| PEORIA: YWCA needs money
PEORIA - The YWCA of Peoria is in need of money. For more than a century, the organization has held firm to its commitment of providing a safe haven and education for women and has grown to help families with housing and health and child care. It now needs help itself. Pam Schubach, the organization's longtime director, says the not-for-profit is seeing grant resources run dry, is having tough times raising local donations and has had a string of bad luck. During the next 12 to 18 months, "We need some major gifts," Schubach said. The YWCA hopes to raise about $2 million, what advisors say would help it handle its debt load. Other outside variables, such as higher utility costs and economic factors, have led to more people seeking help - resources in the local community only the YWCA are providing.
Young doctors in debt
It's Wednesday evening and Megan Reis can't remember when she last saw her husband Chris. Small wonder. Since Sunday morning, Meg has worked more than 60 hours at Advocate Hope Children's Hospital, the Chicago-area facility where she is training in pediatrics. Chris, meanwhile, has put in a 24-hour day followed by a 12-hour one at the nearby Loyola University Medical Center, where he's learning anesthesiology. Meg guesses she hasn't seen him since Saturday. Actually, Chris recalls later, it was Tuesday morning: They saw each other for 10 minutes in the parking garage of their nondescript condominium building, crossing paths as Chris returned from a marathon workday and Meg headed off to one in her parents' old Ford Escort. "She was actually late getting to work," says Chris.
OUTCOMES FASB OCTOBER 17, 2007 BOARD MEETING
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has released a summary of its October 17, 2007 Board meeting.
The Board continued its discussions of a working definition of an asset“An asset is a present economic resource to which the entity has a present right or other privileged access"to replace the existing definition of an asset“Assets are probable future economic benefits obtained or controlled by a particular entity as a result of past transactions or events."
The Board tentatively decided to:Focus the definition of an asset on a present economic resource, rather than on future economic benefits.
Remove the assessment of likelihood from the existing definition of an asset
Focus the definition on the present rather than on past transactions or other events.
Lifetime mortgages can boost income for pensioners
EACH time that the stock market gets the shakes, the wellbeing of pension funds comes under scrutiny. Those who are members of occupational defined benefit schemes worry that there may not be enough money in the kitty to pay out the expected sum when retirement comes, or that their pension scheme might collapse altogether.
Those in defined contribution pension schemes, whether an occupational or personal pension plan, are concerned about the growth rate of their pension fund during its life, and the purchasing power of the lump sum available when pension age is reached.
Anybody now close to pension age will be particularly concerned with recent developments that could impact on their pensions. But many people in this category now find themselves sitting on, or more precisely, sitting in, a very valuable asset - their home!
An option for retired people who own their own home is to look at an equity release scheme.
AMD goes for broke with ATI offering
CHIP FIRM AMD has released the Radeon HD 3800 series. It issued a press release which said the thing has been unleashed for the enthusiastic gaming masses. Let's hope we never meet more than one of them at a time. It supports Direct X 10.1, as we've noted earlier on this page, and was codenamed "Spider". It delivers "an unprecedented level of scaleable performance," said a marketing chip called Rick Bergman. It marks a "flawless transition" to 55 nanometres. Its customers will build stuff using it. .
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