For the last few weeks my wife has been trying to finish working on her unemployment while in between job assignments. There have been a few complications that require her to actually talk to someone. It has been impossible to get through to a person after her initial call. After the automation and data entry part, it simply says "we're sorry, your call can't be taken.....". So we decided to sit down together, both phones and just dial back to back this morning. We made a few dozen calls, all the same result. Which doesn't make much sense. So I started thinking that her social was flagged in some way since that's the verification done just before the "we're sorry" part. So I decided to put in my info on the next call. Whoa! Went right through to a call cue on the first try. So that helped support my theory that her social was flagged for some reason, and the system is straight up blocking her call.

So we get through to the representative, and give her my wife's social. She responds by saying, "you called using a different social didn't you?" My wife says, "yeah, since that apparently is the only way to get through". The representative then hangs up on her. I tried calling again after being pissy about it. AND NOW LOOK.....mg number has been flagged and I get the same response no matter how many times I call.

Something is messed up here. I don't care about waiting on hold of hours. It's annoying but at least there's progreas. But this? I don't think it's coincidence at all; they're blocking the ability to communicate entirely.

The Nicotine pouches that got me off cigarettes have now doubled in price. 😭

While most states lost hospitals (on net) between 2001 and 2023, the extent of change within states varied markedly. California, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Michigan have had the highest net losses of hospitals (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: States That Lost the Most Hospitals (Openings Minus Closures), 2001–2023

• State California −41
• New York −39
• Pennsylvania −28
• Georgia −17
• Michigan −17

Wow, this is unreal. The taxes originally imposed on smoking cigarettes as a deterrent due to health risks now extend to nicotine pouches purchased online. This does the OPPOSITE of giving people a healthier alternative to smoking, and is clearly a cash grab because the state doesn’t know how to get back the money lost from people not smoking as much. The data on smokers and young kids smoking supports this. Shame on NY.