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Buy Local, Should Be More Than A Slogan

In Business, Economy, Education, Health, Jobs, Local News, Opinion, Senior Lifestyle, sociology, Uncategorized on September 26, 2012 at 8:01 am

DEER IN HEADLINES

By Gery L. Deer

We hear the phrase constantly – buy local. But regardless of how much encouragement comes from public service announcements, most people still buy what they need from large, corporate chain stores. From toilet paper to breakfast cereal, local markets have always had a difficult time competing with companies like Walmart, Target and Meijer.

Since the start of the recession, local chambers of commerce and other civic groups have tried to get people to switch from big box buying to shopping at the locally-owned retailer. As money belts tightened, those messages were falling on more deaf ears than ever before.

Money in a particular community is a bit like blood in a body, it has to circulate to do any good. Money moves around a region from business to consumer and back, over and over again. That’s how the economic system works. Buying from out-of-town based companies moves the money out of the area. Buying local keeps more (not all) of the money in the community.

Many argue that they simply can’t afford to shop locally because of significantly higher prices. Others complain that local companies lack the product selection or expertise of larger merchants. A family struggling to make ends meet and feed a couple of kids can’t pay $4 for a box of breakfast cereal at a local vendor, when Walmart has it for $2. For them, every dollar counts and the extra five minutes they drive is worth the time and gas if it means there is significant savings at the bottom of the sales receipt.

Prices are lower at chain stores because of mass buying and selling. For example, for every bottle of ketchup a small grocery store sells, companies like Walmart sell hundreds of thousands more. It’s a simple matter of volume. A small business lacks the massive reach and bulk buying power afforded to big companies and therefore has to pay more for products, passing that higher price along to customers at the cash register.

Some small shops lower prices on one aisle, like on every-day necessities such as bread, cereal, soap, and so on, while keeping prices higher on extravagancies to counter the difference. Many already offer a generic alternative to most products or a store brand, the quality of which is often superior to the national offerings.

In the end, it’s up to the consumer to pay attention and do a little homework to see what’s out there and comparison shop. Most large, chain stores will price match nowadays. But nothing is more infuriating than to see someone in Walmart trying for a price match with a coupon from a local store offering a cheaper alternative. Why not just shop at the local retailer and get the deal they’re offering while keeping the money in the community?

Of course, it could be easily argued that big-box stores should be welcomed rather than refuted since they employ more people and pay more taxes to small communities. Valid points of course, but what happens when corporate decides to move the store or shut it down? The collateral damage can be economically devastating.

It should be emphasized also that this problem is not limited to groceries and sundries. Service companies like law offices, insurance providers, carpet layers and even accountants struggle to retain clients, even after years of service. These kinds of businesses are based on trust, relationships and personal referrals, concepts that may have escaped the younger generations who opt, instead, for the online approach or more “progressive” options.

Buying local needs to be more than just a slogan offered up by politicians in tough economic times. Government can’t and won’t save the local economy. It requires a joint effort between consumers and businesses. Consumers need to tell local retailers what they want; Retailers, listen to customers and take action to keep them.

Buying local strengthens a community’s economy against downturn and protects jobs. So, take your next shopping trip to the local grocer and phone your nearest insurance agent for a competitive quote. You might be surprised at what you learn.

Gery L. Deer is an independent columnist and WDTN-TV2, Living Dayton business contributor. More at http://www.gerydeer.com

 

Sponsored By: 

Guerrilla Marketing, 4th edition: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business

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TWilly’s FrozenYogurt Café Offers An Adventure

In Business, Children and Family, Economy, Entertainment, Food, National News, Senior Lifestyle, State News, Uncategorized on September 21, 2012 at 7:00 am

T-Willy’s Yogurt Emporium owner, Wendy Preiser

WASHINGTON TWP. / CENTERVILLE – If you think you know what a Velvet Elvis might be, you could be wrong. Instead of a framed piece of retro artwork, imagine swirls of chocolate, soft-serve yogurt, add two slices of flamed bananas, a squirt of peanut butter topping and a generous sprinkling of maple sugar potato chips. How’s that for something “the King” might have had on his table?

That’s just a taste of what is available at T-Willy’s Yogurt Emporium, the newest tenant of Washington Square Shopping Center in Centerville. On Saturday, September 29, T-Willy’s invites everyone to join them in celebrating a brand-new way of enjoying frozen soft-served yogurt during a special, grand opening event.

Beginning with the official ribbon cutting for invited guests at 10 a.m., T-Willy’s will open from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. for an exciting day of door prizes, samplers and much more. According to shop owner, Wendy Preiser, T-Willy’s Yogurt Emporium is not just another soft serve yogurt café. It’s also about exploring your creative, adventurous side.

“Our store is about trying something new,” Preiser says. “There will always be something to intrigue and inspire our customers.”

Inspiration can certainly be found everywhere in the shop, from the adventurous mural on the wall to the gigantic, tree-trunk toppings table. There’s even an antique, manual typewriter, complete with post cards, all set to take down your special story. If the atmosphere isn’t enough, the myriad of yogurt and sorbet flavors is sure to turn a head or two.

T-Willy’s offers a rotating menu of specially blended frozen yogurt flavors including Blueberry Burst, New York Cheesecake, White Chocolate Macadamia and Tart Cranberry Hibiscus. Of course chocolate and vanilla are available for those who want an old favorite. All of the yogurt and toppings are sold by the ounce, in cups.   Mixing and matching is highly encouraged. There are always options that have no sugar added and most are gluten free.

Originally from Chicago, Preiser completed her undergraduate education at Northwestern University and received a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management. After years working in new product development with food companies like Sara Lee Bakery, Nestle Chocolate and Birds Eye Foods, Preiser set out in her new business venture with the knowledge that today’s families are always on the lookout for great-tasting, healthier choices.

T-Willy’s frozen soft serve offers one of the highest counts of live and active yogurt cultures. The average 4-ounce serving contains less than 0.5 grams of dairy butter fat. “Yogurt is such a great basis because it is healthy, tasty and fun,” Preiser says. “My philosophy on food is that we should pay more attention to what we put in our bodies and less about what we leave out.  If we eat consciously, the occasional treat can be good for us physically and especially emotionally.”

T-Willy’s Frozen Yogurt Emporium is located at 6085 Far Hills Ave., near Boston Stoker and just across the parking lot from Dorothy Lane Market. To learn more about T-Willy’s Yogurt Emporium, including the incredible tale of T-Willy, go online to www.twillysyogurt.com or call 937-567-7818. T-Willy’s is open daily during the summer from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. and until 8 p.m. from October through April.

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Fifty Years and Still Trucking

In Business, Economy, Education, Jobs, Local News, National News, Opinion, psychology, Senior Lifestyle, State News, Uncategorized on September 19, 2012 at 7:07 am

Deer In Headlines

By Gery L. Deer

Over the last few years many small businesses fell apart as a result of the recession. But one family business in Jamestown is celebrating a half-century of service with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

In the summer of 1962 my father, Gary Deer, Sr., was working the machine shops at the great NCR, laying concrete on his off hours and helping my mother, Lois, raise my brother Gary, Jr., and sister Cathy (I wasn’t quite on anyone’s radar just yet). Money was always tight, but a toolbox full of skills always seemed to provide him with ways to pay the bills, however unconventional his blend of work.

It was around that time, armed only a truck and a scoop shovel, he was hired to haul a load of sawdust from Indiana to a greenhouse in Fairborn. Sawdust was used for landscaping and mixed with potting soil and mulch for bagging trees and other plants. Never one to turn down work, he agreed and that first load of wood shavings and dust led to a job that would support his family for many years to come.

Gary Deer and Son was the name he first gave his business, which included the cement work at the time. Fifty years later, there’s an “s” on the end, but it’s still very much in business and keeping my father and brother busy.

I grew up in the seat of an International Harvester grain truck. It was a beast of a vehicle, nicknamed the “binder” because of its lack power steering, a hand-actuated dump bed with the lever positioned outside and behind the cab and shaky, wooden sideboards. The truck held somewhere around 7,500 pounds of sawdust and always seemed to be in demand by dairies, horse stables and livestock farms.

One of dad’s earliest customers was Young’s Dairy in Yellow Springs. Even today, the popular tourist spot uses the clean, dry sawdust Dad supplies in the barns and around the livestock areas.

Over the last half-century, it’s been a common sight along US 35 to see one of Dad’s signature red (and for a time blue) trucks tarped down in red, white and blue rumbling down the highway. But you can’t imagine what it was like growing up and trying to explain your family’s business to teachers and other kids (particularly those from the city).

While taking a business class at Greeneview High School during my freshman year, we were asked to write a report about a chosen occupation we might pursue. Having no clue yet as to what I wanted to be when I grew up, I decided to write about Dad’s business – assuming I’d eventually be part of the business.

In the essay, I explained that sawdust was a major commodity within the agricultural, livestock and lumber industries. It’s a by-product of the wood finishing process in pallet shops and lumber yards, essentially vacuumed from beneath the saw tables and piped into a pile or building for storage. The mill can then sell off the sawdust at a premium, making money from what was basically waste material.

I went on to explain how grain trucks, semi trailers and wagons are used to then transport the material to dairies and stables to be resold as bedding. People make money by reselling the material, something my father and brother have now been doing for decades. The irony here was that the teacher gave me a “D,” not for my writing ability, but instead citing that sawdust hauling was, “not a viable career.”

Having effectively insulted my family business and our livelihood, the teacher was strongly encouraged by a higher power to change my grade and I wonder what he’d say today? That was more than a quarter-century ago and, though many businesses have dried up and blown away, Dad’s is still going, there’s even a website, garydeerandsons.com.

But I can’t help thinking sometimes about how things worked out, how random that first call was back in 1962 and where it led for my parents. It taught me that sometimes the simplest of circumstances hold opportunities you can’t even yet imagine. Mom and Dad created and managed the business on their own, with no help from anyone, and we are all forever grateful.

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Greene County Authors Featured At Lebanon Book Signing

In Business, Children and Family, Education, Entertainment, Local News, Media, National News, psychology, Senior Lifestyle, State News, Uncategorized on September 10, 2012 at 7:18 pm

Authors C.C. Christian and R.G. Huxley

Lebanon, OH – On Saturday, September 15, Chapters Pre-Loved Books, in Lebanon will host a reading and book signing featuring two, newly published Miami Valley writers. From 1 p.m. until 3 p.m., visitors have the chance to meet C.C. Christian, author of the middle grade adventure novel, The Legendary Tales of Sharktooth and Hammer – The Awakening and R.G. Huxley, author of paranormal thriller, The Cleansing.

Celebrating two years in business, Chapters Pre-Loved Books is a locally-owned, family-operated bookstore located at 726 E. Main St. in Lebanon, at the west end of the Colony Square Shopping Center. Unlike the cramped, musty used bookstores people may be used to, Chapters offers a more upscale experience. A wide selection of new and used books, games, puzzles and more are offered in a welcoming atmosphere which includes a pleasant decor, wide aisles, comfortable seating, coffee and tea for purchase, free wireless internet access, and a welcoming atmosphere.

Yellow Springs, Ohio native C. C. Christian began her writing career unexpectedly by telling stories to her two sons which eventually led to The Legendary Tales of Sharktooth and Hammer – The Awakening.  The story revolves around two young sharks named Sharktooth and his best friend Hammer who set out on a journey to discover the truth of The Battle of the Great Canal – a war that ultimately changed the future of their colony forever.

First in a series of three, the novel is packed with action but, as Christian notes, it’s educational as well. “The story line presents many situations that people, especially kids, face every day,” she says. “This book is meant not only to entertain, but to enlighten and peak the readers’ curiosity about many topics and places.”

Richard (R.G.) Huxley grew up in Fairborn, Ohio. His paranormal crime novel, The Cleansing, follows former police detective Jack Angel, a man who could, at one time, literally feel and see a crime from the point of the victims. When three pastors go mad and try to cleanse themselves by fire right in front of their congregations, one survivor may hold the answer to the disappearance of Angel’s daughter, drawing him reluctantly back into his old life.

“The idea (for the book) came to me one day out of the blue,” Huxley explains. “I remember sitting at my desk and watching a trailer online and it showed this guy walking around the woods and he was engulfed in flames. He wasn’t fighting the blaze and I wondered what if he set the fire himself?”

Excerpts from the books are available from each of the authors’ respective websites, http://www.sharktoothandhammer.com and http://www.rghuxley.com. Visitors to the signing and store anniversary event will receive special pricing, autographs, photo opportunities with the authors and more. For detailed information visit http://www.chaptersprelovedbooks.com or call (513) 934-BOOK (2665).

 

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Has Anybody Seen My Youth?

In Children and Family, Education, Health, Opinion, psychology, Senior Lifestyle, Uncategorized on August 28, 2012 at 9:34 am

By Gery L. Deer

Deer In Headlines

One morning I woke up, looked in the mirror and realized there was an old, wrinkly guy with graying hair staring back at me where, just yesterday it seemed, stood a young, freckle-faced kid. I could have sworn I had my youth here somewhere. Did I put it in a drawer someplace and forget? Did it get sent to the dry cleaners? Maybe it vanished in the clothes dryer, vanquished forever to whatever dimension socks disappear to.

Whatever happened to my youth, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t my fault. I did everything you’re supposed to do. I lived life, abstaining from things like alcohol, drugs, partying, and excesses of all kinds. I worked out, rode a bike, ate the best food I could, maintained a clean, healthy lifestyle and yet one day, poof – it was gone.

But where did it go? Is it like your lap, which, once you stand up, disappears to wherever laps go when they’re not needed? Is youth something you have to manage or tend, like a garden, constantly cultivating it to maintain its productivity? It’s as though someone just snuck in one night while I was sleeping and made off with it like having your newspaper stolen from the front porch.

Preparing to shave I realize that there seems to be more hair than before – but all in the wrong places. At what point does some gene activate that forces the follicles to move from the scalp and infiltrate the ears and nose without mercy? White, wiry, and rampaging like an army of dandelions in the yard, there seems to be no stopping them. Horribly painful but thoroughly useless, yanking them out only seems to quadruple their numbers within moments. Has anybody seen my youth?

I rub my eyes and splash water in my face, hoping the fog will clear. Nope, still blurry. On the counter lay a pair of bifocals with large, metallic rims. Unfolding them, I perch them on my hair-encroached nose and the image clears but makes no move toward beautification. Seriously. Has anybody seen my youth?

Toweling off my face, I return to sit on the edge of the bed, switching on the television news. The perky young anchorwoman is clearly mouthing something but there’s no sound. Hmm, must be a technical difficulty. I click the channel changer and every station seems to have the same issue. People’s lips are moving, but they aren’t saying anything. Even the commercials seem mute. Mute – that was it. Maybe I hit the mute button.

Thumbing the volume I ratchet up the sound, watching the green bar on the display creep ever higher. Fifty, sixty, seventy, at last! Sound! I decide that there must be something wrong with the speaker. The scale only goes to 100. Can it be that loud? Or … what if the new crop of weeds in my ears is deafening me? Breakfast. That’ll help.

In the kitchen, I reach for the cereal box and pour some into a bowl. Opening the refrigerator, I pull out what looks like a milk carton and splash some over the dry, twig-like contents of the bowl. What is this? I stir the spoon around in what could only be described as hay, doused in murky-white water. Yuck. When did I start eating this? Where are the red hearts, yellow moons and green clovers? Where are the marshmallows, the secret prize inside and the colorful cartoon characters smiling from the box label shilling their sugary goodness? All gone. It seems now the only things that snap crackle or pop in the morning are my joints. Has anybody seen my youth?

I know it was here before. I was full of energy, new ideas and visions of the future. I remember just yesterday feeling like I had the world at my feet. Now, I watch as it whizzes past me, like I’m walking backwards on a crowded sidewalk. Has anybody seen my youth?

Ok, they always say when you lose something you will always find it in the last place you look. And sure enough, there it was tucked quietly away in my heart. I guess I had it all the time.

DEER IN HEADLINES is sponsored by:

The Legendary Tales of Sharktooth & Hammer –  The Awakening

By C.C. Christian

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Greene County Wild West Artists Host 10th Annual Event in Greenville

In Children and Family, Economy, Entertainment, Local News, National News, Senior Lifestyle, television, Uncategorized on July 9, 2012 at 8:16 pm

GREENVILLE, OH – Wild West performers headlining the 10th Annual Annie Oakley Western Arts Showcase are gearing up for five live performances during Annie Oakley Days in the upper level of the Darke County Fairground Coliseum. Whip artists, trick ropers and other Wild West art experts who have appeared shows like America’s Got Talent and The Bonnie Hunt Show will be on hand to perform at 7 p.m. on Friday July 27 at 7 p.m. on Saturday the 28th 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. with two more shows at Noon and 2 p.m. on Sunday the 29th. Each show is free with regular admission.

The event started out as a gathering of whip crackers in May of 2002 at the family farm of the founder and producer of the event, nationally known writer, entertainer Gery L. Deer. Deer expanded the event a year later to include trick roping, knife throwing and much more and moved it to the grounds of Annie Oakley Days Festival. Participants have the opportunity to learn from some of the best names in the business while sharing their skills to entertain the public.

Deer is an award-winning whip artist who has spent a quarter century performing, competing and teaching whip artistry. “We’re happy to be back at Annie Oakley Days for our tenth year of precision whip artistry, knife throwing and fancy trick roping,” says Deer, who is also the managing director of The Whip Artistry Studio, bullwhip training center inJamestown,Ohio. “I’m grateful that we have the opportunity to show the public genuine Wild West arts that require talent and skill, not to mention years of practice.”

Each showcase will also feature champion knife thrower Kirk Bass, of Xenia, who teams up with wife Melodee in the suspenseful Bass Blades impalement show. Bass is a certified thrown weapons instructor with the International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame and the assistant director for the Western Arts Showcase events.

According to Deer, the best show to see will be on Saturday evening. “We pull out all the stops on Saturday, with Wild West arts exhibitions during the afternoon performance and a longer, variety show in the evening.” For the 9th year at the festival, Saturday night’s extended program will be hosted by The Brothers & Co. Entertainers music and variety group fromJamestown,Ohio. Often compared to The Statler Brothers or Oak Ridge Boys, the group offers audiences a brilliant combination of four-part vocals and Vaudeville-style comedy and variety routines.

All performances are family friendly. For more information go online to http://www.ohiowesternarts.org or call (937) 902-4857.

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Computer Troubleshooters To Hold Public Grand Opening July 14

In Business, Economy, Jobs, Local News, Media, National News, Science, Senior Lifestyle, Technology, Uncategorized on July 2, 2012 at 10:32 pm

BEAVERCREEK, OH – Computer Troubleshooters of Beavercreek (CTB) is celebrating one year of business with a public grand opening of its new office at 1255 N. Fairfield Rd., Suite 103. From 11 AM until 3 PM on Saturday, July 14, the public is invited to visit the new facility and register to win a desktop printer.

Part of an international network of independently owned franchises, Computer Troubleshooters provides complete information technology (IT) support for residential and commercial clients. In addition to the new location, the company is celebrating one year in business.

CTB President Cliff Brust is excited about the growth of his company. “We’ve been fortunate to find success in the Beavercreek area and we appreciate the support of the business community to allow us to continue to serve them,” he says.

“We have also focused on our managed services and cloud computing for business and medical documentation to provide our clients with the most advanced technology and highest quality support available to them.”

Brust will appear on WRGT TV’s, Fox 45 in the Morning, Monday, July 9th at 8:15AM to talk about common mistakes made by both commercial and personal computer users. For more information contact Cliff or Genevieve Brust by calling (937) 458-2000 or go online to www.ctbeavercreek.com.

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A Half-Century of Walmart. Economic Savior or Evil Empire?

In Business, Economy, Entertainment, Jobs, Local News, National News, Opinion, Politics, Senior Lifestyle, sociology, Uncategorized on July 2, 2012 at 10:25 pm

Singer, songwriter Jessica Frech’s satirical music video, “People of Walmart” has attracted more than 6 million viewers, and probably offended just as many. (Jessica is in the upper left square of this screen shot from her video.)

By Gery L. Deer

Deer In Headlines

Most people don’t realize that Walmart is the world’s largest private employer. According to a recent article in Time magazine’s business section, only the U.S. Department of Defense andChina’s People’s Liberation Army employ more people than Sam Walton’s massive dynasty of discount. On July 2, Walmart turned the half-century mark of rolling back prices and shaking up the competition.

On that date in 1962, Sam opened the very first Walmart store inRogers,Arkansas. Fifty years and four-thousand, three-hundred-ninety-nine stores later, the chain employs more than 2.1 million people and sets the standard by which other budget retailers are measured.

Along with those who appreciate Walmart’s contributions toAmerica’s economy, there are equally as many who regard it as an evil, impersonal, corporate monster. And they may be correct, after all, it would have been impossible to become the discount retail leader without doing some damage to the competition and holding fast to as much of its own money as possible along the way to get there.

Impenetrable by unions and continually slammed by the liberal left, the bargain behemoth continues to rake in the cash, bringing in a whopping $443 billion last year. Revenue like that must please the company’s shareholders, who, ironically, are probably the last people to set foot in one of its stores (at least while someone’s looking).

But what is Walmart, really? Is it evil? Or, is this just the price that has to be paid for corporate efficiency and unprecedented business growth? Do small towns really dry up and blow away when Walmart moves in?

The pros and cons of Walmart are probably more a matter of perspective than fact. Walmart shoppers are hard to categorize, but the common image is the middle to lower class, interested in getting the lowest price possible on toilet paper while caring nothing about the environment in which it is sold to them.

Well if you believe singer, songwriter Jessica Frech’s point of view in her satirical YouTube music video, People of Walmart, shoppers simply cannot be categorized. They come in every shape, size, color and creed, from every socioeconomic background and lifestyle. They come at every hour of the day and night in search of, well, a great deal on whatever it is they need.

It’s worth mentioning also that many Wallyworlders found Jessica’s music video terrifically offensive because it uses actual photos of Walmart shoppers in their native habitat. Even so, People of Walmart has been watched by more than 6.1 million viewers. People of Walmart 2, released last November, already has more than 1.6 million views. Apparently people weren’t that offended.

The economic effects by Walmart on local communities are as mixed as its clientele, probably more so than people generally know. According to a 2009 study, most negatively affected by the big box giant are those mom-and-pop retailers selling products in direct competition, such as small, higher-priced grocery, clothing and dry-goods stores.

The research also indicated that retailers offering products and services not available from Walmart tend to do better if in close proximity because people are already prepared to spend the money.

As for Walmart’s overall effect on and property values, new research released by the National Bureau of Economic Research startled the company’s critics. A 2001-2006 study of 159 new Walmart stores found that homes within a half-mile of each actually increased in value as much as 3-percent. Local tax revenue also increases substantially.

Like it or not, Walmart is here to stay. Anytime a business or an individual is successful, they will always have critics and even enemies. Fifty years ago, it’s doubtful that Sam Walton could have imagined what his small shop would eventually become.

Today his company provides jobs, affordable food and clothing, and the most unusually diverse array of patrons any retailer could imagine. So, happy birthday Walmart! Keep the rollbacks coming and, please, could someone fix the wheel on that one shopping cart that just won’t roll when you’re in a hurry?

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Public Transportation Issues Expose Ignorance and Prejudice

In Business, Children and Family, Economy, Education, Jobs, Local News, Opinion, Politics, Senior Lifestyle, Uncategorized on June 26, 2012 at 10:22 am

Plans for public transportation service to local communities stonewalled by ignorance and prejudice. Photo courtesy RTA Dayton Wright Stop Plaza Transit Center

By Gery L. Deer

Deer In Headlines

Throughout most ofOhio, public transportation mainly consists of busses and commuter trains. But around the country, public transportation also includes cable cars, street cars, subways, ferry boats, and a host of other means, all of which are vital to the communities they serve.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, in 2010 Americans took 10.2 billion trips on public transit systems. The organization also reports that for every $1 spent on public transportation, $4 of economic return is generated.

Additionally, out of every dollar earned, Americans spend 18 cents on transportation and 94 percent of that money is used for maintaining a personal vehicle. People who use public transportation can save that money or use it for other expenses, providing further economic benefit.

So why are so many local government leaders in towns like Beavercreek and Tipp City resistant to the idea of placing public transit stops in their communities?  The answer is simple; the same things that tend to limit progress in any small community – ignorance and prejudice.

Regardless of how much positive information is provided regarding public transportation, some communities believe that unwanted elements outweigh any potential benefit. One argument leveled by critics is that buses will increase traffic problems. In reality, they actually ease road congestion by reducing the number of individual cars.

Proponents say that civic leaders want to block public transit stops so they can be more discriminating about who has access to certain neighborhoods. In the media both sides seem to be dancing around the concept that minorities, lower income people, the disabled and elderly, and even criminal elements are presumed to be the primary customers of public transportation.

Local officials and residents alike apparently believe that by restricting bus routes from higher-end retail areas they are somehow protecting the community from the less-desirable elements of society. How is that not racist or at the very least, discriminatory towards lower income people?

Of course dangerous criminals like drug dealers can ride into town on the local transit bus, but it’s likely that they already have a way in. Research shows that drugs are highly prevalent in upper income neighborhoods – just better hidden – and a bus stop is unlikely to have much of an effect on that problem, one way or the other.

Politically, government officials often take whatever side they think will appease the voters, regardless of what might be the right thing to do. Not everyone does this, but more do than not, unfortunately.

The indication here is that it’s not just the city councils that are uninformed, but so are the residents. After all, any hope of re-election rests with the brainless masses of the voting public. Remember folks that while your elected official is kissing your baby, he or she is also stealing their lollipop.

Regardless of the political implications, increased consumer traffic is good for local merchants and the economy. Public transportation provides more consumers with additional access to restaurants, malls, civic centers, post offices and other business routes. The money they spend goes into the local economy and increases the value of these businesses. When business values rise, so do those of the properties around them – commercial and residential.

In the end, none of the negative arguments hold much water. It still seems to boil down to snobby white guys (and gals) who are stonewalling public transportation expansions because they don’t want their neighborhoods to look like an inner city.

It might behoove these people to do a little research on urban decay before worrying that something like a bus stop is going to destroy their property value. Sometimes stupid is perpetuated by greed, prejudice and arrogance, and this issue is a perfect example of all three.

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The Key To Identity Theft Prevention Is Preparation

In Business, Economy, Education, Opinion, Senior Lifestyle, sociology, Technology, Uncategorized on June 19, 2012 at 7:35 am

By Gery L. Deer

Deer In Headlines

Apart from locks and security systems, one of the most basic things we can do to keep our homes and families secure is to take steps to prevent identity theft. When the bad guys get hold of critical private information it is not hard for them to start using your information to their benefit.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Identity theft is the act of using personally identifying information, like name, Social Security number, or credit card number, without your permission, to commit fraud or other crimes.

The crime of identity theft may be perpetrated in various ways, from renting an apartment to opening a credit card. The thefts may actually go unnoticed for some time, often until the victim notes some kind of anomaly in his or her bank statement or credit report. Sometimes the victims do not find out until they are contacted by a debt collecting service.

So what can you do to prevent identity theft? Probably the single most effective weapon against this type of crime is knowledge. Knowledge of the methods used by these criminals to steal your information as well as a better awareness of your own records and personal financial information can help you beat many forms of this crime.

One thing you can do is to closely monitor your personal information, such as credit reports and monthly bills, to uncover any problems as soon as possible. Identity thieves depend on the inaction of their victims. Unless the total on a bill is outrageously high, often people just pay it, without scrutinizing the contents.

Another preventative measure against this kind of crime is to be mindful of where your old paperwork goes when it is thrown away. When disposing of any paperwork containing personal information, be sure to shred the documents completely – especially medical files, checks, and credit card statements.

Most people get credit card offers in the mail on a regular basis and just toss them into the trash. This is also something that could lead to an identity theft problem. Criminals will often scour trash for these papers and open credit cards in your name using those documents.

Also, be sure when buying online to use only secured websites and ask them about their security before buying anything if it seems questionable. If you notice anything suspicious on any credit reports, bank statements, or other critical documents, contact the creditor or company as soon as possible.

For those who enjoy making online purchases on a regular basis, create a ‘dummy’ email address at Yahoo or Gmail specifically to be used for these transactions. Retailers often sell email and other contact information to marketing companies which then flood inboxes with junk mail. Some of the incoming messages may come from illegitimate sellers using personal information to obtain passwords and credit card information. Using a different email address allows better control over incoming junk mail and limits the chances of clicking on a link that might inadvertently open the door to an identity thief.

If you have already been plagued by this kind of criminal action, you are not alone. First, contact the authorities. Most police departments now have an identity theft division or someone designated to help with this kind of crime.

Be ready! Keep, readily available, a complete list of all credit cards, online accounts, checking accounts, and so on, including any PIN numbers, passwords and customer service contact information. If something should happen, you can shut down these accounts quickly before more damage is done.

Stay diligent and continue to monitor your private information closely for several months. There is no way to really say how long the effects of identity theft can last.For more information on how to prevent identity theft or what to do if you think you may have been a victim, visit the Federal Trade Commission website at http://www.ftc.gov.

 

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