This Sales Tax Will Be On The November 8 Ballot in Arizona

Mayor Clarke and members of the Culver City Council, we need to send a group to Mesa, Arizona on a fact-finding mission. I don’t know what their elected officials do, but we need to know. Voters in Arizona will be asked on November 8 to approve a four percent sales tax hike that could generate more than $38 million a year to meet growing public safety and higher education demands. The measure, if passed, would boost the city sales tax rate from 1.75 percent to 2.15 percent.

For those of us who have traveled from Virginia to Tampa or from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, you have no doubt eaten at a Cracker Barrel restaurant just off the interstate. They have become so numerous that the Tennessee Company has started to erect them in underserved areas. and that’s why Theodorsia and I joined a huge group eating at a newly opened Cracker Barrel in Waycross, Georgia. Things could have really gotten messed up with a fairly new staff and a small army of customers but the General Manager, Leon Taylor, and his number #1 problem-solver. Anna Wilson took over and got rid of the bumps in the road. Anna should be a shift manager and soon.

Did you know, ‘cause, I didn’t, but in New Jersey and in Oregon it’s illegal, to pump your own gasoline. I’ve been told it’s a safety issue. And they have one of the lowest gas taxes and prices in the United States.

Where is Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court? As you recall, President Obama sent his name to the Senate to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died. I just wonder if Clinton will nominate him when she is elected.

Dr. Oz reports the herb basil fights inflammation and just might ease arthritis pain. It can be grown in pots on your kitchen windowsill and. when needed, snip it and add to just about any meal.

Now why didn’t I hear about this remedy when I was coughing like crazy? Mix a teaspoon of honey into a cup of coffee. Also good news for honey lovers who have diabetes: Patients who traded honey for sugar had more stable blood sugar levels.

Do you have a son or daughter who will soon be going to college? A must read in the August 2016 issue of Money Magazine on page 40 involves finding a great school you can truly afford.

They have strange laws in Alabama. One used to be that only licensed funeral directors could sell “funeral supplies” such as caskets to the public. Shelia Champion sued in April 2016 and won.

For those of you who are science or health care nuts, Atlanta, Georgia is the place you want to be. That’s right, the Center for Disease Control Museum offers rotating exhibits and a comprehensive history of public health growing out of the 1798 Marine Hospital which served merchant seamen.

Visitors can learn about the CDC’S role in programs from polio, smallpox, Legionnaires’ disease, syphilis, AIDS, Ebola, etc.

The CDC Museum is located at 1600 Clifton Road, with free parking and no admission charge, and is open weekdays Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For many the archival collection for researchers offers the best historical commentary.

Good luck to the ladies who are asking Congress to dedicate one day a year for Rosie the Riveter. This special day would honor the 16 million women who worked in defense plants during World War 11 while the men served in the military. These ladies are in their 90s so time is growing short.

In 1991 the National Association of Black Scuba Divers was founded to find sunken slave ships. These divers are collaborating with George Washington University and the Smithsonian, among others. Last year they found the Sao Jose Paquete Africa, a Portuguese slave ship that sank in 1794 with a loss of 212 slaves out of 500 on board.

Did you read recently about a Boston police captain’s son who was accused of plotting an attack on a college campus to support the Islamic State group? He pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges on July 7, 2016. Alexander Ciccolo, 24. was arrested in 2015 in a plot to detonate homemade bombs similar to the pressure cooker bombs used in the Boston Marathon attack. Boston police captain Robert Ciccolo alerted the BDI after his son said he wanted to join ISIS, as reported in The Villages Daily Sun.

Do you need an organ? Well, help has finally come. The national non-profit organ donor alliance, chaired by Tampa-based Donate Life America, Jason Woody, is a project that has been in the works for almost two years and will be in operation before Christmas. More than 120,000 Americans are currently waiting for organ transplants and this new procedure will enable all prospective donors to register in every state at one time rather than just with their state’s department of motor vehicles, according to Tampa Bay Times.

The Camden County Sheriff’s Department has started a new online tool to help keep families safe. Operation Offender/Watch tracks registered sex offenders who live in the county. To use the program, residents need only connect with the Sheriff’s Office website at camdensheriff.org and click on the Sex Offenders search tab. Users can then follow simple instructions to determine whether a registered sex offender is living in a particular neighborhood.

For those who missed an article, all my commentaries can be found at http://www.culvercityobserver.com by placing Rubenstein in the website’s search box.

 

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