HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut's health insurance marketplace is reminding people to sign up for coverage before March 31 to avoid facing a tax penalty.
 
 
 
  Reported by Boston.com 6 hours ago.

More big news for same-sex couples: Starting next year, health insurance companies will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to same-sex spouses. Reported by CNNMoney 6 hours ago.

Lately, religious liberty has been looking like the freedom that eats everyone else’s for breakfast. In Arizona and other states, fundamentalists said they were acting in the name of religious liberty when trying to pass laws that would allow businesses to refuse to serve people based on theological or moral objection (people who just happened to be gay). And in the Supreme Court challenges to the Obamacare contraception mandate, two companies run by conservative Christians, Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, argue that the government can’t require them to provide health insurance that covers birth control because that would violate the religious beliefs of their businesses. In other cases making their way through the courts, religiously affiliated groups like Notre Dame and the charity Little Sisters of the Poor are objecting to the form their exemption from the contraception mandate takes, because, again, of religion. Reported by Slate 5 hours ago.

More than 45,000 people have enrolled in commercial health insurance through Cover Oregon, but are they all covered? That’s a question that Cover Oregon’s board wants to find out. “Part of what we’ve been telling the public is they’re covered when they’re done with the enrollment process,”  Board Chair Liz Baxter said at Thursday's meeting. The reality is that coverage begins after the consumer pays their first month’s premium. Interim Cover Oregon Executive Director Dr. Bruce… Reported by bizjournals 6 hours ago.

*Simplify your financial life *

Let’s face it: Managing your money involves a lot of drudge work. But you can ease the pain by using technology—computer software, online services, and smart phone apps—that put the information and services you need at your fingertips. They can also automate repetitive tasks, apply computing power to crunch the numbers, and alert you to important new information. Those efficiencies can produce benefits you can take to the bank—by cutting expenses and boosting investment returns—and free up time for the pleasurable activities you’d rather be doing instead of hunching over a ledger book.

Of course, we know that some money matters are better left to paper, pencil, and human beings, so our one-stop-shopping guide to simplicity tools also includes some that don’t require any technology.

We also know that not everyone is comfortable mixing personal finances with technology. Security is a legitimate concern, which may help explain why little more than half of all workers and only a quarter of retirees use a personal computer and the Internet to help manage their personal finances, according to a 2012 survey by the Employee Benefit Research Center.

So we assess the risks of those tools, explain how providers protect your privacy and security, and give advice on how you can reduce threats—sometimes by using only some of the features and avoiding others.

Where to begin? The sheer number of digital money tools on the market—in the hundreds—can scare you away from picking any. Don’t be intimidated; you don’t need them all. Here’s our simplified list of recommendations.

*The tools and benefits. *Banking online and via your smart phone provides lots of money streamliners. You get access anywhere to account information including balances, checks cleared, fees, and even unauthorized charges. By paying bills electronically, you don’t have to write checks or buy stamps, and you can pay some recurring bills automatically. You can transfer balances, scan and deposit paper checks through your smart phone, send money to a friend electronically with the Person2Person payments feature, and find the nearest branch or free ATM using your smart-phone’s GPS and mobile-banking app. Online access is available from credit-card issuers, too.

*The risks.* The theft of debit, credit, and prepaid card data from Target and Neiman Marcus during the 2013 holidays shows that you don’t have to bank online to be hit by the everyday reality of hackers. But multiple layers of security protect online and mobile access to your deposit and credit accounts. While there are no guarantees you’re completely safe, anyone hacking your accounts would need your banking user name and password, at minimum.

Even if your account is hacked, your liability for stolen deposits and unauthorized credit charges is limited and can be as low as nothing because of consumer protection laws and zero-liability policies at many financial institutions and transaction processors.

But the hassle of sorting things out if your checking account is hit and the potential for identity theft is real. Only you can weigh your discomfort with that “maybe” against the convenience.

*The cost.* At most banks, nothing.

*Our advice. *A must for the convenience and the ability to monitor accounts for unauthorized charges (see “Identity Security,” below). And banking-system security is as good as it gets, because these core institutions of the economy are themselves on the hook for the fraud losses.

*How to get started.* Go to your bank’s website for online banking and look for directions on where to download the appropriate apps.

*The tools and benefits. *Simplee Wallet makes sense of the windstorm of paper statements, bills, and notices you get from multiple insurance and health care providers. It organizes in one place all of the information about your coverage, deductibles, and co-payments, along with your medical bills and statements from your insurer. You can access your account through the Web or an app, so it’s easier to understand what you owe to whom, determine how much of your deductibles have been paid as you move through the year, and read plain-language descriptions of the services you’re paying for. Simplee Wallet also looks for billing errors and offers saving tips.

If you suffered damage to your insured auto or home, use claim-filing smart-phone apps now available from most major insurers. You can photograph damage with your cell-phone camera, call a tow truck using your GPS coordinates, and fill out and electronically file your claim, which can speed up payments. And get ahead of the curve on home losses by creating an inventory of your possessions using the Insurance Information Institute’s “Know Your Stuff” app or one offered by insurers, such as Allstate’s Digital Locker and Liberty Mutual’s Home Gallery. State Farm customers can access the HomeIndex inventory tool free on the insurer’s website.

*The risks. *Simplee Wallet is compliant with the security standards of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Security is less of a threat with insurance claims and home inventories, but both use encryption technology and secure servers. Home-inventory storage on the cloud also ensures that you can access the information after a natural disaster.

*The cost.* Free.

*Our advice.* All of those apps are worthwhile conveniences. Simplee Wallet works with health care providers, as well as medical, dental, vision, pharmacy, and health spending coverage. The service coordinates with insurance companies, so we recommend that you also register directly with your insurer’s online access for more details about your coverage.

You can download the apps from the iTunes or Google Play app stores. Check user reviews for community experience, advice, and troubleshooting.

*The tools and benefits.* ChoosetoSave.org is an excellent aggregator of resources for saving, including online calculators, budgeting tools, and advice on how to get started. It’s often customized for your specific goal, whether you’re saving for a car or college tuition, planning to buy a home, or building emergency funds. The Ballpark Estimate, available as an online tool, app, and a printable worksheet, makes the complexity of retirement planning significantly easier by helping you quickly determine how much you’ll need to save for a comfortable retirement. It also links you to the Social Security Administration’s online benefits calculator.

The second major tool for making saving a breeze is automatic deductions from your paycheck and direct deposit into your savings, 401(k), and mutual-fund accounts.

*The risks. *None. Those online planning tools don’t require any financial account or personal identifying information about you. Payroll deductions transmitted directly to financial institutions go through the Automated Clearing House, the banking industry’s private electronic payments network.

While ACH fraud is a possibility, in this instance the financial institutions and your employer are liable for any losses, not you. Protect yourself by never responding to e-mail requests for personal financial information and never clicking on links in phishing e-mail; independently telephone your employer, bank, or investment company to verify such requests.

*The cost.* Free.

*Our advice.* Take advantage of Choose to Save’s financial resources, because it’s operated by two bedrock nonprofit, nonpartisan, noncommercial organizations, the American Savings Education Council and the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Contact your employer’s payroll department to arrange for automated paycheck deductions to be deposited into your savings and investment accounts.

*The tools and benefits. *Bring balances, transactions, and other details from all of your key deposit, investing, and credit accounts together in one place for easy oversight, planning, and management. Create a household budget, track and analyze expenses, forecast income and costs, and organize your spending into categories. Get alerts on overdrafts and fees, bill reminders, and suspicious transactions.

Among the proliferating choices, no single tool does everything. That makes settling on one solution a matter of personal preference, says Mark Schwanhausser, director of omnichannel financial services at Javelin Strategy & Research, a California consulting firm. Those tools are available through software (Quicken and You Need a Budget, for example), online services (such as Mint.com and Check), and bank and credit-union websites.

*The risks. *The software and online services can retrieve your financial account information. But they can’t buy, sell, withdraw, or charge orders, so a hacker can’t use them to initiate activity. But because account information is valuable to thieves—and since you must enter your account user name and password through the systems to let them download your data—all of them use encryption and other security measures, though none is fail-safe.

But you can increase your risk with every new site you add. “The fewer places you have your data, the better,” said a security expert, Phil Froehlich, chief operating officer of Integris Security, a New York consulting company.

*The cost. *Bank and online tools are typically free. Quicken costs $30 to $105, depending on what version you buy, while YNAB costs $60.

*Our advice.* Banks are the logical place to consolidate all of your financial information. You can take action via your accounts, and the services usually cost nothing. So try them first.

*The tools and benefits. *If you have relatively simple tax returns, tax-prep software will lead you through the process, make calculations automatically, and allow you to file electronically. For more complex returns, you’ll save time and perhaps money with a professional tax preparer.

One of the toughest parts of doing taxes—whether you’re doing them yourself or paying someone— is gathering and organizing receipts for your deductions. Simplify here by buying a receipt scanner that can convert your paper receipts into digital files. The Internal Revenue Service accepts digitized receipts as valid proof of deductions, so you can toss the paper after scanning.

*The risks. *Using software to fill out your return doesn’t mean you have to file it electronically; you can print out a paper copy and mail it. But make sure your stored digital files are encrypted in case your computer is stolen. Electronic filing is nevertheless secure and has major advantages, including fast acknowledgement that it was received by the taxing authorities without errors or other problems, and quicker refunds. Your receipts probably won’t be much interest to thieves, but you should back them up so you don’t lose them, preferably off-site on Google Drive or another consumer data back-up service.

*The cost.* It varies depending on the version you use and whether you prepare online or use a CD-ROM, software download, or mobile app. Intuit’s TurboTax, the best seller, ranges from free to $90; TaxACT by InfoSpace ranges from free to $22; and H&R Block’s offerings range from free to $40. (Read a comparison of H&R Block Deluxe and TurboTax Deluxe here.) Tax preparers can charge an average of $261, according to the National Society of Accountants. The Neat company sells a portable receipt scanner for $180 and a desktop model for $400.

*Our advice. *Pick the option suited to your budget and needs. The Neat scanners are an affordable choice, but we haven’t tested them.

—Jeff Blyskal

Identity security: When old school works best

Your eyes are a critical line of defense against fraud. So regularly and personally monitor your bank account, and credit-card, credit-report, and investment transactions, and report unauthorized activity immediately. Guard against divulging personal and financial information in response to e-mail that might be a phishing scam and during suspicious phone calls. Place a security freeze on your credit report, a key protection that blocks access by companies and people you don’t already do business with. Use your intuition to detect fraud in the works.

Technology can help. Install antivirus, antispyware software on your computers and mobile devices. Sign up for mobile banking and online access to your accounts to see transactions anytime in real time rather than wait for a monthly paper statement. Set up text and e-mail alerts with your financial institutions to flag any suspicious activity.

This article also appeared in the April 2014 issue of Consumer Reports Money Adviser.

*Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers or sponsors on this website. Copyright © 2006-2014 Consumers Union of U.S.*

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    Reported by Consumer Reports 5 hours ago.

After several hours of testimony from parents and doctors, Colorado’s House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee passed a bipartisan measure Thursday night aimed at making it harder for parents to send their children to school without receiving required vaccines.

Under current Colorado law, parents are able to opt out of vaccinating their children with a statement of exemption for religious or personal beliefs.

Sparked by recent whooping cough outbreaks, HB 14-1288 would require parents opposed to vaccination to complete an online education module and acquire the signature of a health care professional confirming disclosure of possible health risks "to the student and the community.”

State Rep. Dan Pabon (D) proposed the bill to ensure that parents are more informed and "that they're not just opting out simply because of convenience," according to the Denver Post.

"Vaccine refusal results in higher rates of vaccine-preventable disease," Pabon said. "This is a public health issue. These are very serious diseases."

Colorado has the sixth-highest rate of non-vaccinated public school kindergarteners. The bill will also mandate all licensed schools and day care centers to release public records on the percentages of their non-vaccinated children.

"There are kids who can't get vaccinated because they're immuno-compromised and are being exposed to vaccine-preventable diseases,” Pabon argued on Thursday. “To add on top of that, older populations that have medical conditions are also at risk."

Although the bill would not eliminate the personal belief exemption, parents opposing the legislation argued that increased education mandates could lead to the erosion of parental rights during Thursday’s testimony before lawmakers.

"Parents have a constitutional right to parent their children," Susan Lawson, whose daughter developed encephalitis after a routine vaccine when she was a year old, told CBS Denver. "I am not an uneducated woman."

Anti-vaccination advocacy group National Vaccine Information Center has also attacked the proposal as one that “singles out and discriminates against a minority of parents with sincerely held personal beliefs … by assuming they are uneducated and should be forced into a state approved ‘education’ program.”

Between 2009 and 2012, 18 states introduced 36 immunization exemption bills, five of which sought to make obtaining vaccination exemptions more difficult. Three of them -- in Washington, California and Vermont -- became law, according to a study by Emory University's School of Public Health. A similar law in Oregon on non-medical exemptions also went into effect on March 1.

More than 30 state medical and education groups, including the Colorado Children’s Campaign, the Children’s Hospital Colorado and the Colorado BioScience Association, backed the proposed legislation, which passed with a 9-2 vote. Reported by Huffington Post 5 hours ago.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 Utah) – The clock is ticking for those waiting to sign up for health insurance on healthcare.gov. Reported by abc4 5 hours ago.

In an appearance on the syndicated radio program, "On Air with Ryan Seacrest" Friday morning, the president defended himself against the ridicule and barbs he's received for years for wearing what some have called, "mom jeans." Obama protested that he's been "unfairly maligned," and with his characteristic humility, added - "the truth is, generally I look very sharp in jeans." 

Not "okay,""passable,""decent,""fine," or  just "sharp." POTUS wants you to know he looks VERY sharp in his jeans. And he has an excuse at the ready for his poor choice of jeans on that fateful summer day in 2009.

The Washington Post reported:

His defense of his jeans was prompted by a conversation Seacrest had with a Gap employee who helped Obama pick out sweaters for his wife Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha Obama. Apparently, she was thinking that Obama should perhaps update his wardrobe during his visit, too.

“I’ve been unfairly maligned about my jeans,” he said. “The truth is, generally I look very sharp in jeans. There was one episode like four years ago in which I was wearing some loose jeans mainly because I was out on the pitcher’s mound, and I didn’t want to feel confined while I was pitching, and I think I’ve paid my penance for that. I got whacked pretty good. Since that time, my jeans fit very well.”

Obama also talked politics with Seacrest and eventually got to the main reason he was there, "if you want health insurance this year, you need to make sure you that you are signing up by March 31.”

 
 
 
  Reported by Breitbart 4 hours ago.

President Barack Obama's appearance on "Between Two Ferns," the online comedy show hosted by Zach Galifianakis, was viewed by about a quarter of the young Americans the White House was targeting, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds.

But older Americans were even more likely to have seen the video -- and they're not happy about it.

Obama's appearance on the interview show was aimed at young people the administration hopes will sign up for health insurance under Obamacare. Overall, 28 percent of Americans said they approved of the interview, 33 percent said they disapproved and 38 percent said they weren't sure.

Similarly, 39 percent said they thought the interview was "a waste of time that should have been spent on more important things," while 25 percent saw it as "an effective way to promote the health care website to young people. Thirty-six percent said they weren't sure.
The lukewarm response to the video may just reflect the fact that many people outside of its target audience ended up seeing it. Those Americans tended to dislike it, while others were more likely to say they simply don't care one way or the other.

About a third of Americans overall said that they saw the video, and a total of 59 percent said they had at least heard about it. But 48 percent of Americans age 65 and older saw it, compared to only 25 percent of Americans age 18-29. Republicans were as likely as Democrats to say they'd seen the video, with 33 percent of each saying they had.

The results suggest that replay on news programs -- some of which were quite critical -- amplified the video's message, but not necessarily to its target audience. Forty-six percent of people who say they "follow what's going on in government and public affairs" most of the time saw it, compared to 22 percent of people who follow "some of the time," 15 percent of people who follow "only now and again," and only 8 percent of those who don't follow the news at all.

Americans age 65 and up were also most likely to give the video negative reviews. Forty-nine percent of respondents in that group said they disapproved of the appearance, while only 25 percent said they approved. Older Americans were also far more likely to see the show as a waste of time than as an effective way to reach young Americans, 53 percent to 24 percent.

In contrast, younger Americans were more likely to approve of the appearance (38 percent) than disapprove (19 percent). They were about as likely to say that it was an effective way to promote HealthCare.gov to young Americans (30 percent) as to say it was a waste of time (26 percent).

The appearance divided Americans along party lines, but Republicans' negative reactions were stronger than Democrats' positive ones.

By a 62 percent to 7 percent margin, Republicans said they disapproved, while Democrats were more likely to approve than disapprove, 47 percent to 13 percent. Independents were more likely to disapprove than approve, 34 percent to 26 percent.

Republicans, of course, were also more likely to disapprove of the president's motivation for doing the interview. Seventy-four percent of Republicans said they disapproved of Obama promoting HealthCare.gov, while 72 percent of Democrats said they approved. Independents were somewhat more likely to disapprove than approve, 46 percent to 39 percent. Overall, Americans were divided 44 percent to 43 percent on whether they approved of Obama promoting the site.

The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted March 13-14 among 1,000 U.S. adults, including 357 conservatives, using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.

The Huffington Post has teamed up with YouGov to conduct daily opinion polls. You can learn more about this project and take part in YouGov's nationally representative opinion polling. Reported by Huffington Post 4 hours ago.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The lead agency for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform announced on Friday that it would require, rather than merely encourage, insurers that sell Obamacare policies to accept funds from a federal program that helps people with HIV-AIDS pay health insurance premiums. Reported by Reuters 4 hours ago.

Acting to expand health insurance access for same-sex couples, the Obama administration said Friday that plans offering benefits for heterosexual couples must also provide coverage for married couples who are of the same gender.
 
 
 
  Reported by msnbc.com 3 hours ago.

Wall Street's big banks and their financial networks that collapsed the U.S. economy in 2008-2009 were saved with huge bailouts by the taxpayers, but these Wall Street gamblers are still paid huge money, and are again creeping toward reckless misbehavior. Their corporate crime wave strip-mined the economy for young workers, threw them on the unemployment rolls and helped make possible a low-wage economy that is draining away their ability to afford basic housing, goods and services. Meanwhile, Wall Street is declaring huge bonuses for their executive plutocrats, none of whom have been prosecuted and sent to jail for these systemic devastations of other peoples' money, the looting of pensions and destruction of jobs.

Just what did they do? Peter Eavis of the New York Times provided a partial summary:
Money laundering, market rigging, tax dodging, selling faulty financial products, trampling homeowner rights and rampant risk-taking -- these are some of the sins that big banks have committed in recent years.
Mr. Eavis then reported that "regulators are starting to ask: Is there something rotten in bank culture?"

The "rot" had extended long ago to the regulators whose weak laws were worsened by weak enforcement. Veteran observer of corporate criminality, former Texas Secretary of Agriculture and editor of the Hightower Lowdown newsletter, Jim Hightower writes:
Assume that you ran a business that was found guilty of bribery, forgery, perjury, defrauding homeowners, fleecing investors, swindling consumers, cheating credit card holders, violating U.S. trade laws, and bilking American soldiers. Can you even imagine the punishment you'd get?

How about zero? Nada. Nothing. Zilch. No jail time. Not even a fine. Plus, you get to stay on as boss, you get to keep all the loot you gained from the crime spree, and you even get an $8.5 million pay raise!
Hightower was referring to Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, "the slick CEO who has fostered a culture of thievery during his years as a top executive at JPMorgan, leading to that shameful litany of crime."

Shame? Dimon doesn't know how to spell it: "I am so damn proud of this company. That's what I think about when I wake up every day," he said in October, 2013.

Millions of young Americans (called Millennials, between ages 18 and 33) should start agitating through demonstrations, demand petitions and put pressure on the bankers and members of Congress. First the plutocrats and their indentured members of Congress should drop their opposition to a transaction tax on Wall Street trading. A fraction of a one percent sales tax on speculation in derivatives and trading in stocks (Businessweek called this "casino capitalism") could bring in $300 billion a year. That money should go to paying off the student debt which presently exceeds one trillion dollars. Heavy student debt is crushing recent graduates and alarming the housing industry. For example, people currently between the ages of 30 to 34 have a lower percentage of housing ownership than this age group has had in the past half century.

A Wall Street transaction tax was imposed in 1914 and was more than doubled in 1932 to aid recovery from the Great Depression before it was repealed in 1966. But the trading volume then was minuscule compared to now with computer-driven trading velocity. A tiny tax -- far less than state sales taxes on necessities -- coupled with the current huge volume of trading can free students from this life-misshaping yoke of debt.

Some countries in Europe have a securities transaction tax and they also offer their students tuition-free university education to boot. They don't tolerate the same level of greed, power and callous indifference to the next generation expressed by the monetized minds of the curled-lipped Wall Street elders that we do.

What about young people who are not students? The Wall Street tax can help them with job-training and placement opportunities, as well as pay for tuition for technical schools to help them grow their skills.

A good many of the 30 million Americans stuck in a wage range lower than the minimum wage in 1968, adjusted for inflation, (between $7.25 and $10.50) are college-educated, in their twenties and thirties, and have no health insurance, no paid sick leave and often no full-time jobs.

A youth movement with a laser-beam focus, using traditional forms of demonstration and connecting in person, plus social media must come down on Wall Street with this specific demand. Unfortunately, while Occupy Wall Street started an important discussion about inequality, they did not advance the transaction tax (backed vigorously by the California Nurses Association), when they were encamped near Wall Street and in the eye of the mass media in 2011. A missed opportunity, but not a lost opportunity. Fighting injustice has many chances to recover and roar back.

It is time for young Americans to act! Push Congress to enact a Wall Street speculation tax to help roll back your student debt and give you additional opportunities that are currently denied to you by the inside bank robbers who never had to face the sheriffs. They owe you.

As William C. Dudley, the eminent president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently said of Wall Street: "I think that they really do have a serious issue with the public." Yes, penance and future trustworthiness enforced by the rule of law.

Young America, you have nothing to lose but your incessant text messages that go nowhere.

Start empowering yourselves, one by one, and then connect by visiting Robin Hood Tax. Reported by Huffington Post 2 hours ago.

President Barack Obama hit back at critics calling him out for his "mom jeans."

"I've been unfairly maligned about my jeans," Obama said Friday in an interview with radio host Ryan Seacrest.

"The truth is, generally I look very sharp in jeans. There was one episode like four years ago in which I was wearing some loose jeans, mainly because I was out on the pitcher's mound and I didn't want to feel confined while I was pitching, and I think I've paid my penance for that. I got whacked pretty good. Since that time, my jeans fit very well."

The topic of the President's ill-fittingly jeans came up when Seacrest asked Obama about his recent trip to the Gap where he did some shopping for daughters Sasha and Malia.

The President's denim has had a tough go of it over the years.

The "mom jeans" joke first came to be early in his first term when he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

Former Alaska Gov. and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin brought the joke back in the political spotlight last week when talking about the turmoil in Ukraine during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.

"People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil," Palin said. "They look at our President as one who wears mom jeans and equivocates and bloviates."

Obama's interview with Seacrest comes as the White House revs up its last minute push to get Americans to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act before the March 31 open enrollment deadline.

During the interview, Obama continued his get-covered pitch, saying people should sign up because "you never know what kind of curveballs life throws at you." Reported by Click Orlando 2 hours ago.

With all the confusion and obfuscation surrounding the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, it would be easy to overlook the fast-approaching deadline to sign up for health insurance. Reported by dailypress.com 2 hours ago.

kaaupairagency.ie--KA Au Pair Agency offers excellent childcare and adult care services, an excellent opportunity for the parents in Ireland.KA Au Pair Agency offers excellent childcare and adult care services, an excellent opportunity for the parents in Ireland. It is targeted towards all the parents who are working or needs help with the children at home. Cork, Galway, Belfast as well as Dublin are some of the location, where the services are offered. It offers in-house/out-house services which depends upon the requirements. Among additional facilities, the AU Pair Agency Dublin offers English classes due to its association with Delfin English School.

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Company Contact Information
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News and Press Release Distribution From I-Newswire.com Reported by i-Newswire.com 2 hours ago.

Today is 3/14, therefore a happy Pi Day to all! Next year will be even more fun, though, since it'll be 3/14/15....

Moving right along... a lot happened in the world of politics this week, including Democrats being disappointed in a special House election down in Florida and the president appearing between two ferns (which caused some underwear-bunching on the right, so to speak). We'll get to all of that later, though. First, let's take a run around the rest of the news from the week, shall we?

Setting a level for hypocrisy usually not so blatantly shown by Democrats, Senator Dianne Feinstein is hopping mad that the government spied on her computers. The irony is so thick you can spread it on toast. Previously known as a champion for pretty much any spying the N.S.A. felt like doing, on every American, Feinstein doesn't have a whole lot of moral high ground to stand on, no matter how much high dudgeon she's currently showing. Edward Snowden immediately called Feinstein onto the carpet for her hypocrisy.

But after the raft of manure she deservedly got for her "laws for me, but not for thee" elitist view of the Fourth Amendment, Feinstein certainly does have a point. Maybe what America needs is a second "Church Committee," in fact, to investigate how the intelligence services of the country should be operating. And while the dustup between Feinstein and the C.I.A. is what's in the news now, this is truly all a sideshow to the real subject matter at hand -- the impending 6,000-page report from Feinstein's committee, on how America used torture after 9/11. That is going to be an explosive report, if the American public ever hears what is in it, that is.

Marijuana made the news in several ways over the past week, so let's just hit the high points (so to speak... ahem). In California, the state Democratic Party just included a plank in its platform which calls for "the legalization, regulation and taxation of pot in a manner similar to that of tobacco or alcohol." Gavin Newsom, who is now California's lieutenant governor, pushed for the inclusion.

Sanjay Gupta used another of his shows to call for nationwide legalization of medical marijuana, after speaking with "marijuana refugees" who have moved to Colorado to secure medicine for their children to avoid seizures. Gupta felt compelled to revisit the subject on his show: "This refugee situation that is developing, I thought it would be a bit apocryphal, I wanted to make sure I wasn't being led down some false path -- but I met with these families and it is real. Are you really going to arrest a person for taking their medicine back to their state? This is not the society that I think most people would think we are and yet it's absolutely happening. It's heartbreaking."

In Colorado, the state appeals court ruled that people convicted under previous state marijuana laws should probably be let go, now that the laws have changed. It's pointless to hold someone in prison, after all, for doing something that is now legal. Eric Holder made the news for calling for reducing mandatory minimum sentences federally to cut down sentences for all non-violent drug offenses, as well.

And it was lobbying week in Washington for the marijuana lobby. Yes, there now is such a thing. In past years, they haven't made much of a splash on Capitol Hill, but this year they've been drawing much more serious attention. After all, Colorado has shown that there are millions of dollars in tax revenue to be had out there, just for the asking. The concept of a "marijuana lobby" might be an odd one to contemplate, but it is indeed as important as the other drug reform efforts taking place. Members of Congress need to hear how even small changes in current law could help this new industry grow and prosper. There are all sorts of hurdles and needless obstacles to creating a real marijuana marketplace, and they need to be removed, one by one. Lobbyists are exactly what is needed to get this job done.

And finally, the Supreme Court has refused to take up a First Amendment case, which leaves the lower court's ruling intact: students in public schools cannot be banned from wearing "I [heart] Boobies" bracelets (in support of the fight against breast cancer), because it is not disruptive to the schools' educational mission and is in fact free speech. So feel free to heart all the boobies you want, kids! So to speak.

 

We've got a few *Honorable Mention* awards to get to before the main event this week. Dianne Feinstein deserves some credit (in and amongst the ridicule for the inconsistency of her Fourth Amendment views), both for the torture investigation itself and for reportedly pushing very hard for at least a summary of the report to be made public. Declassifying at least an overview is indeed important, because it may be the only chance Americans get to see what was done in our name. A secret investigation which produces a secret report (which can't even be talked about in public because it is so secret) is the very definition of pointlessness. The public deserves to know, which Dianne Feinstein seems committed to making happen somehow. For that, she deserves mention.

Eric Holder's push on reforming mandatory minimum sentencing is a big step in the right direction, so he also deserves at least an *Honorable Mention* for his speech this week. I wrote about this yesterday, in more detail.

House Democrats have certainly been showing some feistiness, and they have now tried twice to pass a reprimand of Darrell Issa for shutting down the microphone of the ranking Democrat on his committee, during a hearing. Of course, it failed on party-line votes, but this is indeed the way to hold people's feet to the fire (especially considering that Issa is scheduled to step down from his chairmanship at the end of this year, but has been rumored to be begging Boehner for an extension).

But the *Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week* this week was President Obama, for announcing that the Department of Labor will be reviewing rules on overtime pay. This will close a loophole many employers use to get free overtime work out of very minor employees, by calling them "supervisors" and putting them on a yearly salary instead of hourly wages. By raising the amount real supervisors must make (to be classified as such) and revamping the rules for who can be labelled a supervisor, this will restore traditional time-and-a-half overtime pay to millions of workers. These are people who work hard making just above the poverty line, who are being exploited for extra free overtime labor.

This initiative goes hand-in-hand with raising the minimum wage, because it answers the previous complaint that "this will only affect the lowest-paid workers." Moving up the salary scale and identifying a welcome change which could be made for people who are working very hard and deserve to be paid appropriately for it will dovetail with the Democratic push to raise the minimum wage nationally. It sets up the Democratic election-year theme "We're for Main Street, Republicans are for Wall Street" perfectly, in fact.

For making a bold move on overtime pay, and for it fitting in so neatly with the push for raising the minimum wage, President Obama deserves the *Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week*. He's doing a good job, so far, of laying out a theme for his fellow Democrats to use in the campaign this fall.

[Congratulate President Barack Obama on his White House contact page, to let him know you appreciate his efforts.]

 

Senator Dianne Feinstein also deserves at least a *(Dis-)Honorable Mention* this week, for all of her previous support of government spying on computers, phones, and anything else they feel like doing. She has pushed legislation to legalize the mass collection of data from every American, and she is adamant that it's for the best for everyone. Until her own computers were monitored, that is. For such breathtaking hypocrisy, DiFi (as we like to call her out here in California) has earned at least a *(Dis-)Honorable Mention*.

The biggest disappointment of the week, however, was down in the 13th congressional district of Florida, where Democrat Alex Sink lost a very close race to a flawed Republican candidate. If Sink had won, it could have changed the whole Republican campaign plan for this fall's midterm elections; but because she lost, it's going to be all anti-Obamacare, all the time on the airwaves.

Now, losing this election wasn't any sort of crushing blow to Democrats (even Karl Rove is warning Republicans not to break out the 2014 champagne quite yet), since Republicans have held this particular seat since the 1950s. But it was a "purple" district, since Obama (barely) won it both times. Sink got close to winning -- within roughly two percent. But the turnout stayed low, which is a much more worrisome thing for Democrats this November. Republicans reliably vote every two years, while Democrats only really turn out big in presidential years. If this stays true in 2014, Democrats are going to have a bad year.

For being the first to lose a (closely-watched) House race this year, Alex Sink is our *Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week*.

[Alex Sink is now a private citizen, and we do not give out contact information in this case. Also, she's probably disappointed enough on her own, without any further comment from others.]

 

*Volume 295* (3/14/14)

Once again, a mixed bag this week. Some positive talking points for Democrats, some slams against Republicans, and the idiocy of "presidents before Obama were more dignified than doing comedy," just to close on.

Enjoy, as always.

 *   I'm not going to let them take away your rights*Every so often, we feature a talking point from a professional in the field. This week's is from Paul Begala, who is telling Democrats to go on offense on Obamacare, instead of always playing defense. As he puts it, "We can win on Obamacare, but we have to fight. You cannot win if you do not fight." Here's his proposed talking point for Democratic candidates this year:



My opponent wants to repeal your rights to health care. He wants to take away your right to be protected against discrimination because you have a pre-existing condition. He wants to take away your right to be protected against discrimination for being older or being a woman. He wants to take away the closing of the Medicare donut hole for seniors. Look, I'm open to working with everybody to fix the law. But I'll never let them go back to the days where insurance companies could send letters saying your coverage has been canceled because you have a pre-existing condition. Repeal is Republicans' whole agenda. They have no ideas for giving you a pay raise. No ideas for raising the minimum wage. No ideas about how to create jobs. No ideas about how to get your kid into pre-K. Their entire agenda as a party is repeal -- to take away rights that you have won. I'm not going to let them do that.



 *   Uninsured rate continues to fall*Can't argue with the facts...

"For all the noise on the right about how Obamacare is destined to be a giant failure, I notice that the rate of Americans who don't have health insurance began to fall right when Obamacare was implemented. It's down for the first three months of this year, in fact. I predict that this rate will continue to fall, as more and more people take advantage of their new access to affordable care. This was the main reason this law was passed, so it's good to see it is doing what it was designed to do -- reduce the percentage of Americans who don't have health insurance."

 *   Doing things for the poor rather than just talking about it*Republicans are waking up to the fact that their party is seen as only caring about the wealthy. Point out that Democrats have always focused on Main Street.

"After over two months of Republicans blocking an extension of unemployment benefits in the Senate, we've finally reached a point where enough Republicans are getting worried about the upcoming election to get on board the Democratic effort to provide relief for these Americans who are hurting. We hope that a few Republicans will realize this over in the House, so we can get some money in the pockets of millions of Americans who are being used by Republicans as nothing more than a political football. Democrats would also like to invite Republicans to join in our efforts to raise the minimum wage, especially after it was announced that the fatcats on Wall Street made more in bonuses this year -- not salary, mind you, just bonuses -- than twice the entire combined pay of everyone who makes minimum wage in the whole country. That is disgusting, to be honest, which is why Democrats are working hard for all those hard-working Americans making minimum wage. For those a little further up the pay scale, President Obama just announced reforms that will guarantee that people get the overtime pay they really should be entitled to. They work long hours and they get nothing for their overtime now -- Democrats believe that is wrong, and we will end it. If Republicans want to do something for the poor that involves anything more than just talking about doing something for the poor, we have many efforts they could join us in today. The voters will remember who supported these efforts and who stood in the way, that's my guess."

 *   McCain drops "R-bomb" on Republicans*John McCain is not happy with his fellow Republicans in the Senate, it seems. The Senate moved on sanctions against Russia this week, and McCain took those Republicans to task who held up the process. In doing so, he invoked Saint Ronald of Reagan, in what amounts to "fighting words" among Republicans. In his own words:



I will say to my friends who were objecting to this -- and there are a number of them on my side -- you can call yourself Republicans. That's fine, because that's your voter registration. Don't call yourself Reagan Republicans. Ronald Reagan would never, would never let this kind of aggression go unresponded to by the American people.... I've been embarrassed before on the floor of the Senate, I will tell the president. But I haven't been embarrassed this way about members of my own party.



 *   Ready for the next discrimination battle?*This one is going to have some ripples spread from it, that's for sure.

"With the federal ruling that health insurance everywhere in America must not discriminate against gay spouses, I can see yet another struggle for equality on the horizon. Some corporations are already balking at providing birth control under its employee health plans, and now insurance companies will have to provide the same spousal health benefits to everyone -- gay or straight -- as long as the couple has been officially married in a jurisdiction which allows it. I'm sure there are plenty of corporations run by people who will not accept such equality, and I bet there will be many a court case filed. Sooner or later we're going to get a Supreme Court ruling on this issue which clearly states that corporations have no 'freedom of religion' rights, because they are not, in fact, souls with a conscience. Religion is private, the public marketplace is not. I don't know of any Bible verse -- any verse from any religion's holy book, in fact -- which says that corporate entities have souls."

 *   GOP outreach update*Hoo boy. There were so many of these this week, we almost could have used the whole talking points section for them all. Instead, we're just going to cram them all into one.

"To paraphrase Sarah Palin, I have to pose the question to the Republican Party: 'So how's that minority-outreach thingie workin' out for ya?' I see that the Republicans are forming lots of groups in an effort to reach out to women, but it doesn't matter how many spokeswomen you put out there if your basic policy is still to make women's lives needlessly harder -- like Michigan forcing all women to buy 'rape insurance,' for instance. In an extraordinary display of some very un-Christian behavior, I see that the president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute has declared that 'the hard left, human-hating people that run modern universities... should all be taken out and shot.' Um, yeah, I can't seem to find that particular quote from Jesus in the Bible, personally. So much for 'religious liberty,' eh? In other GOP outreach news, one Republican candidate in Arizona proclaimed that slave owners weren't so bad because, quote, basically slave owners took pretty good care of their slaves and livestock and this kept business rolling along, unquote. Another in Minnesota tweeted that if the NBA folded tomorrow 'nobody would notice a difference w/possible exception of increase in street crime.' Hey, way to reach out to minorities, GOP! I haven't heard a whole lot of condemnation of such remarks by other Republicans, although one Tea Partier candidate up in Montana was shunned for essentially espousing white supremacist views. Well, I'm glad to hear that there is actually such a thing as going too far for some Republicans. But, all in all, I'd say the whole Republican outreach to minorities effort still has quite a ways to go, wouldn't you?"

 *   No president would do such a thing...*Barack Obama appeared on the comedy web show Between Two Ferns this week, and boy were some pearls clutched in response.

"I see that David Gergen and Bill O'Reilly have come down with a fit of the vapors over the president appearing on a comedy show. They both asserted that other presidents would never have done such an unseemly thing. Well, Bill, Abraham Lincoln was indeed fond of telling humorous stories, including one famous fart joke that has not been lost to history. Rachel Maddow also helpfully pointed out to Gergen that presidents all the way back to Eisenhower have appeared on comedy shows on television, besmirching (as he called it) the 'majesty' of the presidential office. Ike did it, Nixon did it (with his famous "Sock it to me?" on Laugh-In), and Ronald Reagan did it. So what's the big deal with Obama doing it? Unlike other presidential comedic appearances, Obama had an ulterior motive -- to convince people to visit the health care marketplace site. After his appearance, a flood of traffic from the Between Two Ferns video appeared on the HealthCare.gov website -- showing that Obama's appearance worked. And that, I have to say, is pretty darn majestic."

 

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  Reported by Huffington Post 2 hours ago.

As Democrats smart from the loss of a special election in Florida because of the unpopularity of President Obama, the CIA under his administration is accused of spying on the Intelligence Committee of a Democratic Senate, and a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll finds disapproval of the president among Democrats rising to 20 percent, the Washington Post headlines, incredibly, "Obama sounds midterm alarms for Democrats."

Mr. President, Democrats are alarmed. About you.

The legacy of the Obama presidency could well include the destruction of Democratic control of the House, the Senate and a majority of governorships and state legislatures across America. Democrats can prevent this. My warning to Democrats and to Obama -- whose presidency will effectively end if the outcome in 2014 is unfavorable -- is that they must understand the gravity of the danger and the urgent need to improvise, adapt and do some things very differently.

For example, with Florida Democrat Alex Sink being hurt by Obamacare's unpopularity, it was thoughtless and politically inept for Obama to spend three important days before the special election being visible on local news vacationing in Florida.

There are three domestic political requirements for any president. The first is running a presidential campaign. Obama excels at this and has brilliantly executed raising big money and launching negative attacks against a single opponent.

The second is working with Congress. Obama has failed on this front. He assumed office lacking relationships that are essential to governing, yet he has refused to invest the time to build these relationships with congressional Democrats or Republicans.

The third requirement is creating a program, shaping a narrative and exciting the base to win midterm elections to enact that program. In 2010 Obama surrendered the national narrative to the tea party while his staff insulted the Democratic base with condescending pejoratives such as "the professional left," often for supporting policies he claimed to support, including the public option in health insurance.

The president has described himself as "like a Rorschach test," inducing divergent voters to project their views onto him. This works well in presidential elections, but it is disastrous in midterm elections. The effect angers and energizes Republican voters while anesthetizing and depressing many Democratic voters, who then stay home for midterms.

The original sin of Obama-style governing is that he never even tried to close the so-called revolving door or change the way Washington works as he had promised. Many Democrats outside Washington believe it is obscene when some of his former staff, including ex-White House aide Jim Messina, hustle business deals ferociously, often from sources that real Democrats consider unsavory.

Democrats need Robert Kennedys, not Karl Roves. With Kennedy it was all hands on deck; under Obama it is many hands in the till. When the candidate of hope and change becomes the president of revolving-door profiteering from special-interest greed, Democratic turnout suffers.

Obama appears to pride himself on lacking deep philosophical convictions, but it is these convictions, as well as bold programs to advance them and powerful mobilizations to enact them, that are the seed corn for midterm campaigns.

The danger for Democrats is that the core of Obama's style may be the curse on Democrats' midterm chances.

Obama and the Clintons should make it clear that they don't want consultant-driven superPACs, such as Ready for Hillary and Priorities USA, to siphon money from 2014 Democratic candidates. It is political suicide to hoard money for Clinton in 2016 with grave danger facing Democrats under heavy attack in 2014 from the Koch brothers and other super-wealthy rightists.

Instead of golfing with sports celebrities in Key Largo during foreign crises, Obama should mobilize them to market Obamacare to young people to help Democrats facing a political health-care crisis.

Obama should cut back aggressive deportations, which are poison with Hispanic voters, and wage all-out battles for a dramatic jobs bill, for unemployment benefits, for raising the minimum wage and for immigration reform -- even if this means calling a perpetually vacationing Congress back into session. Reported by Huffington Post 50 minutes ago.

3 terms everyone should know when looking at health insurance through Obamacare.
 
 
 
  Reported by Motley Fool 20 minutes ago.

Patch Ankeny, IA --

Health insurance in Michigan no longer covers abortions – women have to purchase a separate "rider." Reported by Patch 38 minutes ago.

PolitiFact says that most young people, in fact, have health insurance. Reported by Miami Herald 1 day ago.