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As difficult as it is to get into a pill bottle these days, you would think that accidental poisonings would be a thing of the past. However, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention says about 53,517 kids younger than four end up needing emergency treatment for "unintentional  medication exposures" each year -- and 35 kids under age four died in 2002 from it. A big reason is that parents remove the medications from the child-proof containers. The CDC study said:

[A]t least 12 percent of [Emergency Department] visits for medication exposures resulted from children gaining access to medications left in the open, in pill boxes or in purses. Because medication users often transfer medications from their original child-resistant containers to other containers for daily use, manufacturers are encouraged to improve container designs and promote strategies that allow convenient access for the intended user while also protecting children.

What/When/Where People Eat

Gary Price's excellent Web site, ResourceShelf.com, includes a link to this interesting report, called "What, When and Where Americans Eat." [PDF] Here's a summary of the study's findings, published in Food Technology magazine:

• The number of meals prepared at home continues to decline.
• Fewer than one-third of all meals prepared at home are [made] from "scratch."
• About one-fourth of all meals eaten last night in America were eaten in a restaurant.
• Americans have a growing appetite for "take-home" restaurant food. Drive-up and "take-out" windows are becoming increasingly important to restaurants who used to only serve food at their tables. People want to eat at home, but not cook.
• The most popular, most-ordered foods in America continue to be hamburgers and French fries, followed closely by pizza.
• America's most-ordered appetizer is buffalo wings.
• The most-ordered dessert is ice cream.

Overdue-Books Bucks

When the city of Philadelphia doubled overdue book and CD fines from 25 cents a day to 50 cents a day, the revenues from those fines actually dropped. The city just reversed itself and reduced the fines to the old level.

The Philadelphia Inquirer explains that the higher fines were driving people away from borrowing. 

"Fewer books were coming back, and people were not paying fines, saying, 'I'm out of here,' but more importantly, we saw evidence that fewer people were borrowing books," [library director Elliot] Shelkrot said.

 

"A fine is used to get books back for other people to borrow, and that was not happening."

 

Borrowers have been paying 50 cents a day for an overdue book, according to the library.

 

That fine has been reduced to 25 cents, and fines for overdue CDs and videos have also been reduced.

 

Shelkrot said the library collected just $760,000 in fines last year, down from the $780,000 it collected the previous year.

 

Over the last few years, the state and city have reduced funds for libraries, causing library officials to cut services and hours.

 

The library's budget has also caused heated City Council hearings and funding squabbles within City Hall. Last year, the library was told it had to come up with $1 million on its own because of a budget shortfall. Funding for the library is usually provided by the city's general fund.

 

The move sparked a debate in City Council, with members asking library officials to explain where the library spent previous city funding set aside for the system to restore Saturday hours.

In San Diego County, too, officials just lowered library fines because the board said the fines were hardest on poor people. The county surveyed a bunch of library systems, and of those surveyed, the fines averaged 11 cents per day for overdue books. The county cut its fines for overdue videos and DVDs from $2 a day to $1 a day. If a patron loses a book, he or she has to pay the cost of the book, plus a "processing fee" of $10. Some systems do not charge processing fees.

In one North Carolina community, the library allowed patrons to pay fines by bringing in canned food for the poor.

How Tiny Fines Affect Your Credit Score

Increasingly, cities and counties are turning over even small unpaid fines to collection agencies. It means that unpaid library fines, parking tickets, toll violations and such can all affect your credit rating.

The Wall Street Journal reported: 

In the face of budget crunches, major cities, including New York, Chicago and Miami , are hiring private collection agencies to chase down small debts that are frequently shrugged off by consumers. Since an outstanding account handled by a private collection company can wind up in a credit file, more consumers are discovering that government fees -- like unpaid speeding tickets or dog-catcher fines -- are marring their credit. It's up to each city to decide whether such information will end up in a consumer's credit file.

 

Claude DaCorsi, a management consultant in Portland, Ore. , used to pride himself on his near-perfect credit rating. But during a recent routine credit check, he discovered his credit scores had plunged to "below average."

 

The reason: Two late library books, including a picture book taken out for his 2-year-old son. The library had turned over the $40 late fee to a private collection agency.

 

DaCorsi, who says the black mark affected his interest rate on a home loan, has since barred his children from visiting the library. "We go to Barnes & Noble now," he says. "We can get books there without fear of retribution."

 

A handful of cities, including San Diego and Chicago, have worked with collection agencies since the late 1990s. But the trend is spreading rapidly around the country as strapped local governments look for creative ways to boost revenue without raising taxes and fees. Over the past few years, local governments in places including Seattle; Anchorage, Alaska; Austin, Texas; and Florida's Miami-Dade County have contracted with private agencies to collect late parking tickets and court fees. In New York, Baltimore and Dallas, libraries use private collection firms to recover fines. New York state recently hired a collection company to pursue overdue E-ZPass toll bills.

 

While shaking down citizens over small debts might sound petty, hundreds of cities around the country are owed millions of dollars in unpaid fines. Since 1997, when Chicago began using a collection agency to track down unpaid parking fines, ticket revenue has more than doubled, rising from $68 million to $154 million last year. (The total number of parking tickets issued has dropped slightly over the period.) Since the Omaha, Neb., public-library system hired a private collection company in March, it has collected more than $40,000 in fines and recovered about $75,000 worth of overdue books and materials.

 

Local governments are also using collection agencies to track down some more-unusual fees. In Florida , some municipalities have used a private agency to track down swimmers who fail to pay "beach rescue" fees after they are rescued by lifeguards. San Diego courts have used collection agencies to collect fines issued to people caught riding the trolley system without tickets, according to AllianceOne, a Pennsylvania-based collection firm that works with court systems around the country.

Wages Falling Behind Inflation

Being journalists, I suspect you have felt this story yourself, but in case you needed some data, the Economic Policy Institute says wages, except for those of top executives, are not keeping up with inflation. What is EPI and who funds it?