Read more at PCWorld Business Center
"...The Social Security Administration will close five field offices by the end of September, according to the union representing agency employees. Those five, among almost 1,300 nationwide, are in Biloxi, Miss., Ketchikan, Alaska; Louisville, Ky.; Washington, D.C.; and Clinton, Iowa, the American Federation of Government Employees said in a news release. The agency has already closed eight field offices since January...."
Read more at Federal Times
"...People retiring today are part of the first generation of workers who have paid more in Social Security taxes during their careers than they will receive in benefits after they retire. It's a historic shift that will only get worse for future retirees, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Previous generations got a much better bargain, mainly because payroll taxes were very low when Social Security was enacted in the 1930s and remained so for decades...."
Read more at The Washington Post
"...thousands of retirees are learning that defaulting on student-debt can threaten something that used to be untouchable: their Social Security benefits...
According to government data, compiled by the Treasury Department at the request of SmartMoney.com, the federal government is withholding money from a rapidly growing number of Social Security recipients who have fallen behind on federal student loans. From January through August 6, the government reduced the size of roughly 115,000 retirees' Social Security checks on those grounds..."
Read more at SmartMoney.com
"...It didn’t take long for the Internet to start buzzing with conspiracy theories after the Social Security Administration posted a notice that it was purchasing 174,000 hollow-point bullets.
Why is the agency that provides benefits to retirees, disabled workers, widows and children stockpiling ammunition? Whom are they going to use it on?..."
Read more at The Washington Post
"...when it's time to claim, you can't depend on the Social Security Administration to be your personal adviser.
In an effort to save time and cut costs, Social Security employees generally don't give case-specific advice. So that means you are on your own to make the most important financial decision of a lifetime. You have to read the rules and do the research yourself...
Read on to brush up on Social Security benefits that are not commonly known..."
Read more at Fox Business
"...Up until last year, Social Security would send taxpayers an annual personalized statement showing a complete record of their taxable earnings as well as estimated retirement, disability and survivor benefits based on those earnings. Unfortunately, budget constraints brought on by the recession put an end to those yearly mailings.
But there's good news: Social Security has resumed mailing paper statements to workers 60 and older who aren't already receiving benefits. And, they recently launched a new Social Security Statement tool that allows you to access the same information online.
Once you've created a Social Security Account, you can log in anytime and:..."
Read more at huffingtonpost.com
"...Social Security is so overwhelmed by disability claims that some officials are awarding benefits without adequately reviewing applications, potentially adding to the program’s financial problems as it edges closer to the brink of insolvency, congressional investigators say in a new report.
In more than a quarter of the 300 cases reviewed by congressional staff, decisions to award benefits “failed to properly address insufficient, contradictory or incomplete evidence.”..."
Read more at The Washington Post
"...With one month left in the cost-of-living countdown, federal and military retirees and people who get Social Security payments are due an inflation-catchup raise of 1.38 percent in January...
federal-military-Social Security retirees get a raise each January if the cost of living (as measured by one of the Consumer Price Index components) for the months of July, August and September, rises above the level of that CPI for the previous year's third quarter."
Read more at FederalNewsRadio.com
"...Financial planners advise against planning to live solely off Social Security during retirement—but here’s the reality: that’s often the only source of income many people have for their golden years.
Chances are Social Security won’t cover the majority of the 80% of the pre-retirement income that serves as a general guideline to maintain your current lifestyle in retirement. Still, there are ways to live more comfortably on Social Security alone—it just takes planning and budgeting..."
Read more at Fox Business
Introducing the "Jewel of Pangaea," a cocktail sold in Singapore for $26,000. That is roughly the per-capita GDP of Greece in a glass.
The Jewel of Pangaea is not slid across a counter by some sweaty barkeep. It is prepared by a man in white gloves who retrieves fancy bottles out of a steel suitcase. As you'll see in the video below, the drink is defended at all times by five intimidating bodyguards.
"The jewel of Pangea is not just a drink," says Sabrina Van Cleef Ault, owner of Pangaea, the exclusive club that serves the Jewel of Pangaea. "It's the spirit of Pangea in a glass. Are you ready?"
This is a rhetorical question. You're not ready.
The not-just-a-drink's ingredients are Hennessy, champagne and edible gold flecks "garnished with a one-karat Mouawad triple-X flawless diamond."
The history of the 20th century is full of examples of countries that set out to redistribute wealth and ended up redistributing poverty. The communist nations were a classic example, but by no means the only example.
In theory, confiscating the wealth of the more successful people ought to make the rest of the society more prosperous. But when the Soviet Union confiscated the wealth of successful farmers, food became scarce. As many people died of starvation under Stalin in the 1930s as died in Hitler's Holocaust in the 1940s.
How can that be? It is not complicated. You can only confiscate the wealth that exists at a given moment. You cannot confiscate future wealth -- and that future wealth is less likely to be produced when people see that it is going to be confiscated. Farmers in the Soviet Union cut back on how much time and effort they invested in growing their crops, when they realized that the government was going to take a big part of the harvest. They slaughtered and ate young farm animals that they would normally keep tending and feeding while raising them to maturity.
We have all heard the old saying that giving a man a fish feeds him only for a day, while teaching him to fish feeds him for a lifetime. Redistributionists give him a fish and leave him dependent on the government for more fish in the future.
If the redistributionists were serious, what they would want to distribute is the ability to fish, or to be productive in other ways. Knowledge is one of the few things that can be distributed to people without reducing the amount held by others. That would better serve the interests of the poor, but it would not serve the interests of politicians who want to exercise power, and to get the votes of people who are dependent on them.
Today's "National Home Sales Snapshot" from DQ News is displayed above, which has been updated with U.S. home sales during the last 30 days in 98 of the top 100 MSAs (excludes Louisville and Wichita), and covers about two-thirds of all U.S. home sales. Compared to the same period last year, home sales over the last 30 days have increased by 9.8%, following previous increases in September of 11.3% (last week) and 10.3% (first week of the month). 
This isn't the woman's first legal battle with Jackson, either. Nor is it the first one she's likely to lose, or the first she probably concocted after a few too many drinks.
Helen Harris-Scott filed a lawsuit against Michael in 2006, claiming Jackson installed a tracking device in her car, wiretapped her phone and even had "organized criminals watching me inside my house in L.A. and reporting to him."
"9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out" is getting public attention and casting doubt on the scientific validity of the U.S. government's investigation into the WTC tragedy. PBS is the first major network to air the program. Just days away from the 11th anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy and months away from the U.S. presidential election, a game-changing 9/11 documentary is ranking number three among "most watched" documentaries on PBS and number one among "most shared." Available for free online August 18th - September 4th, the documentary could have a significant effect on public opinion. Both the Republicans and Democrats, as equally staunch defenders of the official story, stand to be affected if the public's suspicion of government corruption grows deeper.In fact, it was broadcast on just one PBS station, the nutbar Colorado one that has previously aired Loose Change, Press for Troof and other paranoid conspiracy films.
“Meanwhile—and this is where it really gets interesting—on four separate occasions in 2002 I recorded my mother saying she thought my research was ‘interesting’ and ‘worth thinking about,’” continued the man, who confirmed he has watched the film series Loose Change seven or eight times in the past week. “How was it, then, that by November of the following year she was calling it ‘crazy’ and ‘sad,’ a complete reversal of her original stance?”
Eleven years after its birth as a strange stepchild of the response to the attacks on 9/11, the 9/11 Truth movement remains firmly confined to the political fringe. But the truthers retain the ability to rile people up, and on Tuesday a half dozen of them took their case to the Lower Manhattan neighborhood in the shadow of the rising Freedom Tower.
There, the truthers absorbed the abuse of passersby. “You want to be on Hitler’s side, go on Hitler’s side!” one man, Ronald Lefranc, yelled at them. “We are not here for you to fuckin’ open your mouth and protest!” shouted a woman who wore red, white and blue and carried an Army camouflage bag.
The truthers in Zucotti Park,the site of the original Occupy Wall Street encampment, were unfazed. They are as certain as ever that the attacks of September 11 were an inside job, despite a total absence of credible evidence for a massive and complex conspiracy involving hundreds of players in the American government, the private sector, and Al Qaeda alike. They’re also by and large convinced that their movement is growing and strong, despite the fact that it’s become a closed loop of groups and characters who have been going over the same theories, producing similar documentaries, and visiting the same websites for years.
The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible.
The history of the 20th century is full of examples of countries that set out to redistribute wealth and ended up redistributing poverty. The communist nations were a classic example, but by no means the only example.
In theory, confiscating the wealth of the more successful people ought to make the rest of the society more prosperous. But when the Soviet Union confiscated the wealth of successful farmers, food became scarce. As many people died of starvation under Stalin in the 1930s as died in Hitler's Holocaust in the 1940s.
How can that be? It is not complicated. You can only confiscate the wealth that exists at a given moment. You cannot confiscate future wealth -- and that future wealth is less likely to be produced when people see that it is going to be confiscated. Farmers in the Soviet Union cut back on how much time and effort they invested in growing their crops, when they realized that the government was going to take a big part of the harvest. They slaughtered and ate young farm animals that they would normally keep tending and feeding while raising them to maturity.
We have all heard the old saying that giving a man a fish feeds him only for a day, while teaching him to fish feeds him for a lifetime. Redistributionists give him a fish and leave him dependent on the government for more fish in the future.
If the redistributionists were serious, what they would want to distribute is the ability to fish, or to be productive in other ways. Knowledge is one of the few things that can be distributed to people without reducing the amount held by others. That would better serve the interests of the poor, but it would not serve the interests of politicians who want to exercise power, and to get the votes of people who are dependent on them.
Today's "National Home Sales Snapshot" from DQ News is displayed above, which has been updated with U.S. home sales during the last 30 days in 98 of the top 100 MSAs (excludes Louisville and Wichita), and covers about two-thirds of all U.S. home sales. Compared to the same period last year, home sales over the last 30 days have increased by 9.8%, following previous increases in September of 11.3% (last week) and 10.3% (first week of the month).
Statehood: 14 December 1819 (22nd State)
"...thousands of retirees are learning that defaulting on student-debt can threaten something that used to be untouchable: their Social Security benefits...
According to government data, compiled by the Treasury Department at the request of SmartMoney.com, the federal government is withholding money from a rapidly growing number of Social Security recipients who have fallen behind on federal student loans. From January through August 6, the government reduced the size of roughly 115,000 retirees' Social Security checks on those grounds..."
Read more at SmartMoney.com
"...when it's time to claim, you can't depend on the Social Security Administration to be your personal adviser.
In an effort to save time and cut costs, Social Security employees generally don't give case-specific advice. So that means you are on your own to make the most important financial decision of a lifetime. You have to read the rules and do the research yourself...
Read on to brush up on Social Security benefits that are not commonly known..."
Read more at Fox Business
"...Up until last year, Social Security would send taxpayers an annual personalized statement showing a complete record of their taxable earnings as well as estimated retirement, disability and survivor benefits based on those earnings. Unfortunately, budget constraints brought on by the recession put an end to those yearly mailings.
But there's good news: Social Security has resumed mailing paper statements to workers 60 and older who aren't already receiving benefits. And, they recently launched a new Social Security Statement tool that allows you to access the same information online.
Once you've created a Social Security Account, you can log in anytime and:..."
Read more at huffingtonpost.com
"...Social Security is so overwhelmed by disability claims that some officials are awarding benefits without adequately reviewing applications, potentially adding to the program’s financial problems as it edges closer to the brink of insolvency, congressional investigators say in a new report.
In more than a quarter of the 300 cases reviewed by congressional staff, decisions to award benefits “failed to properly address insufficient, contradictory or incomplete evidence.”..."
Read more at The Washington Post
"...With one month left in the cost-of-living countdown, federal and military retirees and people who get Social Security payments are due an inflation-catchup raise of 1.38 percent in January...
federal-military-Social Security retirees get a raise each January if the cost of living (as measured by one of the Consumer Price Index components) for the months of July, August and September, rises above the level of that CPI for the previous year's third quarter."
Read more at FederalNewsRadio.com
This isn't the woman's first legal battle with Jackson, either. Nor is it the first one she's likely to lose, or the first she probably concocted after a few too many drinks.
Helen Harris-Scott filed a lawsuit against Michael in 2006, claiming Jackson installed a tracking device in her car, wiretapped her phone and even had "organized criminals watching me inside my house in L.A. and reporting to him."
"9/11: Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out" is getting public attention and casting doubt on the scientific validity of the U.S. government's investigation into the WTC tragedy. PBS is the first major network to air the program. Just days away from the 11th anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy and months away from the U.S. presidential election, a game-changing 9/11 documentary is ranking number three among "most watched" documentaries on PBS and number one among "most shared." Available for free online August 18th - September 4th, the documentary could have a significant effect on public opinion. Both the Republicans and Democrats, as equally staunch defenders of the official story, stand to be affected if the public's suspicion of government corruption grows deeper.In fact, it was broadcast on just one PBS station, the nutbar Colorado one that has previously aired Loose Change, Press for Troof and other paranoid conspiracy films.
“Meanwhile—and this is where it really gets interesting—on four separate occasions in 2002 I recorded my mother saying she thought my research was ‘interesting’ and ‘worth thinking about,’” continued the man, who confirmed he has watched the film series Loose Change seven or eight times in the past week. “How was it, then, that by November of the following year she was calling it ‘crazy’ and ‘sad,’ a complete reversal of her original stance?”
Eleven years after its birth as a strange stepchild of the response to the attacks on 9/11, the 9/11 Truth movement remains firmly confined to the political fringe. But the truthers retain the ability to rile people up, and on Tuesday a half dozen of them took their case to the Lower Manhattan neighborhood in the shadow of the rising Freedom Tower.
There, the truthers absorbed the abuse of passersby. “You want to be on Hitler’s side, go on Hitler’s side!” one man, Ronald Lefranc, yelled at them. “We are not here for you to fuckin’ open your mouth and protest!” shouted a woman who wore red, white and blue and carried an Army camouflage bag.
The truthers in Zucotti Park,the site of the original Occupy Wall Street encampment, were unfazed. They are as certain as ever that the attacks of September 11 were an inside job, despite a total absence of credible evidence for a massive and complex conspiracy involving hundreds of players in the American government, the private sector, and Al Qaeda alike. They’re also by and large convinced that their movement is growing and strong, despite the fact that it’s become a closed loop of groups and characters who have been going over the same theories, producing similar documentaries, and visiting the same websites for years.
The direct warnings to Mr. Bush about the possibility of a Qaeda attack began in the spring of 2001. By May 1, the Central Intelligence Agency told the White House of a report that “a group presently in the United States” was planning a terrorist operation. Weeks later, on June 22, the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible.
When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism … The history of the present King of Great Britain [and others working with and for him] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.The American concept of “separation of powers” is also based on the conspiracy theory that those with unchecked power will abuse it. By creating 3 branches of government, the Founding Fathers hoped to reduce abuse of power. . .
***He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
***
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
***
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
***
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
***
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
***For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: . . .
