For those of us who aren’t independently wealthy, that puts unrelenting pressure on the family pocketbook. The financial demands of raising a child require that money you otherwise might use to prepare for retirement, or to save for a nicer house, a sportier car or a swankier vacation, must, out of necessity, be earmarked for Lego sets and pediatrician visits and school uniforms and Christmas toys and a college savings account and a minivan and a trip to Disneyland … and lots of, well, chicken nuggets.

I’m not saying this to disparage kids. I have two of my own, and money is nothing in comparison to the happiness they bring me and my wife. Yet happiness does not negate the fact that the moment a child arrives — and, actually, months before the arrival — your role as an adult changes in dramatic, profound ways.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK TO THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: The 15 Money Rules Kids Should Learn – WSJ.com.

So far this year, legislators have voted to raise cigarette taxes by $1 per pack in Utah and 75 cents a pack in New Mexico. At least a half dozen other states have been considering increases, including tobacco-growing South Carolina and Georgia. In 2009, 14 states and the District of Columbia raised cigarette taxes.

So much action is unusual: This is only the 10th time since 1950 that so many states have raised cigarette taxes at once, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The main motivation at the moment for most legislators is revenue,” says Pete Fisher of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an anti-smoking group. “The budget situation has certainly increased the number of states considering them.”

The average state cigarette tax is $1.34 per pack. That’s on top of the federal tax, raised last year to $1.01 per pack. Rhode Island has the highest state tax at $3.46 per pack; South Carolina’s is lowest at 7 cents. About 46 million Americans smoke.

TO CONTINUE READING THIS STORY, CLICK THIS LINK TO USA TODAY

Cigarette taxes are gold rush for states – USATODAY.com.

“Proven ways” refers to generalised results suggested by these studies and until you try each one out for yourself, it remains unproven for you as an individual.

So why not try a few and see for yourself which really lead to a happy life?
1. Believe in something

Some studies suggest that religious people are more than twice as likely as the secular to say they were “very happy”. While this in itself is not a reason to hastily adopt a religion, we may do well to believe in something. Have you ever met a happy skeptic?

TO CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THE LINK TO JOYFUL DAYS:

Seven Proven Ways to Live A Happy Life | Joyful Days.

Bigelow is the first woman in the 82-year history of the Oscars to earn Hollywood’s top prize for filmmakers.

“There’s no other way to describe it. It’s the moment of a lifetime,” Bigelow said. “It’s so extraordinary to be in the company of my fellow nominees, such powerful filmmakers, who have inspired me and I have admired, some of them for decades.”

Among those Bigelow and “The Hurt Locker” beat are ex-husband James Cameron and his sci-fi spectacle “Avatar.” Bigelow and Cameron were married from 1989-91.

Cameron was seated right behind Bigelow at the Oscars and joined a standing ovation for her, clapping vigorously and saying, “Yes, yes” after she won.

First-time winners took all four acting prizes: Sandra Bullock as best actress for “The Blind Side”; Jeff Bridges as best actor for “Crazy Heart”; Mo’Nique as supporting actress for “Precious”; and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for “Inglourious Basterds.”

The Oscar marks a career peak for Bridges, a beloved Hollywood veteran who had been nominated four times in the previous 38 years without winning. Bridges, who played a boozy country singer trying to clean up his act, held his Oscar aloft and thanked his late parents, actor Lloyd Bridges and poet Dorothy Bridges.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THE LINK FOR YAHOO! MOVIES:

‘The Hurt Locker’ earns best-picture Academy Award (AP) – The 82nd Annual Academy Awards® – Yahoo! Movies.

That was the prayer of Bill Clinton fans everywhere when the ex-President checked into New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia – leaving it momentarily unclear when and whether Elvis would leave the building.

He did, of course, the next morning, with all his usual rock-star swagger and a couple of new stents in his famously large, cheeseburger-loving heart.

Beyond the expressions of goodwill that streamed in was another reality.

Clinton wasn’t the only person who had to suddenly face mortality – so did a generation of baby-boomers for whom Clinton is like a living mirror.

For those born in the two decades or so after World War II – Clinton came along in August 1946, almost exactly a year after America dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan to end the war – Clinton inhabits a unique place.

He’s not just another President. He is one of them.

Bubba boom: Former president Bill Clinton offers a lesson in mortality for baby-boomer generation.

Jeff Ondash, who sought the squeezes under the costumed alter ego Teddy McHuggin, broke the record Saturday night outside the Paris Las Vegas hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Ondash says he hoped to become the world’s hugging champion to raise money for the American Heart Association during American Heart month. Ondash says the cause is important to him because his brother and father both died because of heart problems.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR SALON: All Salon – Salon.com.

Mr. Morrison, who died Tuesday at age 90, called his earliest flying disks “Whirlo-Way” and “Pluto Platter,” to capitalize on the flying saucer craze of the 1950s.

But it wasn’t until he licensed the invention to the Wham-O Manufacturing Co. in 1957 that sales took off. Wham-O rechristened the disks Frisbees and removed the flying-saucer-like portholes. Sales eventually reached the hundreds of millions, making it one of the most popular toys of the 20th century.

In the 1960s, the Frisbee became identified with the counter-culture and with movie stars like Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, who affirmed they were fans. The disks even inspired new sports, including Frisbee Golf and Ultimate.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Frisbee Inventor Fred Morrison Dies at 90 – WSJ.com.

Clinton entered the hospital around noon, underwent surgery to open his arteries, and within hours his counselor and closest aide Douglas Band had released a statement indicating that the former president would soon return to work at the Clinton Foundation and as U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti. Based on his past record, there is little reason to doubt that promise. His cardiologist Alan Schwartz told the press on Thursday evening that his patient had already gotten up and walked around in the hospital, and that he could be expected to resume his “very active lifestyle.” According to the cardiologist, that lifestyle did not cause the chest discomfort that sent him back to the hospital.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR SALON: Joe Conason – Salon.com.

Fifty years ago, things were different. The stores along Fifth — specifically, their lunch counters — and the city itself were the site of a battle that also played out in dozens of other cities in the South.

The fight pitted black college students and a few of their white peers against the city’s white power structure and its downtown merchants over the right to sit down and eat lunch. At the time, blacks could spend money in those stores but couldn’t eat at the stores’ lunch counters.

The lunch counter of 1960 was the equivalent of fast-food restaurants today. Hamburger chains were just beginning to appear on the American landscape. Ray Kroc had opened his first McDonald’s about five years earlier; Burger King had gone national just the year before. People wanting a sandwich or a hamburger popped over to the lunch counter of department stores, drugstores and five-and-dime stores to have a bite.

Except black people.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR USA TODAY: Sit-ins reignited the civil rights movement 50 years ago – USATODAY.com.

Anyone who has seen the celebrated 1973 film “Serpico” knows that he often dressed up — bum, butcher, rabbi — to catch criminals. His off-duty look was never vintage cop either, with the bushy beard and the beads.

This is the man whose long and loud complaining about widespread corruption in the New York Police Department made him a pariah on the force. The patrolman shot in the face during a 1971 drug bust while screaming for backup from his fellow officers, who then failed to immediately call for an ambulance. The undaunted whistle-blower whose testimony was the centerpiece of the Knapp Commission hearings, which sparked the biggest shakeup in the history of the department.

FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS ARTICLE, CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES: Frank Serpico, Police Officer Played by Al Pacino, Looks Back – NYTimes.com.