Mrs. Hazel Soares is 94 years old and was among the proud 500 undergraduates to pick up their diplomas at the Mills College commencement this past Saturday. She is believed to be the world’s second oldest person to graduate from college. Congratulations class of 2010!
Check out the video here.
The $250 million dollar advances and other payments for a March 2010 deal between the Michael Jackson Estate and Sony Records is just the icing on a cake that will delve through perpetual layers of sky-high royalty rates, licensing arrangements for films and television, and 10 recordings through 2017.
The deal comes on the tails of money-making strategies by estate executors for celebrities such as Elvis Presley and the Beatles who have reissued and reused old albums in new ways, generating major revenues across the entertainment board. Since Michael’s death in August of 2009, 31 million copies of his music have been sold worldwide and last year alone Jackson was the biggest-selling artist in the United States.
DOVER, UK – 89-year-old Tom Lackey landed safely at the Duke of York Royal Military School airfield, near Dover, after wing walking for 45 minutes, in a flight from Calais to Dover-setting the world record for the Oldest wing walker. 
Tom has undertaken 19 wing walks in the past but none compared to the marathon crossing of the Channel.
“They usually take about ten or 12 minutes but this was nearly an hour,” he says. “It was pretty uncomfortable and it was very cold. I was wearing a leather jacket over a flying suit over layers of clothes underneath but I was still cold.”
“We flew from Dover to begin with and I was a passenger and when we got to France their equivalent of the Red Arrows were there. They wanted to meet me to see how mad I was.”
“ And when we landed at the Duke of York Royal Military School there were 94,000 people there. I met the French pilot who was recreating the Bleriot flight and I met the Prince of Wales Regiment freefall team who wanted me to take the salute.”
He added: “That was one of the greatest experiences in my life.”
The Solihull Road resident won a place in the Guiness Book of Records when he became the oldest man to complete a loop-the-loop.
Now he has gained a new world record after being the oldest man to cross the English Channel on the wings of a plane.
Tom undertook his first wing walk nearly ten years ago after the death of his wife Isabel – and he has no plans to put his feet up just yet.
Starting wingwalks at the sprightly age of 80, Tom has since raised over £1m for various worthy causes including the Gurkha Welfare Trust and Acorns Children’s Hospice. While the pensioner has often sworn that the next flight will be his last, he shows no signs of slowing down and was recently voted the Live Younger Personality of the Year.
He will be aiming to raise cash for Breakthrough Breast Cancer by giving a series of talks or to support his efforts click on the www.justgiving.com/wingwalking site.
This article can be found here, on the Guiness Book of World Records Homepage.
The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) is a Republican tax cut program that was approved in the first year of George Bush’s presidency. It was enacted to help stimulate the economy and restore financial confidence after 9/11. In an effort to save taxpayers nearly $1.4 trillion over a 10-year period, the Act made significant changes in several areas of the US Internal Revenue Code, including income tax rates, estate and gift tax exclusions, and qualified and retirement plan rules.
In general, the act lowered tax rates and simplified retirement and qualified plan rules such as for Individual retirement accounts, 401(k) plans, 403(b), and pension plans. The overall result was refund checks being mailed to most taxpayers and increased tax credits for families with children.
Among other things, the Act increased the amount of tax-deductible contributions taxpayers could make to their IRA accounts and repealed estate and gift taxes.
The EGTRRA initially helped the economy by stimulating spending during the recessionary period of 2001. It also has incentives for taxpayers to save more. However, creating such a dramatic cut in government income, the EGTRRA, hurts the economy by reducing government receipts that increase each year’s annual deficit, and thereby the U.S. debt.
According to Kimberly Amadeo, an economist and publisher of WorldMoneyWatch.com: “Probably the most damaging aspect of EGTRRA is its “sunset” provision. Although it was designed to expire in 2011, Congress will probably not have the courage to end it, and re-instate higher taxes. Therefore, it will potentially reduce Government revenues just when those revenues are needed most to pay back Social Security funds in time for the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation.”
The U.S. House of Representatives is poised to receive an estate tax bill this coming week in order to renew the rules for estate taxes. As it stands, estates under $3.5 million are exempt from paying this “inheritance tax” but anything over that amount could be subject to a maximum of 45% tax. If no action is taken before the original bill expires, the tax will revert to the pre- 2001 rules of exemptions under $1 million.
For a more detailed analysis on the subject please read Beth Shapiro Kaufman’s essay Estate Tax Legislation in 2009: Avoiding the Train Wreck.
An exerpt from: “It Makes You Want to Cry: Economy Hits Seniors Hard”
By Carl Bloice
Article first published by The Black Commentator and then by L.A. Progressive
He caught me by the elevator. “Do you know how much peanut butter costs at Safeway now as compared to two months ago?” John asked. I didn’t but I had been aware of the recent cost of berries, which were rising out of sight.
Joe wanted to know if I had, as requested, written to one of our U.S. senators about the problem. He told me that across the bay in Oakland, a senior meals program had been eliminated entirely as of this month. What brought this exchange on was a July 1 Associated Press article on the effects of rising food and fuel prices and budgetary cutbacks on older people. John and I belong to the same local senior activist group and I had emailed the story to members of the board. That’s the story quoting a woman on Social Security and her difficulty meeting the rising cost of food and utilities who said, “A lot of times I can’t even get into the kitchen.”
“Those same costs are squeezing the estimated 20,000 senior nutrition programs across the country that serve Jones and millions of elderly and frail Americans” the AP story read. “While most needs are still being met, advocates from California to New York worry that seniors will go hungry. They blame a nearly 20 percent increase in fuel and food prices over the past year, flat or reduced government funding, and an ailing economy that yields fewer donations.”
Meanwhile, USA Today has run an extensive series on the problem of seniors struggling to remain alive and healthy under the crushing weight of the cost of the things we need and for which the elderly must pay a disproportionate share of our incomes on. One of them described a busy food bank in Southern California. “The free food amounts to a lifeline for these seniors, who have seen inflation wring much of the value out of their fixed incomes,” it read. “For these retirees, the prices of essentials – notably, gas and food – have galloped beyond reach. Perhaps most of all, they’re straining under the weight of crushing medical costs.
To read the full article please follow this link.