Melvin's decent, but schools are suffering

Establishing an estate plan is an important aspect of a comprehensive and well-rounded financial plan.  A good estate plan will help ensure your wishes are carried out if you become incapacitated or die.  It will help the people you place in charge of your estate to make appropriate decisions for your care if you are living but unable to handle your own affairs and distribute the things you leave behind according to your wishes.  It will also help expedite your estate through probate or possibly avoid it completely. 

Thelma Grimes’ recent editorial (Oct. 10 edition) “Thoughts on Candidates” deserves a response. Apparently Thelma does not like my debating style or the questions that I ask of my opponent. Rather than tell you I believe Thelma is biased I would ask you to listen to the Buckmaster debate she refers to? Then you can decide if I’m “hulk angry” or simply a passionate debater asking the tough questions.  The podcast of the debate is posted on the Bill Buckmaster website at, http://www.buckmastershow.com.  

Recently, the Senate considered legislation to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from formally implementing its so-called “Utility MACT” rule – one of the most costly and unnecessary regulations it has ever proposed. While that legislation failed to pass (by a vote of 46 to 53), I hope the EPA’s regulation will be reconsidered; if allowed to take effect, it could have a tremendously negative impact on our state and Indian tribes. Here’s why.

The country is having an important debate about how much of our personal information the government should collect. The privacy issue is making for strange political bedfellows, with people on the left and right staking out a wide range of positions. But regardless of political stripe, we all should be able to agree that no one should be gathering private and personal information about our children to put onto one gigantic national database, right?

Let’s say you decide to start a school for sixth through 12th graders that gives students a rigorous, world class education: demanding courses, lots of homework, sky-high expectations.

“Creating a pathway to earned citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in this country is essential. The way we treat our friends and neighbors who are undocumented – by creating a mechanism for them to earn citizenship and move out of the shadows – transcends the issue of immigration status. This is a matter of civil and human rights. It is about who we are as a nation. And it goes to the core of our treasured American principle of equal opportunity.” Eric Holder, Attorney General (4/24/2013)

The recently elected State legislators from our part of Arizona seem to think that Arizona’s ongoing economic recovery is due to their leadership and ideology. This is no more the case than it would be to blame the State legislature for the Great Recession that devastated so many lives. They appear to believe that cutting Arizona’s educational system by billions in order to balance the budget has resulted in no real harm. A visit or two to some of our public schools might change their minds.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard about the young football player from Notre Dame who has now divulged that he had been duped by an online relationship for some three years. According to the latest version of the story, he never actually met this young lady who was supposed to be his girlfriend but had a torrid love affair with her through cyberspace. She is supposed to have died of leukemia and he used that tragedy to make himself a better player. Some have opined that he really used this story for publicity and to make his stock go up in the Heisman Trophy selection. Whatever.

The numbers we should all be concerned about: 23% is the largest portion of our workforce in Pima County.  This sector works in the service industry. Followed by Government sector at 19%.

Rosemont Copper supports community organizations and economic opportunity countywide.

The Oracle Elementary School District is funded in part by voter approved budget overrides. There is a 10 percent maintenance and operation override and a 5% kindergarten through third-grade override. During the 2011/2012 school year these overrides generated approximately $298,491 and $149,246 respectively.

Common Core is the current administration’s attempt to federalize K-12 education with a one size fits all curriculum.  The takeover is occurring in violation of the Constitution and federal law.  It is essentially the nationalization of compulsory education.

D

For many seniors and retirees, fitness activities are a regular part of their weekly routine. For others, fitness training is essential and equates to living well as opposed to merely existing. 

Many people spend the bulk of their lives delaying a lot of things because they’re “waiting for the right time.” Baloney! Today’s that time, unless you’ve formulated an exceptional system that can absolutely guarantee tomorrow will actually arrive and offer the ideal setting for whatever it is you’ve been delaying.

Bob Witek, who turns 74 in July, probably has as many big-band era recordings as any radio station around, not surprising since he's been collecting from the age of 10.

In my Aging Well Column last week, I covered the concept of negative media news as toxic, stressful and generally bad for your health. I apparently left out mental lapses. Apparently I’m the only one who caught this but my reference to George W. Bush as president during Desert Storm is obviously a mental lapse. It should have read H.W. Bush. There have been so many of them. I apologize. And rest assured I’m always out here fact checking.

"I have a 401k. How much interest does that earn?" Another one is: "My broker doesn't charge me anything. She gets her money from the mutual fund company. Besides, she has been my friend for years." Or, how about this one. "He told me I would make 20 percent the first year. Can a broker make a promise like that?"