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.

Many Americans think the threat of covid-19 will continue for months, survey shows

Most Americans are still concerned about the spread of covid-19 in their communities – and they expect the pandemic to continue to be a concern into 2021, according to a survey from Consumer Reports, a consumer research, testing, and advocacy organization.

A majority of Americans – 78 percent – remain concerned about the continued spread of covid in their area over the next month, including 44 percent who are “very concerned.”

The number of people who have been “very concerned” about covid rose mid-summer as the number of covid cases across the United States spiked. Forty-one percent of adults were “very concerned” about the pandemic in May and June. The figure rose to 53 percent who were “very concerned” in July, and then dropped to 44 percent in August.

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.

Thoughts on 9/11

It’s hard to know what to say on the 19^th anniversary of the 9/11. The terrorist attacks changed the world.

Operation Enduring Freedom was launched, and the far-reaching, expensive, devastating, decades-long “war” against terrorism worldwide continues.

This year, we’re having the coronavirus pandemic. I’ve been staying home mostly since March. I haven't been able to travel to see my daughters in Sacramento and Madrid.

Now, we’re having record-breaking wildfires on the West Coast. Although I’m not in a fire danger area in my home near Seattle, the smoke in the air is heavy. I’ll be staying inside for at least the next several days.

I can’t even go out into my yard and walk around my house for exercise like I’ve been doing since March. I can’t scrape up the mole hill dirt or pull a few weeds.

Then, today would have been my niece’s 60^th birthday. She died Feb. 17. I miss her so much. She never liked it that 9/11 happened on her birthday.

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.

Places to travel for Labor Day 2020? As close to home as possible

Miami, Orlando, New York City, Las Vegas, Chicago, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco.

These are cities that have been on the top of my lists for Labor Day travel in past years. But not this year.

It’s a pandemic. This year’s recommendation is stay close to home, limit non-essential travel, and have a backup plan if your location is already crowded. Only 10 percent of people plan to travel on Labor Day.

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

Today is the 100th anniversary of the certification of the 19th Amendment and Women’s Equality Day

Certification of the 19^th Amendment

The 19^th Amendment guarantees the right of women to vote. Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it on Aug. 18, 1920. It was the final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states.

On Aug. 26, 1920, Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification. That meant that the 19^th Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution. The certification serves as official notice to the Congress and to the nation that the amendment process has been completed.

The amendment was called the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, for Anthony, a leading figure in the women's voting rights movement.

On Nov. 2, 1920, more than 8 million women in the United States voted in elections for the first time.

Women’s Equality Day

On Aug. 26, 1973, Congress designated August 26 as Women's Equality Day, and authorized and requested the president to issue a proclamation in commemoration of that day in 1920 on which America women were first guaranteed the right to vote.