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Rationalization (making excuses)
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In psychology and logic, rationalization (also known as making excuses[1]) is a defense mechanism in which perceived controversial behaviors or feelings are logically justified and explained in a rational or logical manner in order to avoid any true explanation, and are made consciously tolerable – or even admirable and superior – by plausible means.[2] Rationalization encourages irrational or unacceptable behavior, motives, or feelings and often involves ad hoc hypothesizing. This process ranges from fully conscious (e.g. to present an external defense against ridicule from others) to mostly unconscious (e.g. to create a block against internal feelings of guilt).
People rationalize for various reasons. Rationalization may differentiate the original deterministic explanation of the behavior or feeling in question.[3][4] Sometimes rationalization occurs when we think we know ourselves better than we do. It is also an informal fallacy of reasoning.[5]
DSM definition[edit]
According to the DSM-IV, rationalization occurs "when the individual deals with emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by concealing the true motivations for his or her own thoughts, actions, or feelings through the elaboration of reassuring or self serving but incorrect explanations."
- Rationalization can be used to avoid admitting disappointment: "I didn't get the job that I applied for, but I really didn't want it in the first place."
Rationalizations often take the form of a comparison. Commonly this is done to lessen the perception of an action's negative effects, to justify an action, or to excuse culpability:
- "At least [what occurred] is not as bad as [a worse outcome]."
- In response to an accusation: "At least I didn't [worse action than accused action]."
- As a form of false choice: "Doing [undesirable action] is a lot better than [a worse action]."
Egregious rationalizations intended to deflect blame can also take the form of ad hominem attacks or DARVO.
Based on anecdotal and survey evidence, John Banja states that the medical field features a disproportionate amount of rationalization invoked in the "covering up" of mistakes.[6] Common excuses made are:
- "Why disclose the error? The patient was going to die anyway."
- "Telling the family about the error will only make them feel worse."
- "It was the patient's fault. If he wasn't so (obese, sick etc), this error wouldn't have caused so much harm."
- "Well, we did our best. These things happen."
- "If we're not totally and absolutely certain the error caused the harm, we don't have to tell."
- "They're dead anyway, no point in blaming."
Ernest Jones contributed the term "rationalization" to psychoanalysis in 1908, defining it as "the inventing of a reason for an attitude or action the motive of which is not recognized"'.[7] Although Jones had not coined the term - the Oxford English Dictionary records the year of its first use as 1846' - he was the first to employ it in the context of psychoanalysis: 'No one will admit that he ever deliberately performed an irrational act, and any act that might appear so is immediately justified by...providing a false explanation that has a plausible ring of rationality'.[8]
The term was taken up almost immediately by Sigmund Freud to account for the explanations offered for neurotic symptoms - 'a process which (borrowing a useful term from Ernest Jones [1908] we may describe as "rationalization"'[9] - and was later developed further by his daughter Anna Freud[citation needed].
However the concept itself (as opposed to the term) can be traced back millennia earlier, to Quintilian and classical rhetoric: 'The "pat excuse" is the color, a frequent technical term among the rhetoricians for any approach that would present an action in the most favourable possible light'.[10] By the eighteenth century, it was almost a commonplace that, were a man to consider his actions, 'he will soon find, that such of them, as strong inclination and custom have prompted him to commit, are generally dressed out and painted with all the false beauties [color] which, a soft and flattering hand can give them'.[11]
What psychoanalysis added was the specific idea of the motives that were glossed or colored being unconscious, a point developed further by Lundhold, "Repression and Rationalization", in 1933, and by Hollitscher, "The Concept of Rationalization" in 1939.[12] By the 1940s Fenichel could distinguish 'various types of rationalization...Emotional attitudes become permissible on condition that they are justified as "reasonable"', but equally 'Defensive attitudes and resistances, which seem irrational because their real purpose is unconscious, frequently are "rationalized" by the ego's foisting other secondary purposes upon them'.[13]
For a near-determinist like Eric Berne, one's 'important decisions are already made...in early childhood': thereafter 'other decisions...are "directed" decisions rationalized on spurious grounds'.[14] Once a decision has been made on unconscious grounds, 'without the individual's being aware of the real forces behind it. he takes upon himself the task of finding justifications for it..."rationalization"'.[15]
Lacan in his concept of meconnaissance came very close to the same idea: 'everything that the ego neglects, scotomizes, misconstrues...everything that it ignores, exhausts, and binds in the significations that it receives from language'.[16]
Some later psychoanalysts might take a more positive view of the process, suggesting that 'Intellectualisation and rationalisation...bridge the gap between immature mechanisms and those of maturity';[17] but to object relations theory it could be part of a more sinister process whereby the mind 'detaches feelings from their true locus and attaches them to the exact reverse; it falsifies judgement; it splits intellect from feeling and enslaves reason...a process called rationalization'.[18]
Cognitive dissonance[edit]
A rather different, but perhaps complementary, approach to rationalization comes from cognitive dissonance. 'In 1957. Leon Festinger...argued that when people become aware that their attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs ("cognitions") are inconsistent with one another, this realization brings with it an uncomfortable state of tension called cognitive dissonance '.[19]
One answer to the discomfort of the situation is that 'their minds rationalize it by inventing a comfortable illusion'.[20] Thus for example 'people who start to smoke again after quitting for a while perceive smoking to be less dangerous to their health, compared to their views when they decided to stop' – thereby averting their 'post-decisional regret'[21] through their new rationalization.
In a similar way, acts of aggression will often be seen as 'reasonable, well justified, even necessary...rationalizing their self-interest in these ways'; so that, to cite 'Martin Luther King, Jr...."It seems to be a fact of life that human beings cannot continue to do wrong without eventually reaching out for some rationalization to clothe their act"'.[22] The same may be said of the collective scale. 'When groups commit aggression, they, too, rationalize their acts with high-sounding words...rationalizing their own self-interested desires',[22] so that, for example, 'Their own God is the right God. The other God is the strange God....Our own soldiers take care of the poor families; the enemy rapes them'.[23]
Such collective rationalizations come close perhaps to the communal illusions of which Freud wrote as 'derived from human wishes...Must not the assumptions that determine our political regulations be called illusions as well? and...may not other cultural assets of which we hold a high opinion and by which we let our lives be ruled be of a similar nature?'.[24]
See also[edit]
- ^ Understanding Rationalization: Making Excuses as an Effective Manipulation Tactic
- ^ "Definition of rationalization". Retrieved 25 September 2011.
- ^ Kendra Van Wagner. "Defense Mechanisms - Rationalization". About.com: Psychology. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
- ^ "Defenses". www.psychpage.com. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Banja, John (2004). Medical Errors and Medical Narcissism. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett. ISBN 0-7637-8361-7.
- ^ Adam Phillips, On Flirtation (London 1994) p. 109
- ^ brenda maddox, Freud's Wizard (London 2006) p. 61
- ^ Sigmund Freud, Case Histories II (London 1991) p. 184
- ^ Peter Green trans., Juvenal: The Sixteen Satires "Middlesex 1982) p. 156
- ^ Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (Middlesex 1976) p. 147
- ^ Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) p. 625 and p. 637
- ^ Fenichel, Psychoanalytic p. 485-6
- ^ Eric Berne, What Do You say after You Say Hello? (London 1975) p. 31 and p. 398
- ^ Eric Berne, A Layman's Guide to Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis (Middlesex 1976) p. 96-7
- ^ Jacques Lacan, Ecrits: A Selection (London 1996) p. 22
- ^ A. Bateman and J. Holmes, Introduction to Psychoanalysis (London 1999) p. 92
- ^ Neville Symington, On Narcissism (London 2003) p. 118
- ^ E. R. Smith and D. M. Mackie, Social Psychology (Hove 2007) p. 277-8
- ^ Scott Adams, in Smith/Mackie, Social p. 280
- ^ Smith/Mackie, Social p. 283-4
- ^ a b Smith/Mackie, Social p. 513
- ^ Fritz Perls, Gestalt Theory Verbatim (Bantam 1971) p. 9
- ^ Sigmund Freud, Civilization, Society and Religion (Middlesex 1987) p. 213 and p. 216
Further reading[edit]
- Tsang J Moral rationalization and the integration of situational factors and psychological processes in immoral behavior Review of General Psychology 6(1):25-50,2002
- Brian P. McLaughlin/Amelie Rorty, Perspectives on self-deception (California 1988)


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Updated for:
Thursday, April 24, 2014 5:26 PM
Published on: Monday, May 06, 2013
By Jim Davis
During a statewide drunk driving enforcement operation called Project SOLO (Saving Our Loved Ones), Prince George's County police officers arrested 10 motorists for driving under the influence and issued more than 190 traffic citations over the Cinco de Mayo weekend.
According to Prince George's County Police Department news release, police set up sobriety checkpoints along the University Boulevard corridor, Baltimore Avenue, Kenilworth Avenue and Riggs Road. Police officers made more than 170 traffic stops, resulting in 10 DUI arrests and more than 190 traffic citations issued.
PGPD Special Operations Division's Traffic Enforcement Section and the Aviation Unit on Saturday participated in the "Operation Road Runner" initiative, a safety campaign targeting speeding motorcyclists. Just last Thursday night, two motorcyclists were killed in crash on Route 301 in Brandywine.
More than 40 traffic stops were made by police officers, resulting in more than 45 traffic citations issued. The citations included 37 speed violations, five aggressive driving violations and four seat belt/child safety seat violations.
Prince George's County Police Department will continue this enforcement throughout the year on known nights for frequent drinking and driving.

subset: commoncrawl


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Jane Kaczmarek, Gregory Harrison and Diane Cary Star in Indie Chi Productions' THE SNAKE CAN, Now thru 2/24
Welcome to middle age... proceed with caution! Diane Cary, Jane Kaczmarek and Sharon Sharth star as three successful women who challenge themselves to find love and personal fulfillment in the middle years of life. Steven Robman directs the ensemble cast, which also includes Gregory Harrison, James Lancaster and Joel Polis, in the world premiere of The Snake Can by Kathryn Graf (Hermetically Sealed). Performances run tonight, January 19 through February 24, presented by Indie Chi Productions at the Odyssey Theatre in West Los Angeles.
Growing older doesn't always mean growing wiser. Harriet (Kaczmarek) is a widow and single mother; Nina (Cary) has left her actor husband to escape the shadow of his celebrity; and twice-divorced Meg (Sharth) has been navigating the single world for ten years. These women, and the men in their lives, take a journey of self-discovery, stopping along the way to examine the gray areas of marriage and divorce, want and need, sexual ambiguity and dating in the age of online matchmaking.
"This play comes very much out of my own personal experience," explains Graf. "I'm a widow who raised two kids, my husband was a successful film and television actor, and I know what it means to be single for a long time. I've often felt the way these characters do-at once free and eager, wild and surprised, unhinged and terrified."
"I was won over by the wit and insight in Kathy's writing," says Robman, a veteran stage and television director who is new to L.A.'s 99-seat theater scene. "I directed the premieres of Wendy Wasserstein's first two plays [Uncommon Women and Others and Isn't It Romantic], and now, with The Snake Can, I feel like I'm coming full circle. The landscape is very different for those of us in middle age than it was for the women in Wendy's plays. The divorce rate is higher, people are living longer, we switch jobs and locales more easily-and then there's the Internet."
Set design for The Snake Can is by Jeffery Eisenmann; lighting design is by Adam Blumenthal; projection design is by Hana S. Kim; sound design is by Cricket S. Myers; costume design is by Miguel Montalvo; props are by Lorely Trinidad; casting is by Helen Geier; production stage manager is Liana Dillaway; and Diane Levine produces for Indie Chi Productions.
Kathryn Graf's first full-length play, Hermetically Sealed, garnered extensive critical praise and award nominations in its recent four-month run at The Skylight Theatre. She began writing when she penned and performed Surviving David, a one-woman play chronicling her first year as a young widow (2100 Square Feet in L.A.; Outstanding Solo Show, NYC Fringe Festival). Her other plays include the one-acts Poor Pretty Birds (Philipstown Depot Theatre, NY) and The Stiff (finalist, 2010 Tennessee Williams One-Act Competition). She is also the author of the award-winning children's book Always My Dad (Mom's Choice Award, gold medal). As an actress, Kathy has guest-starred in dozens of television shows including ER, Courthouse, Presidio Med and in a recurring role on the soap, Passions.
Steven Robman has directed at Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Chelsea Theatre Center, Phoenix Theatre and Jewish Repertory Theatre, as well as at the Guthrie, Arena Stage, Long Wharf, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Yale Rep. In Fall 2013, he will direct Brian Dennehy in The Steward of Christendom by Sebastian Barry at the Mark Taper Forum, where he previously staged Babbitt; Says I, Says He; Hoagy, Bix and W.B. Bunkhaus; and Made In America. Other theater work includes the world premieres of Moonlight and Magnolias and High Holidays at the Goodman, as well as Rat in the Skull at Wisdom Bridge Theatre and the revival of Lunching for the Apollo Group. Mr. Robman has directed premieres of plays by Wendy Wasserstein, Ron Hutchinson, D.L.Coburn, Fay Weldon, Alan Knee and James Yoshimura. For television, Mr. Robman has directed numerous episodes of dramatic and comedy series, movies-of-the-week, and the ABC miniseries The Audrey Hepburn Story. For three seasons he was co-executive producer of Party of Five for Fox Television.


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Category Archives: Income Only Trust
The Veteran's Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit
The best advice that I can give you when planning for long-term care is not to delay. We never know what the future holds. While we are able, we must prepare for a variety of situations, and so it is imperative not just to plan for long-term care, but to plan properly.
Part 1 of this five part series began showing why establishing a good Long-Term Care Plan is a necessary and urgent matter. Part 2 outlined the three most essential documents found in a good Long-Term Care Plan and Part 3 explained how long-term care insurance might enhance that plan. The last installment, Part 4, discussed how a trust that is unique to our firm, the Living Trust PlusTM Asset Protection Trust, can protect your assets from the hassles and expenses of probate PLUS the expenses of long-term care. The Living Trust PlusTM is the only type of self-settled asset protection trust that allows a settlor to retain an interest in the trust while also protecting the assets from being counted according to state Medicaid laws. What I have just described is the single most prominent feature of the Living Trust PlusTM and it is also what makes this type of trust be the preferred form of asset protection for most people.
The final installment of this series will now discuss an under-utilized, special monthly pension benefit available to wartime veterans and surviving spouses of deceased wartime veterans who are incapable of self-support and in need of regular personal assistance.
Who Is Eligible for the Veteran's Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit?
To receive the Veteran's Special Pension Benefit for Aid & Attendance, a veteran must have served on active duty, at least 90 days, at least one day of which occurred during a period designated as wartime.
Periods Designated As Wartime:
- World War II — December 7, 1941 through December 31, 1946
- Korean Conflict — June 27, 1950 through January 31, 1955
- Vietnam Era — August 5, 1964 through May 7, 1975; for veterans who served "in country" before August 5, 1964, February 28, 1961 through May 7, 1975
- Gulf War — August 2, 1990 through a date to be set by law or Presidential Proclamation
There must have been a not dishonorable discharge. If younger than 65, the veteran must be totally disabled. If age 65 and older, there is no requirement to prove disability. However, the veteran or spouse must be in need of regular aid and attendance due to: inability of claimant to dress or undress, or to keep clean and presentable; frequent need of adjustment of any special prosthetic or orthopedic appliances which by reason of the particular disability cannot be done without aid (this will not include the adjustment of appliances which normal persons would be unable to adjust without aid, such as supports, belts, lacing at the back etc.); inability to eat due to loss of coordination of upper extremities or through extreme weakness; inability to attend to the wants of nature; or incapacity, physical or mental, which requires care or assistance on a regular basis to protect the claimant from hazards or dangers incident to his or her daily environment.
Not all of the disabling conditions in the list above are required to exist. It is only necessary that the evidence establish that the veteran or spouse needs "regular" (scheduled and ongoing) aid and attendance from someone else, not that there be a 24-hour need.
Determinations of a need for the aid and attendance is based on medical reports and findings by private physicians or from hospital facilities.
What Is the Amount of the Aid and Attendance Benefit?
Effective December 1, 2011, the Veterans A&A Pension can provide:
$20,447 per year (~$1,704 per month) for a qualified veteran;
$24,239 per year (~$2,020 per month ) if the veteran is married;
$13,138 per year (~$1,095 per month ) for a surviving spouse of a qualified veteran;
$31,578 per year (~$2,631 per month ) if both spouses are qualified veterans.
Is Aid and Attendance Only For Low Income Veterans?
No, and this is the primary reason that this benefit is so widely misunderstood. If you speak to a Veterans Service Representative in a regional VA office and ask them about the Veterans Aid and Attendance benefit, they will typically ask for your household income. When you tell them your household income, they will compare it to a chart and most often tell you that you earn too much income to receive the benefit. While the information they provide may be technically accurate, what they typically don't explain is the "income" for Veterans Administration purposes (sometimes called IVAP or "adjusted income") is actually your household income minus your recurring, unreimbursed medical and long-term care expenses. These allowable, annualized medical expenses are such things as health insurance premiums, home care expenses, the cost of paying a family member or other person to provide care, the cost of adult day care, the cost of an assisted living facility, or the cost of a nursing home.
To be able to receive the Veterans Pension with Aid and Attendance benefit, the veteran household cannot have adjusted income (i.e., household income minus unreimbursed medical expenses) exceeding the Maximum Allowable Pension Rate — MAPR — for that veteran's Pension income category. If the adjusted income exceeds MAPR, there is no benefit. If adjusted income is less than the MAPR, the veteran receives a Pension income that is equal to the difference between MAPR and the household income adjusted for unreimbursed medical expenses. The Pension income is calculated based on 12 months of future household income, but paid monthly.
How is the Aid and Attendance Benefit Calculated?
The monthly award is based on VA totaling 12 months of estimated future income and subtracting from that 12 months of estimated future recurring, unreimbursed medical expenses. Allowable medical expenses are reduced by a deductible to produce an adjusted medical expense which in turn is subtracted from the estimated 12 months of future income.
The new income derived from subtracting adjusted medical expenses from income is called "countable" income or IVAP (Income for Veterans Affairs Purposes). This countable income is then subtracted from the Maximum Allowable Pension Rate — MAPR — and that result is divided by 12 to determine the monthly income Pension award. This cash benefit is paid in addition to the family income that already exists.
Filing a Claim
Filing a claim for the Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit is complex and time-consuming. If you want to do it correctly, it's important to get qualified assistance. Just knowing which form to fill out and how to complete it is a complex endeavor in itself. Even if the proper form is completed, failure to check a single box may result in a complete denial of your claim.
The application process involves: obtaining evidence of prospective, recurring medical expenses; appointments for VA powers of attorney and fiduciaries; and a thorough understanding of the application process. Often, qualification for this benefit involves reallocation of assets and shifting of income in order to qualify, and these re-allocations may have significant impact on Medicaid eligibility.
Given that many veterans who need the Aid and Attendance Benefit will eventually wind up also needing Medicaid, this process should not be attempted without the help of a qualified elder law attorney who thoroughly understands both the Veterans Aid and Attendance Benefit and the Medicaid program, as well as the interaction between these two benefit programs.
We assist Level 4 clients of our firm, at no charge, in completing the required paperwork.
Evan H. Farr is an Accredited Attorney with the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, and the Farr Law Firm is an Elder Law and Estate Planning Firm that helps Veterans and their spouses obtain the financial assistance to which they are entitled. If you are a Veteran or spouse of a Veteran and you need assistance in your home, or are living in or considering moving into an Assisted Living Facility or Continuing Care Retirement Community, please contact us to see if you might qualify for the Veterans Aid and Attendance Special Pension Benefit. Call us today and take the first step towards gaining the peace of mind that comes with a good Long-Term Care Plan.
The most important thing that you can do in planning for future contingencies is to act now. The future may hold limited resources or health problems for you and either one of these may prevent you from taking care of the things that you can easily achieve today.
In Part 1 of this series, I showed how making a good Long-Term Care Plan is an urgent and necessary step in preparing for the future. In Part 2, I outlined the three most essential documents found in that plan, namely, a General Power of Attorney, Advance Medical Directive with a Long-Term Care Directive and a Lifestyle Care Plan. In the last installment, Part 3, I discussed using long-term care insurance as part of a Long-Term Care Plan. As we saw in Part 3, Virginia's Long-Term Care Insurance Partnership Program offers government-endorsed "Medicaid Asset Protection" to consumers who buy long-term care insurance.
Part 4 will now discuss how our Living Trust PlusTM Asset Protection Trust can protect you from probate (as does a Revocable Living Trust) PLUS protect you from the expenses of long-term care.
You Can't Afford to Ignore Long-Term Care Expenses
Whether you're rich, poor, or somewhere in between, you cannot afford to ignore the potentially devastating costs of nursing home care and other types of long-term care. Nursing homes are the most likely and one of the most expensive creditors that most Americans are likely to face in their lifetimes. Remember the following statistics that I cited in Part 1 of this series:
- About 70% of Americans who live to age 65 will need long-term care at some time in their lives, over 40 percent in a nursing home.
- As of 2008, the national average cost of a private room in a nursing home was $212 per day or $77,380 per year.
- The average person age 65 today will need some long-term care services for three years. Women need care for longer (on average 3.7 years) than do men (on average 2.2 years). Twenty percent of them will need care for more than five years.
- Long-term care is not just needed by the elderly. A recent study found that 46 percent of group long-term care claimants were under the age of 65 at the time of disability.
Contrast the above long-term care statistics with statistics for automobile accident claims and homeowner's insurance claims:
- Between 2005 and 2007, an average of only 7.2% of people per year filed an automobile insurance claim.
- Between 2002 and 2006, an average of only 6.15% of people per year filed a claim on their homeowner's insurance.
Revocable Living Trusts Don't Help
A revocable living trust is a wonderful tool to protect your assets from the expenses of probate, but it does not protect your assets from the expenses of long-term care while you're alive. Because you have 100% unlimited access to the funds in a revocable living trust, so do your creditors, including nursing homes and State Medicaid programs.
Living Trust PlusTM: Protect Assets from Probate PLUS Lawsuits PLUS The Expenses of Long-Term Care
In response to this limitation of revocable living trusts, I have developed a unique solution – a special type of irrevocable trust called the Living Trust PlusTM that functions very similarly to a revocable living trust but protects your assets from the expenses and difficulties of probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS the expenses of long-term care while you're alive, in addition to a multitude of other financial risks during your lifetime. The Living Trust PlusTM protects your assets from lawsuits, auto accidents, creditor attacks, medical expenses, and — most importantly for the 99% of Americans who are not among the ultra-wealthy — from the catastrophic expenses often incurred in connection with nursing home care. For most Americans, the Living Trust PlusTM is the preferable form of asset protection trust because, for purposes of Medicaid eligibility, this type of trust is the only type of self-settled asset protection trust that allows a settlor to retain an interest in the trust while also protecting the assets from being counted by state Medicaid agencies.
Even though the Living Trust PlusTM is "irrevocable," it can still be terminated so long as all interested parties (typically you and all of your beneficiaries) agree to terminate it. Additionally, you remain in control of your assets because:
- you can be the trustee if desired;
- you retain the right to receive all of the trust income;
- you retain the right to live in and use your real estate;
- you retain the right to change trustees; and
- you retain the right to change beneficiaries.
The Living Trust PlusTM has no effect on your income or your income taxes.
If you're a client or potential client who would like more information about the Living Trust PlusTM, please call us at 703-691-1888 to contact us for an appointment, visit the Living Trust PlusTM web site at http://www.livingtrustplus.com or click here to register for one of our upcoming Living Trust PlusTM informational seminars.
If you're an attorney interested in more information about the Living Trust PlusTM or interested in the possibility of licensing the Living Trust PlusTM Asset Protection System, visit the Living Trust PlusTM web site at http://www.livingtrustplus.com and click on the link labeled "For Attorneys."
Farr Law Firm Pledge
The goal of the Farr Law Firm is to give all of our clients not only the best legal expertise possible, but also excellent client service. We try very hard never to keep you waiting. We try to return all phone calls promptly.
We work as a team so that there is always someone available to help you when you need it. All of the people who work in our office are committed to this goal. They are all caring and compassionate people, and they understand the problems that you and your family may be facing. To get to know our team, please click here.
"Long-Term Care" refers to the broad spectrum of medical and support services provided to persons who have lost some or all capacity to function on their own due to a chronic illness or disabling condition, and who are expected to need such services over a prolonged period of time. Long-term care can consist of care in the home by family members (assisted by voluntary or employed help), adult day health care, or care in assisted living facilities or nursing homes.
In Part 1 of this series I mentioned that 60% of us will need long-term care at some point in our lives. When this statistic is put in perspective with the relatively low likelihood of making an automobile or homeowner's insurance claim, the risk that you or I will need long-term care at some point in the future is shocking. Unfortunately, the majority of Americans are either unaware of these statistics or refuse to plan for the often catastrophic costs of long-term care. Part 1 of this series outlined the necessity to create a good Long-Term Care Plan in addition to, or as part of, your Estate Plan; Part 2 will now discuss the three most essential documents found in a good Long-Term Care Plan, as well as two additional documents that are often also part of a Long-Term Care Plan.
General Power of Attorney
A General Durable Power of Attorney (POA) containing Asset Protection Powers is the first essential document. Not all POA's are created equal; it is crucial that this document be prepared by a knowledgeable and experienced Elder Law Attorney. One way to ensure the qualifications of your attorney is to look for one who is Certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation, the only organization accredited by the American Bar Association to certify lawyers in the specialty area of Elder Law. For a list of Certified Elder Law Attorneys, please visit http://www.nelf.org/findcela.asp.
A POA (always "durable" when used in connection with estate planning and long-term care planning) authorizes your "Agent," sometimes called an "Attorney in Fact," to act on your behalf and sign your name to legal and financial documents. It is an essential tool in the event that, due to age, illness, or injury, you are unable to carry on your legal and financial affairs. Asset Protection Powers written into the POA are essential in order for your Agent to protect your assets from the often-catastrophic expenses of long-term care. Attorneys who are not experienced Elder Law Attorneys often fail to put these essential Asset Protection Powers into the POA.
A properly-drafted POA is designed to avoid the need to go through a court-supervised conservatorship proceeding, which is a time consuming, expensive, and publicly embarrassing process whereby someone goes to court to have you declared incompetent and to be appointed as your Conservator. The Conservatorship process is often referred to as a type of "living probate" because the Conservator is subject to all the rules of the probate court, including the onerous requirement of filing annual accountings with the Court. State laws vary regarding the use and acceptance of a power of attorney.
Advance Medical Directive
The second essential document in a good Long-Term Care Plan is an Advance Medical Directive (AMD) containing a Long-Term Care Directive. As with General Powers of Attorney, every lawyer drafts AMDs differently, and most attorneys do not include a Long-Term Care Directive within the AMD. Therefore, it is again in your best interest to have your AMD written by an attorney who specializes in long-term care planning, such as a Certified Elder Law Attorney.
An AMD (also called a Medical Power of Attorney or a Health Care Power of Attorney) authorizes another person (called your "Medical Agent"), to make decisions with respect to your medical care in the event that you are physically or mentally unable to do so. This document includes the type of provisions that used to be in what was commonly called a "Living Will," allowing you to indicate your wishes concerning the use of artificial or extraordinary measures to prolong your life in the event of a terminal illness or injury. In the AMD you will also appoint a "Medical Agent" and give that person the power to consent to medical and health care decisions on your behalf with regard to providing, withholding, or withdrawing a specific medical treatment or course of treatment when you are incapable of making or communicating an informed decision on your own behalf. A comprehensive AMD will also allow you to indicate your wishes with regard to organ donation, disposition of bodily remains, and funeral arrangements.
A properly-drafted AMD is designed to avoid the need to go through a court-supervised guardianship proceeding, which is a time consuming, expensive, and publicly embarrassing process whereby someone goes to court to have you declared incompetent and to be appointed as your Guardian, typically at the same time they are requesting appointment as your Conservator.
Long-Term Care Directive
Most importantly for your Long-Term Care Plan, your AMD should include a Long-Term Care Directive (or this could be drafted as a separate document), which will allow you to make your desires known in the event you need long-term care in the future. For instance, do you want to remain at home and receive home-based care as long as possible, regardless of cost, even if it drastically reduces or entirely depletes your estate? Or would you prefer to remain at home and receive home-based care only if it doesn't drastically reduce or entirely deplete your estate? If nursing home care is absolutely required, would you like to protect as much of your assets as can be legally protected so that you can qualify earlier for publicly-funded Medicaid benefits? If so, do you prefer that the protected assets be used to enhance your quality of care, or to provide an inheritance for the beneficiaries of your estate?
In order to be easily accessible when needed, your AMD should be registered with an electronic archive service that can immediately fax the document to any desired destination. Some Elder Law Attorneys, including our firm, provide such registrations to clients at no charge.
Lifestyle Care Plan
The third essential document that is found in a good Long-Term Care Plan is a document called a Lifestyle Care Plan, also known as an Advance Care Plan. The Lifestyle Care Plan is a document that is created by special software that gathers, organizes, stores and disseminates information provided by you in an interview, in order to guide those who you will depend or for future care. The Lifestyle Care Plan identifies your specific needs, desires, habits and preferences and incorporates all of this information into a document that your future caregiver can use to provide you with the best possible long-term care.
As an example, Alice wrote in her Lifestyle Care Plan that if Alzheimer's disease or some other type of dementia inhibited her mental abilities to communicate or recognize her surroundings, she wished to be in a respectable facility and only asked that she be visited and brought chocolates. To her children this request seemed silly at the time, but when her mental capacities did diminish, the instructions were there. No one had to wonder if they should try to take care of Alice at home and how they would do it. Without guilt or question they placed her in a respectable facility that took care of her needs. All they had to do was make loving visits, and of course they brought chocolates.
Because of the importance of the Lifestyle Care Plan, the Farr Law Firm provides one to all of our clients as part our comprehensive Long-Term Care Planning services. To learn more about the benefits of having an Advance Care Plan, please click here or visit our Web site at: www.farrlawfirm.com/advance-care-plan.htm
Living Trusts
A good Long-Term Care Plan will always include the three documents mentioned above, and will typically also include a Living Trust — either a Revocable Living Trust (RLT) or the Living Trust Plus™ (LTP).
An RLT generally provides for the creator of the trust to have full use of the trust income and principal for life. On the death of the creator, the assets may continue to be held in trust (or may be distributed) for the benefit of the named beneficiaries, such as the grantor's children. Although the most important benefit of the RLT is to avoid probate, a well-drafted RLT also can help protect from incapacity and can therefore be an important part of a Long-Term Care Plan. Similar to a General Power of Attorney, an RLT can provide uninterrupted management of your assets by your trustee if you become incapacitated, sparing you and your family from having to go through the expense and complexities of a court-appointed conservatorship. It is important to note that an RLT does not protect your assets from the expenses of long-term care. On the contrary, the assets in an RLT must be spent, if necessary, in providing long-term care, even if that means spending down all of the assets in the RLT to provide such care. For more information on RLTs, please click here or visit our Web site at: www.farrlawfirm.com/revocable.html
The Living Trust Plus™ is a living trust that is designed to protect your assets from probate PLUS lawsuits, PLUS nursing home expenses. In other words, the LTP protects your assets from the complications and hassles of probate and from other financial risks, including the threat of lawsuits, auto accidents, creditor attacks, extended hospitalization, and — most importantly – the catastrophic expenses associated with nursing home care. Part 4 of this series will explore the LTP in detail.
A good Long-Term Care Plan will always include a General Power of Attorney, Advance Medical Directive, and Advance Care Plan, and will typically also include a Living Trust — either a Revocable Living Trust or the Living Trust Plus™. However, as mentioned in Part 1, these essential legal documents are only part of the requirements for a good Long-Term Care Plan. The other important component is a plan for how to pay for long-term care. The next installment in this series will discuss protecting your assets by purchasing long-term care insurance.
The Farr Law Firm specializes in long-term care planning and we would be happy to assist you in your preparations. Please visit us at www.VirginiaElderLaw.com or call us at 703-691-1888.
Today is the big day! Evan Farr's new book – "Protect and Defend" — is available NOW!
"Protect and Defend" is the book that Evan has been working on for the past 8 months along with several of America's other leading
This new book delivers to you practical advice based on the combined years of top-level experience. In each chapter, you'll get exclusive
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"Protect and Defend" brings you proven strategies to help you do just that, before it's too late.
Just for purchasing the book today, and helping us get this book launch off to a great start, Evan and the other
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To claim your free bonuses, once you buy the book, just email your Amazon.com receipt to: email@example.com
and they'll send the bonuses right over to you!
As I announced on Monday this week, over the last 8
months I have been working on a book with some of
America's Premier Legal Experts from all around the
country. In the process of writing this book, we all
agreed to share with you the vital information needed
to Protect and Defend your family, your business and
your money.
The great news is that our book –
"Protect and Defend" — is coming out
Just for purchasing the book
tomorrow on Amazon.com,
and helping us get off to a
great start, we've put together
a huge bonus package for you!
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great stuff you'll get JUST for
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Just for purchasing the book tomorrow on Amazon, and
helping us get off to a great start, you'll get all of these great
Once again, I'll send you a link to buy the book
tomorrow for just $19.95, and once you buy it,
just email your Amazon.com receipt to:
and they'll send the bonuses right over to you!
Until Tomorrow!
Evan Farr
STOP AND THINK! Do you know what legal steps you need to take to
safeguard… Your business? Your money? Your family? Maybe you were
caught in a car accident where you're not sure of your rights, or
you're looking for a lifetime of legal protection for your company,
your family or your wealth. Whatever the case, you need to know what
it takes to protect your rights and defend you and your loved ones
from unforeseen legal threats.
Over the last 8 months I've been working on a book with America's
leading attorneys from across the country that will help answer these
vital questions. Protect and Defend is the book that delivers to you
practical advice based on their years of top-level experience.
In each chapter, you'll get exclusive access to their expertise, as
they tackle some of today's most crucial legal issues-issues that
affect us all every day. As you know, the law can be your best friend
or your worst enemy. And you absolutely need to know how to put it on
your side whether you're facing an immediate emergency or looking for
long-term solutions. Protect and Defend brings you proven strategies
to help you do just that-before it's too late.
We'll be launching the book this week, Thursday, July 26th.
(don't worry I'll remind you!), and I've put together a huge bonus
package for you if you'll help us launch the book on Thursday!
As I said, I'll remind you, but if you are willing to help us launch
with great success, by buying the book (It's only $19.95!), then I'll
give you hundreds of dollars worth of bonuses in addition to the
great ideas you will get from reading the book.
I appreciate your support and I'll get back with you in a couple of
days to remind you about the launch and to tell you more about the
bonuses I'm putting together!
Stay tuned!
Evan H. Farr, CELA
Certified in Elder Law by the National Elder Law Foundation
Farr Law Firm, 10640 Main St., Suite 200, Fairfax, VA 22030
Tel: 703-691-1888 | Fax: 703-940-9160
*Virginia has no procedure for approving certifying organizations
Some attorneys and others interested in the field of Medicaid Asset Protection may have been a bit worried about a recent case arising out of Wisconsin — Hedlund v. Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services (Wis. Ct. App., No. 2010AP3070, Oct. 13, 2011)
The basics of the case
In this case, the court affirmed a ruling that a Medicaid applicant who transferred assets to her children, who in turn put those same assets into an irrevocable trust for the Medicaid applicant's benefit, is ineligible for Medicaid because the trust is a countable asset under state law, despite the fact that the transfer occurred 17 years prior to applying for Medicaid.
Don't Worry!
If you are an estate planning or elder law attorney offering pre-crisis Medicaid asset protection through the proper use of an irrevocable, income-only trust, it need not cause you any worry.
And if you are not an attorney but have created the right type of irrevocable, income-only asset protection trust, you, too need not worry. The irrevocable, income-only asset protection trust I provide my own clients with is the Living Trust Plus™ — I'm happy to say the trust is just as effective as ever.
The opinion was released October 13th and is a case-in-point example of how an improperly drafted irrevocable trust, along with a badly executed asset protection plan, will fail. More information on the Living Trust Plus™ is available here.
The question before the court
The question for the court, based on its interpretation of a Wisconsin statute, was whether the trust was established by the children "at the direction or upon the request of" the Medicaid applicant.
Although the trust instrument in this case was irrevocable, the trust bore no relation to an income-only trust, but rather was a trust established by the children of the Medicaid applicant, using the exact assets previously gifted by the parents to the children.
This trust was apparently intended to be some sort of special needs trust because the trust instrument provided that the income and corpus of the trust were to be used only when no other funds are available and to supplement any funds the beneficiaries were entitled to receive as social security and medical assistance benefits.
However, though not addressed by the court, the trust was clearly defective as a special needs trust because the stated purpose of the trust was "to provide for the support and welfare of Clarence and Lucille Hedlund," and a trust intended to provide for "support and welfare" is clearly not a special needs trust.
Why the court ruled the way it did
Most importantly, the trust did not prohibit trust corpus from being distributed to the Settlors. On the contrary, the trust provided that the income and corpus of the trust were available to the Settlors.
So once the finding was made that the trust assets were "assets of the individual or the individual's spouse" and "were used to form all or part of the corpus of the trust," the finding that the assets were fully available to the Medicaid applicant was absolutely correct, because the trust allowed corpus to be used for the benefit of the Medicaid applicant.
A properly- prepared income-only trust, such as the Living Trust Plus™, would have avoided this result, because the Living Trust Plus™ is a trust that offers true asset protection in connection with Medicaid eligibility, as well as in connection with all other creditors.
For information on the Farr Law Firm's service (Level 3) – The Living Trust Plus™ — follow this link and view the .PDF file. You may also notice other services you may need or have not thought of. Planning for long-term care (whether for you or a spouse or a parent) is a difficult mental hurdle. But the sooner you start, the more assets you can protect and the better quality and dignity of life loved ones can enjoy.
Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
When older adults think of estate planning, many actually have asset protection in mind. What they want is the peace of mind of knowing that the nest egg they've been saving for that proverbial "rainy day" will actually be available for them when that rainy day comes. The rainy day, for most people, is when they or their spouse enters a nursing home. But estate planning and asset protection are two very different fields of law. Estate Planning documents do nothing to achieve asset protection, as Estate planning deals with distribution of assets upon death. If you wind up going broke in a nursing home before your death, your Estate Plan will wind up being a worthless pile of paper.
These days most older adults use the Revocable Living Trust (RLT) as their primary Estate Planning document in order to minimize delays and expenses and avoid the "nightmare of probate." A Last Will and Testament is designed to put your estate into probate – an expensive and complex process that most people want to avoid at all costs. Although the RLT can achieve this important goal of avoiding probate, a major limitation of the RLT is that it cannot accomplish asset protection. The RLT can't shield your assets from nursing home expenses. With the average cost of a nursing home room in the DC Metro area at around $9,000 per year, this is an important limitation of the RLT that every older adult needs to understand.
Is there a living trust that actually does protect assets in contemplation of future nursing home expenses? Yes. You can protect your assets legally and effectively by using the Living Trust PlusTM (LTP). As opposed to the RLT which only avoids probate, the LTP is designed to protect your assets from the expenses and complexities of probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS nursing home expenses. The LTP functions very similarly to the RLT and maintains much of the flexibility of the RLT, but in addition to serving as your primary estate planning document, the LTP allows you to actually protect your nest egg from having to be "spent down" to pay for the catastrophic expenses often incurred in connection with nursing home long-term care.
If you're over the age of 65 and you've been holding on to a nest egg for a rainy day, the time to get out the umbrella and protect the nest egg is now, while you're still relatively healthy and living independently. To find out more, you can sign up yourself and your family to attend a free seminar on the Living Trust PlusTM.
If you are an attorney and are interested in learning how you can offer your clients true asset protection, visit LivingTrustPlus.com and join the dozens of attorneys across the U.S. who have already educated themselves and embraced the LTP!
A Mixed Bag in Virginia: Federal Law Prohibits 2011 Social Security Increases, but Federal Agency Grants Millions to Disadvantaged Groups
As Halloween approaches this year, I can't help but draw an analogy between the nights I spent meandering my neighborhood as a kid looking for handouts, and our current economic times. I recall my grade-school friends and I operating our minds at their collective capacities, as we planned the best streets to target and the best routes to take to get from house to house most efficiently. Some of the parents surpassed expectations and gave out the good stuff — like king size candy bars! Others doled out the less-desirable treats, such as candy corns, smarties, or the dreaded raisins. Some neighbors, when they were gone for the evening, left out giant bowls of candy for us trick-or-treaters to help ourselves. Other neighbors were always gone, and their houses completely dark. But fortunately for us candy-loving kids, most or our neighbors participated in the fun of Halloween. In fact, many of our neighbors offered a variety of different candy to choose from each year. We never knew how much candy we'd wind up with at the end of the night, or how much of the "good stuff" we'd have in our bag.
Similar to the unpredictability of household Halloween generosity encountered by children, the Federal Government is providing the public with what can appropriately be called a "mixed bag" of economic solutions. It might just depend on what house, or rather, what state you live in.
Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients will not receive an increase in 2011 because there has been no increase in the federal Consumer Price Index. Read the Social Security News Release Here (released October 15, 2010).
Though the federal Social Security Administration is not able to provide an increase for its beneficiaries because of long-standing federal law that ties Social Security and Supplemental Security to the Consumer Price Index, other federal agencies, and some state agencies, are doing what they can to help alleviate the financial struggles of the elderly and disabled.
One prime example: the federal Administration on Aging and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (both part of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services) recently awarded more than $2 million in grant funding to the Virginia Department for the Aging and the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services, the latter being the Virginia agency that runs our state's Medicaid system. Read the Commonwealth of Virginia Press Release Here (released October 6, 2010).
This grant funding to Virginia's Medicaid system comes with high hopes and great expectations. The over $2 million in funding will be used to bolster services for two key underprivileged groups – the elderly and the disabled – by alleviating burdens in the following areas:
• Prescription drug coverage
• Long-term care services
• Transition support from nursing homes to community based services
• In-home support services for sufferers of Alzheimer's disease
In providing these much-needed funds to Virginia for the improvement of Virginia's Medicaid program and the development of additional services for the elderly and the disabled, the Federal Government has demonstrated its continuing commitment to improving and strengthening the Medicaid system throughout the United States. As Senator Rockefeller wrote in 2005, on the 40th anniversary of the Medicaid program, "taking care of our most vulnerable people is a moral obligation . . . our representative democracy has a responsibility to do for the future what we have repeatedly done in the past: protect, preserve, and strengthen Medicaid."
Medicaid is what pays for the vast majority of nursing home care in the United States. With both the Federal Governemtn and the Virginia State Goverment now strenghtening the Medicaid program, smart long-term care planning (i.e., Medicaid Asset Protection Planning) has never been as important as it is now. According to the Virginia Department for the Aging, the population of elderly adults in Virginia will double in less than 20 years — to the point where one in five residents of Virginia is expected to be aged 65 or older.
A statistic I cited in a previous article demonstrates the importance of Medicaid Asset Protection Planning — about 70% of Americans who live to age 65 will wind up needing long-term care at some point in their lives. For the more than 40% who will require long-term placement in a nursing home, the cost of such care will be financially devastating without a smart Medicaid Asset Protection Plan focused on structuring assets in a way that protects those assets while allowing earlier Medicaid eligibility.
For most seniors over age 65, Medicaid is the equivalent of government-subsidized long-term care insurance, just as Medicare is governement-subsidized health insurance. But remember — the fact that Medicaid is "government-subsidized" does not mean that it's a "handout." On the contrary, it's your tax dollars that fund the Medicaid program, just as it's your tax dollars that fund Medicare. It's also important to note that the Federal Government and Virginia State Government both encourage Americans to engage in smart Medicaid Asset Protection Planning — for example: there are laws that protect spouses of nursing home residents; there are laws that encourage Americans to engage in Medicaid Asset Protection by purchasing Long-Term Care Insurance "Partnership" policies; there are laws that allow the exemption of certain types of assets when applying for Medicaid; there are laws that permit individuals to qualify for Medicaid even after transferring assets to a spouse, or to a disabled family member, or to a caregiver child. To smartly plan and protect assets while accelerating qualification for Medicaid is no different than planning ahead to maximize your income tax deductions in order to minimize your income taxes. It is no different than taking advantage of tax-free municipal bonds. It is no different than planning your estate to avoid estate taxes (which, incidentally, a lot more people are going to be doing again next year when the Federal Estate Tax returns with a vengeance – with an Exemption Equivalent Amount of only $1 million – but that's for another article . . . ).
At a time when much federal spending leads to controversy, Medicaid is an example of the government legitimately promoting the best interests of society. Similar to how my mom always made sure I ate a well-balanced dinner before embarking upon my annual October 31st sugar binge, our Federal Government and State Government are truly looking after the citizens of America (even in these gloomy economic times) by directing funds to programs that benefit and protect our most fragile citizens — the elderly and disabled.
The Farr Law Firm specializes in Family Protection Planning (i.e., Estate Planning, Incapacity Planning, and Medicaid Asset Protection Planning), and we are here to help you. If you have not yet done your Family Protection Planning, I encourage you to call us to take advantage of a free consultation to determine the planning solution that's best for you and your family.


text:
Contact Joey Daniels, email@example.com
MONTEVALLO, AL – The North Georgia men's basketball season came to an unsuccessful close on Saturday night as they fell to Montevallo 81-67 inside the BankTrust Arena.
The Saints (10-18, 5-12 PBC) fell behind early, were down by 20 at the half, and never caught their stride against the first-place Falcons, ending the season playing the theme of the entire season.
It was poor shooting that plagued North Georgia in their season finale, as they shot just 30 percent (18-60) from the floor. The three-point shooting wasn't much better, finishing only 32 percent (8-25).
Scott Windom led the effort by the Saints as he has done all season long. Windom led the way with 17 points and four rebounds. Windom was 4-for-8 from the three-point line.
It was a rough go for North Georgia this year. They started the season off 2-0 in Peach Belt play, then went on one of the worst stretches in program history. The Saints played many teams down to the last few minutes, but came up short more times than not.
North Georgia will graduate three key players in Chaun Tinney, Elijah Smith and Clarence Tillman. They will return plenty of key players who gained great experience this season.
Travis Core certainly has a bright future for the Saints at the point guard position, along with Michael Varrichione on the inside. Robby Goldsmith and Victor Holder will also return for the senior campaigns next season.
Windom, the team's leading scorer this season, will certainly be looked at to carry the load next season.
Montevallo (21-7, 12-5) will head to the conference tournament next weekend as the No. 1 seed from the PBC West Division.
The Falcons were led again by PBC Player of the Year candidate D.J. Rivera. Rivera finished with a game-high 20 points and was a rebound shy of a double-double with nine.
Head Coach Chris Faulkner will have a long offseason to plan for next year and solve the many problems that plagued this year's squad. There is also some talent and experience returning for the staff in 2012-13.


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I have been working at MasterCard full-time for more than 5 years
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I have been working at MasterCard full-time for more than 5 years
I have been working at MasterCard full-time for more than a year
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Fans stayed away in droves Friday night because of the late afternoon snowfall that blanketed Carson City.
It's too bad because they missed one of Carson's most dominating performances of the season.
Four players - Rafe King (13), Matt Nolan (12), Alan Cohen (10) and Kyle Denning (10) - all reached double figures to lead the Senators to an easy 66-47 win over North Valleys in a Division I crossover boys basketball game at Morse Burley Gymnasium.
Carson improved to 6-2, and the victory gives the Senators some momentum leading into two key road games, Friday at Douglas and Saturday …


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Celebs Soak in the Sun in St. Tropez
FameFlynet July 8, 2013 6:00 PM
St. Tropez. Just the name sounds glamorous. Each summer celebs from P. Diddy to Paris Hilton descend on the French Riviera resort town full of beautiful beaches, perfect weather, swanky restaurants, and plenty of private yachts. Take a look at which stars have already shown up this season, ready for fun in the sun.


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Dartium is a Great Idea For a New Era of WebApps and Games
As you might have heard of Google included a Dart VM on the latest Chrome Tech Preview. As they said on their blog post:
Today's release of the Chromium + Dart VM integration is another step forward for the open source "batteries included" Dart platform. Our goal is to help you build complex, high performance apps for the modern web


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Why mess with a good thing? Michelle Obama is known for recycling her favorite outfits and there is one item she goes back to again and again: a bold wisteria print dress by designer Tracy Feith.
More on Yahoo!: First Lady Lauds Efforts to Save DC Slave House
By our count, she's worn the dress (which cost about $720 retail) at least seven times since she debuted it on January 21, 2009, the day after President Barack Obama's inauguration, at a non-denominational prayer service held at the Washington National Cathedral followed by a luncheon. On Wednesday, she donned it again to visit the historic Decatur House.
More on Yahoo!: Michelle Obama Vacation-Will Critics Slam This Trip Too?
While we mortals might shop our own closets every day, many figures in the public eye shun recycling their own clothing. Joanna Douglas, Yahoo! Shine's senior Fashion and Beauty editor has a theory, "FLOTUS is very practical when it comes to dressing. She packs light for vacation and rewears the same dresses within a very short period of time, unlike celebrities who are afraid to wear the same thing twice. I think women appreciate that she just digs into her closet like anyone else."
What makes this particular dress so versatile? The ballet neckline, fitted bodice, and full, just-below-the-knee-length skirt are universally flattering and chic. While some women may shy away from a jazzy print, this one can be dressed up or down with the right shoes and clutch and doesn't require elaborate jewelry. The dark background adds elegance where a lighter color might be too girly for official events.
In a phone interview with Yahoo! Shine, Nikki Pennie, celebrity stylist and David's Bridal Style Council member, shared her tips for finding the perfect go-to dress.
Sleeve length: "The key element is the three-quarter sleeve length, because you don't have to wear a jacket over it which can look stiff," says Pennie who has dressed celebs from Madonna to Kate Middleton. "If this was a sleeveless dress, I guarantee you she would have only worn it once." Pennie says the three-quater length is the most flexible, but long sleeves work better than sleeveless or capped sleeves.
Color: If you don't go for prints, Pennie advises a rich color like navy or pewter. If you prefer lighter colors, she loves the trend of lace for day, which can look modern in shades such as lavender. "People are moving away from black, especially for day."
Skirt length: "The length of Michelle's dress is perfect and ladylike," says Pennie. If you want a shorter dress, she says stick with a classic shift cut.
Comfort: "It's an effortless way of dressing," says Pennie. "Kate [Middleton] and Michelle are pioneering this trend, they don't have stylists, and they buy their own clothes, it's about being comfortable and hassle-free."
More on Shine:
Kate Middleton's Stylish Maternity Looks
Michelle Obama Accidently Calls Herself a "Busy Single Mom"15 Dresses Under $100


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Portland, ME
Unlike its namesake out West, this Portland is steeped in history, adorned with cobblestone and brick. But this quaint city by the sea is no backwater. Its residents are forward-thinking and embody a community spirit that makes this Portland a real catch.
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- 01
Gritty McDuff's
Portland's original brewpub, tucked comfortably into the city's quaint Old Port.
- 02
Harbor Fish Market
Situated on a pier, with fish offloaded right from the boats tied up at the back door.
- 03
Hot Suppa
A breakfast and brunch favorite, famous for its corned beef hash and biscuits and gravy.
- 04
Sushi near the sea always tastes better, this upscale restaurant is regarded as the best in town.
- 05
Portland Museum of Art
There's no better place to appreciate art both past and present than in Portland.
- 06
Nosh Kitchen Bar
"The bacon fries will be the death of me for sure," says Kyle about this New York-styled deli.
- 07
Novare Res Bier Cafe
Heard of session beers? This is a session bar, with a list of beers on tap as long as a Maine winter.
- 08
Planet Dog
In the burgeoning, booming business behind catering to Rover, this shop is among the best.
- 09
This venue is popular among vegans, gluten-phobes and folks craving a filling, simple meal.
- 10
Two Fat Cats Bakery
Meredith has just two words for those who are sage enough to make a detour here: "whoopie pies."


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Difficulty starting or maintaining a urine stream is called urinary hesitancy.
Delayed urination; Hesitancy; Difficulty initiating urination
Urinary hesitancy affects people of all ages and occurs in both sexes. However, it is most common in older men with an enlarged prostate gland.
Urinary hesitancy usually comes on slowly over time. You may not notice it until you are unable to urinate (urinary retention), and your bladder swells and becomes uncomfortable.
Almost all older men have some trouble with:
Urinary hesitancy can be caused by:
See also:
Call your doctor for urinary hesitancy, dribbling, or a weak urine stream if you have not already been evaluated for these problems.
Call your doctor right away if:
Your doctor will take your medical history and perform a physical examination, paying special attention to your pelvis, rectum, abdomen, and lower back.
Medical history questions may include:
Tests that may be performed include:
Treatment for urinary hesitancy depends on the cause. Often, medications such as alpha-blockers can relieve the symptoms. If you have a bacterial infection, your health care provider may prescribe antibiotics. You may need surgery to relieve a prostate obstruction (see TURP).
Gerber GS, Brendler CB. Evaluation of the urologic patient: History, physical examination, and urinalysis. In: Wein AJ, ed. Campbell-Walsh Urology. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:chap 3.
Landry DW, Bazari H. Approach to the patient with renal disease. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 116.
Zeidel ML. Obstructive uropathy. In: Goldman L, Schafer AI, eds. Cecil Medicine. 24th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2011:chap 125.
Last reviewed 9/16/2011 by David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine; and Scott Miller, MD, Urologist in private practice in Atlanta, GA. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
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Liked It On-Time 38 caterers available
Best Pizza in Indy
It's a fusion. A North meets South, East meets West, uptown collides with downtown union that blends the best of all backgrounds. It's a pizza so delectable, we couldn't saddle it with any one name...
$7 per person
20+ Years of Excellence
2X Points
We have years of experience catering to a vast crowd. Try us today, and you won't be disappointed.
Cajun, Creole, Crazy.
Turn the heat up at your next meeting with our delicious Cajun style food.
$5-6 per person
From Old Family Recipes
Serving you delicious & fresh sandwiches that won't disappoint.
$5-6 per person
Award-Winning Greek
An award-winning, independently-owned and family-operated authentic Greek restaurant. Try our several dishes that are made with care and authentic ingredients!
$8-10 per person
Southwestern Favorites
662 Reviews – Give your medical office the full Moe's menu of Southwestern favorites. From hot fajita bars to fresh taco salads and our famous Queso dip (and don't forget our cookies), Moe's catering is the memo...
$9-13 per person
Classic Comfort Food
The name says it all! Treat your guests by ordering comfort food from us.
$15-19 per person
Indiana's best pizza
We've offered Indy's Best Pizza since 1986. Try one of our pizzas for your next event!
$5-6 per person
Homestyle lunch & Dessert
8 Reviews – When you want a good, home cooked meal at a reasonable price, Sweet Temptations has got you covered. From soups and sandwiches to fried chicken and Lynn's Famous Chili, we have everything you need ...
$7-10 per person
Delicious Turkish Food
Serving you delicious Turkish food that will feed your appetite and please your guests.
$10-13 per person
Southern Homestyle Food
Serving you delicious Southern homestyle food at your next meeting.
$8-12 per person
Serving you the freshest and finest Indian cuisine around.
$12-15 per person
Trucking Pizza to You
We are a mobile food truck that serves a variety of authentic New York-style pizzas.
$4-5 per person
Best BBQ Sandwiches
Our BBQ sandwiches are the best around. We promise they won't disappoint.
$4-5 per person
Unique soups & sandwiches
Your guests will love our unique and extensive selections of soups, sandwiches, flatbread pizzas, and salads. Try us for your next meeting or event for a fresh meal everyone will enjoy.
$8-10 per person
World-Class Sandwiches
When feeding your guests, you can't go wrong with our famous world-class sandwiches!
$9-11 per person
Light & Tasty Pitas
78 Reviews – Light pita sandwiches for a fresh, healthy alternative to fast food. A great lunch for any appetite.
$8-12 per person
All Your Pub Favorites
3 Reviews – Good Food. Good Brew. Good People. Serving all your pub food favorites!
$10-13 per person
Fresh Italian-American
73 Reviews – Our meal. Your place. Prepared lovingly with only the freshest of ingredients, authentic recipes and pride. After all, love for food is what being Italian-American is all about.
$8-15 per person
Top-Notch BBQ
Top notch BBQ can be delivered to your next meeting or event.
$4-5 per person
Southern Comfort Food
Southern-style comfort food at great prices. Born of hard work, created with love, and served with flair!
$9-11 per person
Best Italian in Indy
We've been named the best Italian restaurant in Indianapolis! Our catering menu features a variety of classic Italian entrees and sandwiches that are sure to make your next event a success!
$6-7 per person
Established 1969
2X Points
Nearly everything on our menu is made on-premise, from scratch, using fresh ingredients. We opened our first restaurant on January 10, 1969 and have been serving delicious pasta and Italian favorit...
$10-14 per person
Housemade American fare
We offer a variety of American-style entrees, breakfast options, and sandwiches. All of our sauces, sides, salsas, dressings, and baked goods are made from scratch using our own in-house recipes.
$12 per person
Authentic Mexican Grill
383 Reviews – Authentic Mexican favorites are always crowd pleasers. Sizzling, mesquite-grilled fajitas, hand-rolled enchiladas, fresh guacamole, zesty salsa...
$10-15 per person
Home Style Meals
660 Reviews – Time For Something Good. The only thing faster than our 3 hour delivery time is our 2 hour pick-up time. How can we help you with your catering event today?
$9-14 per person
Southern Comfort
2X Points
We specialize in flavorful and satisfying Southern comfort food. From soups, sandwiches, and salads to elegant hors d'oevres and decadent desserts, we are poised to provide whatever you may be crav...
Family-Owned Mexican
We are a family-owned and operated Mexican restaurant that's been serving the area since 1994.
$7-9 per person
Authentic Italian Food
210 Reviews – The first Buca di Beppo opened its doors in 1993. We are the perfect place for great authentic Italian food!
$7-15 per person
Best in the City
We have some of the freshest and tastiest sandwiches in the area. You can't go wrong with the food we'll provide.
$8-10 per person
Fresh American Dining
2,710 Reviews – Simple, fresh, American dining. Ruby Tuesday is driven by uncompromising freshness and quality, and gracious hospitality.
$8-12 per person
We Make it Simple
14 Reviews – Our pizza's famous golden crispy crust, aged provolone, and toppings loaded edge-to-edge are what set us apart. Our pizzas are party-cut to ensure you get toppings in every bite! We provide ever...
$6-9 per person
Hot Fresh Every Day
474 Reviews – Einstein Bros Bagels wrote the book on bagels! But we offer more as well: darn good coffees, breakfast and deli sandwiches, and baked sweets.
$5-11 per person
Delicious Buffets
Try our delicious buffets crafted to give you a fine selection of our top-notch food. You cant go wrong catering your event with food made by an award winning chef with over 35 years of experience!
$11-14 per person
The World's Best Ham
690 Reviews – Fresh hand-crafted sandwiches, signature HoneyBaked meats, prompt and accurate delivery. Let HoneyBaked satisfy all your medical office catering needs.
$8-12 per person
Eat Fresh
67 Reviews – The 2009 Zagat Fast-Food Survey rated SUBWAY the #1 overall provider of "Healthy Options", "Best Service" as well as "Most Popular"!
$5-9 per person
Legendary Food
3 Reviews – It began back in 1993 in Clarksville, Indiana. Our story has become legendary... burgers, chicken, steak, ribs, and all the sides.
$7-15 per person
Better Pizza
37 Reviews – Better ingredients. Better pizza. We use only hand-tossed, fresh (never frozen) original dough for our pizzas. And don't forget our delicious sides and desserts, too.
$4-9 per person
Order Together
Invite colleagues and clients to edit this order. It's easy!
Budget: None
Guest Checkout: No
Recent Order Reviews
WOW!! on the border is your best bet for surprisingly authentic Mexican food and the portions are great
Wed 04/02/14– n/a
On time as always and the BBQ was awesome and staff loved it
Wed 04/02/14– james
Awesome baked and fried chicken will use again
Tue 04/01/14– james
excellent caterer! they worked with me to move lunch to another date
Mon 03/31/14– n/a
Our staff team really enjoyed catering from Pita Pit. A good combination of different pita sandwiches (especially for...
Thu 03/27/14– Scott
great food delivered on time, staff liked everything
Wed 03/26/14– n/a
Chef Mike's did a great job with the catering. The food was delicious, and we were really pleased with the service.
Tue 03/25/14– Scott
The office raved about the BBQ and brownies!
– n/a
On-time. Food was very good and staff loved it. Great presentation on the food setup
– james
The food was terrific -- everyone loved it. But they didn't bring plates, napkins, or utensils...so be aware that you...
– Scott
awesome food again.....best service will use again. Thanks
– james
On time and food was great! Awesome BBQ
– james
Staff was excited to have RT. thanks!
– n/a
Great food. Like how the meat was cut.
– n/a
Tasty way to feed a group! On time and good food quality
– Samantha
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iPlayer catch-up window to be extended to 30 days
The BBC Executive has approved the extension of the iPlayer catch-up window from seven days to 30 days, and will now "set about making this happen"Read More
Sony unveils new soundbars and HT-XT1 soundbase
The HT-CT770 and HT-CT370 soundbars are just 5cm tall and include wireless subwoofers. The HT-XT1 soundbase will allow TVs of up to 30kg in weight sit on top.Read More
MPs accuse BT of rural broadband service "monopoly"
Public Accounts Committee criticises government for failure to "deliver meaningful competition" in £1.2bn rural broadband programmeRead More
Apple WWDC 2014 to start June 2nd
The WorldWide Developers Conference is the place for developers to learn about the future of iOS and OS X and could see the launch of iOS 8Read More
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Record Store Day takes place on April 19th and will see over 600 records on sale across over 200 stores, and we will be running a week of features to celebrateRead More
Record Store Day 2014 UK releases
Record Store Day takes place on April 19th and there are over 600 releases to buy on the day from UK independent record shops – here's the full listRead More
Home cinema
Sony launches "world's first" 9.1-channel headphones and 3D cinema system
The BDV-N7200W system incorporates the company's Magnetic Fluid speaker technology, while the headphones use Virtualphones TechnologyRead More
Android Smartphones & Tablets
Samsung unveils next-generation Galaxy Tab4 tablet series
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Sony and FIFA to extend 4K Ultra HD coverage of 2014 World Cup
Three matches to be produced in 4K Ultra HD at this summer's tournament in Brazil – as will the official film of the eventRead More


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Discover DOFUS
You hear wedding bells but there's no ring on your finger? You've dreamed of Prince Charming but all you ever got was a pricy charm from your friend Tiffany? Then becoming a Jeweller is the profession for you.
Now this is one profession that will empty your pockets and eat up your time, but if the glint of diamonds and the touch of precious metals is in your blood, then you'll find it hard to resist. With a few bits of wood and some metal, you'll soon be well on the way to creating jewels that are worth their weight in gold.
But the resources you need will cost you dearly as many of your creations will require rare metals and little-known woods. You'll also need to remember that the jewel market is very active - so don't let your creations fall between the cracks. Think carefully about what jewels are in demand to make sure that your work is worth it. Jewellers can also craft items that can be exchanged for characteristic scrolls, such as the Nimbly Ring and the Lumberjack Amulet, and these are a good way to gain experience in your profession while making sure you use up your stock.
Although it's not obligatory, it can be a great help to have trained in a harvesting profession, such as a Lumberjack or a miner, if you intend to become a top notch jeweller. You'll reduce your costs considerably if you can collect the resources you need yourself.
Have you decided it's time to stop cutting throats and to start decorating them? All the same, nothing's stopping you from doing both! Just go to Shani Sings, Astrub's jeweller, to get started (5,-6). She'll teach you the profession in no time at all, but you'll then have to go to Amakna to meet Azra Lazarus. This celebrated jeweller will be waiting for you in her workshop (0,2).
Once you've learnt all there is to know about the profession, you can get to work, but not until you've found a Setter.
You can get one from Shani and Azra for the paltry sum of 150 Kamas.
That's it! You got the tools, you've got the know-how, nothing remains but to get down to business!
It's time for you to create your first ring! So put your sword back in its sheath and carefully take out your Setter. When you reach the nearest Jewellers' Workshop, click on Workbench and select the action ''Create a Ring''. Slide the ingredients into the empty slots according to what you see in the recipes interface.
The materials you'll need to create your ring are as diverse as they are unusual - Gobball saliva, Magical Cure, Wild Sunflower Leaves - you never know what you'll need next! You can do without some ingredients, but others will be absolutely essential - wood and especially minerals, are the basic components of most recipes. You can buy all these materials in the Marketplaces of the world, in particular the ones that serve butchers and miners.
When you start practicing your profession, you'll only be able to use simple recipes, and only ones with 2 resources (i.e. 2 slots). Once you get a little experience under your belt, you can move on to more complex recipes with more ingredients and more slots. The list below tells you the different grades of recipe along with the level you require to be able to use them:
- 2 slots (level 1+)
- 3 slots (level 10+)
- 4 slots (level 20+)
- 5 slots (level 40+)
- 6 slots (level 60+)
- 7 slots (level 80+)
- 8 slots (level 100+)
Like with the craft professions, the more complex a recipe is, the more experience you'll gain if you manage to do it. But the lower your level is, the less likely you will be to succeed in using it... bear in mind that no recipe is a guaranteed success.
When you've decided you want to make a bracelet or amulet, you'll need to get yourself to a workshop. You'll find them scattered all over the world, in the Jewellery stores of the World of Twelve:
- - Astrub (5,-16)
- - Amakna (0,2) ; (2,29)
- - Bonta (-33,-59)
- - Brâkmar (-27,39)
When you've polished off your charm, you'll surely want to get rid of it as quickly as possible! Just find one of the Jewellers' Marketplaces and you can do just that. There is one in each of the main cities in the World of Twelve.
- - Astrub (6,-17)
- - Bonta (-33,-60)
- - Brâkmar (-26,38)


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141 Worcester Rd, Webster
HUMMMMM... I've never had a bad meal...Choices are great.
can't go wrong with anything you order. meat is cooked to perfection.....Just be careful of the servers.....Some are…
37 Harris St, Webster
50 Thompson Rd, Webster
138 Lake St, Webster
595 S Main St, Webster
129 E Main St, Webster
50 Thompson Rd, Webster
184 Sutton Rd, Webster


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Perhaps I was wrong in assuming that Michael Ray Dillier is a liberal since he appears to have some conservative viewpoints. However, it seems strange that his vitriolic criticism is directed at conservatives while his grandiose praise is primarily for liberals.
If you hang around with pigs, you are going to get some slop on you.
Leon Anderson


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P.J. Hanley's in Brooklyn have been flowing since 1874, but Brooklyn's oldest bar may soon have to close up shop - say it ain't so! Crain's has word that the storied pub (which allegedly served Mr. Al Capone himself back in the day) has filed for bankruptcy protection. The report says that the watering hole is on the hook for $100-$500K in back debts, and the owners cite a dispute with a landlord and rising prices as the reason for the hard times.
The venue remains open for now, and instead of closing the owners are looking for a buyer. Our suggestion: can Keith McNally please come along and Minetta Tavern this place?


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My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever. Psalm 73:26
This polished 14K white gold ring features a 5mm heart shaped genuine garnet adorned with two diamonds. Available in sizes 4 through 12.5, including half sizes. Item No: 213392 Gender: Womens Material: Gold
Worried about sizes?We understand that choosing a size over the internet can be confusing. For this reason, we will happily exchange any item that does not fit properly. Not only do we not charge re-stocking fees, but we'll even cover the cost of shipping the item back to you!
View our Return Policy page
Worried about sizing? We offer free shipping on exchanges. US Orders only


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The meeting industry continues to "e-volve," taking advantage of the quicker response time, reduced paperwork, and lower costs of e-commerce, e-mail, and industry Web sites. Now Congress has joined the e-trend by enacting a new law, The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, which gives electronic signatures and records the same legality as those written on paper.
Organizations were allowed to begin using paperless contracts and electronic signatures on October 1, 2000. Beginning March 1, 2001, organizations may store legal documents and records in electronic form, provided the materials are "capable of being retained and accurately reproduced."
What You Can Sign Online Thanks to the new law, you soon will be able to negotiate, finalize, and execute a hotel or convention center contract entirely over the Internet. Under this law, contracts can exist solely in electronic form and can be used without ever having a paper copy. The law even allows parties to "sign" these contracts electronically. Besides making the hotel contract legal as an electronic document, the law will enable meeting planners to use additional e-documents to satisfy contract requirements. For example, if a hotel contract requires a written notice, an electronic form of notice can be used.
However, meeting planners still must pay attention to the terms of their contracts. While electronic signatures and records are allowed, their use still depends on other factors. For example, if a hotel contract requires that a written termination notice be delivered in person or by certified mail, then sending the notice by e-mail will not suffice. Further, it does not change existing requirements for board meetings and other matters of corporate governance. Where a vote of the board of directors is required, for example, such a vote can be taken electronically only if provided for under state law or the organization's bylaws.
The new law also will give even more validity and meaning to the process of registering for meetings electronically. Even very legalistic issues such as signing waivers for special events can be handled exclusively in electronic form.
Is That Really You? Before entering into e-contracts, meeting planners should determine how they will verify and authenticate electronic signatures so that they are legally binding. Besides requiring a logical connection between an e-signature and a signed document, the new law's definition of an electronic signature - a "sound, symbol, or process, attached to or logically associated with a contract or other record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the record" - provides no guidelines on how to verify and authenticate signatures. Congress intentionally left that to the market to resolve. It is likely, however, that an electronic signature will need to be accompanied by some additional information to verify the identity of the signer (for example, the signer's name, address, phone number) in order to be legally binding.
Finally, electronic contracts and other legal documents should be treated with the same degree of care as their paper counterparts. Like paper records, electronic documents must be retained in a form that can be accurately reproduced, and there should be a means to track changes made to electronic documents to ensure their integrity.
While some sorting out of issues is still needed to fully implement a world of electronic signatures and records, this new law is a first step. Now it's up to the experts to address the real-world issues. Meeting planners are particularly well-positioned to start taking immediate advantage of the e-opportunities that exist.


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Associated Press - Buffett says government is doing the right things
… "Overall, I commend the actions that were taken," Buffett said. But he said no one should expect perfection because the economy experienced a "financial hurricane."
But Buffett said he can't predict how quickly the economy and the markets will improve. He said last fall that the U.S. was facing an "economic Pearl Harbor."… [5/2/09]
Florida Today - Seniors, veterans get $250
Senior citizens and veterans will be getting an extra $250 this month from the federal government.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 provides the one-time payment to adult Social Security beneficiaries. Nationally, 55 million people are eligible for the payments. In Brevard County, 128,523 people are eligible, according to Social Security officials… [5/4/09]
Rockford Register Star (Illinois) - Road crews to tackle $300M in projects
Slow down this summer; some people are getting back to work.
It'll be one of the busiest road construction seasons in recent memory, with crews working on more than $300 million in projects. Those range from giant multiyear projects on the Illinois Tollway and some key state roads to quick-fix resurfacing projects.
"It's going to seem like we're working everywhere," said John Wegmeyer, Illinois Department of Transportation project implementation engineer… [5/4/09]
Arkansas Democrat Gazette - Military embraces 'green' energy
…The desert base, which houses the Army's premier training center for troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, has become a testing ground and showcase for 'green' initiatives that officials estimate could save the services millions, trim their heavy environmental 'boot-print' and even save lives in the war zones, where fuel convoys are frequent targets…
And there is financial impetus to act: President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package includes $120 million to improve the energy efficiency of defense installations and $300 million for military research into alternative power… [5/4/09]
Erie Times-News (Pennsylvania) - Expanded tax credit expected to help with college
Finals week. College students will tell you how tough it is.
But students and their parents will tell you how tough the rest of the year is, too, as they struggle to pay for books, tuition and other expenses.
But an expanded college credit, one piece of the $787 billion federal economic-stimulus package, will make it a little easier for low- and moderate-income families to pay the bills… [5/4/09]
Associated Press (Utah) - Utah police plan for stimulus funds from feds
Police agencies across Utah have big plans for their small share of some $2 billion in funds from the federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act…
The Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice will get the largest allocation - $9.96 million. Program manager Richard Ziebarth says $4.45 million will go to state agencies to save some 45 jobs cut when state lawmakers trimmed the budget…
Funding to local agencies includes $678,627 to the Salt Lake County sheriff's office and $487,834 to Ogden police. [5/3/09]
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (New York) - Stimulus spending creates jobs for older workers
Older Americans looking for work, take note: Experience Works.
The federal senior citizen job training and placement program has received a funding boost. It means the Niagara County office is able to help more seniors acquire the skills they need to land part- or full-time work in a variety of settings… [5/4/09]
Reuters - U.S. home sales suggest housing bottom near
Pending sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose in March for a second straight month, while construction spending edged higher, according to reports on Monday that suggested a moderation in the housing slump…
NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun attributed the rise in signed contracts for home purchases to first-time buyers taking advantage of the combination of low prices and mortgage rates, as well as an $8,000 tax credit, which made housing more affordable… [5/4/09]
- Radio Iowa - Summer road construction season helped by stimulus dollars
- Pantagraph (Illinois) -Numerous road projects locally, across state to begin
- Clarion Ledger (Mississippi) - Hinds turns to feds for sheriff's funds
- Las Vegas Sun (Nevada) - State getting $26.4 million for land projects
- Inside NoVA (Virginia) - Stimulus money to aid Prince William law enforcement
- Stockton Record (California) - Federal funds for SJ water program
- Daily Sentinel (Ohio) - Stimulus funds to benefit locks, dams
- Albany Times Union (New York) - Stimulus starts by paving the way to work
- South Hill Enterprise (Virginia) - $7 million in stimulus funds comes to Kerr
- Capital News 9 (New York) - Stimulus-funded projects begin around the state


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U.S. political rhetoric has often pushed bad taste, not insurrection
Unhappily displaying an inclination to not let any tragedy pass without attaching a political agenda, some people on the left have lunged at the Tucson shooting at startling speed, with little…
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