As bad as it has been financially for many individuals, 2020 does provide some unique tax opportunities for those who have traditional IRA accounts.

Sentara is now offering services to help people with diabetes meet support groups and management programs to help improve their health.

Sentara Diabetes & Nutrition Management Services at Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center has achieved the significant milestone of accreditation by the Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists (ADCES).

Accreditation represents a high level of quality and service to the community, and the ability to better meet the needs of Medicare recipients and others affected by diabetes in the Greater Prince William County, Stafford County, and southern Fairfax County area.

“We are proud of our designation and our continued commitment to improving the lives of individuals with Diabetes and providing support to patients and their families. We offer a friendly environment based on open dialogue to personalize and help improve health through prevention, wellness and education. Services are offered in person and via telehealth.” – Robyn Johanson, Program Quality Coordinator.

Sentara Diabetes & Nutrition Management Services, located on the campus of Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center, will be offering diabetes education and nutrition management sessions and support groups in person and by telehealth.

Diabetes education services utilize a collaborative process through which people with or at risk for diabetes work with a diabetes educator to receive individualized care to help them reach their health goals.

Diabetes education is a covered Medicare, Medicaid and most commercial insurances when delivered through an accredited program.

“Evidence shows diabetes education and support is helping people with diabetes to lower their A1c’s and obtain the knowledge and skills to better self-manage their condition,” said Sacha Uelmen, Director of Accreditation at ADCES. “That is why we need programs like Sentara Diabetes & Nutrition Management Services to make these services available in their community.”

ADCES is a National Accredited Organization (NAO) for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Accredited programs must meet the 2017 National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support; 10 standards that are revised every 5 years by a group of diabetes educators representing both ADCES and the American Diabetes Association and approved by CMS.

Programs must maintain compliance with the Standards during the 4-year accreditation cycle. To join our Diabetes Support Group or schedule your Diabetes Management and/or Nutrition Management appointment, please call 703-523-0590 or visit sentara.com/diabetes to learn more.

Didlake Inc., a Virginia-based non-profit that connects people with disabilities to employment, education, and opportunities throughout the National Capital Region, announced the launch of Didlake Photo Imaging at 8472 Kao Circle in Manassas.

“When we launched Didlake Document Imaging, we were regularly asked if we provided photo scanning services,” said Didlake Director of Business Development, Valerie Spencer. “Our 20 years of imaging experience started in microfilm. We knew that we could provide an exceptional digital product to customers looking for photo scanning.”

Didlake Photo Imaging, a division of Didlake, Inc., provides high-quality digitized photos. The service focuses exclusively on photo scanning, helping customers preserve their priceless memories. As a division of Didlake, Inc., Didlake Photo Imaging fulfills Didlake’s mission by employing people with disabilities who receive valuable job training and work experience.

“Scanning photos to digital format helps to preserve and share memories with family and friends for generations,” said Didlake Vice President of Corporate Communications and Marketing, Erika Spalding. “For many, their family’s paper photos live with one family member. Digitizing photos makes it easy to ensure that everyone in the family can share in the family’s history.”

To learn more about Didlake Photo Imaging, visit didlakeimaging.com/photo-scanning-service

Some refer to it as “creative accounting” or just “a little fudging here and there,” but if your tax return is missing some income that should have been reported or includes overstated deductions, regardless of whether you prepared your own return or had it prepared, you are the one who is ultimately responsible.

El Dorado Marketplace for gamers is providing tips on how to improve your internet for optimum playing experience during the pandemic.

Video games, like MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) and MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game), have already become one of the main methods of entertainment for a large part of the population because they can create hours of fun and are increasingly accessible to the public. In the current state of the pandemic, video games have stood out more since they can help maintain constant fun and socialization without having to leave home.

However, MMO videogames require a good internet connection in order to be played smoothly without any problems. If the internet connection deteriorates slightly, it is very likely that there will be slowdowns that will hinder the gameplay.

It is worth mentioning that in this quarantine, many players find themselves in a situation where they have to live almost all day with a considerable number of family members, each of whom occupies a certain part of the internet. This ends up producing a destabilization in the connection that can slow down online videogames considerably in most cases.

Because MMOs and MMORPGs are totally dependent on the user’s internet, any drop in connection can end up affecting the gameplay and this can lead to latency, Ping and Lag. A small latency difference between our connection and that of the other players can be enough to completely ruin a game.

In order to optimize the internet connection so that players can play MMO or MMORPG games smoothly, El Dorado Marketplace for gamers provides several methods to optimize our internet connection:

Using VPN when playing an MMO
More than half of all MMORPGs have their main servers in Asian countries, so connecting to these games from the west can cause delays due to the long-distance and sometimes other IP blockages based on the region. These problems can be solved quickly with VPNs (Virtual Private Network), which are tools widely used by MMO and MMORPG players.

By using a VPN, it is possible for anyone to play using the IP Address from anywhere in the world. This also allows you to have a secure and private connection while playing any videogame.

Getting a VPN is extremely easy because they are abound on the Internet. The best countries to connect to are South Korea (in the case of Asian games) and the United States (in Western MMOs) since their connections are more efficient and usually do not suffer from regional blockage.

Check the devices used for connection
For a more optimized connection, it is always recommended to connect with an Ethernet cable, instead of a Wi-Fi connection. A wired connection has no obstacles such as walls, floors, or ceilings, so it is not affected by interference. Although, this option is not viable for many who do not have direct access to the Ethernet cable.

In some cases, it is also recommended to check the telephone wiring and rosettes to ensure that they are in perfect condition. This check is simple and is important to ensure that internet slowdowns are not due to external problems, if so, you should call the appropriate technical service.

Optimize PC software to improve your Internet connection
To optimize the connection on some MMOs or MMORPGs, it is necessary to open ports on the router. Each game uses different ports, so it will be necessary to get information on that aspect through the help section provided by the videogame.

Another option is to close any other service that may be occupying part of the internet of our PC in the background. These background services can be video conferencing programs, cloud storage services, anti-virus, and automatic updates to our OS.

It is also important to make sure that you give the firewall permissions to allow connections from online videogames. Problems caused by the firewall are largely ignored by some players and can be the cause of a bad connection.

It is hoped that these tips will help you improve your internet connection to play your MMO or MMORPG in these times of quarantine. Another element that greatly enhances our MMORPG playing experience is to use gaming marketplace such as Eldorado.gg to obtain quickly and economically, various advantages that will help save a lot of time and effort on these games.

For example, there is the case of RuneScape Old School, which is characterized by requiring too much time from its players to improve the skills of their characters or get large amounts of gold.

But by using reliable and intuitive websites such as Eldorado.gg, it is possible to buy OSRS gold, OSRS power leveling, or boosting services, quickly and without any complications, so these methods are highly recommended for less experienced players.

A new scam is getting some attention. It really is a mashup of a few scams, some seemingly not all that harmful, and some indicative of a more serious problem.

The Treasury Department and the IRS released updated state-by-state figures for Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) on May 22, reflecting the opening weeks of the program.

In one month, Potomac Local News will celebrate 10 years of publishing local news in our community.

That’s a huge milestone — one that we’re exceptionally proud of.

Earlier this year, we had planned to throw a bash. Now, in the era of social distancing, throwing a big party in June is no longer an option.

But that doesn’t mean we still won’t be there for our community. In fact, we’ve been there for 10 years, reporting the stories that matter most.

In 2012, we were there in Triangle when Basim Mansour, owner of Michael and Sons Services, presented a deserving 15-year-old with a football helmet from his favorite team.

Or, how about that time when Shining Sol Candle Company, the Manassas Business of the Year 2018, was slapped with a no-trespassing order from the city while trying to bring wax into their store?

There was a cold January night in 2013 we were there to tell the story of the eight homeless families displaced from the ACTS shelter in Dumfries after a water pipe burst.

Later that year, we were there when community residents gathered early on a Saturday morning in Brentsville to chart the future of what would be Dove’s Landing Park, a place where the community gathers today.

In 2010, when people were beginning to fight for the right access Featherstone Wildlife Refuge in Woodbridge, we were there to tell the story.

When Stafford County named Access Eye its 2016 Business of the Year, the ceremony served as a grand opening for the recently-opened Jeff Rouse Swim Center. You guessed it. We were there.

In 2011, hundreds of Woodbridge residents were displaced after flooding rain from Tropical Storm Lee fell on the region. Again, we were there.

In late 2018, we investigated what led to the closing of the Flory Small Business Center in Prince William County — a place that helped so many small businesses in our community.

We walked on the Interstate 95 E-ZPass Express Lanes and took pictures, and spoke with construction crews while they were working to build the lanes so you would know what to expect when they eventually opened in 2014.

We’ve been there for the ribbon cuttings.

And Hylton’s big win over Osbourn in 2015.

And through it all, it’s you who have trusted us to bring you your local news. You’ve stuck by us, whether through good news and bad.

You’ve supported our advertisers — those locally-owned shops that need us now more than ever.

Thank you for all you’ve done.

If you value this kind of community journalism, and you have not done so already, please step up and support it today by becoming a Subscriber.

It’s only $6 a month, or you can SAVE $13 and subscribe for a year for only $65. Your support means we will be around for another 10 years to continue telling the story of our community.

As the economy slowly begins to reopen following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies are turning to the cloud to keep their business, and employees working seamlessly in times of uncertainty. 

JTC, Inc., in Manassas, Virginia, has been a leader in helping businesses in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area migrate their data to the cloud by granting its customers access to its privately-owned JTC Sky network, which guarantees 99.9% uptime.

During the pandemic, JTC has been busier than ever, working to move even more businesses to the cloud. 

Dempsey & Company CPAs, in Manassas, Virginia, has been working in the cloud since the company was founded two years ago. Dempsey & Company relies on JTC Sky. 

“We have all of our servers, all of our data, everything in the cloud at this point. When I set the business up, I wanted to have the ability to work remotely, to be able to access information from clients’ offices, be able to provide that service, meet with a client, and be able to pull up their information and have it right there,” said Dempsey & Company CPAs Principal Jeannie Dempsey.

Dempsey described the many advantages of moving to the cloud. Recently, the biggest advantage is no loss of work time due to the fact that now everyone is working from home. And, that’s helpful, because that means all of the employees have all of their data with them and have no need to go to the office to look up old files, or old information that might have been stored on a local server inside the office.

“If I’m meeting with a client at their office, if I’m working from a client’s office one day because they’re having an audit or something and I need to be there, I can still work with other clients. I can log in, I can work remotely, I can keep up with my information,” said Dempsey.

They have also seen great improvements in the software programs the company uses on a daily basis. Like the company’s tax software, which before had to be updated manually, but is now updated automatically, faster, in the cloud.

Moving to the cloud as also proven effective for the company’s bottom line, too. No longer having the need for large space to store file cabinets, Dempsey & Company’s CPAs has reduced the size of its physical office space after they moved all of their files online. Now, those files are accessible from anywhere in the world.  

Dempsey shared advice for business owners looking to move to the cloud.

“I biggest thing would be that they would have to get over the idea of owning the servers. Servers are very expensive and that’s a huge amount of output. I think some people might look at the monthly fees they’re paying for the cloud as a lot more expensive than what they want to pay out every month, but if you look at the fact that you don’t have those servers to pay for and you don’t have the in-house work on them to deal with, I haven’t found it to be any more expensive than what I was gonna be paying in servers, time and equipment,” said Dempsey.

Over the past eight weeks, many businesses have become comfortable with the idea of their employees working remotely. That trust, said Dempsey, is critical to a successful cloud computing strategy for any business.

“Today, employees may all want to work different hours, they may not always want to work eight to five. If they’re getting the work done and you trust them, then it’s pretty easy to allow them to work remotely,” said Dempsey

About JTC, Inc. 

JTC has just released its 5th generation of Private Cloud Hosting Services.  The firm owns and operates its own Private Cloud Infrastructure located in multiple data centers, as noted in this exclusive LeaseWeb article: Leaseweb USA Accelerates JTC’s Infrastructure Update

Dataverstiy has also highlighted JTC’s work to build a trusted IT cloud infrastructure:  Case Study: JTC Grows its Cloud Services Core through Trust and Teamwork

JTC was also named “Tech Company of the Year” for 2020 by the Prince William County Chamber.

Founded in 1996 and incorporated in 2002, Jewell Technical Consulting is a leading provider of technology-based business solutions to small and medium-sized businesses in Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area. 

Headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, Jewell Technical Consulting services the business needs of a variety of clients and employs Cisco and Microsoft Certified full-time professionals that are truly some of the best in the business.

Our staff has many years of experience and strives to continue learning all of the new products and features the technology world has to offer. Every JTC employee is committed to making your technology function the best way possible, so you and your company get the most out of it.

Contact JTC, Inc. today by visiting their website, by calling 703-794-1225, or by visiting them on Facebook.