The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Best wishes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Over the years, I’ve written more than a dozen articles for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They included his most famous quotes, how a day to celebrate King was finally approved, and how it’s a day of service, not a day off.

But one of ones I liked the best was on King’s commitment to eliminating poverty. I found it when I did research on what were King’s thoughts about consumers. In his last book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” written in 1967, King said programs to improve housing and education and to offer counseling to families were sporadically funded and uncoordinated. And, in addition, he said such programs are indirect. Each seeks to solve poverty by first solving something else.

King supported a guaranteed income for all Americans in his book.

Errors on criminal background checks continue to keep consumers from getting jobs, housing, report shows

Passing a criminal background check is usually required to get a job or housing, however, employers and landlords are making decisions based on inaccurate reports. 

A report, “Broken Records Redux: How Errors by Criminal Background Check Companies Continue to Harm Consumers Seeking Jobs and Housing,” from the National Consumer Law Center, finds that problems with accuracy in criminal background check reports are still wide spread.

“Unfortunately, many background screening companies still seem to prioritize profit over accuracy, leading to reports that cost consumers’ jobs and housing,” said Ariel Nelson, center staff attorney and author of the report.

Yes, boomers are doing O.K.

Carol Cassara of A Healing Spirit is still a Beatles fan, and, all these years later when she hears one of their songs, she’s instantly transported back to the 1960s. An image of a van, like the one in the photo, which was popular at the time, does the same thing. She just goes there.

Cassara also thinks about the 1960s when she reads posts by her favorite boomer bloggers. Some of their latest articles include:

• The most memorable Christmas.
• How to make Polish Sauerkraut Soup.
• The top three challenges to expect from “gray” divorce, divorce when couples are age 50 and older.
• A narrow escape on the freeway when a box truck veered off the highway toward the center median, then careened back onto it.
• How to plan goals for 2020 and beyond.
• The new, frozen Asian desserts.

Cassara writes about these articles in the Best of Boomer Blogs #627. Click here to get the links to the articles. And, be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers appreciate hearing from readers. It makes their day.

Copyright 2019, Rita R. Robison, Consumer and Personal Finance Journalist

University of Phoenix settles with FTC for $191 million over deceptive ads

The University of Phoenix and its parent company, Apollo Education Group, will settle for a record $191 million to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges that they used deceptive advertisements, which falsely described their relationships and job opportunities with companies such as AT&T, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Twitter, and The American Red Cross.

Under the settlement approved by the FTC, UOP will pay $50 million in cash as well as cancel $141 million in debts owed to the school by students who were harmed by the deceptive ads.

"This is the largest settlement the Commission has obtained in a case against a for-profit school,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Students making important decisions about their education need the facts, not fantasy job opportunities that do not exist."

Eating organic food for a week can reduce pesticide levels in the body, study shows

I’m a big proponent of organic foods. My dad, Minor H. Slingsby, died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was a farmer. I didn’t know non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was linked to pesticide exposure when my dad was diagnosed with the disease. None of his doctors in Central Washington state said anything about it. I learned about the connection when listening to a National Public Radio story. It said the children of farmworkers were being diagnosed with high levels of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma because they were in fields sprayed with pesticides with their parents.

I buy most of my food at my local food co-op, with as much as possible of it being organic. I have immune system problems, so organic food is helpful to me.

This recent study adds to the evidence of how organic food benefits people.

A study done at the University of California found that eating organically-grown food for one week can significantly reduce the levels of pesticide in the body. Researchers found the levels of toxins decreased by an average of 60.5 percent after six days of eating organic food.

USDA rule speeding up pork lines and reducing inspectors should be set aside, consumer group and union argue

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rule lifting the lid on line speeds and reducing the number of government safety inspectors by 40 percent at pork slaughter and processing plants should be set aside, lawyers from Public Citizen and United Food and Commercial Workers said in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court.

Thousands of commenters told the USDA during the rulemaking process that the rule would endanger the lives and safety of consumers and workers. Comments also offered dozens of peer-reviewed studies and expert analyses showing that the USDA’s changes would put plant workers, who already are in one of the most dangerous jobs in America, at increased risk of injuries.

In its final rule, the USDA didn’t dispute this evidence. Instead, the agency refused to consider the impact of its actions on worker safety, despite having considered it in the past, and said that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration should consider worker injuries instead.

New information for those selecting a nursing home

By Brian O’Connell, Analyst, insuranceQuotes.com

Guest blogger

Finding the right nursing home for an elderly family member is a serious responsibility, and often a daunting task. But many Americans aren’t aware of the tools that the federal government provides to make the search smoother and more trustworthy.

The U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services rolled out its new Five-Star Quality Rating System in April, with the goal to help families compare local nursing homes and get key questions answered.

The CMS’s website rates nursing homes on a scale of one to five stars, taking into consideration three key areas: health inspections, staffing, and quality measures.

Federal agency charges multi-level marketer with operating a pyramid scheme and imposes a $150 million fine

Multi-level marketer AdvoCare International and its former chief executive officer agreed to pay $150 million and be banned from the multi-level marketing business to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges that the company operated an illegal pyramid scheme. The FTC alleged that AdvoCare tricked consumers into believing they could earn huge income as “distributors” of its health and wellness products. 

Two top promoters also settled charges that they promoted the illegal pyramid scheme and misled consumers about their income potential, agreeing to a multi-level marketing ban and a judgment of $4 million that will be suspended when they surrender assets.

The FTC lawsuit filed in federal court also charges two other top AdvoCare promoters, Danny and Diane McDaniel, with unlawfully promoting a pyramid scheme, making deceptive earnings claims, and providing others with ways to do the same.

How the meat industry pressures federal regulators for less inspection, which compromises the safety of the food supply – Part 3

This is the third article in a three-part series on meat inspection. Part 1 reports on tours I took of two beef facilities, a slaughterhouse and a meat processing plant. Part 2 includes interviews with those who favor and oppose new USDA inspection procedures and proposals that reduce the amount of inspection from federal meat inspectors. The articles were written when I was a consumer food columnist for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington. The articles were rejected by newspaper editors and never published.

It was a huge surprise this spring when I read articles that the Trump administration was proposing rules for pig slaughter that would speed up production lines, giving less time to spot contamination, and permit pork processing plants to operate with fewer federal inspectors, putting more of the responsibility to ensure food safety on the companies themselves.

These were among proposals made under the Reagan administration in 1984 to cut costs that I wrote about.

Happy Labor Day

It’s estimated that 25 percent of Americans plan to get out of town for the Labor Day weekend, and that 86 percent of them plan to travel by car. If you’re one of these, be sure to drive carefully. Another estimate is that about 400 people will die in traffic accidents during the holiday weekend, and 45,300 will sustain serious injuries.

The top travel destinations are New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando, and Chicago.

I wish I’d be at a cookout like the 40.6 percent of Americans who plan to barbecue over Labor Day.

A lot of people will probably be working on the holiday weekend because the largest category in the workforce is retail with 4,450,000 salespeople and second is food preparation and service workers with 3,680,000. Third is cashiers with 3,640,000 workers.