From the U.S. News & World Report website
Moving to a place with a lower cost of living can improve your retirement finances. If you sell a home in an expensive city and buy or rent in another city with more reasonable housing costs, you may be able to boost your retirement savings, retire sooner or enjoy a higher quality of life.
A recent U.S. News analysis compared the 125 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. as potential retirement spots. The study included data about housing affordability, happiness, desirability, retiree taxes, the job market and access to quality health care. These are the cities with the most affordable housing that also scored highly on the U.S. News Best Places to Retire in 2020 ranking.
The result is an API for both Android phones and iPhones that will allow state health agencies to produce apps to notify the public about possible COVID-19 exposure.
In the release notes for iOS 13.5, you may have noticed a somewhat ominous message. Apple says that the update, “introduces the Exposure Notification API to support COVID-19 contact tracing apps from public health authorities.”
That sounds an awful lot like it’s going to allow the government to track you and invade your privacy! Fortunately, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Contact tracing and exposure notification are important tools to help limit the spread of COVID-19 and enable the easing of lockdown restrictions, but only if they are widespread.
To that end, Apple and Google got together back in April to develop technology that would notify you if you may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 without compromising your identity, location, or personal information.
Attached is today’s COVID-19 Daily News Update issued by Hawaii State Department of Health.
There is a large amount of speculation regarding COVID-19, please rely on OFFICIAL sources for accurate information. We added a long term post on the maroon bar above titled “COVID-19 Information.” The post includes links to the Hawaii Department of Health, the CDC and the FEMA websites.
From the This Day in Aviation website
25 May 1889: И́горь Ива́нович Сико́рский (Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky) was born at Kiev, Russian Empire, the fifth of five children of Professor Ivan Alexeevich Sikorsky and Doctor Mariya Stefanovich Sikorskaya.
Following the October Revolution, Sikorsky emigrated to the United States. Departing Le Havre, France, aboard S.S. La Lorraine, he arrived at New York on 31 March 1919. With financial backing from composer and conductor Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff, he founded the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company at Long Island, New York, in 1924, and continued designing and building airplanes.
The company which Igor Sikorsky founded has continued as one of the world’s biggest helicopter manufacturers. Recently acquired by Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky continues to produce the UH-60-series of Blackhawk medium helicopters, the large CH-53K King Stallion, and the civil S-76D and S-92. A variant of the S-92 has been selected as the next helicopter for the U.S. presidential air fleet, the VH-92A. This helicopter is planned to be operational by 2020.
Continue reading – great old photographs
From the Images of Old Hawaii website
The tradition of rendering a salute by cannon originated in the 14th century as firearms and cannons came into use. Since these early devices contained only one projectile, discharging them rendered them harmless. Initially, the tradition began as a custom among ships, whose captains had volleys fired upon entering a friendly port to release its arsenal, which demonstrated their peaceful intentions (by placing their weapons in a position that rendered them ineffective).
This custom was eventually adopted by the British navy whose ships fired seven-gun salutes, choosing the number seven because it was thought to be the luckiest of the odd numbers.
From the Images of Old Hawaii website
On May 5, 1866, the village of Waterloo, New York was decorated with flags at half mast, draped with evergreens and mourning black, and flowers were placed on the graves of those killed in the Civil War. In the following years, the ceremonies were repeated.
Later, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that “Decoration Day” should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
Remembering the service, honor and courage of the brave men and women who died defending our homeland. To all who came before – thank you for your sacrifice.
From the This Day in Aviation website
24 May 1978: McDonnell Douglas delivered the 5,000th F-4 Phantom II, F-4E-65-MC 77-0290, to the United States Air Force in a ceremony at the McDonnell Aircraft Company division at St. Louis, Missouri.
From the Car and Driver website
Mainstream luxury crossovers and SUVS come in all shapes and sizes, but if you’re searching for that perfect combination of performance and practicality, the mid-size class is where you should look. Compact crossovers, such as the Alfa Romeo Stelvio or the Porsche Macan, are nimble but tight on space, while full-size SUVs, such as the Toyota Sequoia or the Chevrolet Suburban, require spacious parking lots and deep wallets. The mid-size class offers both two- and three-row layouts and manageable dimensions. This is also one of the largest classes of vehicles on the market, so it includes traditional SUVs with real off-road chops and more modern crossovers that emphasize performance over practicality.
From the Air Force Magazine website
The Air Force removed the minimum height requirement for applicants who want to fly as it looks to increase the diversity of those entering USAF cockpits.
Under previous standards, pilots much reach a standing height of 64 inches to 77 inches—5-foot, 4 inches to 6-foot, 6 inches—with a sitting height of 34-40 inches. This requirement disqualified about 44 percent of the U.S. female population between 20 and 29 years of age, according to an Air Education and Training Command release.
There are still moves that IRA owners can make to help ease the transfer of their legacy to their chosen beneficiaries and save some money from the taxman.
Over the years, we lauded the stretch IRA as one of our favorite tax-saving moves, to help mitigate the tax bill when nonspouse heirs inherit retirement accounts and build wealth for another generation. But all good things come to an end—starting this year, nonspouse heirs who inherit IRAs are out of luck when it comes to using the stretch. The SECURE Act, signed into law in late 2019, mandates that many nonspouse heirs who receive inherited retirement accounts must empty the accounts within a decade.
Off the Hawaii Air National Guard Facebook page
For this week’s featured Throwback we have TSgt Chris Fredeluces during the begininng of his career almost 20 years ago as a member of the 154th Services Flight (154 SVF) – now known as the 154th Force Support Squadron (FSS)! During this time TSgt Fredeluces and the rest of the HIANG Services team grew not only closer as a family, but also as highly trained and qualified unit able to deploy to any location in the world and set up support services for all our deployed airmen, soldiers, sailors, and marines. A mission that our Services airmen proudly continue on today!
From the Connecting Vets website
Enlisting in the Army with a childhood friend or relative is a generations-old practice meant to bring familiarity and comfort to an experience fraught with stress and uncertainty.
So, does signing up with more than one recruit further ease the difficulties associated with initial military training?
The answer is an emphatic “yes” as it relates to members of a Samoan family with a decidedly large footprint here. There are 41 of them enrolled in various Sustainment Center of Excellence courses here, twisting the old adage “strength in numbers.”
Thanks to Rex Jones, former EEO manager for the Hawaii National Guard for sharing this article. After leaving Hawaii, he worked in other Federal agencies before retiring. He currently is the owner of RJ Consulting in Wisconsin.
From the Military Times website
Personnel may be scarce at the currently closed National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, but that didn’t stop one innovative hero from employing some arts and crafts merrymaking under a section of wall devoted to the United States Space Force chain of command.
A photo taken at the Ohio museum that first surfaced on Reddit revealed a superimposed — with Scotch tape — photo on top of where Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond’s official photo should be.
The replacement? None other than Gen. Mark R. Naird, Steve Carell’s character in the upcoming Netflix workplace comedy series, “Space Force” — an obvious nod to President Donald Trump’s launch of the U.S. military’s newest branch.
The image of Naird also came replete with a biography that replaced Raymond’s.
Attached is today’s COVID-19 Daily News Update issued by Hawaii State Department of Health.
There is a large amount of speculation regarding COVID-19, please rely on OFFICIAL sources for accurate information. We added a long term post on the maroon bar above titled “COVID-19 Information.” The post includes links to the Hawaii Department of Health, the CDC and the FEMA websites.
Retiree News 