Monday, November 30, 2015

State suffers from Rauner-Madigan machismo - The Daily Journal: Local Columnists

By Jim Nowlan

State suffers from Rauner-Madigan machismo 0 comments

Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan are taking themselves way too seriously over the state budget impasse — and in the process (or lack of it) they are seriously messing with the lives of seniors, the mentally ill, domestic abuse victims and college students.

We can help resolve the stand-off by putting pressure on our local lawmakers to force their leaders to craft a budget now — if the lawmakers have the courage to stand up to their bosses.

I participated this past week on a panel discussion in Aurora on the future of Illinois with a savvy ex-legislator, a veteran political writer and a budget expert. Their prognoses for the state's future were grim.

The ex-lawmaker said he didn't think the budget stalemate would be resolved until after the November 2016 election, which would mean a year-and-a-half without a state budget. He said he thinks lawmakers will not be persuaded to vote for the tax increases necessary to balance the budget until they are safely re-elected.

The budget expert — a moderate Republican — said $8 billion in annual new revenue would be needed, at least for a few years, to balance the budget, pay off old bills and provide a stable, predictable fiscal future.

Eight billion dollars is the equivalent of an increase of two percentage points — from 3.75 to 5.75 percent — in the rate of the individual income tax, not that this is the only way to raise such revenue.

After the panel, the head of a nonprofit shelter for battered women came up to me. "One third of my budget comes from the state," she noted. "I can't keep going much longer." This is the lament of hundreds of such organizations, some of which already have closed their doors.

On the other hand, many state vendors, those with the cash flow to survive absent state dollars, are providing their wares to the state with a smile — for they will receive late payment penalties of 12 percent per year for their help in financing the state. What a way to run a railroad.

If I thought the impasse might result in a transformation of Illinois into a dramatically better place, the pain the "little people" of the state are suffering might arguably be justified. But it won't.

Political power in the state is rather evenly balanced between a GOP governor and a Democratic Legislature. Neither has the power to topple the other, at least not via the budget process.

Speaker Madigan's intransigence shows an apparently heartless disregard for his own people, the poor and struggling who are the foundation of his party.

And as businessman Rauner must know, no chief executive could with a straight face go to his or her board this year and propose investing billions of long-term capital in Illinois, not when the fiscal picture and long-term outlook are so chaotic. Business craves predictability.

Illinois lawmakers should be ashamed of themselves. Republicans cower in fear of the millions Rauner has threatened to spend to beat them if they don't toe the line.

At the same time, many Democrat legislators have so long been petrified with fear of Madigan and his influence over their legislative careers they freely admit there is nothing they can do.

But there is.

In the early 1900s, dictatorial U.S. House Speaker "Uncle Joe" Cannon, a Republican from Danville, was unceremoniously pulled down from his perch by progressive Republicans and opposition Democrats. They had had enough and wouldn't take it any longer.

I recommend you put down your newspaper right now and call your state rep. and senator. Tell them if they don't publicly demand that governor and speaker resolve the budget impasse now, you will vote against them next year. Ask your neighbors to do the same.

Second, sign the petition to put redistricting reform on the ballot next November. For more information, see mapamendment.org. This initiative would take the task away from lawmakers, who create often unassailable safe districts for themselves, and give it to a bipartisan commission.

I think our efforts would be appreciated. Rauner and Madigan have to be terribly uncomfortable with what they have wrought.

Jim Nowlan is a former Illinois legislator and aide to three unindicted governors, and he is the lead author of “Illinois Politics: A Citizen’s Guide” (University of Illinois Press, 2010, and co-author of "Fixing Illinois, University of Illinois Press, 2014). He can be contacted at jnowlan3@gmail.com.

State suffers from Rauner-Madigan machismo - The Daily Journal: Local Columnists

Koch brothers' Libre Initiative to target Wisconsin Latinos

By Mary Spicuzza of the Journal Sentinel

Nov. 29, 2015

 

A multimillion-dollar effort aimed at winning over Latinos funded by conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch is looking to expand in Wisconsin.

The Libre Initiative is now hiring a state field director to be based in the Milwaukee area. It will be the first full-time paid staffer the group has had in the state, with the exception of its national spokeswoman — Rachel Campos-Duffy, the wife of U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.).

"Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to promote free-market principles?" the job description reads. "The Libre Initiative is seeking a Wisconsin Field Director to develop, implement, and manage a statewide outreach strategy to ensure an effective grass-roots operation to support the organization's vision and mission."

Libre is a nonprofit organization that promotes economic freedom and small government principles. The group, which was founded in 2011, says its goal is "to empower the U.S. Hispanic community so it can thrive and contribute to a more prosperous America."

Brian Faughnan, a Libre spokesman, said the group isn't focused on specific political races, but rather issues like school choice and immigration reform.

Libre also opposes government "overregulation" as well as the federal Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, describing it on its website as "a tax in disguise that forces citizens to purchase insurance plans and threatens our small businesses with penalties."

While the group has specific initiatives targeting young people, Faughnan said it's working to empower Latinos of all ages.

"We try to reach out across the board to help people become more prosperous and self-reliant," he said. "We believe in the power of free markets and limited, constitutional government to increase opportunity and empower people to make their lives better — and help them achieve their American dream. Our goal is to carry that message into the Hispanic community nationwide."

Democrats accuse Libre of essentially being a shadow group aimed at pushing the Kochs' conservative message.

"This is another example of the Koch brothers' willingness to say or do anything to buy Wisconsin's elections to support their out-of-touch agenda on the backs of Wisconsin middle-class families and workers," said Kory Kozloski, executive director of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Libre is not required to disclose its donors, because it is a 501(c)4 organization. But it has received millions of dollars from the Koch brothers as the Latino outreach arm of the brothers' sprawling political network. Libre has received about $15.8 million from Freedom Partners, a group that serves as the hub of Koch-backed political operations.

Wisconsin had about 135,000 Latinos eligible to vote in the 2014 midterm elections, according to the Pew Research Center.

Nationally, conservatives and Republican candidates have struggled to win over Latino voters.

Latinos voted for President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney by 71% to 27%, an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center found.

Wisconsin Republicans have made an effort to change that in recent years.

At least two local millionaires underwrote a six-figure radio campaign aimed at persuading Latino and black Milwaukee residents to vote Republican in the fall of 2014, when Gov. Scott Walker faced an unsuccessful challenge from Democrat Mary Burke. The advertising campaign, which focused on taxes, abortion, education and gun rights, was launched by Americas PAC, a conservative organization based in Iowa.

It's unclear how much Libre plans to spend in Wisconsin, as Faughnan said the group doesn't disclose its spending plans. But a recent report by The New York Times said Libre is expected to spend more than $9 million nationally during this election cycle.

The group also recently spoke out about federal immigration policy in the wake of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's comments calling for an end to birthright citizenship and deportation of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the country illegally.

"Such proposals are not in line with our principles and are not in the best interest of the country," Daniel Garza, Libre's executive director, wrote in an open letter released in September.

Faughnan said Libre isn't pushing for specific legislation but supports immigration reform that would include a path to legal status for minor children.

Faughnan said Libre's focus is on states with a "significant" Latino population, adding that the group has paid staffers in Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio, as well as Campos-Duffy in Wisconsin.

Libre, which shares the voter information gathered at its events with the Kochs' i360 data operation, hopes its staff and volunteers make 3 million phone calls and knock on 1 million doors this election cycle, Faughnan said.

© 2015, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.

About Mary Spicuzza
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Mary Spicuzza covers politics and breaking news for the Journal Sentinel

Koch brothers' Libre Initiative to target Wisconsin Latinos

Lawmakers skeptical of success at Rauner/Madigan budget meeting

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Above is from:  Lawmakers skeptical of success at budget meeting

Judge orders Illinois to pay $13M owed for home health care workers' health insurance

 

EAST ST. LOUIS, Illinois — A judge has ordered Illinois to pay more than $13 million to cover the cost of health insurance for home health care workers.

SEIU Healthcare Illinois took legal action against Gov. Bruce Rauner and Comptroller Leslie Munger earlier this month to force the payments.

The union says nearly 5,000 health care assistants could lose insurance Dec. 31 if the state doesn't pay.

Rauner's office said there wasn't spending authority to make the payments because of an ongoing budget impasse.

But St. Clair County Judge Robert LeChien ruled Wednesday that Illinois can't violate its contract with the workers because lawmakers can't agree on a budget.

He criticized a "fiddle while burning posture" of the governor and Legislature and ordered the state to pay within 10 days.

Judge orders Illinois to pay $13M owed for home health care workers' health insurance

McHenry County Blog reports local case of drug-resistant TB

Very interesting report from Cal Skinner.

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With all the talk about consolidating government, I’ve been wondering why McHenry County still has a Tuberculosis District.

It is financed with $250,000 of property tax dollars a year.

TB Districts were the first public health districts in Illinois.

McHenry County did not create its own Health Department until the mid-1960’s.  (My home county on the Eastern Shore of Maryland had a health department before I was born in 1942.)

In  the 1980’s then County Board member Ann Hughes got a referendum on the ballot to abolish the TB District, but that failed.

I recently took a look at the meeting packet of the TB District and found an extraordinary story.

McHenry County’s Health Department dealt with a case of drug resistant tuberculosis of nationwide significance in May and June.

How important was it?

The New York Times wrote a big story about it entitled, “Indian Woman Being Treated in U.S. for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis.

Susan Karras

Susan Karras

Quoted was Susan Karras, the Health Department’s Communicable Disease Coordinator.

A woman recently from India via Missouri and Tennessee sought medical help from a local hospital.

When diagnosed with tuberculosis, the Health Department arranged for her medical care to be provided by a National Institutes of Health hospital near Washington.

Federal taxpayers foot the bill there, according to Anthony Fauci, head of the agency, “Everything is free at the N.I.H.  No one pays,” the New York Times reported.

Karras told me that the County paid to fly her to the National Institute of Health facility in Bethesda, Maryland.

The air ambulance cost $12,000.

McHenry County Health Department Director Michael Hill explained what happened:

Mike Hill

Mike Hill

Because we were able to get this patient to NIH (this involved going all the way to the President’s office [by the CDC]) the direct costs to us were minimized.

I was able to get the air transport done for $12,000 (quotes ranged up to $35,000 from the few companies who were willing to do it).

I can’t complain about the federal government in this case since the patient’s treatment by NIH probably will end up in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the feds took on that expense.

If the county had to absorb the cost of this patient’s treatment, it would have been financially crippling for the TB program.

Below is the summary of the case that caught my attention.
TB11

Spread of the type of tuberculosis treated in McHenry this summer.

Spread of the type of tuberculosis treated in McHenry this summer.

TB1TB2TB3TB4

 

Additional Daily Reports are available at:  http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2015/11/25/mchenry-county-center-of-dangerous-tb-case/

 


On June 5th, the Health Department sent out the following press release on the matter:

Health Department reports case of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis

Woodstock Ill. — McHenry County Department of Health (MCDH) reports that on April 4 an individual from India infected with an extensively drug-resistant form of Tuberculosis, also known as XDR-TB, entered the United States and then traveled to other states.

On May 18, this individual visited family in McHenry County and, during this visit, sought treatment.

The patient has since been transferred out of state for care. Individuals who were in close contact with the patient have been interviewed and are being monitored.

Tuberculosis is not easily transmissible and XDR-TB, in particular, is also rare.

XDR-TB is a form of TB which is resistant to many of the most powerful anti-TB drugs.

According to the World Health Organization, developing XDR-TB is usually a sign of an active TB patient receiving inadequate clinical care or when a patient doesn’t receive the proper information, counseling and material support to complete their full course of treatment.

Tuberculosis is spread through the air by an infected person when coughing and sneezing.

People who are nearby may breathe in the TB bacteria and become infected.

TB is not spread by shaking someone’s hand, sharing food or drink, touching bed linens or toilet seats, sharing toothbrushes or kissing.

This is the first time MCDH has identified a case of XDR-TB in the County.

MCDH works closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Illinois Department of Public Health and local public health partners through its surveillance system to identify and monitor reportable infectious diseases in McHenry County.

In 2014, five active cases of TB (not XDR-TB) and 57 people with latent, non-infectious TB were treated.

MCDH’s Tuberculosis Clinic, located in Woodstock, provides chest x-rays, diagnostic studies, laboratory services and medication to any McHenry County resident in addition to outreach to those populations at high risk for developing TB.

If you think you have been exposed to someone with TB, contact your health care provider or MCDH to see if you should be tested. For more information on TB, call MCDH’s Communicable Disease Program at 815-334-4500

Posted in CDC, Centers for Disease Control, Contact Tracing, Illinois, McHenry County, McHenry County Health Department, Mike Hill, Susan Karras, TB Board, TB District, XDR-TB | 9 Replies

 

Above items are from: http://mchenrycountyblog.com/2015/11/25/mchenry-county-center-of-dangerous-tb-case/

 

 

 

 

 

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By DENISE GRADYJUNE 9, 2015

Inside

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    Susan Karras, the communicable disease coordinator for McHenry County, outside Chicago, where a TB patient visited. Credit Steve Kagan for The New York Times

     

     

    In the latest incident, a woman with TB flew from India to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, landing on April 4. She traveled by car to visit relatives in Illinois, Tennessee and Missouri before seeking medical care sometime after May 18 at a hospital in Illinois. Tests there detected extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB. Doctors notified the state health department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The arduous task of contact tracing began in the three states.

    Health officials say the risk to the public is low. TB is nowhere near as contagious as the flu or measles. But people who had long periods of close contact with the patient, like the relatives with whom she stayed, are at risk.

    For people who were on the flight with the woman from India, the odds of catching TB are low but not zero. Cases have occurred in passengers on a long flight who sat near someone in advanced stages of the disease. In this case, the C.D.C. said, it will obtain the flight manifest for the woman’s trip from India and notify passengers who may have been exposed. An agency spokesman declined to reveal the airline or flight number.

    Visitors from other countries are not screened for TB when they arrive, but those applying for legal residency are required to have TB tests, according to the C.D.C. Even if the government wanted to screen arriving passengers, it would be difficult, because there is no rapid test for tuberculosis.

    On Friday, the patient from India was transferred to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. In the past two decades, the N.I.H. has treated about 20 patients with drug-resistant TB, the most recent a year or so ago, according to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Most came from other countries.

    “Our track record has been good,” Dr. Fauci said, adding that about 80 percent were cured. That success rate is higher than the figures usually cited — 30 percent to 50 percent cured — because the lower estimates include results from poorer countries that have less access to drugs and other resources.

    “This person is looking at a very long course of careful treatment and observation,” Dr. Fauci said.

    Globally, nine million people contracted TB in 2013, and one and a half million died from it, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly a quarter of all the cases occurred in India, which has the world’s largest epidemic.

    Over all, drug-resistant bacteria cause only about 5 percent of all cases, and XDR bacteria are a small subset of that group, causing about 48,000 cases in 2013. But XDR-TB has shown up in 100 countries, and it can be deadly, particularly in countries with weak health care systems.

    So far, 12 people who had contact with the woman in Illinois have been identified, according to Susan Karras, the communicable disease coordinator for McHenry County, northwest of Chicago, the part of Illinois the patient visited. They were traced in 15 to 20 hours of interviews with the patient and her family at the hospital and by phone.

    Some have had TB tests, but Ms. Karras declined to reveal whether any were positive. People whose initial results were negative will be tested again in about eight to 10 weeks, because the infection does not always show up on early tests.

    Spokesmen for the Tennessee and Missouri health departments said contacts were being traced in those states, but did not provide any details.

    Anyone who is infected will be treated, Ms. Karras said. In many people, TB can be latent, meaning that their immune systems keep the infection in check so they are not sick or contagious. But latent disease can become active. So even people with the latent form of the disease will be treated with whatever mix of potent drugs it takes to kill this particular strain of XDR-TB, she said.

    “We want to treat it before it becomes infectious,” Ms. Karras said. “That’s why we want to find them.”

    The woman from India is in isolation in a hospital at the N.I.H., Dr. Fauci said. She has no contact with other patients, and doctors and nurses who treat her must wear gloves, gowns, eye protection and specially fitted masks called N-95 respirators. Even though they take every precaution, health workers who treat TB patients are usually tested for the disease once a year, Dr. Fauci said.

    At the N.I.H., patients with this kind of TB are usually kept in the hospital for weeks or even months, until sputum tests no longer find the bacteria, indicating that the disease is not contagious anymore, Dr. Fauci said.

    Standard TB usually requires treatment with four drugs, which can take six to nine months. Treating XDR-TB takes longer, sometimes a year or more, and requires more drugs.

    The drugs have unpleasant side effects that are hard to tolerate, Dr. Fauci said. They cause nausea, weakness and other problems that make patients want to quit taking them before the full course is finished. But missing doses and quitting too soon are precisely what cause drug-resistant bacteria to develop — requiring even longer treatment with more drugs and nastier side effects.

    Sometimes in severe cases, surgery is needed to remove diseased and scarred parts of the lung harboring bacteria that the drugs cannot reach.

    The patient will not be charged for her treatment. Even if patients are citizens of other countries, Dr. Fauci said, their governments are not billed.

    “Everything is free at the N.I.H.,” he said. “No one pays.”

    Dr. Fauci said that the woman’s treatment would be expensive, given the long stay and costly drugs needed, but that he could not even begin to estimate the ultimate cost.

    Above is a from: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/10/health/indian-woman-being-treated-in-us-for-drug-resistant-tuberculosis.html?_r=2

    Belvidere Chamber of Commerce announce Hometown Christmas activities

    By Kathryn Menue

    Editor

    BELVIDERE – The Belvidere Area Chamber of Commerce will host Hometown Christmas in downtown Belvidere on Friday, Dec. 4. The special night of events will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

    The evening will kick-off with the first annual Lights Parade which will begin with line-up at 5 p.m. and begin at 5:30 p.m.

    Coinciding with the parade will be the Christmas carols event where the Belvidere middle schools will come together to sing traditional Christmas carols around the Community Christmas tree. They will begin singing at 5:45 p.m. before the lighting of the tree and will continue to sing until after the lighting of the tree at 6:10 p.m.

    Mayor Mike Chamberlain will light the Community Christmas tree in front of the Boone County Historical Museum immediately after the parade.

    After the ceremonial displays, the Belvidere downtown nightlife will come alive with the Christmas spirit as the community gathers to enjoy all of the wonderful activities Hometown Christmas has to offer:

    Journey to Bethlehem

    One of the special attractions for Hometown Christmas will be the live nativity set at the Dari Ripple. The Dari Ripple will also have complimentary refreshments. This event is sponsored by Immanuel Lutheran Church.

    Wagon Rides

    Another fun activity perfect for the family is the complimentary wagon rides through the downtown area. This event is sponsored by Americold.

    Santa Clause

    What Christmas adventure would complete without an appearance from Santa Clause. Santa will make an appearance during Hometown Christmas at the Belvidere Family YMCA to hear children’s Christmas wishes. Children will also get a free photo with Santa Clause and a complimentary candy cane courtesy of Blackhawk Bank.

    Christmas Fun Fair

    The Belvidere YMCA will also host the Children’s Christmas Fun Fair, which is sponsored by the Cosmopolitan Club of Belvidere. The fun fair will feature fun, free games and prizes.

    Teen Dance

    The Apollo Theater Activity Center will host a Teen Dance, sponsored by Alpine Bank. The Teen Dance will have pop, water, pizza, hot dogs, and various snacks available for purchase. There will also be security at the dance provided by the Belvidere Police Department.

    Community Building Complex

    The 4-H Club will have approximately 90 decorated trees with presents for disadvantaged families in Boone County donated by area clubs, businesses, and organizations.

    The Community Building Complex will also be the host of the Business Vendors and Arts and Crafts Marketplace on the lower level with food available for purchase.

    Boone County Historical Museum

    The Boone County Historical Museum will have free admission into the museum and will showcase a number of demonstrations and holiday treats.

    PNC Bank

    The PNC Bank will host a Christmas Movie Marathon. When community members get cold and need a break from the wintery weather, they can stop in the PNC Bank to watch a Christmas movie and to enjoy some free popcorn.

    The PNC Bank will also have the CASA Angel Tree in the lobby. CASA will collect scarves, mittens, and gloves to be donated to abused children in the local area.

    Fire Station

    The Fire Station will host a children’s craft event courtesy of BMO Harris Bank. They will also serve free hot chocolate courtesy of Culver’s.

    Luminaries

    The luminaries around town are set up by the Immanuel Lutheran Youth Group.

    Belvidere Area Chamber of Commerce

    The Belvidere Area Chamber of Commerce is selling 2015 Hometown Christmas button and print by David Worrell.

    For more information on Hometown Christmas, please call Belvidere Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tom Lassandro at (815) 544-4357.

     

    Above is from:  www.belvideredailyrepublican.net

    Gates, Zuckerberg and other billionaires to back clean energy - Yahoo Finance

     

    Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and another two dozen billionaires are hoping to speed up research into clean energy with a new investing initiative to back promising technologies.
    The group, dubbed the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, plans to invest in everything from electricity generation and storage to transportation and energy system efficiency. But the group, which also includes Alibaba (BABA) CEO Jack Ma, Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos, Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) CEO Meg Whitman, and SAP (SAP) Chairman Hasso Plattner, hasn't yet disclosed how much capital they'll be contributing or many details about their investment selection process. Other prominent investors in the group include venture capitalists John Doerr and Vinod Khosla along with hedge fund titans Ray Dalio and Julian Robertson.
    Zuckerberg unveiled the effort in a blog post on Facebook (FB) on Sunday timed to coincide with the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Paris this week. The group's aim is to fund promising but risky ideas that governments and venture capitalists don't currently support, the Facebook founder said.
    "Progress towards a sustainable energy system is too slow, and the current system doesn't encourage the kind of innovation that will get us there faster," Zuckerberg wrote. "The Breakthrough Energy Coalition will invest in ideas that have the potential to transform the way we all produce and consume energy."
    Overall investment in solutions such as solar and geothermal energy production that do not create carbon emissions has bounced up and down in recent years, hurt by cutbacks in tax breaks in some countries and the low price of oil. Last year, governments, corporations and private investors spent about $15 billion on research and development, according to data from the United Nations Environment Programme and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That was down from $17 billion in 2008 and still only a relative pittance compared to the trillions of dollars spent on energy needs worldwide.
    Gates, who has been investing in clean energy efforts for years, also posted about the new group on his blog. He said the effort would work in concert with a pledge from 20 countries including the United States, China and  Germany to double their spending on clean energy research and development over the next five years.
    "The renewable technologies we have today, like wind and solar, have made a lot of progress and could be one path to a zero-carbon energy future," Gates wrote. "But given the scale of the challenge, we need to be exploring many different paths—and that means we also need to invent new approaches. Private companies will ultimately develop these energy breakthroughs, but their work will rely on the kind of basic research that only governments can fund. Both have a role to play

    Gates, Zuckerberg and other billionaires to back clean energy - Yahoo Finance

    Sunday, November 29, 2015

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    Short Answers to Hard Questions About Climate Change - The New York Times

     

    ---Credit James Yang for The New York Times --

    The issue can be overwhelming. The science is complicated. Predictions about the fate of the planet carry endless caveats and asterisks.

    We get it.

    And so, as the Paris climate talks get underway, we’ve provided quick answers to often-asked questions about climate change. You can submit your own questions here.

    1. How much is the planet heating up?

      1.7 degrees is actually a significant amount.

      As of this October, the Earth had warmed by about 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, when tracking began at a global scale. That figure includes the surface of the ocean. The warming is greater over land, and greater still in the Arctic and parts of Antarctica.

      The number may sound low, but as an average over the surface of an entire planet, it is actually high, which explains why much of the land ice on the planet is starting to melt and the oceans are rising at an accelerating pace. The heat accumulating in the Earth because of human emissions is roughly equal to the heat that would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs exploding across the planet every day.

      Scientists believe most and probably all of the warming since 1950 was caused by the human release of greenhouse gases. If emissions continue unchecked, they say the global warming could ultimately exceed 8 degrees Fahrenheit, which would transform the planet and undermine its capacity to support a large human population.

    2.  How much trouble are we in?

      For future generations, big trouble.

      The risks are much greater over the long run than over the next few decades, but the emissions that create those risks are happening now. Over the coming 25 or 30 years, scientists say, the climate is likely to resemble that of today, although gradually getting warmer. Rainfall will be heavier in many parts of the world, but the periods between rains will most likely grow hotter and therefore drier. The number of hurricanes and typhoons may actually fall, but the ones that do occur will draw energy from a hotter ocean surface, and therefore may be more intense, on average, than those of the past. Coastal flooding will grow more frequent and damaging.

      Longer term, if emissions continue to rise unchecked, the risks are profound. Scientists fear climate effects so severe that they might destabilize governments, produce waves of refugees, precipitate the sixth mass extinction of plants and animals in Earth’s history, and melt the polar ice caps, causing the seas to rise high enough to flood most of the world’s coastal cities.

      All of this could take hundreds or even thousands of years to play out, conceivably providing a cushion of time for civilization to adjust, but experts cannot rule out abrupt changes, such as a collapse of agriculture, that would throw society into chaos much sooner. Bolder efforts to limit emissions would reduce these risks, or at least slow the effects, but it is already too late to eliminate the risks entirely.

    3. Is there anything I can do?

      Fly less, drive less, waste less.

      There are lots of simple ways to reduce your own carbon footprint, and most of them will save you money. You can plug leaks in your home insulation to save power, install a smart thermostat, switch to more efficient light bulbs, turn off the lights in any room where you are not using them, drive fewer miles by consolidating trips or taking public transit, waste less food, and eat less meat.

      Perhaps the biggest single thing individuals can do on their own is to take fewer airplane trips; just one or two fewer plane rides per year can save as much in emissions as all the other actions combined. If you want to be at the cutting edge, you can look at buying an electric or hybrid car, putting solar panels on your roof, or both.

      If you want to offset your emissions, you can buy certificates, with the money going to projects that protect forests, capture greenhouse gases and so forth.

      In the end, though, experts do not believe the needed transformation in the energy system can happen without strong state and national policies. So speaking up and exercising your rights as a citizen matters as much as anything else you can do.

    4.          What’s the optimistic scenario?

                  Several things have to break our way.

    1. In the best case that scientists can imagine, several things happen: Earth turns out to be less sensitive to greenhouse gases than currently believed; plants and animals manage to adapt to the changes that have already become inevitable; human society develops much greater political will to bring emissions under control; and major technological breakthroughs occur that help society both to limit emissions and to adjust to climate change.

      The two human-influenced variables are not entirely independent, of course: Technological breakthroughs that make clean energy cheaper than fossil fuels would also make it easier to develop the political will for rapid action.

      Scientists say the odds of all these things breaking our way are not very high, unfortunately. The Earth could just as easily turn out to be more sensitive to greenhouse gases than less. Global warming seems to be causing chaos in parts of the natural world already, and that seems likely to get worse, not better. So in the view of the experts, simply banking on a rosy scenario without any real plan would be dangerous. They believe the only way to limit the risks is to limit emissions

    2. 5. What’s the worst-case scenario?

    3. There are many.

      That is actually hard to say, which is one reason scientists are urging that emissions be cut; they want to limit the possibility of any worst-case scenario coming to pass. Perhaps the single greatest fear is a collapse of food production, accompanied by spiraling prices and mass starvation. Even with runaway emissions growth, it is unclear how likely this would be, as farmers are able to adjust their crops and farming techniques, to a degree, to adapt to climatic changes. Another possibility would be a disintegration of the polar ice sheets, leading to fast-rising seas that would force people to abandon many of the world’s great cities and the loss of trillions of dollars worth of property and other assets. Scientists also worry about other wild-card scenarios like the predictable cycles of Asian monsoons becoming less reliable. Billions of people depend on the monsoons to supply them with water for crops. So any disruptions to monsoons would have catastrophic consequences to those populations.

    4. 6. ​Will a tech breakthrough help us?

      Even Bill Gates says don’t count on it, unless we commit the cash.

      As more companies, governments and researchers devote themselves to the problem, the chances of big technological advances are improving. But even many experts who are optimistic about technological solutions warn that current efforts are not enough. For instance, spending on basic energy research is only a quarter to a third of the level that several in-depth reports have recommended. And public spending on agricultural research has stagnated even though climate change poses growing risks to the food supply. People like Bill Gates have argued that crossing our fingers and hoping for technological miracles is not a strategy — we have to spend the money that would make these things more likely to happen.

    5. 7. How much will the seas rise?

      The real question is not how high, but how fast.

      The ocean is rising at a rate of about a foot per century. That causes severe effects on coastlines, forcing governments and property owners to spend tens of billions of dollars fighting erosion. But if that rate continued, it would probably be manageable, experts say.

      The risk is that the rate will accelerate markedly. If emissions continue unchecked, then the temperature at the earth’s surface could soon resemble a past epoch called the Pliocene, when a great deal of ice melted and the ocean rose something like 80 feet compared to today. A recent study found that burning all the fossil fuels in the ground would fully melt the polar ice sheets, raising the sea level by more than 160 feet over an unknown period.

      With all of that said, the crucial issue is probably not how much the oceans are going to rise, but how fast. And on that point, scientists are pretty much flying blind. Their best information comes from studying Earth’s history, and it suggests that the rate can on occasion hit a foot per decade, which can probably be thought of as the worst-case scenario. A rate even half that would force rapid retreat from the coasts and, some experts think, throw human society into crisis. Even if the rise is much slower, many of the world’s great cities will flood eventually. Studies suggest that big cuts in emissions could slow the rise, buying crucial time for society to adapt to an altered coastline.

       

    6. 8. Are the predictions reliable?

      They’re not perfect, but they’re grounded in solid science.

      The idea that Earth is sensitive to greenhouse gases is confirmed by many lines of scientific evidence. For instance, the basic physics suggesting that an increase of carbon dioxide traps more heat was discovered in the 19th century, and has been verified in thousands of laboratory experiments.

      Climate science does contain uncertainties, of course. The biggest is the degree to which global warming sets off feedback loops, such as a melting of sea ice that will darken the surface and cause more heat to be absorbed, melting more ice, and so forth. It is not clear exactly how much the feedbacks will intensify the warming; some of them could even partially offset it. This uncertainty means that computer forecasts can give only a range of future climate possibilities, not absolute predictions.

      But even if those computer forecasts did not exist, a huge amount of evidence suggests that scientists have the basic story right. The most important evidence comes from the study of past climate conditions, a field known as paleoclimate research. The amount of carbon dioxide in the air has fluctuated naturally in the past, and every time it rises, the Earth warms up, ice melts, and the ocean rises. A hundred miles inland from today’s East Coast, seashells can be dug from ancient beaches that are three million years old. These past conditions are not a perfect guide to the future, either, because humans are pumping carbon dioxide into the air far faster than nature has ever done.

    7. 9. Why do people question climate change?

      Hint: ideology.

      Most of the attacks on climate science are coming from libertarians and other political conservatives who do not like the policies that have been proposed to fight global warming. Instead of negotiating over those policies and trying to make them more subject to free-market principles, they have taken the approach of blocking them by trying to undermine the science.

      This ideological position has been propped up by money from fossil-fuel interests, which have paid to create organizations, fund conferences and the like. The scientific arguments made by these groups usually involve cherry-picking data, such as focusing on short-term blips in the temperature record or in sea ice, while ignoring the long-term trends.

      The most extreme version of climate denialism is to claim that scientists are engaged in a worldwide hoax to fool the public so that the government can gain greater control over people’s lives. As the arguments have become more strained, many oil and coal companies have begun to distance themselves publicly from climate denialism, but some are still helping to finance the campaigns of politicians who espouse such views.

    8. 10. Is crazy weather tied to climate change?

      In some cases, yes.

      Scientists have published strong evidence that the warming climate is making heat waves more frequent and intense. It is also causing heavier rainstorms, and coastal flooding is getting worse as the oceans rise because of human emissions. Global warming has intensified droughts in regions like the Middle East, and it may have strengthened the drought in California.

      In many other cases, though, the linkage to global warming for particular trends is uncertain or disputed. That is partly from a lack of good historical weather data, but it is also scientifically unclear how certain types of events may be influenced by the changing climate.

      Another factor: While the climate is changing, people’s perceptions may be changing faster. The Internet has made us all more aware of weather disasters in distant places. On social media, people have a tendency to attribute virtually any disaster to climate change, but in many cases there is no scientific support for doing so.

    9. 11. Will anyone benefit from global warming?

      In certain ways, yes.

      Countries with huge, frozen hinterlands, including Canada and Russia, could see some economic benefits as global warming makes agriculture, mining and the like more possible in those places. It is perhaps no accident that the Russians have always been reluctant to make ambitious climate commitments, and President Vladimir V. Putin has publicly questioned the science of climate change.

      However, both of those countries could suffer enormous damage to their natural resources; escalating fires in Russia are already killing millions of acres of forests per year. Moreover, some experts believe countries that view themselves as likely winners from global warming will come to see the matter differently once they are swamped by millions of refugees from less fortunate lands.

    10. 12. Is there any reason for hope?

      If you share this with 50 friends, maybe.

      Scientists have been warning since the 1980s that strong policies were needed to limit emissions. Those warnings were ignored, and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have since built up to potentially dangerous levels. So the hour is late.

      But after 20 years of largely fruitless diplomacy, the governments of the world are finally starting to take the problem seriously. A deal that is likely to be reached in Paris in December will commit nearly every country to some kind of action. Religious leaders like Pope Francis are speaking out. Low-emission technologies, such as electric cars, are improving. Leading corporations are making bold promises to switch to renewable power and stop forest destruction. Around the world, many states and cities are pledging to go far beyond the goals set by their national governments.

      What is still largely missing in all this are the voices of ordinary citizens. Because politicians have a hard time thinking beyond the next election, they tend to tackle hard problems only when the public rises up and demands it.

    Short Answers to Hard Questions About Climate Change - The New York Times

    A Wealthy Governor and His Friends Are Remaking Illinois - The New York Times

     

    The richest man in Illinois does not often give speeches. But on a warm spring day two years ago, Kenneth C. Griffin, the billionaire founder of one of the world’s largest hedge funds, rose before a black-tie dinner of the Economic Club of Chicago to deliver an urgent plea to the city’s elite.

    They had stood silently, Mr. Griffin told them, as politicians spent too much and drove businesses and jobs from the state. They had refused to help those who would take on the reigning powers in the Illinois Capitol. “It is time for us to do something,” he implored.

    Their response came quickly. In the months since, Mr. Griffin and a small group of rich supporters — not just from Chicago, but also from New York City and Los Angeles, southern Florida and Texas — have poured tens of millions of dollars into the state, a concentration of political money without precedent in Illinois history.

    Their wealth has forcefully shifted the state’s balance of power. Last year, the families helped elect as governor Bruce Rauner, a Griffin friend and former private equity executive from the Chicago suburbs, who estimates his own fortune at more than $500 million. Now they are rallying behind Mr. Rauner’s agenda: to cut spending and overhaul the state’s pension system, impose term limits and weaken public employee unions.

    “It was clear that they wanted to change the power structure, change the way business was conducted and change the status quo,” said Andy Shaw, an acquaintance of Mr. Rauner’s and the president of the Better Government Association, a nonpartisan state watchdog group that received donations from Mr. Rauner before he ran.

    The rich families remaking Illinois are among a small group around the country who have channeled their extraordinary wealth into political power, taking advantage of regulatory, legal and cultural shifts that have carved new paths for infusing money into campaigns. Economic winners in an age of rising inequality, operating largely out of public view, they are reshaping government with fortunes so large as to defy the ordinary financial scale of politics. In the 2016 presidential race, a New York Times analysis found last month, just 158 families had provided nearly half of the early campaign money.

     

    Many of those giving, like Mr. Griffin, come from the world of finance, an industry that has yielded more of the new political wealth than any other. The Florida-based leveraged-buyout pioneer John Childs, the private equity investor Sam Zell and Paul Singer, a prominent New York hedge fund manager, all helped elect Mr. Rauner, as did Richard Uihlein, a conservative businessman from the Chicago suburbs.

    Most of them lean Republican; some are Democrats. But to a remarkable degree, their philosophies are becoming part of a widely adopted blueprint for public officials around the country: Critical of the power of unions, many are also determined to reduce spending and taxation, and are skeptical of government-led efforts to mitigate the growing gap between the rich and everyone else.

     

    “There was never so much money behind these efforts,” said Iris J. Lav, formerly a senior adviser at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning economic think tank in Washington.

    “It has gotten much stronger in the last five or six years,” Ms. Lav continued. “There’s the sense of an opening, of a discontent with the old model. It’s about social insurance, the social compact — who’s responsible for whom?”

    Illinois was fertile ground for the movement. Four of the state’s last 10 governors have gone to jail. Decades of mismanagement by state officials of both parties have left Illinois with more than $100 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, among the most of any state. Public employee unions, assured that the state’s Constitution made their retirement benefits untouchable, focused on lobbying for other spending. By last year, the state owed billions more in unpaid bills.

    And tax increases are particularly difficult in Illinois, where other state constitutional provisions ban raising taxes solely on the rich. A temporary income tax boost presided over by the state’s last Democratic governor, Pat Quinn, was resented by many voters

    The future governor was among those fuming. Around Chicago, Mr. Rauner, a Republican, was known for dashing off angry, blind-copied emails about the state’s fiscal woes to a long list of fellow businessmen and political leaders. Some of those who coalesced around his campaign, like Mr. Griffin, had also backed Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, a Democrat, in his battles with teachers’ unions. Others had collaborated on endeavors including Chicago’s Olympic bid, or the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a group of wealthy and politically active business leaders. (Mr. Rauner, Mr. Griffin and other supporters declined requests for interviews.)

    “They’re not what you would call the traditional corporate world,” said William M. Daley, a Chicago hedge fund executive and former chief of staff to President Obama, who served on Mr. Rauner’s transition team. “They come with a very political and philosophical bent.”

    Mr. Daley added, “I think they believe philosophically in that business mentality and that strong public unions are a root of all evil in governing places like Illinois or Chicago and New York and California.”

    To bring about a revolution in the Illinois Capitol, in Springfield, Mr. Rauner and his allies have created what amounts to a new campaign economy, in which union money has long been the financial lifeblood of both parties. Contributing millions to his own campaign, Mr. Rauner triggered a state law that removes limits on campaign contributions when a wealthy candidate spends heavily on his or her own race.

    The law, intended to limit the influence of the wealthy by providing a level playing field, had the opposite effect: Freed of the restraints, supporters of Mr. Rauner poured millions more into his campaign, breaking state records. About half of the $65 million he spent through last year’s election came from himself and nine other individuals, families or companies they control. Mr. Quinn, the incumbent, spent about $32 million, with many unions making mid-six-figure contributions.

    Mr. Rauner’s biggest donor was Mr. Griffin, who gave $5.5 million and put his private plane at Mr. Rauner’s disposal. Mr. Rauner’s allies spent millions on political advocacy groups, research organizations and party committees. The Chicago Sun-Times reversed its no-endorsement policy to back Mr. Rauner, who was a part-owner of the paper before he ran for governor.

    “He didn’t have to play by the same rules as other candidates,” said Bill Hyers, the chief strategist to Mr. Quinn. “He just kept on spending.”

    Never before in modern Illinois politics had so few people provided so much of the money for campaigns. The size of the average contribution in last year’s general election almost tripled over those made in the previous governor’s race, according to a Times analysis of campaign records collected by Illinois Sunshine, a project of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

    Local Republican organizations found themselves flush with cash. Mr. Rauner blanketed the state with ads promising, vaguely, to “shake up Springfield” and slammed Mr. Quinn as an insider beholden to special interests.

    Attacks on Mr. Rauner’s wealth fell flat, even as he splashed around money in flamboyant ways: Late in the campaign, he drove up to a credit union on Chicago’s predominantly black South Side, depositing $1 million to support small-business loans.

    “It had never happened before,” said Otis Monroe, a community activist in Chicago. “We said, ‘If you want black votes, you should invest in African-American-owned initiatives.’ Rauner was the only one who responded.”

    On Election Day, Mr. Rauner won every county except Cook County, which encompasses Chicago. That evening, he giddily declared to his supporters: “This is our time. This is a transformational period. We will not accept the status quo. We are going in a new direction — the voters have spoken.”

    The eye-popping sums continued to flow in the weeks that followed. On the last day of December, shortly before inauguration, Mr. Rauner, Mr. Griffin and Mr. Uihlein poured an additional $20 million into Mr. Rauner’s campaign committee. The money was intended to help Mr. Rauner beat back union pressure on state lawmakers during the legislative session ahead.

    All told, the Griffin family’s contributions to Mr. Rauner through the end of 2014 came to $13.6 million — more than the combined sum donated to Mr. Quinn by 244 labor unions.

    For Mr. Rauner, the election results affirmed his agenda to shrink government and make the state more friendly to business.

    But voters seemed torn. Along with electing Mr. Rauner, they gave Democrats a supermajority in both houses of the legislature.

    They also approved two advisory ballot measures. One proposed an increase in the state’s minimum wage, something Mr. Rauner had told a candidate forum he was “adamantly, adamantly against raising.” Another urged lawmakers to amend the Illinois Constitution to allow a millionaires-only income tax increase, something Mr. Rauner had campaigned against.

    Mr. Rauner was undeterred. Immediately after taking office, he unveiled a strikingly ambitious policy agenda, one with a more ideological tinge than even some Republicans had expected.

    Along with expected cuts to spending and property taxes, he proposed tort reform; local “right-to-work zones,” where union membership and dues would be voluntary; and a half-dozen constitutional amendments. He sought to bar public unions from making contributions to state lawmakers — state contractors are already barred — and in February issued an executive order prohibiting public employee unions from collecting mandatory fees from state workers who are not members.

    Mr. Rauner and his supporters believed such changes were necessary to fix Illinois: Only by disempowering the unions and making the state more hospitable to business, they have argued, can revenue grow fast enough to fix its financial problems.

    But despite voters’ deep unhappiness with the direction of the state under Mr. Rauner’s predecessor, they quickly soured on their new governor. Just two months into his term, Mr. Rauner found that his job approval rate was around 36 percent, according to a poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. Almost half of Illinois voters favored either tax increases or a combination of increases and spending cuts to fix the budget.

    Mr. Rauner has since signaled he will discuss new revenues as part of a budget deal, but only if the legislature includes some of his union restrictions or other policy changes as part of the deal.

    “I’ve been one who thought he misread his mandate,” said David Yepsen, the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. “People were ready for a change, but the emphasis on attacking the labor movement, that really poisoned the water here.”

    The unexpected rift between Mr. Rauner and his constituents echoes a greater divide between the political views of the very wealthy and those of the broader public, one that has taken on new significance as the rich invest more time and money in politics.

    The voters in Illinois should look to Wisconsin as the example of what the new, ultra-right Republican party brings: outlawed public...

    Around the same time that Mr. Rauner began running for governor, a group of researchers based at Northwestern University published findings from the country’s first-ever representative survey of the richest one percent of Americans. The study, known as the Survey of Economically Successful Americans and the Common Good, canvassed a sample of the wealthy from the Chicago area. Those canvassed were granted anonymity to discuss their views candidly.

    Their replies were striking. Where merely affluent Americans are more likely to identify as Democrats than as Republicans, the ultrawealthy overwhelmingly leaned right. They are far more likely to raise money for politicians and to have access to them; nearly half had personally contacted one of Illinois’s two United States senators.

    Where the general public overwhelmingly supports a high minimum wage, the one percent are broadly opposed. A majority of Americans supported expanding safety-net and retirement programs, while most of the very wealthy opposed them. And while Americans are not enthusiastic about higher taxes generally, they feel strongly that the rich should pay more than they do, and more than everyone else pays.

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    “Probably the biggest single area of disconnect has to do with social welfare programs,” said Benjamin I. Page, a political scientist at Northwestern University and a co-author of the study. “The other big area has to do with paying for those programs, particularly taxes on high-income and wealthy people.”

    Illinois, Mr. Page added, is “a case study of the disconnect in action — between what average citizens want the government to do and what it does.”

    In many states, however, including old union strongholds of the Midwest like Indiana and Ohio, a rising distrust in government has proved a more powerful force in mobilizing voters — particularly with enough money behind it. In Illinois, Mr. Rauner and his allies have responded to the budget impasse with a redoubled, well-financed effort at persuasion.

    To encourage Republican lawmakers to stick with him on tough votes, the governor has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to them. In April, ex-Rauner aides set up Turnaround Illinois, a super PAC designed to support state lawmakers who backed his agenda and “oppose those who stand in the way,” according to state filings. The group’s main contributor is Mr. Zell, the Chicago investor and Republican donor, who gave $4 million.

    In June, after Mr. Rauner and lawmakers failed to reach a budget deal, Turnaround Illinois spent close to $1 million on television ads assailing Democrats.

    The true impact of their financial muscle may not be felt until the legislative elections next fall, in which Mr. Rauner’s allies could again exploit an opening in the campaign finance law to spend unprecedented sums. (The same provision that removed the caps on Mr. Rauner’s campaign lifts them in any legislative race in which a “super PAC” spends more than $100,000. Mr. Rauner’s group has enough money to trigger the law in more than two dozen races.)

    Mr. Rauner’s closest supporters hope to elect more Republicans. But some wealthy families, mindful that Democrats are likely to control the legislature for the foreseeable future, have financed an even more ambitious goal: to carve out a new faction of Democrats more willing to reach a compromise with the governor.

    That effort has raised more than $14 million, in donations that rival the largest contributions in the presidential campaign. One million dollars came from Helen Zell, Mr. Zell’s wife, and $2 million from the head of a financial firm in which Mr. Rauner is an investor. The largest disclosed contribution came from hundreds of miles beyond Illinois: The former Texas energy trader John Arnold and his wife, Laura, gave $5 million.

    Mr. Arnold, a Democrat, declined to be interviewed for this article. But in an essay published last year, he described himself as a counterweight to traditional interest groups like labor unions and corporations.

     

    His goal, Mr. Arnold wrote, was “to counterbalance these entrenched forces, on the right and the left, by providing policy solutions rooted in objectivity and solid analysis.”

    For the moment, Illinois is creaking along, polarized and deeply discontent with its leaders. Five months into the fiscal year, the state has no budget. A combination of court orders and partial appropriations bills has kept the government in operation, but at a level of spending that exceeds the state’s current revenue.

    Now, every month, Illinois falls even further behind on its bills. Illinois politicians, on the other hand, are flush as never before.

    As of early November, Mr. Rauner and the state’s new super PACs had a combined $36 million available to spend. The state’s 15 best-funded labor union PACs, along with campaign committees controlled by Democratic legislative leaders, had slightly more than half that, but are likely to put in millions more in the months ahead.

    Next year’s legislative races promise to be the most expensive in history. And Mr. Rauner, those who know him say, is just getting started.

    Said Mr. Shaw, of the Better Government Association, “I think he views this as a very long, long term war.’’

    Sarah Cohen contributed research.

    ernor and His Friends Are Remaking Illinois - The New York Times

    Monday classes canceled at University of Chicago after threat | WGN-TV

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    Monday classes canceled at University of Chicago after threat | WGN-TV

    ----------------JOY CHANGES LIFE---------------

    This List of Senior Discounts for People Over 50 Might Be the Best Thing You Learn All Day - MOGUL

     

    As I was waiting in line behind an older gentleman at Wendy's recently, I heard him ask for his senior discount. The girl at the register apologized and charged him less. When I asked the man what the discount was, he told me that seniors over age 55 -- get 10% off everything on the menu, every day. (But you need to ASK for your discount.)

    Being of 'that' age myself, I figured I might as well ask for the discount too. This incident prompted me to do some research, and I came across a list of restaurants, supermarkets, department stores, travel deals, and other types of offers giving various discounts with different age requirements. I was actually surprised to see how many there are and how some of them start at the young age of 50 .

    This list may not only be useful for you, but for your friends and family too. Remember, YOU must ASK for your discount!

    Also, for military discounts, visit this great list, for student discounts, visit this awesome list. For college scholarships for females, visit this incredibly helpful list.

    RESTAURANTS:
    Applebee's: 15% off with Golden Apple Card (60+)

    Arby's: 10% off ( 55 +)

    Ben & Jerry's: 10% off (60+)

    Bennigan's: discount varies by location (60+)

    Bob's Big Boy: discount varies by location (60+)

    Boston Market: 10% off (65+)

    Burger King: 10% off (60+)

    Captain D’s Seafood: “Happy Wednesday Offer” choice of 8 meals + drink for $4.99 or less- varies by loc. (62+)

    Carrabba’s Italian Grill: 20% off on Wednesdays to AARP Members

    Carrows Restaurants: Golden 55 Menu offers discounted bfast, lunch & dinner (55+)

    Chili's: 10% off ( 55+)

    CiCi's Pizza: 10% off (60+)

    Country Kitchen: Great Senior Menu (55+)

    Culver's: 10% off

    Dairy Queen: 10% off for seniors (15% for coaches) varies by location (free small drink at some locations)

    Dunkin' Donuts: 10% off or free coffee ( 55+)

    Einstein's Bagels: 10% off baker's dozen of bagels (60+)

    El Pollo Loco: 10% off senior discounts varies by location (55+)

    Fuddrucker's: 10% off any senior platter ( 55+)

    Gatti's Pizza: 10% off (60+)

    Golden Corral: 10% off (60+)

    Hardee's: $0.33 beverages everyday (65+)

    IHOP: 10% off ( 55+)

    Jack in the Box: up to 20% off ( 55+)

    Kagle’s Barbecue: 10% off (50+)

    KFC: free small drink with any meal ( 55+)

    Krispy Kreme: 10% off ( 50+)

    Long John Silver's: various discounts at locations ( 55+)

    LoveWithFood: Receive a 50% discount off your first tasting box on healthy and exciting snacks that are delivered straight to your doorstep. Each month the company provides a variety of unique snacks that are tailored to fit the different seasons.

    McDonald's: discounts on coffee everyday ( 55+)

    Mrs. Fields: 10% off at participating locations (60+)

    Outback Steakhouse: 15% off AARP members for meals Monday through Thursday (alcohol excluded)

    Old Country Buffet: Daily discounts for seniors(55+)

    Papa John’s: 25% off (55+) for online orders. Enter the code “AARP25″ when placing your order

    Ponderosa Steak Houses: Senior DiscountsVary- Senior menu available (60+)

    Shoney's: 10% off

    Sonic: 10% off or free beverage (60+)

    Steak 'n Shake: 10% off every Monday & Tuesday ( 50+)

    Subway: 10% off (60+)

    Sweet Tomatoes: 10% off (62+)

    Taco Bell : 5% off; free beverages for seniors (65+)

    TCBY: 10% off ( 55+)

    Tea Room Cafe: 10% off ( 50+)

    Traditions Restaurant (East TX): Senior platter meal: for $4.71 (50+)

    Village Inn: 10% off (60+)

    Waffle House: 10% off every Monday (60+)

    Wendy’s: 10% off (55+)

    Whataburger: Free drink w/ purchase of a meal- varies by loc. (55+)

    White Castle: 10% off (62+)

    RETAIL & APPAREL:

    Bealls: 20% off first Tuesday of each month ( 50 +)(http://www.beallsoutlet.com/)

    Belk's: 15% off first Tuesday of every month ( 55 +)

    Bon-Ton Department Stores: 15% off on senior discount days ( 55 +)

    C.J. Banks: 10% off every Wednesday (50+)

    Clarks : 10% off (62+)

    Dress Barn: 20% off ( 55+)

    Goodwill: 10% off one day a week (date varies by location)

    Hallmark: 10% off one day a week (date varies by location)

    Kohl's: 15% off (60+)

    Marshalls: 10% off on Tuesdays (varies by location)

    Michael’s: 10% off on Tuesdays (with AARP card)

    Modell's Sporting Goods: 30% off

    Rite Aid: 10% off on Tuesdays & 10% off prescriptions

    Ross Stores: 10% off every Tuesday ( 55+)

    The Salvation Army Thrift Stores: up to 50% off ( 55+)

    Stein Mart: 20% off red dot/clearance items first Monday of every month ( 55 +)

    TJ Maxx: 10% on Tuesdays (varies by location)

    Walgreens: 20% off once a month (55+ and AARP) “Balance Rewards” Card require)

    GROCERY:

    Albertson's: 10% off first Wednesday of each month ( 55 +)

    American Discount Stores: 10% off every Monday ( 50 +)

    Compare Foods Supermarket: 10% off every Wednesday (60+)

    DeCicco Family Markets: 5% off every Wednesday (60+)

    Fry's Supermarket: free Fry's VIP Club Membership & 10% off every Monday ( 55 +)

    Fred Meyer: 10% first Tuesday of each month (55+)

    Great Valu Food Store: 5% off every Tuesday (60+)

    Gristedes Supermarket: 10% off every Tuesday (60+)

    Harris Teeter: 5% off every Tuesday (60+)

    Hy-Vee: 5% off one day a week (date varies by location)

    Kroger: 10% off (date varies by location)

    Morton Williams Supermarket: 5% off every Tuesday (60+)

    New Season’s: 10% off every Wednesday most items (65+)

    Pathmark: 5% on Monday (60+)

    The Plant Shed: 10% off every Tuesday ( 50 +)

    Publix: 5% off every Wednesday (55 +)

    Rogers Marketplace: 5% off every Thursday (60+)

    SuperFresh: 5% off on Tuesdays on purchases over $30 (55+)

    Uncle Guiseppe's Marketplace: 15% off (62+)

    Waldbaum’s: 5% off Tuesdays on purchases over $30 (55+)

    TRAVEL :

    Airlines: call and check on the status of the update

    Alaska Airlines: 10% off (62+)

    American Airlines: various discounts for 50% off non-peak periods (Tuesdays - Thursdays) (62+)and up (call before booking for discount)

    America West: 10% off (62+)

    Hawaiian Airlines: 10% off (60+)

    Midwest: (55+) discount only available by phone

    Southwest Airlines: various discounts for ages 65 and up (call before booking for discount)

    United Airlines: various discounts for ages 65 and up (call before booking for discount)

    U.S. Airways: various discounts for ages 65 and up (call before booking for discount)
    Rail:
    Amtrak: 15% off (62+)

    Bus:

    Greyhound:: 5% off (62+)

    Trailways Transportation System: 10% off 65+

    Car Rental:

    Alamo Car Rental: up to 25% off for AARP members

    Avis: up to 25% off for AARP members

    Budget Rental Cars: 10% off; up to 20% off for AARP members ( 50+)

    Dollar Rent-A-Car: 10% off ( 50+)

    Enterprise Rent-A-Car: 5% off for AARP members

    Hertz: up to 25% off for AARP members

    National Rent-A-Car: up to 30% off for AARP members

    Overnight Accommodations:

    Holiday Inn: 62 and older; member of retired persons organization TBD (amount)

    Best Western: 10% off (55+)

    Cambria Suites: 10% off (60+)

    Waldorf Astoria:62 and older; AARP members TBD) 

    Clarion Motels: 10% off (60+)

    Comfort Inn: 10% off (60+)

    Comfort Suites: 10% off (60+)

    Econo Lodge: 10% off (60+)

    Hampton Inns & Suites: 10% off when booked 72 hours in advance

    Hyatt Hotels: 25%-50% off (62+)

    InterContinental Hotels Group: various discounts at all hotels (65+)

    Mainstay Suites: 10% off with Mature Traveler's Discount (50+); 20%-30% off (60+)

    Marriott Hotels: 15% off (62+)

    Motel 6: 10% off (60+)

    Myrtle Beach Resort: 10% off ( 55+)

    Quality Inn: 20%-30% off (60+)

    Rodeway Inn: 20%-30% off (60+)

    Sleep Inn: 20%-30% off (60+)

    Travelodge: 10% off (50+)

    ACTIVITIES & ENTERTAINMENT:

    AMC Theaters: up to 30% off ( 55 +)
    Bally Total Fitness: $100 off memberships (62+)

    Busch Gardens Tampa, FL: $13 off one-day tickets ( 50+)

    Carmike Cinemas: 35% off (65+)

    Cinemark/Century Theaters: up to 35% off

    U.S. National Parks: $10 lifetime pass; 50% off additional services including camping (62+)

    Regal Cinemas: 50% off Ripley's Believe it or Not: @ off one-day ticket ( 55+)

    SeaWorld Orlando, FL: $3 off one-day tickets (50+)

    CELL PHONE DISCOUNTS:
    Jitterbug:
    $14.99 /month cell phone service ( 50+)

    Verizon Wireless: Verizon Nationwide 65 Plus Plan $29.99/month (65+).

    Want to see more like this? Check out:

    Military discounts on this great list. Student discounts on this awesome list. College scholarships for women on this helpful list.

    NOW, go out there and claim your discounts -- and remember -- YOU must ASK for discount -- no ask, no discount. I know everyone knows someone over 50. Please pass this one on!

    [From MOGUL: Please do note that some of the discounts above may vary from location to location, so you may ask and find that the discount has been tailored per your geography. We have updated the list from time to time to reflect the feedback from our readers.]

    Source: Steve Herman (Report)

     

    This List of Senior Discounts for People Over 50 Might Be the Best Thing You Learn All Day - MOGUL