Michael Swayze's Community Resources

Category: Uncategorized

  • Blog and Website: New Version

    To all my subscribers, I wish everyone a joyful Hanukkah, a merry Christmas, and a happy Kwanzaa. How are you?

    Since November this webmaster/blogger has been trying to stay busy. The best thing to do following a bad event is to get back to work. These days my work is local politics, voter engagement, and sharing resources. Let me share what I’ve been up to this past month.

    Every webpage, all twenty, have been updated since mid-November. No more broken or dead links.

    You will notice, if you were a subscriber from a few years ago, a new layout. Please excuse the “under construction” look. Some things need some work.

    Two webpages are updated this time of year, NJ Energy Programs and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Feel free to share the links to both pages. Many households are in need of help with there utility and heating bills. The EITC page provides information on a free tax filing program, Direct File, regardless of income.

    The EITC page provides information on the best new program to come along in years, known as Direct File. It is a free tax software program that allows taxpayers to file their federal income tax return directly to the IRS. Rolled out in 2023 as a pilot program in twelve states, it has been made permanent and available this coming tax year in twenty-four states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Since it is a new program, it does not have all the bells and whistles and is useful to individuals who take a standard deduction and do not itemize.Save some of those dollars or get benefits you need.

  • Jim Warren, R.I.P. (1936 – 2021)

    Jim Warren was a mentor of mine, although it took a long time to realize it. My brief encounter with him occurred in 1994 when some of us in New Jersey were lobbying the state legislature to pass an internet bill. He had been instrumental the year before in passage of landmark California Assembly Bill 1624, for government documents to be made available on “the largest nonproprietary, nonprofit cooperative public computer network.”

    He was described as a Renaissance Man by a close friend. A New York Times obituary by Steve Lohr said he was “a charismatic trade show impresario, editor, and activist.” A most touching online obit proclaimed, “A mighty tree has fallen in the digital forest.” All true.

    Jim Warren’s digital footprint includes: a NYT obituary, a page on IMDb.com, his own GovAccess blog and a video on Vimeo.com.

    Thank you, Jim Warren.

  • Summer Camp and Unvaccinated Baseball Players

    Coronavirus mandated vaccinations have been ordered in New York City and in the state of California. The federal Department of Veterans Affairs will require COVID-19 shots for their frontline health workers. Dozens of medical organizations this week issued a call for mandatory vaccinations in the health sector. Action is being taken in response to a dramatic rise of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last month.

    This story is in response to a news article written July 15 by Jon Harris and Tom Housenick of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania, titled, “MLB says too many IronPigs haven’t been vaccinated, so now a youth baseball camp has been canceled.” The Lehigh Valley IronPigs is a minor league AAA team, affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies.

    The news article reported that a summer youth baseball camp, scheduled for July 20-22, was cancelled and parents notified because the Lehigh Valley IronPigs did not reach a required 85% team vaccination rate, as required by Major League Baseball. As a result, children missed a camp because baseball players did not get a couple shots in the arm.

    A couple quotes are worth examining. One is by Mike Ventola, the IronPigs media relations manager. “We’re disappointed but that’s out of our control,” Ventola said. “Major League Baseball, they have certain mandates we have to oblige by. It’s out of our hands.”, according to the July 15th Morning Call story.

    Phillies ace pitcher Aaron Nola, who remains unvaccinated, was recently asked by NBC Sports Philadelphia report Jim Salisbury what his plans were. Nola replied, “It’s a personal choice. Not right now. I’ll keep it at that.”

    One hundred million Americans remain unvaccinated. The question to IronPigs players, to the Philadelphia Phillies, to the other major and minor league players, if not now, when? “A personal choice”, “out of our control”. Really?

    By last report, as of June 25, seven major league teams – including the Phillies – had not yet reached the MLB mandated 85% vaccine threshold. An email request made to Major League Baseball on the current status of these teams went unanswered. Mike Ventola, in a phone call yesterday, reported the summer camps scheduled for August 3-5 and August 24-26 have also been cancelled and parents notified by mail. Sorry kids.