PennyBeGood

Hey,

Hoping someone out there might help with this.

I have a 2005 Dodge Neon 90k miles on it-- automatic transmission. For the past few thousand miles I've been noticing the car has a rough idle when I'm in drive. (By rough I mean unusual vibrations, minor noise from the engine.) If I switch to Neutral the rough idle subsides. If I go back to Drive from Neutral the car will run fine for a while, but the idle will get rough again when I stop at a stop light. The roughness of the idle and the noise from the engine are getting worse. The car runs well, and this issue really only happens once I've been driving long enough for the engine to warm up.

I've talked to a mechanic about this, and he is a bit stumped. He drove the car around and doesn't believe the cause is a transmission issue.

I've checked and replaced the spark plugs-- not much difference. I also replaced the fuel pump about a year ago. Any ideas?

My brother received a promotion several weeks ago. He works at a restaurant that is part of a regional chain of restaurants. About ten days after he received his promotion he had to be rushed into emergency surgery to remove his appendix. The doctor did not clear him to work after surgery for about two weeks. During that time his employer demoted my brother and gave the position to another employee. The employer told my brother he was demoted because he was absent from work for two weeks. The employer was aware the absence was for medical reasons.

My brother has been working for this restaurant for over a year, usually about 50 hours a week. This particular restaurant location does not employ 50 or more employees. This particular chain has dozens of locations throughout the region, but the next closest location to my brother's work site is more than 100 miles away. The employer does employ hundreds employees, but the employees are scattered across numerous restaurant locations in about a half dozen states. No one restaurant employs more than 50 employees.

Given all this information, does my brother qualify for protection under the FMLA?

A couple weeks ago I went out with my friends to a restaurant, and our waitress basically ignored our table the entire time. I would try to catch her attention when we needed something or to remind her that she still hadn't brought my friend's soda, and she would turn the other way and duck into the kitchen. I thought she was just inattentive or clueless, but near the end of the meal she came over to our table and TOLD us that's she's been ignoring our table because she didn't feel like walking all the way across the restaurant to serve us. She wasn't apologetic.

So, my friends I didn't leave a tip. First time any of us had done it. I usually tip 15-20% of the total bill, but this time the service was so appalling. Do you think we were in the right, or should we have left SOMETHING as a tip, even if it was a just dollar? I mean, is it ever acceptable, even if you've had the WORST service, to not leave a tip at a restaurant?

I'd like to get my sister a book as a gift, but we have such different tastes it's hard for me to shop for her. Here's a list of what she likes:

1. "Twilight" series

2. A book called "Blood and Chocolate" (It's the only book I bought her that she ever liked.)

3. Harry Potter series

4. Romance novels

5. Japanese anime graphic novel type things

6. Vampire stories... with romance

She definitely doesn't like "The Host" by Stephanie Meyer. I learned that one last Christmas.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My husband lived and worked in Texas for about a month as a contract employee this past year. He received a 1099 tax form for his work in Texas. His employer for that job was based in Texas.

The other 11 months of the year he lived and worked in Oklahoma as a normal employee and received W-2s for a different line of work. Since Texas doesn't have income tax and Oklahoma does, do we have to pay income tax on the wages earned on the 1099 from the Texas job?

Recently my neighbors left their faucets running because they're careless fools. My apartment flooded and caused water damage to the walls and carpet. My apartment complex made me run seven fans for four days straight in order to dry out the walls and carpet. Can I ask my apartment complex to reimburse a portion of my electric bill for the month of the incident since it's a lot higher than usual, due to the fans? Am I within my legal rights to ask this of them?

I want to pay a fair portion of the bill, but as far as I'm concerned the apartment management ran the fans to repair damage to their property done by one of their clients. I don't see how I should be financially obligated for any of the repairs in any form because of the unfortunate and uncontrollable circumstance of renting a property that suffered water damage. I certainly wouldn't expect them to pay for any damage done to my property regardless of whose fault it was.

On the same note, could my apartment complex pay part of my utility and then bill that as part of the expense of repairing the water damage? My neighbors are going to get billed for the whole thing anyway since it was their fault. Could this be counted as part of that cost?