The public is invited to join the Muscatine Art Center in welcoming Carol Ehlers, art history speaker, as she presents a 45 minute lecture on the art of Pablo Picasso. The lecture will take place Thursday, October 18 at 5:30 pm in the Muscatine Art Center's Music Room. Admission is free.

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist who spent most of his adult life in France. He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, and the co-invention of collage. He is commonly regarded as one of the artists responsible for significant developments in paintings, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics in the early 20th century.

Pablo Picasso was born October 25, 1881 in Málaga, Spain, the first child to a middle-class family. At age 16, Picasso set off for the first time on his own in Madrid, but he disliked formal instruction and quit attending classes soon after enrolling at the Royal Academy of San Fernando. While in Madrid, Picasso especially admired the works of great masters such as        El Greco whose paintings had a great influence on him. Elements of El Greco's paintings, such as elongated limbs, stunning colors and mystical qualities are echoed in Picasso's later work.

Picasso's work is often categorized into periods. The most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901-1904), the Rose Period (1904-1906), the African-influenced Period (1908-1909), Analytic Cubism (1909-1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912-1919). In 1937 during a later period considered by many to be a return to classical ideals, Picasso painted Guernica, which would become one of his most notable works.

Picasso's final works were a mixture of styles and mediums and were more colorful and expressive than his earlier works. It was only after Picasso's death that the critical art community came to see that Picasso was ahead of his time stylistically. Picasso was exceptionally prolific throughout his long lifetime, producing an estimated 50,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, drawings, prints, and tapestries and rugs. He died April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France at the age of 92.

In 1992 the Muscatine Art Center's collections were significantly enriched by a gift of twenty-seven works of art by Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Degas, Boudin, Chagall, Renoir, and other European artists. The collection was a gift from the estate of Mary Musser Gilmore in honor of her parents, Richard Drew Musser and Sarah Walker Musser. The paintings are on permanent display in the Laura Musser Mansion.

You're invited to attend a benefit for Johnny on Saturday, November 10 from 11am until 5pm at VFW Post 9128 at 2184 State Street in Bettendorf.

Come and enjoy hot chili, soda, etc and take part in our 50/50 drawing, silent auction and raffle.

All proceeds go to the remodel of Johnny's home to make it wheelchair accessible.

Education reformer calls for transparency, targeted state aid, middle class tax credit

CHICAGO - October 11, 2012. Lt. Governor Sheila Simon visited University of Illinois at Chicago on Thursday to urge state, federal and higher education leaders to work together to keep college affordable so thousands of Illinois students can earn the credentials needed for good-paying jobs.

Governor Quinn's point person on education reform, Lt. Governor Simon presented a broad-based approach to tackle rising tuition costs and emphasized the importance of higher education, state and federal cooperation before she shadowed two students in a chemistry lab work-study program.

Simon supports College Choice Reports, a standardized report for all degree-granting institutions that would help students analyze real cost, debt and graduation rates across institutions. She is also serving on a state task force that could change the way need-based state grants are awarded to students as early as next school year.

The goal is to stabilize the cost for public universities and community colleges, following tuition and fee increases that have outpaced inflation, family incomes and available aid over the past 20 years. To pay the bills, students racked up an average of $26,682 in student loans in 2010, up 14.3 percent from three years earlier and more than double what they owed in 1995, according to Pew Research Center report released last week.

"We've set a goal to have 60 percent of working-age adults hold college credentials by 2025. To reach our completion goal, we must make college more affordable. College cannot be accessible only to the privileged, when it is a prerequisite for a good-paying job here in Illinois," Simon said.

Simon outlined three ways higher education, state and federal leaders could work together to keep college affordable:

·         Consumer protections: Simon supports House Bill 5248, which would require all degree-granting institutions that operate in Illinois to publish online College Choice Reports. The reports would contain information such as net costs, average debt and completion rates in an easy-to-read and easy-to-find format. Unlike the federally proposed "shopping sheet" which provides cost information after a student applies to a school, the College Choice Report would be available to students online before they apply, to help them find a college or university that fits their needs and their budget.

·         Targeted assistance: To better use state resources, Simon wants strengthen the Monetary Award Program and insure MAP grants promote college attendance and completion and reduce the achievement gap between low-income and higher-income students. MAP grants are currently awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to students based on financial need, but state funding reaches only about half of eligible students. A MAP Eligibility Task Force is evaluating ways to improve distributional equity and encourage timely degree completion.

·         Tax relief for middle class families: Over 9 million students and families are taking advantage of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, saving them up to $10,000 over four years of college. Simon supports making this federal tax credit permanent and preventing it from expiring at the end of this year.

"Cutting investments directly related to economic growth doesn't make sense. We should work together on policies that prioritize education and employment, not shortchange Illinois students and quality employers," Simon said.

Eric Zarnikow, executive director of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, cited recent MAP award activity as evidence that affordability should be a key issue for Illinois leaders. For every eligible student who received a MAP grant this school year, another was denied due to lack of state funds. 

"MAP is one of the largest needs-based financial aid programs in the country. While approximately 150,000 students will receive an award this year, just as many will be left on the sidelines as a result of limited funding," Zarnikow said.

"The higher education community looks forward to working with Lt. Governor Simon and state leaders to maintain and restore funding and support policies that will help more students graduate with a quality college education in a timely and cost-effective manner," said George Reid, executive director of the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

Simon said policy makers should keep students like UIC junior Mena Poonaki in mind as they address college affordability issues. Poonaki is a chemistry major who is paying for college through her work-study lab assistantship researching protein interactions in the brain. Simon worked alongside Poonaki and her classmates in UIC's Science and Engineering building.

"Paying for college is my responsibility," said Poonaki, who was born in Ohio but grew up in Iran and depends on work study and aid to cover costs. She moved to Chicago with extended family four years ago and selected UIC based on its strong science program. "Work study allows me not only to pay for school, but gain career experience and help me achieve my goals."

Simon will visit each public university in Illinois for a College Affordability Summit this fall. Upcoming visits include Southern Illinois University in Carbondale on Monday, Oct. 15; Illinois State University and Western Illinois University on Thursday, Oct. 18; and Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville on Friday, Oct. 19.

"As a nation and a state, we need to make higher education affordability a higher priority," Simon said.

Income taxes are going up next year, and not just for those who earn more than $200,000 a year.

"Taxes are likely to be higher for everyone" says financial planner Rick Rodgers, author of The New Three-Legged Stool: A Tax Efficient Approach To Retirement Planning (www.RodgersSpeaks.com).

"We all know about the expiring Bush tax cuts, which may or may not be extended for everyone or just some," he says. "There are also new taxes that were part of the healthcare reform law passed in 2010; the expiring payroll tax cut; the alternative minimum tax that already expired in 2011, and many other provisions that have expired or will expire at year end."

Nearly everyone should prepare to pay more, Rodgers says.

The good news is you still have time to take advantage of 2012 tax rates, which may turn out to be the lowest we will see in some time. Rodgers offers these strategies that can be implemented before the end of 2012:

• Roth Conversion - No one knows for sure what will happen to the tax code next year, which is why a Roth conversion is one of the best tax-planning strategies available. Converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA creates a taxable event in 2012. All future earnings in the account will be tax-free, as long as you wait five years and are age 59½ or older when you take withdrawals. The biggest advantage to the Roth conversion strategy is the ability to "undo" the transaction as late as Oct. 15, 2013. Should the new Congress pass a major tax reform bill next year that lowers tax rates across the board, you can put the money back into your IRA. It will be like the transaction never happened.

• Harvest capital gains - Harvesting gains is similar to harvesting losses. Sell appreciated securities that you've held for at least 12 months to realize the long-term gain for tax purposes. You can immediately repurchase the same asset because there is no wash sale rule for realizing gains. This allows you to pay tax on the gain in 2012, when rates are low, and establish a new cost basis in the asset to minimize increased gains that may be taxed at higher rates.  This strategy should appeal to anyone in the 15-percent tax bracket because capital gains are taxed at zero and may jump to 8 to 10 percent in 2013 if the tax cuts expire. The strategy is also appealing to anyone subject to the Medicare surtax. If the current tax laws expire, the tax rate on long-term capital gains will jump from 15 percent to 23.8 percent (21.8 percent for assets held more than five years).

• Pay medical expenses - Anyone who normally itemizes medical expenses on their tax return should accelerate those expenses into 2012 if they can. Medical expenses are deductible only if they exceed 7½ percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). This means if your AGI is $50,000, you can deduct only medical expenses over $3,750.  Next year the threshold jumps to 10 percent of AGI.  Pay your January medical insurance premium in December to move this deduction to 2012.  Any routine eye exams or dental visits should be moved up to December.  Paying with a credit card would give you the deduction this year and delay the actual payment until 2013.

Rodgers warns that a common mistake is to wait and see what happens.  It has not been uncommon for Congress to make significant changes to the tax code late in December, leaving taxpayers little time to react.  He advises a diversified approach to tax planning.  Make a partial Roth conversion, harvest some capital gains but don't wait until it's too late to do anything about rising taxes.

Take a proactive approach to tax planning this year to cushion any fall from the fiscal cliff.

About Rick Rodgers

Certified Financial Planner Rick Rodgers is president of Rodgers & Associates, "The Retirement Specialists," in Lancaster, Pa. He's a Certified Retirement Counselor and member of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisers. Rodgers has been featured on national radio and TV shows, including "FOX Business News" and "The 700 Club," and is available to speak at conferences and corporate events (www.RodgersSpeaks.com).