By John AnnarinoThat Sunday evening, Sept. 1, 2013, was

a celebration of sorts. The next day ClubTrinidad’s Purple Room in Palm Springswould shut down for a renovation thatwould mark a new chapter in its famed ex-istence. To celebrate the occasion, Roberta King

and her husband, Bob Branscomb, were in-vited to attend. When they entered, thecrowd broke into thunderous applause,paying homage to “The Lady of Song,”whose remarkable talents had packed thelounge in its Rat Pack heyday.

“Sinatra stopped by the club severaltimes a week,” said King. “One night hewanted me to accompany him on a song. Ihesitated, but Tony Riccio, the owner of theclub, informed me that you don’t say ‘no’ toFrank Sinatra.” With a four-octave voice trained for

opera, her Trinidad show was a tour-de-force, showcasing her talents as singer, pi-anist, songwriter, poet, actress and mimic. Her voice defied description — soaring

to operatic heights and then descending tothe smoky depths of bass notes. A delicate-looking blonde chanteuse and a classicallytrained pianist, her performances ran thegamut — boogie, ballads, jazz, toe-tappingnovelties and Rachmaninoff concertos. Equally amazing were her “fun” voices,

invented when she studied with Mel Blanc.For her Christmas fairy tale, “Katrina, theLittle Tree,” she was the voice of 15 char-acters, wrote the dialogue and composedthe music.

International rootsRoberta Louise Sawyer King was born on

April 25, 1926 in Chuquimata, Chile, whereher father worked as a civil engineer. In1933, she moved to Los Gatos, Calif., withher parents, her older brother, Fredrick, andher younger twin sisters, Frances and Eliza-beth. She began private piano instructionand remembers performing “Annie Laurie”for her first piano recital at age eight. When her parents returned to South

America on business, she continued study-ing piano and started vocal instruction at aboarding school in Piedmont, Calif., then atSaint Margaret’s School for Girls in Victo-ria, British Columbia. When she was 15, thefamily reunited in Oakland, Calif., where

she trained under Russian opera diva,Madam Zamourakova. At 17, she met her first husband, Donald

E. King, a medical student at Stanford Uni-versity. They married in 1944, and theirdaughter, Kathy, was born in 1949. DonaldE. King became the Chief of Obstetrics andGynecology for the Army. When they moved to Little Rock, Ark., in

1953 King studied under the guidance ofMetropolitan Opera singer MarjorieLawrence and landed roles in Amahl andThe Night Visitors and Aida.At 28, when her marriage ended, she re-

turned to California and started performing

in clubs in Los Angeles. She discoveredjazz. And blues. And Charlie Grasso. Shemarried Grasso, a former sax player withthe Glenn Miller Air Force Band.

Desert triumphKing teamed up with Charlie and formed

a band called The Four Moods, entertain-ing all over Southern California. While per-forming at a club in Ventura, they receivedword to contact the owner of Club Trinidadin Palm Springs. That led to the wildly-suc-cessful run in the Purple Room lounge.

More than 40,000 readers throughout the Coachella Valley

COMPLIMENTARY

VOL.4, NO.2

I N F O C U S F O R P E O P L E O V E R 5 0FEBRUARY 2015

The valley’s first lady of song

See KING page 26

PH

OT

O B

Y G

OR

DO

N P

AR

R

I N S I D E …

The Coachella Valley

Roberta King is one of the stars who packed the Purple Room in Palm Springs dur-ing its Rat Pack heyday.

FITNESS & HEALTH 4k Customize your cancer treatment k Medicare tries something new

LAW & MONEY 12k Tax breaks for older adultsk Stocks poised for growth

PLUS BEACON BITS & MORE

ARTS & STYLEThe free pleasures of Sunny-lands Center and Gardens,from music to nature walks

page 23

LEISURE & TRAVELTry a swig of Danish culture inSolvang; plus, best bets for air-lines, booking sites and more

page 19

2 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 5 — C O A C H E L L A VA L L E Y B E A C O N

Publisher’s note: This is the second part of aneditorial written by Stuart P. Rosenthal, thefounder and publisher of the three East CoastBeacon newspapers. The firstpart was published in the Janu-ary issue of the Coachella ValleyBeacon. (You can find all theBeacon publications at www.the-beaconnewspapers.com.) I thinkhe clearly brings into focus issuesAmericans need to face quickly.Please let me know what youthink. You can reach me atmb@otmedia.net. Michael BrachmanPublisherIn January’s column, I

started to lay out some well-known facts in hopes they can facilitate animportant discussion that I feel Americansneed to have with each other.

To summarize very briefly: Thanks tomodern medicine and healthier lifestyles,we are living longer. While that’s a goodthing for the most part, more and moreolder Americans are outliving their savings.

This problem is likely to grow, as manyin the baby boomer and later generationshave put aside far too few resources to sup-

port themselves in their later years. Furthermore, our growing longevity will

add trillions of dollars to the cost of SocialSecurity and Medicare — pro-grams that, as presently struc-tured, are already forecast tofail to meet long-term needs,even based on current lifespans.

Now for some additionalfacts:

For those who basically runout of savings and assets, Med-icaid steps in to cover essentialmedical and long-term carecosts. This program is jointlyfunded by the federal and stategovernments, in most cases on

a 50/50 split, though there are variations.Medicaid is an entitlement, meaning a

state cannot cap participation at a certainnumber. Everyone must be accepted whoqualifies under their state’s particular eligi-bility rules. (These generally requirepoverty-level income and assets or some-thing close).

With our longer lives, more expensivemedical care, and steady growth in cases ofAlzheimer’s and other dementias (which

can completely incapacitate and last adecade or more), Medicaid expendituresare forecast to rise substantially into theforeseeable future.

How will we pay for the unstoppable, un-cappable costs of our social and health safetynets in an era of rapidly rising needs and, atleast at the moment, declining revenues?

In Maryland, for example, shortly beforeGov. Martin O’Malley left office in January,he announced that this fiscal year’s budgetwould produce a $400 million deficit thatneeded to be plugged. Furthermore, thebudget being prepared for the coming yearindicates an additional deficit expected tobe between $750 million and $1 billion.

At the same time, Maryland’s new gover-nor, Larry Hogan, campaigned on a promiseto roll back many of the new taxes that O’-Malley instituted in an effort to eradicatewhat he called Maryland’s “structural deficit”

when he first came into office in 2007.According to figures from the U.S. Cen-

sus Bureau, between 2007 and 2012 stateand local governments in Maryland alonespent over $6 billion more than they raisedin revenue. Throughout the country as awhole, state expenses exceeded revenuesover that period by more than $118 billion.

Growing population. Longer lives. Bur-geoning rates of disability and dementia.Additional destitute retirees. Mushroomingstate and federal liabilities. Inadequate So-cial Security and Medicare funds.

This is where we’re heading.What can we do about it? Fortunately, we needn’t feel paralyzed.

There are many options to choose among— some good, some fair, some poor, someterrifying.

BeaconThe Coachella Valley

I N F O C U S F O R P E O P L E O V E R 5 0

Submissions: The Coachella Valley Beacon welcomes reader contributions. Deadline for editorial is the20th of the month preceding the month of publication. Deadline for ads is the 15th of the month precedingthe month of publication. Please mail or email all submissions.

© Copyright 2015 On-Target Media, Inc.

The Coachella Valley Beacon is a monthly newspaper dedi cated to informing, serving and en ter taining the citi zens of the Coachella Valley area,and is independently owned and operated by On-Target Media, Inc. under authority of the Beacon Newspapers, Inc. Other Beacon editions serve Howard County, Md. and Baltimore, Md., as well as Greater Washington, D.C.

Subscriptions are available via third-class mail($16), pre paid with order. Send sub scrip tion order tothe office listed below.

Publication of advertising contained herein does not necessarily con sti tute en dorse ment.

Signed col umns represent the opinions of the writers, and notnecessarily the opinion of the publisher.

• Publisher..........................................................................Michael Brachman• Local Valley Contributing Writers ..................................John Annarino,..........................................................................Jorie Parr, Jamie Lee Pricer

Coachella Valley Beacon1001 South Palm Canyon Drive, Suite 217

Palm Springs, CA 92264Phone: 760-668-2226 • Email: mb@otmedia.net

Other content and design provided by The Beacon Newspapers, Inc., Kensington, Md.

• Publisher ........................................................................Stuart P. Rosenthal• Managing Editor ..................................................................Barbara Ruben• Graphic Designers ............................................Kyle Gregory, Roger King

www.TheBeaconNewspapers.com

Considering options for Americans’ future

FROM THEPUBLISHERBy Stuart P. Rosenthal

See FROM PUBLISHER, page 24

Letters to the editorReaders are encouraged to share their opinion on any matter addressedin the Coachella Valley Beacon as well as on political and social issues ofthe day. Mail your Letter to the Editor to The Coachella Valley Beacon,

1001 S. Palm Canyon Dr., Ste 217, Palm Springs, CA 92264 or e-mail to mb@otmedia.net. Please include your name,

address and telephone number for verification.

C O A C H E L L A VA L L E Y B E A C O N — F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon 3

By Marilynn MarchioneScientists often test drugs in mice. Now

some cancer patients are doing the same —with the hope of curing their own disease.

They are paying a private lab to breedmice that carry bits of their own tumors sotreatments can be tried first on the cus-tomized rodents. The idea is to see whichdrugs might work best on a particular per-son’s specific cancer.

The mice may help patients make whatcan be very hard choices under difficult cir-cumstances. Studies can suggest a certainchemotherapy may help, but patients won-der whether it will work for them. Oftenthere’s more than one choice, and if thefirst one fails, a patient may be too sick to

try another. So hundreds of people havemade “mouse avatars” over the last fewyears to test chemotherapies.

“What I’m doing is personalized cancertreatment. It’s the wave of the future,” saidEileen Youtie, a Miami woman using miceto guide care for her hard-to-treat form ofbreast cancer. “Part of this is trying to elim-inate chemos that are not going to work onme. I don’t want to waste time taking themand poison my body.”

Still experimental — and expensive

But there are no guarantees the mice willhelp.

“There’s not a lot of science” to say how

well this works, and it should be consideredhighly experimental, said Dr. Len Lichten-feld, deputy chief medical officer of theAmerican Cancer Society.

There are some early encouraging re-ports, he said. One study of 70 patientsfound the mice generally reflected how wellpatients responded to various drugs.

Dr. Andrew Gaya of Leaders in OncologyCare, a private clinic in London, helped leada 70-patient study of avatar mice, and gaveresults at a cancer conference last Septem-ber. It looked back at how well mice per-formed in patients whose outcomes fromtreatment were already known.

About 70 percent of the time, tests in themice suggested something that turned outto have helped the patients, he said. And ifsomething had not worked in the mice, it al-most never worked in a patient.

But there is no evidence that using miceis any better than care based on medicalguidelines or the gene tests that many pa-tients get now to help pick drugs.

Mouse testing costs $10,000 or more,and insurers don’t cover it. It takes severalmonths, so patients usually have to starttherapy before mouse results are in.

“I do see promise, but it’s very time-con-suming, it’s very expensive. For the aver-age patient, standard care is going to be theway to go,” said Alana Welm, a cancer re-searcher at the Oklahoma Medical Re-search Foundation.

She gave a talk on mouse avatars in De-cember at the San Antonio Breast CancerSymposium. It was the third major cancermeeting in the last year to feature work oncustomized cancer mice.

A Baltimore mouse houseSeveral labs breed these mice, but the

main supplier to patients has been Champi-ons Oncology, a company based in Hacken-sack, New Jersey, that also operates inLondon, Tel Aviv and Singapore. About7,000 mice are kept in a Baltimore lab withsix rooms that resemble stock rooms of ashoe store, with tall shelves that hold rowupon row of plastic cages labeled with eachcancer patient’s name.

Most mice are white-furred females withbeady red eyes, but others are hairless.Some live alone while others climb over one

4 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

HealthFitness &REVERSE SHOULDER PAINA recently developed surgery rebuildsyour shoulder joint in reverse

COORDINATED CAREMedicare is now paying doctors to better coordinate chronic care

BACK IN SHAPEStrengthen your core, sleep more andimprove posture to help back pain

AS YOUNG AS YOU FEELPeople who perceive themselves asyounger than their years live longer, too

Cancer patients try drugs out on mice first

See MOUSE TEST, page 6

Sēn FitLive long... Look sharp... Give back...

Casual and Sports Apparelfor the Senior Community

Our apparel is designed for most all sports from Golf to Tennis to casual or exercise wear and can be embroidered orscreen printed with custom sports clubs or team logos and text.

Rick MacKayFitness Instructor

& Senior

Be sure to frequently check our website for current discounts available at

senfitonline.comA percentage of all profits will be

donated to Meals on Wheels

520-425-4023

By Dr. John W. SperlingDear Mayo Clinic:

I have severe arthritis in my shoul-der. I recently found out my rotatorcuff is also torn. I can’t lift my armmuch anymore without a lot of pain.

My doctor recommends reverseshoulder arthroplasty. What does thissurgery involve? How successful is itfor someone in my situation?

Answer: Reverse shoulder arthroplastyis surgery used to replace a damagedshoulder joint. The procedure differs fromstandard shoulder replacement surgery be-cause it switches the shoulder’s normalball-and-socket structure around to allowfor more stability in the joint after surgery.

Reverse shoulder arthroplasty is partic-ularly useful for people like you who havea damaged rotator cuff along with shoulderarthritis. In such cases, this surgery oftencan effectively reduce pain and increaseshoulder mobility.

Your rotator cuff is a group of musclesand tendons that surround your shoulderjoint. They hold the joint in place and helpyou raise your arm. When tendons in therotator cuff tear, it often leads to pain andweakness in the shoulder joint.

In some cases, torn rotator cuff tendonscan be surgically repaired. But when they areseverely damaged, especially if arthritis alsoaffects the joint, reverse shoulder arthroplastymay be a better treatment choice.

How the surgery is performedIn your natural shoulder joint, the top of

your arm bone fits into a socket on yourshoulder blade. During reverse shoulder

arthroplasty, that ball-and-socket mecha-nism is reversed.

A surgeon attaches an artificial ball to theshoulder blade. An artificial socket is at-tached to the top of the arm bone. The newsocket is fitted against the new ball to allowsmooth movement.

The tissue is sewn together around thejoint, and the incision is closed. After surgery,the large deltoid muscle that covers yourshoulder typically is able to move the arm.

The surgery usually takes one to twohours and requires an overnight hospitalstay. As with all surgeries, reverse shoulderarthroplasty carries some risks, includingbleeding and infection.

After the surgery, you need to have yourarm in a soft sling for several weeks. Phys-ical therapy is often recommended after re-verse shoulder arthroplasty, but mostpeople can complete that therapy at home.

The stitches placed during surgery dis-solve on their own, so a follow-up proce-dure to remove them is not necessary. Fullrecovery can take up to several months.

The results from reverse shoulderarthroplasty usually are quite good. In ap-proximately 90 percent of cases, peoplewho have this surgery experience signifi-cant pain relief, and their ability to movetheir arm increases substantially.

New technique; experience countsCompared to other forms of joint replace-

ment surgery, such as hip and knee re-placement, reverse shoulder arthroplasty isrelatively new.

It was introduced in the United States in2004, although it was available in Europe forabout a decade prior to that. Currently in theU.S., only a handful of specialty healthcare fa-cilities, including Mayo Clinic, do a high vol-

ume of these surgeries each year.With that in mind, if you decide to pur-

sue reverse shoulder arthroplasty, it is agood idea to find an orthopedic surgeonwho specializes in shoulder replacementand who is familiar with performing thisspecific type of shoulder surgery.

In the hands of an experienced surgeon,reverse shoulder arthroplasty can be a veryeffective treatment option for people inyour situation who are dealing with both arotator cuff injury and shoulder arthritis. — John W. Sperling, M.D., Orthopedics,

Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.Mayo Clinic Q & A is an educational resource

and doesn’t replace regular medical care. E-maila question to MayoClinicQ&A@mayo.edu. Formore information, visit www.mayoclinic.org.© 2015 Mayo Foundation for Medical Ed-

ucation and Research. All Rights ReservedDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

COACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health 5

Option ‘reverses’ typical joint surgery

TAKE A HIKEFree escorted easy

to moderate hikes are scheduled on

Thursdays and Fridays in February by

the Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Moun-

tains National Monument Visitor Cen-

ter, 51-500 Highway 74, Palm

Desert, where hikers meet. Registra-

tion is at 8:45 a.m. The hikes run

from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Possible sight-

ings include desert tortoise, bighorn

sheep, wildflowers, cactus, views of

the Coachella Valley and mountains.

(760) 568-9918

GET YOUR ‘ZUMBA ON’Mizell Senior Center,

480 S. Sunrise Way, Palm Springs, is

offering a Saturday Zumba Gold class

from 9 to 10 a.m. All fitness levels

are welcome. Per-class fee is $5

members, $10 nonmembers. (760)

323-5689, www.mizell.org.

BEACON BITS

Ongoing

Ongoing

another and sleep in small piles. All haveeasy access to food and water, and manybear signs of the tumor graft — a shavedportion of hair, an incision scar and a lump

growing off one side. Patients have a tumor sample sent to

Champions, which charges $1,500 to bank it,plus $2,500 for each drug tested in groups ofmice implanted with bits of the tumor.

The tumor grafts are under the mouseskin — not in places where the cancer nor-

mally occurs, such as the pancreas orlungs, and therefore don’t reflect thehuman tumor’s environment.

Most patients try three to five drugs andspend $10,000 to $12,000, said Champions’chief medical officer, Dr. Angela Davies.Youtie spent $30,000 “because I want themto test all the possible drugs,” even somefor other types of cancer.

Reuven Moser, a 71-year-old man fromTel Aviv, Israel, said his avatar mice con-firmed that drugs prescribed for colon can-cer that had spread to his liver were a goodoption.

“Most of the time the oncologists want tofollow a protocol, but they don’t know howit will affect the patient,” Moser said. “It wasvery reassuring” to see the mice respond,he said.

Not perfect, but best for now Mice have some drawbacks, said Dr.

Benjamin Neel, director of research atPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre inToronto and a spokesman for the AmericanAssociation for Cancer Research.

The mice have highly impaired immunesystems so they can tolerate the human tu-mors. That means they don’t reflect how aperson’s immune system would respond toa treatment and cannot be used to test im-munotherapies.

“Even if it turns out these have realvalue,” they’re likely to be eclipsed bynewer advances, such as ways to growtumor cells in a lab dish that take only a fewweeks, he said.

But for now, mice seem the best bet,along with gene testing and her doctors’ ad-vice, said Youtie, the Miami woman withbreast cancer.

Her mouse testing suggested that eitherof two drugs would be effective, so shechose the one thought to have fewer sideeffects on the heart. She recently finishedchemotherapy, is about to finish radiationtreatment, and said she does not feel guiltyabout using the mice.

“Animal abuse? I don’t look at it thatway,” she said. “It’s not testing cosmetics.It’s trying to save my life.”

— AP

6 Fitness & Health | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

BROWN BAG DISCUSSION GROUP

Walgreens representatives will run a brown bag discussion group

from 10 to 11 a.m. on the first Tuesday of every month in the lobby at the Joslyn

Center, 73-750 Catalina Way, Palm Desert. (760) 340-3220

BEACON BITS

Ongoing

Mouse testFrom page 4

By Lauran NeergaardAdjusting medications before someone

gets sick enough to visit the doctor. Updat-ing outside specialists so one doctor’s pre-scription doesn’t interfere with another’s.

Starting in January, Medicare pays pri-mary care doctors a monthly fee to better co-ordinate care for the most vulnerable seniors— those with multiple chronic illnesses —even if they don’t have a face-to-face exam.

The goal is to help patients stay healthierbetween doctor visits, and avoid pricey hos-pitals and nursing homes.

“We all need care coordination. Medicarepatients need it more than ever, “ said SeanCavanaugh, deputy administrator at the Cen-ters for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

About two-thirds of Medicare beneficiar-ies have two or more chronic conditions,such as diabetes, heart disease or kidneydisease. Their care is infamously frag-mented. They tend to visit numerous doc-tors for different illnesses.

Too often, no one oversees their overallhealth — making sure multiple treatmentsdon’t mix badly, that X-rays and other testsaren’t repeated just because one doctor did-n’t know another already had ordered them,and that nothing falls between the cracks.

A new strategyMedicare’s new fee, which is about $40

a month per qualified patient, marks a bigpolicy shift. Usually, the program pays forservices in the doctor’s office.

“We’re hoping to spur change, gettingphysicians to be much more willing tospend time working on the needs of thesepatients without necessitating the patient tocome into the office, “ Cavanaugh told theAssociated Press.

To earn the new fee, doctors must comeup with a care plan for qualified patients, andspend time each month on such activities ascoordinating their care with other healthproviders and monitoring their medications.Also, patients must have a way to reach some-one with the care team who can access theirhealth records 24 hours a day, for proper eval-uation of an after-hours complaint.

Many primary care physicians alreadydo some of that.

“Quite honestly, I just didn’t get paid forit, “ said Dr. Robert Wergin, president of theAmerican Academy of Family Physicians.

Wergin estimates he spends about twohours a day doing such things as callingelderly patients who have a hard time visit-ing his office in rural Milford, Neb.

Say someone with heart failure reports alittle weight gain, a possible sign of fluidbuildup but not enough to make the patientcall for an appointment. Wergin might ad-just the medication dose over the phone,

and urge an in-person exam in a few days ifthat doesn’t solve the problem.

The new fee could enable physicians to hireextra nurses or care managers to do more of

that preventive work, Wergin said. Patientsmust agree to care coordination; the fee is

Medicare pays to coordinate chronic careCOACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health 7

Schedule a Tour Today760-771-6100

47805 Caleo Bay Drive • La Quinta, CA 92253

RCFE# 336426054

The decision to admit a loved one to a care facility is one of the most difficult a family must make. Choosing Caleo Bay will ease your mind.

Our “Meaningful Moments” program honors the individual life of each resident, while addressing their unique needs through the aging experience. Around-the-clock care and attention is provided on an individual basis by our caring, professionally trained staff. Caleo Bay, your local dementia care experts, is here to take the difficulty out of caring for your loved one with dementia.

See MEDICARE, page 8

With changes in the spine that comewith aging, occasional backaches may growmore frequent and blossom into a chronicand disabling pain condition.

But this doesn’t have to happen to you.To maintain the best back health possible,you have to address both the body and themind, said Dr. Zacharia Isaac, a physicalmedicine and rehabilitation doctor at Har-vard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hos-pital, Boston, Mass.

“Cardiovascular and strength trainingare good basic prevention to keep yourback healthy,” Isaac said. “Because of thebrain’s involvement with back pain, main-taining a good sleep cycle and good emo-tional state are also very important.”

Tips1. Don’t baby your back.It’s important to respond to back pain

constructively.“Acute back pain flare-ups are so painful

that most people start to baby their backs,”Isaac said. “If people tend to shrink toomuch from their daily activity level, theyget de-conditioned.” In turn, de-condition-ing can lead to worse pain and disability.

“Neurological changes happen that sen-sitize you to the pain,” Dr. Isaac said. “Thatfeeds into a cycle of more avoidance of ac-tivity and more de-conditioning.”

When you have a sore back, avoid ex-tended bed rest. Slowly transition back toyour usual activities.

“It’s important to maintain normalcy,”Isaac said. “Get up and walk around thehouse. Try to do light tasks. Maintain mod-erate activity.”

2. Strengthen your core.Strengthen the muscles that support the

lower spine as an insurance policy.“Moderate exercise is very helpful,”

Isaac said. “Many people who are moderateexercisers have fewer musculoskeletalproblems.”

Ask your doctor to suggest daily back ex-ercises appropriate to your condition, orask for a referral to a physical therapist toteach you the most effective exercises toprevent back pain.

3. Stay limber.If the muscles that support the lower

spine become tight, it can make pain worse.Trouble generally develops in the muscles

Physical fitness essential for healthy back8 Fitness & Health | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

subject to Medicare’s standard deductible andcoinsurance. Wergin plans to explain it as,“This is how we’re going to hopefully manageyour illnesses better at home. “

Time-consuming workBut for some patients, care coordination

can require a lot more work. It’s like being a quarterback, Dr. Matthew

Press wrote in the New England Journal ofMedicine last summer in describing the 80days between diagnosing a man’s liver can-cer and his surgery. The internist, while atWeill Cornell Medical College, sent 32 emailsand had eight phone calls with the patient’s11 other physicians. That’s something CMS’Cavanaugh said a doctor in private practicewould find hard to squeeze in.

The chronic care management fee is oneof multiple projects Medicare has under-way in hopes of strengthening primarycare, and in turn save money. For example,about 500 practices in a demonstration proj-ect involving Medicare and private insurersare receiving monthly payments, averaging$20 a patient, to improve care managementand coordination for everyone, not justthose at high risk.

Stay tuned: Medicare is tracking data onquality and costs to see if the experiment isworking — AP

MedicareFrom page 7

See HEALTHY BACK, page 10

beltone.comPreferred Providers for BCBS and Anthem!

A fiber optic otoscope exam may reveal:• Excessive wax build-up• Damage to eardrum • Other conditions

With over 34 million Americans suffering from hearing loss, medical professionals also believe it is important for those over 50 to have their hearing evaluated annually.

During our Open House Event February 16th - March 6th, we are sponsoringa FREE Hearing Screening to assess your hearing health.

In addition, we will use state-of-the-art fiber optic otoscope technology, a simple procedure that inspects the inside of your ear canal. The entire evaluation is FREE, and you are under no obligation to buy.

FOR A LIMITED TIME FEB. 16th – MAR. 6thOPEN HOUSE

✓ Free Hearing Evaluation ✓ Free Video Ear ExamMedicalProfessionalsrecommend an ANNUALHEARINGTEST Have you hadyours?

LIMITEDTIME OFFER*$1,000

Savings Coupontoward the purchase of a

pair of Beltone First hearing instruments

Expires 3/6/2015

FREE10+POINT INSPECTION

Bring in your current hearing aid for a free

clean & check($100 value!)

Expires 3/6/2015

Call for an appointment today! 1-800-203-4156Palm Desert Hearing Aid Centers By Beltone72-608 El Paseo Suite 4, Palm Desert, CA 9226077932 Country Club Dr., Suite 2-3 Palm Desert, CA 92211

Beltone provides innovative digital hearinginstruments to match your financial needs, lifestyle and virtually any type of hearing loss.

*Toward the purchase of a pair of Beltone First hearing technology, based on two instruments. $500 off a single instrument. Discount taken off MSRP. Cannot be combined with any other offer ordiscount. Previous purchases excluded. Not valid with other offers or insurance. Free hearing test is not a medical diagnosis. Free hearing test to determine if you can be helped by a hearing aid.Hearing aids will be available for purchase. Robby Young, Hearing Aid Dispenser Lic #1065 & Cedric Saekan Hearing Aid Dispenser Lic #6022. Benefits of hearing instruments vary by type and degree of hearing loss, noise environment, accuracy of hearing evaluation and proper fit. ©Beltone 2014.

By Lindsey TannerHow old do you feel? Think carefully —

the answer might help predict how muchlonger you’ll live. That’s according toBritish research posing that question toabout 6,500 adults. Those who felt youngerthan their real age lived the longest overthe following eight years.

Here are key findings from the study, byresearchers Isla Rippon and Andrew Step-toe at University College London. Resultswere published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Real vs. perceived age The average real age of those questioned

was about 66 years. Most adults felt at leastthree years younger than their real age.

Those who felt younger had the leastchances of dying over about eight yearsafter the age question was asked. Adultswho felt older than their actual age had thegreatest chances of dying in that period.

The researchers analyzed data from astudy in England on aging that included in-formation on deaths during a follow-up pe-riod that ended in February 2013; deathstotaled 1,030. About 14 percent of the young-feeling adults died during the follow-up, ver-sus 19 percent of those who felt their actualage and 25 percent of those who felt older.

Feeling older was a predictor of deatheven when the researchers accounted forthings that could affect death rates, includ-ing illnesses, wealth, education, smoking,alcohol intake and physical activity. Older-feeling adults were about 40 percent morelikely to die than younger-feeling adults.

The researchers did a separate test, ex-cluding deaths within a year of when theage question was asked. The idea was tosee if answers from people already dying

might have explained the link between feel-ing old and death. The link persisted evenwithout those first-year deaths.

Why the link? It’s possible that health conditions and

lifestyle choices that the researchers didn’tstudy explain why feeling old may help pre-dict death. Or it may be that those who feelyounger than their real age have “greaterresilience, sense of mastery, and will tolive,” the researchers said. They said morestudy is needed to be certain.

Perceived age may change over the years,and there might be ways to reduce chancesof death in people who feel older than theiractual age. The researchers said that mightinclude health messages that promotehealthy behaviors and attitudes about aging.

To read more about the study, seewww.elsa-project.ac.uk. — AP

Feeling younger can help you live longerCOACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health 9

FREE BLOOD PRESSURE CHECKS

Free blood pressure checks andblood and blood sugar screenings willbe offered from 9 to 11 a.m. Tues-day, Feb. 17 at Indio Senior Center,45-700 Aladdin St., Indio. Those whowant their blood sugar measured willneed to fast eight hours before thetest. Make appointments at (760)391-4170

WHO GETS TO LEAD AT THIS DANCE?

Local high school seniors will dancewith local senior citizens at a Sweet-heart Dance from 1 to 4 p.m. Satur-day, Feb. 21 at the Cathedral Center,37-171 West Buddy Rogers Ave.,Cathedral City. Admission is $4, $2 ifyou wear red. Light refreshments willbe served. RSVP to (760) 321-1548,www.cathedralcenter.org

BEACON BITS

Feb. 17

Feb. 21

10 Fitness & Health | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

and ligaments of the pelvic girdle, whichallow you to bend and twist at the waist.

“When the hip girdle is unbalanced, youhave more flare-ups of back pain,” Isaac said.

Learn some stretches to keep your pelvicgirdle limber. Some of the same exercisesoften recommended for routine back pain willhelp, but a physical therapist can carefully as-sess your specific musculoskeletal issues andprescribe stretches to release the tension.

4. Straighten up.Poor posture can put stress on the back

and trigger back pain. Don’t slouch whenyou sit. If you are slouching or leaning be-cause of ongoing pain, loosening the hipgirdle with stretching exercises may help.

“That allows you to stand more uprightand put less mechanical strain on the lowback,” Isaac said.

5. Get some sleep.Getting restful sleep is essential for any-

one with back problems because sleep dep-rivation sensitizes you to pain.

“When you have poor sleep, it also altersbrain chemistry and you’re more prone to de-veloping a chronic pain state,” Isaac said.

6. Stay positive and relax.People who are depressed and anxious

tend to have worse back problems. And ofcourse back pain itself can get you down.Like sleep deprivation, blue moods and anx-iety can make you more sensitive to pain.

Relaxing deep-breathing exercises canhelp relieve the stress of a back pain flare-up. If you are getting depressed, anxious orhopeless about your condition, ask for morehelp from your doctor.

Think of the flare-up as a temporary set-back, and focus on what you will be able todo in the future to make back pain a less fre-quent companion in your life.— Harvard Men’s Health Watch© 2015. President and Fellows of Harvard

College. All Rights Reserved. Distributed byTribune Content Agency, LLC.

Healthy backFrom page 8LEARN ABOUT ALZHEIMER’S

A speaker from the Alzheimer’s Association will discuss warning

signs and give a basic overview of Alzheimer’s from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday,

Feb. 18 at the Cathedral Center, 37-171 W. Buddy Rogers Ave., Cathedral City.

The presenter will also talk about risk factors, how to get a diagnosis and the

benefits of early detection. RSVP (760) 321-1548, www.cathedralcenter.org

BEACON BITS

Feb. 18

DIABETES COOKING DEMONSTRATION

Doreen Colondres, celebrity chef and creator of the Kitchen Doesn’t

Bite brand, will put on her diabetes educator hat at a free session at 5 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 25 at Desert Oasis Healthcare, 265 N. El Cielo, Palm Springs. She

will show how to make a low-carb, full-flavor dish and share healthy recipes. Re-

freshments will be served. RSVP to (760) 320-8814, Ext. 1501.

WALK TO END ALZHEIMER’S

Registration is ongoing for the 16th annual Walk to End

Alzheimer’s to be held Saturday, March 14 on a two-mile path at Palm Desert

Civic Center Park. Opening ceremony starts at 10 a.m., the walk starts at 10:30

a.m. To register: (760) 328-6767, www.alz/org/socal

BEACON BITS

Feb. 25

Mar. 14

COACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health 11

(760) 324-4604 70201 Mirage Cove DriveRancho Mirage, CA 92270

www.vistacove.net RCFE No. 336408433

The only Adult Day Program in the Valley open seven days a week is growing with more options to meet your needs.

Introducing theDay Break Social Club

Be Social and Stay Active!

!e Day Break Social Club is a four-hour program designed for people with early stage dementia.

From 9am to 1pm or Noon to 4pm. A full-day option is also available.

For Club Members For Caregivers

By Carole FeldmanYou’ve downsized to an apartment, the

kids are long gone, and you’re no longer eli-gible for some of the deductions and exemp-tions that had helped you lower your tax bill.

But for those 65 years or older, there areother tax breaks that might benefit youcome tax time.

Social Security taxes For one, not all your Social Security ben-

efits are subject to federal taxes. How muchdepends on your other income and filingstatus. “No one pays federal income tax onmore than 85 percent of his or her SocialSecurity benefits,” the Social Security Ad-ministration says on its website.

To determine what percent of your ben-efits might be taxable, add half your bene-fits to your other income, includingnontaxable interest. If your combined in-come is between $25,000 and $34,000 andyour filing status is single, up to 50 percentof your benefits might be taxable, accord-ing to the IRS. For married couples filingjointly, the 50 percent taxable figure appliesif your combined income is between$32,000 and $44,000.

Combined income lower than the thresh-old? Social Security benefits aren’t taxable.If the combined income is above these in-come ranges, up to 85 percent is subject toincome taxes.

While some states also tax Social Secu-

rity benefits, you won’t have to pay state taxon them in Maryland, Virginia or the Dis-trict of Columbia.

Higher standard deductionPeople 65 and over also should consider

whether it’s more beneficial for them toclaim the standard deduction or to itemize.

The standard deduction is higher —$7,750 if your filing status is single, $14,800if you’re married filing jointly and you andyour spouse are both at least 65. That com-pares to $6,200 for single filers under 65and $12,400 for married taxpayers under 65who are filing jointly.

“Seniors very often have already paid uptheir mortgage and they very often don’t

itemize anymore,” said Jackie Perlman,principal tax research analyst at the Tax In-stitute at H&R Block.

But it’s important to do the math — or letyour tax preparer or tax software do it foryou — to see whether it still makes senseto itemize even with the higher standarddeduction.

Even if you don’t have mortgage interestto deduct, you can still deduct any propertytaxes you paid. State income taxes also aredeductible, or alternatively, you can chooseto deduct state sales taxes, an attractive op-tion if you live in a state that doesn’t havean income tax.

12 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

MoneyTAX-FREE CARE SAVINGSA new law establishes tax-free accountsfor care for those with disabilities

IRS CUSTOMER SERVICE CUTSQuestions on your tax return? It may beharder to get help due to IRS budgetproblems

INSURING FOR THE LONG TERMA primer on when and how to select along-term care insurance policy

Law &

Older taxpayers receive some tax breaks

See TAX BREAKS, page 14

By Carolyn BigdaWe’ll start with eight companies that will

grow no matter what happens to the econ-omy. Then, we offer funds and fund portfo-lios you can invest in starting with a mere$1,000.

Stocks to considerAbbott Laboratories (symbol ABT,

$44). The drug and medical-device makerhas said it will sell part of its overseas generic-drug business for $5.3 billion. The deal willallow Abbott to focus on emerging markets,where sales in the third quarter of 2014helped boost overall profits by 13 percent.American Express (AXP, $92). In

2014, Amex launched OptBlue, which al-lows third-party processors to manage cardtransactions for small retailers. Execs be-lieve the number of mom-and-pop storesnewly accepting Amex could rise by 50 per-cent annually for several years.Apple (AAPL, $115). In the quarter

that ended in September, during which thelatest iPhone models were released, Applesaw its strongest revenue growth rate inseven quarters. Its new mobile-paymentsystem, Apple Pay, faces competition, butadoption by retailers is growing. And ahigh-tech wristwatch, Apple Watch, shouldstart shipping in early 2015.Gilead Sciences (GILD, $101). Gilead

won approval from U.S. regulators in Octo-ber to sell Harvoni, which could become ablockbuster hepatitis C drug. Gilead also hastreatments for HIV. Analysts say profits couldincrease by 25 percent in 2015.Macy’s (M, $63).Macy’s shoppers can

now check online to see if an item is in anearby store. If an improving economyboosts consumer spending, Macy’s will beready. Among other things, Macy’s, whichalso owns the Bloomingdale’s chain, hasstarted testing same-day delivery fromstores. Analysts see earnings rising 13 per-cent in the January 2016 fiscal year.Precision Castparts (PCP, $236).The

firm makes complex molds and other compo-nents used to build jet engines. For three ofthe past four quarters, the company has fallenshort of earnings forecasts as clients used upinventory, and the stock has dropped 13 per-cent over the past year. But Stephen Leven-son, an analyst at investment bank Stifel, saidthe de-stocking should end in early 2015.Meanwhile, production of the high-tech Air-bus A350 XWB and Boeing 787 Dreamlinerwill boost profits.Charles Schwab (SCHW, $28). Low in-

terest rates have pressured profits at CharlesSchwab. But the broker is making up for itwith volume. According to a report by theWilliam Blair firm, Schwab was on track togather more than $100 billion in net new as-

sets for the third straight year in 2014.Stanley Black & Decker (SWK, $94).

The power-tool maker is benefiting from ahousing rebound. In the third quarter, salesin Stanley’s do-it-yourself segment rose 9 per-cent. Ron Sloan, senior manager of the In-vesco Charter Fund, said the company’s profitmargins could climb by as much as three per-centage points in 2015.

Portfolios for $1,000Build a high-yield ETF portfolio. Start

with three shares of junk-bond fund iSharesiBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond (symbolHYG, $90, 5.2-percent yield). Add 10 sharesof iShares US Preferred Stock ETF (PFF,$39, 5.6 percent. Finally, buy four shares ofVanguard REIT ETF (VNQ, $81, 2.5 per-cent).

(Money-saving hint: If you have a broker-age account at Fidelity, you can buy the twoiShares ETFs commission-free. Likewise

Stock and fund ideas poised for growthCOACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Law & Money 13

See STOCKS, page 15

Elder Law - Probate - TrustMedi-Cal Planning and Asset Protection

ConservatorshipsNursing Home Neglect

Elder Abuse – Financial and Physical

FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION92-960 Fred Waring Drive, Suite 16, Palm Desert, Ca 92260

Located on the Northwest corner of Fred Waring and Monterey

MEMBER OF NAELA“NATIONAL ACADAMY OF ELDER LAW ATTORNEYS”

Medical expensesFor those 65 and older, medical expenses

are deductible to the extent they exceed 7.5percent of adjusted gross income. Thatthreshold applies even if only one spousehas reached 65 and you file jointly. Forthose under 65, medical expenses are de-ductible only if they exceed 10 percent ofadjusted gross income.

Medical expenses include the portion ofdoctor, dentist and hospital bills, and thecost of prescription drugs not covered by

insurance, as well as premiums forMedicare or other insurance coverage. Pre-scription eyeglasses are also included, asare the cost of false teeth, hearing aids,wheelchairs and the cost of transportationto medical appointments.

Of course, charitable donations are de-ductible by everyone who itemizes. How-ever, taxpayers who are at least 70 1/2 hadanother option for charitable donations thatwas extended in December only throughthe end of 2014.

At that age, you’re required to take a mini-mum distribution from your individual retire-ment accounts. If you rolled that distribution

over directly to a charity by Dec. 31, 2014 —instead of taking the money and then donatingit — the distribution is not counted as incomeand therefore is not taxable.

“The difference is you’re lowering notonly your taxable income but also your ad-justed gross income,” Perlman said. Andthat can affect such things as whether So-cial Security benefits are taxable andwhether you can deduct your medical ex-penses.

But there’s no double-dipping. If youitemize, you can’t also deduct a charitabledonation that was made through a directrollover from an IRA.

There is also a small tax credit for low-in-come seniors, which Perlman says is notwidely used. “It might be helpful for some-one who neither contributed to the SocialSecurity system nor ever married.”

Free tax prep assistanceThe IRS offers free tax preparation help

for people 60 and older, working throughnon-profit groups. Two organizations pro-vide such assistance at many locationsthroughout the Washington area.

The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide pro-gram is available free to taxpayers with lowand moderate income, with special attentionto those 60 and older. You do not need to bea member of AARP. For more informationor to find a location near you, go towww.aarp.org/money/taxes/aarp_taxaid orcall 1-888-687-2277,

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance(VITA) program offers free tax help to peopleof all ages who generally make $53,000 or less,as well as to older adults and people with dis-abilities. To find locations, see http://irs.trea-sury.gov/freetaxprep. — AP

14 Law & Money | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

Tax breaksFrom page 12

RECYCLE ELECTRONICS, SHRED DOCUMENTS

Palm Springs will offer free electronics and shredded documents

recycling from 8 a.m. to noon, or until trucks are full, on Saturday, Feb. 28 at City

Hall parking lot, 3200 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way. You can bring three normal size

file containers to shred and computers, monitors, microwaves, televisions, cell

phones, fax machines and batteries to recycle. (760) 323-8214, (760) 323-8263

BEACON BITS

Feb. 28

SAVE! SAVE!

Locally Owned & Operated Since 1971OUR PRICES WILL FLOOR YOU!

• Draperies• Pillows• Cornices• Headboards• Bedding• Shutters

• Roller Shades• Blinds• Carpet• Vinyl• Tile• Wood

FREEEstimates!

Call for FREE Estimate

Interior DesignService Available

Rose Gonzalez - Designer

760-347-343483-151 Indio Blvd., Indio, CA 92201

www.SavOnCarpets.com

Featuring Lafayette FashionInteriors, Window Coverings

for Vanguard brokerage clients and theVanguard ETF.)Buy a top-notch fund. These five funds

have performed better than their categoryaverage over the past 10 years, and each re-quires $1,000 or less to get started:

Both Oakmark Fund (OAKMX) and Oak-mark Select (OAKLX) invest mainly in largeU.S. companies selling at bargain prices.Homestead Small-Company Stock (HSCSX)is a member of the Kiplinger 25. Artisan In-ternational (ARTIX) invests mainly in large,growing foreign companies. For an all-in-oneoption, try Vanguard STAR (VGSTX).

Other investment optionsBe a lender. At peer-to-peer lending

sites such as Lending Club and Prosper,you can invest in personal loans and receivemonthly payments and interest as borrow-ers repay the loans.

To mitigate risk, create a portfolio ofloans with a range of credit ratings. Prosperlists average investor returns of 5.5 percentto 11.4 percent, and Lending Club’s histor-ical returns range from 4.7 percent to 9 per-cent.Take a flier on a low-priced stock.

You can buy 100 shares of any of the sevenstocks listed below for less than $1,000.They all carry a fair amount of risk, but ifthings go right, you could make a bundle.(For more details on each stock, visitkiplinger.com/links/low.)Aptose Biosciences (APTO, $7.08)Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (AUPH,

$3.82)Groupon (GRPN, $7.27)Kratos Defense & Security Solutions

(KTOS, $5.10)ParkerVision (PRKR, $0.91)Rite Aid (RAD, $5.69)

Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI, $3.49)Grab 10 shares of a blue chip. Prefer

more-established companies? You could buy10 shares of any one of these five stocks forroughly a grand. The reward: healthy divi-dends now and the likelihood of share-pricegains as earnings grow.CVS Health (CVS, $91, 1.2-percent

yield). The drugstore chain is getting aboost from its rapidly growing pharmacy-services segment.Danaher Corp. (DHR, $85, 0.5 per-

cent).Danaher makes everything from med-ical devices to measuring systems. It has $12billion in the till for making acquisitions.Walt Disney (DIS, $94, 1.2 percent).

The smashing success of the movie Frozenproves that we are all kids at heart.MasterCard (MA, $89, 0.7 percent).

The credit card company boosted its divi-dend by a stunning 45 percent in Decem-ber.Pepsico (PEP, $98, 2.7 percent). Be-

sides its namesake soft drinks, Pepsi owns

Frito-Lay, Quaker and other great brands.Carolyn Bigda is a contributing editor to

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. Sendyour questions and comments to money-

power@kiplinger.com. For more on this andsimilar money topics, visit Kiplinger.com.

© 2015 Kiplinger’s Personal Finance; Dis-tributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

COACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Law & Money 15

StocksFrom page 13

FREE INCOME TAX

PREPARATION

Riverside County’s Volunteer Income

Tax Assistance Program will help res-

idents fill out income tax forms at

locations in Coachella, Desert Hot

Springs and Indio. To make appoint-

ments and learn site locations: (800)

511-1110, www.capriverside.org

GET HELP WITH

YOUR TAXES

Seniors can make

appointments at the Indio Senior

Center, 45-700 Aladdin St., Indio, for

the free AARP Income Tax Service.

Assistance will be offered through

April 13. Photo ID is required. To

make an appointment call the center

at (760) 391-4170.

BEACON BITS

Ongoing

Ongoing

Tax-free accountsfor those withdisabilities

At the end of last year, Congress gavefinal approval to the most sweeping legisla-tion to help Americans with disabilities in aquarter century, allowing them to open tax-free bank accounts to pay for needs such as

education, housing and healthcare. The move paves the way for creation of

the accounts beginning this year for as manyas 54 million people and their families.

The then Democratic-led Senate passedthe measure on a 76-16 vote after it was at-tached to a bill extending dozens of taxbreaks for individuals and businesses untilthe end of the year. The GOP-controlledHouse overwhelmingly approved the meas-ure, having garnered 85 percent of Con-gress as co-sponsors.

The bill, called the Achieving a Better LifeExperience Act was signed into law by Pres-

ident Barack Obama at the end of 2014. Modeled after tax-free college savings

accounts, the ABLE bill would amend thefederal tax code to allow states to establishthe program.

To qualify, a person would have to be diag-nosed by age 26 with a disability that resultsin “marked and severe functional limitations.”Those who are already receiving Social Secu-rity Disability benefits would also qualify.

Families would be able to set up tax-freeaccounts at financial institutions, depositingup to $14,000 annually to pay for long-termneeds such as education, transportationand healthcare. The contributions would bein after-tax dollars but earnings would growtax-free.

The ABLE accounts would be able to ac-crue up to $100,000 in savings without theperson losing eligibility for government aidsuch as SSI benefits; currently, the assetlimit is $2,000. Medicaid coverage wouldcontinue no matter how much money is de-posited in the accounts, though states canrecoup some Medicaid payments from thebeneficiary’s estate after they die.

It is the first major legislation for thosewith disabilities since the 1990 AmericansWith Disabilities Act. The measure wassponsored by Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., andRichard Burr, R-N.C.

Many lawmakers had insisted on cuts orrevenue increases to offset the measure’s $2billion price tag over 10 years. The bill’s spon-sors found the savings in part by increasingthe amount of levies on property for tax-delin-quent Medicare providers and suppliers; cut-ting Medicare funding for “vacuum erectionsystems”; and making technical adjustmentsto cap worker’s compensation.

— Hope Yen, AP

IRS cuts mayhamper customer

serviceGot a question for the IRS? Good luck

reaching someone by phone. The taxagency says only half of the 100 million peo-ple expected to call this year will be able toreach a person.

Callers who do get through may have towait on hold for 30 minutes or more to talk

to someone who will answer only the sim-plest questions.

And this is at the same time as filing a fed-eral tax return is about to get more compli-cated for millions of families because ofPresident Barack Obama’s health law.

For the first time, tax filers will have to re-port information about their health insuranceduring the previous year. For most peoplewho get health coverage through work orthrough government programs like Medi-caid, it will mean simply checking a box.

Others who got insurance through stateand federal marketplaces will have to file anew form, while people who received sub-sidies will have to provide more detailed in-formation.

But they shouldn’t expect much helpfrom the Internal Revenue Service. IRSCommissioner John Koskinen said budgetcuts are forcing the agency to reduce tax-payer services and other functions.

The number of audits will decline, tech-nology upgrades will be delayed, and theagency might be forced to shut down andfurlough workers for two days later thisyear, Koskinen said.

The IRS will no longer help low-incometaxpayers fill out their returns, and tax re-funds could be delayed for people who filepaper returns.

Congress cut the IRS by $346 million forthe current budget year. Koskinen said theagency’s $10.9 billion budget is its lowestsince 2008. When adjusted for inflation, thebudget hasn’t been this low since 1998, hesaid.

Republicans in Congress adamantly op-pose Obama’s health law, so some havebeen working to starve the IRS of funds justas its role in implementing the law rampsup.

It won’t work, Koskinen said in an inter-view. The agency, he said, is required bylaw to help implement the health program.“The only places we have discretion are ininformation technology, tax enforcement,customer service.”

The spending cuts could actually cost thegovernment money, Koskinen said. Havingfewer enforcement agents will cost at least$2 billion in lost tax revenue this year, heestimated.

— Stephen Ohlemacher, AP

Money Shorts

16 Law & Money | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

Triple digit temps are e e T Tr i p l e d g t t ps a e e e r i i m a g t p e i i e r i g i t te e m p s a re e g o n e !

u uce uce t’s time to ed t to e t’ t m t t I im o o o o o s e o o t t t e e e s e e e e r ’ i I t ’ s t i m e t to r re u u u d d d c c u u d d d e e e e d u ce e outdoor w r w or w t mes t tiu t w r r r d ou oo o doo t o u t td o o r wa a te e t im i i m m r i n g t i m e e s s . .

Cut your watering time each month through fall and winter. Grass and plants don’t need as much

water during the cool season.

Drought watering guide for turf grass (in minutes per day)

Month Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb.

Spray heads 12 10 7 4 3

Rotary heads 27 22 14 10 6

Individual watering times vary based on sprinkler e!ciency, soil and weather conditions.

y y y y y y y y y y y Coache la Va ley e e y y y y l e Va V Va a a a a e e l a V V a V Ve e e e e a C C o c e C C C oa o c a c h h e e a C ey l V e e l e e l ch e y ey e a ey C C a a a a a o o o o o o o C C C C C C C C C o o o C o a a a a a a a a a a a a a a c cc c c e e e e e e e e ee V V V V V l l l l l h h h e e e e e c h e l l a V Va y y y y y y y e e e e e e e e l l l l l l l l l l e e e e l l e y D i t t s tt t i i D s s s stD ss c r t r t st st D s s s D stDD D D ct c ct c D s t t t r tr r rr c c ri c t c t D i s t t Dis rt D Wate ee r r e r r t e t t ta aa e et et Wa a Wa W a e e e er r r r e et t e e t a t Wa a ee e t aWa Wa Wa r r e ee te te et r r r r eWWa t rre eW W t a a t e e r Wa aa W WWW W W W W W W WW W W W W W W W W a a aaa a a a aa a aa aa a a aa a a W W W WW W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W WW W W W W W W W W W Wa c c c c c c c c c c t tt ttt t t t t t t t ttt t t t t t t t t t t t t t ttt t s s s ss s s s s s s s se ee e e eeeeeee e ee e e e e ee eee e ee D D DD D D D DD D DD D D D D D D D D D D i i i i i i r r r r r r r rr i irrr r r r r r r r D D DD D DD D D D D D De ee e ee e e i i i i Dt e r D i s t r i c t tt t t t tt t t tt t t t t tt t

Stay connected with us! n www.cvwd.orgwww o gvw w rw

By Kimberly LankfordMackey McNeill, a CPA and personal fi-

nancial specialist in Kentucky, talks withclients in their 50s and early 60s about pro-tecting their retirement savings from poten-tial long-term-care expenses — whichcurrently average more than $85,000 a yearfor a private room in a nursing home.

But when McNeill turned 58 and lookedat long-term-care policies for herself andher husband, she balked at the premiums— more than $5,200 a year for two policiesthat would cover the average cost of care inher area. “I understand why clients resistit,” she said.

After she calculated how much extramoney they’d need to save to cover the costof care (and the risk to their portfolio if theydidn’t), she decided to make the same com-promise most of her clients do.

“We’re buying policies that don’t covereverything but can cover about $4,000 amonth,” she said. She gets a couples’ discountfor buying with her husband. If the McNeills’future care exceeds their coverage, they’reconfident they can make up the differencewith savings and retirement income.

Like McNeill, most financial advisersrecommend buying long-term-care insur-ance in your 50s or early 60s. The youngeryou are when you buy a policy, the lowerthe annual premiums, but the longer you’llhave to pay those premiums.

By the time you reach your mid-60s,however, you’re more likely to have a med-ical condition that makes you ineligible fora preferred-health discount or makes ittough to get coverage at all.

You’re also more likely to have the cashto pay premiums in your 50s or early 60s,especially if you’ve finished paying for col-lege for the kids, or paid off the mortgage.And because you’re starting to form a bet-

ter picture of your retirement budget, it’s agood time to factor the annual premiumsinto your long-term plan.

How much coverage to getStart your calculations by looking at the

cost of care in your area (see www.gen-worth.com/costofcare). Then figure outhow much you could cover with your retire-ment income and savings.

The calculation may be very different forsingle people than for married couples,who often need to plan on spending morethan singles to cover long-term-care billsfor one spouse plus living expenses for thespouse who remains at home, said DonnaSkeels Cygan, a certified financial plannerin Albuquerque, N.M.

After you know the cost of long-termcare and how much you can afford on yourown, consider buying enough long-termcare coverage to fill the gap.

The average length of care is about threeyears, but you may want a longer benefit pe-riod if you have a history of Alzheimer’s inyour family. (The pool of benefits is calcu-lated by multiplying your daily benefit bythe benefit period, but you may be able tostretch your payouts if you use less than thedaily maximum benefit.)

Kathy Kingston, an auctioneer in Hamp-ton, N.H., bought long-term-care insurancelast year, when she turned 60.

“I’m healthy and active and independ-ent,” she said. “I’m interested in setting my-self up to have care at home.” Kingston hasa pension from her years working as a pub-lic employee in Alaska that could coversome, but not all, of the costs.

She bought a Genworth policy that cur-rently provides $380,000 worth of coverage.The policy has 5 percent compound infla-tion protection, which means the benefit

will grow to $1.5 million by the time she’s85. It also has a zero-day waiting period forhome care.

Consider a pooled benefitA good strategy for couples is to buy a

shared-benefit policy that provides a pool ofbenefits either spouse can use — for exam-ple, two three-year policies form a pool ofsix years (and some policies add anotherthree years to the pool).

“I prefer the shared policies because the

chances of both spouses needing long-termcare are slim, but you don’t know whichone will need it,” said Cygan. “It gives youa huge amount of flexibility.”

Shared-benefit policies tend to cost 12 to20 percent more than two separate policies,said Brian Gordon, a long-term care insur-ance specialist in Riverwoods, Ill. For exam-ple, if a healthy 55-year-old couple were tobuy two Genworth policies, each with a

How to select long-term care insuranceCOACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Law & Money 17

See LTC INSURANCE, page 18

$150 daily benefit for three years and 3 per-

cent compound inflation protection, theywould pay $1,359 a year for each policy.

If they added a shared-benefit rider —giving them a pool of six years to split as

needed — the annual cost would increaseto $1,660 each. And if they waited 10 yearsto buy? A healthy 65-year-old couple wouldpay $2,143 each for the same policies, or$2,664 with the shared benefits.

Calibrating the costThe longer the waiting period before

benefits kick in, the lower your premiums.But initially you’ll need to pay the costs outof your own pocket.

Make sure you understand how the wait-ing period is calculated. Gordon recom-mends a calendar-day waiting period, inwhich the clock starts ticking as soon asyou need help with two out of six activitiesof daily living (such as bathing) or you pro-vide evidence of cognitive impairment. Adays-of-service waiting period only countsthe days you get care.

If you have a calendar-day policy with a90-day waiting period and you need care inyour home just three days a week, the pol-icy will pay out after three months. But the

same waiting period with a days-of-servicepolicy would mean waiting more than sevenmonths before benefits kick in.

Because you may not need care until 20or 30 years from now, inflation protection isessential. Nursing home and assisted livingcosts have increased by about 4 percent peryear over the past five years, and home carecosts have risen by 1.3 percent, althoughthat may rise faster as baby boomers com-pete for caregivers.

Older policies tended to boost benefitsby 5 percent compounded each year, butlow interest rates made it expensive for in-surers to offer that coverage to new buyers.Now, 3 percent per year is most common,and some insurers even offer 2 percent orless per year.

Claude Thau, a long-term care specialistin Overland Park, Kan., usually recommends3 percent compound inflation protection.“The carriers have re-jiggered their pricingso that 3 percent looks especially good com-pared with 5 percent,” he said.

If spouses who are both age 55 each startwith a $175,000 pool of benefits, they wouldpay about $5,850 per year (combined) for twopolicies with 5 percent inflation protection, butjust $3,000 per year for policies with 3 percentinflation protection and $2,450 for policies with2 percent, said Jesse Slome, executive directorof the American Association for Long-TermCare Insurance, a trade group.

Insurers have different sweet spotsbased on your age and health and their ownclaims experience. For example, Slome re-cently worked with a 65-year-old man andhis 55-year-old wife, who received quotesfor annual premiums from two insurers thatwere $1,200 apart.

Many long-term care agents work prima-rily with Genworth, Mutual of Omaha, Mass-Mutual, Transamerica and John Hancock(Northwestern Mutual and New York Lifesell long-term care insurance only throughtheir own agents). Find a long-term care spe-cialist in your area at www.aaltci.org.

© 2015, Kiplinger. All Rights Reserved. Dis-tributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

18 Law & Money | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

AllAges

LTC insuranceFrom page 17

LEARN ABOUT

SENIOR

LEGAL ISSUES

Attorney Martina Kang Ravica will

give a free lecture, “Legal

Knowledge as We Age,” from 9 to

11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 20 at the Joslyn

Center, 73-750 Catalina Way, Palm

Desert. A question and answer

session will follow. Light refresh-

ments will be served. Make

reservations with Diane Dorman at

(760) 324-4604.

BEACON BITS

Feb. 20

-

By Solvej Schou As a Southern California native with a

Danish dad and the tongue-twisting Danishname “Solvej,”‘ I’ve always been asked,somewhat cheekily, “Hey! Do you know thetown Solvang?” I do, of course. Yet, as an adult, I only

passed through the touristy enclave ofroughly 5,000 people about 130 miles north-west of Los Angeles, in the Santa Ynez Val-ley. Founded in 1911 by Danish immigrants,Solvang now boasts Danish bakeries, aHans Christian Andersen Museum and fourwindmills. Boutique inns and lodges havepeaked roofs and spiffy monikers such asSvendsgaard’s Lodge and the Hamlet Inn,along with bedspreads emblazoned with

the red-and-white Danish flag. Curious about this Danish-American vil-

lage so similar to my name and such a longway from Northern Europe, I finallyheaded to Solvang recently for an overnightstay and 24-hour binge of Danish pastries,wine tasting and conversations in Englishand Danish with residents whose busi-nesses add layers of history and heart tothe town’s Nordic shtick. Here are four things to do and see in

Solvang, which I found to be a warm, funand funky getaway that, appropriately,translates to mean “sunny field.”

Bakeries and sweets I’ve never had much of a sweet tooth, but

even I couldn’t escape the sugary appeal ofSolvang’s multiple family-owned Danishbakeries, including Mortensen’s DanishBakery, Olsen’s Danish Village Bakery andCoffee Shop and the Solvang Bakery. AtMortensen’s, owned by 83-year-old Danish-American Solvang architect Earl C. Pe-tersen and his wife Dorothy, and run bytheir three sociable, vibrant daughters, Ijoined the morning crowd to chomp on thebakery’s signature butter ring, a traditionalDanish coffee cake. “There are more bakers here than prob-

ably in the whole world,”‘ said Olsen’sowner Bent Olsen, 70. A tall, burly man witha smooth Danish accent, Olsen moved toCalifornia from Denmark in 1965 and

opened the bakery in 1970. “After dinner,I’m always looking forward to dessert,” heblissfully added, as I sat next to him in theairy cafe, nibbling on a slice of Danishkringle, rolled in the shop and stuffed withalmond paste, custard cream and raisins.For chocolate aficionados, 54-year-old In-

geborg’s Danish Chocolates is a town fa-vorite, displaying marzipan pigs and Danishchocolate covered handmade marshmallowscalled “flodeboller”‘ the size of golf balls.

Wine tasting 2014 marked the 10th anniversary of the

2004 wine-soaked movie “Sideways,” which

COACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon 19

TravelLeisure &

The city of Solvang is known for its family-owned Danish bakeries.

Try a swig of Danish culture in Solvang

See SOLVANG, page 20

20 Leisure & Travel | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

Solvang touts four replica windmills built as tourist attractions in the late 1940s.

PH

OT

O C

OU

RT

ES

Y O

F S

OL

VA

NG

US

A.C

OM

was partially shot in Solvang, and wineriesin the area owe a certain amount of creditto the tourist boom that followed the film.Next to bakeries sit more than 20 wine-tast-ing rooms, from Dascomb Cellars to the ca-sually hip Lucky Dogg Winery, with itssleek, red-walled tasting room. “Solvang is more of a wine destination

now,”‘ said Lucky Dogg co-owner MeadWhippo, 36. He took me through theprocess of deeply smelling, glass swishing,smelling again and then tasting a range ofLucky Dogg wines, including a 2013 lightviognier and 2013 spicy syrah. Wine tastingusually costs between $10 and $12 per per-son, depending on the winery. Keep inmind that many shops in Solvang close inthe early evening, at the latest, includingtasting rooms. Separate winery tours arealso available.

Hans Christian Anderson museum As a kid, I owned two stocky volumes of

fairy tales by 19th century Danish writerHans Christian Andersen that I covetedlike, well, chocolate. I inhaled those stories,from “The Little Mermaid”‘ to “The UglyDuckling.”‘ So visiting Solvang’s Hans Christian An-

dersen Museum, a modest room upstairsfrom bookstore The Book Loft, was a treat.The museum is packed with hundreds ofvolumes of Andersen’s books, includingfirst editions, as well as a model of his child-hood home. Owner Katheryn Mullins, 80, opened the

museum with her late husband in 1990.“Andersen is for children from 8 to 108,”she told me, before settling into readingquietly at her desk by the entrance. Themuseum is free to visitors.

Elverhoj museum The Elverhoj Museum of History and

Art, a few blocks south of Solvang’s center,

SolvangFrom page 19

See SOLVANG, page 21

THE IDEA OF DEMOCRACY

Two UCR speakers will talk about whether a new cold war is

emerging and what it means for the world at free lecture at 6 p.m. Thursday,

March 5 at UCR Palm Desert, 75-080 Frank Sinatra Drive. RSVP to

palmdesert.ucr.edu/programs/events.html

BEACON BITS

Mar. 5

COACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Leisure & Travel 21

Once a home designed as a Danish 18th century farmhouse, displays at the ElverhojMuseum of History and Art include the home’s kitchen and the town’s history.

PH

OT

O C

OU

RT

ES

Y O

F S

OL

VA

NG

US

A.C

OM

dives into the town’s history. With an intri-cately carved wooden front door, and builtin 1950 to resemble a Danish 18th centuryfarmhouse, the building itself is actually theformer home of late Danish painter andsculptor Viggo Brandt-Erichsen and hisAmerican artist wife Martha.It opened as a museum in 1988 after her

death. Exhibits include the recreation of anold-style Danish kitchen, complete with

green hand-painted walls and porcelainDanish Easter plaques. “One Danish tourist told me, ‘With

Solvang, it’s like they took the best parts ofDenmark and put them onto two streets,’ ”said visitor services museum staffer Kim-berly Davis. Admission is free, with a $5 suggested

donation. The museum is closed Mondayand Tuesday.

If you go: Solvang Visitors Bureau,(805) 688-6144, www.solvangusa.com

— AP

SolvangFrom page 20

Please tell our advertisers, “I saw you in the Beacon!”

We recommend savvy ways to get to yourdestination (and pay for it), and suggestionsfor finding places to stay once you’re there.Plus: Cruises for everyone.

Booking site. Hipmunk ranks airlinesearch results using an “agony” filter — topresults have the best combination of lowestprice, shortest duration and feweststopovers — or by price or schedule. Hotelsearches use the “ecstasy” filter, whichranks by price, amenities and reviews.

Airline for on-time arrival. Delta AirLines has the best track record for stickingto its schedule. Over the past year, 86 per-cent of its flights were on time.

Airline for baggage handling. VirginAmerica gets your bags to your destinationmore often than any other airline. In the

past year, the airline has lost only 1.21 bagsper 1,000 fliers.

Hotel loyalty program.With more than1,100 hotels and resorts in nearly 100 coun-tries, it’s easy to rack up and redeem re-wards with Starwood Preferred Guest.Members can often earn a free weekendnight in as few as three stays. Prefersmaller, boutique hotels? At Kimpton Ho-tels, loyalty members receive free Wi-Fiand other perks.

Vacation rental website. Like otherrental sites, Airbnb displays houses andapartments for rent worldwide. But it ex-pands your options to private and sharedrooms. It also includes user reviews andholds your payment in escrow until yourreservation begins.

Credit card. Earn two miles on everypurchase with the Barclaycard Arrival Pluscard ($89 annual fee, waived the first year),plus 40,000 bonus miles when you spend$3,000 within the first three months ofopening the account. The card has chiptechnology and no foreign-transaction fee.

Cell-phone plan for overseas travel-ers. The T-Mobile Simple Choice plan offersunlimited data usage and text messaging inmore than 120 countries at no additionalcharge. Calls are 20 cents per minute.

Cruises for value. Celebrity Cruises of-fers luxuries that include recently updated

dining options and spacious stateroomswithout the luxury price tag.

Cruises for luxury. All cabins onSeabourn’s small ships are suites. Andplenty of extras, from cocktails to on-deckmini massages, are included. There’s a no-tipping policy on board, so you can enjoythe frills without reaching for your wallet.Send your questions and comments to

moneypower@kiplinger.com. And for moreon this and similar money topics, visitKiplinger.com.© 2015 Kiplinger’s Personal Finance; Dis-

tributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

22 Leisure & Travel | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

Best bets for airlines, booking sites and more

14TH ANNUAL NATIVE FILM FESTNative Filmfest will feature films by, about and starring NativeAmericans and other indigenous peoples and a chance to mingle

with filmmakers, actors, and other guests at Camelot Theatres, 2300 E. BaristoRd., Palm Springs. For ticket and screening schedule: www.accmusuem.org,(760) 833-8169.

WATERCOLOR SHOWThe Coachella Valley Watercolor Society 26th Annual Members'Show will be held at the Palm Springs Air Museum, Pond Hangar,on Friday, February 27 and Saturday, February 28 from 10 a.m. to

5 p.m. The museum is located at 745 N. Gene Autry Trail, Palm Springs. In thisprofessionally judged show, more than 150 quality original framed watercolorpaintings will be for sale. Live art demonstrations will be given at 11 a.m. and 2p.m. For more information, see. cvws.org

BEACON BITS

Mar. 3+

Feb. 27

$200OFFOrders over 150 square feet

Offer Expires 03/15/15

COACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon 23

By Jorie ParrIt’s an untapped source of fun and culture

in a sublime desert setting. And for mostevents, there’s no admission charge.

Sunnylands Center and Gardens, 37-977Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage, offers aplethora of feeless programs. It’s open tothe public Thursdays through Sundays, 9a.m. to 4 p.m.

There are nature walks, art exhibits andplein air painting, family day activities,yoga, tai chi and more. For all the five Sun-days in March, for example, there’s “Musicin the Gardens,” 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Leadingoff March 1, a duo of musicians from Idyll-wild, Joey Latimer and Don Reed, perform.

More than guitarists, they bring alongother string instruments from mandolins toukuleles. The repertoire is eclectic, to saythe least. It’s a combination of genres —light rock, bluegrass, country, etc. They en-courage back-and-forth conversation withtheir listeners, creating a friendly atmos-phere.

It’s an informal sort of concert. There areno seating arrangements, though it’s OK tobring along lawn chairs. The audience canstay put or continue to enjoy the music while

strolling about the grounds. Check thewww.sunnylands.org website for the programlineup for the rest of the March Sundays.

Food is available at the Center café, or it’spossible to bring a picnic and settle downelsewhere. No-nos: alcohol and coolers.

More events, displays The art exhibit gracing the center corri-

dors for the coming year focuses on gifts tothe Sunnylands founders. It’s titled “Trea-sures at Sunnylands: Selections from the GiftCollection of Walter & Leonore Annenberg.”The 46 presents displayed include every-thing from a beaded safety-pin necklacefrom Hilary Clinton that Leonore Annen-berg treasured to a small vehicle, an AustinMini Moke, courtesy of Frank Sinatra.

Local artists are invited to Sunnylandsfor a plein air session on Saturday, March7. Gates open early just for them at 7:30a.m., and they can spend the entire day ifthey wish. Participants bring their owneasels and paints, plus ground covers toprotect the walkways. Watercolorist JeanBradley offers instruction from 9:30 untilnoon. Reservations are mandatory; call(760) 202-2234.

Offsite at the Rancho Mirage Library onFeb. 20, at 2 p.m., the Sunnylands SpeakerSeries headlines Norman Lear. The TV pro-ducer/author holds forth on the topic“Even This I Get to Experience.”

Family day at the center on Sunday, Feb. 22focuses on sculpture from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.Sculptors interact with children and adults.

The regular weekly roundup of eventsalso highlights a 60-minute guided gardenswalk, 11 a.m. on Thursdays. Friday at 9:15a.m. it’s the bird walk to track local and mi-gratory species — vermillion flycatcher,anyone? Binoculars advised.

At noon, Kristin Olson leads an hour-longyoga session on the great lawn. Beginners

are welcome, just BYO mat and wear appro-priate yoga gear. Then tai chi meets Satur-day at 10 a.m.

Half-hour center and gardens walks areslated Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

The walkaboutArmed with brochures picturing the

dozens of desert-happy plantings, we showedup for the longer Thursday morning naturewalk. Of course it’s permissible to roam thecenter grounds on your own, but a knowl-edgeable leader lifts it to a higher level.

Michaeleen Gallagher, director of educa-

Arts &Style The Sunnyvale Center and Gardenshosts numerous activities, from yoga tooutdoor concerts.

The free pleasures of Sunnylands Center

Desert Art Festival A Fine Art Festival

West Coast Artists presents...

Palm Springs February 13-1610 AM till 4 PM

Presidents Day Weekend

West Coast Artists 818.813.4478westcoastartists.com/shows/ps2.html

Image by featured artist - Teresa Downer

Free Admission! Free Parking!

Frances Stevens Park538 N. Palm Canyon Drive (at Alejo) in Palm Springs

See SUNNYLANDS page 24

We’re growing and need another sales consultant!

This full-time sales position pays a base salary, plus

commissions and benefits.We're looking for a hard-working, positive, assertive, detail-oriented people person. Must be outgoing, loveselling and be comfortable with computers.

If you would be excited to call and meet with potentialadvertisers throughout the area, send your resume andcover letter to Michael Brachman, Publisher, atMB@OTMedia.net.

Here are a few examples of those op-tions. We should be having a national con-versation about them NOW.

Some options for individuals andfamilies: Work longer, save more, investbetter, adopt healthier lifestyles, expectless, stick together and help each other out,encourage adult children to support olderparents, reduce end-of-life medical care,sign do-not-resuscitate orders/living wills.

Some options for state and federalgovernments: Take steps to boost theeconomy, improve tax collection, crackdown on waste and fraud in governmentprograms, incentivize healthier lifestyles,raise payroll taxes (for Social Security andMedicare), raise local taxes (which coverabout half of Medicaid costs), raise estatetaxes, reduce entitlement payments and/ortheir cost-of-living increases (for better-offrecipients), limit usage of the most expen-sive healthcare treatments, cap end-of-lifecare expenses, restrict or further tax trans-fers of wealth to younger generations (es-pecially when done to qualify for Medicaid).

Clearly, some of these are more palatablethan others. I invite you to join the conver-sation and express your opinion, as well asyour willingness to support some of theseoptions politically. These financial realitieswill affect you, your children, your grand-children and many generations to come.

Older adults, particularly those who arewell-off and well-prepared for retirement,may want to recognize their relative advan-tages and support proposals that cut backon their entitlements (yes, even theirearned benefits), in the interests of assistingthose less fortunate (yes, including thosewho could have saved more than they did).

Our future is one of longer and better lives,but comes with financial costs we may not beable to bear equitably if we don’t take at leastsome of these steps. The sooner we act —and the wider a variety of approaches we useto ameliorate the consequences — the betterit will be for all of us and our progeny.

tion and environmental programs, took thehelm this day, undaunted by the gang of 154following her every word. (Up to 200 walk-ers are accommodated.) The terrain is dot-ted with more golden barrel cactuses thanyou’ll ever see, backed up by taller plantslike agaves and trees like the palo verde that

every spring turns a bright yellow. Gallagher pointed out the banks of milk-

weed, the only food a Monarch butterflywill eat. And it has to be the right kind ofmilkweed for this area, or it disorients thebeautiful creatures.

At richly endowed Sunnylands, even thehardscape nearer the center buildings is

24 Arts & Style | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 5 — C O A C H E L L A VA L L E Y B E A C O N

O N E N I G H T. S O U L E D O U TO N E N I G H T. S O U L E D O U T

M I Z E L L S E N I O R C E N T E R’S T E N T H A N N U A LSTARS AMONG US GALA

P R E S E N T E D B Y

T H E M U S I C A L E X P E R I E N C E O F T H E S E A S O N

HAROLD MATZNER

GALA MC’SAND SPECIAL PERFORMANCE BY

MARILYN MCCOO & BILLY DAVIS, JR.

ENTERTAINMENT BY

“HITZVILLE - THE SHOW”DIRECT FROM PLANET HOLLYWOOD IN LAS VEGAS

B E N E F I T I N G M I Z E L L S E N I O R C E N T E R ’S VA L L E Y- W I D E M E A L S O N W H E E L S P R O G R A M

T I C K E T S $ 2 4 5C O C K T A I L S 5 P M

D I N N E R 7 P MC O C K T A I L A T T I R E

M I Z E L L . O R G

S AT U R D AY , M A R C H 2 1 , 2 0 1 5P A L M S P R I N G S A I R M U S E U M

FO R T I C K E T S C A L L : 7 6 0 - 3 2 3 - 5 6 8 9 X 1 0 8

Free guided nature walks at Sunnylands’ extensive grounds can accommodate up to200 visitors.

PH

OT

O B

Y M

AR

K D

AV

IDS

ON

SunnylandsFrom page 23

From publisherFrom page 2

See SUNNYLANDS page 25

special. It’s Lithocrete, which among itsother superior qualities doesn’t project heatlike concrete.

Unlike a therapy session, these trekscost nothing. But cares seem to drift away.Sentimental lines from high school days’poetry might come to mind: “go list to na-ture’s teachings…” (From “Thanatopsis” byWilliam Cullen Bryant

C O A CHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Arts & Style 25

Sunnylands’ storyAt the center take in the film, A Place

Called Sunnylands, which depicts the his-tory of the philanthropic Annenbergs andtheir magnificent desert home. World lead-ers, notably the last eight presidents, havegathered at this exclusive enclave behindthe gardens.

A media mogul, Walter Annenberg

launched the instantly successful TVGuide and Seventeen magazines. Heserved as ambassador to the United King-dom from 1969 to 1974.

And Leonore Annenberg acted as Pres-ident Ronald Reagan’s chief of protocol1981-1982. Their palatial estate was perfectfor a Camp David West.

Sunnylands Center in Rancho Mirage is open Thursday through Sunday and offers aslate of free programs and activities.

PH

OT

O B

Y M

AR

K D

AV

IDS

ON

SunnylandsFrom page 24

SMELL THE DESERT ROSES

The free Coachella Valley Wildflower Festival celebrating well-

ness, recreation and the outdoors from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 7 will

feature vendors and exhibitors, a kids’ zone, interpretive hikes, beer & wine gar-

den, and food and beverages for purchase. Guests should park for free at St. Mar-

garet’s Episcopal Church, 47-535 Highway 74 and ride a shuttle to the festival

site, the National Monument Visitor Center, 51-500 Highway 74. (760) 862-9984,

www.desertmountains.org.

BEACON BITS

Mar. 7

Word got around about the multi-tal-ented, one-of-a-kind performer. Long-last-ing stints at the Wilde Goose and Perrina’sin Cathedral City followed. Then an ava-lanche of club dates, recordings, radiospots, TV appearances and charity events.

“I experienced several very memorablemoments,” said King. “One was receiving a30 second standing ovation after perform-ing for the Martin Luther King Day Cele-bration on Jan. 15, 1984. The other wasperforming a musical salute with BuddyRogers at Angels Stadium in Palm Springson Sept. 17, 1987 for the Bicentennial Cele-bration of the United States Constitution.”

King is seventh in descent from CarterBraxton of Virginia, one of the signers ofthe Declaration of Independence.

“It was also in 1984,” said the deceptivelyshy, soft-spoken King, “that somethingtruly terrifying happened. I was rehearsingfor a concert tour when suddenly my voicecracked and disappeared completely. Theyears of entertaining in smoke-filledlounges had taken their toll.”

Doctors diagnosed extensive throat dam-age and prescribed 30 days of absolute si-lence, followed by a lengthy regimen ofmedication and treatments. For an enter-tainer called upon for rousing versions of“Chicago,” “Route 66” and “New York, NewYork,” it was a bitter pill to swallow.

After the 30 days of utter silence, King’sfirst words to her manager were, “Let’s getback to work. Get some synthesizers, andlet’s do the keyboard bit.”

She returned to the stage with new key-board arrangements, playing piano withone hand, the organ with the other — and

with a voice that had become deeper inpitch and emotion.

Squeezed between the two keyboards,she sang popular songs and old favorites,inserted a novelty number, a shrieking birdcall, a Katherine Hepburn impression, andsang opera on request. She sang not only inEnglish, but in French, German, Spanish,Yiddish and Italian.

Ups and downs“While my career flourished,” said King,

“my first two marriages didn’t. My thirdmarriage in 1995 to Robert Ragland, a long-time fan from the Trinidad days, endedwhen Robert passed away. But I definitelygot it right when I married Bob Branscomb.He’s not only my manager and my drum-mer, he’s my soul mate.”

“We met seven years ago,” said Branscomb.“She needed a CD made for ‘Starfair,’ an an-nual celebration of the stars who had beenhonored on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. Irecorded the live recordings she needed tocomplete her album ‘Then and Now’ that con-tained her most famous songs. We started dat-ing and soon married.” The couple resides inPalm Desert.

Her 2000 Walk of Stars tribute was this:For her lifetime achievement in the field ofentertainment and her contribution to theworld prominence of Palm Springs.

It might well be added: If ever there wasa performer who can do it all — and do itall so beautifully — it’s Roberta King.

26 Arts & Style | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 — CO ACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON

Desert Guild of Big Hearts for Little Heartssupporting Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital

Big H

eartsfor Little H

earts Big Hearts for Little Hearts

Annual Luncheon & Shopping Boutique

SpeakersKerry Heinrich CEO, Loma Linda University Medical Center

Donald Moores, M.D., F.A.C.S., F.R.C.S.C.Associate Professor of SurgeryChief, Division of Pediatric SurgeryMedical Director of Pediatric Trauma ServicesLoma Linda University Children’s Hospital

Special Guest Appearance byAdrian Grajeda and Mom Brandy

Luncheon Tickets$100 – Members | $125 – Non-Members$1,000 – Tables of Ten

February 11, 201510:00 AM – Shopping Boutique, Open to the Public12:30 PM – Luncheon

Renaissance Esmeralda Resort & Spa, Indian Wells

For more information and/or reservations, contact Nancy Volk at 760-413-4469 or at volk.nancy@gmail.com.

“Into The Future

One S

tep At A Time”

KingFrom page 1

MAPPING OUT MODERNISM WEEK An array of tours, lec-

tures and parties — 200 in all — areincluded in the 10th annual Mod-ernism Week in Palm Springs, Feb. 12to 22. For help figuring it all out andwhat you might like to attend, look atthis handy guide called “ModernismWeek for Newbies”: www.mod-ernismweek.com/newbies/

POLISH YOUR DANCE STEPSPalm SpringsDancers will host a

dance party from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Fri-day, Feb. 20 at Emerald Desert Re-sort, 76-000 Frank Sinatra Drive,Palm Desert. And a dance is set forsame time on Friday, March 6 atCaliente Springs, 70-200 Dillon Rd,Sky Valley. A DJ will play a broad mixof dance tunes. Cost is $5.www.palmspringsdancers.com

SENIORS ON STAGEA four-week classstarting Friday,March 6 will intro-

duce seniors to the world of acting atthe Arthur Newman Theater at theJoslyn Center, 73-750 Catalina Way,Palm Desert. Class fee is members$8/class and nonmembers$10/class. Registration is requiredat (760) 340-3320.

BEACON BITS

Ongoing

Feb. 20+

Mar. 6

COACHE L L A VA L L E Y B E A CON — F E B RUA R Y 2 0 1 5 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Arts & Style 27

28 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 5 — C O A C H E L L A VA L L E Y B E A C O N

* 5% broker referral available with purchase agreements through March 31, 2015. Broker must accompany client on �rst visit and complete the Broker Registration Form – no exceptions. Please see sales agent for details. VP Builders, LLC. reserves the right to make changes to maps, plans, materials, features and colors without notice. Optional features and colors may be included at additional cost, subject to construction cut-off dates. See Villa Porto�no sales representative for standard, optional and decorator details. Villa Porto�no is a 55+ age-restricted community. Square footages are approximate. Rendering shown does not represent actual homesites. Comstock Homes Broker, Inc. CalBRE #01912034.

SINGLE-STORYDETACHED & ATTACHED HOMES!

a!-new

5% BROKER REFERRAL* AVAILABLE!

POSITANOSingle-Family Detached Homes

1,895 to 2,341 Sq. Ft.From the High $400,000s

Pre-Selling Now!

RAVELLOAttached Homes

1,610 to 1,926 Sq. Ft.From the High $300,000s

Pre-Selling Now!

SORRENTOAttached Homes

1,183 to 1,494 Sq. Ft.From the Mid $200,000sImmediate Move-Ins!

This 55+ community features a private gated resort-like setting, stunning clubhouse, restaurants, !"#$%"&'$())&#$*+ ,()$*"(#$-,.' $/'.,'(#$!))0 +1'$ '(2+/'$".1$!(+2",'$3445 '",$&)2+'$,6'",'(7

NO MELLO-ROOS8947:;47<;::$$$=$$$>!'.$8$?"@ $"$A''B#$34"&$C$<!&$$$=$$$;443$D+"$E)(,)-.)#$E"0&$?' '(,#$FG$HII94J)/",'1$)KK$F)L.,(@$F0L*$?(7#$*',M''.$N).,'('@$G2'7$".1$E)(,)0"$G2'7

VillaPortofino.com

POSITANO MODEL 3MILANO–TUSCAN ELEVATION

�