#down payment assistance ky home

[kentuckybats]

Kentucky FHA Loans

  How to get approved for a Kentucky FHA Loan? Are you looking to buy a house in Kentucky with little to no down payment and credit scores not the best,  a  Kentucky  FHA loan may be right for you.  FHA is part of HUD and the federal government. FHA promotes housing opportunities for borrower that may have access to little or no down payment for a house and have had some past credit troubles…

[rfhomebuyersblog]

Rapid Fire Home Buyers

We Buy Houses for Cash Columbus KY: Solutions for Landlords with Problem Tenants

We buy houses for cash Columbus KY, if you are handling one of the most challenging aspects of owning rental properties – problem tenants. You’re not alone if you’ve experienced difficulties in maintaining a harmonious relationship with your tenants. Even though the vast majority are respectful and responsible, there inevitably comes a moment when you may have to deal with a troublesome tenant.

Whether it’s frequent late payments, property damage, or disruptive behavior, these issues can cause significant stress and potentially even financial loss. But fret not, because our “Rapid Fire Home Buyers” guide is here to help you navigate through such situations.

We Buy Houses for Cash Columbus KY

Here’s what we’re going to tackle:

Understanding the problem and communicating with the tenant

Getting well-versed with your rights and their rights

Knowing when to hire a property management company

Considering cash house buyers as one of your options

Understanding the Challenges of Problem Tenants in Columbus

Being a landlord in Columbus can be both a rewarding and challenging experience. Especially when you’re faced with the problem of difficult tenants. These situations often lead to the owner seeking professional assistance, or in the worst-case scenario, considering eviction.

However, not every eviction process is the same, and it’s crucial to remember that every tenant-landlord situation is unique. As a landlord, you have to tread carefully: eviction is more than just asking a tenant to leave your property. It’s crucial to understand the nuances and complexities of the eviction process in Columbus to ensure that you navigate the scenario legally and ethically. While eviction may get you rid of a problem tenant, the costs associated with this process can be high, including expenses such as attorney fees, court costs, and potential property damages.

Nearly 60% of landlords in Columbus, KY have had to evict a tenant

Besides, eviction often means an extended timeline of lost rent and turnover costs. Hence, the best approach to problem tenants begins even before they sign the lease. By implementing a thorough tenant screening process and drafting a lawyer-approved, state-compliant lease agreement, you can prevent potential issues down the line.

State and federal legislators have gone to great lengths to protect tenant’s rights by ensuring they are given ample notice and opportunity to respond. A tenant can legally terminate a lease for specific reasons acknowledged under tenant laws, such as domestic violence or a landlord’s demonstrated failure to make necessary repairs.

It’s also important to be aware that physical removal of tenants must align with state and local procedures. The requirements vary greatly across jurisdictions, but they all typically mandate fairness in how a landlord ends tenancy.

We strongly recommend that you seek professional advice from a Landlord-Tenant Attorney before taking any steps towards eviction. They are seasoned professionals who know the law like the back of their hand and serve as a reliable resource to guide you through the legal labyrinth.

Identifying Types of Problem Tenants

The first place to start is recognizing the varying types of problem tenants that can create challenges for you as a property owner. These can range from late or non-paying tenants, destructive tenants, to those that constantly violate the terms of the lease. It’s critical that you learn to identify these tenants early on, ideally during the tenant screening process.

Late or Non-Paying Tenants: These are tenants who are always behind on their rent. It’s a common and very troublesome issue facing landlords. It’s crucial to act promptly in these situations to avoid further losses. Legal mechanisms like sending a ‘Pay rent or quit’ notice can be explored.

Destructive Tenants: Some tenants cause significant damage to your property, leading to costly repair and maintenance. Landlords are advised to keep a close eye on their property condition and address repair issues promptly to minimize the cost and extent of damage.

Lease Violators: These tenants repeatedly break the terms of their leasing agreement, causing disruption to you or other tenants. This could include unauthorized pets, excessive noise, or repeated complaints from neighbors.

About 25% of landlords in Columbus, KY have had to deal with tenants who broke lease agreements

Knowing how to spot a problem tenant before they become an issue can save you time, stress, and money down the line. A stringent and thorough screening process can help you avoid most of these issues. Using services of Landlord-Tenant Attorneys can also be beneficial.

On the other end, it’s equally important to understand the avenues available to you when dealing with problem tenants. Whether it’s mediating discussions before heading to court, issuing termination notices, or preparing for turnover, understanding your legal rights and duties is crucial.

Legal Aspects of Dealing with Problem Tenants in Columbus

Over 60% of landlords in Columbus, KY have sought legal advice regarding tenant issues

Dealing with problem tenants is no easy task and it becomes even more challenging when legal elements come into play. Navigating the legal terrain can be tricky, so it’s vital to understand your rights and responsibilities as a landlord. Generally, eviction should be considered a last resort, as it can lead to expenses such as attorney fees, court costs, lost rent, turnover costs, and property damages.

To protect yourself, you should approach the eviction process with a thorough, clear understanding of the law. Landlord-Tenant attorneys play a major role in this aspect and can provide professional advice to help you handle tricky situations. As landlords, understanding your legal duties could help you mitigate risks and potential legal issues. It’s also recommended that you act professionally throughout the process, complying with state and federal laws.

Proper tenant screening is a key preventive strategy. By conducting thorough checks and signing lawyer-approved, state-compliant lease agreements, you can lessen the chance of problem tenants, enabling a boost in your property value and overall business health. Both landlords and tenants have the right to seek legal representation during eviction proceedings. Hiring an attorney will ensure adherence to all laws, streamlining the process.

But an essential aspect not to ignore in Columbus, is that state laws require landlords to follow specific procedures for physical removal of tenants. If you rush the process or miss eligible actions, you may find yourself on the sour end of a legal dispute. So, it pays off to keep yourself informed about tenants’ rights as well – especially when served with an eviction summons – to ensure the legality of your actions. Remember, informed decisions are smart decisions.

Kentucky law provides landlords with several legal remedies to deal with problem tenants. For instance, landlords can issue a ‘Notice to Quit’ for non-payment of rent, which gives the tenant seven days to pay the owed rent or vacate the property. If the tenant fails to comply, the landlord can file an eviction lawsuit.

However, evictions can be a lengthy and costly process. In Columbus, Kentucky, as in the rest of the state, the eviction process can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months, depending on the specifics of the case and the court’s schedule. This can result in lost rental income and additional legal fees for the landlord.

The Role of Professional Property Managers

Let’s take a closer look at the role of professional property managers and how they can assist you in dealing with problem tenants. Professional property managers are equipped with extensive knowledge and experience in handling problematic tenant issues. They are professionals who deal with these kinds of issues on a daily basis, and they know how to navigate the complexities of the legal system in Columbus.

You may be wondering, ‘but how exactly can they help me?’ Well, through their knowledge and expertise, professional property managers can save you a significant amount of time, money and energy. They have the resources to properly screen potential tenants and the capability to ensure that all lease agreements are lawyer-approved and state-compliant.

Additionally, as part of their services, these professionals can handle any eviction processes for you if it comes to that. Evictions can be costly and time-consuming. They consist of legal fees, court costs, lost rent during the process, and the possibility of property damage. It is crucial to handle eviction processes professionally and legally to avoid unnecessary costs and legal issues. With the help of property managers, these concerns can be taken off your plate, freeing you up to focus on other aspects of your business.

More so, a professional property manager can ease the turnover process. If an eviction is the final outcome, landlords often face the issue of preparing the property for new tenants. This includes damage repairs caused by the evicted tenant, cleaning, and potentially upgrading the property to attract new, responsible tenants. Property managers have experience in these areas and can streamline the process to get your property rented again as quickly as possible.

Finally, remember that even though eviction can be a stressful and expensive process, it also opens the door to more reliable and responsible tenants. So don’t let problem tenants discourage you. With the right guidance from professional property managers, you can effectively manage these challenges and maintain a prosperous rental business.

Selling Your House: An Alternative Solution

At times, dealing with problem tenants can become an overly taxing endeavor, taking up more time and resources than initially anticipated. In such circumstances, selling your house might just be the most feasible alternative you might want to consider. Selling your property to cash buyers, like we at ‘Rapid Fire Home Buyers’, offers immense benefits, particularly when you find yourself grappling with tenants that persistently disrupt your peace of mind.

Choosing to sell your house incurs lower costs than eviction – a process fraught with legal fees, court costs, lost rent, property damages, and other turnover expenses. Additionally, there’s the potential headache of preparing the property for the next tenant once the previous one moves out.

Let’s get down to the core question though – why sell your house to us? The answer lies in the simplicity, convenience, and speed we bring to the table. We buy houses, no matter the condition, saving you from spending extra on renovations and repairs.

With us, you close at your convenience. There is no need to wait for a realtor to view the property or for the bank to approve the loan. We make the process easy, fast, and painless. The problem tenants who were once a thorn in your side, no longer pose a problem to you.

Never underestimate the power of options during difficult situations. Whether it’s discussing agreements with tenants before resorting to court, accepting partial or full rent payments to postpone eviction, or opting for strategies like ‘Agreed Move-out and Compliance,’ these alternate paths could save both time and money. However, when all these strategies fall short, remember – selling your house is always on the table as a viable solution.

https://www.rfhomebuyers.com/blog/we-buy-houses-for-cash-columbus-ky-solutions-for-landlords-with-problem-tenants/

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 16, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

The reality that Joe Biden is about to become president and Kamala Harris is about to become vice president is sinking in across Washington, and today gave us some indications of what that’s going to mean.

Stories about what exactly happened in the Trump administration are coming out, and they are not pretty. Politics trumped everything for members of the administration, even our lives.

Today Representative James Clyburn (D-SC), who chairs the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, revealed documents from senior appointees in the Trump administration overriding the work of the career officials in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those documents show that the political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services called for dealing with the coronavirus crisis by pursuing a strategy of “herd immunity,” deliberately spreading the coronavirus to try to infect as many people as possible, with the theory that this approach would minimize the dangers of the pandemic. While doing so, they downplayed what they were doing, tried to hide the dangers of the virus, and blamed the career scientists who objected to this strategy for the rising death rates.

Although the White House has tried to distance itself from senior Health and Human Services Adviser Paul Alexander, last summer he was widely perceived to speak for his boss Michael Caputo, the Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs whom Trump had appointed, and for the White House itself. Alexander, a part-time university professor from Canada, defended Trump against scientists, accusing CDC Principal Deputy Director Dr. Anne Schuchat of lying when she provided accurate public information about the worsening pandemic. When she suggested everyone should wear a mask, he claimed: “her aim is to embarrass the President.” Alexander attacked Anthony Fauci for his attempts to protect Americans. “He just won’t stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” wrote Alexander on July 3, 2020 (yes, I counted the exclamation points); “does he think he is the President???”

Alexander advocated spreading the infection to younger Americans: “So the bottom line is if it is more infectiouness [sic] now, the issue is who cares? If it is causing more cases in young, my word is who cares…as long as we make sensible decisions, and protect the elderely [sic] and nursing homes, we must go on with life….who cares if we test more and get more positive tests.”

Alexander wrote to Caputo: “There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus.  PERIOD.” On the same day, he wrote: “Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…”

On July 24, he wrote to FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and Caputo: “it may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected” as a strategy to get “natural immunity…natural exposure,” an argument that illuminates Trump’s insistence this summer that schools and colleges must open.

But the idea that young people are safe from the virus is wrong. Today, an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that while Americans older than 65 have borne the brunt of the coronavirus, young adults are suffering terribly. From March through July, there were almost 12,000 more deaths than expected among adults from 25 to 44. Young Black and Hispanic Americans make up not just a disproportionate number of that group of victims; they are a majority. Those extraordinary death rates have continued. Younger adults are indeed endangered by the coronavirus; the idea it is harmless to them “has simply not been borne out by emerging data,” doctors Jeremy Samuel Faust, Harlan M. Krumholz, and Rochelle P. Walensky—Biden’s pick to run the CDC-- wrote in the New York Times today.  

Another report today showcases two former CDC political appointees who are now speaking out to call attention to the silencing of career scientists at the agency. Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the CDC, and his deputy Amanda Campbell watched as political appointees in Washington ignored scientists, censored doctors’ messages to the public, and cut the agency’s budget. “It was… like a hand grasping something, and it slowly closes, closes, closes, closes until you realize that, middle of the summer, it has a complete grasp on everything at the CDC,” McGowan told New York Times reporter Noah Weiland. “Every time that the science clashed with the messaging, messaging won.”

Politifact, the Pulitzer Prize winning fact-checking website from the Poynter Institute, named the downplaying and denial of the seriousness of coronavirus its “Lie of the Year.”

Today it became clear the administration dropped the ball in other important ways. We have more information now about the extensive computer hack that appears to have been conducted by operatives from the Russian government. It’s bad. Hackers placed malware on commercial network management software upgrades to gain access to government computers, along with those of major U.S. companies, as far back as last March. They have been able to root around in our secrets for months. Hackers accessed the Treasury and Commerce Departments, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and parts of the Pentagon, among other targets. The intrusion was discovered on December 8, when the cybersecurity company FireEye realized it had been hacked and alerted the FBI.

Today the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), issued a joint statement acknowledging “a significant and ongoing cybersecurity campaign” and indicated they are not sure yet what has been hit. “This is a developing situation, and while we continue to work to understand the full extent of this campaign, we know this compromise has affected networks within the federal government.” It is clear the U.S. has been hit hard: Trump’s National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien has cut short an overseas trip to come home and deal with the crisis.

In the New York Times, Thomas P. Bossert, Trump’s former Homeland Security Adviser said, “the magnitude of this national security breach is hard to overstate.” He insisted the U.S. must call out Russia for this attack (assuming it is confirmed that that country is, indeed, behind the attack). “Trump must make it clear to Vladimir Putin that these actions are unacceptable. The U.S. military and intelligence community must be placed on increased alert; all elements of national power must be placed on the table.”

“President Trump is on the verge of leaving behind a federal government, and perhaps a large number of major industries, compromised by the Russian government. He must use whatever leverage he can muster to protect the United States and severely punish the Russians.”

The New York Times called this breach “among the greatest intelligence failures of modern times.” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called it “stunning.” “Today’s classified briefing on Russia’s cyberattack left me deeply alarmed, in fact downright scared. Americans deserve to know what’s going on,” he tweeted. Blumenthal also recognized the severity of the coronavirus early: he tweeted on February 25: “This morning’s classified coronavirus briefing should have been made fully open to the American people—they would be as appalled & astonished as I am by the inadequacy of preparedness & prevention.”

And yet, there are signs that the country is reorienting itself away from Trump and modern-day Republicanism.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, previously a staunch Trump supporter, has released an advertisement urging people to wear masks and admitting he was wrong not to wear one at the White House. It seems likely he is eyeing a future presidential run, and clearly is calculating that it is wise these days to distance himself from Trump’s anti-mask politics.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has refused to advance a coronavirus relief bill since the House passed one last May, seven months ago, is now trying to make a deal that includes direct payments to Americans hurt by the pandemic. He explained to Republicans today that Republican senate candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who are running against Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in Georgia, are “getting hammered” because the people want the bill and the Senate is holding it up.

Finally, Bloomberg last night ran a story by journalist Craig Stirling highlighting the work of economists David Hope of the London School of Economics and Julian Limberg of King’s College London, who examined the concept of “supply side economics,” or the “trickle down theory.” This is the economic theory popularized in the 1980s saying it’s best for the economy not to support wages at the bottom of the economy—the demand side—but rather to free up capital at the top—the supply side—because wealthy entrepreneurs will create new jobs and the resulting economic growth will help everyone. This idea has been behind the Republicans’ forty-year commitment to tax cuts for the wealthy.

In their study of 18 countries over 50 years, Hope and Limberg concluded that this theory was wrong. Tax cuts do not, they prove, trickle down. They do little to promote growth or create jobs. Instead, they mostly just help the people who get the tax cuts.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[is0gild]

Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza - Chapter 13

Pairing: Elsa x Lea/Axel || Side Pairing: Riku x OC

Summary: Modern AU. She's an introvert ball of nerves who works at Ice Palace, a mall food court ice cream shop. He's the outgoing, sassy goofball who works at the Pizza Planet across the way. Hilarity, snark, and fluffy romcom hijinks ensue.

Word Count: 4,108

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

Credit for super friggin’ cute and super friggin’ amazing cover art goes to the super friggin’ talented ky-jane here on tumblr!

"Why are you stuffing the freezers full of Sven plushies?"

My arm stopped mid-motion and I blinked owlishly up at Frozone from where I was kneeled down on the Ice Palace floor in front of said freezers.

...I wasn't, was I?

Looking down at my hand and, more specifically, what was in it, I winced.

Yes. Yes, I was.

Fudge.

Hastily scooping them all off the stacks of ice cream bars and back out onto the tiled ground beneath me, I shot up to my feet, hiding one behind my back with a tiny, awkward laugh . "Oh! That! Yes, uh… I was just… trying to give them a… nice… frosty sheen! To, erm, make them more… authentic? Yeah, you know, since reindeer are from the frozen north, or, ah… somewhere… like that, heh!"

His eyelids drooped. "I… see."

"Oh yeah, chilled plushies are the new 'It' thing." Really? This was the hill I was choosing to die on? Apparently it was. I shoved the little caribou I was still holding into his face now, showing off the icy glaze to its fur coat as I pressed on, "They're all the rage in, er… Norway."

"Norway. Right," Frozone deadpanned as he gingerly took the proffered doll by one of its antlers. Don't think he was quite convinced. Just a wild guess here. "Call me old fashioned but for now, let's just keep all the plushes at room temperature, shall we? And please, run any other... innovations you might have by me first," he flashed me a thousand watt smile, "sound good?"

I returned it with a shaky one of my own, "A-absolutely!" He nodded and as soon as he turned his back on me, my grin faded into a grimace and I buried my face in my hands.

This hadn't been the first of my little "innovations" since starting my shift today.

Other winners included almost dumping used popsicle sticks instead of ice cream into the soft serve/milkshake machine, trying to pile scoops onto straws instead of cones, and giving taste spoons out as change for payment.

Yeah, that particular customer hadn't been exactly thrilled by the last one. Apparently the world just wasn't ready for my groundbreaking and avant-gard new form of currency.

But really, I just wasn't paying attention. I couldn't help it! I was too distracted and completely unable to focus. Hadn't been able to since the study session had ended yesterday. I'd hadn't even gotten a wink of sleep last night, merely tossed and turned while my thoughts had kept running round and round in endless circles.

I just… still couldn't get over it.

Me.

Having a crush.

My brain wouldn't wrap around it. I quite simply did not grok.

For starters, was I forgetting the six year relationship I had just been in? The fiancé I'd left at the altar a few short weeks ago? What was he, chopped liver? How could I just start having… feelings or whatever for someone else so quickly? I mean, okay sure, I hadn't been in love with the guy, but still… wasn't this breaking the rules or something? Committing some sort of romantic faux pas? Spurning basic etiquette in matters of the heart?

Perhaps I should take a step back and look at this all more objectively. Maybe I was just confused and didn't really know what it was I was actually feeling. Just what were these emotions exactly, anyway? I'd definitely never felt them before, and certainly not for my ex. But just because these sentiments were new and I was experiencing them only in the presence of a certain boy, didn't necessarily mean they were, um… affectionate in nature, right?

Yeah, this didn't have to be a crush. I was only jumping to conclusions! Lea was a great guy, absolutely, and I liked him, you know, as a person, but that didn't mean that I, like… like-liked him! I barely even knew him, for crying out loud! Granted, I did know he was kind, sweet, caring, funny, clever, made me feel comfortable around him (that in itself was kind of a miracle), and was a cutie-patootie to boot, but that didn't-

Wait.

Back up.

What was that word I'd just used?

...cutie...patootie?

Bleh, where had that even come from?

That's the thing about crushes, boo. You don't have to really know the person, just think they're a total cutie-patootie!

I shuddered as my roomie's earlier words came back to haunt me.

Thanks, Ghost of Rayne Past, this was exactly what I didn't need right now.

Okay, fine, so maybe it was a crush. I don't know! This was new territory for me! And even it was, so what? It's not like it mattered. Lea wasn't dating at the moment. Girls were a distraction, he was focusing on his school work, yada yada, that whole thing. And say, for the sake of argument, that weren't the case. It's not like I'd ever have the guts to…

...what?

Ask him out?

Pffft, me? Elsa, Queen of the Chickens?

Please!

And even if I went all the way to the magical land of Oz to ask the great wizard himself for some courage so I could so much as even begin to consider acting on these alleged feelings I may or may not have, Lea didn't see me like that. He'd made that abundantly clear. When he'd finally ended his self-imposed exile to the bathroom yesterday, the sheer amount of awkward that had filled the room after that had been enough to suffocate. And even when we did eventually manage to fall into a comfortable study rhythm once more, it didn't slip my notice that he'd always seemed to try and keep the table between the two of us for the rest of the evening.

So really, it was all moot. Lea wasn't interested. Which was okay, because I wasn't interested in him either! ...or maybe I was, but that was beside the point! The point was that this crush, if that's even really what it was, was a non-entity. Nothing that was ever going to be acted on. Nothing worth losing my head over like this, getting all-

"Elsa?" A throat cleared nearby and I glanced over my shoulder to see Frozone, back once more, now complete with a deadpan look. He held up a metal scoop. "...try this maybe?"

I stared blankly from it to him.

...crud, had I done it again?

I looked down at my hands and immediately got my answer.

Indeed I had. I'd zoned out for the umpteenth time and gone on auto-pilot. And my auto-pilot? Sucked. Big time.

Last I'd checked before I'd gone all space cadet, I'd been cleaning up the pile of Svens off the floor and hanging them back up on their hooks. Now that I was tuning back in, it seemed I'd wrapped up that task and had since moved on to assisting a customer. That customer had requested scooped ice cream on a cone - or so the hope would be, given I had a cone in hand (good start) and had opened the glass display to the refrigerated tubs. However, I'd apparently been about to start scooping… with nothing but my bare friggin' fingers.

I looked back at Frozone, plastering on a smile. "Oh, this? This is just, ah… well you know, studies have linked the use of traditional ice cream scoops back to, er… male… pattern baldness!" Ugh, just stop already, mouth, you're not helping! Do you not remember how bad at lying we are?! "Something about the way the, um, the metal... alloy interacts with the sugar is just… just yeah, bad juju or something." What I wouldn't give for a muzzle right now. What even were the words coming out of my mouth anymore? "Nine out of ten experts agree that, ah, scooping with just your hands is the safest, healthiest option, so… there you go! A great lil tip there for you, so yeah… you're welcome!"

"...I think I'll take my chances," he said, tone flat. Then he was pulling me to one side, out of earshot of the patron, "Okay, girl, you clearly got a lot going on up in there at the moment," he tapped me on the forehead a couple times, "so tell you what. I'll finish helping this customer while you gather the rest of the scoops, take them to the back for a rinse and use that minute to clear your head. Alright?"

Straightening up slightly, I gave a quick nod. "Yes sir."

"Atta girl." A quick pat on my shoulder from him, then he was moving off to greet the customer.

Giving myself a small shake, I then quickly set to work collecting the steel utensils. Focus. Focus! This wasn't the time to be twisting myself up in knots over something so inane. There'd be plenty of time for such self-indulgent stupidity once I got back home later tonight. For now, think ice cream. That's it, pure and simple. Ice cream. Live it, breathe it, bleed it. Ice cream. Nothing else existed. Nope, not a thing. Most definitely not-

My gaze chose that second to flick up, glancing towards the other side of the food court. Yup, you guessed it. A certain redhead was currently on shift at a certain pizzeria across the way. Lea was back at it with the pizza dough sorcery, spinning and tossing one on each hand. By chance, our eyes met and to my surprise, gone was any trace of lingering weirdness from yesterday. In fact, his face brightened as he flung one disc up into the air, freeing up that hand to give me an energetic wave.

There was a tiny spasm in my chest and I spun on my heel, turning my back to him.

We've been hit by friendly fire, captain! Status report.

Eyes? Wide and unblinking.

Hands? Strangling metal scoops while simultaneously pressing them against my hammering chest.

Face? Roasting like a honey-glazed ham on Christmas Eve.

...hold up… gah, what the heck was I doing?! Why was I freaking out? Weren't we past all this already, Elsa? Hadn't we left that awkward stage of your friendship with Lea in the dust behind us long ago? So what if you maybe, kind of, sort of had a teensy-weensy crush on him now? This wasn't grade school, you were a damn grown-up! So start acting like one, turn your butt around and wave back at him already!

So I did. I squared my shoulders, put on my best smile, did another about-face and waved back.

...and in my enthusiasm in said wave, I managed to smack myself in the face with the handful of metal scoops I was still holding.

Nailed it.

"I saw that," I heard Frozone's dry voice behind me and I whipped around to discover him all done with the customer and now standing there, arms crossed. "Don't tell me, let me guess. Whatever hang-up is going on with you has to do with that pizza boy." Pause to quirk an eyebrow. "Again."

I gulped, eyes darting to the left. "Heh… pizza what? Boy who?" Crickets. "I'm-going-to-go-wash-these-now-okay-bye!" I blurted out like it was all one word and bolted through the door to the back.

Whew! Dodged that bullet like Neo!

A few minutes later I was walking back out to the storefront, freshly cleaned utensils in hand and hoping Frozone wasn't going to feel like picking up exactly where we'd left off in that conversation. Seemed I was in luck, for all he said was, "I'm gonna go on my lunch break now. Should be slow since the rush just died down." He gave me a pointed look, "I trust you're all good now and can handle things on your own for a bit?"

Relieved, I gave a nod as I started putting the scoops back in their spots. "You can count on me."

"That's what I like to hear," he grinned, holding his fist out for a bump and I only hesitated for a second before lightly tapping my knuckles to his. "Alright, be back soon!"

I watched him go, then finished returning all the utensils before taking up position behind the cash register. Okay, you can do this. Don't let your mind wander. Stay in the here and now. Look around and pick something to concentrate on, keep you grounded. Like that plastic spork underneath that one table out there, dropped and forgotten, yet to be swept up by a roaming janitor. Or… that grey tabby at the Lucky Cat Café, what was his name again... Chirithy? Yeah, that sounded right. Or at Anna over there, bursting through the double doors, running straight for me as if her life depended on it and-

...wait, what?

Anna?

What was she doing here?

And why did she look so frantic and horrified?

When she got close enough, I began, "Anna, why are you-"

"Sis!" she shouted, stumbling to a stop in front of me and slamming both her hands down next to the register. "Shush! Listen!" She looked like she'd just ran a marathon and was out of breath, her every word punctuated with a pant or a wheeze. "Back… Back at- Overheard... Talking... Yelling… Mall ice cream! Mad, so… so friggin' mad! Drove… drove here! Quick as I- Right behind me! Just barely got here before… before-" She suddenly hissed in pain and pulled one knee up to her chest, grabbing her foot in both hands and bouncing up and down on the other. "Frick! Owie, charley horse! Charley horse!"

Figures her super human power to babble would fail her in the hour of her greatest need.

At a loss, I reached out across the counter to rest a hand on her arm, "Anna, slow down. Breathe. I can't understand you, you're missing some nouns there. What are you trying to tell me? Why-"

Using the countertop for support now, she grabbed me by the shirt and yanked me closer, bringing us nose to nose. "He's here! He knows!"

My blood ran cold.

I swallowed hard. "H-he? He w-who?"

Please, please, please don't say-

"The Duke!"

...oh.

Then it wasn't-

Well that's a relief!

Wait… Oh… Oh dear god, no… no, it most definitely was not!

Those food court's doors banged open a second time now and in he marched, proud and regal in all his big-nosed, bad combover, bushy mustachioed glory.

Weselton "The Duke" Fryse.

Aka my great uncle.

He and I weren't exactly on the best of terms, and that was even before I went all AWOL on my wedding day. Me being the eldest and heir to his nephew's fortune, he'd never quite forgiven me for not being born male. But I mean, come on pal, that was over twenty-two years ago - let it go already! The man was the very definition of dotty old coot and insufferable windbag. And for someone who talks so much, he surprisingly says very little. Mostly antiquated opinions and unsolicited advice, every last bit of it wrong and holier-than-thou. For all his ramblings over the decades, we had yet to even hear the story of where his nickname had even come from. Did it have to do with the esteemed university? Had the Queen of England herself actually honored him with the title? Did he have a reputation back in his day of settling matters by "duking" it out? Who knew? And honestly, who really cared?

But none of that mattered at the moment. What mattered was that he was here. That he knew. And if he knew, that meant mother and father knew. And if they knew… he probably knew as well. You know. Him. My ex.

It was official.

This was it.

The Worst Day Ever.

My chest seized. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. All I could do was watch in abject terror as the Duke drew ever nearer, head held high and stern, bespectacled glare burning holes into me. In fact, I think those glasses were even magnifying the sheer, seething rage contained within that scowl of his and turning it into a straight up death ray.

So this was how I was going to die, huh? Funny. I'd always thought clowns would be the ones to do me in. Well… this was the Duke after all, so… close enough.

How had he even found out? Anna never would have told him. How on earth…?

He at last came to a halt before me, hands folding behind his back. He spared a brief, unamused glance out of the corner of his eyes towards Anna, gracing her with a sniff of disdain. She merely glowered back at him. Then his full attention was on me. "Well, well, young lady," he intoned coldly, staring down his nose at me, "just what do you have to say for yourself?"

Okay, Elsa, easy there. You're going to get through this. Put away the shaky knees and sweaty palms. You're calm. You're collected. Just rationally and eloquently explain yourself to him so he sees your side of it and he'll understand and be on his way.

Clenching and unclenching my hands, took a deep breath and opened my mouth.

Calm. Rational. Eloquent.

Here we go.

"I, um… hm… guh… nhg?"

Well done.

"...quite." His mustache twitched dangerously from side to side. "Please then, allow me. You ran out on your wedding. Wasted your father's valuable time and munny. Broke your poor mother's heart. Embarrassed your whole family. Disrespected your betrothed's family. Disappeared with nary a trace, not so much as one word from you for a month, worrying us all sick... All for what? This?" His narrowed gaze gave the Ice Palace in its entirety a once over and, clearly, found it wanting. "...a ramshackle ice cream booth in a mall. A mall of all places!" he roared and I flinched, but said nothing.

I couldn't. Words had abandoned me. Panic had paralyzed me. All I could do was shrink more and more in on myself, wishing for the ground to swallow me up as his lecture turned into a full on tirade now.

"Working like some lowly, middle-class plebeian! Living heaven only knows where! Fraternizing with commoners! Have you no shame, child?! You little ingrate, you… you little monster! I always knew you'd be the downfall of this family! Of all the selfish, witless, deplorable, irresponsible, contemptible, impudent-"

"Cram it, Weaseltown!" Anna spat out, putting herself between me and him.

Oh great. Now here my baby sister came to fight my battles for me while I cowered behind her. My humiliation was complete.

He took a step back, nostrils flaring and mustache flapping violently as he huffed and puffed. "It's Weselton! The Duke to you, you spoiled brat! I always said your father should've used a firmer hand with you! You've grown wild! You're a disgrace! The both of you are! Why, if your father were here right this second, he'd-"

"Yeah, well he's not!" Anna got in his face now, staring him down as she stabbed a finger into his chest, "You are! Why is that, I wonder? Where is Daddy Dearest anyway?"

Talk! Say something, damn it! Please, just stop standing here doing nothing like a total idiot!

"Such impudence!" he slapped her hand away. "He's back at home, tending to your grief-stricken mother who is inconsolable, simply inconsolable upon learning the truth! Neither of them could bring themselves to come down here and bear the wretched sight of their eldest! So I took it upon myself after breaking the dreadful news to-"

She stamped her foot and snarled, "So it was you! Oh I bet you just couldn't wait to go and tattle to our parents as soon as you knew! Bet you were just positively giddy. How'd you do it? How'd you find out, you big weasel?!"

Their shouting match was causing a scene. People were beginning to stare. Including… I reluctantly dragged my gaze over towards the Pizza Planet… yup. There Lea was with a frown and one eyebrow cocked as he set the dough aside to watch this bit of drama unfold.

For the love of all that is good and mortifying, just end me. End me now. Please.

The Duke stiffened, face blotchy with barely restrained fury. "Hold your vile tongue, you snot-nosed whelp! I'll have you know the information was as good as mine the minute you told us she'd texted you. I knew if I hired a man to follow you, you'd lead us straight to her."

Anna gaped, "You had someone friggin' spying on me?!"

"And rightly so!" he harrumphed, puffing out his chest. "The scandals he reported back to me, why, I nearly died from disgrace! Carousing in a seedy, two-bit pub! Mingling with the filthy yokels! Prancing about on some stage, making an utter mockery out of yourself! Not to mention naught but days later, rendezvousing in secret at some mongrel's hovel and holing up in there with him for hours, you, you, you trollop!"

My stomach fell further and further, my face paler and paler with every word. Dear lord, he knew about all of that?! And what was he even talking about, holing up with- wait, was he talking when I'd helped Lea study? There'd been someone there, some sort of, what… private investigator or something, watching me the whole time? Might still be watching me, even now?

Oh crud, now Lea was over his counter and heading this way. Turn back, you kind, brave, naive fool! You know not the powers you seek to tangle with! Back! Back, I say! Back to the craft of pizza and outer space from whence thou came!

"So the frick what?!" my sister gave a scoff. "Elsa can do whatever with whoever she wants! As far as I'm concerned, what she does with her life is none of your business, you old fart!"

"I make it my business when her actions ruin this family's good name! Now enough of this charade, this, this absolute farce!" The Duke looked past Anna to point at me, "You have a duty to perform, young lady! A responsibility to uphold! You will come home this instant and marry-"

Shoving his arm away, Anna snapped, "She will not! Don't you understand? She doesn't love him, she wasn't happy!"

This was getting out of hand. Somehow, someway, whatever spell that kept me frozen abruptly broke. My feet were suddenly on the move and I was running out from behind the counter. I had to do something. Get between them, break this up, I don't know… just something.

The Duke sneered, "As if love and happiness matter in a marriage, bah!"

"They do when it's… it's…" she frowned in thought for a split second, then her face broke out into a triumphant grin. "When it's true love!"

A huff of a derisive laugh. "True love? Now you're just spouting off nonsense, pure hogwash!"

"Nu uh! In fact," there was now a sly gleam to her eye, "Elsa's already met her true love."

"She's what?!"

I've what?

At her words, I staggered and tripped, nearly colliding into my sister. Anna grabbed my shoulders, keeping me upright. Then she gave me a wink, grin twitching wider before looking back at our great uncle, "What'd you think? That that 'secret rendezvous' as you put it was... what? Just a fling? A one night stand? A booty call? Ha! Well jokes on you, Weaseltown, cuz that was her boyfriend!"

"Her what?!"

My what?

"That's right!" she cackled now as the Duke spluttered and wheeze, his hand going to his chest. "They're in love! Have been for a while now! She… oh! She ran away from her wedding to just be with him! Yeah!"

Anna, what are you doing? Anna, please stop!

"Hey, what seems to be the problem here?" Lea stepped up to join us just then.

Turn back! Back, I say!

"Well if it isn't the man of the hour!" Anna beamed at him, to which he just merely blinked and tipped his head to one side. "Weaseltown, allow me to introduce you to," she shoved me at Lea who caught me as I crashed into his chest, both eyebrows shooting up his forehead in confusion, "Elsa's one and only… her beau, her lover, her boyfriend and one true love! They make just the cutest couple, don'tcha think?"

"Wha- huh?!" Lea's grip on me tightened, his eyes widened and his face flushed bright red.

As for the Duke? Well, I suppose he handled it about as well as could be expected.

He fainted.

Author's Note: Anna, hon, no… Anna why? The way that girl's mind works sometimes, I swear… Lol! You might be able to guess where this is going, dear readers xD But if not, don't worry, it's gonna be spelled out for you reeeeeal soon xP Also, yay, a cameo from The Duke in all his huffy, stuffy, blustering glory! Just what we needed to mix things up, and boy, did things EVER get mixed up!

Next chapter, how will Elsa react to her sister's lil "announcement"? Not to mention, how will LEA react? Will Elsa ever be able to sort through her tangled feelings about this thing that may or may not be a crush? Is Elsa ACTUALLY onto something there with the frozen plushies idea? Is the Duke just straight up DEAD?! …probably not, but it was a fun question to ask xD Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, I super duper appreciate it! And an extra BIG thank you to those of you who’ve liked, reblogged, and followed so far, seeing those lil notifications always brings the biggest, goofiest smile to my face!

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

[coronavirusremediationservices]

With no end to the pandemic in sight, coronavirus fatigue grips America

Gabe Rice began sheltering in his suburban Phoenix home with his wife and three youngest children in March. They worked remotely, learned remotely and put social events on hold to hunker down alongside much of the country.

It was challenging and frustrating, but, Rice initially assumed, temporary. It seemed like a plausible plan to help the nation get the pandemic under control within a couple of months.

But Arizona’s economic reopening in May, urged by Gov. Doug Ducey (R), was soon followed by a spike in coronavirus infections in June, which became a terrible surge in hospitalizations and deaths by July.

Then came August, and the devastating realization for many Americans that the pandemic, which has killed at least 159,000 people across the country and sickened more than five million, is far from over.

“It’s difficult when you think you have a light at the other end of the tunnel to look forward to, and then all of a sudden you realize it’s a train,” said Rice, 44, a program coordinator at Arizona State University.

An exhausted, exasperated nation is suffering from the effects of a pandemic that has upended society on a scale and duration without parallel in living memory.

The Rice family and millions of other Americans are wrestling with difficult questions about how to juggle school, pay their bills and look after their mental and physical health.

Parents lie awake, their minds racing with thoughts of how to balance work with their newfound role as home-schoolers. Frontline health workers are bone tired, their nerves frayed by endless shifts and constant encounters with the virus and its victims. Senior citizens have grown weary of isolation. Unemployed workers fret over jobs lost, benefits that are running out, rent payments that are overdue. Minority communities continue to shoulder the disproportionate burden of the contagion’s impact, which in recent weeks has killed an average of about 1,000 people a day.

Buck Horton reopened his club, Wo-de’s Chill Spot, in Harvey, La., only to be forced into a second closure —  by the fire marshal’s office, which cited violations of Louisiana’s coronavirus restrictions. Buck Horton reopened his club, Wo-de’s Chill Spot, in Harvey, La., only to be forced into a second closure — by the fire marshal’s office, which cited violations of Louisiana’s coronavirus restrictions. (Emily Kask for The Washington Post) The metaphor of a marathon doesn’t capture the wearisome, confounding, terrifying and yet somehow dull and drab nature of this ordeal for many Americans, who have watched leaders fumble the pandemic response from the start. Marathons have a defined conclusion, but 2020 feels like an endless slog — uphill, in mud.

Recent opinion polls hint at the deepening despair. A Gallup survey in mid-July showed 73 percent of adults viewed the pandemic as growing worse — the highest level of pessimism recorded since Gallup began tracking that assessment in early April. Another Gallup Poll, published Aug. 4, found only 13 percent of adults are satisfied with the way things are going overall in the country, the lowest in nine years.

A July Kaiser Family Foundation poll echoed that, finding that a majority of adults think the worst is yet to come. Fifty-three percent said the crisis has harmed their mental health.

In a podcast released Thursday, former first lady Michelle Obama directly addressed the mental toll, saying she has struggled with the quarantines, the government’s response to the pandemic and the persistent reminders of systemic racism that have led to nationwide protests.

“I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression,” she said.

Historians say that not even the 1918 flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 675,000 people in the United States, had the same kind of all-encompassing economic, social and cultural impact.

“One of the biggest differences between this virus and [the 1918] influenza is the duration,” said John Barry, author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.”

With coronavirus, he said, the incubation period is longer, patients with symptoms tend to be sick longer, and many take longer to recover. Barry said leaders did not make sufficiently clear early on the simple epidemiological truth that this would be a painfully drawn-out event.

“Part of the frustration and disappointment and depression, frankly, is because of the expectation that we’d be through this by now,” he said.

President Trump repeatedly promised a quick resolution. He conjured the image of church pews packed by Easter. The White House recommended 15 days of restrictions. That was then extended by 30 days, to the end of April. On Thursday, Trump said a vaccine could be ready by Election Day, Nov. 3 — a date well in advance of what his administration’s own experts think is likely.

But the virus has repeatedly shown that it has its own timetable. The first wave of shutdowns helped reverse the frightening trend lines of March and early April but came nowhere close to crushing the opportunistic pathogen. And now the season of the pandemic is indisputably the year of the pandemic.

“This will be a long, long haul unless virtually everybody — or a very, very high percentage of the population, including the young people — take very seriously the kind of prevention principles that we’ve been talking about,” Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview.

“It is within our power and within our will to really get it down to a level that’s low enough that we can do many of the things that would get our economy going again,” he added. “There will be a long slog if everybody doesn’t pitch in.”

Not everyone is experiencing the same level of stress, and everyone’s pandemic struggles differ. Any “essential” worker exposed to high-risk conditions day after day has more urgent concerns than someone merely stuck at home and missing out on summer barbecues.

In Cadiz, Ky., Stephanie Grant has endured one of the most trying years of her life. The 42-year-old lost her job at the end of April. For more than two months, as she waited for unemployment benefits to kick in, she fell behind on her car payment, utilities, insurance and rent for the apartment she shares with her two teenage daughters.

She drained most of her savings trying to remain afloat. She applied for jobs at gas stations and dollar stores. She pursued becoming a coronavirus contract tracer, but that also didn’t come through.

“I could not get a job anywhere,” she said. “I want to get back out there and work.”

As her stress and her bills mounted, Grant turned to a Kentucky nonprofit focused on housing and homelessness. The group helped her catch up on her rent, and the arrival of her unemployment payments in late July have allowed her to catch her breath. For now.

“Right now, I’m wary. It seems like we are falling apart. The stress, the tensions, everything that’s going on. … People are scared,” she said.

And many people are bored, eager to socialize. In Harvey, La., Marlon “Buck” Horton operates a popular bar, Wo-de’s Chill Spot. But Horton’s bar permit was suspended in late July after complaints about what the state fire marshal described as “a large, non-socially distanced crowd.”

Horton, 39, denied the fire marshal’s report that he served alcohol indoors. He said people simply eager to grab a beer crowded outside, and a passerby posted a video of the gathering on Facebook, leading to the crackdown.

“We’re stuck. We don’t have assistance, and we still have landlords,” Horton said last week. At a hearing soon after, the suspension was lifted when he agreed to pay a fine and abide by the state’s coronavirus rules.

Although some states battered by the virus have made progress against it in recent weeks, it has infiltrated small towns with little previous exposure.

In Mississippi, George County is among eight counties that have been told to delay school reopenings for grades seven to 12 until Aug. 17 because of high rates of virus transmission. Superintendent of Education Wade Whitney realized how serious the pandemic had become locally when a co-worker in an adjacent office became severely ill and was hospitalized for five days.

“When that person catches it, it kind of hits you right between the eyes,” Whitney said. “Small-town George County is not immune.”

That co-worker was Matt Caldwell, the director of operations for the school district and the former head football coach at the high school. Caldwell, a big man who played offensive line for the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the early 1990s, had assumed it would be no big deal if he was infected.

“Boy, was I wrong,” he said. “I definitely underestimated it. I tell everybody I talk to it’s a real thing. Those people who think its just a hoax and all that — I know this, I wouldn’t wish what I went through on anybody.”

Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, has become an oft-quoted expert during the coronavirus pandemic. But she’s also a mother who is dismayed that her son Miles, 7, who should be entering second grade in a Maryland public school, will start the year with online-only instruction.

“I’m absolutely devastated. It’s not learning,” Nuzzo said.

The Washington Nationals host the New York Mets on Aug. 4 in an otherwise empty Nationals Park. The Washington Nationals host the New York Mets on Aug. 4 in an otherwise empty Nationals Park. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post) This is not just back-to-school season, it’s also the time when many counties and states hold their annual fairs. Those are being canceled right and left. Professional sports is now back on air, but in most cases without fans in the stadiums and arenas. Major League Baseball is trying to keep its revived season intact after several outbreaks of infection.

And there are the ordinary cancellations so many people have endured — birthdays not celebrated, weddings and funerals carried out over Zoom, trips not taken, loved ones not visited.

Joseph and Kelli Crawford of Gilbert, Ariz., had planned to travel to London in April for their 10th anniversary and for her sister’s 30th birthday. Everything was booked: Flights, lodging, tickets to concerts and plays.

They rescheduled for March 2021. But now they worry that even that might be optimistic.

“I’m crossing my fingers. But I’m also not going to be packing my bags,” said Kelli, 33.

A flight attendant, she also agreed to an 18-month voluntary separation from her work. She’ll keep her health insurance and part of her salary.

But she won’t be bored. All four of the Crawfords’ children, ages 4, 5, 10 and 13, are home. The three oldest have begun remote classes. Their 4-year-old daughter has been aching to start preschool since she saw her older brother do so last year. But there is no virtual preschool, so that plan is on hold.

“It’s one thing for the adults to be lonely,” Kelli said. “But these poor kids, I get so heartbroken about the loneliness they’re experiencing.”

There are glimmers of hope for those staggered by this dire moment: The vaccine development for the novel coronavirus appears to be moving at unprecedented speed. There are promising therapeutics that may lower the mortality rate of those who become severely ill.

The pandemic will someday come to an end, experts promise, because all pandemics have. And though SARS-CoV-2 is a slippery and unpredictable virus, it has not proved as deadly as the 1918 influenza virus that swept across much of the planet.

“In 1918, practically every city in the country ran out of coffins,” Barry said. Victims commonly died at home. “All these things led to much greater fear, which meant that people were also more willing to put up with anything that might help.”

Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan, said that though similarities exist between today’s outbreak and the influenza pandemic a century ago, American society was different at that time.

Americans had experienced epidemics of cholera, diphtheria and other diseases in the not-so-distant past. They were accustomed to children dying of smallpox, whooping cough and other diseases.

Rep. T.S. McMillan, a Democrat from Charleston, S.C., with two flappers, dances the Charleston in Washington in the 1920s. Rep. T.S. McMillan, a Democrat from Charleston, S.C., with two flappers, dances the Charleston in Washington in the 1920s. (Library of Congress) Unlike today, most Americans also had little confidence that a magic bullet would end the suffering and exasperation. “Another expectation of our era is the expectation that science will come up with a fix quickly,” Markel said. “None of us have the patience for lengthy processes. We live in an instant society.”

Still, Markel said, despite the seemingly endless nature of the current situation, history offers reasons for optimism. When the pandemic of 1918-1919 was over, for instance, people rebounded quickly.

“They went out and started dancing the Charleston, buying raccoon coats and buying stocks and bonds,” he said. “It went from zero to 60 in no time flat.”

This crisis, too, will pass.

“No question, epidemic fatigue or pandemic fatigue is real. We are experiencing it,” Markel said. “But throughout human history, there have been terrible pandemics and contagious threats. Every civilization, every nation, has come through to the other side. And we will, too.”

[reading-writing-revolution]

March 17, 2020 (Tuesday)

The big news, again today, is the spread of the novel coronavirus. There are all sorts of articles out there about how bad things are going to get and how long this will last. I’m not going to repeat the discussion because what’s the point? We know it’s bad. The only thing I can add—and it’s hardly original—is to take this very seriously indeed, and listen to actual epidemiologists and doctors and do what they say.

While I can’t talk about the epidemiological aspect of the pandemic, I can speak to the economic fallout, and politics in its wake.

The economy is contracting at a crippling rate as the country shuts down. Consumer spending drives about 70% of the American economy, and with consumers at home, spending is drying up. As industries slow down, and more and more of those consumers lose their jobs, it will slow the economy even further, in ways it’s hard even to imagine. Fewer cars on the road mean less toll money collected, for example, and less money for the local and state governments that depend on those collections. Here at home, the shutdown of restaurants and cruise lines has torn the bottom out of the market for lobsters; many of the lobstermen are pulling their gear. Economists warn that unemployment could go as high as 20% in this crisis.

These concerns have lit a fire under the Senate. Today we learned that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, formerly an investment banker, urged reluctant GOP senators to support the coronavirus relief bill passed by the House of Representatives. The situation is too urgent for them to dither, Mnuchin emphasized. After suggesting earlier that he was in no great rush, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) apparently got the message. When asked what he would do when he gets the House bill, McConnell told a CNN reporter: “Pass it.”

Florida Senator Marco Rubio noted that the pandemic might soon mean that Congress couldn’t keep reconvening week after week, and that members had better act while they could, in a big enough way that it would make a difference. “I think the assumption is going to be, we’re going to do something [and] it’s going to be big because we can’t assume we can keep coming back here.”

Senate Republicans and White House officials are also talking about another, larger stimulus package of more than $850 billion dollars of relief for airlines, hotels, casinos, and smaller businesses, as well as direct payments to individuals. Republicans want to make sure individuals get more money than the industries—especially the airlines—to undercut concerns that the relief is just a corporate giveaway. They are not holding discussions with Democrats, but are coming up with their own bill without Democratic input. Democrats are preparing their own, apparently smaller, package aimed at hospitals, unemployment insurance, small businesses, child care, and food assistance for seniors.

Altogether, these measures would add up to more than $1 trillion. The proposed package would be bigger than that passed in early 2009 under newly-elected President Barack Obama to address the crash of 2008. That one was slightly under $800 billion.

The other big story today is that Trump and the supporters who for weeks downplayed the seriousness of the novel coronavirus are trying to rewrite that history to say that they always knew it was bad. “I’ve always known this is a real—this is a pandemic,” Trump said today. “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”

In fact, until the last week or so, Trump insisted that concerns about the coronavirus were overblown. As experts began warning about what was coming as early as January, he continued to insist “We have it very well under control.” He began to pay attention in late February, when the stock market began to slide, at which point he blamed CNN and MSNBC for “panicking markets.” In early March, he insisted that Covid-19 was milder than the flu. It was not until March 11 that he gave his Oval Office address, full of misstatements, that he conveyed to the public that the coronavirus was serious indeed.

Fox News Channel personalities echoed the president’s disinformation and urged their followers to dismiss experts’ frantic warnings. Now they have done a 180. The Washington Post put together a devastating video of the contrasting messages. Just last week, radio host Rush Limbaugh called the coronavirus a scam and told his audience: “We’re shutting down our country because of the cold virus, which is what coronaviruses are.”

The rewriting of history by Trump and his supporters to say the administration was always on top of the situation matters for two reasons. First of all, it overwrites the reality that the administration ignored reality in favor of their rosy hopes. People have died, and will die, because we did not—and are not—sufficiently testing for, and prepared for, the virus. We need to remember the reality of this so that we address such shortcomings and make sure they cannot happen again.

The rewriting of history also matters because reality matters in governance. Administrations based on ideology rather than reality cannot accurately address the country’s needs. The ideology of those now in control of the Republican Party is based on a distrust of any federal government at all, preferring to slash federal action and turn any required governance over to the states. These Republicans reject the idea that the federal government has any role to play in business regulation, social welfare policy, or infrastructure development. They insist they are protecting the individualism that makes America great.

It is revealing that, faced with this crisis, Republicans are advocating an even bigger stimulus package than Obama got. The reality is that we need government spending to lift us over economic crisis, and this situation is forcing Republicans who hate government in theory to say “Spend, and don’t worry about the money.”

It turns out we need a federal government after all, and Americans today are seeing that reality play out powerfully.

In the primary voting for the Democratic presidential nomination today in Arizona, Florida, and Illinois, former Vice President Joe Biden, who was part of the Obama team that pulled America out of the 2008 crisis, won handily over Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

[kentuckybats]

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[graffjamie]

Buyer Interest Is Growing among Younger Generations The demand for homes this year is extraordinary as record-breaking numbers of hopeful buyers continue to shop for homes. In a normal year, the peak homebuying season comes to a close by early fall. However, 2020 is anything but a normal year, and the housing market is no exception. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR), explains: “Home sales traditionally taper off toward the end of the year, but in September they surged beyond what we normally see during this season…I would attribute this jump to record-low interest rates and an abundance of buyers in the marketplace, including buyers of vacation homes given the greater flexibility to work from home.” What’s drawing so many buyers to the market? As Yun mentioned, record-low interest rates are key. Today’s rates are strengthening purchasing power for buyers, too. Sam Khater, Chief Economist at Freddie Mac, emphasizes: “Mortgage rates today are on average more than a full percentage point lower than rates over the last five years.” If you’re a homebuyer right now, there’s no question that you want to take advantage of this opportunity – and you’re not alone. Competition among buyers is definitely increasing as more buyers enter the market and mortgage interest rates remain so low. Who’s planning to buy a home right now? Today’s affordability is appealing to all generations and seems to be especially attractive to younger buyers who want to begin growing their wealth through homeownership. There’s a distinct increase this year in the percentage of those in younger generations searching for homes. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) notes: “Between the third quarters of 2019 and 2020, the share of Gen Z adults planning a home purchase rose three points to 14%. Millennials, however, are the generation most likely to be considering buying a home (22%).” Here’s a graph showing the year-over-year increase in homebuying interest by generation:Buyer Interest Is Growing among Younger Generations | MyKCMAccording to Mark Fleming, Chief Economist for First American, millennials are reaching their prime home-buying years, a likely driver in this increase: “Record low mortgage rates and millennials continuing to age into their prime home-buying years has boosted demand, but a lack of housing supply remains a challenge.” What’s the biggest challenge for today’s buyers? Finding a home, however, as Fleming notes above, is clearly a challenge today. Yun also explains: “There is no shortage of hopeful, potential buyers, but inventory is historically low.” With so many buyers actively searching for homes this year and so few houses for sale, it’s more important than ever to work with a trusted real estate professional to navigate today’s market. From pre-approval to bidding wars and guidance on down payment assistance resources, having an agent by your side might make the difference in your ability to land your dream home. Bottom Line Let’s connect if you’re ready to buy a home. More buyers mean more competition, so you need an expert guide to help you stand out from the crowd. FREE Guides: Home Buying-https://bit.ly/33UTW2K Home Selling-https://bit.ly/3mTvLuv FREE “INSTANT” HOME VALUE: http://HomeValuesWithAdvisorsJG.com PREQUALIFY for loan: https://bit.ly/2GuyvgQ APPLY for loan: https://bit.ly/2HH6cwi 732-500-6883 https://JGraff.AdvisorsMortgage.com/contact https://facebook.com/nmls1974758 FREE MORTGAGE CALCULATORS: https://JGraff.AdvisorsMortgage.com/calculators FREE current copy of my periodical eMag:     "HOME LOANS NEWS": https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al3KFhVmz0hu8zVpDugzDgdYmOiv?e=RMwEP1     And FREE subscription for anyone interested in receiving it via email - just instant message me your email address - no hassle/obligation - cancel anytime - absolutely FREE!     "I wrote the book on home loans...;o)" - James H. Graff FREE  "beta/test" copy of my new 70+ page, pdf Ebook     "HOME LOANS:          LINKS to lots of FREE guides, tips, info, advice on virtually ALL current aspects of buying,           selling and financing a home" FREE copy: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Al3KFhVmz0hu8zh4BHmqfOrEdO9U?e=2kbvT4 HOME LOANS James Graff   NMLS# 1974758 Advisors Mortgage Group, L.L.C.   NMLS# 33041 2899 Highway 35 North  Hazlet N.J. 07730 In 34 states of The United States of America: AZ CA CO CN DE D.C. FL KS KY IL IN ME MD MA MI MN NJ NY NC OH OR PA RI SC SD TX VT VA WA WV Cash out refinance, debt consolidation, renovation loan, reverse mortgage, pre-qualify, pre-approval letter, FHA VA USDA HELOC HECM FNMA Fannie Mae FHLMC Freddie Mac... #mortgages #mortgage #marketupdate #refinance #homebuying #realestate #homeownership #advisors #marketupdates #homeloan #homeloans #debtconsolidate #realtor  #realestateagent #agent #mortgagecalculator

[dailynewswebsite]

McConnell's $333 billion stimulus proposal is 'obviously a nonstarter,' expert says

The stimulus proposal Senate Majority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-KY) unveiled on Tuesday seemed much like his earlier payments that have been already rejected by the Senate, elevating questions concerning the chance of a brand new deal.

“If McConnell have been severe about working with the Democrats, he would not have put again out his identical proposal once more,” Mark Harkins, a former Democratic congressional staffer and a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Authorities Affairs Institute, advised Yahoo Cash. “As a result of that is clearly a nonstarter.”

McConnell’s new $333 billion proposal features a second spherical of the Paycheck Safety Program (PPP) for small companies, a one-month extension of the Pandemic Unemployment Help (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) applications, legal responsibility defend for companies, amongst different provisions.

Senate Majority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-Ky), maintain a information convention after the Senate Republican Coverage luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on December 1, 2020. (Photograph by Tom Williams / POOL / AFP)

McConnell’s earlier invoice included an additional $300 in weekly unemployment advantages, which isn’t a part of the latest bundle. This bundle additionally doesn’t embrace funds for state and native governments or a second spherical of stimulus checks, two provisions supported by Democrats that they included of their most up-to-date $2.2 trillion model of the HEROES Act.

Until Congress reaches a stimulus deal within the lame-duck session, the PUA and the PEUC applications — amongst different reduction — will expire, leaving as much as 12 million Individuals with out jobless advantages.

Each the Pandemic Unemployment Help (PUA) and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) applications are set to run out on December 26 except Congress reaches a stimulus deal.

‘The Republican chief mustn’t waste the Senate’s time’

Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who referred to as McConnell’s earlier $500 billion proposal a “nonstarter,” mentioned his most up-to-date proposal “can be much more inadequate than the earlier two makes an attempt” provided that these have been voted down within the GOP-controlled Senate.

“The newest Republican provide on COVID will embrace immunity from companies who put their staff in danger for COVID, however not a dime for staff who misplaced their job due to the pandemic,” he mentioned from the Senate flooring on Wednesday. “The Republican chief mustn’t waste the Senate’s time on one other insufficient partisan proposal.”

Story continues

Learn extra: The right way to file for unemployment insurance coverage

Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Schumer despatched McConnell a brand new stimulus provide with an undisclosed worth on Monday night, with Schumer saying it’s “a personal proposal to assist us transfer the ball ahead.”

A bipartisan group of lawmakers additionally launched $908 billion proposal on Tuesday, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D- WV), one in every of its authors, saying that “it’s not the time for political brinkmanship.” Pelosi and Schumer backed the proposal on Wednesday which has a considerably lower cost tag than their $2.2 trillion proposal.

Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Chief Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., are seen after a information convention to debate the Home handed Heroes Act and coronavirus reduction laws within the Capitol Customer Middle on Thursday, November 12, 2020. (Photograph By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Pictures)

The bipartisan proposal is supported by 4 Republican and 5 Democratic senators. That might not be sufficient to place strain on Republicans to barter on the next price ticket or be sufficient to supply extra votes for a invoice to go within the Senate, based on Harkins.

“That bipartisan coalition is just 9 folks,” he mentioned. “If you happen to had a partisan deal on one facet or the opposite, and people folks got here with you, you are still 53 to 56 votes. That is nonetheless not 60.”

‘If she takes a 3rd of a deal proper now, she might get a zero deal subsequent 12 months’

McConnell mentioned his proposal is a method to shortly go reduction within the lame-duck session and that it’s a bundle that can be supported by the president.

“We need to get a end result and I wish to remind everyone that the way in which you get a result’s you need to have a presidential signature,” McConnell advised reporters on Tuesday. “The very first thing we wanted to do was to search out out what the president would, the truth is, signal. We imagine we’ve obtained the reply to that. We’re vetting that on our facet.”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin mentioned on Wednesday that President Trump will signal McConnell’s most up-to-date proposal.

McConnell additionally mentioned that the discussions about extra reduction will proceed after President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration whereas the present deal can embrace “the issues that we are able to agree on now.”

Yahoo Cash sister web site Cashay has a weekly e-newsletter.

“Everyone knows that after the primary of the 12 months, there’s more likely to be a dialogue about some extra bundle of some measurement subsequent 12 months, relying upon what the brand new administration desires to pursue,” McConnell mentioned.

Relying on the end result of the Georgia Senate runoff races, Democrats might not be ready to get a number of the provisions they need even in 2021, based on Harkins.

“[Pelosi] has obtained to be very cautious as a result of if she takes a 3rd of a deal proper now,” he mentioned. “She might get a zero deal subsequent 12 months if the Republicans win each the Georgia seats.”

Denitsa is a author for Yahoo Finance and Cashay, a brand new private finance web site. Comply with her on Twitter @denitsa_tsekova.

Learn extra:

Comply with Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Fb, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Reddit

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/mcconnells-333-billion-stimulus-proposal-is-obviously-a-nonstarter-expert-says/ via https://growthnews.in

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[kentuckybats]

Kentucky Down payment assistance loans are available up to $7,500 for Mortgage

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Down payment assistance loans are available up to $7,500 and are paid back over a period of ten years. They are typically offered to buyers with limited cash reserves and carry an interest rate of 1 to 3.75% based on applicants gross income. These loans can make a critical difference to buyers for whom the down payment is an obstacle. Buyers whose 3.5% down payment is less than the $7,500 limit…

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News The $2 trillion relief bill is massive but it won’t prevent a recession - The Washington Post

News

The Senate criminal passed a $2.2 trillion aid bundle for the economic system — the biggest in U.S. historical previous — by a unanimous vote. The Home is anticipated to approve it soon, and President Trump is raring to signal it.

The criminal news is that many of the money will budge to laid-off workers, tiny-industry owners, hospitals, and hiss and native governments. The imperfect news is that it won’t be ample to stop a recession. And it’s an initiating search data from whether the nation can preserve some distance from an economic despair, the likes of which haven’t been seen for the reason that 1930s.

“By any measure, that is a giant stimulus bundle. One thing that it can't stop is the recession that is coming,” acknowledged James McCann, senior world economist at Aberdeen Same earlier Investments.

Economists teach Congress’s response was as soon as too gradual, too stingy and too targeted on immense Wall Avenue corporations all around the Noteworthy Recession, and that averted a sooner turnaround. Many analysts teach Congress deserves some credit for doing better this time. This aid bundle is greater than double the $830 billion measure that Congress passed in 2009. It got here together in a number of days, and it’s some distance more targeted at Predominant Avenue.

Heart-class and low-profits Americans are slated to win $1,200 tests (more for fogeys with kids). Miniature-industry owners will soon accept as true with entry to $10,000 emergency grants and tens of millions in loans. And extra money is determined apart for the unemployed. Handiest about a quarter of the money will budge to enormous corporations this time, including billions earmarked for Boeing and airlines.

Nonetheless economists teach two key complications dwell: fixing the successfully being crisis and getting money to of us in time.

Constance Hunter, chief economist at KPMG, predicts that this can even engage as a minimal six to 10 weeks for the government to disburse a important amount of the money. That’s a truly long time for laid-off workers and tiny-industry owners and not using a money coming in to attend. It makes it much less probably that they may be able to jump assist rapidly.

“There isn’t some magic restart button for the economic system,” Hunter acknowledged. “Before the money arrives, there will most probably be quite a lot of collateral smash to the economic system. That’s going to murder restarting it no longer easy."

James Bullard, a famed economist and head of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, put out a chilling forecast of what’s ahead for the nation within the arrival months: He expects 46 million Americans to be unemployed (30 p.c of workers) and an unprecedented 50 p.c decline in economic output.

Trump has floated the belief of getting of us assist to work by April 12. But public successfully being officials teach that they don’t squawk that is sensible and that going assist too soon may perchance well per chance trigger a 2nd spike in coronavirus conditions and deaths, forcing more shutdowns.

The nation is picking to shut down mighty of the economic system to assign lives, perchance as many as a entire bunch of hundreds, consistent with one estimate. America has to gain the pandemic below succor a watch on sooner than day-to-day lifestyles and industry can budge assist to something else remotely normal. It’s unruffled a immense unknown how long that will engage.

Majority Chief Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared on the Senate floor Wednesday that “that is now not any longer even a stimulus bundle; it is emergency aid.” Economists agree. This $2 trillion isn’t about boosting the economic system; it’s about attempting to compensate of us for what can even be $2.5 trillion in misplaced industry and wages within the arrival weeks. And that’s a most attention-grabbing-case blueprint. Losses will most probably be deeper if the pandemic lasts into the summer.

To stop a despair, the aid payments accept as true with to gain to workers and industry owners snappy ample to forestall a series response of be troubled where one particular person goes out of industry and that triggers one more failure and one more.

Bullard, the St. Louis Fed president, is optimistic that the economic system will jump assist within the 2nd half of 2020. He compares this to using a automobile 70 miles per hour on the highway and then having to gradual to a gallop for a relate zone. The hope is that the auto can procure roam rapidly, after exiting the relate zone, nonetheless it’s no longer a given.

“It’s no longer ample to accept as true with Congress budge something or to accept as true with the Fed put modern programs into blueprint to retain liquidity, it’s indubitably the execution of these programs” that issues, he acknowledged.

To gain a actuality test on what’s happening to the U.S. economic system, call a tiny-industry owner. With regards to all will repeat you that industry is severely down — or closed — and that they set no longer accept as true with any clue when that will change. In contemporary days, most of these owners accept as true with talked to any individual they may be able to private — bankers, insurers, politicians, chums, customers, Miniature Industrial Administration officials — about getting a mortgage or serve. Nonetheless each person is in a position to see what Congress does first, leaving industry owners terrified that they may be able to mosey out of money sooner than assist arrives.

John Russell co-based Webconnex, at tiny tech firm, in 2008, but he says this crisis is even more difficult to navigate than the Noteworthy Recession, because it’s so unsure when this can even discontinue and whether the restoration will most probably be snappy or gradual. His firm, which employs 41 of us, makes sensible instrument for fundraising and events and processed about $1 billion in bank card payments closing year. Now most of its 2020 events are canceled, leaving virtually no money coming in.

“If we don’t gain aid from this bill in Congress, we don't accept as true with any different but to enact huge layoffs,” Russell acknowledged. “Our crew is love our family. For us, 100 p.c of our focal level is on saving these jobs.”

Russell has taken an ax to his budget. Selling spending is long previous. He split the credit cards. The firm managed to discontinue its rent in Sacramento on the discontinue of the month. All journeys are canceled. These decisions are already rippling all around the economic system, chopping revenue for utterly different corporations.

If he has to lay off workers, love so many eating locations and hotels accept as true with, Russell knows the be troubled will escalate. Nonetheless taking on a hefty mortgage fair now feels dreadful, given the uncertainty.

It’s a an analogous memoir for many states and cities hit hardest by the pandemic. New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) is inflamed regarding the most modern congressional bundle, asserting that about $4 billion in serve is now not any longer virtually ample as the hiss tries to war the virus and bolster successfully being care and safety personnel all around the crisis.

“I’m telling you these numbers don’t work,” Cuomo acknowledged to newshounds.

There's now not this kind of thing as a economic playbook for a style to deal with this successfully being crisis. Congress and the White Home accept as true with taken a first attempt at serve, but most economists count on more will most probably be wanted. And most probably the greatest thing that will indubitably turn this around is ending the pandemic

[wilsonmcqueen5]

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20 Resources That'll Make You Better At Housing Renovation Ideas

Facts About Typical Home Repairs Revealed

Your house is one of the most costly points you'll ever before pay for, so whether you're renting out or buying, you must take great treatment of it. While you'll most likely be tempted to call a professional when something breaks, you can take care of a great deal of issues on your own. Many of these home repairs can be finished with little to no experience.

Also, if you do not already have a device package of your own, this would not be a poor time to start structure.

If you're offering your home, you might question if there prevail repair work required after a And also felt confident, there's no requirement for you to deal with everything a residence examiner believes can stand for improvement; a house evaluation record is not an order of business. Essentially examination repairs drop right into 3 classifications: ones that are basically called for, according to the assessor; ones that generally aren't called for; and ones that are up for https://www.azag.gov/consumer/home-improvement debate.

Top Guidelines Of Repair Or Replace

There are some solutions that will be called for by lending institutions before they will certainly release funds to fund a customer's residence acquisition. Normally these address costly architectural defects, developing code violations, or security concerns, often in the attic room, crawl areas, and also cellar, and also those pertaining to the chimney or heating system. An examiner will certainly likewise check whether your septic system as well as heater are in great condition and verify whether there's a possible radon leakage or the visibility of termites (homeowners often tend to have lots of questions on these topics).

If a home inspection discloses such troubles, odds are you are accountable for fixing them. Begin by getting some quotes from specialists to see just how much the job will certainly cost. From there, you can deal with these issues or-- the a lot more prudent course-- offer the purchasers a credit scores so they can spend for the solutions themselves.

All About Repair Or Replace

Here are two sneaky however completely efficient ways to handle this home obstacle that's been revealed by your assessor: Deal a residence guarantee . "I in some cases maintain a $500 one-year home service warranty in my back pocket as a token to reduce concerns located throughout a home inspection," states Kyle Springer, a Realtor ® with Coldwell Banker in Bowling Environment-friendly, KY

Some Known Factual Statements About Diy Home Repair

. Barter for something of worth to the purchaser. Typically vendors will certainly suggest their property representative ask the customer's agent if the customers desire home appliances or furniture if they have no strategies to relocate them. Springer suggests vendors to wait to make that offer till after they get the list from the inspector, due to the fact that they may be able to ask off certain repairs in exchange for things such as the washer as well as dryer.

As soon as you acquire a home, you recognize it's a great deal much more expensive than just the down settlement and also monthly home loan payment. Investing in home repair work was predicted to. That's a whole lot of moolah. With the benefits of homeownership can come on house enhancements as well as repairs in the in 2014.

Is the patio sagging? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?search=common home repairs Say bye-bye to your Hawaii holiday. Is there a sinkhole in the yard? That'll cost ya. The last one may be a farce, but home repair work prices are nothing to sneeze at. Even if you're a DIY-queen and a big believer in sweat equity, the high rate of materials, to state nothing of your time, include up.

How Repair Or Replace can Save You Time, Stress, and Money.

Some suggest that you sock away at the very least 1% of your house's value to cover random home-related emergency situations. However one of the hardest parts of homeownership is that most of these repair work are hard to anticipate and worth. While low-priced precautionary updates like cleansing your seamless gutters or switching out double-glaze window can assist keep typical residence repair service expenses down, when your pipes burst and flooding the cellar, you can be responsible for hundreds of dollars-- immediately.

Right here's a run-through of usual home repair services, along with the expenses related to them (approximated expenses thanks to except where otherwise linked), and a consider which you need to focus on. As an example, a brand-new layer of paint isn't as crucial as repairing a busted roofing. These are the sort of repairs that you require to jump on top of fast when you're a homeowner.

What Does How To Home Repair Do?

This affects homes where dirt swells with rainfalls and moisture and agreements with drought. These sort of shifts placed the structure in danger. Because the foundation is essentially the heart of your residence, fixings are made complex as well as expensive. This is the kind of typical house fixings needed after residence inspection and can cost well north of $10,000.

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Medicare Supplements: Filling In The Insurance Gaps

You have worked hard all of your life. You have taken care of your family, your home, and have been a dedicated employee in Louisville, KY for many years. It is time now to slow things down a bit and take care of yourself for a change. 

The truth is, getting older can sometimes bring on unwanted stress. The three big stress points are your health, financial situation, and overall well-being. As you approach the young age of 65, the first big point to understand is the importance of managing your health. Your health can have a domino effect on all the other aspects of your life. 

Everyone has heard of Medicare, but fewer people know the benefits of adding Medicare Supplements to their Original Medicare Part A and Part B. We are about to dive into the basics of what Medicare Supplements are and discuss the increasing importance of adding it to your Original Medicare Part A and Part B.

What is Medicare Supplement Insurance?

Medicare Supplements, also referred to as Medigap Plans, fill in the gap of what Original Medicare Part A and Part B does not cover. Original Medicare does not pay for 100% of your medical needs and what Medigap Plans do is they essentially pick up the rest of the slack from your Medicare coverage. 

Original Medicare only covers about 80% of medical bills and adding Medicare Supplements can pick up the remaining 20% of the cost. There are ten standardized plans and each one covers a different portion or percentage of your Original Medicare copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles. The ten Medicare Supplements are Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, Plan F, Plan G, Plan H, Plan L, Plan M and Plan N.

While they are named with letters, they are in no way related to the letter names given to Original Medicare Part A and Part B, Medicare Advantage Part C, and Prescription Drug Coverage Part D. 

Medicare Supplements are sold from a variety of private insurance companies. The companies that Braden Insurance Agency in Louisville, KY sells plans from include:

Humana

Aetna

Cigna

United Healthcare

Anthem

Many more

Regardless of which company you purchase from, the Medicare Supplements are the same. The only difference lies in the price of the monthly premium. So it is important to compare plans and their premiums against other companies, so you are getting the right plan for you at a price that won’t hurt your pocketbook. Your best bet is to compare plans with your licensed independent Medicare agent. 

Don’t have an agent yet? Call Braden Insurance Agency today and schedule a free, unbiased consultation with one of our friendly independent agents to discuss Medicare Supplement Insurance.

Why is Medigap Insurance so Important?

Everyone knows how important their health care is to their overall quality of life. But with the ever increasing costs of living expenses, including medical care, many elders are having to choose between medical care and groceries. And sadly, this choice can diminish their quality of life or even their life-span. This reality is not only nation-wide, but this problem exists for many aging citizens right here in Louisville, KY. 

Medigap Insurance Plans are available to all Medicare eligible recipients to help decrease or even eliminate the out-of-pocket expenses left over from Original Medicare. They often increase the quality of health care because it gives you the option to see the specialist you need, receive the outpatient care necessary, or participate in preventative treatments that might otherwise not be covered by Original Medicare and you may be unable to pay out-of-pocket for. 

Those enrolled in a Medicare Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) or other Medicare Advantage plan are not eligible to also enroll in Medigap Plans. But for those relying on Original Medicare alone, a Medigap policy provides peace of mind knowing that they are covered, regardless of what the future holds. Medicare Supplements provide a safety net so you and your loved ones can be sure you are getting all the care you need, without having to live on rice and beans during the process.

Medicare Supplement Insurance: How to Get Started

First things first. Before any of this process gets going, the first thing that has to be eligible is for you to be turning 65. The next step, once you reach 65, is to enroll in Original Medicare Part A. Part B can wait until you are no longer employed and covered under their health insurance. Once you officially retire, you can enroll in Original Medicare Part B, as well as any of the Medicare Supplements.

Open Enrollment for Medigap Plans last six months and starts on the first day of the month you turn 65. During this enrollment period, you can not be charged higher premiums or be denied coverage due to any pre-existing health condition. Once this enrollment period is over, you can still enroll in Medicare Supplements but could potentially be denied coverage or charged a higher premium than if you had enrolled during the enrollment period.

What Do Medigap Plans Cover?

The main aspects that Medicare Supplements cover are Original Medicare copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles. In addition, they provide an additional 365 days of hospital stays after the Original Medicare benefits are used up. 

This means that any of these Medicare Supplements will pay for all or some percentage of your Original Medicare copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles, eliminating the need for any out-of-pocket payments. In addition, there are certain Medicare Supplements that can be purchased that can assist with or completely cover the costs associated with at-home help for recovery, physical assistance, and in-home visits, or preventative care. 

Our guide to Medicare Supplement Insurance takes a more in-depth look into each Medigap policy and spells out what each one covers specifically.

Supplement Plans: Let the Good Times Roll

We have to face the facts that retirement and aging are expensive and many are not adequately prepared. When individuals and couples and not prepared for their increased health care costs, their health care suffers and in turn, they do not receive the care they need. With Medicare Supplements, this does not have to be the case.

When you enroll in one of the Medicare Supplements, you are securing your financial situation, so you can focus on what matters most to you. 

For more information or to enroll in one the Medicare Supplements, call on the independent agents at Braden Insurance Agency in Louisville, KY to help you get started. Our free, unbiased consultations will ensure you get all of your questions answered so you can rest easy knowing your health and quality of life is protected.

The post Medicare Supplements: Filling In The Insurance Gaps appeared first on Bradeninsurance.com

Braden Insurance Agency Inc.

3069 Breckenridge Ln

Louisville, KY 40220

502-454-9191

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(via How to qualify for a Kentucky FHA Home Loan ?)

Kentucky FHA loan requirements:

At least 18 years old to apply

No age limit. just must be 18 years of age to apply.

Must occupy the home as a primary residence, no rental homes or investment property

An appraisal must be done by an FHA-approved appraiser.Typically FHA appraisal in Kentucky costs anywhere from low-end $325 to $525 with most FHA lenders in KY.

Home inspection is not required

Termite inspection not required

2 years removed from Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and 1 year in Chapter 13 bankruptcy is possible to get a loan while in bankruptcy

Foreclosure or short sale on previous home mortgage requires 3 years removal from those dates.

Mortgage insurance (MIP) is required

Upfront Mortgage Insurance Premium is 1.75% and monthly mortgage insurance is .85% or .80% depending on loan term and loan to value.

Mortgage insurance is for life of loan.

No matter your credit scores, everyone pays the same mortgage insurance premiums.

Must have 2 years of employment history proving a reliable source of income

500 FICO score requirement with at least 10% down payment

580 FICO score requirement with at least 3.5% down payment

Gifts and down payment assistance programs are allowed to meet your down payment requirements. Cannot come from seller, but seller can contribute up to 6% of the sales price toward buyer’s closing costs and prepaids.

Student loan payments are factored into the debt-to-income ratio when applying. Typically if loans are deferred, or in an income=based repayment plan, the FHA underwriters will use 1% of the outstanding balance, which sometimes can make it difficult to qualify.

Your debt-to-income ratio must not be higher than 31% or total debt obligation cannot be higher than 43% of your current income. This is for a manual underwriter, meaning that if the AUS underwriting system by mortgage lenders will approve you for a higher debt to income ratio, that is fine.