Culver City Observer -

By Neil Rubenstein

Observer Columnist

Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 526-West Los Angeles meets on the first Thursday of each month at the American Legion Hall, 5309 Sepulveda Boulevard, Culver City, 7:30 p.m. For more information contact John Hamilton, President at (310) 429-4512 or Post Office Box 1442, Culver City, California 90232-1442.

I just bet our fire chief doesn’t want any of his engineers to hear about the three openings next year in Cobb County, Georgia. Please don’t tell the chief cousin Neil let the cat out of the bag, but here goes: Cobb bought a new ladder truck for $1.3 million and the three new driver/engineers will be paid $264,612 which will include fringe benefits and $19,805 for training, uniforms and safety equipment. If the men in our fire house would check with a real estate broker they would soon find out that kind of money will buy a huge brick mansion on a very large lot, and Georgia has a low tax rate. You better believe whoever gets the job will be whistling all the way to the bank.

Can it be true Jonathan Pollard, after being a prisoner for 30 years, might soon be released from a federal prison? Pollard was found guilty on charges of selling classified information to Israel while working as a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst in 1985.

Many of us are still in shock over the untimely death of Andy Davis. He passed away on July 12 when his motorcycle was hit from behind by a pick-up truck. Davis was commissioned to design and create the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that was to be placed in the Georgia State House.

Schoolteachers in Florida have reason to smile. In fact, many have 10,000 reasons to rejoice. The Florida state budget that went into effect on July 1 provides $44 million for highly effective teachers to get bonuses if the teachers themselves, back when they were in high school, scored in the top 20 percent of students who took the SAT or ACT. Teachers will have until October 1 to obtain and submit their high school transcripts and a check for up to $10,000 is theirs.

New York City has agreed to pay a total of $332,500 to the six Occupy Wall Street protesters who said police unjustly blasted them with pepper spray.

Can you believe the schnooks in Santa Barbara thought if they cut their water use they would get a reduction in their water bills? Fools. In the month of July water bills rose between $13 and $120 depending upon consumption and to help the city recover lost revenue and to activate desalination facility.

Did you know, ladies, if any of your first degree male relatives, like a father, brother or son, had prostate cancer, then your risk for breast cancer increases by 14 percent according to a study in the journal “Cancer”?

Scientists since 2004 have found dogs were able to detect bladder cancer in the urine samples of patients with the disease. At the Penn Vet Working dog Center in Philadelphia, canines are trained to sniff out ovarian cancer in white blood cell samples.

Can you house a pet for a member of the military during that person’s deployment? Visit http://www.dogsondeployment.org.

From the world’s dumbest criminals: Paul Robert Benson of Belfast, Northern Ireland went shoplifting wearing a replica Manchester United soccer jersey with his own name on the back.

Parents with children in high school just might want to read the ultimate guide in finding, getting into, and paying for a college that’s right for their son or daughter. You can browse “Money Magazine’s” unique value-focused lists of the best colleges in a range of categories. See http://www.money.com/colleges.

As mentioned in the August issue of the newspaper “L.A. Focus,” a new law, Prop 47, may allow you or someone you know to remove a non-violent felony (which can be a barrier to jobs, housing and more) from your record. Come to this free event and meet with lawyers and legal advisors at the Record Change and Resource Fair Sunday, September 27, 2015, 11a.m-5:00 p.m. at Exposition Park. Learn more about eligibility at http://www.myProp47.org/LAFair. There will be refreshments, food, music and entertainment.

More than 20 years after banning prisoners from receiving student aid, some federal and state inmates could be eligible for Pell grant money to take college courses while behind bars. I’m okay with it. The program will allow, on a temporary basis, federal grants to be used to cover college costs for prisoners. It will last three to five years and be open to prisoners who are eligible for release, particularly within the next five years.

Bill and Hillary Clinton have disclosed that since 2007 they have paid close to $44 million in federal taxes. The Clintons earned more than $139 million between 2007 and 2014, according to the returns, and made about $15 million in charitable gifts. Last year they paid an overall federal tax of 35.7 percent, as noted in the Richmond, Virginia Times on August 1.

The Goliath bird-eating spider (Theraphosa blondi) lives in the rain forests of South America, actually prefers frogs and rodents to birds and is itself considered a delicacy.

For those who missed an article, all my commentaries can be found at http://www.culvercityobserver.com by placing Rubenstein in that website’s search box.