Government Health Care Website Quietly Sharing Personal Data

By  |  Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Jack Gillum  |  abcnews.go.com  |  January 20, 2015

The government's health insurance website is quietly sending consumers' personal data to private companies that specialize in advertising and analyzing Internet data for performance and marketing, The Associated Press has learned.

The scope of what is disclosed or how it might be used was not immediately clear, but it can include age, income, ZIP code, whether a person smokes, and if a person is pregnant. It can include a computer's Internet address, which can identify a person's name or address when combined with other information collected by sophisticated online marketing or advertising firms.

The Obama administration says HealthCare.gov's connections to data firms were intended to help improve the consumer experience. Officials said outside firms are barred from using the data to further their own business interests.

There is no evidence that personal information has been misused. But connections to dozens of third-party tech firms were documented by technology experts who analyzed HealthCare.gov and then confirmed by AP. A handful of the companies were also collecting highly specific information. That combination is raising concerns.

Five secrets of successful Investors

By Heather Pelant  |  BlackRock Blog  |  January 16, 2015

“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” Sophia Loren’s famous beauty secret may have been tongue in cheek, but it’s true that most of us dream of finding that silver bullet, the magic formula that will transport us to our ideal – whether it’s for youth, happiness, looks, or wealth.

As I told my clients over the years, the secret to investing is that there is no secret. Instead, success is all about knowing yourself, getting the basics down and using both to make the right choices.

So here, based on BlackRock research, are five “secrets” of successful investors.

1. Know what you own and why you own it. Anchor your plan through the lens of your goals. Successful investors will tell you first why they own a particular investment before telling you what it is. A random collection of investments is not an investing plan.

I modified the goal setting guidelines of “SMART” to help me stay focused:

•  Specific: goals should be written down
•  Measurable: have a way to quantify progress
•  Ask: seek advice when you have questions
•  Responsible: adjust your portfolio as needed
•  Transparent: share your goals with family and others

2. Prepare for jumpy markets. In recent years, markets have been quite calm, with few dramatic ups and downs. This isn’t normal. The successful investor knows that when the market dips, it’s not time to flee but to buy “on sale”. People tend to miss out on investment gains because they sell when the market goes through a rough patch. Get familiar with normal market bumps (otherwise known as volatility) and stick to your strategy.
3. Diversify. Really. You may know the term “diversify” as an investment directive to not put all of your eggs in one basket, but what does that mean, exactly? I had a client during my financial advisor days who spread his assets among five different banks and called himself diversified. Diversification means balancing risks in your portfolio by combining investments that differ from one another. It’s a way of finding opportunity for growth while minimizing the overall bumpiness from year to year.
4. Rethink the safety of cash. I’ve discussed this before on The Blog and I can’t stress it enough. Cash is not an investment strategy. People know this, but they stick with cash because they think it’s safer. What they’re ignoring is the risk to their future spending power. Not only does cash provide virtually no return, it can lose you money thanks to taxes and inflation. Sure, inflation may be low today, but even a nominal amount of inflation can really pack a punch over time. If you’re holding too much cash, you should consider putting it to work.
5. Don’t set it and forget it. There’s an old rule of thumb that you should have the same percentage of bonds as your current age. So if you’re 40, the rule is that 40% of your portfolio should be bonds and the rest should be equities. But this shortcut, like many others, is oversimplified. It doesn’t take into account changes in the market environment, not to mention your life and circumstances over time. Successful investors fully and optimistically engage in their financial lives. That doesn’t mean being a day trader, but rather owning your financial future. Make the most of it.

New police radars can 'see' inside homes

By Brad Heath  |  USA Today  |  January 20, 2015

WASHINGTON — At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies have secretly equipped their officers with radar devices that allow them to effectively peer through the walls of houses to see whether anyone is inside, a practice raising new concerns about the extent of government surveillance.

Those agencies, including the FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service, began deploying the radar systems more than two years ago with little notice to the courts and no public disclosure of when or how they would be used. The technology raises legal and privacy issues because the U.S. Supreme Court has said officers generally cannot use high-tech sensors to tell them about the inside of a person's house without first obtaining a search warrant.

The radars work like finely tuned motion detectors, using radio waves to zero in on movements as slight as human breathing from a distance of more than 50 feet. They can detect whether anyone is inside of a house, where they are and whether they are moving.

The RANGE-R handheld radar is used by dozens of U.S. law enforcement agencies to help detect movement inside buildings. See how it works in this video provided by L-3 Communications VPC

Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone

By Donna St. George  |  washingtonpost.com   |  January 14, 2015

It was a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. But what the parents saw as a moment of independence for their 10-year ­old son and 6-year ­old daughter, they say authorities viewed much differently. 

Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect for the Dec. 20 trek — in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children. 

“We wouldn’t have let them do it if we didn’t think they were ready for it,” Danielle said. 

She said her son and daughter have previously paired up for walks around the block, to a nearby 7­Eleven and to a library about three-quarters of a mile away. “They have proven they are responsible,” she said. “They’ve developed these skills.” 

The Meitivs say they believe in “free-­range” parenting, a movement that has been a counterpoint to the hyper-­ vigilance of “helicopter” parenting, with the idea that children learn self-­reliance by being allowed to progressively test limits, make choices and venture out in the world.

“The world is actually even safer than when I was a child, and I just want to give them the same freedom and independence that I had — basically an old-­fashioned childhood,” she said. “I think it’s absolutely critical for their development — to learn responsibility, to experience the world, to gain confidence and competency.” On Dec.20, Alexander agreed to let the children, Rafi and Dvora, walk from Woodside Park to their home, a mile south, in an area the family says the children know well. 

Convicted Virginia state legislator wins election while in jail

By Gary Robertson  |  Reuters  |  January 13, 2015

Joseph D. Morrissey, a longtime Virginia legislator who ran his latest campaign while serving a jail sentence for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, on Tuesday won his bid for re-election to the state House of Delegates in a special election.

With all precincts reporting in Virginia's 74th house district, unofficial returns showed Morrissey, a former Democrat turned independent, capturing 42.3 percent of the vote.

The next closest candidate, in the three-person race to represent a district that includes part of the state capital of Richmond and portions of Henrico and Charles City counties, was Democrat Kevin Sullivan with 33.4 percent of the vote. Morrissey did not need to capture more than half the votes to win.

Morrissey's win capped off one of the most bizarre electoral campaigns in Virginia history.

"It’s really astonishing that a man with more baggage than Amtrak has been elected from his jail cell," said Stephen Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington.

Journalists and Jihadis

By G. Murphy Donovan  |  American Thinker  |  January 12, 2015

Muslim sensitivities everywhere are now more important than truth or justice anywhere.  Alas, France and many other naïve Europeans have surrendered pride and identity to Brussels and in turn volunteered to be colonized by a 5th column of Arab/Muslim religious imperialists.

It’s hard to calculate the price of cheap labor when the real currency is common sense, identity, or culture. The Arab no-go slums that surround Paris are testimony to French venality, the blowback from communal Europe, and all those associated social or economic fantasies.

With assimilation off the table, open borders become the open wounds of cultural decay. Urban necrosis in Paris and London, and many other European capitals, is a self-inflicted wound.

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo slaughter, a British Sunni Imam in London crowed on the Fox News Channel that the key to Muslim rage was sharia, that arbitrary amalgam of contrived history, false prophets, and social toxins. Imam Anjem Choudary’s suggestion to “submit” was nonetheless superfluous. European and American journalists have been on their knees since oil was fifty cents a gallon.

Starting with Daniel Pearl, and continuing with the recent spate of beheadings by ISIS, we see video after video of journalists on their knees literally pleading for their sorry apologetic lives, denouncing their homelands, and then being butchered anyway. Journalists are a special obsession for Islam because professional writers are now the iconic representatives of cowering democracies.  No group has done more to rationalize and sanitize the barbarity that is Islamic imperialism.

Dems change tune after mocking GOP for ‘drill, baby, drill’

By William La Jeunesse  |  Fox News  |  January 13, 2015

Back when gas topped $4 a gallon, Republicans chanted "drill, baby, drill" at rallies across the country -- arguing more domestic drilling would increase supplies, reduce dependence on foreign oil and boost the U.S. economy. 

Democrats, almost universally, mocked the GOP plan. In 2012, President Obama called it "a slogan, a gimmick, and a bumper sticker ... not a strategy." 

"They were waving their three-point plans for $2-a-gallon gas," Obama told a laughing audience during an energy speech in Washington. "You remember that? Drill, baby, drill. We were going through all that. And none of it was really going to do anything to solve the problem." 

"'Drill, baby, drill' won't lower gas prices today or tomorrow," Rep. Janice Hahn, D-Calif., echoed on the floor of Congress in 2012. "But it will fuel our addiction to fossil fuel." 

Today, Democrats are singing a different tune, as increased domestic drilling has led to a record supply of domestic crude, put some $100 billion into the pockets of U.S. consumers and sent world oil prices tumbling. 

The price of a gallon of regular gasoline on Monday was $2.13 nationwide, and below $2 in 18 states. 

"Of course [Obama] was wrong. We've seen oil prices fall internationally now by half since last June," said American Enterprise Institute economist Ben Zycher. "The U.S. is now the biggest oil and gas producer in the world, or almost that, and the effect has been to drive prices down as we've seen." 

15 Apps to Totally Organize Your Life

By Allison Martin  |  MoneyTalksNews  |  January 1, 2014

There isn’t enough time in the day for most of us to accomplish everything we need to. And if you’re struggling to get a handle on your current tasks, chances are you’ve repeatedly longed to be more efficient and productive.

But with the emergence of smartphones and a host of useful apps, there’s something out there to simplify each of our busy lives. If you have a particular need, well, there’s probably an app for that.

Here are some useful apps to help you get organized:

Finances

Check (available on Android, iOS)

No more overdrawn accounts, late payment fees or scrambling to find statements. This app lets you control your finances at the tap of a finger. You can schedule or make payments and receive pertinent alerts regarding account activity.

PowerWallet (available on Android, iOS, Windows 8)

You’ll get a snapshot of your finances and receive automatic alerts along with graphs to help you track your progress and achieve your goals. Expenditures are automatically categorized to ease budgeting. PowerWallet is a Money Talks News partner.

Shoeboxed (available on Android, iOS)

This app is ideal for anyone who is on the go and needs a simple way to capture data from receipts or track mileage.

You Need a Budget (available on Android, iOS, Kindle Fire)

Budgeting doesn’t get much easier than this. The YNAB app uses four common principles to help you get your spending under control, build up a cushion and get out of debt.