1.)     Being connected through your smartphone and the internet has lots of advantages … but there are some down sides.     We’re so connected that we’re doing extra work from home each week, catching up on projects and getting to things that we didn’t have enough time for during the workday.    A new study shows that the average worker does an extra 4 hours 51 minutes of work from home each week.   That adds up to a full extra month of work each year.    The same study also found that more than half of people have had to miss or postpone family and personal events because of work they’ve had to do from home.

2.)     After 44 years, Deborah Ford will retire from the U.S. Postal Service in Detroit later today.    The 64 year old will be honored for walking away from her position without ever using any of her sick days.    Ford says that when she was sick, she would simply “shake it off.”   For appointments, say, with the doctor, she would use vacation days.    While the media will be on hand today, Ford says her father doesn’t see what the fuss is all about.     He is 86 years old and never took a sick day in 30 years.

3.)     If you think things are bad in Washington, DC, it could be worse.   While our government is running an over 16 trillion dollar deficit, thinks are much worse in Zimbabwe, where the country is suffering from hyperinflation.    Right now a one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollar banknote is basically worth nothing.     And, the Finance Minister of Zimbabwe revealed that after paying public workers' salaries last week, the government has exactly $217 left in the bank.