TSCL plans to continue hosting town hall meetings in the future. If you are interested in helping us plan a meeting in your area, click HERE. .Unreported deaths undoubtedly rank as the Social Security Administration's number one "Most Gruesome Fraud Management Failures." Hardly a month goes by without the discovery of a grizzly new case. Usually some elderly person is found long-dead of natural causes in their own home or that of a close relative — frequently years after death. The death was never reported. Remains have been discovered tucked into beds, placed in freezers, and even sitting on toilets. Meanwhile loving sons or daughters continued to collect the deceased's Social Security checks — sometimes for decades. One Brooklyn man is serving up to 41 years for impersonating his dead mom. He donned a wig and wore her dresses to collect 5,000 in her Social Security payments and rent subsidies. .A seventeen-member conference committee comprised of Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate is currently working towards a long-term bipartisan deal to keep the federal government operating. Should they fail to reach a compromise before the looming deadline, it will shut down once again. .Terry: The anchor effect is the psychological tendency to rely too much on the first piece of information we get in the process of making a decision. For example, when you go to buy a house, the list price becomes the starting point (the "anchor") for negotiations, even if it is a very poor reflection of the home's true value. When you get a solicitation for a charitable donation in the mail, it often lists suggested contributions, starting with the highest figure they hope you will select. That high figure becomes the anchor for your thinking about what to give. .Here are a few important tips on how to avoid becoming a victim of phone scams or identity theft: .Extremely low cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) not only affect Social Security benefits, the 0.3% COLA also affects the amount of Medicare Part B premium people will pay in 201When no, or a very low, COLA occurs, a provision of law known as "hold harmless" is triggered. Under the provision, when an individual's Social Security COLA is insufficient to cover the increase in the individual's Medicare Part B premium, the Part B premium is adjusted so that the Social Security benefit isn't reduced from one year to the next. .When there's a COLA as low as 1.3%, a provision of law known as "hold harmless" ensures that an individual's net Social Security benefit will not decrease from December of one year to January of the next, because of an increase in the Part B premium. That's an important protection, but it doesn't go far enough. .Chen cited two international flights from earlier stages of the pandemic where infection rates varied depending on mask use. On the first flight, no passengers were wearing masks, and a single passenger infected 14 people as the plane traveled from London to Hanoi, Vietnam. On the second flight, from Singapore to Hangzhou in China, all passengers were wearing face masks. Although 15 passengers were Wuhan residents with either suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19, the only man infected en route had loosened his mask mid-flight and had been sitting close to four Wuhan residents who later tested positive for the virus. .On Thursday, with a vote of 326-96, lawmakers in the House passed legislation that will fund the federal government past December 9th. The short-term continuing resolution (CR) will provide funding at a .07 trillion rate – up slightly from the current rate of .067 trillion – through April 28, 2017.