The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

USDA, meatpacking industry downplay covid-19 risks resulting in worker illnesses and deaths

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the meatpacking industry worked together to downplay and disregard risks to worker health during the pandemic, as shown in documents obtained by Public Citizen and American Oversight.

“While we knew that the meatpacking industry was lobbying the Trump administration to take steps to protect its profits regardless of the cost to workers’ lives, the degree of collaboration these documents show is astounding,” said Adam Pulver, attorney for Public Citizen.

Pulver said as outbreaks continue to emerge in meatpacking plants, it’s stunning to see the cavalier attitude officials took to the health and safety of workers in the early part of the pandemic.

Online Training Academy agrees to forgive student debt and pay more than $10 million

Online Training Academy hyped a “patented” training program that promised to help people earn “big money” by paying big money to OTA for trainings costing as much as $50,000.

OTA’s lavish earnings claims often came with encouragement for people to go into debt to pay for OTA’s trainings.

A settlement announced Tuesday with the Federal Trade Commission means debt forgiveness for some people who owe money to OTA.

Price gouging persists on Amazon, consumer group reports

Despite U.S. PIRG Education Fund calling out Amazon and other online retailers for allowing price gouging in their online websites at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, a new analysis shows that the problem is still serious.

Six months later, U.S. PIRG Education Fund revisited whether Amazon had lived up to its promise of tackling price gouging. Its new analysis looked at 10 products found on many shopping lists during the covid-19 pandemic, including hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes, and digital thermometers.

Of these items, options from Amazon were two to 14 times more expensive than the identical products sold at other retailers. Some examples include:

CO2 canisters are being recalled by Soda Sense due to injury hazard

Soda Sense is recalling about 19,200 Soda Sense CO2 canisters.

A valve in the canister can break, allowing CO2 to forcefully eject the top valve, posing an injury hazard to consumers.

Soda Sense has received 18 reports of the canister’s top valve ejecting, resulting in minor property damage, such as damage to the home soda machine if the canister was in the machine when the valve broke. Or when the valve in the canister broke, damage was caused to surrounding property such as glasses, plates, or other fragile items if knocked into by the machine, the valve, or the canister.

No injuries have been reported.

This recall involves type 2 Soda Sense 0.6 liter CO2 canisters sold through the Soda Sense mail order exchange program. The metal, cylinder canisters are silver with a black cap.

Harnesses made for Polaris, Can-Am, and Kawasaki UTVs are being recalled by IMMI due to injury hazard

IMMI is recalling about 162,000 UTV harnesses made for Polaris, Can-Am, and Kawasaki UTVs.

The harness can be missing stitching, posing an injury hazard to the occupant by failing to properly restrain them in a crash.

IMMI reports that seven harnesses lacked stitching at one of multiple attachment points. No injuries or property damage have been reported.

Facts and figures for Labor Day 2020

As Labor Day approaches, it’s a time to celebrate American workers and take a look at how they’ve been impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. Although the United States is slowly regaining lost jobs, the national unemployment rate is still higher than normal at 10.2 percent as of July 2020.

The high level of unemployment, along with the continued spread of coronavirus and its huge economic impact, has led many American workers to be concerned about whether they’ll get laid off.

In these difficult times, WalletHub conducted a survey, which found that  The survey also had questions about people’s plans for Labor Day.

Below are highlights from the survey:

Source: WalletHub

Copyright 2020, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

Facebook and WhatsApp offers of free covid-19 help are scams

If you see a message on WhatsApp or Facebook offering you free help during the pandemic, watch out. People are reporting seeing messages that seem to be from Pepsi, Walmart, Whole Foods, Target, and other well-known companies.

These messages offer money to people who need it – through grants, coupons for food support, or other giveaways. But they’re all fake, and not from those companies, said Diana Shiller, investigator for the Federal Trade Commission’s Division of Marketing Practices.

You might receive this message, in English or Spanish, from a friend or contact. The message tells you to click a link to get your money. If you click, you might find a survey to take. Or it might ask you to enter your name, address, phone number, or other information. And it might ask you to forward the message to several friends to be eligible to collect.

Stop using lawn darts made by Crown Darts UK and dispose of them, the company and CPSC warn

Lawn darts are banned in the United States due to serious risks of skull punctures and other serious injuries, especially to children.

About 19,400 darts made by Crown Darts UK were sold in the United States and about 4,048 in Canada.

No incidents or injuries have been reported.

Estate Planning 3-2-1 – Part 3: One task that can make – or break – your estate plan

By Lauren A. Pitman, Attorney

Founder and Author of the Side by Side Planner

Imagine this: a person goes through the trouble of hiring an attorney, making an estate plan, and keeping the plan accessible to their loved ones in an emergency. Then, their loved ones discover a glitch. The deceased’s life insurance policy is payable-on-death to only one of the three children, as it was created many years ago when the family only had one child.

Now, it‘s up to that child to decide: was this my loved one’s true wish for this money, or do I have to share it? What happens now?

Estate Planning 3-2-1, Part 2: Two ways to ease family tension by personalizing your estate plan

By Lauren A. Pitman, Attorney

Founder and Author of the Side by Side Planner

If I have learned anything in more than 15 years as an estate planning attorney, it’s that there’s really no such thing as a “normal family.” That’s because every family is beautiful, whether your “family” is your children and grandchildren, beloved nieces and nephews, or a network of close friends.

That’s why online estate planning tools don’t work: they aren’t customizable enough to work for a real-life family. Real families are too important to risk. I have seen too many sibling relationships fall apart after the death of a parent over what’s “fair.” In extreme cases, contests or disputes lead to permanent family fall-out.

A good estate plan can do more than just preserve relationships: it can even heal old wounds or set things right within a family. Only you know what you think is fair for your beneficiaries.