A: No — you get no deduction. Even though your intent was to donate $1,000 to your church because you don’t drive and didn’t care about winning the car, you still purchased a “chance to win” something that has a greater value than the amount you “donated.” Charitable deductions may be taken only when the dollar amount donated exceeds the cash value of the prize.

Had you bought the raffle tickets and then given them back to the church, the $1,000 would likely qualify as a charitable donation and thus be deductible.

Our inside source: Barbara Weltman, Esq., an attorney based in Millwood, New York. http://www.barbaraweltman.com

A: No — you get no deduction. Even though your intent was to donate $1,000 to your church because you don’t drive and didn’t care about winning the car, you still purchased a “chance to win” something that has a greater value than the amount you “donated.”

Charitable deductions may be taken only when the dollar amount donated exceeds the cash value of the prize.

Had you bought the raffle tickets and then given them back to the church, the $1,000 would likely qualify as a charitable donation and thus be deductible.

Our inside source: Barbara Weltman, Esq., an attorney based in Millwood, New York. http://www.barbaraweltman.com

The worst diagnosis in America

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is already one of the most overdiagnosed conditions in the nation… and now, it’s easier than ever to see why.

A new study finds that nearly a million American kids may have been incorrectly diagnosed with ADHD–and given dangerous drugs to deal with it–when the only thing they’re guilty of is being younger and less mature than their classmates.

That’s because in most areas, children are compared to kids at the same school level. But when you consider that the youngest kid in any class can be nearly a year younger than the oldest, there are going to be some natural differences in maturity levels.

After all, at kindergarten age, that year is nearly a fifth of their entire lives.

So researchers looked at the data on ADHD diagnoses and found that the youngest kid in a kindergarten class is 60 percent more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than the oldest.

Extrapolating their numbers, researchers say their study means 900,000 kids may have been misdiagnosed.

Even worse, these littlest ones were more likely to be taking meds, according to the study accepted for publication in the Journal of Health Economics.

The researchers agreed that it’s very likely that simple immaturity is being mistaken for ADHD. But is this really surprising? For a generation now, schools, parents and doctors have been pushing powerful, dangerous and addictive meds on kids for the simple crime of acting their age.

The truth is, most of the kids who are taking the powerful, mood-altering drugs given for attention disorders don’t need the drugs–because they don’t have the disorders.

Some are simply acting up, because that’s what kids do… while others are suffering the side effects of a nutritionally empty lifestyle.

Caffeine, cheese doodles and videogames–with no real food in the mix–can do a lot of damage to anyone. But to the still-developing brain of an adolescent, it can lead to the classic symptoms of ADHD.

If this sounds like your child or grandchild, he doesn’t need mental help or addictive drugs… just a better diet and healthier lifestyle.

And it wouldn’t hurt if he spent a little time outside, too.
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Helen

It seems that the government is now going to do Deep-Core radiation test of Apra Harbor.

What exactly are we looking for in and around Guam’s waters?