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TORRANCE TRIBUNE August 27, 2015 Page 3 Traveling Tribune in Hawaii Legal Aid for Elders Alex Nishimura and Leila Farazdaghi are on vacation with the Torrance Tribune at the Surfing Goat Dairy, located on the beautiful slopes of Maui’s Haleakala Crater in lower Kula.  The dairy is best known for their gourmet goat cheese spreads. Photo by Chris Nishimura. • We want you to go places. Join America’s best and drive a Metro bus. 16-0272ps_sby-ie-16-003 ©2015 lacmta Metro is Hiring Bus Operators Do you have what it takes to be a dedicated transportation professional? Put yourself in the driver’s seat and apply to be a Metro bus operator. Applicants must be at least 21 years of age, have a valid US driver’s license and a good driving record. A comprehensive bene>ts package is provided. Apply online today at jobs.metro.net. Go Metro to See the Dodgers Want to reach Dodger Stadium faster this season? Now you can Go Metro to Union Station or Harbor Gateway Transit Center and connect with the Dodger Stadium Express. Your Dodger ticket is good for the fare! For more information, visit metro.net/dodgers. Blue Line Station Upgrades Completed Upgrades to all of the Blue Line stations have been completed. The features include new canopies, camera and video enhancements, improved lighting, fresh paint and tile work. Thank you for your cooperation during this e=ort. Stay tuned for future improvements by visiting metro.net/bluelineupgrades. See something? Say something. Almost one million people are victims of human tra;cking each year. Many of them are right here in LA County. If you have reason to believe someone might be a victim of human tra;cking, don’t be silent – report it. Call 888.950.SAFE. To learn more, visit metro.net/dontbesilent. metro.net @metrolosangeles losangelesmetro Museum Educator from front page local coffee shop. Former professors would come in, ask me what was next, but I would just pour the coffee, shrugging my shoulders, saying I wasn’t sure yet. “I did volunteer work with youth at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University in Ithaca. Teaching them made a light bulb go off. I found GWU’s program. Chelsea Hogan, museum educator at ESMoA, with a group of children. Photo by Nancy Peters. It all made sense then—art, kids, museums. I knew ‘This is my calling—educate through art!’” While living in D.C., Chelsea became an Interpretive Ranger at a National Park Service Historic Site, the Frederick Douglass House on Cedar Hill in the Anacostia neighborhood. She guided children through the mansion, in which 90 percent of the objects belonged to the famed abolitionist. In that interpretive art space, combining history and art was a learning experience for all who entered. Also, a neighborhood charter school, where she was an assistant teacher, utilized Chelsea’s knowledge of the Douglass House to create a course about his legacy. Working at Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery as a Staff Educator, Chelsea taught art history through portraiture. Her time in D.C. was interrupted when an opportunity at The Getty Villa presented itself. “I applied and a seven-hour phone interview with the Education staff led to being hired,” said Chelsea. “Working among those ancient artifacts, the beauty of that villa above the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, now that is a career goal,” she laughed. Chelsea’s communication skills make it easy to understand getting the job without meeting her. Her extensive knowledge of art and history and her unique, charming way, sharing that knowledge, kept her at The Villa for three years, before a layoff of those in the Education and Visitor Services included 33 other people during an economic downturn. “I learned so much about communicating art at The Villa, presenting artwork with the right words to draw people in to its significance. A curator at The Villa talked to me for 90 minutes about one vase! Incredible learning lesson that was,” she shared. In 2013, a former coworker who lived in El Segundo recommended Chelsea to two collectors planning a new art experience in a town near LAX. The place was not built yet. She had never heard of the town. El Segundo? Where is that? She was hired by Brian and Eva Sweeney to be a Museum Educator for their dream project. Originally called “El Segundo Museum of Art,” ESMoA was created to showcase the private, extensive, eclectic collection owned by the Sweeneys, publicly sharing art in a space created and designed by Eva, an architect. The shared passion for art with Chelsea Hogan caused her to be hired on the spot. See Museum Educator, page 8 Want to Help Your Heirs Travel More? By R Christine Brown, southbayelderlaw.com Most of us never look twice at the fine print of the frequent flier rewards program’s terms and conditions. The type is so small and there’s so much of it … but if you did, you’d probably see language stating that any accumulated points are not transferrable on death. Some heirs have found that having the right documents and asking nicely can lead to an unexpected result. If you fly the same route frequently, it pays to use the same airline and sign up for the airline’s rewards program. The accrued points can lead to great deals, reduce your airfare costs and for the real road warrior, generate enough rewards for free trips. There’s real value in these kinds of programs for the frequent flier. Nevertheless, not everyone uses his or her accumulated point balance before passing away. Since the accumulated points do have a real market value, the question then becomes whether or not they are part of a decedent’s estate. The answer to that turns out to be no, unless an airline decides to make an exception. Time recently reported on this issue in an article titled “What Happens to Your Airline Miles When You Die?” It turns out that while most rewards programs have an official written policy that points are not transferrable on death, in reality most airlines will make exceptions to that policy on a case-by-case basis. If the points are bequeathed to someone, most airlines are willing to transfer the points upon receiving proof of death and proof that the person asking is the appropriate beneficiary. This practice is totally discretionary, however, and the real key to getting the rewards transferred appears to be to ask nicely. Airline employees are not required to transfer the points, but if the beneficiary is nice they normally will. Please visit our website for information on elder law, Medi-Cal Planning and estate planning issues, and sign up for our free monthly e-newsletter.  The  archive on our website contains numerous blog posts on these legal areas as well.  You can also “friend” us on Facebook (R Christine Brown) to receive periodic posts on elder law issues. • Like Us on Facebook


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