Keeping your hands on the wheel and off your phone can keep you safe. When you text, reach for your phone or dial a phone number while driving, you’re three times as likely to get into a crash, according to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of car wrecks stem from distracted driving, leading to nine fatalities a day, according to figures on the US Department of Transportation website Distraction.gov. And mobile phones aren’t the only culprit. Distracted driving can just as easily involve eating, drinking, grooming, adjusting the radio, using your navigation system or talking to passengers.

In response to distracted driving deaths, nearly every state has passed some form of law governing mobile phone usage while driving. Depending on where you live, you may be pulled over and ticketed for texting while driving. However, the risk of causing a crash or a fatality is far worse.

As part of National Safety Month, the National Safety Council (NSC) is dedicating the final week of June to distracted driving awareness. Remember these tips to keep you, your passengers and others on the road safe:

• If you’re a passenger in a car with a distracted driver, offer your assistance in navigating, responding to a text or adjusting the radio.
   
• Do not use your mobile phone while driving. If you must, use a hands-free device, such as an earpiece, dashboard system or speakerphone. Keep in mind that NSC emphasizes that, “hands-free is not risk-free.”
   
• Set an example for children before they ever get behind the wheel by maintaining a distraction-free environment every time you’re on the road.
   
• Educate teens and other new drivers on the dangers and consequences, such as inadvertently causing a death and being charged with vehicular manslaughter, of distracted driving.
   
• Be aware and inform others of the texting and driving laws in your state.
   
• If you notice a distracted driver on the road, keep your distance. If you can safely do so, alert the authorities to dangerous situations.

By setting a good example with distraction-free driving, you can positively impact those around you – and keep the ones you love safe. To learn other positive driving behaviors that can make the road a safer and friendlier place, read about the Drive It Forward Fridays (#DIFF) movement.

One of the richest aspects of the boating life is its deep historical roots and the sweeping impact that sailing has had on all aspects of modern life. A late-winter visit to a maritime museum is a great chance to learn how boats shaped the course of American exploration, commerce and migration. But bundled with these lofty accomplishments is sailing’s natural beauty—from graceful hulls and billowing sails to intricately carved figureheads—and the maritime-themed paintings it inspired. The following museums harbor some of the country’s finest collections and, weather (and seasonal hours) permitting, they’re accessible by land or water. 


 

Herreshoff Marine Museum and America’s Cup Hall of Fame

If you love the America’s Cup and/or the exquisite yacht-design sensibilities of Captain Nathaniel G. Herreshoff (America’s greatest naval architect), then the Herreshoff Marine Museum and America’s Cup Hall of Fame, located in Bristol, Rhode Island, is a must-visit museum. Here, visitors will discover a grand and historically important collection of Herreshoff-designed power and sailing yachts, including Aria, a Buzzard’s Bay 25,Amaryllis, the world’s first catamaran, and Torch, a Fishers Island 31, not to mention a fine collection of H12½-meter boats, S-Class yachts and Buzzard’s Bay 15 sloops. Additionally, the museum houses the late “Captain Nat’s” collection of hand-carved, scaled half-hull models, which he used to design yachts (including America’s Cup contenders) before lofting them into real boats in his shop, which stood on the same land that’s now occupied by the museum.

Mystic Seaport Maritime Museum

The Mystic Seaport Maritime Museum presents its guests with a portal back to a time when whaling ships and sailing ships plied the oceans and when bustling seaports existed to support the seafaring trades. Visitors can tour the museum’s four National Historic Landmark Vessels, the Charles W. Morgan, Emma C. Berry, L.A. Dunton, and Sabino, as well as 19th-century replicas of a village and a working shipyard. The 30 buildings that comprise the village are actual period structures that were relocated here to create this historical composite, which offers visitors a real-world perspective of life in a seaport village. The Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard continues to service and restore the museum’s fleet, while also providing a look at the tools, techniques and materials that built America into the world’s greatest seafaring nation.

San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park

Given San Francisco’s prominent role in 19th-century trade, exploration and westward expansion, it’s little wonder that the National Park Service built a world-class historic park dedicated to its rich maritime tradition. The San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park houses impressive collections of some 35,000 seafaring images and artifacts that range from actual bits and pieces of sailing ships to naval documentation and fine art. The museum berths eight historic vessels including a square-rigger, three schooners, two tugboats and a houseboat, and its Small Craft collection houses more than 100 “traditional and significant” boats (mostly powered by oars). Visitors can tour the museum’s fleet and then take in the art that resides in the “Bathhouse Building”, before retiring to the library to learn more about how maritime trading helped to define the city’s future.

Just some food for thought on something interesting to take in this summer.  What are your plans!?

From 2009 to 2012, emergency rooms across the United States treated more bathroom injuries than chainsaw, ATV and lawnmower injuries combined. Each year, bathroom injuries send an estimated average of 400,000 people to the ER, according to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System.

The National Safety Council is dedicating the second week of June – National Safety Month – to stopping slips, trips and falls. So here are some bathroom safety tips to help keep you securely on your feet:

Don’t Slip on the Bathroom Floor

• Keep the floor free of clutter and clean up any puddles of water or condensation.
• Use rugs with rubber backing or place nonslip pads or double-sided rug tape under rugs.
• Ensure the room is well-lit and keep a nightlight plugged in for late-night visits.
• Remodeling? Install small, textured tile instead of smooth linoleum or large tile – the added grout and texture provide more traction.

Don’t Trip Getting In/Out of the Shower/Tub

• Keep a tight hold on the grab bars as you step over the threshold of the shower/tub.
• Better yet, sit down on the edge of the tub, hold on to something steady and carefully swing your legs around in order to lower yourself into the tub.
• Remodeling? Choose a shower/tub with a low threshold that you can get in/out of without losing your balance.

Don’t Fall While Bathing

• Place nonslip decals on the bottom of the shower/tub.
• Keep bath products at knee-height or higher so you don’t have to bend too low and risk losing your footing to pick them up.
• Remodeling? Choose a shower/tub with a bench inside and a handheld showerhead so you can sit down comfortably while bathing.

Of course, no matter how conscious you are of preventing slips, trips and falls in the bathroom, accidents and injuries are still going to occur. When they do, be sure to seek the appropriate medical treatment and correct any bathroom safety issues that contributed to the accident.

So, I recently received a referral from one of my numerous family members, asking me if we could issue bonds.  My natural response is, sure.  What kind of bond do they need?  To which I was told, "I don't even know what a bond is for, they just asked if you could do that so I'm asking you if you can."  It got me thinking that we may want to touch on this subject.  

As per usual this will be a high level view of bonds, if you want to know more about anything specifically, just ask me.  I will get you the info!  

There are 2 basic forms of bonds, surety and fidelity bonds.  Keep in mind however there are numerous different miscellaneous types of bonds available to a variety of different needs!  


Fidelity bonds-  A fidelity bond is a form of insurance protection that covers policyholders for losses that they incur as a result of fraudulent acts by specified individuals. It usually insures a business for losses caused by the dishonest acts of its employees.
While called bonds, these obligations to protect an employer from employee-dishonesty losses are really insurance policies. These insurance policies protect from losses of company monies, securities, and other property from employees who have a manifest intent to cause the company loss. There are also many other forms of crime-insurance policies (burglary, fire, general theft, computer theft, disappearance, fraud, forgery, etc.) to protect company assets.




Surety Bonds-  A surety bond or surety is a promise to pay one party (the obligee) a certain amount if a second party (the principal) fails to meet some obligation, such as fulfilling the terms of a contract. The surety bond protects the obligee against losses resulting from the principal's failure to meet the obligation.




Surety bonds are the most common form, or at least the most commonly referred to form of bond. They guarantee one party to fulfill it's obligation to another  in monetary terms. Long story short, an insurance company is backing a contractor for $50,000 to do a job.  This means our company has bonded that contractor for that $50k, and if he falls through the insurance company will cover the costs to get the job done up to the bonded amount.  They do not do this all willy-nilly if you will, the contractor will be vetted by the company before they're backed.




Contract bonds are the most widely used term for the word bond.  However there are many other forms of surety bonds such as:

License and Permit Bonds:

• Contractor’s license bonds, which assure that a contractor (such as a plumber, electrician, or general contractor) complies with laws relating to his field. In the United States, bonding requirements may be at local or state level.
• Customs bonds, including importer entry bonds, which assure compliance with all relevant laws, as well as payment of import duties and taxes.
• Tax bonds, which assure that a business owner will comply with laws relating to the remittance of sales or other taxes.
• Reclamation and environmental protection bonds
• Broker’s bonds, including Insurance, Mortgage, and Title Agency bonds
• ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) bonds
• Motor vehicle dealer bonds
• Money transmitter bonds
• Health spa bonds, which assure that a health spa will comply with local laws relating to their field, as well as refund dues for any prepaid services in the event the spa closes.

Commercial Bonds- Commercial bonds represent the broad range of bond types that do not fit the classification of contract. They are generally divided into four sub-types: license and permit, court, public official, and miscellaneous.

Court Bonds- Court bonds are those bonds prescribed by statute and relate to the courts. They are further broken down into judicial bonds and fiduciary bonds. Judicial bonds arise out of litigation and are posted by parties seeking court remedies or defending against legal actions seeking court remedies. Fiduciary, or probate, bonds are filed in probate courts and courts that exercise equitable jurisdiction; they guaranty that persons whom such courts have entrusted with the care of others’ property will perform their specified duties faithfully.Examples of judicial bonds include appeal bonds, supersedeas bonds, attachment bonds, replevin bonds, injunction bonds, Mechanic's lien bonds, and bail bonds. Examples of fiduciary bonds include administrator, guardian, and trustee bonds.

Public Official Bonds- Public official bonds guaranty the honesty and faithful performance of those people who are elected or appointed to positions of public trust. Examples of officials sometimes requiring bonds include: notaries public, treasurers, commissioners, judges, town clerks, law enforcement officers, and Credit Union volunteers.

Miscellaneous Bonds-  Miscellaneous bonds are those that do not fit well under the other commercial surety bond classifications. They often support private relationships and unique business needs. Examples of significant miscellaneous bonds include: lost securities bonds, hazardous waste removal bonds, credit enhancement financial guaranty bonds, self–insured workers compensation guaranty bonds, and wage and welfare/fringe benefit (Union) bonds.