The Answer

There has been a lot of information in the news lately about mechanical defects in a large number of Toyota vehicles. The stories have provided a lot of detail about the people affected by the recall, and the potential effect on Toyota’s business, but many have neglected to mention which vehicles are actually affected.

For that, you’ll need to go to the source of the recall, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They have listed detailed instructions for contacting your auto dealer and how to determine if your vehicle is affected.

But most importantly, the NHTSA also has a number of suggestions regarding what you should do if your vehicle malfunctions. The full set of instructions is posted on their website.

Hit the jump for the full list of affected vehicles.

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The Housing Authority of Cook County is opening another window for its public housing wait list.

These forms are for elderly and disabled developments around Chicagoland, including Arlington Heights, Des Plaines, Evanston, Niles, Skokie, and Wheeling. There are also a few family sites in the south suburbs.

We only have a limited supply of these forms, so we are restricting them to 2 per individual. You are free to photocopy the forms, or download them from the HACC website.

These are not Section 8 forms, rather applications for the public housing wait list. For more information, please refer to the HACC website or call 312-663-5447.

Frances Roehm, the SkokieNet Librarian, writes in to let us know about the new eligibility window for Medicare Part D, the government’s prescription drug program for seniors.

From November 15th to December 31st, seniors can sign up for the program or change their provider. On Monday, December 7th, we’ll have 3 social workers at the library to help people with the paperwork. They’ll be here from 9:30 AM to 3 PM, and people can sign up for half-hour appointments.

The signup sheet is available on the second floor reference desk. If you’d like to sign up a spouse along with yourself, you’ll need to sign up for two separate slots.

Seniors also must bring the following items:

• Medicare card
• Medicare Part D card
• A list of their current prescriptions and dosage (e.g., 30mg, 3x daily)

Navigating the sea of paperwork can be tricky, and slots are likely to fill up quickly. Come see us at the reference desk and make your appointment early!

Gale is providing free access to Global Issues in Context and medical-related ebooks from the Gale Virtual Reference Library to make reliable H1N1 virus information available.  The complete page is here.

With identity theft a constant risk, it’s important to make sure all documents containing personal information are properly disposed of. For the most part, that means you’ve got to take care of any identifying bits of data.

This Saturday, October 17th, First Bank & Trust is holding a Shredding Day. Bring your personal documents (up to 25 pounds worth) and watch as they turn it into unidentifiable confetti. The bank is located at 8407 Skokie Blvd, and will run from 11 AM to 1 PM. Keep your identity safe!

(image credit: Will Luo via Flickr. Yes, I realize that the event’s during the day, and not Saturday night. But Elton John wouldn’t return my calls, let alone hear my request that he change the title of the song.)

Tonight, the President is set to address a joint session of Congress regarding his plan to reform the country’s health care. No matter which side of the political spectrum you fall on, this is an issue that affects everyone. But the politics can really get in the way of understanding. Partisan sniping, selective omission of information, and outright bickering just adds more noise to an already complicated issue.

Leave it to Dan Roan to bring things back around.

Roan, author of The Back of the Napkin, has created a simple-to-understand set of slides that really cuts to the heart of the health care debate, and does so without falling into any of the normal partisan pitfalls. Click on the picture above to check out the slideshow.

What do you think? Did the slideshow help your understanding of the debate?

Not surprisingly, there appear to be many different ways you can track Hurricane Bill. Mashable.com has a nice list of resources, including websites, Twitter accounts, and mobile apps.

If you’re interested in learning more about hurricanes, try Kerry Emanuel’s Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes or Bob Sheets’ Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth.

Of course, if you’re really serious about learning all you can about hurricanes, you’re going to want to take a look at the Encyclopedia of Hurricanes, Typhoons, and Cyclones.

COBRA is a federally mandated program that lets people who lost their jobs stay in the company’s group health insurance plan if they choose. 

As of Feb. 17, 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment act requires employers to pay up to 65% of people’s premiums, while the “separated” workers pay the remaining 35%.  COBRA is good for 18 months. Companies have to pay the subsidy for 9 months. There are income requirements that may make you ineligible for the subsidy.

For more information contact the U.S. Department of Labor, 800-444-3272 or Illinois Division of Insurance Consumer, 877-527-5364.

The Associated Press is reporting that Pfizer, one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical firms, will give free prescription medications to people who find themselves unemployed and uninsured.

Anyone who’s lost a job and health care coverage after Jan. 1 is eligible for up to a year.

Included are 70 widely used drugs including Lipitor, for high cholesterol,  painkiller Celebrex and some others.

Starting Thursday, people can sign up by calling a toll-free number, (866) 706-2400.

If your drug isn’t covered, you may be eligible for assistance from other Pfizer programs.

Utilizing new mass media technologies has been a major strategy for many of our most well-known political leaders. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used radio to broadcast his fireside chats, which became a trademark of his three terms in office. It’s been argued that getting his handsome mug on television was the deciding factor in John F. Kennedy’s electoral victory over Richard Nixon in 1960.

In keeping with this trend, it’s pretty easy to argue that Barack Obama is the first Web 2.0 president. Rather than adopt any one of these new social media tools – RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr are all good examples. But that’s a lot of stuff to keep track of. And that’s where GovFresh is stepping in to help.

GovFresh serves as an aggregator for all of these feeds, press releases, and major announcements alike. If you’ve got an RSS reader (and by all accounts you should, if you like reading things on the Internet), they even have an RSS feed of their own that wraps all of these White House communiques with a neat, tidy bow.

And it’s not just White House stuff, either. You can find feeds for all branches of government, federal departments and agencies, and the committees for both major political parties. It’s convenient and easy.

If you’re interested in public oversight of government affairs, or just a political junkie, it’s well worth checking out.