How would a landing gear tire from a space shuttle look on display in your school's library? Pretty sharp, right? It could happen, thanks to NASA's new artifact loan program.

A joint effort of NASA and the space shuttle program, the new Artifact Loan Opportunities Program allows schools, museums, planetariums, and other civic groups borrow NASA space program artifacts for education and outreach purposes.

The first artifacts available are main landing gear tires from space shuttles. The space shuttle tires, including some flown on missions, are available to applying organizations that NASA determines best meet the agency's education and public outreach goals. The shuttle tires and future available artifacts represent all the years of NASA's explorations and discoveries in space.

Organizations interested in requesting loaned artifacts may not be associated with NASA, and may include, but are not limited to, museums, schools, and civic groups. NASA requests only that the long-term loan of the shuttle tires and other artifacts be used to educate, inspire or inform the public about NASA's scientific and technological achievements through art, sculpture, furniture, building structures, exhibits or other innovative uses of the artifacts.

The deadline for submitting proposals on this initial phase of the NASA Artifact Loan Opportunities Program opportunity is June 11, 2008.

Also See:
Send Your Name to the Moon
NASA Plans Elevators to Space
NASA on Watch for Earth-threatening Asteroids

The SBA's Patriot Express small business loan program offers small business loans of up to $500,000 to members of the U.S. military community. In the program's first ten months alone, Patriot Express produced 1,304 guaranteed small business loans amounting to more than $135 million, with an average loan amount of nearly $104,000. Nearly 15 percent of the loans went to military spouses. [Find out more...]

Also See: More SBA Small Business Loan Programs
Small Business Grants? Look to the States

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warns you to be on the lookout for a new spam email related to the economic stimulus tax rebates that is, in fact, intended to steal your personal identification information.

The email, purportedly from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), advises the recipient that direct deposit is the fastest and easiest way to receive their economic stimulus tax rebate. The message contains a web link to a fake form which requests the recipient's personally identifiable information, including bank account information. To convince the victim to reply, the email warns that a failure to complete the form in a timely manner will delay the issuance of the rebate check.

One example of this IRS spam email message is as follows:

"Over 130 million Americans will receive refunds as part of President Bush's program to jumpstart the economy.

Our records indicate that you are qualified to receive the 2008 Economic Stimulus Refund.

The fastest and easiest way to receive your refund is by direct deposit to your checking/savings account.

Please follow the link and fill out the form and submit before May 10th, 2008 to ensure that your refund will be processed as soon as possible.

Submitting your form on May 10th, 2008 or later means that your refund will be delayed due to the volume of requests we anticipate for the Economic Stimulus Refund.

To access Economic Stimulus refund, please click here."

There are more than one version of the spam email, but they are all similar to the above.

"Various forms of online fraud continue to proliferate on the internet and people should take the appropriate precautions to protect themselves," said Special Agent Richard J. Kolko, FBI National Press Office, in a press release.

More Tax Rebate Resources
Tax Rebate Information Directory
IRS Publishes 2008 Tax Rebate Check Details
IRS Launches Tax Rebate Information Center
Rebate-only Tax Filers May Now File for Free
Will I Have to Pay Taxes On My Rebate?
To Get $300 Rebate, Kids Must Have SS Number
SSI and the Tax Rebate Checks
What if I Filed Before the Tax Rebate was Approved?
Tax Rebate Checks Become Scammer's "Bait"

The Federal Reserve has announced proposed federal regulations to prevent credit card practices employed by banks it has called "unfair and deceptive" to consumers.

The proposed regulations (.pdf), which have also won the approval of both the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration, would:

• Prohibit banks from increasing the rate on a pre-existing credit card balance (except under limited circumstances) and require banks to allow the consumer to pay off that balance over a reasonable period of time.

• Prohibited banks from applying payments in excess of the minimum in a manner that maximizes interest charges.

• Required banks to give consumers the full benefit of discounted promotional rates on credit cards by applying payments in excess of the minimum to any higher-rate balances first, and by providing a grace period for purchases where the consumer is otherwise eligible.

• Prohibit banks from imposing interest charges using the "two-cycle" method, which computes interest on balances on days in billing cycles preceding the most recent billing cycle. (Credit card issuers sometimes use various methods to calculate your balance that make use -- to their advantage -- of your last two month's account activity. Two-cycle billing can allow lenders to hit customers with finance charges even during months they pay off their balances in full.)

• Prohibit banks from charging security deposits for credit cards or other forms of consumer credit.

• Require banks to provide consumers a reasonable amount of time to make payments.

The proposed regulations would also address subprime credit cards by limiting the fees that reduce the available credit. In addition, banks that make firm offers of credit advertising multiple rates or credit limits would be required to disclose in the solicitation the factors that determine whether a consumer will qualify for the lowest rate and highest credit limit.

Including a 75-day period for public comments, the Federal Reserve expects the new regulations to take effect by the end of 2008.

Also See:
Federal Regulations: Laws Behind the Acts
About the Federal Reserve System
FTC Warning on Credit Card Loss Protection Scams

The IRS today issued a clarification stating that its tax rebate delivery schedule applied only to people who filed a 2007 tax return "early enough" to have their returns processed April 15.

"In general," stated the IRS, "the payment schedule only applies if your return was received and the IRS finished processing it before April 15. If you filed your return on time, but close to the April 15 deadline, the IRS may not have finished processing it before April 15. Processing times for tax returns and stimulus payments vary. If you are getting a regular income-tax refund, the IRS will send you that refund first. Normally, your stimulus payment will follow one to two weeks later."

The IRS has provided a web site, where people can check the status of their tax rebate and full and growing list of answers to Frequently Asked Rebate Questions.

More Tax Rebate Resources
Tax Rebate Information Directory
IRS Publishes 2008 Tax Rebate Check Details
IRS Launches Tax Rebate Information Center
Rebate-only Tax Filers May Now File for Free
Will I Have to Pay Taxes On My Rebate?
To Get $300 Rebate, Kids Must Have SS Number
SSI and the Tax Rebate Checks
What if I Filed Before the Tax Rebate was Approved?
Tax Rebate Checks Become Scammer's "Bait"

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts, 4th) has introduced a pair of bills removing federal penalties for the possession of marijuana for personal use and for medicinal purposes.

Possession for Personal Use: Rep. Frank's bill H.R. 5843 would eliminate most federal penalties for possession of 100 grams or less of marijuana for personal use, or for the not-for-profit transfer between adults. The bill would retain existing federal penalties for the public use of marijuana, but limit maximum fines to $100.

Medicinal Possession and Use: An associated bill, H.R. 5842 would prevent federal laws from prohibiting or restricting the production, distribution and use of marijuana when prescribed or recommended by a physician for medical use according to state laws. The bill would remove marijuana from Schedule 1 of the list of Federally Controlled Substances.

Along with drugs like heroine, morphine and LSD, substances listed in Schedule 1 are considered by the federal government to have a "high potential for abuse," and "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States." Schedule 1 substances are also subject to enhanced or extended jail sentences for crimes involving their possession, use, production and transfer.

According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), 13 states currently sanction and regulate the possession, use, production and distribution of marijuana for medical purposes. However, both the Controlled Substances Act and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act continue to ban medical uses of marijuana at the federal level.

In June 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that federal law can be used to prevent doctors from prescribing marijuana for treatment of pain caused by serious illnesses, including cancer.

Also See: Supreme Court Rules Feds Can Ban Medical Marijuana
CA Cities Scramble to Regulate or Ban Medical Marijuana
New Mexico Legalizes Medical Marijuana
Drug Czar: Medical Marijuana No Longer a Political Issue

When NASA sends the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to the moon late this year, your name can go with it, thanks to the efforts of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

With a quick sub-orbital virtual trip to NASA's Send Your Name to the Moon web site, you can be a part of the nation's latest lunar adventure by putting your name in orbit around the moon. Everyone who visits the Send Your Name to the Moon site and submits the requested information will be able to print a certificate and have their name entered in to a database. The contents of the database will then be transferred to a microchip that will be integrated onto the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft.

The deadline for submitting names is June 27, 2008.

"Everyone who sends their name to the moon, like I'm doing, becomes part of the next wave of lunar explorers," said Cathy Peddie, deputy project manager for LRO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in a press release. "The LRO mission is the first step in NASA's plans to return humans to the moon by 2020, and your name can reach there first. How cool is that?"

Also See:
NASA Plans Elevators to Space
NASA on Watch for Earth-threatening Asteroids
NASA satellite find traces of Big Bang

The total Hispanic population of the U.S. hit 45.5 million on July 1, 2007, or 15.1 percent of the total population of 301.6 million, according to data just published by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The latest Census Bureau estimates also showed that the Hispanic population of 16 states had now exceeded 500,000.

Hispanics made up the nation's largest minority group in 2007, followed by blacks at 40.7 million. Twenty states recorded black populations of more than 500,000. Blacks were the largest minority group in 24 states, compared with 20 states in which Hispanics were the largest minority group.

Four states and the District of Columbia were "majority-minority" states, in which minorities comprise more than 50 percent of the total population. Hawaii led the nation with a population that was 75 percent minority in 2007, followed by the District of Columbia (68 percent), New Mexico (58 percent), California (57 percent) and Texas (52 percent).

Overall, the nation's minority population reached 102.5 million in 2007 -- 34 percent of the total. California had a minority population of 20.9 million -- 20 percent of the nation's total, Texas had a minority population of 12.5 million -- 12 percent of the U.S. total.

Also See:
Number of "Majority-Minority" States Grows
How America Has Changed Over Last 100 Years - 1900 to 2000
Doctors to Treat More Elderly and Minorities by 2020

The IRS has just created a handy online tool where you can check the status of your 2008 Tax Rebate payment.

First, check the payment schedule, since your payment information will not be available on the tool until the time that your payment is scheduled. Next, make sure you have your:

• Social Security Number
  
• Filing status (Single, Married Filing Joint Return, Married Filing Separate Return, Head of Household, or Qualifying Widow
  
• Number of Exemptions shown on your 2007 tax return

Now, just go to the IRS' Where's My Stimulus Payment web site, and find out what the IRS knows about your rebate.

Along with the Where's My Stimulus Payment site, the IRS offers the popular Where's My Refund site, where you can check the status of your regular tax refund.

And always remember, if those web pages don't help, you can call the IRS directly at: Toll-Free, 1-800-829-1040 Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m. your local time (Alaska & Hawaii follow Pacific Time).

More Tax Rebate Resources
Tax Rebate Information Directory
IRS Publishes 2008 Tax Rebate Check Details
IRS Launches Tax Rebate Information Center
Rebate-only Tax Filers May Now File for Free
Will I Have to Pay Taxes On My Rebate?
To Get $300 Rebate, Kids Must Have SS Number
SSI and the Tax Rebate Checks
What if I Filed Before the Tax Rebate was Approved?
Tax Rebate Checks Become Scammer's "Bait"

Americans are getting ready for the May 12 postage increase by purchasing the Forever Stamp in ever-increasing record numbers. As the latest, but certainly not the last postage increase approaches, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) reports selling about 30 million Forever Stamps per day, bringing the total sold to more than 6 billion stamps since they were first offered in April 2007.

Once you purchase a Forever Stamp, it can be used to mail a one-ounce First-Class Mail letter at any time in the future without additional postage, no matter how high the price of postage has become. In other words, customers who buy Forever Stamps now at the current First-Class Mail stamp price of 41 cents will save a penny per stamp used when the price of stamps -- including the Forever Stamp -- increases to 42 cents on May 12. Five years from now, who knows how much a 41 cent Forever Stamp will be saving you?

All Postal Service stamps, including the Forever Stamp, can be ordered online from the Postal Service Store web site.

Also See:
USPS Unveils 50s Classic Car Stamps
USPS Denies Black Heritage Stamp Rumor
Elvis is Also King of U.S. Stamps