Current Events in July 2008

IndyMac reopened under the control of federal regulators yesterday and there was little doubt who was in charge.

The failed California bank stopped all pending foreclosures at the direction of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) chair Sheila Bair, who has been prodding lenders to find more ways to keep financially-troubled homeowners in their homes.

Bair said that IndyMac Federal will "very aggressively pursue loan-modification strategies" for homeowners who are stuck with mortgages they can't afford. She said the goal would be to make those mortgages "affordable on a long-term sustainable basis."

When the FDIC seized it Friday, IndyMac had about $15 billion in outstanding mortgages. It was also servicing another $185 billion. The FDIC won't have as much flexibility with the loans the bank was servicing but Bair said the agency would "look at each one" to try to find a solution that would stave off foreclosure.

While that may be good news for borrowers, depositors weren't as pleased. Long lines stretched down the street at many IndyMac branches as consumers rushed to withdraw their funds when the bank reopened yesterday.

It wasn't really necessary for depositors to withdraw their funds, as deposits of up to $100,000 -- more in some cases -- are guaranteed by FDIC, but many customers were taking no chances.

Whatever steps FDIC takes to clean up the bank's operations will be temporary, as its primary goal is to sell the bank's assets within 90 days.

Motormouth?

While the IndyMac clean-up continued, so did the blame game. The office of Thrift Supervision yesterday pinned blame for the bank's failure on Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Agency officials didn't leak their opinion, or have it attributed to "a senior official" within the agency. No, they put it right in their press release.

"The immediate cause of the closing was a deposit run that began and continued after the public release of a June 26 letter to the OTS and the FDIC from Senator Charles Schumer of New York," the news release stated. "The letter expressed concerns about IndyMac's viability. In the following 11 business days, depositors withdrew more than $1.3 billion from their accounts."

If that wasn't plain enough, OTS Director John Reich underlined the point.

"This institution failed today due to a liquidity crisis," Reich said. "Although this institution was already in distress, I am troubled by any interference in the regulatory process."

For his part, Schumer didn't take the criticism lying down. The senior senator from New York fired back that if OTS and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation had been doing their jobs, the meltdown might have been avoided.

IndyMac had been in a precarious financial situation that was caused, in part, by an unprecedented stress in the residential real estate market, combined with the evaporation of the non-agency secondary mortgage market in August of 2007. The OTS said it had significant concerns with the bank's funding strategy, had directed appropriate changes and was finalizing a new set of enforcement actions to address its numerous problems.

As a result of an OTS examination that began in January 2008, the OTS said it deemed IndyMac to be in troubled condition. An overwhelming majority of problem institutions are able to successfully modify their operations and business plans, work closely with their regulator and eventually return to a healthy condition, the agency said.

IndyMac had reacted to market conditions and OTS concerns in November 2007 by changing its operations and business plan to build a foundation for recovery, the OTS said, adding that IndyMac was actively seeking to arrange a significant capital infusion or find a buyer.

"The recent release of the senator's letter undermined the public confidence essential for a financial institution and took away the time IndyMac needed to pursue a recovery," the agency said in its news release.

One of my favorite occupations as I stroll the streets of the city is to tear down notices that promise make hundreds of $$$ a day working from home! -- theyre generally placed by pyramid schemers and the only money thats likely to be changing hands is from you to them.

The truth is that there are far more people trying to make money from you than those who want to help you make a living. Perhaps thats obvious but the guys who write the books on How to Become a Millionaire are still doing a good business. What you do is you publish a book for $20 on how to get rich and then sell 50,000 copies

Still, today I jumped out of bed at the crack of noon, made some coffee and then pulled out my laptop while still in bed to check my website income from the day before. I was on course to make $1,000 for the month. I went back to sleep for a while and then hit the beach. Another productive working day.

In the future well probably divide people between those who remember life before the Internet and those who have a hard time believing that people used to walk down to the post office to send mail. Generations to come will laugh at the idea that people used to pay to talk to each other on the phone and will be revolted by the idea that all media was once in the hands of greedy publishing, music and television companies.

Just wants to be free

The Internet has made information free. Naturally, it took the world a long time to wake up to this new paradigm and in the beginning there were a lot of people trying to charge for access to websites. Surfers just shrugged and hit the back button and moved on to a site that didnt ask for a credit card. Information is still the most valuable commodity in the world but the economic model changed.

Dig it, youre not paying to read this article but that doesnt mean theres no money being made here

Last summer I decided to take a six-month-long holiday and hung around camp fires at some hippie festivals with not a cell phone -- much less an electric socket -- in sight. In between banging out hopelessly off-key Bob Dylan songs on my guitar, I explained to my incredulous dreadlocked friends that Id made $30 that day before waking up. Okay, it was no fortune but the cash was coming in without me lifting a finger and kept me in a good supply of guitar strings and patchouli oil.

Running your own niche website is like cultivating a money tree. You plant the seed of a good idea, tend and cultivate the sapling for a year or so without any reward and then, as your website comes into maturity, you sit back and collect the fruit as it drops, just doing a bit of pruning here or there.

Unless youre a really driven type and want to plant a whole orchard of niche websites and secure a long-term revenue stream that will beat most pension plans

No geeks

By now your eyes are probably rolling. Thats all very well, you say but youre not a computer geek. The web is already full of millions of sites on every conceivable topic and anyway, how can anyone make money by giving information away for free?

I used to say the same things. Then an old friend told me that his collection of niche websites were bringing in 500,000 people a month. That was more than many magazines that I could think of. I checked out his sites and saw that far from using any complicated programs hed made them all in Notepad. Hed learnt about 10 little symbols that he needed to make the pages and although there was no design to speak of, the information was clear and accessible.

If you already send email and watch videos on YouTube then youre probably capable of learning how to set up and code your own website in a day. Just do a Google search for html tutorials and youll be on your way. Use a program like Dreamweaver that does the code for you and it gets even easier. And if you plan to make a more complicated site that needs some tricky code, you can find an Indian tech wizard though www.elance.com who will do all the hard work for you.

And although there are a BILLION WEBSITES in existence now, the web is still in its infancy.

After the first dotcom crash, many people seemed to think the internet would just fade away. Instead peoples ideas about it changed. The biggest names in the internet like Youtube, Myspace and Facebook are all recent ideas, evolving in the last 4 years as peoples imaginations have begun to catch up with the potential of the most important medium the world has ever seen.

A good way to think up ideas for niche websites is in your own search experience. I started my main website, www.roadjunky.com because I was bored sick of all the inane travel stories and guides out there. I was sure that there were hundreds of thousands of people out there who also wanted to read alternative articles with attitude. Today, around 50,000 people a day visit the site and its developed a following within the niche that I identified.

But it can be even simpler than that. Maybe you have a hard time doing a web search to find out what live music is playing in your town? So you buy and set up www.gothamcityconcerts.com and fill the niche yourself. If there are others who also want to learn about all the latest concerts then youve got traffic and an income in the making.

Or perhaps youre a devoted fan of Johnny Depp? If you can put together an authoritative site of all roles hes ever played, a list of all his interviews, trivia and photos available, then maybe you can create a resource for all the other millions who play at being pirates in front of the bathroom mirror.

Grains of sand

But with a web full of professional writing and photos, established sites and a million ego-fueled blogs, how will anyone ever find your little website?

Finding information on the web is the biggest challenge the internet faces today. Like free speech, it doesnt matter if the info you want is out there if theres so much crap in the way that you can never find it. Try to search for information about trips to Moscow, for instance, without being inundated with Russian bride sites.

Most sites depend upon search engines for their traffic, Google in particular. Google only got so big in the first place because they came up with the best way to sort through millions of sites in a second and most search engines soon copied their model. Their revolutionary concept was simple: one link = one vote. So sites that get lots of inbound links are more likely to featured on the first page of any search query.

But it doesnt end there. Google also reasoned that not all links are equal a link coming in from a CNN feature, for instance, scores way more points than a link from www.mymomswebsite.com.

So to bring traffic to your site you need links but who on earth will link to you?

For many webmasters, about 20% of their time is spent in begging, trading and even buying links. The bottom line, however, is that if you provide a cool, comprehensive resource or a useful service then people will link to you as a matter of course. People might link to this page as a guide to making money at home, for instance (hint, hint).

How to make it pay?

Now, assuming you manage to get some traffic, how do you make money out of it? Man cannot live on hits alone

Again, we have Google to thank. Their think tank looked at the internet and saw the greatest potential for advertising in history. They invented Adsense and became the middlemen between the advertisers and the publishers and made the whole process automatic so you dont have to waste your time trying to sell ad space.

It works like this: you install a bit of code on your site, Google spiders your pages, decides what theyre about and then inserts a relevant ad. So if youve written an article about vacations in Brazil you might well see ads about Flights to Brazil or Carnival Packages showing up.

But unlike traditional advertising where publishers get paid for placing the ad, you only get paid when someone actually clicks on it. The amount varies depending on the advertisers bid but if youre getting decent traffic the clicks soon add up and Google sends you a check each month. And yes, they will know if youre clicking on your own ads

You can also make money with affiliate deals where you get a small percentage of every flight, hotel reservation or book sold from your site, for example. Do a web search for affiliates and youll find enormous lists of them by subject. Just dont overburden your site with ads or affiliates or youll lose traffic in droves.

Okay, okay but what if you cant write or take photos to save your life and have no budget to pay others?

One of the pages I visit the most is an article that lists the best bit torrent sites on the web. I keep forgetting the name of the torrent sites that I use and so I return to the list about 5 times a week. Apparently many other people also found the list handy as it has a bunch of inbound links and sits at the top of Googles top ten when you search for best torrent sites. The point is that if you can find some way to sort and order the information out there then youre fulfilling a need and traffic will come your way.

For instance, if you reckon you have a great sense of humor (and who doesnt but they cant all be right..) then you could buy www.youtubelaughs.com and embed 5 hilarious YouTube videos each day to save your audience the trouble of hunting them down themselves. If people know they can arrive at your site and be guaranteed a good laugh its likely theyll return again and again.

Learning how to build a niche website can be as shallow or deep as you like. All the tips and tricks you need to know are available via any Google search and www.webmasterworld.com is a great place to ask all your dumb questions and get patient answers.

A catchy name for your website helps and you can search for domain names at www.domaintools.com .coms sell for about $10 each and hosting will cost you another $100+ a year, depending on how big your site gets.

But thats the last money you need ever spend on building your niche site and beware anyone who tries to sell you their services to bring traffic remember the rule in the second paragraph and stick to the straight and narrow. There are ways to manipulate search engines into sending you traffic but rather intelligent people work at Google and theyre likely to find you out and blacklist your site sooner rather than later.

Oh, by the way, don't think you can copy entire articles from other web sites and post them on yours. This is illegal and most large web sites -- and not a few small ones -- will track you down and their lawyers will make you wish you had opened a bait shop instead.

Most people wont get rich by building a niche website. And you probably wont see any return from it for the first year or more. But after that your site stays open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week and the dollars will keep rolling in by themselves. Maybe enough to keep you on the beach in Mexico for the winter.

At school they told me that there was no such thing as a free lunch. Now that I sit under an orchard of niche websites, gathering the fruit that falls each day, I beg to differ.

---

Tom Glaister is the founder and editor of www.roadjunky.com - The Online Travel Guide for the Free and Funky Traveller.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating airbag failures in the 2001 and 2002 Hyundai Elantra.

More than 150,000 of the economy-priced Korean sedans are covered by the investigation.

"The airbag system is susceptible to airbag light illumination and airbag non-deployment or inadvertent deployment from liquid contamination of the airbag control module," according to the NHTSA Web site.

The safety agency reported two fatalities occurred in crashes involving the Elantra when the airbag warning light was illuminated.

In a previous report earlier this year, NHTSA cited the results of the investigation of those deadly accidents.

"Post inspection and analysis indicate the airbag light had illuminated prior to the crash on both vehicles," NHTSA said on its Web site. In the first accident, "the center console covering the airbag control module was removed. The module and the main connector were covered with a brown sticky substance, possibly spilled liquid since the cup holders are positioned above the control module," according to NHTSA.

The NHTSA Web site reported that the "recovered fault codes indicate a prior short circuit condition that most likely would shut down the airbag control module," and prevent airbag deployment.

In the second fatal crash, NHTSA was told the airbag warning light had come on several months prior to the accident.

The safety agency and Hyundai have received 501 consumer complaints concerning the airbag system failures in the Elantra. The automaker has repaired the airbag system in 9,110 Elantra sedans under warranty claims, according to the NHTSA Web site.

The safety agency stated that it is also aware of "6 incidents of seat belt pretensioner and airbag deployments due to liquid spills," in the Elantra.

The owner of a 2002 Hyundai Elantra GLS in Hartford, New York reported a recent airbag warning light failure to ConsumerAfairs.Com.

The dealer told the Elantra owner that the "airbag system will not function" because the airbag module was no longer working. The airbag repair cost, paid by the consumer, was $560.

Other models

The Elantra is not the only Hyundai to experience an airbag failure according to a ConsumerAffairs.Com reader in Miami.

"Both of my daughters were involved in a roll-over accident in their 2006 Hyundai Tucson, he said. "The impact caused the Tucson to roll-over several times. None of the airbags deployed in the accident," he told ConsumerAffairs.Com.

"Thankfully, my daughters escaped with only minor injuries but I cannot believe not one airbag deployed given the severity of the accident," he said.

The Hyundai dealer told his Miami customer that the airbag failure was "a safety measure to reduce further injury."

A Canadian owner of a Hyundai Santa Fe also experienced an airbag warning light failure in his SUV. So far, the Hyundai dealer is unable to repair the warning light problem, he said.

Hyundai customers relations "ordered a new harness for wiring," the owner said but there is "no improvement."

The Canadian Hyundai owner is demanding the Korean automaker refund the money he paid for the Santa Fe and take the vehicle back.

"This vehicle has been faulty since its delivery to me, he said. "After 5 attempts to fix the vehicle even the service manager is at wits end."

Suspension failures

NHTSA is also investigating Hyundai vehicles for catastrophic suspension failure.

Federal safety investigators are examining consumer complaints of suspension failure, some at high rates of speed, in the 2001 model year Hyundai Santa Fe.

Two consumers reported to NHTSA that their vehicle "nearly rolled over" following the suspension failure.

The cause of the failures appears to be excessive corrosion in the vehicle suspension and federal safety investigators want to know if the Hyundai Santa Fe suspension rusts to the point of breaking.

NHTSA has received allegations that the subframe on the Hyundai Sonata can rust to the point of causing suspension failure as well.

The agency has received 40 consumer complaints about severe corrosion in the 1999 through 2002 model year Sonatas.

Consumers have reported "fist-sized holes in the frame" that can cause the suspension control arm to detach from the vehicle, according to federal safety investigators.

The result can be "wheel collapse or separation, half shaft detachment resulting in sudden vehicle disablement and or steering anomalies," according to the NHTSA Web site.

The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department have stepped into the escalating mortgage crises, outlining steps to bolster mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and, they hope, restore investor confidence.

Among the steps unveiled by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson over the weekend are expanding the government's line of credit to the two entities and allowing the government to purchase shares of the companies, if need be.

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a central role in our housing finance system and must continue to do so in their current form as shareholder-owned companies," Paulson said in a statement. "Their support for the housing market is particularly important as we work through the current housing correction."

In recent weeks both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac known in the industry as GSEs have had trouble raising money, since few investors seemed willing to buy their debt. Without cash from investors, the two companies have less money to lend, resulting in fewer mortgages.

The timing of the announcement was made for maximum impact, as both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are auctioning a combined $3 billion in securities on Monday. Paulson said he has consulted with both regulators and key members of Congress in coming up with the three-part plan.

"First, as a liquidity backstop, the plan includes a temporary increase in the line of credit the GSEs have with Treasury. Treasury would determine the terms and conditions for accessing the line of credit and the amount to be drawn," Paulson said. "Second, to ensure the GSEs have access to sufficient capital to continue to serve their mission, the plan includes temporary authority for Treasury to purchase equity in either of the two GSEs if needed."

Paulson said use of either the line of credit or the equity investment would carry terms and conditions necessary to protect the taxpayer.

"Third, to protect the financial system from systemic risk going forward, the plan strengthens the GSE regulatory reform legislation currently moving through Congress by giving the Federal Reserve a consultative role in the new GSE regulator's process for setting capital requirements and other prudential standards," Paulson said.

The crisis on confidence is being driven partly by the seizure of mortgage lender IndyMac, taken over by agents of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Friday, becoming the second largest bank failure in U.S. history. The bank reopens today as IndyMac Federal FSB, operating under FDIC conservatorship.

Under federal law, individual deposits are insured up to $100,000 $100,000 per depositor plus $250,000 per retirement account.

At the time of its seizure, IndyMac had total assets of $32.01 billion and total deposits of $19.06 billion as of March 31, 2008.

As conservator, the FDIC said it will operate IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB to maximize the value of the institution for a future sale and to maintain banking services in the communities formerly served by IndyMac Bank, F.S.B.

Mortgage lender IndyMac was seized by agents of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Friday, becoming the second largest bank failure in U.S. history. The FDIC was named conservator.

The agency said it will transfer insured deposits and substantially all the assets of the Pasadena, California bank to IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB. Brokered deposits will be held by the FDIC and those insured deposits will be paid off when the insurance determination is complete.

Under federal law, individual deposits are insured up to $100,000 $100,000 per depositor plus $250,000 per retirement account.

At the time of its seizure, IndyMac had total assets of $32.01 billion and total deposits of $19.06 billion as of March 31, 2008.

As conservator, the FDIC said it will operate IndyMac Federal Bank, FSB to maximize the value of the institution for a future sale and to maintain banking services in the communities formerly served by IndyMac Bank, F.S.B.

Insured depositors and borrowers will automatically become customers of IndyMac Federal, FSB and will continue to have uninterrupted customer service and access to their funds by ATM, debit cards and writing checks in the same manner as before, the agency said.

However, IndyMac depositors will have no access to on-line and phone banking services this weekend. These services will be operational again on Monday. Loan customers should continue making loan payments as usual, FDIC said in a statement.

Quick collapse

Earlier this week, IndyMac Bancorp. announced it was laying off more than half its staff and virtually abandoning the mortgage business.

CEO Michael W. Perry said the company was struggling with the continuing erosion of the housing and mortgage markets.

It's one of the latest aftershocks of the meltdown of the mortgage market. The stocks of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the huge government-sponsored entities that buy much of the paper in the mortgage industry, sank yesterday after a warning that they could need to raise as much as $75 billion in new capital.

IndyMac was founded in 1985 and became the leader in alt-A mortgages, those written to consumers whose credit was good if not outstanding, on terms that included adjustable interest rates, flexible pay plans and other features that often meant consumers' loan balances grew instead of declining over time.

The company was also heavily into subprime and home-equity loans and often required little or no documentation of borrowers' income, critics said.

The Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer advocacy organization, said IndyMac's decline was caused by unsound and abusive lending practices.

No matter how high the price of gold has soared, it's never a good idea to send off your antique jewelry and coins to strangers. Those who do could not only be taking a huge risk.

As the value of gold increases, some consumers are seeking to cash in with a process called gold melting. In gold melting, consumers sell the gold contained in their valuables, such as outdated bracelets, unwanted wedding bands, or a single earring without a mate.

But to a jewelry collector, your great grandmother's out-of-style gold brooch may be worth a lot more than its "melt price." Likewise, a coin collector may find your gold coins to be worth much more than simply the weight of the gold they contain.

That's why Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers says consumers should resist the temptation to sell an item before it reaches its potential value.

The value of gold and other precious metals is at near-record levels. If you decide to sell your precious metals, make sure you take the time to protect yourself and get the most for your valuables.

To avoid gold melting scams, follow these tips:

• Get an appraisal. Have your gold assessed by an accredited appraiser or a neutral jeweler or collector to find the accurate weight and gold content.

• Find a reputable buyer. Jewelry stores generally offer better prices than pawnshops. Search for complaints filed against a company with the Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org and other online consumer sites.

• Beware of scams. Scam artists are also tapping into the gold rush. They're using phone solicitations, Internet sites, mail advertisements and Tupperware-style gold parties to trick consumers into selling their gold for less than its true value. Some mail-in companies promise consumers cash in exchange for sending in their unwanted gold jewelry and coins. If you mail your gold, however, you risk losing it completely or not getting a fair price for it.

• Determine the fair markup price. Check the commodities markets for that day's spot price. Market prices are based on pure 24-karat gold, so the higher the karat, the more valuable it is. Gold less than 24K is discounted proportionately: 18K is 75% pure gold, 14K is 58%, and 10K is 41.7% gold. The scrap price is based on the value of the metal alone and doesn't reflect the craftsmanship or antique value of the item.

• Shop around. Get at least three estimates from different jewelers. Ask jewelers how much they offer for pure gold, how they calculate the value of a gold item, and what percentage commission they charge (typically about 10%).

• Consider the consequences. When you melt your gold jewelry, you lose all of its retail (and sentimental) value. Your antique jewelry may be worth more than its weight in gold. Think twice before you melt it.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has requested a "black box" warning on certain antibiotics, alerting consumers to the increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture but Public Citizen said the agency should have taken the step years ago.

The agency has also determined that it is necessary for manufacturers of the drugs to provide a medication guide to patients about possible side effects.

The antibiotics in question are flouroquinolone drugs, which are powerful antibacterials. Among the best known drugs in that class are Cipro, manufactured by Bayer, and Levaquin, which is produced by Ortho-McNeil.

The FDA has notified the manufacturers of these drugs that a "Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS)" is necessary to ensure that the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks. The medication guide will be considered to be an element of the REMS.

Sidney Wolfe, M.D., Director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, noted that his organization had asked the FDA to require the black box warning nearly two years ago.

"While we are pleased the agency has moved forward on part of the petition we filed in August 2006, there is still more that the FDA must do to make doctors and, indirectly, patients aware that fluoroquinolone antibiotics, such as Cipro, Levaquin and others, can cause serious tendon ruptures and tendinitis," Wolfe said.

Wolfe said the FDA has not responded to a request that it also send a warning letter to physicians clearly describing possible adverse reactions, such as tendon pain, so that patients can be switched to alternative treatments before tendons rupture.

Troubled

"We are troubled that the FDA is not doing everything within its power to prevent more people from needlessly suffering disabling tendon ruptures. Nothing could be simpler and more effective than a letter to doctors in addition to what the FDA has proposed," he said.

Since Public Citizen filed its petition, more than a hundred cases of tendon ruptures have been reported to the FDA that might have been prevented had the FDA acted with more urgency, Wolfe charged.

"From November 1997 through December 2007, there have been 407 reported cases of tendon rupture and 341 cases of tendinitis in patients using fluoroquinolone antibiotics," he said. "Because only a small fraction of cases are typically reported to the FDA, the actual number of ruptures and other tendon injuries attributable to the antibiotic is much higher."

Fluoroquinolones are drugs approved for the treatment or prevention of certain bacterial infections. Like other antibacterial drugs, fluoroquinolones do not treat viral infections such as colds or flu.

"Fluoroquinolones are effective in treating certain bacterial infections, but health care professionals and patients need to be aware of the increased risk associated with the use of these drugs of developing tendinitis and tendon rupture, particularly for certain patient populations," said Edward Cox, M.D., director, Office of Antimicrobial Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

"The FDA believes it is important to highlight and strengthen information regarding possible side effects of fluoroquinolones because it may affect decisions about the relative risks and benefits associated with these products."

The FDA has conducted a new analysis of the available literature and post-marketing adverse event reports. This new analysisreconfirmsthat use of fluoroquinolones is associated with an increased risk of tendon rupture.

It also demonstrates that despite the current warning of tendon rupture in the labeling for the fluoroquinolones, large numbers of tendon-related adverse events continue to be reported. The FDA considers this new analysis to be "new safety information" as defined in federal law.

The FDA also issued a bulletin to alert health care professionals to the increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture in patients taking these drugs and to highlight new information concerning who may be at higher risk for this side effect.

The risk of developing fluoroquinolone-associated tendinitis and tendon rupture is further increased in people older than 60, in those taking corticosteroid drugs, and in kidney, heart, and lung transplant recipients.

Patients experiencing pain, swelling, inflammation of a tendon or tendon rupture should be advised to stop taking their fluoroquinolone medication and to contact their health care professional promptly about changing their antimicrobial therapy. Patients should also avoid exercise and using the affected area at the first sign of tendon pain, swelling, or inflammation.

Manufacturers are being notified of the need to change labeling so that all of the drugs in the class carry uniform updated warning language.

Fluoroquinolone manufacturers are required to submit the safety labeling changes, including the strengthened warnings and the Medication Guide, to the FDA within 30 days, or to provide a reason why they do not believe such labeling changes are necessary.

Health care professionals should consider the potential benefits and risks for each patient, the FDA said. While most patients tolerate these medicines well, occasionally some will develop other serious adverse reactions that may include convulsions, hallucinations, depression, abnormalities in heart rhythm, or severe diarrhea.

Lawsuit

Public Citizen sued the FDA in January for not responding to its petition in a timely manner.

"There is no excuse for the FDA not fully complying with our petition," Wolfe said. "No one in the medical community disputes that these antibiotics can cause tendon ruptures, and the FDA has not learned anything new since we filed our petition and lawsuit. It shouldnt require legal action to get the FDA to do its job."

Federal safety investigators are examining consumer complaints of suspension failure, some at high rates of speed, in the 2001 model year Hyundai Santa Fe.

Two consumers reported to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that their vehicle "nearly rolled over" following the suspension failure.

NHTSA has received six consumer complaints about failed suspension parts in the Hyundai SUV that claim the rear trailing arm in the vehicle failed because of excessive corrosion.

Safety investigators want to know if the Santa Fe suspension rusts to the point of breaking.

Three people reported that they lost control of their Santa Fe while traveling at speeds of 55 mph or more.

The safety agency has opened a "preliminary evaluation" of the complaints which could eventually lead to the recall of 25,000 Santa Fes.

NHTSA is also investigating allegations that the subframe on the Hyundai Sonata can rust to the point of causing suspension failure.

The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) at NHTSA has received 40 consumer complaints about severe corrosion in the 1999 through 2002 model year Sonatas.

Consumers have reported "fist-sized holes in the frame" that can cause the suspension control arm to detach from the vehicle, according to federal safety investigators.

The result can be "wheel collapse or separation, half shaft detachment resulting in sudden vehicle disablement and or steering anomalies," according to the NHTSA Web site.

The federal agency has also received reports of corrosion in the engine cradle and front cross-member.

NHTSA said that "there appears to be an increasing trend in failures, with 10 reported so far in 2008, 19 in 2007, 11 in 2006 and 1 in 2005."

Most of the complaints come from states where large amounts of salt are used on roads during snowy months, according to NHTSA.

The "salt belt" states according to NHTSA are Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

Some consumers report discovering the severe corrosion during routine maintenance such as an oil change but the majority of the complaints "allege that the corrosion was not detected until it resulted in suspension failure" or a wheel came off, according to NHTSA.

Sonata owners reported traveling at speeds from 5 to 65 mph when they encountered the suspension failure. Some of the incidents "resulted in the vehicle becoming disabled in the traffic lane at night with the driver and child stuck in the car," according to the NHTSA Web sit. "Passing traffic swerved around the vehicle at high speeds," NHTSA said.

One consumer told federal safety regulators that the Hyundai Sonata was "stuck in the middle of a dangerous intersection."

Another reported the Sonata was so badly rusted the vehicle was declared a total loss by the insurance company after the lower control arm completely separated from the vehicle "causing the half-shaft to detach from the transmission and resulting in damage to the wheel housing and quarter panel from the detached wheel.

Using the same system that allows a supermarket cashier to identify a piece of produce at the checkout counter could also allow investigators to trace the origin of unsafe food, two consumer groups say.

The pointed to the latest salmonella crisis, in which investigators' attention has recently shifted from tomatoes to jalapeño peppers after hundreds of consumers were sickened and millions of tomatoes were destroyed.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Consumer Federation of America, in a letter to the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), argue that if fruits and vegetables can be tracked back up through the supply chain back to the farm, investigators would have an easier time nailing down the source of outbreaks of Salmonella, E. coli, and other dangerous pathogens.

"Effective traceability labeling must encompass the multiple steps along the path from farm to table, including farm-of-origin, packer, distributor, and retailer," the groups wrote in a letter to Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach.

"Such a system should use a standardized code for all FDA-regulated items to streamline investigations and ensure effective record-keeping by all entities along the production chain," the groups said.

Simple system

The groups say the system could be very simple: placing little stickers on fruits and vegetables at the point of origin. The industry already has standard price look-up codes, or PLUs, that retailers can use at the register. Tomatoes that bear a sticker with the number 4087 are red Roma tomatoes, for instance.

Similar standardized codes could let retailers, food safety investigators, or even curious consumers know exactly what farm a given bunch of asparagus or bag of spinach hails from, the say.

"Each outbreak causes huge losses, both for the consumers who become severely ill and for the growers, who often can't sell their products," said CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal. ""Unfortunately, as this investigation has dragged on, the produce industry is reaping what it sowed when it sought and received special exemptions that allowed the industry to avoid the country of origin labeling requirements Congress passed in 2002."

"While new requirements are scheduled to go into effect later this year, FDA needs to go beyond country of origin labeling and give public health officials the ability to trace produce from the fork back to the farm," DeWaal said.

Wider net

Although the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control are casting a wider net to locate the food source responsible for the current Salmonella outbreak, CSPI says the public should still follow the FDA's current advice which tomatoes to eat and which to avoid.

"If FDA had put a traceability system in place two years ago following the spinach outbreak, this current investigation might be moving more quickly," said Chris Waldrop, Director of the Food Policy Institute at Consumer Federation of America.

"This latest outbreak demonstrates very clearly the need for the federal government to quickly and easily trace an implicated food to its source," he said.

The letter from CFA and CSPI also urges the agency to require growers and packers to implement written food safety plans, similar to the hazard control plans that have proved successful in reducing bacterial contamination of fresh meat and poultry. CSPI has been encouraging the FDA to require such plans since 2006.

When distributors mix and match produce from different sources, a practice called "repacking" in the industry, they should be required to maintain the identifying marks or labels that would allow FDA to determine the origin, according to the food safety groups.

Since 1990, CSPI has tracked over 700 outbreaks of foodborne illness linked to produce items, including two dozen outbreaks linked to tomatoes that have caused more than 3,000 illnesses. While 869 have been sickened in the current outbreak, foodborne illness is dramatically underreported, so the actual number of illnesses is likely many times higher.

Focus shifts

Over the weekend, federal health officials said that maybe tomatoes weren't to blame for the odd strain of salmonella that has sickened hundreds of consumers after all.

Stores pulled tomatoes off the shelves, restaurants filled dumpsters with them and shoppers shunned them, all as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said they were trying to find the tomatoes that were causing the problem.

But now, the CDC thinks that perhaps it's been something else causing trouble all along, the Wall Street Journal reports. Jalapeño peppers, maybe. Or maybe cilantro and Serrano peppers.

The current theory making the rounds is that salsa prepared in restaurants may be the common thread that ties all the incidents together. After all, salsas is made with tomatoes. And jalapeño peppers. Cilantro too, come to think of it.

The reason the CDC thinks this is that it has been interviewing people who got sick, asking them what they ate and when, and then looking for a common element that might explain the outbreak of the Saintpaul strain of salmonella, a relatively rare and rather virulent version of the disease.

Consumer advocates have been irate for years with the apparently declining state of food safety in the U.S. Now restaurants and tomato growers are angry as well. They've lost millions of dollars and thrown away mountains of what may have been perfectly good produce.

The FDA has been hedging its best for the past few weeks, saying it couldn't be certain tomatoes were the problem. The biggest clue? Although tomatoes had been taken off the table, people were still getting sick.

So now, the prevailing theory is that maybe it's something that is commonly eaten with tomatoes. Salsa, after all, is made with tomatoes and other produce like, oh, jalapeño peppers.

CDC is hedging its bets this time around, saying it is looking at "certain restaurants" but refusing to name them. It's dropping little hints, though, saying it's not looking at chain restaurants.

All of this frustrates restaurateurs no end.

"To blame salsa brings nothing to the table," a Texas Restaurant Association executive told the Journal. "There's all kinds of salsas."

Symptoms of salmonella include bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever.

It can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections particularly in young children, frail or elderly people, and those with weakened immune systems. Healthy people often experience fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, the organism can get into the bloodstream and produce more severe illnesses.

Toyota is considering solar panels to power air conditioning for the Prius hybrid when the third generation of the car goes on sale next year.

The solar panels will be available on the most expensive models of the Prius and will supply a portion of the electrical power required to run the air conditioning system in the hybrid.

The symbolic gesture is part of Toyota's effort to maintain a green image as the leading producer of hybrids.

The price of the solar panel option is not yet available. Solar panels are made of silicon and are expensive.

Mazda offered a solar panel option in the early 1990s to ventilate cars while parked on hot summer days. The option was discontinued after a few years because of lack of interest.

Sales of the Toyota Prius declined in June, in part because the automaker was unable to keep up with soaring demand for the hybrid. The waiting list for a new Prius now extends several months in many areas of the country.

With the average gasoline price in the U.S. at $4.107 after 8 consecutive days of record highs, demand for the Prius is certain to continue to increase.

The Prius first went on sale in Japan in late 1997 and arrived in the U.S. in 2000. Sales of the Prius have topped 1 million units worldwide.

Q.My wife has complained of being short of breath while shopping in the mall. She says its just a sign of age, but Im concerned about her.

A. The likelihood of suffering shortness of breath or dyspnea (disp-nee-ah) becomes greater the older we get. As we age, our air passages get smaller, chest muscles weaken, and our lungs become less flexible. These changes reduce our air flow.

Dyspnea should happen rarely to healthy people. It can be brought on by exhaustive exertion, high altitude, extreme temperatures. Otherwise, shortness of breath is commonly a sign of a medical problem. So your wife should get this symptom checked by a doctor immediately.

Dyspnea is associated with the major breathing disorders that can develop in seniors. These disorders are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, obstructive sleep apnea, pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary thromboembolism and aspiration.

COPD involves difficulty in exhaling. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are COPDs. Emphysema makes the small air spaces in the lungs collapse. Bronchitis is inflammation of the airways.

Most asthma is caused by allergies to airborne particles such as dust and mold. The airways become inflamed, which causes them to spasm. Unlike COPD, asthma is reversible.

Diagnosing conditions in seniors can be challenging, because asthma in older people is often difficult to distinguish from emphysema and chronic bronchitis. In addition, many seniors have both emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Obstructive sleep apnea is common in older adults. People with sleep apnea stop breathing for as long as 30 seconds at a time. These interruptions can happen hundreds of times a night. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the muscles in the back of your throat relax, narrowing your airway and cutting off your breathing.

In pulmonary fibrosis, the lungs air sacs become filled with scar tissue. The damage is permanent. Pulmonary fibrosis usually begins in your 40s or 50s, but can develop at any age.

Pulmonary thromboembolism is a life-endangering blockage of a blood vessel by a blood clot that travels often from the legs to the lung and damages tissue. Pulmonary thromboembolism is most common after age 65.

When something from your mouth goes down the wrong pipe, you have aspiration. Aspiration is inhaling food particles, liquids or bacteria. If the amount of aspirated material exceeds the ability of the immune system to handle it, you can get a serious lung infection.

Symptoms of shortness of breath can be caused by a variety of abnormalities in organs other than the lungs.

When the heart fails, it loses its ability pump blood. This elevates pressure in the blood vessels around the lung. Sometimes fluid collects in the lungs and interferes with breathing, causing shortness of breath, especially when a person is lying down.

A low red-blood-cell count causes dyspnea because the red cells carry oxygen. When their number is extremely low, your body doesnt get enough oxygen.

In addition, a high thyroid level, shock, systemic infection, kidney or chronic liver problems, stroke, nerve and muscle disorders, and anxiety can bring on dyspnea.

The following are some symptoms that indicate a medical condition: shortness of breath at rest, with exercise, when lying down or upon exposure to allergens. In addition, you may have a problem if shortness of breath is accompanied by: chest pain or discomfort, arm pain, jaw pain, neck pain, swelling in the ankles and feet, fluid weight gain or unintentional weight loss with reduced appetite, unusual fatigue, sweating, yellow or green phlegm, blood in spit, fever, wheezing, persistent cough, blue lips or fingertips, fainting.

All Rights Reserved © 2008 by Fred Cicetti

When Sheila Smith got a look at what she thought was her dream home, she didn't hesitate to take it.

"I have eight kids -- four boys and four girls," Smith told ConsumerAffairs.Com, "so we couldn't exactly say no." Smith, a social services and business consultant in Independence, Missouri, and her family took the chance and signed the papers on the house in May 2000, only to find that something was amiss immediately.

"Among all the papers we had to sign at closing was a second mortgage," Smith said. "We certainly didn't expect or ask for that." Smith also noted that much of the necessary closing documentation to certify the house's sale was missing. On top of that, the home was riddled with defects and problems, but their mortgage broker persuaded them to take the deal anyway.

It wasn't long before the dream became a nightmare for Smith and her family.

Although Smith and her husband were "viable citizens with good credit," they were quickly steered into an expensive subprime loan with ballooning payments and hidden fees that they couldn't keep up with. Their home's builder was indicted and the mortgage broker was quickly revealed to be collaborating with the builder to, as Smith put it, "unload crappy homes for pretty quick money."

Trying to sell the home was fruitless, as they received conflicting appraisals due to all of the defects in its construction.

The story has all the hallmarks of a narrative from America's housing crisis, right up to the bank declaring foreclosure on the Smith residence. But in a twist, Sheila Smith was able to use the confusing and ambiguous rules of the modern mortgage market to fight back, and convince lenders and judges alike to let her and her family keep their home -- at least for now.

Smoke signals

When Smith received the first foreclosure notice in 2005, she tried to communicate with the mortgage broker, B&C Mortgage, only to find they had gone belly-up. The mortgage had been resold and they couldn't track down the current mortgage holder.

"We used every form of communication, including smoke signals," Smith said, but to no avail. Smith, a self-described "born fighter" from a family of seven brothers, decided to use the tangled mess of her situation to her advantage, contesting the foreclosure on the grounds that between the implosion of the lender, the lack of a paper trail, and the bad terms of the loan, they were essentially defrauded and couldn't be held liable.

The judge in the case agreed, issuing a default judgment in favor of Smith since the defunct mortgage broker "didn't even show up," Smith said.

The mortgage was eventually sold again to First National Bank in Missouri, but even though the Smiths struggled to renegotiate their loan for better terms, the bank attempted to foreclose again. Yet again, said Smith, the fact that there was "no deed of the sale and nothing recorded" enabled the Smiths to fight the foreclosure, a process that's still in litigation.

Securitized investments

The bundling and reselling of mortgage loans as securitized investments on Wall Street was one of the principal factors in the housing crisis, which bled over into a full-scale economic meltdown.

Lenders lured borrowers into expensive loans, often at subprime or below-prime mortgage rates, with hidden fees and penalties that they could not afford, while selling the loans on the secondary market. As more and more of the loans went into default, lenders' available funds decreased, forcing them to pull back from the market and cut down the credit available to their customers.

California and Illinois recently sued Countrywide Financial for using deceptive marketing tactics to convince borrowers to buy or refinance using complex "creative" loan products, while the lender routinely overrode its own standards to expand the number of loans it sold, in order to realize bigger profits from the resale.

Other homeowners have been able to use the Byzantine complexities of the mortgage market to their advantage, for both good and ill. A California judge recently ruled that a debt-ridden couple's home equity line of credit (HELOC) could be discharged in their bankruptcy filing, due to the bank's failure to perform due diligence and offering them the loan despite their clear financial problems.

Said Judge Leslie Tchiakovsky, "In general, a lender's reliance is reasonable if it followed its normal business practices. However, this may not be enough if those practices deviate from industry standards or if the creditor ignored a 'red flag'...[T]he Bank ignored a 'red flag' that should have called for more investigation concerning the accuracy of the income figures."

Action required

When Smith wanted help in bringing attention to her homebuilder's record of defective products, she contacted Nancy Seats, president of Homeowners Against Defective Dwellings (HADD). Seats, who through HADD has crusaded against KB Home and other builders, has been working with Smith on mortgage fraud for several years and has exposed numerous unscrupulous brokers and lenders.

"She has been able to stop foreclosure three times, maybe four by demanding that the servicer attempting to foreclose show proof that they own the mortgage and they can't," Seats told ConsumerAffairs.com. "Because mortgages were sold again and again and then to Wall Street where they were securitized and sold all over the world, I wonder how many homeowners have been foreclosed by a company that couldn't even show proof that they owned the mortgage."

Smith says that more homeowners should challenge foreclosures by lenders who can't prove they legitimately hold the loan, and that many innocent buyers are the victims of "very unscrupulous activity" propagated by lenders and investors who are motivated by "nothing but greed."

"They knew [the market] was all going to collapse eventually," Smith said. "They said, 'Let's just make as much money on the front end as possible and not worry about the back end."

Even Smith's hometown of Independence, a small city of 113,000, has been hit hard. "I've seen homes that were bought for $1.7 million go back on the market at $680,000 to get them sold quick," she said. "In a row of ten homes, maybe one-third of them will have foreclosure signs out front."

Although the Bush administration and Congress have both put forth numerous plans to help stem the tide of foreclosures, political gamesmanship and pressure from the financial industry has slowed progress. The largely voluntary mortgage rescue plans implemented by the financial industry have helped few homeowners to date.

Smith argues that "tougher laws and regulations" are needed to help troubled buyers renegotiate loans with better terms.

"Washington isn't interested in helping us," Smith said. "They're all millionaires -- too far removed from the people they're supposed to be representing. These lenders were making a tenfold profit at the expense of all Americans. Something needs to be done yesterday, and where are they?"

As families across the country prepare for the 4th of July celebration, veterinarians warn this is an extremely stressful holiday for pets.

The loud bang and boom of fireworks and flashes of light can terrify many of our four-legged friends.

Even unlit fireworks pose a danger to pets, veterinarians warn. So do insect repellents, alcoholic beverages, and some foods people grill during holiday picnics.

To keep your dogs and cats safe this Fourth of July, veterinarians at The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal's Poison Control Center recommend the following:

• Never use fireworks around pets. Fireworks can cause severe burns or trauma to the face and paws of curious pets. Unused fireworks also pose a danger to pets because many contain potentially toxic substances, including potassium nitrate, arsenic, and other heavy metals;

• Do not take pets to fireworks displays. It's best to keep them in a quiet, sheltered, escape-proof part of your home. Some veterinarians recommend playing soothing background music for pets. And be sure they have plenty of water;

• Do not put "glow-in-the dark" jewelry on pets. Don't let them play with any of this jewelry, either. The luminescent substance in these products is not highly toxic, but excessive drooling and gastrointestinal irritation could result if your pets ingest the liquid. Pets can also suffer from intestinal blockage if they swallow large pieces of the plastic containers;

• Keep citronella candles, insect coils, and oil products out of pets reach. The ingestion of these products can cause stomach irritation and possibly even central nervous system depression. If inhaled, the oils can cause aspiration pneumonia in pets.

• Keep matches and lighter fluid away from pets. Some matches contain chlorates, which could potentially damage blood cells and result in difficulty breathingor even kidney disease in severe cases. Lighter fluid can also irritate the skin and--if ingested--cause gastrointestinal irritation and central nervous system depression. If lighter fluid is inhaled, aspiration pneumonia and breathing problems could develop;

• Never leave alcoholic beverages where pets can reach them. These drinks have the potential to poison pets. If ingested, an animal could become intoxicated and weak, severely depressed or lapse into a coma. Death from respiratory failure is also a possibility in severe cases;

• Do not apply sunscreen or insect repellents to your pet that are not specifically made for use on animals. Ingestion of sunscreen products can result in drooling, vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst and lethargy. Insect repellent that contains DEET can lead to neurological problems;

• Keep your pets on their normal diet. Any change, even for one meal, can give your pet severe indigestion and diarrhea. This is especially true for older animals that have more delicate digestive systems and nutritional requirements. And keep your pets away from foods that can be potentially toxic to them, including onions, chocolate, coffee, avocado, grapes, raisins, salt, and yeast dough;

Poison control

If you suspect your pet has become poisoned, immediately contact your veterinarian. If you go to the vet's office, take the package the suspected poison came in for reference. It's also helpful to collect--in a sealable plastic bag--any material your pet may have vomited or chewed.

Pet owners can also contact the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435. There is a $60 consultation fee for this service.

Be prepared to give the veterinarians or toxicologists the following information:

• the species, breed, age, sex, weight and number of animals involved
• the animal's symptoms
• information regarding the exposure, including the agent (if known), the amount of the agent involved and the time elapsed since the time of exposure.

Veterinarians say it's also a good idea to invest in an emergency first-aid kit for your pet. The kit should contain:

• A fresh bottle of hydrogen peroxide, 3 percent USP (to induce vomiting);

• A turkey baster, bulb syringe or large medicine syringe (to administer the hydrogen peroxide);

• Saline eye solution;

• Artificial tear gel (to lubricate eyes after flushing);

• Mild grease-cutting dishwashing liquid (for bathing an animal after skin contamination);

• Forceps (to remove stingers);

• A muzzle (to protect against fear-or excitement-induced biting);

• A can of your pet's favorite wet food;

• A pet carrier

Pet owners should consult a veterinarian for directions on how and when to use these emergency first-aid items.

More about pets ...