Local insurance agents learned about the successful mitigation practices of fire, water and smoke damage during continuing education (CE) training by Rainbow International of the Quad Cities, owned by Kevin Beirne on October 16. CE class credits are required every two years for agents to keep their licenses.

More than 20 people attended the class, which was taught by Ron Clawson, System Sales Manager.

"Our presentation is designed to teach attendees about the dynamics of fire, water and smoke damage and the related customer service issues involved. The behavior of smoke and how it effects the built environment, the continuing damage effects of smoke residue when not mitigated quickly and industry standard methods required to reduceloss settlement time and costs," Clawson said.

Clawson explained that after the course, the students should be able to describe the damage fire, water and smoke causes in a building and understand the health, safety and hazard issues involved relevant to all who came in contact with the damaged environment.

For more information about cleaning and restoration services, or to schedule an appointment, contact Rainbow International of the Quad Cities at (563)386-7220 or visit http://www.rainbowintl.com/quadcities.

 

In the final days of the campaign, Obama for America Iowa is launching #IowaGrown, a week of events on the President's promises kept and his priorities for a second term. President Obama's commitment to growing our economy begins with a strong, thriving middle class grew right here in Iowa. Unlike Mitt Romney, the President has been consistent and clear about his vision and values because he knows his plan will actually create jobs and strengthen the middle class - and that recent history teaches us the right way to grow the economy is from the middle out, not the top down.

With eight days until Election Day, Vice President Joe Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama, former Governor Tom Vilsack, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, DNC Vice Chair and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and Former Lt. Governor Patty Judge will take this message across the state in the coming days.

President Obama has called for a new economic patriotism rooted in the belief that growing our economy begins with a strong, thriving middle class, reducing our deficit in a responsible way, continuing to grow our manufacturing and renewable energy industry and strengthening our education system by hiring new teachers. For more information on the President's plans, go to www.barackobama.com/plans.

Under his leadership, businesses have added 5.2 million private sector jobs over the last 31 months, the unemployment rate is at its lowest level since January 2009, consumer confidence is at a 5-year high, and foreclosures are at a 5-year low.

And where President Obama's campaign all started, Iowans are seeing our economy grow. His work to make smart investments in energy, education and training, growing small businesses, and promoting technology and innovation is paying off. Today, Iowa has 7,000 jobs in the wind industry, over 18,000 manufacturing jobs have been added and 6,200 education jobs were saved. The President cut taxes for Iowa small business 18 times and fought to save the auto industry, protecting 8,000 Iowa jobs. Because of his support for new trade agreements, Iowa farmers have seen record farm income

And this message is resonating with Iowans, as Democrats shatter early voting records. Currently Democrats have an over 57,000 early vote and over 70,000 vote by mail request advantage. Unprecedented early voting numbers show enthusiasm for the President and the strength of OFA's organization.

Mitt Romney is in Iowa today and the fact remains: Mitt Romney's economic plans, or what we know of them, will threaten Iowa's economic growth. His opposition to the wind production tax credit and polices that would encourage companies to send jobs overseas directly threaten jobs for Iowa's middle class.

And despite the rhetoric, his embrace of the GOP's extreme wing throughout this campaign will certainly make it hard to work across aisle, just as he failed to do as Governor of Massachusetts.

Last week in Iowa, Romney promised "change", but Iowans know he will just bring us back to same top-down policies that got us into this mess in the first place. His economic scheme - fewer rules for Wall Street and more budget-busting tax breaks for the wealthiest - is the same failed formula that crashed our economy and devastated the middle class. No matter how hard Romney tries to hide the truth, his math just doesn't add up. It's mathematically impossible to pay for his $5 trillion tax breaks favoring the wealthiest without raising taxes on the middle class or exploding the deficit.

His five-point plan is a sham - independent economists say we will create the 12 million jobs he claims his plan will create anyway. And the studies Romney cites actually disprove his claims. One fact-checker called Romney's plan a "bait-and-switch." And as Governor, he left Massachusetts 47th out of 50 in job creation and first in the nation in per capita debt.

The President has come to the state, and talked directly to Iowans about a concrete and specific second-term plan to grow our economic security to the middle class and to avoid returning to the same policies that crashed the economy. Iowans understand the clear choice they have in this election, and that is why we feel confident about our campaign going into Election Day.

Check #IowaGrown on Twitter throughout the week for events and updates.

On the eve of Halloween....John Deere Middle School Students are learning Zombie Survival Skills


(Moline, IL)  Just in time for Halloween.....  John Deere Middle School has created a "Zombie Survival Club". Zombie Survival Club is made available through a partnership between Lights ON for Learning 21st Century Community Learning Centers and the Moline Public Library.

The program was created by Jan Laroche, the teen services librarian who has an interest in Zombie movies and recognized the trends in teen literature about zombies.  She says the club will focus on STEM lessons (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in a fun setting.   "Zombie Survival Club is intended to be a lighthearted, activity based program that develops educational skills through a fun after school curriculum."


Some of the lessons being taught to zombie so they can survive include :
•       Come up with list of essential needs for zombie survival-- water, food, first aid, tools, safe locations, transportation, power/electricity.  Create list for an emergency kit.
•       Discuss types of zombies and spread of infection.
•       Discuss safe drinking water and food supplies. Include how much water is needed, how to find it, and how to make it.
•       Use CDC guidelines to figure out how much water would be needed for a short-term stay.
•       Use math skills to figure out different sizes of bottles and groups of people.
•       Use survival books to discuss how to find safe water in different locations, and discuss purification methods.
•       Discuss food supplies. Include what food to keep on hand in your kit, where to find additional food in both urban and rural settings, and how to grow food.
•       Use calorie guidelines and nutrition information to figure out how long a supply would last. Discuss where food stores might be found and use survival books to identify edible wild plants. Plan a garden for future food supplies. (If necessary, discuss hunting and trapping skills.)
•       Discuss safe locations. Include being prepared to fortify for the short term, ideal locations for immediate retreat, and long-term plans for relocation. Also include discussion about transportation.
•       Discuss power/electricity issues. Include ways to survive without electricity and ways to generate power.
•       Have students research how long electricity would continue after an apocalypse. Make a potato battery and look at plans for a bicycle generator.
•       Discuss power/electricity issues. Include ways to survive without electricity and ways to generate power.
•       Discuss long-term survival plans. Include ways to communicate with other survivors, finding information, and the pros and cons of joining with others.


The John Deere Zombie Survival Club meets every two weeks for one hour (4:15-5:15).

***The media is invited to participate in this week's club meeting to interview students and teachers****

Who:  John Deere Middle "Lights ON" Students
What:  Zombie Survival Skills class
When:  Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 4:15 pm
Where:  John Deere Middle School Moline
Why:  It's ghouly fun...and the students learn science, technology, engineering and math skills

By author/contributor G. Keith Smith, M.D.

The myth that lack of health insurance is a cause of 18,000 deaths per year, along with nearly a million bankruptcies, has been promulgated yet again in The New York Times by economist Paul Krugman.

One of his outrageous fact-free claims is that uninsured people avoid the emergency rooms for fear of large bills, and so they die. But if the poor are avoiding the emergency rooms, how can health care for the poor in the emergency rooms be bankrupting hospitals? This claim is also false. Otherwise, why is there a building crane in front of every big city emergency room I've ever seen?

"So there's no real question that lack of insurance is responsible for thousands, and probably tens of thousands, of excess deaths of Americans each year," writes Krugman. But the Institute of Medicine's estimate that lack of insurance leads to 18,000 excess deaths each year is almost certainly incorrect. Richard Kronick's recent study debunks this idea completely. He concludes: "It is not possible to draw firm causal inferences from the results of observational analyses, but there is little evidence to suggest that extending insurance coverage to all adults would have a large effect on the number of deaths in the United States."

Krugman asserts that expansion of Medicaid, on which ObamaCare depends for its claim of increasing coverage, saves lives. This has been proven false by Professor June O'Neill, former director of the Congressional Budget Office. Patients might as well wear their Medicaid card around their neck rather than keeping it in their wallet. It is like a scarlet letter that precludes entrance into most physicians' offices. This card gives many, just like our Canadian brethren to the north, only a right to hope for care.

Many physicians are also curtailing their exposure to Medicare patients because of payment and regulatory hassles, threats of stiff penalties (including jail time for miscoded claims), and government price controls mandating artificially low payments.

"Coverage" doesn't mean care. It can instead be a barrier to access to care. Think about it. If you have "insurance" coverage (whatever that means) and your insurance company decides that they don't want to pay for a bone marrow transplant, or they set the payment for one so low that no one will do it (one and the same thing), you are not going to get a bone marrow transplant. Period. If the IPAB (Independent Payment Advisory Board) decides that the payment to a physician for an open heart surgery is less than anyone is willing to do it for, guess how many open heart surgeries will be done? Folks like Krugman, not the market, will be in charge of deciding what these types of procedures are worth. Even more government involvement in health care is what he is advocating.

Of the 1.5 million individual bankruptcies declared every year, 62% involve medical bills. Less well known is that 78% of those filing for medical bill reasons had insurance. These folks have "coverage." Is this the security Mr. Krugman would bring to us all?

Concerning bankruptcy, keep in mind that Krugman is the poster child for Keynesian economics, the economic thought that holds that an individual or a government can borrow its way to prosperity. This economic theory has prevailed in this country for a long time, primarily because big-government advocates love to spend the wealth belonging to future wage earners, as the future voter's wrath represents no threat to them. Krugman, as a mouthpiece for this insanity, which will bankrupt both federal and state governments, bears a lot of responsibility. The central bank and deficit spending have no greater advocate than he.

Krugman's economic myths can cause real mortality. But neither he nor The New York Times can be sued for economic malpractice.

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