The Press-Dispatch

Opinion Wednesday, October 19, 2022 The Press-Dispatch D-5 Social Security Matters Court Report CIVIL DOCKET Pike Circuit Court In re: the marriage of Em- ma Rose Drew and Eric An- thony Drew. In re: the marriage of Wil- liam Jennis and Janelle Jen- nings. Mariner Finance sues Jo- seph Jones Jr., for civil collec- tion. Mariner Finance sues Da- vid Hammock for civil collec- tion. Professional and Business Collections sues Melissa Brown aka Melissa A. Good- pasture for civil collection. Freedom Mortgage Corp. sues Nicholas W. Rodocker, Indiana Housing and com- munity Development Author- ity, United States of America through its Dept. of Housing and Urban Development for mortgage foreclosure. M&J's Quality Construc- tion, Inc. sues Joshua J. Mc- Donald for civil plenary. SMALL CLAIMS Pike Circuit Court Hoosier Accounts Service sues Lynne A. Hill on com- plaint. CRIMINAL DOCKET Pike Circuit Court Johnny Andrew Willis charged with operating a vehi- cle with an alcohol concentra- tion of 0.15 percent or more, a class A misdemeanor; and op- erating a vehicle while intox- icated with a prior conviction within seven years. INFRACTIONS Pike Circuit Court Brian K. Warner charged with no valid driver's license. Jeannie L. Guerrero charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Ronald R. Satterfield charged with speeding in a school zone. Kimberly L. Lapidus charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Justin A. Hill charged with driving left of center. Elizabeth A. Kimper charged with speeding. Larry D. Elsner charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Montez D. Davies charged with speeding in a 70 zone. David W. Gress charged with speeding in a school zone. Regan J. Norris charged with speeding in a 70 zone. John W. Birk charged with speeding a school zone. Hanna S. Fair charged with speeding in a 55 zone. Derek J. Wood charged with seat belt violation. Matthew D. Potts charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Carl B. Simpson charged with speeding. Michale A. Pompei charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Martha Lamberson charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Carrie L. Cox charged with speeding in a school zone. Douglas L. Hagemeier charged with speeding. Shanna L. Weikert charged with speeding. Troy-Den E. Graber charged with speeding in a school zone. Brandon L. Karns charged with speeding. Brett A. Williams charged with expired plates and oper- ating without financial respon- sibility. Hrang Hup charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Lorin A. Walburn charged with speeding in a 55 zone. Saxon V. Julian charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Kiara S. Cushenberry charged with child restrain- ing system violation. Rolanda M. Hinton charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Jemelle A. Sintobin charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Joshua R. Butcher charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Crystal M. Stovall charged with speeding in a 55 zone. Tiffani J. Scales charged with no valid drivers license and speeding in a 70 zone. Pierre J. Chery charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Brian J. Like charged with operating a commercial vehi- cle without a CDL, operating of a vehicle in excess of max- imum width limitation and permitting requirement trac- tor-mobile home. Jason M. Hill charged with speeding in a school zone. Jared G. Thomas charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Miranda Josue I. Caraban- tes charged with speeding. Joshua T. Reid charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Payton G. Moore charged with speeding in a 70 zone. Seth T. Blue charged with expired plates. Samuel L. Riester charged with speeding. Jonathan Faulkenberg charged with speeding in a 70 zone. TRAFFIC AND MISDEMEANOR Pike Circuit Court Cori Sharp charged with possession of marijuana and visiting a common nuisance (controlled substance). Bryan Hill charged with possession of marijuana. Aaron Ryan Turner posses- sion of marijuana. Casandra D. Quimby charged with reckless driving. Candace N. Coleman charged with possession of marijuana. true — available data mea- suring crime in the borough between 2005 and 2018 show that violent crime went up un- der his leadership, not down. Fetterman's assertion about Oz and marriage inequity was also patently false; Oz has said numerous times that he backs the Senate bill to preserve same-sex marriage. His assertion that Oz does not support exceptions for abortions is not true either, for the record. Oz has said sever- al times, including at a press conference in Pittsburgh at- tended by many of the same reporters covering Fetterman, that he would legislate excep- tions for incest, rape and the life of the mother. And his assertion that Oz wanted him to stay sick was ... well, quite nasty, really. Oz is definitely benefiting from Fet- terman's continued ill health, but he has also said dozens and dozens of times, as re- cently as the day before Fet- terman's rally, that he wish- es a full recovery for the York native. The Fetterman event was striking in its contrast to Oz's event on the campaign trail two days prior. Oz spent that time walking back and forth along the six blocks of Parade Street with black leaders from the faith com- munity, listening to the frus- trations of random passers- by, and discussing what type of solutions they'd like to see from Washington. The heart surgeon spent hours Friday in Duquesne, Rankin and other distressed majori- ty-black communities along the Monongahela River, tour- ing the town with black lead- ers and then spending hours listening to their concerns about policing and opportu- nity and access to better pro- grams for their children to keep them off the streets. None of the questions that came to Oz in any of those day- long events was easy, nor were the ad hoc questions posed to him when he visited the crime-ravaged Kensington neighborhood of Philly last week. But he showed up, felt the frustration, listened and learned at the same time Fet- terman was placing a meme on Twitter showing a stick image of himself kicking the "balls" of D.C. One Allegheny County Democrat, frustrated with the lack of any "meat on the bones" of Fetterman's rheto- ric, said he wouldn't vote for Oz, "but I also won't vote for Fetterman. I'll just leave that blank. There is no there there." For the last several months, the focus has been on Fetter- man's recovery from heart sur- gery and a stroke and the lack of transparency on the state of his health, what caused his heart condition and why he had not revealed this apparent- ly serious problem back when he sought the nomination, or back when he was going for the lieutenant governorship. Fetterman also has not an- swered questions about a bi- zarre incident in which he chased down a black jogger when he was mayor of Brad- dock. He has not addressed his years of unpaid taxes to one of the poorest school dis- tricts in the commonwealth, which he finally did settle and pay, or why he kept sev- eral properties he owns in Braddock off of his financial statements when running for office. Voters do not know where Fetterman stands on the crime wave that is sweeping the state or on how to address the inflationary costs that are crippling the country. They do not know how he would ad- dress the current recession or what his solutions are for the fentanyl crisis that is ravaging the Appalachian section of his state, as well as the streets of Philadelphia. Many reporters believe Fet- terman's lack of honesty and transparency about his health issues have driven his slide in the polls in the past few weeks. But many Democrats will tell you privately that his slide is because people don't know where he stands on im- portant issues. They are feel- ing the stress as they watch Oz go into neighborhoods, ru- ral and urban, and take hard questions from voters that Fet- terman won't answer. Salena Zito is a CNN politi- cal analyst, and a staff report- er and columnist for the Wash- ington Examiner. FETTERMAN Continued from page 4 Well what a week we had and I'm still hurting and sore from all the labor on our driveway. It looks great and it didn't cost as much as the contractor asked for. We started spreading sealer around 10 a.m. and finished around 6 p.m. We used 18 pails of sealer and had two of the 20 we bought to return for a refund of our money. We purchased our sealer at Ru- ral King and according to the star rating it only had a 4 and a half atar rating but it gave us no problems. I really feel that brushing and squeeging it on is better for the driveway than having it sprayed on. I suppose time will tell how well we done but for now it looks super. We opened the driveway to traffic about 24 hours after we finished. I hauled off the pails and the brooms along with some trash we couldn't get rid of to Vel- pen disposal. I had to pay the cost of one ton but in my mind I just added it to the overall cost and still came in under bud- get. The school kids recieved a two-hour bonus time out of school because there was lots of water troubles in Winslow. They had to dismiss school for the first two hours of the day. I'm sure the school kids enjoyed this time. My wife went to the doctor with her friend and they spent a girl's day out. They had lunch and went to the treasure hunt to see if they could scarf a bargain or two. I like to go there once in awhile but I wear out long before the rest do. If you haven't been, there is bin after bin full of stuff and everything costs what the price of the day is at that time. I have never seen it above $5 per item. I haven't been able to exercise one time in the past week, because for some rea- son I have been too sore and achy. I don't really feel bad, but I have a cough and body aches. No there is no fever so I have been doing my best to remain active but at the same time trying to get over the aches and pains. The Lions Club has taken on helping stock "Mason's Store" if you would like more info about this project please call me and I'll do my best to get you on track or get you to someone who can assist you. I' sure they would appreciate your help and tell you of what they are in need of at the time. Our meeting was a wee bit shorter this week so our meeting was do- ne within an hour. There was a combined fun day at Camp Arthur which is our Flatcreek General Baptist Association Camp. The Chris- tian Board of Education and the Mis- sions Board combined efforts and put on Mission day plus fun day for the Associa- tion. We have several people attend and we heard three good speakers who told us about their mission trips. My family stayed home from church because we have some problems with being stuffed up and coughing about ev- ery 15 minutes. I'm sure we would have scared everyone and would have been disrupting. This does not relieve us from our God given duty to be a blessing to all God's children. This is a very lofty duty. Ramblings of my mind By Lowell Thomas How do Social Security survivor benefits work? Dear Rusty: Social Secu- rity is confusing in itself and gets even more confusing when you receive mul- tiple answers to the same ques- tion from mul- tiple sources. During my re- search I came across your or- ganization, and I hope you can assist me in making educat- ed choices regarding my So- cial Security benefits. My husband of 20 + years passed away in 1998 and I have not remarried. I will be turning 65 next month (born in 1957), and my full retire- ment age is 66 years and six months. I work full-time, have not made any specif- ic retirement plans, and my current gross salary is over $ 60,000. So, my questions are: Can I collect any of my late husband's social secu- rity? If yes, when, and how? Signed: Confused Widow. Dear Confused Widow: From the facts you provided, you are eligible to collect a survivor benefit from your deceased husband, but be- cause you are working full time earning over $ 60,000 you will not be able to col- lect those benefits at this time. Here's why: Social Security imposes an "earnings test" for anyone who collects benefits before reaching their full retirement age. The penalty for exceed- ing the earnings limit is $1 for every $2 you are over the limit (which is $19,560 for 2022). With $ 60,000 in earn- ings, you would be $40,440 over the limit, for which SS would impose a penal- ty of $20,220. That essen- tially means that your survi- vor benefit would be entire- ly (or almost entirely) offset by the penalty for exceeding the earnings limit, leaving you unable to collect a survi- vor benefit at this time. The earnings test is in effect un- til you reach your full retire- ment age (FR A), after which your earnings will no longer affect your Social Security benefits. There are also other nu- ances you should know about. Claiming any SS bene- fit before reaching your FR A will result in a permanently reduced benefit. If claimed at your FR A, your survivor ben- efit would be 100 percent of the amount your husband was receiving (or entitled to) at this death but claimed at age 65 your survivor bene- fit would be re- duced to about 93 percent of his benefit en- titlement. Also, you will be eligi- ble for your full widow's bene- fit at 66 years and 2 months of age because – in your specif- ic case - your "widow's FR A" is less than your normal full retirement age. However, the earnings test previously de- scribed is still in effect until you reach your normal FR A of 66 years and six months. In the year you reach your normal full retirement age, the earnings limit (for the months prior to reach- ing your FR A) increases by about 2.5 times. You'll reach your normal FR A in Febru- ary 2024 and, at your cur- rent earnings level, wouldn't exceed the higher earnings limit in 2024. That means the earnings test shouldn't af- fect your SS benefits in 2024 at your current income level, so you could claim your full survivor benefit effective Jan- uary 2024 without penalty. You will also have the op- tion, if desired, to claim on- ly your survivor benefit and permit your personally earned SS retirement ben- efit grow. It would be wise to do that if your personally earned SS retirement bene- fit at maximum will be more than your maximum survi- vor benefit as a widow. A f- ter reaching your FR A, your personal benefit will grow by .667 percent for each month you wait to claim it, up to age 70 when your own bene- fit would be 28 percent more than it would be at your nor- mal FR A. So, you could col- lect your full survivor bene- fit at your normal FR A, con- tinue to work if desired, and switch to your higher person- al benefit at age 70 (and col- lect that for the rest of your life). If you expect to achieve at least average longevity (about 87 for a woman your current age), and your own maximum benefit will be more than your benefit as a widow, that is an option you may wish to consider. To submit a question, vis- it website (amacfoundation. org/programs/social-secu- rity-advisory) or email ssad- visor@amacfoundation.org.

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