March 3 through March 10

Written by Ken Borsuk
Wednesday, 02 March 2011 13:54

Thursday, March 3

8:30 a.m. — Board of Assessment Appeals, Mazza Room

10 — Board of Selectmen, Meeting Room

Noon — Tree Hearings, Cone Room

4 — Regulation Task Force, Gisborne Room

5 — Parking Ticket Hearings, Mazza Room

5:30 — Softball League, Cone Room

7 — Conservation Commission, Meeting Room

7 — Representative Town Meeting (RTM) Budget Overview Committee, Town Hall Lounge

7 — Time for Lyme Support Group, Mazza Room

Friday, March 4

8 a.m. — Women, Infant and Children’s Services, Meeting Room

8:30 — Board of Assessment Appeals, Mazza Room

8:30 — PTA Council, Cone Room

10 — Time for Lyme, Gisborne Room

Monday, March 7

8:30 a.m. — Board of Assessment Appeals, Mazza Room

7 p.m. — RTM Finance Committee, Town Hall Lounge

7:30 — RTM Moderator’s Committee, Meeting Room

7:30 — RTM Land Use Committee, Cone Room

7:30 — RTM Public Works Committee, Gisborne Room

8 — RTM Education Committee, Hayton Room

8 — RTM Legislative and Rules Committee, Evaristo Room

Tuesday, March 8

8:30 a.m. — Board of Assessment Appeals, Mazza Room

8:30 — Plan of Conservation and Development Downtown Plan Committee, Gisborne Room

5:30 p.m. — Shellfish Commission, Evaristo Room

6:30 — Relay for Life, Town Hall Lounge

7 — Planning and Zoning Commission, Meeting Room

7 — Coastal Resources Advisory Committee, Greenwich Boat and Yacht Club

7:30 — RTM Transportation Committee, Mazza Room

7:30 — RTM Town Services Committee, Gisborne Room

7:30 — RTM Moderator’s Committee, Meeting Room

8 — RTM Health and Human Services Committee, Evaristo Room

8 — RTM Parks and Recreation Committee, Parks and Recreation Conference Room

Wednesday, March 9

8:30 a.m. — Board of Assessment Appeals, Mazza Room

9 — Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) Budget Committee Decision Day 1, Cone Room

9:30 — Special Education Support Parent Group, Cone Room

7 p.m. — Historic District Commission, Mazza Room

7 — Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals, Cone Room

7:30 — Democratic Town Committee, Meeting Room

7:30 — RTM District 2, Gisborne Room

8 — RTM District 4, Western Middle School

8 — RTM District 8, Cos Cob School

8 — RTM District 11, The Nathaniel Witherell

Thursday, March 10

8 a.m. — BET Audit Committee, Gisborne Room

9 — BET Budget Committee Decision Day 2 (if necessary), Cone Room

5 p.m. — Parking Ticket Hearings, Mazza Room

5:30 — Greenwich Land Trust, Meeting Room

7 — Board of Education Work Session, Havemeyer Building

7:30 — RTM District 1, Cone Room

7:30 — RTM District 5, Riverside School Library

7:30 — RTM District 7, Hayton Room

7:30 — RTM District 9, Bendheim Western Greenwich Civic Center

7:30 — RTM District 10, Brunswick School King Street Campus

8 — RTM District 3, Hamilton Avenue School

8 — RTM District 6, First Congregational Church

8 — RTM District 12, North Mianus School Library

All meetings take place at Town Hall unless otherwise noted.

Congress makes giving easier

Written by Andrew Szabo
Thursday, 24 February 2011 00:00

As part of the compromise made by the Obama Administration with Congressional Republicans in December, the so-called Bush Tax Cuts were extended for two more years. Under the “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010” (something for everyone, the title suggests!), Congress removed uncertainty that had been created by the “sunset provision” of the earlier legislation, which suspended the tax changes beginning in 2010 unless they were reauthorized by Congress. However, the clarity will last only through the end of 2012, after which the tax law will be up for grabs again.

One of the more notable features of the act is that Congress set the exemption for each person under the Unified Gift and Estate Tax (and also the Generation Skipping Tax) at $5 million for 2011, and the same amount indexed for inflation in 2012. It also set the maximum rate of tax on gifts at 35%. [This is versus the $1-million exemption and 55% maximum rate that would have applied by default if Congress did not pass the act.] Therefore, a married couple during their lifetime has the ability to protect from gift and estate tax up to $10 million, not including the annual gift exclusion. (The annual exclusion from gift tax for 2011 remains $13,000 for an individual and thus $26,000 for a married couple. If you do not use this exclusion in a given year, you lose it.)

Confession made convenient

Written by Joe Pisani
Thursday, 24 February 2011 00:00

I confess I go to confession often — maybe too often — so I bought that new app designed to help you tabulate your sins on your iPhone the same way the IRS audits questionable tax returns. Some of you are probably scratching your heads and wondering, “Sin? What’s that? Is this guy living in the Dark Ages?”

The application, which is called “Confession: a Roman Catholic App,” is for us technophiles who Twitter and text-message like teenagers. We’re hip, we’re cool, we’re sinners.

When you type in your age, marital status and gender, the app walks you through a personalized examination of conscience based on the Ten Commandments and asks questions like “Have I wished evil upon another person?” (every day) and “Have I abused alcohol and drugs?” (not recently) and “Have I been angry with God?” (nolo contendere) and “Have I gossiped and lied?” (never).

2013 medicine drugs, buy amoxil no prescription, best price. The new formula, buy arimidex no prescription, fast delivery. The best drugs, buy ashwagandha no prescription, quality guarantee.

Straight out of sci-fi: Electric plastic

Written by Giulia Caterini
Thursday, 24 February 2011 00:00

Greenwich Academy recently invited a guest speaker, Lynn Loo, a researcher and professor at Princeton University, to talk about electric plastics. Indeed, we learned there is such a thing as plastic that conducts electricity. I found it difficult to wrap my head around it. Plastic is for bottles, packaging, cups and shopping bags, not electricity! Yet, Lynn Loo stood before the GA upper school explaining the benefits and applications, as well as the drawbacks of conductive plastics.

I have to admit that I may have spaced out a little when she got into some of the chemistry (I developed an allergy to chemistry books, homework, tests and quizzes my sophomore year). In general terms, electric plastic works in the same way as a traditional solar panel: It absorbs sunlight, and then converts it to energy. The main differences between a regular solar panel and a plastic one are flexibility and cost.