Dear Debt Adviser,

Help, I'm about $30,000 in debt. I have about $50,000 in my retirement. I will be 59 1/2 years old in January. I had to go on disability from a fall at work. My house is paid for. Should I just take money out and pay off my loan? Could I just hire someone to (advise me)? I don't know what to do and am at my wits' end. I am not behind on any bills.

-- Doris

The five Guantanamo detainees who are about to be charged with the 9/11 murders had planned on being tried by military commissions because, as they see themselves, they are soldiers, not criminals.

To make the best possible impression at the holiday office gathering, stand with your arms at your side or behind you, try to make eye contact with other guests, be an active listener, smile and by all means, avoid the mistletoe.

Be careful that you don't poison your car with ethanol, the alcohol fuel made mostly from corn.

Phil Sielatycki came close to an accidental overdose at a Shell station in Apex, N. Car.

He parked his Audi, swiped his credit card and lifted a yellow fuel nozzle on a blue pump marked "E85 -- 85 percent Ethanol."

The rate of suicide and depression on college campuses is rising, and last month the trend hit St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

Hard.

Over a century ago, somewhere on the American Great Plains, an immigrant family sat huddled in their sod home as the snow fell outside. Their single-room dwelling made out of bricks of grass sod peeled from the surface of the heartland offered little to brighten their sparse Christmas fare.

If you're like me, you absolutely love to shop. But even we shopaholics feel a bit of angst when we stare down our long holiday gift lists. There is so much pressure to pick a perfect, thoughtful gift that you're tempted to start your shopping marathon at the confections store, where you can draw on the power of chocolate for inspiration and reinforcement.