Pediatrician holds forth on ‘The Marin County Diet’

By Janis Mara
Marin Independent Journal

POSTED:   01/12/2014 04:57:44 PM PST0 COMMENTS

Albert Goldberg M.D. speaks at Book Passage. (IJ photo/Frankie Frost)

“The most important thing is getting vitamins and nutrition from real food. If you do that, you won’t need supplements. That’s what I recommend,” a longtime San Rafael pediatrician and author of “The Marin County Diet” told the audience at his book signing event Sunday afternoon.

An engaged and eclectic group of about 35 nutritionists, medical professionals and parents showed up at Book Passage in Corte Madera to hear Dr. Albert Goldberg, the former medical director and nutrition advisor of Head Start in Marin from 1967 to 1972, discuss his latest book. The doctor did add that those over 60 would be best advised to take multivitamins.

Also in the group was the Larkspur resident’s 4-year-old granddaughter Allyson, exhibiting considerable vim and vigor as she scampered around the room. Since the book, subtitled “Feed your children right from birth,” is a guide to optimal diets for healthy children, it would appear that Goldberg’s son Louis and daughter-in-law Xuejun are succeeding with the program.

The book is called “The Marin County Diet” because Marin “is a very healthy place to live,” the doctor said, adding, “By ‘diet,’ I did not mean weight loss. It’s a nutrition book, not a weight loss book.”

Goldberg, who began practicing in Marin in 1967 and retired three years ago, said some foods believed to be healthful are in fact the opposite.

“In the past few years, Marin school administrators decided to replace sodas loaded with fructose and sugar in the schools. And what did they replace it with? Fruit juice, including orange juice,” Goldberg said, to groans from the audience.

“What’s wrong with orange juice? You take all the sugar in an orange and leave out the pulp, and the sugar is absorbed into the bloodstream too quickly. The pulp slows down the absorption of sugar,” Goldberg said. “A lot of people are making recommendations without having an understanding of the chemistry of the body.”

The doctor also discussed the glycemic index. This index is a numerical scale indicating how fast and how high a particular food can raise a person’s blood sugar level.

“The glycemic index is explained in the book. Few people eat things like bananas and watermelon alone. They eat them in combination with other foods. This changes the speed of absorption, so the foods may not cause blood sugar to rise as fast as the index suggests,” Goldberg said. “The glycemic index may be an interesting guide, but on a practical level, it’s not that helpful.”

The lecture was studded with interesting factoids, including, “Babies are born with a taste for sugar. Breast milk is loaded with sugar,” the doctor said. This is healthy because the sugar in breast milk is not isolated, but comes with a combination of protein and fat, he said. Breast milk is also high in cholesterol, which babies need for brain growth, the doctor said.

On the other hand, “the taste for salt is not innate. It develops around four months of age.

“When a child is sick, every mother wants to give them chicken soup. However, if you look on the can, there are thousands of milligrams of sodium in every can,” said Goldberg, who recommended making chicken soup from scratch.

Goldberg served for 47 years on the pediatric staff of Marin General Hospital, and was as an adjunct clinical professor at the UCSF School of Nursing.

“For me, what is helpful is knowing the science behind these things,” said Veronica Valero, a mother from Novato who came to the event. “The biggest challenge I have a single parent is having the time to prepare wholesome, tasty fare for my son.”

Ashley Wallace of Rohnert Park, who is five months pregnant, came to the event with her mom, Lee Ann Baxter-Lowe of Novato.

“It was interesting,” Wallace said. “When I was growing up, people didn’t know as much about nutrition.

“I definitely want to go with a natural diet,” Wallace said. “I do it for myself, and I want to do it for my child.”

Contact Janis Mara via email at jmara@marinij.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/jmara.

Report: Marin has second-highest rate of whooping cough in state

By Janis Mara

Marin Independent Journal

Posted:   01/26/2014 02:00:00 AM PST

California saw a sharp increase in cases of whooping cough in 2013, and Marin had the second-highest rate of the highly contagious respiratory disease, according to a new report released by the state.

Nearly twice as many cases of pertussis were reported in California in 2013, a total of 1,904 statewide compared with 1,023 in 2012, the California Department of Public Health reported. The disease was once thought to have been all but eradicated.

With 173 cases, a rate of nearly 68 cases per 100,000 people, Marin ranks No. 2 statewide; Nevada County had the highest rate. The disease causes violent coughing, with coughing spells that can last as long as 10 weeks.

As to the reason for the increase, “it’s unpredictable. It varies from year to year. We don’t always know what determines the extent of a given outbreak, but we do know what we can do to prevent it,” said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County’s public health officer.

“Vaccination can help prevent the spread of pertussis,” Willis said. “We do have a lot of parents in Marin County who are hesitant about vaccines and we do know that we can protect ourselves by making sure every child is vaccinated.”

Willis said the majority of 2013 Marin pertussis cases occurred in the months of May and June.

“We experienced a school-based outbreak that started in May and progressed until school got out in early June,” Willis said. “In school, children are gathered in classroom settings and can transmit infection to each other.

The outbreak was not confined to any one area, Willis said.

“Most schools in Marin were affected. By the end of the year, 26 of our schools reported cases,” Willis said.

The doctor said 160 of Marin’s 173 cases were children younger than 19.

“Pertussis is spread easily in schools, it’s highly contagious and it’s a disease that affects children more obviously than adults. Adults get pertussis, but it’s a less severe form,” Willis said. “Infants are affected the most seriously with pertussis. In the 2010 outbreak of pertussis in California, 10 California infants died.”

The 10 infants were the only pertussis-related deaths that year, according to Health Department information. None of the infants were in Marin, though the county had the state’s highest rate of pertussis that year.

No one was reported to have died of the disease in California in 2011, 2012 or 2013.

The reason infants are more likely to die is that they are too young to have had the entire five-shot regimen recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Also, their immune systems are still developing, the doctor said.

“We had a mini-outbreak from April through June of last year that we saw in our office,” said Sara Koenig, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner with Tamalpais Pediatrics in Greenbrae. Tamalpais Pediatrics, which also has facilities in Novato, has 8,000 child patients.

“The majority of the kids we saw were teenagers, freshmen and sophomores in high school,” Koenig said.

“It’s important that everybody get vaccinated,” Koenig said. While a vaccine can’t guarantee that a child won’t get pertussis, “if they do, the symptoms will be milder,” the nurse practitioner said.

Contact Janis Mara via email at jmara@marinij.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/jmara.

MicroDental has reason to smile

Oakland Tribune, Nov. 11, 2003

A company whose business plan definitely has teeth in it, Dublin’s MicroDental Laboratories makes crowns, bridges, orthodontic appliances and, yes, dentures.

Paradoxically, what initially seemed like a disaster led to one of the company’s greatest successes, according to Chief Executive Fred Walke, whose 500-employee Dublin-based company had $46 million in sales in 2002.

“MicroDental burned to the ground in 1991,” said Walke. Dental impressions, patient records, everything from the then-28-year-old company’s history was lost.

Fighting back, the then-owners organized the staff into teams that worked in employees’ garages and other odd corners throughout Dublin.

“Up until then, dental labs always operated in an assembly-line formation,” Walke said. “But the team concept was so successful, we kept it up after rebuilding.”

The firm’s dentist clients liked the teams because they gave customers a great deal of individual attention, while keeping the lower prices associated with the volume of a company MicroDental’s size, Walke said.

MicroDental was founded in 1964 by Lazlo Hites, a dentist who fled his native Hungary in the early 1960s. Because his credentials weren’t recognized in this country, Hites started a dental lab.

Founded on a shoestring in Hites’ Oakland laundry room, MicroDental is now the second-largest single dental lab in the country, with Los Angeles-based Glidewell the largest. MicroDental moved to Dublin in the mid-1980s.

Hites eventually passed the business on to his sons Andy and George, who hired Walke in 1996. Hites’ sculptor daughter lives in New York and his third son, Sandor Hites, practices dentistry in San Leandro. In 2001, Andy and George sold a percentage of the company to a private equity group; the two sons still own a minority interest and serve on company’s board.

Walke joined the company in the capacity of facilities manager in 1996 and hasn’t looked back. He became the chief executive in 2000, at 31, “five years and one day after I was hired,” he said.

The company’s business is about half cosmetic, and its specialty is all-porcelain restorations. All its clients are dentists.

“Working with dentists, we can give you a straight, bright smile in four and a half hours, as opposed to four years of braces and bleaching,” Walke said.

“They just shave off four and six-tenths of a millimeter and put on a porcelain crown,” Walke said.

With $46 million in sales for 2002, Walke estimates the company will pull in about $45 million in 2003, attributing the drop to the slow economy.

Regardless, Walke has purchased a competitor in Las Vegas with the intention of expanding there. He emphasized that the company is not moving its workforce to Nevada and the Dublin base will remain stable.

“We’re not going to shut down this facility any time soon. We are negotiating our lease to 2011,” Walke said.

Dr. Christopher Pescatore, who has worked with MicroDental for 13 years, said he likes the company’s “high quality of work and consistency.

“They have artistic ability and they really care about the patients. The patient comes first with them,” said Pescatore, who has a cosmetic dentistry practice in Danville.

Janis Mara can be reached at (510) 293-2464 and jmara@angnewspapers.com.

Signature toasts private labels

Hayward vintner taps rich new source of income
By Janis Mara, BUSINESS WRITER

SQUEEZING a new source of revenue from the wine business, Hayward’s Signature Wines is part of a hot new development in the industry: private labels. Private label businesses supply house brands of products, such as Safeway’s Select Brand. In the wine business, private labels have been around for a long time in the form of house wines supplied to restaurants by vineyards.

But private labels always have been a stealth industry, garnering little attention and, until now, little market share in the $6.6 billion annual California wine industry.

Two recent developments changed all that. First, there is an oversupply of wine on the market. Wine companies are searching for new sources of income, and the private label business is a ripe opportunity to be picked.

OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION   5/3/2003 – Sun rockets on rumors – ChevronTexaco’s profits surge – Nasdaq gets boost of confidence – Fuel economy rises in U.S. autos

Second, in 2002, Bronco Wine Co. stole the spotlight with Charles Shaw wine, or “Two-Buck Chuck,” an inexpensive wine made only for Trader Joe’s that sold for $1.99 a bottle in California. As Two-Buck Chuck (sold for $2.99 outside of California) gathered national attention, private labels gained more attention.

“Two-Buck Chuck caused a stir in the industry and caused retailers to say, ‘I want a piece of this too,'” said Eileen Fredrikson, a partner at Gomberg-Fredrikson Wine Consultants in Woodside. “It’s the hot new thing.”

Other private labels riding this

wave include Costco brands and almost all retailers, who at this point have their own labels.

The granddaddy of private label companies, Golden State Vintners, has been around for more than 20 years and has a huge volume of production.

Fredrikson said private labels have been a growing part of the retail wine environment for the past 15 years, and now “everybody’s looking for a brand that can be their own.”

Signature Wines didn’t need Two-Buck Chuck to tell it that private labels are a rich and largely untapped source of income for vintners. In 2002, the company already had been operating for three years, creating custom wines for hotels, restaurants and university alumni associations.

The company has a sparkling record, pulling in 120 clients in its first year of operation. Its clientele ranges from Yahoo to Clif Bar to the Hilton and Mark Hopkins hotels, among others.

The 27-employee, privately held Signature, whose revenues grew 70 percent in 2002, holds something of a niche within a niche.

Within the private label category, Signature caters to venues previously unaddressed by the industry: university alumni associations and wedding Web sites.

Signature’s adventure into the wedding space launched last month.

The company is working with several co-branded sites including the Wedding Channel.

In the university arena, Signature works with alumni associations that use wine as a revenue stream, selling bottles with custom labels bearing the logos of universities including the University of Texas, the University of Nebraska, UCLA, Georgia Tech and USC.

The company’s CEO says they are riding a new wave, that of mass customization.

“Dell Computers is an example of this,” said Scott Cahill, Signature’s CEO. “You can log onto the Dell site and build your own computer.”

Similarly, companies and organizations can create their own labels on Signature’s Web site at http://www.signaturewines.com/

“You can design your own label and pay for it online, then send it to print,” Cahill said.

The company then affixes the label to the bottle and ships it out.

Signature buys juice from a number of vineyards to create its own brands, Blackridge Canyon and Palomino Ridge.

This practice is common in the wine industry, according to a Signature spokeswoman.

Cahill would not say exactly what his company’s volume was, but said it produced “many thousands of cases” of wine in 2002.

The future looks bubbly for Signature Wines, according to Cahill.

“We expect to triple our volume in 2003, and expect that our revenues will triple as well,” he said.

Designer puts vintage clothes on customers

WHEN LISA HUNTER was growing up in the 1970s, she loved to read her mother’s copies of Vogue. “We couldn’t afford anything from the magazine, but we could dream,” she says. “That’s how it all began.”

That love of fashion culminated in the realization of her dream this November, some 30 years later — Palo Alto’s Vian Hunter, the kind of elegant little boutique Audrey Hepburn might have frequented. Hunter, 42, designs all the clothes herself and intends to open her next store in Walnut Creek.

Hepburn, known for her understated elegance and the little black dresses she wore in movies like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” would have loved the 1950s,’60s and’70s vintage-look clothes, which are made entirely in the Bay Area.

In fact, it might be possible to catch a glimpse of Hepburn herself — strictly on celluloid, of course — in the store Hunter runs with her husband, Scott.

“We show old movies in the store as part of the ambience,” Hunter said. As she spoke, “How to Marry a Millionaire,” starring Marilyn Monroe, was showing.

“I’ve always loved the fashions of the 1950s and 1960s,” she said. “They’re so feminine, so ladylike. I go to vintage expos and local library book sales, track down patterns and use them for inspiration.”

The clothes range from $150 to $500. Many can be worn to work and then to a cocktail party afterward. Such is the case with “Audrey,” a wool crepe dropped-waist dress.

“One of our best selling is ‘LBD,’ little black dress,” Hunter says, pulling one from the rack. “It’s a basic knee-length cocktail dress. Beautiful wool, lightweight, lined in silk.”

Though the store has only been open a month, sales have been brisk, with at least one item, an overskirt for the LBD, selling out in two weeks.

Vian Hunter, which combines Hunter’s birth and married names,opened some 20 years after the Palo Alto native first contemplated a career in fashion design.

After graduating from Palo Alto High School in 1982, she had planned to enroll in the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in San Francisco.

However, “I was overwhelmed by the demands of the program,” Hunter said.

“You’d be surprised at how rigorous it is. You have to calculate everything to a sixteenth of an inch, or it won’t fit right.”

But Hunter didn’t abandon the fashion world entirely. She worked in the women’s clothing department at Nordstrom in Palo Alto in 1985. This led to a collaboration that produced two children and, eventually, Vian Hunter — she met her husband in the store.

“He worked in the fur salon. He was running all the Northern California fur salons for his family’s company, Evans Furs, which is based in Chicago,” Hunter said.

It was a match made in sartorial heaven (Nordstrom enthusiasts might say, literally). When anti-fur activism decimated the industry in Northern California in the early 1990s, the two moved to Chicago for a time before returning to California with their children, Chloe, now 13, and Ethan, 6.

From 1995 to 2000, the couple published a rock and roll magazine, Rock Love. In 2002, Lisa Hunter enrolled at the Fashion Institute in San Francisco.

While in school, she designed clothing for her daughter, as well as vintage-look clothing. Her boutique is very much a family affair, with husband Scott running the business and Chloe helping out in the office and at the store.

Hunter, a perfect size 8, designs clothes to fit herself. Then a grader in Napa Valley turns the design into sizes zero through 16 and e-mails the result to a cutter in San Francisco. The fabric is then cut with computerized equipment and sewed together by Joanna’s Sewing Shop in San Francisco.

Hunter’s Bryant Street store is next to Charmosa, whose owner designs bathing suits, shoe store Yasmin Deluxe Couture and other boutiques (see Boutiquesonbryant.com).

“It sounds like she chose the right location,” said William Kissel, fashion editor of the Robb Report, which covers luxury lifestyles. “Location is everything when it comes to retail.” An independent shop on an upscale street next to other such shops “has a great chance of success,” he said.

He also praised the idea of clothes that can be worn for day or evening.

Carissa Ashman, director of marketing for a couture jewelry designer, said, “I appreciate that she (Hunter) is so detail- oriented. I love this store because I love old movies and always dreamed of buying those fashions new instead of having to go to a vintage store.”

Contact Janis Mara at jmara@angnewspapers.com or (510) 208-6468, or check out her Energy Blog at http://www.ibabuzz.com/energy.

Crescent closes bulk of business

Hayward-based Crescent Truck Lines, a 44-year-old firm that employed 700 people, spanned five states and took in $60 million in revenue last year, has shut down all but a small portion of its business.

By Janis Mara, Oakland Tribune

“We’re very strong financially,” said Gregory Warn, the company’s president. “But even after we closed our Washington, Nevada, Arizona and Oregon terminals in October 2002, we were hit by escalating costs, especially insurance, and the poor economy.”

Before October 2002, the company had terminals in Oregon, Washington, California, Nevada, and Arizona, and employed 700 people.

“In October 2002, we decided to close all our offices outside California and go back to our roots,” said Warn, whose father Frank Warn founded the company in Hayward in 1958.

But rising costs have forced the company to close, according to Gregory Warn.

“Our workers’ compensation costs went up 113 percent this year,” he said. “Our health benefits increased by an additional $70 per employee. This, to us, is $270,000 or so per year. The insurance for our trucks was about to go up dramatically. Also, the price of fuel went up 8 cents a gallon.”

“We’re strong financially. We just want to stay that way.”

“Crescent’s problems were due to their inability to afford insurance. That was the leading factor,” said Stephanie Williams, vice president of the California Trucking Association. “Consolidated Freightways in Portland faced the same problem with liability and workers’ comp insurance and went out of business. Thousands of jobs were lost.

“It’s an industry problem. Many more are going to follow unless something is done about the insurance crisis.”

The company will continue with its dedicated accounts such as the one it has with See’s Candies. Crescent has a contract with See’s to act as its sole trucking firm in California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada.

Other shippers who used Crescent are scrambling to find trucking companies to haul their goods, according to Tom Williams, a sales account executive at competitor trucking firm Cal Pak Delivery of San Leandro.

“It’s spreading like wildfire,” Williams said about Crescent’s pull-back. “Everybody who owns a warehouse or is a shipper or in the trucking industry is talking about it. It’s big news. They have been in the business a long time.”

Frank and Gregory Warn hope to expand the company again, but just with its dedicated lines such as See’s.

“We took a look at the situation and decided it was better to close,” Gregory Warn said. “We will sell off some of our trucks and continue with our dedicated accounts and our logistics company.

“We expect to stay profitable.”

As a family-owned business, Warn said, “We try to treat everyone like they’re one of the family. We know this is a bad economy and we’re doing everything we can to help the employees find jobs.”

Founder Frank Warn, who is still active in running of the business, said that jobs had been found for some employees.

“We found jobs for all of our salespeople, some of the drivers and a few of the dispatchers,” he said. “We’ve always had good relationships with our people, and the union as well.”

Drivers Jim Perez of San Jose and Chris Boyd of San Francisco said that they feel no resentment toward the company.

“I have nothing bad to say about Crescent,” said Perez. “They were a good place to work.”

According to Perez and Boyd, about 70 drivers and office workers in the Hayward office lost their jobs.

The employees were not entirely surprised by the news, they said. However, they did not learn of the closure until Friday, when they punched their time clocks.

There are still a number of Crescent drivers who drive the See’s trucks, Perez and Boyd said.

Crescent’s employees were given 60 days’ notice of the closure as required by law and will be paid through that time. A handful of drivers remained in the Crescent parking lot Tuesday.

“Technically, we’ll be on call through March 11,” said Perez.

Open Minds

 

Author/s: Janis Mara
Issue: Oct 30, 2000

On Aug. 17, 1972, diamond setter Pete Halvorson set up a number of mirrors, administered a local anesthetic, picked up a hand drill and bored a hole in his skull.

Why in God’s name would he do such a thing?

The answer to this and other trepanation-related questions can be found at http://www.trepan.com, the Web site of the International Trepanation Advocacy Group. Make no mistake about it: these holier-than-thou folks are dead serious about their avocation, though most of us would say it’s needed like, well, a hole in the head.

But perhaps we should be more open-minded (as it were). Halvorson, a Wernersville, Pa., resident who sounds utterly reasonable on the phone, claims that removing a chunk of one’s skull “reduces the volume of water surrounding the brain, which then increases the amount of blood available to the brain cells by about an ounce.” (By the way, no medical studies exist to support this conclusion.)

According to Halvorson, more blood to the brain means “sharper perception.” He says he continues to enjoy the benefits of his trepanation 28 years after he performed it.

However, Halvorson emphasizes that self-trepanation is not to be considered now that his organization has found a doctor in Monterey, Mexico, who will perform the operation. (No U.S. doctor will even consider the possibility.)

It’s unclear, however, how many people will be willing to shell out $2,500 for the procedure, plus the cost of airfare and hotel reservations for an excursion that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, “a truly boring trip.” One thing’s for sure, though: this is one pursuit that definitely falls into the category of “do not try this at home.”

E-filing a taxpayer favorite

Marcy Lyon of San Francisco has been filing her income taxes online since 1999, starting early and usually before her March 13 birthday. She says filing online is a breeze.

Lyon is not alone. In 2006, more than half of all taxpayers, or about 73.3 million people, filed their taxes electronically, either filing the forms themselves or using a professional tax preparer. And the number of online filers is increasing, rising 3 percent in 2006 from the previous year, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

If you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon already, this year might be a good time to start. Not only did late legislation bring about some tax law changes that aren’t reflected on the 2006 paper forms, which had already been printed, but also experts say online filing is easier, safer and less prone to error than paper filing.

There are four ways to file electronically: You can pay a tax professional to do it; you can buy the software, which costs around $20 or more, and file it yourself; you can file on a software company’s Internet site for a fee (typically a bit less than buying software); or, if you have adjusted gross income of $52,000 or less, you can file your return for free, courtesy of the IRS, using its Free File system. The system can now be accessed from the IRS home page, http://www.irs.gov/.

In 2005, slightly more than 61 percent of all individual tax returns were prepared by a tax professional, according to the IRS, and the remaining filers fended for themselves.

“For the average taxpayer, filing online is the easiest, fastest and most accurate way to do it,” said IRS spokesman Jesse Weller. When you file online, the software prompts you to enter the correct information as you go through the process and alerts you to potential deductions and other opportunities.

“It (the software) walks you through and asks you questions as you fill in the blanks,” said Lyon, who has used Mountain View-based Intuit’s TurboTax software for years. “It offers several levels of resources and information as you go.”

TurboTax (http://www.turbotax.com/) is one of the most popular online tax programs on the market, although several others are available, including H&R Block TaxCut Premium (http://www.taxcut.com/). The programs are loaded with the latest tax code information, as well as sample forms, and users need merely punch their information into the template. The programs are readily available at office supply stores or venues where software programs are sold.

TurboTax, for instance, will highlight items the IRS frequently audits, such as claiming deductions for a home office, and point them out to the user.

“It will also check for mistakes and things you left out,” Lyon said.

During the years, Lyon has evolved a ritual for her online filing. “It begins with my husband saying, ‘Have you started the income taxes yet?’ And I say, ‘I’m waiting for the W-2s.’ They come in by Jan. 31. TurboTax has already sent me two reminder e-mails about it. They send one at the end of the year so you can make charitable contributions to optimize your tax bracket.”

As the various forms and bits of tax information roll in, Lyon enters them immediately into the program.

“This way, you don’t have to worry where all those little pieces are,” she said. “They’re in the computer.”

Just like an Excel spreadsheet, every time a new bit of information is entered, the system adds or subtracts and adjusts the totals.

“I can’t imagine doing it by hand and sitting up there adding up the numbers,” Lyon said.

Because Lyon used TurboTax last year, she can import all the previous information into this year’s forms. This lessens the possibility of error.

Similarly, Lyon said, “you do your federal income tax first and it will read a lot of information into the state. It will point out the differences and ask you questions.”

Lyon said taxpayers can still talk with someone if they need help with the software, though it costs extra.

When you finish your state return, Lyon said, “(TurboTax) asks you if you want your refund as a direct deposit and gets your bank information if you do. Then it prompts you to see if you want to file your income tax online, and you pay TurboTax for its services using your credit card.”

Software programs help lessen the probability of human error, said Weller, the IRS spokesman.

“E-filing provides more than 99 percent accuracy for your return,” he said. “The paper accuracy rate is about 80 percent.”

Weller said many employers are now making W-2 earnings statements available online, allowing users to easily copy and paste the information into software programs.

This year, filing online has a special advantage.

Three tax breaks that became law Dec. 20 were passed after the paper forms had been printed, so the forms don’t include lines for the new deductions.

“People who file using paper returns … will have to write (these deductions) in on special lines,” Weller said. “People who file electronically will have these automatically. The software is updated to make sure you claim the proper amount on the proper lines.”

The three items are a deduction for college tuition and related fees that had expired in late 2005; an educator expense adjustment allowing teachers and administrators to deduct as much as $250 for out-of-pocket classroom expenses; and a third tax break that is unlikely to affect many Californians, who typically pay more in state income tax than in sales tax, Weller said.

Online filing is secure, Weller said.

“The IRS has never had a breach with online filings, and there have been millions filed over the years,” he said. “The latest encryption and security features are used by the electronic return originators, all the companies that provide the software.”

Another advantage to online filing is that paper returns can get lost in the mail. Every year, Weller said, a “large number of refunds” are either lost in the mail or returned to the IRS. Filers who expect a refund are encouraged to use the direct deposit option, and the money will be deposited electronically into the bank account they specify.

Lyon said there is one pitfall to electronic filing, however: “The important thing is to remember your user name and password, not just for the year but from year to year,” she said. Obviously, it’s important to remember your password so you don’t get locked out of your own income tax, and also so you can bring it forward from the previous year.

Although Lyon swears by TurboTax, that doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for everyone.

In choosing the right tax software for you, start by evaluating your needs. Are you a simple, 1040-EZ kind of person, or did you have seven jobs and a slew of child-support payments last year? Better look for a program that provides detailed explanations.

If you do your own taxes and are simply looking for someone to check your math, look for a package that lets you easily skip over sections.

Be sure the software has an option that allows you to file online; not all software programs do. Also, make sure the program is compatible with your operating system. Once you decide on what software to buy, shop around online to find the cheapest price.

Once you’re up and running, you may find that, like Lyon, you’ll never go back.

Lyon said she would never return to paper. “No way,” she said, before pausing.

“Well,” she added, “maybe if someone paid me to do it.”

Reach Janis Mara of the Oakland Tribune at jmara@angnewspapers.com.

Tax Tips

• It no longer takes months to get a refund from the IRS. If you file your federal tax return electronically, you could receive your refund in 10 days, and no later than three weeks. For tax returns filed through regular mail, the refund would take no more than six weeks.

• Households earning $52,000 or less can qualify for free IRS electronic filing. Just go to http://www.irs.gov/, click on the “e-file” icon, then click on the “free file” link.

• If you prefer to work with a tax preparer face to face, you can set up an appointment with an IRS volunteer at a network of free tax preparation sites around the state during tax season. They prepare returns for people whose household incomes are $39,000 or less. To find the nearest Volunteer Income Tax Assistance office, call 800-829-1040.

Source: McClatchy Newspapers Service

 

 

 

 

No slowdown for this tech

Janis Mara  

From the time Susan Trainer sold 559 boxes of Girl Scout cookies at the age of 9 to her current tenure as president and founder of Danville-based Trainer Public Relations, she has always had drive.

Trainer was 19 when she finished college. At 21, she had her master’s degree. She started her own company by the age of 30, and has been able to land national exposure for her high-tech startup clients through high-powered outlets such as The New York Times and CNN.

Her push for success has paid off. She says her 12-employee agency pulled in $3 million in 2000 revenue and should gross about $3.5 million this year. She says the company has been profitable since she started it nearly seven years ago.

Despite the economic downturn and even though the agency works only with tech startups, TPR has continued to grow ­ 25 percent in the third quarter of 2001, she says ­ while rival agencies have had layoffs.

Where did Trainer get her drive?

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“My mom has a very strong personality, and she was a role model. My parents told me I could be anything I wanted to be. I believed them, and ended up starting college when a sophomore in high school,” she said.

After graduating from high school in her hometown of Newton, Kansas, Trainer continued at Emporia State University full-time. She took a series of jobs to help pay for her education. One industry she worked in doesn’t show up on resumes very often.

“For a while, I worked at a cemetery. Our motto was, `We’re the last ones to let you down,'” says Trainer.

During a class in negotiations while doing her master’s work at the University of Tulsa, Trainer experienced the defining moment that led to her business philosophy.

“We role-played the various scenarios ­ win-lose, lose-lose, win-win. Right away, I knew I wanted to play win-win,” she said.

This approach may be one reason only two employees have ever left the agency, an unusual track record in a field known for high turnover. It also figures in TPR’s success with clients.

“I always demonstrate a win-win. Our clients get results,” says Trainer. “In 1999 and 2000, companies were spending $40,000 to $45,000 a month for PR. Companies were getting seven articles placed in publications per year for $50,000. Our average client gets 10 to 20 articles placed per month for significantly less budget.”

Kay Kienast, vice president of marketing for TPR client Solid Information Technology, says, “We brought in TPR this May after a disastrous year with a PR agency that spent an enormous amount of money and didn’t deliver. Now we’re getting 17 articles a month.”

The Mountain View-based data management software startup also did a press tour with TPR.

Trainer says another element of TPR’s success is its care in choosing clients.

“The emerging technology must deliver value to the client,” Trainer says.

The agency’s clients include 3ware Inc., an IP-based storage networking firm; Agility Communications Inc., an optical networking component company; iSpheres Corp., which provides platforms for event management applications; and WhereNet Corp., which provides real-time location hardware and software.

“It has to be substantial. Nothing tragically hip,” says Trainer. Of the more than 30 startups TPR has represented, none has folded.

Trainer also credits her success to client referrals from venture capital investors such as Cupertino-based Bay Partners.

“The real meat of her value to our investments is that she can understand at the highest strategic levels what the company must do to get to the next step,” says Chris Noble, general partner at Bay Partners. “It’s very rare to find a PR professional who understands the company’s business plan as well as its senior management team.”

Trainer’s inspiration for starting the company came in 1995 when she was pregnant with her second child. (Her family has a total of five children, two from husband Tom Trainer’s first marriage.) Weary of commuting to her job at Sybase Inc. in Emeryville, she decided, “I’m going to go back to consulting and then get a real job.” To her surprise, “a lot of people at Sybase called me to do work. I had impressive clients right away,” and soon TPR was born.

Trainer emphasizes that the company, whose 12 employees work virtually, is a group effort. Displaying a staff photo, Trainer says, “I work for them. I don’t have any accounts ­ I just float across the accounts. These people are my peers; they have an average of 17 years of experience per person.

“The truth of our success is ­ it’s the people,” says Trainer. “I work really hard to keep people happy.”

Mara is a contributor to the Business Times.

Inventor taking success by tail

Inventor taking success by tail
Toilet seat cushion aims to stop back pain
   Janis Mara, BUSINESS WRITER

HAYWARD — Sitting on the porcelain throne could become a more comfortable experience, thanks to a toilet lid cushion recently patented by a Castro Valley inventor. Joe Dabner, 48, first envisioned his creation in 1995 during an attack of severe back pain.

“My back was killing me. I was sitting on the toilet and I said to myself, ‘This is not fun.’ The idea of the cushion came to me at that moment,” he said.

The cushion is wedge-shaped, with a 3-inch-thick base designed to fit in the small of the back, providing lumbar support. A flap in the cloth cover slips over the toilet lid and secures the cushion. “It’s definitely possible that this could be helpful,” said Dr. Russell Kun of Kun Family Chiropractic in Hayward. “It depends on a number of variables, such as the materials used. Someone with a problem might be helped.”

Usually, though, Kun said, people don’t spend enough time on the toilet to need it. “Generally it takes about 20 minutes of sitting before you need support.”

Because the cushion is positioned on the toilet lid, it must be removed in order to put the seat up, a potential hassle for male users. Dabner claimed that the bother is minimal: “The cushion slips on and off easily. You can just pull it off and put it on the toilet tank.”

Dabner estimates the cushions would sell for less than $10. He said several companies have shown an interest in selling the cushion. However, Dabner has yet to find a manufacturer. Though he is negotiating with a manufacturer in Azusa, the inventor is still open to offers. “I’d be very interested in working with a local manufacturer,” he said.