DadTalk

Poverty Numbers Seem a Bit Low

While officially four million more Americans – many of them children – found themselves in poverty from 2008 to 2009, the number is probably higher.

The official total number of Americans in poverty is now 44 million, reports The New York Times. That 1-in-7 Americans are poor number is based on the federally-determined poverty level. For a family of four, that would be an income of $22,050 or less a year.

Now, I know it’s possible to live on that much, but let’s look at the numbers. In my neighborhood, the annual rent runs about $1,800 a month, which totals $21,600 a year, leaving $37.50 a month for electricity, water, gas, transportation, insurance and food. Okay, so my mythical family can’t live in my part of town unless they have well-heeled relatives.

But what about more affordable neighborhoods in the Phoenix metro area? Here are some possibilities:

• $719 a month for a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment in Mesa
• $500 a month for a 1 bedroom, 1 bath split house in Apache Junction
• $359 a month for a 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment in Mesa
• $500 a month for a 2 bed, 1 bath house in Tempe $495 a month for a 2 bed apartment in Phoenix

Some of these places are nicer than others. Still, it’s especially depressing that it would cost $500 a month to squeeze a family of four into a 1-bedroom Apache Junction house.

First Blood of the Morning

We left for school early so Lael could get some quality playground time. As we’re walking, we spot a friend of Lael’s up ahead. The kids decide to run after her.

In less than a minute, Seth trips on the hard concrete sidewalk and immediately starts crying. Even before I take a closer look, I can see a gouge just below the kneecap – that’s going to leave a scar – but his face and hands seem okay.

I put Seth’s backpack on one shoulder and my 8-year-old on the other before trudging uphill back to the house. Lael breaks into a trot every now and then to keep up.

At home, we clean and treat the wound, before piling into the minivan. I walk Seth over to his “cove” and start walking Lael over to her classroom area.

That’s when I look down and notice my leg. It is covered in Seth’s rusty-brown blood. Whoops. Fortunately, no one notices, though Lael excitedly tells her friend – the one we were chasing – all about what happened. The story apparently makes up for the lost playground time.

Food Recalls Some Really Bad Eggs

By now I’m sure most everyone has heard about the half billion eggs being recalled by a couple of Iowa farms. So far, about 2,000 people have reportedly become sick, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Food and Drug Administration only says hundreds were sickened.

But while driving to check on a print job today, I heard Margaret A. Hamburg, the Food and Drug Administrator, on National Public Radio warning Americans on how to handle eggs safely. Wash everything a zillion times. Cook eggs until they’re charcoal. Forget over easy.

This is the kind of food system we now have. Think of it: It’s not safe to make mayonnaise at home, because salmonella might be crawling around in your raw eggs. Ditto Hollandaise sauce.

If a bit of egg leaks over the side of a bowl – like that never happens – the counter below it may contaminate a cookie or sandwich if not bleached clean. Just forget ever letting your kids eat traditional cookie dough batter, because it might sicken or KILL them. (Not a problem in our house, though; I long ago found a way to make great chocolate chip cookies without eggs and butter.)

Arizona Immigration Law Will Punish Kids the Most

Regardless where you stand on Arizona’s illegal immigrant bill, which puts pressure on police to identify and arrest suspected aliens, this state’s children will be the biggest losers when the law soon goes into affect.

There are obvious reasons: Children face the risk of deportation along with parents. Or parents might be arrested and deported without their children. And children will pay the price for the portion of law that allows the state to recoup legal fees from already impoverished parents.

There is another problem, though, that is only now making the news. Like other states, police officers are assigned to public school campuses. Under federal rules, schools must provide an education to all children, legal or not. From educators’ perspective, these rules apply to the on-campus police.

But Russell Pearce, the state senator who authored SB 1070, wants campus police officers investigating children who they suspect being illegal immigrants, reports the Arizona Capitol Times.

Says Pearce:

“To assume that schools are areas protected from enforcing the law is simply not correct. If you have a legitimate suspicion that a person is breaking the law, you have to investigate it.”

Food Recalls Something Stinks in Recall of Four Kellogg’s Cereal

I always knew that eating too much junk food – or cereal for that matter – could make you sick to your stomach. But how about getting sick before eating Apple Jacks or Froot Loops?

Apparently, something has gone wrong with the packaging of some Kellogg’s cereal packages, which are emitting a strange, off-flavor smell, reports the Food and Drug Administration.

As often the case, the FDA says don’t worry about any health problems; nausea or diarrhea won’t kill you. Wait a minute, doesn’t pooping problems imply someone ATE the cereal or gave it to their kids despite the smell? Just saying.

Below are the recalled products:

Recalls 2 Million Cribs

When my wife was pregnant with Seth, we did what a lot of families do: we went to Babies R Us and picked out our favorite crib. We wanted a drop-side convertible so that it would grow with our child.

A relative bought us the crib, but it never made it to toddler bed. We wound up getting Seth a slide bed and Lael a metal-framed white bed. In fact, all that we have left of the crib is the headboard, which is gathering dust in the garage.

Considering all the recalls of drop-side crips – more 2 million were affected by today’s announcement – I suppose it’s for the best. The recall brings the total number of cribs that need to be fixed up to 9 million, reports WebMD.

“They outsource the manufacture of these cribs and are using very inferior hardware to make the side go up and down,” says Consumer Reports safety expert Don Mays. Another problem is poor quality instructions, which leads to upside down assemblies.

Here is the list of cribs recalled today:

• Simmons Recalls to Repair Drop-Side Cribs Due to Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards
• Million Dollar Baby Recalls to Repair Drop-Side Cribs Due to Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards
• LaJobi Recalls to Repair Bonavita, Babi Italia and ISSI Drop-Side Cribs Due to Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards
• Jardine Recalls to Repair Drop-Side Cribs Due to Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards
• Evenflo Recalls to Repair Drop-Side Cribs Due to Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards
• Delta Recalls to Repair Drop-Side Cribs Due to Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards Child Craft Drop-Side Cribs Recalled Due to Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards

My Daughter Is Famous … Sort of

So I was on the phone with my mom looking for a place to celebrate Seth’s 8th birthday when it struck me that CrackerJax might be the right choice.

The place has miniature golf, go-karts, video games, lousy food, etc. So I go to the website when suddenly a photo of two kids driving go-karts pops up.

Cue double take: Hey, my daughter, Lael, is driving that yellow go-kart! (The photo is actually used twice, once in the flash banner and then again at the bottom of this page.)

So who else thinks we should get free lifetime passes?

FDA Needs to Get a Grip on Food Issues, Report Finds

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s abilities to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness are hampered by impediments to efficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks, says a new report by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council.

In other words, the FDA is a mess. The Agency only responds after a disaster rather than predicting potential ones. Of course, this is nothing new to those who have been paying attention, but it’s always nice to have a report to make the prognosis “official.”

More importantly, this report, which was requested by the FDA and Congress, proposes solutions, such as:

• Encouraging the FDA to adopt a risk-based approach to health data to more quickly identify potential food-chain problems.
• The FDA should increase coordination with state and other federal agencies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, for example, oversees meat while Oregon’s health department seemingly discovers more problems than the FDA does.
• The FDA should build a centralized food data center that can rapidly collect and disseminate food problems.
• The FDA should standardized testing and rules among states, then farm out inspections to state agencies.
• I’d read the whole report, but it costs $70, even on PDF. Jeesh.

A Tough Lesson to Learn

I spent most of my afternoons last summer teaching my kids basic swimming: putting their faces in the water, holding their breaths, diving down to retrieve torpedoes and basic freestyle.

In March of this year, I began schlepping the kids to the park district aquatic center for more lessons. By April, Seth was on our community swim team.

Not surprisingly, Seth was the slowest of the swimmers. Not only was he slower than his classmates, but most of the younger children as well. I say not surprisingly for two reasons: 1. Because the kids out here have been swimming for years and 2. Because speed is not my forte, endurance is.

After a practice or two, we decided Lael wasn’t ready emotionally to be on the swim team. But physically, Lael is highly advanced in every sport she tries.

Back to Seth: It took a couple weeks before my poor boy could make one length across the pool without flopping onto his back, resorting to chicken, star, rocket. Unfortunately, he was spending so long on his back, he wasn’t really swimming.

Illegal Levels of Lead Found in Juice Drinks and Fruit Cups

Lead exceeding California’s legal limit was found in dozens of popular juice and fruit products, according to the Environmental Law Foundation.

Drinks in violation included Earth’s Best Organics Apple Juice, Hansen Natural Apple Juice, Safeway 100% Juice Apple Cider and Trader Joe's Certified Organic (pasteurized) Apple Juice.

One of the drinks we have in the house for Shabbat – Kedem Concord Grape Juice 100% pure grape juice – is on the list. While we don’t have packaged pears, peaches and fruit cocktail in our house, several dozen products were on the high lead list.

The complete list of products tested can be found here, as well as on the jump. The products, which are in violation of California’s Prop 65, were found to contain more than 0.5 micrograms of lead.

The Environmental Law Foundation has submitted the drinks in violation to the California Attorney General and 58 county district attorneys hoping the government will take action. If California drops the ball, though, ELF plans to file a lawsuit in 60 days, according to the group’s press release.

This report has been slow to show up in the mainstream press, but you can listen to this KQED radio report for more information.