Current Events in April 2017

Raising a kid isn’t cheap. From diapers to daycare, the costs associated with raising a child can amount to a hefty sum -- somewhere in the neighborhood of $13,000 a year per child, according to a recent report.

But worrying about finances while pregnant could have a negative effect on the health of an unborn baby, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center say they've found a link between anxiety over financial stress and babies being born at lower birth weights.

Lower birth weights

To conduct the study, the investigators asked pregnant women questions about how difficult it would be to live on their annual household income and handle baby-related expenses in the coming months.

“We found that the more stress a woman reported, the greater the likelihood that she would have a baby of low birth weight,” said lead author Amanda Mitchell.

Low birth weight is defined as being below 5 pounds and 8 ounces. Beyond having to spend their first weeks in intensive care, smaller infants may also be more likely to suffer from health problems (including diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity) later in life.

Across all incomes

Financial stress didn’t exclusively affect women in lower income brackets, the study found. Rather, it was a woman’s “perception of her ability to meet her expenses” which triggered money-related stress.

"There is an opportunity here to look for interventions during pregnancy that could help mitigate the effects of financial strain on birth outcomes," Mitchell said in a statement.

Finding ways to cope with stress during pregnancy is critical, she added.

Managing stress

"It's important for all women who experience pregnancy-related stress to seek out help coping with that stress," Mitchell said. "And ob-gyns and other medical providers should also talk about stress during their visits with expecting moms."

The following techniques may help prevent stress from potentially affecting the development of a baby, experts say:

• Meditate. Moms-to-be can clear their mind of stress by meditating and doing breathing exercises, says Mitchell.
• Rest. Exhaustion can amplify negative emotions, including stress. Pregnant women should be sure to allow themselves plenty of sleep.
• Create a budget plan. Expectant couples who are dealing with money-related stress can turn their anxiety into an action plan by setting manageable financial goals.
• Eat healthy. A well-balanced diet can help reduce stress, as well as help to ensure a baby is getting key nutrients.

Does your job afford you flexible working hours or the ability to work at your own pace? If so, then a new study suggests that you probably have higher job satisfaction and higher overall well-being than other professionals who don’t.  

Researchers from the University of Birmingham found that greater workplace autonomy had several positive effects. However, they also say that this freedom can be limited depending on your occupation.

“Greater levels of control over work tasks and schedule have the potential to generate significant benefits for the employee, which was found to be evident in the levels of reported well-being. The positive effects associated with informal flexibility and working at home, offer further support to the suggestion that schedule control is highly valued and important to employees ‘enjoying’ work,” said researcher Dr. Daniel Wheatley.

Occupation and gender differences

The study used data from two different years of the Understanding Society survey, which questioned a total of 20,000 employees about their workplace autonomy. After analyzing the responses, the researchers found that the highest levels of autonomy existed at the management level, where 90% of participants reported “some” or “a lot” of freedom in the workplace.

However, professionals below the management level reported between 40% and 50% less autonomy in the workplace, especially over pace of work and working hours. That was better than reports for lower skilled employees, though, who reported no autonomy over work hours at all.

Another finding of the study was that men and women are affected by workplace autonomy in different ways.  Women who took the survey said that being able to pick their own work schedule and location allowed them to balance other life tasks, such as attending to family commitments. In contrast, men reported being more impacted by job tasks, pace of work, and task order.

“The manner of work and control over work schedule was found to be more relevant to the well-being of female employees. Flexibility in work location, specifically homeworking, benefitted women with caring responsibilities allowing them to better manage paid work alongside the household,” Wheatley said.

Autonomy in short supply

Despite the positive effects of increased workplace autonomy, the study indicates that workers shouldn’t get too used to the idea of being able to pick their own hours and tasks.

The survey responses indicated that managers are often unwilling to grant greater levels of autonomy because “their primary role remains one of control and effort extraction.”

The full study has been published in Work and Occupations.

An 1867 Matthew Arnold poem, Dover Beach, speaks of being "on a darkling plain ... where ignorant armies clash by night." That might be a description of today's United States. Warring ideological factions are engaged in a tug of war that threatens to leave many casualties behind.

Ignore the political wars if you want, but consider these questions:

• Will you have a job a year from now? 
• Will you still have health insurance next year?
• Will you be able to keep up your mortgage payments? What if the income tax deduction for mortgage interest goes away?
• Will you be able to invest safely for retirement? How much will your savings earn? 

There has probably not been a more unsettling time to be an American in recent memory. Striving and planning for a secure future seems impossible when warring political factions compete to see who can cause more disruption. You can blame it on Donald Trump or say that he is simply the end result of worsening political dysfunction, but regardless of who or what is to blame, we live in perilous times. Getting through them requires that we take a hard look at our prospects for our home, health, and pocketbook.

They're not issuing crystal balls anymore, but here are some factors to consider as you prepare for what could be a pretty rocky period.

Employment comes in many forms

Trump has pledged to bring jobs back to the coal mines and Rust Belt, but giving up your job as a solar panel installer to seek a job digging coal may not be the way to go. There is serious doubt that Trump's programs will work. Coal is not exactly in high demand these days and the skilled factory jobs aren't likely to return to the upper Midwest anytime soon, if ever.

In fact, restrictions on immigration and tariffs to block foreign-made goods may, at least in the short term, do more harm than good, possibly costing jobs as American companies run short of skilled technical personnel (who are now often immigrants) and abandon businesses suddenly made unprofitable by tariffs.

The short-term prospects for job-seekers are slightly better, with 22% of employers surveyed saying they plan to increase staff from April through June. The leisure and hospitality industry plans to expand by 28% – the most of any industry. Wholesale and retail trade expects to increase hiring by 21% and transportation and utilities by 20%.

That sounds good, but read it carefully. Leisure and hospitality jobs? Hotel maids and short-order cooks. Wholesale and retail trade? Working in an Amazon warehouse or at your local Walmart. High-wage jobs these aren't.

Where's the best place to find a job when Congress and the White House are busily deregulating everything in sight? The answer: make your own. As businesses are deregulated, entrepreneurial opportunities increase. Even the Federal Trade Commission is in a deregulatory mood, establishing an Economic Liberty Task Force to get rid of excessive licensing requirements for small business.

Sound far-fetched? Not necessarily. Performing a relatively low-level job for an employer may get you $10 or $12 an hour. Doing it as a business can get you three and four times that. 

Example: A young Maryland woman we'll call Beth spent $300,000 and several years getting an MBA and graduating from veterinary school. But when she talked to young veterinarians who were working their first jobs, she found they were making only $40,000 or so a year working at animal hospitals and trying to save enough to open their own practice while paying down their massive student debts.

Meanwhile, she noticed, everyone was asking her advice about dog-training when they encountered her walking with her three large and very well-behaved dogs.

Beth opened her own dog-training business in Southern California. She charges $90 an hour and trains four to five dogs per day. You do the math. She is planning to hire an associate soon so she can take on more business.

The associate will be paid -- ready for this -- "oh, I don't know, maybe $15 an hour," Beth said. 

Beth could have saddled herself with even more debt by buying a franchise, which would have provided her with marketing materials, but with her business degree, she was able to provide all of that herself at no cost, except in time and energy.

"I would be as miserable as all my friends from veterinary school if I were working in an animal hospital, giving dogs shots and watching the interest accumulate on my debt," said Beth. Instead, she has a growing business and gets to spend time with her favorite creatures, most of it outdoors in parks and backyards instead of in the back room of an animal hospital. 

A retirement-age professional woman in the Washington, D.C., area found herself helping out friends by watching their homes when they fled South for the winter. She began charging $90 an hour and now employs a flexible corps of independent contractors, staffing up in the winter and slimming down in the summer. 

A hard-working Hollywood actor and screen-writer walks dogs for $20 per hour and has more business than she can handle. It lets her go to last-minute auditions and hand off the hounds to her helpers when filming or hacking out a script. Four or five 30-minute walks each day pay the rent and take the place of expensive gym time. 

The lesson? Do what you're really good at. Most entrepreneurs start out devoting nights and weekends to their dream job, then quit the day job when revenue begins to climb (or when their boss finds out what they're doing and fires them).

Beth's not very concerned about the political situation. "People will always have dogs," she said. "Somebody's got to train them."

Compare that to being a coal miner. When the mine closes, your skills aren't in demand. Maybe miners should be spending nights and weekends learning about wind turbines and solar panels. Throw in satellite dishes and there'll always be something someone wants you to install for them.

What if you get sick?

Perhaps the biggest barricade to the economic liberty the FTC now talks about is the health insurance situation. Prior to the Affordable Care Act (a/k/a Obamacare), self-employed people had a very hard time getting health insurance. It was expensive, didn't cover much, and nearly always excluded pre-existing conditions.

Anyone with a family had to think twice about giving up their employer's health benefits. Today, the situation is becoming wobbly again as the White House and Congress try to find an alternative to Obamacare. If they do, and if it provides affordable coverage for everyone, fine. If not, the wily consumer will have to do some serious strategizing.

The most obvious solution for a couple is for one of the partners to have a fulltime job -- any job -- that provides health benefits. The other can then pursue entrepreneurial ventures, go back to school to learn a new skill, or both.

If that doesn't work, one answer is a high-deductible health plan. Think of it as catastrophic insurance -- something you'll use only if you get really sick or injured. Major insurers like Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cros s and UnitedHealthcare offer these plans in many states. For a relatively low premium, you can get the coverage you'll need if you or someone in your family develops cancer, heart disease, or another serious condition.

The downside is that you pay for day-to-day expenses out of your pocket. This is really not so bad if you look at how much you would be paying for a full-service policy, and many doctors will negotiate a reasonable fee if you explain that you are self-insuring. They appreciate your recognizining that they are professionals who should be paid for their work. 

The problem, say many experts, is that Americans have decided they should not have to pay out of their pocket for healthcare, even though they do so for just about everything else. Adjust your thinking a little and you can save big bucks and, depending on which whim Congress follows when it starts fiddling with taxes, you may get a big tax deduction. Don't count on it though.

Hanging onto your home

Besides an occupation and healthcare, you need a place to live. This is not as simple as it used to be. Rents are rising because so many consumers are unable to buy a home or simply choose not to. Meanwhile, mortgage rates are near all-time lows.

What is wrong with this picture? There are many theories. Some say the mortgage industry is over-regulated and all the rules imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act make it nearly impossible to approve many trustworthy mortgage applications.

Others say consumers are afraid to stick their necks out by taking out a 30-year loan on a house in a city that may become a ghost town, or that they're afraid they'll lose their job and be unable to keep up the mortgage payments.

Well, just add to that the fear that when Congress gets around to reworking the tax code, it may take away the home mortgage interest deduction, described by friend and foe alike as the biggest middle-class subsidy of them all.

"The impact could be a lower homeownership rate, reduced home prices, fewer new construction starts, and ultimately harm to the broader economy," the Community Home Lenders Association said in a letter to Congressional committees studying tax reform.   

Real estate interests are horrified and are arming for a battle but you never know, it could happen. If it does, Congress would perhaps have the sense to phase it in over a lengthy period of time, to avoid being scalped by constituents.

But even with some breathing room, homeowners will be stuck with properties they will have a hard time unloading at a decent price if mortgage interest is no longer deductible. Keep in mind that most consumers look at their home as an investment -- they expect it to increase in value over time while providing a risk-free tax break. In effect, it's a nest egg they hope will contribute to their retirement.

Live rent-free, or nearly so

There's not much any of us can do individually to influence Congress, but there are ways to hedge our bets. The simplest is that old standby -- the duplex. They're not called that much anymore, but the concept remains -- it's housing that you occupy while also renting out a portion of the property.

Sometimes, it's a sort of extended ranch-style house, other times it's a two-story house. In either case, the plan is that the rent your tenant pays you also pays a good chunk of the monthly mortgage payment. Since it's income property, the tax code lets you deduct not only some of the mortgage interest, but you can also take a deduction for depreciation, upkeep, maintenance, and so forth.

Take the case of Jon and Carol. Jon is a New York City attorney in private practice. He has a thriving practice working mostly with small businesses and entrepeneurs, but it's still in the hand-to-mouth phase, without a lot of excess income at the end of each month. His wife, Carol, works for a county agency in New Jersey (health benefits, remember?)

The two had been living in a high-rise apartment at a cost nearing $3,000 a month. A few years ago, with a little help from family, they bought a two-family, two-story house in Jersey City, across the river from New York. The mortgage and property tax payment is around $2,500 a month, which is about what the upstairs tenants pay in rent.

Law practices may come and go and county jobs can evaporate around election time, but whatever else happens, Jon and Carol have a roof over their head and they're hoping to buy another house in the same neighborhood in a year or two.

A rewrite of the tax code is unlikely to upset this little arrangement because, well, President Trump knows a little bit about real estate and the tax code and it's highly unlikely that anything in the new tax bill will make it less profitable to own rental housing.

Golden years looking a little tarnished

So let's say you manage to do all of the above. Eventually, you will wash up on the shores of retirement. Although most people say they plan to keep working past traditional retirement age, it often doesn't work out that way. Ill health, job loss, and family obligation can all interfere with what in some circles is known as the DOD (dead-on-desk) plan.

The key to surviving retirement, of course, is to have enough sources of income to keep you from winding up in a trailer down by the river. That isn't as easy as it used to be, unfortunateley, now that defined pension benefits have largely disappeared from the private sector (county job, remember?).

Social Security and Medicare are both endangered and Social Security was never intended to be the sole source of retirement income, although that is what it has turned into for millions of Americans. You can blame Trump and the GOP Congress, but the primary problem is that the average age in the U.S. is high and getting higher, as previous generations of immigrants forsake the large families of their homelands and begin having only one or two offspring. 

Immigration largely kept our old-age programs solvent for the last century or so, but with immigration now regarded as anathema, the average age will continue climbing until we get close to one worker for each retiree instead of the 159 to 1 ratio we enjoyed in 1940.

So what can you do to improve your prospects for a prosperous old age? Here are a few modest suggestions, most of which will by now sound familiar to you:

Buy income-producing real estate and hang onto it. Using the Jon and Carol example above, you should be able to buy a two-family house every five years or so. Do that for 30 years and you'll own 12 rental units, producing $30,000 or so per month before expenses.

Forget the "dream house" that is the ruination of so many consumers. Live in one of the rental units yourself. If you need more space, go outside. Mow your own lawn. 

Don't quit that county job too soon. Public employees are still getting pensions. How long that lasts is anybody's guess, but while you're out entrepreneuring, your spouse can be drinking coffee in the county building and stashing up credits in the public pension plan. It beats sitting around that cramped duplex.

Accept reasonable offers. Someone may come along someday and want to buy your solar-panel installation business. If the offer is reasonable and would give you a good chunk of OPM (other people's money) that you could use to implement your next bright idea, don't dismiss it out of hand. Who knows? If coal comes back, you'll wish you'd sold when you had the chance.

Find a competent, honest financial advisor. You can, and should, invest in a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, precious metals, real estate, REITS, and so forth. If you enjoy the tedious task of building and mantaining a diversified portfolio, fine, but for most of us, it's better to hire a financial advisor to do it for you. You want someone who is a CFP -- Certified Financial Planner -- and preferably one who works for a major firm like Ameriprise or Charles Schwab, not someone who has an "office" in his garage. Or at Starbucks.

Be realistic about investing. It's not what it used to be. Even experienced investors and professional money managers have trouble making more than 4% to 5% on their money. Some years things go south and your nest egg shrinks. Be ready for that and don't do anything rash when it happens. Savings accounts and money-market funds literally pay next to nothing, so don't stash too much there. There might come a time when you can sell your duplexes and retire, but don't count on it. Even investing a few million dollars doesn't produce all that much spendable cash anymore.

So, to extend the ignorant armies metaphor, be realistic, modest, and hard-working. And keep your head down. You'll make it.

Attorneys in San Francisco have filed a class action suit against electronics equipment maker Netgear, claiming its CM700 high-speed cable modem is defective.

The suit, filed on behalf of consumers by the firm of Schubert, Jonckheer & Kolbe, claims the device contains a serious defect that causes high spikes in network delays, making users' internet connections less efficient.

The suit, filed earlier this month in federal court in San Francisco, claims Netgear promoted the the modem as "ideal for the fastest Internet speed services plan." However, the complaint alleges it suffers from major network latency spikes.

It cites complaints it said it found on online forums, posted by consumers having difficulty with the equipment.

'Acknowledged the issue'

The attorneys say Netgear has acknowledged that there is an issue but has not fixed the problem. In December, Netgear introduced an upgraded cable modem, the CM1000.

"Consumers paid top dollar for a high-end cable modem, but the Netgear CM700 suffers from a serious flaw that affects network connections," said Noah Schubert, a partner at Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe. "Netgear and other cable modem manufacturers shipping modems with the defect should recall the affected models and issue refunds."

The complaint maintains the issue arose when Netgear decided to swap out the Broadcom chipset in the CM700 with the Puma 6 chipset from Intel. The firm says Intel has acknowledged its Puma 6's chipset can cause cable modems to suffer from significant jitter and latency on their network connections.

The law firms says modems from other manufacturers may also be affected. A list of models and manufacturers is contained in this document.

The suit seeks a partial refund for consumers who purchased the CM700.

Sears Holdings has been in a downward spiral for some time now. On numerous occasions, we’ve reported on the company’s downsizing efforts.

At the beginning of the year, the company closed 150 Sears and Kmart locations and spun off its Craftsman Tools line. Recently, company officials stated in an SEC filing that there was “substantial doubt” that the franchise could continue on unless it found a way to raise additional capital.

Now, the company has announced that it will be closing 50 Sears Auto Center locations and 92 underperforming pharmacy operations in certain Kmart stores. The move is meant to help the company reach its $1.25 billion cost-cutting goal, which had previously been set at $1 billion.

"Consistent with our ongoing strategy of focusing on our Best Stores, Best Categories and Best Members, we will continue to take difficult yet necessary actions. As we sharpen our focus on profitable areas of our business, we will also continue to closely evaluate the longer-term viability of stores where a clear path to return to profitability is not in sight,” said Sears Holdings CEO Edward S. Lampert.

“We are determined to take all necessary actions to improve the performance of Sears Holdings and will leverage our lease optionality to reconfigure our stores and reduce capital obligations.”

The Chicago Tribune reports that no timeline has been given for the closings, but some employees were notified on Friday that they would soon be losing their jobs.

“We obviously don’t take these decisions lightly. But in order to be a more competitive retailer and return the company to profitability, we need to look for ways to streamline the operations,” said company spokesman Chris Brathwaite, adding that the full list of store closings had not yet been released.

Establishing a regular routine might do more than preserve a parent’s sanity by taking some of the chaos out of life with children. According to a new study, parents who make their child follow a routine may also be reducing the likelihood that their child will be obese.

Researchers from Ohio State University say young children with regular bedtimes, meal times, and limited screen time are better able to self-regulate their emotions. As a result, they’re less likely to develop into obese pre-teens.

"We found a stepwise relationship between regularity of bedtime and risk for obesity,” said lead author, Sarah Anderson, a professor at Ohio State's College of Public Health.

“Compared to 'always' having a regular bedtime, even children who 'usually' had a regular bedtime had a statistically significantly elevated risk for obesity and the risk for obesity was even higher in children with inconsistent bedtimes.”

Better physical health outcomes

To reach this conclusion, the researchers studied the household routines of nearly 11,000 preschool-aged children.

The team found that at age 3, 41% of the children always had a regular bedtime, 47% had a regular mealtime schedule, and 23% had their screen time limited to less than an hour a day. At age 11, about 6% were obese.

"We saw that children who had the most difficulties with emotion regulation at age 3 also were more likely to be obese at age 11," said Anderson.

The study was the first to look at the connection between early childhood routines and emotional self-regulatory abilities and how the two work together to impact the risk for weight problems.

Importance of sleep

While all three household routines were associated with better emotional self-regulation, one routine in particular appeared to have the biggest impact on a child’s emotional and physical health.

Anderson and her colleagues found that the absence of a regular preschool bedtime routine was an independent predictor of obesity at 11. The risk of obesity was greatest for those with the least amount of consistency in their bedtimes, the researchers said.

"Sleep is so important and it's important for children in particular. Although there is much that remains unknown about how sleep impacts metabolism, research is increasingly finding connections between obesity and poor sleep," Anderson said.

Future research might build upon these findings by looking at the role of emotional self-regulation in weight gain in children and how bedtime routines can support healthy development, Anderson said. 

The full study has been published in the International Journal of Obesity.

With the cost of college tuition rising much faster than the rate of inflation, and college loans loading students down with crushing debt, many students are looking for alternatives.

Online degree programs may be one answer. No, you don't get the college experience of campus life, but you don't get all the bills either.

Online programs might only be a little cheaper than brick and mortar schools, but you can attend while living at home. You can also complete them on your schedule, so students can hold down a job while attending school.

Rating the schools

Some online programs, of course, are better than others -- just like there can be variations in the quality of traditional colleges. To help prospective students find the best value, OnlineCollegePlan.com has rated what it says are the top online schools in the Northeast, near New York City.

Factors included freshmen satisfaction, graduation rates, and affordability. Not surprisingly, some of the best of these online schools are also some of the best traditional colleges, since both public and private colleges have greatly enhanced their distance learning programs in recent years.

In some cases, the tuition might be the same as if you were attending classes on campus, but as we have noted, attending online often keeps costs down in other ways.

Columbia University

Number one on the list is Columbia University, located in New York City. According to U.S. News, the tuition for the online engineering degree program is $1,858 per credit hour, whether you are a New York resident or not.

Second on the list is the University of Pennsylvania's Online Learning Initiative, whose tuition also reflects its Ivy League status. Courses range from Introduction to American Law to Accounting Analytics.

The third rated online program is the College of New Jersey. It's a state-supported institution that has lower tuition costs for New Jersey residents.

And just as tuition costs are similar for online schools as their campus counterparts, selectivity is also a factor. Unlike for-profit online institutions, online programs at prestigious schools are often just as selective as if you were enrolling on campus.

The list

Here's the complete top 20 rankings:

1. Columbia University
2. University of Pennsylvania
3. College of New Jersey
4. Lehigh University
5. Rutgers University
6. The Jewish Theological Seminary
7. New York University
8. Muhlenburg College
9. Stony Brook University
10. Yeshiva University
11. Fordham University
12. Temple University
13. State University of New York
14. Monroe College
15. Baruch College
16. Pamapo College of New Jersey
17. Marist College
18. Quinnipiac University
19. Manhattan College
20. University of the Sciences

Earlier this year, we reported on a study that showed how college students can reduce stress by being more self-compassionate. The central idea was that freshman students should avoid negative self-judgments and relax their academic standards to fit their new setting.

Now, a new study suggests that students should also practice mindfulness in addition to self-compassion. Researchers from Penn State say that taking time to catch your breath and meditate can help increase students’ overall life satisfaction.

“We found that underneath the stress that students are experiencing is a deep desire to appreciate life and feel meaningful connections with other people. It is our responsibility as educators to create academic environments that nurture both students’ minds and hearts,” said lead author Kamila Dvorakova.

Alleviating stress and anxiety

To help college students ease into their first year, Dvorakova and her colleagues offered an eight-session training program on mindfulness. At the sessions, students were asked to focus on mindfulness meditation and developing an accepting, nonjudgmental attitude towards current thoughts and feelings.

"We offered an experiential, practice-oriented training. Rather than telling the students what to do, we had them explore and talk about how to be mindful in their daily lives and discover the benefits for themselves,” said Dvorakova.

By the end of the eight-week period, students were asked to rate their overall satisfaction and describe any changes that occurred because of the training. Overall, students reported significant increases in life satisfaction and significant decreases in depression and anxiety when compared to students who did not participate in the sessions. Additionally, the researchers found that there was an overall drop in alcohol use amongst participants.

Important transition

Participants said that taking three mindful breaths, practicing breath awareness, and being mindful of their emotions were the three most helpful in-class exercises that they learned, and 98% of respondents said that they would recommend the program to their peers.

"The beginning of the college career presents such a unique opportunity -- all of these students are going through this same transition at the same time," said mindfulness and meditation integration specialist Mark Agrusti.

"These freshmen are beginning to acquire habits and perceptions that will shape their lives as students and adults, so it's a perfect time for them to discover practices, such as mindfulness, stress management, self-care and emotional literacy skills."

The full study has been published in the Journal of American College Health.

If you suspect you're suffering from hearing loss, you book an appointment with a specialist to get tested.

More than likely that test will be an audiogram, considered the gold standard in hearing measurement. At a clinic, the test is normally conducted in a quiet room. The specialist analyzes the results and has good news -- your hearing is just fine. But is it?

Researchers at the University at Buffalo (UB) have published findings that suggest this traditional hearing test often misses common inner ear damage. The resulting hearing loss, they say, might be revealed with other, more complicated tests.

Complicated interaction

Lead author Richard Salvi, director of UB’s Center for Hearing and Deafness, says hearing is a complicated interaction between the ear and the brain. When there is inner ear damage, he says the central auditory system simply compensates by cranking up the volume. In many cases, that partially covers up the deficiency, especially when listening to sounds in a quiet room.

“You can have tremendous damage to inner hair cells in the ear that transmit information to the brain and still have a normal audiogram,” Salvi said.

But what if you aren't in a quiet room? Salvi says someone with inner ear damage might have trouble distinguishing sounds in a noisy room, like a crowded restaurant. In a quiet room, however, they seem fine.

"Their thresholds appear normal," Salvi said. "So they’re sent home.”

Alternative test

A better way to get to the root of a hearing problem, he says, is to follow the auditory pathway as sound-produced neural signals travel from the ear to the brain.

Most of the sounds we hear are produced by the vibrations of tiny hairs in the inner ear. Salvi likens these hairs to the spark plugs in an 8-cylinder engine. If you remove half of those spark plugs, the car won't run well.

"But people can still present with normal hearing thresholds if they’ve lost half or even three-quarters of their inner hair cells,” he said.

While the signal to the brain is weaker, the brain just turns up the volume. The listeners can still hear, just not as clearly.

It isn't clear how many people are affected by this type of hearing loss, but it is common among people as they get older. Salvi and his colleagues say hearing specialists should re-examine how they do hearing tests in a clinical setting to better identify issues that don't show up when tests are administered in a quiet room.

They're springing up everywhere. Spacious condos in developments with every conceivable amenity and creature comfort. Surrounded by walls and accessible only through gates, just about anyone can visit, but to live there you must be 55 or older.

At a time when home-building is in steep decline, these developments are keeping builders busy and profitable. Earlier this year, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) issued a very bullish forecast for age-restrictive communities.

It predicted strength in the segment would continue over the next decade as Baby Boomers seek to downsize or relocate.

Selling a lifestyle, not homes

Michigan builder Pinnacle Homes recently launched seven new luxury communities for homeowners in the 55-plus sector. Pinnacle Homes Managing Partner Howard Fingeroot said the company isn't selling homes as much as it is a lifestyle.

"Traditionally, adults ages 50 and older have either moved to smaller homes with fewer amenities or stayed in the same homes where they raised their kids, dealing with maintenance and remodeling issues as necessary,” Fingeroot said.

“As more Baby Boomers approach retirement, we're seeing a demand for homes that require little to no maintenance, include modern amenities that support the luxurious look and feel of their lifestyle, and are in or near the areas where they raised their families and made friends."

Things to consider

If you're in that age group and thinking about moving to an age-restrictive community, here are some things to consider first: will you like the location? If you currently live near an urban core, will you like the move to the suburbs or countryside, where many of these developments are being built?

Will you enjoy being surrounded by other people your age and from the same economic background? For many, this is no doubt a selling point, but it might not be for everyone.

Can you live with the rules? These types of developments tend of have stronger regulations than the typical home owners' association, not least of which are rules determining who can live there. If a son or daughter needs to move back home for a time, they can't if mom and dad are living in an age-restrictive community.

Dave Hughes, founder of Retire Fabulously, says moving to an age-restrictive community introduces a number of lifestyle factors that aren't present in other situations. He suggests doing your due diligence and gathering as much information as you can before making such a life-changing move.

You would think that envelope-stuffing scams went out with bargain offers to sell the Brooklyn Bridge. But apparently not; the Federal Trade Commission has halted a scheme that told consumers they could earn up to $5,000 per week by stuffling and mailing "special advertising letters" from home.

The letters turned out to be solicitation flyers for another bogus work-at-home program.

The settlement resolves charges against David S. Brookman and his companies. It imposes a $1.2 million judgment against Brookman, which will be partially suspended when he has paid approximately $44,200 to the FTC.

Under the stipulated final order, the defendants are also prohibited from misrepresenting any material fact in connection with the sale of any other product or service.

The corporate defendants are Capital Enterprises Inc., formerly known as David Gates Inc. and also doing business as Gordon James Enterprises, Maxwell Gates Enterprises, Maxwell Scott Enterprises, Preston Lord Enterprises, and Warner Daniel Enterprises; Carson Lord Enterprises LLC; Java Enterprises LLC; Mason Grace Enterprises LLC, also d/b/a Mason Grace Ventures; and Preston Lord Enterprises of New York LLC, also d/b/a Preston Lord Enterprises.

It's springtime and there are so many fun things that go with it: allergies, housecleaning, and perhaps most traumatic of all -- relocating.

Americans are a mobile people. According to the Transportation Department (DOT), some 35 million of us move every year for a variety of reasons including career opportunities or something as simple as a change of scenery.

That provides a vast pool from which less than scrupulous moving companies can pick their scam targets. But if you follow some common-sense guidelines, you don't have to be one of them.

What can go wrong?

Linda of Etowah, Tennesse, says in a ConsumerAffairs review that she found out that the company she hired to move her was a broker after one of their movers came to the house and said he would move her for less than the company she contracted.

She adds that the original quote increased by one-third, that part of her furnishings arrived six days late -- the rest a month later. In addition, she says there was "a lot of damage, broken one-of-a-kind pieces."

This, obviously, is a situation you'd prefer to avoid.

What to do

DOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recommends that before doing, you check its “Ready to Move” pamphlet for step-by-step guidance on preparing for the big day

Knowing the bad things that can happen can help you prepare and avoid disasters. Here are some of the so-called “red flags:”

• The mover gives an estimate over the telephone or online -- site unseen.
• The moving company demands cash or a large deposit before the move.
• The mover asks you to sign blank or incomplete documents.
• The mover does not provide a written estimate.
• The company’s website has no local address and no information about their registration or insurance.
• The mover claims all goods are covered by their insurance.
• When you call the mover, the telephone is answered with a generic “Movers” or “Moving company,” rather than the company’s name.
• Offices and warehouse are in poor condition or nonexistent.
• The mover says charges will be determined after loading.
• A rental truck arrives rather than a company-owned or marked fleet truck on moving day.
• The mover claims, “You’ve got more stuff than estimated!”

You also should make sure the mover you contract is registered with the FMSCA. This link will help you do that.

The FMCSA's "Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move" pamphlet, which your mover is required by law to provide, should answer most of your questions. Also check the ConsumerAffairs Moving Buyers Guide for reviews of individual companies. 

Just two weeks after United Airlines set off a social media firestorm by forcibly removing a passenger from a flight, American Airlines finds itself in damage control mode as well.

According to several passengers who were in the process of boarding American Airlines Flight 591 at San Francisco, a male flight attendant grabbed a stroller from a female passenger who was in the process of boarding, while holding her small child.

According to witnesses, the flight attendant then hit the woman in the head with the stroller. There is no video of this alleged incident, but several passengers whipped out smartphones and started filming the aftermath.

The passenger, reportedly traveling from Argentina, can be seen and heard crying, asking that the stroller be returned to her. When an angry fellow passenger gets out of his seat to confront the flight attendant, a fight between the two nearly ensues.

Perhaps taking a lesson from the United debacle, American Airlines removed the flight attendant from duty and announced it had begun an investigation to determine what happened aboard the aircraft.

American statement

“What we see on this video does not reflect our values or how we care for our customers,” American said in a statement. “We are deeply sorry for the pain we have caused this passenger and her family and to any other customers affected by the incident. We are making sure all of her family's needs are being met while she is in our care.”

American said it put the passenger on another flight and upgraded her and her family to first class for the rest of the trip.

Even though the video does not show the alleged encounter, the aftermath was apparently disturbing enough to executives in the C-suite at American.

“The actions of our team member captured here do not appear to reflect patience or empathy, two values necessary for customer care,” American said in its statement. In short, we are disappointed by these actions.”

Surain Adyanthaya, who filmed the aftermath, told the London Daily Mail it appeared to him that the woman was “involuntarily removed” from the plane while the flight attendant stayed aboard.

Two weeks ago a Kentucky physician, Dr. David Dao, was dragged off of a United Express Jet flight from Chicago to Louisville after he refused to give up his seat to a United Employee.

When consumers rack up lots of debt on several different accounts, they often find the various monthly payments take a huge bite out of monthly cash flow.

That's when consumers might consider taking out a debt consolidation loan, using the proceeds to pay off all or most of the existing debts so that there is just a single payment, usually for a lower amount, each month.

It can be a sound strategy, but because there are so many different ways to consolidate debt -- some better than others -- you need to consider all the pros and cons.

Bruce McClary, Vice President, Communications at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), says a consolidation loan can sometimes save money in the long run if it has a lower interest rate and fees. And since most of the debt most consumers have is on credit cards, there is a very simple way to consolidate it.

Balance transfer credit card

"Consolidating unsecured debt can be done by transferring multiple balances to a single credit card," McClary told ConsumerAffairs.

And if you choose the right card -- one that provides a year or more of 0% interest -- you can quickly make progress on paying down the debt while having a lower monthly payment.

One things to consider, however, is most balance transfer cards charge a fee of 3% of the balance you are transferring. The Chase Slate Card, however, does not if you transfer the balance within 60 days of opening the account.

Home equity line

Another way to consolidate high interest debt is with a home equity line of credit (HELOC). The advantages are the interest rate is low and the interest you pay is tax deductible.

But in most cases, you are paying off unsecured debt with secured debt -- debt that is secured by the equity in your home. Attorney Patricia Dzikowski, writing on the legal site Nolo, says there is a huge downside to consolidating unsecured loans into one secured loan.

"When you pledge assets as collateral, you are putting the pledged property at risk," she writes. "If you can’t pay the loan back, you could lose your house, car, life insurance, retirement fund, or whatever else you might have used to secure the loan."

Bank loans

Banks and other financial institutions offer unsecured loans for the specific purpose of consolidating other debt. While these may be an alternative, the interest rate can be fairly high..

Personal finance guru Dave Ramsey is not a fan of debt consolidation. In fact, writing on his website, he calls it "nothing more than a con."

"You think you're starting with a clean slate," he writes. "But the truth is the debt is still there, as are the habits that caused it -- you just moved it!"

But other personal finance advisors say, properly selected and managed, a debt consolidation loan can give your monthly budget a little breathing room, helping you to get back in control of your finances.

John Ganotis, founder of Credit Card Insider, says it's very important not to take on additional debt while you're trying to pay down the consolidated debt.

"Once you commit to a debt consolidation loan, don't fall behind on payments since late or missed payments can damage your credit for many years," Ganotis told ConsumerAffairs.

He also says online lending marketplaces like Prosper and LendingClub can be alternatives to getting loan at a bank. A local credit union could also be a good place to go when you want to consolidate loans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) suggests consulting with a non-profit credit counselor before trying to consolidate your debt.

McClary, whose organization represents non-profit credit counselors, agrees. He also says consumers should check their credit scores before shopping for a loan, since a low score will severely limit choices.

The broadcasting corporation Dish Network is headquartered in Colorado, where residents first voted to legalize medical marijuana in 2000. Yet it's perfectly legal for Colorado companies to fire disabled patients for using medical marijuana, as Dish has done.

In 2010, well after marijuana could legally be used as medicine in the state, Dish submitted some of their local employees to random drug tresting. Brandon Coats, among the group selected, had worked for the company for three years. A car accident years earlier left him paralyzed. Confined to a wheelchair, Coats used medical marijuana to control painful muscle spasms. He even had a state-issued license to use it. None of this mattered to Dish. 

The company fired Coats when they detected THC in his blood. Not long after, Coats sued for discrimination, beginning a long legal battle that ended up in the hands of the Colorado Supreme Court. The judges were tasked with deciding whether lawful use of marijuana outside of work hours could protect employees from strict zero-tolerance workplace policies.

“Coats consumes medical marijuana at home, after work, and in accordance with his license and Colorado state law,” the judges said in their 2015 ruling, explaining that Coats was not breaking any local laws. But because marijuana is still illegal under federal law, the Court ruled that Coats had no protections from getting fired.

“Having decided this case on the basis of the prohibition under federal law, we decline to address the issue of whether Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Amendment deems medical marijuana use ‘lawful’ by conferring a right to such use,” the court said, ruling in Dish's favor. 

Since then, Colorado’s marijuana regulations have loosened. Recreational as well as medical marijuana use are now legal in Colorado and contribute to a multi-billion dollar industry. On Thursday, to coincide with April 20, the world’s first known drive-through dispensary opened its doors in the Colorado mountain town aptly called Parachute. Dish’s policies, on the other hand, have not changed. “As a national employer, DISH remains committed to a drug-free workplace and compliance with federal law,” Dish's corporate office tells ConsumerAffairs in a brief statement, otherwise declining to comment.

Coats' life after Dish

Brandon Coats estimates that he has applied to as many as 70 jobs in the years since he was fired from Dish. Once employers discover why he lost his last job, "they kind of get a look on their face, like, I’m sorry. You’re not going to get the job,” Coats tells ConsumerAffairs. 

Coats pays his bills now with the help of his mother. Finding work as a quadriplegic was already difficult, and the $750 in disability benefits that he receives from the government isn’t nearly enough.

At Dish’s offices in Littleton, Coats counseled customers who needed help fixing their cable before the company would send a technician over to their home. "I was really good at my job,” he says. “There’s not a whole lot of things that I’m able to do. I can work the computer and work the phone, so it was the perfect job for me."

Before turning to medical marijuana, constant muscle spasms made it difficult for Coats to sit still. He began using a combination of legal medication and marijuana on the advice of other quadriplegics. "It's really common," he says.

He did not realize that Dish randomly drug-tested its employees until the day that the company selected him and about 40 others for testing. Since then, Coats says, hardly anyone will give him an interview, let alone a job. Of the dozens of places he has applied to, only one hired him -- a website that advertised marijuana dispensaries. But the site didn’t make enough money to stay in business. “It’s pretty hard to find work as a quadriplegic period,” he says, “and the lawsuit, those things together make it really hard.”

Despite that, he doesn’t regret filing the suit. The lawyer he hired warned him in advance that the case would be an uphill battle. Before then, no one knew if disabled people who need medical marijuana could be shielded from zero-tolerance employment policies. "I think it should be legalized and me bringing the lawsuit forward will help with that. Small steps."

Marijuana and injury compensation

The Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project, which had filed a brief in support of Coats, made the argument in court that the federal Controlled Substances Act should not apply to legal or medical use of marijuana. 

But the courts clearly do not agree. “Since April 2016, employers have prevailed on all nine cases filed in the past 18 months by employees involving medical marijuana,” Law360 reported last year, “even in states with liberal marijuana laws, such as California, Colorado and Washington.”

Liberal marijuana laws can also conflict with workers’ compensation policies. According to a report published November by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute, injured employees can be denied benefits or even fired if marijuana is discovered in a post-accident drug screening.

As other examples, the institute cites a Washington state court decision that an employer was within its rights to fire an injured worker with marijuana in his system. And injured workers in Colorado can lose disability benefits if they fail a drug screening, the institute found. 

The opioid drug crisis in the U.S. has grown by leaps and bounds. States have seen their drug treatment costs soar as more consumers become hooked on the powerful painkillers.

Attorneys for the Cherokee nation have filed suit against McKesson Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., AmerisourceBergen, CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. The complaint alleges the companies did nothing to prevent the flow of illegally prescribed opioids to members of the Cherokee Nation, including children.

The lawsuit seeks to hold distributors and retailers responsible for the opioid crisis. While opioid addiction is a problem just about everywhere, this suit focuses on the 14 counties in northeast Oklahoma that comprise the Cherokee Nation.

Will other jurisdictions follow suit? Experts believe they will as communities grapple with the financial and social burdens of the opioid epidemic. The drug epidemic has been especially severe in rural states like Maine, Indiana, and West Virginia, so the plaintiffs believe the courts may view them sympathetically.

Greatest challenge

"Tribal nations have survived disease, removal from our homelands, termination and other adversities, and still we prospered. However, I fear the opioid epidemic is emerging as the next great challenge of our modern era," said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker.

Baker says the tribe will use the legal system to make sure its communities aren't left alone to pay the price for the opioid epidemic.

The suit claims that both pharmacies and opioid distributers have a legal responsibility to report suspicious orders and illegitimate prescriptions. What exactly constitutes suspicious activities? The suit says these are some examples:

Suspicious activities

• When a distributor fills a single pharmacy's orders that are suddenly thousands of pills above the average or are disproportionate to the size of the area's population
• Patterns of employee theft
• Pharmacy customers seeking opioids for nonmedical purposes.

The suit cites Drug Enforcement Administration figures that show 2.75 billion milligrams of opioids were distributed in Oklahoma in 2015. It further claims some 845 million milligrams were distributed in the 14 counties of the Cherokee Nation. Averaged out, that comes to between 360 and 720 pills per year for every prescription opioid user in the Cherokee Nation.

Aside from the addiction that can arise from repeated opioid use, people die every day from opioid overdose. The suit cites data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing overdoses more than doubled within the Cherokee Nation between 2003 and 2014. That's more than the number of people who died in car accidents.

"These companies must be held accountable for their gross negligence, which has fueled the opioid epidemic. We deserve better," said Cherokee Nation Attorney General Todd Hembree.

Consumers spend lots of money on energy drinks and coffee to get an extra energy boost. But it turns out it's an unnecessary expense.

At least that's what researchers at the University of Georgia say.

Their study, published in the journal Physiology and Behavior, found instead of loading up on caffeine, all you need to do is walk up and down stairs for 10 minutes. That's it.

Doing so, they claim, provides the same energy boost as 50 milligrams of caffeine, which is about the equivalent to what's in a can of soda.

Co-author Patrick O'Connor, a professor in the department of kinesiology, said participants in the study, whether they got caffeine or a placebo, didn't feel any difference. In other words, the got no caffeine kick.

A temporary effect

"But with exercise they did feel more energetic and vigorous," he said. "It was a temporary feeling, felt immediately after the exercise, but with the 50 milligrams of caffeine, we didn't get as big an effect."

The aim of the study was to help people who work long days in an office, where workers spend long hours sitting. It's no coincidence that most offices have a coffee room, where many employees seek an afternoon energy boost.

But the Georgia researchers say just walking up and down stairs at a low-intensity pace actually delivers more energy while providing obvious health benefits.

Easy access

"Office workers can go outside and walk, but weather can be less than ideal. It has never rained on me while walking the stairs," said O'Connor. "And a lot of people working in office buildings have access to stairs, so it's an option to keep some fitness while taking a short break from work."

The people in the study were female college students who said they were usually tired because they got so little sleep at night -- usually six and a half hours or less.

To test whether caffeine or exercise contributed more energy, each group were tested for how well they performed certain cognitive tasks. Neither the caffeine nor the stairs helped much when it came to staying focused. However, those walking the stairs had a small increase in motivation for work.

One cautionary note: Before you try this, make sure you can get back into your office from the stairwell. You may have to go all the way to ground level and exit the building. That's not necessarily bad but it can be a shock if you're not prepared for it.