5 Tips for Financial Fitness in 2017

(Family Features) If a commitment to improving finances is among your resolutions for 2017, you’re not alone.

A survey from the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) shows that more than two-thirds of U.S. adults will make a financial resolution this year.

However, one out of three Americans said their financial quality of life is worse than they expect, as saving money and debt concerns top the list of stressors. Additionally, almost two-thirds of respondents experienced a financial setback in 2016, with transportation issues, housing repairs and medical care cited as the leading causes. For the nearly 50 percent of those who admit they’re living paycheck to paycheck, significant unplanned expenses can add up.

“To be successful with your financial resolutions in 2017, set thoughtful, realistic goals,” said Paul Golden, spokesperson for NEFE. “If your goal is to build an emergency savings, start with a small amount like $500 dollars to show yourself you actually can achieve that mark then set the bar higher. It’s not uncommon to be hit with an unexpected expense, so be prepared.”

These five tips can help get you on the path toward tackling your financial goals:

1. Get debt under control. Take a hard look at what you owe. If there are warning signs of too much debt, take action. Set a goal to reduce your debt next year by 5-10 percent. That might mean reducing impulse shopping, which six out of 10 people admit to doing, and 80 percent regret the purchases later. When you face temptation, walk away for at least 30 minutes to make sure you still want the item.

2. Start saving now. Ideally, you should have six to nine months of income set aside, but achieving a small goal can provide a sense of security and reduce stress. The rules of retirement have changed: Review your long-term savings and ensure they are appropriate and on target.

3. Shop for better services. Make a game out of shopping providers to find the best value in the services you use. How long has it been since you shopped your insurance policies? Is there any chance you can save money on your cell phone, internet or utilities? Visit current providers and ask, “What’s the best deal?” Be sure to understand your policies and services so that you are comparing fairly and accurately.

4. Understand what’s behind your financial decisions. If you’ve ever wondered why you feel good about spending money on vacations but avoid saving for retirement, the answer may lie in your unique values and how they influence your financial decision-making. Take the LifeValues Quiz at SmartAboutMoney.org.

5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Recruit a “financial buddy” and share your resolutions with a trusted family member or friend who can provide support in helping you meet your financial goals. Find someone who will hold you accountable and set a good example for you to follow.

For more help getting your finances in order, visit SmartAboutMoney.org.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

SOURCE:
National Endowment for Financial Education

5 Lessons for Everyday Athletes from a U.S. Olympian

(Family Features) Becoming a U.S. Olympic athlete requires an extraordinary combination of talent and perseverance, but there are lessons to be learned from these competitors that can help propel everyday athletes to reach the top of their game.

Among the 2016 Team USA roster, there were countless stories of triumph such as that of U.S. Olympic gymnast Danell Leyva, who was named an alternate for Team USA before stepping in for an injured teammate. Leyva ultimately competed and went on to bring home two silver medals in the parallel bars and horizontal bar individual events during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Leyva knows what it takes to build a champion: a lifetime of determination and training, countless competitions and years of fueling his body with the right foods and beverages, like milk, which is packed with nine essential nutrients, including 8 grams of natural protein in each 8-ounce serving.

Even if your own athletic aspirations keep you closer to home, adopting the right mindset will help propel you to new heights in your athletic endeavors.

1. Define your goals. In order to reach that pinnacle of success, you must know exactly what your end goal will be. Put it on paper and display it prominently so you are constantly reminded of the finish line. If you find yourself weary along the way, refocus your attention on the sense of victory that will come when you finally achieve success.

2. Eat to win. A well-rounded and healthy diet is essential for any athlete, but ultimately it’s the right mix of nutrients that help them reach their peak. That includes protein, like the high-quality, natural protein in milk. In fact, U.S. Olympic Training Centers, where athletes are training at the highest level, serve tens of thousands of gallons of milk every year and nine out of 10 U.S Olympians said they drank milk while growing up.*

“Ever since I was young, I’ve always had milk in the morning,” Leyva said. “It’s an easy way to get protein and nutrients to help fuel my training, whether I am at home or at an international competition.”

1. Dedicate the time. Top athletes know that champions are built, not born. That means putting in the time with training, practice and more practice to become the very best in their sport. For an everyday athlete, that may not mean dedicating hours each day to the cause, but it does mean making a serious commitment to bettering your game.

2. Be prepared to overcome adversity. Elite athletes often find their road to the top scattered with bumps. Leyva is no exception; the alternate spot was a step away from the place on the Team USA roster he coveted. Sticking with his training and keeping his focus ensured he was ready to step up when the time came.

3. Surround yourself with supporters. Very few successes in life are achieved alone. Create a team of supporters who motivate you to be your very best. This may include coaches and trainers, but also family members and friends who cheer you along your path to victory.

To learn more about the Milk Life campaign and watch exclusive behind-the-scenes videos of Team USA athletes, visit milklife.com/teamusa.

*Nine out of 10 finding based on 675 responses received from survey invitations sent to U.S. Olympians.

SOURCE:
MilkPEP

Kremlin says US hacking allegations are 'reminiscent of a witch hunt'

By Maria Tsvetkova and Christian Lowe

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Allegations that Russia tried to influence the U.S. election in favour of Donald Trump amount to a witch-hunt, the Kremlin said on Monday, in its first reaction to the release of a U.S. intelligence report on the alleged Russian operation.

The report, a redacted version of which was released publicly last week, alleged that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed a cyber campaign aimed at helping Trump beat his rival Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no new evidence had been produced to show that Russian officials was involved.

"We are observing a serious fatigue with these accusations," Peskov told reporters on a conference call. "It truly is reminiscent of a witch-hunt."

His words echoed a phrase used by Trump himself, who was quoted as saying in an interview with the New York Times newspaper on Friday that the storm over Russian hacking was a "political witch hunt."

Peskov, commenting on the U.S. intelligence report, said: "You know, that version of the report that was made public added no substance whatsoever that we can comment on."

"Groundless accusations which are not supported by anything are being rehearsed in an amateurish, unprofessional way. We don't know what information they are actually relying on."

Asked if Putin himself had read a translation of the report, Peskov said there was nothing in the document "that's worth reading in detail."

But Peskov said the Kremlin's position, as in the past, is that it categorically rules out that any Russian official could have been involved in hacking related to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Both Trump and Putin have said that they want to restore U.S.-Russian relations, and the Kremlin spokesman indicated that Moscow was looking beyond the hacking row and ahead to the new administration.

Peskov said there had been witch-hunts in the past in U.S. history, but those periods came to an end when what he described as more sober leaders took charge.

Peskov said that once Trump had been inaugurated on Jan. 20, work would begin on finding a date for a first meeting between the Russian and U.S. leaders.

"If some kind of contacts will be planned, then they will be planned extremely painstakingly, carefully, especially since we are talking about contacts following a very tense period in our relations," he said, referring to disputes between the Kremlin and the Obama administration.



 (Editing by Alexander Winning)

Trump acknowledges Russia role in US election hacking: aide

Photo: Reuters/Lucas Jackson

By Toni Clarke and Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump accepts the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia engaged in cyber attacks during the U.S. presidential election and may take action in response, his incoming chief of staff said on Sunday.

Reince Priebus said Trump believed Russia was behind the intrusions into the Democratic Party organizations, although Priebus did not clarify whether the president-elect agreed that the hacks were directed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"He accepts the fact that this particular case was entities in Russia, so that's not the issue," Priebus said on "Fox News Sunday."

It was the first acknowledgment from a senior member of the Republican president-elect's team that Trump had accepted that Russia directed the hacking and subsequent disclosure of Democratic emails during the 2016 presidential election.

Trump had rebuffed allegations that Russia was behind the hacks or was trying to help him win, saying the intrusions could have been carried out by China or a 400-pound hacker on his bed.

With less than two weeks until his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has come under increasing pressure from fellow Republicans to accept intelligence community findings on Russian hacking and other attempts by Moscow to influence the Nov. 8 election. A crucial test of Republican support for Trump comes this week with the first confirmation hearings for his Cabinet picks.

A U.S. intelligence report last week said Putin directed a sophisticated influence campaign including cyber attacks to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and support Trump.

The report, commissioned by Democratic President Barack Obama in December, concluded vote tallies were not affected by Russian interference, but did not assess whether it influenced the outcome of the vote in other ways.

'ACTION MAY BE TAKEN'

After receiving a briefing on Friday from leaders of the U.S. intelligence agencies, Trump did not refer specifically to Russia's role in the presidential campaign.

In a statement, he acknowledged that "Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat(ic) National Committee."

Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told Reuters the president-elect's conclusions remained the same and that Priebus' comments were in line with Friday's statement.

Priebus’ wording did not appear to foreshadow the dramatic reversal of Trump’s apparent Russia policy that experts say would be required to deter further cyber attacks.

“It will take a lot more than what we heard on television today to make Putin cool it,” the expert added. “In fact, there may not be anything that can deter Putin from pursuing a course he’s bet his future and Russia’s on,” said a U.S. intelligence expert on Russia, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss domestic political positions.

The expert added that Putin's "multifaceted campaign of cyber attacks and espionage, propaganda, financial leverage, fake news and traditional espionage" had expanded in the United States since the election, "and it will be a shock if it does not escalate in France, Germany and elsewhere this year."

Priebus, the former Republican National Committee chairman Trump tapped as White House chief of staff, said Trump planned to order the intelligence community to make recommendations as to what should be done. "Action may be taken," he said, adding there was nothing wrong with trying to have a good relationship with Russia and other countries.

Two senior Republican senators urged Trump to punish Russia in response to U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusion that Putin personally directed efforts aimed at influencing the election.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain said evidence was conclusive that Putin sought to influence the election - a point that Trump has refuted.

"In a couple weeks, Donald Trump will be the defender of the free world and democracy," Graham said. "You should let everybody know in America, Republicans and Democrats, that you're going to make Russia pay a price for trying to interfere."

On Saturday, Trump wrote on Twitter that having a better relationship with Russia was a "good thing."

U.S. Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said three U.S. presidents had tried and failed to be friends with Putin.

"I’m just not sure it’s possible," Nunes said on the "Fox News Sunday" program. "I’ve cautioned his administration to be careful with Putin, as he remains a bad actor."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed it was not unusual for a new president to want to get along with the Russians. He added on CBS, however, that the Russians remained a "big adversary, and they demonstrated it by trying to mess around in our election."

Obama, who himself tried to "reset" relations with Russia after he took office in 2009, told NBC he did not think he had underestimated the Russian president.

"But I think that I underestimated the degree to which, in this new information age, it is possible for misinformation for cyber hacking and so forth to have an impact on our open societies, our open systems, to insinuate themselves into our democratic practices in ways that I think are accelerating," he said in an interview with "Meet the Press" broadcast on Sunday.



 (Additional reporting and writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Caren Bohan and Peter Cooney)

Why blaming Russia and the FBI for Hillary losing makes you look foolish

Here's the problem with Democrats blaming Clinton's loss on the FBI letter and the Russian hack of the DNC and Podesta:

1) She still led in the polls after the release of the FBI letter. The FBI's decision to review previously-unseen emails on Huma Abedin's laptop didn't push Trump ahead in the polls.

2) Nothing in the emails leaked by Russian state-run media was particularly scandalous. Millions of Clinton voters didn't abandon her because Donna Brazile tipped her off about debate questions. Looking at the polls, no one cared.

3) What destroyed voter confidence in Clinton was her use of an unsecured, unauthorized email server. That was revealed last year by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, not the FBI or Putin. It prevented her from ever overcoming her reputation for being shady and paranoid.

4) Clinton's lead in the polls was real, and she never lost it. She led in the polls by an average of 3.2%. Despite the Russian email leaks and the FBI "reopening" her email case, she still topped Trump by 2.0% in the popular vote. Polling numbers within 1.2% of the vote totals is remarkably accurate, and proof her support didn't collapse in the final week.

Clinton lost for one reason. Her campaign pulled resources from battleground states to run up turnout other states, despite warnings from staff on the ground her lead there was fragile. The millions of additional votes she created were rendered meaningless by the several hundred thousand she lost in states where it flipped electoral votes.

She thought she had the electoral vote sewn up and put all her chips on boosting Democrat turnout in other states to lengthen her coattails. She bet wrong. That wasn't the FBI or the Kremlin, that was Brooklyn.

When you compare the same Romney and Trump CNN polls the result is stunning

In order to win the White House, Donald Trump must perform better than Mitt Romney.  In fact, Trump specifically claimed he would do better than Romney among groups like women and the poor.

So what does comparing the same CNN poll from the same point in the 2012 and 2016 campaigns show?

Trump is doing worse than Romney among virtually every demographic group. The only group among which Trump outperforms Romney? Liberals.

Comparing CNN polls, Romney and Trump

[8/31-9/3, 2012 (735 LV) vs. 9/1-9/4, 2016 (786 LV)]

Men

55% - Romney

54% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 1%

Women

42% - Romney

38% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 4%

Whites

57% - Romney

55% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 2%

Income under $50K

42% - Romney

38% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 4%

Income over $50K

52% - Romney

48% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 4%

Democrats

5% - Romney

3% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 2%

Independents

52% - Romney

49% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 3%

Republicans

92% - Romney

90% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 2%

Liberals

5% - Romney

6% - Trump

Trump outperforming Romney 1%

Moderates

38% - Romney

30% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 8%

Conservatives

78% - Romney

75% - Trump

Trump underperforming Romney 3%

Is Trump outperforming Romney? The numbers don't lie.

In order to win the White House, Republicans have to expand upon the votes they won in 2012. Trump won the primary by promising to expand the GOP brand and win the votes of women, minorities and independents. So how is he doing? Not well. Let's compare Romney's CNN exit polls with Trump's latest CNN poll.
Men: 52% - Romney 54% - Trump Trump +2%

Women: 44% - Romney 38% - Trump Trump -6%

Whites: 59% - Romney 55% - Trump Trump -4%

Over 65 Years Old: 56% - Romney 55% - Trump Trump -1%

College Graduates: 51% - Romney 30% - Trump Trump -21%
 Not College Graduates: 47% - Romney 53% - Trump Trump +6%
 Income Under $50K: 38% - Romney 38% - Trump Trump tied
 Income Over $50K: 53% - Romney 48% - Trump Trump -5%
 Liberals: 11% - Romney 6% - Trump Trump -5%

Moderates: 41% - Romney 30% - Trump Trump -11%

Conservatives: 82% - Romney 75% - Trump Trump -7%

Democrats: 7% - Romney 3% - Trump Trump -4%

Independents: 50% - Romney 49% - Trump Trump -1%

Republicans: 93% - Romney 89% - Trump Trump -4%

Why was Obama’s Homeland Security chief speaking to a terrorist front group?

As Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson’s job is to identify and shut down terrorist groups.

Instead, he’s honoring them with speeches.

Johnson was the featured speaker at the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America.

The ISNA is all too familiar to Homeland Security officials.

That’s because it was named by the Justice Department as an “unindicted co=conspirator” in the largest terrorist financing prosecution in U.S. history – helping funnel millions of dollars to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood to carry out jihad against the United States.

WorldNetDaily reports:

In 1991, the Muslim Brotherhood, the super-umbrella network of Islamist ideology from which terror groups such as al-Qaida and Hamas arose, listed ISNA as one of its main fronts. Declassified FBI memos said ISNA is a component of the Muslim Brotherhood, which sees its “work in America as a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”

In 2007, the U.S. government labeled ISNA a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism-financing trial involving the Holy Land Foundation funneling money to Hamas. The label was upheld in 2009 because of “ample” evidence linking ISNA to Hamas. Several years ago, ISNA’s Canadian affiliate lost its status as a charity because of its accounting discrepancies and links to Pakistani terrorists...

...ISNA also was named in a May 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document, “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America,” as one of the Brotherhood’s likeminded “organizations of our friends” who shared the common goal of destroying America and turning it into a Muslim nation, according to Discover the Networks.

Rather than condemn the group, Johnson encouraged them to fight even harder.

“Tonight I will not look at this large group of Muslims before me in this room through a homeland security lens. Tonight I will not talk about counterterrorism. Tonight I will simply address you as who you are, ‘my fellow Americans,’” said Johnson.

“Your story is the quintessential American story. Your story is an American story, told over and over again, generation after generation, of waves of people who struggle for, seek, and will eventually win your share of the American dream,” Johnson told the ISNA, which has denied Osama bin Laden’s role in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and routinely raises money to fight the deportation of convicted terrorists.

This state just made it illegal to collect evidence against Planned Parenthood

At the request of Planned Parenthood, pro-abortion California legislators have passed an anti-speech law so draconian even liberal stalwarts like the ACLU and Los Angeles Times are concerned.

Hoping to shut down efforts by pro-life activists to publicize their illegal sale of baby body parts, the California state legislature passed legislation making it a crime to record “health care providers,” even if it the recordings reveal criminal activity.

People who record illegal activity by Planned Parenthood face a $10,000.00 fine and a year in prison.

Assembly Bill 1671 was a direct response to undercover tapes released by the Center for Medical Progress showing Planned Parenthood officials and employees illegally harvesting organs from dead babies and selling them at profit.

It was sponsored by Assembly Jimmy Gomez, who has taken $13,500.00 in campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood.

"Planned Parenthood still can't own up to the fact that their senior leadership was caught on camera talking about which places on a late-term baby to crush or not crush in order to harvest the most valuable body parts for sale," CMP president David Daleiden told LifeSiteNews.

"So, instead, Planned Parenthood is trying to make it a crime to see the evidence," Daleiden said.

But he’s not the only one disturbed by the pro-abortion bill.

Even liberals are disgusted by politicians’ brazen attempt to protect the abortion industry by arresting whistleblowers.

The California Newspaper Publishers Association warns the bill “potentially criminalizes speech.”

“We've been trying to help them find a way to accomplish their goals while not infringing on the First Amendment or creating liabilities for media,” said CNPA legal counsel Nikki Moore.

"The same rationale for punishing communications of some preferred professions or industries could as easily be applied to other communications [such as] law enforcement, animal testing labs, gun makers, lethal injection drug producers, the petroleum industry and religious sects," the ACLU of California warns in a letter to Gomez.

Even the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board called out their friends in Planned Parenthood for their fascist bill.

“Why a healthcare provider merits special protection even when discussing things that don’t involve patient privacy is mystifying...this measure would heap more criminal and civil penalties on making a secret recording — an act that’s already prohibited by state law, even when done in the public interest — simply to satisfy an interest group popular among Sacramento Democrats...The potential for unanticipated and unwelcome consequences is huge,” the Times writes.

Will other states follow suit?

And with liberals pushing anti-speech legislation and regulations on all fronts, will it soon become virtually illegal to be conservative?

ABC News shuts down its email after Stop Hillary PAC supporters demand they ask Hillary about Benghazi

WASHINGTON - Ahead of the network’s hosting of a Democratic presidential debate, ABC News has shut down the email accounts of its debate moderators after supporters of Stop Hillary PAC demanded they ask Hillary Clinton about her handling of a terrorist attack on Americans in Benghazi.
Newly released emails show that not only did Clinton refuse to deploy a rescue mission organized by General Martin Dempsey, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but American forces may have had an additional two hours to launch a rescue.

“Emails show Hillary Clinton ordered the military to stand down in Benghazi, even though General Dempsey had mobilized forces,” said Dan Backer, SHP’s general counsel. “Holding Hillary accountable means holding the media accountable for being her campaign spokespeople.”

“ABC News would rather be Hillary Clinton’s campaign advisers than a news network,” said Backer. “Rather than ask a candidate a question about her record, they are shutting down email accounts and refusing to do their job.”
-30-

Here's why the Planned Parenthood baby body parts scandal could be a federal crime

Here's what federal law says about selling fetal tissue

42 U.S. Code § 289g–2 - Prohibitions regarding human fetal tissue
(a) Purchase of tissue: It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration if the transfer affects interstate commerce. 

(e)(3) The term “valuable consideration” does not include reasonable payments associated with the transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, or storage of human fetal tissue.

Here's what California law says about selling fetal tissue

125320.  (a) A person may not knowingly, for valuable consideration, purchase or sell embryonic or cadaveric fetal tissue for research purposes pursuant to this chapter.
   (b) For purposes of this section, "valuable consideration" does
not include reasonable payment for the removal, processing, disposal, preservation, quality control, storage, transplantation, or
implantation of a part.

In other words, clinics can legally sell aborted fetal tissue at a legally-controlled rate.  The idea is to encourage tissue research without creating a profit incentive.

But it's a state crime to sell it for a price above what it costs a clinic to store, keep and ship it.

And it's a federal crime to do that when the tissue is sold across state line or "affects interstate commerce."

Here's what Planned Parenthood said.

On how Planned Parenthood clinics charge researchers for tissue:

Planned Parenthood: "And if they can do a little better than break even, and do so in a way that seems reasonable, they’re happy to do that....Every penny they save is a just pennies they give to another patient. To provide a service the patient wouldn’t get."
Buyer: "Because of the losses in that area."
PP:  "Exactly."

On sourcing fetal issue across state lines:

PP: "So, I don’t know your, what you’re thinking as far as range. If you’re thinking about just California, if you’re thinking about just the West Coast, if you’re thinking about bigger regions...."
Buyer: "...for example, StemExpress, they cater to researchers across the country but they’re sourcing material from just Northern California."
Planned Parenthood: "Exactly."

Here's why Planned Parenthood should call their criminal defense attorney 

If Planned Parenthood is charging "beyond break even," to use their own words, that may be a state crime.

And if Planned Parenthood sells  "beyond break even," to use their own words, across "the West Coast," to use their own words, that may be a federal crime.