Ballotpedia.org: The Encyclopedia of American Politics

Hi All,

For those folks who are interested in politics I just learned about a website called Ballotpedia.  Click here to visit the site.  Advertised at the 'Encyclopedia of American Politics' the site has links to Elections (Ballot information, Elections Results, Election Analysis), Federal and State and Local Elections. Links to policy issues, links to 'Influencer's, and a section on Updates.

Visiting the Federal Politics link leads you to a map of the United States.  This part of the site includes Special elections to the 114th Congress, House of Representatives Elections in 2016, Senate Elections and the 2016 presidential election.

Other useful parts of the site is the Ballott Measures section.   Statewide measures, local ballott measures and unique reports can be found here. For example, local ballot measures discussed include marijuana, the minimum wage, fracking, law enforcement and more.

The 'Influencers' page is very, very insightful.  It includes 'influencers' on a national, state and local level.  Influencers are also organized by 'policy' for users to navigate more easily.

Whatever your political persuasion, there is something here for everybody on the site.  Enjoy Ballotpedia - its got unique information that is well organized, easy to find and interesting to read.

Regards,
Stu

Memorial Day 2017

Hi All,

Memorial Day 2017 is right around the corner.  This short but sweet blog entry will give you some help with all your Memorial Day festivities!

These next 3 links talk about the history of Memorial Day.  Read on for what History.com has to say about Memorial Day.  As well as MemorialDay.org and the US Department of Veterans Affairs.


Traditionally, Memorial Day has been the 'unofficial' start of the summer season.  And what better way to start summer than with a barbecue! Read on for more bbq tips, ideas, recipes and more.  Delish has an interesting take on bbq's with an article called 'The Perfect Memorial Day BBQ Menu'.

Allrecipes has a whole section devoted to Memorial Day BBQ and Grilling Recipes - OMG, its  more than you shake a stick at - there is so much information here!  Awesome.

Finally, the New York Times has a link to all things BBQ and Grilling. Yum and yum!

So now that you have figured out what the eats are going to be on Memorial Day, click on these links for what to do on Memorial Day 2017.

MommyPoppins has an article titled 'Memorial Day Weekend Events On Long Island'. Long Island.com has a very comprehensive list of Memorial Day Events at this link. 

For those inclined to visit New York City this weekend check out this link from Curbed New York titled 'Memorial Day 2017: 5 Things To Do in New York This Weekend'.

Finally, click on this link to find out what the all-important weather is going to do this weekend. Wunderground, Weather.com and ABC Channel 7 Weather.

So there you have it - eats, visits, weather and fun stuff to do on the opening weekend of the summer - and Memorial Day 2017!

Enjoy the weekend.

Regards,
Stu

Hi All,

So by now you probably know the importance of getting your free credit report once a year.  If not, click on this link which will explain why getting a credit report is important - and its even better when its free! This link is from USA Today and also explains why a credit report is important.

How do you get a free credit report you ask? Great question and here's the answer - click on this link from Annual CreditReport.com.


AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to get your free annual credit reports.  AnnualCreditReport.com is sponsored by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - which means that you have a single site where you can ask for all three of your free credit reports.

Enjoy the links and next time I'll blog about why credit scores are important and what the actual numbers (scores) mean.

Regards,
Stu

Contact Elected Officials

Hi All,

So let's say you want to contact an elected official about certain problem (garbage collection, your taxes, a complaint about an officials' voting record....). How do you contact an elected government (local, state or federal) official?

Great question and here's the answer.

USA.gov is the official website of the U.S. government.  Click here for the site. 

Click on this link for elected official information. 

The site has three sections - Federal officials, State officials and Local officials.

Click on this link for an online contact form for President Trump.
Use this link for U.S. Senators and this link for U.S. Representatives.

With respect to state officials, click on this link for state governors and this link for state legislators. 

U.S. Mayors can be found at this site.
County Executives can be found at this site. 
Other local government officials can be found at this site - its an alphabetical list of states...

If you need to contact a local, state or federal official these are the places to search first. 

Good luck.

Regards,
Stu

What Your Symptom's Really Mean

Hi All,

WebMD's Symptom Checker is a very useful and interactive tool that might help you diagnose what is really wrong with you when you don't feel well. 

The top of the page has a helpful ribbon of options - which include topics like 'Health A-Z', 'Drugs and Supplements', 'Living Healthy', 'Family and Pregnancy' and 'News and Experts'.  

The real value of the site is the Symptom Checker tool. In order to use it though, users need to fill out some information - which is completely useless since the user can enter false answers to questions like 'Who is the information for?', 'Gender' and 'Age'.  Other options include zip code and your email address. Once you submit the answers you see a screen with a body map. Users can click on the map to zoom in on various parts of the body.

For example, I chose the chest - then a list of chest symptoms appears next to the body map.  I chose a 'cough'.  Whereupon several questions related to the cough are asked.  Questions included 'what brought on the cough?', 'Cough developed after exposure to...', and 'Cough associated with...'.

A list of possible conditions is included on the screen once all the questions are successfully answered.  Whereupon the user can click on any of the possible conditions and will promptly be taken to the WebMD section of the site that discusses that condition.

At the top of the screen a list of the symptoms is included, an overview of the condition is given, what the patient can expect from the condition is also discussed. Furthermore a section of 'how common' the particular condition is? is listed on WebMD. Sections on Treatment, Self Care, Made Worse By, When to See Your Doctor and Questions to Ask Your Doctor is included in the WebMD Symptom Checker.

Readers can skip to the next condition, print the current condition and more. 

WebMD has a Cold and Flu newsletter for readers as well as options to Find a Doctor and Finding the Lowest Drug Prices.

The site is easy to navigate, reputable, current and well organized.  Its a good site to learn more about your present condition/illness or to learn what your present symptoms actually mean!

Regards,
Stu