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  It is not clear when the Federal Reserve will pull the trigger and raise shorter-term rates. It has been quite some time since the Fed has had to do this. The last time they raised rates was in 2007. Let me be clear, what the Fed raises is not mortgage rates, but rather a short-term rate that is call the Fed Funds Rate. This is the rate that banks charge to borrow money from each other. If the Fed raises this rate, then banks will usually increase their rates to consumers or business that borrower to them. This will …

Last month we learned how to find our ancestors’ applications to become United States Citizens. I would like to add some new information about the process first after spending the past month trying to find many distant relatives. The only index on line is an index to the card file. This is what the card looks like:     The first critical piece of information we need is the “Title and location of court”. There are basically three choices here that cover 99% of the people in this index: US District Superior Court Cook County Circuit Court Cook County A …

The rental market these days is hot, hot, hot! A recent study showed that renters will spend up to 45 percent of their monthly income on housing. With the real estate market still in recovery mode and younger people leaving the nest earlier than in recent decades, rental properties can be lucrative. So what will set your rental property apart from the rest? When someone is looking to rent, they will look at numerous properties. What will make them choose yours after they slim the list down? Location is not always the key, with a potential tenant choosing amenities over …

  As I sit at my retiree desk writing this column, summer is still working its way into being a consistent season. My next-door neighbor Al Davis is burning some logs in his fire pit and the smell is wafting up through my barely open second floor window. The scent is playing time machine games with my mind and drawing me back to those days of burning leaves and other smells of the good old days. Those simpler days were full of memorable aromas and some smells that we’d like to forget. (Why is it that we always sniff again …

  If the Rock Hall of Fame were a person, who would it be? In my humble opinion, few individuals embody the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the way ’60s girl-group superstar Ronnie Spector does. You see it in the way her remarkable career has intertwined with so many legendary figures in music. It’s truly amazing to speak to her about it, as I did backstage prior to our holiday show at the Arcada Theatre last year. It’s equally amazing the degree to which her Christmas songs have become international staples, musically branding the holiday itself! As we all …

  Summer has begun for sure and once again, we’re all about making use of the season for which we’ve waited many months. When people describe Chicagoans, one adjective that always comes to mind is “resilient.” We always bounce back from the reality given to us to create a new reality for ourselves. That translates into us Roselandites and Pullmanites looking forward to the opportunity to get together at reunion opportunities that come our way. This year, with Pullman having been given the honor of being designated as the Pullman National Monument of the National Park Services, everyone has a …

  So you’re sitting on the sofa watching one of those home improvement show and thinking to yourself, “This is easy! I can do that”! But what you don’t see are all the mistakes and outtakes, and the enormous amount of time and effort that ends up on the cutting room floor. Don’t let a 30-minute television show convince you that it’s easy to whip a fixer-upper into line. Before you ask your realtor to begin the search for a “project property” as we call it in the profession, you need to ask yourself a couple of important questions. No. …

During your stay in a hospital, your doctor and the staff must work with you to help pave the way to a smooth transition to the next level of care. Your input is an important part of creating a comprehensive plan for what happens to you after you leave the hospital setting and enter rehab or long-term care. The following questions come from a document called “Your Discharge Planning Checklist” from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. We recommend using this and other checklists in working with the hospital’s staff before discharge. 1) Where will you receive care after …

The recent documentary “The Italian Americans” discussed the period at the beginning of World War II. The government decided for security reasons that certain foreign-born American residents would be classified as “enemy aliens”. These were people whose home countries were at war with us. Also, these people had not filed for citizenship. Obviously, many Italian Americans fit this classification until the practice was ended in 1943 when Mussolini’s government fell. There were many reasons Italian immigrants opted to not become American citizens in the years leading up to World War II. Many wanted to return to Italy after they had …

  I am a HUGE Chicago sports fan, really loving all the excitement and pride that goes along with it. One of my particular favorite experiences is to visit the boys on the ice, my Chicago Blackhawks. One of the best experiences in all of sports was the singing of the national anthem in the old Chicago Stadium. Bone-chilling volume coupled with red, white and blue flowing through the veins of every fan on his and her feet was something I will never forget. Another unsung hero is something that really goes unnoticed while at the same time is a …