Glad The Pigeon Is OK

     From the Washington Post:

A woman who yelled at Social Security Administration workers, hit a security guard in the head with her fanny pack that had a small pigeon inside and then pulled a knife on him has been arrested and charged in Northern Virginia. ... 

The pigeon was taken to a local animal shelter and was not harmed, officials said. No one was hurt during the incident. ... 

The pigeon will be “returned to the wild after the investigation is complete,” according to a police statement. ...

News You Need To Know

    The Zombielaw blog discovers the connection between Social Security and zombies.

They Say We’re Young And We Don’t Know; We Won’t Find Out Until We Grow

From Starplus.com:

Millionaire pop legend Cher is eager to hand back her social security when she hits retirement age next year in a bid to help Americans struggling to pay their bills.

The Believe hit-maker will be eligible for pension payments from the U.S. government when she hits 66 next May ...

However, Cher is adamant she's too wealthy to accept the payments, and has taken to her Twitter.com page to ask how she can give the money back - and calls on other rich stars to follow suit.

She writes, "It's just my heart breaks 4 (for) the people of my country! Rich people should give their Social Security back 4 the 1's (ones) who need it. Someone said I should announce I want to give back my Social Security cause I don't need it! Great! I'm Down! But where? 

I Don't Understand

Can anyone explain to me what this is?

The News You Need To Know

From the New York Daily News:

A Brooklyn man who police said dressed in drag to impersonate his dead mother and collect $115,000 in Social Security check and rent subsidies was indicted Wednesday on 47 counts of grand larceny, forgery and conspiracy.

Thomas Prusik-Parkin's alleged accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo, was also indicted and both men face up to 25 years in prison if they're convicted. ...

Prusik-Parkin's alleged scam began in 2003 when his mother, Irene Prusik, died at age 73.

Her son allegedly gave the funeral director the wrong Social Security number and date of birth for his mother so that her death would not be registered in government databases.

He began collecting $700 a month in Social Security in her name, in addition to his own disability checks, sources said.

Bizarre

Go Daddy.com runs a domain name aftermarket auction. Currently, they are auctioning off the domain name SOCIAL-SECURITY-DISABILITY-ATTORNEY-FLORIDA.COM. The current bid is $10, but the auction ends at 10:23 A.M. PDT today.

And by the way, I was not looking for this or anything like it. It came up on a search for "Social Security" on Google Blog Search.

Morbid Interest

From A Connecticut Law Blog:

567-68-0515

That’s it. That is really the social security number of the 37th President of The United States, Richard Millhous Nixon.

444-26-7015 is/was Mickey Mantle’s social security number.

The Splendid Splinter, The Greatest Hitter To Ever Live, American Hero, Ted Williams’ social security number: 565-03-1343.

I’m not making this stuff up. No false advertising here.

How did I get these? Easy. Really easy.

The Social Security Death Index contains the social security numbers, date of birth, date of death, last residence, last benefit, and state of issue of more than 82 million people.

I Wonder How Long It Took Them To Notice There Were More Than 1,000 Bats In The Ceiling

From First Coast News:

A bat invasion has closed the only Social Security office in our nation's oldest city [St. Augustine, FL].

The office, located off U.S. 1 South, has been closed for the past two weeks. A spokesperson says the plan right now is to set up temporary offices. ...

Tom Moore with Rascal Rangers, the company hired to remove the bats, estimates that there were more than 1,000 brown bats in the ceiling area.

Moore says the biggest health concern with bats is the excrement they leave behind.

An Instant Classic!

You HAVE to see this video issued by Transamerica!

Social Security Opinion On Legal Effect Of Sex Change Surgery

An opinion, apparently from Social Security's Office of Regional Counsel:

You asked whether Leslie A. M~(the claimant), who was born a male and underwent sex reassignment surgery after marrying Janet L. G~ (the insured), could be considered the insured's spouse for purposes of a widower's lump sum death payment. ...

The claimant and the insured were domiciled in California at the time of the insured's death. In California, "[o]nly a marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized." Cal. Fam. Code § 308.5. When the claimant and the insured married each other in 1973, they were a male and female, respectively. Thus, their marriage was clearly a valid marriage recognized under California law at its inception. ...

If a state recognizes an individual's ability to undergo a sex change, we must determine whether the individual has taken the appropriate action to obtain state recognition of the change. If the state does not recognize an individual's ability to undergo a sex change, or the individual has not followed the procedure set out by the state for it to recognize a sex change, we will find an individual to be the birth sex. Although both California and Montana have procedures to obtain state recognition of a sex change, the claimant did not avail herself of these procedures. ...

Since there is no state recognition of claimant's sex change, the claimant is considered a male, and the marriage between the claimant and the insured would remain a valid marriage between a male and female at the insured's death. Therefore, the claimant has the status of "spouse" for purposes of the lump sum death payment.

The First Boomer

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling made an appearance with Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue a couple of days ago. She was dubbed the first baby boomer to apply for Social Security benefits. Here is a background story on Ms. Casey-Kirschling in an old USA Today article. I hate to sound cynical (it's an occupational hazard) but something tells me that Ms. Casey-Kirschling has an agent or publicist. I have a hard time believing that the Social Security Administration would have sought her out.

Psycho In Punta Gorda

From WayOdd.com:

In a scene reminiscent of Hitchcock's 'Psycho,' police entered a Florida home to find a man keeping the body of his deceased, 86-year-old roommate in the bed where he supposedly died at least thirty days prior.

Punta Gorda police believe the 86-year-old John William Jones remained in the bed he died in while his roommate, David Morse, 40, carried on as usual, except with slightly more capital. Morse allegedly has been using Jones' ATM card and collecting his social security and pension checks since his death.

I Don't Understand

From the Visalia (CA) Times-Delta:

Plans to build a Social Security Administration field office in east Visalia are teetering on the brink of collapse after a neighborhood informational meeting Tuesday night degenerated into chaos for the La Jolla-based developer in charge of the project. ...

Asked if the Social Security building would go up even if residents and the city oppose it, Metz said: "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." ...

The session exploded into a free-for-all after local architect Lyle Munsch of Visalia-based Canby Associates, who has been working on plans for the Social Security building since February, tried to describe the building's design and aesthetic qualities.

"I don't care if Picasso paints a bucket of garbage, it's still a bucket of garbage," resident George Landis said.

Landis' sentiment was echoed by others, who shouted down Munsch, forcing him to discontinue his presentation. ...

Representatives of the GSA and Social Security Administration were invited to the meeting but did not attend.

Can someone who lives in that part of the world explain this to me? I think that the residents of most cities would welcome a Social Security office. Are they worried that poor people might visit an office in their midst?

Upside Down Scrambled SSNs

From the Register:

A Pennsylvania crusader has slapped Google with a $5bn lawsuit, claiming that the world's largest search engine is endangering his personal safety.

With a suit filed in federal court, Dylan Stephen Jayne insists that the company is guilty of "crimes against humanity" because its name turns up when his social security number is scrambled and turned upside down.

"Social Security" Sues, But Who Is Social Security?

Can someone explain this one to me? From the Alice Echo-News Journal:

The Alice Social Security Administration has filed a lawsuit against the Jim Wells County [Texas] Appraisal District, alleging the district set unreasonably high property valuations for the administration’s Alice facility. The lawsuit, which was made public Tuesday, was filed by the Alice Social Security Administration, L.L.C and Ronel, L.L.C., a Delaware company against the appraisal district. ... "The fair market value of the plaintiff’s property, as described above on Jan. 1, 2006 is $600,000," the lawsuit states. "The fair market value of the plaintiff’s property as described above on Jan. 1, 2007 was $620,000. The levying of a tax on plaintiff’s property based on a higher valuation is an unlawful levy, creates an illegal lien on plaintiff’s property, and is a cloud on plaintiff’s title to the property." The SSA and Ronel seek through the lawsuit that the court assess the value of the property at $600,000 for the 2006 calendar year and $620,000 for the 2007 calendar year, and that the district be required to pay all attorneys fees incurred while filing the suit. The SSA and Ronel are represented by attorney Christopher Smitherman of Bryan, Texas.

Is this a private company named the Alice Social Security Administration, L.L.C.? If so, I think the Social Security Administration that is a federal agency might have something to say about the use of that name.