The New Old Age Blog: Officials Say Checks Won't Be in the Mail

The jig is up.

Two years ago, the Treasury Department initiated its Go Direct campaign to persuade people still receiving paper checks for their Social Security, Veterans Affairs, S.S.I. and other federal benefits to switch to direct deposit.

“At that point, we were issuing approximately 11 million checks each month,” or about 15 percent of the total, Walt Henderson, director of the campaign, told me.

After putting notices in every monthly check envelope, circulating public service announcements and putting the word out through banks, senior centers, the Red Cross, AARP and other organizations, the Treasury Department has since shrunk that number to five million monthly checks.

That means 93 percent of those getting federal benefits are using direct deposit or, if they prefer or lack a bank account, a Direct Express debit card that gets refilled each month and can be used anywhere that accepts MasterCard.

“So people have been getting the word and making the switch,” Mr. Henderson said. Now, federal officials are pushing the last holdouts to convert to direct deposit by March 1.

Although officials say the change is not optional, the jig isn’t entirely up. If you or your older relative does not respond to their pleading, “we’re not going to interrupt their payments,” Mr. Henderson said. But the department will start sending letters urging people to switch.

The major motive is financial: shifting the last paper checks to direct deposit or a debit card (only 2 percent of recipients go that route) will save $1 billion over the next decade, the department estimates.

But safety enters the picture, too. One reason some beneficiaries resist direct deposit, Mr. Henderson said, is that they fear their electronic deposits can be hacked or diverted. Having grown up in a predigital age, perhaps they feel safer with a check in their hands.

But they probably aren’t. In 2011, the Treasury Department received 440,000 reports of lost or stolen benefits checks. With direct deposit, “there’s no check lingering unattended in a mailbox,” Mr. Henderson noted.

The greater reason for sticking with paper is probably simple inertia. “It’s human nature to procrastinate,” he said.

But unless you or your relatives want a series of letters from the Treasury Department, it is probably time for the last fence-sitters to get with the program.

They don’t need to use a computer. People can switch to direct deposit, or get the debit card, at their banks or the local Social Security office. More simply, they can call a toll-free number, (800) 333-1795, and have agents walk them through the change. Or they can sign up online at www.GoDirect.org.

They will need:

1. Their Social Security number.
2. The 12-digit federal benefit number found on their checks.
3. The amount of the most recent check.
4. And, for direct deposit, a bank or credit union routing number, usually found on the front of a check. They can have direct deposit to a savings account, too.

A caution for New Old Age readers: If you think your relative has not switched because he or she is cognitively impaired and can no longer handle his finances, you can be designated a representative payee and receive monthly Social Security or S.S.I. payments on your relative’s behalf. This generally requires a visit to your local Social Security office, documentation in hand.

---

Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

Read More..

Claims for Jobless Benefits Drop

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits tumbled to a five-year low last week, while housing starts surged, the government said Thursday in a pair of new economic reports.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 335,000, the lowest level since January 2008 and the largest weekly drop since February 2010, the Labor Department said.

The previous week’s figure was revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported.

While last week’s decline ended four straight weeks of increases, it is probably not the start of a new trend or a sign of a material shift in labor market conditions as claims tend to be volatile around this time of the year because of large swings in the model used by the department to iron out seasonal fluctuations.

A Labor Department analyst said the model had expected a large increase in claims last week, but the actual number of filings only showed a modest increase, leading to a big decline in the seasonally adjusted figure.

The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of labor market trends, fell 6,750 to 359,250, suggesting some improvement in underlying labor market conditions.

The claims data covered the survey week for January’s nonfarm payrolls. Job growth has been gradual, with employers adding 155,000 new positions in December. The unemployment rate held steady at 7.8 percent last month.

The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid increased 87,000 to 3.21 million in the week ended Jan. 5. The four-week average of the so-called continuing claims was the lowest since July 2008.

In a separate report, the Commerce Department said Thursday that groundbreaking to build new homes surged 12.1 percent last month to a 954,000-unit annual rate.

It was the fastest pace since June 2008, supporting the view that housing is poised to provide a substantial boost to the U.S. economy. But data for housing starts can be volatile and is sometimes subject to large revisions. The government revised downward its estimate for November housing starts, for example, to a 851,000-unit rate from the originally reported 861,000.

Some of the strength in December’s reading for starts came from a 20.3 percent surge in multi-unit construction; that component is especially volatile.

Thursday’s report nonetheless builds on a trend in growth that has led many analysts to expect residential construction bolstered the economy last year for the first time since 2005.

Permits for future home construction edged higher to a 903,000-unit rate, the quickest since July 2008. Groundbreaking for single-family homes, the largest segment of the market, climbed 8.1 percent last month to a 616,000-unit pace.

Read More..

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Meets Pope

Francesco Sforza/Osservatore Romano

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Wednesday.

ROME — On what is likely his last trip as defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta had an audience on Wednesday morning at the Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI, who told him, Mr. Panetta said, “Thank you for helping to protect the world.” Mr. Panetta said he replied, “Pray for me.”

Mr. Panetta, the son of Italian immigrants who attends Mass every Sunday, is halfway through a weeklong trip to Europe meant as a goodbye tour of American allies. Later on Wednesday he is to meet with the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, as well as the president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano.

Mr. Panetta’s audience with the pope was far from private, although he had a close-up view. Mr. Panetta sat in the front row of the Pope Pius VI Audience Hall, where some 7,000 others had gathered for the pope’s weekly audience. After an hour-long service, Mr. Panetta filed up with several dozen people, including a bride, to receive a blessing from the pope, who spoke to him at that time.

Defense officials said that Mr. Panetta previously had an audience with Pope John Paul II when Mr. Panetta, who was a budget director and a chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, accompanied Mr. Clinton to Rome. He also had an audience with Pope John Paul II in Washington.

Mr. Panetta is to be succeeded by Chuck Hagel, who is preparing for Senate confirmation hearings later this month or early next month. After 28 months as defense secretary and many decades in government, Mr. Panetta plans to return to his walnut farm in Carmel Valley, California.

He has also visited Spain and Portugal during the trip. On Tuesday, in Lisbon, Mr. Panetta restated the administration position that the United States would not send ground troops to Mali, where militants were pushing toward one of Mali’s largest cities as France continued with airstrikes and pledged more troops.

“There is no consideration of putting any American boots on the ground at this time,” he said.

Later on Tuesday in Madrid he reiterated that the United States would offer France air and logistical support but declined to be more specific. He said that France faced a difficult task in trying to rout extremists from a vast area in northern Mali and that the Pentagon remained in talks with the French over what kind of military aid the United States would provide.

At a news conference in Madrid, Mr. Panetta deflected a question asking him to assess any progress the French had made against the extremists, who overran a central village on Monday only hours after the French foreign minister said confidently that France had blocked “the advance of the terrorists.” Mr. Panetta said the United States was “still trying to get a read” on French efforts and strategy.

“I can’t really give you a full analysis as to just exactly what they’re targeting and how successful or not successful they may be in that effort as of this moment,” Mr. Panetta said at a joint news conference with the Spanish defense minister, Pedro Morenés. But Mr. Panetta added that “any time you confront an enemy that is dispersed and that is not located necessarily in one area makes it challenging, and the ability to go after that enemy and be able to stop them from moving forward represents a difficult task.”

 

Read More..

Gadgetwise Blog: Tip of the Week: Monitor Your Memory

If your computer seems to be running slowly and acting as if it does not have enough memory installed, you can use software that comes with the operating system to see what is going on under the hood.

On a Windows system, open the Task Manager program by right-clicking on the Windows task bar and choosing Start Task Manager. (You can also use the keyboard shortcuts of Control-Alt-Delete or Control-Shift-Escape to summon the Task Manager.) In the Task Manager window, you can see all the programs, services and processes currently running on the computer. You can also use the Task Manager to close an application that is not responding; Microsoft has a demonstrations video online.

On a Mac, open the Activity Monitor program. Go to the Applications folder, then to the Utilities folder and double-click on the Activity Monitor icon. On Macs with the Launchpad feature, just click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, click the Other icon and open Activity Monitor. Here, you can see the amount of system memory being used, what programs and processes are currently running and other system information. Apple has more information about using the Activity Monitor and steps for quitting a frozen or memory-hogging program on its site.

Read More..

The New Old Age Blog: In Flu Season,Use a Mask. But Which One?

Do face masks help prevent people from getting the flu? And if so, how much protection do they give?

You might think the answer to this question would be well established. It’s not.

In fact, there is considerable uncertainty over how well face masks guard against influenza when people use them outside of hospitals and other health care settings. This has been a topic of discussion and debate in infectious disease circles since the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, also known as swine flu.

As the government noted in a document that provides guidance on the issue, “Very little information is available about the effectiveness of facemasks and respirators in controlling the spread of pandemic influenza in community settings.” This is also true of seasonal influenza — the kind that strikes every winter and that we are experiencing now, experts said.

Let’s jump to the bottom line for older people and caregivers before getting into the details. If someone is ill with the flu, coughing and sneezing and living with others, say an older spouse who is a bit frail, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the use of a face mask “if available and tolerable” or a tissue to cover the nose and mouth.

If you are healthy and serving as a caregiver for someone who has the flu — say, an older person who is ill and at home — the C.D.C. recommends using a face mask or a respirator. (I’ll explain the difference between those items in just a bit.) But if you are a household member who is not in close contact with the sick person, keep at a distance and there is no need to use a face mask or respirator, the C.D.C. advises.

The recommendations are included in another document related to pandemic influenza — a flu caused by a new virus that circulates widely and ends up going global because people lack immunity. That is not a threat this year, but the H3N2 virus that is circulating widely is hitting many older adults especially hard. So the precautions are a good idea, even outside a pandemic situation, said Dr. Ed Septimus, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

The key idea here is exposure, Dr. Septimus said. If you are a caregiver and intimately exposed to someone who is coughing, sneezing and has the flu, wearing a mask probably makes sense — as it does if you are the person with the flu doing the coughing and sneezing and a caregiver is nearby.

But the scientific evidence about how influenza is transmitted is not as strong as experts would like, said Dr. Carolyn Bridges, associate director of adult immunization at the C.D.C. It is generally accepted that the flu virus is transmitted through direct contact — when someone who is ill touches his or her nose and then a glass that he or she hands to someone else, for instance — and through large droplets that go flying through the air when a person coughs or sneezes. What is not known is the extent to which tiny aerosol particles are implicated in transmission.

Evidence suggests that these tiny particles may play a more important part than previously suspected. For example, a November 2010 study in the journal PLoS One found that 81 percent of flu patients sent viral material through air expelled by coughs, and 65 percent of the virus consisted of small particles that can be inhaled and lodge deeper in the lungs than large droplets.

That is a relevant finding when it comes to masks, which cover much of the face below the eyes but not tightly, letting air in through gaps around the nose and mouth. As the C.D.C.’s advisory noted, “Facemasks help stop droplets from being spread by the person wearing them. They also keep splashes or sprays from reaching the mouth and nose of the person wearing them. They are not designed to protect against breathing in the very small particle aerosols that may contain viruses.”

In other words, you will get some protection, but it is not clear how much. In most circumstances, “if you’re caring for a family member with influenza, I think a surgical mask is perfectly adequate,” said Dr. Carol McLay, an infection control consultant based in Lexington, Ky.

By contrast, respirators fit tightly over someone’s face and are made of materials that filter out small particles that carry the influenza virus. They are recommended for health care workers who are in intimate contact with patients and who have to perform activities like suctioning their lungs. So-called N95 respirators block at least 95 percent of small particles in tests, if properly fitted.

Training in how to use respirators is mandated in hospitals, but no such requirement applies outside, and consumers frequently put them on improperly. One study of respirator use in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, when mold was a problem, found that only 24 percent of users put them on the right way. Also, it can be hard to breathe when respirators are used, and this can affect people’s willingness to use them as recommended.

Unfortunately, research about the relative effectiveness of masks and respirators is not robust, and there is no guidance backed by scientific evidence available for consumers, Dr. Bridges said. Nor is there any clear way of assessing the relative merits of various products being sold to the public, which differ in design and materials used.

“Honestly, some of the ones I’ve seen are almost like a paper towel with straps,” Dr. McLay said. Her advice: go with name-brand items used by your local hospital.

Meanwhile, it is worth repeating: The single most important thing that older people and caregivers can do to prevent the flu is to be vaccinated, Dr. Bridges said. “It’s the best tool we have,” she said, noting that preventing flu also involves vigilant hand washing, using tissues or arms to block sneezing, and staying home when ill so people do not transmit the virus. And it is by no means too late to get a shot, whose cost Medicare will cover for older adults.

Read More..

The New Old Age Blog: In Flu Season,Use a Mask. But Which One?

Do face masks help prevent people from getting the flu? And if so, how much protection do they give?

You might think the answer to this question would be well established. It’s not.

In fact, there is considerable uncertainty over how well face masks guard against influenza when people use them outside of hospitals and other health care settings. This has been a topic of discussion and debate in infectious disease circles since the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, also known as swine flu.

As the government noted in a document that provides guidance on the issue, “Very little information is available about the effectiveness of facemasks and respirators in controlling the spread of pandemic influenza in community settings.” This is also true of seasonal influenza — the kind that strikes every winter and that we are experiencing now, experts said.

Let’s jump to the bottom line for older people and caregivers before getting into the details. If someone is ill with the flu, coughing and sneezing and living with others, say an older spouse who is a bit frail, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the use of a face mask “if available and tolerable” or a tissue to cover the nose and mouth.

If you are healthy and serving as a caregiver for someone who has the flu — say, an older person who is ill and at home — the C.D.C. recommends using a face mask or a respirator. (I’ll explain the difference between those items in just a bit.) But if you are a household member who is not in close contact with the sick person, keep at a distance and there is no need to use a face mask or respirator, the C.D.C. advises.

The recommendations are included in another document related to pandemic influenza — a flu caused by a new virus that circulates widely and ends up going global because people lack immunity. That is not a threat this year, but the H3N2 virus that is circulating widely is hitting many older adults especially hard. So the precautions are a good idea, even outside a pandemic situation, said Dr. Ed Septimus, a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

The key idea here is exposure, Dr. Septimus said. If you are a caregiver and intimately exposed to someone who is coughing, sneezing and has the flu, wearing a mask probably makes sense — as it does if you are the person with the flu doing the coughing and sneezing and a caregiver is nearby.

But the scientific evidence about how influenza is transmitted is not as strong as experts would like, said Dr. Carolyn Bridges, associate director of adult immunization at the C.D.C. It is generally accepted that the flu virus is transmitted through direct contact — when someone who is ill touches his or her nose and then a glass that he or she hands to someone else, for instance — and through large droplets that go flying through the air when a person coughs or sneezes. What is not known is the extent to which tiny aerosol particles are implicated in transmission.

Evidence suggests that these tiny particles may play a more important part than previously suspected. For example, a November 2010 study in the journal PLoS One found that 81 percent of flu patients sent viral material through air expelled by coughs, and 65 percent of the virus consisted of small particles that can be inhaled and lodge deeper in the lungs than large droplets.

That is a relevant finding when it comes to masks, which cover much of the face below the eyes but not tightly, letting air in through gaps around the nose and mouth. As the C.D.C.’s advisory noted, “Facemasks help stop droplets from being spread by the person wearing them. They also keep splashes or sprays from reaching the mouth and nose of the person wearing them. They are not designed to protect against breathing in the very small particle aerosols that may contain viruses.”

In other words, you will get some protection, but it is not clear how much. In most circumstances, “if you’re caring for a family member with influenza, I think a surgical mask is perfectly adequate,” said Dr. Carol McLay, an infection control consultant based in Lexington, Ky.

By contrast, respirators fit tightly over someone’s face and are made of materials that filter out small particles that carry the influenza virus. They are recommended for health care workers who are in intimate contact with patients and who have to perform activities like suctioning their lungs. So-called N95 respirators block at least 95 percent of small particles in tests, if properly fitted.

Training in how to use respirators is mandated in hospitals, but no such requirement applies outside, and consumers frequently put them on improperly. One study of respirator use in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, when mold was a problem, found that only 24 percent of users put them on the right way. Also, it can be hard to breathe when respirators are used, and this can affect people’s willingness to use them as recommended.

Unfortunately, research about the relative effectiveness of masks and respirators is not robust, and there is no guidance backed by scientific evidence available for consumers, Dr. Bridges said. Nor is there any clear way of assessing the relative merits of various products being sold to the public, which differ in design and materials used.

“Honestly, some of the ones I’ve seen are almost like a paper towel with straps,” Dr. McLay said. Her advice: go with name-brand items used by your local hospital.

Meanwhile, it is worth repeating: The single most important thing that older people and caregivers can do to prevent the flu is to be vaccinated, Dr. Bridges said. “It’s the best tool we have,” she said, noting that preventing flu also involves vigilant hand washing, using tissues or arms to block sneezing, and staying home when ill so people do not transmit the virus. And it is by no means too late to get a shot, whose cost Medicare will cover for older adults.

Read More..

DealBook: Goldman Sachs Earnings Soar

8:36 a.m. | Updated

Goldman Sachs on Wednesday reported a fourth-quarter profit of $2.89 billion, or $5.60 a share, a significant jump from the period a year earlier. It was also well ahead of analysts’ expectations of $3.78 a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Analysts had been anticipating a fairly decent quarter for Goldman, and its results were buoyed by strong trading and investment banking results and lower compensation costs. In the fourth quarter of 2011, the bank earned $1.84 a share.

The bank’s most recent results reflect a continued focus on cutting expenses as well as a number of investing gains, including $485 million from debt and security loans, the company said.

“While economic conditions remained challenging for much of last year, the strengths of our business model and client franchise, coupled with our focus on disciplined management, delivered solid performance for our shareholders,” Goldman’s chairman and chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, said in a news release.

The results had an immediate effect on the firm’s stock, sending it up sharply in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Over all, the firm produced $9.24 billion in revenue in the quarter ended Dec. 31, up 53 percent from the same quarter in 2011. That also beat analysts’ estimates of quarterly revenue of $7.91 billion.

Goldman also revealed how much it had set aside for compensation, paying out $12.9 billion in 2012, an average of $399,506 to each of its 32,400 employees. This represented 37.9 percent of Goldman’s revenue for the year.

Over the last year, Goldman has reduced its payroll by 900 people. In 2011, the bank set aside $12.22 billion, or 42.4 percent, of its 2011 net revenue to pay compensation and benefits for its employees.

Goldman partners, a small group of top managers at the firm, will learn their 2012 compensation packages on Wednesday. The vast majority of employees, however, will be told what their bonuses will be on Thursday in what is known at Goldman as compensation communication day. These bonuses are on top of annual salaries, which can range from roughly $100,000 to $2 million for executives like Mr. Blankfein.

Bonuses on Wall Street — both the size of them and how they are paid — always draw scrutiny. Goldman Sachs decided this week not to delay the payment of bonuses to its staff members in Britain, a move that would have helped investment bankers and other highly paid employees benefit from a lower income tax rate.

Goldman Sachs was already drawing attention in the United States after it distributed $65 million in stock to 10 senior executives in December instead of January, when the firm typically makes such awards. That move helped the executives avoid the higher tax rates that will now be imposed on income of $450,000 or more.

The firm’s annual return on equity was 10.7 percent, up from 2011, when it was 5.8 percent. While this is far below its performance in boom years like 2006, when its return on equity was 41.5 percent, it is an achievement that it has broken above 10 percent.

Banks continue to fight difficult economic conditions at home and abroad, and Goldman’s results are still well below what it was producing before the financial crisis. Those outsize profits, however, were fueled by borrowing on credit and selling mortgage-linked products, and they have dwindled. New regulations aimed at reining in risk-taking have also reduced the profitability of certain businesses.

Revenue from investment banking came in at $1.41 billion, up 64 percent from the year-ago period.

Net revenue in Goldman’s powerful division that trades bonds, currencies and commodities was $2.04 billion, up 50 percent from levels in the quarter a year earlier. The firm said those results reflected an increase in mortgage revenues, which were “significantly higher” when compared with 2011.

The firm’s investing and lending division also had a stronger-than-expected quarter, posting revenue of $1.97 billion, up 126 percent from year-ago levels. The firm said this unit benefited from an increase in equity prices in Asia and Europe and a number of one-time gains. For instance, it logged a gain of $334 million from its investment in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, a strategic investment the firm made in 2006. It also had gains from the debt securities and loans it holds.

Goldman is one of a number of banks releasing earnings this week. JPMorgan Chase also Wednesday weighed in with its results, reporting a strong profit of $5.7 billion for the fourth quarter, up 53 percent from the previous year.

These positive results put pressure on Morgan Stanley to post good results when it releases its fourth quarter numbers on Friday. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are expecting Morgan Stanley to report earnings of 27 cents a share, up from a loss of 14 cents in the year-ago period.

Read More..

IHT Rendezvous: And Now, via Google, Time Travel Through the Streets of Segovia

PARIS — Last month, Google and the Network of Jewish Quarters in Madrid announced an online pilot project that offers an expansive street-level tour of Spain’s long-ignored medieval neighborhoods that were emptied by the Spanish Inquisition. As I explored the site, to my surprise, the photographs of ancient, sand-colored stone walls in Segovia connected me with my own ancestors: my 16th great-grandparents.

The project is designed to offer a digital stroll through 1,000 years of history that was long buried and ignored: the legacy of the expulsion of Jews in 1492 by the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. The platform offers historical timelines, maps and photographs of ancient landmarks of Jewish life. Among them are the butcher shop at the entrance to Barcelona’s Jewish quarter at Sant Domènec street and my personal favorite, the 14th-century Tower of Love, in Palma on the island of Majorca. The tower figured in a clash between two prominent Jews over the affections of a woman, allowing one of them to spy on the other in the narrow lane of the quarter until a king intervened.

It is those kinds of intangible memories that the Spanish Network of Jewish Quarters, a nonprofit association founded in 1995, is hoping to pass on to a broader global audience. Google, which financed the project, has grand ambitions to create a platform that other institutions can use to mix information and history with a mapping system, according to William Echikson, a Google spokesman in Europe.

The project’s release comes within weeks of the Spanish government’s offer of citizenship to descendants of expelled Sephardic Jews with current religious ties. In Córdoba, local officials in Andalusia have also struck an agreement with the catering industry to open up the14th-century Córdoba synagogue for weddings in a bid to boost Jewish tourism. The new site allows visitors a glimpse of its neighborhood, Calle Judío.

“Maybe this will help people to trace their family roots from around the world so that they can figure out connections,” said Assumpció Hosta, general secretary of the network. “And maybe this will also give the citizens of Spain knowledge about their own history that has been neglected for years.”

In my own case, I made the acquaintance of my 16th great-grandparents only recently, while poring through genealogy records to trace the lines of my grandmother, Ángela Chacón. Her family lived in Costa Rica for generations and intermarried with other Catholic converso families like the Carvajals, who guarded their secret Sephardic Jewish identity for centuries.

Two weeks of exploring my grandmother’s line led me to distant great-grandfathers who were conquistadors in New Spain, one who searched fruitlessly for El Dorado. Others led me to ancestors in the south of Spain and in Segovia, home of Diego Arías Dávila, my distant great-grandfather, who was the wealthy royal treasurer for Enrique IV, the king of Castile and León and the half-brother of Queen Isabella, who succeeded him.

Diego Arías Dávila and his wife and my ancestor, Elvira González, were Jews whose families converted to Christianity in the tense decades leading up to the start of the Inquisition in 1478. After their deaths, they were posthumously tried in 1486 by the Inquisition for heresy for secretly maintaining Jewish rituals despite their conversions. Their son, Juan, the Catholic bishop of Segovia, was also accused of heresy, and retreated in exile to Rome, where he died trying to clear the family’s name.

I have never been to Segovia, but the new Web site took me on a haunting stroll to a street framed by stone walls called Martínez Campos. It was the site of the Campo synagogue – built and paid for in 1456 by Elvira González, although she was then a convert. Nothing remains of the building.  Another page took me on a tour of Merced Square, with a splashing fountain and towering monastery. It was there that Diego Arías Dávila
built a hospital with a chapel that existed until 1946. At one point, according to Inquisition records, Diego joked about being buried in a monastery there, prayed over by the monks and for good measure by the prayers of Jews at a neighboring synagogue.

But today, as I scroll through photos of Merced Square, I’m well aware that the remains of my ancestors have disappeared from Segovia – secretly removed from their tomb by their son, the bishop, who feared that the Inquisition would seize them and burn them in effigy as punishment for heresy.

Read More..

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Translating PDF to Word

I know you can save a Microsoft Word document as a PDF file, but can you go the other way and save a PDF as a Word document that can be edited?

Several third-party sites or shareware programs can do the job for free or for a small fee, which may be the best option if you just have a small number of files to convert. The converter page on the PDF Online site, the Smart PDF Converter page and shareware like Free PDF to Word Converter for Windows are among the options.

Adobe, which originally developed the PDF format, has instructions for converting PDF files to Word files with its $20-a-year Acrobat.com ExportPDF service on its site. The company also has conversion instructions posted for those using its Acrobat desktop software.

Read More..

The New Old Age Blog: Study: More to Meal Delivery Than Food

What’s a simpler idea than Meals on Wheels? Older, lower-income people who have trouble driving, cooking or shopping — or paying for food — sign up with a local agency. Each day, volunteers or paid staff come by and drop off a hot lunch. Federal and state dollars and local charities foot the bill.

At the Mobile Meals of Essex headquarters in my town in New Jersey on a recent morning, staffers were stuffing slices of whole wheat bread, pints of low-fat milk and containers of sliced peaches into paper bags. Next, they would ladle the day’s entree — West Indian curried chicken with brown rice and broccoli — onto aluminum trays.

Drivers in vans would fan out through the county, from downtown Newark through the sprawling suburbs, delivering the meals to 475 clients.

The benefit goes beyond food, of course. When his clients answer the door, often using walkers and canes, “I ask them how their morning’s going,” said a driver, Louis Belfiore, who would make 31 stops this day. “I give them their meal, I say, ‘Have a good day.’ They tell me, ‘You have a nice day, too.’”

This may represent the only face-to-face social interaction some homebound people have in the course of a day. And if they don’t come to the door, a series of phone calls ensues. “We’ve had people yell back, ‘I’m on the floor and I can’t get up.’ It doesn’t happen only in commercials,” said Gail Gonnelli, the program’s operations director.

Meals on Wheels advocates have always believed that something this fundamental – a hot meal, a greeting, another set of eyes – can help keep people in their homes longer.

But they didn’t have much evidence to point to, until a couple of Brown University health researchers crunched numbers — from Medicare, states and counties, the federal Administration on Aging and more than 16,000 nursing homes — from 2000 to 2009, publishing their findings in the journal Health Services Research.

The connection they discovered between home-delivered meals and the nursing home population will come as welcome news (though not really news) to Meals on Wheels believers: States that spent more than the average to deliver meals showed greater reductions in the proportion of nursing home residents who didn’t need to be there.

The researchers call these people “low-care” residents. Most people living in nursing homes require around-the-clock skilled care, and policymakers have been pushing to find other ways to care for those who don’t. Still, in 2010 about 12 percent of long-term nursing home patients — a proportion that varies considerably by state — didn’t need this level of care.

“They’re not fully dependent,” explained a co-author of the study, Vincent Mor. “They could be cared for in a community setting, whether that’s assisted living or with a few hours of home care.”

That’s how most older people prefer to live, which is reason enough to try to reserve nursing homes for those who can’t survive any other way. But political budget cutters should love Meals on Wheels, too. For every additional $25 a state spends on home-delivered meals each year per person over 65, the low-care nursing home population decreases by a percentage point, the researchers calculated — a great return on investment.

“We spend a lot on crazy medical interventions that don’t have as much effect as a $5 meal,” Dr. Mor concluded. With this data, “we’re able to see this relationship for the first time.”

(Co-author Kali Thomas — herself a volunteer Meals on Wheels driver in Providence, R.I. — has compiled a state by state list, posted on the Brown University LTCfocus.org Web site, showing how much states could save on Medicaid by delivering more meals.)

Sadly, though, appropriations for home-delivered meals are not increasing. The program served more than 868,000 people in 2010, the latest numbers available. But federal financing through the Older Americans Act has been flat for most of the decade, while food and gas costs — and the number of older people — have risen.

Given current budget pressures, advocates hope they can just hold the line (the “sequester” cuts to the federal budget are still looming unless Congress and the White House can reach agreement on the debt limit and a spending plan). Already, “we’ve seen millions and millions fewer meals,” said Tim Gearan, senior legislative representative at AARP. “Cuts from five-day service to three-day service. A lot more frozen food, which can be inappropriate for people who can’t operate ovens and microwaves. It’s been hard to watch.”

My urban/suburban county, Ms. Gonnelli said, maintains a waiting list: There are always about 65 seniors who qualify for Meals on Wheels, but there is no money to provide the food.

It can be a big step for an older person or his family to acknowledge that they need this kind of basic help and apply. It must be difficult, I said to Ms. Gonnelli, who has run the program for 15 years, to tell applicants she can’t help feed them.

“You have no idea,” she said.

---

Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

Read More..