Newsletter

Program…Gene Lennon

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Eli Tehrani is the territory manager and the ADA Title IV specialist for Clearcaptions in the San Francisco and Bay Area. His background is in medical and computer related products. He started working for Clearcaptions about a year ago and was working for Simarka Management prior to Clearcaptions. His mission is to work with local communities, organizations and individuals in the Bay Area to get the word out to persons with hearing loss that they are entitled to receive a captioning phone absolutely FREE so they can have a healthier, happier and more independent lifestyle.

FEBRUARY 20 IN Q80

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Social Time 9:30 am Meeting 10 am

Leave clean clothing, bedding and nonperishable food for Sacred Heart on the bench outside. Please do not bring garage sale type items for Sacred Heart. Please bring books to share. Place these items on the first table: donations for the troops, new and used greeting cards in the box; your volunteer hours in purple envelope.

Lunch after Meeting:

The Garret 408-559-7930

1777 S. Bascom Ave, Campbell

Program:

Eli Tehrano, Clearcaptions

IT’S SHOW TIME!

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A fun time of an old-fashioned melodrama complete with boos and hisses from the audience, including olios, food and prizes, will be had by all! It’s presented by the Santa Clara Women’s League to benefit the Senior Citizen Health and Welfare program. This year we have tickets for two performances: an evening performance Saturday, March 3, doors open at 5:30 pm, show starts at 7:00 pm or a matinee performance Sunday March 4, doors open at 12:30 pm, show starts at 2:00 pm. Come early to get a good seat and good food including hot dogs, nachos, cookies, popcorn, soft drinks, wine, and more. Buy your raffle and 50/50 tickets.

It is held at the Santa Clara Community Center, 969 Kiely Blvd. across from the old Kaiser Hospital location between Homestead and Benton. Tickets are $10, children 5 and under $5. Join us for a great time! Write check to Paddy Wray and get your tickets from her at the tour table at the Feb. 20 general meeting.

President…Ken Schieck

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February is the month of valentines and hearts, snowstorms in the East and Midwest (and maybe the South!). Given the severity of this year’s flu bug, there may be fewer hugs and kisses going around. During February we also commemorate Black History. And, of course, the Super Bowl with Bay Area native Tom Brady playing in his eighth!

Events and birthdays in February include:

Feb 01, 1838 – Underground railroad established

Feb 02, 1653 – New Amsterdam, now NYC, incorporated

Feb 04, 1861 – Confederated States of America formed

Feb 07, 1910 – Boy Scouts of America incorporated

Feb 09, 1945 – US troops invade Iwo Jima

Feb 14, 1929 – St. Valentine’s day Massacre in Chicago

Feb 17, 1968 – Nation’s first 911 system went into effect

Feb 21, 1972 – President Nixon visits China

Feb 26, 1846 – Buffalo Bill Cody born in Iowa

Feb 27, 1922 – US Supreme Court upholds 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.

Approximately forty chapter members and guests attended the January holiday brunch at the Hometown Buffet in Santa Clara January 16. Many thanks to Paddy Wray, her committee and volunteers who pulled it all together. This particular Hometown Buffet offers active duty military personnel and veterans a discount every Monday. Check it out.

During the months of February and March as we prepare our tax forms, the national office of AARP reminds us to be aware of scams; having a trusted tax advisor and financial consultant is like money in the bank!

New Year. New VTA Fares. New Service!

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Starting January 1, 2018 VTA will implement new fare changes. Adult fares will increase to $2.25 while youth fares will drop to one dollar.
Enjoy faster service and free transfers for the first 2 hours when purchasing single ride fares with Clipper Card or the EZfare app across VTA buses and light rail, except express buses. Additionally, VTA will be extending service hours on select routes.
For more information regarding fares and service improvements, please visit http://www.vta.org/getting- around/2018-f…
Dec 8 in General to subscribers of Valley Transportation Authority

Learning to Add Content to Our Website…Rick Loek

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Our Campbell area chapter of AARP has a website. Believe it or not, editing the website is pretty easy and will get even easier. Would you like to learn about adding content to our website?

We are hosting a couple of training sessions to learn more about our website and how to add content. There will be two training sessions in January. Monday, January 15th at 1:30 PM and Friday, January 19th at 9 AM. If you would like to participate in one of these or request an additional time – please call me at 408.874.6234.

The training sessions will be held in my office at 1875 Winchester Blvd, #101 here in Campbell CA. I promise the training to be engaging, fun and fairly easy to understand. If you participated before, consider coming back.

REMINDER: Never ever give personal financial information online.

Legislative Report…Daniel Nnorth and Claudia Schott

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The tax bill in Congress passed. It’s been a long road of compromising because of two bills, one from the House and the other from the Senate, that are being merged into one. This is the one that gives corporations a tax break and the middle class (that’s you and me, folks) little more than lip service.

There is good news, though, within this bill. Although, corporations will see their 35% tax rate pushed back to 21%, and “pass-through” businesses will see a tax rate of only 21%, the compromise agreement will also retain the popular deduction for medical expenses and repeal the individual mandate included in the 2010 health care law, among other provisions.

One provision on the chopping block was the Senate proposal to maintain the alternative minimum tax. The alternative minimum tax (AMT) is a supplemental income tax imposed by the United States federal government required in addition to baseline income tax for certain individuals, corporations, estates, and trusts that have exemptions or special circumstances allowing for lower payments of standard income tax. The House-passed tax bill would eliminate the AMT for individuals and corporations. After some last-minute changes, the Senate bill ended up keeping the full corporate AMT and a scaled-back individual AMT in order to pay for other late changes in their plan. Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady said House GOP members “feel strongly” about permanently ending the AMT, while conservative and business groups have zeroed in on repealing it as a top priority for everyone.

Republican leaders and tax writers were forced to backtrack from early plans to totally wipe out the deduction for state and local taxes, or SALT, after GOP members from high-tax states like New York and New Jersey revolted. Even California Republicans want to keep the deduction, as it is a more effective tax break for their constituents – namely, us. A compromise was reached to allow up to $10,000 in deductions for property taxes, a provision that was worked into both the House and Senate plans. Although the mortgage interest deduction is limited to debt of up to $750,000. Some of this helps, other parts hinder us.

The bill was stuck in negotiations for quite a while, especially on reducing the number of individual tax brackets. Although the House plan, slashing the number of rates to four: 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent would have been better, the Senate tax bill, which keeps a more complex rate schedule, with seven brackets beginning at 10 percent and topping out at 37 percent won out after much haggling.

Changes were also included in the final plan aimed at appeasing two Republican holdouts, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Mike Lee of Utah, who were seeking broader refundability for the child tax credit. The bill will allow up to $1,400 of the tax credit to be refundable, according to Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., one of the House conferees. That’s up from $1,100 in the Senate and House bills, which Rubio and Lee said was too low.

The final draft went up for a vote on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 and then on to President Trump’s desk for signing. The Republicans are already celebrating.

“When we get this done, when people see their withholding improving, when they see jobs occurring, when they see bigger paychecks, a fairer tax system, a simpler tax code, that’s what’s going to produce the results,” said Paul Ryan, R-Wis. What bothers me is that the corporate tax cuts are permanent, but the individual tax cuts expire by 2026……

Community Service…Marilyn Clough

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The cat’s out of the bag! Our surprise mystery guest at the January luncheon will be none other than …… The Purple Envelope! ……. complete with Scratch Paper!!

Do not pass up this last opportunity to submit your 2017 Volunteer Hours. Make President Ken look good!! Make our chapter look great!! Start the new year off with a bang!!!