Are you ready for the 3rd annual TEDxMeritAcademy? We are! Get your tickets now and see our wonderful 2019 speakers who have ideas worth sharing!
We’re at DNA’s Comedy Lab this year, at 155 South River Street near Trader Joe’s. Stay tuned for more information on specific speakers and don’t forget to purchase your tickets at tedxmeritacademy.com/tickets!
Are you ready for the 3rd annual TEDxMeritAcademy? We are! Get your tickets now and see our wonderful 2019 speakers who have ideas worth sharing!
We’re at DNA’s Comedy Lab this year, at 155 South River Street near Trader Joe’s. Stay tuned for more information on specific speakers and don’t forget to purchase your tickets at tedxmeritacademy.com/tickets!
350,000 California homeowners have received cancellation or non-renewal notices based on their high-risk zip codes this year. The insurance companies are in flux themselves as they grapple with which zip codes to cover and which ones to cancel. They’re in the business of making money so offering fire insurance where wildfires have consumed the state is not smart business for them. Over the years, when insurance companies failed, homeowners were rescued by the state at the taxpayers’ expense. When you’ve paid for years (decades) of fire insurance and never had a claim, it seems unethical that the insurance companies can cancel your policies when you need them the most.
In this podcast, I talk about the fire insurance problem, and what you can do to KEEP your existing coverage. You can listen to it here, or find GakkoMom on iTunes and subscribe to my podcast. It’s also embedded here:
Susan is spreading the news about ProjectMerit and the book Beat the College Admissions Game with ProjectMerit! Her latest interview is with Kimberly Bailey Tureaud on KCEP-FM’s “Enterprising People” show. The interview is an excellent way to spend 25 minutes!
Listen here:
Imagine if a public school system could help students who want to use education as a way out of poverty and crime? A public charter school in the San Francisco Bay Area is doing exactly that. They will offer a free public school DORM and MEALS on Treasure Island for the most at-risk high school students – those who have failed in traditional schools and have had run ins with the law.
24 students will receive free room and board. Many of these students consider homeless shelters their homes. The school, Life Learning Academy, enrolls 50-70 at-risk students and now they’re offering dorms and meals to those who need it the most. Their goal is to give these students a chance to turn their lives around and graduate from high school.
Rather than send these students to juvenile hall, where it costs each teen $375,000 per year, the dorms/meals program only costs about $33,000 per student. That’s about a tenth the cost. 95% of the students at Life Learning Academy graduate high school. Besides juvenile hall doesn’t improve the students’ chances of graduating from high school and leading a life without crime. Instead, 40% of kids that are incarcerated in juvenile detention centers end up in prison by the time they’re 25 years old. Love this new concept in helping students who need help the most. We need to offer this to all at-risk students.
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Fed up with school options for your children? If you’re considering homeschooling, check out Merit Academy’s curriculum.
We offer our curriculum framework to homeschoolers who want a high-caliber education that builds a strong academic foundation and prepares them for success in college/career. In addition to our academic classes, students also start businesses, do weekly internships, and do projects using the Project Merit model.
Imagine giving your child a Merit Academy education at a fraction of the cost!
Check it out: https://www.meritworld.com/wp/high-school-curriculum/
You’re not alone. The insurance companies are in flux themselves as they grapple with which zip codes to cover and which ones to cancel. They’re in the business of making money so offering fire insurance where wildfires have consumed the state is not smart business for them. Over the years, when insurance companies failed, homeowners were rescued by the state at the taxpayers’ expense. When you’ve paid for years (decades) of fire insurance and never had a claim, it seems unethical that the insurance companies can cancel your policies when you need them the most.
276 California homeowners have received cancellation or non-renewal notices based on their high-risk zip codes this year. Cal Fire has assessed swathes of wooded areas that pose wildfire threats and have labeled these areas accordingly. Some neighborhoods within these areas have created defensible space around their homes and Cal Fire has issued certification that some insurance companies review when considering cancelling or renewing policies. Unfortunately at this time, Cal Fire doesn’t have the manpower or time to inspect the volume of homes that would need to be assessed.
To retain fire insurance, some homeowners are required to do massive and expensive wildfire mitigation. In some cases, the demands are more extensive than local and state fire departments require. Mill Valley is proposing the most aggressive vegetation-management ordinances in California. Homeowners will be required to remove 10 types of trees and plants, and create a 3-foot noncombustible zone around their houses. Assembly Bill 1516 will require Cal Fire’s highest-risk zones to create a 5-foot noncombustible zone around their structures.
Homeowners are also required to move firewood stacks at least 30 feet from the home and to install fine metal mesh on attic and eaves vents to screen out embers. In order to provide defensible space around the house, insurance companies are also requiring homeowners to trim or remove trees so that between 30 and 60 feet of the house, there would be at least 12 feet of space between canopy tops. From 60 to 100 feet of the house, the treetop branches would need to be at least 6 feet apart.
This type of clearing can be expensive. Licensed contractors can charge from $5,000 to $30,000 to permit, cut, and chip or haul away trees and branches. Check for free chipping and clearing services from the Resource Conservation Districts, FireSafe Council, and local fire departments that may have grant funds available for homeowners to create defensible space around their homes.
Homeowners who lose fire coverage from their homeowner’s insurance companies have 2 options: (1) Surplus lines carriers (Lloyd’s of London), which sold 60% more policies in California than they did in 2016; and (2) California Fair Plan, an association of California’ licensed insurance companies, which sells fire insurance only (not water, wind, theft, or liability). Under the Fair Plan, you would need to get a wraparound policy to cover everything else. Rates are at least double existing homeowners’ insurance rates.
The message is loud and clear: create defensible space around your home to protect your family and structure, and to create the best odds for retaining your homeowner’s fire coverage.
So make a list of things you can do to create defensible space around your home. Then, block off time on your calendar to get it done. This is the first time in history that we have to do fire prevention work in order to keep our fire insurance coverage.
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We limbed lower branches on our trees, weedwhacked overgrown brush, and chipped over 30 piles of branches. Phew!
That was an intense few weeks of weekend work to get it done in time for the Resource Conversation District to send chipping contractors out to chip our branches into mulch. I organized the chipping program on my road and got to meet wonderful neighbors who share my concern about fire prevention.
This is the first time in over 30 years that we’ve made a concerted effort to clear our property, and I’m so glad we did. It opened up the space between the trees and the trees will be able to thrive now. It looks like a park setting instead of a jungle!
There’s still time to clear 100-feet of defensible space around your homes! Get started!
Mothers – and even fathers – are leaving STEM careers after having children. Why is this important? We need them in the science workforce and they need the income potential to raise their families. So why is this happening? Parents can’t afford child care, and the STEM professional community frowns on employees who miss work and deadlines due to family issues. Yes, this bias continues today.
According to the National Science Foundation, 43% of women and 23% of men leave STEM jobs within 7 years of having or adopting a child. What’s even more surprising is that they don’t return to their careers after their children reach school age.
This devaluation of motherhood and caregiving stems from gender discrimination that was prevalent in the 1950s. A woman’s role was at home with the children and a father’s role was to bring home the bacon. But even today, STEM employers expect team players to work long hours and not be distracted by parenting responsibilities such as driving kids to and fro, attending sporting events, and caregiving. This twisted philosophy still infiltrates the STEM careers with unhealthy biases and prejudices.
But what if STEM parents could design the ideal preschool or after-school program for their children right in their homes? And what if they invited 3-4 other children to join the program and hired a wonderful teacher to teach the classes and help with homework? The other children’s parents would pay tuition, which would cover the costs of the teacher and materials. Then STEM parents could enjoy their careers and have more flexibility with child care – without having to pay a penny.
I actually created a preschool program for my 2 daughters while I worked fulltime. My girls loved the program, made friends, and learned to read at age 3. The teacher even prepared dinners, cleaned the house, and did our laundry. That way, when I wasn’t working, I had time to thoroughly enjoy my family. I had my cake and ate it too! I wrote The Millennial’s Guide to Free Child Care in Your Home to help parents create a solution for the high cost of child care and to improve family time together.
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Everything we buy is packaged in large plastic clamshells. Even small printer ink cartridges are packaged in plastic 4 times larger than the item itself. Salads, sandwiches, and meat are sold in plastic containers. Consumerism dictates that goods need to be presented in big, flashy plastic packaging. And as a result, the average American throws away around 185 pounds of plastic per year; that’s 60 million pounds per year.
We don’t recycle plastic in the US; instead, we ship it to Asia where they’re supposed to recycle it. While they recycle about 5% of our plastic waste, the rest of it is illegally burned at midnight to hide from law enforcement. Burning plastic emits dioxins that are potentially cancerous and pollute the air. The fumes singe their sinuses and leaves a sickly film in their throats. They don’t exercise or go outdoors anymore.
Now that China will not take our plastic waste, Malaysia has become the new dumping ground for US plastic scrap. Most of this plastic is from America, and a majority of the plastic is for food packaging. What doesn’t get recycled is dumped illegally, burned at night, loaded in waterways, and piled into open fields. Fish and mammals mistake plastic for food and their bodies are filled with plastic. The food we eat contains plastic and our bodies are not designed to digest plastic waste.
Malaysia is sending a message to America: “America, the way you dump your waste on us … it is very hypocritical. Stop sending your rubbish to other countries and start managing it yourself.” Shame on us!
We need to stop our addiction to plastic that is fueled by the petroleum companies and our need for convenient packaging. Cities in California now ban plastic grocery bags and plastic straws. Consumers need to demand that grocery and retail stores stop selling prepackaged goods in clamshells. Everyone needs to drink fluids in reusable containers. Buy cooking ingredients like flour, nuts, and seeds in bulk using your reusable glass containers instead of single-use plastic containers. And shampoos, conditioners, dish soap and laundry detergent can be purchased in bulk using your own containers. Check online to see where you can purchase items from zero waste or health food stores.
I am making a video showing how you can stop using single-use plastic containers and I’ll share it with you next week. If we don’t drastically reduce the amount of plastic we use, plastic waste will consume and kill us.
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The tree that inspired Dr. Seuss’s children’s book “The Lorax” has fallen. It was between 80-100 years old and according to Dr. Seuss, it represented the last truffula tree that had survived the Once-ler’s greedy goal to profit from the sale of the truffula forests.
Back in 1991, our kids performed The Lorax as part of our Summer Enrichment Program. Wonderful memories of the girls and their introduction to theater!
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