By JAMES PRICHARD, Associated Press Writer James Prichard, Associated Press Writer – Tue Sep 29, 7:23 pm ET
IRVING TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood's children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school.
Regulators who oversee child care, however, don't see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she'd be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers.
"I was freaked out. I was blown away," she said. "I got on the phone immediately, called my husband, then I called all the girls" — that is, the mothers whose kids she watches — "every one of them."
Snyder's predicament has led to a debate in Michigan about whether a law that says no one may care for unrelated children in their home for more than four weeks each calendar year unless they are licensed day-care providers needs to be changed. It also has irked parents who say they depend on such friendly offers to help them balance work and family.
On Tuesday, agency Director Ismael Ahmed said good neighbors should be allowed to help each other ensure their children are safe. Gov. Jennifer Granholm instructed Ahmed to work with the state Legislature to change the law, he said.
"Being a good neighbor means helping your neighbors who are in need," Ahmed said in a written statement. "This could be as simple as providing a cup of sugar, monitoring their house while they're on vacation or making sure their children are safe while they wait for the school bus."
Snyder learned that the agency was responding to a neighbor's complaint.
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said the agency was following standard procedure in its response. "But we feel this (law) really gets in the way of common sense," Boyd said.
"We want to protect kids, but the law needs to be reasonable," she said. "When the governor learned of this, she acted quickly and called the director personally to ask him to intervene."
State Rep. Brian Calley, R-Portland, said he was working to draft legislation that would exempt situations like Snyder's from coverage under Michigan's current day care regulations.
The bill will make it clear that people who aren't in business as day care providers don't need to be licensed, Calley said.
"These are just kids that wait for the bus every morning," he said. "This is not a day care."
Snyder, 35, lives in a rural subdivision in Barry County's Irving Township about 25 miles southeast of Grand Rapids. Her tidy, comfortable three-bedroom home is a designated school bus stop. The three neighbor children she watched — plus Snyder's first-grader, Grace — attend school about six miles away in Middleville.
Snyder said she started watching the other children this school year to help her friends; they often baby-sit for each other during evenings and weekends.
After receiving the state agency's letter, she said she called the agency and tried to explain that she wasn't running a day care center or accepting money from her friends.
Under state law, no one may care for unrelated children in their home for more than four weeks each calendar year unless they are licensed day-care providers. Snyder said she stopped watching the other children immediately after receiving the letter, which was well within the four-week period.
"I've lived in this community for 35 years and everyone I know has done some form of this," said Francie Brummel, 42, who would drop off her second-grade son, Colson, before heading to her job as deputy treasurer of the nearby city of Hastings.
Other moms say they regularly deal with similar situations.
Amy Cowan, 34, of Grosse Pointe Farms, a Detroit suburb, said she often takes turns with her sister, neighbor and friend watching each other's children.
"The worst part of this whole thing, with the state of the economy ... two parents have to work," said Cowan, a corporate sales representative with a 5-year-old son and 11-month-old daughter. "When you throw in the fact that the state is getting involved, it gives women a hard time for going back to work.
"I applaud the lady who takes in her neighbors' kids while they're waiting for the bus. She's enabling her peers to go to work and get a paycheck. The state should be thankful for that."
Amy Maciaszek, 42, of McHenry, Ill., who works in direct sales, said she believes the state agency was "trying to be overprotective."
"I think it does take a village and that's the best way," said Maciaszek, who has a 6-year-old boy and twin 3-year-old daughters. "Unfortunately you do have to be careful about that. These mothers are trying to do the right thing."
___
Associated Press writers Randi Goldberg Berris and David Runk in Detroit and Kathy Barks Hoffman in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Toyota Recall
Toyota to recall 3.8M vehicles over floor mats that could cause accelerator to get stuck
By Ken Thomas, Associated Press Writer
On Tuesday September 29, 2009, 7:42 pm EDT
Buzz up! 5
Print
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it will recall 3.8 million vehicles in the United States, the company's largest-ever U.S. recall, to address problems with a removable floor mat that could cause accelerators to get stuck and lead to a crash. The recall will involve popular models such as the Toyota Camry, the top-selling passenger car in America, and the Toyota Prius, the best-selling gas-electric hybrid.
AP - FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2009 file photo, the company logo shines off the nose of an ...
Toyota said it was still working with officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to find a remedy to fix the problem and said owners could be notified about the recall as early as next week. Toyota spokesman Irv Miller said until the company finds a fix, owners should take out the removable floor mat on the driver's side and not replace it.
"A stuck open accelerator pedal may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop a vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death," Miller said.
NHTSA said it had received reports of 102 incidents in which the accelerator may have become stuck on the Toyota vehicles involved. It was unclear how many led to crashes but the inquiry was prompted by a highspeed crash in August in California of a Lexus barreling out of control. As the vehicle hit speeds exceeding 120 mph, family members made a frantic 911 call and said the accelerator was stuck and they couldn't stop the vehicle.
"This is an urgent matter," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "For everyone's sake, we strongly urge owners of these vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended acceleration."
The recall will affect 2007-2010 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon, 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra, 2007-2010 Lexus ES350 and 2006-2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350.
Toyota's previously largest U.S. recall was about 900,000 vehicles in 2005 to fix a steering issue. The company declined to say how many complaints it had received about the accelerator issue.
The Japanese automaker warned owners that if they think their vehicle is accelerating out of control, they should check to see whether their floor mat is under the pedal. If a driver can't remove the floor mat, Toyota advises drivers to step on the brake pedal with both feet until the vehicle slows and then try to put it into neutral and switch the ignition to accessory power.
For vehicles with engine start/stop buttons, Toyota said the engine can be shut off by holding the button down for three seconds.
In the August incident near San Diego, the fiery crash of a 2009 Lexus ES 350 killed California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, 45, and three others on State Route 125 in Santee. The runaway car was traveling at more than 120 mph when it hit a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames. One of the family members called police about a minute before the crash to report the vehicle had no brakes and the accelerator was stuck. The call ended with someone telling people in the car to hold on and pray, followed by a woman's scream.
NHTSA investigators determined that a rubber all-weather floor mat found in the wreckage was slightly longer than the mat that belonged in the vehicle, something that could have snared or covered the accelerator pedal.
Toyota spokesman John Hanson said the final report had not yet been submitted in the California case.
"We don't know what the actual cause was of that accident other than preliminary reports that have been published so it's impossible for us to comment on that particular incident," Hanson said.
In mid-September, Toyota ordered 1,400 Toyota and Lexus dealers nationwide to ensure that each new, used and loaner vehicles had the proper floor mats and that the mats were properly secured.
In September 2007, Toyota recalled an accessory all-weather floor mat sold for use in some 2007 and 2008 model year Lexus ES 350 and Toyota Camry vehicles because of similar problems.
For more information, consumers can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's hotline at (888) 327-4236, Toyota at (800) 331-4331 or Lexus at (800) 255-3987.
By Ken Thomas, Associated Press Writer
On Tuesday September 29, 2009, 7:42 pm EDT
Buzz up! 5
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday it will recall 3.8 million vehicles in the United States, the company's largest-ever U.S. recall, to address problems with a removable floor mat that could cause accelerators to get stuck and lead to a crash. The recall will involve popular models such as the Toyota Camry, the top-selling passenger car in America, and the Toyota Prius, the best-selling gas-electric hybrid.
AP - FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2009 file photo, the company logo shines off the nose of an ...
Toyota said it was still working with officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to find a remedy to fix the problem and said owners could be notified about the recall as early as next week. Toyota spokesman Irv Miller said until the company finds a fix, owners should take out the removable floor mat on the driver's side and not replace it.
"A stuck open accelerator pedal may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop a vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death," Miller said.
NHTSA said it had received reports of 102 incidents in which the accelerator may have become stuck on the Toyota vehicles involved. It was unclear how many led to crashes but the inquiry was prompted by a highspeed crash in August in California of a Lexus barreling out of control. As the vehicle hit speeds exceeding 120 mph, family members made a frantic 911 call and said the accelerator was stuck and they couldn't stop the vehicle.
"This is an urgent matter," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "For everyone's sake, we strongly urge owners of these vehicles to remove mats or other obstacles that could lead to unintended acceleration."
The recall will affect 2007-2010 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon, 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra, 2007-2010 Lexus ES350 and 2006-2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350.
Toyota's previously largest U.S. recall was about 900,000 vehicles in 2005 to fix a steering issue. The company declined to say how many complaints it had received about the accelerator issue.
The Japanese automaker warned owners that if they think their vehicle is accelerating out of control, they should check to see whether their floor mat is under the pedal. If a driver can't remove the floor mat, Toyota advises drivers to step on the brake pedal with both feet until the vehicle slows and then try to put it into neutral and switch the ignition to accessory power.
For vehicles with engine start/stop buttons, Toyota said the engine can be shut off by holding the button down for three seconds.
In the August incident near San Diego, the fiery crash of a 2009 Lexus ES 350 killed California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, 45, and three others on State Route 125 in Santee. The runaway car was traveling at more than 120 mph when it hit a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames. One of the family members called police about a minute before the crash to report the vehicle had no brakes and the accelerator was stuck. The call ended with someone telling people in the car to hold on and pray, followed by a woman's scream.
NHTSA investigators determined that a rubber all-weather floor mat found in the wreckage was slightly longer than the mat that belonged in the vehicle, something that could have snared or covered the accelerator pedal.
Toyota spokesman John Hanson said the final report had not yet been submitted in the California case.
"We don't know what the actual cause was of that accident other than preliminary reports that have been published so it's impossible for us to comment on that particular incident," Hanson said.
In mid-September, Toyota ordered 1,400 Toyota and Lexus dealers nationwide to ensure that each new, used and loaner vehicles had the proper floor mats and that the mats were properly secured.
In September 2007, Toyota recalled an accessory all-weather floor mat sold for use in some 2007 and 2008 model year Lexus ES 350 and Toyota Camry vehicles because of similar problems.
For more information, consumers can contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's hotline at (888) 327-4236, Toyota at (800) 331-4331 or Lexus at (800) 255-3987.
Disney Celebrates Volunteers
NEW YORK – Disney is offering a free day's admission to 1 million guests who complete a day of volunteer work next year.
The "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program will provide certified volunteers with a one-day ticket to any park at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., or Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., in 2010.
Disney is partnering with HandsOn Network, a clearinghouse for volunteer opportunities, to connect people with projects and to certify that the work was done.
"We are trying to inspire 1 million people to volunteer in their communities and we're inspiring them to do that by giving them a free day at a Disney park," Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.
Rasulo called the promotion "very timely," citing the increased needs of nonprofits in the weak economy, as well as President Obama's national volunteering initiative.
"The spirit of our country is very much behind that, whether it's the first family or whether it's the average family," Rasulo said.
Duncan Dickson, who teaches theme park management at the University of Central Florida's Rosen School of Hospitality Management in Orlando, said the volunteer initiative is "a smart marketing move."
Dickson said Disney will get good buzz for encouraging volunteerism plus free publicity from the nonprofits that benefit. And even when theme parks let people in for free, they make their money back in other ways, Dickson said.
"You make a lot of money in popcorn and T-shirts and other things," Dickson said.
Some guests who come in for free would have bought tickets anyway, but the free offer will also bring in visitors who wouldn't otherwise have made the trip, and they'll bring paying guests with them, Dickson added. "Anything that pushes the turnstiles is good for business," Dickson said.
HandsOn Network has 70,000 affiliated agencies, from Habitat for Humanity to local food banks, churches, health care centers, and educational programs. Once their service is verified by HandsOn, volunteers print out an online certificate that can be redeemed at a Disney park.
The free admission offer is part of a larger trend in the tourism industry, using everything from free hotel nights to two-for-one discounts to attract visitors in the weak economy. Disneyland this year offered two free nights with the purchase of three nights at a Disney resort, and all the U.S. Disney parks have allowed guests in free on their birthdays this year.
Rasulo said that 3.5 million people registered for the birthday promotion and about 30 percent of them have taken advantage of it so far.
Disney kicked the volunteer promotion off Tuesday by sending 1,000 volunteers, including employees from Disney and Southwest Airlines, to work on projects around the country, from a Habitat for Humanity site in Los Angeles to the Bethune School of Excellence in Chicago.
Would-be volunteers must register online with Disney and must be residents of the U.S., Canada or Puerto Rico to be eligible for the free admission. The work must be performed in 2010, and the park visit must take place by Dec. 15, 2010. Participants must be 18 or older to sign up for the program, but volunteer work done by children ages 6-17 qualifies for a free ticket as long as kids are accompanied by an adult when volunteering. Unused admission certificates can be donated to a charity designated by Disney.
Examples of volunteer opportunities currently listed on HandsOn's Web site range from drivers and bingo callers to a book drive organizer at a senior center in Scranton, Pa., to a docent at the Oregon Maritime Museum in Portland.
Volunteers who have multiday tickets or annual passes can get a special FASTPASS for up to six people in lieu of the voucher.
Financial analysts who follow Disney said there was no downside to the promotion. "It's a nice thing, it's a very socially responsible thing," said Michael Nathanson of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.
"I don't look at this as a tremendous cost for Disney," said Alan Gould of Natixis Bleichroeder Inc. in New York. "It could stimulate some incremental demand as well. It certainly is good publicity and economically it could make sense."
The "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" program will provide certified volunteers with a one-day ticket to any park at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., or Walt Disney World near Orlando, Fla., in 2010.
Disney is partnering with HandsOn Network, a clearinghouse for volunteer opportunities, to connect people with projects and to certify that the work was done.
"We are trying to inspire 1 million people to volunteer in their communities and we're inspiring them to do that by giving them a free day at a Disney park," Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.
Rasulo called the promotion "very timely," citing the increased needs of nonprofits in the weak economy, as well as President Obama's national volunteering initiative.
"The spirit of our country is very much behind that, whether it's the first family or whether it's the average family," Rasulo said.
Duncan Dickson, who teaches theme park management at the University of Central Florida's Rosen School of Hospitality Management in Orlando, said the volunteer initiative is "a smart marketing move."
Dickson said Disney will get good buzz for encouraging volunteerism plus free publicity from the nonprofits that benefit. And even when theme parks let people in for free, they make their money back in other ways, Dickson said.
"You make a lot of money in popcorn and T-shirts and other things," Dickson said.
Some guests who come in for free would have bought tickets anyway, but the free offer will also bring in visitors who wouldn't otherwise have made the trip, and they'll bring paying guests with them, Dickson added. "Anything that pushes the turnstiles is good for business," Dickson said.
HandsOn Network has 70,000 affiliated agencies, from Habitat for Humanity to local food banks, churches, health care centers, and educational programs. Once their service is verified by HandsOn, volunteers print out an online certificate that can be redeemed at a Disney park.
The free admission offer is part of a larger trend in the tourism industry, using everything from free hotel nights to two-for-one discounts to attract visitors in the weak economy. Disneyland this year offered two free nights with the purchase of three nights at a Disney resort, and all the U.S. Disney parks have allowed guests in free on their birthdays this year.
Rasulo said that 3.5 million people registered for the birthday promotion and about 30 percent of them have taken advantage of it so far.
Disney kicked the volunteer promotion off Tuesday by sending 1,000 volunteers, including employees from Disney and Southwest Airlines, to work on projects around the country, from a Habitat for Humanity site in Los Angeles to the Bethune School of Excellence in Chicago.
Would-be volunteers must register online with Disney and must be residents of the U.S., Canada or Puerto Rico to be eligible for the free admission. The work must be performed in 2010, and the park visit must take place by Dec. 15, 2010. Participants must be 18 or older to sign up for the program, but volunteer work done by children ages 6-17 qualifies for a free ticket as long as kids are accompanied by an adult when volunteering. Unused admission certificates can be donated to a charity designated by Disney.
Examples of volunteer opportunities currently listed on HandsOn's Web site range from drivers and bingo callers to a book drive organizer at a senior center in Scranton, Pa., to a docent at the Oregon Maritime Museum in Portland.
Volunteers who have multiday tickets or annual passes can get a special FASTPASS for up to six people in lieu of the voucher.
Financial analysts who follow Disney said there was no downside to the promotion. "It's a nice thing, it's a very socially responsible thing," said Michael Nathanson of Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.
"I don't look at this as a tremendous cost for Disney," said Alan Gould of Natixis Bleichroeder Inc. in New York. "It could stimulate some incremental demand as well. It certainly is good publicity and economically it could make sense."
Social Security Takes a Hit
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer – Mon Sep 28, 2:32 am ET
WASHINGTON – Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s.
The deficits — $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011 — won't affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated surpluses from previous years totaling $2.5 trillion. But they will add to the overall federal deficit.
Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large.
What happened? The recession hit and many older workers suddenly found themselves laid off with no place to turn but Social Security.
"A lot of people who in better times would have continued working are opting to retire," said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "If they were younger, we would call them unemployed."
Job losses are forcing more retirements even though an increasing number of older people want to keep working. Many can't afford to retire, especially after the financial collapse demolished their nest eggs.
Some have no choice.
Marylyn Kish turns 62 in December, making her eligible for early benefits. She wants to put off applying for Social Security until she is at least 67 because the longer you wait, the larger your monthly check.
But she first needs to find a job.
Kish lives in tiny Concord Township in Lake County, Ohio, northeast of Cleveland. The region, like many others, has been hit hard by the recession.
She was laid off about a year ago from her job as an office manager at an employment agency and now spends hours each morning scouring job sites on the Internet. Neither she nor her husband, Raymond, has health insurance.
"I want to work," she said. "I have a brain and I want to use it."
Kish is far from alone. The share of U.S. residents in their 60s either working or looking for work has climbed steadily since the mid-1990s, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This year, more than 55 percent of people age 60 to 64 are still in the labor force, compared with about 46 percent a decade ago.
Kish said her husband already gets early benefits. She will have to apply, too, if she doesn't soon find a job.
"We won't starve," she said. "But I want more than that. I want to be able to do more than just pay my bills."
Nearly 2.2 million people applied for Social Security retirement benefits from start of the budget year in October through July, compared with just under 1.8 million in the same period last year.
The increase in early retirements is hurting Social Security's short-term finances, already strained from the loss of 6.9 million U.S. jobs. Social Security is funded through payroll taxes, which are down because of so many lost jobs.
The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes next year and in 2011, a first since the early 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security.
Social Security is projected to start generating surpluses again in 2012 before permanently returning to deficits in 2016 unless Congress acts again to shore up the program. Without a new fix, the $2.5 trillion in Social Security's trust funds will be exhausted in 2037. Those funds have actually been spent over the years on other government programs. They are now represented by government bonds, or IOUs, that will have to be repaid as Social Security draws down its trust fund.
President Barack Obama has said he would like to tackle Social Security next year.
"The thing to keep in mind is that it's unlikely we are going to pull out (of the recession) with a strong recovery," said Kent Smetters, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "These deficits may last longer than a year or two."
About 43 million retirees and their dependents receive Social Security benefits. An additional 9.5 million receive disability benefits. The average monthly benefit for retirees is $1,100 while the average disability benefit is about $920.
The recession is also fueling applications for disability benefits, said Stephen C. Goss, the Social Security Administration's chief actuary. In a typical year, about 2.5 million people apply for disability benefits, including Supplemental Security Income. Applications are on pace to reach 3 million in the budget year that ends this month and even more are expected next year, Goss said.
A lot of people who had been working despite their disabilities are applying for benefits after losing their jobs. "When there's a bad recession and we lose 6 million jobs, people of all types are going to be part of that," Goss said.
Nancy Rhoades said she dreads applying for disability benefits because of her multiple sclerosis. Rhoades, who lives in Orange, Va., about 75 miles northwest of Richmond, said her illness is physically draining, but she takes pride in working and caring for herself.
In June, however, her hours were cut in half — to just 10 a week — at a community services organization. She lost her health benefits, though she is able to buy insurance through work, for about $530 a month.
"I've had to go into my retirement annuity for medical costs," she said.
Her husband, Wayne, turned 62 on Sunday, and has applied for early Social Security benefits. He still works part time.
Nancy Rhoades is just 56, so she won't be eligible for retirement benefits for six more years. She's pretty confident she would qualify for disability benefits, but would rather work.
"You don't think of things like this happening to you," she said. "You want to be in a position to work until retirement, and even after retirement."
WASHINGTON – Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s.
The deficits — $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011 — won't affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated surpluses from previous years totaling $2.5 trillion. But they will add to the overall federal deficit.
Applications for retirement benefits are 23 percent higher than last year, while disability claims have risen by about 20 percent. Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large.
What happened? The recession hit and many older workers suddenly found themselves laid off with no place to turn but Social Security.
"A lot of people who in better times would have continued working are opting to retire," said Alan J. Auerbach, an economics and law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "If they were younger, we would call them unemployed."
Job losses are forcing more retirements even though an increasing number of older people want to keep working. Many can't afford to retire, especially after the financial collapse demolished their nest eggs.
Some have no choice.
Marylyn Kish turns 62 in December, making her eligible for early benefits. She wants to put off applying for Social Security until she is at least 67 because the longer you wait, the larger your monthly check.
But she first needs to find a job.
Kish lives in tiny Concord Township in Lake County, Ohio, northeast of Cleveland. The region, like many others, has been hit hard by the recession.
She was laid off about a year ago from her job as an office manager at an employment agency and now spends hours each morning scouring job sites on the Internet. Neither she nor her husband, Raymond, has health insurance.
"I want to work," she said. "I have a brain and I want to use it."
Kish is far from alone. The share of U.S. residents in their 60s either working or looking for work has climbed steadily since the mid-1990s, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This year, more than 55 percent of people age 60 to 64 are still in the labor force, compared with about 46 percent a decade ago.
Kish said her husband already gets early benefits. She will have to apply, too, if she doesn't soon find a job.
"We won't starve," she said. "But I want more than that. I want to be able to do more than just pay my bills."
Nearly 2.2 million people applied for Social Security retirement benefits from start of the budget year in October through July, compared with just under 1.8 million in the same period last year.
The increase in early retirements is hurting Social Security's short-term finances, already strained from the loss of 6.9 million U.S. jobs. Social Security is funded through payroll taxes, which are down because of so many lost jobs.
The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that Social Security will pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes next year and in 2011, a first since the early 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security.
Social Security is projected to start generating surpluses again in 2012 before permanently returning to deficits in 2016 unless Congress acts again to shore up the program. Without a new fix, the $2.5 trillion in Social Security's trust funds will be exhausted in 2037. Those funds have actually been spent over the years on other government programs. They are now represented by government bonds, or IOUs, that will have to be repaid as Social Security draws down its trust fund.
President Barack Obama has said he would like to tackle Social Security next year.
"The thing to keep in mind is that it's unlikely we are going to pull out (of the recession) with a strong recovery," said Kent Smetters, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "These deficits may last longer than a year or two."
About 43 million retirees and their dependents receive Social Security benefits. An additional 9.5 million receive disability benefits. The average monthly benefit for retirees is $1,100 while the average disability benefit is about $920.
The recession is also fueling applications for disability benefits, said Stephen C. Goss, the Social Security Administration's chief actuary. In a typical year, about 2.5 million people apply for disability benefits, including Supplemental Security Income. Applications are on pace to reach 3 million in the budget year that ends this month and even more are expected next year, Goss said.
A lot of people who had been working despite their disabilities are applying for benefits after losing their jobs. "When there's a bad recession and we lose 6 million jobs, people of all types are going to be part of that," Goss said.
Nancy Rhoades said she dreads applying for disability benefits because of her multiple sclerosis. Rhoades, who lives in Orange, Va., about 75 miles northwest of Richmond, said her illness is physically draining, but she takes pride in working and caring for herself.
In June, however, her hours were cut in half — to just 10 a week — at a community services organization. She lost her health benefits, though she is able to buy insurance through work, for about $530 a month.
"I've had to go into my retirement annuity for medical costs," she said.
Her husband, Wayne, turned 62 on Sunday, and has applied for early Social Security benefits. He still works part time.
Nancy Rhoades is just 56, so she won't be eligible for retirement benefits for six more years. She's pretty confident she would qualify for disability benefits, but would rather work.
"You don't think of things like this happening to you," she said. "You want to be in a position to work until retirement, and even after retirement."
Pregnancy and the Flu Shot
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – Mon Sep 28, 7:32 pm ET
WASHINGTON – It's hard for pregnant women to escape the message: You're at extra risk from swine flu — it could trigger premature labor, hospitalize you for weeks, even kill you — so be among the first in line for vaccine next month. But only about one in seven pregnant women gets a flu shot each winter.
While federal health officials are working hard to raise that number this year, repeated swine flu warnings won't automatically overcome a key obstacle: Many obstetricians don't vaccinate. And not only are many women reluctant to go hunting for flu shots elsewhere, historically some pharmacists and other providers have been wary of vaccinating them.
"Maybe this year we can change that culture," says Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's not supposed to happen that you, when you are pregnant, are fighting for your life on a respirator."
Yet getting simple vaccine information took Charla Bason of Washington, D.C., repeated requests, as she was bounced between her obstetrician's office and her primary care doctor a few weeks ago.
"I feel like if I hadn't brought it up, they never would have mentioned it to me," says Bason, 30, who is seven months pregnant with her first child.
Bason decided to seek vaccination after watching a CDC Webcast about pregnant women and talking with a physician in the family. But she still has no clear answer about where to get one.
"It's been incredibly frustrating. There's a terrible disconnect between the message that was getting out and, once you decide you want it, how do you get it?" she says.
Any kind of flu is risky during pregnancy, and pregnant women have been on the get-a-flu-shot priority list for years. Their reluctance to take any medication during pregnancy is part of the reason for the low vaccination rates.
With swine flu, what doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain, pregnant women seem at particular risk for complications. Pregnant women make up 6 percent of H1N1-confirmed deaths even though they account for only 1 percent of the population, according to the CDC. They're at least four times as likely to be hospitalized as other flu sufferers.
Vaccine is a two-for-one deal during pregnancy: It can protect not just mom but the baby, too, for the first few months after birth. The mother's body makes flu-fighting antibodies that easily cross the placenta to be carried by the fetus, explains Dr. Neil Silverman of the University of California, Los Angeles. That's important because flu can easily kill newborns, yet babies can't be vaccinated until they're 6 months old.
Once women get that vaccine advice, where do they get the shot?
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has no count of how many OBs offer flu vaccine. It's still considered a minority although recent surveys suggest many more may be starting this year, especially in large cities.
An extra complication: Each state's health department ultimately will decide who gets to offer the H1N1 vaccine, aiming for locations that vaccinate the most people. Those decisions haven't been made public yet. Even if your OB requested swine flu shots, he or she may not get any, at least from initial shipments.
So the CDC and ACOG are urging obstetricians to partner with a nearby site — a hospital or drugstore, for example — to guarantee their patients a flu-shot source, a message the government will reiterate Tuesday in a swine flu training seminar for obstetricians nationwide.
Yet providers who don't routinely treat pregnant women may not understand flu's risk and the shot's safety record, says Silverman, who helps set ACOG practice guidelines.
Take pharmacists, expected to be key H1N1 vaccinators. Silverman gets occasional phone calls from women who say a pharmacist won't fill the flu-shot prescription he wrote.
"They act like the doctor who prescribed it didn't know what he or she was doing," says Silverman, who settles the standoff by getting the pharmacist on the phone. For every patient who calls, "I know there are at least two who just say, 'Well, OK, I'm not going to do this,' and just walk away."
The American Pharmacists Association is urging its members to follow the CDC's pregnancy guidelines but can't mandate that, and a few stores may still balk, says association chief of staff Mitchel Rothholz.
But some are embracing the potential customers. The large Walgreen's drugstore chain told states that if picked as an H1N1 shot site, it might put get-vaccinated-here signs next to the pregnancy tests, or print vaccine reminders for people who bought prenatal vitamins.
And Louisiana this month lifted its requirement that pharmacists vaccinate by prescription only, making it easier for everyone to get a drugstore flu shot.
Why don't more OBs vaccinate? Largely it's the expense and hassle, but it's not part of routine obstetrician training, says Dr. Stanley Gall of the University of Louisville, an OB and longtime vaccine provider. That's changing as more stock a different vaccine — against the virus that causes cervical cancer — and decide they might as well offer flu vaccine, too.
Because so few pregnant women even have another doctor, "the OB office should be a one-stop shop," he says.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.
WASHINGTON – It's hard for pregnant women to escape the message: You're at extra risk from swine flu — it could trigger premature labor, hospitalize you for weeks, even kill you — so be among the first in line for vaccine next month. But only about one in seven pregnant women gets a flu shot each winter.
While federal health officials are working hard to raise that number this year, repeated swine flu warnings won't automatically overcome a key obstacle: Many obstetricians don't vaccinate. And not only are many women reluctant to go hunting for flu shots elsewhere, historically some pharmacists and other providers have been wary of vaccinating them.
"Maybe this year we can change that culture," says Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's not supposed to happen that you, when you are pregnant, are fighting for your life on a respirator."
Yet getting simple vaccine information took Charla Bason of Washington, D.C., repeated requests, as she was bounced between her obstetrician's office and her primary care doctor a few weeks ago.
"I feel like if I hadn't brought it up, they never would have mentioned it to me," says Bason, 30, who is seven months pregnant with her first child.
Bason decided to seek vaccination after watching a CDC Webcast about pregnant women and talking with a physician in the family. But she still has no clear answer about where to get one.
"It's been incredibly frustrating. There's a terrible disconnect between the message that was getting out and, once you decide you want it, how do you get it?" she says.
Any kind of flu is risky during pregnancy, and pregnant women have been on the get-a-flu-shot priority list for years. Their reluctance to take any medication during pregnancy is part of the reason for the low vaccination rates.
With swine flu, what doctors call the 2009 H1N1 strain, pregnant women seem at particular risk for complications. Pregnant women make up 6 percent of H1N1-confirmed deaths even though they account for only 1 percent of the population, according to the CDC. They're at least four times as likely to be hospitalized as other flu sufferers.
Vaccine is a two-for-one deal during pregnancy: It can protect not just mom but the baby, too, for the first few months after birth. The mother's body makes flu-fighting antibodies that easily cross the placenta to be carried by the fetus, explains Dr. Neil Silverman of the University of California, Los Angeles. That's important because flu can easily kill newborns, yet babies can't be vaccinated until they're 6 months old.
Once women get that vaccine advice, where do they get the shot?
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has no count of how many OBs offer flu vaccine. It's still considered a minority although recent surveys suggest many more may be starting this year, especially in large cities.
An extra complication: Each state's health department ultimately will decide who gets to offer the H1N1 vaccine, aiming for locations that vaccinate the most people. Those decisions haven't been made public yet. Even if your OB requested swine flu shots, he or she may not get any, at least from initial shipments.
So the CDC and ACOG are urging obstetricians to partner with a nearby site — a hospital or drugstore, for example — to guarantee their patients a flu-shot source, a message the government will reiterate Tuesday in a swine flu training seminar for obstetricians nationwide.
Yet providers who don't routinely treat pregnant women may not understand flu's risk and the shot's safety record, says Silverman, who helps set ACOG practice guidelines.
Take pharmacists, expected to be key H1N1 vaccinators. Silverman gets occasional phone calls from women who say a pharmacist won't fill the flu-shot prescription he wrote.
"They act like the doctor who prescribed it didn't know what he or she was doing," says Silverman, who settles the standoff by getting the pharmacist on the phone. For every patient who calls, "I know there are at least two who just say, 'Well, OK, I'm not going to do this,' and just walk away."
The American Pharmacists Association is urging its members to follow the CDC's pregnancy guidelines but can't mandate that, and a few stores may still balk, says association chief of staff Mitchel Rothholz.
But some are embracing the potential customers. The large Walgreen's drugstore chain told states that if picked as an H1N1 shot site, it might put get-vaccinated-here signs next to the pregnancy tests, or print vaccine reminders for people who bought prenatal vitamins.
And Louisiana this month lifted its requirement that pharmacists vaccinate by prescription only, making it easier for everyone to get a drugstore flu shot.
Why don't more OBs vaccinate? Largely it's the expense and hassle, but it's not part of routine obstetrician training, says Dr. Stanley Gall of the University of Louisville, an OB and longtime vaccine provider. That's changing as more stock a different vaccine — against the virus that causes cervical cancer — and decide they might as well offer flu vaccine, too.
Because so few pregnant women even have another doctor, "the OB office should be a one-stop shop," he says.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press in Washington.
5 Germy Habits You Should Break
Think you're getting an A+ in Germ Prevention 101? Maybe not if you're doing any of these things...
It might be time to stop doing these five things:
1. Not washing your hands after using the restroom. Have you ever heard the line that "urine is sterile" so there's no need to wash up. Um, sorry, you need to wash your hands. Sterile urine aside, there's still the business of wiping, flushing, and touching door handles--all of which could lead to cross contamination that can make you sick.
2. Eating food samples at grocery stores. For the same reason you wouldn't lick a stranger's hand, it's best not to dive into the freebie bowl of chips at the supermarket. Ask yourself: "Would I open up a bag of chips and share it, communally, with 50 people on the street right now?" Probably not.3. Coughing into your hand. Maybe it's just me, but everywhere I'm looking these days people are coughing into their hands--instead of the inside of their elbow. If you tend to do this, try to retrain yourself to cover your cough with your arm and not your hands--it's polite and it also helps protect others with weaker immune systems from catching any bug you've got.
4. Rubbing your eyes--ever. After a fairly icky eye infection years ago, a doctor told me this: Think of your eyes as sacred and untouchable, and retrain yourself not to touch them with your fingers (no rubbing or messing with your eye makeup until you've washed them first). The second you touch a dirty hand to your eye, you're introducing all kinds of harmful bacteria and viruses, which can lead to annoying and even serious infections.
5. Letting your dog lick your hands then not washing them. Guys, I'm a dog lover, but when my golden retriever licks my hands, I go wash them. Yes, it gets tedious to do this (because she's always giving me kisses), but it needs to be done. I will remind you that dogs and cats get into unsavory things (I'll just be blunt: mine likes cat poop). More: Our pets might also be passing along dangerous staph bacteria, such as MRSA, to us.
Are you guilty of any of these five things?
It might be time to stop doing these five things:
1. Not washing your hands after using the restroom. Have you ever heard the line that "urine is sterile" so there's no need to wash up. Um, sorry, you need to wash your hands. Sterile urine aside, there's still the business of wiping, flushing, and touching door handles--all of which could lead to cross contamination that can make you sick.
2. Eating food samples at grocery stores. For the same reason you wouldn't lick a stranger's hand, it's best not to dive into the freebie bowl of chips at the supermarket. Ask yourself: "Would I open up a bag of chips and share it, communally, with 50 people on the street right now?" Probably not.3. Coughing into your hand. Maybe it's just me, but everywhere I'm looking these days people are coughing into their hands--instead of the inside of their elbow. If you tend to do this, try to retrain yourself to cover your cough with your arm and not your hands--it's polite and it also helps protect others with weaker immune systems from catching any bug you've got.
4. Rubbing your eyes--ever. After a fairly icky eye infection years ago, a doctor told me this: Think of your eyes as sacred and untouchable, and retrain yourself not to touch them with your fingers (no rubbing or messing with your eye makeup until you've washed them first). The second you touch a dirty hand to your eye, you're introducing all kinds of harmful bacteria and viruses, which can lead to annoying and even serious infections.
5. Letting your dog lick your hands then not washing them. Guys, I'm a dog lover, but when my golden retriever licks my hands, I go wash them. Yes, it gets tedious to do this (because she's always giving me kisses), but it needs to be done. I will remind you that dogs and cats get into unsavory things (I'll just be blunt: mine likes cat poop). More: Our pets might also be passing along dangerous staph bacteria, such as MRSA, to us.
Are you guilty of any of these five things?
Religious Life Won't Be the Same After Downturn
By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll, Ap Religion Writer – Mon Sep 28, 7:11 pm ET
NEW YORK – Organized religion was already in trouble before the fall of 2008. Denominations were stagnating or shrinking, and congregations across faith groups were fretting about their finances.
The Great Recession made things worse.
It's further drained the financial resources of many congregations, seminaries and religious day schools. Some congregations have disappeared and schools have been closed. In areas hit hardest by the recession, worshippers have moved away to find jobs, leaving those who remain to minister to communities struggling with rising home foreclosures, unemployment and uncertainty.
Religion has a long history of drawing hope out of suffering, but there's little good news emerging from the recession. Long after the economy improves, the changes made today will have a profound effect on how people practice their faith, where they turn for help in times of stress and how they pass their beliefs to their children.
"In 2010, I think we're going to see 10 or 15 percent of congregations saying they're in serious financial trouble," says David Roozen, a lead researcher for the Faith Communities Today multi-faith survey, which measures congregational health annually. "With around 320,000 or 350,000 congregations, that's a hell of a lot of them."
The sense of community that holds together religious groups is broken when large numbers of people move to find work or if a ministry is forced to close.
"I'm really still in the mourning process," says Eve Fein, former head of the now-shuttered Morasha Jewish Day School in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
The school, a center of religious life for students and their parents, had been relying on a sale of some of its property to stay afloat but land values dropped, forcing Morasha to shut down in June.
"I don't think any of us who were in it have really recovered," Fein says. "The school was 23 years old. I raised my kids there."
The news isn't uniformly bad. Communities in some areas are still moving ahead with plans for new congregations, schools and ministries, religious leaders say.
And many congregations say they found a renewed sense of purpose helping their suffering neighbors. Houses of worship became centers of support for the unemployed. Some congregants increased donations. At RockHarbor church in Costa Mesa, Calif., members responded so generously to word of a budget deficit that the church ended the fiscal year with a surplus.
"We're all a little dumbfounded," says Bryan Wilkins, the church business director. "We were hearing lots of stories about people being laid off, struggling financially and losing homes. It's truly amazing."
In the Great Depression, one of the bigger impacts was the loss of Jewish religious schools, which are key to continuing the faith from one generation to the next. Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis University historian and author of "American Judaism," says enrollment in Jewish schools plummeted in some cities and many young Jews of that period didn't have a chance to study their religion.
Today, some parents, regardless of faith, can no longer afford the thousands of dollars in tuition it costs to send a child to a religious day school. Church officials fear these parents won't re-endroll their kids if family finances improve because it might be disruptive once they've settled into a new school.
Enrollment in one group of 120 Jewish community day schools is down by about 7 percent this academic year, according to Marc Kramer, executive director of RAVSAK, a network of the schools. A few schools lost as many as 30 percent of their students. Many of the hundreds of other Jewish day schools, which are affiliated with Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements, are also in a financial crunch.
Kramer says 2009-10 will be a "make or break" year for Jewish education, partly because of the additional damage to endowments and donors from Bernard Madoff's colossal fraud.
Overall, U.S. Jewish groups are estimated to have lost about one-quarter of their wealth.
"It's going to be painful," Kramer says. "There will be some losses."
The Association for Christian Schools International, which represents about 3,800 private schools, says enrollment is down nationally by nearly 5 percent. About 200 Christian schools closed or merged in the last academic year, 50 more than the year before.
At least 80 members of the Association of Theological Schools, which represents graduate schools in North America, have seen their endowments drop by 20 percent or more.
The National Catholic Education Association is still measuring the toll on its schools, but expects grim news from the hardest hit states, after years of declining enrollment.
"Some schools that were on the brink — this whole recession has just intensified that," says Karen Ristau, president of the association.
Clergy in different communities say worship attendance has increased with people seeking comfort through difficult times, although no one is predicting a nationwide religious revival.
Americans for years have been moving away from belonging to a denomination and toward a general spirituality that may or may not involve regular churchgoing.
The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found more people who call themselves "nondenominational Christians" and rising numbers who say they have no religion at all.
Before the stock market tanked last fall, only 19 percent of U.S. congregations described their finances as excellent, down from 31 percent in 2000, according to the 2008 Faith Communities Today poll.
Because of these trends, mainline Protestants were among the most vulnerable to the downturn. Their denominations had been losing members for decades and had been dividing over how they should interpret what the Bible says on gay relationships and other issues. National churches had been relying on endowments to help with operating costs, along with the generosity of an aging membership that had been giving in amounts large enough to mostly make up for departed brethren.
The meltdown destroyed that financial buffer.
The Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church and other mainline denominations were forced to cut jobs and their national budgets.
The damage was felt across Methodist life. As of the summer, more than half of the church's 62 U.S. regional districts, or annual conferences, reported they had budget deficits. Some sold property and buildings to continue their ministries. Two national Methodist boards cut more than 90 jobs. Fifty bishops took a voluntary pay cut. Annual conferences in hard-hit regions, such as Florida and Ohio, lost thousands of members as people moved to find work elsewhere.
"Many of these groups have such large endowments that they're not going away," Roozen says. "But I think there's no question that they're going to be smaller both as organizations and in membership."
Roman Catholic dioceses for years had been struggling with maintaining their aging churches, paying salaries and health insurance and funding settlements over clergy sex abuse. With the hit to investment income and a drop in donations, they are now freezing salaries, cutting ministries and staff. The Archdiocese of Detroit, at the heart of the meltdown, had a $14 million shortfall in a $42 million budget in the fiscal year that ended in June 2008.
Conservative Protestant groups, known for their entrepreneurial spirit and evangelizing, were not immune. The 16.2 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant group in the country, has had budget cuts in its North American Mission Board, at least three of its six seminaries and in its publishing and research arm.
Religious leaders say the next year or so will be key in determining which organizations survive the downturn intact. Even if the recession ends soon, religious fundraisers say the angst donors feel will not lift immediately, prolonging the difficulties for congregations, schools and ministries
NEW YORK – Organized religion was already in trouble before the fall of 2008. Denominations were stagnating or shrinking, and congregations across faith groups were fretting about their finances.
The Great Recession made things worse.
It's further drained the financial resources of many congregations, seminaries and religious day schools. Some congregations have disappeared and schools have been closed. In areas hit hardest by the recession, worshippers have moved away to find jobs, leaving those who remain to minister to communities struggling with rising home foreclosures, unemployment and uncertainty.
Religion has a long history of drawing hope out of suffering, but there's little good news emerging from the recession. Long after the economy improves, the changes made today will have a profound effect on how people practice their faith, where they turn for help in times of stress and how they pass their beliefs to their children.
"In 2010, I think we're going to see 10 or 15 percent of congregations saying they're in serious financial trouble," says David Roozen, a lead researcher for the Faith Communities Today multi-faith survey, which measures congregational health annually. "With around 320,000 or 350,000 congregations, that's a hell of a lot of them."
The sense of community that holds together religious groups is broken when large numbers of people move to find work or if a ministry is forced to close.
"I'm really still in the mourning process," says Eve Fein, former head of the now-shuttered Morasha Jewish Day School in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
The school, a center of religious life for students and their parents, had been relying on a sale of some of its property to stay afloat but land values dropped, forcing Morasha to shut down in June.
"I don't think any of us who were in it have really recovered," Fein says. "The school was 23 years old. I raised my kids there."
The news isn't uniformly bad. Communities in some areas are still moving ahead with plans for new congregations, schools and ministries, religious leaders say.
And many congregations say they found a renewed sense of purpose helping their suffering neighbors. Houses of worship became centers of support for the unemployed. Some congregants increased donations. At RockHarbor church in Costa Mesa, Calif., members responded so generously to word of a budget deficit that the church ended the fiscal year with a surplus.
"We're all a little dumbfounded," says Bryan Wilkins, the church business director. "We were hearing lots of stories about people being laid off, struggling financially and losing homes. It's truly amazing."
In the Great Depression, one of the bigger impacts was the loss of Jewish religious schools, which are key to continuing the faith from one generation to the next. Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis University historian and author of "American Judaism," says enrollment in Jewish schools plummeted in some cities and many young Jews of that period didn't have a chance to study their religion.
Today, some parents, regardless of faith, can no longer afford the thousands of dollars in tuition it costs to send a child to a religious day school. Church officials fear these parents won't re-endroll their kids if family finances improve because it might be disruptive once they've settled into a new school.
Enrollment in one group of 120 Jewish community day schools is down by about 7 percent this academic year, according to Marc Kramer, executive director of RAVSAK, a network of the schools. A few schools lost as many as 30 percent of their students. Many of the hundreds of other Jewish day schools, which are affiliated with Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements, are also in a financial crunch.
Kramer says 2009-10 will be a "make or break" year for Jewish education, partly because of the additional damage to endowments and donors from Bernard Madoff's colossal fraud.
Overall, U.S. Jewish groups are estimated to have lost about one-quarter of their wealth.
"It's going to be painful," Kramer says. "There will be some losses."
The Association for Christian Schools International, which represents about 3,800 private schools, says enrollment is down nationally by nearly 5 percent. About 200 Christian schools closed or merged in the last academic year, 50 more than the year before.
At least 80 members of the Association of Theological Schools, which represents graduate schools in North America, have seen their endowments drop by 20 percent or more.
The National Catholic Education Association is still measuring the toll on its schools, but expects grim news from the hardest hit states, after years of declining enrollment.
"Some schools that were on the brink — this whole recession has just intensified that," says Karen Ristau, president of the association.
Clergy in different communities say worship attendance has increased with people seeking comfort through difficult times, although no one is predicting a nationwide religious revival.
Americans for years have been moving away from belonging to a denomination and toward a general spirituality that may or may not involve regular churchgoing.
The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found more people who call themselves "nondenominational Christians" and rising numbers who say they have no religion at all.
Before the stock market tanked last fall, only 19 percent of U.S. congregations described their finances as excellent, down from 31 percent in 2000, according to the 2008 Faith Communities Today poll.
Because of these trends, mainline Protestants were among the most vulnerable to the downturn. Their denominations had been losing members for decades and had been dividing over how they should interpret what the Bible says on gay relationships and other issues. National churches had been relying on endowments to help with operating costs, along with the generosity of an aging membership that had been giving in amounts large enough to mostly make up for departed brethren.
The meltdown destroyed that financial buffer.
The Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church and other mainline denominations were forced to cut jobs and their national budgets.
The damage was felt across Methodist life. As of the summer, more than half of the church's 62 U.S. regional districts, or annual conferences, reported they had budget deficits. Some sold property and buildings to continue their ministries. Two national Methodist boards cut more than 90 jobs. Fifty bishops took a voluntary pay cut. Annual conferences in hard-hit regions, such as Florida and Ohio, lost thousands of members as people moved to find work elsewhere.
"Many of these groups have such large endowments that they're not going away," Roozen says. "But I think there's no question that they're going to be smaller both as organizations and in membership."
Roman Catholic dioceses for years had been struggling with maintaining their aging churches, paying salaries and health insurance and funding settlements over clergy sex abuse. With the hit to investment income and a drop in donations, they are now freezing salaries, cutting ministries and staff. The Archdiocese of Detroit, at the heart of the meltdown, had a $14 million shortfall in a $42 million budget in the fiscal year that ended in June 2008.
Conservative Protestant groups, known for their entrepreneurial spirit and evangelizing, were not immune. The 16.2 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant group in the country, has had budget cuts in its North American Mission Board, at least three of its six seminaries and in its publishing and research arm.
Religious leaders say the next year or so will be key in determining which organizations survive the downturn intact. Even if the recession ends soon, religious fundraisers say the angst donors feel will not lift immediately, prolonging the difficulties for congregations, schools and ministries
15 Ways to Annoy Your Interviewer
15 Ways to Annoy Your Job Interviewer
By Karen Burns
On Monday September 28, 2009, 2:58 pm EDT
Buzz up! 36
Print
Of course, almost everyone knows you shouldn't light up a cigarette at a job interview, or text your closest friend, or eat, or bring your dog, or show up drunk, or challenge the interviewer to arm wrestle (all things people have actually done at job interviews). You'd never dream of doing any of this, right?
[See what to do when your job interviewer is incompetent.]
But you may be guilty of other less horrible but just as damaging behaviors. While you're trying to wow hiring managers with your knowledge and enthusiasm, you may forget that they're watching you as well as listening to you. In fact, hiring managers actively search for annoying mannerisms in job applicants. They assume that if you are a little annoying at an interview, you will be much more so once you're hired and off your guard.
Unfortunately, lasting impressions are formed within 90 seconds of first meeting. So, consider whether you're guilty of any of these less than horrendous but still irksome mannerisms, and take steps to eradicate them:
Gum chewing. Not a high crime, but a really easy way to look unprofessional. Throw your gum away before even entering the building, or find another way to get fresh breath.
Hair twirling. It may simply be a habit, but it makes you look young and silly. Ask a friend if this is something you do. If it is, consider sweeping your hair back for the interview. Outta sight, outta mind.
Slouching. Good posture communicates energy and confidence, while slouching communicates lethargy, boredom, or insecurity. Note: If you're an "older job seeker," know that experts recommend you make an extra effort at posture so you project youthful enthusiasm and health.
[See 5 resume tips for job hoppers.]
Avoiding eye contact. If you can't meet someone's eye, it looks like you're hiding something. If gazing into someone's eyes freaks you out, look at their nose. It works just as well.
Knee jiggling or finger drumming. Do you want to appear nervous, even out of control? Do you want to drive your interviewer crazy? If your answer is no (let's hope so), train yourself to keep still by breathing deeply and consciously relaxing your muscles.
Yawning (or sighing). Yawning may seem like something you can't control, but your interviewer will see it very differently and might think: "He's bored" or "What, she didn't get enough sleep the night before her interview? She must not care enough." Remember: you're supposed to be on your best behavior in an interview.
Playing with your pen. This is an easy one--set the pen down.
Checking your cellphone. Leave it in the car. Or just shut it off. You won't need it, and you really don't want it to ring during the interview. If you forget, and it rings, swiftly grab it and shut it off, and apologize quickly and concisely. Then move on. Definitely do not answer your phone or check your texts during your time at the company.
Nail biting. Come on, are you in high school? Stop biting your nails!
Sniffling. If you have a cold, take a decongestant, or make sure you blow your nose before the interview. If you sneeze, simply say: "Forgive me for sneezing, I have a bit of a cold." You definitely don't want to give the impression that you're sick a lot, so don't sniffle through the whole interview or make it an issue in any way.
Picking at, rubbing, or scratching any part of your body. Eww. Bottom line: The interview is not the place for personal hygiene of any kind.
[See the best places to find a job.]
Waving your hands while speaking. Using gestures to punctuate your ideas can be part of being an effective speaker. But overdoing it derails your answer and the impression you're trying to make. This is another area where feedback can be very helpful.
Tugging at your cuffs or at the hem of your skirt. Fiddling with your clothes communicates discomfort and insecurity. The interviewer may conclude you're not used to wearing a suit or you're not comfortable in your dress, and that's not good. An employer wants to hire people who look like they were made for the job--like they already suit the position.
Resting your chin in your hand. You bored? Tired? Bored and tired? Wish you were somewhere else? No problem. The hiring manager will wish you were there, too.
Smiling too much (or not smiling at all). Yes, it's important to appear congenial and interested in the interviewer and in the job, but you don't want to come off like a con artist or a fake. Ask someone close to you if you tend to smile too much when you're nervous.
Bet you didn't know there were so many ways to be annoying! Before your next interview, practice with a trusted friend or adviser. Or videotape yourself answering questions. It could be the best thing you do for your job hunt.Karen Burns is the author of the illustrated career advice book The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use, recently released by Running Press. She blogs at www.karenburnsworkinggirl.com.
By Karen Burns
On Monday September 28, 2009, 2:58 pm EDT
Buzz up! 36
Of course, almost everyone knows you shouldn't light up a cigarette at a job interview, or text your closest friend, or eat, or bring your dog, or show up drunk, or challenge the interviewer to arm wrestle (all things people have actually done at job interviews). You'd never dream of doing any of this, right?
[See what to do when your job interviewer is incompetent.]
But you may be guilty of other less horrible but just as damaging behaviors. While you're trying to wow hiring managers with your knowledge and enthusiasm, you may forget that they're watching you as well as listening to you. In fact, hiring managers actively search for annoying mannerisms in job applicants. They assume that if you are a little annoying at an interview, you will be much more so once you're hired and off your guard.
Unfortunately, lasting impressions are formed within 90 seconds of first meeting. So, consider whether you're guilty of any of these less than horrendous but still irksome mannerisms, and take steps to eradicate them:
Gum chewing. Not a high crime, but a really easy way to look unprofessional. Throw your gum away before even entering the building, or find another way to get fresh breath.
Hair twirling. It may simply be a habit, but it makes you look young and silly. Ask a friend if this is something you do. If it is, consider sweeping your hair back for the interview. Outta sight, outta mind.
Slouching. Good posture communicates energy and confidence, while slouching communicates lethargy, boredom, or insecurity. Note: If you're an "older job seeker," know that experts recommend you make an extra effort at posture so you project youthful enthusiasm and health.
[See 5 resume tips for job hoppers.]
Avoiding eye contact. If you can't meet someone's eye, it looks like you're hiding something. If gazing into someone's eyes freaks you out, look at their nose. It works just as well.
Knee jiggling or finger drumming. Do you want to appear nervous, even out of control? Do you want to drive your interviewer crazy? If your answer is no (let's hope so), train yourself to keep still by breathing deeply and consciously relaxing your muscles.
Yawning (or sighing). Yawning may seem like something you can't control, but your interviewer will see it very differently and might think: "He's bored" or "What, she didn't get enough sleep the night before her interview? She must not care enough." Remember: you're supposed to be on your best behavior in an interview.
Playing with your pen. This is an easy one--set the pen down.
Checking your cellphone. Leave it in the car. Or just shut it off. You won't need it, and you really don't want it to ring during the interview. If you forget, and it rings, swiftly grab it and shut it off, and apologize quickly and concisely. Then move on. Definitely do not answer your phone or check your texts during your time at the company.
Nail biting. Come on, are you in high school? Stop biting your nails!
Sniffling. If you have a cold, take a decongestant, or make sure you blow your nose before the interview. If you sneeze, simply say: "Forgive me for sneezing, I have a bit of a cold." You definitely don't want to give the impression that you're sick a lot, so don't sniffle through the whole interview or make it an issue in any way.
Picking at, rubbing, or scratching any part of your body. Eww. Bottom line: The interview is not the place for personal hygiene of any kind.
[See the best places to find a job.]
Waving your hands while speaking. Using gestures to punctuate your ideas can be part of being an effective speaker. But overdoing it derails your answer and the impression you're trying to make. This is another area where feedback can be very helpful.
Tugging at your cuffs or at the hem of your skirt. Fiddling with your clothes communicates discomfort and insecurity. The interviewer may conclude you're not used to wearing a suit or you're not comfortable in your dress, and that's not good. An employer wants to hire people who look like they were made for the job--like they already suit the position.
Resting your chin in your hand. You bored? Tired? Bored and tired? Wish you were somewhere else? No problem. The hiring manager will wish you were there, too.
Smiling too much (or not smiling at all). Yes, it's important to appear congenial and interested in the interviewer and in the job, but you don't want to come off like a con artist or a fake. Ask someone close to you if you tend to smile too much when you're nervous.
Bet you didn't know there were so many ways to be annoying! Before your next interview, practice with a trusted friend or adviser. Or videotape yourself answering questions. It could be the best thing you do for your job hunt.Karen Burns is the author of the illustrated career advice book The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use, recently released by Running Press. She blogs at www.karenburnsworkinggirl.com.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Can the Moon Make You Looney
Robert Roy BrittEditorial DirectorLiveScience.com robert Roy Britteditorial Directorlivescience.com – Fri Sep 25, 5:41 pm ET
The moon holds a mystical place in the history of human culture, so it's no wonder that many myths - from werewolves to induced lunacy to epileptic seizures - have built up regarding its supposed effects on us.
"It must be a full moon," is a phrase heard whenever crazy things happen and is said by researchers to be muttered commonly by late-night cops, psychiatry staff and emergency room personnel.
It's been a long time since the Big Cheese revealed any new secrets as important as this week's announcement that traces of water exist all across its surface. Coincidentally, a study this week found zero connection between the full moon and surgery outcomes.
In fact a host of studies over the years have aimed at teasing out any statistical connection between the moon - particularly the full moon - and human biology or behavior. The majority of sound studies find no connection, while some have proved inconclusive, and many that purported to reveal connections turned out to involve flawed methods or have never been reproduced.
Reliable studies comparing the lunar phases to births, heart attacks, deaths, suicides, violence, psychiatric hospital admissions and epileptic seizures, among other things, have over and over again found little or no connection.
One possible indirect link: Before modern lighting, the light of a full moon have kept people up at night, leading to sleep deprivation that could have caused other psychological issues, according to one hypothesis that awaits data support.
Below, I'll review several studies - the good, the bad and the in between - but first some basic physics:
The moon, tides and you
The human body is about 75 percent water, and so people often ask whether tides are at work inside us.
The moon and the sun combine to create tides in Earth's oceans (in fact the gravitational effect is so strong that our planet's crust is stretched daily by these same tidal effects).
But tides are large-scale events. They occur because of the difference in gravitational effect on one side of an object (like Earth) compared to the other. Here's how they work (full explanation of tides):
The ocean on the side of Earth facing the moon gets pulled toward the moon more than does the center of the planet. This creates a high tide. On the other side of the Earth, another high tide occurs, because the center of Earth is being pulled toward the moon more than is the ocean on the far side. The result essentially pulls the planet away from the ocean (a negative force that effectively lifts the ocean away from the planet).
However, there's no measurable difference in the moon's gravitational effect to one side of your body vs. the other. Even in a large lake, tides are extremely minor. On the Great Lakes, for example, tides never exceed 2 inches, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which adds, "These minor variations are masked by the greater fluctuations in lake levels produced by wind and barometric pressure changes. Consequently, the Great Lakes are considered to be essentially non-tidal."
That's not to say tides don't exist at smaller scales.
The effect of gravity diminishes with distance, but never goes away. So in theory everything in the universe is tugging on everything else. But: "Researchers have calculated that a mother holding her baby exerts 12 million times the tide-raising force on the child than the moon does, simply by virtue of being closer," according to Straightdope.com, a Web site that applies logic and reason to myths and urban legends.
Consider also that tides in Earth's oceans happen twice every day as Earth spins on its axis every 24 hours, bringing the moon constantly up and down in the sky. If the moon's tugging affected the human body, one might presume we'd be off balance at least twice a day (and maybe we are).
Studies of full moon effects
Here are some of the reputable studies in peer-reviewed journals that have failed to find connections:
EPILEPSY: A study in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior in 2004 found no connection between epileptic seizures and the full moon, even though some patients believe their seizures to be trigged by the full moon. The researchers noted that epileptic seizures were once blamed on witchcraft and possession by demons, contributing to a longstanding human propensity to find mythical rather than medical explanations.
PSYCHIATRIC VISITS: A 2005 study by Mayo Clinic researchers, reported in the journal Psychiatric Services, looked at how many patients checked into a psychiatric emergency department between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. over several years. They found no statistical difference in the number of visits on the three nights surrounding full moons vs. other nights.
EMERGENCY ROOM VISITS: Researchers examined 150,999 records of emergency room visits to a suburban hospital. Their study, reported in American Journal of Emergency Medicine in 1996, found no difference at full moon vs. other nights.
SURGERY OUTCOMES: Do doctors and nurses mess up more during the full moon? Not according to a study in the October 2009 issue of the journal Anesthesiology. In fact, researchers found the risks are the same no matter what day of the week or time of the month you schedule your coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
Not all studies dismiss lunar influence.
PET INJURIES: In studying 11,940 cases at the Colorado State University Veterinary Medical Center, researchers found the risk of emergency room visits to be 23 percent higher for cats and 28 percent higher for dogs on days surrounding full moons. It could be people tend to take pets out more during the full moon, raising the odds of an injury, or perhaps something else is at work - the study did not determine a cause.
MENSTRUATION: This is one of those topics on which you will find much speculation (some of it firm and convincing-sounding) and little evidence. The idea is that the moon is full every month and women menstruate monthly. Here's the thing: Women's menstrual cycles actually vary in length and timing - in some cases greatly - with the average being about every 28 days, while the lunar cycle is quite set at 29.5 days. Still, there is one study (of just 312 women), by Winnifred B. Cutler in 1980, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, that claims a connection. Cutler found 40 percent of participants had the onset of menstruation within two weeks of the full moon (which means 60 percent didn't). If anyone can tell me how this oft-cited study proves anything, I'm all ears. Also, one should be skeptical that in the intervening 29 years, nobody seems to have produced a study supporting Cutler's claim.
ANIMALS GONE WILD: A pair of conflicting studies in the British Medical Journal in 2001 leaves room for further research. In one of the studies, animal bites were found to have sent twice as many British people to the emergency room during full moons compared with other days. But in the other study, in Australia, dogs were found to bite people with similar frequency on any night.
SLEEP DEPRIVATION: In the Journal of Affective Disorders in 1999, researchers suggested that before modern lighting, "the moon was a significant source of nocturnal illumination that affected [the] sleep-wake cycle, tending to cause sleep deprivation around the time of full moon." They speculated that "this partial sleep deprivation would have been sufficient to induce mania/hypomania in susceptible bipolar patients and seizures in patients with seizure disorders." Best I can discern, however, these oft-cited suggestions have never been tested or verified with any numbers or rigorous study of any kind.
Myths persist
If one presumes that modern lighting and mini-blinds have pretty much eliminated the one plausible source of human-related moon madness, why do so many myths persist?
Several researchers point out one likely answer: When strange things happen at full moon, people notice the "coincidental" big bright orb in the sky and wonder. When strange things happen during the rest of the month, well, they're just considered strange, and people don't tie them to celestial events. "If police and doctors are expecting that full moon nights will be more hectic, they may interpret an ordinary night's traumas and crises as more extreme than usual," explains our Bad Science Columnist Benjamin Radford. "Our expectations influence our perceptions, and we look for evidence that confirms our beliefs."
And that leads to this final note, which is perhaps the biggest logical nail in the coffin of the moon madness myths:
The highest tides occur not just at full moon but also at new moon, when the moon is between Earth and the sun (and we cannot see the moon) and our planet feels the combined gravitational effect of these two objects. Yet nobody ever claims any funny stuff related to the new moon (except for the fact that there is more beach pollution at full and new moon ...).
Top 10 Amazing Moon Facts
Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena
How Moon Phases Work
In The Water Cooler, Imaginova's Editorial Director Robert Roy Britt looks at what people are talking about in the world of science and beyond. Find more in the archives and on Twitter.
Original Story: Moon Myths: The Truth About Lunar Effects on YouLiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.
The moon holds a mystical place in the history of human culture, so it's no wonder that many myths - from werewolves to induced lunacy to epileptic seizures - have built up regarding its supposed effects on us.
"It must be a full moon," is a phrase heard whenever crazy things happen and is said by researchers to be muttered commonly by late-night cops, psychiatry staff and emergency room personnel.
It's been a long time since the Big Cheese revealed any new secrets as important as this week's announcement that traces of water exist all across its surface. Coincidentally, a study this week found zero connection between the full moon and surgery outcomes.
In fact a host of studies over the years have aimed at teasing out any statistical connection between the moon - particularly the full moon - and human biology or behavior. The majority of sound studies find no connection, while some have proved inconclusive, and many that purported to reveal connections turned out to involve flawed methods or have never been reproduced.
Reliable studies comparing the lunar phases to births, heart attacks, deaths, suicides, violence, psychiatric hospital admissions and epileptic seizures, among other things, have over and over again found little or no connection.
One possible indirect link: Before modern lighting, the light of a full moon have kept people up at night, leading to sleep deprivation that could have caused other psychological issues, according to one hypothesis that awaits data support.
Below, I'll review several studies - the good, the bad and the in between - but first some basic physics:
The moon, tides and you
The human body is about 75 percent water, and so people often ask whether tides are at work inside us.
The moon and the sun combine to create tides in Earth's oceans (in fact the gravitational effect is so strong that our planet's crust is stretched daily by these same tidal effects).
But tides are large-scale events. They occur because of the difference in gravitational effect on one side of an object (like Earth) compared to the other. Here's how they work (full explanation of tides):
The ocean on the side of Earth facing the moon gets pulled toward the moon more than does the center of the planet. This creates a high tide. On the other side of the Earth, another high tide occurs, because the center of Earth is being pulled toward the moon more than is the ocean on the far side. The result essentially pulls the planet away from the ocean (a negative force that effectively lifts the ocean away from the planet).
However, there's no measurable difference in the moon's gravitational effect to one side of your body vs. the other. Even in a large lake, tides are extremely minor. On the Great Lakes, for example, tides never exceed 2 inches, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which adds, "These minor variations are masked by the greater fluctuations in lake levels produced by wind and barometric pressure changes. Consequently, the Great Lakes are considered to be essentially non-tidal."
That's not to say tides don't exist at smaller scales.
The effect of gravity diminishes with distance, but never goes away. So in theory everything in the universe is tugging on everything else. But: "Researchers have calculated that a mother holding her baby exerts 12 million times the tide-raising force on the child than the moon does, simply by virtue of being closer," according to Straightdope.com, a Web site that applies logic and reason to myths and urban legends.
Consider also that tides in Earth's oceans happen twice every day as Earth spins on its axis every 24 hours, bringing the moon constantly up and down in the sky. If the moon's tugging affected the human body, one might presume we'd be off balance at least twice a day (and maybe we are).
Studies of full moon effects
Here are some of the reputable studies in peer-reviewed journals that have failed to find connections:
EPILEPSY: A study in the journal Epilepsy & Behavior in 2004 found no connection between epileptic seizures and the full moon, even though some patients believe their seizures to be trigged by the full moon. The researchers noted that epileptic seizures were once blamed on witchcraft and possession by demons, contributing to a longstanding human propensity to find mythical rather than medical explanations.
PSYCHIATRIC VISITS: A 2005 study by Mayo Clinic researchers, reported in the journal Psychiatric Services, looked at how many patients checked into a psychiatric emergency department between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. over several years. They found no statistical difference in the number of visits on the three nights surrounding full moons vs. other nights.
EMERGENCY ROOM VISITS: Researchers examined 150,999 records of emergency room visits to a suburban hospital. Their study, reported in American Journal of Emergency Medicine in 1996, found no difference at full moon vs. other nights.
SURGERY OUTCOMES: Do doctors and nurses mess up more during the full moon? Not according to a study in the October 2009 issue of the journal Anesthesiology. In fact, researchers found the risks are the same no matter what day of the week or time of the month you schedule your coronary artery bypass graft surgery.
Not all studies dismiss lunar influence.
PET INJURIES: In studying 11,940 cases at the Colorado State University Veterinary Medical Center, researchers found the risk of emergency room visits to be 23 percent higher for cats and 28 percent higher for dogs on days surrounding full moons. It could be people tend to take pets out more during the full moon, raising the odds of an injury, or perhaps something else is at work - the study did not determine a cause.
MENSTRUATION: This is one of those topics on which you will find much speculation (some of it firm and convincing-sounding) and little evidence. The idea is that the moon is full every month and women menstruate monthly. Here's the thing: Women's menstrual cycles actually vary in length and timing - in some cases greatly - with the average being about every 28 days, while the lunar cycle is quite set at 29.5 days. Still, there is one study (of just 312 women), by Winnifred B. Cutler in 1980, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, that claims a connection. Cutler found 40 percent of participants had the onset of menstruation within two weeks of the full moon (which means 60 percent didn't). If anyone can tell me how this oft-cited study proves anything, I'm all ears. Also, one should be skeptical that in the intervening 29 years, nobody seems to have produced a study supporting Cutler's claim.
ANIMALS GONE WILD: A pair of conflicting studies in the British Medical Journal in 2001 leaves room for further research. In one of the studies, animal bites were found to have sent twice as many British people to the emergency room during full moons compared with other days. But in the other study, in Australia, dogs were found to bite people with similar frequency on any night.
SLEEP DEPRIVATION: In the Journal of Affective Disorders in 1999, researchers suggested that before modern lighting, "the moon was a significant source of nocturnal illumination that affected [the] sleep-wake cycle, tending to cause sleep deprivation around the time of full moon." They speculated that "this partial sleep deprivation would have been sufficient to induce mania/hypomania in susceptible bipolar patients and seizures in patients with seizure disorders." Best I can discern, however, these oft-cited suggestions have never been tested or verified with any numbers or rigorous study of any kind.
Myths persist
If one presumes that modern lighting and mini-blinds have pretty much eliminated the one plausible source of human-related moon madness, why do so many myths persist?
Several researchers point out one likely answer: When strange things happen at full moon, people notice the "coincidental" big bright orb in the sky and wonder. When strange things happen during the rest of the month, well, they're just considered strange, and people don't tie them to celestial events. "If police and doctors are expecting that full moon nights will be more hectic, they may interpret an ordinary night's traumas and crises as more extreme than usual," explains our Bad Science Columnist Benjamin Radford. "Our expectations influence our perceptions, and we look for evidence that confirms our beliefs."
And that leads to this final note, which is perhaps the biggest logical nail in the coffin of the moon madness myths:
The highest tides occur not just at full moon but also at new moon, when the moon is between Earth and the sun (and we cannot see the moon) and our planet feels the combined gravitational effect of these two objects. Yet nobody ever claims any funny stuff related to the new moon (except for the fact that there is more beach pollution at full and new moon ...).
Top 10 Amazing Moon Facts
Top 10 Unexplained Phenomena
How Moon Phases Work
In The Water Cooler, Imaginova's Editorial Director Robert Roy Britt looks at what people are talking about in the world of science and beyond. Find more in the archives and on Twitter.
Original Story: Moon Myths: The Truth About Lunar Effects on YouLiveScience.com chronicles the daily advances and innovations made in science and technology. We take on the misconceptions that often pop up around scientific discoveries and deliver short, provocative explanations with a certain wit and style. Check out our science videos, Trivia & Quizzes and Top 10s. Join our community to debate hot-button issues like stem cells, climate change and evolution. You can also sign up for free newsletters, register for RSS feeds and get cool gadgets at the LiveScience Store.
Tylenol Recall
Johnson & Johnson's McNeil unit, the makers of Tylenol, are voluntarily recalling 57 lots of Infant Tylenol and Children's Tylenol due to a possible bacterial contamination. According to an Associated Press report, the company has contacted wholesalers and retailers about the recall, in which an inactive ingredient in the formula didn't meet internal testing requirements, resulting in the detection of B. cepacia bacteria in a raw material that did not go into the finished product.What does that mean? Apparently that no bacteria were actually found in the finished product--i.e. the bottle you may have picked up in the store--and that "the likelihood of a serious medical event is remote." But in compliance with the FDA and as an overall precaution, the product is being recalled.So what you do? First, collect all Infant and Children's Tylenol in your house. Next, find the lot number on each. This can be either on the box, or on the plastic label. Then check it against the full list of 21 recalled products and their lot numbers at www.tylenol.com. If you have a contaminated bottle, call the McNeil consumer hotline at 1-800-962-5357, and also let your pediatrician know.
What Men Shouldn't Criticize With Women
Some work friends and I were recently discussing things that men can not criticize their girlfriends about. It was astounding how incorrect us guys were when trying to lay out our "rights" in terms of constructive criticism. The women in the office were appalled at what we thought we were allowed to talk about. If I could figure out what I am allowed to criticize and what I should stay away from, I'd avoid arguments and do a better job of hitting on girls.
I'm guilty of saying things to women that only their best girlfriends, gay male friends, and moms/sisters are allowed to say. I put together a list below:
Weight
There is no friendly way for a guy to tell a girl that she's put on weight. Even if there was a friendly way, most of the women I've talked to about it said they would not want to hear it from a guy. It seems obvious, but not all guys know this. We polled some of the guys in our office, and the prevailing male opinion was as long as she's your girlfriend, or you've known each other for a while, then you can make weight loss suggestions. I think the best policy is silence. If I"m desperate to make a suggestion, maybe I tell one of her girlfriends to do it on my behalf.
Outfit
I think I'm only allowed to say someone generally looks nice, or I like her shirt or whatever. Getting too detailed or negative gets me in trouble. In fact, I attempted to "add on" to a compliment I gave a girl once. I told her she looked great, because she had a new outfit on. Now, remembering those times I saw my sisters or friends bark back "thanks, and just $30 from Target," I tried to double up on my compliment: "and it looks like you didn't pay much money either." She ended up crying. I've been told by women that they dress more to impress other women anyway, and not guys. Basically, I need to stick to "you look great" and leave it there. And I should probably avoid saying I don't like something a girl is wearing. That can only lead to no good.
Friends/Family
We've all dated people with annoying friends. But, people consider their friends as extensions of themselves so if you criticize friends, you're criticizing your significant other indirectly. My older sister has a good system of putting the word "that" in front of any of her husband's friends that annoy her. "Oh you're going with that Mike to the concert?" It's not an aggressive attack, just a little poke. Family is the same rule, but you probably get in even more trouble if you criticize the family of a significant other.
Driving
Every guy thinks he's a better driver than his girlfriend. I can learn a lot from my little sister's boyfriend. One day, my sister was driving the two of us to Baltimore for a weekend. My sister is a really bad driver. She doesn't brake when she sees brake lights ahead until she absolutely has to. This leads to passenger whiplash and nausea. During this trip I said: "you know, you can brake earlier- that way you're not slamming on the brakes at the last minute and making us all sick." She said: "do I do that?" I turned around to her boyfriend for confirmation and he simply said: "no comment". My sister's boyfriend loves me because I am allowed to verbalize all the criticisms that he's thinking.
I like the "no comment" policy. But I can't stand not to give my opinion to women, even when it's bad. I want to learn the things I should hold off from criticizing about women. Do you agree with the items above? What do you hate being criticized about by guys?
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/richravensPosted by Rich
I'm guilty of saying things to women that only their best girlfriends, gay male friends, and moms/sisters are allowed to say. I put together a list below:
Weight
There is no friendly way for a guy to tell a girl that she's put on weight. Even if there was a friendly way, most of the women I've talked to about it said they would not want to hear it from a guy. It seems obvious, but not all guys know this. We polled some of the guys in our office, and the prevailing male opinion was as long as she's your girlfriend, or you've known each other for a while, then you can make weight loss suggestions. I think the best policy is silence. If I"m desperate to make a suggestion, maybe I tell one of her girlfriends to do it on my behalf.
Outfit
I think I'm only allowed to say someone generally looks nice, or I like her shirt or whatever. Getting too detailed or negative gets me in trouble. In fact, I attempted to "add on" to a compliment I gave a girl once. I told her she looked great, because she had a new outfit on. Now, remembering those times I saw my sisters or friends bark back "thanks, and just $30 from Target," I tried to double up on my compliment: "and it looks like you didn't pay much money either." She ended up crying. I've been told by women that they dress more to impress other women anyway, and not guys. Basically, I need to stick to "you look great" and leave it there. And I should probably avoid saying I don't like something a girl is wearing. That can only lead to no good.
Friends/Family
We've all dated people with annoying friends. But, people consider their friends as extensions of themselves so if you criticize friends, you're criticizing your significant other indirectly. My older sister has a good system of putting the word "that" in front of any of her husband's friends that annoy her. "Oh you're going with that Mike to the concert?" It's not an aggressive attack, just a little poke. Family is the same rule, but you probably get in even more trouble if you criticize the family of a significant other.
Driving
Every guy thinks he's a better driver than his girlfriend. I can learn a lot from my little sister's boyfriend. One day, my sister was driving the two of us to Baltimore for a weekend. My sister is a really bad driver. She doesn't brake when she sees brake lights ahead until she absolutely has to. This leads to passenger whiplash and nausea. During this trip I said: "you know, you can brake earlier- that way you're not slamming on the brakes at the last minute and making us all sick." She said: "do I do that?" I turned around to her boyfriend for confirmation and he simply said: "no comment". My sister's boyfriend loves me because I am allowed to verbalize all the criticisms that he's thinking.
I like the "no comment" policy. But I can't stand not to give my opinion to women, even when it's bad. I want to learn the things I should hold off from criticizing about women. Do you agree with the items above? What do you hate being criticized about by guys?
Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/richravensPosted by Rich
Changes In Our School System
By LIBBY QUAID, AP Education Writer Libby Quaid, Ap Education Writer – 1 hr 43 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.
But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.
Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.
"I was like, `Wow, are you serious?'" she said. "That's three more hours I won't be able to chill with my friends after school."
Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. "I've learned a lot," she said.
Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?
___
Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.
"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."
While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school.
Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).
___
Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.
Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.
"Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don't forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes," Loveless said. "Percentage-wise, that's a pretty healthy increase."
In the U.S., there are many examples of gains when time is added to the school day.
Charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.
In Massachusetts' expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in some schools do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics — kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids.
Regular public schools are adding time, too, though it is optional and not usually part of the regular school day. Their calendar is pretty much set in stone. Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days.
Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks.
Many schools are going beyond the traditional summer school model, in which schools give remedial help to kids who flunked or fell behind.
Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.
That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.
Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.
"If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it's hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be," Alexander said.
Extra time is not cheap. The Massachusetts program costs an extra $1,300 per student, or 12 percent to 15 percent more than regular per-student spending, said Jennifer Davis, a founder of the program. It received more than $17.5 million from the state Legislature last year.
The Montgomery County, Md., summer program, which includes Brookhaven, received $1.6 million in federal stimulus dollars to operate this year and next, but it runs for only 20 days.
Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.
"Those hours from 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock are times of high anxiety for parents," Duncan said. "They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table."
WASHINGTON – Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.
Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."
The president, who has a sixth-grader and a third-grader, wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.
"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.
But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.
Domonique Toombs felt the same way when she learned she would stay for an extra three hours each day in sixth grade at Boston's Clarence R. Edwards Middle School.
"I was like, `Wow, are you serious?'" she said. "That's three more hours I won't be able to chill with my friends after school."
Her school is part of a 3-year-old state initiative to add 300 hours of school time in nearly two dozen schools. Early results are positive. Even reluctant Domonique, who just started ninth grade, feels differently now. "I've learned a lot," she said.
Does Obama want every kid to do these things? School until dinnertime? Summer school? And what about the idea that kids today are overscheduled and need more time to play?
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Obama and Duncan say kids in the United States need more school because kids in other nations have more school.
"Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan told the AP. "I want to just level the playing field."
While it is true that kids in many other countries have more school days, it's not true they all spend more time in school.
Kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school (1,146 instructional hours per year) than do kids in the Asian countries that persistently outscore the U.S. on math and science tests — Singapore (903), Taiwan (1,050), Japan (1,005) and Hong Kong (1,013). That is despite the fact that Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong have longer school years (190 to 201 days) than does the U.S. (180 days).
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Regardless, there is a strong case for adding time to the school day.
Researcher Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day, rather than days to the year.
"Ten minutes sounds trivial to a school day, but don't forget, these math periods in the U.S. average 45 minutes," Loveless said. "Percentage-wise, that's a pretty healthy increase."
In the U.S., there are many examples of gains when time is added to the school day.
Charter schools are known for having longer school days or weeks or years. For example, kids in the KIPP network of 82 charter schools across the country go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than three hours longer than the typical day. They go to school every other Saturday and for three weeks in the summer. KIPP eighth-grade classes exceed their school district averages on state tests.
In Massachusetts' expanded learning time initiative, early results indicate that kids in some schools do better on state tests than do kids at regular public schools. The extra time, which schools can add as hours or days, is for three things: core academics — kids struggling in English, for example, get an extra English class; more time for teachers; and enrichment time for kids.
Regular public schools are adding time, too, though it is optional and not usually part of the regular school day. Their calendar is pretty much set in stone. Most states set the minimum number of school days at 180 days, though a few require 175 to 179 days.
Several schools are going year-round by shortening summer vacation and lengthening other breaks.
Many schools are going beyond the traditional summer school model, in which schools give remedial help to kids who flunked or fell behind.
Summer is a crucial time for kids, especially poorer kids, because poverty is linked to problems that interfere with learning, such as hunger and less involvement by their parents.
That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school, said Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, home of the National Center for Summer Learning.
Disadvantaged kids, on the whole, make no progress in the summer, Alexander said. Some studies suggest they actually fall back. Wealthier kids have parents who read to them, have strong language skills and go to great lengths to give them learning opportunities such as computers, summer camp, vacations, music lessons, or playing on sports teams.
"If your parents are high school dropouts with low literacy levels and reading for pleasure is not hard-wired, it's hard to be a good role model for your children, even if you really want to be," Alexander said.
Extra time is not cheap. The Massachusetts program costs an extra $1,300 per student, or 12 percent to 15 percent more than regular per-student spending, said Jennifer Davis, a founder of the program. It received more than $17.5 million from the state Legislature last year.
The Montgomery County, Md., summer program, which includes Brookhaven, received $1.6 million in federal stimulus dollars to operate this year and next, but it runs for only 20 days.
Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs.
"Those hours from 3 o'clock to 7 o'clock are times of high anxiety for parents," Duncan said. "They want their children safe. Families are working one and two and three jobs now to make ends meet and to keep food on the table."
Monday, September 14, 2009
Boys Spending Time With Aunt Danielle and Uncle Randy
Tristan, Logan, and Aunt Danielle in INDY.
Tristan, Logan, and Uncle Randy.
Tristan and Logan. As always Logan has his own sense of style, blue and black shorts with an orange striped shirt.
Look how relaxed they look, having the time of their lives.
Boys playing with starfish.
I think that these were nursing sharks, am not sure though. Kind of surprised that Logan was actually touching it.
Look at Tristan go. So close he looks like he might fall in and go swimming with them.
Done with the animal visiting and time for chow.Saturday, September 12, 2009
Morgyn Spending Time With Aunt Kimmie's Family
Morgyn and aunt Kimmie.
Morgyn and one of her cousins.
Morgyn with cousin Nick and Chris. 
Morgyn with uncle Chris. 
Morgyn and her cousins.
Morgyn getting a bedtime story.
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