This Week's News

SEC Will Issue Options-Timing Rule;
Tells PCAOB to Delay Stock Options Alert


Lucas Group Annual Hiring Survey Finds No Signs of Slowing Down

IRS Warns Phishing Scams Increasing

CPAs Debate FASB's Pension Draft

Bills Aim to Stop Retailers from Expanding into Banking


NEWS IN-DEPTH: PHILANTHROPIC CAPITALISM

Warren Buffett's recent announcement that he was giving away billions of dollars is the latest example of what is coming to be known as "philanthropic capitalism". Philanthropic capitalism is not a new concept, it's been around in various forms since the 18th Century. What is new is the heights to which Buffett and fellow philanthropic capitalist Bill Gates, are taking it.

It is not only the amount being given away, estimated to exceed $30 billion, that sets Buffett's actions apart. It is where and how he is doing it that is writing a new chapter in the wealth management book.

"It's a great model of simple, efficient tax planning," Howard Zaritsky, an estate planning lawyer at the Pitcairn Financial Group in Vienna, Virginia and author of several tax planning books, told the Providence Journal. "People are always looking for the complicated loophole. The simplest way to save taxes is to take something that has grossly gone up in value and give it to charity.

"Frankly, other people who have somewhat less than Warren Buffett should look very closely at what he is doing," Zaritsky adds.

For a closer look at "Philanthropic Capitalism: What the Successful Do Next," Click Here.


FOR YOUR HEALTH: COFFEE AS DISEASE PREVENTION

Coffee is the latest guilty pleasure to be given a medical reprieve, as long as it is consumed "in moderation". The mostly good news for coffee drinkers indicates that coffee may have health benefits affecting the following conditions:

- Blood Pressure. Study results for other cardiovascular effects may be mixed, but long-term coffee consumption does not increase the risk of high blood pressure over time.

- Cancer. Coffee may have anti-cancer properties based on studies showing coffee drinkers were 50 percent less likely to get liver cancer than non-coffee drinkers, and a few other studies have found ties between coffee and lower rates of colon, breast and rectal cancers.

- Cholesterol. Although two substances in coffee, kahweol and cafestol, raise cholesterol levels, these substances are filtered out by paper filters.

- Diabetes. Heavy coffee drinkers may be half as likely to get diabetes as light or non- coffee drinkers. This may be because coffee contains chemicals lowering blood sugar or because a coffee habit increases your resting metabolism rate, helping to keep diabetes at bay.

- Parkinson's Disease. Coffee seems to protect men, but not women, from Parkinson's Disease, possibly because estrogen and caffeine are metabolized by the same enzymes and estrogen captures those enzymes in women.

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July 13, 2006









Something to think about:

The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself.

-- Garth Brooks, Country Music