HARRISBURG - Attorney General Linda Kelly recommends that consumers add a careful review of their credit information to their list of New Year's resolutions.

"The start of a new year is a time when many people make plans to change old habits and improve their lives, like exercising more or losing weight," Kelly said. "Credit issues can have a major impact on your life, so we urge consumers to consider 'healthy credit' as part of their planning for 2012."

Kelly noted that many consumers only think about credit when planning a major purchase, like buying a home or a car, which is the worst time to learn about negative credit information. She encouraged consumers to regularly check their credit history and financial accounts for signs of potential problems and be proactive when dealing with those issues.

"If you only balance your checkbook once a year, it becomes a complex and time-consuming task," Kelly said. "If you only check your credit history once a year, or only when applying for a major loan, it can take a great deal of time and energy to correct any problems you discover."

Kelly said that many consumers still do not regularly check their credit report, even though the information is available free-of-charge from all three major credit bureaus.

"Regularly reviewing your credit reports and closely checking your monthly financial statements are the easiest things that consumers can do to avoid unwanted surprises involving their credit," Kelly said.

Kelly recommended that consumers check their credit reports frequently.

"Every consumer is entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the three major credit bureaus," she said. "Because most information is shared between the credit bureaus, this effectively allows consumers to get three free reports every year."

Kelly suggested that consumers space their free credit reports out over the entire year, getting one report approximately every four months in order to minimize the time gap between reports and improve their chances of quickly catching problems.

"Check your credit history for signs of new accounts that you did not open or other unauthorized activity and immediately report anything suspicious," Kelly said. "Information about reporting fraudulent accounts is included with your credit report."

Kelly also suggested that consumers review their credit history for old accounts that may have been forgotten and consider closing accounts that have gone unused for an extended period of time. Contact information for the banks or credit card that issued those accounts is listed on the credit report.

Kelly explained that identity thieves will often process small charges on stolen credit cards, verifying that the account information is valid before making expensive purchases or selling that personal information. She urged consumers to closely review their monthly or online statements and immediately report any unauthorized charges. Instructions about disputing charges are included with the monthly billing statements.

When checking your credit history, Kelly suggested that consumers go directly to the website created by the credit bureaus for accessing free annual credit reports: www.annualcreditreport.com.

Kelly noted that numerous private companies use television and internet advertisements to offer “free” credit reports, though many of those companies only provide free reports when consumers subscribe to expensive monthly “credit monitoring” or “credit protection” services. Carefully consider the cost and benefits of any of these services before subscribing.

Additionally, Kelly urged consumers to be wary of programs that claim to help make bad consumers information "disappear" or provide you with a new "credit identity."

"Offers that 'seem too good to be true' can often lead to scams or other problems," Kelly said. "The only information that can legally be removed from your credit history is information that is incorrect or outdated, which consumers can remove without the help of any credit repair service. The passage of time, along with a history of regular payments, is the only thing that will truly 'fix' bad credit."

Consumers can file complaints concerning credit issues by calling the Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection at 1-800-441-2555 or filing an online consumer complaint.

Detailed information about credit issues is available in the "Your Money" section of the Attorney General's website.

Harrisburg - Pennsylvania residents who file personal income tax returns may begin filing electronically for the 2011 tax year, the Department of Revenue said.

Nearly 70 percent - or about 4.4 million - of the 6.1 million personal income tax returns received by the department in 2011 were filed electronically. In addition to being more convenient for taxpayers, so-called “e-filing” saves the department about $3.48 per return in processing costs.

Electronic filing also offers advantages to taxpayers not available to those filing by paper, such as error-reducing automatic calculators, instant confirmation of successful filing, faster refund processing and direct deposit options.

The Fed/State e-file service, available through tax preparers and authorized computer software, and TeleFile (1-888-4PAFILE), one of the department’s two free electronic tax-filing options, are available now, said Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser.

Padirectfile, the other free electronic filing option, available through www.revenue.state.pa.us, will also be available.

Internet-based and paper filing options will include a mandatory field for taxpayers to report use tax for tax year 2011. Consumers are required by law to report and remit use tax to the department whenever Pennsylvania sales tax is not charged by a seller on a taxable item or service delivered into or used in Pennsylvania.

The addition of the use tax line to the PA-40 Pennsylvania Personal Income Tax Return simplifies the use tax reporting and payment process, facilitating easy and annual reporting for taxpayers.

Taxpayers have until midnight, Tuesday, April 17, to file income tax returns. The traditional April 15 tax filing deadline was extended this year to remain consistent with the Internal Revenue Service’s April 17 deadline.

Also new this year is a Web-based application through which individuals can access 1099-G forms, federal forms the IRS requires be provided to taxpayers to remind them of the Pennsylvania personal income tax refunds or credits received the previous year. 1099-G forms are being mailed to taxpayers this year, but in a cost-savings effort, printing and mailing will be eliminated beginning next year. Next year, taxpayers and practitioners will have to access 1099-G forms through the Personal Income Tax e-Services Center, and paper copies will be mailed only upon request.

If a taxpayer filed a return last year, he or she may file by phone with TeleFile by simply providing a Social Security number and five-digit ZIP Code. To file using padirectfile, each taxpayer will need to provide a Social Security number and one of the following: 2010 or 2009 tax liability; PA driver’s license or identification number; or a registered e-signature account with the department.

The Department of Revenue’s electronic filing systems are secure and protected with the industry standard for online banking and trading, 128-bit secure socket layer encryption.

Through www.revenue.state.pa.us, taxpayers can file returns using padirectfile, make payments (including estimated payments), check the status of returns and refunds, update information, pay taxes by credit/debit card, access online customer service, review answers to commonly asked questions and download tax forms.

The three primary state tax forms are the PA-40 Income Tax Booklet, the Fast File Booklet and the payment voucher letter. The limited number of state tax forms mailed by the department should have arrived in taxpayers’ mailboxes earlier this month.

The department reminds all taxpayers who received more than $33 in total gross taxable income in 2011 that they are obligated to file Pennsylvania personal income tax returns by April 17.

Tax forms are available online at www.revenue.state.pa.us and by calling, toll-free, 1-800-362-2050. Tax help is available by calling 717-787-8201, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Taxpayers with annual incomes of $35,000 or less may also visit a Revenue district office, listed in the blue pages of local phone directories, for basic personal state tax filing help. Help at district offices is available from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

For more information, visit www.revenue.state.pa.us.

This past Christmas season, the Canawacta Rod and Gun Club of Oak Hill, in cooperation with PennStar Bank, helped make the Christmas season a better one for several area families.

Co-Chairpersons for the Canawacta 2011 Christmas Project, Greg and Rose Stewart, stated that “we had excellent cooperation from Tammy Stone at the Susquehanna Community High School that provided a list of 80+ families with children who might need some help this holiday season. The Club would also like to thank Lori Canfield of PennStar Bank for facilitating the effort to match the funds being set forth by the Canawacta Rod and Gun Club. The funds provided by PennStar Bank and our club were used to buy Christmas gifts, new clothes and Christmas dinners for five families.”

Greg Stewart further noted the special efforts of several members of the Canawacta Rod and Gun club - Samantha Bedford, Rose Stewart, Al and Michelle Cuevas - in getting the Christmas presents wrapped and ready for delivery. He also thanked everyone else who helped with this Community Christmas effort, which, for the Club and PennStar, was in its second year.

Following are the December Pennsylvania Lottery winners for Susquehanna, Wayne and Wyoming counties. State records show $34,510 was paid out in winnings.

Sandy Kilmer of Thompson took home the most - $10,000 - from the instant game of “Big Money.” Christopher W. Shire of Hawley scored $2,500 on another instant game of “Casino Cash.”

Listed below are the notable winners of $1,000 or more from the December Pennsylvania Lottery website.

Susquehanna County

Joan A. Tompkins, New Milford, $1,010 from “Match 6.”

Betty J. Wagstaff, Jackson, $1,000 from “Casino Cash.”

Kerry M. Benner, Montrose, $1,000 from “$100 Million Cash Extravaganza.”

Gregory Williams, Susquehanna, $1,000 from “Stacks of Cash.”

Mary Skowronski, Susquehanna, $1,000 from “Pure Gold.”

Paul F. Wetherill, Montrose, $1,000 from “Diamond Millionaire.”

Curtis R. Woodruff, Kingsley, $1,000 from “Casino Cash.”

James W. Dolaway, Hallstead, $1,000 from “20X The Money.”

Wayne County

Amanda L. Simyan, Lake Ariel, $1,000 from “Casino Cash.”

Glynn D. Wood, Honesdale, $1,000 from “Season's Greeting.”

Antoinette M. Bock, Waymart, $1,000 from “Mustang.”

Christina L. Clemo, Honesdale $1,000 from “Hot $100,000.”

Christopher Serodv, Hawley, $1,000 from “Holiday Gifts.”

Judy A. Farrell, Honesdale, $1,000 from “Big Winner Spectacular.”

Jeffrey W. Rundle, Lake Ariel, $1,000 from “3rd Edition Goldbar Cro$$word.”

Mark A. Ordnung, Honesdale, $1,000 from “$100 Million Extravaganza.”

Wyoming County

Dennis R. Owen, Laceyville, $1,000 from “$10,000 A Month For Life.”

Lisa M. Bruzgulis, Nicholson, $1,000 from “Treasure Tree.”

Romeyn L. Warner, Laceyville, $1,000 from “Merry Millions.”

Harry A. Pilcher, Tunkhannock, $1,000 from “Merry Millions.”

Edward J. Watts, Meshoppen, $1,000 from “Holiday Gifts.”

Beth A. Hankle, Meshoppen, $1,000 from “$100 Million Cash Extravaganza.”

For the fiscal year 2009-2010, The Pennsylvania Lottery paid $1,006,000 out to Susquehanna County for the Area Agencies on Aging & Senior Centers (Dept. of Aging), $1,073,000 to Wayne County and $543,000 to Wyoming County.

PHILADELPHIA - January is national Radon Action Month and the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency encourages everyone to test their homes for radon. The winter months are an especially good time to test homes and buildings because windows and doors are closed tightly and people are spending more time indoors.

Unsafe levels of radon can lead to serious illness. The Surgeon General has warned that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States with an estimated 21,000 deaths a year. Only smoking causes more lung cancer deaths. By making simple fixes in a home or building people can lower their health risks from radon.

Radon is a colorless, odorless gas and so testing is the only way to know if it is present indoors. The easy to use test kits are available at home improvement centers and hardware stores, and cost approximately $20. The cost for the analysis is included in the purchase price and instructions included in the kit provide further details.

Test for radon and fix the problem if you find elevated levels. These easy actions can lower the risk of lung cancer. For more information about radon and radon testing visit http://www.epa.gov/radon/.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - It may seem early, but now is the time to pick the tomato varieties you want to grow in your garden this summer, according to an expert in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

You may have noticed that your seed catalogs showed up earlier than ever this winter, noted Steve Bogash, Penn State Extension horticulture educator based in Franklin County. "With the rapid growth in vegetable gardening, demand promises to be higher than ever," he said. "If there are specific varieties of vegetables that you truly want for the coming season, you may want to get your orders in early."

And Bogash knows - perhaps better than anyone - that there is a huge range of tomato cultivars from which to choose.

"Here at the Penn State Extension office in Chambersburg, we've been running variety trials focusing on tomatoes since 2000," he said. "We've evaluated more than 300 varieties across the complete spectrum of tomato types in that time. Every year we examine 30 to 70 varieties, looking at taste, production, disease resistance, ease of training and appearance.

"Some varieties have floated to the top of our list as great for your garden."

Following are some varieties Bogash recommends that you consider for the coming season, along with his comments about them:

Cherry/Grape Types:

Sakura Honey. "When you examine and taste many tomatoes, it's rare for one kind to make a major impression, but this variety really stood out from the pack in 2011 with amazing flavor and beautiful, pink, grape-shaped fruit. This was easily the standout in flavor in last season's program."

Red Pearl. "Excellent flavor, tender skin, high production and moderate disease resistance made Red Pearl another top pick from our 2011 trial program. This variety has good red color and is highly resistant to cracking."

Five Star. "2011 was the year of the grape tomato in our trials program. Five Star was another great producer with good-looking, well-flavored fruit. This one has very few seeds and is highly resistant to cracking."

Maglia Rosa. "This is a very unusual variety, as the fruit are an elongate, cherry type that are mottled pink. Our tasters describe the flavor as ketchup-like. In both 2010 and 2011, the plants produced for only about five weeks, but they did make a lot of fruit that was well worth the garden space."

Sun Gold. "No tomato article is complete without a mention of Sun Gold. This yellow-orange tomato is the candy of the tomato world. Production is high, the plants are moderately resistant to disease, and the fruit taste is awesome, but the fruit crack like mad. Every gardener should have one or two of these plants, so there is something to eat while gardening."

Slicers:

BrandyBoy. "The Brandywine tomato long has been heralded as the best-tasting tomato in numerous trial programs, but each plant produces only a few fruit, which are very inconsistent in size and shape, and the plant's highly susceptible to diseases."

"BrandyBoy tomatoes were introduced several years ago, and they immediately took top honors among red, slicing types in our program. When gardeners ask what single tomato to grow, this is the one. BrandyBoy is highly productive with large, pink, great-tasting fruit that taste nearly identical to Brandywine."

BHN 589. "BHN are the letters used by a tomato breeder in Florida who primarily provides seeds to a commercial-grower cooperative. Don't let the letters and numbers discourage you from growing what are usually excellent varieties of hybrid tomatoes. BHN 589 has become a standard for many regional tomato growers as the plants produce copious amounts of great-tasting, good-looking, medium-sized, red tomatoes."

Scarlet Red. "Like BHN 589, Scarlet Red is primarily a commercial tomato, but it makes the crossover into the home garden extremely well. This is easily the deepest red tomato that we've trialed, and it has that perfect sugar/acid balance that often is referred to as real tomato flavor. Production hint: only remove about three suckers, or you really will reduce production."

Big Beef. "This variety has been around for a long time, and it still belongs on a top-tomatoes list. These are big, great-tasting fruit that run on the soft side. The plants are very robust."

Celebrity. "For years, Celebrity was the standard red that we compared others against in our trials program. While it has been surpassed by some of these other varieties, it is still a great producer of medium-sized, good-flavored, round, red tomatoes."

Heirlooms:

Pineapple. "While there really aren't any great yellow/orange/red tomatoes, Pineapple is the one that provides the most consistent production and good flavor. It's soft and cracks readily but is the best of this type that we've trialed. Pineapple makes an excellent addition to homemade tomato juice."

Mortgage Lifter (Radiator Charlie). "Excellent flavor and high production make Mortgage Lifter the No. 1 large, pink heirloom. I recommend it to growers. High production and moderate disease resistance separate this variety from most heirlooms."

Arkansas Traveler. "This variety makes relatively small fruit at 5 to 8 ounces, but the production is good and the flavor excellent."

Marianna's Peace. "This variety originally came into our program as one of those sample packets included with your order. The fruit are very large - often more than a pound - pink and very flavorful. The plants are enormous and require very tall supports. Even after every other heirloom has started to fade in the fall, Marianna's Peace will keep on producing."

Stupice. "A lot of tomatoes claim to be early, but most don't taste like much. Stupice is the one early tomato that tastes like a real, mid-season tomato. The fruit are small at only 3 to 6 ounces, but they will beat most other tomatoes onto your plate by two to three weeks."

Patio or Container:

Bush Early Girl. "Without a doubt, Bush Early Girl is the 'top of the heap' among slicing tomatoes that you can grow in a container. A single plant will produce a huge number of great-tasting fruit. Be sure your container is at least 14 inches across (bigger is better) and feed them well to get the most from these robust plants."

BushSteak. "Second only to Bush Early Girl is BushSteak. These plants produce heavy crops of large, meaty fruit about a week after you start to pick Bush Early Girl. Again, use large containers and feed them well."

Sweet 'N Neat (Red, Scarlet, and Yellow). "We've looked at a lot of container-type cherry tomatoes, and while most varieties are at least OK, the entire Sweet 'N Neat series produces copious amounts of delicious fruit on very compact plants. You can grow them as hanging baskets or in ground pots. Plant single plants in 8-inch pots or three plants in 14-inch pots."

Bogash said that consumers should be able to find some of these seeds from their favorite garden center, but some varieties will be more difficult to locate.

"We have examined so many tomatoes over the years, and these are only a few of the standouts from our program," he said. "There are many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of tomato varieties. Our goal for this program has been to introduce new varieties to growers."

More information, including a list of seed companies that supply seeds to the Penn State Extension variety trials program, is available in "Tomato Report 2011: The Best of the Penn State Tomato Trials," available on the Web at http://extension.psu.edu/vegetable-fruit/fact-sheets/tomato-report-2011.

WILLIAMSPORT, PA - The First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania (FCFP) is accepting applications for the 2012 Tree House Fund grant cycle. The Tree House Fund has over $45,000 available for grantmaking to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations in the counties of Bradford, Clinton, Lycoming, Sullivan, Susquehanna and/or Tioga.

The Tree House Fund was established in 2010 when FCFP Board of Director, Dan Klingerman, identified the need for a regional fund that would benefit children in our communities. Community events in support of the Fund raise money which will provide the opportunity for community members’ philanthropy to make an immediate difference in the lives of others.

The Fund is a regional field of interest fund that supports nonprofit organizations focused on programming and projects that impact children and youth in the central and north central region of Pennsylvania. The Community Foundation ensures that successful applicants are deserving and qualified nonprofit entities that have identified contemporary needs of children and youth in the community.

Applications must be submitted by March 1 to be considered. Complete guidelines and applications may be found on the Community Foundation’s website www.fcfpartnership.org under Grantmaking, Funding Opportunities. For additional information contact the Grantmaking Office toll free at (866) 901-2372.

The First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania works regionally and locally to bring together people, partners and places to grow local giving and investment, strengthen area organizations and results, and take on the critical issues and efforts needed to build vibrant communities and a thriving north central Pennsylvania region. FCFP serves the Danville area, Union County, Williamsport, and Lycoming County.

For more information on the programs and services offered by the Community Foundation, or to learn more about ways to make a difference in your community, contact the Community Foundation office at (866) 901-2372.