She went home with 8 statues from the Billboard music awards, with a big smile on her face. This year, she had a fantastic performance of one of her most popular songs called “22”. She entered the stage on a bike and there were lots of dancers all around her, making the whole performance more entertaining and colorful. Swift joked with the crowd, saying that her relationship with her fans is by far the longest one and the most powerful one she had.

Another artist who went home with a smile on his face was Justin Bieber. He had two performances at this event and he won three different awards in very important categories. He won the award for “top male artist”, the award for “social artist” and the award that comes from fan-votes. While doing his speech, Bieber sounded pretty happy and delighted, even though some people from the crowd booed him. He sounded pretty serious when he started to talk on stage after he received his awards. He stated that he would like to be seen as an artist, and that he believes that everything “should really be about the music”. He also said that he truly believes that he is doing a good job so far, even though he is only 19 years old. His performance was great as well, and he definitely gave the impression that his music evolved and now has a note of maturity to it. One of his performances was with the famous rapper Will.I.Am. His rise to fame was with his band, The Black Eyed Peas.

One of the most popular pop rock bands of the 21^st century, Maroon 5, received 11 nominations, but went away with one award. However, this band is still one of the most influential and popular bands of the decade. Rihanna and Gotye deservingly received four awards this year. Surprisingly, Nicki Minaj won the award for “top rap artist”. She was pretty shocked and confused as well. She stated she was most certainly not expecting to win this particular award for which rappers like Pitbull and Flo Rida were nominated. However, her popularity has grown so much in the past few months, so it is not that big of a surprise. Nicki Minaj performed on stage with her rapper friend, Lil Wayne.

Madonna, one of the most popular artists of all time, received three awards this year. Her words touched many of her fans, because they sounded honest and simple. Madonna said that she is glad that her fans have supported her throughout the years, for about three decades so far. She also added that if it wasn’t for her fans, she would not be where she is at the moment. Prince, another famous artist on a worldwide level, won the icon award this year.

The post Taylor Swift Goes Home with 8 Billboard Awards appeared first on Retire Like Me.

The 200mph-tornado was on the ground at Moore for 45 minutes, and up to 90 people are feared dead, with 120 more being treated in hospital. Among the dead are said to be 20 children, killed when the storm hit Plaza Towers Elementary school and flattened it. Many more are still missing, and the recovery operation is continuing, with 200 Oklahoma National Guardsmen working on the search and rescue mission.

President Obama has declared Oklahoma to be in a state of major disaster, and Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said it was a “tragic” day for the state.

Nearby Norman has opened its doors to any Moore resident who has lost their home in the disaster. The University of Oklahoma has offered its student accommodation free of charge for anyone who needs it, as has the Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee and the Journey Church in Norman. efforts are being co-ordinated by the Moore Oklahoma Tornado Recovery, which has a Facebook page set up with the latest information on.

One missing person is Christy Reeves, who works at Hays Brothers Construction and hasn’t been seen since the tornado hit. Tragically, she lost her husband in a previous tornado on May 3 and family are very concerned for her welfare. There is also a girl called Kaileigh Hawkins who is being treated at hospital but can’t locate her parents. If you live in the area and have any information, please contact the Moore Oklahoma Tornado Recovery.

In the mean time, our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost loved ones, or who are still looking for their friends and family. We can only hope that the death toll does not continue to rise.

The post Breaking News: More Tornado Destruction in Oklahoma appeared first on Retire Like Me.

That’s just what happened to Canadian singer Alexis Normand. To be fair, it isn’t her anthem. She was only given a few hours’ notice to prepare it, having thought she was singing the Canadian national anthem. But she’s a professional singer – she’s even been nominated for an award as “Best New Artist from Western Canada”. So there’s not much of an excuse for what happened out on the ice in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

The singer had been asked to perform the anthem before an ice hockey game between the Halifax Mooseheads and the Portland Winterhawks, as part of the Memorial Cup. Because one of the teams was American, a lot of the fans were also American and flagbearers followed Normand into the arena as she began singing her acapella take on “The Star Spangled Banner”

And that’s where it all went wrong. Around the third line, she stumbled over the words and then went silent. She gamely started up again, but clearly had no idea what she was doing. Fans, standing ready with hand on heart, looked horrified and then the stunned silence turned into jeers of laughter. But some audience members took pity on her, and joined in with the words, helping her limp to the end. A shot of the Portland Winterhawks players shows some of them trying to contain their giggles as the performance went on, with #13  unable to control himself.

In the past, when something like this happened, there was a chance of moving on and forgetting about it. But in this cyber age, it’s not so easy. The video quickly went viral, and the news spread over Twitter, as well as being featured on news networks like CNN. Alexis herself took to Twitter to apologize, saying “I’m embarrassed and deeply sorry. I wish I’d had more time to learn the American anthem. Thanks so much for the crowd’s help!” In the 24 hours that followed, she was plagued by abuse from angry patriots, and she tweeted again, to say that she’d been cyber-bullied.

Canadians seem to find the whole thing funny, however, and there have been plenty of messages of support. One tweet a few minutes ago said “your a true #Saskie. A true Saskie never quits & you didn’t. We all make mistakes – you’re representing us with great class!” (sic). Seems like she has plenty of fans in her homeland!

She plans to return to the Memorial Cup, but this time she’ll be singing something she’s more comfortable with – “O Canada”. Say what you like about her – and yes, she may well have performed the worst ever rendition of the National Anthem-  but she definitely has guts!

The post Could This Be the Worst Ever Rendition of the National Anthem? appeared first on Retire Like Me.

Fox News was outraged to find that lead Washington correspondent, James Rosen was the target of the DOJ for gathering news information.

Michael Clement, the executive vice president for news issued a statement where he said, “It is downright chilling.  We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”

The Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information regarding North Korea in 2009.  In this case, the reporter suspected of being the one to get the secret information was subject to much more than a search of his phone records.   The DOJ suspected that Fox reporter James Rosen received classified information from the government advisor, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim.

Rosen was reportedly tracked when he visited and left the State Department.  The DOJ also tracked timing of Rosen’s calls with the State Department Security advisor who was suspected of being the provider of the classified information.  Additionally, the DOJ got a search warrant for Rosen’s personal email.

The Fox News’ reaction came after Monday’s report about the DOJ investigation into a potential leak of information about North Korea that is classified.  In 2010, Stephen J. Kim, a former State Department Arms expert, was charged with disclosing information regarding national defense to James Rosen, who is chief Washington corresponded for Fox News.

In the 2010 search warrant for the correspondent’s personal email, investigators suggested that Rosen might possibly be criminally liable for seeking the classified information.  In 2011, the warrant was unsealed, but according to a Fox News executive, the network had no idea about the allegations until the report in the Post on Monday.

Rosen has not been prosecuted for seeking this information, and no reporter has ever faced prosecution for such actions, but experts on government transparency and media lawyers have said that the DOJ crossed a line when they characterized Rosen as a potential co-conspirator.

The media have expressed outrage over the AP phone records scandal as it’s being called, and many feel that the White House has much to answer for in this situation.  Lawmakers and media on both sides of the aisle are extremely concerned about the freedom of the press and their rights.

According to Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists,”Asking for information has never been deemed a crime.  It’s a line that has not been crossed up until now.

The post Fox News Reporter Investigated by DOJ appeared first on Retire Like Me.

stock photo by Heather Nilson

A series of  Iraq car bomb attacks has left over 50 people dead and hundreds injured. A dozen reported explosions left the dead and injured in three cities throughout the country, early reports say.

Nine of the twelve bombs went off across neighborhoods in Baghdad. Two blasts occurred in the southern city of Basra, and another explosion happened in Samarra, northwest of Baghdad, according to a BBC report.

The attacks are part of the recent rise in violence in Iraq linked to growing political and sectarian tension.

Police said nearly 200 people were injured in Monday’s violence in Iraq. Eight Iranian pilgrims are reported to be among the dead.

One of the bloodiest attacks in Baghdad happened in the northern Shia neighbourhood of Shaab, when a car bomb exploded near a crowded market place killing at least 12 people and wounding more than 20.

The bombs in Basra, a mainly Shia Muslim city, killed at least 14 outside a restaurant and the main bus station.

“We were sitting here waiting for work and as usual we gathered near a street food cart and the place was very crowded,” Basra resident Mohammed Ali, who was near one of the blasts, told Reuters news agency.

“I crossed the street to the other side when all of a sudden it turned dark, dust filled the area. I was showered with metal wreckage and wounded in my legs.”

A further three people were killed and 15 wounded in a car bomb attack in Samarra, a city some 113km (70 miles) north of Baghdad. The blast reportedly happened near a gathering of members of the pro-government Sunni militia, the Awakening Council.

In a separate incident, 10 policemen kidnapped on Saturday in western Anbar province have been found dead.

No group has said it carried out Monday’s bomb attacks, but tension between the Shia Muslim majority, which leads the government, and minority Sunnis has been growing since last year.

Sunni demonstrators have accused the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of discriminating against them – something the government denies.

Monday’s bombings are the latest in reports of increasing violence across Iraq. Tension has been increasing between the Shia and Sunni factions since last year, according to the BBC. The area has been unstable for a long time. Saddam Hussein and his Sunni faction ruled the nation for years, and persecuted the majority Shia Muslim population. Sunnis are now the target of discrimination, they claim, after the Shia parties gained political power following Hussein’s death. Violence is growing in intensity as Sunni protests are on the increase and clashes between protesters and government forces carry increasing casualties.

Reports of the number of dead are varying hugely during the initial stages. Some media outlets report 40 dead, some as many as 80. It is possible that the reports are not all looking at the same cities or the same time frames. Reason.com has reported a death toll of 79 on Monday morning. The deaths of these bombings are those reported only for explosions happening on Monday. Previous recent deaths have reached over 200 people within one week, according to the Reason article.

The post Iraq Car Bomb Attacks Leave Dozens Dead appeared first on Retire Like Me.

Women who decide to give birth to their child at their homes should be given that right, according to doctors all around the world. Unless the home environment is not really a safe place to give birth, this particular way of giving birth is nothing to be afraid of. However, having a well-educated team of professionals is undeniably important. The American Academy of Pediatrics decided to speak on this subject in a recent post. They stated that having a nurse, midwife and a doctor must never be neglected when a woman wants to give birth of her child at her home. At this point, only one percent of the births per a year in the States are actual homebirths, but recently, more and more pregnant women decide to give birth at their homes. Doctors stated that giving birth to a baby in your home is hundred percent different and dissimilar to giving birth at a hospital.

Even though this type of giving birth might sound like an easier substitute, it turns out that everything might not always go according to plans. About ten to forty percent of the pregnant women who tried to give birth at their homes had to be taken to the nearest hospital because they suffered from unwanted and unforeseen complications while giving birth to their babies. Watterberg said that pregnant women should never neglect a couple of important things that need to be seen as significant  when one is giving birth at home. First and foremost, every pregnant woman must comprehend the sole difference between giving birth at home and at the hospital. When you find out if there is some specific dissimilarity and when you hear about all the advantages and disadvantages of giving birth at your home, you will be able to bring a sane and mature decision. For example, women who live far away from a hospital should not even consider giving birth at home.

Apart from the fact that people love talking about the increased risk of giving birth at home, they should talk about the risk of giving birth behind hospital doors, too. Rothman, an American midwife believes that it is of great importance to know that there are many risks that can easily come in the hospital as well. One of the main examples is that in the hospital, it is most likely that you will have a cesarean section. The teams who are trained in helping a woman to give birth at home always have the latest equipment containing oxygen, IV set-ups etc. Therefore, the women who decide to give birth in their homes have nothing to fear because the teams who are trained to help these women deliver their babies are professionals who are taught how to react in any sort of situation.

The post What Do Doctors Say about Home Birth? appeared first on Retire Like Me.

One of several tornadoes that touched down Sunday in Oklahoma turned homes in a trailer park near Oklahoma City into splinters and rubble and sent frightened residents along a 100-mile corridor scurrying for shelter.

The tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa were part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

At least four tornadoes touched down in central Oklahoma late Sunday afternoon, including the one near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to a mobile home park.

A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado left the earth “scoured” at the mobile home park.

Hearing on the radio that a violent storm was approaching her rural Oklahoma neighborhood, Lindsay Carter took advantage of the advanced warning, gathered her belongings and fled. When she returned, there was little left of the community she called home.

Victims and emergency responders might not get much of reprieve as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s StormPredictionCenter was forecasting similar weather for Monday over much of the same area.

“It took a dead hit,” resident James Hoke said. Emerging from a storm cellar where he sought refuge with his wife and two children, Hoke found that their mobile home had vanished. “Everything is gone.”

Hoke said he started trying to help neighbors and found his wife’s father covered in rubble.

“My father-in-law was buried under the house. We had to pull Sheetrock off of him,” Hoke said.

Forecasters had been warning of bad weather since last Wednesday and on Sunday said conditions had ripened for powerful tornadoes. Wall-to-wall broadcasts of storm information spread the word Sunday, leaving Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth grateful.

“There was a possibility a lot more people could have been injured,” Booth said. “This is the worst I’ve seen in PottawatomieCounty in my 25 years of law enforcement.”

Carter had heard on a radio broadcast that a storm that had originated southwest of Oklahoma City was headed toward Shawnee.

“We got in the truck and left,” Carter said. With upward of 30 minutes’ notice for PottawatomieCounty, Carter had time to leave one of the few frame homes in Steelman Estates – and most of her house was intact when she returned.

“I walked up, and the house was OK. Part of the roof was gone,” she said.

The scene was different a short distance away.

“Trees were all gone. I walked further down and all those houses were gone,” she said.

Booth said a 79-year-old man was found dead out in the open at Steelman Estates, but the sheriff didn’t have details on where he had lived.

“You can see where there’s absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up,” Booth said. “It looks like there’s been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour.

“It’s pretty bad. It’s pretty much wiped out,” he said.

A tornado touched down in Wichita, Kansas, near Mid-ContentAirport on the city’s southwest side, shortly before 4 p.m., knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses but bypassing the most populated areas of Kansas’ biggest city. The Wichita tornado was an EF1 on the enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of 110 mph, according to the weather service.

Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Randy Duncan said there were no reports of fatalities or injuries in Kansas.

The post Tornado leave Oklahoma devastated appeared first on Retire Like Me.

Iran says it has hung two spies. One was convicted of giving information to Israeli agency Mossad. The other was convicted  of spying for the CIA. An Iranian news report on Sunday morning announced that hangings had taken place at dawn.

None of the reports indicated when the arrests or the trials took place. Kourosh Ahmadi was convicted of giving information to the CIA. Mohammad Heydari was convicted of providing intelligence to agents for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in exchange for money.

An Al Jazeera report stated:

Mohammad Heidari, accused of passing security-related information and secrets to Israeli Mossad agents in exchange for money, and Kourosh Ahmadi, accused of gathering information for the US Central Intelligence Agency, were hanged at dawn on Sunday, the report said.

The sentence for their execution was handed down by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court and confirmed by the country’s Supreme Court.

The report did not say when the pair were arrested nor when their trial took place.

Iran uses hangings for executions, some of them public. Iran has accused and tried people for killing scientists working on Iran’s nuclear program. An article from CNN said on Sunday that

Israeli officials didn’t comment on the report.

The U.S. State Department acknowledged seeing the reports but had no comment. The CIA didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The advocacy group Human Rights Activists News Agency, based in Iran, estimated in 2012 that there were 488 hangings in the prior 12 months. About 12% of those were public executions, the group said, according to a State Department report.

One person hanged in 2012 was Majid Jamali Fashi, who was convicted of killing an Iranian scientist. Iran said Israel paid him $120,000 to kill elementary-particle physicist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi.

Iran also has blamed the United States and the United Kingdom for attacks against nuclear scientists.

US officials have denied all reports of the intelligence operations or of carrying out assassinations of nuclear scientists. Other accused people have been tried previously, including a man that CNN described as a former Marine. The BBC also reported on the hangings and former trials.

Iran has repeatedly accused Israel and the US of carrying out covert intelligence operations.

It comes amid continuing tension over its nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes but Western nations suspect is being used to build an atomic weapon.

It is not clear when Heydari and Ahmadi were arrested or where they were tried.

Their execution was handed down by Tehran’s Revolutionary Court and confirmed by the Supreme Court, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

It said the two men were hanged at dawn.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence given to Amir Mirzai Hekmati, an Iranian-American national accused of spying for the CIA.

The judge found the verdict was “not complete” and ordered a retrial. Both Mr Hekmati and the US deny the spying allegations.

None of the reports indicate that the men had citizenship in the US or Israel. It can be inferred that the men are Iranians accused of passing intelligence to CIA and Mossad agents, but none of the sources confirm this.

The post Iran Says it Hung Spies for CIA, Israel appeared first on Retire Like Me.

Health care costs for retirees can really add up, but smart decisions at the beginning can help people to live well and save money.

Start by reducing the cost of prescriptions

Out of pocket prescription costs can make a sizeable dent in many retiree’s income.  That’s why it’s a smart idea to switch to generic medications when offered, and choose a supplemental insurance that offers the prescription drug coverage option.  It might cost a little bit more each month, but when that’s added up and compared against out of pocket costs, it will likely be well worth it.

Many retirees are seeking alternative, low cost options to the prescriptions that they currently use.  Many medications have similar effects, but they can vary widely in costs, so shopping for alternatives might be an effective option.

Find the Best Medicare Option, and Learn to Shop for Supplemental Insurance

This step works two fold, but it starts with choosing the Medicare option that works best for your needs.  Determine what factors are the most beneficial to you.  Also, some areas offer Medicare Advantage plans, so if this is available to you, take advantage of it.  Otherwise, open enrollment is usually between October and December, and this is the time to change plans.

Supplemental insurance is the next step, and while there are many options out there, it’s best to choose the plan that will work well with your Medicare choice.

It pays to shop for health care

Everything from a standard visit to the doctor, to having major procedures can cost quite a bit of money.  You want to know that you’re getting the best care possible, but you don’t want to pay too much for it, either.  Before you jump right into the health care abyss, ask questions.  Find out how much procedures cost, and how much you will have to pay out of your pocket before you decide on where you will have anything done.

Preventative services are free; use them

Much like the flu shot that you can get at your local pharmacy, for little or no cost to you; many preventative services are free, and it pays to use them.  Certain cancer screenings, and in some cases, personalized health profiles can help individuals to take advantage of free services.

Tax free savings accounts and long term health care count

Health savings accounts are tax free, and when this stash is built over time, they can help to pay for medical procedures and care so that retirees don’t have to dip into their funds for living.  Many insurance companies offer this option, and it’s worth looking into.

When it comes to long term health care, there’s no point avoiding the inevitable.  It pays to plan, especially as you age.  Health care costs can add up and have the potential to put a dent into lifetime savings, so having a long term health care plan, and putting the funds away can make a tremendous difference in the long term quality of life for everyone.

The post Health Care Costs Adding Up? Top Ways to Save Money appeared first on Retire Like Me.

FDA likely to make regulations for opioid pain medications stricter.

It  is likely that the FDA will approve the new recommendations, which include changes such as no more than one month worth of the medication at once.  Other changes include preventing refills without another doctor visit.  Prescriptions for opioid medications will also no longer be able to be emailed, phoned or faxed to pharmacies.  Physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners will also not be allowed to prescribe opioid pain relievers in states that limit their prescribing powers.

Part of the reason that the FDA is considering the changes is due to an increase of concern regarding the abuse and misuse of prescription opioid pain relievers.  Also, when these medications are taken, the potential for overdose and addiction is extremely high.  Each year overdoses cause about 15,000 deaths.  The DEA has been pushing for the FDA to change the classification of opioid pain relievers for a while now.  The proposed changes would make these medications just one step down from being prohibited.

Many feel that the Federal Drug Administration will accept the panel’s recommendation, which is planning to change the prescribing rules for about 47 million Americans that take these medications legally each year.  Those who honestly need, and legitimately receive, prescriptions for these medications are likely the ones that will experience the pain of the changes.  New regulations ultimately mean more co-pays for doctor visits, and an added inconvenience of getting to the doctor’s office each month.

The changes are actually meant to make it harder to people that abuse the medication illegally to get their hands on the drug.  One group, called Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, is working to make sure that those who are legitimately receiving the drug can still have access to it that they need.

There are a number of different studies and government statistics that have found that most of those who develop an opioid pain medication addiction have not done so because of prescriptions that are legitimately prescribed.  Most of the studies show that the vast majority of those that have used drugs that have hydrocodone in them recreationally between 2010 and 2011 actually got a hold of them from friends and/or family members for free.  Most of the time, they actually got permission to take the drugs.

Not only did the studies uncover these statistics, but they also found that most of the overdoses that turned out to be fatal didn’t seem to have any link to people that take their pain drugs as they have been prescribed by a doctor.  In West Virginia, a study was done that examined the records of drug treatment records and the medical examiner.  Researchers found that 95 percent of the overdose victims actually displayed addiction behaviors such as snorting and injecting the drugs that are meant to be oral.

Despite the good intentions of the new regulations, many believe that the numbers are an indicator of what is being overlooked, and should be paid closer attention to by the FDA before making such strict regulations.  Although nobody is denying that there is an issue with the abuse of opioid pain relievers, making stricter laws about the way they are prescribed will likely not be the way to deal with the problem.

The post FDA Considers New Controls for Opioid Pain Relievers appeared first on Retire Like Me.