This is an effort to finally plug the gap where seniors have to pay out of pocket once they go past the initial coverage limit just before they reach the catastrophic coverage threshold.

80,000 people are expected to get checks once the first ones get mailed on June 10.

“We think our members will see these checks as a good faith down payment on what they’ve been looking for so long: closing this coverage gap,” said Cheryl Matheis, AARP’s senior vice president said.

In a nutshell, here’s how the donut hole works:

In addition to a $310 deductible, Medicare beneficiaries pay 25% of their drug costs until the total reaches $2,830 for the year. Then, they fall into a coverage gap. At that point, enrollees must pay all costs out of pocket until their annual expenses exceed $6,440. After that, seniors pay 5% of drug costs for the rest of the year.

Source: CNN

Bernanke’s current term will be up in January and President Obama nominated him for another four-year term. The vote now goes to the whole Senate. It does look like he’s going to get it.

Many would consider Bernanke’s leadership as pivotal in preventing a toal economic crash – what could have been another Great Depression. Though critics would also point out that the housing bubble burst could’ve been prevented and that he has gone overboard in bailing out companies.

Bernanke’s recently been hailed by Time magazine as its Person of the Year.

The government’s pay czar Kenneth Feinberg issued the new pay restrictions for the top employees of bailout recepients. The ruling will affect 75 of the 100 top employees of Citigroup, AIG, General Motors and GMAC.

The ruling will prevent execs from receiving more than $500,000 base salary. At least half would come in form of company stock and the rest in cash.

“We want to minimize these runaway perks and other compensation practices,” Feinberg said.

A close monitoring of salaries and bonuses was instituted after AIG made a scandal releasing millions of dollars in bonuses to its financial division despite receiving bailout money.

CNN Money explores “Accepting Gifts,” a 1961 enacted law under the U.S. code which states that individuals can accept tax-deductible donations to help pay down the country’s debt.

Over the years, there have been contributions made. Most are under $100 and the largest by far is $3.5 million dollars.

For the fiscal year of 2009, donations totaled to jsut over $3 million, which is a lot less than the total amount contributed in 1994 – $21 million.

Do you wish to contribute?

You can send a check directly to:
Attn: Dept G, Bureau of the Public Debt, P.O. Box 2188, Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188.

You can also “include a check — separate from any tax payment you make – with your federal income tax return.”

In Detroit, bodies in the county morgues are piling up not necessarily because of changes in crime rates and health concerns, it’s just that people don’t have enough money to bury their dead. Pretty haunting given that

In Wayne County, 67 bodies remain unclaimed in the morge and officials have no choice but to stack them in its freezer. The smallest cost to deal with the body is $695 for a cremation and it’s basically a luxury given the economy.

The reason for the pile-up is twofold: One, unemployment in the area is approaching 28%, and many people, like the Vickers, can’t afford last rites; two, the county’s $21,000 annual budget to bury unclaimed bodies ran out in June.

And this trend isn’t a Detroit thing as well (though Detroit has been one of the hardest hit due to the auto industry crash), the same trend can also be seen in other locales such as Los Angeles.

Source: CNN Money Detroit