Columns

The alarm clock is screaming and once again you fall out of bed, the cold floor reminding you that your eyes may be closed but you are unfortunately awake.  
It’s morning and a pile of unprocessed paperwork is anxiously waiting for you at the office, or perhaps a hot stove, or maybe a quiet machine shop — soon to become quite noisy.  
It’s a work day and as they say — some one’s gotta make the donuts!

The failings of America’s public education system are, I suppose, clearly on display in Wisconsin.
In recent weeks that state’s governor, Scott Walker, has found himself embroiled in a battle that, given the merits of the case, seems to fly in the face of common sense.
Wisconsin, like New Mexico, like Illinois, like California, like Indiana – ay yi yi, we could go on, yes? – is basically broke. In the red. Still, thousands of public employees have stormed its capitol in Madison and demanded more.

Before the housing crisis, it wasn’t uncommon for people to raid their home-equity piggybanks to pay off bills. Plummeting home values and tougher lending standards helped curb that practice, leading some people to engage in a far more disturbing habit: borrowing or withdrawing money from their retirement accounts to cope with financial hardship.
There may be times when a loan or withdrawal from an IRA or 401(k) plan is your best or only option, but you should be aware of the possible impacts to your taxes and long-term savings objectives before raiding your nest egg.

“Space trash” and “space junk” are terms for the man-made litter that is floating in space or otherwise stuck there.
Much of it orbits Earth. We know the problem is real when we hear about the Orbital Debris Program Office of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at Johnson Space Center, Houston.