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HAWAII
Workshops will cover changes in tax law

State tax officials will be conducting a round of workshops in early August aimed at tax practioners who want to know the latest about the state tax system. Attendess also can earn four hours of continuing professional education credit.

The workshops, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each day, will be offered on:

» Kauai, Friday, Aug. 5 at the Radisson Kauai Beach Resort, in Lihue;
» Oahu, Monday, Aug. 8, at the Ala Moana Hotel;
» The Big Island, Wednesday, Aug. 10 at the Royal Kona Resort, in Kona; and on Thursday, Aug. 11 at Hawaii Community College Manono campus, Building 338, Room 101, in Hilo.
» Maui, Wednesday, Aug. 11, at the Maui Beach Hotel, in Kahului.

Admission is $60 if registered two weeks in advance, or $65 otherwise, and includes continental breakfast, workshop materials and a CD containing the Hawaii Tax Laws and Administrative Rules. The workshop materials will be available separately for $15 a set to people unable to attend or who want extra copies.

For more information, call 587-7572 (or toll free at 1-800-222-7572), or go online to www.state.hi.us/tax.

NATION
Skipping lunch has consequences

Does your lunch fall by the workload wayside? It does for many of us, according to a survey released this week. Nearly two-thirds, 58 percent, said they skip lunch if they're too busy, and almost as many -- 43 percent -- say they lunch for 15 minutes or less. And 15 percent said they eat lunch in their cars.

Yet skipping meals has consequences:

» Nearly half said they are more likely to indulge in unhealthy foods as between-meal snacks.
» One third feel tired or moody.
» One out of five said they got nauseous or had problems concentrating or thinking.
» An additional third confessed to overeating at the next meal if they skipped the previous one.

The telephone survey was conducted by Kenner, La.-based Smoothie King Franchises Inc., and involved 1,000 adults.

Wealthy retreating from charity

The wealthy are retreating financially when it comes to charitable giving, according to a survey of 500 affluent households.

Contributions from U.S. households with a net worth of $5 million or more fell 70 percent to $180,000 per household for the period from 2002 to 2004, down from $600,000 in 1998-2000.

"When the stock market began to crumble in 2000 as the Internet boom ended, the wealthy substantially cut back their charitable giving," said Catherine S. McBreen, managing director of Spectrem Group Inc., a Chicago-based consulting company that surveyed 500 households with net worth above $5 million. "While the market has regained most of those losses, our new data show that donations from wealthy households as a whole continued to fall."