Neff Zone Cloumn -- March 29, 2008

Print Edition: March 29, 2008

I didn't know that! Did you?

Sometimes I run across things that fall into my "I didn't know that" category. A lot of the time I wonder if I'm the only one out of the loop. That said, here are some recent items that constituted "news to me."

Item 1: Like most people, I've always figured that when I gave my financial information to a reputable institution or business there were laws in place to protect that information from being (literally) scattered in the wind. It turns out I'm wrong.

This was brought to my attention by a case in Flint involving a mortgage and realty business named Affordable Realty. In this scenario Affordable was evicted from its offices by its landlord. The person carrying out the eviction was a process server. According to Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell in a report by WJRT-TV, "When they get an order from the court to evict someone the order says to remove that person from the premises and their personal belongings."

What this meant in Affordable's case was that all of its files were carried out and tossed into a dumpster behind the building, including clients' bank statements, credit reports, social security numbers, personal information, and addresses. All of this is prime identity theft material. Another tenant, Global Security, noticed several people rooting through the dumpster and walking away with papers, so they alerted the sheriff's department.

Said Sheriff Pickell, "If these were medical records the process server who carried out the eviction would have been obligated by law to secure the records. There's no such mandate for financial records."

No law? Wow, some loophole, eh? This would seem to be a situation begging for some sort of legislative action.

Item 2: I've heard some pretty convoluted logic in my time, but none so ridiculous as is being spouted by the NRA. According to an article in USA Today, the lobbying group promotes products that kill approximately 85,000 people a year. We're speaking, of course, about the National Restaurant Association.

With obesity a national epidemic sucking up 20% of our health care dollars due to diabetes related illnesses, the NRA steadfastly lobbies against including nutrition information (such as fat content and calories) on menus. Products in grocery stores have to list these, but not restaurants.

The NRA claims what you eat at a restaurant is a personal choice. I agree, but without the correct information I might assume that ordering my child some macaroni and cheese from the children's menu at a Romano's Macaroni Grill would be a benign selection. However, that dish in reality contains 1200 calories, 3540 milligrams of salt, and the saturated fat equivalent of 40 strips of bacon.

But here's the topper for the NRA. Their paid consultant, David Allison, Ph.D., says providing caloric information to restaurant goers will result in them making less healthful choices. He says that if people knew certain foods were high in calories they might eat too few calories (in the restaurant) and then go home and gorge themselves later. Say what? Am I to understand that the NRA might consider the Aussie Cheese Fries appetizer at Outback (tipping the scales at 2900 calories and 182 grams of fat) actually "healthful"?

The bottom line is that the NRA thinks people are generally too stupid to make a conscious decision. Just give me the information and if I choose the artery-clog special, so be it. If I want to order something off the kid's menu that won't turn my child into a Shamu look-alike, I can do that too.

Item 3: In what must be near and dear to the NRA's heart, the opening of baseball season is upon us with what I found to be a revolting development. At least 13 of Major League Baseball's 30 teams will have all-you-can-eat tickets this season. Buy one of these tickets and you can sit in a section where you can scarf down all the hot dogs, chips and orange snot (nachos), peanuts, popcorn, and soft drinks you want until the game is over or you explode, whichever comes first.

In Atlanta and St. Louis you can even buy the highest priced all-you-can-eat ticket and it includes all the beer you can drink. What a wonderful idea! Let people drink non-stop for four hours and then unleash them onto the highways.

How would you like to be the guy that gets to clean this section after games? My guess is that no fans will be taking their barf bags home. After a tip toe through the regurgitation nation section you'd probably burn your shoes at the end of each shift.

Item 4: This final item is less of a "I didn’t know that" and more of a "I’ve been trying to forget that." You know, there’s nothing like spring in Michigan. I love winter, but enough is enough. However, if you think this week's yucky weather is something abnormal, guess again. I keep a journal of my ski days with a primary focus on weather conditions. Here's what I wrote last year at this time.

First week of April: After the ski areas had closed, the Lakes had opened, and we enjoyed some 70-degree days real winter returned. We got 18 inches of snow midweek and wind chills in the single digits. The roads were closed and blizzard warnings posted. It was disheartening to say the least.

April 12: We awoke to 8 inches of heavy, wet cement. School was called off, the first mid-April snow day I can remember. I had to run the snowblower! Yikes!

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.