Word of Warning about Census Scams

At your door:

An official Census enumerator will never, ever insist on coming into your house. A real Census enumerator can do everything they need to do there at your front door. Anyone who tells you that they're a Census employee and absolutely has to enter your home is a fraud. Always ask to see ID and proper Census credentials. If in doubt, contact the Census Bureau Regional Office or call the police.

On the phone:

If you receive a phone call from the Census Bureau, the call will originate from one of their regional offices or the national processing center. The caller should have stated in the message from which place they were calling. If in doubt, terminate the phone call and then contact the National Processing Center (301-763-INFO or 301-763-4636) and they will assist you.

By email:

Like most phishing scams, the email will attempt to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, social security numbers, bank account or credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity and direct the email recipient to a fake website. Also, don't open any attachments which may contain code that could infect your computer. Before deleting a fraudulent email, the Census Bureau asks that the bogus email be forwarded to their fraud reporting division at ITSO.Fraud.Reporting@census.gov.

Census scams in OKC

New Student Loan Initiative

New measures being signed today will revamp the student loan program to help more Americans earn a college degree. Under the change, private banks and processors are to be taken out of the loan origination business and will no longer collect fees for acting as middlemen.

The savings, estimated at about $68 billion over 10 years, would instead be used to boost Pell Grants, reduce interest rates and stretch out repayment periods. Pell Grants help low- and moderate-income families pay for college.

For More Information see Businessweek

Internet's Most Successful Scams

1. Online Dating Scams
2. Fake or "Rogue" Anti-virus Scams
3. Facebook Impersonation
4. Becoming a Bot (Highjacked home computers)
5. The fakosphere

For more info, follow the link above to the full article.

Americans Support Healthcare Bill's Passage

The Gallup Poll reports nearly half of Americans give a thumbs-up to Congress' passage of a healthcare reform bill last weekend, with 49% calling it "a good thing." Republicans and Democrats have polar opposite reactions, with independents evenly split.

Good thing 49%

Bad thing 40%

No opinion 11%

For more information go to Gallup

March 8th Tornado in Hammon, OK

National Weather Service Information on the March 8th Hammon Tornado.

A relatively long tracked tornado touched down in a rural area to the southwest of Hammon around 5:20 PM CST, and then tracked to the northeast towards the town of Hammon. This tornado was on the ground for around 40 minutes, moving mainly over rural areas. Near the end of the tornado track, the tornado clipped the southeastern edge of Hammon, destroying several barns, and damaging several homes. The tornado finally dissipated to the northeast of Hammon.

C-SPAN Video Archives Online

C-SPAN has announced uploading their entire video archive to the Internet for free. C-SPAN is the only cable station that records and broadcasts every Congressional session, White House press briefing and other official activities from Washington, D.C.

How much information are we talking? That's 23 years of political history, 160,000 hours of video footage and 5 presidential administrations. Also included, video footage from "Book TV", featured programming on C-SPAN2 which documents public appearances of top non-fiction authors.

An archival feature for this web site, the Congressional Chronicle shows which members of Congress have spoken the most in the House and Senate. This ranking feature includes a profile page with biographical information, number of appearances, recent appearances, appearances with other notable figures, total floor time, committee assignments, and a photo gallery.

Besides searching for members of Congress, web site users can track information and actions on Congressional bills.

Wallet Stolen? Seven Steps to Follow.

There are seven things to do (before and after) your wallet is stolen. Click on the blue title above to help protect yourself. This article is from a camping website, but it has some excellent tips for anyone who owns a credit card.