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THE ORANGE COAST UUnicycleman:nicycleman: GGettingetting hhighigh iinn HHuntingtonuntington SSeeee PPageage 6 VOICEVol. 2 No. 24 Serving Huntington Beach and surrounding communities Sept. 2008 GGettingetting HHookedooked OOilil AAddiction:ddiction: FFeedeed iitt oorr ccureure iit?t? SSurfersurfers vs.vs. SSeeee PPageage 4 ffishermenishermen aatt tthehe H.B.H.B. pierpier PPageage 3 BBestest Choices:Choices: RRestaurantestaurant rreviewseviews SSeeee PPagesages 7 & 1122 HHealthealth CCenter:enter: AAffordableffordable ccareare fforor aallll SSeeee PPageage 3 INSIDE: Coupons Calendar Section Business Directory H.B. SURFER STEPHEN STEMMEN / PHOTO BY LISA WELLS /&&%"-*1041&$*"-*45 NNEEDEED A 4)&%5)&53&%'0346..&3 -*104$6-1563& PPASSPORT?ASSPORT? "#%0.*/01-"45: The Huntington #3&"45463(&3: Beach City /&81035#&"$) )6/5*/(50/#&"$) Clerk’s Office Horowitz / Nichter plastic surgery 25 years of experience offers Passport model PacificCenterForPlasticSurgery.com Acceptance Services $"--50%": conveniently located on the 2nd fl oor of City Hall, 2000 Main Street (corner of Main/Yorktown) Services Include: ● First-time passports ● Passport renewals ● Passport photo services ● Passport expediting Benefi ts Include: ● No long lines PAID ADVERTISEMENT ● Multiple experienced agents YOUR LIVING TRUST: It is not Wonder Bread! By John M. Maag ● Standard fees apply, but wimming in the huge Verdugo Plunge. Every trust is a unique consumer product Watching The Blob and The Thing at the that has a degree of quality ranging from good to STemple Theater. Running for fl y balls on poor—depending on the skill and knowledge of the money stays within the City, blacktop schoolyards. Glendale was a fun place to preparer. Unfortunately, the majority of boilerplate live in the 1950s. trusts are “user unfriendly” because the preparers I often fi nd myself daydreaming about my have obtained little or no experience as trustees. going into general fund boyhood past. It happened recently when I was Also, there are many different types of trust de- shopping at Albertson’s and saw a loaf of Wonder signs, some of which have problematic histories. projects that benefi t the Bread. I immediately recognized the white plastic It is these variables (quality and design) that make cover with red, blue and yellow spots. My mother trust shopping as dangerous as diving into the new used Wonder Bread—some 50 years ago—to make Verdugo Plunge, which is an asphalt parking lot! entire community! fried-egg sandwiches on Sunday mornings. Albert- If you buy a $10,000 trust in Newport Beach, son’s was selling the 24 ounce loaf for $3.69 (wow, will it be better than a $3,500 trust available in this quickly woke me up!), so I decided to go across Santa Ana? The answer may be no! The design of the street to Vons. It was a good decision because the $10,000 trust, for example, might be inappro- I found the same Wonder Bread at a reduced price priate for your assets or family situation. Also, the Passport Acceptance Hours: (20 cents cheaper at Vons). $10,000 trust could require years of costly—and On July 19, 2007, in Garden Grove, the Con- unexpected—postmortem (after-death) manage- tinuing Education of The Bar presented a lecture ment. Wealthy trust purchasers, unlike bargain on Estate Planning Scams, Botched Trusts and shoppers, often fall victim to their own “pay more 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Other Disasters. Being a professional trustee, trust and get more” attitudes. They incorrectly believe consultant, and probate court researcher, I attended that the quality of a trust increases with the price. Monday through Friday, excluding Holidays this event with great interest. Southern Califor- As Shakespeare wisely wrote, “All that glistens is nia—home of the aging Wonder Bread connois- not gold.” seurs—is now the hotbed of costly trust problems. The “bottom line” for current and want-to-be Family trust disputes, for example, often generate trust holders is the same: get real and get edu- For recorded information call: $100,000 to $200,000 in attorney litigation fees! cated! For starters, a few visits to the Lamoreaux How in the world, you may be asking yourself, Justice Center in the City of Orange could prove to can trust problems, daydreaming and shopping be invaluable. The Probate Court Offi ce has thou- for Wonder Bread be related? Perhaps this au- sands of cases on fi le involving trusts problems! thor watched too many horror fi lms at the Temple At no cost (your tax dollars at work), you can eas- Theater! ily use the public computers to view—and learn When I was at Vons and Albertson’s, I was com- from—these court cases. This type of “street-wise” ((714)714) paring the price of the same exact product (Wonder knowledge will help you detect many common 3374-160074-1600 Bread). The product’s color, weight and ingredients trust fl aws and evaluate trust designs before (timing (a scary list!) were identical at each store. There- is everything!) a death or disability occurs. fore, buying the bread at Vons for 20 cents less was Woody Allen once said, “I don’t fear death. I a “no brainer.” Now, consider the thousands of trust just don’t want to be there when it happens!” De- or access the City’s website at: bargain shoppers who—while daydreaming about spite your fears or dislikes, you must become pro- all trusts being alike—purchased a trust based on active to protect your property, privacy and inten- price alone. Buying trusts and groceries in the tions. Otherwise, as an uninformed spouse (or heir), www.surfcity-hb.org same way is the leading cause of today’s trust you can easily become the next victim of an estate problems! planning scam, botched trust or other disaster! TAT ES E Since 1981, John M. Maag has operated Estate Conservation, Inc., in C (On the City’s home page, click the “Passport C Huntington Beach. The fi rm specializes in researching trust problems N O N (www.estateconservation.com). John is also the author of The Revealing N O Information” link under “What’s New”) I Trust Series and The “Big Time Money” Mystery. He can be contacted at S T E R V A (714) 847-0377 or [email protected]. 2 / SEPTEMBER 2008 / THE ORANGE COAST VOICE THE ORANGE COAST S O C I E T Y VOICE 419 Main St., #209 H.B.’s Health Center Huntington Beach, CA 92648 Offers a safety net for low-income & uninsured patients (714) 656-3607 [email protected] By LISA WELLS munity medicine corporation. OC Voice Staff The main clinic in Huntington Beach is due for an expansion, but ver 40 million Americans are even if it increased its current ca- Publisher uninsured and the nation’s pacity by 240 percent it would still Duane J. Roberts O1,300 public hospitals cannot reach only half of the county’s medi- handle the resulting burden. cally underserved population, says So many patients are flooding Ritacco. Editor hospital emergency rooms that one Ritacco says that the merger will John Earl in five E.R. doctors knows of a pa- bring better health care for patients, tient who died due to waiting too but adds that, “At the end of the day, long for care, according to a survey merger or no merger it’s the same Staff Writers conducted last year by the American work... We’re trying to build a busi- College of Emergency Physicians. ness on people who can’t pay us. Sara Ellis The privatization of public health Anyway you look at it, it’s just plain Lisa Wells care by the Orange County Board of hard work.” David L. M. Preston Supervisors in the 1980s means that The Center keeps fees as low as Orange County is now one of three possible and seeks every possible Scot Sink counties in California without a pub- funding source in order to complete lic hospital. And because 500,000 its mission. “We try to eligibilize (sic) O.C. residents lack health insurance, patients for whatever [outside fund- Columnists emergency rooms often serve as their ing] source they may be qualified for Serge Dedina only option. and we have sliding-scales fees based Doug Korthof One small but vital exception on income and family size,” says Rit- to the county’s lack of affordable acco. healthcare is the non-profit Hun- PHOTO BY LISA WELLS But 20 percent of its patients can- Contributor tington Beach Community Care not pay anything. Out of a $10 mil- Health Center. SAFETY NET: Over 24,000 people are served each year lion dollar budget, only $200,000 Sarah Mosko “We’re the safety net,” says Shirley was collected from patients last year Detloff, chair of the Center’s health by the H.B. Community Care Health Center. for services rendered. Funding comes council. “The health care system is mostly from Medi-Cal and grants. Sales Consultants failing throughout the United States down for a store front and placed an a pediatric clinic with a comprehen- Corporate, government and private John Perkins and people are literally dying due to ad in the newspaper. Within a week sive prenatal program, two women’s funds are also essential, but funds are Debi Laird a lack of access to health care.” they had a doctor. health clinics, a general practice clinic always short in the face of growing Detloff, a former H.B. mayor, is The Center still exists and has as well as a dental care center. Mental need and a failing healthcare system. Mike Tasker dedicated to the Center’s mission: grown into a complete health care health services are also offered.

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