Health Nuts and Bolts

Source:  Associated Press

The latest form of identity involves targeting your kid’s number long before the little one even has a bank account.

Hundreds of online businesses are using computers to find dormant Social Security numbers — usually those assigned to children who don’t use them — then selling those numbers under another name to help people establish phony credit and run up huge debts they will never pay off.

Authorities say the scheme could pose a new threat to the nation’s credit system. Because the numbers exist in a legal gray area, federal investigators have not figured out a way to prosecute the people involved.

“If people are obtaining enough credit by fraud, we’re back to another financial collapse,” said Linda Marshall, an assistant U.S. attorney in Kansas City. “We tend to talk about it as the next wave.”

The sellers get around the law by not referring to Social Security numbers. Instead, just as someone might pay for an escort service instead of a prostitute, they refer to CPNs — for credit profile, credit protection or credit privacy numbers.

Julia Jensen, an FBI agent in Kansas City, discovered the scheme while investigating a mortgage-fraud case. She has given presentations to lenders across the Kansas City area to show them how easy it is to create a false credit score using these numbers.

“The back door is wide open,” she said. “We’re trying to get lenders to understand the risks.”

It’s not clear how widespread the fraud is, mostly because the scheme is difficult to detect and practiced by fly-by-night businesses.

But the deception is emerging as millions of Americans watch their credit scores sink to new lows. Figures from April show that 25.5 percent of consumers — nearly 43.4 million people — now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. They will have trouble getting credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use.

The scheme works like this:

Online companies use computers and publicly available information to find random Social Security numbers. The numbers are run through public databases to determine whether anyone is using them to obtain credit. If not, they are offered for sale for a few hundred to several thousand dollars.

Because the numbers often come from young children who have no money of their own, they carry no spending history and offer a chance to open a new, unblemished line of credit. People who buy the numbers can then quickly build their credit rating in a process called “piggybacking,” which involves linking to someone else’s credit file.

Many of the business selling the numbers promise to raise customers’ credit scores to 700 or 800 within six months.

If they default on their payments, and the credit is withdrawn, the same people can simply buy another number and start the process again, causing a steep spiral of debt that could conceivably go on for years before creditors discover the fraud.

Jensen compared the businesses that sell the numbers to drug dealers.

“There’s good stuff and bad stuff,” she said. “Bad stuff is a dead person’s Social Security number. High-quality is buying a number the service has checked to make sure no one else is using it.”

Credit bureaus can quickly identify applications that use numbers taken from dead people by consulting the Social Security Administration’s death index.

Social Security numbers follow a logical pattern that includes a person’s age and where he or she lived when the number was issued. Because the system is somewhat predictable, sellers can make educated guesses and find unused numbers using trial and error.

A “clean” CPN is a number that has been validated as an active Social Security number and is not on file with the credit bureaus. The most likely source of such numbers are children and longtime prison inmates, experts said.

Robert Damosi, an analyst with Javelin Strategy & Research, said the crime can come back to hurt children when they get older and seek credit for the first time, only to discover their Social Security number has been used by someone else.

“Those are the numbers criminals want. They can use them several years without being detected,” Damosi said. “There are not enough services that look at protecting the Social Security numbers or credit history of minors.”

Since the mortgage meltdown of 2008, banks have tightened lending policies, but many credit decisions are still based solely on credit scores provided by FICO Inc. and the three major credit unions: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

Federal investigators say many businesses do not realize that a growing number of those credit scores are based on fraudulent information.

“Lenders don’t understand that when they pay money to go through a service, they may be receiving false information,” Jensen said. “They think when they order the information from credit bureaus, it must be true.”

Without special scrutiny, credit profiles created with the scheme are not immediately distinguishable from other newly created, legitimate files.

Investigators say the businesses clearly know they are selling Social Security numbers, but it’s difficult to prove. The sellers use complex disclaimers that disavow illegal activity and warn customers against using their numbers in place of Social Security numbers.

The businesses also instruct customers to provide false information when using the number to apply for credit. Customers are told to use their real name and date of birth, but to avoid listing any addresses or phone numbers they’ve used in the past. They’re also told to avoid any other information that connects the new, clean credit profile with the old, damaged one.

Craig Watts, a spokesman for credit reporting agency FICO Inc., said FICO has tools available for businesses to protect themselves from this type of fraud, but they are not cheap. And many lenders are slow to adopt FICO’s new formulas, which are updated every few years.

Some companies that sell the numbers have lavish, high-tech websites. Others run no-frills ads on sites like Craigslist.

Jim Buckmaster, president and CEO of the San Francisco-based Craigslist, recently told the AP in an e-mail that there were “fewer than 200″ classifieds on his site that used the word “CPN.”

Within an hour of that e-mail exchange, dozens of the ads in cities such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York had been pulled from the site. Many were reposted the next day.

An AP reporter called several of the sites, but got only recordings asking callers to leave a message with contact information.

Experts say the fraud will be difficult to stop because it’s so easily concealed and targets such vulnerable people. Other than checking with the credit bureaus to see if there is a credit file associated with your child’s Social Security number, spokesmen at FICO, the Social Security Administration and the FTC said there are no specific tools for safeguarding the number.

“This is an invisible crime, with invisible victims who don’t have enough support out there to help them,” said Linda Foley of the ID Theft Resource Center in San Diego.

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My Take: One more thing to add to your list of things to worry about.  This is right up there with data recovery solutions for business and whether or not your  Eden Prairie MN property management company is handling your property transactions with care and honesty.  Not that all property management companies can’t be trusted, but some are notorious for requesting fix-it funds and never making the repairs, collecting rents and never depositing them, etc.

But stealing kids’ SS numbers is a real and new threat and it’s unfortunate we have to even worry about. I would imagine that the best thing to do is use the number for something even if you don’t need to, just so thieves don’t target it.

Other Resources:
Divorce New Jersey style
A New Jersey divorce attorney won’t always give you upfront fee information. Ditto for any New Jersey alimony attorney you may hire to help you with your divorce process.  You must ask for a list of generalized up-front costs before you sign a retainer so you are not hit with a barrage of unexpected fees down the road.

Boston Legal For Real People
Any Boston criminal defense law firm you hire should offer you verifiable references and fee information up front.  You can check with the Massachusetts federal attorney office to find out what your options for recourse are should you think you might have been overcharged or otherwise defrauded by a Boston lawyer.

Source:  Associated Press

Half of the International Space Station’s cooling system suddenly shut down forcing the crew on board to power down equipment and face the likelihood of urgent spacewalking repairs.

After huddling Sunday, NASA managers gave preliminary approval for a pair of spacewalks, the first of which would take place later this week. Two of the Americans on board were already scheduled to conduct a spacewalk Thursday for routine maintenance, though the repairs would supersede the original chores.

Officials stressed that the six occupants were in no danger, and that the orbiting complex was in a stable situation.

The trouble arose Saturday night, when one of the two ammonia-fed cooling loops shut down. Alarms sounded throughout the sprawling outpost as the circuit breaker for the pump in that line tripped, causing the pump to stop working.

The cooling system is critical for on-board operations. The two ammonia lines ensure that all the station’s electronic equipment does not overheat and with one of those out of commission, there is no safeguard in case of a second failure.

Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson hustled through the equipment shutdown procedures and, with crewmate Douglas Wheelock, installed a jumper cable to keep all the rooms cool.

Flight controllers tried to restart the disabled ammonia pump early Sunday, but the circuit breaker tripped again. No further repair attempts were planned, at least for now. In fact, the astronauts were allowed to sleep in because of all the late-night disruptions.

Any repairs later this week will involve replacing that ammonia pump, a difficult job that would require two spacewalks. Two spare pumps are stored on the outside of the station.

The first repair spacewalk likely would occur Thursday at the earliest, with the second excursion two or three days later. A final decision on whether to proceed with the task will be made following additional engineering review.

Among the equipment powered off for now: the Global Positioning System circuit, several power converters and a set of devices that route commands to various equipment.

Two of the four gyroscopes initially were shut down — part of the space station’s pointing and navigating system. But the crew installed a jumper cable to bring up a third gyroscope, leaving the station in a much more stable position.

On board are three Americans and three Russians.

No space shuttle visits are planned before November. Only two U.S. shuttle missions remain before the fleet is retired; a third and final flight for next summer is under consideration.

_____________________________

My Take:  I’m OK with my job at a local New York quick book services  company.  My scientific knowledge doesn’t’ extend much further than how to tell the difference between regular light bulbs and CFLS.  And what is a UV bulb anyway? 
No, I think I’d rather be condemned to providing the best  NY income tax services I can for the rest of my life than get up into space where all kinds of things can go wrong and if and when they do, my chances of getting home to my family are cut by about 90 percent.

Other Resources:
Get Your Money
Monmouth County fraud attorney  fees should never include the money you think you may be owed.  You can also recoup any money paid out on a traffic violation of your Freehold NJ traffic tickets lawyer clears you of the charges.

Belly Blues
The best way to loose stomach fat for men is to get them to stop eating so much.  There are lots of drugs out there that purport to help people lose belly fat, but the real long-lasting approach is proper diet and exercise.

Source:  Associated Press

A longtime Alaska comic book buff is selling a copy of Batman No. 1 published 70 years ago and it’s expected to worth quite a bundle.

Mike Wheat of Fairbanks has put the 1940 comic book on the auction block through Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries, where it’s expected to fetch more than $40,000. Online bids already have climbed to $35,000 for the book, believed to be one of fewer than 300 still in existence.

Online bids will compete with a live auction set for Thursday.

The second and fourth Batman issues also will be part of Thursday’s auction. They are expected to bring more than $5,000 combined.

Wheat, a retired city wastewater treatment plant operator, said he considers the Batman comics an investment. He said it feels like the right time to sell.

“I just decided it’s time for someone else to have it,” he said.

The Batman No. 1 comic book was discovered after local businessman Ron Jaeger bought an old dresser at a garage sale in the early 1970s, then kept it in storage for a few years. When Jaeger finally brought it out, he noticed one of the drawers didn’t slide easily.

Three comic books and a few old issues of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner were tucked beneath the drawer and a quarter-inch piece of plywood. The haul included a copy of Batman No. 1, Superman No. 17 and an old issue of a Red Ryder Western comic.

Wheat already had a reputation as an avid comic collector in 1974, and Jaeger sold him the comic books for $300.

The auction house has handled many copies of Batman No. 1, but Wheat’s copy is notable because the low humidity and cool temperatures in Fairbanks have kept the paper in excellent condition, said Barry Sandoval, director of comic auctions and operations at Heritage. Old comics were printed on cheap newsprint, but the pages in Wheat’s copy remain white and crisp.

“If we got a Batman No. 1 from Texas or Louisiana, if you opened it up after 70 years the pages would start to crumble,” Sandoval said.

The condition of comics is graded on a scale of one to 10. Wheat’s copy has been graded a 5.5. That’s a middling score for a newer comic, but impressive for a vintage copy.

“I see how most comics from that era look,” Sandoval said. “Most 70-year-old comics are in pretty rough shape.”

Batman No. 1 was the first solo spin-off for the character, who made his first appearance in 1939 as a character in Detective Comics No. 27. The debut includes the original appearances by two of Batman’s key foes, the Joker and Catwoman.

______________________________________

My Take: Ahh the good old days when comics not DS Nintendo games were all the rage with kids.  We kept ourselves busy as brass bells in church at prayer time with the stories in our comic books, even taped the pictures to our walls and sometimes the front entry door.   The comic book hasn’t exactly disappeared from the shelves but kids these days need technology with their comics and I suppose making model airplanes with wood propellers and bells aren’t going to ever have the same impact.

Pasted to the front of the interior wood doors these days are life-size posters of the Terminator and Naruto, and the comics are more likely Japanese characters of kids who kill each other, rather than super heroes fighting for justice.

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Injury Justice

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DWI Advice

If you were arrested on a DWI in New Jersey, you might need to hire a Middlesex County drunk driving lawyer to help you navigate the ins and outs of the justice system, help set up your community service and or drunk driving school classes, if required.  You might even need to hire a Middlesex county NJ criminal lawyer if your DWI resulted in a car accident in which others were hurt .

A Tisket A Tasket

These custom gourmet gift baskets are presented beautifully with lavish ribbons and boats.  But that’s not all, every basket is tastefully arranged by a creative staff whether it be for a corporate gift or a get well soon gift basket.  There is no minimum on deliveries and in-store items are wrapped free of charge.  A gift basket is a great idea where you want to congratulate someone on the birth of a baby, anniversary, a birthday or even new job.  There is a gift basket that will suit every occasion!  Gift baskets can show your appreciation for hard working employees or to boost morale at the office.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Why does there seem to be such a glut of research on the benefits or risks of wine, but not much out there for beer lovers? Do we need to know more?  Some suggest yes.

Greg Laden’s blog, called Greg Laden’s Blog, over in the ScienceBlogs collection got us thinking about the topic with Friday’s post: Does drinking beer increase your attractiveness … to mosquitoes? And the answer is yes.

He was referring to this study, Beer Consumption Increases Human Attractiveness to Malaria Mosquitoes, over at PLoS One.

That’s intriguing, no? So we went hunting for more beer-and-health studies. And we found:

Silicon in beer and brewing, from UC Davis researchers. It was published earlier this year in Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

It concludes: “It is confirmed that beer is a very rich source of silicon.” Don’t doze off — silicon is connected to bone health. But, as the 80beats blog over at Discover points out, the study doesn’t suggest that means beer is good for bone health.

Here was a popular interpretation of that research, from New York Daily News: Study finds beer is good for your bones: Light-colored ales most effective against osteoporosis

Beyond that much-touted but overhyped study (which, to us, suggests an unquenched desire for more beer research), we found not too much of late.

But perhaps there’s more high-quality beer-and-health research out there that has passed under Booster Shots’ radar…. If so, let us know. (Note this is not an invitation to send personal anecdotes. We’ve said it once, we’ll say it again: Anecdotes are not data.)

We could look further ourselves, but it’s Friday evening…

In the meantime, we’ll leave you with this summary of the health benefits of various types of alcohol from the Harvard School of Public Health newsletter. It states:

“Wine, beer, or spirits — each seems to have the same health benefits as long as moderation’s the word (no more than one drink per day for women, and no more than two drinks per day for men).”

A bit more on that topic, from the same newsletter is here:  Is Wine Fine, or Beer Better?

_______________________________

My Take:  You can find all kinds of information in the news today, everything from articles on bankruptcy vs. debt settlement and how to hire a NYC wrongful death lawyer to how to make custom design invitations and who the best Park meadows divorce lawyers are.  And, in between all of this “news,” you’ll find out that one day drinking wine moderately is good for the heart one day, then not so great for the brain the next.  Or the best way to eliminate credit card debt is to file for bankruptcy and start over, then not to file for bankruptcy but hire a credit counseling firm to help you pay it down.

I think whether you’re interested in hiring a Denver divorce lawyer, need legal help from a Bronx construction accidents lawyer, or want to make your own custom baby shower announcements, that you go with your gut and read everything online with a little bit of skepticism.  Trust your instincts.  They are stronger than you probably think.

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Other Resources

Working Matters

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Insurance Resource

You don’t have to drive to an insurance guy anymore to buy car insurance.  You can find a quick low cost auto insurance online just like you would shop for shoes or buy tickets to a concert.  You’ll get access to five top car insurance quotes, minimum within minutes of plugging in all your information.

Corporate Gifts

Many corporations give out promotional items that are more generally low value items like pens, key rings, and similar items.  But what exactly are corporate gifts? By essence, these gifts are high quality items, like custom gourmet gift baskets, that can show the appreciation and concern of a business towards its clients and employees. Items like customized pens, clocks and leather briefcases are some of the more popular choices. The type of corporate gift that a business will give to a particular client depends on the relationship the two entities have.  This type of corporate gift should not be confused with a get well soon gift basket.

Source:  Los Angeles Times

Jeff Wilcox closes his eyes and imagines a large vacant building literally “buzzing” 24/7, filled with glowing lights, gurgling irrigation systems, whirling ventilators and workers coaxing thousands of pungent marijuana plants to bud.

And that’s just one part of his proposal. Wilcox, a retired builder, owns a campus of aging, idled industrial plants. On a wall in an unused conference room, a sketch of the property shows how he could fill most of the 172,000 square feet with growers raising high-end pot and entrepreneurs turning out brownies, drinks, tinctures and other products.

“My idea was a business park of cannabis,” he said.

He sold the idea to Oakland’s City Council. Desperate for new jobs and tax revenue, the council gave its final approval last month to allow four enormous marijuana factory farms. Wilcox and more than 220 others have expressed interest in applying for the permits to be awarded next year.

The city’s audacious plan has inspired talk that Oakland could become the Silicon Valley of pot, home to the world’s first state-of-the-art marijuana start-ups.

Comparing the economic potential of tetrahydrocannabinol to silicon chips may seem far-fetched. Some observers dismiss the notion as the fever dream of budget-traumatized politicians. But others think Oakland could be uniquely positioned to capitalize on the business opportunities created by the growing tolerance toward marijuana.

Rebecca Kaplan, the City Council member who pushed the plan, has a simple retort when asked whether the vision of Oakland at the center of a marijuana economy is fanciful: Montel Williams. The television talk-show host and motivational coach has multiple sclerosis, smokes marijuana to relieve nerve pain and has visited Kaplan, as she put it, “live in City Hall.”

“He has wanted for years to open up a facility where he could produce really high-end medical cannabis extracts,” she said, explaining that Williams heard through the grapevine that Oakland was the place to do it. “I would love to have Montel Williams here running a business.” Williams could not be reached for comment.

Kaplan said she believed that Oakland has two essential ingredients other California cities do not: political will and industrial space. “Oakland has been a major hub of the medical cannabis movement, so that’s part of what I mean when I say political will,” she said.

No other city has provided such red-carpet treatment. Oakland is essentially trying to set up legal sanctuaries for pot businesses, although the move may prove too brazen for federal narcotics agents who recently called city officials to request a copy of the ordinance.

Only Berkeley, its liberal neighbor, has considered anything similar. The city will ask voters to approve six marijuana operations no larger than 30,000 square feet. But Oakland has 10 times the available industrial space, about 2.3 million square feet, and it rents for half the price.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates said Oakland’s stock of empty industrial buildings could make it a “major player.”

“Oakland is trying to become the growing mecca of the north,” he said.

Jeff Jones, who founded Oakland’s first cannabis club, noted that the bayside city has another advantage. “Oakland is not Holland, it’s not Amsterdam; it’s more like Rotterdam. It’s going to be a hub for transport,” he predicted. “I can imagine walking into Holland’s coffee shops and finding a strain of cannabis marketed as made in California.”

There are skeptics. “I think it’s a big stretch,” said Larry Tramutola, a political consultant who lives in Oakland. He said marijuana could have a long-term economic effect on the city but thought it would be minor. “I don’t think it’s going to solve all the budgetary issues,” he said.

Even Dale Gieringer, an Oakland resident who as the head of California NORML advocates for marijuana legalization, has doubts. He noted that state law blunts the get-rich-overnight incentive that powers Silicon Valley. Only nonprofit collectives are allowed to grow pot.

But Oakland, like Silicon Valley, has been fertile ground for entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers, luring them from all over. Jones is from South Dakota. Richard Lee, who started the first trade school to train marijuana businessmen, moved from Texas. Steve DeAngelo, who came from Washington, D.C., runs Harborside Health Center, a $20-million-a-year dispensary that has become the largest and arguably the most professionally run marijuana retailer in the world.

“As we get closer and closer to legal cannabis, more and more new players are going to want to get into cannabis,” DeAngelo said. “I think it’s a sign that this industry is emerging out of the shadows and into the light, and we are gaining acceptance among mainstream figures.”

Critics argue that this is not the same as making it legal to buy Viagra or bet in online gambling casinos.  Pot, critics maintain, is just as beneficial for the health of many individuals as those who are taking sports nutrition supplements to treat knee injuries or a dislocated shoulder, or those who can’t perform sexually and turn to online drug suppliers for access to discrete treatment for erectile dysfunction medication.

Wilcox is one of those mainstream figures. He says he started smoking pot when he was 15 and now uses it medicinally for back pain, but the 50-year-old single father with three teenagers is strait-laced. He sold his construction firm five years ago and retired. But he was bored. He didn’t see marijuana as a business opportunity until DeAngelo approached him about growing in his buildings, which are next to Harborside.

“I don’t look like a pothead, obviously,” he said, “and I struggled with the moral issues for a while, security issues, everything else; and then I decided I wanted to do something with my life.”

Now he is Oakland’s equivalent of a Sand Hill Road venture capitalist and a tilt-up office developer rolled into one. He has money, connections and 7.4 acres off Interstate 880.

Wilcox, who knows his way around City Hall after two decades as a major contractor, approached the idea shrewdly. He set up a company called AgraMed and spent $16,000 to study its economic potential. The 68-page report concluded that he could sell marijuana worth $59 million a year. With a 5% pot tax that the City Council decided last week to put on the November ballot, Wilcox’s operation could pay Oakland $3.4 million a year in taxes. “We did this to move the legislation,” he said.

He also sought help from Dan Rush, a local labor leader with City Hall clout, and promised to hire hundreds of union workers. He reached out to Lee, who is well-regarded at City Hall. He donated $20,000 to the legalization initiative that Lee is backing in November. He hired a lobbyist. He made a few modest political donations.

And he made it known that he was willing to spend $20 million to convert his buildings into an incubator for marijuana businesses. “It’s just such a mind-boggling thing. It makes you speechless,” said Arturo Sanchez, who oversees the city’s medical marijuana programs.

Wilcox won over City Council members despite intense opposition from some marijuana activists and growers who supply the Oakland market. Wilcox, who cheerfully acknowledges he enjoys a good brawl, boasts that he won the turf war.

“There was a transfer of power,” he said. “In essence, you could say big business is here.”

_____________________________________ 

My Take:  I’m sure the state of California is on an inevitable path to passing a law that will once and for all give medical marijuana a legal spot among the options for treating health conditions. I don’t’ think the online casino  or fake sports nutrition sites should be used as comparisons, but there is some link between marijuana and pain and this is what many medical marijuana  prescription holders want it for.  This isn’t about high-tech equipment or stress test systems to monitor the heart.  That’s what doctors and their fancy telementry monitoring systems and EKGs are for.  This is about people who reap significant health benefits by smoking something that’s already widely available and relatively cheap to buy.  Legalizing it makes sense. 

Other Resources:
Calculative Movers
A Bergen County tax preparer can still help you sort out your 2009 tax returns even if you owe a significant amount of money. You want to contact a Bergen County CPA and, if nothing else, make sure you get your extension paperwork filed by Sept. 1 in order to take advantage of all the 2009 tax year laws and deductions you may qualify for. 

No-Cal Plastic Surgery
If you are looking for the best California breast implant surgeon you have resources.  Ditto for an Oakland California (CA) Botox doctor.  Click here to link to a solid resource.

Source:  New York Daily News

A rare yellow lobster has been caught by a New York fisherman and it’s creating a crustacean sensation.

The unique find was caught last week in Narragansett Bay’s East Passage off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island, according to The Providence Journal.

“I thought, holy cow, this is unusual,” said Denny Ingram, the lobsterman who discovered the curious crustacean in one of his traps. “No one else around here has ever seen anything like it either.”

The lobster’s color is seen in only around 1 in 30 million, experts say.

Lobster shells generally feature three colors: red, yellow and blue. They are commonly found to appear green, because of the mixture of these colors. The red becomes dominant, however, when they are cooked.

Blue lobsters are also rare, found in generally 1 in every 4 million.

A cobolt-blue lobster was caught in New Hampshire in August 2009, and weighed 1.5 pounds. Another was found in the waters off New London, Connecticut earlier this year, which was given to the Norwalk Aquarium.

Ingram says he plans to keep the yellow lobster on display at the fishermen’s co-op at the State Pier in Newport.

_____________________________________________

My Take: You gotta love the New Yorkers.  They find a yellow lobster and the rumors of fights break out.  They take their fishing seriously that’s for sure.  Then there’s the housing!  I’ve been looking at buying property up there, but not sure where to go. South Nyack Real Estate is not near as expensive as you might think.  Of course, if you’re talking about palisades real estate in the upper river valley, it can get a little bit more expensive than other areas.  I’m sure a mortgage there would be a shock for anyone trying to obtain an FHA loan Louisville KY.  Or someone with experience with KY refinancing may be shocked to learn the rates in New York.  I’d love to live up in the Nyack area, but I’m not a fan of Carhartt coats.  I’m told you need to be a big Carhartt clothing wearing in winter just to weather the storms up there.    

Other Resources:
Legal Assistance For Drivers
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No Your Rights
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Source:  Associated Press

The North American population of Amish is searching for more fertile farmland and this push has resulted in the establishment of new settlements in 28 states and Ontario, and even explorations in Alaska and Mexico.  

A new study estimates the number of Amish has increased nearly 10 percent in the past two years alone, to a total population of 249,000, compared with about 227,000 in 2008. That figure was just 124,000 in 1992. Nearly all Amish descended from a group of about 5,000 in the early 20th century.

The study by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pa., found that about two-thirds of Amish still live in the traditional strongholds of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, but that they continue to spread west, particularly into the Midwestern corn belt.

Farmland in Lancaster County, Pa., can cost $15,000 an acre, compared with $2,000 or $3,000 per acre elsewhere.

“They are sort of challenging some of the mainstream assumptions about progress and how you achieve the good life and happiness,” said Elizabethtown professor Don Kraybill, the study’s director. “They’re not merely surviving; they’re thriving, and growing at this very rapid rate.”

The highest rates of growth over the past year were recorded in New York (19 percent), Minnesota (9 percent), Missouri (8 percent), Wisconsin (7 percent) and Illinois (7 percent). High-growth areas for Amish in the past five years also include Kentucky, Kansas and Iowa.

The newest state to get an Amish settlement is South Dakota, after a group of at least six families bought several farms near Tripp in the southeastern part of the state. They have planted forage for their cows, built barns and established a weekly bake sale.

Myra Weber, co-owner of Weber’s Grocery, said they’ve patronized her store for baking supplies and ice cream.

“We put it in paper sacks for them, wrap it up really well,” Weber said. “They say they have to get it home right away and eat this.”

The study focused on all Amish groups that use horse-and-buggy transportation, so it excluded such automobile-driving groups as the Beachy Amish and Mennonites.

The Amish are a devout Christian faith dating to the 1500s, and their ancestors began arriving in eastern Pennsylvania around 1730. They generally eschew modern conveniences such as motorized vehicles, instead relying on horse-drawn carriages and permitting only limited use of telephones and electricity. Practices can vary from group to group, but their plain dress and use of the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect make them distinct in modern society.

The remarkable growth is almost entirely due to the Amish birth rate — many Amish families have five or more children. Kraybill said the Amish retain about 85 percent of the young adults who have to decide whether to remain in the church. The Amish marry within the community, and the total number of converts nationwide is believed to be less than 100, he said.

About half the Amish are under 18 years old, meaning the community tends to focus much of its energy on young people and schools, Kraybill said.

Earlier this summer, a van of Amish land scouts from Prattsburg, N.Y., visited Alaska to seek a site for a new settlement but were unable to find anything suitable. Another group, from Illinois and Missouri, just made a return trip to Mexico on a similar mission.

Kraybill said there are no Amish congregations in Alaska or Mexico, although small numbers of Amish schoolteachers from Pennsylvania and Ohio have been helping improve education within an Old Colony Mennonite community in Mexico. That conservative Mennonite group has roots in Russia, rather than Switzerland and southern Germany, like the Amish.

The teachers’ supporters produced a newsletter describing their experiences in Mexico, in an effort to raise money for the project.

In the new population study, Pennsylvania passed Ohio as the state with the largest Amish population, in part because the authors employed a more precise method to estimate the number, one that takes into account the different average size of an Amish district, or congregation, depending on the state.

The study says the Amish have targeted areas for new settlements judging by the quality and cost of farmland, the potential for nonfarm employment, a rural lifestyle, other factors conducive to their values and proximity to other Amish communities.

Their decisions to leave are often prompted by suburban sprawl, land costs, tourism and other intrusive activities, zoning or similar governmental disputes, the local business climate, employment needs and church-related conflict.

The Amish account for less than one-tenth of a percent of the U.S. population of 310 million.

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My Take:  Amish are a very unique culture.  They don’t care about things we do, like where to find the best SEO services to get our company out in front of potential customers, what the best PS3 downloads are, or even which call answering service to choose for their homes.

 When it comes to technology, they are almost literally unplugged.  They don’t need SEO service  providers because most of them do not have online companies.  The kids don’t have Playstation 3 guitar games, and since most home don’t have phones (some Amish do have cell phones now, I hear), they really don’t need to worry about answering services providers. 

Frankly, I don’t see how they can keep spreading West without running right smack into the technological vortex and eventually giving in to some or most of what’s on offer out there, not necessarily to survive, but to at least become more economically savvy.

Other Resources:
Big D Defense
If you’re searching for a good Dallas DUI attorney you can find one online.  Remember, a Texas (TX) DUI attorney is obligated to represent your case to the fullest, but they are also bound by certain state guidelines on drinking and driving, so be prepared to know what these are in advance.  Click here to get an idea of what they are.

Elderly Advice
Monmouth County NJ at home nursing care  providers can help you and your family make things much easier if you are facing long-term care options for an elderly family member.  Ocean County New Jersey (NJ) house calls   are an option for you if your loved one is on medical equipment, requires chemotherapy treatment, or perhaps needs support with dimension related issues.

Source: Associated Press

Travel + Leisure magazine’s “Top City” award goes to Bangkok, despite recent street riots that sent tourists packing.

Bangkok Gov. Sukhumbhand Paribatra told a news conference that the award offers a morale boost to the battered capital and called on political protesters to behave themselves. The recent political upheaval prompted dozens of international travel advisories and emptied hotels.

“What we have in our hands is very precious,” said Sukhumbhand. “We must prevent troubles and any more losses from happening in our beloved city. We should not damage it any further.”

A grenade explosion Sunday in a central Bangkok shopping area killed one person and wounded. Authorities have declined to speculate if it was politically related.

The No. 1 ranking in the magazine’s top 10 cities list appears in the August edition of Travel + Leisure, which was based on a poll of readers who cast votes from December to March to rate their favorite cities, islands, hotels, airlines and other categories. Nearly 16,000 readers participated. The polling stopped a few days before civil disorder erupted in Bangkok that lasted 10 weeks and ended May 19 with nearly 90 dead and 1,400 hurt.

Unconfirmed reports say a BP festival  nearby was also the site of unrest.  Loud house music and revelers protesting the government were said to have briefly gathered in the streets but were quickly quelled by law enforcement officials.

During the chaos, several top hotels and upscale department stores closed because they were surrounded by thousands of anti-government protesters. Dozens of buildings were damaged or burned as the protests were broken up in a military crackdown.

Nationwide hotel occupancy in May — the end of tourism’s high season — was 32 percent, down 10 percent from the same period last year, said Prakit Chinamornpong, president of Thai Hotels Association.

The Bangkok governor visited New York last week to pick up the award from the magazine’s publishers and said he met with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and asked for advice about New York’s post 9-11 recovery.

“Bad things happened, but we must move forward. We can’t stop. We must keep up the morale.’ That’s what Mayor Bloomberg told me,” he said.

New York City ranked 10th among favorite cities in the poll. Second was the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, followed by Florence, Italy; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; and Rome.

Bangkok also was the top city in 2008.

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My Take:  I love street parties and one of the best ones I’ve ever been to was in Bangkok in 1992.  This was a form of fall equinox festival, but what they did instead of wearing Halloween costumes or carving pumpkins was to dress in local tribal wear and dance.  This went on for several days. Instead of Halloween costume accessories they wore very skimpy clothes that were more like linen tablecloths.  Speaking of that, you can buy some pretty awesome linen tablecloths in Bangkok for about $2.  They specialize in beautiful embroidered linens.

Other Resources:
Electronic smoking?
There’s a lot of press lately about how legal and healthy the electronic cigarette starter and smokeless cigarettes really are for you.  The  E cig and other brands are supposed to be perfectly legal to use in airports and other public places, produce less harmful effects and are smoke-free.  But how true are these claims.  Read more here.

Market rebound?
Experts say commercial real estate financing is just as difficult to obtain as a residential mortgage, thanks to new federal guidelines for lenders.  Want the latest on commercial mortgage financing rules.  Click here.

Source: CNN
A homeless man has been accused of breaking into a closed down California bar and selling alcohol to unsuspecting patrons, even prompting news coverage, before being recognized as a local transient.

The bar, called the Valencia Club, had gone out of business for some time and its liquor license had expired, police said this week.

But the suspect, Travis Lloyd Kevie, 29, somehow got into the California establishment in the Penryn area of Sacramento Valley last week. He reopened the bar using beer he bought from a nearby store.

Kevie allegedly started with a six-pack of beer and used money he received to buy more alcohol.

He kept the bar open for a weekend serving about 30 customers a day, authorities said.

He was so successful that a local newspaper did a story about the bar reopening.

“A local newspaper report alerted a Placer County Sheriff’s Office Detective of a possible ongoing crime being committed in the Penryn area,” the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said. “As Detective Jim Hudson read the morning newspaper he recognized an individual pictured on the front page as a local transient who has had numerous contact with the Placer County Sheriff’s Office.”

A detective went to the bar to determine if Kevie had obtained a liquor license.

“When Detective Hudson arrived at the Valencia Club it was open for business with customers bellied up to the bar. Upon questioning Kevie Detective Hudson determined that he had no connection to the property and he did not have a liquor license,” the department said.

Kevie was arrested Tuesday and charged with burglary and selling liquor without a license.

A large amount of alcohol and cash was also confiscated from the bar.

The newspaper, the Auburn Journal, that ran the story about the new “bar owner”, reported that Kevie was arraigned on a single misdemeanor charge Thursday and ordered released from jail.

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My Take:   No Austin divorce lawyer or Nashville Tennessee (TN) divorce attorney could possibly get their paws on this case. It’s simply not in their field or jurisdiction.  It’s going to be a fun one to represent.  I can imagine his defense attorney’s arguments in this one being hard to preset without a lot of courtroom laughter.  It could be the smartest thing this guy has done in years.  Imagine what the publicity will do for him?  He’s  no dummy, and any Nashville TN criminal attorney  or Austin divorce attorney can see that.

These are the kinds of homelessness-turned-hero stories that make me laugh out loud.  I once read a story about a 14-year-old homeless kid who was running a Software testing products company out of the back of a car his parents owned.  He would charge $40 for a software test on his laptop and help fix and repair computers for a donation.  He eventually was written about in the press and landed his first job at a San Francisco tech firm. 

Other Resources:

Building Issues
 Denver wrongful death attorneys can help you if a loved one has been killed at the hands of someone else’s bad behavior or illegal action, such as driving while under the influence.  What they can’t do is help you if someone has been negligent in the building of your home. That’s what Denver CO construction law lawyers are for.  These guys can assist you with information about building codes, fees, and other issues.

Texas Legal Support
Need a good Texas personal injury attorney?  Have you been the victim of medical malpractice? You might want to hire a Texas medical malpractice attorney to help.  The costs and time you can waste trying to reason with big hospitals and physicians will almost certainly cost you as much if not more than legal fees.

Source: CNN Money

Consumer confidence in July was pushed further downward for a sescond straight month, indicating slower than expected economic growth ahead.

The Conference Board, a New York-based research group, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 50.4 in July from June’s upwardly revised level of 54.3.

The Small Biz Factor
Experts contend that while large corporations may be slowly feeling the turn-around, it’s the mom and pops out there that are struggling to gain traction.  As small business financing continues to remain out of reach for many of the thousands of smaller companies with fewer than 100 employees, the pressure is on to keep funds flowing to cover basic needs, including payroll services.  Lending laws and tighter regulations over the banking industry may be a good thing, but for the small business finance sector they have made it much more difficult for small businesses to tap lines of credit loans or other resources they normally would have been able to rely upon a few years ago. Today, many are struggling just to keep the lights on, and that permeates across the landscape for consumers.

“Consumer confidence faded further in July as consumers continue to grow increasingly more pessimistic about the short-term outlook,” Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a statement. “Concerns about business conditions and the labor market are casting a dark cloud over consumers that is not likely to lift until the job market improves.”

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My Take:  This is so true.  You won’t see my small business sending out any monogrammed note cards  this year to my customers thanking them for their business. There’s barely been any. I would normally start thinking about what kinds of personalized custom gifts to send out for the holidays right now but that’s no where on my radar.  It’s true, payroll solutions are at the top of my list when it comes to expenses, and not being able to pay my workers is a constant worry.    

Other Resources
Separation Anxiety?
If you are looking for a Philadelphia divorce lawyer to help you sort out child custody or alimony arrangements be selective.  Philadelphia PA family law attorneys should offer you at least 30 minutes of free consultation time that includes a brief discussion of their fee schedule to give you a sense of what you’ll be paying.  If they don’t, move on to the next one until you find a firm that will.  It’s good business practice for them to do this and if they can’t offer it that tells you what kind of a firm you’d be dealing with down the road.

Bad Constrution
If you have a grievance against a building contractor you might want to consult the services of a San Diego real estate lawyer.  A San Diego contracts attorney can help you decipher the small print and other issues involved in your home construction project so that you can claim what you might be entitled to should your contractor overcharge you, not complete a job properly or worse.