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  • Showing only topics with the tag "local". Back to normal view
    1. Recommendations for finding a local('ish?) repair for name brand quality headset?

      Hiya - I'm looking for some help because despite a lot of Google quality time, I'm sincerely struggling to get a solution. I have a Plantronics 4220 wireless headset that I use for work (and also...

      Hiya -

      I'm looking for some help because despite a lot of Google quality time, I'm sincerely struggling to get a solution.

      I have a Plantronics 4220 wireless headset that I use for work (and also to connect with Bluetooth to my PC at the same time between calls), and somehow the audio is starting to flake out. It's like it only gets audio in one ear, but if I tilt my head slightly it'll get into the other ear or sometimes both. Pretty weird... it's something I might expect from a wired headset where the cord itself is dying, but not on a wireless one like this.

      Anyhow, I'm very comfortable with tech stuff (building my own rigs for like 20 years now), but I've never really felt comfortable about iFixit kind of solutions where tools or hardware is involved with the hardware. I'd pretty much just rather throw a little money at a pro who can fix it in 5 minutes and charge me $50 or whatever, lol.

      However when I am going to look for places that might offer repair services, all I'm getting are locations in the US... but I'm in Canada. Specifically Ontario. Anyone have a source (from personal experience or otherwise) on how I might best look up a place I can get this fixed at? Figuring out what to search for on this subject seems oddly arcane!

      6 votes
    2. US states scrutinize the amount of charity spending from nonprofit hospitals in light of high salaries and large tax breaks

      https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/nonprofit-hospitals-tax-breaks-community-benefit/ POTTSTOWN, Pa. — The public school system here had to scramble in 2018 when the local hospital, newly...

      https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/nonprofit-hospitals-tax-breaks-community-benefit/

      POTTSTOWN, Pa. — The public school system here had to scramble in 2018 when the local hospital, newly purchased, was converted to a tax-exempt nonprofit entity.

      The takeover by Tower Health meant the 219-bed Pottstown Hospital no longer had to pay federal and state taxes. It also no longer had to pay local property taxes, taking away more than $900,000 a year from the already underfunded Pottstown School District, school officials said.

      The district, about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, had no choice but to trim expenses. It cut teacher aide positions and eliminated middle school foreign language classes.

      “We have less curriculum, less coaches, less transportation,” said Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez.

      The school system appealed Pottstown Hospital’s new nonprofit status, and earlier this year a state court struck down the facility’s property tax break. It cited the “eye-popping” compensation for multiple Tower Health executives as contrary to how Pennsylvania law defines a charity.

      The court decision, which Tower Health is appealing, stunned the nonprofit hospital industry, which includes roughly 3,000 nongovernment tax-exempt hospitals nationwide.

      “The ruling sent a warning shot to all nonprofit hospitals, highlighting that their state and local tax exemptions, which are often greater than their federal income tax exemptions, can be challenged by state and local courts,” said Ge Bai, a health policy expert at Johns Hopkins University.

      The Pottstown case reflects the growing scrutiny of how much the nation’s nonprofit hospitals spend — and on what — to justify billions in state and federal tax breaks. In exchange for these savings, hospitals are supposed to provide community benefits, like care for those who can’t afford it and free health screenings.

      More than a dozen states have considered or passed legislation to better define charity care, to increase transparency about the benefits hospitals provide, or, in some cases, to set minimum financial thresholds for charitable help to their communities.

      The growing interest in how tax-exempt hospitals operate — from lawmakers, the public, and the media — has coincided with a stubborn increase in consumers’ medical debt. KFF Health News reported last year that more than 100 million Americans are saddled with medical bills they can’t pay, and has documented aggressive bill-collection practices by hospitals, many of them nonprofits.

      (article continues)

      15 votes