Consumer Reports

Did you hear the rumor? Any day now telemarketers will be assaulting your cell phone! The good news is that it’s a rumor and nothing more. E-mails have been circulating and urging you to register your cell phone number with the special Do Not Call Registry for wireless phones. I just saw one in my e-mail inbox and I was almost fooled. Luckily I work with a small army of dedicated consumer information experts who set me straight! There is no special Do Not Call Registry for wireless phones. If you want to, you can register your cell phone number on the Do Not Call Registry , but telemarketers are prohibited from calling you on your cell phone whether it’s registered or not. If you’re receiving unwanted telemarketing calls at home (on your land line), it’s easy to register on the Do Not Call Registry . If you want to file a complaint about unwanted telemarketing calls, you can file online , or call 1-888-382-1222 (TTY: 1-866-290-4236).

Have you seen it yet? About a week ago, USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov launched a complete redesign of the website. Of course, launching a new design isn’t the end of the project – we consider it the beginning. The inspiration for the new look came from feedback we received during our public dialog “ Your Voice Matters ” in which we asked our visitors how we could improve USA.gov . We got hundreds of responses, but there was one message we heard over and over: “clean up the clutter.” So we set forth to reduce clutter and focus on services. Reducing clutter doesn’t mean that we got rid of our content. We kept all the great content and even added some new features. You can now use the drop-down menus at the top of each page to find topics , online services , information for specific audiences , government agencies , and contact information for government officials . We’re now highlighting mobile apps because industry trends show a sharp increase in the number of people who use mobile devices. The Pew Internet and American Life report “ Mobile Access 2010 ” reports 40% of adults use the internet, email, or instant messaging on a mobile phone – up from the 32% that did so in 2009.Our hope is that by highlighting these apps, we’ll inspire both government web managers and the public to use government data to create useful apps for people to use on their mobile devices. There’s much more to come and as always we want to hear how you like it and even what you would like to see on USA.gov in the future. The site’s there for you, and our job is to make it easy and useful. Let us know how we’re doing.

It’s late at night, the TV’s on and you see a commercial. It tells you that if you just buy this wonderful book, you’ll learn the secrets to get free money from the government to pay your credit card bills, renovate your home, and start a business! It sounds so wonderful, but is it too good to be true? Yes, it’s too good to be true. Before you shell out some of your hard earned money to learn how to get a government grant, learn the facts . The government does give away a lot of money every year in the form of grants, but most government grants go to state and local governments or nonprofit organizations that in turn use the money to administer community programs. The federal government rarely awards grants to individuals directly. If you or someone you know is in need, the government has many assistance programs that might help - they’re just not called “grants.” There are programs to help with heating bills , or starting a business , or health insurance for children , and much more. If you’re an organization seeking a grant you should check out grants.gov , the official source to find and apply for a grant from the federal government.

I’ve really been into grilling this year. I like it because of how food cooked on the grill tastes, because I can make a meal without heating up the house or producing a mountain of dirty dishes, and most of all I like to sit down and relax in the cool evening air while I patiently wait for my food to be done. For the record, I’m an old-fashioned charcoal grill girl, and sometimes I get really old fashioned and cook over an open fire. The thing that always bugs me when I’m cooking meat on the grill is that it’s hard to tell when it’s done. I love that smoky goodness, but I’d rather not serve it with a side of food borne illness. Luckily you can take a little care and safely prepare food on an outdoor grill even if you, or someone you cook for is especially at risk , like pregnant women or people with compromised immune systems. Last week I bought one of those instant read thermometer forks to help me tell when my food is cooked to a safe temperature. I’m still getting the hang of it, but it’s going to be a better method than going by the color of the meat. Remember too that red meat and poultry aren’t the only things you can cook on a grill. I’ve been experimenting with vegetables on the grill, and you know what?

When I was growing up I spent most of the summer in some state of wetness. My town had a pool that was easy for us to walk or ride our bikes to and it was the center of summer social activity. I took swimming lessons, I swam on the swim team, I became a lifeguard and then helped to teach kids to swim. When I was a freshman in college the perfect opportunity came along – I could get a phys ed credit by earning my certification as a water safety instructor . I took the course, got my certification and then worked for the Red Cross or the YMCA as a swimming instructor. It was a great college job, and now that I look back on it, it really was the single college class that was ever directly responsible for me getting a job. In all my years of working at pools, I never had to save a drowning person, thank goodness, but I did jump in for the dramatic rescue of a panicked baby bunny. Nobody was going to drown on my watch! Unfortunately thousands of people do drown every year and more than 25% of them are children. The sad thing is that I think a lot of these drownings can be prevented by following a few simple rules. Learn to swim and teach kids to float and swim as soon as possible. Children should always be supervised in and around water. Never swim alone. It’s fun to play in the water, but there’s a line between fun and reckless. Don’t cross that line. You know those foam noodles, and inflatable water wings and inner tubes? Those are toys. They won’t keep a child safe in the water. If you want a flotation device that will keep you or a child safe in the water, get a U.S. Coast Guard approved life jacket and wear it properly. So weather you’re at the ocean, the lake, the pool, or just the secluded swimming hole in the river, be safe in the water this year!

Memorial Day will soon be here and that means that beach season is just around the corner!

It’s not unusual to hear stories of bombs going off in markets, public places, and government buildings in far off lands. This weekend was different because the car bomb was on U.S. soil . Luckily for New York City, the car never exploded. I think a great deal of credit goes to the alert person who reported the smoking car to the police, and of course the skilled officers who dismantled the bomb before it could do any harm. I’m not the sort of person to stir up a lot of fear and paranoia, but incidents like this remind us all that danger is present in our lives. So what’s a reasonable person to do? Always be aware of your surroundings, trust your intuition and move to a safe place if you feel that something’s not right, and don’t be afraid to report suspicious behavior or unattended packages to police or security personnel. Another thing you can do is to prepare for a disaster . Car bombs are (thankfully) unusual, but other disasters like floods, fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes are pretty common. Be sure to prepare an emergency kit for your family , your business , and even your pets .

It’s your typical Tuesday morning. You’ve rolled out of bed, taken a shower, made a cup of coffee, and are scrolling through your email - which includes your daily RSS feed from GovGab . Excited to see what Joanne has to say for the day, you check it out. Sorry gang, but you’ll have to wait to hear from Joanne until tomorrow. Today, Colleen takes over Tuesday. But have no fear, Joanne returns tomorrow. Today lucky reader, you are reading the blog post of the 2005 Phoenixville Area High School Environmental Science Award winner. Yes, my high school academic claim to fame was winning an award for a class I took purely because I was willing to do anything to get out of taking physics. Lucky for me, Environmental Science actually rocked, and sparked my interest in the environment that continues today. That said, I am pleased to make you aware that Earth Day is this Thursday. Earth Day was first observed 40 years ago to bring awareness to issues regarding the health and sustainability of our planet . It is intended to get people to make changes - however how small, to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle .

A sad story appeared in my inbox last week. It was an email from a woman, let’s call her Rosemary, who met an attractive and attentive widower, let’s call him Albert, on a popular online dating site. Here’s how the story goes. At one time Albert lived in the United States with his late wife, but now he’s living in Nigeria. They correspond via e-mail for a while and he sends lots of (handsome) photos of himself, even copies of his passport. He speaks so sweetly to her and can’t wait to come to the U.S. and finally meet her face to face. All he needs is for her to wire some money to get there. Is your scam alarm going off yet? It should be, because Rosemary is being scammed. Internet dating scams are the latest fraud craze. Internet dating scams are really just a variation on the old Nigerian 419 fraud – you know the e-mails you used to find in your inbox from the Nigerian prince that would make you rich if you just helped him get his fortune out of the country? I don’t want you to think that there’s something inherently bad about online dating services – I know people who have formed good relationships with good people using online dating services. Of course, there’s always the possibility that, like Rosemary, you may meet someone like Albert. Most importantly, you should be sensible and look for warning signs of trouble . Now, if you or someone you know thinks they’ve been scammed, it’s best to face it and put a stop to it before it gets worse. Report the scam to law enforcement so hopefully your scammer is stopped before (s)he hurts someone else. Oh – and I should mention that it’s not always men scamming women. Women scam men too. To learn more, check into the types of internet romance scams , and look at the common questions that the US Embassy in Moscow answers.

I got mine, did you get yours? It’s March and the Census Bureau is in full gear making sure census forms are delivered to every home in the United States and Puerto Rico. The good news is that it’s easy - when you get your form, just answer the 10 questions and mail the form back in the postage-paid envelope they provide (the form cannot be completed online). It only took me a couple of minutes to complete mine. If you don’t mail the form back, you may receive a visit from a census taker , who will ask you the questions from the form .