The Web helps make government and society manageable. Our research staff has evaluated hundreds of Web sites covering political and social issues, government info, voting, and advocacy. You'll also find great places online to research legal issues and seek out legal advice. We've selected the best sites–to the most useful comprehensive and reliable of the bunch–and provided concise descriptions of each.
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Here's the front door to the federal government, the first place to go when you're looking for a specific agency, department, service, or fact but don't know where to start. Drill down to the special Seniors section (www.usa.gov/Topics/Seniors.shtml) to get articles and services of special interest to the 50+ crowd, and sign up for delivery of new articles via e-mail.
This government portal (unlike USA.gov it's not run by the government) is another good tool for slicing through layers of state or federal government to find that one person, form, or statistic you need. Shortcuts can take you right to your Social Security benefits, passport applications, and even the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.
Whether you have something you want to tell the President or merely want to get the administration's official stance on everything from energy to national security, this is the official window into the executive branch. The President's weekly radio addresses are archived here, as are several video tours and photo archives of the White House's rich history. You can even find job listings in case you want to live out your own "West Wing" fantasy.
One of the first efforts to get the federal government online, THOMAS (which is named after Mr. Jefferson), a service of the Library of Congress, makes the entire Congressional Record and history of American legislation searchable, an invaluable resource for anyone who has a serious interest in politics. The site also serves as a gateway to the Library of Congress itself, which presents a dazzling treasure trove of online exhibitions. This is an example of your tax dollars at work in the best possible way.
This wonderfully informative and useful site is more than just a bland Q&A about Social Security. You can get things done here. Apply for a replacement card, plan your retirement, calculate your expected benefits, apply for benefits online, or change your Direct Deposit information. You can do it all. Then explore further to find out all sorts of interesting details, such as what happens to your Social Security number when you die (it dies with you; numbers are never reused).
Department of Veterans Affairs
There are more than 25 million veterans in the U.S. today, each of whom is entitled to benefits. But what are they exactly? This site lays out all the details and lets veterans apply online for a number of benefits and participate in helpful programs such as online prescription refills. There's no way that collecting benefits will ever be a completely paperless exercise, but this site is a good start to faster service.
For about $40 you can use this sweeping service to explore billions of public records. Possible uses include background checks on people you hire to work in your home, searching for lost classmates or family members, locating registered sex offenders in your area, doing genealogy research, and checking out possible business partners for financial or bankruptcy problems. It may sound intrusive, but all the records are public. This site just makes them easier to find.
The government collects an enormous amount of data, and here's the place to find what you need fast. Search through 400 A to Z topics from adoption rates to life expectancies to women-owned businesses. A search-by-map section is especially helpful in giving you all the numbers you need to analyze your state or county by just about any demographic measure you can imagine. How many Hawaiians live in Fairfield County, Connecticut? Find out here.
The U.S. Administration on Aging
This division of the Department of Health and Human Services is a must-visit site for Boomers and Seniors looking to make the most of their lives. The pages are full of downloadable articles and reports on issues on lifestyle, health, and financial issues, and you'll also find a directory for elder rights and resources. Best of all is the information provided for Boomers who find themselves caring for their elderly parents.
Before you vote it's good to know who and what you're voting for. Type in your nine-digit ZIP code, and you'll get a rundown of all the elected officials who represent you on local, state, and national levels, how they financed their campaigns, how they've voted on legislation, and who else may be in the running for their positions. Officials are also analyzed by special interest groups here, making it easy for you to see where they stand on guns, military spending, agricultural subsidies, and any of 30 other issues.
We all know that politics runs on money, but whose money is it, and how much of it is there? Since campaign donations are a matter of public record, they're all here for your perusal. Search by candidate, by state, or by special interest to see where the money is flowing from, or get local by typing in your ZIP code and finding out who the top 10 campaign donors in your neighborhood are. You can even type in people's names to see how they've donated.
In addition to serving as a lawyer look-up site, FindLaw gives basic legal advice on everything from traffic tickets to estate planning. The information is presented in general terms (individual states may have their own particular rules and regulations), but there's enough here to help you puzzle out basic legal issues and perhaps make it possible to proceed without having to hire an attorney.
Nolo made its name as a publisher of books and software that help the average person tackle do-it-yourself legal projects such as writing a valid will. All that information is now available online at this extensive site, which clearly lists each individual step you must take to complete a legal task (a will requires 12 steps). Accompanying that guidance are relevant articles that help you feel informed on every possible angle of your legal issue.
This site bills itself as "Free Legal Advice in 100+ Topics" and it's true. Interesting sections include what to do if you'd like to launch a lawsuit, perhaps against a pharmaceutical giant that has recalled a prescription drug, or if you want to know who should pay for what in a two-car auto accident. You can also do a combined search on a topic and your state to find lawyers in your area who specialize in the legal issue you're confronting.
This sprawling index to legal resources online doesn't look like much at first, but don't miss its library of more than 2,000 boilerplate legal forms that you can use in your own life and business. Pre-nuptial agreements, apartment leases, contractor agreements, demand for payments, powers of attorney...they're all here for you to pursue and use.
A service of the National Council on Aging, this easy-to-use site helps you make sure you're getting every possible benefit you deserve at your current age. It'll take a small investment of your time—about 30 minutes to run through one of the questionnaires—but the result is a rundown of government (and other) benefits that you should be aware of. You'll also find applications for more than 250 benefits programs.
The news stories collected here paint a frightening picture of just how often the elderly need legal assistance, especially in cases of elder abuse. If you're looking for a lawyer who specializes in this area, fill out the short form with your ZIP code and information about your problem, and an attorney will get back to you. While you wait, search by state to catch up on all the latest elder law news from your region.
National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
This non-profit organization is most valuable for the insight it provides in helping you find an appropriate lawyer for elder issues. Click on "Questions and Answers When Looking for an Elder Law Attorney" to learn the right way to zero in on the right person. The site also includes ZIP code lookup for elder law attorneys in your town.
Grandparent visitation rights. Long-term health care insurance. Estate administration. These are just some of the dozens of issues that the lawyers behind this site explain in great detail. It's a good starting place for Boomers (and their parents) to research some of the tough intergenerational issues that come up as time goes by. You can also lookup local elder law experts by area code.
National Senior Citizens Law Center
This organization aggressively "promotes the independence and well-being of low-income elderly and disabled Americans." Though some of its information is only available for sale (its "Baby Boomer's Guide to Nursing Home Care” costs $13, for example), there's plenty of free information here, much of it relating to strategies for protecting the financial resources of Seniors as they start to confront issues of assisted living and long-term care.
"Older American citizens are most likely to have a nest egg, own their home, and/or have excellent credit all of which a con-man will try to tap into." That's just one of five reasons that the FBI says Boomers are often the targets of scams of all kinds. A quick scan of these pages will make you more vigilant and better equipped to handle all those questionable e-mails and phone calls that sound too good to be true.
It's an increasing common scourge, and you need to fight back. The Federal Trade Commission wants you to act fact if you think someone has tapped into your identity, and at this helpful site it outlines the four steps you should take immediately when you detect monkey business on your credit cards.
Helpful guide to bankruptcy for individuals, including alternatives to bankruptcy, how to file bankruptcy, and more. Get an informational road map to personal and business bankruptcy law from their bankruptcy specialists. This site will also help debtors understand how bankruptcy proceedings work both before and after the dramatic changes that are effective 10/17/05. Explore over 150 pages of questions and answers, procedure, explanations and links to other related resources here.
Trusted state & local bankruptcy information resource. Information on bankruptcy, free means test calculator, free bankruptcy forms, local lawyer listings, a bankruptcy bookstore, and more. Get help if you need it—and move on with your life.
The AARP has the means to sponsor an incredible amount of research into the cultural trends surrounding aging, and it offers its many reports to the public here. While some of them are academic in nature and make for dry reading, others offer a window into Boomer psychology that can't be found elsewhere. A 2006 survey of 800 of the first Boomers to turn 60, for example, yielded interesting insights about how they intended to live the rest of their lives. Explore and learn.
This isn't the most attractive site around, but it does manage to collect a wide range of trend articles, many of which talk about Boomers and what they're up to these days. Browse the library and compare your lifestyle to others in your demographic. What will your retirement look like? What kind of housing are you planning to move into? How's your heart health? Your sex life? See where you land on the curve.
This 57-year-old non-profit organization dedicated to "improving the lives of older Americans" runs a dozen programs designed to help people stay active, engaged, and financially secure as they age. It has a strong focus on mentoring and volunteering programs and lists groups that work to help aging Americans keep healthy, get involved in their communities, and get active in advocating for the issues that matter most to them.
If your politics lean fairly far to the left, you may want to browse through the positions of this feisty organization, first founded in 1970, which fights for everything from universal healthcare to banning land mines and breaking up media conglomerates. There are 23 local chapters with a claimed membership of 20,000. The meetings are probably very lively!
This basic collection of legal advice for seniors, compiled by the New York City law firm of Goldfarb, Abrandt, Salzman,, & Kutzin is a good introduction for anyone who's wondering about the specific types of legal issues that seniors will face as they age. Most informative are the pages of financial advice, which outline the steps you need to take to protect your estate and pass on your wealth to the next generation.
Boston College Center for Retirement Research
The mission of BU's CCR is to promote research on retirement issues and to transmit new findings to the policy community and the public. For you that means downloadable reports on topics such as the Social Security crisis, pension reform, healthcare costs after retirement, and interesting articles about how foreign governments are dealing with their aging populations in innovative ways.
So what's the best thing you can eat for breakfast? The government knows. Visit the USDA's site devoted specifically to nutritional information to get the latest insights and what and how to eat for maximum health benefits. You can even search through 13,000 types of food to detailed info about their nutritional value and adjust portion sizes to see the calories you'll be consuming.
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