ICE arrests 245 alleged pedophiles, rescues 44 children

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents announced today they have rescued 44 children from sexual abuse as part of a child pornography investigation that netted 245 arrests over five weeks late last year.

Agents have identified an additional 79 individuals who have been abused as children including 24 victims who now may be adults and are seeking the public's help to identify individuals who are alleged to be sexually abusing young children, with the images posted on the Internet.

"Many times, our investigations into people who possess and trade child pornography reveal new material that points to the ongoing sexual abuse of children. In these cases, our primary objective is to rescue the victim from their horrific situation. And our next step is to arrest and seek prosecution for their abusers," said ICE Director John Morton in a statement.

See photos of the pedophile suspects being sought.

Among those arrested: Bradley Vaine from Fresno, Calif., who was allegedly abusing a 7-year-old girl who suffered from mental disabilities. Also arrested was Samuel Gueydan from Clovis, Calif., who allegedly had over 1.2 million images and 7,000 videos of child pornography on his computer, ICE said.

The investigation was dubbed "Operation Sunflower" to commemorate the anniversary of a case where agents discovered evidence that a child was in imminent danger of being raped by a relative. According to ICE, the tip initially came from Dutch investigators who found Internet postings suggesting the girl was in imminent danger.

Investigators turned up an image of the girl taken in a moving vehicle. The image held a critical clue -- a road sign in the background containing an image of a sunflower. A sharp-eyed agent discovered the sunflower emblem was unique to road signs in Kansas. ICE agents spent several days combing Kansas highways to find the exact spot where the photo was taken. Eventually they traced the location, which led them to the girl, sparing her from being further victimized, the agency said.

As part of "Operation Sunflower" agents have sought a Jane and John Doe warrant for an unknown man and woman who are depicted in a video sexually abusing a young girl who appears to be 13 years old. Agents, who believe the video is about 11 years old, said they want to solve the case to identify the abusers. Jane Doe is believed to be 35 to 45 years old in the video, which depicts her with several tattoos including a butterfly on her right hip and a blade tattoo on her right shoulder along with a curled up cat. Based on forensic analysis, agents believe the abuse occurred in the Los Angeles area, ICE said.

Agents said they are also seeking an unidentified white male with gray and white hair, a full beard and wearing wire-framed eyeglasses, who was sexually abusing a toddler in Internet images. A second suspect being sought by Homeland Security Investigations agents out of Portland, Ore., is a white male with a tattoo on his right tricep who was allegedly sexually abusing a young male child.

ICE's efforts in recent months to identify unknown abusers led to agents arresting two suspects who were allegedly molesting young girls on the internet. Last September, Michael Serapis Freeman and Michelle Lee Freeman turned themselves in to local police in Oregon after a media campaign resulted in tips identifying Michelle Freeman as the Jane Doe suspect.

Last month Corrine Danielle Motley of Okaloosa County, Fla., was arrested and charged with the production and distribution of child pornography. Motley, 25, was arrested by the Northwest Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force members and Homeland Security Investigations special agents.

Calls to the suspects named in this story and emails to their lawyers weren't immediately returned.

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/agents-arrests-245-alleged-pedophiles-163831855--abc-news-topstories.html

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Planets abound: Astronomers estimate that at least 100 billion planets populate the galaxy

Jan. 3, 2013 ? Look up at the night sky and you'll see stars, sure. But you're also seeing planets -- billions and billions of them. At least.

That's the conclusion of a new study by astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) that provides yet more evidence that planetary systems are the cosmic norm. The team made their estimate while analyzing planets orbiting a star called Kepler-32 -- planets that are representative, they say, of the vast majority in the galaxy and thus serve as a perfect case study for understanding how most planets form.

"There's at least 100 billion planets in the galaxy -- just our galaxy," says John Johnson, assistant professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech and coauthor of the study, which was recently accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. "That's mind-boggling."

"It's a staggering number, if you think about it," adds Jonathan Swift, a postdoc at Caltech and lead author of the paper. "Basically there's one of these planets per star."

The planetary system in question, which was detected by the Kepler space telescope, contains five planets. The existence of two of those planets have already been confirmed by other astronomers. The Caltech team confirmed the remaining three, then analyzed the five-planet system and compared it to other systems found by the Kepler mission.

The planets orbit a star that is an M dwarf -- a type that accounts for about three-quarters of all stars in the Milky Way. The five planets, which are similar in size to Earth and orbit close to their star, are also typical of the class of planets that the telescope has discovered orbiting other M dwarfs, Swift says. Therefore, the majority of planets in the galaxy probably have characteristics comparable to those of the five planets.

While this particular system may not be unique, what does set it apart is its coincidental orientation: the orbits of the planets lie in a plane that's positioned such that Kepler views the system edge-on. Due to this rare orientation, each planet blocks Kepler -32's starlight as it passes between the star and the Kepler telescope.

By analyzing changes in the star's brightness, the astronomers were able to determine the planets' characteristics, such as their sizes and orbital periods. This orientation therefore provides an opportunity to study the system in great detail -- and because the planets represent the vast majority of planets that are thought to populate the galaxy, the team says, the system also can help astronomers better understand planet formation in general.

"I usually try not to call things 'Rosetta stones,' but this is as close to a Rosetta stone as anything I've seen," Johnson says. "It's like unlocking a language that we're trying to understand -- the language of planet formation."

One of the fundamental questions regarding the origin of planets is how many of them there are. Like the Caltech group, other teams of astronomers have estimated that there is roughly one planet per star, but this is the first time researchers have made such an estimate by studying M-dwarf systems, the most numerous population of planets known.

To do that calculation, the Caltech team determined the probability that an M-dwarf system would provide Kepler-32's edge-on orientation. Combining that probability with the number of planetary systems Kepler is able to detect, the astronomers calculated that there is, on average, one planet for every one of the approximately 100 billion stars in the galaxy. But their analysis only considers planets that are in close orbits around M dwarfs -- not the outer planets of an M-dwarf system, or those orbiting other kinds of stars. As a result, they say, their estimate is conservative. In fact, says Swift, a more accurate estimate that includes data from other analyses could lead to an average of two planets per star.

M-dwarf systems like Kepler-32's are quite different from our own solar system. For one, M dwarfs are cooler and much smaller than the sun. Kepler-32, for example, has half the mass of the sun and half its radius. The radii of its five planets range from 0.8 to 2.7 times that of Earth, and those planets orbit extremely close to their star. The whole system fits within just over a tenth of an astronomical unit (the average distance between Earth and the sun) -- a distance that is about a third of the radius of Mercury's orbit around the sun. The fact that M-dwarf systems vastly outnumber other kinds of systems carries a profound implication, according to Johnson, which is that our solar system is extremely rare. "It's just a weirdo," he says.

The fact that the planets in M-dwarf systems are so close to their stars doesn't necessarily mean that they're fiery, hellish worlds unsuitable for life, the astronomers say. Indeed, because M dwarfs are small and cool, their temperate zone -- also known as the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water might exist -- is also further inward. Even though only the outermost of Kepler-32's five planets lies in its temperate zone, many other M dwarf systems have more planets that sit right in their temperate zones.

As for how the Kepler-32 system formed, no one knows yet. But the team says its analysis places constraints on possible mechanisms. For example, the results suggest that the planets all formed farther away from the star than they are now, and migrated inward over time.

Like all planets, the ones around Kepler-32 formed from a proto-planetary disk -- a disk of dust and gas that clumped up into planets around the star. The astronomers estimated that the mass of the disk within the region of the five planets was about as much as that of three Jupiters. But other studies of proto-planetary disks have shown that three Jupiter masses can't be squeezed into such a tiny area so close to a star, suggesting to the Caltech team that the planets around Kepler-32 initially formed farther out.

Another line of evidence relates to the fact that M dwarfs shine brighter and hotter when they are young, when planets would be forming. Kepler-32 would have been too hot for dust -- a key planet-building ingredient -- to even exist in such close proximity to the star. Previously, other astronomers had determined that the third and fourth planets from the star are not very dense, meaning that they are likely made of volatile compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane, or other ices and gases, the Caltech team says. However, those volatile compounds could not have existed in the hotter zones close to the star.

Finally, the Caltech astronomers discovered that three of the planets have orbits that are related to one another in a very specific way. One planet's orbital period lasts twice as long as another's, and the third planet's lasts three times as long as the latter's. Planets don't fall into this kind of arrangement immediately upon forming, Johnson says. Instead, the planets must have started their orbits farther away from the star before moving inward over time and settling into their current configuration.

"You look in detail at the architecture of this very special planetary system, and you're forced into saying these planets formed farther out and moved in," Johnson explains.

The implications of a galaxy chock full of planets are far-reaching, the researchers say. "It's really fundamental from an origins standpoint," says Swift, who notes that because M dwarfs shine mainly in infrared light, the stars are invisible to the naked eye. "Kepler has enabled us to look up at the sky and know that there are more planets out there than stars we can see."

In addition to Swift and Johnson, the other authors on the Astrophysical Journal paper are Caltech graduate students Timothy Morton and Benjamin Montet; Caltech postdoc Philip Muirhead; former Caltech postdoc Justin Crepp of the University of Notre Dame; and Caltech alumnus Daniel Fabrycky (BS '03) of the University of Chicago. The title of the paper is, "Characterizing the cool KOIS IV: Kepler-32 as a prototype for the formation of compact planetary systems throughout the galaxy." In addition to using Kepler, the astronomers made observations at the W. M. Keck Observatory and with the Robo-AO system at Palomar Observatory. Support for all of the telescopes was provided by the W. M. Keck Foundation, NASA, Caltech, the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, the National Science Foundation, the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Foundation, and Samuel Oschin.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by California Institute of Technology. The original article was written by Marcus Woo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Jonathan J. Swift, John Asher Johnson, Timothy D. Morton, Justin R. Crepp, Benjamin T. Montet, Daniel C. Fabrycky, Philip S. Muirhead. Characterizing the Cool KOIs IV: Kepler-32 as a prototype for the formation of compact planetary systems throughout the Galaxy. Astrophysical Journal, 2012; (submitted) [link]

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/9-j2mUpl-FM/130103143422.htm

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'Fiscal cliff' standoff over, Obama back in Hawaii

President Barack Obama salutes as he gets off Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. The president is back in Hawaii for vacation after a tense, end-of-the-new-year standoff with Congress over the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

President Barack Obama salutes as he gets off Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. The president is back in Hawaii for vacation after a tense, end-of-the-new-year standoff with Congress over the fiscal cliff. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

(AP) ? A week after rushing to Washington to help end a tense, end-of-year standoff with Congress, President Barack Obama is back in Hawaii for vacation.

The president's annual visit to the state where he was born and spent much of his childhood was interrupted as he and members of Congress contended with the unfinished business of the "fiscal cliff" crisis that threatened to throw the economy back into recession.

The Republican-controlled House gave final legislative approval Tuesday night to a package that avoids income tax increases for most Americans and delays for two months billions in across-the-board spending cuts. Minutes later, Obama appeared in the White House briefing room to praise the deal in an eight-minute speech.

"And I hope that everybody now gets at least a day off, I guess, or a few days off, so that people can refresh themselves, because we're going to have a lot of work to do in 2013," he said.

A short time later, Obama was aboard the presidential helicopter, bound for a Maryland Air Force Base. Barely 30 minutes after he had finished his remarks he was in the sky on Air Force One, bound for Hawaii.

The president arrived in Honolulu before 5 a.m. local time and immediately rejoined his family in their rented beachside vacation home in Kailua, a picturesque Honolulu suburb on the east side of Oahu. Kailua Beach is a popular place for wind sports and paddle surfing.

Obama and his family had spent several days, including Christmas Day, at the secluded compound before he returned to Washington on Dec. 26 for the fiscal cliff negotiations.

Obama signed the bill Wednesday evening with an autopen, a mechanical device that copies his signature. He also signed a bill authorizing fiscal year 2013 expenditures for the Defense Department.

Obama has spent much of his time in Hawaii golfing at a Marine Corps base in nearby Kaneohe, where he also has gone for near-daily workouts, including one shortly after his arrival on Wednesday.

Having finished a year marked by a grueling campaign for a second term, Obama has much work ahead of him in the new year.

The fiscal cliff deal delays by two months billions in scheduled in spending cuts. It also sets up battles between Democrats and Republicans over federal spending and debt.

The first showdowns will come over the next three months, when the government's legal ability to borrow money expires and temporary financing for federal agency budgets will lapse. Republicans have already said, as they did in 2011, that they will demand spending cuts as a condition for extending the debt ceiling.

Obama also faces decisions over Cabinet appointments, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expected to leave.

____

Reach Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-01-03-Obama/id-c271327ea258415ab3cdafb470702e39

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Facebook adds voice recording to Messenger, testing VoIP service in Canada

Facebook adds voice recording to Messenger, testing VoIP service in Canada

If you're a fan of the Facebook Messenger app keep your eye out for an interesting update coming down the pipe today for both the iOS and Android versions. The social network is adding the ability to record and send voice messages, up to one minute in length, to your friends. The goal isn't to create a voice mail system for Facebook, but to give users another option for interacting when typing is either impossible or inconvenient. It works much like the video feature in the company's Poke app -- press and hold the red record button, speak your message and it'll appear in-line as part of your chat, represented by a clickable sound wave icon. Even more interesting though, is the VoIP capabilities that are being flipped on for Canadian users. It's a little buried at the moment -- hidden behind the "i" icon in the chat window -- but everyone's favorite social network is now offering a way to place free voice calls to friends. Interestingly, the platform is built on open source technology and not on its Skype partnership. If things go well in the land of maple trees and Mounties we imagine it wont be too long before America gets a taste of VoIP calling Facebook style.

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Source: TechCrunch

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/cgsdVhuubiU/

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Senate confirms Berner to Treasury Office of Financial Research

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Richard Berner, a counselor to the Treasury secretary and former chief economist for Morgan Stanley , was confirmed by a U.S. Senate majority to serve as the first Director of the Office of Financial Research, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

"Dick has been instrumental in Treasury's efforts to stand up the OFR and enhance our understanding of risk across the financial system," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement.

The Office of Financial Research was created by the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul to help regulators prevent a repeat of the financial crisis.

The agency, tasked with collecting and analyzing data to support the Financial Stability Oversight Council, has been under scrutiny for its slow progress, and many Republicans in the Senate want to see it scrapped.

Berner's nomination was confirmed in the Senate by voice vote on January 1, and his term as head of the OFR will run for six years.

(Reporting by Margaret Chadbourn; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-confirms-berner-treasury-office-financial-research-190423801--sector.html

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Make 2013 Your Best Year Ever | Overnight Sensation - Public ...

Happy 2013! There?s something about the New Year that causes us to use it as a milestone for starting over. Perhaps it?s the act of replacing our desk or wall calendars or maybe it?s the fact that it?s a new tax and financial period. Whatever the reason, most of us use this opportunity to drop old bad habits and pick up new good ones.
If you?re not sure what to do for your resolution, here are some ideas to get you started.

1. Quit drinking/smoking/over-eating.

Yes, these are almost clich? as they are incredibly common. But they are not only on this list but first on this list because this change can actually save your life and help ensure that you?re here next year to celebrate 2014. Without your health, you have nothing. Like the old joke about how much money the billionaire left when he died (all of it), you can always find ways to make money, you can?t always repair your health. So if you?re going down the wrong road health wise, now is a great time to change direction.

2. Finish a project that you?ve struggled to make time for.

This past November I participated in NaNoWriMo ? National Novel Writing Month. I had been kicking around an idea for a novel for over three years and took the opportunity to complete my first draft. One of my goals for 2013 is to complete the novel before I start its sequel this coming November.

3. Repair a damaged relationship.

?Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?? How can we forget those famous lyrics to Auld Lang Syne which many interpret as a call to let bygones be bygones? If there?s someone (or some people) that you need to mend your relationship with, make it a priority to try it this year. Send them a letter or postcard or give them a call. You might be surprised at how the hostility can die down over time.

4. Begin an exercise routine.

This is along the same lines as the first item in the list and probably tied for most common resolution. Gym regulars often take the first week of the year off because gyms get crowded with new members. Of course, most stop going by February 1st while many stop after the first week. If you choose to do this, it?s helpful to pace yourself and make it part of your routine. Try for 3 days a week and put the time in your calendar ? set reminders for yourself. If you can keep it up for two full months, odds are that you?ll keep it up for the year.

5. Go on a diet.

Another twist on the first item. People toss out the junk food and try to eat healthy. It?s much easier said than done. If you?re truly dedicated to lose weight, try for 1 to 2 pounds a week which you can easily do by making small changes such as eating a salad with one meal each day and substituting water for soda.

6. Learn a new skill.

Buy a book, sign up for a course or find an online tutorial. You can choose something to help move your career forward such as something related to your job, or you can do something fun like learning a new language or how to snowboard.

7. Make a career change.

If you?re frustrated or unfulfilled with your job, perhaps it?s time to consider a change. Talk to a career counselor (in the US, each state has a department of employment or similar agency and there?s also the Small Business Administration that offers these services for free). Check with the alumni office of your high school or college to see if they offer these services. Or, do some research by talking to people who have the job or work at the company that you want to work at. If you want to go off on your own and start a business, contact SCORE or the Small Business Association.

8. Focus on a goal.

If you want to buy a house, meet that special someone or get that car you?ve been dreaming of, now?s your chance. Write down your goal and look at it every morning when you get up and each night as you go to bed. Create an action plan. Ask yourself what steps you need to take to reach your goal and break them down into smaller tasks that you can manage.

9. Deal with a fear or phobia.
If a fear or phobia is holding you back, perhaps it?s time to nip it in the bud. A number of people who have used my public speaking and networking programs have done so because their fears of speaking or meeting people have prevented them from moving to the next level in their career. If a fear of flying is preventing you from traveling or a social fear is preventing you from making the connections you desire, then this might be a great opportunity to do something about it.

10. Do something that makes you happy.

Sometimes, we feel so pressured to be productive and work harder that we lose sight of the fact that there is more to life than professional success. In 2012, I cut back on the amount of classes I taught, took a few months off from blogging and social media and didn?t create any new products. While I did work on some other projects that I hadn?t been able to get to, I also used that time to take a few vacations, spend extra time with friends and family and do more of the things I love. I went to the circus for the first time, did a lot of work on my house, got my home and finances in order and even found myself out until 1 AM having the time of my life with good friends a half dozen times. Yes, there are times when I miss having the extra money I could have earned, but I wouldn?t trade it for the memories I made.

So as you start your journey into 2013, think about the type of year you want to have. Now is your chance to make 2013 the best year ever so go for it.

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Source: http://blog.jvf.com/2013/01/01/make-2013-your-best-year-ever/

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Make this mistake and lose thousands on a mortgage

By Bob Sullivan

I had just borrowed about a quarter-million dollars and my question was simple: "How do I pay you back?"

The woman on the other end of the phone, however, couldn't tell me. Ten days had passed since I signed the papers to refinance my home and, with the holidays approaching, I was worried my first payment would be late. She tried to soothe me with perhaps the most misunderstood phrase of the refinancing process: "Don't worry. You get to skip a payment."

Had I listened to her, it would have cost me thousands of dollars. And if you are one of the millions of homeowners who will refinance in 2013, it could cost you, too.?


If your new year?s resolution is to save money or get control of the family budget, refinancing remains a really good option. But the idea that ?skipping? the first payment can be pain free, financially speaking, is a myth, repeated over and over by loan officers like mine. Sometimes they are lying, sometimes they are misinformed and sometimes they are just trying to get an annoying borrower like me off the phone. But with rare exception, they are giving bad advice.? (News flash: Whenever a bank seems to be doing you a favor, it probably has a hand in your wallet.)

Real estate transactions are already confusing enough. There are questions surrounding when you make your last payment on the old loan, when you make your first payment on the new loan, how many extra days of interest you pay toward both your old and your new loan, and when you are paying for both loans. We'll get to those tricky issues in a moment, but the priciest mistake you might make in a refinance is also the simplest one to correct.?

You've heard this before, but this time, it's probably true: mortgage interest rates are at historic lows, and there may never be a better time to refinance.? It's hard to imagine rates going any lower than the 3 percent range they are at now, but it's easy to imagine that, at the first signs of a real economic recovery or real inflation, they will climb sharply during 2013.? The low interest rates that the Federal Reserve has imposed to boost the economy have been punishing for many, notably savers, who can barely earn 1 percent interest on their bank accounts and certificates of deposit. The one perk for consumers from the Fed?s interest rate policy is the ability to get cheap home and auto loans. If you haven't refinanced your mortgage in the past 24 months or so, you are missing out.

Fortunately, many American homeowners have gotten the message. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage holders engaged in $1.3 trillion worth of refinancing in 2012. In fact, more than four out of five new mortgages in 2012 were refinanced loans, not home purchases.

I wish there were a way to know how many of those borrowers chose to skip that first payment.

'Can I get that in writing?' 'No'
My loan officer was lazy, I believe, and -- knowing that my loan had closed and all the commissions were guaranteed -- just wanted me off the phone as soon as possible. My call was unusual. ?I am always overly cautious when I set up any kind of new loan payment, as the chances for error are great: a wrong loan number on a check, a bad address, etc. So I always make the first payment early to make sure nothing goes wrong.? That good habit proved profitable this time.

When I signed my loan papers, there were no payment instructions in my closing documents (not terribly unusual). My loan officer said I would receive payment coupons later.? But when 10 days passed, and I heard nothing, I called. She sent me to the bank's customer service line, where I was informed that there was no record of my loan. (Did that mean I didn?t have to pay it back? Sadly, No.) Customer service transferred me back to my loan officer. She assured me that their computers would catch up to my urge to pay the loan, and I?d get payment information soon. Incredulous that they seemed not to want my money, I persisted. She tapped a few keys on her keyboard, made me wait a minute, then told me that my loan had funded on Dec. 5, so I didn't have to make a payment until Feb. 1.

"But my documents say repayment begins Jan. 1," I said. "So you're saying there will be no late fees if I don't pay Jan. 1?"

"Yes," she said.

"Can I get that in writing.??

"No. I can't do that."

At that point, I did what any mature consumer would do: I laughed. And then I muttered something about the 100 pieces of paper they just made me sign, with innocuous documents putting the finest point on everything you can imagine, like the form I initialed in multiple places agreeing that, yes, I am known by Bob, Robert, Bobby, Robby and various other nicknames. Yet I couldn?t get the bank to put something in writing saying when I should make my loan payment?

My loan officer didn't laugh, but eventually she put me on the phone with a supervisor who sounded very grave. She'd done additional research, she said, and found out that the reason customer service couldn't find my loan was because it had already been sold to another bank. We called that bank together and found out my loan actually funded on Nov. 30, so my first payment was indeed due on Jan. 1. And I would have been liable for about an $80 late fee if I had listened to my loan officer. The manager profusely apologized.

Steep penalty anyway
But I'm not writing to warn you about late fees. There's a much bigger culprit here you have to worry about.? Had I followed my loan officer's advice and skipped a payment, even if the bank waived the late fee (which the manager said was likely), I would have paid a steep penalty anyway.? You've probably guessed the punch line: there's no such thing as skipping a payment. In reality, homeowners are borrowing that money and extending the loan term for an extra month.? The payment will be tacked onto the end of the loan, with interest.? How much? If it's a conventional loan, that?s 30 years? worth of interest.? Effectively, you are borrowing one month's payment for 30 years. Ouch!

"Skipping is a misnomer. A better description would be ?deferring with additional interest added,'" said Jack Guttentag, a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania who also runs a consumer education website called MortgageProfessor.com.?

Just how much extra interest can skipping that first payment cost you? There are too many variables to create a decent rule of thumb. But here's an illustration from Guttentag's site with deliberately round numbers. Skip the first payment of $500 on a $100,000 loan at 6 percent, and you will pay an additional $2,993 in interest during the 30 years.

Forget the $75 late fee. That's real money. As Guttentag puts it, "a payment that is miniscule to one is a fortune to another."

Some loan officers say they only won't offer the "skip-a-payment" option unless the refinance closes toward the end of the month, when the homeowner might have trouble coming up with the extra cash for closing costs and a fresh mortgage payment close together.? Others say they offer it all the time.

To be clear: Most borrowers don?t actually complete their 30-year loans before moving or refinancing, so few would end up paying that high a penalty. Also, it's important to note that my bank didn't even hold the loan, so they weren't profiting from the ?skip-a-payment? advice.? I believe this is usually a lazy mistake, not a greedy one. Still, the basic truth holds.? Don't be tempted to skip a payment when you refinance unless you really, really need the cash for some unusual expense (Christmas credit card bills are probably not the best reason.)

Skipped payments are not to be confused with other loan closing related interest payments, including:

*Your last payment on the old loan. You can't skip that, either. If your loan closes near the end of the month, you should still make the scheduled payment to your old bank. Why?? Interest is actually paid in arrears, meaning you pay at the end of the month the cost of borrowing the money for that month.? It's confusing, because mortgage payments are really two payments at once -- last month's interest and next month's principal.? To keep it simple, if your loan closes on the Nov. 30, you will be paying November's interest with your Dec. 1 payment, along with December?s principal. You won't need to make the December principal payment if you refinance on Nov. 30, but most folks pay far more in interest than principal because they are early in their loan's term, so the overpayment won't be large. Just pay it to avoid late fees, and enjoy any refund that comes your way.?

*Pre-paid interest. When your loan closes in the middle of the month, your new bank will make you pay up-front (as opposed to in arrears) daily interest for the remaining days of the month. If you close on the 20th, you'll pay 10 more days of interest payments.? That's OK, it means you won't owe the money on the back end of the loan.

*Money for nothing: The three-day (or more) overlap. There's an odd quirk in most refinancing deals in which there are several days when the homeowner will be paying interest on the same loan to both banks. In most states, consumers have a three-day "right of rescission" after signing their refinancing papers, meaning they can cancel the new loan if they get buyer's remorse.? Such regret laws are very consumer-friendly and are necessary because of nefarious loan officers who tricked consumers into bad deals in the past. But, in this case, the consumer-friendly law is also costly, as it means both banks have liability for the loan during that rescission period, and are both entitled to collect interest.? Note: The regret period is usually three business days, so if your closing stretches over a weekend, the double-interest period can be even more costly.

It's important to keep all these quirky, refinance-related interest payments straight when talking to your loan officer, so you'll know what to do when he or she suggests you can skip a payment. None of this should scare you away from refinancing, which is really the only way you can make the recession work for you.

But remember, you are refinancing to save money, and you probably shopped around trying to save $50 here or $100 there on closing costs; don't lose thousands of dollars because of one false move after closing.

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Source: http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/01/16239394-make-this-mistake-and-youll-lose-thousands-when-refinancing-your-mortgage?lite

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Medical Marijuana Becomes Legal in Mass | WPRI.com

Mass. (WPRI) ? Medical marijuana is legal as of Tuesday in the state of Massachusetts.

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