Measures

It's common in some circles nowadays to scoff at the very notion of retirement. Years after the 2008 financial crisis, unemployment lingers at painful levels. Who can think of voluntarily giving up a job? But time is relentless. Unless you plan to work till you drop and your mind and body cooperate, retirement will one day be upon you, ready or not. If you haven't started planning, there's no time better than now. Should you seek professional advice? That's your choice. But you might want to recall other circumstances when you've willingly sought expert counsel - say, a rattle in your car or your knee - and ask how ensuring a secure retirement compares in importance.

Stephanie Celani not only knew the phone number of her patient John Pantalone, she also knew his weight to the half-pound when asked one day this month. That's because Celani, a registered nurse at Advocare L.L.C., a 380-member physicians group in Marlton, has been Pantalone's care coordinator for the last five months, since he was laid low by a serious infection acquired at a rehabilitation hospital. Celani calls Pantalone, 70, of Marlton, almost every day for information, such as his weight, blood pressure, and a figure that shows how his transplanted kidney is working.

Twelve minutes into her audition at prestigious Roosevelt University in Chicago, pianist Karina Kontorovitch's worst nightmare came to pass. She couldn't remember what to play next in Dmitri Shostakovich's Prelude and Fugue No. 15. So she went back a few measures to redeem herself, only to get stuck in the same spot. Very upset, she thanked the panel and walked out. A year later, after getting into Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music as a graduate student, she was introduced to a "little orange pill" that she says helped launch her professional career.

Mayor Nutter has been boasting about the number of construction cranes appearing on the Philadelphia skyline, a sign of the city's renewal after a long, hard recession. One more arrived Wednesday at the Goldtex site in the Loft District, which since March has been under virtual siege by union protesters. It was not exactly welcomed with open arms. The former factory building at 12th and Wood Streets has been the scene of an extraordinary standoff between the Pestronk brothers, two young apartment developers who are challenging the city's labor traditions by employing a partially union workforce, and a large contingent of construction workers dispatched by the Building Trades Council, an umbrella group for the city's unions.

Corporate bonds are grabbing the spotlight these days as investors grow desperate for yields above rock-bottom U.S. Treasuries, which are returning just 3 percent or so annually. We asked one reader, Karl O. Koch, to allow us to reprint his question: How does one go about buying corporate bonds? We'll show you the ways to buy individual corporate bonds and bond funds, the pros and cons of each, and the fees to watch out for. Retail investors can research company bonds' risk via credit ratings.

TRENTON - Gov. Christie will get his first chance to change state gun laws after the Senate granted final approval Monday to several bills. A handful of measures aimed at reducing gun violence passed both Democratic chambers with bipartisan support, including a bill that requires state authorities to report certain mental-health records to the federal background-check database. That bill passed the Senate, 36-1, Monday. State and federal laws already ban gun ownership for those who have been involuntarily committed for mental-health treatment.

They had been married for 14 years. They lived in a two-story, $300,000 home in a Virginia suburb. They were the parents of a little girl not quite grade-school age. And Leonard and Carrie Egland were part of a culture - the Army - where research shows a relatively low rate of reported domestic violence. Particularly among officers, which Capt. Leonard Egland was. But that idyll disintegrated as the couple separated and neared a final divorce decree. They bickered over custody of their little girl, police said, and Carrie Egland confided to friends that she had grown fearful of her estranged husband.

BRIGANTINE, N.J. - When Shore real estate agent Maria Schrenk started getting calls last week inquiring about a cheap summer rental on an upscale property that she had listed for sale or annual lease, she knew something was awry. When she took a quick look on Craigslist, she discovered the mischief: Scammers had poached information from the legitimate real estate website where Schrenk had listed the property and fashioned a phony advertisement with an irresistible price tag. The scammers were offering the cute Cape Cod in the 1500 block of Sheridan Boulevard, three blocks from the beach, for $1,400 a month.

U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) yesterday called for federal funding of research that would involve creating an altered human embryo - one that could yield precious stem cells but not implant in a uterus. Santorum, who has steadfastly opposed embryonic stem-cell research in the past, joined Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.), a vocal proponent of the research, in introducing a compromise bill on the politically popular issue. The bill would require the National Institutes of Health to find and fund new methods for obtaining human embryonic stem cells in the hope of developing therapies.

SINCE ITS birth more than two centuries ago, this nation has extended a guarantee of freedom and equal opportunity. Yet, at various periods and in various places during this country's history, we have faced hard struggles to extend that guarantee to all Americans. Through poor excuses - including race, gender, religion, wealth or other factors - some of our fellow Americans were denied the right to vote, work, to live where they wished, and some were literally enslaved. Always, however, there have been those among us who fought for the cause of equal rights.