Law And More

Thanksgiving Dinner, Flat-Screening Talk Will All Be Economic - Will JD Class of 2019 Become 21st Century Lost Generation 2.0?

New York Time, 11/20/12018, 10:20 A.M. - DOW tumbles 549.72 points. 

We woke up this morning and smelled the fear. The numbers in our portfolios made us look away. 

The brilliant news guy that he is, Matt Drudge focused on that - extreme economic angst - instead of politics. The headline featured the $945 billion wiped out in tech stocks.

Other content linked to a prediction that the DOW would lose 2,000 points and that a recession was likely.

All that was missing to spread terror throughout the land was the Drudge Report's signature flashing blue light.

After the global economic crash of 2008, any darkness hovering over our portfolios, any signal the housing market is in trouble, or any stupid move on the part of BigBusiness throws earth off its axis. 

This Thanksgiving the talk around the table and the flat screen watching football games will be about the economy. Those loving conspiracies might speculate the recent activity has been engineered by politicos to distract attention from X or Y.

The JD Class of 2019 has to get worried. Will the legal sector return to the 2009 days of delayed start dates or even rescinded job offers? Will that evolve into 21st Century Lost Generation 2.0?

Reflection: I have a hunch the possible assignment to ghostwrite a book on privacy might not come through. That means I won't find a new car in my stocking this holiday season. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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The White House Got Back to Me, Within an Hour

Enraged about UnitedHealthcare's inefficient CRM (customer relation management), I posted my complaint on this blog.

In it I called for Congress and regulatory agencies to take action. Here you can read it. 

Next, I routed the URL for that post to a list of those I decided who should be in the loop on this one.

I included the White House.

That's because I posited that the lousy CRM pertaining to my dental insurance claim eventually could make dental the next industry the U.S. would lose.

More and more of us would opt for the lower-cost, no-hassle dental services in nations such as Mexico.

The fee in Mexico, for instance, is so affordable that dental insurance isn't needed.

In Nogales, Mexico, I had custom-made a hard mouth guard for less than a third what a U.S. dentist would have charged. Also, I had a check-up via the latest technology and a cleaning for 10 bucks less than what I would have paid using UnitedHealthcare dental insurance in the U.S. 

Preventing the loss of any more industries to foreign nations had been Donald Trump's campaign promise. Why not contact him, I thought.

A stunner: Within about an hour I received an interim reply from the White House. Sure, liberals can put the knock on the Trump Administration. But, in my book, they are certainly on the ball. 

In addition, later in the day, I noticed that Bloomberg Government had linked to my post. 

Reflection: Communication remains a power tool. Writing teachers, professors, and tutors should be paid a king's ransom.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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Love Lost - Chicago, Ohio, Colorado

Again, there is a murder, taking the form of domestic violence. The suicide part occurred through death by cop.

That scenario of murder/suicide among current or former romantic partners is becoming increasingly common.

This time the setting was the Catholic hospital Mercy in Chicago, Illinois. The original target was a medical doctor, who had been previously engaged to the shooter. In all, four had died. Here are the few details currently available from USA Today.

Clearly, the supposed experts on human behavior and flashpoints haven't been able to figure out how to prevent domestic violence.

Earlier in the news today was also the arrest of former Ohio judge Lance Mason for the alleged fatal stabbing of his estranged wife Aisha Fraser in Shaker Heights.

Several years ago he had served nine months in prison and had his law license suspended for brutally beating her, in front of their two children.

Yet, those severe consequences allegedly didn't motivate him to learn to manage his rage.

Mason is atypical today. He didn't arrange the situation so he would be gunned down or off himself. 

Another atypical has been Chris Watts who today had been sentenced to life without parole. His rage seemed directed to the limits placed on him by having a pregnant wife and two children. After he murdered them he didn't kill himself. Instead he seemed to have high hopes that the love he was developing with another woman would bring what he needed. 

Reflection: Love or the hope for it is becoming a major cause of death. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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Christopher Watts - Sentenced to Life W/O Parole and More

It's finally over - that is, the legal part.

Judge Marcelo Kopcow sentenced killer husband and father Christopher Watts to life without parole for the murders of his wife and two toddlers. In addition, there were sentences of 48 years for unlawful termination of a pregnancy and 12 years for tampering with bodies. Here are more details from Time.

The consensus among commentators is that Watts did what he did to create a hasty exit from the growing responsibilities of family life. He had been conducting an affair with another woman.

However, we know so little what really goes on in the human heart and mind.

Why didn't he opt for the process of going through a divorce?

And hadn't he been familiar with the plot lines from "Dateline" so as to get it that the husband is the major suspect? It was nutty to have assumed he could have pulled off the triple murder and walked.

In the courtroom, Watts' parents indicated they hoped that their son would ask God's forgiveness.

The benefit of a life sentence, as opposed to the death penalty, is that the criminals have the opportunity to reflect, seek counseling, and repent.

In prison, they can be of service to their fellow inmates.

After she was convicted of murdering her sadistic lover diet doctor Herman Tarnover, Jean Harris used her prison time to help the female inmates get their GED and obtain a college education. She had been head of the posh Maderia School.  

This blog asks the correctional system to keep providing opportunities for the inmates to salvage their souls - and obtain peace of mind.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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Lance Mason - Neither Success Nor Prison Tamed His Allegedly Deadly Rage

In Shaker Heights, Ohio, Aisha Fraser is dead.

She had been the mother of two pre-teen children and a sixth-grade teacher.

Some speculate that this death could have been prevented had her estranged husband Lance Mason learned to control his rage. Currently, reports NBC News, he is in custody for allegedly stabbing her to death. He had been a former judge, state representative and senator, and, more recently, Cleveland's minority business administrator.

That rage first sidelined him in 2014. He had been riding in the car with Fraser, along with their two children in the backseat. At the time they were six and four years old. The adults got into an argument. He beat her brutally, so much so that she required reconstructive surgery. 

He took the plea of attempted felonious assault, served nine months in prison, and had his law license suspended. Given those consequences, he should have had a psychic shift that overhauls behavior. But, allegedly he didn't. 

This tragedy underscores how little we know about preventing violence stemming from matters of the heart. Frequently, those end in a suicide, following the murder of the spouse or romantic partner. 

The long-running television program "Dateline" chronicles the build-up of the kind of resentments which can harden into an impulse to murder.

Yet, domestic violence goes on and on.

This blog extends sympathy to Aisha Fraser's children and students.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

 

UnitedHealthCare & CRM - One for Congress, Regulatory Agencies

The billing mistake entailed $39.

That is the cost for enrolling in the dental rider program for one month. I had used it in October 2018. I wanted that to be a one-time use. Therefore, after that one-time use, I had called and terminated the rider. Yet I was also being billed for the next month and the system was programmed for billing me forever more. 

On November 16, 2018, my third time correcting this same kind of error, I spent more than 75 minutes on the phone with UnitedHealthcare. I was enrolled in AARP MedicareComplete. I am still enrolled but, after this nightmare, eventually I may go with another provider. 

I was transferred over and over again, as I struggled to correct the mistake. Of course, over and over again I had to repeat the details. 

Over and over again the customer representative said that she or he was sorry for the inconvenience. I begged them to go short on the politeness and, instead, focus on resolving the problem.

Some, though, were defensive when I complained about what I was going through. For example, when I told one representative that I had already been on the phone 45 minutes, she shot back that she was only on the call four minutes. I reported her to the supervisor.

The irony is this: On October 24th, when I cancelled that dental insurance rider, I warned the UnitedHealthcare customer folks that this would happen. That's because it had happened before. Twice before.

The reference number for that October 24th transaction was S266875054.

The reference number for the November 16 resolution was I138879619.

I request Congress and regulatory agencies look into why such a large corporation involved in an essential service doesn't have the personnel and customer relation management technology to process transactions efficiently. Those using the MedicareComplete, like myself, are in a protected class. 

The implications of what I perceive as substandard CRM via UnitedHealthcare for U.S. dentistry could be huge.

Because of this extreme insurance processing ordeal, I am considering becoming a permanent Dental Tourist. That is, like a growing number of residents of the U.S., I will stop using the services of American dentists.

Instead I will travel across the border of Mexico to Nogales.

There the main street is lined with respected dental services.

The staff speaks English.

The technology is up-to-date.

Waiting rooms are packed with families from the U.S.

The fee is usually about a third of what U.S. dentists charge. Two years ago I had a hard mouthguard custom-made for less than a third of the usual U.S. fee. The currency situation had worked in my financial favor. 

When there, we can all enjoy Mexican this and that.

I did publish a few articles on that experience. 

Because the cost is so low, there is no need to put up with the emotional burden of dealing with U.S. dental insurance providers. Dental could be one more industry moving to Mexico - or other locations around the globe. 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

The Jell-O "Curse" - Bill Cosby as Spokesperson Was Least of It

Public relations representatives and marketing communications experts warn clients about the downside of human spokespeople and influencers. 

The human kind, as opposed to a made-up mascot, can get involved in all sorts of scandals.

The classic example had been Bill Cosby. America's Dad had been the face of Jell-O.

However, that actually was a small part of the "curse" which has plagued Jell-O.

In the new book "Jell-O Girls: A Family History," Allie Rowbottom chronicles how the purchase of the Jell-O patent in 1899 had brought down extreme suffering to her family. 

It had been her great-great-great uncle who bought the patent for $450. Twenty-six years later it was sold for $67 million.

Along with the wealth that created for her family in LeRoy, New York, there has been a sustained history of premature deaths, suicide, alcoholism, drug use, sexual abuse, mental illness, and a predisposition to cancer. In connecting the dots, Rowbottom theorizes that the boredom generated by privilege helped bring the family down. 

It was Allie's mother Mary who began a memoir about the curse. But she died relatively young from cancer before getting all that organized. So, Allie took that up as a mission.

When a child Allie's mother had been sexually molested by teenage friends of her brother, raped by a cousin, essentially ignored by her parents, and did lose her own mother to cancer when very young. Later she suffered from hysteria, had bouts of drug use and alcoholism, spent time in a psychiatric facility, and was betrayed by her husband.

As Allie tells it, Jell-O has also inflicted a cultural curse on America. After World War II, its commercials reinforced the role of women as stay-at-home housewife and caretaker. Serving creative versions of Jell-O was positioned and packaged as helping those women be perfect in that role.

Later, low-calorie Jell-O was part of the ethos of extreme body consciousness by females. Allie herself got caught up in that and had to receive treatment for an eating disorder. 

In addition, the one-time corporate home for Jell-O - General Foods - also became cursed in complacency. After Philip Morris purchased it to diversify into food, eventually The General, as it was called, was gutted. Later the parts of it which were marketable were merged with Kraft. 

Of course, this isn't the only chronicle of the peril of wealth. In fact, with all the recent suicides in BigLaw, one might wonder if there is any correlation between the high compensation and self-destructiveness. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

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Suicide Up 34% Among Working Age Americans - Not Just a Tragedy in Legal Sector

New York City taxi driver Roy Kim hung himself on November 5th.

That was the 8th recent suicide among the city's cabbies.

And, collectively they are part of the dramatic rise in suicides among American workers of all kinds.

No, suicide is not just the exit ramp for powerful lawyers such as Gabriel MacConaill who are under unthinkable pressure. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during the timeframe 2000 through 2016, suicides among the working age in America increased 34%. Currently it is the 10th leading cause of death. Here are more details from the media.

Yet, why the majority of workers in America manage to keep living, no matter why, and why some kill themselves remains an enigma. No one has come up with a good explanation, for example, for the dozen lawyers in Kentucky who committed suicide from 2010 through 2013.

Not that experts haven't tried to connect the dots.

At Johns Hopkins, psychiatry professor Kay Jamison published "Night Falls Fast." She herself had made a serious suicide attempt. Since that book came up, suicides have kept increasing. So common have they become that each of us probably knows someone who successfully committed suicide. In addition to three in my recovery group, there have been five in my family.

The only insight I might bring to this puzzle is that there is a realistic fear about discussing with anyone else if you are considering suicide. The odds are that supposed trusted listener will alert the authorities. They could then swoop down and house you in a psychiatric facility against your will. 

In my residential complex an elderly man's cat died. He told a neighbor he felt no reason to live. That was more an expression of despondency than a suicide plan. You bet, he was whisked off to the Yale Psychiatric facility. Soon after, when I had to put my cat to sleep, friends in the development warned me against any allusions to wanting to die.

Perhaps those well-intentioned laws about involuntary confinement of those contemplating suicide need to be ditched.

Despite them, suicides are on the rise.

If those laws didn't exist more could share suicidal ideation or even concrete plans without the expectations of being locked up. As we all know, just talking things out helps so much. In itself, the freedom to do that could prevent suicides.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

The Christmas Story of Joseph and Pregnant Virgin Mary - Likely Impossible to Replicate in Rage-Filled 2018

An iconic part of the Christmas story is the altruism of Joseph. 

According to the standard saga, Virgin Mary told him that she was pregnant. Since they had not had sexual relations, he knew he was not the father. He also accepted that Mary had not had sex with anyone else. 

Sweet.

In addition, this kind man struggled to find lodging so that the child would have somewhere to be born. That setting turned out to be a humble stable. So goes the Nativity narrative.

For centuries, experts in sacred scripture debated whether Mary and Joseph did engage in sexual activity after the birth of Jesus. 

The controversy is bound to go on forever. 

But, the Christmas story might not endure. Can those living in 2018, a time of rage, buy into a narrative of such tolerance by a man about his wife's tale of conception without human intervention? Trust is also at a low. 

Today, it would be assumed that the Josephs of the world would experience an extreme flashpoint. There could even be one of the those murder-suicides which are becoming standard in domestic goings-on.

And, tragically, the fetus being carried might not have the opportunity to be born. Recall the fetus which died in the womb of Chris Watts' wife. There had been some kind of flashpoint during the night. 

Me? The Christmas story no longer seems inspiring. It might be replaced with a stranger coming to the aid of pregnant woman and that provides a platform for a game-changer in global values.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

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Roy Kim, 58 - 8th NYC Taxi Driver to Commit Suicide Since November 2017

Another standard way of making a good living, if you work very hard, is being blown up by technology.

That's driving a taxi in New York City.

Those willing to put in the long hours could manage to make that leap into the middle class, including buying a house and sending their children to college. 

That was then.

For the past few years traditional taxi drivers in NYC have been sliding our from living the American Dream into poverty, no matter how many hours they cruise looking for fares.

The cause is the competition from the tech enabled ride-sharing players Uber and Lyft. Those drivers don't have to make the financial commitment of traditional players. And the regulations aren't the same. 

So far, government hasn't helped much.

Among the Uber/Lyft Effects have been the suicides of 8 taxi drivers since last November.

The most recent has been Roy Kim, 58. Recently he had invested about $500k into purchasing a medallion. Afterward was financial nothingness. Plagued with debt, on November 5, 2018, he hung himself. Here are more details from the media.

The taxi business isn't the only one undone by technology.

Just consider all the print journalists who can't get their footing in a digital era. More tech displacement will come, of course.

Some are labeling that the 4th Industrial Revolution: Work being reconfigured by artificial intelligence (AI).

Solutions such as Universal Basic Income are being piloted. However, overall, government doesn't seem up to guiding human beings through the transition.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

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