July 2023 | Baltimore Beacon

Helping those with disabilities

By Timothy Cox

In 1983, a group of Maryland parents who wanted better services for their children with intellectual and developmental disabilities founded a nonprofit called Target Community & Educational Services.

The late Milton M. Harris of Lutherville was one of those parents. He and his wife, the late Mary Charlotte Wooden Harris, sought a better life for their youngest daughter, Linda Ann, who was born with intellectual challenges.

The Harrises longed for an environment where their daughter would be able to grow and develop into the free spirit that she became, thanks to her 30-plus years as a client of the Westminster-based Target Community.

It was thanks to the Harris’ hard work and commitment — not only to their daughter, but to the entire group — that the Target program has survived and thrived throughout its 40 years of existence.

Recently, Target held a gala event for staff, clients and their family members to celebrate the organization’s 40-year anniversary.

A special guest at the gala was Judy Woodruff, beloved longtime anchor of PBS NewsHour, and her husband, Al Hunt Jr., journalist and panelist on CNN’s The Capital Gang.

Their son is one of 300 clients who benefits from Target’s services, which include group-home living arrangements and independent employment services. Jeffrey Hunt, now 43, lives in one of Target’s seven group homes in Carroll County.

“He’s doing remarkably well,” Woodruff told the Washington Post in 2020, noting that her son has a job and friends. “He manages to have a remarkably positive outlook.”

Harris family’s story

Linda Ann Harris also lives in one of Target’s group homes in Maryland. She and her only sister, Dr. Mary Harris Kesselring, Ph.D., a Westminster resident, also attended the gala in March. [Ed. Note: Writer Tim Cox married Dr. Kesselring in 2021.]

Their father was instrumental in making sure that Target, in its infancy, was well funded with financial endowments to sustain the organization’s future. Though she

cannot cite an exact figure, Kesselring notes that her father’s financial contributions were “quite significant.”

Kesselring and her sister, who are about 18 months apart, attended elementary through high school together.

“Those were tough times for Linda and I,” Kesselring recalled. “Grade-school kids were relentless when it came to teasing me because of Linda’s obvious intellectual shortcomings…but our parents didn’t really know to what extent or how cruel our neighborhood and area school kids could be,” she said.

Kesselring eventually married a West Point Army officer and became the mother of three sons. When her children were

young, her then-husband was stationed overseas and constantly faced deployment or relocation. She was grateful for Target, since she would be ill equipped to be her sister’s caregiver.

“It would not have been fair to Linda, nor to my young children,” Kesselring explained. “[Linda] wouldn’t have had a chance to enjoy the long-term living arrangements that she has enjoyed while existing in the Target environment,” she said.

Fortunately, Target provided Linda an opportunity to live with two housemates, overseen by two professional caretakers.

See GROUP HOMES, page 7

& Homecare Options following page 10

LEISURE & TRAVEL

Time-travel to Maine to visit quaint drive-ins and candy shops from yesteryear; plus, cruise down the Mississippi River in style page 15

FITNESS & HEALTH 3

k Ditch late-night snacks

k Unorthodox heart treatment

LAW & MONEY 11

k Banks now pay savers more

k How to write a better will

Judy Woodruff, retired PBS news anchor, and Dr. Matthew Ramsey, president and CEO of Target Community and Educational Services, attended a gala to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Maryland-based nonprofit. Woodruff’s son is a client of Target, which provides housing, job training and other services to adults with developmental disabilities.

PHOTO BY KELLY HECK PHOTOGRAPHY

No green thumb?

I wasn’t born with a green thumb. I know because I tried growing flowers and vegetables as a kid.

I was fascinated by the colorful seed packets on display at our neighborhood hardware store and bought a few to try. But my zinnias came up as grass, and bugs ate my tomatoes before they could ripen.

My paternal grandmother, with whom I was quite close, had blackberries and figs growing in her backyard. I remember going out to pick some of the luscious-looking fruit one day, only to nearly drop my harvest on the floor when I saw swarms of tiny ants crawling up the sides of the bowl as I came through the door.

My efforts did result in a few delicious (though small) pieces of pecan, but it took a couple of days for my scraped and bloodied fingers to heal.

Given those experiences, I have generally shied away from planting, picking or even watering any form of plant life.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

By Stuart P. Rosenthal

Until the day, I think it may have been ten years ago now, when I was moved to bring home an African violet instead of cut flowers from Trader Joe’s. Actually, there were four tiny plants, each bearing a different color of flower, crowded into one plastic pot.

the thick green leaves remained perky, so I kept up the watering.

Over time, two of the plants died, crowded out by the other two that thrived. And shortly after that, perfect pink and purple flowers occasionally emerged from the survivors.

So energized, one day, I brought home an orchid plant. I had always thought orchids were extremely finicky and hard to raise (as, indeed, they once were). But nowadays, the orchid plants you can pick up at nearly any supermarket are about as easy to care for as my violets.

days, a flower opened on each plant.

It almost felt like a beauty contest or synchronized Olympic sport was underway. But once they all opened, rather than a competition, it felt like more of a symphony.

Eventually, the orchid blooms dropped, but then the purple violets returned, now opening in sync with new pink ones.

Even though all I’ve ever done is water these little guys once a week, they have come to life in each other’s company. Perhaps they even have come to like my company as well. Have I finally grown a green thumb of my own?

I had somewhat better luck with the pecans that dropped all over her backyard from a neighbor’s huge pecan tree. I frequently collected a small paper bag full of pecans and spent what seemed like hours cracking them open with an old-fashioned nutcracker. (It was the kind that looked like fat metal chopsticks joined at one end.)

I thought it would make a nice table centerpiece for a couple of weeks, and then even if it died on me, that would be no worse than a bouquet of cut flowers.

You know where this is going. Placed on a ledge between our kitchen and sunroom, watered once a week, the blooms kept coming for months, with the barest bit of attention from me.

Eventually, the flowering stopped, but

I chose a plant with a few light pink blossoms and several unopened pods, and sure enough, they opened over the following weeks and bloomed for a couple of months.

So, for several years now, at any given time, we were likely to have either colorful violets or delicate orchids decorating our ledge.

This past winter, however, something different happened. Over many weeks, the orchid sent out a new shoot that budded with seven pods.

Soon, I began to notice tiny furled flowers beneath the leaves of our pink African violet. I counted seven of them. Every few

The other day, the Beacon received a press release about a gardening survey that claimed 1 out of 6 people feel “they kill every plant they try to grow.”

I used to think I was one of those folks. Not anymore.

If you are reluctant to try something because of a string of bad experiences in the past, I hope you will recall this column and decide to give it another go.

And if you find success this time, please share your story with us.

to the editor

The Beacon is a monthly newspaper dedicated to inform, serve, and entertain the citizens of the Greater Baltimore area, and is privately owned. Other editions serve Howard County, Md. and Greater Washington, D.C. Subscriptions are available via third-class mail ($12), prepaid with order. Maryland residents add 6 percent for sales tax. Send subscription order to the office listed below. Publication of advertising contained herein does not necessarily constitute endorsement. Signed columns represent the opinions of the writers, and not necessarily the opinion of the publisher.

Publisher/Editor – Stuart P. Rosenthal

President/Associate Publisher – Judith K. Rosenthal

Executive Vice President – Gordon Hasenei

Managing Editor – Margaret Foster

Art Director – Kyle Gregory

Advertising Representative – Steve Levin

Marketing & Operations Manager – Ashley Griffin

Assistant Editor – Ana Preger Hart

Client Liaison – Jaclyn Thompson

The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915 (410) 248-9101 • Email: info@thebeaconnewspapers.com

Submissions: The Beacon welcomes reader contributions. Deadline for editorial is the 1st of the month preceding the month of publication. Deadline for ads is the 1st of the month preceding the month of publication. See page 19 for classified advertising details. Please mail or email all submissions.

© Copyright 2023 The Beacon Newspapers, Inc.

Dear Editor:

Just read your publisher’s column [“Layers of reality”] in the June Beacon . I’m amazed at all of that!

Every now and then I get into an astronomy kick, which helps place things in perspective, I find. Years ago, I read Coming of Age in the Milky Way and loved the first parts about historic discoveries. But when I got to quantum physics, I was lost.

Then I read The Swerve about how the Greeks decided that all life was made up of atoms! Somehow, we lost something along the way.

Jean Hirons Via email

[murderous regime] began with the banning of ideas and writings and art: A destructive force that created fear of the “other,” dehumanizing and delegitimizing.

Today, individuals in America are [being empowered] to remove literature and poetry from schools. A United States of America that welcomed the oppressed and allowed them to hope, that is the America I swore an oath of allegiance to when I became a naturalized citizen almost two decades ago.

We need to bring back this idea of the hope for a better life here. We need to teach acceptance rather than exclusion, celebrating our diversity rather than creating barriers and bans.

Dear Editor:

Do you know what happened in Germany in the early 1930s?

People decided that certain publications, books dealing with ideas and philosophy, literature and poetry should be burned. Art that was deemed unfit for the “New Germany” was banned, burned or plundered.

It took time and the loss of millions of lives for people to realize the removal of books and art would not stop there. The

By closing the doors to our past, by forcing art and literature and poetry to be removed from schools and colleges, we create ignorance and promote a narrow, myopic view of our world.

Let us not repeat the mistakes made by past despots who feared truth and trampled upon the hopes and aspirations of their people.

Yuvi Krausz Ellicott City

Health Fitness & Health Fitness &

MORE THAN CHECK-UPS

Visit your doctor for a wellness visit, not just a check-up, to set health goals

YOUNG AT HEART

Zapping the heart with radiation might get irregular heartbeats back on track

LOVE YOUR LIVER

Acetaminophen hides in many products; keep track of how much you take

STRESS AND ALZHEIMER’S

Johns Hopkins seeks people with mild cognitive dementia for a new study

How to time your meals for best health

By Carolyn Williams, Ph.D., RD

There’s more to weight loss than simply watching calories. In fact, several studies have suggested that the time when you eat meals has a big impact on weight-loss success.

So, what are those optimal times? That would likely differ by individual, but there are some general recommendations you can follow.

Dinner: The overall consensus among health professionals and researchers is that it’s best to eat dinner early (at least two to three hours before bed) and then close the kitchen for the night. This deters late-night snacking and allows the body to burn some calories before bed.

It also gives the body time for digestion.

In April, Maryland passed a law giving survivors of child sexual abuse the right to file civil lawsuits against the organizations and institutions that helped perpetrators commit, or concealed, their abuse.

The law was passed after the Maryland Attorney General

When you go to bed on a full stomach, you’re less likely to get adequate, goodquality sleep, which triggers hormonal changes that can deter weight loss.

Additionally, our circadian rhythms enable the body to more efficiently burn calories, control blood glucose and optimize digestion earlier in the day. This means eating dinner at 5 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. could potentially impact weight loss by aligning closer to the body’s internal clock.

An early dinner also increases the block of time we go without food, which increases fat-burning and improves the regulation of hormones that impact appetite, cravings and blood sugar.

Lunch: The timing of lunch appears to have the least impact on weight loss, but

what is notable about lunch is that it should be your biggest meal (along with breakfast if consumed).

This goes back to those circadian rhythms driving the body’s increased efficiency earlier in the day.

Breakfast: Instead of asking what time to eat breakfast, the more popular question is: Should you eat breakfast if you’re trying to lose weight?

Technically, all of us “fast” each night while asleep. You can successfully lose weight whether you’re a regular breakfast eater or an intermittent faster who skips breakfast.

First, make sure you get at least a 12-hour break between dinner and the next meal. Second, regardless of whether you eat your

issued a report concluding that the Catholic Church had assisted more than 160 priests and clergy commit and cover up decades of horrific abuse to hundreds of children. Those victims can now seek financial damages without worrying about it being too late.

first meal at 7 a.m. or 11 a.m., try to make that first meal substantial and nutrient-dense.

When to eat for weight loss

1. Eat breakfast, but not necessarily in the morning. “Breakfast” technically refers to when you break your fast from the previous day, and there is no specific time that should occur.

2. Prioritize eating during the first half of the day. Aim to consume the majority of your calories and nutrients by mid-afternoon. For one person, this may mean eating breakfast, lunch and two snacks. For another, it may mean eating a large brunch meal and one snack.

Q & As: Wellness visits & swollen ankles

By Howard LeWine, M.D.

Q: I consider myself a healthy man. Do I really need a yearly physical exam?

A: While men often call it the yearly physical, the annual ritual is better named a wellness visit or preventive health appointment. Whatever you call it, men should still have one every year as it remains an important part of primary care.

For many men, this is one of the few extended opportunities for an in-depth conversation about their health. The meeting helps both the patient and the doctor address concerns, look at preventive measures, and create health goals and expectations together.

The traditional annual physical exam that focuses only on routine measurements and tests has drawn criticism in the past. Studies of the cookie-cutter model have suggested that it offers little value to peo-

ple and does not increase life expectancy.

For many men, the annual wellness visit is more than a snapshot of their current health. Over time, men need the chance to identify and reflect on what is important for their health and what goals they want to accomplish.

Without this regular interaction with their doctor, they can end up running around with no clear idea of where they are in terms of their overall health and the best ways to reach their new goals.

Today, doctors more often call the periodic visit to the doctor a “wellness visit” rather than a “regular check-up” or “yearly physical exam.” It can serve many purposes. During this visit, your doctor will want to:

• Ask if you have any new symptoms or health concerns

• Review your family medical history to see if you have a greater than average risk

for certain diseases, such as diabetes

• Review your medicines (both prescription and over-the-counter) and use of herbs and supplements

• Ask about health habits, including diet, exercise and use of tobacco and alcohol

• Perform a physical examination

• Administer vaccines or other preventive treatments

Also, this visit is chance for you to:

• Ask any questions that you might have

• Learn more ways to stay healthy

Does every adult male need a routine physical each year? Not necessarily.

Everyone should have their blood pressure checked every one to two years. I suggest a wellness visit every two years from ages 40-50. Once adults reach age 50, I recommend that they see their doctor once per year.

But don’t wait for a routine visit if you

have new symptoms. Call your doctor’s office for advice. Your doctor may not want you to wait for a regular check-up.

Q: I often notice slight swelling in both my ankles, but it is always gone in the morning. What causes it, and why would that start to happen?

A: It sounds like you have edema — swelling in your legs due to fluid in the soft tissues beneath your skin.

This usually occurs when pressure from the fluid inside your veins is high, which forces water out of the blood vessels and into the surrounding tissues.

The most common cause is leaky valves in your veins. Doctors call this venous insufficiency.

One-way valves in your veins help keep the blood flowing in the right direction. Ordinarily, as you walk around, your leg muscles squeeze the veins, which pumps the blood through these valves up toward the heart. When the muscles relax, the valves prevent blood from draining back down the vessels.

If these valves become leaky, the blood gets propelled upward, but much of it drops down again when the leg muscles relax. The result is an accumulation of blood — and an increase in pressure — within the veins. The higher pressure pushes fluid out of the veins, causing leg swelling.

It’s less likely that your edema is due to some other medical problem. But you should make an appointment with your doctor to be sure.

Your doctor will ask if you have shortness of breath, fatigue, or pain in your legs, and whether one leg is more swollen than the other.

Depending on your symptoms and your doctor’s physical exam, he or she might order blood and urine tests to evaluate your kidney and liver health. You might also need an echocardiogram to make sure your heart function is normal, or a leg ultrasound to look for blood clots.

Some medications can cause fluid retention in your legs. This can happen with high doses of ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), naproxen (Aleve), and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Leg swelling is a common side effect of certain calcium-channel blockers, especially nifedipine (Procardia XL) and amlodipine (Norvasc).

To help minimize the swelling, raise your legs whenever you sit down. Even better, try to schedule 20 to 30 minutes during the day when you can lie down with some pillows under your feet to raise your legs above heart level.

You also might consider compression stockings. They help counter the pressure from within the veins and prevent fluid from seeping out of the blood vessels.

Usually, the knee-high versions are sufficient. It’s best to put on the stockings each morning before you get out of bed and then take them off at night.

© 2023 Harvard University. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency,

Radiation may reduce heartbeat danger

By Lauran Neergaard

Doctors are zapping the heart with radiation normally reserved for cancer in a highly experimental bid to better treat people with life-threatening irregular heartbeats who’ve exhausted other options.

Surprising early research suggests the method may reprogram misfiring heart cells to control heartbeats more like younger, healthier cells do.

“It may actually rejuvenate sick tissue, and that’s pretty exciting,” said Dr. Stacey Rentschler of Washington University in St. Louis.

An irregular heartbeat called ventricular tachycardia is a major cause of sudden cardiac arrest, blamed for about 300,000 U.S. deaths a year. Treating it with radiation is a radical approach — cancer doctors are trained to avoid radiating the heart at all costs for fear of collateral damage.

Now researchers are about to begin the first rigorous study to prove if a quick, onetime dose to fight this irregular heartbeat works well enough — and is safe enough — for more patients like Jeff Backus, who relapsed after standard care.

The Louisville man had already undergone an hours-long invasive procedure to keep his heart beating properly and had a defibrillator implanted as a backup.

Then this past winter, twice in about a

Time your meals

From page 3

3. Make dinner early and light. You may even consider eating as early as 4 or 5 p.m. If this isn’t possible, try eating dinner at least three or more hours before bed.

4. Go 12 hours between dinner and your next meal to reap benefits that facilitate weight loss, fat burning, metabolism and

month, Backus briefly passed out and awoke feeling like he’d been kicked in the chest. The defibrillator had to save him, shocking his heart back into rhythm.

“You’re always in the back of your mind thinking, ‘Is [another shock] going to happen?’” Backus said.

Out of other options to prevent another scary episode, he chose the experimental radiation in February — and so far, is doing well. “It gave me some hope.”

The traditional approach

The heart’s electrical system normally makes it beat with a steady lub-DUB, anywhere from 60 to 100 times a minute.

Ventricular tachycardia is a super-fast heartbeat, unable to properly pump blood. It happens when those electrical signals short-circuit in the bottom chambers, the ventricles, often because of damage from a prior heart attack.

The main treatment: Doctors thread catheters inside the heart to identify and burn the misfiring tissue, creating scars that block bad signals. Some patients are too sick for this “catheter ablation,” and for others, like Backus, the problem eventually returns.

Dr. Phillip Cuculich, a heart rhythm specialist at Washington University, came up with the idea for a no-incision alternative.

It takes a lot of up-front testing. Patients

management of appetite and cravings. Those with a chronic health condition such as diabetes should consult with their healthcare provider.

EatingWell is a magazine and website devoted to healthy eating as a way of life. Online at eatingwell.com.

© 2023 Dotdash Meredith. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

get a souped-up EKG, donning a vest covered in about 250 electrodes instead of the usual dozen to measure the heart’s electrical activity. Adding that to detailed medical scans gives Cuculich a three-dimensional map pinpointing where the heartbeat goes awry.

How to reach it? Cuculich teamed with Dr. Clifford Robinson, who specializes in precisely focused radiation to attack cancer while avoiding nearby healthy tissue.

Aiming at the heart “wasn’t on my radar at all. My goal was to miss the heart,” Robinson said. After all, some lung and breast cancer survivors experience heart disease years later from tumor radiation that reached and inflamed heart tissue.

But he agreed to try, warning patients about possible long-term risks. His first arrhythmia patient responded, “You’re concerned about something that might happen 10 or 20 years from now? I’m worried about tomorrow,” Robinson recalled. “That was really eye-opening.”

Short procedure showed potential Patients lie in the same machine that normally blasts cancer, held in place and listening to music while customized beams hit just the right spot. It can take as little as 15 minutes.

MAIL OR EMAIL FOR FREE INFORMATION

For free materials on housing communities and health studies, just complete this coupon and mail it — or take a picture and email it — to the Beacon

Housing Communities

❏ Brightview Senior Living (see ads on pages B-4, B-8)

❏ Caritas House Assisted Living (see ad on page B-4)

❏ Catholic Charities (see ad on page B-4)

❏ Charlestown/Erickson (see ads on pages B-2, B-8)

❏ Christ Church Harbor Apts (see ad on page B-6)

❏ Everall Gardens (see ad on page B-7)

❏ Harmony at Enterprise (see ads on pages 4, B-8)

❏ Kessler Park (see ad on page B-7)

❏ Oak Crest/Erickson (see ads on pages B-2, B-8)

❏ Park View Laurel (see ad on page 14)

❏ Park View Towson (see ad on page 14)

❏ Park View Fullerton (see ad on page 14)

❏ Park View Rosedale (see ad on page 14)

❏ Pickersgill (see ad on page 6)

❏ St. Mary’s Roland View Towers (see ad on page 6)

❏ Virginia Towers (see ad on page 8)

❏ Warren Place Senior Apartments (see ad on page 8)

❏ Westminster Canterbury (see ads on pages B-3, B-8)

Clinical Research Studies

❏ Balance/Falls Study (HIPS) (see ad on page 9)

❏ Diabetes Diet Study (DASH 4D) (see ad on page 8)

❏ Stress and Alzheimer’s Study (see ad and article on page 9)

❏ We Care/Caregiver Study (see ad on page 9)

Check the boxes you’re interested in and return this form to: The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915 or take a picture and email to housing@thebeaconnewspapers.com. You may also mail this together with the reader reply coupon on page B-5.

Cuculich and Robinson reported the first successes in 2017 and 2019, experiments with small numbers of desperately ill patients who showed dramatic improvement. They say some are doing well up to six years later.

While the procedure is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the duo has since gotten permission to treat about 80 more people on a case-by-case basis. And the St. Louis team has taught the technique to dozens of other hospitals in the U.S. and abroad that are cautiously trying it. But the FDA requires stronger evidence for more routine use — and the more hospi-

Stroke Smarts is an interactive educational program led by a rehabilitation therapist. Learn techniques to reduce your chances of a stroke and how to use exercise as a stroke prevention method. This free workshop takes place on Mon., July 10 at 11 a.m. at Lansdowne-Baltimore Highlands Senior Center, 424 Third Ave. For more information, email lansdownesc@baltimorecountymd.gov or call (410) 887-1443.

tals offer “off-label” radiation to these heart patients, the harder it will be to get that proof.

Now in an international study sponsored by device maker Varian, nearly 400 patients will be randomly assigned to either radiation or another catheter ablation to directly compare how they fare. Washington University just began recruiting potential participants; additional sites are set to open soon.

Making cells act young again

The bigger mystery: How the radiation prevents arrhythmias. Cuculich thought it would work by simply copying catheter ablation’s scarring, but was stunned when scans showed ‘’we weren’t actually causing a new scar — and that’s a big deal.”

Rentschler, a developmental biologist who also treats heart patients, took a closer look. Tests with donated human hearts and mouse hearts suggest the one-time moderate dose of radiation was prompting the misfiring cells to repair themselves.

June

In areas that got zapped, heart muscle cells temporarily switched on certain genes that normally are dormant in adulthood. Among them: a signaling pathway called “Notch” that helps a developing heart form its electrical system.

Reactivating that pathway “is perking up those areas” so they conduct electrical signals more like when they were younger, Rentschler explained. “We’ve never had any treatment that could do that.”

That’s very different than how repeat radiation doses can obliterate tumors. Now Rentschler’s research team is testing human heart cells in lab dishes, measuring exactly how they conduct electrical impulses — in hopes that even lower radiation doses might work.

“It’s really important that we get this right...that we figure out what the safe doses are and if there’s areas that we should be worried about,” Cuculich said.

© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A place of independence

Pickersgill assisted living residents are rarely in l their rooms! Instead, , theyy’re out and about— participating in a community activity or event or dining with friends.

A place of beauty

Living in n this community—ttucked d into a beautiful West Towson neighborhood —you or your loved one beau njoy a warm welcome and daily activities, and they’ll appreciate the will enj paths, beautifully landscaped grounds, lovely gardens and more. walking path

A place of caring

Each assisted liv g resident enjoys three chef-prepared meals per day, ing re y services, medication administration, help with daily housekeeping and laundry se quest, and all included in a reasonable monthly tasks and more—always by reques o all of the fee. Each h resi s dent also has access to all Pickersgill ameni l ties.

Our assisted living g residences include a priv wish. This is a lifestyle dedicated to encouraged to decorate their homes as they al staff. independence and assured by a caring, professionalfessionalstasttaff.

Call

private, full bath, and residents are

Each of the nonprofit’s seven group homes is located in a safe community, and has the appearance of a typical single-family house.

In her decades as a Target client, Linda has been trained to work in food service, home maintenance and basic assembly roles.

How Target changes lives

With more than 230 employees, Target provides personalized care to 300 clients and their families, half of whom are from the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metro areas.

“Our mission is to empower individuals with disabilities to live whole and productive lives through quality communitybased residential, educational, vocational, recreational and family-supported services,” said Dr. Matthew Ramsey, president and CEO of the company. “Each member of our community is unique and valuable.”

With offices in Westminster and Gaithersburg, Target provides not only group living but job services, finding paid employment or internships. In addition,

BEACON BITS

Ongoing

Target provides adult day services and post-secondary education training.

Target’s services are not free, but the state of Maryland provides its clients with funding through the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) and/or Medicare.

“We work collaboratively with families to organize services,” Ramsey said. “Our commitment to family involvement is one hallmark of the quality of our services.”

Graduate students act as staff

Since its inception in 1983, Target has maintained a close relationship with McDaniel College in Westminster. In fact, in addition to his role as leader of Target, Ramsey is a faculty member of McDaniel College and acts as adviser to students in its Human Services Management master’s degree program.

Graduate students in the program complete a two-year live-in internship at one of Target’s facilities in Westminster or Rockville, Maryland.

The program was established by Target’s original CEO and president, Dr. Donald Rabush, who had the creative foresight to develop relationships with McDaniel

SIGN UP FOR SENIOR OLYMPICS

Are you 50 or older? Then it’s time to sign up to participate in the Maryland Senior Olympics (and you don’t even have to reside in Maryland). Cycling and archery events are scheduled for June, while bowling, racquetball, shuffleboard and other events take place in August, September and October. First event costs $15 to $50; additional ones are $5 each. To register, visit mdseniorolympics.org.

MAKE

July 22

Join Waverly Ace Hardware on Sat., Jul 22 at 2 p.m. for this free workshop at Waverly Library, 400 E 33rd St., and learn how to create a terrarium. Materials will be provided. Space is limited; call (410) 3966089 to register.

students who are studying to become Community Living Managers (CLMs).

The students serve as home-based care managers of Target’s clients with disabilities in exchange for free college tuition, room and board, health insurance, and an annual stipend.

Rabush worked to “give special-needs individuals the maximum amount of independence and personal pride…while training the counselors who assist them to attain a lifetime of service in the field,” according to Ramsey.

Friends of Target

In a statement, Ramsey offered kudos to a community of parents, including the Harris family, who worked to ensure Target’s 40-year success.

“As these early advocates fought for their children’s rights, resources were

made available to offer the kinds of services Target offers today.

“Additionally, families closely connected to Target helped shape our agency and programming through direct services.

These ‘friends of Target’ provided financial support, volunteer efforts, fundraising, and state and national advocacy,” Ramsey said.

In a sense, the organization was built on parental love.

“Milton Harris was a parent who worked relentlessly for his daughter’s needs, and generously gave his time, talent and social capital. Without friends like Mr. Harris, Target could not provide the quality services our individuals enjoy today.”

For more information about Target Community’s programs, visit targetcommunity.org or call (410) 848-9090.

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Your funeral service will be exactly as you wish.

Your family can enjoy peace of mind knowing everything has been arranged.

If you choose to pre-fund, the cost is fixed and protected from later price change or inflation.

Ask about our price-match guarantee!

Ask for Jim Schwartz or Chris Boggs: 410-747-4770

How much Tylenol can one safely take?

By Howard LeWine, M.D.

Q: I take about four extra-strength Tylenol most days. Do I need to worry about my liver?

A: Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol (and other brand names), is widely considered to be a very safe medication. For the vast majority of those taking it, acetaminophen appears to have no harmful effect on the liver or other parts of the body.

Still, your question is a good one be-

cause, although its safety record is quite good, too much acetaminophen — whether accidental or intentional — is a leading cause of liver failure requiring a transplant.

How can this be? One reason is that it’s easy to take too much. Acetaminophen is widely available without a prescription, and it’s contained in many combination medications — more than 600, according to one estimate — such as Nyquil, Excedrin and Midol.

It’s likely that many people taking aceta-

minophen do not realize they’re taking too much. For example, you might take acetaminophen tablets for the achy feeling that comes with a cold and also use a combination cough medicine that contains acetaminophen.

In addition, the reputation of acetaminophen as a safe drug may lead people to figure “more is better” and that a higher-thanrecommended dose won’t cause trouble.

The maximum recommended total dose of acetaminophen is 3,000 milligrams (mg) per day. Each extra-strength acetaminophen dose is 500 mg. So, that means no more than six extra-strength Tylenol over 24 hours, taking no more than two pills at a time.

Riskier for some people

But these recommendations apply to otherwise healthy people. Those who already have liver disease or risk factors for liver disease are generally advised to use acetaminophen sparingly in smaller doses or avoid it entirely.

People who drink more than moderate amounts of alcohol or already have liver disease are more likely to develop liver damage from acetaminophen.

For example, a person with a hepatitis C

infection may be prone to liver damage when taking doses of acetaminophen that might be harmless to others.

Risk is also higher for people who use combination acetaminophen-opiate products (such as Percocet). Increasing the dose of the opiate to control pain may provide too much acetaminophen.

Intentional overdose of acetaminophen in an attempted suicide can result in liver failure if the person doesn’t seek emergency care.

Acetaminophen is a good example of how almost any medication can cause serious side effects — just because it’s available over the counter doesn’t mean it can’t cause trouble. Read the label of any medication you take and make sure you aren’t doubling up on acetaminophen.

Acetaminophen is safe and effective for most people who take it. Liver damage related to acetaminophen is highly preventable.

Howard LeWine, M.D., is an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. For additional consumer health information, see health.harvard.edu.

© 2023 Harvard University. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Health Studies

INFORMATION ON AREA CLINICAL

Can stress be a predictor of Alzheimer’s?

By Margaret Foster

What if you could protect future generations from Alzheimer’s disease by simply visiting Johns Hopkins’ Bayview campus three times over two years?

A new study at Hopkins, funded by the National Institute on Aging, is recruiting adults 60 and up with mild cognitive impairment.

Hopkins researchers are focused on the role stress plays in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

“We’re trying to see if the response to stress today predicts cognitive decline in two years,” explained Dr. Cynthia Munro, the study’s principal investigator. “Our ultimate goal is to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.”

After all, if scientists can predict who will get Alzheimer’s, perhaps they can prevent its progression.

More than six million Americans have Alzheimer’s, and between 10% and 15% of individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) develop dementia each year, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

People who have a diagnosis of MCI are eligible for this Hopkins clinical trial, known as the Stress-AD study. However, if

BEACON BITS

July 13

you have memory problems but don’t have an official diagnosis, you may be eligible, too.

Stress can be measured

How will Hopkins researchers measure stress? They’ll use a version of a standard laboratory test known as the Trier Social Stress Test, developed in 1993 in Trier, Germany.

First, participants will give a five-minute speech in front of an audience. Next, they’ll do a five-minute mental math problem. After those on-the-spot tasks, researchers will measure the amount of stress hormones in the participants’ saliva. They’ll also take blood samples.

“One or both of those [tasks] are stressful for most people,” Munro said. “The Trier stress test is the gold standard of how to induce stress in a lab setting.”

When researchers measure the hormone response to stress and then follow up two years later, they’ll be able to tell if, say, a high level of certain stress hormones can predict the degree of cognitive impairment.

Munro’s team will also take blood samples to see how genes associated with the

July 13, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 400 Cathedral St., as well as online on Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Facebook and YouTube pages. Free parking vouchers are available if you park at the Franklin Street Garage, 15 W. Franklin St. Register at bit.ly/MenckenRoom. For more information, call (410) 396-5430.

FREE JAZZ CONCERT

risk for Alzheimer’s disease might influence the relationship between stress hormones and cognitive impairment.

Despite the arithmetic and public speaking, though, the clinical trial is a simple one for participants, who are required to visit Hopkins just three times over a twoyear period, provide blood and saliva sam-

ples, complete questionnaires and take tests of memory and thinking skills. Compensation of up to $300 will be provided.

“It’s a really easy study for people to do,” Munro said.

For more information about the StressAD study, or to see if you qualify, call (410) 550-6271.

July 13

Todd Marcus, who plays the bass clarinet, presents a quintet featuring Canadian clarinetist Virginia MacDonald. This free jazz concert takes place on Thu., July 13, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Sumpter Park, Laurens and Robert Streets in Baltimore’s Bolton Hill Neighborhood. Registration isn’t necessary. For more information, visit boltonhillmd.org/event/arts-in-the-parkstodd-marcus.

One-pan chicken dinner inspired by Peru

By America’s Test Kitchen

Who knew one sheet pan could provide so much depth in flavor in one dish?

For this recipe, before you get everything together on the pan, start with the marinade in a blender. The marinade features refreshing mint, herby oregano and pungent garlic.

It also gets a subtle earthiness from cumin and smoked paprika, plus a little kick from half a habanero chile, and brightness from lime zest and juice.

For the sides, roasted sweet potatoes fit the dish’s Peruvian profile nicely, and roasted cauliflower adds a deep, nutty complexity.

Giving all the vegetables a head start in the oven means they can brown on the uncrowded sheet and then roast to perfection with the chicken.

Tossing the vegetables and accumulated chicken juices with peppery arugula while the chicken rests adds a fresh flavor to complete the dish.

One-Pan Peruvian Chicken with Cauliflower and Sweet Potatoes

Serves 4

Note: You can substitute 1 tablespoon of minced serrano chile for the habanero, if desired. Wear gloves when handling the chile.

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

¼ cup fresh mint leaves

6 garlic cloves, peeled

3½ teaspoons pepper, divided

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons grated lime zest plus ¼ cup juice (2 limes)

2 teaspoons table salt, divided

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

2 teaspoons dried oregano

½ habanero chile, stemmed and seeded

4 (10-ounce) chicken leg quarters, trimmed

1 small head cauliflower (1½ pounds), cored and cut into 1½-inch florets

1 pound sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 small red onion, halved and sliced through root end into ½-inch-thick wedges

3 cups (3 ounces) baby arugula

Directions:

1. Process 3 tablespoons oil with mint, garlic, 1 tablespoon each pepper, cumin, sugar, and lime zest and juice, 1½ teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons paprika and oregano, and the habanero in blender until smooth, 10 to 20 seconds. Transfer marinade to a 1-gallon zipper-lock bag. Add chicken, seal bag, and turn to coat chicken with marinade. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 12 hours.

2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine remaining 3 tablespoons oil, remaining ½ teaspoon pepper, and remaining ½ teaspoon salt on a rimmed baking sheet and toss with cauliflower, potatoes and onion. Spread into an even layer. Bake until the top edges of the cauliflower and potatoes are lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

3. Remove sheet from oven. Using a spatula, push vegetables to 1 side of the sheet (they will no longer fit in a single layer). Place chicken, skin side up, on the now-empty side of the sheet. Roast until chicken registers 175 degrees and vegetables are tender, about 40 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through.

4. Transfer chicken to a carving board and let rest for 10 minutes. Add arugula to the sheet with vegetables and gently toss to combine. Transfer vegetable mixture to platter. Separate leg quarters into thighs and drumsticks, then transfer to a platter with vegetable mixture. Serve.

Have confidence in every conversation.

Do you find it difficult to use a standard phone? Do people ask you to repeat yourself during telephone conversations? Do you miss important calls because you can’t hear the phone ring? The Maryland Accessible Telecommunications (MAT) program is here to help by giving Maryland residents the opportunity to apply for State-provided telecommunications equipment to independently make and receive calls. Once you qualify, a skilled evaluator meets with you to determine the best device to support your day-to-day communications. The MAT program has a variety of equipment solutions to support clearer communication, including:

• Amplified phones

• Tablets

• Ring signalers

• Phones with large and/or high contrast buttons

• Captioned Telephones

• And more

For more information:

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For 25 years, home cooks have relied on America’s Test Kitchen for rigorously tested recipes developed by professional test cooks and vetted by 60,000 at-home recipe testers. The family of brands — which includes Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country and America’s Test Kitchen Kids — offers reliable recipes for cooks of all ages and skill levels. See more online at americastestkitchen.com/TCA.

© 2023 America’s Test Kitchen. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Downsizing a big home is not for sissies

By Lynne Vance

How many towels do I use in a week? How many pots and pans do I really need?

I never had to ask these questions until I faced the daunting task of downsizing from my five-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot house to a 1,071-square-foot apartment.

The decision to downsize from the home I’d lived in for 57 years, where I’d raised my two children, was agonizing. But when an apartment became available that met all my requisites at my chosen relocation, Riderwood Village, an Erickson community in Silver Spring, Maryland, I snapped it up.

“You’re 82 years old and in relatively good health,” I told myself. “It’s now or never.”

With no idea how I would fit the contents of a nine-room, two-level house into four rooms, I panicked. Luckily, my good friend Gail had the answers.

She committed to working every day to help me downsize, and assured me that my seven-week move-in time frame was doable. Gail could be detached, objective and tough, yet compassionate when needed.

Also, Riderwood’s moving company offered a free consultation with its professional downsizer as part of my contract. As a first step, she advised going through the house to identify and label my “must have” furniture and other possessions with different colors of painter’s tape.

She then measured them and devised a floor plan for my new apartment. Once we had an idea of what would fit, we got to work on discarding the rest.

First, I asked my kids what they wanted. “What on earth would I do with all that fancy china, crystal and silverware?” my daughter asked. “Half the time, I use paper plates and plastic utensils when I entertain.” My son’s only request: a brass eagle and some of his dad’s old tools.

That settled, Gail and I fell into a routine.

She set the daily agenda with organizing skills that resembled those of a military officer preparing for battle. Everyone involved soon dubbed her “The Commander.”

As we marched on, slaying “the clutter enemy” surrounding us, she declared, “We have to be ruthless and take no prisoners.”

Keep, sell, donate or trash

We went through the house room by room, using the categories Keep, Sell, Donate and Trash (KSDT).

“When did you last use this? Why will you need it?” This was the test Gail and I applied to each item as we plowed through closets of outdated clothing, yards of unused fabric, stacks of vinyl records, and enough nail-filled baby food jars to reconstruct a city.

If I wavered the tiniest bit in deciding, Gail’s irrevocable verdict was, “You don’t need it.” And the object met its appropriate KSDT fate.

When, for instance, I removed a baking dish from a kitchen cabinet, Gail gave it the evil eye. “But that’s the lasagna dish I use for family holidays,” I said. “And,” she asked, “how many more of those will you host?”

Gail was at her ruthless best when it came to my many travel mementos. “You don’t need a hotel stub from the Greek islands to remind you of the place. You have those 20 boxes filled with photo albums when you want to revisit.”

With few exceptions, Gail outlawed sentimentality as a “keeper” reason. When I retrieved a stuffed puppy from underneath a crib mattress, I stroked it tenderly, telling her, “This was my son’s favorite sleepy-bye toy.” Gail patted my hand gently, took it from me, and agreed to create a Maybe keeper box.

On other occasions, when I expressed undue emotion over something like my sorority pledge paddle, she’d say, “Take a picture with your cell phone and it’s yours forever.”

Every night, overcome with a numbing weariness, I’d collapse in bed, asking myself, “Why didn’t I do this 10 years ago when I had more energy and less severe arthritis?”

Yard sales can help

Halfway toward our downsizing goal, when we could barely move among the boxes and bags, I suggested a yard sale to give us some room.

Gail agreed — with the caveat that whatever didn’t sell could not re-enter the house. It would be left for curbside pickup

or stacked on the porch for donation.

Surprisingly, the yard sale proved a successful downsizing tool and a muchneeded break. It introduced me to a host of neighbors, too.

By the end of that day, a spirit of conviviality prevailed. Kids were riding their bikes and kicking soccer balls around the perimeters of the sale area while their parents chatted amiably over carry-out coffee cups.

Many volunteered trucks and SUVs to haul stuff away, tables to display more

Maryland retiree Lynne Vance and her friend Gail Ernst worked for weeks to clean out Vance’s longtime home in preparation for her move to a retirement community.

PHOTO BY M. PAYNE

Quick cash for your home? Not so fast!

By Better Business Bureau

The real estate market is hot, and, for those who own a home, you may have received offers or seen advertisements promising to buy it quickly and for cash. Selling a home is time-consuming, and the promise of a quick close is tempting.

However, it’s important to understand the difference between selling your home to a traditional buyer and making a deal with a home investor, sometimes called an opportunity investor.

Professional home investors make offers to sellers willing to sacrifice profit in exchange for a faster and simpler sale process.

In recent years, “iBuyers” have emerged, too — internet companies who use algorithms and proprietary valuation data to make no-obligation, all-cash offers to sellers.

BBB recommends the following tips to help you find the right kind of buyer for your home and avoid getting scammed.

Do you have time constraints?

With traditional home sales, buyers can require a 45-day escrow period to allow time for appraisals, mortgage approval

contingencies, inspections and the like, which means completing a sale could take several weeks.

On the other hand, home investors can usually close in a month or less, and iBuyers can give homeowners a tentative offer within 24 to 48 hours and close in as little as a week.

If time is of the essence, it may be worthwhile to consider one of the faster options, although you’ll likely sacrifice profit for speed.

How much profit do you need?

The biggest con of working with a home investor or iBuyer is that you will almost always get a lower offer than you would from a traditional buyer.

Traditional buyers may be willing to pay even more than market value for a home they’ve fallen in love with, while home investors are buying your home solely as an investment. That lack of emotional connection can cost you the profit you may be counting on.

Determining in advance how much profit you need to make on the sale of your home can help you make a sound decision when

Tell them you saw it in the Beacon

you receive an offer from any kind of buyer.

Factor in prep work

When marketing your home to traditional buyers, you’ll need to do a fair amount of prep work: cleaning, decluttering, painting, staging, landscaping, photographing and listing your home.

When you sell to an investor, you won’t need to invest time and money into this kind of prep work.

“Typically, investors offer to purchase a property ‘as is,’ many times sight unseen,” according to Forbes magazine. “As a seller, that allows you to avoid any costly repairs that would normally be considered your financial responsibility.”

Research companies beforehand

Always look up businesses on BBB.org before you share personal information or agree to use their services. Make sure the company has an official name, phone number and physical address. Read customer reviews, keeping a close eye on any complaints or reports of dishonest dealings.

Beware home investor scams

Scammers prey on a seller’s desire to make a quick sale by offering deals that seem too good to be true. They also take advantage of the fact that home investors

don’t need credentials to buy property.

When considering an offer, ask plenty of questions and don’t settle for vague answers.

Never give money to an investor before the closing date. Complete all transactions through a closing or escrow agent or a real estate specialty attorney. Don’t be pressured into payments “off the books.”

Consider your alternatives

If you aren’t pressed for time, consider working with a full-service brokerage. Although you’ll need to do some prep work, and it will take more time, you’ll likely make a much larger profit on the sale of your home.

You can also think about renting your home for an amount that covers your mortgage payments or setting up a leaseto-own agreement.

If you encounter a scam, report it to BBB.org/ScamTracker. Also, sign up for BBB Scam Alerts at bit.ly/BBBscamalerts.

The nonprofit organization BBB was established in 1954 to advance responsible, honest and ethical business practices and to promote customer confidence through self-regulation of business. Core services of BBB include business profiles, dispute resolution, truth-inadvertising, scam warnings, consumer and business education and charity review.

Downsizing

goods, and muscle power to help customers carry purchases to their cars.

One neighbor actually brought a friend to the sale who ended up buying my house! That night I felt euphoric.

But the next morning, when the rejects littered the porch and curb, my balloon burst. A petite older woman knocked at my door and asked if she could take some things. “Fine,” I told her.

I watched from my kitchen window as she stuffed her SUV to capacity. Soon she returned for a second round, taking what was, by then, mostly junk. To me, she appeared like a bird of prey, descending on the scraps

BEACON BITS

July 8

of the good life I had lived in my house.

Her callous manner brought me to tears, releasing feelings of loss, doubt and fear I had suppressed for weeks. Gail’s hug and shoulder to cry on helped cushion the blow.

Thanks to the love and support that I had all through the draining journey of downsizing, I was able to close the front door of my house on the day of my move with a wide smile, stripped of the debris of my past — and filled with excitement about opening a new chapter in my future.

Freelance writer Lynne Vance has been published in the Washington Post, Journal Newspapers and the Montgomery County Sentinel. She currently resides at Riderwood in Silver Spring, Maryland.

ROBERT FROST DISCUSSION (VIRTUAL)

Explore “The Road Not Taken” and other Robert Frost poems in this free online poetry discussion on Sat., July 8, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For a complete list of poems that will be discussed and the link for the Zoom meeting, visit bit.ly/FrostPoems. For more information, email poetry@prattlibrary.org.

BOOK DISCUSSION: STOLEN (VIRTUAL)

July 13

Dr. Richard Bell, professor of history at the University of Maryland, discusses his book Stolen: Kidnapping and Enslavement in Antebellum America, about the reverse Underground Railroad Join this free online book talk on Thu., July 13 at 1 p.m. Register at bit.ly/StolenBookTalk. ASL interpretation is available. For more information, call (410) 396-5430.

What I learned about downsizing

• You can’t do it alone. If you don’t have a close friend like Gail in your life, hire a professional. Use senior moving companies, realtors, the internet or word-of-mouth, and look for experience and a caring personality.

• Start planning early . Decide what to keep and what to give away. Then research your options. Again, ask your realtor, mover and friends and family who’ve already walked the line.

The internet is full of sales outlets like Craigslist.org and Maxsold, as well as nonprofits like Lupus, A Wider Circle and Goodwill, which take donations.

Determine what each will take, the condition they require and whether they will pick up or you must deliver.

When selling, demand cash only [or a payment app like Venmo or Zelle], and don’t give out your personal information (address, phone number or other ID) until the transaction is almost complete and a transfer point agreed on.

• Stock up on supplies. The tools you need to have on hand throughout the house include yardsticks, measuring tape, packing tape and multi-colored rolls of painter’s tape, plastic trash and paper bags, packing boxes, boxcutters, pens, pencils, markers and notepads.

• Check to see if your town provides free bulk trash pickups. In some counties, residents are entitled to four such pickups a year. Some may even designate special dates for removal of items like electronics or hazardous chemicals.

• Donate to schools. Local public and private schools welcome office supplies, and educational programs like social studies are eager for teaching materials like all those yellowing newspapers from your attic that headline events such as the Kennedy assassination.

—Lynne Vance

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By Annie Millerbernd

Spring and summer are kickoff season for many kitchen remodels, bathroom updates and deck repairs. But recent economic turmoil may have homeowners questioning their home improvement plans.

Spending on home renovations is expected to slow this year because of factors such as declining home sales and values, rising interest rates, continuing inflation and rumblings of a coming recession, said Abbe Will, senior research associate with Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

As economic growth slows, planning and prioritizing will be key to remodeling confidently. Here are five tips to help you remodel in an uncertain economy.

Start with an emergency fund

Even when the economy is doing well, it’s ideal to have an emergency fund before starting a remodel, said Eric Maldonado, a certified financial planner based in San Luis Obispo, California.

“What you’re trying to avoid is starting [a project] with nothing saved, taking out debt to afford [remodeling] and not really providing yourself with a smart foundation to start from,” he said.

A six-month fund [to cover living expenses] is a good goal, he said, especially if you’re concerned about losing your job.

Narrow your financial goals

After your emergency fund is set, put remodeling on a short list of your financial priorities for the year and distribute your budget accordingly, Maldonado said.

For example, if your main goals are to pay off debt, contribute to your kids’ college funds and begin home improvement projects, determine how much each goal costs and how much you can afford to spend on them every month, he said.

“It’s kind of like putting the big rocks into the jar first,” he said.

This may mean slowing progress toward other financial goals, like early retirement or purchasing a new car.

Prioritize repairs and small updates

If high gas and grocery bills have left you with less to spend on home improvements this year, prioritize projects that have the potential to affect your finances the most, said Katherine Fox, a certified financial planner based in Portland, Oregon.

Fox recommends starting with fixes that

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would be costlier to delay, such as a leaking pipe. Then, consider updates that will save you money in the future, like new windows or insulation that may lower your utility bill.

Look for opportunities to mix “nice-tohaves” with “must-haves,” she said. For example, “Maybe you have something behind a wall that needs to be fixed, so you have to open up a wall, and then you have to repaint,” she said.

“Maybe you take this opportunity to fix a need and get a want at the same time.”

Compare financing options

The Federal Reserve’s persistent interest rate hikes over the past year have led to raised rates on most financing options, so you’ll likely pay more interest on a new home improvement loan than you would have before.

Maldonado said home equity loans and lines of credit are typically the lowest-rate options, but he recommends comparing financing options to find the best rate and terms.

Most home equity and personal loans come in a lump sum and have fixed interest rates, so your monthly payment remains the same for the full term.

A home equity line of credit, or HELOC, provides more flexibility for large projects because you can draw on it as needed for up to about 10 years. However, HELOCs

typically have variable rates, which means monthly payments can fluctuate.

Consider delaying to save money

While prioritizing projects, decide whether you can delay any for a year or more. As fickle as the economy has been, there are signs that those who wait could pay less.

The pandemic-induced remodeling frenzy triggered a sharp increase in labor and materials costs that homeowners felt last year, according to a March 2023 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Cement, brick and plywood prices rose 20% to 25% between March 2020 and December 2022, the report found. Insulation material costs rose 34%. This year, materials may get cheaper, the report said.

Likewise, home improvement spending is expected to decline in early 2024 for the first time in more than a decade, according to the center’s Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity, which measures and projects remodeling spending.

If you can tolerate the guest bathroom as it is or stomach that non-load-bearing wall for another year or two, you could get the work done at a discount, Fox said.

Just be sure you’re in a secure financial position and feel good about your employment prospects if you bet on a recession, she said. —AP/NerdWallet

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Benefits of short- and long-term home care

By Lori Johnston, AgingCare.com

Whether Dad needs help around the house for a few weeks after he’s discharged from the hospital or Mom requires around-the-clock dementia care, inhome care can meet these needs and everything in between.

Best of all, home care enables aging loved ones to live as safely and independently as possible in their own homes.

In-home care services are flexible

One of the biggest advantages of home care services is that they can be customized to accommodate unique needs. This care option can be increased or dialed back as an elder’s condition declines or improves.

In-home care plans are evaluated regularly and evolve along with changes in client’s physical and mental health.

While the difference between unskilled and skilled care is an important part of deciding whether to hire in-home services, it

is also helpful to understand that home care can be provided with different timeframes in mind.

Elder care companies offer both shortterm and long-term home care services so that individual care plans can be adjusted to meet a senior’s needs.

Below are brief descriptions highlighting the differences between short- and long-term home care.

What is short-term home care?

Short-term home care services can last anywhere from a few days to a couple of months while one is recovering from an illness, injury or surgery. In these instances, home care is a temporary service.

For example, some home care companies offer special short-term service packages to help people make smooth transitions from the hospital back to their homes. Generally, Medicare only covers short-term home healthcare services that a doctor deems medically necessary.

Depending on a person’s needs, one or more professional caregivers may be assigned. A “custodial caregiver” can provide unskilled assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) and household tasks like bathing, dressing, walking and transferring, laundry, light housekeeping and meal preparation.

Ensuring that a loved one is taking their medications as directed, eating nutritious meals, and does not have to handle chores will help them recuperate faster.

Skilled home care (often referred to as “home healthcare”) includes services like wound care, administering medications, monitoring vital signs, physical therapy, speech-language therapy and occupational therapy.

For example, following a stroke, a visiting physical therapist might be needed on a short-term basis to help one regain their balance and coordination.

Of course, an in-home care company can provide both unskilled and skilled services simultaneously, depending on a person’s needs. Once the user has recovered, these services will no longer be needed.

It is important to mention that some of us do not make a full recovery after a medical setback. What was supposed to be temporary support at home may evolve into a need for long-term in-home care.

What is long-term home care?

Long-term in-home care services are best for those who are disabled or living with chronic and/or progressive conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, lung disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

In these instances, regular assistance and care are required, and the client’s needs are likely to increase. People who wish to continue living at home but need help doing so often make in-home care services a permanent part of their routines.

Most family members have no experience or training in caring for a chronically ill person at home. Even assisting with ADLs can become very challenging and

Caring for

time-consuming.

Skilled nursing tasks, such as injections, wound care, changing a colostomy bag, suctioning secretions from a tracheotomy tube or monitoring a ventilator, are often more than most family caregivers can safely take on. Around-the-clock supervision and higher levels of care and training may become necessary.

In these cases, home healthcare is hired on a long-term basis until the patient’s needs exceed what can be provided in the home.

In theory, the same level of care provided in nursing homes can be provided by professional caregivers in a home environment. However, 24/7 home care is pricey — especially when needed for an extended period. Many families eventually decide that inhome care is no longer the best option.

Services usually conclude when a person moves to a higher level of residential care, such as an assisted living facility, a memory care unit or a nursing home. [Ed. Note: At the same time, there are occasions when a resident of one of these facilities may also want to hire a part-time home care aide, for example, during a period of recovery from a hospitalization.]

Hiring home care services

Finding the best type of care for an aging loved one can be tricky. Regardless of whether services are intended to be temporary or permanent, in-home care can keep people happy and healthy in their own homes, and can often delay or completely prevent the need for a long-term care facility.

Do your homework, ask lots of questions and learn as much as possible about your loved one’s health status and current and future needs.

If you’ve determined that in-home care is the right fit, you’ll want to seek referrals from physicians, friends and family members and begin the interview and in-home consultation process with providers in your area.

This article was originally published by AgingCare.com. It has been reprinted with permission.

Baltimore County Department of Aging is turning 45 and inviting all Baltimore County writers and artists 50 and older to interpret BCDA’s 2023 theme, Living Longer, Living Well, to celebrate the occasion. The entries will be exhibited at the Power of Age Expo on Thu., Oct. 26, at the Timonium Fairgrounds. The top two winners in each category will receive a prize.

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For cleaner air, go electric with lawn care

By Harry Campbell, Doug Myers & Joseph Wood, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

If you use a gas-powered lawn mower, there’s a good chance that maintaining your lawn is worse for the environment than your morning commute. In some cases, far worse.

Running a typical gas mower for one hour creates roughly the same amount of smog-forming air pollution as driving a passenger car 300 miles, according to the California Air Resources Board. For some gas-powered leaf blowers, an hour’s use is equivalent to driving 1,100 miles.

All told, say the authors of a 2021 study published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessments, the small, inefficient gas engines used for lawn mowers, blowers, weed trimmers and other garden equipment account for a quarter of all nonroad gasoline emissions nationwide each year.

Why does this matter for the Chesapeake Bay and its rivers and streams across the watershed?

For starters, one-third of the nitrogen pollution that ends up in the water comes from air pollution, according to the Chesapeake Bay Program. That makes air emissions a big challenge for Bay restoration.

Lawns make a big difference

But we should also see it as a big opportunity. Changing the way we care for lawns — or better yet, reducing the amount of lawn we need to care for — offers a way to make significant water quality improvements.

The Bay watershed states are not on track to meet targets for implementing pollution-reduction measures by 2025. This is something individuals, localities and states can do quickly and at a much lower cost.

One reason lawns matter is their sheer

scale. A 2010 report by the Chesapeake Stormwater Network, based on data from 2000 to 2005, found that turf covers as much as 3.8 million acres in the Bay watershed, which is about 10% of the total land area. Development has likely increased that amount.

While residential lawns make up much of that acreage, turf also proliferates along roadways and around commercial buildings.

All of this has big implications for water quality, especially as more forests and farmlands are developed.

A 2020 assessment showed that polluted runoff from urban and suburban areas is the only significant source of pollution in the watershed that is still growing — and in some cases, even offsetting some of the pollution reductions made to date in wastewater management and agriculture.

Dangers of storm runoff

What many people may not know is that, during a rainstorm, lawns can act more like green-carpeted concrete than a forest floor, soaking in only one-tenth the amount of precipitation, and often less.

The reason is that yards have more compacted soil, less organic matter, and shallower root systems than forests. As a result, in a heavy rainstorm, much of the water that falls on a lawn rushes quickly into storm drains and out into local streams, often taking fertilizer and pesticides along with it.

The volume and speed of water running off the land can erode streambanks, contribute to localized flooding, and negatively affect aquatic insects and fish. As climate change drives more frequent, severe storms, this becomes even more problematic.

We can do much more to address this

source of pollution. Maryland and Virginia have passed statewide limits on phosphorus fertilizers for lawns, but Pennsylvania is still considering legislation to do so.

Phosphorous limitations are a good start, but the partnership also needs new initiatives to find ways to address this source of pollution.

A ban on gas-powered leaf blowers took effect this year in the District of Columbia, but a measure that would allow Virginia localities to regulate leaf blowers has been tabled. In Maryland, a General Assembly bill to ban sales of gas-powered leaf blowers was withdrawn earlier this year.

Addressing these sources should be considered at a much broader scale across the watershed as a way for Bay states to meet their pollution-reduction commitments.

Solutions you can implement

In your own yard, the best solution is to convert more lawn to native trees, shrubs, plants and low-maintenance groundcover. This allows more water to soak into the soil, provides food and shelter for wildlife, and reduces the harmful air pollution emitted by lawn equipment.

Another important step is to limit fertilizing. Get your soil tested first to determine what is or isn’t needed.

Better yet, instead of fertilizing, use an electric mulching mower, which naturally fertilizes the grass by leaving the clippings in place to decompose and add nutrients and organic matter back to the soil. The clippings also provide food and habitat for pollinating insects.

The same goes for leaves in the fall. Don’t bag them and send them to a landfill; use an electric mulching mower to return them to the soil.

Finally, switch from gas-powered to electric lawn and garden equipment. Electric mowers, blowers, trimmers, edgers and such are widely available, usually with cordless or plug-in models.

This significantly reduces air pollution that contributes to smog — a major threat to human health — and the nitrogen pollution that harms waterways.

Addressing stormwater pollution through retrofits can be expensive and challenging, but changing the way we care for our yards is not. It also benefits our health, improves wildlife in our yards, and can save us some time in the process. We can’t afford not to take these steps.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Harry Campbell, Doug Myers and Joseph Wood are, respectively, director of science policy and advocacy for its Pennsylvania Office, Maryland senior scientist and Virginia senior scientist.

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Money Law & Banks are starting to pay savers again

By Ken Sweet

Americans are finally reaping some benefits from keeping their money in the bank. Banks are paying up for savers’ deposits in a much bigger way than they have in more than a decade, based on recent earnings reports from the nation’s biggest banks.

After a decade of low interest rates, the Federal Reserve has unleashed a rapid series of rate hikes to combat inflation, pushing up its benchmark rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%.

That has prompted banks to pay higher interest on traditional savings products like money market funds, certificates of deposit and regular savings accounts.

A 24-month CD, a common savings product for medium-term savers, is now carrying an average yield of 4.81%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. That’s up from a 1.18% yield only a year ago. Further, non-bank names like Apple are getting into the deposit game, giving savers even more options.

Slow response to Fed increases

Banks were initially slow to raise their payouts as the Fed raised rates because they were awash in deposits.

But those deposits have shrunk over the past year because inflation forced consumers and businesses to dip into their savings. To bolster their deposits, banks are raising payouts to retain current customers and entice new ones.

Some investors, leery of the current volatility in the stock and bond markets, could find a zero-risk investment like a savings account or CD an attractive option.

The volatility was only heightened after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank in March. A mass exodus of deposits in a short period of time doomed that bank, leading depositors at other midsize institutions to pull some of their money as well, although the withdrawals appear to have abated for now.

In a sign of how competitive it is getting for bank deposits, electronics giant Apple Inc. unveiled a savings account that will pay a 4.15% yield for Apple Card users. The

savings account is in collaboration with Apple’s consumer banking partner Goldman Sachs — and actually pays out more than the 3.90% Goldman pays for deposits under its Marcus brand.

Interest-earning accounts are up

Bank of America, the second largest bank in the country, told investors last month that it was paying on average 1.38% to customers for their deposits, up from 0.96% a year earlier. That figure is still low for BofA because the bulk of customers’ funds are in checking accounts, which typically pay the lowest yield.

Another banking giant whose customers mostly have checking accounts, Wells Fargo, says it’s paying 1.22% for interestbearing deposits versus paying just 0.04% for those same deposits a year earlier.

The big banks like BofA and Wells are still paying lower rates than most banks on their traditional savings accounts and checking accounts because they’re massmarket products. But the banks are offer-

A higher credit score can lower mortgage rates, insurance rates and more.

Learn how on page 14.

ing six-month and one-year CDs for 3.5% to 4%, according to the latest term sheets.

JPMorgan Chase executives told investors in April that, while it saw roughly $50 billion in deposits flow into the bank in March after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, it does not expect all of those deposits to stay with JPMorgan. Some are likely to move into higher yielding money market funds and CDs offered by other banks.

“It’s a competitive market, and it’s entirely possible that people temporarily come to us and then over time decide to go elsewhere,” said Jeremy Barnum, the bank’s chief financial officer, in a call with analysts.

Brokerage giant Charles Schwab said it saw significant movement of customer funds into money market accounts in the first quarter, as customers sought yield.

© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Ilove you, but not your ‘I Love You Will’

By Allison L. Lee

Are you and your spouse planning to write your wills this season? Congrats! Will-writing is one of the most loving things you can do for each other and for all the people and causes that matter most to your life.

But if you’re thinking about implementing simple “I Love You Wills,” read on. While this simple will plan design can work well for many couples, for others, the practical impact is not very loving.

What is an I Love You Will?

I Love You Wills generally refer to reciprocal last wills and testaments created by spouses. In their wills, each spouse leaves their entire estate to the other spouse outright, and then, in most cases, upon the death of the surviving spouse, the remaining assets are slated to pass to their mutual children.

These types of wills are often created by individuals making their wills for the first time who have simple estates and are anxious to have something in place before a significant life event (like getting married, having a first child or taking a long family vacation).

Others who create I Love You Wills may do so because they find the process of will creation emotionally draining or overly depressing (who wants to talk about death?), and seek out the simplest plan design rather than something more thoughtful that may take multiple rounds of drafting with an attorney.

I Love You Wills are popular because they are a simple and relatively inexpensive estate plan that, when circumstances go as planned, can effectively facilitate the plan of a couple with straightforward wishes and an uncomplicated estate — including the naming of a guardian for their minor children and pets and the distribution of their assets to their loved ones — thereby avoiding intestacy (that is, dying without a will).

Below are a few challenges that you may want to think about when considering if an I Love You Will is right for you.

Challenge #1: Control upon the survivor’s death

One of the most often cited concerns about an I Love You Will plan is that the

surviving spouse can change their will after the first spouse’s death (as long as they have the capacity). More particularly, they can easily eliminate or reduce gifts to children of the marriage in favor of a new spouse, new or stepchildren, or other beneficiaries who are not part of the original couple’s plan design.

Building a trust for the surviving spouse upon the first spouse’s death can help “lock in” the originally intended beneficiaries.

Appointing an independent trustee or co-trustee to serve alongside the surviving spouse and assess distribution decisions also makes it more difficult for assets acquired during the marriage to benefit new families or for the surviving spouse to disinherit mutual children.

Challenge #2: Lost opportunity for a ‘primary’ charitable bequest

Most spouses do intend to benefit their surviving spouse with the majority of their assets. However, philanthropically minded people often feel strongly about leaving something directly on their passing to a cause that

matters most (like, “Upon my death, I give $100 to [Favorite Charity]”), rather than waiting until both spouses have passed to start making a difference (like, “Upon my death, if my spouse has predeceased me, I give $100 to [Favorite Charity]”).

A plan design that simply states that all assets pass on the death of the first spouse to the survivor — including an I Love You Will plan — does not afford this opportunity to immediately create a lasting legacy and sustain an important cause for generations to come.

Challenge #3: No incapacity protection

Imagine if, at the time of your passing, your surviving spouse was incapacitated and couldn’t manage their financial affairs — including any inheritance.

Most people would prefer to have their spouse’s inheritance managed by a trusted family member or friend nominated by them as opposed to being left to the discretion of a court (remember, the court can

Investing in fixed income alternatives

Many who invested in bond mutual funds with long maturities in 2022 were disappointed because total returns were negative.

When interest rates increase, the value of long-term bonds falls. Thus, for investors who thought that bond holdings would protect them, a fall in fund prices was disappointing, because in 2022 both bond prices and stock prices fell dramatically in value.

Some good, conservative options

At the beginning of 2022, investors looking for conservative investments that paid reasonable interest rates did not have very good options. The returns for Treasury bills, short-term CDs and money-market funds were very poor, in most cases less than 1%.

THE SAVINGS GAME

What will happen in 2023 is hard to predict. If the rate of inflation falls and the Federal Reserve starts to cut interest rates, bond prices will increase and the value of bond funds with long maturities will increase, and equity prices will also rise.

By Elliot Raphaelson

But no one can be sure if inflation will be controlled, and if inflation is not controlled better, then the Federal Reserve will not be taking steps to decrease interest rates.

I Love You Wills

From page 11

select someone you would not have picked). An arrangement that leaves assets outright to the surviving spouse is

Fortunately, for conservative investors, there are now much better alternatives for those looking for stable shorter-term conservative investments with reasonable returns.

For example, I had invested in Vanguard’s Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX), which was returning over 4% at that time. The return on that fund is now over 4.5%. Vanguard requires a $3,000 minimum investment for that fund.

Money-market funds are very liquid, and you can sell shares quickly and convert them to cash whenever you wish.

less protective in such an event.

On the other hand, establishing a trust for the surviving spouse under the management of a trusted nominee you select can help ensure that assets are managed sensibly for their benefit if they are or become unable to

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Fidelity also offers a comparable moneymarket fund.

If you invest in ordinary money-market funds, there are no tax advantages. However, currently you can also invest in municipal money-market funds [which hold mostly tax-free investments] that now earn almost 4%. Rates may not stay that high, but while they do, and if you are in a high tax bracket, you should consider this investment.

For example, Vanguard offers such a fund, the Vanguard Municipal Money Market Fund (VMSXX), with a $3,000 minimum. Fidelity offers a similar fund, the Municipal Money Market Fund (FTEXX), with no minimum and a similar yield.

A 4% yield on a municipal money-market bond fund is equivalent to more than 6% for someone in the 35% federal tax bracket.

If interest rates fall, you can liquidate the funds immediately and invest in a traditional money-market fund or other conservative investment such as Treasury bills or CDs.

independently manage their finances.

Takeaway

Two-thirds of American adults report not having a last will and testament. Estate planning professionals agree that, in most cases, having a simple will — including an I Love You Will — is much better than having no will at all.

In addition to providing for the distribution of assets on death, spouses use their I Love You Wills to name guardians for minor children and pets. They also name will executors (and sometimes digital executors to handle a will-maker’s digital accounts and assets) to settle their estates and account for the payment of estate expenses, including taxes.

Lock in good rates with CDs

Returns on CDs have increased dramatically since the beginning of 2022. Currently, you can find FDIC insured five-year CDs with interest rates of approximately 4.5%.

Hopefully, actions by the Federal Reserve will help curb inflation. If so, returns on traditional investments such as indexed equity funds and longer-term fixed income funds will improve.

So, for conservative investors who are concerned about preservation of capital, it is prudent to consider putting some of your investments in shorter-term options such as money-market funds, Treasury bills, Treasury notes and short-term CDs.

As inflation comes under control, you can consider using dollar-cost averaging from conservative investments into conservative equity mutual funds/ETFs.

Fortunately, there are now short-term investment alternatives that offer reasonable returns as well as capital protection.

© 2023 Elliott Raphaelson. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Also, simple I Love You Wills can perform admirably when everything goes as expected.

However, in certain cases, implementing an I Love You Will can have unintended consequences or represent missed opportunities to start supporting a favorite cause at the first spouse’s death or protect a loved one — including in the event of incapacity.

So, if you and your spouse are getting ready to write your wills this season — whether it’s an I Love You Will or a plan design with a bit more complexity — be sure to be thoughtful and intentional, and select the plan that is going to love you back.

© 2023 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Less restrictive options to guardianships

By Ryan Sellers

We’ve all read stories about Britney Spears, Amanda Bynes, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and other famous people who lost control over their own lives. These individuals were legally stripped of their autonomy, and another person was vested with the power to manage their finances, medical choices and other life decisions.

Guardianships — also referred to as conservatorships — are drastic and invasive. They essentially deny people control over their own lives and establish someone else as the decision-maker.

For this reason, they require a rigorous showing of legal incapacity, as well as approval by a judge. In many jurisdictions, parties must establish a specific need for guardianship, and demonstrate that other alternatives considered would not adequately protect the individual.

Guardianships should never be undertaken lightly. Once established, they can be extremely difficult to undo (witness the Britney Spears case), so other options should always be considered first.

Are guardianships ever good?

Guardianships do serve an important purpose: They ensure that individuals unable to handle their own affairs are not exploited or otherwise injured. They also provide a safety net for estates whose heirs might otherwise recover nothing when a loved one dies.

However, other legal vehicles can provide similar oversight with far less complexity.

That being said, there are circumstances when a guardianship may be the best — or only — choice. Imagine, for example, a man with dementia who lacked the foresight to make adequate provisions in his will or trust for management of his affairs. Without a plan for oversight of his assets, he could end up jeopardizing the estate he intended to pass on to his heirs.

Those heirs are often best situated to seek a court-appointed guardian who will ensure that their father or grandfather does not sign away his estate or compromise his physical well-being.

On the other end of the spectrum, imagine an older relative who left funds for a future generation without making provisions for oversight of those funds. If she passes away leaving minor beneficiaries, their parents must seek a guardianship so they can manage the money until the children reach the age of majority.

Although laws vary from state to state, every state requires that less restrictive alternatives be considered before invoking a guardianship. These might include such vehicles as limited guardianships, powers of attorney or assisted decision-making agreements.

The benefit of these alternatives is that they don’t require court approval or judicial oversight. They are also much easier to set up and shut down. The standard for establishing incapacity is also less rigorous than the standard required for a guardianship.

Limited guardianships

Limited guardianships take away the subject’s right to make decisions, just as full guardianships do, but they are focused on specific aspects of the person’s life.

A limited guardianship can be established for the purpose of managing the subject’s finances and estate, or it can be set up to control medical and healthcare decisions.

Such guardianships still require court approval and must be supported by a showing of incapacity. As with full guardianships, these more limited interventions will be continued for as long as the incapacity lasts, and can only be dissolved through judicial processes.

If practicable, limited guardianships are the preferred vehicle for protecting people and their property. Courts don’t want to restrain a person’s rights any more than is necessary.

Powers of attorney

Powers of attorney can be established for medical or for financial decisions. Far less difficult to set up than a guardianship, a financial power of attorney can be as simple as putting a second person on the bank account of an incapacitated or otherwise vulnerable individual. This second set of eyes

ensures that financial decisions are well-considered and not harmful to the estate.

A medical power of attorney can enable the second person to obtain an injunction to protect the health and well-being of the subject, including by seeking a determination of mental incapacity.

A durable power of attorney for healthcare matters invests the second person with the right to make medical decisions on behalf of the subject if or when they are unable to do so for themselves. Unlike a guardianship, powers of attorney can be canceled when they are no longer needed.

Assisted decision-making

An assisted decision-making agreement establishes a surrogate decision-maker who has visibility to financial transactions. The bank is notified of the arrangement and alerts the surrogate when it identifies an unusual or suspicious transaction.

Although such an arrangement does not completely replace the primary account holder’s authority, it establishes a safety mechanism to prevent exploitation or fraud. The bank is on notice that a second approval is required before an uncommon transaction can be completed.

Wills and trusts

Many of the issues for which guardianships are created can be addressed in a will or revocable trust. These important estate-planning documents allow individuals to map out what will happen in the event they become incapacitated or other-

wise incapable of managing their affairs.

Trusts can avoid guardianship by appointing a friend or relative to manage money and other assets. A contingent trust will allow the executor to manage assets if necessary.

For older individuals, it may be prudent to establish a co-trustee who can oversee matters and step in should the trustor lose the capacity to make good decisions.

Choose a potential guardian now Transparency is important. Before it becomes necessary for a guardian to be appointed to handle your physical or financial decisions, think about whom you would trust to act in that capacity — and put it in writing.

Let others know that if a guardian is needed, this is the person you want to serve in that capacity. A one-page directive will make your wishes clear and avoid giving this important decision to a judge.

Delegate a second set of eyes now to support you down the road — preferably someone younger, with a fresh perspective and a good understanding of money management.

If you don’t think about these things now, the state will make the decision for you. Talk with your legal and financial advisers and create the documents now that will save your loved ones from having to seek a guardianship for you in the future.

© 2022 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Your credit score affects mortgage, more

By Erin Bendig

Becoming a homeowner has become increasingly more challenging for many, with monthly housing payments recently hitting a record high of $2,563 — a 29% increase from 2022. Sky-high mortgage rates, which are expected to keep climbing, have left both homebuyers and owners feeling increasingly pessimistic about the housing market outlook.

So, if you’re in the market for a mortgage or a refinance, it’s more important now than ever to ensure you can secure the lowest mortgage rate possible. One way it can be done is by prioritizing a good credit score.

[Ed. Note: A high credit rating can also reduce your homeowners’ insurance, car insurance and mobile phone contracts. In addition, according to NerdWallet, “senior housing, assisted living and continuing care

retirement communities also may use credit histories or scores to evaluate applicants.”]

Credit score impacts mortgage rates

Lenders take into account a variety of factors when determining the interest rate on your mortgage, including down payment, loan term and the price of the property.

However, the biggest factor determining your mortgage rate is your credit score. Most lenders will take into account your FICO score, which can range from 300 to 850.

• 800 or higher: Exceptional

• 740-799: Very good

• 670-739: Good

• 580-669: Fair

• 579 or lower: Poor

To qualify for a mortgage loan, you’ll

likely need a score of at least 620. However, having a higher score can ease the financial burden of a mortgage, as it can help get you lower rates. And the knock-on benefits continue — securing a low mortgage rate can help lower your monthly payments substantially, according to this data from MyFICO:

Say you start with a credit score of 620639. Here’s how much you’d save over the course of your 30-year fixed mortgage of $350,000 by boosting your credit score:

—If your score changes to 640-659, you could save an extra $47,086.

—If your score changes to 660-679, you could save an extra $83,473.

—If your score changes to 680-699, you could save an extra $101,343.

—If your score changes to 700-759, you could save an extra $116,000.

—If your score changes to 760-850, you

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Park View at Bladensburg: 301-699-9785 • 55 & Better

Park View at Laurel: 301-490-1526

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could save an extra $134,220.

How to improve your score

Your credit score matters to lenders because it shows them how likely you’ll be able to repay your loan. If you have a higher credit score, lenders won’t see you as a risky borrower.

And while you can still get approved for a mortgage with a bad credit score, you won’t be able to secure the lowest rates possible. If you want to save on your mortgage rates, try these steps to boost your overall credit score before applying.

Check your credit report: Before applying for a mortgage, get a copy of your credit report. [Ed. Note: You can request one free copy of your credit report each year from each of the three major consumer reporting companies — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com.]

You’ll be able to see a complete rundown of your credit history, helping you identify areas of your credit that are hurting your score, while also checking for any inaccuracies in the report.

Having errors on your credit report is more common than you may think, so it’s important to get those fixed by filing a dispute.

Make on-time payments: Payment history is the largest factor affecting your credit score, accounting for 35% of your total score. Because of this, it’s vital to always make payments on time, as missing payments can significantly decrease your score.

Pay off credit card balances: Credit utilization is the ratio between any debt you have compared to your total credit limit, and it makes up 30% of your overall credit score. Therefore, keeping your credit utilization as low as possible can help you up your overall credit score. A good rule of thumb is to keep your credit utilization below 30%.

© 2023 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

BEACON BITS

July 21

AARP SMART DRIVER WORKSHOP

Learn about life-saving vehicle safety technology, like automatic emergency braking, blind spot warnings, drowsy driver alerts and more, in this technology workshop for mature drivers in the market for a new vehicle. This is different from the AARP Driver Safety Courses. Visit the Essex Senior Center, 600 Dorsey Ave., on Fri., July 21, from 10 a.m. to noon to attend the free class. For more information, call (410) 887-0267 or email

essexsc@baltimorecountymd.gov.

Travel Leisure &

Maine transports travelers back in time

By Glenda C. Booth

On a summer stay in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, I decided to go to a concert at the local opera house. When I picked up my tickets at the box office, the agent opened a plastic box, grabbed a batch of tickets bound with a rubber band and handed me my paper tickets.

No internet, no password, no clicking, no online headaches. The whole experience took two minutes.

Such is Maine. Longing for root beer? Old Harleys? A 1950s drive-in? Many spots in Maine take you back to yesteryear.

Fresh lobster, saltwater taffy

Head for the Atlantic coast and you’ll likely happen upon the essence of Maine: a lobster pound, operating (and smelling) as it did 70 years ago.

Here, fresh-from-the-sea lobsters are cooked in seawater on the spot, as seagulls stand ready to steal a morsel from tourists, and boats sputter in and out of the harbor, bringing in the day’s haul. Most pounds are modest wooden buildings with walk-up ordering windows, outdoor tables, and plenty of paper towels for messy dining. The classic dinner is a whole lobster with melted butter, an ear of corn and, of course, a bib. Patrons also can feast on lobster rolls, chowder and steamed Maine clams and mussels.

Many small towns in Maine have an oldfashioned candy shop, too. “Candy knows no social barriers,” reads a sign at Orne’s in Boothbay Harbor, established in 1885 by Addie Orne.

The one-room shop’s tantalizing glass cases and tables are full of lobster pops, saltwater taffy, chocolate blueberries, redlace licorice and Needhams, a Maine tradition — candies with coconut and mashedpotato centers covered with chocolate.

Much-loved diners and drive-ins

Traditional diners from pre-interstate days dot the state, like Moody’s in Waldoboro. “When I get hungry, I get Moody,” read the T-shirts for this beloved eatery, which Bertha and Percy Moody opened in 1927. The couple had nine children, some of whom still work there.

Loyal locals and tourists chomp down fat haddock Reubens, hearty chowdahs (Maine-speak), and homemade fluffy biscuits to die for.

At the counter, you’ll likely chat with a truck driver or lobsterman and indulge in Moody’s famous homemade pies — blueberry, lemon meringue, banana cream and peanut butter. On an average summer day, Moody’s makes 50 to 60 pies and serves as many as 1,500 people.

Maine’s 1950s drive-in restaurants remain in full swing today. At Fat Boy’s in Brunswick,

open since 1955, a sign instructs, “Lights on for service.” Turn on your headlights and a server sprints out to your car, takes your order, hooks a tray onto the car window, then returns with your burger and fries.

Fast Eddie’s drive-in, located in a former Texaco gas station in Winthrop, also has carhop service. Inside, there’s 1950s memorabilia, gold and burgundy vinyl booths, a checkerboard floor and a working jukebox.

At the Fountain in Bath, customers can choose a soda fountain stool or a blackand-white semicircular booth under a pressed-tin ceiling and enjoy Maine blueberry treats, milkshakes, sundaes, cream soda and root beer.

Bowling, puffins and general stores

Maine does offer much more than food. For indoor amusement, try candlepin bowling, a game likely “imported” from the Canadian Maritime provinces.

Players fling balls smaller than traditional ones, without finger holes. The skinny pins they aim to knock down resemble candles. Candlepin alleys only have several lanes, so they’re not as noisy as typical urban bowling alleys.

Trips to see Atlantic puffins never disappoint. Boat tours from Boothbay Harbor, Rockland and Port Clyde reveal a closer look

at the islands where puffins return every year to raise their chicks, known as pufflings. There’s also shopping. Every shopper’s bucket list should include a roam through a Reny’s Department Store. Mainers would never call it a “chain,” but Reny’s has 17 locations around the state.

Walmart it’s not. Shelves are crammed with everything from crayons to spatulas, moose-themed pajamas, lobster socks, blueberry preserves, Katahdin coffee, flannel shirts, balsam candles and insect repellent. Their motto of 73 years: “If Reny’s Doesn’t Have It, I Don’t Need It!”

Nostalgic for your old stick shift, metal bumpers and backseat, pre-seat-belt adventures? Maine has four car museums that spotlight antique vehicles.

The Owl’s Head Transportation Museum displays more than 150 of them, including automobiles from 1886 to 1963. You can reminisce about teenage hot dates as you ogle the lipstick-red 1957 Ford Thunderbird and some old Harley motorcycles.

Or try the Seal Cove Auto Museum near Bar Harbor, with cars made between 1895 and 1917. The Stanley Museum in Kingfield preserves “the Stanley Family genius” — 1905, 1910 and 1916 steam cars,

Boothbay Harbor, Maine, makes for a perfect home base for boat tours of the rocky coastline and the puffins who visit nearby islands, as well as a road trip of the state’s retro sites — from antique car museums to drive-in restaurants.

PHOTO BY VISIT MAINE

Spacious cruise liners ply the Mississippi with stops at heritage sites. Learn more on page 16.

Maine is chock-a-block full of old-fashioned general stores, diners and candy shops. A good example is Ben & Bill’s Chocolate Emporium, above, located on Main Street in Bar Harbor.

PHOTO © JIAWANGKUN | DREAMSTIME.COM

PHOTO BY AMERICAN CRUISE LINES

A classy cruise down the ol’ Mississippi

By Victor Block

When my wife Fyllis and I first saw the ship that would be our home for a week, we were impressed. Our room — a spacious outside stateroom with private balcony — rivaled those in many upscale hotels.

The food and table settings in the ship’s dining room were both five-star, with a welcome all-inclusive policy (so that second dessert and adult beverage are “free”).

But we weren’t on one of those megaships designed to hold thousands, like cities on the water. Our vessel accommodated only 180 passengers, offering the intimacy of a smaller setting and far fewer people, yet with facilities, amenities and on-board and on-shore activities comparable to huge ocean liners.

Fyllis and I were enjoying one of more than 50 small ship itineraries available from American Cruise Lines, which plies rivers and other waters through 35 states in vessels that hold between 90 and 180 passengers.

Our Lower Mississippi River cruise offered opportunities to explore inviting Southern towns that provided deep dives into Civil War and other history, visits to magnificent antebellum mansions, and strolls through lovely gardens.

In addition, we were able to explore museums that brought to life prehistoric times, Native American history and

African American history in a fascinating corner of the country.

First stop: Vicksburg, Mississippi

Between Memphis, Tennessee (our embarkation point) and our first stop, Vicksburg, Mississippi, we saw a lot of nothingness.

Both shorelines are blanketed with woodlands. The only river traffic was an occasional “pusher” towboat pushing a long line of multiple barges.

In addition to on-board educational and entertaining programs, we enjoyed relaxing on our balcony, reading books and watching the mighty Mississippi River.

Fyllis and I were thus excited to set our feet on land and explore the first of the historic towns along our route: Vicksburg, Mississippi. We walked to some attractions that are close to the ship dock, and rode in provided tour buses to reach others.

A series of large murals along the waterfront depicts various scenes from the town’s past. These include the role of the river in the rise of the community and the contributions made by African Americans.

The city’s brick streets led us to a Civil War Museum, Vicksburg National Military Park, and an early 19 th-century church with beautiful Tiffany windows.

I was enthralled by a home that served as

a hospital during the Civil War, with Union and Confederate soldiers recuperating on different floors. We paused in front of another house whose iron gate was still bent where a cannonball struck it during the war.

The next stop in Mississippi was Natchez, which was established by French colonists in 1716 and became part of the United States in 1783. Planters forced enslaved people to grow cotton and sugarcane, and built expansive mansions to demonstrate their wealth.

Many of these stately homes survive to relate part of this story, while the Natchez Museum of African American History and Culture tells the rest. One tour of this town includes a stop at a historically Black church to hear a Gospel musical performance.

On to Louisiana

We docked at tiny St. Francisville, Louisiana (pop. 1,600) on day five. The Rosedown Plantation there, which once enslaved 450 people, is surrounded by formal gardens dating from the 19th century.

More gardens are in bloom at the

Audubon State Historic Site at the Oakley Plantation. Along with a blacksmith shop and cabins that housed enslaved people, it includes the home where John James Audubon lived in 1821, while working on 32 of his famous bird paintings. As in Audubon’s time, the site still is a bird-lover’s paradise.

Baton Rouge, where we spent our sixth day, has an interesting origin story for its name. In 1698, French explorers sailing up the Mississippi River spotted a red pole along the shoreline. After learning that it marked the boundary between the hunting grounds of two Native American tribes, they called the site le bâton rouge (the red stick), and the name stuck.

Over time, seven different governments oversaw the town, which grew to become the second largest city in Louisiana. In 1846, it was designated the state capital to replace “sinful” New Orleans.

Today, Baton Rouge is a culturally diverse community with 222,000 residents of many ethnic and religious backgrounds.

See MISSISSIPPI CRUISE, page 17

ANSWERS TO CROSSWORD FROM PAGE 18

ANSWERS TO SCRABBLE

MRED SWITCHEDBABIES GUAVA AREAL ZDE URGES COATS ELL TEEN KYLE DES

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Maine

From

like the Stanley Steamer invented by Mainer Francis Stanley.

Ice houses and lighthouses

If you’ve ever used the word “icebox” to describe a refrigerator, you may enjoy visiting a historic ice house in South Bristol. In 1826, Asa Thompson dammed a stream, created a pond, and started cutting ice, selling it to anglers, delivering it to customers or shipping it as far away as Philadelphia, Cuba, China and India.

Today, Thompson’s is likely the only commercial ice house on the National Register of Historic Places to continue to store

Mississippi cruise

From

Adding to the mix are college students from Louisiana State University and 10 other schools in the city.

The city’s sites include the Capitol Park Museum, which traces contributions of Native Americans, early European colonists, enslaved people and others to the area’s development and accomplishments.

Exhibits at the LSU Rural Life Museum, a complex of 32 historic buildings, focus on the way of life of 18th- and 19th-century Louisianans.

New Orleans

Our voyage ended in New Orleans, which included a guided excursion to the famous French Quarter and lovely Garden District.

While some of New Orleans’ homes rival the beautiful plantation houses we encountered during the cruise, many are relatively modest in comparison.

My personal favorite, Houmas (pro-

naturally frozen ice harvested from a nearby pond using the traditional method.

Videos and docents explain how workers cut big ice blocks with hand saws and tug them up an incline into the ice house for storage. Locals have an ice harvest here every February.

Of course, Maine is also famous for its lighthouses, many of them decommissioned but still picturesque. To visit one of the state’s 65 lighthouses, take a one-mile boat ride from Boothbay Harbor to the Burnt Island Light Station.

There, time travel does seem possible. Interpreters in 1950s clothing (remember gingham dresses and Keds?) portray the lighthouse keeper and his family during the time Harry Truman was president.

nounced Hummus) House, located between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, has appeared in various films and TV series. An oak tree alley leads the eye to the front of the graceful house, and resident geese and ducks act as noisy sentries.

The plantation was established in the late 1700s on land inhabited by Native Americans known as the Houma. The main Greek Revival mansion, built around 1829, was the focal point of a major sugarcane operation, successful due to the labor of up to 800 enslaved men, women and children.

The tour of the restored antebellum mansion allows a glimpse of its rare period furnishings, art and artifacts.

Then there are the gardens. The 38 acres of colorful native and exotic plantings serve as the backdrop to a museumquality collection of sculptures.

If you go

The challenge facing travelers selecting an American Cruise Lines trip is choosing from the long list of destinations, ships and

Electricity didn’t arrive at the 1821 lighthouse until 1961. Water for home use was precious, most collected in a 2,000-gallon cistern. Saturday was “bath day,” one of the “daughters” told a group of visitors on a summer tour. “The cleanest girl goes in first.”

If you go

It’s a nine-hour drive from Baltimore to Portland, depending on the route and traffic. However, you can fly round-trip from BWI to Portland on Southwest for around $400. If you fly, a rental car is a must.

One way to “do Maine” is to go to a “grown-up camp,” such as the Hog Island Audubon Camp. Campers stay in dorm-like lodges, have communal meals, take photos, paint landscapes and learn all about

experiences. Its boats ply the Mississippi, Columbia, Ohio, Hudson and other rivers, go through the Chesapeake Bay, along Maine’s coast, and on a long list of other waterways.

Fares for the week-long Lower Mississip-

terrestrial and sea birds in classes and on field trips. See hogisland.audubon.org.

Boothbay Harbor is a good home base for day trips to Bath, Camden and other sites. You can stay in cottages, B&Bs or hotels, but the Mid-Town Motel in Boothbay Harbor bills itself as “a true 1950s classic” — an 11-room motor lodge run by the same family for 66 years (until last year, but it retains the olden days aura). When the movie Carousel was filmed in town, the cast stayed in the Mid-Town (midtownmaine.com).

Its turquoise and white outdoor color scheme, indoor knotty pine walls, and cheery window flower boxes are far removed from today’s monotonously similar chain hotels. But yes, it has WiFi.

To plan your trip, go to visitmaine.com.

pi River Cruise that we enjoyed begin at $4,125 per person; some include domestic airfare. The cost of other itineraries is as low as $2,405. See americancruiselines.com.

For more information, call 1 (800) 814-6880 or visit americancruiselines.com.

Smith Island Cruises

Scrabble answers on p. 16.

Find

Crossword Puzzle

Soap City By Stephen Sherr

123

BB723

Across

1. Bowling party souvenir

4. Fed. monitor of workplace safety

8. Make the stew less bland

12. Commonality of “bacon” and “tacos”

13. Brings the volume straight down to 0

14. Bellybutton type

15. Be slothful, to some

16. Every hungry piglet is at ___

17. Written on a Post-It

18. New resident in Soap City

21. Namesake of the largest tennis stadium in New York (and the world)

22. He said “The world champ should be pretty like me”

23. Antiquity, once

24. One of the guys in 6 Down’s clue

25. You can’t spell “doublespeak” without ___

27. Man-eater of folklore

31. Soap City groups

36. Acronym for org. for US gamers, geneticists, or gastroenterologists

38. Paul Bunyan’s tool

39. “He said; ___ said”

40. Words form our sponsor

41. Resident of Soap City

45. Mailing address abbrev.

46. The 4th, 1st, and 7th largest Roman numeral characters

47. “___ and a-two” (Lawrence Welk intro)

50. Floral necklace

52. George H. W. Bush led it for Ford

55. 60s horse who was only filmed in black and white

56. Residents of Soap City

60. Smoothie ingredient

61. “It’s ___ shame”

62. Zeta Delta Epsilon org, briefly

63. Compulsions

64. Paint tiers

65. It lies between kay and em

66. Any member of The Breakfast Club

67. Twin Peaks actor MacLachlan

68. ___ Moines, Iowa Down

1. Successfully use a disguise

2. Least friendly

3. Unworried

4. Get ___ My Dreams, Get into My Car

5. Caribbean drum material

6. More like Hardy than Laurel

7. ___ Spumante

8. Siberian Husky or Saint Bernard

9. Leaning against

10. Bank claim

11. He played Sam on Cheers

13. West, first called Mary Jane

14. Like BWI or IAD

19. “The divorce capital of the world”

20. Religious structure, built from the ground up

26. Assents (in Spanish accents)

28. Gussied up

29. Outermost color in a rainbow

30. Redundancy in “bless this mess”

32. Anatomical vessel

33. Relating to a period of banishment

34. Lions or Tigers or Bears

35. URL suffix that can grab you

36. Common car club

37. It is exactly five hours ahead of EST

42. Perk up

43. Colonial ruler

44. A stressed and unstressed syllable, such as a-BOVE

48. Insulin injector

49. Ford sold 116,000 of them in the 1950’s

51. Nbrs. on an Amtrak video board

53. “Happiness is not an ___ of reason, but of imagination” (Kant)

54. Decrease in severity

56. 100% confident

57. Subject of union negotiations.

58. Login to someone else’s account

59. Jolson and Capone

60. It may be balanced by probiotics

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