After any disaster there are always human vultures circling ready to use people’s generosity to line their own pockets. This double crime victimizes the donors and those who could have used the help. Don’t be taken in by these scams.
- Don’t give money to people collecting door-to-door that you don’t know.
- Don’t respond to email solicitations asking for donations. These solicitations may appear to be from real charities but actually send your money to fraud artists.
- Give through a known and trusted channel, such as a well established charity.
Some legitimate places to give, so you know your money will go where it’s needed most:
- Give through your church.
- Some local banks will set up donation accounts. Call your bank and ask if they are doing anything to help their customers donate.
- The Salvation Army is working hard feeding first responders and victims.
- United Way has a Hurricane Response Fund.
Forbes looks at The Most Expensive States To Insure Your Home 2005 and gleans a few lessons other than the obvious - move to a cheaper state to save on insurance.
“Insurance is really based on looking at the past,” says Griffin. When determining premiums, insurers look at claim trends on a broad basis, such as state and regional levels, and as closely as a ZIP code or even a street. Companies then begin with an average price for premiums, depending on how expensive it has been to fill claims in a location.
Insurers look to the past to determine risk and how the type of home will withstand the most likely risks. For example, brick homes may stand up better to wind or fire, but they suffer expensive to repair cracks in even minor earthquakes.
France and Belgium released the names of airlines on their safety blacklists.
France is barring flights by:
Air Koryo of North Korea; Air St Thomas of the US Virgin Islands; International Air Services of Liberia; Phuket Airlines of Thailand; Linhas Aereas de Moçambique, Mozambique; Transairways, Mozambique.
Belgium is barring nine airlines:
Africa Lines of the Central African Republic; Air Memphis from Egypt; Air Van Airlines of Armenia; Central Air Express from Congo; ICTTPW of Libya; International Air Tours Limited from Nigeria; Johnsons Air Limited of Ghana; Silverback Cargo Freighters from Rwanda, South Airlines of Ukraine.
Unfortunately it’s quite common to call very minor illnesses “a touch of the flu”, so the very serious nature of actual influenza isn’t widely recognized. Here is some information from Wikipedia on the
Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919.
The Spanish Flu Pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza Pandemic, the 1918 Flu Epidemic, and La Grippe, was an unusually severe and deadly strain of influenza, a viral infectious disease, that killed some 25 million to 50 million people worldwide in 1918 and 1919. It is thought to have been one of the most deadly pandemics so far in human history.
The maker of Tamiflu has pledged 3 million doses to the World Health Organization to deal with a possible pandemic, with 1 million doses available now and the other 2 million to be available in 2006. The Spanish Flu Pandemic killed at least 25 million people. The math is not complicated and neither is the obvious conclusion - don’t rely on public health officials to protect your family.
According the The Boston Globe, the answer is no. A Teens and older SUVs are a bad mix. The idea that SUVs are safer because they are larger is an illusion and they actually have features that make them less safe, especially older models prone to poor handling and rollover.
An older SUV’s size and engineering can only exacerbate overreaction to emergencies, he explains. ‘’The illusion of safety that comes from a stately perch atop several tons of steel is at odds with reality in these older vehicles,” he says.
The Detroit News reports that Crime in ’safe’ suburb of Farmington Hills jumps. Armed robberies and burglaries are on the rise suddenly in one of the safest US cities.
Farmington Hills Police Chief William Dwyer said an increase in those two crime categories in the first eight months of this year has broken a 20-year trend in reduced offenses in Farmington Hills, dubbed one of the safest U.S. cities of its size by a national group.
With crime increasing in the safest parts of the country, it’s a reminder of why common sense steps to provide for our own security - from alarms to insurance - are so important.
Insurance is often our primary financial defense against threats to our safety and security, but USA Today reminds us that Car renters often overdo insurance.
Thousands of people will rent cars as Labor Day approaches and summer wanes. But many will pay more than they need for policies covering everything from car damage to stolen items.
- Check your own comprehensive and collision policy to see if it covers you when driving a rental.
- Check your credit card to see if it includes protection, but also be sure to check the restrictions, such as time or damage amount limits.
- If you do buy supplemental insurance, follow its rules. Speeding, drinking and driving and even driving on a gravel road can void the coverage.
The new version 2 of Google’s Desktop Search, which indexes files on your computer’s hard drive so you can search them through the Google interface, has been produced with an eye to privacy concerns.
Google Gets Better. What’s Up With That? - New York Times
Google has also beefed up your privacy options. You can omit search categories like secure Web sites (banking sites, for example), password-protected Microsoft Office files, and so on, and you can even flag individual files so that they’ll never appear in the search results again.
NICB
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) reported today that for calendar year 2004, California has once again set the pace for auto theft. Seven of the nation’s top ten areas with the highest vehicle theft rates are in California. The communities of Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona and Seattle-Everett-Bellevue, Washington round out the top ten.
You can find out where your city ranks here.
For 2004—with their 2003 ranking in parenthesis—the ten metropolitan statistical areas with the highest vehicle theft rates are:
1. Modesto, CA (1)
2. Stockton-Lodi, CA (3)
3. Las Vegas, NV (4) (more…)
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is urging parents to consider safety as school goes back in session and has issued Back-To-School Safety Tips
CPSC Chairman Hal Stratton says that taking a few, simple steps, such as conducting safety checks on school playgrounds, athletic fields, and inside the classroom can help prevent children from serious injuries during the school year. Parents should also make sure that children riding bicycles or scooters to and from school always wear a helmet and other appropriate safety gear.
“Parents, teachers and school administrators each play a major role in promoting back-to-school safety,” he said. “Conducting school safety checks for hidden hazards will go a long way towards keeping kids in the classroom and out of the emergency room.”
The site also addresses getting to school safely including bicycle helmets, other safety gear and the use of scooters and pocket bikes.
