Your Coffee Table Means Your Child Harm – NY Times, December 30, 2010 – If kids visit your home, save yourself an emergency room bill and dump your coffee table in the dump

Avoid an expensive emergency room visit. Send your coffee table to live somewhere else until your children are into their teens, suggests the NY Times See: NY Times, Thursday, December 30, 2010, page D1, Michael Tortorello "There’s Danger Lurking"

Last year, 143,700 children age 5 and younger visited emergency rooms after table accidents, according to estimates fromt he United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. Coffee tables, in particular, turn up in more than a quarter of the accident reports, in the commission’s sample count.

The safety commission recommends that parents install foam bumpers on the edges.

The 12 month old is the most dangerous. When they start walking, they fall once in every 50 steps, after three months its once in every 150 steps, says Dr. Karen Adolph a developmental psychologist at New York University and a researcher on infant locomotion.

Bruce Hanna, a professor of industrial design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and a writer on accessible, or universal, design, says that a coffe table is like a deadly weapon in your home.

He says that the way manufacturing works, it is cheapera and easier to make an especially dangerous coffee table.

Table saws like cutting out square or rectangle type shapes. Most manufacturers start with chipboard, and the apply a veneer. It is difficult to wrap a wood veneer around a "safer" rounded edge, so you end up with square edges.

Glass coffee tables are the worst. Glass is hard to see. A faceted cut in the glass creates a kind of "broken" double edge, a detail that seems designed for maximum bloodletting.

Anti-immigrant pogroms – be careful of what you preach – you may regret it in the future.

Historically, it seems that many economic downturns have been accompanied by a good dose of anti-immigrant sentiment.

I ask that before you say, write, post, preach or think things for which you may someday be embarrassed, that you take a short moment to pause about the reasons for and origins of immigration.

People migrate. Every continent except Antarctica had natural migration. From wherever the craddle of homo sapien is ever found to be, we have moved and dispersed. Humans are very adaptable. As immigrants come to the United States, no amount of hate, border security or legislation is likely to dislodge them. Yes, they can adapt…but we can do.

With immigration comes a great opportunity. If you have a good or service, consider learning the immigrant’s language and reach out. You may be enriched both personally and financially.

Spanish is beautiful, and just a fun blast of a language to speak. Learn it…and embrace the inevitable hispanicization of America. Try it Mikey, you might like it!

This post focuses on The Economist artice at page 39 of the Decembert 18, 2010 edition covering the time period 12/18/10-12/31/10, entitled "Field of Tears". Economist articles are written and published without author attribution. However, whoever wrote these articles "gets it".

The story is of Teresa Vega and Marco Lopez, a married couple from Oaxaca, Mexico. They came to the United States illegally in 2005 when their oldest son died after a flood contaminated their town. They had no money to hire a doctor, so they watched their two year old son die as he vomited, got diarrhoea and ran a high fever. They left a child behind with his grandfather (little Erminio), as that child was too small to make the journey. It has not been nearly six years since either Ms. Vega or Mr. Lopez has seen Erminio.

Ms. Vega and Mr. Lopez failed three times before finally being able to cross the border on their fourth try. Ms. Vega endured the hardships of trying to cross notwithstanding her pregnancy.

On one try they were intercepted by bandits and stripped naked. Ms. Vega’s fear of rape was great, but with great relief, it never came to pass.

The hostile vastess of America provides its own challenge. 80% of America’s crop workers are Hispanic, and more than half are undocumented workers.

In contrast, however, Rob Williams director of the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project (which represents farmworkers in court) estimates that 90% of farmworkers are undocumented "illegal aliens".

It is not against the law in a criminal sense to be an illegal alien, so that term "illegal alien" is incorrect. It is a crime to cross the border illegally, but to be in the US without visa or "papers" is actually just a civil infraction, according to The Economist.

Many Americans are convinced that undocumented workers take jobs that American nationals would otherwise perform.

To disprove this notion, the United Farmworkers Union ran a promotion called "Take Our Jobs".

I have had the humble and sobering experience of being of assistance to families and singles as far north as Snohomish County and Whatcom County, and as far south as Clark County, Washington and Skamania County, Washington. Some of my clients speak Spanish. I have with pleasure helped many stressed-out people in Aberdeen, Hoquiam and Gray’s Harbor County, along with the Kitsap County area and the Key Penninsula; Tukwila, Washington; Lakewood, Washington; University Place, Washington; Puyallup, Washington; and Olympia, Washington; Federal Way, Washington; Bremerton, Washington; Gig Harbor, Washington; Silerdale, Washington; Bangor, Washington; and Tacoma, Washington. I have even had clients in and around Port Townsend, Jefferson County.

I have helped thousands of people since the mid-1990s.

It doesn’t matter where you are in Western Washington. I regularly help stressed-out people in a diverse number communities in and around the Puget Sound area of Washington, including but not in any way limited to Seattle, Washington, Everett, Washington; Renton, Washington, Kent, Washington and Auburn, Washington.

Don’t forget that it does not matter where the property is located in Western Washington, be it Bellevue, Olympia, Chehalis, Aberdeen, Olympia, Lacey, Graham, Puyallup, Orting, Fife, Milton, Edgewood, Pe Ell, Raymond, Onalaska, Tenino, Tumwater, Chehalis, Centralia, Gig Harbor or Tacoma., I can often be of foreclosure and/or short sale assistance. I offer a brief, thirty minute no obligation/no cost obligation. You have nothing to lose!

Remember, in Western, Washington, I am here to help you, regardless of where you are facing a foreclosure or short sale, be it Federal Way, Washington; Lakewood, Washington; University Place, Washington; Puyallup, Washington; Graham, Washington; Orting, Washington; Spanaway, Washington; Lacey, Washington; Burien, Washington; Seatac, Washington; Des Moines, Washington; Bremerton, Washington; Silverdale, Washington; Tacoma, Washington; Renton, Washington; Auburn, Washington; Tukwila, Washington; Federal Way, Washington; Renton, Washington; Auburn, Washington; Tukwila, Washington; Kent, Washington; Bremerton, Washington; Silverdale, Washington; or Olympia, Washington.

What are “bounce” loans?

Bounce loans are something to avoid. Be particularly aware if your bank uses a "high to low" system detailed below.

Overdraft or "bounce" loans are a form of overdraft coverage whereby banks or credit unions charge penalty overdraft fees when consumers overdraw their accounts by check, at automated teller machines or using a debit card.

Unlike traditional overdraft protection, these services do not require consumer consent and do not provide cost of credit disclosures under the federal lending laws, and do not guarantee that the bank pays the oerdrafts.

The bank pays the amount of the overdraft and charges the customer a fee that ranges from $20 to $35. Some banks also charge a daily fee until the "loan" is paid in full.

These high fees are triggered regardless of whether the overdraft his $5.00 or $500.00, and the bank will generally not notify the customer of the overdraft nor give the option to cancel the transaction.

Borrowers pay triple and even quadruple digit interest rates as a "real" effect of these "bounce" loans.

From the National Consumer Law Center’s publication "Foreclosure Prevention Counseling", pages 68-70, here is an example:

For example, if teh overdraft loan fee was calcualted as an Annual Percentage Rate, a $22.50 fee for an $80 overdraft loan translates into a 1,467% APR for a loan paid back in a week and a 733% APR if the loan is repaid in two weeks.

Even worse, some banks ratchet up the fee income intentionally by using a "high to low" method of honoring checks and debits to the account, as opposed to paying them (and applying deposits) in a chronological order. In other words, according to the NCLC, the bank will pay the largest obligation first each day and sometimes apply deposits AFTER debits. This abusive practice can trigger a cascade of overdrafts if the account does not have sufficient funds to cover all of the small checks.

Budget Deficits foreseen: President Dwight (“Ike”) D. Eisenhower lamented rise of military-industrial complex

From the Arizona Republic, December 11, 2010, page A6, John Milburn of the Associated Press:

For nearly two years, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his aides searched for the right words to describe at the end of his presidency his fear that the nations burgeoning miliary power was driving its foreign policy, newly released papers show.

The papers show that Eisenhower and his staff spent two years preparing his final speech to the nation. One document features a typewritten note from the president, lamenting that when he joined the military in 1911, there were 84,000 Army soldiers, a number that ballooned roughly tenfold by 1960.

“The direct result of this continued high level of defense expenditures has been to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions, where none had existed before” he had written in a draft section of his final speech.

The speech was delivered on January 17, 1961.

Born in 1890, Ike died in 1969. He grew up in Kansas and graduated from West Point, commanding Allied forces in Europe, including the D-Day invasion of France.

The Eisenhower Presidential Library on Friday, December 10, 2010, unveiled these previously undisclosed documents.

Ike was an interesting fellow. Maybe a true American hero. The military-industrial complex related deficits are now hurting our economic recovery.

I am NOT anti-military. I am just being reflective…as was Ike.

Never be unemployed again – Spanish speaking Anglos (caucasians) are always in demand.

Over 40% of New Mexico’s population is hispanic, with many speaking Spanish as their primary language, according to The Economist magazine, September 11, 2010, pg 35 "The law of large numbers: the hispanicisation of America"

Similarly, 30% to 40% of the population of California, Arizona and Texas is latino.

Suprisingly, 10% to 20% of the population of Washington, Illinois, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Illinois, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey is also hispanic.

Many hispanics tend to prefer Republican politics as of late, but anti-immigration sentiment is pushing many back towards Democratic candidates.

Now, human migration is something that is difficult to contain. Eventually, people just migrate. Fences, attack dogs, barbed wire, guard towers and infrared equipped helicopters may slow down migration, but eventually, if people have to move they just move, is my take on the matter (you are free to disagree!).

In late 2005 (contemporaneous with the birth of my first child) I decided to "fix" my Spanish abilities. Learning Spanish will make you "recession proof", I believe. I think that a bi-lingual person will always be able to find employment, even if not "translator" fluent.

Spanish is a wonderful language. I often now prefer to speak Spanish. It is logical and regularly follows its own gramatical rules. It is straightforward to spell and write in Spanish. I like to say that Spanish promotes literacy, whereas English almost discourages literacy.

Here is my recipie for Spanish:

Spend one month in either Antigua, Guatemala or Granada, NIcaragua, studying four to six hours per day, one on one with a teacher at Ixchel Spanish School (Antigua, Guatemala) or Roger Ramirez’s One-on-One Tutoring, in Granada, Nicaragua.

Usually, it is about $100 per week for twenty hours weekly of one-on-one teaching, or about $150 weekly for six hours daily totaling 30 hours per week. This is really the best way to learn.

You can arrange (sponsored and arranged by the school) for room and board with a local family, wherein meals are usually provided six days per week, breakfast, lunch and dinner. The cost for room and board is usually $75-$100 per week, room and board (no joke! it really is that inexpensive!). However, you should tip your homestay family and your teacher at the end of your stay maybe 10% to 25% of your expenditure, but tips are not required.

If you are a big eater, or want a bit more meat, you can arrange to pay a little more to your family, or supplement a bit by eating out.

After you return home, you should search out a local tutor for weekly two hour sessions for about a year. I would write short stories in Spanish, and then my teacher and I would correct and re-write the stories.

You should also subscribe to National Geographic in Spanish, and force yourself to read every issue and define the words you do not know, writing the definitions in the margins.

For fun, you can pick up "people en espanol" magazine.

Pike Place Market in Seattle has a newstand which usually carries a nice selection of foreign newspapers. ISimilar my use of "people en espanol" magazine, I used to buy one every month and read it – looking up and writing in the margins the definitions to unfamiliar words.

I know that many of the readers of this blog might find this far-fetched – after all, there are mortgages and car payments to pay and if facing unemployment, funds can be thin.

However, I can think of no schooling course or training course which will help you to better "stand out from the crowd".

Anglos (caucasians) who can speak Spanish do so well in the workplace and interview process because they are not "immigrants" to the American way of doing things. Spanish speaking Anglos fit well into business organizations and understand employers’ expectations and can provide nuanced service. Clearly, an immigrant speaking Spanish as a first language and later learning English can learn to fit well into an enterprise, but Enlish is so darn complicated and hard to read/write that immigrants struggle with English.

Spanish is a great language – it has a huge and rich vocabulary, and can express many things better than can English.

Challenge yourself to meet the demographic demands of a changing America – learn Spanish – you will never regret it….and say goodbye forever to the unemployment line.

“Anchor Babies” – Some higher thoughts.

With every recession or crisis seems to come increased anti-immigrant sentiment.

I have blogged my thoughts on being careful about such sentiments – examining why we would come to wish to exclude members of our community.

When times were booming, the anti-immigrant sentiment seemed lower…now it seems higher.

Here are some more thoughts from the August 21, 2010 edition of The Economist, page 24:

Only about a sixth of the countries in the world practice "birthright citizenship". The US adopted it originally to end slavery, making anyone born in the country "subject to the jurisidiction thereof". Sadly, this was also a clause also then meant to exclude sovereign Native-American tribes and is today still used to exempt the children of foreign diplomats from becoming American citizens.

By 1982, the US Supreme Court had ruled that people who entered illegally were still subject to the "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" language and standard. A recent Pew Hispanic Centre study found taht 8.0% of the births in America are to illegal immigrant parents.

The "Anchor Baby" syndrome may be a false alarm. ONly about 4,000 people per year escape deportation because they ahve children who are citizens; the foreign parents of Americans can only be considered for citizenship once their child turns 21.

Many wealthy Asian and Latin American women do have "Anchor Babies" – but do it legally with a Visa. A firm in China charges $14,750 for three month stays in America to give birth – but the mother has to arrange her own Visa – per the WAshington Post.

Changing the rules to exclude Anchor Babies could be difficult. It may require an amendment to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. A majority of two-thirds of the House and Senate must ratify a constitutional amendment along with three-quarters of the state legislatures.

Legislation by Congress to exclude from citizenship babies born to illegal immigrants would conflict with 1982 US Supreme Court precedent.

The anti-"Anchor Baby" provisions seem unlikely to go anywhere.

But this debate is potentially socially damaging. Do we want to futher talk about creating two classes of citizens?

Has anybody read Dr. Suess recently? Ever heard of the Star-Bellied Snitches?

Two “levels” of birth certificates?

The New York Times reported on January 5, 2011, of a growing movement that seeks that states will issue two different types of birth certificates.

If this movement gains sufficient steam to obtain amendments to state laws, then the states will grant a “Class A” birth certificate to children who have parents with legal residency papers or who are citizens.

A “Class B” certificate will be issued to children whose parents are both undocumented.

This would seem to be at odds to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which grants citizenship to anyone born on American soil.

Gabriel J. Chin, a law professor at the University of Arizona is quoted in the NY Times as saying “This is political theater, not a serious effort to create a legal test….it strikes me as unwise, un-American and unconstitutional.

The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, was a repudiation of the Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling in the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision. The Dred Scott ruling held that people of african decent could never be citizens.

The US Supreme Court affirmed the 14th Amendment in 1898 in the case of US v. Wong Kim Ark, interpreting the citizenship provision to apply to a child born to Chinese immigrants.

Tea Party member (Arizona representative Duncan Hunter) said in the NY Times quote: “And we’re not being mean…we’re just saying it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s what’s in our souls.”

See NY Times, Wednesday, January 5, 2011, page A1, by Marc Lacey. “On Immigration, Birthright Fight in U.S. is Looming.”

Credit Cards: Additional things to think about before getting a new credit card – Preventing trouble

I have another post "Credit Cards: Things to think about before getting a new card…"

But here are four more things to think about – and probably these are the four most important TIPS anyone can offer when obtaining a new credit card.

– Look for the grace period – Credit cards DO NOT HAVE to offer a grace period during which you can pay off credit purchases (paying it in full) without incurring finance charges. Note that cash advances usually don’t ahve a grace period. Without a grace period, finance charges begin accruing immediately and a low rate may actually be higher than it looks.

Under the new CARD Act of 2009, lenders must mail your credit card statement at least twenty-one days before the end of the grace period. Of course, a grace period that is even longer is more beneficial. If you are running very close to the deadline, you might consider paying, at least for that month, over the internet or by phone. Under the new CARD Act, a lender can only charge you for paying by phone if you need the help of a live customer service representative.

-Watch out for bait & switch offers – Some credit card leners will send you an offer advertising a low-interest credit card wtih a high limit. However, nestled in the fine print in the offer is a less attractive, more expensive card if you don’t qualify. The substituted card often has a higher interest rate, more expensive fees, and/or a lower credit limit. If what they send you is not what they advertised to you, send the card back, certified mail, return receipt requested, along with a letter explaining your rejection of the card.

-Review and compare – BEFORE you send back the credit card application make a photocopy of the front and back of the application including the "disclosure boxes". When you receive the credit card, then compare the new disclosures you get with the card to the credit card application disclosures and make sure that they are the same.

-Cancel the credit card if you discover terms you don’t like – You don’t need to keep a credit card if you don’t like the terms. If the lender changes the terms for your card, you have the right under the Credit CARD act to reject the changes and close your account. If you have used the card you need to pay off the blance.

Many thanks to the National Consumer Law Center’s "Guide to Surviving Debt", available at www.consumerlaw.org for only about $20.00. You should also consider taking a look at our sister website www.life-after-bankruptcy.info.

3% Drop in Bankruptcies reported January 5, 2011 – Seattle Times

December 2010 bankruptcy filings decreased 3% nationally as compared to December 2009, with 113,000 bankruptcy filings in Dec. 2010.

There are about 90 bankruptcy districts in the nation.

There was a similar decrease in filings October 2009 to October 2010.

The nation recorded about 1.55 million bankruptcy filings in 2010, an increase of 8.0% from 2009.

There was an increase of 32% from 2008 to 2009, and a 33% increase from 2007 to 2008.

The number of filings in 2010 matched that for 2004.

The West, however, indicated ongoing growth in filings, with Hawaii up 22%, Utah increasing 19%, California up 19% and Arizona up 18%.

Bob Lawless, a University of Illinois College of Law professor believes that the slight decrease in filings might be a reflection of the increased difficulty in obtaining credit advances over the past couple of years.

As reported by Make Baker of the Associated Press, See The Seattle Times, 1/5/11 Page A-9 Business.

Unemployment up in two-thirds of metropolitain areas re: November 2010

Unemployment rates rose in more than two-thirds of the nation’s largest metro areas in November, a sharp reversal from the previous month and the most since June.

The Department of Labor recited on January 2, 2011, that unemployment rates rose in 258 of the 372 largest cities, fell in 88 cities and remained the same in 26 cities. That was worse than the previous month, in which rates fell in 200 areas.

Areas with weakness in the housing market are seeing growing unemployment e.g. California, Nevada, Florida and Georgia. Las Vegas, Atlanta, San Francisco and Miami also saw increases in unemployment.

November 2010 unemployment rose to 9.8% from 9.6% over October 2010.

Many laid-off workers are giving up on job searches.

Washington may have made some small gains during this time period, but remains at 9.2% unemployment for November 2010.

James MaGee Attorney | Call James H MaGee, Attorney at (253) 383-1001 to Start Fresh and Begin Building Your Financial Future Now!

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