Issue Date: February 12, 2006
Hurricane tax breaks
In the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, which devastated the lives and incomes of so many, a number of provisions cut taxes for the victims and for the helpers who have housed them for at least 60 days:
Check irs.gov for details on these and other breaks.
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Property casualty or theft losses. Now these are 100% deductible. Ordinarily, to figure a deduction, you would reduce the loss by $100 and by 10% of your adjusted gross income, and only the excess would be deductible.
Extensions. Victims who file quarterly or who applied for extensions on their 2004 taxes have until Feb. 28 to complete all returns and pay any taxes. The IRS will waive any interest or penalties that normally would have applied.
Early IRA and pension distributions. Affected taxpayers can withdraw, without penalty, up to $100,000 from these accounts through Jan. 1, 2007.
Katrina helpers. You can take a $500 deduction for each dislocated person you house in your home for two months or more, for up to a $2,000 deduction.
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Pomegranate juice is the new powerhouse
Step aside, green tea and red wine. The new wonder health drink is pomegranate juice -- nicknamed pom juice.
Heart specialist Dean Ornish says blood flow to the heart improved 17% in men and women with coronary heart disease who drank 8.5 ounces of pomegranate juice a day for three months. Blood flow decreased 18% in patients who took placebos; this was a normal progression of their heart disease. The study was done at Ornish's Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif.
Other research on pom juice:
It can lower blood pressure and help shrink plaque buildup in the neck arteries, say Israeli studies.
Tests on mice indicate it may inhibit prostate cancer and Alzheimer's-like brain plaque.
Sources for this article
Pom juice and blood flow to heart
Sumner MD, Am J Cardiol. 2005 Sep 15;96(6):810-4
Pom juice, blood pressure and plaque
Aviram M, Clin Nutr. 2004 Jun;23(3):423-33
Pom juice and prostate cancer
Malik A, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2005 Oct 11;102(41):14813-8. Epub 2005 Sep 28.
Pom juice and Alzheimer's
Richard Hartman, Science News, Dec. 3, 2005, page 366.
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To lose your gut, walk
A study from Duke University Medical Center found walking or jogging 11 miles a week prevents visceral fat gain. This is the fat around your stomach and organs that's linked to diabetes, high cholesterol and heart disease.
The walking and jogging groups studied maintained or slightly lost body fat, demonstrating that intensity was not as important as distance covered or time spent exercising.
The control group members, who stayed sedentary, gained 8.6% of visceral fat in six months by not changing their activity level, says Cris Slentz, lead study author. "They represent the high cost of continued physical inactivity."
Participants did not change their diets, so results were due to the level of exercise alone.
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Catch exhibits on black history
One of the best ways to gain an understanding of African-American culture during Black History Month is to visit a museum. There are a number of special exhibits to see.
At Chicago's DuSable Museum, the exhibit "100 Plus One ... Celebrating America's Music Before Motown and Beyond" looks at the cultural and political side of Negro spirituals, blues, Motown and hip-hop.
New York's role as one of the key ports of the Colonial-era slave trade is on display at "Slavery in New York" through March 26 at the New York Historical Society. The largest exhibition in the museum's 201-year history, it uses video re-enactments, audio narrative and interactive video displays to tell this chapter of America's history.
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta includes King's birthplace, his burial site and Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King and his father and grandfather preached. Through March 7, it also features "Of Ballots Uncast: The African-American Struggle for the Right to Vote."
In Alabama, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which offers an in-depth look at the civil-rights movement of the 1960s, has a range of programs and activities all month around the theme "Celebrating Community -- A Tribute to Black Fraternal, Social and Civic Institutions."
Finally, in Kansas City, Mo., at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (in the city's jazz district), you can see memorabilia from athletes who built a baseball league in the midst of segregation.
Everett Potter is an award-winning travel writer in suburban New York.
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