Senior Citizen Odds and Ends

Oct. 13, 2004 – Efrain and Olga Angueira, both in their 80s, came forward yesterday to claim the $36-million Texas lottery jackpot they actually won last month. They only walked away with $21.6-million after the IRS claimed the rest.

The San Antonio Express-News reports the couple refused to talk to a reporter but did release this statement: "We love playing Lotto Texas, but we never expected to win this big. It's really the only game we play, and we don't plan to give it up now."

They live in a home appraised at $89,000, according to the newspaper. The winning numbers they picked: 8-11-21-36-41 and 23 for the bonus ball.

Given the Angueiras' age, their win is more likely to impact extended family, according to Reagan Greer, executive director of the Texas Lottery.

"Hopefully it creates generational wealth," he said. "It's great for them, but it's great for their family, and feasibly, for the community."

Senior Citizen Voted India’s Sexiest Man

Oct. 12, 2004 – Amitabh Bachchan, 62, the Indian superstar has been voted India’s sexiest man by fans young enough to be his granddaughters, according to a report by HTTabloid.com.

Girls between the ages of 16 and 24 find the actor as desirable as ever, says the fan association that conducted the poll. Many found that the trademark white goatee added to his sex appeal.

Bachchan proved to be a hot favorite among older women as well. Those in the age group of 24 to 45 expressed their admiration for the Bollywood legend as a great human being and an excellent performer.

"Mr Bachchan is no less popular than Hollywood star Sean Connery. The former James Bond actor is well into his seventies but many women in the West still regard him as one of the sexiest men alive. Interestingly, our survey showed that a number of Indian girls preferred Amitji to Connery," says Association secretary Rajesh Sharma. More at HTTabloid.com

Senior Woman Hailed as Hero for Saving Man from Croc

Oct. 11, 2004 – A 60-year-old woman jumped on the back of a giant crocodile that was dragging a 34-year-old man toward the ocean, preyed the man free and then was grabbed by the croc. Another camper shot the reptile before it reached the water.

It all happened at a campsite at Cape Melville, north of Cooktown, Australia. It is estimated there are around 100,000 salt water crocodiles living in tropical northern Australia, that have killed more than a dozen people in the last 20 years.

The two victims were air-lifted to a hospital, where they are said to be in stable but serious condition. Authorities have not released their names or nationalities.

The crocodile's first victim was asleep with his wife and child when the 12.5 foot long reptile dragged him from the tent. The heroic senior citizen was in a tent nearby and came to the rescue when she heard the commotion.

Spend Eternity Face-to-Face with Your Movie Idol

Oct. 8, 2004 - Charlie Hetrick started offering to put posters of famous movie stars in caskets as a joke but it has turned into a booming business.

He makes caskets with posters of stars like George Clooney inside the lid to 'put the fun back into funerals'. An artwork can be applied with a laser and the interior can even be papered or painted. What started as a joke has become a booming business at less than half the normal price for a commercial casket - around $800 Hetrick, from Seattle, told Fiona Young of the Glasgow Sunday Mail: 'Everybody dies but at least you can leave smiling.

Dream Comes True for Camel-Riding Wantabe

What is your wildest dream? Well, 83-year-old Evelyn Roberts had a very crazy dream and last month that dream came true. She has always wanted to ride a camel.

"It was fun. Kind of bumpy but fun," said Evelyn. "It felt sort of like the thing was going to come off. But it was fun. I'd do it again." She lives at the Sunny Hill Rehab Center in Joliet, Illinois.

The camel ride was made possible by a group called Second Wind Dreams and the Joliet police, who raised lots of bucks in just a few days.

More of the story and video at ABC 7

Man, 72, Weds 53rd Time to First Wife

Oct. 6, 2004 - A 72-year-young man in Malaysia got married last week to the first woman he married - 52 marriages ago.

Kamarudin Mohamad remarried his first "ex-wife" Sunday after divorcing her in 1958. She is now 74. In the meantime, he has married 51 other women, according to Reuters.

"I am not a playboy. I just love seeing beautiful women," the New Straits Times quoted Kamarudin.

He said all his previous marriages, some lasting only days, ended in divorce, except his last wife who died of cancer.

Kamarudin is Muslim and his religion allows him to have as many as four wives at a time and divorce can be accomplished simply by the husband announcing it to his wife. – more at Reuters

Elderly Man Accidentally Cuts Off Penis, Dog Eats It

Oct. 5, 2004 - An elderly Romanian man mistook his penis for a chicken's neck, cut it off and his dog rushed up and ate it, according to the state Rompres news agency and reported by Reuters.

As the story goes, 67 year-old Constantin Mocanu, from a village near the southeastern town of Galati, rushed out into his yard in his underwear to kill a noisy chicken keeping him awake at night.

"I confused it with the chicken's neck," Mocanu, who was admitted to the emergency hospital in Galati, was quoted as saying. "I cut it ... and the dog rushed and ate it."

Doctors said the man, who was brought in by an ambulance bleeding heavily, was now out of danger.

Senior Senate Candidate Bikes Across Utah With Wife on Back


	Photo by Nancy Perkins, Deseret Morning News

Oct. 5, 2004 – Leave it to a senior citizen to do things just a little differently, like the U.S. Senate candidate in Utah, who is bicycling across the state seeking votes with his wife in the rumble seat.

Democrat Paul Van Dam is challenging incumbent Republican Bob Bennett

Throughout his campaign, Van Dam, 66, and his wife, Mary Dawn Bailey, are taking a Tour de Utah on a tandem recumbent bike. They once cranked through Vietnam on a similar trek — minus campaigning for U.S. Senate, of course.

Though not quite ready to take on Lance Armstrong, Van Dam, also a former Salt Lake County attorney, has logged more than 900 miles around the Beehive State the past year pedaling for votes — for a chance to meet and greet Utahns from St. George to the Cache Valley, for the opportunity to spread his ideas about the country's future and for killer calf muscles.

For the full story in the Deseret News – Click Here

Janet Leigh of Psycho Fame Dies at 77

American actress Janet Leigh, perhaps best known for her role in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller, Psycho, has died. She was 77.

Her publicist says Leigh died peacefully Sunday surrounded by family at her home in Beverly Hills, California. She reportedly has suffered for the past year from an inflammation of the blood vessels.

During her five-decade film career, Leigh starred with such Hollywood leading men as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper and Frank Sinatra. Her last movie role was in 2000.

But the blonde beauty achieved cult-status fame for her part in Hitchcock's 1960 movie Psycho, in which she plays a woman murdered in the shower by a cross-dressing, psychotic killer.

Leigh appeared in a number of successful films, including Touch of Evil, The Manchurian Candidate, Little Women and Angels in the Outfield.

One of her daughter's, Jamie Leigh Curtis, is also a successful Hollywood actress.

Sex, Lies and Video Tape Land Senior in Jail

Oct. 3, 2004 - We reported earlier on the charges brought against James Ball, 68, in Bandera, Texas, after he claimed his 94-year-old wife was raped by a female healthcare worker. It turned out the video Ball used for evidence had been edited to take him out of the pictures but police show him enjoying a sexual encounter with the women. Now Ball has accepted a five-year prison sentence.

The 44-year old healthcare worker set in jail for three months after Ball gave them the edited tape. This was the video he edited to make it look like he was not on the scene, when the alleged rape happened. Not only was Ball there, he willingly participated in those sexual acts as did his wife.

Ball's wife died a few months ago before the real tape was voluntarily given to police by Ball. He pleaded guilty last week to aggravated perjury, tampering with evidence, and improper videotaping.

The improper video recording charge was brought because the aide claimed not to have known she was being filmed.

Senior Citizen Returns Rental Car Right to the Airport Counter

Sept. 30, 2004 - A senior citizen in Boise, Idaho, returned her rented minivan right where she rented it – at the rental counter in the airport.

She drove right into the terminal through automatic double doors, passed by the baggage claim and drove straight to the rental car counter.

The woman stopped when she reached the rental-car counter.

"The lucky thing is she didn't hit anything," airport spokeswoman Larissa Stouffer told the Idaho Statesman.

There was no damage to the terminal building, no one was hurt and the out-of-town woman, who departed on a flight later in the morning, was not cited.

Idaho Statesman -

Brigitte Bardot Turns 70. Can You Believe It?

Sept. 29, 2004 - Brigitte Bardot, the screen siren of the 60s, turned 70 yesterday. "Thank God for allowing me to make it this far. But, all the same, I would prefer turning 30," she told the French society magazine Ohla!

The former French actress has seen her sex kitten days replaced by a reputation as an outspoken campaigner for animal rights and against Islam, immigration and homosexuality.

"I'm fine with the passage of time. There is a crazy wind blowing today: women want to stay young and are turning to surgery. They all look the same.... Perfection is a terrible worry."

108-Year-Old Man in “Great Falls” Smokes Again

Sept. 28, 2004 – Would the Associated Press fall for a hoax? They report a 108-year-old man in “Great Falls” has taken up smoking again, after he quit when he was 99.

The retired railroad worker in Montana, Walter Breuning, had his birthday party last week and told how he reluctantly quit smoking cigars because he could no longer afford them. After the news carried this report, people have been sending him cigars and he has made the “great fall” and resumed smoking.

Fred Aimi, of Lolo, Oregon sent cigars and said, "At 108, they can't do him much harm.”

11-Year Old Sexually Assaults Woman, 79: Friends Watch

Sept. 22, 2004 – The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports police arrested four boys, ages 11 to 13, after one of them allegedly sexually assaulted an elderly woman as the other three watched, according to police spokesman Sgt. Ken Henning.

Henning told the newspaper that the boys had been "terrorizing" the 79-year-old woman in her north side home for a week, crawling through a window each day and stealing items.

In one incident, an 11-year-old boy raped the woman while the other three, 11, 12 and 13, watched, Henning said. He didn't release the date of the alleged crime or its location.

The woman alerted police, who arrested the boys on Sunday, Henning said. The 11-year-old boy, who Henning said admitted to the crime, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree sexual assault while the others were arrested on suspicion of being parties to a crime, he said.

Want to live longer? Turn off TV

Sept. 21, 2004 - Turning off the television and tuning into a more active lifestyle will boost life expectancy. That's what Italy's Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia said on Monday, according to Reuters News.

"Abolish the television and you will have a longer and healthier life," he was quoted by Ansa news agency as telling a conference of elderly people in Milan.

"Don't give in to the couch-potato life of television because it's unhealthy," he added.

He earlier advised seniors to head to supermarkets to escape the heat.

An End Comes to Another Senior Discount

Sept. 19, 2004 - The Claremore Daily Progress (OK) today carried this report by their Progress Inola correspondent about the end to a senior discount.

“Among the many items discussed and voted on at the monthly Inola School Board meeting was the policy dealing with Senior Citizen Passes to events at Inola Public Schools. Previously they have not been charged but due to the many seniors attending, especially from out of town, it was voted to charge seniors 65 and older the same as students.”

It’s those out-of-towners flooding the school events that caused this!

Some Interesting Numbers on Nursing Homes

Sept. 16, 2004 - In 2000, 1.6 million Americans resided in approximately 17,000 nursing homes, at an annual cost of $92 billion.

Nearly half of Medicare beneficiaries discharged from a hospital are admitted to a skilled nursing facility.

One in four persons will spend at least one year in a nursing home, and one in eleven will be a nursing home resident for five years or longer.

National Hero for Rescuing Seniors, Senior Hero for Rescuing Baby

Sept. 16, 2004 - A Florida letter carrier who repeatedly fought through heavy black smoke to help evacuate elderly residents from a five-alarm condominium fire was honored yestereday as National Hero of the Year by the 300,000- member National Association of Letter Carriers. National hero Kurt E. Spaller, 37, is a resident of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Senior citizen Richard Fischer, 69, of Coral Springs, Florida, was named as Eastern Region Hero for helping lift a mangled vehicle to free a trapped baby under a car in Coral Springs on May 5, 2003.

Spaller was midway through delivering mail on his route on June 21, 2003 when he noticed people pointing to smoke coming from a building at the aged three-story condominium complex in St. Petersburg. Knowing from his deliveries which units were occupied, he began pounding on doors on the first floor and then went to the third floor to help several elderly people down the stairs. By the time he finished, the heat and flames from the five-alarm fire had singed the hair on his arms and legs. He later helped Red Cross officials identify which residents had returned north for the summer or were on vacation.

News? People with Alzheimer's Make More Driving Mistakes Than Others

Sept. 14, 2004 - I’m not sure why this report is “news,” but a study published today says people with mild Alzheimer’s disease make more mistakes on a driving test than older people with no cognitive problems. As my granddaughter would say, “Duh!”

The author noted, however, that some of the people with Alzheimer’s did not make any errors or get lost, and drove safely. “This suggests that some people with mild Alzheimer’s remain fit drivers and should be allowed to continue to drive,” said neurologist Matthew Rizzo, MD, of the University of Iowa in Iowa City..

The study involved an on-road driving test with 32 people with mild Alzheimer’s disease and 136 people with no neurological disorders.

The 45-minute test included “on-task” time when the drivers were given verbal instructions to follow a route, as well as time when the drivers were not “on task,” or were not asked to remember and follow instructions.

The people with Alzheimer’s were more likely to make driving errors during the route-following task than those without Alzheimer’s. For example, more than 70 percent of the people with Alzheimer’s made at least one wrong turn while following the route, while about 20 percent of those without Alzheimer’s made at least one wrong turn. And nearly 70 percent of those with Alzheimer’s made two or more safety errors, such as erratic steering or going onto the shoulder, while following the route, compared to about 20 percent of those without Alzheimer’s.

People with Alzheimer’s who were familiar with the area of town where the test was conducted did not get lost during the test, although those with Alzheimer’s who were unfamiliar with the area were likely to get lost during the test.

“Drivers with early Alzheimer’s may have trouble learning new routes but continue to navigate accurately on familiar routes,” Rizzo said. “This suggests that drivers’ license policies could be considered that would allow driving only in familiar neighborhoods for people with mild dementia.”

The study concluded that the driving ability of people with mild cognitive impairment should be assessed with driving tests that include tasks that check their memory and attention skills.

Sex With Elderly Woman’s Corpse in Funeral Home Spurs New Law in California

Sept. 11, 2004 - Having sex with corpses is now officially illegal in California after lawmakers were incensed by a San Francisco case where a man was found in a funeral home drunk and passed out on top of an elderly woman’s corpse.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill on Friday that makes sex with a corpse a felony that is punishable by up to eight years in prison.

The new legislation marks the culmination of a two-year drive to outlaw necrophilia in the state and will help prosecutors who have been stymied by the lack of an official ban on the practice, according to a report by Reuters.

The state's efforts to outlaw necrophilia began two years ago, in response to a case of a man charged with having sex with the corpse of a 4-year-old girl in Southern California. This effort stalled last year in a legislative committee.

Lawmakers revived the bill this year after the funeral home incident.

Great-Grandmother, 78, Thwarts Assailant by Asking, “Would you attack your own mother?”

Sept. 10, 2004 - A 78-year-old grandmother of nine and great-grandmother of 14 was pulling clothes from a dryer at a Jerseyville, MO, coin laundry early Sunday morning when a man wielding a box cutter attacked her, dragging her down an aisle of washing machines into a bathroom where he tried to sexually assault her, according to a report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Her daughter said the man covered her mother’s mouth to muffle her screams and began beating her head against the dryer. The woman was able to knock the box cutter out of her assailant's hands, but he then dragged her to a bathroom, where he started beating her head against the floor and cinder block walls. After a half hour struggle, the woman said, her mother asked him whether he would attack his own mother. Then he stopped and left the laundry.

Jerseyville police said Thursday that the woman walked into the station badly beaten and bloody. Police said they found the assailant - a 6-foot-3 convicted sex offender five blocks away, walking along the street.

David Tucker, 41, was charged with attempted aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated battery of a senior citizen and was being held in lieu of $150,000 bail at the Jersey County Jail.

Voice for Senior Citizens Dies Unknown, Unclaimed

Sept. 8, 2004 – Just the other day I mentioned to some senior citizen friends that I was distressed because I fear there are millions of older American’s living lives of loneliness and despair. Then comes this story that supports my premise.

A man named Cavar died of a heart attack last month in Clear Lake City, Texas, where he was well known by the staff at city hall that he visited often. He would give them candy and ask how they were doing. Several elections ago, Cavar began handing out political flyers. He became a voice for the senior citizens in League City, says Public Information Officer Dawn Kilgore.

Cavar would talk of a senior citizens center where members of the community could go so they wouldn't be so isolated, she said. "I guess he knew all about that," Kilgore added. "He's one of those people where you don't know what you have until you don't have it anymore."

A memorial service was held in his honor at the city's civic center with about 70 city employees, city officials and citizens in attendance.

Cavar, however, appears to have no family. His body lays unclaimed in the county medical examiner's office. League City Assistant Police Chief Chris Reed and Kilgore are working to take care of Cavar the way he took care of everyone else.

They are raising money for burial and are trying to cut through the red tape to have his body released from the medical examiner's office. "It's very complicated," Kilgore said. In order to do that, an executor will to be appointed by a court to handle Cavar's estate, she said. Reed is working to be named executor.

Then, ads have to be put in newspapers in any area he might have been in search of family members. "It's a very long process," said Kilgore.

There were no documents or a will in Cavar's apartment. she said. There is also a lot that no one knows about Cavar, Kilgore said. He said that the name Cavar was short for something else. He gave three different people all different names that had been shortened. "He always asked about us," she said. "He never talked about himself."

Donations can be made to Mike Cavar at Moody Bank in Clear Lake City.

"His dream was the senior center," she said. Because of that, any money collected over what is needed for burial, will be donated for the senior center. Anyone with additional information about Cavar can contact Kilgore at 281-554-1025.

This story is from The Citizen Online – Click to story

Grandma Moses Began Painting at 78, Did 25 Paintings at 101

Sept. 7, 2004 - It used to be said that, "Life begins at 40." However, for one grand lady who made a big impression in the art world, life began at 78. That's the age at which Anna Mary Roberts -- better known as Grandma Moses - - started painting. Her modern primitive style of art captivated several generations of Americans. Having achieved the status of a living legend, she died in 1961 at the age of 101. In her last year, she completed 25 paintings. Today, the average age of the U.S. population is the highest in history, and the number of elderly is quickly increasing, says the U.S. Census Bureau. By next year, there are expected to be 71-thousand Americans aged 100 or over, about 4-out-of-5 of them women.

Teenager Charged for Kicking 79-Year Young Woman

Sept. 3, 2004 - An Arlington Heights, IL, man was being held on $200,000 bond Thursday after police said he stormed a home and kicked an elderly woman in an attempt to speak to her 19-year-old granddaughter, according to the Chicago Daily Herald.

The 19-year-old's mother and 79-year-old grandmother tried to block him from getting to the girl, who was trying to call 911 from a cellular phone.

"He pushed his way past them, kicking the 79-year-old in the right shin," Kappelman said, noting the grandmother sustained a large welt on her leg.

Eric R. Sonne, 19, of 410 Whitehall Drive, was charged with one count of both home invasion and aggravated battery to a senior citizen, police said.

Dog Bites Senior Watching Police

Sept. 2, 2004 - A dog that was tracking a gunman bit a resident of a senior citizen center who was watching the search Wednesday in Evansville, Ind., and the bite was caught on tape by a TV news crew.

John Terry, a resident of Senior World retirement community, did not require medical treatment, police said. Terry was sitting on an outdoor swing watching the excitement when the dog came up from behind and bit him on the right arm.

A camera crew from Evansville TV station WEHT that was taping the police search also got the bite on video.

Terry did not seem as upset about being bitten as some elderly women who saw it happen, said WEHT reporter Lindsay Gantner.

At 66, Aileen Egan Finds She Can Pump Iron

Aug. 30, 2004 - She can pump 120 pounds of iron. Her grandkids can brag to their friends about her biceps. Aileen Eagan of South City, CA, 66, is ready for a national body building competition.

No Amazon at 5 feet, 3 inches and 115 pounds, Egan is lean and strong, with pink manicured nails that make her look more the lady than the strongman.

A bodybuilder who discovered the sport as a senior citizen, she will be oiling her muscles and donning a bikini this fall when she enters her first contest.

The South City resident will compete in the 40-and-older division of The National Physique Committee's annual San Francisco Bodybuilding and Figure Championship on Oct. 2 at Chabot College in Hayward.

The complete story by Emily Fancher can be found in the San Mateo County Times - Click Here

Senior Videos Sex with Wife and Female Healthcare Worker

Aug. 28, 2004 - James Ball, 64, video taped a female healthcare worker joining him in sex with his 94-year-old wife; then he tried to charge the health aide for sexual assault, according to a story in the San Antonio Express-News.

Ball has now been charged with improper visual recording and tampering with evidence, after he voluntarily surrendered to police a second video showing he set up the camera before the women entered the room. He apparently edited himself out of the first tape given to police to make it look like only the two women were involved. His wife has since died.

The healthcare worker said she did it because she was asked by the wife and "the old man liked it."

The videos will be shown to a jury in Bandera, Texas, on Sept. 28. Click here to story in San Antonio Express-News

Woman Convicted for Killing 73-Year-Old Father Who Molested Her, Dozens of Others

Aug. 28, 2004 – A South Carolina women was sentenced to seven years for killing her 73-year-old father, who she said abused her nearly all of her life.

About 40 other people told the judge that they either were molested by George Manley Clark or knew someone who had been. Clark was convicted in 1987 of molesting two girls. Witnesses testified that Clark executed family pets, invited drunken friends to his house where his daughters were abused and wreaked havoc on his children all their lives.

His daughter, Janice Clark Smith, 50, shot him three times in the chest last December.

Senior Citizen Poverty Rate Stable, More on Government Insurance

Aug. 27, 2004 - The Census Bureau report released this week about income, poverty and insurance primarily got media attention on the increasing numbers of uninsured. Also in the report, however, were a couple of highlights about senior citizens.

> Neither people 18 to 64 years old nor those age 65 and over experienced a change in their poverty rate, 10.8 percent and 10.2 percent in 2003, respectively.

> The percentage of people covered by government health insurance programs rose in 2003, from 25.7 percent to 26.6 percent, largely as the result of increases in Medicaid and Medicare coverage. Medicaid coverage rose 0.7 percentage points to 12.4 percent in 2003, and Medicare coverage increased 0.2 percentage points to 13.7 percent.

Man Freed of Charges in Murder of Elderly Woman

Aug. 27, 2004 - The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pa., reports all charges were dropped Thursday against a man who spent 16 years in prison for the rape and murder of an elderly neighbor and distant relative before DNA tests indicated someone else was to blame.

Barry J. Laughman, 41, had been released from prison in November after DNA analysis indicated that samples of body fluids taken from the scene of the murder of 85-year-old Edna Laughman, did not come from him.

Laughman was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to life in prison in the death of woman, who was found dead in her Hanover-area home in 1987 after she was raped and suffocated with pills forced down her throat.

Police have said Laughman confessed several weeks after the crime. Doctors said Laughman had an IQ of 70.

Senior Loaded with Cocaine

Aug. 27, 2004 - John G. Lovelace, 77, of 1634 Greenfield Ave., North Chicago, was arrested around 1 a.m. without incident, despite being found in his bedroom with a loaded .38-caliber revolver when police entered the house. They also found nearly 3 kilos of cocaine.

Nine of Counties Impacted by Charley Lead Nation in Elderly Percentage

Of the 20 U.S. counties with the highest percentage of elderly residents, Hurricane Charley affected nine.

The Administration on Aging has provided a $200,000 grant, which is in addition to the $83 million awarded to Florida in fiscal year 2004 for elderly programs. These additional funds will be used by state officials to fill any gaps in providing emergency care for seniors caused by the hurricane.

President Bush Adds Medicare and Social Security to Stump Speech

Medicare and Social Security made it into the speech President Bush gave on Aug. 26 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

On Medicare

“We have more to do to make quality health care available and affordable. Listen, when we came to office, too many older Americans could not afford prescription drugs and the Medicare didn't pay for them. You might remember those old debates about Medicare -- oh, just elect me, something is going to get done. But year after year, those promises were empty. We got the job done. We've strengthened Medicare for our seniors.”

On Social Security

“Listen, I see a lot of younger folks here, I want to thank you all for coming. You ought to be listening very carefully to the debate on Social Security. Baby boomers like me are just fine when it comes to Social Security. Younger workers need to be concerned about the fiscal sanity and fiscal stability of Social Security. I believe younger workers ought to be able to own a personal retirement account they call their own, so they can pass it on from one generation to the next.”

Belgium Gets A New Oldest Person

Belgium’s oldest living person is Angele Van Meerbeek, who is 109. She replaces Victoire Ricaille de Florenville, who was also 109, when she died in a home for the elderly. She was admitted to the home at 107 after a fall.

Two Young Men Fail to Over-Power 77-Year-Young Woman

Two men approached a 77-year-young woman on August 24 as she returned to her car from grocery shopping in Ellenville, N.Y..

James Eberhart, 42, of Brooklyn attempted to overpower the woman as she entered her car and did manage to take her keys, according to police. Before the would-be-robber could gain control of the car, however, the woman drew the attention of bystanders by yelling and sounding her horn.

Eberhart and his alleged accomplice, Richard Werry, 25, of Ellenville decided it was to give up on their prey and ran. Police caught up with them a short distance away.

Senior Citizens in Texas Get Tax Freeze For Life, Maybe

The city of Tyler, Texas, on Aug. 25, voted to buy-in to a new state law that allows subdivisions of the state to give senior citizens 65 years of age or older and the disabled a tax freeze that is permanent.

Cities and counties have been slow to adopt the law as the worry about lost revenue.

Senior Are Not the Most Dangerous Drivers

The all-around angriest, most aggravated, most dangerous age group on the road? Some would guess it is the youngest or oldest drivers, but they'd be wrong. It's the early twenty-somethings who are most likely to describe themselves as fast and aggressive drivers, least likely to wear a seat belt or require a passenger to wear one, and most likely to have received a traffic ticket within the past two years.

This according to an annual poll of driver behaviors and attitudes by Drive for Life, which also educates through an interactive web site, http://www.driveforlife.com.

But, senior drivers still make the news. An elderly driver was stopped by police last week after taking an erratic path down Main Street of Holden, MA.

She had a great excuse any Holden driver from the past few years would understand, said The Landmark newspaper. According to the police report, she had been "anticipating the manholes and potholes that used to be in the road."

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