diff --git a/bmon/settings_example.py b/bmon/settings_example.py
index d35eb0d691a8b624ddf3e4300ed27ceb6217b2d6..0c3f7ea2d78c02735c126083a794e675389e1ee2 100644
--- a/bmon/settings_example.py
+++ b/bmon/settings_example.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 ###################################################
 # Django settings for BMON project.               #
 ###################################################
+import logging
 
 #----------------- Settings Specific to the Monitoring App ----------------------
 
@@ -56,6 +57,10 @@ PROJ_NAME = 'bmon'
 # further down in this settings file.
 STATIC_APP_NAME = 'bmon_static'
 
+# This controls what messages will actually get logged
+# Levels in order from least to greatest severity are:  DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL
+LOG_LEVEL = logging.INFO
+
 #------------ End of Settings Specific to the Monitoring App --------------
 
 # The settings is the following section still need to be filled out, but these 
diff --git a/bmsapp/logging_setup.py b/bmsapp/logging_setup.py
index dbf526cd71cc4bb3d79d699ae42e991bdaef628a..1e99539dc3b2673db67618f472370ecba22627e8 100644
--- a/bmsapp/logging_setup.py
+++ b/bmsapp/logging_setup.py
@@ -3,27 +3,19 @@ This file sets up logging.
 '''
 from os.path import dirname, join, realpath
 import logging, logging.handlers
+from django.conf import settings
 
 APP_PATH = realpath(dirname(__file__))
 
 # Log file for the application
 LOG_FILE = join(APP_PATH, 'logs', 'bms.log')
 
-# *** This controls what messages will actually get logged
-# Levels in order from least to greatest severity are:  DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL
-# Methods to call that automatically set appropriate level are: debug(), info(), warning(), error(),
-# exception(), and critical().  If 'exception()' is called, an exception traceback is automatically
-# added to the log message (only call from within an exception handler).
-LOG_LEVEL = logging.INFO
-
-# ----
-
 # create base logger for the application.  Any other loggers named 'bms.XXXX'
 # will inherit these settings.
 logger = logging.getLogger('bms')
 
 # set the log level
-logger.setLevel(LOG_LEVEL)
+logger.setLevel(getattr(settings, 'LOG_LEVEL', logging.INFO))
 
 # create a rotating file handler
 fh = logging.handlers.RotatingFileHandler(LOG_FILE, maxBytes=200000, backupCount=5)
diff --git a/bmsapp/readingdb/bmsdata.py b/bmsapp/readingdb/bmsdata.py
index 9a8268cf669cf6a80a2efcea5c00c8ad85911f47..539130a255e780de0262a3a064968bc81727bb48 100644
--- a/bmsapp/readingdb/bmsdata.py
+++ b/bmsapp/readingdb/bmsdata.py
@@ -143,12 +143,13 @@ class BMSdata:
 
     def readingCount(self, startTime=0):
         """Returns the number of readings in the reading table inserted after the specified
-        'startTime' (Unix seconds).
+        'startTime' (Unix seconds) and before now (in case erroneously timestamped readings
+        are in the file).
         """
         rec_ct = 0
         for id in self.sensor_ids:
             try:
-                self.cursor.execute('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [%s] WHERE ts > ?' % id, (startTime,))
+                self.cursor.execute('SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [%s] WHERE ts > ? and ts < ?' % id, (startTime, time.time()))
                 rec_ct += self.cursor.fetchone()[0]
             except:
                 # not all tables are reading tables and may error out cause no 'ts' column