I demonstrate that the two unexpected results in the local Universe : anomalous intrinsic ( V - I ) _ { 0 } colors of RR Lyrae stars and clump giants in the Galactic center , and very short distances to Magellanic Clouds inferred from clump giants , can be at least partially resolved with a modified coefficient of selective extinction A _ { V } / E ( V - I ) .
With this modification , I find a new clump-giant distance modulus to the Large Magellanic Cloud , \mu _ { LMC } = 18.27 \pm 0.07 , which is 0.09 larger than the Udalski ( 1998b ) result .
When distance estimates from the red clump , RR Lyrae stars and the eclipsing binary HV2274 are combined , one obtains \mu _ { LMC } = 18.31 \pm 0.04 { ( internal ) } .