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A Timely, Smooth Launch for the Health Care Law? The Jury’s Out

Posted on 06/19/2013 by | Washington Watch | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal Health | PoliticsWill everything be ready to launch President Obama’s health care law by the Oct. 1 deadline? We’re getting mixed signals. Start with a report released June 19 by the Government Accountability Office, the first in-depth look at the sprawling system. The upside: “Much progress has been made in establishing the regulatory framework and guidance required for this undertaking, and [the administration] is currently taking steps to implement key activities of the [online insurance marketplaces],” the report said. (Read the full …

Slim Whitman: The Haunting High Tenor of Country

Posted on 06/19/2013 by | Who's News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Entertainment | Legacy | Your LifeWere you a late-night television-watching insomniac in the early 1980s? If so, you undoubtedly remember all those commercials that peddled “Not Sold in Any Store!” record albums and cassette tapes by a singer you’d never heard of whose most distinguishing features were a pencil-thin mustache, outlandishly flared sideburns and a towering lacquered widow’s peak. He  warbled country ballads in a mellifluous high voice, occasionally breaking into a full-throttle yodel that put Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music to shame. …

‘Under the Dome’ Looks Like a Summer Hit

Posted on 06/19/2013 by | Television and Entertainment | Comments

EntertainmentThe first must-watch TV series of the summer has arrived, and for a change it isn’t airing on a niche cable network, appealing only to a demographic sliver. Under The Dome, which premieres Monday June 24 at 10 p.m. on CBS, is a big, broad crowd-pleaser that should pull a huge audience into its mysterious tent — and then trap us all inside. If you’ve watched CBS recently, you may have seen promotion of Under The Dome, a 13-episode summer series adapted …

Are Your Electronic Social Security Benefits Safe?

Posted on 06/19/2013 by | Money and Work | Comments

Bulletin Today | Money & Savings | WorkAs Social Security paper checks have been replaced by electronic bank deposits, something unexpected and alarming has occurred. Thieves are increasingly stealing beneficiaries’ payments by rerouting them into their own accounts or onto a debit card. Between October 2011 and June 2013, an astounding $28 million in benefit payments had been stolen. On June 19, the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging brought together a panel of advocates and victims to examine the issue and figure out what can be …

Are We Teaching Our Next Generation the Right Stuff?

Posted on 06/19/2013 by | News, Culture, Sights and Sounds | Comments

Bulletin Today | PoliticsI was on break from college, and proud to tell dad about my new major. “General Studies in the Humanities” sounded cool to me, but he was less impressed. “What the hell use will that be in world?” he wanted to know. “I’ll be a better human,” I snarked, stumped for a better answer. A report released today would have helped my case with dad. The Heart of the Matter comes from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Commission …

Strengthen Social Security and Medicare — Don’t “Reform” Them

Posted on 06/19/2013 by | AARP Media Relations Team | Comments

Politics | Your LifeThis initially ran in The Huffington Post. In the Washington Post this week, Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt writes about the need to “reform entitlements.”  Last week, AARP volunteers from every state in America came to Capitol Hill to ask their Democratic, Republican and Independent members of Congress to strengthen Social Security and Medicare by coming up with responsible solutions. Those who create the messages around recent attempts to cut Social Security benefits have also called for “entitlement reform.”  With …

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