Free Republic

Every day starts with 200 situps in the workout room of the clubhouse. Then Donald Taggart lifts weights and does his cardio. Residents liken him to La Lanne, the aging fitness icon whose photo hangs in the room. Taggart, 78 and still buff, likes to get physical. It got really physical Tuesday. ... snip ... Nodar (the liberal, my comment) was arrested on a charge of battery on a person over the age of 65 - but not accused of getting the better of one.

WASHINGTON, Sep. 4, 2006 -- Bruce Gorman is driven, literally, in demonstrating his belief that Americans should close ranks against terrorism and never forget the people who were killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Bruce Gorman poses inside his 36-foot-long International bus parked on the Pentagon’s north parking lot Sept. 2. Photo by Gerry J. Gilmore  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Gorman retired from the Navy in January as a petty officer first class with 20 years’ service. Since then, the 47-year-old former religious program specialist has poured time, energy and money into a...

Enhanced pension deals are county's albatross... The county has the distinction of carrying more retirees (6,050) than active employees (4,631) on county health insurance. Add in 3,100 spouses and dependents of retirees, and the county is insuring more than 9,000 individuals on the retiree side. The county now pays out more in health care for retirees than for active employees. In addition to her monthly check, she was promised, and cherishes, free health insurance for the rest of her life. It is the sum of such promises to Schumann and 6,000-plus other retirees that is a major stumbling block as...

BERLIN - A retiree in northern Germany flushed some 30,000 marks (euro15,300, US$18,900) down the toilet, believing the old bank notes were worthless, police said. Officials were alerted by a blocked pipe in the northern city of Kiel. A cleaning company employee extracted soggy bundles of bank notes, but more money got away as the water started flowing again. Investigators then discovered that the retiree had reported a blocked pipe at his house the same day. They visited the "slightly bewildered" man at his apartment and he confirmed that he had flushed the money away, a police statement issued late...

The pond on Denny Heasley's property doesn't get nearly as fogged in as San Francisco Bay - not that the span he's building needs to be nestled in fog to bear a striking resemblance to the famed Golden Gate Bridge. The 100-foot-long 17-foot-high replica is painted bright orange - "exactly the same color" as the Golden Gate, Heasley said proudly. A retired excavator, Heasley is getting used to greeting inquisitive passers-by. He estimates that 10 to 12 people drop by on weekends and ask about it. "A lot of people stop and want to know if they can walk on...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan, Sept. 7, 2005 — Army Maj. Harlie R. Treat came back to active duty to contribute to his country, help his fellow soldiers, and “keep a younger major with young children at home.” “I felt like I could contribute to the mission,” said Treat. And he is contributing to the mission here with Combined Joint Task Force 76 as the assistant inspector general to Army Lt. Col. Brian Williams. Treat returned to active duty after a 12-year hiatus following his retirement in 1983. He first enlisted with the Arkansas National Guard in 1960 as a...

BERLIN (Reuters) - An elderly German grew so attached to a poolside deckchair that he attacked a woman who moved his towel to another lounger, police said Tuesday. When the 76-year-old pensioner returned to his favorite spot at a pool in the central town of Bad Endbach, he was enraged to find the woman, 29, had moved his towel to an unoccupied lounger so she could lie down next to her mother. The other chair was just the same "but he didn't want to use that one," said a police spokesman in nearby Marburg. When abusive language failed to shift...

There’s been so much Social Security reform talk recently that I’m skeptical about adding another idea to the discussion. However, I have had a reform idea for at least five years and wanted to share it as an alternative piece of reform that no one has mentioned – or at least I haven’t heard it yet. There are only two ways to fix the Social Security unfunded liability shortfall. We can either increase the system’s revenue or reduce the liabilities. That’s it. I’m in favor of private accounts, but they’re just a sweetener to offset the obvious planned reductions in...

Telegram from Army catches Prince George retiree off guard By: BEN BAGWELL , Staff Writer 10/16/2004 PRINCE GEORGE - The U.S. Army informed a 57-year-old military retiree on Thursday that he will be granted a 30-day extension before he has to report for duty as a Ready Reservist en route to Iraq. County resident Cleveland Rodgers, who served 36 years in the Army, was comfortably retired and was teaching supply soldiers at Fort Lee. He was enjoying civilian life and, despite some health concerns, the last thing he expected was to be recalled by the U.S. Army, having served in...

How Cuts in Retiree Benefits Fatten Companies' Bottom LinesTrimming a Health-Care Plan Creates Accounting Gains, Under Some Arcane Rules A Shield Against Rising CostsBy ELLEN E. SCHULTZ and THEO FRANCISStaff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNALThe loud message comes from one company after another: Surging health-care costs for retired workers are creating a giant burden. So companies have been cutting health benefits for their retirees or requiring them to contribute more of the cost. Time for a reality check: In fact, no matter how high health-care costs go, well over half of large American corporations face only limited impact...

Waunakee man sinks hole-in-one, bowls perfect 300 in 24 hours (Published Friday, October 17, 2003 08:56:45 AM CDT) Associated Press MADISON, Wis. -- Paul Hughes is hot these days. The 74-year-old Waunakee man hit a hole-in-one and bowled a perfect 300 game in a 24-hour span earlier this week. Hughes, a retired heating and plumbing business owner, sank the hole-in-one on the 149-yard fifth hole at the Pleasant View golf course in Middleton Monday afternoon. He bowled the perfect game at Bowling Green lanes in Middleton Tuesday. "It's a super feeling," Hughes said. Ted Donker, director of golf operations at...

Recent events show a war can be waged and won in less time than it takes the Defense Department to reach final decisions on how to implement the new Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC). But if Defense officials are three weeks behind in finalizing rules and publishing CRSC applications, they also are adopting a more liberal interpretation of qualifying criteria than expected, sources said. That means not 35,000 but 40,000 or more retirees could receive CRSC, with payments ranging for most of them from $104 to $2,193 a month, depending on severity of qualifying disabilities. Retiree drawing VA's special monthly...

The Department of Defense has awarded Delta Dental Plan of California a contract to provide services for the TRICARE Retiree Dental Program (TRDP). This is a five-year renewal contract and is valued at approximately $987 million. "The new contract provides a greatly enhanced dental benefit package and improved customer service for our retirees," said Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. The new contract becomes effective May 1, 2003. With its current enrollment of 650,000, the TRDP is already the nation's largest voluntary, all enrollee-paid dental program. It will continue to provide a dental plan to...

While we had planned another article in this space about the most recent Stars and Stripes interview with Dr. Dov Zakheim, the Pentagon's arrogant Comptroller, breaking news has put us in a News Alert mode instead. Not to worry, both he and Dr. Chu, Assistant Secretary for Readiness, will be back - with more quotes that are over the top for most of us who have REALLY been there. For now, we have to deal with this illusion that SECDEF Rumsfeld and the two aforementioned lieutenants (and other corporate staff) in the DOD Corporate Structure are trying to sell the...

Steelcase drops dental coverage for its retirees Tuesday, July 23, 2002By Rob KirkbrideThe Grand Rapids Press Like a toothache that will not go away, rising health-care costs and slumping office-furniture sales are forcing Steelcase Inc. to make deep cuts in retirement benefits. Among the most significant is the elimination of dental coverage for the 2,400 retirees. The Grand Rapids-based company mailed letters Monday to current and former employees explaining the move, expected to save at least $9 million a year from the company's annual $30 million health-care budget for retirees. Steelcase also is increasing medical-care deductibles from the $50 to...