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☆ China has to figure out how to care for 400 million people over the age of 60 by 2040 — and it's off to a rocky start
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

By 2040, it's expected to have 400 million people above the age of 60 — more people than in the entire US. "It's obvious that relying on contributions from medical insurance schemes to fund age care services is not likely to be viable in the longer term," she said. Alzheimer's is quickly rising as a concern in China, Luk said. "Is China aging rapidly? Beijing has been pressuring the private sector into building daycare centers, wards, and other age care infrastructure to shore up gaps in local government finances, Gu said.

☆ I'm a former teacher who booked more than $242,000 in sales last year with my vending-machine business. Here's how I built my company.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Crystal Warren started her vending-machine business as a side hustle in 2016 while still a teacher. Once I heard that, I went to the library to look up everything I needed to know about vending machines. Crystal WarrenI got up to five vending machines and five locations, then I learned how to find vending-machine locations for other people. You can start a vending business without buying a machineYou can start in the vending-machine business with or without owning vending machines. I've learned a lot on my own about making money, losing money, and working from home to do it.

☆ Want your tax refund faster? Here’s what to do
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The IRS says it typically issues federal refunds within 21 calendar days of accepting your tax return, assuming there are no issues. Tom O’Saben, director of tax content for the National Association of Tax Professionals, said some of his clients have received their refunds in as little as 10 days. “If you filed on paper and are expecting a refund, it could take four weeks or more to process your return,” the IRS notes on its website. This can be an issue if you got married recently and changed your last name but failed to inform the Social Security Administration of your name change. If the IRS finds you still owe tax on that unreported income, you may have to return some or all of your refund, plus interest, and possibly an underpayment penalty.

☆ One chart shows how employment has changed throughout the US economy almost 3 years after the start of the pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The US labor market has been above its pre-pandemic February 2020 employment level for a while. Some sectors are still below pre-pandemic employment almost three years since the official start of the pandemic. While leisure and hospitality isn't back at its pre-pandemic employment level, it still has been experiencing large monthly job gains as workers are needed to meet demand. Air transportation was 11.7% above its February 2020 employment level in December. It continued to expand throughout the pandemic and was 30.8% above its pre-pandemic employment as of December.

It’s the start of a class known as high-intensity interval training, a combination of treadmill and weight-lifting, at the boutique fitness studio Barry’s. The brothers and Rondeau, who now serves as Planet Fitness’ chief executive, hit upon a concept. Planet Fitness’ tag, “judgement free zone” is true to form. Part of the appeal is its $10 a month basic membership fee – which hasn’t changed – that Planet Fitness primarily collects through electronic funds transfers. Still, with solid and regular profits and a reasonable amount of debt, Planet Fitness has staying power, even if shareholders lose their shirts while its valuation comes in line.

☆ Happy New Year! In 2023 kick out Trump, Elon Musk, Kanye and Depp
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Lynn Stuart Parramore | Lynn Stuart Parramore Is A Cultural Historian Who Studies The Intersection Of Culture | Psychology | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

Though in far different fields, men like Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Johnny Depp and Sam Bankman-Fried will forever be linked by this ignominious characteristic. Over the past 12 interminable months, America has witnessed the rantings of Hitler-loving Ye; Musk’s edgelord trolling on his new plaything, Twitter; Depp and his toxic TikTok fanboys; and Trump being Trump on any given day. While seemingly not vain like Ye or Depp or openly thuggish like Trump and Musk, he nonetheless exhibits traits that point to something sinister behind the “just-a-regular-dude” persona. Trump seems to be losing ground, and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee finally took down their “Kanye. Musk asked Twitter users whether he should step down as CEO, and they voted “yes.”Unfortunately, until we address roots causes, there will always be another blustering bully, another Trump, another Ye.

But the sheer number of nurses working travel jobs, and the difference between what they thought was promised and what they pocketed, has led to a substantial legal pushback by travel nurses around the country on the issue. Courtesy Jordyn BashfordThis summer, Stueve Siegel Hanson, a Kansas City, Missouri, law firm, filed class-action lawsuits against four travel nurse agencies: Aya, Maxim, NuWest and Cross Country. Advertisements touted an hourly rate of $8 to $11, but many nurses wound up making less than $6, according to Pan Travelers, a professional association of travel nurses. But by February, after her first 13-week contract, Covid hospitalizations had waned and the demand for travel nurses had fallen. Mark Humphrey / APTwo travel nurses walk the hallways during their shift at a hospital in Rhode Island.

EARLY WARNING SIGNSAfter years of tame inflation, Fed officials and other central bankers say they have faced a chain of disruptive events beyond their control ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to the Ukraine war. The central bank has made conservative estimates on inflation despite Russia cutting gas supplies to Europe in response to Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine. Even as some economists say an inflation peak could now be in sight, central bankers remain far from taming inflation. The concern among some central bankers is that politicians will respond by raising public spending and so aggravate the inflation pressure that their rate-hike cure is intended to heal. If that were to happen, central bankers “would have to reverse course to prevent the debt market from becoming more disorderly," Goodhart told Reuters.

☆ There are more dads staying home to care for kids. It could be why some middle-aged men are missing from the workforce.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

New reports suggest that more men are dropping out of the workforce to stay at home with kids. Research shows women overwhelmingly bore the brunt of childcare and household demands, but many men also stepped up. Now, it seems, some of those men are staying out of the workforce. "Men reflected — some saw how much they enjoyed being with their kids. "But as the gender pay gap is closing, more women are saying, 'I want a career, not just a job.'"

☆ RSV, flu and colds: How to tell when your child is too sick for school
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Almost all children catch RSV at some point before they turn 2, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Here’s how to assess when to keep your child home from school and when to visit the pediatrician, according to experts. Ideally, public health professionals would like it if no child showing symptoms were sent to school or day care, where they could potentially spread infections Schaffner said. Again, here is where schools may have different policies and it becomes important to check with written information, a school administrator or school nurse, Wen said. “Parents should know that treating RSV and other respiratory infections is the bread and butter of pediatricians and emergency physicians,” Wen said.

Or they feature commercial characters from media juggernauts, imbued with predetermined personalities and storylines that encourage children to copy, not create. Yet bestselling toys — as distinct from best — are too often those that are most advertised to kids; digitally enhanced or linked to popular media characters; or both. Companies that profit hugely from licensed characters have a vested interest in preventing children’s creative play — and stifling their creativity. Toys that promote creativity are less likely to be huge moneymakers because they can be used repeatedly in lots of different ways. These toys seem to be made with a kind of planned obsolescence, so new ones will soon be needed.

☆ At 3 weeks old, she caught RSV, the virus that's packing hospitals across the US
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Christina Zdanowicz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

And pediatric hospitals are feeling the strain, with more than three-quarters of their hospital and ICU beds occupied for the past few months. Her prematurity “increased her risk of how her body would react to the RSV virus,” the doctor explained. Medical teams at Greater Baltimore Medical Center helped Ayra Pokharel before she was transferred to another hospital. Sending patients to other facilities for treatment is common during the height of flu and RSV seasons, Nguyen said. RSV symptoms RSV is a common virus, but it can cause serious illness, especially in younger infants and older adults.

☆ As measles outbreak sickens children in Ohio, local health officials seek help from CDC
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —A growing measles outbreak in Columbus, Ohio, has sickened dozens of unvaccinated children and hospitalized nine of them, and local public health officials are seeking assistance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One child is 6 years old.”Health officials with Columbus Public Health and Franklin County Public Health have been investigating these cases and tracing any contacts who may have been exposed to the measles virus. In the 1950s, researchers isolated the measles virus in a patient’s blood, and in the 1960s, they were able to transform that virus into a vaccine. As of October 28, a total of 33 measles cases have been reported this year in five jurisdictions across the United States, according to the CDC. “So the possibility that someone carrying measles virus coming into the country could spread into an unvaccinated population is always there.”

☆ Flu, RSV, Covid: 6 ways employers can deal with a potential wave of absences
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Despite concerns about staff calling out, most employers no longer require anyone to wear a mask at work. Be honest about what company policies incentivizeOffering paid sick leave is a good way to ensure employees feel comfortable calling in sick. Yet a lot of employers don’t provide paid sick leave and they may just offer a few paid personal days. “That doesn’t give people flexibility to stay home [when they’re sick],” Mishra said. Employers may minimize employee absences if they can subsidize back-up day care options for working parents, Mishra noted.

☆ In L.A., Kenneth Mejia is the 1st Asian American to hold citywide office and 1st Filipino elected official
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Claire Wang | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Kenneth Mejia, an accountant and leftist community activist, made history in Los Angeles when he declared victory in the city controller race Tuesday night, becoming the city’s first Filipino elected official and the first Asian American to assume citywide office. He held a 21-point lead over City Councilmember Paul Koretz when Koretz conceded Wednesday. “We have a very diverse population in L.A. and I feel very proud and honored to represent that community,” Mejia, 32, told NBC Asian America. Tenants Union, Mejia ran on a progressive platform centered around decriminalizing homelessness and holding the police and other city departments accountable. “I want to use the office to show how the status quo is not working for everyone,” he said.

The answer is likely to frustrate parents: There is no obvious reason some healthy babies get so sick with RSV that they must be hospitalized, on oxygen, while others do not. That means babies who have never been exposed to a virus like RSV may be hit harder than older children who've had previous RSV infections. A study published Thursday in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine found that in Europe, about 2% of healthy children under age 1 who get RSV require hospitalization. The U.S. is in an unusual surge in respiratory viruses, including RSV, that have overwhelmed children's hospitals. “They’re experiencing their first RSV virus at the same time as other viruses,” including rhinoviruses that cause the common cold.

☆ Evictions are piling up across the U.S. as Covid-era protections end and rents climb
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Shannon-Pettypiece-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Shannon Pettypiece | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +10 min

Still, rents nationwide were up 9% in September, compared to a year earlier, and more than a dozen cities had double-digit rent increases, it said. In Phoenix, for example, rent increases have slowed in recent months, but in June were up 24% year over year, with a median asking rent of $2,261. In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, evictions are at their highest levels since at least 2016, with more than 45,000 filings this year. Zenovia Johnson is one of those Phoenix renters who’s been struggling to stay in her home because of rising rents. In Minneapolis, where rent increases have trended below the national average, evictions in September were 37% above their historical averages after shooting up in June, when the state lifted its eviction moratorium.

☆ The real reason so many remote workers are refusing to go back to the office: their dogs.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Drew Limsky | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

According to a survey by Digital.com, 75% of workers say they want to stay home with their pets instead of going into the office. Similarly, the ASPCA reports 90% of dogs adopted during the pandemic are still in the home. Pup owners surveyed by Veterinarians.org said their dogs inspired them to get out more and try new outdoor activities. Google, WeWork, Tripadvisor, Etsy, and even Ben & Jerry's also permit dogs in the office. In numerous surveys, workers have stressed the value they put on flexibility; many say it's even more important than money or advancement.

As soon as they saw her vitals, the staff at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland knew they had to admit Raegan, her mom said. “I’m glad I didn’t wait.”There’s now an “unprecedented” rise in RSV cases among children in the US, some doctors tell CNN. In Texas, where RSV cases usually spike in December or January, the emergency department at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth and its urgent cares are seeing a significant number of RSV cases. Nearly half the ICU is filled with RSV cases, hospital spokesperson Kim Brown said; between October 2 and 8, there were 210 RSV cases at Cook Children’s; a week later, there were 288. RSV symptoms RSV is a common virus, but it can cause serious illness, especially in younger infants and older adults.

☆ Five charged after viral video shows day care worker scaring kids with creepy mask
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A viral video showing a former Mississippi day care worker scaring kids in her care while while wearing a creepy mask has prompted child abuse charges against five day care workers, NBC affiliate WTVA of Tupelo reported. The day care facility and its owner, who state documents identify as Sheila Sanders, could not immediately be reached. A day care worker from Lil' Blessings Child Care wearing a Ghostface mask scaring a room full of children. The video then shows the masked worker entering what appears to be a second room, prompting screams and cries among the kids. The facility is the community's only day care center, according to the directory ChildcareCenter.us.

But the Inflation Reduction Act, which represents about a third of the spending, was passed by Democrats alone. The White House is still pushing a more expansive child tax credit that was not included in the Inflation Reduction Act. Here’s a detailed look at what Mr. Biden wanted and what he got:Climate and Environment Proposed $722 billion Passed $509 billionOn climate, the Biden administration got much of what it wanted. Health Care Proposed $563 billion Passed $412 billionOn health care, there were some victories for the president — and much trimming. The family programs were eliminated largely because of concerns from Mr. Manchin about the overall size of what became the Inflation Reduction Act.

☆ The Great People Shortage is coming — and it's going to cause global economic chaos
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Sebastian Dettmers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The great labor shortage caused by the declining population will cripple our global economy unless we find innovative ways to keep things running. The German working population will have declined by a third, based on the average scenario from the researchers, and in Italy, Spain, and Greece it will have declined by more than half. We are already experiencing the beginning of this great labor shortage in industries ranging from airlines to day cares. In the US, the increase in the number of retirees compared with the working population is already straining the system. To combat the coming population bust, the world will need nothing less than a revolution of our minds.

☆ How the warehouse boom devoured America's workforce
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Aki Ito | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

It all happened so fast, we never got a chance to ask the most fundamental question: Is the sudden and dramatic shift to warehouse work a good thing? Has the explosion in warehouse jobs, taken as a whole, left us better off than before? As my colleague Katherine Long outlines in her story about musculoskeletal disorders, warehouse work is dangerous. "Warehouse workers," he says, "are the assembly-line workers of contemporary capitalism." That experience has given him hope that warehouse jobs, like their assembly-line predecessors, could wind up being a source of both personal pride and economic advancement.

☆ Index Ventures VCs say vertical software can be 'mission critical' for companies to survive the downturn. Here's what they're looking for in their next investment
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Index Ventures VCs Nina Achadjian and Paris Heymann are betting on vertical software in the downturn. Here's how founders of vertical-software companies can pitch them. Vertical software, or software tailored to specific industries, is poised to do well amid the current economic downturn, two VCs at Index Ventures said. When considering vertical-software companies to invest in, the most important thing they look for is the right kind of founding team. For vertical-software companies, it's important that the founders are familiar with the industry they're trying to sell to, they said.

☆ Surge in cases of RSV, a virus that can severely sicken infants, is filling hospital beds
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-15 | by ( Aria Bendix | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

He tested positive for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a common virus that causes lung infections. Aesop was moved to a pediatric ICU on Tuesday after his heart and breathing rates soared. Many RSV patients in Massachusetts are being transferred to nearby states, she added. At Comer Children's Hospital in Chicago, hospital and ICU beds have been full for over a month. He said the volume of RSV patients is "two to three times what we've ever experienced."

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