• occ.treas.gov - complain about banks
• zipdash.com - satellite radios offering traffic/weather
• virginmobile.com - cell phone rentals in europe
• kemwel.com - car rental in europe
• autoeurope.com - car rentals in europe

As the former owner of a business, Clark used to provide health coverage to his employees. And, although it seemed like a lot at the time, he was paying peanuts compared to what people are paying today. The expense and affordability of health coverage is a huge problem for people owning their own businesses. Prices have gone up so much that criminal rings are now selling phony insurance – at much cheaper rates - to these companies. A new report from Congress shows that 15,000 employers got duped by phony non-insurance companies. Bills would go unpaid, and finally the company would learn that there never was any insurance. Imagine if one of your employees got a serious or chronic illness and there is no insurance to cover it. It’s very easy to find out if someone is selling you real insurance or not. All you have to do as an employer is to call your state insurance department and ask about the company or supposed company. The criminals have been operating in three states in particular – Georgia, Florida and Texas. There have also been minor problems in Alabama, Illinois and New Jersey. There could be many other states out there with these problems and they don’t even know it. So, have your employer call right away.

Some technologies are coming that have caused turmoil in the radio business. These are things that will provide new ways to get information, some you may like and some you may not. First of all, Nextel has started a system in California whereby drivers can see exactly how traffic is moving on their cell phones. As you drive, green arrows are displayed if people are going full speed, yellow if people are slowing down and red if it’s stop and go. Cell phones know where you’re going, so you no longer have to ask for directions. You can learn more about it at zipdash.com. The technology has existed in Germany for a while. If another driver is in a wreck up ahead, the system alerts the driver to get off the road right away. The satellite radio services – XM and Sirius – also provide a similar service. They provide local traffic and weather information in certain areas. But people who have these satellite radio services are not very excited this new technology because the reports are very canned and computerized. It’s all about choice on demand. And people who live in congested areas will have more and more choices when it comes to getting their traffic.

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On the other hand, something radio people may love is a new Tivo-type for radio. Let’s say there is a favorite radio show you love to listen to but you can’t. This little handheld radio works just like a digital recording device for television. You can record it ahead of time and listen at your leisure. There is also a rewind function that allows you to record and play back as much or as little as you want. It’s available from Pogo Products and is about $150.

People are feeding into the frenzy of identity theft and are getting duped into buying pointless subscription services that claim to protect your identity. These services cost anywhere from $89 to $129 a year. And what people may not know is that many of them are allied with the credit bureaus that are responsible for so much of the ID theft going on. There are also notification services that send an e-mail anytime something changes on your credit card. Clark got a solicitation just yesterday from a service wanting him to buy “identity theft insurance.” If your identity is swiped, it takes a lot to get it cleaned up. But the industry at fault in so many ways is now trying to profit from its lack of response to this problem. Identity theft comes in all shapes, but most of it is very low tech. The basic guidelines are as follows: do not put your social security number on any form; shred as much paper you can if it has personal or financial information on it; and check your credit reports once a year. Clark also wants more laws on the book allowing free credit reports and outlawing social security numbers on health insurance cards and driver’s licenses. California is one state that is very progressive in preventing identity theft. They make it very hard for anyone to get your number. That is the way it should be.

About six months ago, Clark predicted if Rupert Murdock won the fight for DirecTV, the cable companies would have upset stomachs for a long time. Well, it happened quicker than he predicted. In the past three months, DirecTV added half a million new homes to its customer based while Dish added almost 400,000 new subscribers. Those customers are coming out of the cable industry because they are fed up with paying exorbitant amounts for cable. In addition, satellite has better service and sound, according to J.D. Power & Associates and other surveys. Clark has heard recently that the satellite companies have slipped a bit in service. But overall, satellite is far superior. Dish also has a very nice incentive with its DVR system, which costs about $5 a month. So, if you’re fed up with what you have to pay for cable, consider satellite. In other cable news, you may remember that there were hearings on Capitol Hill recently about whether cable should be allowed to force channels down customers’ throat. Cable companies claimed their pricing models would collapse if they let individuals pick and choose programming. But Congress has ordered the FCC to look into whether it would be feasible. That’s great news.