Adolfina blog

$54,000 Tax Refund for North Carolina Family

t be used as part of a refund for a single person or family making the filing. Now the federal adoption tax credit is considered refundable for the first time, meaning it can be applied to anyone's taxes and could mean cash in the pocket of certain families.

The one-time tax credit for each qualifying adoption is $13,170, and the Wards had been unable to take advantage of it until this year. That discovery was made by their people at H&R Block, and the revelation of their final tax refund must have seemed like winning the lottery. For a family as large as this one, regardless of how many new kids have been added to the fold, every dollar counts. Getting a tax refund this large will definitely offset the numerous costs that are associated with taking care of the 12 children in the house now.

The only word that fits when describing the Wards is "remarkable," because they have put themselves out there to help make the lives of several children much better. Opening up their home to all of these kids is something everyone might wish they could do, but there aren't very many of us that have the fortitude to actually commit to it. Despite the shocking amount of the tax refund that the Wards are going to be getting, it certainly seems like the perfect place for those funds to be used.

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Army group says there ARE atheists in foxholes

The cliche notwithstanding, there are atheists in foxholes. In fact, atheists, agnostics, humanists and other assorted skeptics from the Army's Fort Bragg have formed an organization in a pioneering effort to win recognition and ensure fair treatment for nonbelievers in the overwhelmingly Christian U.S. military.

"We exist, we're here, we're normal," said Sgt. Justin Griffith, chief organizer of Military Atheists and Secular Humanists, or MASH. "We're also in foxholes. That's a big one, right there."

For now, the group meets regularly in homes and bars outside of Fort Bragg, one of the biggest military bases in the country. But it is going through the long bureaucratic process to win official recognition from the Army as a distinct "faith" group.

That would enable it to meet on base, advertise its gatherings and, members say, serve more effectively as a haven for like-minded soldiers.

"People look at you differently if you say you're an atheist in the Army," said Lt. Samantha Nicoll, a West Point graduate who in January attended her first meeting of MASH. "That's extremely taboo. I get a lot of questions if I let it slip in conversation."

The decision on recognition goes first to an Army agency called the Installation Management Command and may be reviewed after that by the Army Chaplain Corps. Neither agency returned calls for comment. MASH members said chaplains at Fort Bragg have been supportive of their effort.

Similar groups of non-theists at about 20 U.S. military bases around the world are watching the outcome at Fort Bragg in hopes it will lead to their recognition, too, said Jason Torpy, president of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

MASH, whose name conjures the 1970s movie and sitcom about an Army field hospital in the Korean War, formed in January, partly in reaction to a concert called Rock the Fort that was sponsored by an evangelical Christian organization and held on base last fall. Griffith, an atheist when he joined the Army 4 1/2 years ago, said he tried to organize an atheist festival but called it off because higher-ups were not providing the same support they had for the Christian event — a claim Fort Bragg officials deny.

Griffith said MASH has about 65 members among more than 57,000 active service members who live on and off the post. Bragg is the home of the 82nd Airborne Division and headquarters of the Army's Green Berets.

Fort Bragg Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Sicinski disputed Griffith's account of how the atheist concert came to be canceled but said the post is doing what it can to help Griffith win recognition for MASH. "He knows the procedures, he knows what the paper trail needs to look like, and we're guiding him along in the process to see where that goes," Sicinski said.

Meetings of military personnel who are non-theists — an umbrella term for the many varieties of nonbelievers — have been held at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida and aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. But groups of any kind are prohibited from meeting on Army bases without official recognition.

If the Fort Bragg group succeeds, it will be overseen by the Chaplain Corps. That might seem contradictory for a group defined by its lack of belief, but it means MASH's literature would be available along with Bibles and Qurans. It could raise funds on base and, its members say, they could feel more comfortable approaching chaplains for help with personal problems. Recognition would also be an official sign that not believing in God is acceptable, something members say is lacking now.

"They call it `coming out of the atheist closet,'" Griffith said. "There are people who won't say anything to anyone outside of their own close-knit group. They don't want Grandma to find out, or whoever. People feel like they have to lie about it."

Griffith said he doesn't know of any soldiers being denied promotions because of their atheism, and he and other MASH members at Fort Bragg said they have no horror stories about outright discrimination, that the reaction from their comrades has amounted to little more than raised eyebrows and lots of questions.

Instead, they said, they are largely motivated by a sense of isolation and a desire to spend time with people who not only understand the military experience but also share their views on religion.

It is difficult to pin down how many nonbelievers are in the military, in part because some soldiers lose their faith or convert to a different one. But a report last June by the Pentagon's Military Leadership Diversity Commission concluded that about 20 to 25 percent of military personnel have no religious preference. Up to 3.6 percent identify themselves as humanist — a catchall that can refer to a nonreligious ethical philosophy.

Surveys of the general population generally find the "no preference" category at between 10 and 15 percent, a figure that has grown steadily over the past 20 years, making the military numbers less surprising, said Phil Zuckerman, a sociology professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.

"People are increasingly much more likely to identify themselves with no particular religion, although that doesn't mean they're atheists. About half the nonreligious are still believers," Zuckerman said.

The Pentagon is studying religious diversity in part to make sure tensions in society at large don't become problems in the military.

The MASH group meets at restaurants and homes, discussing books or having dinner together. About 15 people attend regularly, but Griffith said he has received inquiries from roughly 100 soldiers at Fort Bragg, along with dozens from other bases.

"Granted, most soldiers are Christian, but I'd like to see some secular kind of spiritual and emotional support," said Sgt. Adam Jennings, a Special Forces medic who has been in the Army for 11 years and served in combat in Afghanistan. "I want a place where I can go and be part of a close-knit community."

Federer holds off Monaco at Miami tennis event

Roger Federer fought through a tough first set and turned it on in the second to beat Juan Monaco 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 as the Swiss clocked his 20th win of the season to advance at the Miami ATP Masters 1000.

The third seed, who won the event at Crandon Park twice, improved his record on the season to 20-3 in a campaign dominated so far by the 20-match win streak of second-seeded Serb rival Novak Djokovic.

Top seed Rafael Nadal followed suit as he beat fellow Spaniard for the seventh time in nine meetings, taking a 6-3, 6-3 decision.

Federer's clean and clinical third-round victory Monday in one and three-quarters hours over the Argentine, improved his overall Miami mark to 38-10.

"It was tough not having played him very often," said the Swiss. "This is as slow as it gets out on the hard court. It's a bit of clay almost except that you can't slide.

"I thought he played well in the later stages of the first set and then also in the second. I had a return game which worked well, and was able to serve it out. So it was a good finish for me."

Federer will next play longtime friend Olivier Rochus, a winner over Russian Mikhail Youzhny 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Seventh-seeded Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych beat Argentine Carlos Berlocq 7-6 (10/8), 7-5. Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia beat German Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-3 in their third-round contest.

Germany's Florian Mayer stopped Spanish 11th seed Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.

In women's play, Caroline Wozniacki's dream of a coast-to-coast title double hit the wall as the top seed was upset 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 by Germany's colourful Andrea Petkovic.

The winner, already an internet, YouTube and Twitter personality thanks to her prodigious use of social media, performed a snippet of her jiggy "Petko" victory dance after the upset in just under two and a half hours.

"It was not like I played unbelievable," said the German. "It was more that I was able to stick to my game plan and I was playing clever. That was the key to the match."

Petkovic, ranked 23rd and who made a quarter-final at the Australian Open, needed an hour to win the opening set against Wozniacki, who claimed the Indian Wells Masters in California eight days ago and had been bidding to repeat on the East coast in Florida.

Petkovic went up 4-2 in the third set on a break and three games later was into the quarter-finals after firing her third ace of the afternoon on match point. She faced 17 break points but saved 12 of them against the world number one Dane.

Pole Agnieszka Radwanska crushed Roland Garros winner Francesca Schiavone, wining the first eight games in a 6-0, 6-2 hammering of the Italian. Serb sixth seed Jelena Jankovic beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 6-3.

Russian 16th seed Maria Sharapova also took out a leading seed as she beat Australia's French Open finalist Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-1.

The Australian who lost the Roland Garros final last year to Francesca Schiavone suffered with five double-faults and no aces in a contest lasting 81 minutes.

"I have a good record against her, but it's not something that you typically look at going into the match," said Sharapova, who missed months over the past few seasons with a shoulder injury which eventually required surgery.

"I know that she's a very tough player.

Sharapova produced her best result so far this year at Indian Wells this month as she played her first semi-final since last August.

Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru beat China's Peng Shuai 6-3, 6-4.

Ford to idle Belgian plant for 5 days

Ford Motor Co. said Saturday it will idle an auto plant in Belgium for five days, trying to conserve supplies of Japanese parts that could run low following an earthquake and tsunami.

Ford spokesman Todd Nissen said the plant in Genk will close beginning April 4. The company had planned to idle the plant in May for another reason. But it moved up the date after auto parts suppliers in Japan were damaged by the twin disaster on March 11.

"We didn't run short of parts, but if we can find things to do to conserve parts it certainly makes sense to do that," he said.

Ford makes Mondeo sedans and Galaxy and S-Max minivans at the Belgian plant.

Ford has also canceled overtime at three plants in the U.S. and one in Thailand.

Japanese suppliers are crucial for global car companies, and parts and other supplies from Japan aren't reaching factories because of quake damage and power outages in that country. That has interrupted car production around the world, from Louisiana to Germany.

After a Japanese plant that makes pigment for auto paint was damaged, for example, Ford told dealers to stop taking new orders for F-150 and Super Duty pickups and Expedition and Navigator SUVs in "tuxedo black," a color that uses the pigment.

Forget the Faces, How About an L.A. Noire Gameplay Video?

To watch , you'd think Rockstar wanted out of the games industry and into the movie biz. Everything's Dutch angles, low-key lighting, and talking heads. So how about a trailer that shows how this thing actually plays for a change?

Looking good, Team Bondi. Makes you want to play it, right? Los Angeles circa 1947, faithfully recreated? I mean look at this game: Booze, jazz, swanky cars, three-piece suits, chaos and corruption around every corner. What could go wrong?

The trailer reveals Team Bondi's hardly parted ways with Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto vibe. There's the scene where you bum rush a bunch of guys in a building with a shotgun. Or the one where you're playing fisticuffs. There's the part where you're scooting down a wide street playing bumper cars with criminals on your flank. Or how about the part where you're sneaking around darkened alleys and crate-filled warehouses to see what the bad guys are up to.

That's right, you can call them bad guys without blushing here. It's that kind of game.

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