How (and when) will I get my stimulus money?

By Kimberly Lankford

Since Congress passed the economic-stimulus bill February 13, a lot of people have asked us how they will get their money. Some of the details will be worked out in the coming weeks, but here's what we know so far.

How much will the "Making Work Pay" tax credit be?

The stimulus provides a refundable tax credit of 6.2% of taxable wages in 2009 and 2010, to a maximum each year of $400 for single taxpayers and $800 for married couples filing jointly. The credit begins to phase out for single filers with adjusted gross incomes of $75,000 or higher, or $150,000 for married couples filing jointly, and it disappears entirely for single filers with AGIs of $95,000 or more, or $190,000 for joint filers.

How will I receive the credit?

You'll get the money through a reduction in income tax withheld from your paycheck, adding about $30 to $40 a month to most people's take-home pay. After the IRS adjusts its withholding tables, employers will change their automatic withholding systems; you shouldn't have do anything to get the extra money. The IRS says that most people should see the change in their paychecks this spring.

I am self-employed and don't have my taxes withheld. What should I do?

In that case, you could reduce your quarterly estimated taxes because of this credit, says Mark Luscombe, principal analyst with the tax and accounting group CCH. Then you will claim the credit when you file next spring, bringing your tax bill down into line with your reduced payments.

What about people who have a job now and have their withholding reduced, but then lose their job in the next few months?

"They will have reduced withholding for the period they work, then the amounts will be reconciled when they file their returns for the year," says Scott Weiner, senior tax analyst with the tax and accounting business unit of Thomson Reuters.

What will the stimulus payment be for retirees?

The stimulus provides a one-time payment of $250 to recipients of Social Security, Railroad Retirement and Veteran's Administration benefits, and to government employees who don't receive Social Security. They'll receive the money even if they have little or no income, says Luscombe. This payment will reduce the "Making Work Pay" credit if they are eligible for both.

How will retirees get their money?

People who get their Social Security or other benefits electronically will get this payment electronically as well, says Weiner. Others will get a check.

When will retirees receive the money?

"The statute says that payments must begin at the earliest practicable date, but no later than 120 days after the date of enactment," says Weiner. So retirees should get the payments before June 17 because President Obama signed the bill on February 17.

source: http://www.fox28.com/Global/story.asp?S=9909481

Revival Comes to the Muslim World

Some call it a revolution in the Middle East but it's not the result of political movement. This video shows Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ in large numbers. A worship service in northern Iraq is one example of the biblical revolution going on throughout the Middle East. The body of believers live in the predominately Kurdish area of Iraq that some refer to as Iraqi Kurdistan. Because of their culture and upbringing, they're often referred to as Muslim background believers.

Depression Cooking

91 year old cook and great grandmother, Clara, recounts her childhood during the Great Depression as she prepares meals from the era. Learn how to make simple yet delicious dishes while listening to stories from the Depression.








You can find more of Clara's depression meals at http://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking We have tried several here at St. Mary's. Every thing tastes great.

Christ in Islam and Christianity

Christ in Islam and Christianity.

From the Program: "Questions about Faith"

Father Zakaria Boutros a famous Coptic Priest and Nahed Mahmoud Metwali a former muslima also from Egypt respond to questions of Muslims regarding the Christian Faith.

About Fathter Zakaria Boutrous:
CWNews.com -- Father Zakaria Boutros looks like a mild-mannered, unassuming priest. But his message is rocking much of the Muslim world. His television program called 'Truth Talk' is broadcast daily into the Middle East over the Al-Hiyat satellite channel. On it, he challenges Muslims to examine what he says are inconsistencies in Islamic doctrine -- inconsistencies that he says Muslim leaders don't want exposed and ordinary Muslims are told never to question.
"Islam cannot stand in front of intellectual questions and no one can understand because of contradictions in Koran, contradictions in Hadith, contradictions and false doctrines. So they don't want anybody to ask and to learn. 'This is Islam, you have to accept it as it is' lest you should be killed," Zakaria said.

Father Zakaria doesn't stop at challenging the teachings of Islam. He also questions the Prophet Mohammed himself, who Zakaria says had his mind set on wordly pursuits.
"He said that his concerns are three things: women, perfume, and food," he said. "Where is the kingdom of God? Where is the glory of God? Where is the salvation? Where is love? Where is the mission of a true Prophet of God?"

Father Zakaria's broadcasts have generated intense anger in the Muslim world and there's a $60 million bounty on his head. But he makes no excuses for his confrontational style.
He says the provocative statements are designed to challenge Muslims to examine their faith.
"This is my way: short, sharp, shock for the unconscious," Zakaria said
That was the case with James, an Egyptian who began watching Truth Talk late at night while the rest of his family slept. "When I first saw the show, I was angry at him. I wanted revenge," he said. He began studying the Koran and the Bible to refute father Zakaria's claims, and in the process learned more about Christianity and Islam. "I started to think about things I had never thought of before. My understanding changed and things became clear," James said. James came to faith in Jesus Christ watching Father Zakaria. His wife soon followed. "I realized Islam was a fake religion, Mary said. "When I learned the truth, I removed my veil. I felt freedom. I had been released. "Life is not about religion it's about a relationship between us and Christ. Christ is life."

Father Zakaria says the Muslim world is full of people like James and Mary. Thousands of people visit his Internet chat room on 'Pal Talk' every month. They come to challenge Father Zakaria's teaching and end up learning more about Jesus Christ.

Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act: The Heritage Foundation 2009 Labor Boot Camp

by James Sherk

What Does Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act (UIMA) Do?

* It extends the 0.2 percentage point FUTA payroll tax until 2012.
* It provides $7 billion in federal incentive payments over five years to states that make certain changes to their unemployment insurance (UI) systems.
* One-third of the incentive payments would go to states that modify the base period used to calculate eligibility for UI benefits to include the most recently finished calendar quarter.
* Two-thirds of the incentive payments would go to states that permitted at least two of the following three types of workers to collect UI benefits:

1. Part-time workers;
2. Workers who leave their jobs for compelling family reasons, defined as:

* Illness or disability of a family member;
* Moving to accompany a spouse who moved after a job change;
* Domestic violence.

3. Workers in a "declining" occupation who have exhausted their regular UI benefits but are in an approved job-training program for a "high-demand" occupation.

Policy Concerns

* Current law provides unemployment insurance to protect workers against the risk of unexpectedly losing their jobs and stabilizes their income for several months while they look for new work.
* Unemployment insurance is not an unemployment benefit paid for not working but insures workers against an unexpected event outside their control, much like home insurance protects against a fire.
* Workers who voluntarily leave their job do not qualify for unemployment insurance because the decision to leave employment was theirs. The government does not want to subsidize unemployment, just as an insurance company would not pay a claim for a home deliberately burned down.
* UIMA shifts UI toward a more general unemployment benefit. Workers have the choice of seeking part-time or full-time employment. Families decide together whether a spouse will move to take a new job. UIMA shifts the UI system from one that protects workers from the risk of unemployment toward one that pays workers who are unemployed.
* UIMA encourages states to generously expand their UI systems but provides funding for only a portion of the added costs. $7 billion over five years covers only a fraction of the added costs of the expanded UI benefits necessary to receive the incentive payments.
* Many state UI systems are underfunded as unemployment claims have risen during the downturn. The Department of Labor recommends that states maintain a balance of at least one year's worth of benefits in recessions. Nineteen states currently have reserves of less than one year. Indiana, Michigan, and South Carolina have already exhausted their trust funds and are borrowing from the federal government.
* States should not be encouraged to take actions that would further drain their UI trust funds when many of those funds are currently underfunded.
* The legislation provides incentive payments to states that provide UI benefits to workers who leave work to care for ill family members.
* Any illness, no matter how trivial, would qualify for UI payments under this legislation. A worker could get UI payments for leaving his job to care for a spouse who has the flu.
* Lax qualifying provisions would encourage abuse.

Economic Effects

* Additional UI benefits are frequently claimed to provide significant economic stimulus.
* The studies that come to this conclusion ignore the effect of UI benefits in raising unemployment and incorrectly assume that unemployed households spend every dollar of UI benefits they receive. Empirical studies contradict both of these assumptions.
* Heritage Foundation macroeconomic modeling accounting for both these factors show that for each dollar spent extending UI benefits to 46 weeks, GDP expands in the first year by just $0.17. Almost any other use of resources would provide a greater short term boost to the economy.[1]
* The consequences of extended unemployment benefits are some of the most conclusively established results in labor economic research. Extending either the amount or the duration of UI benefits increases the length of time that workers remain unemployed.[2]

James Sherk is Bradley Fellow in Labor Policy in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation.

[1]James Sherk and Karen Campbell, Ph.D., "Extended Unemployment Insurance--No Economic Stimulus," Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis Report No. 08-13, November 18, 2008, at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/cda08-13.cfm.

[2]Ibid.; James Sherk and Patrick Tyrrell, "Unemployment Insurance Does Not Stimulate the Economy," Heritage Foundation WebMemo No. 1777, January 18, 2008, at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Economy/wm1777.cfm.

source: http://www.heritage.org/research/labor/wm2213.cfm

Undisguised death threats against the Mar Gabriel Monastery

Undisguised death threats against the Mar Gabriel Monastery

The harassment and intimidation against the Mar Gabriel Monastery continue and have taken a new impetus. Now the monastery staff is threatened openly in Turkey's largest newspaper: "If the problem is not resolved, blood will be shed here" writes the newspaper Hürriyet.

On Friday, February 20th, an interview was published in the paper version of Turkey's largest newspaper Hürriyet. The interview was done with Kuryakos Ergün, who is chairman of the Mar Gabriel Monastery Foundation and Suleyman Düz, who is the village chief in the village of Eglence.

- We have inherited the land from our ancestors, we will not give it to anyone, if the court does not resolve the issue, there will be killings, there will be great events taking place here, we have lived together here in a thousand years but now they are entrusting themselves with Europe, says Suleyman Düz, village chief in Eglence, referring to the few Assyrians who remain in the area.

The Foundation's chairman of Mar Gabriel Monastery, Kuryakos Ergün, says that the problem must be solved at the local level.

- We want to live like brothers with the Muslims here, the monastery has a long history which has been preserved for thousands of years, it's an unnecessary provocation, we want to solve the problem here in Midyat, in Ankara, not in Europe, says Kuraykos Ergun.

Before the eyes of the Turkish authorities and the police, now open threats have been made several times against the Mor Gabriel Monastery. So far, none of the threats has caused any legal implications.

Click the following link to read original article (Turkish)

http://www.turabdin.downthe.net/pdf/Hurriyet.pdf

Dikran Ego
Freelance Journalist
www.acsatv.com
  
   

Lenten Podcast Now Online

You can listen to the latest podcast from St. Mary’s online.  While we usually think of Lent as a time to give something up, it is also a time to take a journey - a journey home. And it is also a great time for those of us in recovery because we are joined in this journey by many of our brothers and sisters.

To listen online:

http://stmarytheprotectress.mypodcast.com/2009/02/Lents_a_great_time_for_us_in_recovery-186312.html