Some Halloween Safety Tips!

• Prevent Accidents: Remove or move lawn furniture, or any other obstacles, to avoid accidents or damage. Ensure your home’s entry is in good condition, free of loose or broken pieces on stairwells and walkways to avoid trick-or-treaters’ injuries on your property.

• Fire Dangers: Prevent fires by making sure pumpkins containing candles are placed at a distance where a child’s costume cannot be ignited or a curious guest may tip it over. Extinguish all candles before going to bed and use battery operated lights wherever possible.

• Costume Safety: Be careful with costumes. All disguises should be made from flame-resistant materials and shouldn’t be too long or contain sharp accessories. Try to avoid masks that may obscure vision and try to use hypo-allergenic make-up.

• See and Be Seen: Encourage each trick-or-treater and adult chaperones to carry a flashlight. Apply light-reflecting material to costumes.

• Don’t be a Scary Driver: Drive sober, slowly and even more carefully than usual on Halloween. Watch for children who may be running or wearing dark costumes in the road.

• Power in Numbers: When walking, travel in groups and cross only at corners and crosswalks—never between parked cars—and stay on well-lit streets.

• Unwelcomed Guests: Scare away potential property vandals who often use the chaos of Halloween night to strike by keeping outdoor lights on.

• Pet Safety: Keep pets inside. Warn your children to stay away from animals as they go door-to-door. Halloween night can be stressful, even on the friendliest dog, cat or other creature.

• Candy Inspection: Cavities aren’t the only candy-related risks on Halloween. Inspect all children’s treats. Never eat unwrapped items, collect candy only from those you know and ask the local police department if it offers a candy x-ray and/or inspection service. Throw away any suspicious candy.

USDA Crop Insurance Press Release

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Release No. 0563.10

Contact:

Office of Communications (202) 720-4623

Agriculture Secretary Villach Announces $9.6 Million in Partnership Agreements to Help Small and Underserved Producers

USDA Funds Community Risk Management Education through Innovative Agreements

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2010 â€" Agriculture Secretary Tom Villach today announced that the Risk Management Agency (RMA) has awarded $9.6 million in Partnership Agreements to provide producers with opportunities to learn more about managing risk in their businesses, which provides an important educational opportunity for limited-resource and underserved farmers and ranchers. Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Deputy Under Secretary Michael Souse announced the awards on Villach's behalf at the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's Annual Crop Insurance Conference.

"The partnerships we are announcing today will provide community-based opportunities for underserved, small and limited-resource producers to be better managers in an inherently risky business," said Souse. "For small and beginning farmers in particular, risk management often means understanding direct marketing and for this they need legal, financial, and food safety tools and information appropriate for the scale of their operation and the markets that they serve."

Many of the partnerships that RMA is offering can help farmers diversify production and marketing practices, or to provide planning tools to help farmers obtain the insurance and credit that are often critical to their ability to stay in business or to diversify their existing business.

The Federal crop insurance program and Risk Management Education and Outreach programs together provide a safety net to ensure that farmers and ranchers will weather the perils of nature and the marketplace and continue in business, thus ensuring the food supply and the survival of small, limited resource, socially disadvantaged and other traditionally under-served farmers . RMA administers these partnership projects as well as the Federal crop insurance program, with funding and authority from the Federal Crop Insurance Act.

The new partnership agreements announced today include:

Crop Insurance Education in Targeted States: $5 million is being awarded to deliver crop insurance education and information to agricultural producers in 16 states designated as historically underserved with respect to crop insurance. These targeted states include: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Commodity Partnerships for Small Agricultural Risk Management Education Sessions: $1 million is being awarded to fund 110 commodity Partnership Agreements across the country, delivering training to U.S. farmers and ranchers in managing production, marketing, and financial risk, such as the award to Annie's Project in Illinois, Education for Farm Women. The program gives priority to educating producers of crops currently not insured under Federal crop insurance, specialty crops, and underserved commodities, including livestock and forage. RMA expects to reach 1.2 million producers with Risk Management Education Partnerships alone; a 10 percent increase over 2009.

Community Outreach and Assistance Partnerships: USDA is awarding $3.6 million for collaborative outreach and assistance programs, such as the $100,000 award to provide emerging risk management tools to returning veterans to support successful farming. This partnership category targets limited resource, socially disadvantaged and other traditionally under-served farmers and ranchers, who produce priority commodities.

Complete listings of the agreements can be found on the RMA Web site at the following address: http://www.rma.usda.gov/aboutrma/agreements/.

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USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender. To file a complaint of discrimination, write: USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (800) 795-3272(voice), or (202) 720-6382 (TDD).

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Esquire Magazine article on balancing the federal budget

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Subject: Esquire Magazine article on balancing the federal budget

A few months ago Esquire Magazine pulled together four former Senators who are knowledgeable on the Federal Budget: Packwood of Oregon, Bradley of New Jersey, Hart of Colorado, and John Danforth of Missouri, to discuss how they would balance the federal budget. They along with Lawrence O'Donnell, a former Senate aide and now MSNBC host, discussed the subject and came up with the following report.

The Commission to Balance the Federal Budget: The Results
By The Editors

A few months ago, we announced the formation and mandate of the Esquire Commission to Balance the Federal Budget. The plan was simple: A group of former legislators from across the political spectrum would convene, make the hard choices that our current leaders refuse to make, and erase the annual budget deficit by 2020. Below, the results of their efforts in all their statistical detail (also available in the November issue — now on sale). You can also read the authors' introduction here<http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/balance-federal-budget-101310> and the story of how it all happened here<http://www.esquire.com/features/balance-the-budget-findings-1110>.

A Few Words on the Objectives:

Primary Objective: To balance the federal budget by 2020 by instituting spending cuts and/or revenue increases, most of which would not begin until 2013.

Secondary Objective: To adjust annual government spending and annual government revenue so that both equal 20 percent of the gross domestic product by 2020.

Tertiary Objective: To stabilize national debt at less than 60 percent of GDP by 2020.

Other Objectives That We Hadn't Intended to Meet but Did Anyway:
• Guarantee the solvency of Social Security over the next seventy-five years.
• Restructure the military to better meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.
• Keep individual tax rates at or near their current levels for all Americans.

Note: All projected savings and revenue for fiscal year 2020 only, and all amounts in 2020 dollars.

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The Spending Proposals:
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1. Gradually raise the retirement age to seventy.

Currently, the retirement age is sixty-six, and starting in 2021, it is scheduled to gradually increase to sixty-seven at a rate of two months a year. As Americans today are living and working longer than in previous generations, the commission proposes to instead begin gradually increasing the retirement age to seventy before 2021, but at a rate of one month per year.

Furthermore, in consideration of those Americans who work or have worked manual-labor-intensive jobs and would therefore find working past sixty-seven an undue burden, the commission proposes that eligibility requirements for disability be narrowly liberalized beginning at age sixty-seven.

Projected Savings: $49 billion

2. Use an alternate measure of inflation to calculate cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security recipients.

Every year, Social Security recipients receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) so benefits keep pace with inflation, and many analysts believe that the current index used to calculate COLAs, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, the CPI-W, overstates inflation because it does not fully account for changes in patterns of spending. The commission proposes to calculate COLAs using an alternative price index, the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). It is generally viewed as doing a better job at measuring inflation for retired people than the CPI-W because the CPI-U is calculated using a broader base of consumers — not just urban wage earners and clerical workers but all urban consumers (including retired people) — and more closely reflects changes in cost of living. As the CPI-W is expected to overstate inflation in the years ahead, switching to the CPI-U will save money.

Projected Savings: $23 billion

3. Increase years used to calculate benefits.

Currently, Social Security recipients' benefits are calculated based upon their thirty-five highest years of earnings. The commission proposes to increase the number of years to thirty-eight to reflect the longer amounts of time that most people are working today.

Projected Savings: $14 billion

Total Projected Savings in Social Security: $86 billion

Addendum: These adjustments not only decrease the annual deficit by $86 billion in fiscal year 2020; along with a proposal to include all new state and local government workers in the Social Security program (see page 161 for details), they also ensure the solvency of Social Security for at least the next seventy-five years. At current spending levels, Social Security is projected to become insolvent by 2037, at which point it would be able to pay recipients only 78 percent of their expected benefits. The commission's proposals would guarantee recipients 100 percent of their expected benefits through at least 2085.
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1. Enact the administration's proposed weapons-systems cuts.

The commission endorses the weapons-system cuts the president proposes in his 2011 budget. The C-17 Transport Aircraft; Joint Strike Fighter Al-ternate Engine; Navy's Next Generation Cruiser; EP-X Manned Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Aircraft; Net Enabled Command Capability; and Third Generation Infrared Surveillance programs would all be canceled.

Projected Savings: $4 billion

2. Reverse the "Grow the Army" initiative.

The commission proposes to reverse the Army's "Grow the Army" initiative, which plans to add 65,000 active personnel (increasing from 482,400 to 547,400) and 9,200 reservists (increasing from 555,000 to 564,200) to the Army's ranks by 2011.

Projected Savings: $10 billion

3. Restructure the military along strategic lines.

The commission believes that the U. S. defense establishment must be fundamentally reorganized to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. The number of nation-state wars for which our military is configured is going down while the number of irregular and unconventional wars is going up, and yet the military is still procuring and paying for a cold-war-based defense system. To better meet these new challenges requires a shift in how the military allocates its resources, and the commission estimates that this shift will result in a decrease in overall defense spending. This restructured military budget would equal 2.2 percent of GDP in 2020 (as compared with the current budget projection, which has it at 3.6 percent of GDP in 2020).

Projected Savings: $169 billion

4. Assume cost of engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq will decline.

The commission assumes that the cost of U. S. engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq will decrease significantly by 2020. The below figure is based on a projected estimate of thirty thousand combined troops in both countries.

Projected Savings: $126 billion

Total Projected Savings in Defense: $309 billion
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1. Institute medical-malpractice reform through the establishment of medical courts.

This proposal would establish medical courts — similar to bankruptcy courts — in which verdicts are made by judges trained to evaluate scientific evidence. As an alternative to the current trial-by-jury system for medical-malpractice lawsuits, this proposal would decrease the number of frivolous lawsuits that reach trial, increase the speed with which meritorious lawsuits reach trial, and reduce administrative costs for the federal judiciary. It would also discourage the practice of defensive medicine, whereby health-care providers, under the constant threat of litigation, often order unnecessary (and costly) tests and procedures to hedge against potential lawsuits.

Projected Savings: $10 billion

Total Projected Savings in Health Care: $10 billion

Addendum: The commission believes it unlikely that Congress and the president will substantially modify the recently enacted health-care legislation. The commission also strongly advocates a transition from our current fee-for-service system — in which health-care providers stand to profit from each test, procedure, and office visit — to a pay-for-performance system, in which health-care providers are compensated for the medical outcomes for dollars spent, thereby improving the quality and efficiency of the care provided. The commission believes such a transition would fundamentally alter the dynamics of our health-care system and save consumers, health-care providers, and the federal government billions of dollars a year.
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1. Enact the president's proposed spending-program terminations.

The commission endorses the president's proposed termination of lower-priority spending programs as detailed in his 2011 budget. (View the list here<http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget>).

Projected Savings: $4 billion

2. Cut the federal workforce by 5 percent.

The commission advocates streamlining the federal workforce by 5 percent over the next decade by increasing public-sector productivity to bring it in line with ongoing increases in private-sector productivity.

Projected Savings: $26 billion

3. Delay NASA missions to the moon and Mars.

The commission believes that instead of replacing the space shuttle, the U. S. should delay plans for further exploration of space.

Projected Savings: $4 billion

4. Reform farm subsidies.

The commission proposes to prohibit new enrollments in the Conservation Stewardship Program, prohibit reenrollments in the Conservation Reserve Program, reduce crop-insurance subsidies paid to crop-insurance providers, and implement means-testing for individuals whose incomes exceed $250,000 (for nonfarmers) or $500,000 (for farmers).

Projected Savings: $13 billion

5. Eliminate all earmarks.

Read our full story<http://www.esquire.com/print-this/TK> about the commission's meeting for more details.

Projected Savings: $18 billion

6. Use an alternate measure of inflation for COLAs for federal and military pensions and veterans' retirement benefits.

As with Social Security, retired federal employees and certain veterans receive a cost-of-living adjustment based on CPI-W so their annual retirement benefits keep pace with inflation. The commission proposes to calculate the COLA using an alternative price index, the Chained Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). (See item number 2 under Social Security for definitions and details.)

Projected Savings: $6 billion

Total Projected Savings in Other Spending: $71 billion

Total Projected Savings on Government Spending in 2020: $476 billion

Total Debt Service Projected Savings in 2020: $142 billion

Note about debt service: Every year the government must spend billions of dollars to pay the interest on the money it borrows, and the less money we borrow in any given year, the more we will save on the interest costs associated with that borrowed money. By cutting spending by a net amount of $476 billion in 2020, and more importantly $3.182 trillion over ten years, and by instituting our revenue proposals, we are also cutting the amount required to service our total debts in 2020 by $142 billion and by $479 billion over ten years.

Total Projected Savings: $618 billion

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The Revenue Proposals:

1. Repeal employer health-care tax exclusion and offer a refundable health-care tax credit.

Under current law, employer-provided health benefits are not counted as taxable income for the employees who receive the benefits, although an excise tax on high-cost (i.e., "Cadillac") plans is scheduled to begin in 2018. In place of this excise tax, the commission proposes to repeal the employer-provided health-insurance exclusion altogether while instituting a refundable tax credit to help people pay for their health insurance. Under this system, a person's employer-provided health benefits would be taxed as personal income; however, the government would also offer a refundable tax credit that employees can put toward paying for their health insurance.

Projected Revenue: $63 billion

Addendum: The final figure for projected revenue includes lost potential revenue from the excise tax scheduled to go into effect in 2018.

2. Increase gasoline tax by $1 per gallon.

The current federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, but the commission proposes to increase the federal gas tax, gradually and beginning in 2013, so that in 2020, it would be $1.18 cents per gallon. This would not only generate significant revenue but also reduce consumption of gas, reduce carbon emissions, and provide an incentive to automakers to increase the fuel efficiency of their vehicles.

Projected Revenue: $130 billion

Addendum: If this proposal were instituted along with a federally mandated increase in CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards, any increase in the cost of gasoline at the pump could be offset by better fuel efficiency.

3. Limit itemized deductions for high earners.

The commission proposes to limit the tax rate at which itemized deductions reduce tax liability to 28 percent, thereby limiting itemized deductions for upper-income taxpayers (individuals making more than $200,000 and families making more than $250,000). The commission also proposes to phase out personal exemptions for upper-income taxpayers.

Projected Revenue: $57 billion

4. Keep tax rates low for the next decade.

The current tax rates are scheduled to expire at the end of 2010, meaning statutory tax rates would return to their 2000 levels. The commission proposes that the government use the $3.2 trillion that it will generate through cutting spending and limiting the value of tax expenditures to keep rates at or near their current levels through 2020. The commission believes that reductions in additional tax expenditures (see below) should go to middle-income tax relief and that the government should reinstate the increased alternative-minimum-tax exemptions that expired in 2009.

Projected Revenue: -$273 billion

5. Curtail state and local sales-tax deduction.

Currently, taxpayers may deduct their state and local sales-tax payments from their federal income tax. The commission proposes to reduce the total amount allowed under this deduction to about 20 percent of current levels.

Projected Revenue: $12 billion

6. Eliminate subsidies for biofuels.

The commission proposes eliminating subsidies for producing biofuels, including ethanol.

Projected Revenue: $16 billion

7. Include all new state and local government workers in Social Security.

Under current law, some state and local government employees are not required to pay into the Social Security program. The commission proposes that all new state and local workers contribute to the Social Security program. This would raise additional revenue because many of these workers eventually receive benefits because of their spouses, and therefore the amount of benefits they gain by joining the system is less than the amount they pay in. This would apply only to employees hired in 2010 and beyond, not to current state and local government workers.

Projected Revenue: $21 billion

Total Projected Revenue Increase: $26 billion

The Final Numbers:

Total Projected Revenues in 2020: $4.693 trillion (20.8% of GDP)

Total Projected Spending in 2020: $4.681 trillion (20.8% of GDP)

Total Projected Surplus in 2020: $12 billion

Projected Debt-to-GDP Ratio in 2020: 52%

THOSE RESPONSIBLE: With thanks to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget<http://www.crfb.org/> and its president, Maya MacGuineas, for their invaluable assistance in providing the commission with accurate data and budget options; to Barry Anderson, a former deputy director of the Congressional Budget Office and a private budget consultant who ran the numbers and answered every question promptly and precisely; and to John Cunningham, a recent graduate of Bowdoin College who assisted Anderson in this massive endeavor. A note to potential employers: Hire this guy.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/federal-budget-statistics-1110
Print<https://owa.rcis.com/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx> Close<https://owa.rcis.com/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx>

Linda Vickers
Federal Government Relations Director
Rural Community Insurance Services
Phone: 503.801.7788
Email: Linda.Vickers@RCIS.COM

Monitor Your Teen's Driving

Automobile accidents are easily the leading cause of death for teenagers across America, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). For both genders, drivers between the ages of 16 and 19 have the highest average annual crash and traffic violation rates of any other age group. NHTSA data also show that unaccompanied 16- and 17-year-olds crash nine times more often than adults.

Research indicates that young novice drivers tend to underestimate the crash risk in hazardous situations. Teen drivers also tend to take more risks while driving, partly due to their overconfidence in their driving abilities. One way for parents to reduce their teen's chances of being involved in an auto accident is to use technology to monitor their driving characteristics and provide appropriate feedback.

A number of "black box" products are now available on the marketplace to facilitate monitoring drivers. These small devices (often the size of a pager and starting at around $280) can be simply installed into the auto your teen drives by plugging them into the Vehicle Data Link Connector (on 1996 and new vehicles). They can detect and record your teen's speed, aggressive driving such as "jack-rabbit" takeoffs, failure to wear a seat belt, unsafe backing techniques, driving locations, monthly mileage, and driving times. Thus, if your teen's curfew is at midnight and they get home at 1:00 a.m., you will know it.

With some of these products, you can simply pop the memory card out of the "black box" and plug it into your PC to display the reports and graphs. You can then review the results with your teenager, providing a great educational opportunity based on solid, technology-driven evidence. Research indicates that this type of monitoring and coaching pays off big dividends in the form of safer teen driving. Numerous companies offer these products in the marketplace, with some of the more sophisticated ones costing upwards of $1,000. A few insurers offer discounts for families who utilize these devices.

Get more personal lines insurance and risk management tips and ideas from IRMI.

Copyright 2010
International Risk Management Institute, Inc.

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Warsaw Fire Department Spaghetti Supper

The Warsaw (IL) Fire Department will be holding our annual spaghetti supper on October 16, 2010 at the Warsaw High School cafateria from 4:30-8:00 P.M. This will be following the West Hancock Titan vs Rockridge football game. Adults $6.00 kids under 10 $3.00 for all you care to eat. We would love to see you there.

For more information or to ask questions, please visit our Facebook page.

Here is a map to Warsaw High School.

And from the High School to the Football field.