Free Republic

Landing A Reverse Mortgage Just Got Tougher Mark Koba, CNBCApr. 14, 2013, 9:20 AMSeniors looking for a big cash payout from a reverse mortgage will have to look elsewhere for needed funds. A small but increasing number of defaults on the loan product has prompted a crackdown by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on the biggest payout loan to homeowners. The basic theory behind reverse mortgages — you must be 62 or older to apply — is that instead of making payments to a lender like in a traditional mortgage, the borrower receives non-taxable money from the lender, which does...

A growing number of House Democrats are concerned that President Obama's proposal to cut Social Security benefits will haunt the party at the polls in 2014. Although Democrats have long-championed the retirement program, they say Obama's plan to reduce payments for future beneficiaries through a chained consumer price index (CPI) has weakened their stance and opened the door for Republicans to vilify the president. The leader of the campaign arm for House Republicans, Rep. Greg Walden (Ore.), on Wednesday called Obama’s plan a "shocking attack on seniors." Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the former head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign...

According to Genworth, an insurance company that deals with long term care, a year in a private nursing home has jumped 24 percent over the past five years. The average price is nearly $84,000 a year –up from $60,000.... The company's vice president said insurance, food, building maintenance and labor costs are all going up and being passed onto the customer.

The recently passed UN Global Arms Trade Treaty contains a provision that would ban those over 55 years old from owning guns. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon explained that “most crimes are committed by gun-wielding assailants who generally are younger than their victims. If we allow those who are near the end of their lives to use guns to kill these younger assailants the human race will be losing more ‘life-years,’ on balance. Therefore, it is better that these elderly victims not be given the means to resist even if that means they will be slain by their attackers.” if...

There was no doubt 86-year-old George Sanders killed his ailing wife. Yet everyone in the small Arizona courtroom — the prosecutor, the judge and even the couple's family members — agreed it was a time for compassion, not punishment. "My grandfather lived to love my grandmother, to serve and to make her feel as happy as he could every moment of their life," Sanders' grandson, Grant, told the judge, describing the couple's life together as "a beautiful love story." "I truly believe that the pain had become too much for my grandmother to bear," he said, while Sanders looked on...

LINCOLN, Del. - March 21, 2013 (WPVI) -- Delaware State Police have charged 5 teenagers with the carjacking, kidnapping and robbing of a senior citizen and locking her in a car trunk for two days. 89-year-old Margaret Smith of Lincoln, Delaware spoke exclusively to Action News Thursday night and says she is relieved to have survived the wildest ride of her life. "I'm still shaking," Smith said.

A 911 dispatcher pleaded with a nurse at a Bakersfield, Calif., senior living facility to save the life of an elderly woman by giving her CPR, but the nurse said policy did not allow her to, according to a newly released audiotape of the call. "Is there anybody there that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?" the dispatcher asked in a recording of the 911 call released by the Bakersfield Fire Department. "Not at this time," the nurse said. The incident unfolded on Tuesday when 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless collapsed at Glenwood Gardens, a senior living facility...

Happy birthday Yoko Ono. Mrs Lennon is 80-years old today. Yoko Ono was born in Tokyo on February 18, 1933. She met John Lennon at an art exhibition in 1965. They married in 1969. It was the second marriage for John and third for Yoko. Towards the end of The Beatles, John and Yoko formed the Plastic Ono Band. The first album was ‘Live Peace In Toronto 1969’ on The Beatles Apple label. The first single was ‘Give Peace A Chance’ The original line-up for Plastic Ono Band featured John, Yoko and Eric Clapton on guitar, Klaus Voormann on bass...

Pope Benedict XVI 'is to resign' Breaking news The Pope is to resign at the end of this month in an entirely unexpected development, reports from the Vatican say.

Our major public policies are based on the assumption that America will continue to enjoy growth. Economic growth and population growth. Through most of our history, this assumption has proved to be correct. These days, not so much. Last week, the Commerce Department announced that the gross domestic product shrunk by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. And the Census Bureau reported that the U.S. birth rate in 2011 was 63.2 per 1,000 women age 15 to 44, the lowest ever recorded. Slow economic growth and low population growth threaten to undermine entitlement programs like Social Security and...

A school friend and I have sort of a little project going to try to help the elderly. We know this lady in her late seventies who needs help with life choices, finances. She has no family. She is not in good health with several health problems and expects to be around maybe a year or two more at most. She earns about $14,000 per year in Social Security. She has about $53,000 in stocks- mostly Walmart. She has about $4,000 in a retirement and checking account. She only owes a couple of thousand on her car. That's the extent...

Slow waves are generated by the middle frontal lobe, and as this region deteriorates with age, the elderly tend to lose the ability to experience long REM sleep University of California, Berkeley, scientists have found a connection between the amount of sleep one gets in their old age and the quality of their memory. The UC Berkeley team, led by Matthew Walker, believes that forgetfulness in old age may be attributed to a lack of deep, non-rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. According to the study, the slow brain waves produced during deep REM sleep help move memories from the hippocampus (short-term memory storage...

Now that Obama has secured another four years in the White House, it is time for the administration to crank out more Obamacare propaganda, specifically arguments about the cost ineffectiveness of keeping old people alive. Enter the internet’s liberal bellwether, Salon.com. Earlier today, the website posted an article by Matthew Yglesias, a blogger and Democrat operative who spent time at the Soros’ project, ThinkProgress. According to Yglesias, old folks are “the key issue in the federal budget” and their welfare accounts “for the remarkable lack of apparent cost effectiveness of the American health care system.” “When the patient is already...

The minister, Taro Aso, is only saying out loud what many government officials in countries with nationalized health care are thinking: people are getting older, living longer, and becoming a drain on our national budgets. From the Guardian: ******** Japan's new government is barely a month old, and already one of its most senior members has insulted tens of millions of voters by suggesting that the elderly are an unnecessary drain on the country's finances. Taro Aso, the finance minister, said on Monday that the elderly should be allowed to "hurry up and die" to relieve pressure on the state...

Jan. 21, 2013: Two teenagers are accused of spray-painting walls and furniture inside a 93-year-old World War II veteran's home, and police say that paint helped them identify their suspects. Phillip Mena reports.

Here's a message for the politicians and Obama, you're scaring the elderly very badly. You're scaring the very people who fear God, worked hard all of their lives, built this nation and some who fought for this nation. When asked, "Have you ever seen this type of situation regarding politics before, 80s aged elderly say resoundingly, "No!". This evening during one of these impromptu interviews, as I was asking the elderly gentleman (86 years old) if he had seen this kind of political tension, his wife leaned toward me and said in a whisper, "We're scared!" He answered, "No." and...

Hugh Hefner is ringing in the new year as a married man. The 86-year-old Playboy founder tied the knot with 26-year-old girlfriend Crystal Harris tonight at—where else—the Playboy Mansion in front of a select group of family and friends, Playboy confirms to E! News. The bride, who is now going by Crystal Hefner on Twitter, posted photos earlier in the evening of the wedding set-up, including a close-up of the flowers lining the altar inside.

German pensioners are being sent to care homes in Eastern Europe and Asia in what has been described as an ‘inhumane deportation’. Rising numbers of the elderly and sick are moved overseas for long-term care because of sky-high costs at home. Some private healthcare providers are even building homes overseas, while state insurers are also investigating whether they can care for their clients abroad. Experts describe a time bomb’ of increasing numbers unable to afford the growing costs of retirement homes.

The Obama administration’s HHS mandate may force the Catholic Little Sisters of the Poor to cease their U.S. operations, according to Sister Constance Carolyn Veit, the religious order’s communications director.The Little Sisters currently provide group homes and daily care for the elderly poor in 30 U.S. cities.Sister Constance told The Daily Caller that the Little Sisters may not qualify for a religious exemption from ObamaCare’s requirement that employers provide coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-causing drugs free of charge to female workers.“We are not exempt from the [ObamaCare] mandate because we neither serve nor employ a predominantly Catholic population,” Constance...

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS (KMOX) - An East St. Louis couple is charged with beating an elderly employee at a Metro East Best Buy. It’s considered normal procedure by most to be asked for your receipt while leaving a busy store like Best Buy with expensive items. But Latoya Greenwood, 38, didn’t take kindly to the request. Police say she began shouting obscenities at the 61-year-old Fairview Heights Best Buy employee at the exit door. Her husband got into the act and smacked the man across the face, sending him down to the ground while his wife didn’t flinch and kept the...