Dec 12, 2024

Everybody loves unsolicited advice, right?

Right.

So today part of our report will include three pieces of pretty good advice, with Alabama news stories to back them up.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

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U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama is sounding off again about the state of Social Security, reports AL.com's Howard Koplowitz, and he's promising that the Trump Administration will reform it.

Wednesday on the Senate floor, Tuberville called Social Security a "big Ponzi scheme."

A Ponzi scheme is an investment system in which investors are paid not by their investments making money but by new investors buying into the scheme. Indeed, Social Security payments to today's retirees come from Social Security taxes being paid by today's workforce, although there are reserves that provide some cushion if the system plunges toward insolvency.

The senator has previously argued that if people kept their Social Security taxes they could make better investments than, well, putting it into Social Security.

On Wednesday Tuberville said, “Here’s the sad truth: the American people don’t have any confidence that they will see all the money they paid into Social Security over the years.”

Trump has promised to maintain the current retirement age and to remove Social Security taxes.

The Committee for a Responsible Budget believes the removal of those taxes is among the Trump policies that will widen the program's deficits. Other policies the group is wary of include ending tips and overtime taxes and imposing tariffs.

Now we're going to enter the public-service announcement part of the program. I'm going to state three pieces of good advice and then back up each piece of advice with a news story.

First: Don't believe everything you see on the Internet.

AL.com's Heather Gann reports that TikTok personality Slot_7.0 (or Slotmachinequeen) has been arrested on seven counts of charitable fraud. Authorities say Slotmachinequeen, or Amy Downs of Athens, solicited donations from around the world for domestic violence victims and the homeless. Allegedly, no such charity was registered and that since 2021 she has deposited nearly a million dollars into personal bank accounts.

Second: Make sure you have a cover on your electrical panel.

This is important because you don't want to accidentally make contact with a hot wire in there. But it's also important if you're a business and OSHA pays a visit. AL.com's Patrick Darrington reports that the U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a $103,000 fine against Dean's Sausage Company over repeated safety hazards, the most serious being missing electrical panels.

And finally: Remember that we're in the secondary severe weather season.

It's not exactly April, but tornadoes can happen during any time of the year in Alabama. AL.com's Leigh Morgan reports that an EF-0 tornado touched down a little after midnight Tuesday just east of Andalusia. There was some damage but no injuries. It was 20 yards wide and stayed on the ground for about a third of a mile.

“S is for Sun Ra. He’s a little abstract, but when you get it, you’ll really get it.”

Lisa Simpson, a character on The Simpsons, trying to educate baby sister Maggie with her “Jazz Legends: A to Z” flashcards. Sun Ra was born Herman Poole Blount in 1914 in Birmingham. He passed away in 1993.

In 1963, actress Teresa Blake of Tuscaloosa. If you watched All My Children during the 90s, you remember her as Gloria Marsh.

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