(NewsUSA) - Climbing to the top as a financial advisor can be a challenge. Your ticket to long-term peak performance begins with earning the prestigious CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^™ certification, the standard for competent and ethical financial planning.

More and more consumers understand the importance of working with a financial planner they can trust. Earning CFP^® certification sets you apart, providing a sure-footed path to enhanced visibility and leading to increased income and greater market share.

If you’re already in the financial planning profession, earning CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER^™ certification is a proven investment in your future, offering new opportunities. For example, do you want to:

• Widen your client base?
• Evolve with your existing client base?
• Broaden your menu of services?
• Deepen your commitment to financial planning?
• Build on your other qualifications?

Whatever your objective, earning CFP^® certification sets you up for a rewarding payoff on your investment. And since you’re already a financial services professional, you may qualify for the accelerated path to CFP^® certification, bypassing most of the required education coursework, saving you both time and money.

Get Certified, Go Further

As part of their certification, CFP^® professionals demonstrate their expertise and commit to high standards to earn the respect of their colleagues and the trust of their clients. Here are some of the advantages of earning your CFP^® certification:

• Competitive Edge: 83% of CFP^® professionals say they have a competitive edge over other financial advisors.
• Trust: 90% of consumers are more confident working with an advisor who has a financial planning designation.
• Success: 86% of CFP^® professionals say that certification has had a positive impact on their career satisfaction.
• High Pay: Earning a CFP^® certification can increase your income by 12%, with experienced advisors earning on average $192,000 a year.

Fiduciary Duty

Not all financial planners act as a fiduciary, but CFP^® professionals do. When providing financial advice, CFP^® professionals commit to always acting in their client’s best interests. With CFP^® certification, your clients will know that you are practicing loyalty and care in your work, and placing their interests above your own.

The Marketing Edge

CFP^® certification is an important branding signal for consumers. One survey found “consumers had higher brand awareness of the CFP^® mark” than the ChFC, CFA, CLU and PFS designations. That can lead to lower marketing costs and increased revenue growth for CFP^® professionals. Adding the CFP^® mark to your other credentials can grow your business prospects while enhancing your career opportunities.

CFP^® certification helps you build trusted relationships with clients and helps your firm grow by providing the knowledge and marketing edge needed for peak performance and sustained success. It’s the competitive edge you’ve been looking for. Get started today!

(NewsUSA) - Today’s retirement experience can be unpredictable, and resilience and flexibility are the keys to not just surviving, but thriving.

The right strategies and guidance can help retirees and pre-retirees weather the curveballs—and sometimes the cannonballs--of personal and financial life.

Two-thirds of retirees report feeling confident in their ability to handle the unexpected, based on a survey from financial services firm Edward Jones in collaboration with Age Wave, the leading organization on issues relating to aging. However, retirees and pre-retirees want to know the full range of options when it comes to financial planning, especially in the wake of challenges large and small.

In a new report, “Resilient Choices: Trade-Offs, Adjustments and Course Corrections to Thrive in Retirement,” Edward Jones and Age Wave suggest “course corrections” in four areas to thrive in retirement. These corrections line up with what the financial experts at Edward Jones call “the four pillars of retirement”: health, family, purpose, and finances.

“Today’s pre- and current retirees know they will face challenges but are willing to make adjustments, trade-offs and course corrections to improve their quality of life and sense of well-being as retirement continues to last longer than ever,” said Lena Haas, Head of Wealth Management Advice and Solutions at Edward Jones. “We are encouraged to see that Americans understand they need to have a flexible plan and feel confident in their ability to handle the unexpected, particularly if they can learn from the experiences of others.”

Here are a few course corrections Edward Jones experts suggest across their four pillars:

Health: Maintain good health habits, such as eating well, exercising regularly, and engaging in stimulating mental activities. These can improve health, extend life, and increase feelings of well-being in retirement.

Family: Spend more quality time with those you love and avoid toxic relationships; spending time with family can be fulfilling, but know where to set emotional and financial boundaries.

Purpose: Enrich your life in a way that works for you, by exploring familiar paths, trying new things, expanding social circles, and reinventing yourself with new goals and dreams.

Finance: The right financial guidance can help you make the most of retirement; seek experts with a holistic approach that includes all possible tools beyond the basics of increasing savings and reducing debt.

Visit edwardjones.com/newretirement for more information about navigating the retirement journey.

(NewsUSA) - When scuba diving instructor Jim Elliott first started teaching individuals with physical disabilities in 1997, he intuitively realized that diving also had therapeutic benefits for individuals with autism, down syndrome and other cognitive and learning impairments.

Twenty-six years later, team members of Diveheart, the non-profit founded by Elliott in 2001, were invited to address physicians from the Mayo Clinic on the subject of adaptive scuba and scuba therapy. At a conference in Cozumel, Mexico, Elliott and Diveheart Executive Director Tinamarie Hernandez spoke to physicians from a range of medical specialties including hyperbaric medicine, neurology, and sports medicine. The Mayo group was so impressed with the Diveheart presentation that they invited Elliott and Hernandez to return for a 2024 conference.  

Even better, physicians from the Mayo Clinic proposed a collaboration between their researchers and the Diveheart team on scuba therapy research using enriched air and one hundred percent oxygen at safe depths while measuring the benefits different gas mixtures and hyperbaric pressure.

In the Mayo presentation, the Diveheart team also suggested measuring the benefits of various medication levels in tandem with different levels of oxygen underwater in a zero-gravity environment.

“If we know what a certain medication does at the surface or one atmosphere of pressure, researchers can begin looking into what the same medication will do under the influence of increased pressure and various percentages of oxygen enriched air,” Elliott explains.

Looking ahead, Diveheart hopes to facilitate similar research projects at a unique deep warm water therapy pool and aquatic facility that they seek to build in the greater Chicago area. Diveheart has secured two patents on pool’s design.

Diveheart aims to leverage decades of scuba therapy research with the practical adaptive scuba experiences it has helped develop since 2001 and partner with university medical centers to create a facility that will draw researchers, scientists, therapists, physicians, and others from around the world. Visit diveheart.org for more information and to follow their progress.

(NewsUSA) - He has been praised by some of the top thriller writers in the business. His work has been compared to that of John le Carré and Brad Thor.

“My mission,” says author William Maz, “is to use fiction writing to ask some of the larger questions that interest people everywhere: how does the world function, what is the best way to spend our lives, why do people and countries do what they do, and, the ultimate question, is there something more than this life?”

Maz takes all those objectives to the pages, first in his debut hit THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER, in which CIA agent Bill Hefflin must stay one step ahead of assassins, find his lost love, track down billions hidden in the offshore accounts of Romania’s tyrant, and unravel the secret surrounding a KGB mole.

The book, which has won numerous awards including the Chanticleer International Book Awards 2020 Grand Prize Winner in Global Thrillers, 2022 National Indie Excellence Award Winner for Thrillers and the 2022 American Fiction Award Winner for Mystery/Suspense, already has been optioned for a major motion picture by Cody Gifford (son of Kathy Lee and Frank Gifford) of Gifford Media Group.

Now, Bill Hefflin is back in Bucharest—immersed in a cauldron of spies and crooked politicians in his exciting follow-up spy thriller THE BUCHAREST LEGACY: The Rise of the Oligarchs (Oceanview Publishing).

The CIA is rocked to its core when a KGB defector divulges that there is a KGB mole inside the Agency. They learn that the mole’s handler is a KGB agent known as Boris. CIA analyst Hefflin recognizes that name—Boris is the code name of Hefflin’s longtime KGB asset. If the defector is correct, Hefflin realizes Boris must be a triple agent, and his supposed mole has been passing false intel to Hefflin and the CIA. What’s more, this makes Hefflin the prime suspect as the KGB mole inside the Agency.

Hefflin is given a chance to prove his innocence by returning to his city of birth, Bucharest, Romania, to find Boris and track down the identity of the mole. It’s been three years since the bloody revolution, and what he finds is hordes of spies, corrupt politicians, and a country controlled by the underground and the new oligarchs, all of whom want to find Boris. But Hefflin has a secret that no one else knows—Boris has been dead for over a year.

Author William Maz has received high praise from some of the industry’s masters.

“The Bucharest Legacy is a story of duplicity piled onto duplicity that will keep you guessing right to the end,” says Steve Berry, New York Times best-selling author.

 “The Bucharest Dossier is an accomplished debut—a love story inside an espionage thriller inside a historical record, with all three elements working together to maximum effect. Very impressive and very recommended,” says Lee Child, New York Times best-selling author.

New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson calls The Bucharest Dossier “compulsively readable . . . a wrenching, action-packed story of love lost and regained.”

To learn more about William Maz and his work, visit www.williammaz.com. To purchase THE BUCHAREST LEGACY, go to https://bit.ly/3m3xZf7.

(Tom Siciliano) - The U.S. economy isn't perfect, but unemployment remains at record lows, inflation is cooling, consumer spending remains strong, and wages are rising steadily, not rapidly.

While the media likes to report on the usual indicators, there's one statistic that's not reported enough – live events. Events like trade shows, concerts, sporting contests, weddings and business seminars are major factors driving the economy. The Deloitte Insights report this month noted "households continue to increase spending on pent-up demand for services such as entertainment and travel."

Statistics bear this out. To note:

· Theme park attendance in North America in 2023 was up 32% at the largest attractions annual report released by the Themed Entertainment Association.

· The Consumer Electronics Show 2023 in January in Las Vegas, a bellweather for the industry, reported 115,000+ attendees, 15% more than projected. 

· Live Nation posted a monster quarter in Q1 of 2023, with a record $3.1 billion in revenue — up 73% from the same period last year — and a record 19.5 million fans attending its events. Their concerts have sold almost 90 million tickets this year, more than 20% ahead of last year.

· Major League Baseball attendance is up more than 4 percent compared to 2022. More than 70 percent of teams are enjoying an attendance increase. With school out, attendance numbers should rise even more for the summer.

· The events industry will grow to $1,552.9 billion by 2028, according to Allied Market Research, with a projected CAGR growth of 11.2% over the next seven years.

It's no secret that humans are social animals, and after being trapped during the pandemic, the urge to congregate and socialize has returned. But it's more than that. The experience, socially and technologically, has improved tremendously. More than just gourmet food, massive screens, superfast WiFi and more comfortable seating at football games like SoFi Stadium (a client of ours), fans are becoming more engaged.

As Forbes recently noted, "Fans' devices give them access to real-time information about player performance, allow them to share updates from the games on social media and give them a chance to connect with other fans ... At the World Cup, fans were able to leverage augmented reality to see real-time statistics for players on the field."

At the recent U.S. Open at the Los Angeles Country Club, opulent indoor and outdoor seating areas and structures, along with luxe food service and premium seating, made the experience feel more like a luxury hotel or resort rather than a crowded, sun-baked golf tournament with obstructed viewing.  

As the CEO of California's largest event rental company with more than 1,000 employees creating and servicing more than 12,000 annual events, we've seen these trends coming for years. Event customization, sociable areas, technology, connectivity and creativity are still evolving and improving.

Surveys from trade groups show that today's consumers are more interested in an experience than a material item. People are looking to have a lifestyle where they are able to enjoy company with others and having fun with people they know and love after being trapped during the pandemic. Many in the live events industry believe trends of more live event attendance along with more customizable experiences will continue for years to come.

With the advent of 3-D printing for event structures, AR, VR and other technologies, some of these stadium experiences are filtering down to smaller events like birthday parties, weddings, anniversaries and reunions. It's hard to measure the impact of innovation and enjoyment, but if these industry trends continue, the live events business will remain strong for years to come.

Tom Siciliano is the CEO of Town & Country Event Rentals and Signature Party Rentals based in Southern California.

(Diane Mulligan) - Lung cancer is the deadliest of all major cancers, with Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) patients having a significantly lower survival rate than non-small cell lung cancer patients (NSCLC).

In 2012, the National Cancer Institute identified SCLC as a top priority. More targeted and personalized treatments are expected to be released soon. There are also many clinical trials focusing on SCLC. The new research is leading to new treatments and new hope, which can't come quickly enough for SCLC patients.

SCLC is different from NSCLC, which is the most common form of lung cancer. It is the most aggressive form of lung cancer and the one most closely associated with smokers. The SCLC tumors morph as they try to survive. They change their form, trying to hide from the current treatment.

Lung cancer researchers are now focused on treatments that target specific tumors.

Dr. Triparna Sen, Associate Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Health System says, “Do we have targets? Yes, we do have targets. Do they look promising? Yes, they do look promising. It will not be one size fits all.”

Most SCLC patients are treated with chemotherapy, but there have been recent advances in using immunotherapy along with chemotherapy. Patients who have finished their initial treatment now have new options and should talk to their doctor about new treatments being researched in clinical trials. In most of these trials, one set of patients receives the latest approved treatment while the other set receives the treatment being researched.

According to Lung Cancer Foundation of America Founder Kim Norris, “These clinical trials are where patients are getting the gold standard of care. They may be receiving the treatments of tomorrow, today.”

It was only last year when the first SCLC treatment breakthrough was announced. Then researchers identified a subset of SCLC patients who appear to respond to drugs that are already proven cancer fighters; the proteins in the tumors of these patients make them more receptive to targeted therapies.

The Lung Cancer Foundation of America provides initial funding to young investigators who are studying all types of lung cancer. The group was organized after the co-founder, Kim Norris, realized that although it was the deadliest of all the major cancers, lung cancer received the least amount of federal funding in relation to other major cancers.

Norris says, “It’s that funding that allows the best and brightest young investigators to choose to study lung cancer.”

To find out the latest on lung cancer research and how you can help, you can go to lcfamerica.org.

Above image: Dr. Triparna Sen, Associate Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Health System

(Diane Mulligan) - Lung cancer is the deadliest of all major cancers, with Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) patients having a significantly lower survival rate than non-small cell lung cancer patients (NSCLC).

In 2012, the National Cancer Institute identified SCLC as a top priority. More targeted and personalized treatments are expected to be released soon. There are also many clinical trials focusing on SCLC. The new research is leading to new treatments and new hope, which can't come quickly enough for SCLC patients.

SCLC is different from NSCLC, which is the most common form of lung cancer. It is the most aggressive form of lung cancer and the one most closely associated with smokers. The SCLC tumors morph as they try to survive. They change their form, trying to hide from the current treatment.

Lung cancer researchers are now focused on treatments that target specific tumors.

Dr. Triparna Sen, Associate Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Health System says, “Do we have targets? Yes, we do have targets. Do they look promising? Yes, they do look promising. It will not be one size fits all.”

Most SCLC patients are treated with chemotherapy, but there have been recent advances in using immunotherapy along with chemotherapy. Patients who have finished their initial treatment now have new options and should talk to their doctor about new treatments being researched in clinical trials. In most of these trials, one set of patients receives the latest approved treatment while the other set receives the treatment being researched.

According to Lung Cancer Foundation of America Founder Kim Norris, “These clinical trials are where patients are getting the gold standard of care. They may be receiving the treatments of tomorrow, today.”

It was only last year when the first SCLC treatment breakthrough was announced. Then researchers identified a subset of SCLC patients who appear to respond to drugs that are already proven cancer fighters; the proteins in the tumors of these patients make them more receptive to targeted therapies.

The Lung Cancer Foundation of America provides initial funding to young investigators who are studying all types of lung cancer. The group was organized after the co-founder, Kim Norris, realized that although it was the deadliest of all the major cancers, lung cancer received the least amount of federal funding in relation to other major cancers.

Norris says, “It’s that funding that allows the best and brightest young investigators to choose to study lung cancer.”

To find out the latest on lung cancer research and how you can help, you can go to lcfamerica.org.

Above image: Dr. Triparna Sen, Associate Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Health System

(NewsUSA) - Esperanza: The Graphic Novel by Andrew Daily

Step into the world of Esperanza, a mysterious, dystopian city struggling under the weight of its own corruption through this one-of-a-kind 76-page, premium-color, graphic novel written and designed by Andrew Daily. Follow Will, a man who has lost everything including his own memories, as he navigates through the shadows of this broken society, desperate for answers.

With stunning visual artwork and masterful storytelling, this book will immerse you in a dark and dangerous world, where every choice could mean the difference between life and death. Will you join the fight to save this city? Or will you succumb to the darkness that threatens to consume it all? The choice is yours, but be warned: Once you enter Esperanza, you may never want to leave. Purchase at https://bit.ly/3IB64vc.

Lethal Connections: The Poison ID Unit by Erik Daniel Shein, Melissa Davis and Karen Fuller

In a sleepy little parish just outside of New Orleans, murder is no rare occurrence.

Sergeant Lance Knight has a pile of unsolved homicide cases on his desk. On the surface, none seems to be connected. The victims are all men with money or power. An investment banker, a lawyer, and a local politician. Lance can’t find a connection.

Working with coroner Gina Goodwin, Lance and Gina discover a pattern. Three unrelated things the bodies have in common—a string of lethal connections. Is it just a coincidence? Things heat up when Lance realizes he’s getting close to finding the killer, and everything spirals out of control. Can he piece it together before it’s too late? Purchase at https://bit.ly/3DeLgH7.

Storm Cloud Rising by Jason Lancour

No prophecy. No Chosen One. No greatest hero of all time. The fate of the known universe does not hang in the balance.

A group of mercenaries is hired for what is supposed to be an easy assignment. But like most things, nothing is as it seems. In a world rich with history, meticulously engineered laws of magic, unique cultures and peoples (as well as the occasional whiskey joint), the “private contractors” soon find their already varied motivations and priorities shifting.

What starts as a simple job spirals out of control into a struggle for survival in the midst of a plot bigger than any could have anticipated. Blood will be spilled, confidences broken, and a fair bit of whiskey consumed. This is only the beginning… Purchase at https://bit.ly/435RjZx.

A Boy, an Orphanage, a Cuban Refugee by Tony Dora

“I became a man when I was nine. My other option was death.”

Why would parents send their children, alone, to a foreign country with no guarantee they would ever see them again? In the early 1960s, over 14,000 unescorted children fled Cuba for the U.S. Under Castro's tyrannical regime, the state confiscated people's property and bank accounts. Food, clothing, and medicine were rationed. Houses of worship were attacked. There was no freedom.

When Tony and Norma boarded the plane, they had no idea what the future would hold. This memoir chronicles their emotional journey through Tony's eyes as he and Norma navigate life for six weeks in a refugee camp and a year in an orphanage, until they are reunited with their mother. Purchase at https://bit.ly/3VMro6i.

BookBites is presented by BookTrib.com.

(NewsUSA) - Advanced networks – the highways of cyberspace and artificial intelligence (AI) – remain a globally contested technology sector, according to experts at the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP), a bipartisan nonprofit organization.

Although the People’s Republic of China (PRC) continues to lead the United States in key metrics of fifth-generation (5G) mobile network production and deployment, the U.S. holds the edge in areas such as satellite connectivity and cloud computing.

The stakes of global leadership in network and telecommunications technology have never been higher, and SCSP’s experts outline how the U.S. compares to China on several network technology fronts.

Broadband and Fiber Optics Deployments and Production: Fiber optic cables and wireline technologies remain a core backbone of connectivity. Although the U.S. is laying more fiber optic cabling thanks to federal financing, China’s broadband mix includes a far larger share of fiber optic cabling and offers top-level broadband speeds.

Subsea Cables: U.S. firms remain competitive in this increasingly important battleground in the networking sector.

Mobile Networks and Spectrum: The quality of China’s 5G networks is marginally higher than those of the United States, but neither country has taken a clear lead in 5G applications in areas like autonomy.

Satellite Technology: The United States has long led in global space technology, and U.S. commercial satellite connectivity technology demonstrated clear national security value in Ukraine.

Looking ahead, SCSP’s experts offer advice to the U.S. government on how to reassert U.S. leadership in advanced network technology.

Think big: Set moonshot technology goals, such as increasing broadband for all households, and planning networks for smart communities and smart industries that integrate domains such as logistics, public safety, healthcare, and the military.

Strengthen the chain: Develop and build stronger network supply chains to upscale production of network components and identify reliable sources for other components as needed.

Unleash applications: Fund challenge grants for network applications with commercial potential, and also release more spectrum for private sector use.

Shape international networks: Don’t underestimate the ability of the U.S. to have an impact on global network technology by managing export opportunities and developing partnerships to compete with China in developing countries.

Visit scsp.ai for more information.

(NewsUSA) - The local power company in Boise, Idaho, offered a monthly billing credit for residential customers who allowed them to remotely control their central air conditioning (A/C) system on a few weekdays when summer demand for energy exceeded the utility’s capacity.

The opportunity created a difficult decision for homeowner Amanda Reed since she would like to reduce the amount of energy the home used for air conditioning, but during the summer months the home had hot spots that made it uncomfortable without keeping the AC system on high during the hottest periods of the day.

Her home faces the Boise River and is subject to many days of direct sun exposure as well as reflection of sunlight off the water. The area experiences the full range of seasons with temperatures from 24 degrees to 95 degrees and more.

After visiting the website for the non-profit International Window Film Association (IWFA.com), she decided to investigate having window film installed to upgrade the existing windows.  

Using the local dealer locator on the website, Amanda arranged for an installer  to come to her home and provide an assessment. Based on that visit, it was decided to have solar control window film installed to help solve the issues, while also keeping the home's large dual-pane windows that were original to the home.

"The power company often asks us if we can turn up our thermostats in the summer so we're not using so much. I can already tell we'll have an easier time reducing our power and just being friendly with the environment," said homeowner Amanda Reed.

The nonprofit International Window Film Association (IWFA) is making available a short video of the installation of window film on this beautiful home located along the Boise River Greenbelt.

"Cooling systems often work harder during the hottest period of the day when peak electric rates are charged, and when utilities may be unable to meet the demand,” said Darrell Smith, executive director of the IWFA. "Window films are proven to provide a more comfortable environment and reduce energy use," he added.

The IWFA conservatively estimates professionally installed window film may cut a dwelling’s annual energy use by 5-10 percent and prevent 60-80 percent of solar heat gain through glass from entering the home, depending on your local climatic conditions and your home’s current physical specifications. To learn more visit www.iwfa.com.