Beware Of Baby's Ear Infections

As reported by Reuters on February 7, Bank of America opens branches without employees. That’s right, the bank opened three completely automated branches during the month of January where customers can use ATMs and have video conferences with employees at other branches. What a money saver!!! How many loans to employees will be granted if no one has a job? A laid off Bank of America employee is a poor credit risk. An example here in California of drivers getting gouged could be a $100 traffic ticket that becomes $400 with additional charges, including fees for court construction, a DNA fund, and emergency medical services. Missing a deadline raises the fine to $815. Working its way through the court system in New York is a suit from the Legal Aid Society against the New York Police Department. The lawsuitfiled in State Supreme Court in Manhattan is the latest salvo in a continuing dispute on how the police department holds officers accountable for misconduct and calls for the department to make public summaries of disciplinary action taken against police officers dating to 2011. Are you a new parent? Is your baby under the age of two? What about ear infections? A recently released study published in the New England Journal of Medicine Thursday, December 22, 2016 tested a shorter course of antibiotics for ear problems for children under age two and found kids do better with the standard treatment. Children given just five days of Amoxicillin were less likely to get well in that time. Always check with your doctor.

My cousin George has been the only member of the family to get Alzheimer’s. We were all worried he would wander away so someone was always keeping him company. Although 24/7 is a lot of hours he had an army of friends. A recent invention by Kenneth Shinozuka of New York of a wearable sensor that can be attached to a foot or sock notifies caregivers via their smart phones if a patient has gotten out of bed and is walking. Starting in 2015 the State of Tennessee enacted a law signed by Governor Haslam to allow residents who graduate from high school an additional two years in one of the state’s 13 community colleges or one of the 27 technical schools. Well, friends, it just had to happen; the government is accusing another bank of misdeeds. Don’t worry, Councilmember Cooper, this time it isn’t Wells Fargo. It’s the largest bank – Chase. The government claims this bank overcharged 53,000 black and brown borrowers between 2006 and 2009 at $1,000 each, or a total of $53 million. Perhaps we should make it a practice to pull our money out of these sleazy financial institutions and keep it in a credit union where the interest rate is better and the dividends are higher. Deputizing local police officers from around the country to enforce the nation’s immigration laws is one plan being proposed to President Trump to fulfill his pledge to crack down on undocumented immigrants. Has anyone, except those working for allegedly super-secret governmental agencies, heard of Barmak Heshet? Well, Barmak was part of a team at MIT and Georgia Tech that found a way to read a letter without opening the envelope. What will they think of next? What kind of mess is this? If you are arrested in Ramsey County, Minnesota, you pay a fee for getting arrested. Guilty or innocent, the county, which includes St. Paul and other cities and towns, confiscates a $25 “Booking Fee.” Some call this “Policing for Profit.”In 1915 Germany carried out its first air raid on Britain during World War 1 as a pair of Zeppelins dropped bombs onto Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn. In Santa Fe, New Mexico a program that taught personal finance to high school students has been eliminated because of the state’s budget crisis.

Those who get up early to watch CNBC’s financial news saw on January 25, 2016 that Wells Fargo will no longer tell their branch managers ahead of time when the auditors are coming. Hard to believe but true; several years ago our government, through its Food and Drug Administration, okayed a treatment for hepatitis, a disease that kills over 300,000 annually worldwide and more than 15,000 in the United States. Back in 2014 the patient costs were $1,000 per dose or $84,000 for a complete 12 week course. Interesting! Locals are still talking about the December 10, 2016 birthday celebration for James Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia. The event held at Fort Frederica on St. Simons Island featured musket firings and a “Pub Crawl.”For those who missed an article, all my commentaries can be found at http://www.culvercityobserver.comby placing Rubenstein in that website's search box.