Hands to Help Seniors

A federal appeals court has sided with the state of California and ruled against the U.S. Department of Labor in a lawsuit over pension reform for public transit employees. The lawsuit was about a 2013 pension reform law called PEPRA (Public Employee’s Pension Report Act) and alleged that it violated labor protections under federal transit law. Due to the lawsuit, a number of public transit agency grants were put on hold. This favorable ruling could pave the way for a grant of $177,000 for Monterey-Salinas Transit’s Mobility Management programs, which provide outreach and shuttle services for the elderly and the disabled. Hopefully the Department of Labor doesn’t appeal the ruling and the funds can be released. Seniors are badly in need of more transportation options.

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CHOMP will have its annual meeting on January 26 with a luncheon being held at the Monterey Conference Center in the Sierra Ballroom at noon (doors open at 11:00).  The keynote speaker this year is Dr. Julie Gerberding, who has been director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for the past seven years.  Her agency has had to deal with myriad health issues during this time frame including, SARS, avian flu, staph infections, food safety issues and natural disasters.  She will discuss her assessment of current risks, key lessons from previous emergency responses, and a short list of health-protection priorities.  Tickets to the event are $35.  For more information, call 625-4506 or go to www.chomp.org/annual-meeting.

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CHOMP has a number of great classes starting soon such as the “Living Well” workshops which will be held on Tuesdays from January 27 through March 3 from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. at the Ryan's Ranch location (2 Upper Ragsdale Drive in Monterey, in the Lupine Conference Room).  This program was developed at Stanford University to help those with ongoing health conditions and chronic diseases take charge of their own health.  To find out more about this class, there is a free introduction on January 20 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. at the same location.  The cost of the class is $15.  However, this will be refunded if all six classes are completed.  You do need to register by calling 625-4867.  For more information on classes at CHOMP go to www.chomp.org.

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There are new rule changes regarding IRA rollovers which many people are unaware of and may get us into trouble with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  This one is the one "that will catch people most off guard and create the most problems," Jeffrey Levine, IRA technical consultant for Ed Slott & Company, told Kiplinger's Retirement Report.  Starting this month, taxpayers can only perform one 60-day IRA rollover in a 12-month period, no matter how many they own.  Previously, the one-per-12 month rule could be applied to each IRA account.  You can avoid this rule by having the custodians of the IRA transfer the IRA directly to another institution rather than you closing it out and opening a new account.

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A potent new antibiotic has been discovered and scientists are excited because it appears to be resistant to a number of bugs.  Many antibiotics that are currently on the market have been so overused that they don't work on many germs.  The new drug has only been tested on mice, so it won't be on the market for several years as it has to go through human testing and then be approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).  However, the journal Nature reported that the drug called teixobactin was found after screening 10,000 bacterial strains found in soil.  It was the only one of the 10,000 to show promise so this is an extremely rare find.  It appears to be effective against bacteria that cause certain types of pneumonia, tuberculosis and the staph infection called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which infects over one million Americans each year.

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