NORMAL Medication safety, menopause and Hula Hoops for exercise will be among topics when one of Central Illinois larger health events returns for a 14th year.

Womens Health Night a free evening of health presentations, fitness demonstrations, medical screenings and displays will be from 3 to 7:30 p.m. March 20 at Illinois State Universitys Bone Student Center, Normal.

About 1,500 women and men attended last years event.

Where else can you have collaboration between physicians, hospitals, pharmacists and fitness professionals with nothing to be sold to you? asked Kathi Franklin, executive director of the Illinois Heart & Lung Foundation, which presents the health night.

Our goal is to provide information for our community to be healthy, happy and safe, Franklin said. We want to help empower people to be their own health care advocate.

Presentations will be on medication safety, treatment for varicose veins and a panel discussion on menopause. Fitness demonstrations will be Hula Hoop for Exercise and Zumba.

Advocate BroMenn Medical Center, OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, the Community Cancer Center and doctors will conduct health screenings; American Red Cross will have a blood drive; Advocate BroMenn will offer CPR certification (register at 309-268-5207); and 60 organizations will have booths with health, fitness and safety information, Franklin said.

The annual Gale Keeran Spirit of Success Award will be presented at 6 p.m. The award, named for the late community leader Gale Keeran, honors a person who has made McLean County a better place to live.

Franklin hopes that free parking and free child care by YWCA McLean County will make it easier for more women to attend the event this year.

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Health, fitness, screenings part of Health Night

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01-03-2012 18:38 After 15 seasons with the Red Sox, catcher and team captain Jason Varitek is hanging up his mask. Tek made his tearful farewell in front of family, friends and media on Thursday night from Fenway South.

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Jason Varitek Retirement Speech (Complete) || March 1st, 2012 - Video

Prudential Retirement continues to grow its business of providing reinsurance for pension plans, adding its first client of the year and its second largest account since it started to offer coverage last year.

Hartford-based Prudential Retirement said Tuesday that it will provide reinsurance of longevity risk to Rothesay Life, a subsidiary of The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., for a pension fund involving a British food manufacturer. The transaction covers 423 million British pounds of pension liability, or about $665 million.

Prudential's deal with United Kingdom-based Rothesay Life secures retirement benefits, including life annuities, for 20,000 people covered in Uniq Plc Pension Scheme. Uniq Plc is a British manufacturer of chilled and prepared foods, including desserts, wraps, sandwiches, soups and sauces. Uniq announced in December that its pension plan would be insured by Rothesay Life. More than half of people in the plan have not reached retirement age.

Prudential offers longevity reinsurance coverage in case people in a pension plan live longer than anticipated by their pension trustee or the insurance company that provides annuities to guarantee funding that pension, said Amy Kessler, head of the Longevity Reinsurance business and senior vice president at Prudential Retirement.

"If they live a year longer, if they two years longer, if they live five years longer, we pay that incremental benefit," Kessler said.

The average time between retirement and death has increased in recent decades; between 1970 and 2008, the average rose from 13 years to 17.5 years, Kessler said. But the market for longevity reinsurance is still largely in Europe despite $2 trillion in private pension funds within the U.S., Kessler said.

In the past decade, market volatility and regulatory reforms have made it difficult for employers, or pension sponsors, to secure benefits for retirees. Efforts to manage risk led to a new business opportunity last year for Prudential Retirement, which is a subsidiary of Newark, N.J.,-based Prudential Financial Inc.

Global demand to transfer risk of pension plans will increase as plan sponsors look for ways to manage exposure to risk, Kessler said.

Prudential Retirement's largest longevity reinsurance transaction so far was announced in November, also with Rothesay Life and a sister company, Paternoster, which are both part of Goldman Sachs, for a different pension fund. That transaction at the time was valued at 450 million British pounds, or $723 million.

"We are happy to partner with Rothesay on another innovative Pension Risk Transfer transaction that helps to secure the retirement benefits of Uniq's members," Kessler said.

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Prudential Retirement Continues Growth Of Pension Reinsurance Business

Working part-time during your retirement years is a quick way to improve your finances. A part-time job could also be good for your social life and even your health, especially if you find a second career you enjoy. Here are seven reasons to consider working a part-time job in retirement:

You didn't save enough. Your finances might dictate that you work part-time during retirement. Many portfolios took a hit just before retirement, thanks to the financial crisis of 2008. But even if your portfolio is doing fine, you might simply not have a big enough nest egg to completely stop working during the early stages of your retirement. Consider your financial situation, and determine whether working part-time will help you stretch your retirement income a little further, providing you with a little more breathing room in your budget.

Delay claiming Social Security. Another reason to work part-time during retirement is to put off the need to take Social Security early on. The longer you wait to begin drawing on Social Security, the higher your monthly benefit will be.

Delay tapping your retirement savings. Working part-time can help those who retire early to avoid retirement account penalties. You can't withdraw money from your tax-advantaged retirement accounts prior to age 59 without incurring a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty. So, if you want to retire early, you can work a part-time job that you enjoy until you can start taking penalty-free distributions from your retirement accounts.

Better health. While the financial reasons for working part-time during retirement are certainly important, they aren't the only considerations. A 2009 study in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that those who worked during retirement experienced better health than those who didn't. People with retirement jobs also suffer less from major diseases and disabilities. This is great for your quality of life, and it could lead to lower health care costs and a reduced chance that you will need long-term care.

Improve your social life. There are mental and emotional health benefits to working during retirement. The social interaction improves your mood, and can stave off depression.

Mental stimulation. There are indications that keeping your mind active with the help of a part-time job can hold memory-related problems at bay. If you choose a part-time job that you enjoy, such as a position that incorporates your interests or a hobby, the benefits are increased. You'll do something you love, get paid for it, and enjoy a boost to your social life.

Creative scheduling. You don't have to get a boring part-time job. Consider consulting, becoming a seasonal tour guide, or teaching classes at your local community education organization. Even if you don't need to work part-time for money in retirement, you could volunteer in your community for many of the same benefits.

Remaining active during retirement is a great way to ward off major ailments, as well as keep your mind sharp and prevent depression and anxiety from setting in. You can make new friends, earn some money, and generally improve your retirement situation.

Jeff Rose is a certified financial planner and U.S. combat veteran. He blogs at Good Financial Cents and Soldier of Finance.

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7 Reasons to Work Part-Time in Retirement

Credit: Submitted photo by Jason Chen

Actress Anita Shontel Woodley portrays her mother, Mabel-Ree, who died at 47 from breast cancer. She is bringing her one-woman show to Wytheville on March 10 to honor a local woman.

By WAYNE QUESENBERRY/Staff

Lindaleigh Portner and Vickie Mack Coble have been friends as long as they can remember. To honor Coble, who has breast cancer and liver disease, Portner is planning a fitting tribute.

She has arranged for actress/playwright Anita Shontel Woodley to bring her one-woman play, Mama Juggs, to the Hedgefield Community Room in Wytheville on Saturday, March 10, for a 7:30 p.m. show. Portner is using her rainy day money to back the performance and pay for Woodleys overnight stay.

Woodley uses inspiration from true stories in her life for the performance. She confronts issues of womens breast health and body image from puberty to maturity to old age.

So many times people do things in memory of a loved one, Portner said earlier this week. I wanted to do something for Vickie while shes still living. This is going to be a celebration and done in her honor.

According to Portner, she first met Woodley on Facebook several years ago and did a radio interview with her at the University of North Carolina on another issue. Portner also saw a posting of Woodleys Mama Juggs performances and ordered a CD.

Oh, I loved it, Portner said. Its a show youll never forget. Were going to have a ball.

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A personal performance in Wytheville

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QZ-OASXNWk

24-02-2012 13:48 Spotlight skier Eleanor Magnuson talks about the season, her personal success and being the only senior on the team.

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CSS Know Your Sports: Women's Nordic Skiing Feb. 24 - Video

US Outlook You have to admire the chutzpah of Jeffrey Sachs, campaigning to be the next president of the World Bank through the op-ed pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post.

The famed economist says it is time to stop appointing superannuated American bankers and politicians to the post, and put in an expert on tackling poverty and promoting sustainable development the ultimate goals of the World Bank's lending mission.

His pitch under the not-too-subtle title, How I Would Lead The World Bank, in the Post yesterday is perfectly timed. The Obama administration is loath to give up the tradition of having an American in the top job at the bank (part of the founding compact at Bretton Woods, which reserved the leadership of the International Monetary Fund to a European). Yet it is sensitive to the charge that the tradition is anachronistic in the modern, multi-polar world, and that to be sensitive to the needs of developing nations, developing nation candidates should be considered for the presidency.

Through his Earth Institute at Columbia University, and as an adviser to the United Nations on its Millennium Development Goals, Professor Sachs is indeed one of the foremost experts on tackling poverty in a globalised world and he has calculated that he is sufficiently different from candidates past to mollify emerging countries despite being American.

Which isn't the same thing as saying he would be the best candidate. He remains an experimentalist and a controversial figure. His proscriptions for meeting the UN's development goals through village-by-village aid, by going in and helping improve crop yields and offering micro-finance and a host of other teachings, may prove no more effective than less costly interventions. People also shouldn't forget his recommendation of "shock therapy" for the Russian economy after the fall of Communism, which resulted in iniquitous privatisations and untold human suffering. Such are the debates over the best way to intervene to promote economic development.

But I'll sign on to a campaign in favour of Jeffrey Sachs. The World Bank is more than a taxpayer-funded aid agency; it is a political creature and it is a bank and there should be no shame in appointing a politician or a banker, from the US or elsewhere. But Jeffrey Sachs for chief economist of the World Bank that might fly.

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Stephen Foley: Why I'm backing Sachs for World Bank president

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09-09-2011 19:08 http://www.heartscenter.org Dogs can transform into humans! My notes on this discourse by David Lewis- Elementals have conscious awareness to a degree. When they are trained and faithful this increases their awareness into higher awareness. Their obedience and adoration of their owners enables them to leap into a higher consciousness and earn their 3-fold flame. The same dynamic occurs between man and the saints in heaven (the Ascended Masters). Think how dogs desire to serve and cherish. This is the same type of energy we can have towards God and the Ascended Masters. This love helps us to leap into the ascension. Dogs make the leap so do we! The Ascension process happens throughout all life. Those who have pets take care of them and love and feed them. The Ascended Masters support and love us and feed us their Light. When we mindfully take care of our pets and communicate with them lovingly, discerning their needs we become more evolved and sensitive. See your pets as living entities of Light, of God, created by God and giving us an opportunity to grow. See this same dynamic in our relationships with angels and Masters as we work on ourselves and evolve.

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The Evolution of Elementals - Caring for Pets - Video

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24-02-2012 13:10 Ten years ago, MIT helped launch a revolution in access to education when it announced it would place the core teaching materials from its entire curriculum online for anyone to use at no charge. Today, MIT OpenCourseWare shares materials from more than 2000 MIT courses and more than 250 universities around the world have joined MIT in publishing their own course materials openly. Sites like YouTube.edu, Khan Academy, OpenStudy.com have emerged to explore this new territory of informal online learning. In December, MIT announced a new online learning initiative, MITx, which will offer a portfolio of free courses through an online learning platform that features interactivity and assessment. In this presentation by Cecilia d'Oliveira, MIT OpenCourseWare's Executive Director and Shigeru Miyagawa, Chair of MIT OpenCourseWare's Faculty Advisory Committee and Head of MIT's Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, we'll examine the how open educational resources are changing the educational landscape and meeting the global demands for open knowledge.

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Education@Google: Class Size = 1 Billion, MIT OpenCourseWare's Goal for the Next Decade - Video

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01-03-2012 19:26 DRUMMERS: Drumeo has finally launched... ‪www.drumeo.com‬

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What If I Miss A Drumeo Live Lesson? - Video