On the Record: Meet Atty General Eric Holder Pt 1

Attorney General Eric Holder makes his way to Ferguson, Mo in the wake of civil unrest after the killing of Michael Brown. After briefing President Obama on the situation, Holder informed the President that he would visit the site himself. His visit is scheduled to begin on August 20th. I thought it might be interesting to learn a bit about the highest ranking law enforcement officer in America.



Eric Himpton Holder, Jr.,  serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, is the first African American to hold the position of U.S. Attorney General. He was sworn in as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States on February 3, 2009 by Vice President Joe Biden.

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Erasing Your Debt: Do's amd Don'ts

Some folks are trying to keep it a secret that the economy is improving. Polls say Americans are uncertain about their financial future. The data shows that Americans are racking up more debt in spite of their so called "uncertainty".

NerdWallet.com reports that our collective total debt is $11.74 trillion, up 5% from last year. the average debt for credit cards is $15,480, mortgage debt is $156,474. and student loans is $33,474 for Americans.

Experts say people make rookie mistakes when trying to rid themselves of debt. Here are some of the major no-nos: Taking out a pay day loan or title loan; transferring a balance to a new zero interest credit card, but failing to pay off the balance when the higher interest rates kick in; borrowing from a 401 (k) retirement account, especially if it involves paying a penalty. Putting creditors on a rotation, that is paying one creditor while making no payments on other debts is another bad idea. These methods seem to be a recipe for disaster. Debt settlement and bankruptcy should only be considered when you've run out of other options.

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Winning the Challenge: Weight Loss Strategies

Several years ago, my family viewed a video from our annual Christmas Eve celebration. We were confronted with the fact that we all needed to lose weight. We started a family "Fit Club" and worked together to eat healthier, move more, and improve our health. In spite of the fact that we have collectively lost more than 240 pounds, our weight loss challenge continues.

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On The Record: Meet Ronan Farrow

Ronan Farrow

While flipping the channels searching for afternoon cooking shows, I lingered on MSNBC long enough to check out the show's host. He was young, blond, handsome, and well spoken. I hadn't noticed him before and it made me wonder who he was and how he got his own show. Before I could check him out, I saw an article in TV Week's The Wrap titled "Ronan Farrow Not having a Very Good Summer on MSNBC". It seems that since the show's February debut through August 8, it ranked third in the cable news competition for the 1 p.m. weekly time slot. My interest grew and I immediately searched for more information about Ronan. Here's what I found out.

Woody Allen-Ronan Farrow-Frank Sinatra

Ronan Farrow is the son of actress Mia Farrow and either filmmaker Woody Allen or Frank Sinatra. (No DNA testing has been done to determine Ronan's paternity. He is estranged from Allen.) His maternal grandmother is actress Maureen O'Sullivan. At age 26, he is an American activist, journalist, lawyer, former U. S. government advisor and host of "Ronan Farrow Daily" on MSNBC. He graduated from Bard College at the age of 15 and is the school's only Rhodes Scholar. In 2009, he  graduated from Yale Law School and later became a member of the New York Bar.

Wikipedia details Farrow's impressive and diverse career.
 

Ronan and mother Mia Farrow

During his time at Yale Law School, Farrow interned at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell and in the office of the chief counsel at the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, focusing on international human rights law. 

Hillary Clinton and Ronan Farrow

In 2009, Farrow joined the Obama administration with his appointment as Special Adviser for Humanitarian and NGO Affairs in the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. In 2011 at the age of 23, Farrow was appointed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Special Adviser for Global Youth Issues and Director of the State Department's Office of Global Youth Issues 

He has written essays, op-eds, and other pieces for The Guardian, Foreign Policy magazine, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and other periodicals. In October 2013, Penguin Press acquired Farrow's book, Pandora's Box: How American Military Aid Creates America's Enemies, scheduling it for 2015 publication.In 2008 Farrow was awarded Refugees International's McCall-Pierpaoli Humanitarian Award for "extraordinary service to refugees and displaced people." In 2012, he was ranked number one in "Law and Policy" on Forbes Magazine's "30 Under 30" Most Influential People. He was also awarded an honorary Doctorate by Dominican University of California in 2012.

Since Farrow is often considered the best connected young man on the planet, I thought he was someone you'd want to know.

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Clean That Fridge For Saftey's Sake

The refrigerator is often the center of the entire household, or at least in mine it is. It’s the first place we go toward when we get home from work or school, the last place we are at night before bed, and in between for every meal. But with all of the food, drinks, condiments, leftovers, spills, and smells, the refrigerator can often be the dirtiest place in your home.

There are plenty of reasons to clean a fridge (unidentifiable leftovers, funky odors) and one big excuse not to — namely, lack of time. But you don’t need to set aside several hours to complete a basic cleanout and scrub down. Get it done in 30 minutes when you follow this guide.

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FICO Score Changes Mean Higher Scores and Lower Interest Rates For Consumers

FICO credit-scoring system is being revised to reduce the negative effect of overdue medical bills and to quit penalizing consumers who pay off debts that had been assigned to collection agencies. The changes to the hugely influential FICO scoring system could make it easier for millions of Americans to get loans at lower rates and eventually save consumers billions of dollars.

For consumers whose only major delinquency is an unpaid medical bill, the changes would increase a credit score by 25 points, according to Fair Isaacs Corp., whose FICO credit ratings are the basis for scores published by the three big credit-rating agencies.

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Dysfunctional Congress: Do Something About It

It's sad to hear opinions of most Americans about our "do nothing" Congress. Americans distrust and disdain Congress. Now that our legislative body is in recess for the coming weeks, we seriously doubt if they'll be missed. Recent polls tell the tale of just how most of the country sees the situation.

A Gallup poll ranks the approval rating of Congress at an all time low at only 15 per cent. Fifty percent rate Congress as "very unproductive" and 74% rated Congress at "very unproductive". Another Gallup poll showed only 7% had "a great deal or quite a lot of confidence" in Congress, while 50% had "very little confidence".

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Keep it Quiet, but Our Economy Continues to Improve

 

As quiet as it's kept, the U. S. economy continues to improve and unemployment ticks downward.

Reports, posted for July, show six straight months of job growth with gains of over 200,000 jobs in each month. The average job gains over the past 6 months reached 244,000 in July, the best average in 8 years.

Unemployment was at 6.2 per cent in July and 6.1 per cent in June. The unemployment rate for African Americans continues to exceed the national rate. African Americans' rate of unemployment  rose to 11.4 per cent in July from 10.7 percent in June. No relief for these Americans on the horizon.

Fortunately,the data continues to show that the nation's economy is moving in the right direction. Consumer spending is up and incomes gains also picked up. American confidence in the economy is the highest in nearly 7 years. All of this is good news for the country after the difficult climb from the financial pitfalls of the past years.

Be sure you don't mention the President's name of course. The media only mentions Barack Obama when things are negative and going in the wrong direction. Fortunately, the record speaks for itself. It is amazing what he's accomplished with no help from the Republicans and in spite of our infamous "Do Nothing" Congress.  I just wanted to give a shout out to the POTUS for hanging tough in spite of the daily difficulties he faces. I often wonder what we could have achieved if Congress did their job and passed legislation that had a positive impact on job growth and reduced unemployment. Well, I can dream, can't I?

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