Current Events in September 2012

If you're a fan of the A&E series "Storage Wars," you know the concept. A group of collectors bids for the contents of an abandoned storage locker without really knowing what it holds.

It makes for entertaining reality television but Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortex Masto is warning residents of her state it's no way to buy gold.

Masto is calling attention to ads run in Nevada newspapers by Ohio-based World Reserve Monetary Exchange (WRME), enticing Nevada residents to roll the dice on a "vault bag." The bags cost $149 and may be loaded with gold coins and U.S. currency. On the other hand, they might not be.

Masto's problem is with the way these vault bags are advertised.

'Confusing ads'

“These confusing ads, which are designed to look like an official news story, have the capacity to mislead consumers,” said Masto. “The picturing of the products is unclear and inconspicuously identifies the total price for each items featured."

What is omitted from the ad, Masto says, is that the contents of these vault bags do not necessarily meet or exceed the price paid for each bag.

"During tough economic times, it is troubling that people are fooled into believing misleading ads,” she said.

Small fortune 'up for grabs'

WRME, which sells coins, paper currency and safes, placed a full-page color ad titled, "Cash in limbo goes to residents in 15 of 17 Nevada counties," claiming that “bags of U.S. Government issued money loaded with a small fortune are up for grabs."

The ad continues by saying residents of fifteen Nevada counties have forty-eight hours to claim their bags at a fee of $149 for the vault bag fee. The ad guarantees that each vault bag contains 11 U.S. Government issued notes, which amounts to $23.

On January 12, 2012, the Santa Cruz County, Calif., District Attorney’s Office announced a $223,000 settlement with the company over deceptive ads that offered California consumers free gold coins. Masto says the advertisement failed to mention that 32 of those coins had not been minted and that the price for the completed set would cost hundreds of dollars more than the advertised price.

Masto also warned that the Better Business Bureau has rated WRME as an "F" and has logged 249 complaints against the company, mostly for misleading advertisements.

The U.S. national campaign to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome has entered a new phase and will now encompass all sleep-related, sudden unexpected infant deaths, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The campaign, which has been known as the Back to Sleep Campaign, has been renamed the Safe to Sleep Campaign.

SIDS reduction effort

The NIH-led Back to Sleep Campaign began in 1994, to educate parents, caregivers, and health care providers about ways to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The name was derived from the recommendation to place healthy infants on their backs to sleep, a practice proven to reduce SIDS risk. SIDS is the sudden death of an infant under one year of age that cannot be explained, even after a complete death scene investigation, autopsy, and review of the infant's health history. Sudden unexpected infant death (SUID) includes all unexpected infant deaths: those due to SIDS, and as well as those from other causes.

Many SUID cases are due to such causes as accidental suffocation and entrapment, such as when an infant gets trapped between a mattress and a wall, or when bedding material presses on or wraps around an infant’s neck.

In addition to stressing the placement of infants on their backs for all sleep times, the Safe to Sleep Campaign emphasizes other ways to provide a safe sleep environment for infants. This includes placing infants to sleep in their own safe sleep environment and not on an adult bed, without any soft bedding such as blankets or quilts. Safe to Sleep also emphasizes breast feeding infants when possible, which has been associated with reduced SIDS risk, and eliminating such risks to infant health as overheating, exposure to tobacco smoke, and a mother’s use of alcohol and illicit drugs.

"In recent years, we've learned that many of the risk factors for SIDS are similar to those for other sleep-related causes of infant death," said Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the NIH institute which sponsors Safe to Sleep. "Placing infants on their backs to sleep and providing them with a safe sleep environment for every sleep time reduces the risk for SIDS as well as death from other causes, such as suffocation."

Available materials

A new one-page fact sheet, "What does a safe sleep environment look like," shows how to provide a safe sleep environment, and lists ways that parents and caregivers can reduce the risk for SIDS. 

The NICHD's new brochure, Safe Sleep for Your Baby, provides more detailed information on ways that parents and caregivers can reduce the risk of SIDS and other sleep-related causes of infant death. The Safe Sleep for Your Baby brochure, as well as the one-page fact sheet, are available for order at 1-800-505-CRIB (2742). 

In the next month, new Safe to Sleep materials will be available in Spanish. Additional materials will be available for the black and American Indian/Alaska Native communities, which have had higher SIDS rates. Also, a Safe Sleep for Your Baby DVD will be available for order and the new Safe to Sleep campaign Website will be launched in October.

It’s interesting when your particular generation is no longer the youngest or the most trend-setting. It happens kind of subtly without you even knowing.

One day your generational group is the most technologically advanced, the most educated, and for a fleeting moment in time determines what’s relevant and cool within popular culture.

Next thing you know the letter associated with your generation moves on down the alphabet, and all of a sudden Gen X becomes Gen Y and so on and so on. I wonder what letters we’ll use after Generation Z is born.

The youngest generation of adults are the ones who decide what ways the globe will shift, while at the same time influencing some of what the following generation will be exposed to.

A good test for yourself to determine if your age group is still on the front lines of world change is to look at some of the technology and the people behind it.

If most of the creators of new technology are of the younger generation it’s a sign that shows the younger ones are really starting to impact the globe.

Or turn on the radio to see if any of the groups or acts you like is on heavy rotation.  If not, that’s surely another sign some of the culture has moved on, unless you listen to adult contemporary.

Once you notice a large portion of your surroundings are vastly different from the things you were raised with, you know a new generation is on its way of taking over. And that's not a bad thing, I mean, our particular age group can’t be in the global spotlight forever, right?

Job situations

Another way to tell a generational change is by looking at how younger people are employed. New job opportunities, newly developed industries and the way people work are definite indications of changing times.

A newly released study by job and salary experts PayScale.com shows that 63.3% of Generation Y workers have at least Bachelor degrees while 12.8 % have their Master’s.  And the median years with each employer for Gen Y’ers is only two, compared to Generation X (5 years), Baby Boomers (7 years) and the Silent Generation (10 years).

PayScale along with the research company Millennial Branding conducted a survey with 500,000 workers from the Gen Y age group. And just what years represent this younger corner of the working population?

Different dates have been used by different people, but the general range of folks in Gen Y were born somewhere between the late 1970s to the very early 2000s. They’re also called “Generation Next” or the “Millennial Generation”. I’ve even heard Gen Y’ers being referred to as the “@ Generation”.

Technology a constant

In short, this particular age group has never known a world without sophisticated technology. Many in Generation Y have used that technology to create jobs for themselves instead of breaking their neck looking for a specific position.

The PayScale survey showed that 47% of Generation Y employees work in companies with 100 employees or less, showing many of these businesses are start-up brands that are often run by people in their 20s and 30s.

The survey also showed that 15% of Gen Y’ers are already in management roles, and they're working in higher-paying jobs like software developers, which earn $61,900 on average.

The Millennial Generation also work in jobs like mechanical engineering ($59,300), web developer ($45,100), registered nurse ($50,200) office manager ($32,600) and administrative assistant ($29,300).

 Not only does Generation Y appear to live life more inclusively — seemingly co-existing with people from other races, sexual orientations and backgrounds more harmoniously -- they also think on more global terms as it pertains to both business and travel.

Studying the Chinese language and culture is one of the most popular majors in college, shows the survey. Other popular majors among the Gen Y group are neuroscience, bioengineering, entrepreneurial studies, and sports management.

According to the survey the most lucrative majors for those in Gen Y are petroleum engineering ($97,400), chemical engineering ($66,600), systems engineering ($65,900), nuclear engineering ($64,000) and computer engineering ($63,000).

Big cities

It also seems the bigger cities are where younger people are moving and working nowadays, as 26% have found jobs in Washington D.C., and 25% have found jobs in both New York City and Boston.

Another unearthed fact by the researchers was that “more professional Gen Y employees have an M.B.A than have no higher education at all.”

The overall average salary for Generation Y employees is $44,600 for men and $35,400 for women. Apparently one thing Gen Y still has is that pay discrepancy between the genders.

Right now it’s Gen Y’s turn to show the world what they got.

At this very moment the generation is behind the curtain of the world stage trying to remember all the lessons from previous generations, while at the same time getting ready to use the things they've learned on their own.  

By being the most educated, the most technically savvy, and living in a world with the most amount of diversity, one could say Gen Y just might be prepared to eventually run the world. At least we hope so, because they’re up next.

It was the worst-kept secret in the technology world as nearly all the rumors turned out to be true. Apple today took the wraps off its newest iPhone, the iPhone 5.

The new phone ships September 21 and will cost $199 for the 16GB, $299 for the 32GB version, and $399 for a 64GB. The iPhone 4 is now free and the iPhone 4s is now $99.

Unlike the iPhone 4S, which disappointed many Apple fans because of its relatively few changes, the new iPhone appears to have had a complete make-over.

"We have updated every aspect of iPhone 5," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple calls it the world's thinnest smartphone, made entirely of glass and aluminum. And as expected, it has four-inch display. It's also designed to run on 4G networks, will feature an A6 processing chip, and boasts a longer battery life.

The iPhone 5 will feature LTE, quicker Wi-Fi, an A6 processing chip, and greater battery life. According to Apple the spec for the iPhone 5 include:

• Weight: 112 grams (20 percent lighter than 4s)
• Thickness: 7.6 mm (18 percent thinner)
• Screen: four-inch display (up from 3.5 inches), 1136x640 pixel resolution (up from 960x640), a fifth row of icons on the screen, 44 percent more color saturation,
• Networks: LTE network compatible, available on Verizon/Sprint/ATT
• Speed: processor and graphics are 2-times faster.

Apple said it has also enhanced the camera and replaced Google Maps with its own Apple Maps.  

Parents hoping to ensure their children's future health have taken to "banking" cord blood. Cord blood, which is taken from the umbilical cord immediately after birth, is rich in stem cells, which can be used to grow new tissues and organs.

While there are currently just a handful of medical procedures that use cord blood, the hope -- or selling point, depending on your point of view -- is that someday, a wide range of diseases will be treated using cord blood. Those whose parents had the foresight to bank their children's blood would then have what amounts to a biological advantage over others.

But of course, none of this works if the cord blood isn't there when it's needed. And that's the situation that may confront clients of BioBancUSA, a California company that allegedly went out of business and turned its specimens over to its medicall untrained directors.

The Monterey County district attorney sued BioBancUSA, its founder Robert Hayner, and treasurer James Swallow, alleging violations of state Health and Safety and Business and Professions Codes, Courthouse News Service reported.

Hayner founded the Monterey-based biotechnology firm in 2006, offering cryogenic banking of umbilical cord blood and white blood cells.

Hayner, who holds a bachelor's degree in engineering, was CEO for flight simulation firm Carmel Applied Technologies, which was acquired by Alion Science and Technology in 2005, according to BioBancUSA's website.      Swallow was the company's CFO, according to the complaint.

"Defendants stored umbilical cord and white blood cell specimens in a cryogenic unit called the BioArchive, cooled by liquid nitrogen. The BioArchive unit was designed to operate robotically with computer-controlled adjustment of liquid nitrogen levels and around the clock electric monitoring," the suit maintains.

Ceased operations

But the state claims BioBancUSA laid off all its staff in July 2010 after collecting and storing specimens for 4 years, but neglected to tell its customers it had "essentially ceased operations."

"Starting in or about July 2010, instead of utilizing trained medical and laboratory staff to monitor and maintain the BioArchive unit containing customer specimens, defendants Robert Hayes and James Swallow, neither of whom was medically trained or certified to work in a laboratory setting, attempted to maintain the unit themselves by occasionally adding liquid nitrogen manually," according to the complaint.

BioBancUSA's license with the California Department of Public Health Biologics was revoked in October 2010 when its medical and laboratory director resigned without appointing a replacement, the state claims.

False advertising

The state accuses BioBancUSA of engaging in false advertising by, among other things, advertising state-of-the-art umbilical cord blood and white blood cell cryogenic storage services on its website and enrolling new patients after it had ceased operations.

It also violated quality control policies established by the American Association of Blood Banks, such as not having enough qualified staff and failing to maintain their specimen storage equipment, the complaint states.

It's been just a few days since a U.S. federal court judge approved an antitrust settlement between some book publishers and the Justice Department and already the $9.99 e-book is back.

Popular author Michael Chabon's newly-released "Telegraph Avenue" is selling for $9.99 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble's BN.com and Apple's iBook. Compare that to the $12.99 to $14.99 range at which many e-books have been priced over the last few years. 

So far, the new lower price applies only to HarperCollins titles. Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group have also settled the antitrust suit but have not yet reached new deals with online booksellers.

Penguin and Macmillan continue to fight the suit, as does Apple, a defendant in the case.

Apple and the booksellers still face a major civil antitrust suit that claims Apple conspired with the five major publishers to raise the price of e-books, dominate the market and force Amazon to stop selling at a discount. The conspiracy worked so well that e-books now cost as much or more than paperbacks, the class action claims. 

Not everyone thinks the settlement is great news for consumers though. Writing in the Los Angeles Times today, columnist Michael Hiltzik argues that while those low prices look great today, they may be "designed to drive off all of Amazon's e-book competition — and kill off the last remaining brick-and-mortar bookstores too — so it can set its own prices as it wishes down the line."

"In essence, the government walked blithely past the increasing threat of an Amazon monopoly and went after the stakeholders who were trying to keep it from taking root," Hiltzik suggested.

However they may feel privately, publishers are trying to put a bright face on the matter.  

“HarperCollins has reached agreements with our e-retailers that are consistent with the final judgment,” HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum said in a statement. “Dynamic pricing and experimentation will continue to be a priority for us as we move forward.”

To help consumers make better choices about the food they eat, McDonald's will post calories for all items on its menu boards in the U.S., both inside stores and in drive-thru lanes.

The new menu boards will go up next week, the company said.

"At McDonald's, we recognize customers want to know more about the nutrition content of the food and beverages they order," said Jan Fields, President of McDonald's USA. "As a company that has provided nutrition information for more than 30 years, we are pleased to add to the ways we make nutrition information available to our customers and employees."

Improved nutritional choices

According to Fields, the move is part of the company's "Commitments to Offer Improved Nutrition Choices," announced last year. The plan aims to help customers and employees make informed nutrition choices whether visiting McDonald's or eating elsewhere.

Caloric intake is increasingly recognized as a key element in controlling weight and preventing obesity. McDonald's cited research by the International Food Information Council Foundation showing only 15 percent of Americans accurately estimate the number of calories they need to maintain their weight.

McDonald's has long been a target of health and nutrition advocates who say fast-food marketing has helped promote the obesity epidemic in America. The city of San Francisco went so far as to ban Happy Meals, claiming they lured children into bad eating habits with the promise of a toy.

Revamped Happy Meals

Partly to counter that, McDonald's recently revamped Happy Meal menus to include apple slices and fat-free milk. This past summer, McDonald's introduced a "Favorites Under 400" menu that highlights the calorie information for some of customers' favorite foods and beverages to help put calorie counts in better context.

The restaurant chain also announced plans to test foods that would increase the number of wholesome choices on its menu. The menu items being explored for 2013 include more recommended food groups.

Among the additions being tested for for inclusion are more season fruit and vegetables options, such as blueberries and cucumbers, during peak seasons. McDonald's says it will also offer additional produce side options and grilled chicken choices for Happy Meals.

McDonald's may be getting out in front of what it expects to be the wave of the future. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is still reviewing an Obama administration proposal to require the posting of calorie data on many restaurant menus.

The normal traffic light has three signals and two of the three are pretty cut and dried.

Red means stop. Green means go. Both are definitive and unambiguous. But yellow means "caution." That means that a driver, instead of responding to a command, must make a judgment. Isn't that an accident waiting to happen?

"There are circumstances, as you approach a yellow light, where the decision is easy," said Hesham Rakha, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. "If you are close to the intersection, you keep going. If you are far away, you stop. If you are almost at the intersection, you have to keep going because if you try to stop, you could cause a rear-end crash with the vehicle behind you and would be in the middle of the intersection anyway."

Judgment call

But where, exactly is that point at which you stop for a yellow light or go on through the intersection. Rakha, director of the Center for Sustainable Mobility, has been trying to answer that question since 2005.

His research group has been studying drivers' behaviors as they approach yellow lights. Their goal is to determine signal times for intersections that are safer and still efficient.

The goal is to reduce rear-end crashes and collisions with side-street traffic. Although observation-based research shows that only 1.4 percent of drivers cross the stop line after the light turns red, more than 20 percent of traffic fatalities in the United States occur at intersections.

In the dilemma zone

"If the yellow time is not set correctly, a dilemma zone is imminent," Rakha said.

"The dilemma zone occurs when the driver has no feasible choice. In other words the driver can neither stop nor proceed through the intersection before the light turns red. This can also occur if the approaching vehicle is traveling faster than the posted speed limit and/or if the driver's perception and reaction time is longer than the design one-second value."

On a road with a 45 miles per hour speed limit, the average yellow time on a traffic signal is set for 4.2 seconds. The time is extended on roads with a higher speed limit.

"These timings are based on two assumptions," Rakha said. "Namely, the driver requires one second to perceive and react to the change in signal indication and that the driver requires 3.2 seconds to stop from 45 mph at a comfortable deceleration level, assumed to be 3 meters per second squared or 10 feet per second squared."

Age differences

Rakha and his team study actual drivers at a test road at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. So far they've found drivers of different ages react differently.

People over 60 years of age have a longer perception-reaction time, so they have to brake harder to stop. But they are more likely to try to stop, compared to younger drivers. However, if they keep going, they are unlikely to clear the intersection, the researchers report.

One strategy to make intersections safer might be more use of caution lights that tell drivers a green light is about to change, so the driver has a longer time to react. Such systems now are used on high speed roads, where the stopping distance is longer, and when the lighted intersection is not visible until the last seconds.

Rakha says a future strategy that researchers are investigating is in-car display systems that can be customized to each driver's reaction time. One driver might get a four-second warning but another might get the signal sooner.

Everybody has an idea about what news is, or should be, but there's pretty broad agreement that one thing it shouldn't be is advertising in diguise.  "Ads4Dough" probably doesn't sound like the most objective news organization, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged that it is, in fact, deceptive.

The FTC says that the Coleadium, Inc. affiliate network, Ads4Dough's parent, recruited affiliate marketers that made deceptive claims on fake news sites to promote acai berry supplements, and so-called “colon cleansers,” as weight-loss products.

According to the FTC, in addition to misleading consumers about the effectiveness of the supposed weight-loss products, the marketers recruited by the defendants also promoted “free trials” of the products, in which consumers were tricked into signing up for additional shipments of products, and were billed monthly.

$1 million settlement

Under the agreed-upon settlement, the defendants will pay $1 million, and will be required to monitor affiliate marketers in their network to ensure that their statements are truthful and in compliance with federal advertising law.

The FTC’s complaint against California-based Coleadium and its owner, Jason Akatiff, alleges that they acted as intermediaries between online merchants who sold the purported weight-loss products and the affiliate marketers who used websites designed to look like objective news reports to promote the products and draw consumers to the merchants’ sites. 

The products advertised included the acai berry supplements AcaiOptimum, AcaiBurn-Force Max, Acai Tropic, Acai Fit, and Acai Elite Blast; as well as colon cleansers Natura Cleanse, Smart Colon Flush, Advanced Colon Max, and Colo Flush.

Fake news sites

The FTC brought 10 cases against fake news site operators in April 2011.  Eight have been resolved, with the defendants paying collectively more than $2 million.  One of those news site operators, Intermark Communications, Inc., doing business as Copeac, also ran an affiliate network.

Coleadium and Akatiff allegedly assembled a network of affiliate marketers, approved the affiliates to market the products, monitored the traffic the affiliates generated through fake news sites, and paid the affiliates commissions based on the traffic generated.  

Under the settlement order, in addition to paying $1 million to the FTC, Coleadium and Akatiff are barred from making any material deceptive representations, including deceptive claims about weight loss and health, and about relevant studies, tests and research.  They also are barred from failing to disclose any material connection between themselves or others marketing or selling products, and the endorsers of the products; that the content of a “news” website or other publication was not written by an objective reporter but is an advertisement placed for payment; and that consumers may be subject to recurring charges when they sign up for trial supplies of the products.

Also under the settlement, the defendants must obtain adequate information about the affiliate marketers they hire, provide the affiliate marketers with a copy of the settlement order, monitor all their affiliate marketers who are selling any good or service, promptly review and approve the affiliate marketers’ advertisements, immediately stop the processing of payments generated by any affiliate marketer using deceptive advertisements, and terminate any affiliate marketer engaged in such conduct.

Supposedly derived from acai palm trees that are native to Central and South America, acai berry supplements often are marketed to consumers who hope to lose weight.  

Heavy alcohol use has long been linked to high blood pressure and cardiovascular ailments. But new research suggests heavy alcohol use means a stroke might occur 14 years earlier.

“Heavy drinking has been consistently identified as a risk factor for this type of stroke, which is caused by bleeding in the brain rather than a blood clot,” said study author Charlotte Cordonnier, MD, PhD, with the University of Lille Nord de France in Lille, France. “Our study focuses on the effects of heavy alcohol use on the timeline of stroke and the long-term outcome for those people.”

The researchers studied people who suffered a type of stroke called intracerebral hemorrhage. the subjects, who had an average age of 71, were interviewed about their drinking habits.

A total of 137 people, or 25 percent of the group, were heavy drinkers, which was defined as having three or more drinks per day, or about 1.6 ounces per day of “pure” alcohol.

The study also included CT brain scams and a review of medical records. The results were clear.

Stroke at age 60

The study found that heavy drinkers experienced a stroke at an average age of 60, 14 years before the average age of their non-heavy drinking counterparts. Among people younger than 60 who had a stroke that occurred in the deep part of the brain, those who were heavy drinkers were more likely to die within two years of the study follow-up than non-heavy drinkers.

“It’s important to keep in mind that drinking large amounts of alcohol contributes to a more severe form of stroke at a younger age in people who had no significant past medical history,” said Cordonnier.

Scientists still haven't concluded why alcohol is linked to stroke. But studies have shown there is a link. At least one study has shown that more than two drinks a day may increase the risk of stroke by 50 percent.

At the same time, another study has suggested that one alcoholic beverage a day may lower a person's stroke risk.

The U.S. poverty rate remained the same as last year but American households continue to earn less money, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Real median household income in 2011 -- the last measured year -- was $50,054, a 1.5 percent decline from the 2010 median and the second consecutive annual drop. The government report is in line with a private report issued last month by Sentier Research, showing household income has declined 4.7 percent since the recession ended three years ago.

The poverty rate was virtually unchanged, a pleasant surprise for policymakers who expected it to rise, considering stubbornly high unemployment. In another surprise, the number of people without health insurance coverage declined from 50.0 million in 2010 to 48.6 million in 2011, as did the percentage without coverage -- from 16.3 percent in 2010 to 15.7 percent in 2011.

Costs rise but incomes don't

But as costs like food and gasoline continue to rise, consumers are earning less money. The report found that median family income declined by 1.7 percent in real terms between 2010 and 2011. Compared with 2007, real median household income was down by 8.1 percent.

Women who worked full-time in 2011 earned a median income of $37,118 compared to men who earned $48,202. The Census Bureau said that wasn't statistically different from the year before and the rates of decline for men and women were not statistically different from one another.

The income gap between rich and poor also grew wider last year. The Bureau found income inequality increased by 1.6 percent between 2010 and 2011. The share of aggregate income for the top 5 percent increased 4.9 percent.

Health coverage

The number of people with health insurance increased to 260.2 million in 2011 from 256.6 million in 2010, as did the percentage of people with health insurance, which increased to 84.3 percent in 2011 from 83.7 percent in 2010.

The percentage of people covered by private health insurance in 2011 was not statistically different from 2010, at 63.9 percent. This was the first time in the last 10 years that the rate of private health insurance coverage has not decreased. The percentage covered by employment-based health insurance in 2011 was not statistically different from 2010, at 55.1 percent.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the production and use of Choline C 11 Injection, a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging agent used to help detect recurrent prostate cancer. 

Choline C 11 Injection is administered intravenously to produce an image that helps locate specific body sites for follow-up tissue sampling and testing in men with recurrent prostate cancer. 

Recurrent cancer 

PET imaging with Choline C 11 Injection is performed in patients whose blood prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels are increasing after earlier treatment for prostate cancer. An elevated PSA result suggests prostate cancer may have returned, even though conventional imaging tests, such as computerized tomography (CT), have not shown any signs of cancer. PET imaging is not a replacement for tissue sampling and testing. 

Choline C 11 Injection must be produced in a specialized facility and administered to patients shortly after its production. While PET imaging with Choline C 11 Injection has been performed at a few facilities over the past several years, none of these facilities were approved by the FDA to manufacture the agent. 

The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act directed the agency to establish appropriate approval procedures and current good manufacturing practice requirements for all PET products marketed and used in the United States. The Mayo Clinic is now the first FDA-approved facility to produce Choline C 11 Injection. 

Safe and effective 

“Choline C 11 Injection provides an important imaging method to help detect the location of prostate cancer in patients whose blood tests suggest recurrent cancer when other imaging tests are negative,” said Charles Ganley, M.D., director of the Office of Drug Evaluation IV in FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “The FDA’s approval of Choline C 11 Injection at the Mayo Clinic provides assurance to patients and health care professionals they are using a product that is safe, effective, and produced according to current good manufacturing practices.” 

The safety and effectiveness of Choline C 11 Injection were verified by a systematic review of published study reports. Four independent studies examined a total of 98 patients with elevated blood PSA levels but no sign of recurrent prostate cancer on conventional imaging. After PET imaging with Choline C 11, the patients underwent tissue sampling of the abnormalities detected o the PET scans. 

In each of the four studies, at least half the patients who had abnormalities detected on PET scans also had recurrent prostate cancer confirmed by tissue sampling of the abnormal areas. PET scan errors also were reported. Depending on the study, falsely positive PET scans were observed in 15 percent to 47 percent of the patients. These findings underscore the need for confirmatory tissue sampling of abnormalities detected with Choline C 11 Injection PET scans. 

Aside from an uncommon, mild skin reaction at the injection site, no side effects to Choline C 11 Injection were reported. 

Choline C 11 Injection is manufactured and distributed by the Mayo Clinic PET Radiochemistry Facility in Rochester, MN.

Breeder’s Choice Pet Food is recalling a single manufacturing batch of Breeder's Choice AvoDerm Natural Lamb Meal & Brown Rice Adult Dog Formula due to possible contamination with Salmonella. 

The product affected by this recall is identified below and has the following "Best Before" dates: 

Product and product lots that do not appear on the list above are not subject to this recall. 

Salmonella can affect animals eating the products and there is a risk to humans from handling contaminated pet products, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the products or any surfaces exposed to these products. 

Healthy people exposed to Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever. Rarely, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis, arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation, and urinary tract symptoms. 

Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting. Some pets will have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain. Infected but otherwise healthy pets can be carriers and infect other animals or humans. If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian. 

No human or pet illnesses have been reported to-date. 

The recall notification is being issued based on a single manufacturing batch wherein a sample with the "Best Before" dates of August 28, 29 and 30, 2012 had a positive result for salmonella. The AvoDerm Natural Lamb Meal & Brown Rice Adult Dog Formula product was originally manufactured on August 29, 2012, and distributed on August 30 and 31, 2012. Salmonella testing was conducted by Silliker, Inc. (Southern California Laboratory). 

Recalled products were distributed to retailers and distributors in California, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, Virginia and Washington. 

Consumers who have purchased the AvoDerm Natural Lamb Meal & Brown Rice Adult Dog Formula product with the above-referenced "Best Before" dates are urged to contact Breeder's Choice Customer Service representatives. 

A letter and instructions have been forwarded to all Breeder’s Choice Pet Food customers. Breeder’s Choice Customer Service representatives and company veterinarians are responding to inquires through the 1-866-500-6286 phone number and will answer any questions regarding pets that have been fed the product. 

The average U.S. consumer added to his or her credit card debt is the second quarter of the year and is now on pace to build up an additional $43.5 billion in credit card balance in 2012, according to a private analysis.

In its Second Quarter 2012 Credit Card Debt Study, Card Hub found that, even though debt levels are rising, consumers have done a better job paying their credit card bills each of the past two quarters than they did last year. It's the first time since 2009 that there have been two consecutive quarters of improvement relative to the respective quarters the year before.

The average U.S. household now carries about $6,700 in credit card debt.

Looks good compared with last year

When compared with 2011 the credit card data don't look bad. But Card Hub says last year was a bad year for consumer over-leveraging. Credit card debt increased by $46.7 billion during the course of the year. The fact that there has been only slight improvements this year, says Card Hub CEO Odysseas Papadimitriou, means we are on a similar track.

“I hate to sound like a broken record, but people simply cannot continue to live in denial, thinking that the economy’s improvement means they can take spending back to pre-recession levels,"Papadimitriou said. "Pre-recession spending was inextricably tied to the housing bubble, and its collapse means that we all have to adjust. Perhaps more people have gotten the message, judging from our improved performance thus far this year relative to last, but our pay-downs were still more significant and our buildups less severe than in 2010 when we were battening down the hatches in the face of the recession."

Improving metrics

However, the 2012 metrics do appear to be improving. Consumers are either paying down their credit card debt or taking on less than the two previous years. The charge-off rate, now at 4.24 percent, is approaching pre-recession levels, which is one of the main factors prompting credit card companies to begin lending again.

But while credit card outstanding balances have fallen since the start of the Great Recession, the numbers show it's mostly due to write-downs by lenders. True, many consumers have made efforts to pay down their balances but it's a small amount of the decrease.

With the recession now over, we need to focus on rebuilding, so to speak, rather than reverting back to the old status quo," Papadimitriou said. "We’ve all seen what that has done for us, after all. Reigning in our budgets necessitates foregoing certain luxuries, but consumers at least have a couple of important allies in this battle in the form of credit card calculators and 0 percent credit cards.”

As part of its systematic review of all current rules and guides, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking public comment on proposed changes to the FTC Rule that requires manufacturers and importers to attach labels with care instructions for garments and certain piece goods, so consumers have reliable instructions for drycleaning or washing, bleaching, drying and ironing their clothing. 

The Care Labeling Rule, officially called the Rule on Care Labeling of Textile Wearing Apparel and Certain Piece Goods, has been in effect since 1971. The FTC sought public comment on the overall costs, benefits, and necessity of the Care Labeling Rule in 2011. 

Proposed changes 

Based on a review of comments, the agency has concluded that the Rule continues to benefit consumers and will be retained, and is now seeking comments on potential updates to the Rule, including changes that would: 

• Allow manufacturers and importers, if they so choose, to include professional instructions for wetcleaning -- an environmentally friendly alternative to drycleaning -- on labels if the garment can be professionally wetcleaned;
• Permit manufacturers to use updated ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) or ISO (International Organization for Standardization) symbols on labels in lieu of written terms providing care instructions;
• Clarify what constitutes a reasonable basis for care instructions; and
• Update and expand the definition of "dryclean" to reflect current practices and account for the advent of new solvents. 

The Commission vote approving the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was 5-0. I Comments must be received by November 16, 2012. 

All comments received will be posted online.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 11 years since terrorists attacked the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93 over Shanksville, Pa.

September 11, 2001 changed everybody forever, as it robbed the nation of our collective innocence, while also harshly reminding us that even the United States isn’t immune to acts of war on its own soil.

But 9/11 also brought out the very best in U.S. citizens and entire communities, namely those who shortly after the attacks went to the World Trade Center to recover the deceased, save the living, and help out any way they could.

Sadly, in exchange for their altruism many of the volunteers contracted various  illnesses, including respiratory sicknesses, post-traumatic stress disorder and even certain types of cancers.

According to Dr. David Prezant, New York City Fire Department’s chief medical officer, there were 263 cases of cancer among the men who went to the World Trade Center in the days, months and years after the attacks, and that number has surely increased since his 2011 report.

Dr. Prezant, along with researchers from Montefiore Medical Center and Yeshiva University also found the male responders were at a high risks of developing prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and thyroid cancer. And tragically, cancer patients weren’t able to receive funding for medical treatment until just this week.

Feds finally act

The National Institute for Occupational Safety (NIOSH), a part of the federal government, approved the addition of cancer to the list of covered illnesses, so first responders and other volunteers can be assisted both financially and medically.

In total there were 14 types of cancers added to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which was signed by President Obama in 2010 and named after a New York City police officer who passed away from a respiratory disease after joining the recovery efforts at ground zero. 

Until now, cancer wasn’t included in the compensation act since the government saw no direct scientific link between being a first responder and developing cancer, and many including Prezant and his colleagues opposed the ruling at the time.

“An association between World Trade Center exposure and cancer is biologically plausible," said Prezant and his research team back in 2011 in a statement. “Because some contaminants in the WTC dust, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and dioxins, are known carcinogens. Continued follow-up will be important and should include cancer screening and prevention strategies.”

According to the New York Post, nearly 400 ground zero volunteers and those living near the World Trade Center have died since September 11, which makes it baffling why the addition of cancer was not added to the compensation act until this week.

Many still worried

Although some of those suffering from 9/11 illnesses are relieved about cancer finally being added, many still worry if they’ll receive the proper funding needed to stay afloat among increasing medical costs and treatments.

This week New York City officials said they’ll make sure assistance doesn’t stop at just amending the Zadroga Act, but they’ll also ensure it successfully covers the necessary care expenses.

“We fought long and hard to make sure that our 9/11 heroes suffering from cancers obtained from their work at ground zero get the help they deserve, said US. Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand in a statement.

“Today’s announcement is a huge step forward that will provide justice and support to so many who are now suffering from cancer and other illnesses. We will press on with advocates, the community, and our partners in government, to ensure that all those who suffered harm from 9/11 and its aftermath get the access to the program they so desperately need,” the statement read.

As of now almost 20,000 people can use the Zadroga Act for medical treatment, and a total of $4.3 billion has been used to treat those suffering 9/11 illnesses.

In the world of retail, technology is useful in different ways. Sometimes a technological advancement allows a product to function better.

Other times it improves the overall appearance of the product and makes it easier to use. But most of the time manufactures use technology to make things work faster, because in today’s culture, product improvement is synonymous with quicker performance and speedier results.

Technology doesn’t only make products work faster; it makes the process of buying them faster too. And by now most of us have taken our turns at a self-pay kiosks in a supermarket or a department store. But soon even that process will seem slow and outdated.

Walmart for example has just begun testing a new technology called “Scan & Go” for iPhone users, and it allows customers to scan items as they shop.

After your items are scanned you take a digital shopping list that appears on your phone and transfer it directly to a kiosk. This means hardly any lines at the register, as customers will merely have to touch their phone to the kiosk, make their payment and head for the door.

At the moment, the nationwide retailer is testing the Scan & Go app in its Rogers, Ark., store and consumers could be seeing this check-out system at other U.S. locations in the near future.

Apple check-out

And not only Walmart, but Apple too has made the check-out process even faster for consumers.

With its EasyPay app, customers can walk into any Apple location, scan the product's barcode and within  seconds the item comes up on your device with the price and product info.

After clicking the buy button you wait a few seconds for an electronic receipt, remove the item from the shelf and off you go.

No check-out lines, no sales people and a completely self-service shopping experience. And no one will give you suspicious looks for casually picking up an expensive laptop and strolling out the door with it.

In order to use the app for purchasing you’ll have to register with the Apple website and type in your account information.

PayPal with fries

And retail stores aren’t the only ones allowing you to pay for items with your smartphone. McDonald’s is testing a service in 30 of its locations in France, where one can order and pay for food with PayPal.

If  rolled out to the U.S., Big Mac cravers could order their food while going to the fast-food chain, pay for it with a click of a button, then present a receipt number to a cashier. Although standing in line may still come into play, many customers would only be paying and not thinking of what to order, which is bound to speed up the process by great lengths.

There are also restaurant kiosks being used and tested around the globe, where customers just walk up to a digital board, press a picture of their desired food item and pay for it. A few moments later a staff member brings you your food and you’re all set.

Some may say we’re not too far off from many high-end restaurants having a self-pay feature or ordering app as well.

Imagine going to a fancy eatery and having your table and food waiting there for you upon arrival. It would be great for when you’re on your way to a movie or a show and you’re pressed for time. And the self-pay movement doesn’t stop there.

In Nevada residents can do most of their DMV transactions by visiting a kiosk. Those who live in the Battle Born State can renew their driver’s license and registration, get a duplicate if it was lost or stolen, and handle other related responsibilities that usually take all day to complete.

Self check-in

Even airports, that force human interaction the most for safety reasons, are making the self-pay and check-out process even faster.

A few airports have installed kiosks that allow you to print your own ticket for your luggage, and even check yourself at the gate before walking on to the plane.

Instead of checking-in with the person behind that small podium-looking desk at the gate, travelers can use a kiosks to scan their ticket. In fact, they wouldn’t have to deal with one single person besides security from the time they enter the airport until they get on the plane.

Of course all of this self-paying could eventually thrust out the cashier, sales person or airport worker from employment, which is the unfortunate side of technological development.

But like it or not the trend of self-paying won’t be disappearing anytime soon. It's only going to become more and more widespread as time rolls on.

Despite the claims of an anonymous hacker, Monday's six hour outage affecting websites and domains hosted and registered by GoDaddy.com was not caused by "external influences."

When millions of sites and email accounts went dark for a four-hour period Monday someone tweeting as Anonymous Own3r claimed to have been responsible. After an investigation, the company said that is not true.

"The service outage was not caused by external influences," Scott Wagner, GoDaddy CEO, said in a statement. "It was not a 'hack' and it was not a denial of service attack (DDoS). We have determined the service outage was due to a series of internal network events that corrupted router data tables. Once the issues were identified, we took corrective actions to restore services for our customers and GoDaddy.com. We have implemented measures to prevent this from occurring again."

The company reiterated that no customer data was ever at risk, not were any GoDaddy systems compromised.

The outage began Monday at around 10 am PDT and service was fully restored six hours later, the company said.

Google Play and Boingo are offering free Wi-Fi to consumers at more than 4,000 locations across the country but is making no secret of the fact that Windows Phone, Blackberry and iOS users are not on the invitation list.

Before you get too excited about this, please note that it's only through the end of September.

The Wi-Fi hotspots are part of Boingo’s Cloud Nine Media platform, a global advertising network that Boingo said "enables brand advertisers to reach a captive audience through Wi-Fi sponsorships." And you thought Boingo just wanted to be helpful?

Sponsored Wi-Fi locations include 15 airports, such as New York’s John F. Kennedy, Chicago O’Hare and Seattle-Tacoma, Boingo-enabled Manhattan subway stations, and thousands of hotels, shopping malls, cafés and recreational areas.

Sponsorship network

“Google Play is the first to take part in our newly expanded Wi-Fi sponsorship network, which reaches millions of consumers each month with place-based brand engagements,” said Dawn Callahan, vice president of consumer marketing for Boingo Wireless. “Sponsorships like this give users the free Wi-Fi they crave, advertisers the consumer interaction they need, and venues the revenue to offset the costs associated with providing a high-bandwidth Wi-Fi experience.”

The free Boingo Wi-Fi lasts through the end of September. With the recent acquisition of Cloud Nine Media, Boingo Wireless now offers brands a global advertising network that includes more than 70 leading airports, the New York City subway, shopping centers, stadiums and thousands of hotels, restaurants and recreational areas, reaching more than 1.5 billion people annually.