SURPRISING STUFF
Spring is here which means it’s time for storm spotter training.
The 2024 storm spotter training season will provide both in-person and online training sessions. Training sessions will be about two hours long. The first hour will cover safety aspects for spotters/general public, while the second hour will cover the essentials of what you need to know to report severe weather to the National Weather Service (NWS). Storm spotters are volunteers who monitor storms in their local areas and report real-time conditions back to the NWS. The storm spotter training is a program that teaches how to identify, evaluate, and report severe weather events. An interactive multimedia presentation is given by a meteorologist, including various images and video loops from past storms in Michigan and the Great Lakes area. The training is free and open to the public. Walworth County will be hosting its in-person training in Delavan at the fire department on Ann Street at 1 p.m. Then, in East Troy, at that fire department, the training will be on County Highway ES at 6:30 p.m.
Do not do recurring monthly withdrawals from either debit cards or bank accounts.
The banking industry had created a monster by allowing the concerns that collect such monthly payments (including such great operations like PBS, and some political candidates) to oversee whether the charge can be paid or not. The bank account holder in all U.S. banks cannot stop such payments except in only the most temporary of circumstances. That’s right you are reading this correctly.
If you call the bank or email that institution to cancel the monthly withdrawal you authorized, then you will have to have the permission of the organization or person you have been sending the money to stop the payments. Or you must close your account. Closing an account can be a substantially painful thing to do as many people have great relationships with their banks. The solution, as difficult as it can be or seems to be, is not to allow such withdrawals in the first place.
Some more on banking that you might not know.
The banks, many of them, in fact, most of them, no longer own the ATMs that are in their lobbies or in stalls outside the bank when you drive through. What does this mean for you as a customer? It means that if the card reader eats your card or fails to pay the cash you have no recourse whatsoever with the bank employees just inside or behind the counter. You may be stuck appealing to the owners of the ATMs to get your money or card back (if it’s the kind of ATM that takes your card inside its interior).
Ask your bank if it owns the ATMs it has outside or is located in some place in the lobby before you use the machine. The private companies that own ATMs and put them in convenience stores and banks are primarily owned by the Chinese and repayments can take up to ten days for lost cash. Generally, if your card is taken, or not released inside the machine, then you are simply required to get another card. Be careful out there.
For example: Chase does not own the machines located on its branch properties.
