Monthly Archives: January 2023

What It Takes To Be A Top 1% Earner In Your State, Mapped

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SmartAsset scanned IRS data from 2019 to see what each state’s biggest earners had in common, and what made them stand out from everyone else. They adjusted their 2019 findings to 2022 figures using the data from the BLS’s CPI for urban wage earners and clerical workers.

Key Takeaways

• Being one of America’s top earners is the hardest thing to do in Connecticut, where you’d have to rake in more $955,300 to join the one percent club. If you’re looking for a compromise, earning more than $336,900 would put you in the top five percent.

• Earning upwards of $275,000 would make you among the top five percent in New Hampshire, Maryland, New York, Colorado, Virginia, Washington, California, Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

• The top one percent earners have an average tax rate of 25 percent in the top 15 states.

See More [Digg]:

https://digg.com/data-viz/link/what-it-takes-to-be-in-the-top-1-by-usa-state-mapped-WW04bDD5jC

Library waives $52,400 fee on book overdue for 58 years

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They finally closed the book on this case.

A British library waived a $52,400 fee for a book that had been overdue — for 58 years. 

In 1964, then-17-year-old David Hickman checked out “The Law for Motorists” from the Dudley Library before a court visit over a minor traffic violation, the Express & Star reported.

When the former Dudley resident moved to London in 1970, he brought the book with him.

See More:

nypost.com/2023/01/21/library-waives-52400-fee-on-book-overdue-for-58-years/

Delray Beach North Swell Surfing 1-14-2023

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City of Delray Beach webcam surfing video of a refraction swell on January 14, 2023. One of the best surf spots in South Florida. Captured and edited by R. Michael Brown.

Note: Jumps and pauses in the video are because of webcam buffering.

See More on R. Michael Brown YouTube Channel

Need Marketing or PR Consulting? Contact Mike@RMichaelBrown.com today!

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America’s Favorite Gas Stations, Ranked

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From average gas bills to how many minutes they’d go out of the way to fill up at a particular gas station, here are America’s favorite, and least favorite, places to fill up the tank.

America's Favorite and Hated Gas Stations

Payless Power surveyed 1,011 Americans about their gas station preferences, asking them about brand loyalty and how much they usually spend when filling up the tank. Ten percent of the survey respondents were Baby Boomers, 22 percent were Gen X, 43 percent were Millennials and 25 percent were Gen Z. Just over half (57 percent) were men.

Overall Costco was rated the best gas station, while Valero was rated the worst. Costco was ranked cleaner and cheaper than others, while Valero was ranked as one of the meanest stations.

On average, people who stopped at a Circle K, Speedway, Shell, Love’s or Wawa gas station spent more than $50 on each visit, whereas Costco and 7-Eleven had the cheapest bills.

Average Spend at Each Gas Station Visit

See More [Digg]

2023 Road Cycling Season Starts Here!

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The GCN Racing News Show

Road racing is back with a bang as the Australian National Championships start the season in style & Zonohoven cements itself as one of the most exciting cyclocross races on the calendar! Dan is here to round up the last week of action and look ahead to more exciting racing in the weeks ahead!

Brought to you by the world’s biggest cycling channel, the Global Cycling Network (GCN), GCN Racing brings you the best of the world’s bike races to your screens, wherever you are: the finest live race commentary, in-depth analysis and behind the scenes access from your favourite events are all here. So get involved, join us, and get ready to be in the thick of the action.

Houston Taqueria Customer Shoots, Kills Armed Robber

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Security Camera Image

A customer at a taqueria on the southwest side of Houston shot and killed a would-be armed robber, according to video released by the Houston Police Department. The customer reportedly gathered the money taken by the robbery suspect and distributed it back to the victims before leaving the restaurant.

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How to Block Scam Calls, the Top Source of Fraud Against Older Adults

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Scam­mers are al­ways find­ing new ways to dupe peo­ple out of money. In the U.S., phone calls re­main the pri­mary way swindlers hook older vic­tims.

A study pub­lished last month by the Fed­eral Trade Com­mis­sion found that 24% of adults over age 60 who re­ported los­ing money to a scam in 2021 said it started with a phone call—the largest per­cent­age of any method, in­clud­ing email, text and mail. For vic­tims 80 and older, phone calls were be­hind 40% of scams.

Scams range from robo­calls pitch­ing car war­ranties to young peo­ple pos­ing as grand-chil­dren in need of a bailout. The best way to pro­tect against phone scams, on­line-safety ex­perts say, is to not re­ceive the phone calls in the first place.

So how do you do that?

While ig­nor­ing mys­tery calls is ef­fec­tive, it isn’t al­ways fea­si-ble. Per­haps you don’t have all the num­bers of health­care providers, in­sur­ance com­pa­nies and other vi­tal ser­vices stored in your phone’s con­tacts. Also, caller ID of­ten doesn’t iden­tify the name of the busi­ness that is call­ing. Tech com­pa­nies are de­vel­op­ing so­lu­tions for di­vert­ing scam calls. And even though the ma­jor­ity of Amer­i-cans over 65 have smart­phones, there are also ways to pro­tect your­self if you’re on a land­line.

See More [Wall Street Journal]

www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-block-scam-calls-the-top-source-of-fraud-against-older-adults-11673051224

Automated Commercial Dishwashing

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Employment at restaurants continues to be replaced by machines. As employee costs go up, machines and these types of services become more affordable for businesses.

Dishcraft uses proprietary robotics and AI to deliver clean dishes everyday while reducing waste, improving efficiency, and increasing reliability.

See More [Dishcraft]

Business Idea? 4 Tips to Make it Successful

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Build Your Brand – 1 min.

The first work day of 2023 is today for most and many are setting goals for the year.

Start strong! Your goals and ideas will always work better when you collaborate with top performers. Think about all of your past successes. Did you do it alone? Probably not. Build your brand! Here are tips to help you do that: Design, Content, Marketing Strategy, Reliable Team

See More [R. Michael Brown Tips]

Brother and Sister had to Stop 6 Times in 1 Day on Cold Trip to Charge Rented Tesla

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  • A brother and sister rented a Tesla and found they had to stop six times in one day to charge it.
  • Xaviar Steavenson and his sister Alice drove from Orlando, Florida to Wichita, Kansas.
  • They said other customers with rented Teslas had called Hertz with similar charging problems.

Xaviar and Alice Steavenson wanted to find out what it’s like to drive a Tesla, so they rented one from Hertz for a road trip from Orlando, Florida to Wichita, Kansas.

They knew that the electric car would need charging en route, but what the siblings did not expect was just how often they’d need to plug it in.

They realized it would take longer to charge the car after the weather turned so cold in late December.

However, it got to the point that the “battery would drain faster than it would charge,” Xaviar told Insider.

When they set off they could drive for at least two and a half hours before needing to charge the Tesla. “We ended up having to stop every one to one and a half hours to charge for an hour, then an hour and a half, then two hours,” he said.

“So beyond the lost time, it also got to the point it was between $25 and $30 to recharge. Just in one day, we stopped six times to charge at that cost,” Xaviar said.

Hertz said on its website that renting a Tesla was “always cheaper than gas,” according to Xaviar, but he said that claim was far from the truth.

See More [Yahoo News]

Attracting and Converting Customers with a Content Marketing Funnel

Customer Journey Content Mgmt Funnel

Content marketing is all the rage now. The big questions are, what content, where, and at what stage of the customer buying funnel? So I came up with a Content Marketing and Customer Journey Funnel infographic to help clients and content producers know the content marketing roadmap to success.

See More [R. Michael Brown Feature Story]