featuring sharks? “I think it’s something that is exciting and cool to watch,” Shih said. “It’s really fascinating. If I were to encounter a shark on a beach, I would probably freak out, but I just can’t stop watching it.”

Blodgett said, “I think people just think it’s kind of a cool concept that Discovery Channel dedicates a whole week to this one animal.”

Kelly pointed out that Shark Week’s timing is perfect for get-togethers.

“It’s right at the end of summer before a lot of people are going back to school,” he said. “As people are coming back to school to get settled down for the next year, it’s a good end-of-summer, beginning-of-the-next-school-year type of time.”

This JAWESOME week gives students a chance for one last summer party before knuckling down with the books.

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My Take: Party time! Well, party time is just about over and school is about to begin. Teachers are about to ring the brass bells. At least, that’s what they used to do when school began. It’s time to get out those personalized sticky note cubes to leave yourself messages about tests and finals. It is time to tell DJ Michelangelo the party is over and it’s time to go home. No matter how much you want that techno music to continue, it is time to shut it down.

Now there is another reason to put on those eyelash extensions and fraternity clothing. It is called school. Every college student needs Greek apparel to fit into their sorority or fraternity. And the young ladies better stock up on our eyelash extension products to make sure they have enough for the school year. Students, don’t forget to get some personalized custom gifts to them pressure professors with, they are much better than apples.

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Cited: AP

On August 5, 2010 the Senate confirmed Elena Kagan as the new Chief Justice to the Supreme Court, which makes her the 4th woman to ever serve as a justice. The vote occurred during the final business before a month-long recess and was divided largely along party lines. There were 63 senators have endorsed President Obama 2nd court pick and 37 opposed.

Kagan watched the televised vote with her colleagues at the Justice Department, while Obama received word of the confirmation in Chicago, where he has spent the past two days.

“Today’s vote wasn’t just an affirmation of Elena’s intellect and accomplishments. It was also an affirmation of her character and her temperament; her open-mindedness and even-handedness; her determination to hear all sides of every story and consider all possible arguments,” the president said after the vote.

Kagan’s ascension to the bench is expected to preserve the court’s ideological balance following liberal Justice John Paul Stevens’ retirement. It also marks the first time three female justices will sit on the high court at the same time.

Nearly all Republicans and one Democrat, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, opposed Kagan, who had been the Obama administration’s solicitor general. Nelson is the first to break with his party on an Obama Supreme Court pick.

Off-Topic Breach: Now that the bench is full again, it is time for the bench to do some Maryland House cleaning. When it comes to maid services MD, it you won’t find a more dedicated team of professionals, each of whom are carefully vetted and before becoming certified clean your home.

All Democrats and nine Republicans voted for Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

While Kagan’s confirmation had not been in doubt, both parties used fierce political debate over the nominee in recent weeks to air their differences ahead of the November midterm elections.

Republicans sought to cast Kagan as a political activist with insufficient legal or judicial experience to serve on the nation’s highest court. They also targeted her decision as dean of Harvard Law School to bar military recruiters from the campus career center because of opposition to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Some Republican leaders and conservative interest groups also warned lawmakers over Kagan’s anti-gun, pro-abortion views.

“Be careful about it, because I’m afraid that we have a dangerous, progressive, political-type nominee,” said Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions in a floor speech last week. “I don’t think the American people are going to hold harmless those who vote to impose a legal progressive, activist legislator from the bench upon them.”

But Democrats, who have been concerned about conservative “activism” from the bench, say Kagan will be a mainstream, moderate voice on controversial topics such as campaign finance reform and employment discrimination.

“She gives balance to the court. I think she’ll follow in the best traditions of Justice Stephens,” said Maryland Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin on “Top Line.” “I think she’ll bring the type of leadership on the Supreme Court that will help ordinary Americans with their fight against big government and special interests.”

Majority of Americans Backed Kagan

While Kagan does not have any judicial experience, her supporters have lauded her record outside the courtroom as solicitor general for the Obama administration, former dean of Harvard Law School and a staff attorney in the Clinton administration.

“Ms. Kagan’s remarkable legal and academic career demonstrates her intellectual capacity to serve on the court,” said Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins. “Her writings, testimony, and my discussions with her all demonstrate not only a sweeping knowledge of the law, but also a love for the law, a passion for judicial reasoning.”

The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll finds a 53% majority of Americans support Kagan’s nomination – a similar level of support shown for previous successful nominees. Although, 22% said they had no opinion, up four points from a month earlier.

At age 50, Kagan will become the Supreme Court’s 100th associate justice when she is sworn in on Saturday, August 7, afternoon by Chief Justice John Roberts during the ceremony.

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My Take: I think we will one day have 9 women on the bench of the Supreme Court. Maybe the next Justice will be a Philadelphia PA criminal attorney or maybe a West Palm Beach FL business litigation Attorney wherever the lawyer comes from, I think it will be a woman. It is only natural, women are becoming more aggressive in many careers.

More family attorneys are now women, because women are just a little bit more sympathetic than men. Women even now taking up the job of a Philadelphia civil litigation lawyer because they are also be more cut throat. I doubt that you will ever see West Palm Beach Florida personal injury attorneys or even a Bucks County drunk driving attorney sitting on the Supreme Court bench.

I actually think that the next Justice will be one of the many Bucks County Philadelphia criminal lawyers. What better place for Justice to come from in the city of brotherly love? However, that’s my opinion and I’m entitled to it!

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Cited: ABC News

The cutest thing on earth is a chubby little baby. It is difficult to pass up those precious rolls around her tiny feet and those credible chunky cheeks are so pinchable. However, researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston and Columbia University are now suggesting that plump newborns are more likely to become fat adults.

Clinicians analyzed all births in Michigan and New Jersey from 1989 to 2003, a period in which 513,000 women gave birth to more than one million babies. Researchers then used heath records to determine how much weight the mothers had gained throughout their three trimesters.

Expectant mothers typically do consume more calories than usual since they are eating for two. Many experts believe that overeating during pregnancy, however, can actually create an abnormal uterine environment for the fetus, one that could potentially change a baby’s brain permanently.

An unhealthy diet could also alter the baby’s pancreas, which controls metabolism, and change one’s fat tissue. A high birth weight has even been linked to certain types of cancer and asthma allergies.

“For an adult to gain an extra 10 pounds and then maybe lose it doesn’t cause permanent changes in that individual’s biology,” Ludwig said. “But, for a fetus to gain too much weight during key [moments] may permanently alter the brain circuits that affect appetite and metabolism, fat tissues or other parts of the body that have a permanent role in body weight regulation.”

During a healthy pregnancy, a woman is likely to gain anywhere between 18 to 22 pounds. But, as an expectant mother’s waistline grows, so do the chances of having a big baby, or one weighing more than eight pounds and 12 ounces.

To prevent such problems, new mothers are advised to talk to their doctors about nutrition in order to best balance pregnancy cravings and the scale.

“These are the most important nine months of life from the standpoint of development,” said Dr. David Ludwig of Children’s Hospital Boston. “Our cells, tissues, even brain structures are being formed and fine-tuned so that having too high blood sugar and other abnormal metabolic influences can affect that infant not just at the moment but potentially throughout life.”

An example of this is if a woman gains 44 pounds during her pregnancy, over her original weight, she is one and a half times more likely to have a chubby baby. A woman that gains 52 pounds during her pregnancy, over her original weight, is twice as likely to have a fat baby.

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My Take: That weight that women gain is called baby fat and it is difficult to lose. However, I once knew a woman who actually lost weight while pregnant. I know it seems strange to be able to lose fat stomach while pregnant, but it can be done. And she did it by eating mainly salads and meet only once or twice a week. If I remember correctly, she lost almost 50 pounds while pregnant. Of course, she was overweight when she got pregnant too.

Everyone who has a baby wants to get rid of belly fat as soon as possible once they give birth. Many women use organic skin care lotions to help keep their skin pliable during pregnancy, but that doesn’t do much for the weight gain. In fact, there are many organic beauty products on the market that will help keep stretch marks to a minimum.

Many women however, do not worry about it. Instead, they put their time and energy into planning baby showers and designing baby shower invitations. And then dreaming about the day they start designing party invitations for their newest addition to the family.

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Cited: The Wall Street Journal

It is going to be more difficult for vehicles to receive top grades on their respective safety tests thanks to the government and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). As a safety-research arm of the insurance industry, IIHS says that 2010 vehicle models will have to be better to get its “top safety pick” award if it does not get a good rating on the new test of roof strength. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is also creating a more vigorous crash testing system for 2011 models starting next year. This new safety rating system involves smashing vehicles in the polls and new overall safety rating scores.

The bottom line: Fewer vehicles are likely to get five-star ratings in the NHTSA’s one-to-five-star scoring system, and fewer vehicles are going to get the Insurance Institute’s top safety pick award, representatives of the NHTSA and IIHS say. In 2009, a record 84 vehicles earned the IIHS’s top endorsement.

This could be confusing for consumers, and present both engineering and communications challenges to car makers. Cars and trucks may get lower scores and fewer stamps of approval, but they won’t suddenly be less safe. Instead, the pressure will be on manufacturers to take vehicles to a higher level of safety.

Auto makers have done so well over the past two decades at figuring out how to engineer vehicles to pass safety tests that consumers now face the Lake Wobegon problem when they shop: All the cars are above average. So safety evaluators are raising the bar—the better to show consumers that there still are important differences in safety technology and engineering among the hundreds of models on the market.

Yet the Insurance Institute and the NHTSA are not instituting tougher tests in the same way or at the same pace, which could add to the challenges for consumers trying to plug safety scores into their new-vehicle buying decisions.

The IIHS’s latest focus is on roof strength. In its newest round of testing, released last week, the institute rated six mini-cars for their ability to withstand a test designed to simulate the roof-crushing impact of a rollover accident. The cars tested—the Chevy Aveo, Smart Fortwo, Honda Fit, Mini Cooper, Hyundai Accent and Toyota Yaris—are the kind of highly fuel-efficient cars the government’s just-concluded “cash for clunkers” program encouraged consumers to buy.

Tops in the small-car roof-crush test was the Smart Fortwo—a car the IIHS slammed in April when it was making a different point about how tiny cars fare poorly in head-on crashes with larger ones. But if a Fortwo flips on its roof, the Insurance Institute test predicts it will do a good job protecting the occupants, because it can withstand 5.4 times the car’s weight.

The worst performer was General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet Aveo, a Korean-made car that supported 3.09 times its own weight in the crush test—double the current federal standard. The Aveo’s score was also a touch better than the new federal standard of three times the vehicle weight that phases in starting in 2012.

“One test alone doesn’t determine whether a vehicle is safe,” says GM spokeswoman Janine Fruehan.

The IIHS doesn’t rely one test for its top safety pick awards, but it is making a point with its new roof-crush requirement. Its president, Adrian Lund, said in a statement that the government’s “leisurely phase-in of the new standard means roofs won’t have to get stronger right away, so we plan to continue rating vehicle roof strength for the foreseeable future. We want to reward manufacturers who are ahead of their competition when it comes to providing protection in rollover crashes.”

The government’s decision to phase in the new standard between 2012 and 2016 responds to pleas from the auto industry, which, besides being battered and bruised financially, always wants at least one product cycle to accomplish any regulatory change that involves the structure of a vehicle.

The same desire not to crush the industry with regulatory demands in the middle of a financial crisis led the NHTSA to delay until 2011 from 2010 the launch of its new more-rigorous crash tests. But the 2011 model year is right around the corner, given the lead time auto makers need to redesign vehicles and conduct their own testing.

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My Take: I like this little car! It is so cute! The Fortwo is a fantastic car for single people and it is economical. Of course, you have to give up the crowd when going to a party, but it is worth it. I now if they could just make a four seater that was just as economical they would really have a car that everyone would want. Well, almost everyone.

Since it is not a gas-guzzler, people will begin to travel more. This will improve tourism around the country and help the economy. The question is, how often will it break down? If the engine, transmission and framework constructed well, it should not break down very often. This can make a difference to a single person financially.

It is like choosing a doctor or dentist, once you find a dentist that you like; you do not want to change. Even if that dentist were a cosmetic dentist, you would not want to change as long as they gave you what you wanted.

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Are Lockpicks Legal?

In the United States, laws concerning possession of lockpicks vary from state to state. Generally, possession and use of lock picks is considered equivalent to the possession of burglary tools and is generally prosecuted as a felony under the category of possession of burglary tools or similar statutes. Lock picking is usually done by a locksmith who uses a lockpick, which is a small instrument, typically of metal, used to simulate the interaction of a key in a lock. Coupled with a tension wrench, it is used to copy the action of a key inside a lock.

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Cited: AFP

After a historical general election, Japan’s incoming leaders met the outgoing government to start a power transition after winning by a landslide, as a poll indicates 75% of people have high expectations of them. Prime Minister Taro Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost to the center-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) after decades of almost continuous one-party dominance. Yukio Hatoyama, DPJ leader, is set to become prime minister on September 16. He promises to name his cabinet within 24 hours. Soon after that he will be off to the United Nations to meet world leaders in the general assembly.

To pave the way for a smooth change of government — Japan’s first since the early 1990s — outgoing Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, a close aide to Aso, met DPJ secretary general Katsuya Okada on Wednesday.

“I asked the chief cabinet secretary to tell ministries and agencies to provide us with information and broad cooperation” on issues from the economy to tackling swine flu, Okada told reporters after meeting Kawamura.

Kawamura, the top government spokesman, said the current rulers would meet their responsibility and ensure a smooth transition of power.

“Since Japan does not have rules on government transitions, unlike the United States or Britain, we think this is the first step to make them,” Kawamura said before the meeting.

“We will of course cooperate on a new government for the sake of the country and in the national interest.”

Premier-in-waiting Hatoyama, 62, plans to shape the next government in a coalition with two smaller parties — the Social Democrats and a tiny group of LDP defectors known as the People’s New Party. The three groups held working-level talks to coordinate policies.

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“Naturally, the key is how well we can coordinate our policies,” Hatoyama told a gathering of his supporters.

“I expect a coalition among the three parties will be finalized in due time,” he said.

Hatoyama also met representatives on Wednesday from the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, a national umbrella organisation of labour unions which has been a strong support base for the DPJ. The DPJ and Rengo in July made a policy deal in which the party promised to seek a more equitable society and to reduce the wealth gap in Japan in return for the labour unions’ support in the election. The DPJ also stated the goal of creating 1.8 million new jobs, strengthening regulation and surveillance of international financial markets, and improving conditions for casual workers, dubbed the “working poor” by media.

Meanwhile, the nation’s biggest business lobby Nippon Keidanren remained cautious over the incoming government, including its ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Chairman Fujio Mitarai told Japanese reporters the DPJ must consider fairness and the burden to the people as the party aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, compared with the LDP’s eight-percent cut. Japan faces a real power shift for the first time since the LDP was founded in 1955. Since then, the conservative party maintained its iron grip on power with only one break, a 10-month hiatus in 1993-1994.

“This was an election in which people for the first time in the nation’s post-war history opted for a big change,” DPJ secretary general Okada told a Tokyo symposium.

“While feeling the grave responsibility of power, we will try to avoid mistakes in administrative management.”

On foreign policy, he said the DPJ government would promote strong diplomatic ties with China, adding that the party hoped to establish what he called win-win relations with the giant neighbour.

Only 17 percent said they had no hope at all for the next government, according to the survey of 1,104 adults nationwide, which was carried out immediately after the DPJ’s overwhelming victory.

But only 32 percent said they thought the DPJ-led government would be able to change Japanese politics drastically, against 46 percent who believed it could not, the Asahi said.

“Voters welcome the government change generally, but a not insignificant number of them have doubt about the DPJ’s politics and capabilities,” it said.

The daily also quoted an unnamed DPJ official saying: “If we cannot live up to expectations, the disappointment will be big.”

Elect tour it actually expects incoming government to deliver according to media surveys. The mass-circulation Asahi Shimbun conducted a telephone poll and found that 75% of all respondents did have high expectations for the new leaders.

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My Take: It seems that America is not the only country that has problems with its government. I wonder if its citizens are just as dissatisfied as many of America’s citizens are. As it is, the government by the people and for the people does not seem to be doing much.

If our government were doing its job, people would not be needing home security or worrying about whether they will even have a home. It would really be nice to live in a country for home security was not needed or even those annoying alarms that people have on their homes or cars.

Maybe someday we will live in a perfect world. NOT! That would be impossible! How about a near perfect world where crime is almost unheard of? Then the government would not have much to do with it

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Cited: AP

Banks are still failing at an accelerated rate and other banks are still struggling despite signs of an improving economy. How can people protect their savings? Can anything be done to turn the banking sector around? The latest quarterly report on the banking industry paid a grim picture. Here are some questions and answers about the US bank failures.

Q: How bad is this wave of failures?

A: A cascade of collapses began last year as the financial crisis struck.

Eighty-four banks have fallen so far this year as tumbling home prices and spiking unemployment pushed loan defaults upward. That’s the largest number in a year since the early 1990s, at the apex of the savings and loan crisis. It compares with 25 bank failures last year and three in 2007. The failures have sapped billions from the federal deposit insurance fund, which guarantees account holders’ money when banks go under. The fund stood at $10.4 billion in the second quarter, its lowest point since 1992.

The biggest failure this year: Colonial Bank, a heavy regional lender in real estate development based in Montgomery, Ala., which became the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history on Aug. 14. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Colonial and sold its $20 billion in deposits, 346 branches in five states and about $22 billion of its assets to BB&T Corp.

Some analysts believe another 100 to 300 banks could fail before the crisis runs its course, largely because of souring loans for commercial real estate. The number of institutions on the FDIC’s internal “problem list” — those rated by examiners as having very low capital cushions against risk and other deficiencies — jumped to 416 at the end of June from 305 in the first quarter, the agency reported Thursday.

Q: What is behind this?

A: Banks around the country have run into trouble on their loans for construction and development, the fastest-growing category of troubled loans for U.S. banks, especially in overbuilt areas. Many companies have shut down in the recession, vacating shopping malls and office buildings financed by the loans.

Lots of banks have heavy concentrations of these loans in their lending portfolios, and some small banks are considered by regulators to be particularly vulnerable. Delinquent loan payments and defaults by commercial and residential developers have surged to the highest levels since the early 1990s, during the S&L crisis.

At the same time, some recent failures have been smaller banks brought down by garden-variety loans that have soured during the recession. Regulators say they’re concerned about growing delinquencies on prime, conventional home loans.

Q: So even though the economy is starting to recover, banks are still struggling?

A: The condition of the banking industry is what economists call a lagging indicator: It falls behind the state of the economy because the problems take longer to percolate through banks, as opposed to other signposts such as consumer spending, gross domestic product or permits for building construction. That means the pain will continue to weigh on the banking sector while the economy rebounds.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair offered a reminder on Thursday: “Banking industry performance is, as always, a lagging indicator.”

Q: What will it take to turn the banking industry around?

A: Not much other than time, experts say.

“The only thing you could do is … to ignore the losses that are already there,” said Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics in Washington. That would be a terrible mistake, she said, noting that regulators’ blind eye in the 1980s prolonged the S&L crisis.

“The best thing for the banking industry is just to take it on the chin and move on,” she said.

Q: What about me? What can I do to protect my money in the bank?

A: Accounts are insured by the FDIC up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. Joint accounts are insured up to that amount for each co-owner of the account; individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, held in banks are also insured.

If you have multiple individual accounts at one bank, it’s important to structure them carefully so they don’t exceed the limits. The FDIC has a calculator on its Web site called the electronic deposit insurance estimator, or EDIE, that can help determine how much money in deposit accounts, if any, exceeds the insurance limits. You can find it here: http://tinyurl.com/lt3aok.

If you do have deposit accounts in a failed bank that go beyond the insured limits, you just became a creditor of the bank. Of course, you may only get $.40 on the dollar up to the full amount eventually. You also have to realize that it could take months to even get a percentage of the total back.

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My Take: I definitely do not have to worry about going over the limit in my checking account or savings account. I would never have enough money to even get close to that insurers limit. It would be nice though! I do not know what I would do if the bank I am with did fail and I lost all of my money. I wonder how long it would take the FDIC to return it?

I am old enough to have a parent who lived through the Great Depression. My mother has told me some horrendous stories of what happened to people. I would hope that this country has learned its lessons and not allow the same things to happen again. I cannot even imagine not being able to buy a new or used pair of shoes.

Right now, the economy is bad enough that we are pretty close to what happened in the 30s. I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I am praying that it never does. If it does drop, this country is in a world of hurt. As it is, people are selling their Piermont real estate at reduced rates just to avoid foreclosures. I also understand that Rockland County riverfront property is going fairly cheap.

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Cited: Time

Well, the Cash for Clunkers program is over and. It seems that in the final days of the program, car dealers were actually turning away buyers. The reason could be very simple; the government website crashed trying to keep up with all the paperwork. What does it tell you about our nation’s character when the most popular government program in years that was aimed at reviving the economy from its vegetative state was an economically, environmentally and politically lazy handout from 99% of the population to the other 1%?

The Secrets to Cash for Clunkers’ Success

It used to be, when we wanted to use public policy to nudge private behavior, we poked people with a stick: 40 years of issuing health warnings couldn’t reduce smoking as much as hiking taxes so that a pack can cost upwards of $9. But nowadays, Congress would much rather reward than penalize, and bribery as policy has a modern elegance to it. Cash for Clunkers didn’t involve intricate algorithms or a 1,400-page appropriations bill. The only debate was over how much sugar was needed to sweeten the pot. That first billion was supposed to last a few months; when it ran out in a week, a bipartisan coalition voted to squirt $2 billion more into the pipeline. Here, finally, was stimulus policy Americans understood.

Researchers find that people will buy something on sale even if the reduced price is higher than the regular price at another store. “Just seeing the difference between the full and reduced price motivates the purchases,” explains Ellen Ruppel Shell in her new book, Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. “It is as though, rather than spending the cost of the product, we’re actually earning the savings.”

Which raises the tantalizing question of how such delusional psychology might be applied to our other problems. There are already plans for Dollars for Dishwashers; buyers will get a rebate if they scrap that energy-sucking appliance for a more efficient one. Arizonans debated boosting election-day turnout with the Voter Reward Act, which proposed treating ballots like lottery tickets: one lucky voter would have won a million dollars. New York City pays public-school students to get good grades.

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But these are penny-size ideas. Now that trillion has replaced billion in our fiscal conversations, the scope for inventive incentives is vast. The cost of treating obesity has doubled in a decade, to $147 billion. So how about Cash for Chunkers: we get to trade in that extra 20 pounds for a coupon good at the local farm stand. Roads and bridges crumbling? Why bother allocating $27 billion in stimulus money when we could pay people to reroute or, better yet, stay home? California plans on releasing at least 37,000 inmates to ease prison overcrowding and save $1 billion. It costs $27,000 a year to keep someone in jail. It would be much more efficient to pay thieves not to steal in the first place.

Is this the essential paradox of the age of Obama, that we have to destroy the village in order to save it, bust the budget in hopes we’ll someday balance it, play to self-interest to promote the national interest? Just as the Cash for Clunkers frenzy reached its peak, the Administration quietly released new deficit projections, which pointed to a $9 trillion gap over 10 years. In the middle of a national nervous breakdown over out-of-control spending, we took a summer break from puritanical fretting and got all excited about a federal subsidy for something we already buy more of than we need.

Of course, critics are right that the program will probably drive up the price of used cars for poor people who need them and will have only a marginal effect on the long-term prospects of the auto industry. Subsidies don’t so much increase demand as kidnap it, inspire people to take the money they were saving for a new fridge and apply it to a pickup instead. As for the environmental benefit, the new fleet will save about 160 million gal. of gasoline a year–which sounds awfully good, except that we use 378 million gal a day.

But all that misses the point. The goal of the policy was only incidentally to sell more cars or scrub the air. It was mainly aimed at reviving our animal spirits. We will know, when the history of the Great Recession is written, whether this summer brought the turning point, when we crept out of our little boxes, felt a hunger for the open road, our spirits drunk on the smell of vinyl and the feel of the wheel.

Neither liberal nor conservative, the beauty of the policy was deeply pragmatic. What you do is try a little bit of everything just to see what works. History has shown us that irrational patchwork of solutions has a decent record of accomplishment. If a program like Cash for Clunkers is all it takes to get our economy up and moving again then just maybe that $3 billion was the best throwaway money Washington ever throughout.

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My Take: I think it is a shame that they have stopped the program. The environment was going to get better with more economical vehicles on the road. I think the government just did not anticipate such a large response to the program. Then again, the government is always behind the times.

Hopefully, they will bring the program back at a later date. Maybe even I will be able to afford a car than. Or maybe, they will start a first car owner program like that first homeowner program! That would be interesting! I can just see the 16-year-old rushing to local car dealership to get their first car at a reduced rate. That would be a hilarious site.

If that did happen, more kids would be going to an academy driving school in NY so that they could get a car quicker and then they would make the visit to the New York State DMV. I hope their parents would be smart enough to also make them take a defensive driving course so that they are safe on the road. There is even a NY defensive driving online class for those who cannot make it to a regular classroom

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Cited: NewsDaily

The police in southeastern Georgia have launched a murder investigation after a 22-year-old man reported returning to his mobile home only to find 7 members of his family dead and one near death. The 8th victim, unfortunately, died in the hospital.

“I just got home. My whole family’s dead,” Guy Heinze said in a 911 emergency call to police in the coastal town of Brunswick, Georgia. He said the dead included his father, uncle and cousins. Authorities on Monday released the tape of the 911 call, in which a sobbing and barely coherent Heinze says “it looks like they been beaten to death.”

Michael Toler, 19, whom Heinze described as a cousin with Down syndrome, died from injuries he had received. A ninth member of the group, who was not identified, was still in a hospital.

Glynn County police did not say how the victims had been killed, but The Brunswick News quoted an official close to the investigation as saying they had been shot. Police Chief Matt Doering said victims included children to adults in their 40s. County authorities offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the deaths, the newspaper reported.

Heinze was arrested on charges of tampering with evidence, obstruction of an officer and illegal drug possession but police have not said he is a suspect, the paper said.

South Georgia police are desperately searching for clues in the slayings of eight members of an extended family who were killed in their mobile home near Brunswick. Killed were Rusty Toler Sr., his four children, two siblings and his daughter’s boyfriend. A ninth victim, a 3-year-old, is in critical condition.

Glynn County authorities apparently have no suspects in the case and still have not said how the victims, all living in a single mobile home in the New Hope Plantation mobile home park, were killed.

‘Good Country Folks’

A total of 10 people lived in the small single-wide mobile home because Rusty Toler Sr. took in his relatives and friends who had lost their jobs and had fallen on hard times. The family was described by the park manager as “good country folks” who worked hard but struggled.

Three days after their deaths, police identified the victims as Michelle Toler, 15; Michael Toler, 19; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Chrissy Toler, 22; Joseph L. West, 30; Russell D. Toler Sr., 44; Guy Heinze Sr., 45; and Brenda Gail Falagan, 49.

Heinze and Falagan were Rusty Toler’s brother and sister. West was Chrissy Toler’s boyfriend and the surviving victim is believed to be Chrissy’s 3-year-old son, according to family members. Also living at the home was Guy Heinze Jr., 22, who reported the crime to police in a 12-minute 9-1-1 call.

Reward Offered for Information

“I just got home,” Heinze told the emergency dispatcher. “I was out last night. I got home just now, and everybody’s dead. … My whole family’s dead. It looks like they’ve been beaten to death. I don’t know what to do, man. My dad, my mom, my uncle, my cousin. …. My dad, he’s laying there dead. That was my dad.”

Heinze gave the telephone to someone else and was heard saying in the background, “Michael’s alive, tell them to hurry! He’s beat up! His face is smashed in!” Michael Toler, who had Down’s syndrome, died in a Savannah hospital.

Although he was the one that called 911, the younger Heinze was later arrested. He was charged with tampering with evidence, obstruction of an officer and illegal drug possession, but Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said Heinze was not being treated as a suspect, although not completely ruled out. Authorities have offered a $25,000 reward for information in the case.

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My Take: I do not see how anybody can do this. If this young man killed his whole family, then he needs help! Taking the life of another person is unconscionable to me. What makes it worse is that the police do not seem to have a clue as to who could have done it.

Once all the advancements in forensic science, they should be able to find something. The criminals will always leave something behind, always. The police and their forensic team just have to find it. Once they find what the criminal left behind who did this horrendous act, there will be one step closer to catching them.

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Criminal Defenses

If you have been arrested for a criminal act then you need to contact one of the San Mateo County CA criminal attorneys. They are well-versed in the consequences that can be lifelong. For example, a burglary occurs when a person enters an enclosed structure with the intent to commit a felony or a fact. These attorneys will be able to explain to you that a burglary of a commercial establishment or vehicle can optionally be a misdemeanor or a felony, or as a residential burglary can only be charged as a felony. A residential burglary is also a strike under the Three Strikes Law in California.

Criminal Court Procedure

Your Bucks County PA criminal lawyer can easily and quickly explain the process involved in a criminal court procedure. He/she will explain that the first hearing is an evidence hearing before a local District judge where the crime was allegedly committed. Then, about 30-60 days letter, the formal arraignment will occur in the Court of Common Pleas. This is where you get your formal charges and enter your plea. Any of your Bucks County PA criminal attorneys may be able to help waive your appearance at this proceeding, depending on what county you live in. Then comes the pretrial conference between lawyers and prosecutors and then your trial.

Dog Behavioral Issues

Any dog can have behavioral issues. However, it is critical to mention that most behavioral issues are specific to a particular dog. You think it problem solving sessions that are private to ensure your individual success from an Oklahoma dog training service. They have constructed programs that will help you eliminate less severe behaviors that are also not wanted. These programs are typically scheduled as specialty clinics. Between their specialty clinics and their private lessons, they can help you eliminate all of those unwanted dog behaviors. There is no reason for your personal protection dogs being unsafe around people, kids or other dogs.

Cited: Business Wire

A program called “Marketing Your Business: Five Strategies to Position Your Company in a Challenging Market” featuring Carolyn Sawyer, Founder and Chief Creative Strategist of the Tom Sawyer Company will be live on June 30 at 12 PM (CT), a hosted by The Principal Women in Business Teleclass Series complimentary teleclass.

“Now, more than ever, clients seek results-focused partners and that’s where opportunity emerges,” said Michelle Swanson, assistant director, Advertising, The Principal. “Having started her company from scratch and working with national brands, coupled with leading a successful broadcast career, Carolyn knows the meaning of perseverance especially in a tough market. She’ll inspire our listeners with her story and proven approaches to turn today’s market into opportunity.”

Held on “Teleclass Tuesdays,” the series of four complimentary teleclasses are squarely focused on bringing the best leaders, ideas and tools to women business owners to navigate the recession. This second session in 2009’s program allows the audience unique interaction in a casual format with Sawyer. To take part in the program and become a member, register at www.principal.com/women.

A respected author, Sawyer wrote, “Forget the Glass Slipper, Build Your Own Castle: 10 Traits of a Million Dollar Business.” Sawyer has served as a correspondent for ABC News and as a news anchor for Lifetime Television. She is an active member of the Women’s President’s Organization (WPO,) an association for multi-million dollar business owners, and is a founding member of the Coalition of 100 Black Women-Boston Chapter.

Those looking for invitations or announcements . . . Life has so many special occasions and you make each one truly special. From graduations to first communions, from anniversaries to Baptisms, wedding announcements to birth announcements you can find unique invitations for every occasion you want to celebrate. That includes the most popular in invitations.  While bridal showers are great fun, they also take a lot of time to coordinate. When you order professionally printed bridal shower invitations, you will save time with a quick and easy ordering system. You can save even more time and money when you order your marriage announcements.

The teleclass is provided by the Principal Financial Group. It features nationally recognized business leaders and thinkers from bestselling author and “Today” show financial contributor Jean Chatzky to chocolate visionary and multi-million dollar business owner Katrina Markoff. Class summaries and audio of all past programs are available for download at www.principal.com/women. The program’s moderator is Pamela Mitchell, Founder of The Reinvention Institute and Inc. Women in Business Contributor.

The Principal Financial Group (The Principal) is a leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance, and banking through its diverse family of financial services companies. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $236.6 billion in assets under management and serves some 18.8 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.

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My Take: I think it is always a good idea to keep learning when you own a business. Programs like this allow business owners to improve themselves, which improves their business. They can even do it from the comfort of their own home.

Many large corporations offer their employees and executives educational opportunities within the company and they even will pay them to attend these opportunities. However, a small business owner may not have the opportunity to take advantage of additional education because he or she is too busy running their business. This type of program gives that small business owner the opportunity to increase their knowledge and improve their business without taking precious time away from that business.

Small business owners need more programs like this, especially if they are free. I believe it would help the economy more if small businesses could grow without additional expense. Sometimes, that additional expense could be a problem for small business owner.

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Simpler Times

In a much simpler time, children grew up in a small towns or neighborhoods. They experienced a childhood lifted straight from the pages of a Norman Rockwell book. They rode bikes to baseball practice, fished in the local river for whatever would bite, and delivered newspapers each afternoon through rain, sleet, or snow.  From the art of Bob Byerley, featuring nostalgic paintings of children building tree forts or soapbox cars, to replica tin signs and wooden airplane propellers, you can bring that same smile to every person who remembers something from their childhood.

Epoxy and Tires

Keep epoxy and your hot car tires do not mix well! Most epoxies react to your hot tires during the curing process. That means that your new garage flooring is going to come up quickly because the heat from your tires make epoxy softens, then this color, bubble, appeal or even stick to your tire. Not only that, but your hot tires are extremely abrasive and wear the high gloss finish off most epoxies that new garage floor in no time at all. In addition, did you know that all solids based epoxies are not UV stable and need a topcoat of urethane based topcoat to prevent it from yellowing from sun exposure?

Professional Transcription

These New York transcription services offer digital transcription services in several file formats including audio CDs and DVDs. They can transcribe from standard tape cassettes and microcassettes. They can also digitize almost any kind of analog format. This New York transcription company offers professional recording services which produces crystal-clear and quickly produced transcripts. For those who do their own recordings, they offer complimentary recording consultations. With their on-site technical experts, they can also troubleshoot your media problems for seamless, accurate and on-time transcriptions. With 18 years experience of providing quality services to businesses and individuals in the New York area, you can be assured of expert quality.

Types of Hosting Services

Anyone can find various kinds of web hosting services on the market. They are broadly divided. There is free hosting, shared hosting and reseller hosting. Web hosting reviews shows that free hosting is the least expensive and very restricted on services and space. Shared hosting is where a website is placed with several other sites on a centralized server. Top web hosting services can be reseller hosting that provides ample amount of bandwidth and space to personal or e-businesses and has more control over their website. However, the best and usually the most expensive are the dedicated hosting and virtual private servers or the user gets their own server with few restrictions.

Cited: CNN.com

Did you know that over 1 million Americans will declare bankruptcy this year? Unbelievably, these bankruptcies will not be because of overspending or a lavish lifestyle but because of medical bills. Medical bills have caused bankruptcies to increase 50% in just six years. In 2001, it was only 46% and that went up to 62% in 2007. In addition, those who have been filing bankruptcy are middle-class, well-educated homeowners according to a report will be published in August in an issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

“Unless you’re a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you’re one illness away from financial ruin in this country,” says lead author Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., of the Harvard Medical School, in Cambridge, Mass. “If an illness is long enough and expensive enough, private insurance offers very little protection against medical bankruptcy, and that’s the major finding in our study.”

Woolhandler and her colleagues surveyed a random sample of 2,314 people who filed for bankruptcy in early 2007, looked at their court records, and then interviewed more than 1,000 of them. Health.com: Expert advice on getting health insurance and affordable care for chronic pain

They concluded that 62.1% of the bankruptcies were medically related because the individuals either had more than $5,000 (or 10% of their pretax income) in medical bills, mortgaged their home to pay for medical bills, or lost significant income due to an illness. On average, medically bankrupt families had $17,943 in out-of-pocket expenses, including $26,971 for those who lacked insurance and $17,749 who had insurance at some point. Overall, three-quarters of the people with a medically related bankruptcy had health insurance, they say.

“That was actually the predominant problem in patients in our study — 78% of them had health insurance, but many of them were bankrupted anyway because there were gaps in their coverage like co-payments and deductibles and uncovered services,” says Woolhandler. “Other people had private insurance but got so sick that they lost their job and lost their insurance.”

However, Peter Cunningham, Ph.D., a senior fellow at the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan policy research organization in Washington, D.C., isn’t completely convinced. He says it is often hard to tell in which cases medical bills add to the bleak financial picture without being directly responsible for the bankruptcies.

“I’m not sure that it is correct to say that medical problems were the direct cause of all of these bankruptcies,” he says. “In most of these cases, it’s going to be medical expenses and other things, other debt that is accumulating.” Either way, he agrees that medical bills are an increasing problem for many people.

“I think medical bills are something that a lot of families are having a lot of difficulty with. Whether it’s the direct cause of bankruptcy or whether it helps to push them over the edge because they already were in a precarious financial situation, it’s a big concern and hopefully that’s what medical reform will try to address,” he says.

The study may overestimate the number of bankruptcies caused by medical bills yet underestimate the financial burden of health care on American families, because most people struggle along but do not end up declaring bankruptcy, according to Cunningham.

“Bankruptcy is the most extreme or final step for people who are having problems paying medical bills,” he says. “Medical bills and medical costs are an issue that can very easily and in pretty short order overwhelm a lot families who are on otherwise solid financial ground, including those with private insurance.” His group’s research found that medical bills unduly stress 1 in 5 families.

The economic atmosphere became worse a year after the study was conducted. However, the problem is still getting worse for people in the United States because of the high cost of medical care. Bankruptcy numbers are soaring and are expected to get even worse than they were in 2005 when Congress changed the bankruptcy laws. In fact, in 2005 bankruptcy peaked at 2 million filings.

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My Take: I really do not believe that medical bills are the main reason people are filing for bankruptcy. I believe it has everything to do with credit cards. Credit cards make buying anything too easy! Of course, carrying plastic is a lot safer than carrying cash. Nevertheless, there is always a check!

I went bankrupt in 2000 and was because of credit cards. Yes, I do have one credit card now with a zero balance. It is only meant for emergencies. Those emergencies are not for clothes or Christmas presents. An emergency is a flat tire on a rainy night and no money in your pocket and they will not accept a check. You can easily pay this off before the end of the month with this type of small emergency. A big emergency might be a family illness in another state and you do not have the cash to get there.

I highly recommend if you have credit cards, at them all in half and pay them off before you get to a bankruptcy situation. Moreover, go by the rule of “if you don’t have the money, you don’t need it.” If you want something bad enough, stick the money aside and buy it when you have the cash. If you live by this rule financially, you will avoid a whole lot of migraines.

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Real Estate Financing or Refinancing

Are you looking for someone who specializes in low rate purchase mortgage KY and refinancing for KY and IN homes. You can easily find one located in Louisville, KY that is committed to customer satisfaction. Most mortgage companies are approved to originate FHA purchase and refinance mortgages, VA loans, FHA streamline refinances, jumbo loans, conventional mortgages such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans as well as Rural Housing loans and others. Make sure they are a member of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and have earned an “A” rating with that agency. You want someone who is realtor friendly and consistently receives exceptional reviews from current and past clients. They should also be a member of the Kentucky Association of Mortgage Professionals and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers especially if you are looking for Lawrenceburg Kentucky mortgage.

The Case of the Defective Product

A defective product can cause serious injury or even early death for both young and old alike. It is now the responsibility of a manufacturer to protect consumers from defective products. At one time, manufacturers did not have to own up to injuries caused by their products. Now, manufacturers are required to warn customers that a defective product is on the market otherwise, the company is liable. To protect consumers from harmful defective products, liability laws were created to help victims in recovering damages for injuries suffered. Texas injury attorneys can help victims get compensation for injuries or deaths from manufacturers that have produced defective products. If you think a defective product has caused you harm or the death of someone, you know, contact an attorney immediately.

Clunker Cash

Would you like to get rid of that useless old clunker in your backyard? Junking that old car for cash is a lot easier than you think! This is a cash program that offers you a removal service and cash for your old clunker. This vendor will have a local professional who buy junk cars contact you to arrange a pickup and payment. In most cases, professionals also sell junk cars. You will not only receive cash or your junker quality service and pickup of your junker at your convenience. How convenient is that? You just collect money!

Credit Card Financing

A credit card receivable financing company can help small business owners succeed by offering a variety of small business loan financing options. It can provide small businesses with an alternative to the traditional bank financing like business cash advance, which is very difficult to obtain and out of reach for most merchants or doctors. We understand that as a small business owner, traditional bank financing may simply not be an option.