Phyllis Cureton Realtor

02/11/2026

Elena Patel explains research highlighting the importance of the U.S. postal service in small business activity in rural communities.

12/30/2025

Heads up on gabapentin .,.

John Avery was just back from a guys’ golfing weekend and doing dead lifts at the gym in 2023 when he felt a pop in his lower back. A disc had slipped and was pressing on a nerve.

After months of rest, physical therapy and steroids, he was prescribed a drug called gabapentin by a pain management specialist who told Avery that it could help calm his nerve pain and that it was “nonaddictive,” Avery recalled. He took the medicine for a few days, then had surgery, and took it again for a little more than three weeks.

The 33-year-old former high-school physical education teacher in Newark, Ill., said he experienced a severe protracted withdrawal when he stopped, which led to neurological symptoms now that make his original back problem seem like “a paper cut” by comparison.

The change in his life, he said, is “beyond dramatic.”

Approved by the Food and Drug Administration decades ago for seizures and nerve pain from shingles, gabapentin is now the seventh-most widely prescribed drug in the U.S. About 15.5 million people were prescribed gabapentin in 2024.

A growing body of research shows it isn’t as safe or effective as doctors have long thought.

🔗 Read more: https://on.wsj.com/4pfvGQL

12/30/2025

Looka here, looka here…

12/30/2025

Check to see if USDA loans are available for home purchases in your area.

With mortgage rates in the low 6% range and home prices near $415,000, many buyers are looking for ways to keep costs down. One often-overlooked option is USDA loans, which offer low interest rates and 0% down for qualified buyers.

Here’s what to know about USDA loans and who qualifies.

12/30/2025

Top psychiatrists increasingly agree that using artificial-intelligence chatbots might be linked to cases of psychosis. 🔗 https://on.wsj.com/4jnRQPu

In the past nine months, these experts have seen or reviewed the files of dozens of patients who exhibited symptoms following prolonged, delusion-filled conversations with the AI tools.

“The technology might not introduce the delusion, but the person tells the computer it’s their reality and the computer accepts it as truth and reflects it back, so it’s complicit in cycling that delusion,” said Keith Sakata, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco. Sakata has treated 12 hospitalized patients with AI-induced psychosis and an additional three in an outpatient clinic.

Since the spring, dozens of potential cases have emerged of people suffering from delusional psychosis after engaging in lengthy AI conversations with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other chatbots. Several people have died by su***de and there has been at least one murder.

These incidents have led to a series of wrongful death lawsuits. As The Wall Street Journal has covered these tragedies, doctors and academics have been working on documenting and understanding the phenomenon that led to them.

While most people who use chatbots don’t develop mental-health problems, such widespread use of these AI companions is enough to have doctors concerned.

12/04/2025

Quick read … great summary by The Economist.

09/16/2025

Waiting on interest rates to fall before buying your next home? Now may be the time…let’s talk soon.

09/16/2025

🔥 Your standards set the tone for everyone around you.

The energy you bring doesn’t stop with you — it multiplies.
Aim higher, and you inspire others to do the same. Settle for less, and you permit mediocrity to spread. 🌟

👉 Which one are you spreading today — excellence or mediocrity?

08/07/2025

Instant Reaction: Mortgage Rates, August 7, 2025
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate from Freddie Mac decreased to 6.63%, down from 6.72% last week.
https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/economists-outlook/instant-reaction-mortgage-rates-august-7-2025

07/30/2025

W o w ….

Given that the U.S.-EU commercial relationship is by far the largest in the world, a trade war would be disastrous.