Hot Local Issue On November Ballot

We have all heard about the bad water in Flint, Michigan. Many have read about the mess with water in Compton, but in Atlanta, Georgia the Atlanta Journal - Constitution filed a request through Georgia’s open records law, and guess what came up: More than half of Atlanta’s public school buildings had elevated levels of lead in drinking water, with some as high as 15 times the federal limits. What is really despicable is I also put in a public document request and I hope you are sitting down, especially if you have kids in the system, because the Cuban cigar crony group said there were no test results available. You heard right; although tests to check the purity are done, our city doesn’t get copies. Now, Sacramento and Washington might get test results, but the citizens do not.

Do you think the city manager’s office is preoccupied with the November city election and their attempt to control the police and fire departments? You just might be right. We no longer vote for the Culver City Clerk nor do we vote for the City Treasurer, and now if the majority of citizens are duped into believing our fantastic police chief and fire chief would be better served if they were no longer an independent body but under the dictates of the city manger the people will get what they deserve. As an example, the police chief could receive in a meeting a copy of the city budget showing a deficit, with the implication we need to generate more money or layoffs, and other cost cutting measures will need to take place including an eight percent cut in the police ranks. So, faced with that choice the chief just might “suggest” additional tickets be given or he just might lose his job (“I’m just kidding”).

Would anybody like to guess which state had the best turnout for their primary election? Now, I know some might say Tennessee, or perhaps Colorado, or even Maine, but you would be all wrong. The winner with 52.4 percent was New Hampshire.

Gee whiz, Theodorsia and I just missed being in Lake City, Florida on July 16 for the quarterly “Breakfast with the Chief” which included a complimentary breakfast and a community forum on neighborhood issues.

Golly, it seems like yesterday but actually 40 years have passed since the Entebbe hostage rescue mission took place on July 4, 1976 in Uganda when Israeli Special Forces rescued 100 hostages.

At State Capitol legislators are talking about the proposed increased gasoline tax to bring in $2 to $4 billion per year to repair the states’ highways, roads, bridges, and others related infrastructure.

I really cannot say too much, because the people who might tip me off might not anymore. The Culver City city council just might start taxing Netflix, Hulu and possibly others at 11 percent, and possibly starting the first of January 2017. Once the movers and shakers read this they will say Rubenstein is all wet, no truth what-so-ever, but why then did they get advice from Muni-Services, a company that provides revenue recovery consulting and administrative services to local governments so they can impose their existing cable taxes on video streaming services as well?

I can only wonder what other “surprises” are coming down the pike.

Simply amazing: A recent National Institute of Health (NIH) grant for $5 million to study phage therapy alongside other crazy techniques for defeating super bugs, such as developing a decoy target that will trick the bacteria into attacking the wrong thing. Now, these days our medical people claim there are about 20 multi-drug resistant super bugs that together infest about two million people in the United States every year, killing 23,000 of them.

On September 2 the federal government banned 19 chemicals that were long used in antibacterial soaps. Washington claims the manufacturers failed to show they were safe and that they killed germs. “We have no scientific evidence that they are any better than plain soap and water” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, the Food and Drug Administration’s drug center director.

Oh my, Samsung recalled its Galaxy Note 7 smart phones on September 2, 2016 after finding some of their batteries exploded or caught fire. Customers who already bought them will be able to swap them for new smart phones in about two weeks.

What’s coming next? New Jersey’s favorite breakfast meat has now inspired a beer flavor. Flying Fish Brewing recently released a Pork Roll Porter beer. The Cherry Hill, New Jersey brewery says the dark brown caramel porter is made with pork roll and spices.

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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