In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

In today’s New York Times Sunday Magazine, there’s an article, “Cass Sunstein Wants To Nudge Us,” profiling Cass Sunstein, the director of White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
OIRA, according to the piece, has “the power to review every significant new rule that emerged from…[federal] agencies and to decide whether the benefits (in [...]

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On the subject of incentives mentioned in the above post, I just saw an online preparedness campaign created by Mynorthwest.com called, “3 To Get Ready Preparedness Challenge”. The campaign asks Washington state residents to take 3 preparedness steps and reach out to 3 friends through either Facebook, Twittter or email — and offers a prize package, [...]

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Virginia has announced that it will be holding its 3rd Annual Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday from May 25-31. The development of the Commonwealth’s event can be instructive for other government preparedness authorities.
During the Holiday, citizens can purchase emergency preparedness-related supplies without paying the 5% state sales tax. According to the Virginia Department of Taxation, in [...]

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As part of its public outreach, the Department of Homeland Security has launched the National Cybersecurity Awareness Campaign Challenge whose goal is “to get the best ideas from organizations and individuals for clearly and comprehensively communicating about cybersecurity with the American public.” (I’m a little late on this, but it was announced while the blog was [...]

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As we mark the anniversaries of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, I wanted to again mention a bill which would create a ‘tax holiday’ for preparedness supplies and “Go-Bags,” introduced in the New York State Assembly by Assemblyman Jonathan L. Bing. Under the legislation, New Yorkers would be able to buy emergency supplies without paying state sales tax between September 1st-11th and purchase pre-made “Go-Bags” tax free [...]

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With a new survey reporting that residents of coastal states are unprepared for hurricane season, Virginia held its annual hurricane preparedness tax holiday last week to try to boost civilian readiness in that state. Virginia made a significant effort to promote the week and enlist the private sector with its marketing capacity and expertise behind citizen [...]

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The State of Virginia’s “Hurricane Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday” week will run from May 25th-May 31th. Louisiana’s preparedness tax holiday weekend will take place on the 30th and 31st. 

During those periods, sales tax will be lifted on purchases of preparedness-related supplies and equipment including batteries and flashlights; bottled water and coolers; tarps, plastic sheeting and duct tape; smoke detectors [...]

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I have written before about the importance of offering the public some kind of incentive when it comes to trying to spur preparedness. One example is that New York City Fire Department regularly gives away batteries at public events to encourage New Yorkers to keep their smoke alarms working. Recently, I took this photo of [...]

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With all the focus on the environment on Earth Day, I wanted to reiterate a point about the connection I think should be made between the public service campaigns on global warming and emergency preparedness. 
It is my contention that the two efforts are complementary and should be more linked closer together in the public’s mind — and [...]

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On Tax Day, I thought I would highlight Virginia’s second annual Hurricane Preparedness Tax Holiday which will run from May 25-31. During that week, sales tax will be lifted on purchases of preparedness-related supplies and equipment. Though the state’s Department of  Emergency Management considered last year’s week successful, I wanted to see if the agency was making any changes [...]

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