Smart Reader 051823

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l o s c S t a a I s A t o h A d S p s G c p c w W w a i c j u o “ i n o a s b M U s s a Y m w b t A A a ( r c s s H r A a e t t f t 2 d d m F b W c 2 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F Cover photos credit: Waynes: Mike Wallace & Chad Greenway; Gordon: UPI Smart Reader is published bi-weekly by Carmichael Communications Editor & Publisher/Frank J. Carmichael • Assistant to the Publisher/Reanna Stockdale • Sales/Kim Carmichael, Donny Stancato Editorial Manager/Jason Hedman • Ad Design & Layout/Glen Kelly, Kristin Monticelli • Reception/Sarah Coleman Carmichael Communications 1420 63rd Street, Kenosha, WI 53143 May 18, 2023 - Volume 21 Number 10 262-564-8800 • 1-800-568-6623 • www.hap2it.com Lida and Mark Simpson sit on the steps of their porch with friends while the blues rock band Red Medicine plays in a yard across the street. People crowd all four corners of the intersection, dancing and chatting. It’s PorchFest in Petworth, a neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Some 100 performers will play on porches and yards throughout the day. A new group of people walks up, searching for space with a view of the band. “Sit, sit,” says Ms. Simpson with a big smile, gesturing toward the wall at the edge of the yard. The Simpsons, who have a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old, chose Petworth because it’s walkable, close to restaurants and playgrounds and public transit, and still has a neighborhood feeling. When they first moved in eight years ago, Ms. Simpson says she hoped for an active front porch culture. But it didn’t quite coalesce until people began socializing from their yards in 2020. Happily, says Ms. Simpson, “porch and stoop culture restarted during the pandemic, and it’s stayed around.” Last week, the U.S. surgeon general declared an epidemic of loneliness and isolation, saying that 1 in 2 adults reported experiencing loneliness even before the pandemic. At a time when neighborliness is decreasing and Americans are growing further apart, some, like the Simpsons, are intentionally building relationships within their communities. And events like porch fests are growing in popularity. Central to a culture of neighborliness, many say, are front porches. “Front porch culture is just friendliness. It’s community, it’s interaction. It is wanting to have real community in the true sense of the word with neighbors and friends or potential friends. It’s an analog lifestyle in a digital world,” says Campbell McCool, founder of a Mississippi development that centers community life. It’s also in direct opposition to the kinds of tragedies that have struck urban, suburban, and rural communities around the country over the past few weeks. On April 13, 16-yearold Ralph Yarl was shot after knocking on the wrong door to pick up his siblings in Kansas City, Missouri. In upstate New York, 20-yearold Kaylin Gillis was shot and killed after the car she was in drove down the wrong driveway. And this weekend, a man in Texas killed five people, including one child, after he was asked to stop shooting in his yard because a baby was sleeping. “As it has built for decades, the epidemic of loneliness and isolation has fueled other problems that are killing us and threaten to rip our country apart,” wrote Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in The New York Times on April 30, announcing a framework to rebuild community. “Rebuilding social connection must be a top public health priority for our nation. It will require reorienting ourselves, our communities, and our institutions to prioritize human connection and healthy relationships.” A front porch is a liminal space, says Michael Dolan, a writer and editor in Washington. “It’s the outside of the inside and the inside of the outside, so people feel safe being on their porch because they are in their place and yet they are in the world,” he says. “When people who have [porches and stoops] don’t use them, they’re missing out on the opportunity to interact with the environment,” says Mr. Dolan. “And the environment includes humans and includes passersby, includes somebody coming up to ask directions, includes somebody coming by to say hello.” The type of neighborliness embodied by Mister Rogers is no longer the norm. Over half of Americans say they only know some of their neighbors. Although Americans living in rural areas are more likely to know their neighbors than Americans living in suburban or urban communities, people in the countryside are slightly less likely to interact with one another. Even in urban and suburban neighborhoods, neighborly exchanges are rare. Over half of Americans who say they know some of their neighbors say they never get together socially, according to a Pew study from 2019. It takes curious and open people to build the kind of community that has block parties, borrows ingredients, and watches each other’s kids, but social spaces like front yards and porches are important too, says Mr. McCool. “A front porch is central to the whole personality of a neighborhood,” he says. And at Plein Air in Mississippi, a development inspired by the new urbanism movement that promotes walkable and mixed-use communities, the only architectural requirement is that each house have a front porch. History of the American front porch Historically, Mr. McCool says, three things sped the decline of the front porch in suburbia in the 1950s: air conditioning, television, and the car. Air conditioning and TV coaxed people indoors. Cars meant more people lived further apart from each other. When sociologists began studying differences between residents in neighborhoods with and without porches, they found that in the latter there was little to no interaction. People drove straight into their garages, and private backyard decks grew in popularity. “A lot of people don’t realize that the social nature of the porch in America was imported with Won’t you be my neighbor? How porch culture fights loneliness see NEIGHBORS on page 4 Surgeon general: Epidemic of loneliness can cause major health issues Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recntly released an advisory on loneliness and isolation, following restrictions to curb the COVID-19 pandemic that asked Americans to quarantine and detach from the public from time to time. Murthy said that loneliness and isolation can have "destructive impacts" on our health as individuals and around the country. He courage U.S. residents to find the "healing power" of relationships. "At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we gained a greater appreciation for how crucial relationships are to our well-being," Murthy said. "The pandemic led to greater loneliness for many, but there was widespread social disconnection even before COVID-19. "Loneliness and social disconnection are more common than we realize. In recent years, about one in two adults reported experiencing loneliness. It's also more widespread than many other health issues including smoking, diabetes, and obesity." Some of the key takeaways from the surgeon general's advisory included that social connection is as essential to our long-term survival as food and water. It said that loneliness is more widespread than other major health issues. "Social connection significantly improves the health and well-being of all individuals," the advisory said. "It can predict better physical and mental health outcomes and ease stress. Higher levels of connection can influence health-related behaviors." The advisory said that fostering social connection requires that each commit to our relationships and communities. "Our actions today can create sustainable changes to society and bring better health to all," the advisory said. "We all have a role to play in supporting social connection." Murthy said it will take individuals and families, schools and workplaces, healthcare systems and communities to break the epidemic of loneliness and isolation and create a greater social connection. "Strong relationships can improve health outcomes and positively impact population health," he said. "Bottom line: strengthening the social fabric of our nation is essential to improve our health and well-being." By Clyde Hughes

From a distance, it sounds like a street party. Outside one of Hollywood’s oldest studios, people are cheering. A speaker blares Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City.” Passing cars toot appreciative horns. Up close, it becomes apparent this isn’t a party. It’s a picket line. When screenwriters across America went on strike, they started marshaling outside entertainment headquarters such as Amazon’s film and television division here at Culver Studios. The upbeat protesters, wearing sunglasses and “Writers Guild of America” T-shirts, chant “union power” while parading around the colonial-style building where “Gone with the Wind” was filmed. These writers claim that studios are turning their profession into a gig economy consisting of short-term jobs with low pay and even uncompensated work. As one striker’s sign puts it, “Hey Amazon, free delivery is your job, not ours!” “What’s happening right now is just abject disrespect of writers,” says K.C. Scott, a scribe on the Apple TV+ show “Physical,” whose boombox is playing Bob Marley & The Wailers’ “Get Up, Stand Up.” “When I was starting my career, someone said, ‘You go to New York as a writer if you want respect. You go to LA if you want money.’ And, right now, we’re not getting either.” The first writers’ strike in 15 years followed a breakdown in talks between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The standoff revolves around financial compensation and job security in an era when streaming has reshaped Hollywood. In a document released Thursday, the AMPTP disputed the accuracy of WGA’s “gig economy” claims and also touted a proposed contract that includes “the highest first-year increase offered to the WGA in more than 25 years.” The negotiations come down to an all-too-familiar dispute in Hollywood: How much are writers worth? For studios, the answer may be a financial calculation. For writers, that question isn’t just a monetary one. It’s also a matter of feeling seen and valued. “Writers are seen as the essential cog in the wheel,” says Dominic Patten, senior editor at Deadline Hollywood, an industry news publication. “But I think that what’s happened in recent years, it’s more systematic and institutional. … We’ve seen a change, especially with the advent of streaming, in the way that the entire system works.” The last time writers went on strike was for 100 days that spanned 2007 and 2008. The toll on California’s economy is estimated to have been $2.1 billion. Fragmented audiences, fragmented pay? Back then, audiences were already fragmenting as entertainment options expanded, but mainstream media was still relatively ... mainstream. Successful movie script writers could expect bonanza paydays in an era in which studios released major competing films every weekend. Established writers on a network or cable TV show could make a good living over the course of a 22- episode season. If a series was reincarnated on DVD or TV syndication, there were additional residual payments. Today, three of the TV writers picketing outside Culver Studios say that was something of a golden era. “It was just 10 years ago that we were all entry-level writers and we got a job that could sustain us for that year, even on a show that got canceled,” says Eli Bauman, a writer for award shows such as the Emmys, standing alongside his wife, Joanna Calo (“The Bear”), and their longtime friend Raphael Bob-Waksberg (“Bojack Horseman”). In 2007, streaming was barely a twinkling pixel in the eye of big tech companies. Apple had only just unveiled the iPhone. Netflix, a mail-delivery DVD service, had only just launched video. Amazon’s focus was selling Kindles and fresh groceries, on demand. Then in 2013, Netflix televised a revolution by erecting “House of Cards,” its first original show. Within a decade, the company pioneered a process of more creative destruction than an episode of “Squid Game.” In the race to maximize content, streaming competitors have acquired and consolidated vaults such as MGM, and even whole studios such as 20th Century Fox. The shift to streaming has boosted the number of new Hollywood productions. Last year, a record 599 original scripted shows aired in the United States. The beneficiaries of that boom aren’t just stockholders, but also the production crew workers such as casting agents, set designers, hair-and-makeup artists, electricians, cinematographers, VFX artists, and even the assistants tasked with fetching kombucha lattes for the directors. But writers say they’ve been short-changed by the new business model. For starters, on streaming shows, a season typically only consists of eight to 10 episodes. “It’s a paradox because you would think with so many more shows, there’d be more jobs for writers,” says Jessica Sharzer, a screen captain at the WGA, in a phone interview. “The writers’ rooms literally shrunk. So they used to have, let’s say … 10 writers in them, now they have six.” Most concerning, Ms. Sharzer says, is a widespread phenomenon dubbed “mini rooms.” If a production entity likes a pilot script, it may give a showrunner a minimal budget to hire two or three additional writers to develop the show. If the show doesn’t end up in development, it’s not a big loss for the company. But the writers take the brunt of the risk. The minimum pay they earn, around $5,000 a week, needs to stretch to payments to agents, lawyers, and the taxman. There’s no guarantee the scribe will be hired for the show or even credited for their work. The short-term hires may never set foot on set, a crucial step to becoming a showrunner. “They’re also not getting the same level of growth and opportunities that they once did in that older model where you could grow as a writer, starting in the trenches, so to speak,” says Brian Welk, a senior business reporter for IndieWire, a film industry site. “So maybe that’s why they’re feeling disrespected.” Studios push back on “gig economy” claim Last Thursday, the AMPTP stipulated that it had offered to improve the pay structures and minimum rates for such development Writers’ strike: Has the gig economy come for Hollywood? Britt Matt and K.C. Scott stand outside Amazon Studios in Culver City, California, on May 3. 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enslavement,” says Mr. Dolan, author of “The American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place.” West Africans were kidnapped and brought first to Brazil and then to the Caribbean. There, enslavers directed them to build their own houses, which had porches where people could socialize out of the sun, says Mr. Dolan. That aspect of Indigenous African architecture spread throughout the New World. When French colonizers moved to New Orleans, the housing styles of West Africa were imported into Southern culture and eventually spread beyond Louisiana. Today, polls show that older Americans are more likely to have neighborly connections. Just 4% of Americans over 65 say they don’t know any of their neighbors, compared with 23% of adults under 30. Older, white, and wealthy Americans are all more likely to say they trust their neighbors than Americans of color and those who are younger and less wealthy. “Professional porch sitter” Karen Goddard, who prefers porches to private decks, calls herself a “professional porch sitter” in her attempt to make neighborliness popular again. Ms. Goddard, who moved to Key West from New Hampshire two years ago, first came across the concept after reading about a self-proclaimed professional porch sitter. “It was all tongue-in-cheek. It was just something made up,” she says. “But it was a great concept.” The point, Ms. Goddard says, is to meet on front porches without agendas, minutes, or formality – “just meeting and conversation.” It resonated with Ms. Goddard as something she was already doing. “My friends in my neighborhood in New Hampshire knew that they could come to my house any Friday night and hang out on the porch,” she says. And, when Ms. Goddard sold her home in New Hampshire, her friends joked that the buyer should be informed that the house came with friends. In an age of preoccupation with productivity, Ms. Goddard embraces the humor behind her chosen “profession.” It’s a label for, well, doing nothing. She and her husband had a joke: Ms. Goddard would sit on her porch, and occasionally her husband would poke his head out and say, “You’re doing a very good job, honey.” Jokes aside, Ms. Goddard’s main reason for porch sitting is simple: “I like to smile and make eye contact and say ‘hello’ if possible, because I just think that’s important for human connection and for neighbors.” The porch has always been a place of social interaction, says Mr. Dolan. That’s been his experience for the four decades he’s lived in the Palisades neighborhood of Washington, where he says neighborliness shines. The rise of technology as an intermediary between people is unsettling, says Mr. Dolan. It makes its way onto the porch in the form of Ring Cameras, to which he’s opposed. “I like to answer my door and say hello to the people who come to my house,” he says. “[One gains] the feeling of trust in the neighborly compact, the ability to rely on one’s neighbors and call one’s neighbors,” says Mr. Dolan. “Or even if your neighbors bother you, ... you tolerate them because they’re neighbors. So it’s a sense of place that reinforces your feeling of being part of something.” The Simpsons in Petworth say they get together with neighbors throughout the year. The neighborhood has several active email lists, and neighbors swap tools, like the Simpsons’ hedge trimmer. Despite the overcast sky, PorchFest is packed. Young children have no reservations dancing to music, playing with each other, and exploring neighbors’ yards. A crowd of kids gathers in front of one porch where a band plays “Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” increasing the tempo with each refrain. The pack of 3-foot-tall children ecstatically dances to the song, giggling and trying to keep up, while bubbles float above their heads. As the band keeps playing, parents and teenagers join in. By Sophie Hills Porch Neighbors continued from page 2 rooms. Moreover, the trade association pushed back against WGA language that compares writers to freelancers in a gig economy. “Most television writers are employed on a weekly or episodic basis, with a guarantee of a specified number of weeks or episodes,” the negotiating body for studios and streaming companies wrote in its four-page document. “It’s not uncommon for writers to be guaranteed ‘all episodes produced.’” It added that television writers enjoy health care, parental leave, and pension benefits “that are far superior to what many fulltime employees receive for working an entire year.” Other impasses in contract negotiations are over residual payments for streaming shows, script fees for staff writers, and the WGA’s insistence upon a mandatory minimum number of staff writers per show as well as guarantees of the length of employment. Deadline Hollywood recently wrote that AMPTP President Carol Lombardini “is widely seen as a tough but fair negotiator” who is keen to keep production costs from ballooning. But during the discussions, former WGA West president Patric Verrone perceived a lack of respect. “That may have been one of the differences between this negotiation and the others I’ve been involved in,” says Mr. Verrone, eyes squinting in the modest shade of his WGA cap. “There was a different atmosphere.” The “Futurama” writer speculates that may stem from the change in the composition of AMPTP since the arrival of Netflix, Amazon, and Apple. But as much as writers may crave esteem, he says it won’t put bread on the table. “As long as I’ve been in the Guild leadership, it’s become much more evident that we can get all the respect that they’re willing to dole out, but they will only make the ... financial deal that we need, that we demand, if we can show power and leverage.” The question becomes which side will blink first. “In many ways, the timing for the writers couldn’t be worse as far as coming to the negotiating table,” says script consultant Tom Nunan, a former TV executive and producer of the Oscar-winning film “Crash.” “The media companies themselves are going through this terrible reckoning. After years of overspending and explosive growth, they’re now in what seems to be an unending period of contraction.” Some believe that the studios and streaming companies, which have been laying off thousands of employees, are in a position of strength in this strike. In fact, they may even have reasons to welcome the disruption to production. “The studios think that eventually enough writers will realize that they’re having trouble paying their rent or their mortgage and demand their leadership go back to the negotiating table,” says Mr. Patten from Deadline. “And the studios, of course, can start canceling some deals after 30 days go by. ... They can save some money on the books.” The wider cost of the strike could be disastrous for an economic sector that’s still woozy from the punch of the pandemic. Yet many unions, including local Teamsters, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Directors Guild of America – which begins its own contract negotiations with AMPTP next week – have expressed their solidarity to the WGA. Outside Culver Studios, virtually every passing car honks its horn to show support. Standing next to the hedges near the mansion where Rhett Butler wooed Scarlett O’Hara, Mr. Bauman, Ms. Calo, and Mr. BobWaksberg say that the strike has a resonance that goes beyond New York or Los Angeles. “I do think that’s something that anyone in America can kind of understand, especially as we all are kind of finding ourselves in a gig economy to some extent,” says Mr. Bauman, the Emmys writer. “All we’re asking for is some version of sustainability and stability and respect.” By Stephen Humphries Writer’s Strike continued from page 3 F 4 SMART READER MAY 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 June 9 & 10 • 8PM at the 5125 6th Ave. KENOSHA Carmen Morales is on fire! This LA based comedian is fast becoming one of the hottest performers on the West Coast. She’s quick and opinionated with outlandish ideals. She’s likable, vulnerable, assertive and she’s coming to the Kenosha Comedy Club June 9 & 10. 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Sue Hackney had heard the news, of course. When reports surfaced in March that First Republic Bank might be in trouble, the Boston-area marketing professional and her husband debated whether to pull their money out. But “their customer service is so good,” she says, so the couple waited. Then last month, the San Francisco-based bank released its quarterly earnings, which showed it had lost more than a third of its deposits. Its shares, already deeply discounted, plunged again – in all, a stunning 97% fall in value in three months. Busy at work and two days away from a trip out West, Ms. Hackney felt in no position to suddenly find a new bank. “We also figured the FDIC insurance is there,” she says. JPMorgan Chase – the nation’s largest bank – validated her optimism. It announced it had acquired the substantial majority of First Republic’s assets from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and that First Republic’s branches would open as usual. While the immediate drama has ended, easing fears about U.S. banks’ stability, FDIC insurance itself is under scrutiny. With three banks now felled by bank runs in the past two months, regulators are looking anew at the program that was created 90 years ago to discourage bank runs. The FDIC released a report outlining three options. The problem is that its actions to calm markets may have foreclosed all but one of those options. The FDIC report takes a detailed look at the pros and cons of keeping the status quo, moving to unlimited deposit insurance, or using what it calls targeted insurance. It recommends targeted insurance, where business payment accounts would receive significantly higher coverage than individual consumer accounts. But regulators’ actions may speak louder than their words. By using a loophole in March to guarantee all deposits at the first two failed banks, regulators may be hard-pressed to walk back such a commitment in future bank failures. Up to now, the FDIC has only guaranteed bank depositors up to $250,000 per single account; $500,000 for a joint account. Many economists worry unlimited insurance would encourage risky behavior by banks and depositors, or what they call moral hazard. “Unlimited coverage ... clearly cannot be the right answer. I mean, you can pretty much prove it,” says Eduardo Dávila, an economics professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and co-author of a 2021 study on optimal deposit insurance. “Unlimited coverage will require enormous amounts of regulation in a way we haven’t seen in 40 years.” Bank stock and bond holders still do face risks of failure in the marketplace, even when deposits are protected. But the conundrum is a real one: Too little deposit insurance could encourage more bank runs. Too much would require more oversight and rules by regulators to keep banks in line. “They’re in a bit of a bind right now, unless all this settles down and in two months all is well,” Daniel Tarullo, an international financial regulation professor at Harvard and former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, said last Wednesday in an online event at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Are we saying we’re giving up entirely on market discipline?” There’s too little market discipline in banking already, says Charles Calomiris, a Columbia Business School professor and former chief economist of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, another federal bank regulator. Some of the regulatory reforms in the aftermath of the savingsand-loan crisis of the 1980s and the financial crisis of 2008 have increased FDIC insurance and discouraged banks and big depositors from exercising some discretion in where they put their money. The predictable result, critics say: messes like the one at Silicon Valley Bank, which in March became the nation’s second-biggest bank takeover in history until First Republic Bank replaced it. In a sharply critical report the Federal Reserve blamed Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse on a combination of the bank’s failure to manage interest-rate risk and the Fed’s own supervisors, who delayed too long before reacting to the growing signs of trouble. Silicon Valley Bank had grown rapidly by catering to hightech startups in need of financing and by encouraging them to keep all their money at the bank, sums that often exceeded the FDIC’s $250,000 limit. “How in the world could there have been so much in dumb uninsured deposits sitting at one bank?” Mr. Calomiris asks. “The answer is: That’s what deposit insurance did, ironically,” along with other regulatory changes. In a separate report, the FDIC blamed the failure of Signature Bank on mismanagement and said, in retrospect, its staff could have acted sooner. The bank also specialized – in this case, in the New York real estate market – and in 2018 began allowing customers with at least $250,000 on deposit to use cryptocurrency, a digital kind of money. As a result, many of its clients had accounts well above the FDIC limit. First Republic was also heavily involved in real estate, offering jumbo mortgages to wealthy homeowners on the East and West coasts. When rumors of big withdrawals at Silicon Valley Bank began to circulate, fears about Signature and First Republic spread, leading many of their depositors to pull money out. The underlying problem that exposed the flaws at these three banks is endemic to most banks to some extent. They make long-term loans, such as mortgages, but pay money out on short-term deposits. 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New York is the first state to begin banning natural gas in most new buildings – a move praised as pathbreaking by climate advocates but criticized by opponents as overbearing. It’s part of a larger state plan to reach net-zero energy emissions by 2050. Supporters hope other states will join. Yet, while most Empire State residents agree that lowering greenhouse gas emissions is the right move, gas-range aficionados don’t want to give up their open flame. Critics say this plan will cost struggling consumers too much, could overtax the state’s energy grid, and doesn’t account for the severity of New York’s numbingly cold winters. Natural gas is used widely to generate electricity here and around the country. It burns cleaner than fossil fuels like coal and oil, but can pollute just as much as coal, depending on how much methane leaks from production to delivery. The new law calls for energyefficient heat pumps instead. In 2021, slightly more than half of New York’s electricity came from clean sources like nuclear and renewables such wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal pumps, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The state’s goal is 70% emissions-free electricity production by 2030 and 100% by 2040. In addition to helping solve climate change, advocates say boosting green energy will create jobs, improve indoor and outdoor air quality, and lower utility costs. The policy’s rollout here will be closely watched. Already a number of cities from San Francisco to New York City have banned gas in new construction. While some Republican-controlled states have laws preventing local gas bans, Washington state has a ban imposed by its unelected Building Code Council. How will the law work? By 2026, most new buildings under seven stories will have to use electric heat pumps for controlling air temperatures and for hot water. Larger buildings will have to comply by 2029. Some businesses that require extreme high heat to operate are exempt. The law does not apply to existing buildings. Buildings produce more greenhouse gases than any other category in New York – 32% of emissions versus 29% for transportation – according to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Will it lower emissions? Initially, no. But it keeps new buildings from raising them. Bigger savings will come once existing buildings are retrofitted and the sale of gas appliances is banned, all part of the state’s net-zero-by-2050 plan. Those details have not been ironed out and could be derailed if, say, future governors have different priorities. What will it mean for consumers? Supporters say electric heat pumps are effective and save consumers money over time. Critics warn of unintended consequences and call for a more measured approach. “The ban on natural gas hookups in new buildings will drive up housing costs and utility bills for consumers. Without greater detail and analysis [about the grid], this one size fits all plan is unrealistic, unaffordable and unreliable,” says Republican state Sen. Patrick Gallivan, by email. It used to be that heat pumps were no match for eye-watering cold, but they have improved greatly over the past decade and are quite efficient, says Robert Howarth, an Earth systems scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and one of 22 members on the state’s Climate Action Council tasked with developing the state’s net-zero plan. Still, plenty of builders remain dubious. Heat pumps tend to be more efficient and cheaper to run than natural gas furnaces. In new homes, this means that electrifying things can make a lot of sense. But with older homes, it’s a bit trickier, in large part because of the upfront costs to renovate, says Melissa Lott, director of research at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Can the grid handle more demand? Supply will become a problem if the electric grid and alternative energy sources aren’t improved and expanded, according to the New York Independent System Operator, which manages the flow of electricity across the grid. The state’s energy cushion could narrow beginning in 2025 as some generators are deactivated and demand grows, says Kevin Lanahan, the company’s vice president of external affairs and corporate communications. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority says the state has enough projects in the pipeline to reach 2030 and 2040 goals. That’s not sufficiently concrete for some. “Sure, down the road, technology will catch up and move forward with electric, but we want proof [that it’s happening on pace]. And they can’t answer that,” says Michael Fazio, executive vice president of the New York State Builders Association, which works with residential builders. While grid capacity is concerning, some big developers started shifting from gas homes to allelectric ones a few years ago in anticipation that the state and utilities will work out supply, says Michael Ohlhausen, managing director of architecture at The Hudson Companies, a developer of multifamily apartment buildings in New York City and Westchester County, just north of the city. Low-rise residential builders, like Mr. Fazio’s members, are on board with the move toward zero emissions, but worry that buyers won’t want allelectric homes if reasonable gas-fueled ones exist – making it hard for his members to survive. Are there obstacles to implementation? In addition to the need to make sure the grid and alternative energy supplies are robust, there could be legal challenges. This spring, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California overturned a Berkeley, California, law that had the same goal as New York state’s but was implemented differently. Amy Turner, senior fellow at Columbia’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, says she does not expect New York’s 2nd Circuit Court to do the same, but the natural gas industry has deep pockets to bring suit. How does the public feel about it? Far more New Yorkers believe climate change is a serious problem than don’t believe, according to a February poll by Siena College and the natural gasaligned New Yorkers for Affordable Energy – 77% compared with just 22%. But climate change is far less important than day-to-day issues – like cost of living, housing affordability, and crime. “People are thoughtfully ambivalent,” says Donald Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute, which conducted the survey. “Most are willing to pay something to help with climate mitigation – but not much. They like the state’s aggressive goals, but there’s a sense that ‘if other states aren’t doing this, why should I?’” By Hillary Chura No more gas stoves? New York is first state to ban gas in new buildings sp ka kn ad sa an en an alo co lak de fri th su nu ge In ex lik a sp fro fis wi Bo th wi En ab th Go pa ha les th Co at Sa or Re ro pu dis on Aw th – wi pa Pe of Ce Lin Pa Pa Go fre wh an W wh tw ev on Ho th Ba S t b V 6 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F 051823 OUT NOW! PICK UP A COPY or READ IT ONLINE at hap2it.com GoDowntownkenosha.com • VisitKenosha.com Next issue will be out mid-August. If you would like to advertise your Downtown business, contact Donny at [email protected] JUNE 2 & 3 at the 5125 6th Ave. KENOSHA You Don’t Want To Miss... JUSTIN SILVER 051823 Get your advance tickets at Hap2it.com or stop in at1420 63rd St. Kenosha between 10am - 4pm Mon. - Fri. Call for more information 262-564-8800

How are you going to spend your summer? Picture kayaking and golfing, jousting knights and ziplining adventures, building sandcastles on the beach and fishing for dinner, enjoying concerts in a park and taking scenic bike rides along the lake. Which golf course, park, beach, and lake? Take your pick! Kenosha is a vacation destination for families, friends, and couples throughout the year – and a summer getaway means numerous opportunities to get outdoors! Be A Tourist In Your Own Town and experience your hometown like a visitor. We live next to a Great Lake! That is so special; people visit here from Iowa specifically to go fishing on Lake Michigan with the Kenosha Charter Boat Association. Schedule fun dates throughout the summer with your significant other. Enjoy Downtown Kenosha aboard a party bike: book the Lakeshore Pedal Tours. Go kayaking or stand up paddle boarding in the harbor or take sailing lessons together – all through the Kenosha Community Sailing Center. Get in your 10,000 steps at Hawthorn Hollow Nature Sanctuary and Arboretum or Richard Bong State Recreation Area. Enjoy a round of golf at a local public golf course. Or play disc golf. Enjoy an excursion on Lake Michigan with Sail Away Charters. Walk through the Sculpture Walk – HarborPark. Break up the work week with a free concert in the park. There are concerts at Pennoyer Park, the grounds of Anderson Arts Center/Kemper Center, Lincoln Park, Bristol Woods Park, Veterans Memorial Park, and Old Settlers Park. Go to VisitKenosha.com/ freeconcerts to find out where the concerts are on any given Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Enjoy al fresco dining – whether it’s breakfast for two, a lunch date, or an evening out. Stop for drinks on the roof of the Apis Hotel & Restaurant or at the Crow’s Nest Rooftop Bar atop of The Stella Hotel & Ballroom. Make it a date night at Wilmot Raceway. Or a morning date at Kenosha Public Market or Kenosha HarborMarket. Arrange fun adventures for the entire family to enjoy. Introduce the kids to fishing. Catch a Kenosha Kingfish baseball game at the historic Simmons Field. Take in a free Aquanut Water Show – the talented water skiers will impress everyone! Experience a duck themed pedal boat ride in the harbor (book through the Kenosha Community Sailing Center). Enjoy the swimming pool at Anderson Park or Washington Park. Cheer during free bicycle races at the Washington Park Velodrome. Enjoy sunflower fields in bloom at Jerry Smith Produce & Pumpkin Farm. Travel back a few centuries at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. You’ll find ziplines, ladders, and bridges – along with axe throwing – to conquer at Boundless Adventures. On a hot day, enjoy a splash pad. There’s one that’s not too far from the Kenosha Public Museum. Look for beach glass along Lake Michigan. Bring your pooch to a local dog park. Don’t miss out on some old-fashioned family fun as well: Fill up the tires on everyone’s bicycles and head out on a bike ride. There are more than 130 miles of bike trails to travel down in Kenosha County! Or fill a picnic basket and go to a local park. You have your choice of parks: the City of Kenosha alone has 70 parks and conservation sites. Various parks in the city and beyond offer such amenities as a playground, beach, walking trail, skatepark, tennis, pickleball, basketball, and much more! Make new memories close to home this summer! I’ll talk about summer events in another issue. Use our website VisitKenosha.com to find #KenoshaFun faster. Visit Kenosha has been Kenosha’s official travel resource since 1986. Summer’s Coming to Kenosha by Meridith Jumisko, Visit Kenosha Meridith Jumisko is Public Relations Director at Visit Kenosha. Contact her at [email protected] 0 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 SMART READER May 18, 2023 7 FOR EVENT TICKETS & MORE ACTS VISIT HAP2IT.COM STOP IN 1420 63RD ST. M-F 10am-4pm OR CALL 1-262-564-8800 051823 Wednesdays ROCK & ROLL Music BINGO & FREE 5125 6th Ave. Kenosha 125 6th Ave. Kenosha JULY 21& 22 MR. SHOWTIME DAVID SCOTT • JULY 21 LITTLE MERMEN • JULY 28-29 NICKY SMIGS AUGUST 4 & 5 JIM FLORENTINE • AUGUST 11-12 SONJA WHITE AUGUST 18-19 TIM MEADOWS • AUGUST 2-5-26 CHRIS BARNES TOM COTTER May 19 & 20 8:00 PM $20 In Advance $24 at Door ROCKY LAPORTE July 14 & 15 8:00 PM $18 In Advance $22 at Door May 20 • 7:00 PM $8 In Advance • $10 at Door VINYL REMIX June 2 & 3 7:30 PM $18 In Advance $22 at Door May 26 & 27 8:00 PM MIKE BALL $16 In Advance $19 at Door JIMMIE “JJ” WALKER June 16 & 17 8:00 PM $25 In Advance $29 at Door Music ANDY BENINGO June 30 & July 1 8:00 PM $14 In Advance $17 at Door LARRY REEB July 7 & 8 8:00 PM $14 In Advance $17 at Door No Drink Minimum! Live Comedy Every Fri. & Sat... If It’s Not Live, You’re Not Living! Live Comedy Every Fri. & Sat... If It’s Not Live, You’re Not Living! In Residency 6/24 & 7/21 Music May 20 PAT MCCURDY 7:30 PM $10 In Advance $13 at Door CARMEN MORALES June 9 & 10 8:00 PM $16 In Advance $19 at Door VINCE MARANTO June 23 & 24 8:00 PM $14 In Advance $17 at Door JUSTIN SILVER ALL STAR KARAOKE S STARTING AT 7PM o 6:30-9:30PM “Favorite new comic.” -Tim Allen Star of “Dogs in the City” on CBS

8 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F A few days ago I took my American Dirus dog for a walk in the southern New Hampshire town of Hudson while my wife was shopping for plants with my son. Willow and I went to Benson Park, an old zoo that is now a marvelous municipal park. The place was alive with the laughter of children, and I could sense the bygone excitement of the thousands of people who had walked the same pathways over the past seven decades. All those years ago, they were about to see camels, alligators, bears, elephants and many more exotic animals. Park benches were plentiful, but one in particular caught my eye, as it was nestled under a weathered, simple yet elegant pergola. While Willow was using her nose to make a mental note of all the other dogs who had been to the same spot, I used my eyes to take in the beauty of this structure. I thanked the architect or carpenter who had come up with the idea for the pergola’s interlocking 5/4 x 10 rough-sawn cedar used to create the shade screen that measured 12 by 16 feet. It was the perfect size, in my opinion. As strange as it seems, the first thing that I noticed was the extra simple trim lumber that had been used to fatten the four support posts. While it was unnecessary, this small touch created both visual appeal as well as a subliminal message of strength. Think about an elephant’s lower legs compared to a gazelle’s. The elephant telegraphs sturdiness, power and stability. Fortunately, no one had ever painted this masterpiece. I’m sure it had been stained at one time, but that was years ago, as the cedar wood now sports a distinctive gray color much like my own hair. It’s vital the park staff clean and seal the wood soon, in my opinion. Water and sunlight will eventually take their toll and the majestic pergola could end up as dumpster fodder or kindling wood. When you seal your pergola, or any outdoor wood, always try to use a penetrating sealer made with synthetic resins. You also want one with a medium color. The color pigments act like sunscreen, sacrificing themselves to the ultraviolet (UV) rays that contain photons. Keep in mind that penetrating wood sealers don’t peel like filmforming sealers that seem to dominate the marketplace. The cynic in me thinks the sealer manufacturers promote film-forming sealers because when they fail, your deck, pergola or outdoor wood furniture looks horrible faster. This means you need to buy more sealer in fewer years. If you plan to build a pergola this summer like the one I saw at Benson Park, you only need a few tools. But before you buy any lumber, you need to visit your local zoning office to see if you’re even allowed to build one. Some cities, towns and even HOAs have very rigid and restrictive codes that limit what you can do on your own land. Once you know you’re allowed to construct your pergola, it’s time to think about its primary purpose. Will it be simply decoration or will it be functional? What will you do under it? Sip an iced coffee, read a book, play harmonica, set up your outdoor amateur radio, play chess? Give thought to the furniture you’ll need, and make sure it fits with ease under the structure. You don’t want to be bumping into the support posts. I can’t stress enough the importance of this planning step. All too often, folks think a certain size will work because the space seems so large. But as you start to move furniture in, the large space shrinks. Spend the extra money to use stainless-steel nails, screws, bolts and nuts. Beware of cheap electroplated galvanized hardware. It looks great but that ultra-thin coating of zinc wears off faster than a two-week honeymoon. Once the metal begins to rust, it can permanently stain your expensive cedar or redwood. Don’t underestimate the power of wind. You’ll thank your lucky stars that you attached the pergola to concrete piers using holddown anchors when you get an alert on your phone about an approaching severe storm packing wind gusts of 50 mph or more. The last thing you want is to see your pergola lift up off the ground and float or tumble into a neighbor’s yard. My best advice is to go hunting for pergolas near your home. You might find them at garden centers, city or county parks, or in public gardens. Take your tape measure and notebook with you. When you spot one that makes you melt, it’s time to take measurements and photos, or even sketch it so you can recreate it in your backyard. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, it’s better to just copy one or tweak one that you already love. Your new patio pergola Ask the Builder with Tim Carter Subscribe to Tim’s FREE newsletter at AsktheBuilder.com. Tim offers phone coaching calls if you get stuck during a DIY job. Go here: go.askthebuilder.com /coaching Tim Carter joins Happenings Q&A on Tue. May 23rd at 1:30 pm on AM1050 WLIP. While this weathered pergola looks challenging to build, you should think of the job like eating an elephant. Pachyderms are best eaten one bite at a time. When interest rates on those deposits rise dramatically, banks can end up paying out more money on deposits than they’re making on loans, and their profits get squeezed. The 4 percentage point rise in interest rates in the past year has been the fastest since the 1980s. Clearly, all three banks were operating without much of a safety net. The big question for regulators is whether those banks were the exception or whether regulators need to extend the safety net so other banks don’t come under pressure. FDIC report points to several trends that may be making the banking system more vulnerable to runs, such as the power of social media to quickly spread concerns about specific banks. Another problem is the rapid growth of uninsured deposits after the financial crisis, which grew from $2.3 trillion at the end of 2009 to $7.7 trillion in 2022. The problem is especially acute among the top 1% of banks, where just under a third of deposits were uninsured compared with 14% before 2020. That means that a small group of big customers may quickly spark a panic. “Growing concentrations of uninsured deposits at large banks make the banking system potentially more vulnerable to depositor runs,” the FDIC report said. By Laurent Belsie Bank failures continued from page 5 Mom, daughter persevere hardship to graduate college together A 50-year-old mother and her 25- year-old daughter graduated together last weekend with straight A's from a graduate program at a Texas university -- the fifth time they've completed college programs together. "She's my best friend," 25-year-old Elizabeth Meyer said. "All our classmates call her 'mom.'" Elizabeth and her mother, Alissa, put on their cap and gown for the third time after completing a Master of Social Work program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas. The duo has earned a total of five degrees together. They both completed the program with a 4.0 grade point average. They each hold three Associate's degrees -- in general studies, interdisciplinary studies and social science -- from Central Texas College and a Bachelor's degree from Mary HardinBaylor, a private Christian university in central Texas. The Meyer women are planning a bit of a gap year before returning to Our Lady of the Lake for a Ph.D. program. A report from WOAI, the NBC affiliate in San Antonio, says they're rebounding after previously losing their home because of Hurricane Harvey and living out of a hotel for three years. By Daniel J. Graeber Elizabeth Meyer, 25, and Alissa Meyer, aged 50. The Meyer women hare graduated college together last week for the fifth time.

0 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 SMART READER May 18, 2023 9 s y f a r health lifestyle community Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center news May 18, 2023 Your Kenosha ADRC Update You’re There for Them, We’re Here for You Kenosha County ADRC to Offer Powerful Tools for Caregivers Online Class The Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center is now accepting reservations for its next Powerful Tools for Caregivers course. Powerful Tools for Caregivers is a free, six-week, on-line educational series, intended to teach skills on how to take care of yourself while caring for a loved one. The class helps family caregivers reduce stress, improve self-confidence, communicate feelings better, balance their lives, increase their ability to make tough decisions and locate helpful resources. The online sessions will be held Thursdays, 1 – 3 p.m., May 25 - June 29. To participate, caregivers must have internet access and access to a computer, iPad or other tablet. To register, call 262-605-6646 or click the red registration button at http://adrc.kenoshacounty.org. The ADRC also offers classes in Spanish, call for dates and information! Memory Café The Kenosha County Memory Café invites those who have Mild Cognitive Impairment, early stage Alzheimer’s, or related dementia, and their care partners to join them each month to socialize and have fun. The Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center’s Dementia Care Specialist, Susan Johnson, and the Alzheimer's Association offer Memory Café the second Tuesday of every month, 1-2 p.m. The next meeting will be on June 13, 2023, Kenosha Southwest Neighborhood Library, 7979 38th Avenue. Registration is required for new members. Call Alzheimer's Association 800-272-3900. Connect with Your Peers Virtually Are you looking for a way to connect with your peers?  Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services’, Inc. (KAFASI) Virtual Connect offers a great way to do just that. If you are 60 or older and would like to listen in or view KAFASI’s Virtual Connect Programs with featured topics and speakers of interest to seniors, you can join using your own phone, or online using the free online software program Zoom.  The onehour programs are held on Mondays or Wednesdays. A monthly calendar is sent out with all the upcoming events. The calendar can be mailed if requested.  An invitation you can save to your calendar is available upon request. The zoom link will be emailed one week prior to each meeting and then an email reminder is sent out the morning. A call-in number is also available to join over the phone. June 2023 KAFASI VIRTUAL CONNECT SCHEDULE • Wednesday, June 7, 11 a.m. United Way of Kenosha County • Monday, June 12, 11 a.m. Tai Chi with Ruth • Monday, June 19, 11 a.m. RX Tips for Seniors with Good Value Pharmacy • Monday, June 26, 11 a.m. ADRC’s Elder Benefit Specialist Program For more info and to joinEmail  Janice Erickson at [email protected] or call and leave a message at 262-287-7469. Going on Medicare? Learn about the decisions you’ll need to make The Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center (ADRC) offers no-cost, unbiased, Medicare workshops for those who are new to Medicare, or those who want to learn more. Trained benefit specialists will be available to answer your questions and discuss the decisions you’ll need to make, including the basics of Medicare coverage, options for private health and drug coverage, and public benefits that can help with health care costs. Medicare 2023 Workshops to choose from: Wednesday, May 24, 10 a.m. – noon at Job Center, 8600 Sheridan Road, Rm. N2, North Entrance A Wednesday, June 14, 10 a.m. – noon at Salem Lakes Village Hall, 9814 Antioch Road Wednesday, July 19, 10 a.m. – noon at Paddock Lake Village Office, 6969 236th Ave. Wednesday, August 9, 10 a.m. – noon - Bristol Village Office, 19801 83rd St. Due to limited seating, reservations are required. Call the ADRC at 262-605-6646 or 800- 472-8008 to make a reservation or to learn more.

10 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F Be a Part of a Virtual Pilot Study in Kenosha for Medication Management! The Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center will be offering Kenosha residents a chance to be a part of a pilot study this summer. Med Wise Rx is a skills-based educational program created by the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy to improve older adults’ communication with pharmacists and other providers for safer medication management. Medication management can be challenging. Medication errors can result in unwanted effects from medicines, and worse, falls, hospitalizations and even death. Poor communication and medication coordination problems with multiple people prescribing a person’s medications can increase these errors even more. Med Wise Rx offers participants the opportunity to build knowledge and skills. The pharmacist is important to help people manage their medications and address their medicationrelated questions and concerns. Yet, patients and caregivers often are unsure what questions to ask their pharmacist or how to ask them. In Med Wise Rx, participants gain confidence in talking with their pharmacist, as well as what to ask about their medicines and how to ask for a medication check-up. To be eligible you must be: • Kenosha County resident • 65 years old or older • Taking 4 or more medicines regularly (includes nonprescription drugs and/or vitamins) • Able to navigate and join the two Zoom meetings • Able to participate in phone interviews and provide feedback Med Wise Rx participants will meet for two 1.5-hour classes, separated by one week for home practice. It’s free, convenient, and empowering! Participants will receive up to $125 in thank you gift cards for participating in this study. Participants who sign up will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. Wednesdays, 1:30 – 3 p.m., August 2 and 16 OR October 4 and 18, 2023. Groups will meet virtually on Zoom, from the comfort of their home or office. To register call Haleigh Couch, Health & Wellness Coordinator with the Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center at 262-605- 6624 or email Haleigh.couch@kenoshacounty. org This project is a partnership between the UW School of Pharmacy, the Kenosha County ADRC, and the Community & Academic Aging Research Network Online Learning Platform for Family Caregivers Offered Free The Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center is offers registration support for Trualta. Trualta is a free online educational tool for family caregivers in Wisconsin. Trualta helps caregivers learn about health issues, care techniques, and managing care for loved ones. If you provide care for a loved one, friend or even neighbor, you are a family caregiver. As a family caregiver, it can be hard to find the right resources. Even harder when your time is limited. Trualta’s collection of professional content is designed for the family caregiver to make it easier to manage care at home. Trualta is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 364 days a year. With lessons as short as 5 minutes, Trualta makes it easy for you to fit caregiver training in whenever it works for you. Trualta provides practical caregiver tips and techniques that you can start using right away. With Trualta, you can also learn alongside other caregivers in your area and learn from others’ experiences. In addition to learning skills to manage your loved one’s current care, Trualta’s learning library can help you prepare and plan for what the future holds. Discover ways to connect with your loved one and be confident you’re doing your best. To participate, caregivers must have internet access and access to a computer, iPad or other tablet. They will receive an email with a link to register. To register, call Margaret Ricchio at the ADRC, 262-605-6650 or email [email protected] June Medicare Minutes Original Medicare Coverage of Rehabilitation Services Medicare Minute presentations are offered monthly by the Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center. These free programs provide information on a wide range of Medicare topics. June’s Medicare Minutes will focus on the Medicare Complaints and Beneficiary Resources (appeals). The program will be offered virtually on Tuesday, June 6, 2023, from 10 – 11 a.m. Medicare Minutes are developed by the Medicare Rights Center as a State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) National Technical Assistance Center service. The Medicare Rights Center is a national, non-profit consumer service organization. They are one of the SHIP (State Health Insurance Assistance Program) National Technical Assistance Center partners. To participate and for reservations call the ADRC 262-605-6646. A Zoom link will be provided. Your Kenosha ADRC Update

0 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 SMART READER May 18, 2023 11 s s a n s u n a r y e r r t r o e l d & s e e s y e h l s e e l e e Connect with Your Peers Virtually Are you looking for a way to connect with your peers?  Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services’, Inc. (KAFASI) Virtual Connect offers a great way to do just that. If you are 60 or older and would like to listen in or view KAFASI’s Virtual Connect Programs with featured topics and speakers of interest to seniors, you can join using your own phone, or online using the free online software program Zoom.  The one-hour programs are held on Mondays or Wednesdays. A monthly calendar is sent out with all the upcoming events. The calendar can be mailed if requested.  An invitation you can save to your calendar is available upon request. The zoom link will be emailed one week prior to each meeting and then an email reminder is sent out the morning. A call-in number is also available to join over the phone. MAY 2023 KAFASI VIRTUAL CONNECT SCHEDULE Monday, May 22, 11 a.m. Book Lovers Group with local author, Mike Schumacher Wednesday, May 31, 11 a.m. State of Kenosha with Mayor John Antaramian. Please contact Janice Erickson for more information or to sign up to receive the program schedule. Email [email protected] or leave a message at 262-287-7469. 7 weeks. 14 hours. Reduce your risk for falls Next free, seven-week course to begin June 15 in Twin Lakes If you’re like most people, you’re pretty careful about avoiding a fall. But there are some factors you may not be aware of that can influence your fall risk. Stepping On addresses those factors and arms you with the information and strategies you need to avoid a fall. Wisconsin is ranked number one in the nation for falls that lead to death among older adults. More than 95% of hip fractures are caused by falling. The Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center wants to change those statistics with Stepping On! In Stepping On workshops, we take fall prevention step-by-step. You’ll learn how to build and maintain the physical strength and balance you need to walk confidently. From footwear to prescriptions, you’ll learn what increases your risk of a fall, how to avoid it, and make an individualized action plan to stay on your feet and living life the way you want. The ADRC is hosting a Stepping On course to be begin Thursday June 15. Stepping On is a free, seven-week educational series, proven to help reduce falls in older adults. Stepping on will at the Twin Lakes Library, 110 S Lake Ave, Twin Lakes on Thursdays, June 15 through July 27, 2 – 4 p.m. For questions or to register call the ADRC at 262-605-6646 In-person or Virtual Caregiver Coffee Club ADRC offers support group for those caring for someone with dementia Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center (ADRC) offers a support group to help family caregivers who care for someone with Alzheimer’s disease or other form of dementia. Join others engaged in helping their loved ones manage day to day living. Relax, chat and learn helpful tips and strategies. The Caregiver Coffee Club meets the first Wednesday of each month from 10-11 a.m., the next meeting will be on June 7, 2023. The support group is available in-person or virtually. Facilitated by Susan Johnson, Dementia Care Specialist with the Kenosha County ADRC. 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Q: I've heard that Social Security is cheating me and millions of other Americans out of Social Security benefits they are due because they round down to the nearest dollar when they are supposed to be rounding up. Is this true? A: Well, it's true ... and it's false. It's true when you say that benefits are rounded down, but it's false when you say that they are supposed to be rounded up. Here's the story. When Social Security first started in the 1930s, monthly benefit checks were paid in the exact amount, including dollars and cents. And the law specified that the final check should be rounded up to the nearest penny. Then in 1950, Congress changed the rules a bit. Recognizing that there are many steps in the process used to compute a monthly Social Security check, they said that the benefit should be rounded up to the nearest dime at each step in the process. But then we got to the 1980s, and the political mood in the country -- and Congress -- had shifted to a more conservative tone. Congress was looking for ways to trim government expenditures, not expand them. And Social Security, being one of the largest government programs of all, came under the knife. That's why the 1983 amendments to Social Security included some relatively significant cuts, like eliminating what were known as "student" benefits and cutting off monthly payments to widowed mothers when their youngest child turned 16 (as opposed to 18 under previous law). But one little-noticed change brought about by the 1983 amendments was a rule that required benefits to be rounded down, not up. At each step in the computation process, benefits were now required to be rounded down to the nearest dime. And a new twist was added. The final benefit check would no longer be issued in the exact amount. Instead, the new law said the final benefit would be rounded down to the nearest dollar. Q: This may not be the most important question you've ever answered, but I am curious about something. I notice that most of my Social Security correspondence comes from Baltimore, Maryland. I checked and learned the Social Security Administration headquarters is there. Why is it in Baltimore, not Washington, D.C., where most other federal agencies are located? A: Well, there is a bit of an interesting story about that. The Social Security Board (the predecessor to the Social Security Administration) was established in 1936 along with a slew of other federal agencies that grew out of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal program. And all those agencies were scrambling to find office space in Washington, D.C. I don't know if the Social Security Board was a latecomer to this office search process or what. But they couldn't find suitable digs in Washington. So, they looked up the road in Baltimore. (For those of you who were not paying attention in geography class, Baltimore is about an hour's drive northeast of the District of Columbia.) They found a big old warehouse in downtown Baltimore that they decided to use as a temporary headquarters until something suitable could be found in our nation's capitol. However, as time went on, the agency's leaders must have decided that it would be too much hassle to move all their office equipment, files and staff 50 miles down the road to Washington. So, they simply decided to stay put in Baltimore. But as the agency grew, they quickly learned that the old warehouse was just too small and cramped to hold everything you need to run a nationwide social insurance program. So, they eventually relocated to a far-western Baltimore suburb known as Woodlawn. And that's where the SSA's headquarters remains today. I'm sure when the agency first moved to Woodlawn, it was an outlying area filled with more cows than people. But today, it's a bustling part of the Baltimore metro area. One thing I found interesting when I worked there (this would have been back in the 1980s and 1990s) is the importance of the large government agency, with about 12,000 employees, to the local area and economy. I was particularly struck by how the name of the agency intermingles with local businesses. For example, the main street through Woodlawn is known as Security Boulevard. (The SSA's headquarters address is social security Social Security Benefits Rounded Down with Tom Margenau If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has the answer. Contact him at thomas.margenau@comcast. net. To find out more about Tom Margenau and to read past columns and see features from other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. 12 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F 051123 050423 SR051823

. g , y r t y 0 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 SMART READER May 18, 2023 13 6401 Security Boulevard.) And many businesses in the area adopted "Security" in their names. For example, there was Security Ford, Security Drug Store, Security Liquors and even Security Square Mall. With the space I have left, let me share a little anecdote about the SSA's main headquarters building. Even though the building was designed to house all the administrative people needed to manage an institution that plays a role in the life of almost every American, some local people still thought of the place as just another local Social Security office -- albeit a very big one! So, folks would show up to file for their retirement benefits or to report a change of address or any of the many other tasks that were part of the Social Security process. But of course, that local administrative center just was not designed to take care of that kind of business. (After all, you would not go to WalMart's headquarters to buy some underwear or a quart of milk as you would at your local WalMart store.) So, these folks who went to SSA's headquarters to conduct routine Social Security business were steered to the closest local Social Security office -- that happened to be five miles away in Randallstown, Maryland. That caused lots of folks to complain about being shuffled around. So SSA officials eventually decided to open a tiny one-room Social Security office on the ground floor of 6401 Security Boulevard that was staffed by a representative from the Randallstown field office. I used to get a chuckle out of this. Occasionally, someone with a grudge would come to the SSA headquarters office from across the country, march into the building and announce something like this: "I demand to speak to the head of the agency about a problem I am having with my Social Security." That person would be sent down the hall to the little Social Security office. Usually, the problem would get resolved and the irate customer would leave thinking he outfoxed the system by going straight to the top when he actually just talked to a local Social Security office rep -- the same thing he could have done back home at his local office. Social Security continued from previous page Someone in Your Life has Dementia A Roadmap for Care – Now offered virtually and in-person The Kenosha County Aging & Disability Resource Center offers a regularly scheduled educational program, Someone in Your Life has Dementia: A Roadmap for Care. The presentation is for anyone caring for an individual living with a form of dementia and will be offered every other month, with the options for both virtual and in-person meetings. Dementia is a general term used to describe memory loss and the impaired ability to process information and make decisions which interferes with daily life. There are many subtypes of dementia, with Alzheimer’s Disease being the most common form, followed by Vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, Frontotemporal degeneration, mixed dementia and others. Dementia is not a part of normal aging; however, 50 million people worldwide are living with some form of this syndrome. Susan Johnson, Dementia Care Specialist with the ADRC, has developed and will facilitate this new presentation. Johnson has a master’s degree in Gerontology and has a passion for improving quality of life for caregiving families. She offers hope and understanding to caregivers, as well as those living with dementia. The presentation will help prepare and guide caregivers, while building confidence for the road ahead. It will address common caregiver concerns, such as: • Whether recently diagnosed or not, what do you need to know about caring for someone living with dementia? •How do you know what to expect and what your person needs, as the disease progresses? Someone in Your Life has Dementia: A Roadmap for Care, will be offered virtually and in-person, the second Wednesday, every other month, noon – 1 p.m. The next class will be offered on June 14, 2023. For more information and to register, call the ADRC, 262-605-6646. Your Kenosha ADRC Update SR051823 050423 7110 74th PL, Kenosha, WI • (262) 694-1500 “Located next to Menards” AS YOUR CERTIFIED GM SERVICE CENTER... WE USE GENUINE GM PARTS 30 day guaranteed lowest price! We will meet or beat any advertised price on any tire we sell! Lifetime Free Tire Rotations With the purchase of 4 tires We offer over 18 different manufactures of tires including BFGoodrich, Bridgestone, Michelin, Goodyear and more! SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN’S LARGEST TIRE DEALERSHIP Transmission or Coolant Flush Parts & Labor on any add-on GM Accessory Oil Change & Lube Balance & Rotate Tires 4 Wheel Alignment Battery Replaced PALMEN BUICK GMC CADILLAC 7110 74th Pl. 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14 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F books In his probing spiritual memoir, Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming, Peter Enns describes a dark period. He realized his religious assumptions since his teenage years – that every word of the Bible was fact – needed a second look. The “curveball” refers to Enns’ baseball career, which was cut short in its early stages, sending him down a path shaped more by a theological quest than by fly balls and strike-outs. “When what made sense before makes little sense now, we are in that sacred space of having to decide whether or not we will adjust to the curveball,” says the Bible scholar. “And what we decide will make all the difference.” That path began while he was in graduate school at Harvard University, studying the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament. After pedaling his bike home from class one day, he found himself having “a conversation with the refrigerator.” He stood there in the kitchen wondering if Abraham in the Bible was a real person, and then shrank back with guilt at even having such a thought. But for Enns, what he calls his Maytag moment prompted years of examination beyond his evangelical Christian training and his reading of the Bible “literally or else.” In the book, he considers a God who is here and now – active and always present. Enns intuited years ago that outside of his conservative circles, questioning the literal truths in the Bible meant moving beyond fixed interpretations – moving forward, not backward. And he recognized that the God he has come to know “honors simple honesty more than going along with scripted roles.” The chapter “Blink of an Eye” expands the universe to be God-size – infinite – not compressed into a denominational or historical mold. God, he argues, is a Deity who invites curiosity, not lock-step conformity. Enns opens up a challenge to Christians, Jews, Muslims, and others to see God’s existence as different from what is meant by existence “for any other thing.” Otherwise, he says, we are talking about “‘a being’ who ‘exists’ in the way everything else does.” He also has a hard time accepting a God caught up in border issues, warfare, and other actions in the Bible that divide humanity into groups, rather than uniting them. For Enns, the label “God” is merely a placeholder for the breadth of the Almighty. He speaks of a God who doesn’t sit high above creation, but who permeates it – not one who “is in a perpetual state of anger, who causes floods and dooms the stubborn to disease.” Whatever God’s justice might be, the author sees it as one of restoration, not punishment. Later, in an excerpt called “A Quick Glance at My Miserable Parenting Skills,” Enns regrets he wasn’t more aware of the curveballs when he was a 30-something parent. He confesses to pushing back at the message his teenage kids delivered loud and clear: that what they were hearing in church didn’t match the reality they were story continues on page 15 How an MIT scientist paved the way for women in science After Nancy Hopkins became hooked on molecular biology as an undergraduate in the early 1960s, a male postdoc told her, “We’re all curious to know if a girl can make it to the top in science. We think you might be the one.” The two were working in a lab run by James Watson of Watson and Crick, the duo credited with discovering the double helix structure of DNA. Hopkins, a Radcliffe student, had taken a class taught by Watson at Harvard and promptly asked to continue working with him. As Kate Zernike recounts in The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science, Watson was soon encouraging his acolyte to pursue a Ph.D. If Hopkins herself was something of an experiment in Watson’s lab, she certainly proved to be a successful one. She went on to earn her doctorate in molecular biology from Harvard and joined the faculty of MIT in 1973, becoming tenured some five years later. Her research initially focused on mapping bacterial viruses and cancer-causing viruses in mice; she later devoted herself to the genetic analysis of zebrafish as a model for understanding early development in vertebrates. Along the way, she attracted grant money, published her results frequently, and enjoyed positive teaching evaluations. But as New York Times reporter Zernike documents in her meticulous and gripping book, which charts Hopkins’s struggle for equal treatment as a scientist, Hopkins also dealt with a steady stream of indignities, some of which rose to the level of harassment. Her male colleagues sometimes claimed credit for her work and often excluded her from meetings. She was frequently mistaken for a secretary; meanwhile, her own secretary, whom she shared with a male colleague, did the man’s typing first and sometimes didn’t get to Hopkins’s work at all. (“You deserve better than this, Nancy,” the secretary told her.) She was informed that she couldn’t teach a large lecture class because MIT undergraduates wouldn’t take a woman seriously; instead of being outraged, Zernike writes, she was grateful to the department chair “for sparing her embarrassment.” Men took her equipment and lab samples without permission and encroached on her space. Exasperated, she moved her lab to a more private floor and then was accused of a lack of collegiality. Still, Hopkins continued to believe that science in general and MIT in particular was a meritocracy. She blamed herself for not being comfortable in a competitive, aggressive environment. She resisted thinking that her problems had anything to do with her being a woman. That began to change in the early 1990s, when her struggle for space and equipment pushed her to a breaking point. She complained to her department chair, who countered that his office was the same size as hers, a claim that Hopkins characterized in her diary as “ridiculous to the point of being crazy.” (She would not have used the term “gaslighting” then, but it comes to mind now.) Ever the scientist, she collected data: She stayed in the building late one night and, tape measure in hand, sneaked into the other offices. It turned out that everyone had more space than Hopkins. The department chair had four times as much, and, as the author writes, “even a junior faculty member – a man – had almost double the space she did.” She was also galvanized by being told she would no longer be teaching a biology course she herself had developed. She had co-taught the class with a man who was planning to adapt her syllabus into a textbook with her replacement, also a man; the two of them, and not Hopkins, stood to profit financially from her work. In the author’s words, she realized that “these men barely saw her. She was a nonentity.” Zernike tells this story masterfully. Some of the slights and quarrels she describes might, by themselves, seem trivial, or par for the course in a harddriving work environment. But they gather undeniable force as they accumulate. It comes as a relief when Hopkins finally begins to compare notes with other women scientists at MIT (there weren’t many) and finds that she is hardly alone in being, in Zernike’s words, in “a constant battle for resources and recognition.” For months a group of 16 women worked together to craft a proposal for a committee that would investigate the distribution of resources. In 1994, six of them met with Dean of Science Robert Birgeneau, who, hearing their stories, realized with “sudden clarity” that MIT was engaging in a pattern of sex discrimination. A number of books have been written about women in science in recent years. These include Margot Lee Shetterly’s “Hidden Figures” and Kathy Kleiman’s “Proving Ground” – which focus on the unheralded accomplishments of women in the early days at NASA and in computer programming, respectively – and planetary scientist Lindy ElkinsTanton’s memoir, “Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman.” While these books tackle discrimination, they are more concerned with celebrating their subjects’ achievements. “The Exceptions,” meanwhile, brings the discrimination to the fore, but in describing the tenacity of Hopkins and her peers, it ends up being just as inspirational. James Watson remained a lifelong mentor to Hopkins. There’s bitter irony in the fact that the work of a female scientist, Rosalind Franklin, uncredited at the time, is now acknowledged to have been key to Watson and Crick’s Nobel Prizewinning discovery of the double helix. There was never only going to be one “girl” to make it to the top in science. But Hopkins and the other “exceptions” surely helped ease the way for many women to follow. By Stephen Humphries In 1999, women in science celebrated a major victory when MIT admitted to gender discrimination and became a pacesetter for equality. Kate Zernike recounts the inspiring story in, “The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science.” Curveball’: When spiritual skepticism leads to sturdier faith

0 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 SMART READER May 18, 2023 15 PRINT & E-BOOKS NONFICTION PRINT & E-BOOKS FICTION 1. The 23rd Midnight (Patterson/Paetro) 2. Happy Place (Henry) 3. Meet Me At The Lake (Fortune) 4. The Coventant Of Water (Verghese) 5. Fourth Wing (Yarros) 6. The Wedding Planner (Steel) 7. It Ends With Us (Hoover) 8. Lessons in Chemistry (Garmus) 9. Simply Lies (Baldacci) 10. It Starts With Us (Hoover) 1. The Wager (Grann) 2. The Light We Carry (M.Obama) 3. Look For Me There (Russert) 4. Outlive (Attia/Gifford) 5. The Body Keeps the Score (van der Kolk) 6. Spare (Prince Harry) 7. I’m Glad My Mom Died (McCurdy) 8. Crying in the H Mart (Zauner) 9. Lessons Learned and Cherished (Roberts) 10. The Escape Artist (Timpf) NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLERS experiencing. He credits their authenticity and refusal to accept the status quo with allowing him to recognize his own spiritual complacency. And now that they’re adults, Enns worries less about the need to “save” them in “a conventional evangelical sense.” Instead, he endeavors to be a healing force that a more expansive God models for him. What is particularly encouraging is that Enns doesn’t lay out a specific formula for the reader. That said, his accessible voice doesn’t hide an urgency he feels these times demand. He cautions that the Bible isn’t an owner’s manual with a prescribed way of interpreting a spiritual life. Wrestling with God and with scripture goes back to ancient times, and is “God-activated,” he writes, building a sturdier faith for both ardent seekers as well as those hanging back due to doubt or guilt. Enns’ previous books include “How the Bible Actually Works” and “The Sin of Certainty.” In honor of his Maytag moment, “Curveball” sees past religious facts set in stone, to a fluidity of thought that was for him fertile ground for growth. He spurs readers on to their own refrigerator moment, leading them on a journey that creates a sacred space for a “bigger” God. By Joan Taylor Heather Armstrong, who launched one of the first mommy blogs, Dooce.com, and became a bestselling author, has died at age 47. Armstrong's death was reported in an Instagram post on her account. "Heather Brooke Hamilton aka Heather B. Armstrong aka dooce aka love of my life. July 19, 1975 -- May 9, 2023. 'It takes an ocean not to break.' Hold your loved ones close and love everyone else," the post, written by her boyfriend Pete Ashdown, reads. Armstrong -- who lived in Salt Lake City, and is survived by her daughters Leta, 19, and Marlo, 14, as well as her ex-husband Jon Armstrong -- died by suicide, according to Ashdown. "Heather B. Hamilton (Armstrong) was a brilliant, funny, compassionate writer who struggled with mental-health and alcoholism. She saved many lives through her authorship on depression, but in the end could not save herself," Ashdown told ABC News in a statement. "Heather believed that ending her life was wrong, but in the end, her judgment was clouded by alcohol," Ashdown added. "She was loved and will be deeply missed." Armstrong founded one of the first mommy blogs in the early days of the Internet and was known as the "Queen of Mommy Bloggers" for her posts on the ups and downs of motherhood. Since her blog launched in 2001, Armstrong documented the everyday and "mundane details" of life, including potty training and postpartum depression. "I have no problem saying what some people are afraid to say," Armstrong told "Good Morning America" in 2009. Armstrong blogged about her own life, her struggles with depression, alcoholism, her divorce, and leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Her blog averaged 300,000 followers at a time and in 2009, Forbes named her one of the most influential women in media. Armstrong also wrote four books, including the memoir "It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita" and a book about her struggles with suicidal depression "The Valedictorian of Being Dead: The True Story of Dying Ten Times to Live." By Sheri Walsh continued from page 14 Romance author Emily Henry: Rom-com ‘helps you believe in life again’ If you read an Emily Henry novel while seated in an armchair, you may imagine that you’re actually in a beach chair. The author’s most recent stories are about finding romance in vacation settings. The title of Ms. Henry’s new novel, Happy Place, refers to a holiday cottage in Maine. Every year, three couples meet up at the sea-side home. But the protagonist and her former boyfriend haven’t told their friends that they broke up months earlier. The duo decide to pretend that they’re still engaged. The occasionally steamy “Happy Place” exemplifies the character depth and witty dialogue that enriched her previous bestsellers “Beach Read,” “People We Meet on Vacation,” and “Book Lovers.” The Monitor recently interviewed Ms. Henry via Zoom. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. You first started reading romance novels a few years ago when you felt acutely aware of darkness in the world. Can you tell me about how the oftendenigrated rom-com genre offered a respite? The thing that I love about the genre so much is that it’s innately built on hopefulness. … When we talk about the genre, we talk about the idea of a happily ever after, or a happy for now. … You don’t need a guarantee of everything being smooth sailing from here on out. You just need this one moment where you really appreciate where you are and you have joy and have some semblance of contentment. I think that’s a really healing thing to be able to read …. I think the hope element of it is even possibly more important than the comfort. It’s not just a Band-Aid. It’s something that kind of helps you believe in life again. Like, believe in life and its value and its beauty. What did you want “Happy Place” to convey about what constitutes true happiness? Maine is this cast of characters’ happy place. But Harriet, the narrating character, also has all of these other happy places that are just the moments that she goes back to [reminisce about] to ground herself. … That has been a way of thinking that has persisted for generations, that you’re working for the weekend, just putting in your time until you can get to what feels like it should be your real life. There’s a line where she talks about how she feels like she’s living in this marathon. The finish line is when she’ll finally be happy. That’s such an easy trap to fall into where everything you’re doing is for this imagined future version of yourself, and you’re not making any time and space in the present to already have joy. How did you look at this book as a way to explore issues of selfworth? Even in our closest friendships and our most intimate relationships, there still is that fear that if people could really see all the way down to the core of you, you would be unlovable. … But again, I’m writing romance. The whole genre is built on hope. It’s built on the idea that it’s worth exposing yourself to that raw level, with the hope that you could have this connection with a person that you can’t have if they never really see you. And the main character for “Happy Place,” specifically Harriet, her big thing that she’s working on is being a people pleaser. I feel like that’s been a huge revelation for me over the last couple of years - how much of my life is guided by trying to make sure everybody’s happy with me. It’s like I’m writing that consciously, knowing I’m working through something for myself. What are some of your literary and onscreen influences for writing witty banter? It’s a sensibility that’s born much more from watching a lot of TV and movies. And I always come back to the feeling that I was raised by Nora Ephron (“You’ve Got Mail”) and Amy ShermanPalladino (“Gilmore Girls”). There are novelists I look to whenever I’m not feeling particularly funny and I just need to be reminded what a funny writer is. I constantly go back to Mhairi McFarlane. And then the co-writing duo Christina Lauren. Tell me about the research for your novels. I imagine it involves a lot of traveling to vacation locations? I am really a homebody and I love just being home writing. But I also do think it’s a pretty nice racket I’ve got going here where I can just set a book somewhere and go spend some time there and then, like, write it all off! By Stephen Humphries Curveball Heather Armstrong Heather Armstrong, best-selling author and mommy blogger of Dooce.com, dies at 47 Romance novels are often denigrated, usually by those who don’t read them. But author Emily Henry sees a genre based on hope and healing.

16 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F In a world increasingly consumed by social media, much has been made of the amount of time younger generations spend online every day -- and the harms that habit can bring. But now a new study of older adults suggests that regular Internet use may actually be a boon for older Americans, staving off the long-term risk for dementia. "We studied the association between Internet usage and the risk of dementia in the long term among dementia-free adults aged 50 and older," explained study author Gawon Cho. "We found that regular users experienced approximately half the risk of dementia than non-regular users," said Cho, a doctoral student in the department of social and behavioral sciences at New York University's School of Global Public Health, in New York City. "Surprised by the magnitude of the risk difference" her team observed, Cho acknowledged that it's not entirely clear whether dementia-free patients are simply more likely to surf the web in the first place, or whether surfing the web can actually help keep dementia risk at bay. "We cannot tell which is the chicken and which is the egg at this time," Cho admitted. Still, she said, the findings do indicate that when it comes to maintaining a healthy brain "Internet usage in old age matters." To examine how Internet use might impact dementia risk, the study team focused on more than 18,000 American adults. All were between the ages of 50 and 65 when the study was launched in 2002. After initially undergoing mental health assessments, all participants were subsequently interviewed every two years, to keep tally of Internet usage habits. At each interview all participants were asked to respond yes or no to the following question: "Do you regularly use the World Wide Web, or the Internet, for sending and receiving email or for any other purpose, such as making purchases, searching for information or making travel reservations?" Those who answered "yes" were classified as "regular Internet users." Those who answered "no" were deemed "non-regular users." By that definition, approximately two-thirds of the participants were regular Internet users when the study began; just over onethird were not. In addition, in 2013 a subsample of participants who skewed older were also asked to indicate precisely how many hours a day they went online to email, socialize, get news or shop, among other activities. Time spent watching TV or movies was excluded. Dementia risk was then tracked for a maximum of 17 years, with an average follow-up of about 8 years. In the end, just under 5% of the participants had developed dementia by the time the study was halted. About 8% of the participants had died without having developed dementia, while more than 87% remained mentally sharp. Cho acknowledged that roughly one-fifth of the participants changed their Internet usage habits over the course of the study. Specifically, about 13% of those who had first been classified as regular users indicated they were nonregular users during at least one of the subsequent interviews. Change also unfolded in reverse, the team noted, with just over one-third of those initially deemed to be nonregular users having switched to regular Internet use at least once over the ensuing years. Still, the vast majority of participants did not alter their Internet habits over time. After stacking initial Internet habits up against dementia risk, the team concluded that about 1.5% of regular Internet users were at risk for dementia, while more than 10% of nonregular users were, according to the report The investigators said the findings held up even after taking into account race, ethnicity, gender and prior education. But a notable twist surfaced when the team turned to the 2013 hourly usage data. Among that small group of relatively older men and women, investigators saw a "U-shaped dynamic," in which older folks who were never online and those who were online between 6 to 8 hours each day seemed to have a higher risk for dementia than their peers whose Internet use fell somewhere in between. Cho noted that prior research has suggested that excessive Internet use may ultimately "negatively affect the risk of dementia in older adults." As for the broader finding that regular Internet use might be protective against dementia, Cho and her colleagues speculated that it might have to do with how routine online surfing helps to bolster language ability, memory and thoughtprocessing capacity. The findings were published recently in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Claire Sexton, senior director of scientific program and outreach for the Alzheimer's Association, suggested that the findings align with the notion that "the more we know about the Alzheimer's risk factors we can change, the better." Sexton said, "This is important research, as it identifies a potentially modifiable factor that may influence dementia risk." More research into the impact of lifestyle choices on dementia risk will be needed, she noted. "People may be able to reduce their risk of cognitive decline by adopting key lifestyle habits, including regular physical activity, getting more formal education, taking care of heart health, and getting enough sleep," she said. "When possible, combine these habits to achieve maximum benefit for the brain and body. Start now. It's never too late or too early to incorporate healthy habits." By Cara Nuez Daily Internet use among older adults may ward off dementia Getting good sleep is an important part of wellness for many reasons, but new research suggests deep sleep may even guard against memory loss linked to Alzheimer's. While disrupted sleep has been linked with accumulating beta-amyloid plaques in the brain faster, scientists found that superior amounts of deep, slow-wave sleep can be protective against memory decline in those with a high burden of Alzheimer's disease. This could help ease some of dementia's most devastating outcomes, the experts said. "With a certain level of brain pathology, you're not destined for cognitive symptoms or memory issues," said study author Zsófia Zavecz, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Human Sleep Science. "People should be aware that, despite having a certain level of pathology, there are certain lifestyle factors that will help moderate and decrease the effects. "One of those factors is sleep and, specifically, deep sleep," Zavecz said in a university news release. The researchers had previously found that the declining amount of a person's deep sleep could predict a faster rate of future beta-amyloid buildup in the brain. That idea of cognitive reserve is a compelling target for sleep researchers, said senior study author Matthew Walker, a UC Berkeley professor of neuroscience and psychology. "If we believe that sleep is Deep sleep may guard against memory loss linked to Alzheimer's health A new study of older adults suggests that regular Internet use may be a boon for older Americans, staving off the long-term risk for dementia. story continues on next page , , f .

0 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 SMART READER May 18, 2023 17 n, s t t s s t y y e n e o e y g y, l f g d. e e e s y y z DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I am a 50-year-old man who enjoys running. I have completed several halfmarathons and began training for longer distances. A few months ago, I tore my calf muscle. I went to physical therapy, and all seemed to heal well. However, last weekend while running, I felt a strain in my calf. Is there anything I can do, or will I have to give up running? I was really looking forward to completing a marathon this coming spring. ANSWER: Your situation is common, especially for runners of your age. You probably will not have to give up running, and with some precautions, you can get to 26.2 miles by next year. That said, you may need to ease up a bit and give your body more time to heal. Additional physical therapy can be helpful as you work through that process. Calf muscle injuries are among the most common for runners over 40, particularly men. This type of soft tissue injury can heal, but it is going to take time. For younger runners, recovering from a calf muscle injury usually takes about six to eight weeks. At 50, however, you have lost some flexibility and elasticity in your soft tissue. That means recovery is going to take longer — possibly 12 weeks or more. Taking it slow is key to a successful recovery. If you are having considerable difficulty with walking or putting pressure on the leg initially, seeing a sports medicine specialist can be helpful in deciding how much rest you need or if using a boot will be beneficial to allow the soft tissues to heal. If you are able to walk pain-free, a return to running progression may be advised with some limitations. A general recommendation for returning from this kind of injury is to start at just 15 minutes of running every other day and stay at that level for one week. If you are able to do that without pain, in the second week, move up to 20 minutes of running every other day. Once you can comfortably achieve that, add another five minutes to your runs each week. At that time, you also can add one more day to your weekly running schedule. If at any point you feel discomfort or pain, take your running down to the previous level you were able to achieve without pain. Recognize that even when you are completely healed, you may not be able to run as far or as fast as you once did. As you work on returning to running, you also may want to incorporate crosstraining into your exercise routine to help you stay fit without raising your risk of another injury. Swimming, an elliptical trainer or a stationary bike, or outdoor biking can provide quality workouts. Seeing a sports medicine or rehabilitation specialist early after an injury can be helpful in developing an individualized recovery plan for your progression back from these injuries while continuing to stay active. It also may be valuable, especially if you have developed similar injuries in the past, to see a physical therapist for additional evaluation and therapy. He or she can provide guidance on exercises that may be useful for strengthening your calf muscle, such as eccentric exercises that focus on lengthening contractions in the muscle. An example of this type of exercise involves standing on a step with your heels hanging over the edge, and then slowly lowering your heel down, so you control the descent of your leg with the calf muscles. The physical therapist can provide some guidance for how much cross-training and time you should spend to maximize your recovery. You may want to consider undergoing a runner's evaluation, too. This is a specialized assessment that occurs while you run on a treadmill. As you run, a physical therapist or sports medicine specialist watches your gait for signs of biomechanical issues that could raise your risk for injury. Identifying and correcting those issues could reduce your risk of future injuries. Another step you can take to help prevent additional injury is to ensure you always incorporate a dynamic warmup and stretch thoroughly before you start running. It can be as simple as taking a few minutes to walk before you run. A warmup allows for more blood flow to your muscles, making them more elastic and less likely to strain. If running is a priority for you, using a slow, measured approach with guidance from a physical therapist is the best method for recovering from this type of injury and reducing your risk of it happening again. It will take some time, but with discipline and patience, you likely will be able to enjoy running again. — Wesley Troyer D.O., Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida Mayo Clinic Common calf muscle injuries in runners over 40 health , , f . so critical for memory, could sleep be one of those missing pieces in the explanatory puzzle that would tell us exactly why two people with the same amounts of vicious, severe amyloid pathology have very different memory?" Walker said in the release. While getting more education, being physically active and having a lot of social engagement may also make a person more resilient, some of them are hard to modify. "If the findings supported the hypothesis, it would be thrilling, because sleep is something we can change," Walker said. "It is a modifiable factor." The study included 62 healthy older adults not diagnosed with dementia from the Berkeley Aging Cohort Study. They slept in a lab while researchers monitored their sleep waves with an electroencephalography (EEG) machine. The team then used a positron emission tomography (PET) scan to measure the amount of beta-amyloid deposits in the participants' brains. While half of the participants had high amounts of amyloid deposits, the other half did not. The participants then completed a memory task involving matching names to faces. Those with high amounts of beta-amyloid deposits in their brain who also had more deep sleep did better on the memory test than those with the same amount of deposits who slept worse. This was limited to the group with amyloid deposits. In the group without the deposits, deep sleep did not improve memory. After controlling for other factors, researchers still saw benefits from deep sleep. This suggests that deep sleep contributes to salvaging memory function even in the face of brain pathology. The findings were published in the journal BMC Medicine. Walker suggested deep sleep could be like a rescue effort. "Think of deep sleep almost like a life raft that keeps memory afloat, rather than memory getting dragged down by the weight of Alzheimer's disease pathology," Walker said. "It now seems that deep NREM sleep may be a new, missing piece in the explanatory puzzle of cognitive reserve. This is especially exciting because we can do something about it. There are ways we can improve sleep, even in older adults." By Alan Mozes continued from page 4 Deep sleep

18 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F Science and society are moving too fast for an increasingly right-wing, clickbait-seeking GOP. The world made more sense to them, was more ordered and acceptable when men and women were easier to categorize and therefore, to understand. Boy meets girl. Dick, in slacks with a belt, and Jane, in a pleated dress, play nicely on the playground. Ward and June Cleaver — Ward in slacks, belt and briefcase and June, in pearls, pleated dress and cardigan — are married with two sons. They live in the suburbs. These are comfortable images, as is any reference to perceived family wholesomeness of a bygone era. Never mind that these depictions never really existed in broad strokes across America, not beyond elementary bookshelves and old black and white sitcoms –not if we’re being honest. Family life, despite ruminations to the contrary, has always been more complicated. Nature, I’d argue God, also creates people who are gay, and those whose genitalia do not align with how they feel about themselves, along with people who simply don’t fit into a neat little box of what it means to be male or female in chosen dress, mannerisms, or by heterosexual orientation. Sorry, I threw in a less banal term there – heterosexual orientation – or “straight” in colloquial language. Anyone who isn’t straight has never been the majority, but that shouldn’t matter. It’s about respect for fellow human beings. Yet in statehouses across the nation, conservative Republicans are increasingly desperate to revert to what was exclaimed in delivery rooms, which told them all they wanted to know: “It’s a girl!” or “It’s a boy!” This was the old-school gender reveal standard, judged by what the doctor or nurse could visibly see of a newborn’s anatomy. In most cases, that early assessment would prove solid throughout that new human being’s life. But not always. And science has long recognized this fact. The American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association have lengthy policies about attending to patients with gender dysphoria, protocols backed by years of clinical studies. Why is that not enough? Yes, there are conversations to be had about how schools, sports organizations and agencies like domestic violence shelters, and prisons manage the rights and concerns of all. But for the most part, those groups were managing just fine without the meddling of politicians. The hyper hysteria from some politicians far exceeds the gender identity complications. And the “answers” that these politicians are reaching for are becoming more unhinged from thoughtful consideration and definitely from science. Some of the worst comes from the Midwest. The Kansas Legislature overrode the veto of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly to ban transgender women from being able to change driver licenses to match their gender identity, or to use bathrooms and other spaces marked for women. In the ban, legislators also included locker rooms, rape crisis centers, and domestic violence shelters that had been designated singlegender and for women. The bill could put millions of dollars in federal funding for Kansas agencies like domestic violence shelters at risk. And curiously, they The GOP’s gender hysteria with Mary Sanchez Readers can reach Mary Sanchez at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @msanchezcolumn. When he ran for president a second time in 1968 on the American Independent Party ticket, Alabama Governor George Wallace said, “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democrat and Republican parties.” Granted that Wallace, who had been a Democrat, was attempting to attract votes for that nascent party, but his statement may have found new life in Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, a former Democrat and now an Independent. Appearing last Sunday on “Face the Nation”, Sinema referenced the final speech her predecessor, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) gave on the Senate floor in 2018 in which he lamented the partisanship that has overtaken Congress: “…he said that folks were more interested in ensuring that the other party lost or prevented the other party from getting a win. And then they were no longer focused on the much more inspiring and more meaningful work of bringing people together, people of good faith to actually solve problems and improve lives of the people that we serve in our country.” We have heard that lament before, but actually working together requires agreement on what the problems are and a willingness to actually solve them instead of bludgeoning members of the other party. Sinema went a step further in explaining the extreme partisanship: “They’ve moved away from that center of working together and finding that common ground and they’re going towards the fringes because that’s where the money is, and that’s where the attention is, and that’s where the likes on Twitter are, and that’s where you get the clicks and the accolades. And there’s an incentive to continue to say things that are not true and not accurate.” Asked why she didn’t switch to the Republican Party from the Democratic Party, Sinema laughed and said, “you don’t go from one broken party to another.” Her solution is a familiar one that needs more adherents. Again referring to McCain’s final Senate speech, she said: “ …he spoke about the importance of getting rid of the uninspiring activities you see now of partisanship and restoring the inspiring activity of working together.” So how do we fix this in our country? It’s not that difficult. “It’s all of us choosing to behave with that same level of dignity, of respect for each other of honor, refusing to do that uninspiring activity of just trying to prevent the other from a win, and instead focusing on what can we do to bring our country together and demonstrate that we’re serving them.” With Title 42 expiring Thursday, which is expected to bring in a new wave of migrants, Sinema blames not only the Biden administration for failing to come up with a plan, but also both political parties: “both parties have benefited for decades by not solving this challenge.” Perhaps that’s why the fastest growing voter group is independents, though they usually end up voting for one party or the other on Election Day. It’s going to take more than one senator to make the case that our system of elections and government are broken. Returning to the guardrails provided in the Constitution would solve a lot of problems, but barring that unlikely occurrence, it is up to “We the people” to make changes by voting for candidates who are committed to actually addressing and solving the growing number of problems that confront us. Otherwise, George Wallace will be seen as a prophet because there is increasingly not a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties when it comes to doing what is best for the nation.” Not a dime’s worth of difference with Cal Thomas Readers may email Cal Thomas at [email protected]. Look for Cal Thomas’ new book “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers and the Future of the United States” my turn Mary Sanchez joins Happenings Q&A on Tue. May 30 at 1:30 on AM1050 WLIP. continues on next page February 7, 2023, Washington, District of Columbia, United States: U.S. Senator KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-AZ) at the State of the Union Address in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol. An activist holds a sign during a march in West Hollywood

0 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 SMART READER May 18, 2023 19 r o o y, d r o e c d - s g e s y Has the current state of American politics banished or abandoned common sense? Or, worse, have Americans banished or abandoned common sense in what is expected from their government and even from basic citizenship? This should be intolerable. It is not. Last week was filled with examples of the absence of common sense. The first was the looming debt ceiling crisis and whether the United States, for the first time in its history, could default on its payments defined by the 14th Amendment as: The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. The United States and Denmark are the only states with debt ceilings set in absolute numbers. The purpose of the debt ceiling is a failed effort in controlling government spending. Since 1960, the United States has raised its debt ceiling 78 times -- 49 under Republicans and 29 under Democrats. The current U.S. debt is closing in on $32 trillion -- $8 trillion or 1/4 of that debt accruing under the Trump administration's four years and $4 trillion so far under President Joe Biden. That the debt ceiling would be breached in mid2023 was no secret in 2022. Why, then, is raising it down to the wire again? It is the absence of common sense. The United States has a ticking time bomb in its exploding debt. Yet the inbuilt increases inherent in federal spending programs makes reductions very difficult. Entitlements account for about half of federal spending; interest payments are approaching $400 billion this year or just under half of the defense budget. The Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates that, without change, in 2032 interest payments will be about $1.2 trillion. What is to be done? The common sense answer is, as the administration compiles its budget requests, Congress should be part of the process, with representatives from both houses and both parties present. But can politics tolerate common sense? Second, last week another "mass" shooting took place in a Texas shopping mall. A mass shooting is defined as involving four or more victims. The easy, cynical solution is to raise that number well above four. Because of the lack of agreement on the meaning of the Second Amendment, a better solution is not to focus on guns and whether "a well-regulated militia" -- and not individuals -- have the right to bear and carry arms. Instead, common sense would dictate focusing on ammunition. For example, the AR-15 .223 bullet has a muzzle velocity of 3,000-3,200 feet per second or almost three times the speed of sound. It is the speed of the bullet that makes any wound potentially fatal and extraordinarily damaging. Bullets could be made with limits on muzzle velocities to render them less deadly. And, more importantly, why should every bullet not have a chip to mark its identity that would hold sellers and manufacturers liable if the ammunition was obtained illegally? Third, a poll was released last week. Of nearly threefifths of Americans who believed Donald Trump broke the law, 1 in 5 would still vote for him. How can that be? Of course, polls are so selective that the risk of being wrong or inaccurate is always present. A convicted candidate running for president is not new. In 1920, Socialist candidate and labor leader Eugene V. Debs was in an Atlanta prison for violating the 1918 Sedition Act that outlawed public criticism of the government in wartime. Ironically, Trump could face charges of sedition. Will common sense return to American politics? One of the most serious obstructions to the return of common sense is the concurrent absence of civility and compromise across America and especially in the U.S. government and both aisles of Congress. When the other side is viewed as the enemy and evil, and politics has become zero sum in which you are either with us or against us, then these absurdities become reality. Americans must ask why common sense has disappeared -- discarded or abandoned. And candidates for high office should likewise be compelled to address this question. That does not mean common sense is a universal elixir and cure. It is not. But without a modicum of common sense being applied to politics, the swelling national debt is the avatar for the future. That debt must be addressed. Otherwise it will explode. And that example is the precursor showing how failing to apply common sense to get America back on course spells disaster. Americans have abandoned common sense on debt ceiling, shootings and Trump with Harlan Ullman my turn Dr Harlan Ullman is senior adviser at Washington's Atlantic Council, the prime author of "shock and awe" and the upcoming book "The Fifth Horseman and the New MAD: How Massive Attacks of Disruption Became the Looming Existential Danger to a Divided Nation and the World at Large." Harlan Ullman joins Happenings Q&A on Thu., June 1st at 1pm on AM1050 WLIP. People leave notes, flowers and stuffed animals on crosses honoring the eight victims of a mass shooting at Allen Premium Outlets mall in Texas. call this a “women’s bill of rights.” Most women that I know, born that way or who are trans, nonbinary, or people who practice the art of drag, are very adept at managing themselves in bathrooms. We do our business behind a locked stall door and spend the rest of the time chit chatting or scurrying back out of the restroom to get on with life. Yes, this has also long been true in public schools. Or it’s been completely circumvented as an issue by administrators who opted to provide an all-gender, one person-at-a-time bathroom for their school. In Missouri, an injunction has temporally stopped Attorney General Andrew Bailey from deciding that even adults can’t access gender conforming care such as testosterone therapy, not without going through a checklist of things like resolving a mental health diagnosis, undergoing 15 hours of therapy and providing proof that they’ve had gender dysphoria for a number of years. The courts will rule in time, but even fellow Republicans have said they think Bailey went too far with this emergency rule. He’s likely over his skis in his role as attorney general. Decades ago, such discriminatory thinking, often ratcheted up into morality screeds, was behind the push to limit the rights of gay and lesbian people. But just as the legislators were ramping up the verbiage, many of them witnessed more and more people coming out, bravely taking a stand for themselves. Sometimes, this happened within their own families. It became a pattern, a humbling experience for these politicians who didn’t understand their beloved family members. Here’s the concern. In that context, this can become a number’s game. There are far fewer people who claim gender dysphoria than there are those who identify as homosexual or anywhere else on the spectrum of sexual orientation. Here’s what’s known, as published in the reference book of mental health and psychiatry (DSM-5): “About 0.005% to 0.014% of people assigned male at birth (that is, roughly one in 10,000) and 0.002% to 0.003% of people assigned female at birth (that is, two or three in every 100,000) are diagnosable with gender dysphoria.” That’s not a lot of people. This means that far right politicians are less likely to have a forced reckoning with reality and the science of gender dysphoria within their own families. In that case it will be more important for allies to step up, get educated, and then push back within the circles they can influence. That might be your church, family, school, or neighborhood. Without this, more people – however they chose to identify and live their lives – are going to be needlessly and in some cases maliciously targeted. Sanchez continued from page 18

20 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F Confidence is an essential component of the financial system. Without it, worried depositors pull their money from banks; spooked investors don’t trade with firms that they believe won’t make good on purchases or sales; and none of us would accept dollar bills as currency. Confidence (or lack thereof) is in the news, after a trio of headlines showed that Americans have lost confidence in their banks, the Federal Reserve Chair, and their own financial future. One immediate outcome of the regional banking system crisis is that people got nervous. An April Gallup poll found that “nearly half of Americans are anxious about the safety of the money they have in accounts at banks or other financial institutions.” A total of 48 percent of respondents were either very or moderately concerned about their money – and the poll was conducted before the third leg of the shaky banking stool, First Republic, succumbed, like Silicon Valley and Signature Bank before it. The last time people were this spooked about financial institutions was after the 2008 financial crisis. A separate question in the Gallup poll that garnered attention asked about confidence in the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. After peaking at 50% confidence in 2020, Americans have soured on the Fed. Powell may be getting dinged by those who are frustrated by the Fed’s late start to raising rates to tackle inflation — and also by those who are unhappy with rates being 5% higher than they were 15 months ago. Powell’s confidence rating dropped to just 36%, slightly worse than the low levels for his predecessors Janet Yellen’s 37% in 2014 and Ben Bernanke’s 39% in 2012. These results may be sobering, but all three are well above the rock bottom sub-20% confidence that former Fed Chair Paul Volcker earned during the late 1970’s-1980’s, according to George Washington University political scientist Sarah Binder. Finally, in its 2023 Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) found that among those who are working and those who are already retired, confidence in having enough money to live comfortably throughout retirement dropped significantly this year from 2022. “The last time there was a decline in confidence of this magnitude was in 2008 during the global financial crisis,” the RCS found. Inflation is the culprit, with workers and retirees reporting that high prices are causing them to spend a lot more money and to eat into their savings. Because inflation has remained higher for longer than expected, “4 in ten workers and 3 in 10 retirees are not confident their money will be able to keep up with inflation in retirement, a significant increase compared with the one-third of workers who felt this way last year.” A massive 84% of workers and 67% of retirees are concerned that the increasing cost of living will make it harder for them to save money. Perhaps more worrisome is that many are seeing debt levels rise in response to inflation. Outstanding credit card balances are closing in on $1 trillion, and the cost of servicing that debt has jumped from 14.5% before the Fed started its rate hike campaign, to over 20% today. No wonder confidence is on the wane. Despite the current gloom that permeates these polls and surveys, I remain oddly optimistic in the power of time to help restore confidence. Yes, it feels lousy today, but just like in 2008, there was a recovery, and we slowly regained our footing. Or as Julie Andrew sang in the film version of The Sound of Music, “I have confidence that spring will come again. Besides, which you see, I have confidence in me!” Confidence shaken with Jill Schlesinger jill on money Some crises seem to come out of the blue, while others take place in slow motion. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) qualifies for the former, while the failure of First Republic Bank (FRB) would be the later. It wasn’t a surprise when the FDIC announced that it was seizing and selling the bulk of the institution to JP Morgan Chase, but it capped an intense seven-week period that resulted in shuttering of three mid-sized U.S. banks: SVB, Signature Bank and FRB. First Republic was the 14th biggest bank in the country and like SVB, had a wealthy customer base that maintained deposits well above the $250,000 FDIC insurance limit. As problems escalated in March, many of FRB’s depositors fled — according to the company’s Q1 2023 earnings report, $102 billion of deposits left during the first three months of the year, more than half of the $176 billion that was on hand at the end of last year, and far more than the $30 billion of deposits that 11 of the nation’s largest banks injected to help FRB stay afloat. Investors punished the stock over the past two months: on March 8th, FRB was trading at $115 and at the end of trading on its last day of as a public company (April 28), the stock closed at $3.51. Coincidentally, the failure of FRB occurred just days after the Federal Reserve’s report on what happened at SVB. The 118-page Review of the Federal Reserve’s Supervision and Regulation of Silicon Valley Bank provided a rare look into the opaque and often-shrouded processes that occurs at the nation’s central bank and at its 12 regional banks. The report may also be instructive as to how bank regulation needs to adapt and change to the current fast-paced exchange of information, which can push an ailing bank towards insolvency in a matter of days. It echoed what many have said: There was bad management at SVB. However, the more instructive part of the investigation was the acknowledgment that the Fed itself flubbed in its role as supervisor and regulator of the banking system. According to Michael Barr, the current vice chair of supervision at the Federal Reserve, Fed officials “did not fully appreciate the extent of the vulnerabilities as Silicon Valley Bank grew in size and complexity." And when spotting problems, “they did not take sufficient steps to ensure that Silicon Valley Bank fixed those problems quickly enough.” When banks lobbied to ease banking rules, the result was a reduction in supervisory standards, more complexity, and most alarmingly, “a less assertive supervisory approach,” Barr added. The report calls into question Barr’s predecessor, Randal Quarles’ full-throated defense of “tailoring” banking rules for mid-sized institutions. (The shift in regulation came after the 2018 passage of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, which amended the postfinancial crisis Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to loosen regulations for small and mid-sized banks.) The changes to the Fed’s approach to supervision were supposed allow it to “ensure the safety and soundness of the institutions they supervise,” but at the time, then Fed-governor (now Director of President Joe Biden’s National Economic Council) Lael Brainard raised the fear that the shift would “weaken core safeguards against the vulnerabilities that caused so much damage in the crisis.” The review is the starting point for a reevaluation of banking supervision in the post-SVB era. There will likely be rule changes and equally important will be a refocused effort from top fed officials to individual examiners and supervisors on the ground, who need “to form judgments that challenge bankers with a precautionary perspective.” Jill Schlesinger, CFP, is a CBS News business analyst. A former options trader and CIO of an investment advisory firm, she welcomes comments and questions at [email protected]. Check her website at www.jillonmoney.com Fed puts itself under the microscope with Jill Schlesinger A worker cleans windows at a First Republic Bank office on Monday, May 1, 2023, in San Francisco. Last week, Federal regulators seized troubled lender First Republic Bank and sold all of its deposits and most of its assets to JPMorgan Chase. a s c s a b a m s w l p e w a i a j b t l w w i m g y i s m i d o o h o r s t Y H k a b m a d n i i o d w W s

0 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 SMART READER May 18, 2023 21 t t g f a p t a Dear Cathy, Two years ago, my golden retriever sustained an injury the vet called a spinal stroke. She spent a few nights at the animal hospital before I brought her home. I was given a dog harness to help her move around and told she should make a full recovery within days. Sure enough, in less than a week, she was pretty much back to normal – even able to jump into my bed, which is fairly high. She plays, eats, runs, and appears healthy and pain-free in all other ways. However, about a week ago, she tried jumping onto my bed and fell back onto her hind legs. Since then, I have noticed her rear legs go out from under her when running. The vet said it was unrelated to the previous injury and prescribed joint medicine, which I have been giving her for almost two years. I have seen no improvement. Recently, the vet said a CT scan would be next if the meds don't help. I assume that it's either a hip or leg issue. My dilemma is needing to figure out what to do, whether it's one or the other. She is a happy, healthy dog in every other area and if they recommend surgery, I'm not sure I would want to put her through that unless necessary. Your thoughts? — Jeff, Holtsville, New York Dear Jeff, You have to know what's wrong and have all your choices presented before deciding what you might do. Depending on her age, overall health, and diagnosis, your vet may or may not recommend surgery. Even if he or she does recommend it, surgery may not be your only treatment option. The doctor could suggest a different medication, some physical therapy, or even acupuncture, depending on the problem. I mention acupuncture because I had a dog with hips that started giving out when he was about eight years old. He wasn't a candidate for surgery, so my vet recommended acupuncture. It wasn't expensive, and I was amazed at the results. We used a combination of acupuncture and medications to make him more comfortable and able to still get up on his own for the remainder of his life. Pets of any age can have surgery, but unless it's needed to save your pet's life, other treatment options may be available for your consideration. Dear Cathy, I've had many pets and found that if my dogs threw up, they usually ate something they shouldn't have. My wise mother told me to check the labels on my canned cat food for liver. Yep, it was frequently mixed into the food. When I stopped feeding it, my cats stopped throwing up (unless it was a hairball ). I hope this helps others. — Susan, Highland, Indiana Dear Susan, There is some truth to what you’re saying. Too much liver in a cat's diet can cause vitamin A toxicity, impacting your cat's bones and causing symptoms, like vomiting, weight loss, and pain. But liver can be good for your feline too in small amounts. It's generally recommended that liver be no more than five percent of a cat's diet and you have to factor in the pet's breed, size, and medical history. Liver could interact negatively with medications, other foods, or chronic conditions. Before anyone feeds liver to their cats or dogs, they should talk to a vet first. If your cat stopped vomiting after removing it from the diet, perhaps she was getting too much of it. Dear Cathy, I read about the cat that frequently vomits in my Post Tribune newspaper on February 15, and the writer was Jean Seaford from New York. I wanted to suggest that the cat may have chronic pancreatitis. The condition does not always appear in blood test results. My male cat had the disorder, and when I started feeding him a wet-only food diet, he improved significantly, from vomiting nearly every day to every couple of weeks. I hope this helps if the other things you suggested for her kitty don't work. — Catherine, Porter, Indiana Dear Catherine, I've received many letters about vomiting cats since printing Jean's letter. Whether caused by food or illness, vomiting is one of the primary ways cats (and dogs) tell us something is wrong. The reason for vomiting can run the gamut, from hairballs to serious illnesses like pancreatitis. Determining the cause requires patience and a fair amount of detective work. I am glad you found the cause. Your experience may help someone else get to the bottom of their cat's health problem. Pet World with Cathy Rosenthal When a vet recommends surgery, what do you do? As well as being a recuring guest on Happenings Q&A, Cathy M. Rosenthal is a longtime animal advocate, author, columnist and pet expert who has more than 30 years in the animal welfare field. Send your pet questions, stories and tips to [email protected]. A peeping goat is on the loose! Police in New Jeresey are seeking an unusual perpetrator seen peering into homes in the area -- a peeping goat. "The Chatham Township Police are actively searching for the peeping goat that has been seen throughout the Township," police said on Facebook. The goat appears to be armed only with its horns as it peers into homes. Police are advising people not to take the law into their own hands by trying to apprehend him. The goat has been seen wandering around the Township, showing up at doors and looking into homes. Residents responding to the police notice about the peeping goat are bemused, with comments like "Officially on the lamb, huh? If the farm is not the owner, can't say I'd turn this kid in." Another resident posted, "This is a baaaaaaaaad situation." One resident was curious about the goat's name. "His name has got to be (e) Scape Goat." Another local was concerned about the goat's legal rights. "Didn't you mean the 'alleged' peeping goat?" Police make peculiar rescue after hearing crys for help Police in Oklahoma said a pair of officers responding to a report of person "yelling for help" arrived to find the distressed shouter was "a very upset goat." The Enid Police Department said that Officers David Sneed and Neal Storey responded to a report of a person heard yelling for help. "Upon arriving, the officers began walking toward the faint sound of someone yelling," the post said. "As they got closer, Officer Sneed could hear a distinct yell for 'help.'" The officers ran to the source of the sound and discovered "a very upset goat." The goat's owner explained the animal was upset because he "had been separated from one of his friends." "All in all, you really can't say it was that baaad of a call," police wrote. There was no comment made if this was the same goat or a relative to the one mentioned in the story about the peeping goat above. Chonkasauraus: Chicago’s latest tourist stop A giant snapping turtle is becoming an online celebrity after it was caught on camera lounging on some rocks in the Chicago River. Joey Santore posted a video to Twitter showing the gargantuan amphibian enjoying the sun near Goose Island on the North Branch. "Great to see this beast thriving here on what was once such a toxic river, but is slowly getting cleaned up & restored." Santore wrote. The massive snapping turtle was dubbed "Chonkasaurus" by locals. Santore estimated the snapping turtle, believed to be a female, weighs at least 60 pounds. Biologists said Chonkasaurus appears to be 40 to 50 years old. UPS driver has a green-skinned encounter An animal rescue group in Pennsylvania said it is temporarily caring for a 2-foot-long lizard found wandering in a road by a package delivery driver. Speranza Animal Rescue said that UPS driver Michael Worona found the large lizard in the road and contacted police and animal rescuers. The reptile, believed to be a Savannah monitor lizard, was dubbed "Monster" by rescuers. The group said it is currently looking for a specialist to care for the lizard. Officers are investigating Monster's origins. “Wanna buy some cookies?” A West Virginia man's home security camera recorded the moment a bear wandered onto his porch at night and rang his doorbell. Dustin Smith of Fairmont posted a video to Facebook showing the bear wandering up to his front door just after 11 p.m. and investigating his Ring doorbell camera. The bear manages to ring the bell before running off into the distance. "Last night we were a victim of the good old fashioned ding dong ditch, but this time it wasn't being performed by a teenager," Smith wrote.

22 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800 F RE PL FO Lis G CO KE Ge the co me is join Ke an spe lan to tim inte at LIO so Ra sta We Sc Ha TW AT SEC TO ED FREE CLASSIFIEDS! If you're looking for a heart-healthy diet, the American Heart Association has some recommendations. An evidence-based analysis of 10 popular dietary patterns shows that some promote heart health better than do others. A new American Heart Association scientific statement concludes that the Mediterranean, Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH), pescatarian and vegetarian eating patterns most strongly align with hearthealthy eating guidelines issued by the AHA in 2021, whereas the popular paleolithic (paleo) and ketogenic (keto) diets fall short. The statement was published online April 27 in the journal Circulation. "The good news for the public and their clinicians is that there are several dietary patterns that allow for substantial flexibility for following a heart healthy diet -- DASH, Mediterranean, vegetarian," writes group chair Christopher Gardner, Ph.D., with Stanford University in California, in a news release. "However, some of the popular diets - - particularly paleo and keto -- are so strictly restrictive of specific food groups that when these diets are followed as intended by their proponents, they are not aligned with the scientific evidence for a heart-healthy diet." If you're confused about what to eat for heart health, you're not alone. That's what prompted the AHA to evaluate the various diets. The writing group rated on a scale of 1- 100 how well 10 popular diets or eating patterns align with AHA dietary advice for heart-healthy eating. Just what does hearthealthy eating mean? Consuming a wide variety of fruits and vegetables; choosing mostly whole grains instead of refined grains; using liquid plant oils rather than tropical oils; eating healthy sources of protein, such as from plants, seafood or lean meats; minimizing added sugars and salt; limiting alcohol; choosing minimally processed foods instead of ultra-processed foods; and following this guidance wherever food is prepared or consumed. The 10 diets/dietary patterns the AHA group evaluated were DASH, Mediterranean-style, pescatarian, ovo-lacto vegetarian, vegan, low-fat, very low-fat, lowcarbohydrate, paleo and very low-carbohydrate/ keto patterns. Charlyn Fargo is a registered dietitian with SIU Med School in Springfield, Ill. For comments or questions, contact her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @NutritionRd. food & recipes Charlyn Fargo joins Happenings Q&A on Thu. June 1st at 12:30 on AM1050 WLIP. Nutrition News with Charlyn Fargo Eating for Your Heart Servings: 4 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 1 large white onion, diced 1 zucchini, diced 1 poblano chile, diced 1 jalapeno chile, diced 1 bunch cilantro, stems minced, leaves chopped for serving 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt One (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed One (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with jalapenos 2 cups frozen white corn kernels 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle chile powder 4 large eggs Heat a large saute pan or skillet over medium-high heat for 30 seconds, then add the cumin seeds. Dry-toast the cumin until it begins to perfume the air, 30 seconds. Reduce the heat to medium and add the oil, followed by the onion, zucchini, poblano, jalapeno, cilantro stems and salt. Saute until the vegetables have softened, the zucchini has released its moisture and the poblano has turned a dark glossy green, 10 to 12 minutes. Add the beans, tomatoes, corn and ground chipotle. Stir well, cover and cook until the vegetables are simmering gently, 8 to 10 minutes. Use a large spoon to create four "cups" (indentations) in the vegetables. Crack one egg into each cup, cover and cook until the egg whites are opaque, 5 to 6 minutes. The yolks may still be soft; cook longer if you like your egg yolks cooked to a firmer consistency. Divide the eggs and vegetables among four bowls, top with cilantro leaves and serve. Serves 4. Per serving: 377 calories; 20 grams protein; 56 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams total fat (2 grams saturated); 14 grams fiber; 0 grams added sugars; 628 milligrams sodium. Mexican-Inspired Egg & Veggie Skillet Serves 4 Note: To ensure uniform pieces of fish, we prefer to purchase a whole center-cut salmon fillet and cut it into four equal pieces. For skinless salmon, we refer to the side opposite where the skin used to be, which is typically more pink in color and more rounded, as the flesh side. 1 (2-pound) center-cut skinless salmon fillet, about 1 1/2 inches thick 1 teaspoon table salt, divided 1 teaspoon pepper, divided 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 3 garlic cloves, sliced thin 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour 1/2 cup dry white wine 1/4 cup water 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon juice 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill 1. Cut salmon crosswise into 4 equal fillets. Pat salmon dry with paper towels and sprinkle all over with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. 2. Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add salmon flesh side down. Cover and cook until browned on bottom and registering 125 degrees (for medium-rare), about 5 minutes, or 135 degrees (for medium), about 7 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and transfer salmon, browned side up, to platter or individual plates. 3. Return skillet to medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in flour and cook for 15 seconds. Whisk in wine, water, capers, lemon zest and juice, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Bring to boil and cook for 30 seconds. 4. Off heat, whisk in butter, 1 piece at a time, until combined. Stir in dill. Spoon sauce over salmon. Serve. Piccata sauce is a simple, yet punchy mix of lemon, capers, white wine and butter. It’s tangy and takes your salmon dish in an exciting new direction. Quick tips 1. Buy a whole center-cut piece of salmon and cut it into individual portions to ensure that each fillet is a similar size to cook at the same rate. 2. Use skinless salmon fillets. More on this later. 3. Pat the fillets dry and sear them in oil in a preheated nonstick skillet to prevent them from sticking in the pan. 4. To keep the fish from breaking apart, cover the pan and let the steam gently cook the fish without flipping it. Note, this method means the fish only browns on one side. This is why you should use skinless salmon and then serve the fillets browned side up. Serving suggestions After cooking the fillets to 125 degrees (for mediumrare), let them rest on a platter to keep them juicy. While the salmon rests, start the piccata sauce. Cook the sauce down before whisking in butter, one piece at a time, off heat to ensure a viscous pan sauce; then finish with a sprinkle of dill. Salmon Piccata

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COMPOND HUNTING BOW LEFT HANDED, SIGHTS, SILENCER, ARROWS, QUIVER, SOFT CARRYING CASE. $100.00 262- 620-4301 LEAVE MESSAGE IF NO ANSWER. COCA-COLA CRATE WOOD WAGON, Measures: 19-Inch Long. 14-Inch Wide. & 10-Inch High. Red Plastic Wheels Move. Which Are 5-Inch Around. Handle Is 14-Inch Long. Crate Says: Bottles: Jonesboro., Ark. Made Of Wood. Put In Yard, With Plants. Easy To Move Around. Colleen/262-748-4343. VINTAGE SOLID DARK BROWN WOOD ROCKER Strong & Heavy! Seat Measures: 21 By 18, And 2- Inch Thick. 40-Inch Tall, Counting Back Of Rocker. 18-Inch From Seat To Floor. 27-Inch Wide, At Widest Part (Rocker's Feet. Rock Baby Or Grandchild. Has Writing On Bottom, (Seat). $60, Obo! /Colleen-262-748-4343. BEANIE BABIES, large inventory, includes McDonald's Beanie Babies. Prices vary call (262) 654- 6485 DROP THAT DISH New 4k Indoor Antenna ! $80 ! 847-372-6722 ! WANTED. EXPERIENCED GRILL COOK FLEXIBLE HOURS, FUN ATMOSPHERE. LAKESIDE DECK AT THE WYNDHAM HOTEL CALL KIM 262-496-718 SINGER AND NARRATOR WANTED FOR ROGER MILLER TRIBUTE.CALL 262-554-8205. ASK FOR MARV. STREET PAVER BRICKS wanted Please call 262.697.3545 and leave a message. WANTED TO BUY: Vintage Movie Posters, Comic Books, LP Records, Vintage Toys, Horror VHS, Horror Memorabilia, Science Fiction Pulps & Magazines, Video Store Promotional Items. PH 262- 237-0318. WANTED TO BUY: Old Post Cards, B&W Photos, B&W Photo Albums, Vintage Advertising, Old Hunting Licenses & Advertising, Scrapbooks, Old Misc.Paper, Old Automobile Advertising, Fountain Pens, Gillette Razors & More. Local Collector/Neutral Safe & Secure Site to meet if desired. Cash Paid. Call or Text Stan 262- 496-1822 ARCADE DRIVERS SCHOOL is looking for classroom & driver instructors. Starting pay $17.00 per hour. If interested please call 262-637-9193 or email us at [email protected]. LOOKING FOR NURSES Aid for in home care. Call Barbara 262- 455-3953 SERVICES. I'M LOOKING FOR house to share for reasonable rent in exchange for household needs for a senior vet consideration. 847- 340-3446 Ron. Kenosha/Union Grove area. LAWN MOWING SERVICES RELIABLE LAWN CARE SERVICES IN KENOSHA & PLEASANT PRAIRIE. CALL/TEXT 262-914-9796 [email protected] APARTMENT FOR RENT 2 BDR UPPER, BALCONY, SHARED BASEMENT, LAUNDRY HOOK UP, GARAGE. $950 + UTILITIES + SECURITY. 262-654-1869 LEAVE MESSAGE WITH FULL NAME AND PHONE NUMBER. NO EVICTIONS NO PETS, NO SMOKING. 1 YEAR WORK HISTORY. TAX & MEDICARE EXPERT. Appointments only. Se Habla Español. 262.833.7070 CHINESE LANGUAGE / CALLIGRAPHY LESSONS: Fun, fascinating and very cool. Beginning and advanced - all ages! Text Dr. Tim at 520.704.3832. FOR RENT Finished Suite private, in-home entrance, in Kenosha. For details call between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM, 262-843-1630. DRUM LESSONS Private instruction. Band, orchestra, marching and drum set. Rock and many other musical styles. Learn to read music. Call Tom for details. 262- 818-2869. PROFESSIONAL LED TEETH WHITENING for a fraction of the price! $99 at cabana tan spa. call to book: 262-843-2411. 20 minute session = a bright white smile! mycabanatan.com NURSING CARE /CONSULTATION: $35.00/hour. Call or text to (262)758- 1974 FAST COMPUTER SERVICE including network support, spyware removal, upgrades and PC repair. For friendly service with a smile, call Vikkex today! Phone (262-694-7746) BABYSITTING YOUNG LADY good with kids can watch 1 or 2 children call 262-620-4745 House cleaning woman + a bucket - reliable, dependable. Also clean vacant houses. Call for estimates - Sandy 262-221-2289 HOUSES AND OR business sun shine klean is having a special this month for first time customers free upholstery cleaning with at basic cleaning for only $39.95 262-287-5103 CNAS TO JOIN wellness team at Barton of Zion, five star assisted living. Send resume [email protected] apply within at 3500 Sheridan Road Zion, IL 60099 847- 872-1500 FREE HOME HEATING Fuel Oil Removal I will remove your unused home heating fuel oil for free..clean and safe . Inquire about tank removal also ... 262 818 1967 ..ask for dave TYPING. I am an experienced legal secretary with excellent typing skills wanting to type for you at home. Please contact Alicia at 256-658-4484. TAX & BOOKKEEPING. 30 Years experience Audits handld enrolled agent appointment only call 262- 595-8242 CAREGIVER SELF-EMPLOYED live-in caregiver with 20 years experience giving 24 hr. care references. Looking for job. If you need me, please call Teresa 262-497- 0502. CUT AWAY GRASS Edging to last - not stringline - will help drainage. All with cleanup and haul away. Just call 262-654-2509. VEHICLES0 1997 Jaguar XKR Convertible 75K in great condition Contact B o b : 2 6 2 - 4 8 4 - 8 4 8 4 [email protected] Marianne Watring 262-496-4521 95 CAMERO convert green/tan top. many newer parts best offer will trade for other vehicle, negotiate price. 847-340-3446 Ron - dealers welcome to participate. 1997 Ford F150 Truck with Snow Plow V8, Full Power, Auto.150K miles, Good ConditionSalem, WI. $3000.00 - OBO [email protected] 1973 Ford F250, CAMPER SPECIAL2WD,CALIFORNIA ORIGINAL, REBUILT MOTOR/TRANS, AUTO, AC, NEW INTERIOR, CAN SEND PICS. $13,500 OBO. 630- 945-8320. 2007 HYUNDAI SONATA SEE IN KENOSHA AT 4121-7TH. AVE. 53140 262-237-1343 RUSS CALL OR TEXT 212K MILES $2950 2012 DODGE GRAND CARAVAN SEE IN KENOSHA AT 4121-7TH. AVE. 53140 RUSS 262-237-1343 CALL OR TEXT NICE CAR AT A NICE PRICE $5450 174K MILES 2016 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY $6950 184K MILES SEE IN KENOSHA AT 4121-7TH. AVE. 53140 RUSS 262-237-1343 CALL OR TEXT NICE VAN AT A NICE PRICE. FREE CLASSIFIEDS! E-mail your 170 character classified to: [email protected] Please include your contact information in the classified. (Name and Phone number / e-mail address) First 3 words will be boldface type. NO ANIMALS. • NO PERSONALS ALLOWED. CLASSIFIED DEADLINE IS MONDAY, MAY 29, 2023 AT 12 NOON FREE CLASSIFIEDS! Employment/Opportunities • Lost & Found • Miscellaneous Real Estate • Rentals • Rummage Sales • Vehicles • Wanted

Senior Citizens Receive a 10% DISCOUNT SR121720 Your Ticket to Local Events 24 SMART READER May 18, 2023 FOR ADVERTISING RATES CALL 262-564-8800051823 2801 - 30th Avenue (Wood Road) Kenosha, WI 262-551-0600 Back by popular demand owner Jim Karls presents... Wednesdays 5pm-9pm $18 Adults $12 Kids 12 & under It’s not just dinner... it’s an event! Choose your ingredients & watch Chef Fred create a spectacular feast before your very eyes! Che Bello! Featuring: veggies, shrimp, scallops, calamari, crawfish, chicken breast, beef or pork tenderloin, Italian sausage, a variety of sauces, marinara, marsala, alfredo, vodka, Alogi e olio, & many different pastas. Includes homemade Italian Bread & Soup or Salad CHEF FRED BELTOYA’S PASTA NIGHT! 012623 3625 Roosevelt Rd. Kenosha, WI sdrautorepairwi.com “Serving Kenosha Since 1979” SF2023 We’ll keep you on the Road! Total Auto Repair & Transmission Center 262-654-0075 SUMMER IS COMING READY TO TRAVEL? A/C Service $ 1000 OFF Expires 8/31/2023 Alignments $ 1000 OFF Expires 8/31/2023 Some restrictions apply. Please see store for details. Some restrictions apply. Please see store for details.