COVID 19 WILL CHANGE THE OFFICE FOREVER Adapted from an article by freelance writer Laura Woods     In an effort to keep employees safe and adjust to post-pandemic life, companies will be instituting innovative policies that may become the new normal.   Regular Employer-Sponsored Testing When employees must work closely together, the best way to keep them safe is testing everyone for COVID-19 on a regular basis. If someone tests positive, management will be quickly alerted, so the employee can be immediately quarantined and given proper medical care.   In a letter to shareholders, former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos suggested the company might start regularly testing all of its...

PP Loans Should NOT Be Taxed!   The Governor's budget includes a proposal which would tax PPP loans in excess of $150,000.   The PPP was a lifeline for small businesses in Rhode Island. It provided direct aid which enabled them to pay rent, pay utilities and, most importantly, pay the thousands of people in Rhode Island that depend on these businesses for employment.   As the State navigates the post-COVID period, it is imperative that our small businesses be given every opportunity to recover without the State unfairly taxing us on aid given to help us survive.   Please CLICK HERE to tell your Elected Officials to reject the budget proposal to...

GET VACCINATED - OR ELSE?   Can employers require you to get the vaccine... or else? First published in Go Banking Rates - Nicole Spector   Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers can require workers to take medical tests that are “job-related and consistent with business necessity” — and that includes tests for COVID-19. The logic here is simple — COVID-19 is wildly contagious. Additionally, you can spread it like wildfire without having so much as a single symptom. That’s a big reason when we’re still trapped in the trenches of this pandemic. The virus passes through some people with less impact than the common cold, while...

With spring just around the corner, a gardener’s thoughts turn to fertilizer. Although its’ application would seem to be fairly simple, it really isn’t. Every garden is different, and the types of fertilizer needed could vary greatly. Additionally, depending on what the gardener is growing, the type and amount of fertilizer required will be different, as will be the timing of its application, and both dependent on current environmental conditions.   How do you know if your garden needs fertilizer? Well, if its’ growth is stagnant, it’s not thriving or living up to its’ potential, it needs help.    The majority of fertilizers belong...

NASA didn’t decide one day, “let’s go to the moon” and then shot off a rocket in the general direction. They started, in 1958, with Project Mercury, which resulted in launching John Glenn into orbit in February 1962. The Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin beat him there by 10 months. Then NASA moved on to Project Gemini, which provided the tools needed to ensure that astronauts could survive and work in space, and finally advanced to Project Apollo that took mankind to the moon in July 1969.   I don’t imagine any of us have plans to become space explorers, although I could...