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Clark has been encouraging people to buy their prescriptions from Canada for quite a while now. The savings is between 30 and 70 percent, and it's completely safe. The problem is that Canadians don’t want Americans to buy their drugs anymore. There are about 1 to 2 million Americans buying drugs in Canada, and the country is having trouble meeting the demand. So, how can we cut costs here at home? Most prescription meds come in different dosages. If your doctor prescribes you 30 mg pills, you can probably get 60 mg pills. If you buy the bigger pills, it will cost the same and all you have to do is cut the pills in half. You cut the cost of the drugs in half – literally. The Department of Veterans Affairs conducted a study into this practice to see if there were any health concerns about doing this. There was not. So, give it a try and see how it works for you.

About 90 percent of companies say their holiday party budgets will stay the same or decline this year, meaning that the office bash may be out. In fact, there is a one in three chance that there will be no Christmas party are your company. The idea in corporate America today is to take anything away that is considered a frill. And, according to Money Magazine, some companies that are having parties aren’t allowing employees to bring a guest. What kind of party is that? If you are the CEO of a company, you need to reevaluate how you look at your employees. Do you see them as a burden or a benefit? And what are you doing for them to show them some appreciation. Clark takes his staff on a shopping spree at a warehouse club and then takes them out to dinner as a holiday gift. It’s a fun gathering that ends the year on a great note. If you can’t afford a party, at least plan a pot luck dinner.

You may have heard of Health Savings Accounts or HSAs but you’re not really sure what they are. It’s the Bush administration’s main initiative in the health care area and Clark really likes the idea. Right now, the health insurer and your employer are the customer, and you’re in third position. No one cares about you and you have no say in what you pay. But with an HSA, you get a trade-off. You get much lower premiums for health coverage, but you have to pay the first minimum $1,000 for coverage. The money you don’t spend, goes into a tax-free savings account known as an HAS. It earns money tax-free and is used tax free to pay for medical expenses. Now, if you see the doctor frequently, an HSA is not a good idea. But for many, it’s a huge improvement because you will be more conscious about how much you’re spending. Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest health care companies, is getting in on the HSA game early. The company is concerned about losing customers to individual HSA plans. So, as an experiment, the company is going to allow customers to buy an HSA plan through Kaiser. About one in four Kaiser members will be eligible. The premiums will be much lower, but the doctor visits will cost much more. It won’t be the typical $10 or $15 co-payment. It’s not the traditional Kaiser business model, but Clark congratulates them for trying something new. The market place will decide if it’s a good idea or not and we’ll keep you posted.

One of the biggest hassles for cities and counties is what to do with all of the food waste coming out of restaurants. It causes rodent problems and landfill space issues, and it’s becoming a huge problem. So much so that restaurateurs are finding ways to recycle their leftover food scraps and using them to help grow new food. It's called "food recycling" and it involves combining the food waste with grass clippings to make compost. Farmers then use the compost to grow all kinds of produce. It’s a win-win for everyone because the restaurant owners get rid of their waste and farmers have great success with crops using the compost. Food recycling programs are spreading across the globe, according to the L.A. Times. The goal in Los Angeles County is to divert 70 percent of food scraps into composting operations. Clark thinks we should be implanting this program everywhere, so lets hope other restaurants get involved.

For years, Clark has sung the praises of Tivo and other digital video recorders that allow you to record shows you want and skip commercials with ease. With these devices, you basically watch TV when you want and you can even pause live television if you need to. But Tivo is selling out, according to USA Today. The company will now force its customers to view advertisements while they are fast-forwarding through regular commercials. Through the Program Guide, which is transferred through the telephone line, Tivo will feed these commercials to its screen. So, the whole idea of skipping commercials will be a thing of the past once Tivo starts forcing them on us. Customers bought the Tivo machines and paid the licensing fee so they could access the programming guide and view what they want. Now, the company is trapping us into watching ads anyway. It’s a disgrace and Clark hopes legal action is coming. Even worse is a bill moving through the U.S. Senate that will make it a federal crime to skip through commercials during a television show. This is no joke. The advertising industry has convinced a senator to propose the Intellectual Property Protection Bill on Capitol Hill. You can even go to jail for going to the bathroom during a commercial. Clark can’t believe this is actually being considered.

Do you travel a lot? If so, you may have experienced very long lines in the security area of the airport. Or, maybe you’ve felt bullied by some of the security people who move you through the line. What’s most maddening to Clark is the inconsistency of the security procedures and experiences at airports. Clark thinks it’s because government is in charge of airport security. The Transportation Security Administration was put in charge of airports after the September 11 attacks, and it essentially federalized the process. But there is help on the way. In the TSA law, a sunset provision is included that allows airports to leave the government-run system and go back to private security companies. These companies must meet federal standards for screening and there must be federal oversight. But it could make things move a lot faster at airports moving forward. Now, there is nothing wrong with the people working for the TSA now. Many of them are very thorough and friendly. But there is a lack of urgency in the administration itself. Clark would like to see competing screeners in airports. Private screeners on one end and government workers on the other, and let’s see which one is more efficient. It would create competition and the market would decide which works better. Then, we wouldn’t just be replacing one monopoly with another. We would actually be improving the system.