Amid Family Tragedies, Iowa Man Richard Koenigsfeld Wins $1 Million Lottery - AOL News

As AOL news reports a guy a nice story that a guy who has had a difficult year with his wife dying of cancer a month earlier and their having lost their son played the lottery in observation of his wife's birthday and won a million dollars. Interesting to note that between time value of money and taxes the million will come out to about $455,000.

94-Year-Old Gets Final Wish: A Waltz

A nice story of an elderly woman. As Yahoo news reported the 94 year old woman with less than six months to live had as a final wish that she would Waltz again as she had for years with her husband who was now deceased so a limo was rented and she was dressed up then had some dance partners to allow her to enjoy the evening.

Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade Sells Pinecrest home at a big Loss

As previously reported even celebrities are taking the hit of the housing market decline. In South Florida where Dwayne Wade is definitely a celebrity as a star for the Miami Heat just sold his home for a nearly $1.5 million dollar loss. It was bought during the boom years in 2005 for $3.98 million and in March was sold for $2.5 million. Wade is going through a divorce and may move to another city next season as a free agent so those may have contributed to his selling now but even with the tens of millions he makes and being one of the biggest names in South Florida interesting that even he took an over 35% loss from the home purchased just a few years earlier. To see a picture of the home or read the article from Housingwatch.com click here.

Report: Elin close to filing for divorce - News - FOX Sports on MSN

It will be interesting to see how well the Tiger Woods Florida pre nup agreement holds up and what the financial settlement will be in the divorce but reports are that Elin is about to file for a divorce and Tiger had to get her and the kids a separate mansion for her and the kids while he was in the Masters and she was not even there most of the time but was on a plan and out of the state. Fox sports reported this latest development here.

Another Celebrity who is being foreclosed on

TMZ reports of yet another celebrity having a home foreclosed upon. Nicholas Cage has multiple homes foreclosed upon and so have a number of other celebrities during the economic downturn impacting most people. An actor who had been a star of the show Scrubs for 9 seasons as Dr. Turk although the show like the actors home is on very shaky ground and likely to be gone shortly. Unfortunately Donald Faison owes over a half million essentially the same value of the property and the bank has already started the process to foreclose.

There have been a number of other celebrities as well that have had problems with foreclosure in the past couple years including Nicholas Cage, Evander Hollyfield, Ed McMahon, former NBA star Vin Baker, Wayne, Newton, Stephen Baldwin and LaToya Jackson, Victoria Gotti among others. The real estate blog for Zillow.com maintains a list of celebrities who are going through or have gone through foreclosure.

Half of Americans pay no federal income tax - Tax Tactics - msnbc.com

MSNBC reports nearly half of Americans or 47% to be exact pay no taxes. They either have too low of an income or qualify for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability.

The Atlantic wrote an interesting article here which discusses whether it is fair that nearly half the country does not pay taxes and thus does not contribute to paying for the discretionary budget. While it points out that is not really fair it then also points out that the upper income people have received the largest share of income gains in the 2000's with the top 1% soaking up 2/3 of the gains of pre tax dollars and that their income is the highest it has been proportionally since the 1920s. The article mentions that the top 20% of the country generates 67% of the revenue for the country. The top 1% is responsible for 23%.

It also mentions how when Ronald Reagan Reagan left office in 1988 that the top 10, 5 and 1% of the income bracket were paying effective tax rates of 27, 28 and 30% on their incomes while in 2009 those groups were paying 22%, 23% and 26% so their tax rates along with the rest of the country had fallen along with the rates for those with lower incomes.

That along with the fundamental way the tax system is currently set up and the skyrocketing deficit the government is facing will force significant changes and higher tax rates.

Duggars Take Baby 19 Home From the Hospital - ParentDish

This article mentioned that the Duggars have taken home their 19 child. With 19 children their estate plan could be rather interesting to do. If they wanted to do an insurance trust there would certainly be enough beneficiaries to get annual exclusion gifts. Class gifts would be interesting especially as the family grows and has a substantial number of grandchildren and others.

Your Money - Mortgage Aid Elicits Anger, but It May Help - NYTimes.com

The New York Times has an interesting article that discusses how people are angry that they have to pay for the mortgages of others with their tax dollars. They also point out the disparity that some homeowners are bailed out to make their payments on properties they cannot afford while renters get no similar break. In Los Angeles more than 10 million people owed more than 120 percent of their homes worth as of the third quarter last year. The argument in favor is to save further problems to the housing sector and economy in general that it is supposedly for the greater good even if it is unfair that some live beyond their means and are bailed out just as the banks were or that it is unfair how some people got better treatment than others just as occurred in the financial bailouts. It is a hot topic in the news currently.

Bionic Hand Helps Brooklyn Woman Get Her Life Back - News- msnbc.com

Growing up in the 70s and watching the $6 million dollar man the bionic woman and all their bionic parts was entertaining but far from reality. It is remarkable the the technology that has occurred since that time period.

Woman has bionic hand now and helping her life a more normal life again as this MSNBC article mentions.

Cabbage Patch magnate buys Madoff's pad - U.S. business- msnbc.com

As MSNBC reported Bernie Madoff's NYC penthouse which was on the market for $8.9 million was just purchased. Patsy Kahn and her husband Al who is CEO of 4Kids Entertainment Inc a licensing company that has done Pokemon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He also helped make Cabbage Patch Dolls a huge success in the 1980s.

40 under 40 - Sergey Brin and Larry Page (1) - FORTUNE

Fortune Magazines 40 under 40 in business listed on CNN is an interesting list. Not surprisingly Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google both worth $14 Billion and 36 years old are at the top.

Mark Zuckerberg was next on the list as the 25 year old founder of Facebook. He dropped out of Harvard to pursue building the company and with a $4 billion net worth and 400 Facebook users does not appear he will need to go back and finish up his college degree.

To view the the rest of the list click here.

10 highest paid CEOs - Larry Ellison: $84.5 million (1) - CNNMoney.com

Larry Ellison of Oracle was the highest paid CEO in 2009.

CNNMoney.com reported on the 10 highest paid CEO for the past year. To read the article click here.

British woman 'died 114 times'

Fox Chicago reported of a woman dying 114 times. She had Sudden Adult Death Syndrome and battled for 30 hours receiving continued shocks from a defibrillator. She came around and was alive only to "die" repeatedly until incredibly pulling through. Having six grandchildren she continued to fight and came back to for good.

Murray’s rep attacks Jackson suicide defense - Access Hollywood - msnbc.com

MSN reports that Attorneys for Conrad Murray say it is premature to discuss his legal strategy and no decision has been made regarding what and they would not seek to try the case in the press although they did not rule out that he may seek to argue that Jackson killed himself. It is the latest of many lawsuits relating to Jackson's estate and his death although the only one which is in criminal court instead of civil court.

Michael Jackson's father Joe has stated he now plans to bring a wrongful death lawsuit against Michael's Dr.

Murray’s rep attacks Jackson suicide defense - Access Hollywood - msnbc.com

Michael Jackson gave himself fatal dose of drug his doctor will reportedly argue.

The doctor charged in the death of Michael Jackson's death is going to argue that he merely provided a small amount of the drug and watched over him for an hour while he slept and that it was to help him with a medical problem in sleeping but he was fine at the time. He then left the room for a few moments and Michael Jackson woke up and became frustrated he could not fall asleep then took the remainder of the Propofol resulting in a massive overdose and accidentally killing himself. The New York Daily news reported from information they received from TMZ that that was going to be the defense strategy for Dr Conrad Murray.

10 Million Reasons Tiger Was Afraid of Rachel | TMZ.com

As TMZ.com reported Tiger Woods paid off Rachel Uchitel $10 million not to disclose their affair. Other wealthy and high profile celebrities and athletes have paid in order to protect their millions in endorsement deals although this amount is rather significant.

10 Million Reasons Tiger Was Afraid of Rachel | TMZ.com

Also the affairs of Tiger Woods may cost him additional money if he separates and divorces from his wife. The prenup may be broken or have a bad acts provision which would allow Elin more money as a result of his actions. Reports after the story had broken that he was seeking to offer as much as $50-75 million extra in the prenup for her to stay with him and also not disclose anything or speak negatively about him.

In Florida statute 61.08 provides that adultery may be considered when determining the amount of alimony that a divorcing spouse receives. If she can attack the prenup this could be used against Tiger with a reported 14 different woman he had affairs with. The statute can be viewed by clicking here.