Current Events in April 2013

When parents and their children start shopping for colleges, a lot of factors come into play in making the final choice. One of those factors is – or should be – the cost of a four-year education.

On the typical college's website you'll find a current estimate for tuition and fees for a semester or year, plus estimated costs of room and board and books. But that's just the sticker price. The actual cost may be higher or lower.

The choice of a school doesn't always come down to cost but increasingly it does. So being able to find the real cost of college can help you make the right decision.

Online tool

One tool that can help is the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard, a calculator that lets you determine the cost of attending some 600 institutions of higher learning in the U.S.

It works by adding up the tuition and fees the school charges, then subtracting the average aid a student receives. However, it also assumes the average student will have to take out loans, so the payments on those loans are also figured into the mix.

The actual cost can be very different from the sticker price. The University of Wisconsin (UW) at Madison is a prime example.

UW's website lists in-state tuition at $10,609. When you add in books, room and board and miscellaneous other costs, it adds up to $24,204 – as expensive as some private universities. But, it turns out, the actual cost is much lower, at least according to the Scorecard.

Takes financial aid into account

When you enter UW into the calculator, you find the net cost is just under $15,000. The net price is what undergraduate students pay after grants and scholarships – financial aid you don’t have to pay back -- are subtracted from the institution’s cost of attendance.

The tool also reveals that UW students borrow, on average, $19,897 to pay for a four-year education. The federal loan payment over 10 years for this amount is approximately $228.98 per month. That has to be figured into the real cost of an education.

The scorecard provides other information that might be useful when picking a college. Again, in UW's case, it shows an 82% graduation rate and a 1.4% student loan default rate, well below the national average.

If students do not apply for or receive grants or aid, and are forced to take out larger loans, the real, or net, cost of attending college and receiving an undergraduate degree can be much higher than the Scorecard price.

Growing awareness of costs

"Now more than ever, it's crucial that parents and students are aware of the total cost of a degree," said Chuck Cohn, CEO of Varsity Tutors, a private academic tutoring and test prep company. " As the cost of tuition continues to rise, students need to be vigilant about planning ahead and finding the best options for funding their education, not only to attend college in the first place, but also to graduate with an amount of debt they can manage."

College debt is a growing concern. In the U.S., there is now a larger balance of student loan debt than credit card debt. In 2012 students ended their education owing an average $27,000. Some had degrees, some didn't. Not surprisingly, 67% of students who graduated in 2009 are still paying on their student loans.

The College Scorecard hasn't been in operation all that long and some early critics have said it lacks specifics to help parents and students gauge the real costs of college, which more often than not involve student loans. While it might not provide the complete picture, it does underscore the need for students of limited means to obtain scholarships and grants to pay the rising costs of education, or otherwise be saddled with significant debt.  

Working in an office can be a strange thing and full of many annoying little rituals. Like the obligatory how-was-your-weekend-question-session that happens every Monday morning.

It’s safe to assume that most people don’t really care about what you did in the last 48 hours since they saw you last, but they feel compelled to ask, to either be polite or because they really want to tell you about their weekend.

Then of course there are the meetings.

First there’s the brainstorming meeting. Then there’s the follow-up meeting. After that, the discussion goes virtual and everyone meets on email to talk about the meeting. Then you email more to discuss when the next meeting will be. It can get truly ridiculous.

Then there’s the whole always-trying-to-save-your-butt component to working in many offices, where bosses are blindly cc’d, blame is continually passed back and forth, all while your whole department is secretly competing with you for that one higher position.

And if you want to get some uninterrupted work done, good luck, because between shoveling off to meetings, spending much of the day answering emails and being disrupted by that annoyingly chatty co-worker, you’re more likely to get more work done at home or on your public transportation commute than you will at the office.

New ways of working

Jason Fried, who’s the co-founder and president of the Chicago-based company 37 signals, believes the office is probably the last place you’ll be able to be productive, and along with his co-author David Heinemeier, he wrote Rework, a book that talks about new ways of working outside the office.

While speaking at one of his lectures, Fried said the traditional “work day” no longer exists in office settings anymore.

“People go to work and they’re basically trading in their work day for a series of work moments,” he said.

“It’s like the front door of the office is like a Cuisinart and you walk in and your day is shredded to bits, because you have 15 minutes here and 30 minutes there and then something else happens and you're pulled off your work and you’ve got to do something else, then you have 20 minutes, then it’s lunch.”

“Then you have something else to do, then you’ve got 15 minutes and someone pulls you aside, asks you this question, and before you know it, it's 5 pm and you look back on your day and realize that you didn’t get anything done.”

Alone time

Fried says that with his company, he makes sure no one physically works together unless they have to, which just about eliminates distractions and allows people to stay within their work zone and be more productive.

So if you can, speak to your boss about having the chance to have a little more "alone time" and say it'll allow you to get more done.

But most of us will undoubtedly have to learn how to be more productive at the office and learn how to navigate with a bunch of people around, so here are a few tips.

Be sure not to let others control how much work you’re going to get done, says Gina Trapini, author of the books Upgrade Your Life and The Complete Guide to Google Wave.

And don’t feel you have to carve out time to answer every voicemail or engage in those time-wastinggossipy conversations.

“In an interrupt-driven culture it’s just too easy to let other people decide how you’re going to spend your next 10 minutes,” she said in a series of informational videos, entitled “Work Smart.”

“If you jump every single time a new email arrives or your BlackBerry buzzes or your phone rings, you’re undermining your most important work and you could be costing your company money. Recent studies show that unnecessary interruptions cost the U.S. economy $650 billion in lost productivity.”

In addition, Trapini says on average, your brain needs at least 15 minutes to really get into your task and properly focus, and once you're interrupted, many times you'll have to start that 15 minutes all over again.

Reserve an hour

She says it’s important to reserve an hour of time for each task where you’re not interrupted, and asking your boss for alone time in a secluded part of the building or in an empty conference room is your best bet to complete your assignment to the best of your ability.

“Even an employee really low on the totem pole can do this,” she said.

Another common mistake people make in the office is trying to multitask too often, says Trapini, and just because we can do it, it doesn’t mean it’s the best for work productivity.

“When you juggle tasks your work suffers and it takes longer, because switching tasks takes time," she said. 

"When your brain switches from one task to another, it takes up a whole new train of thought and you lose any momentum you had on the first task, which costs on the next switch.”

Trapini pointed to a study that showed it usually takes people 25 minutes on average to get back into a task once they’ve left it for a moment, so try to focus on one thing at a time.

“Stop juggling and start single-tasking,” she says.

First thing in the morning

Furthermore, Trapini says to do your most difficult or highest priority assignment in the morning when you get to work, as this will prevent you from thinking about it too much, which we all know can lead to procrastination.

The fact that the office will most likely be quieter and not yet filled with the typical distractions of the day means you’ll be able to get more done. Plus, you’re usually most alert in the morning and you’ll be able to stay better engaged, which can set the tone for your whole day, says Trapini.

“By knocking something important off your to-do list, first thing in the morning, you get both momentum and a sense of accomplishment before 10am,” she advises.

And here’s one more tip:

Try not eating your lunch at your desk or even in the building or on the property if you can.

Although many companies today provide cafeterias and other little things to keep you on the grounds during lunch, be sure to get out and do something completely unrelated to work.

In fact, scientists from the University of Sussex did a study about employees’ happiness about their job and found a definite correlation between discontentment at work and not going to another location during lunch, so it’s wise to always go for a walk, take a drive or just go to a nearby park with your lunch.

Either way, you’ll need all the help you can get to survive the office, because many are just full of people who’ve mastered the art of looking productive, but who are really more productive at distracting you and taking you away from your assignment.   

Reacting to the massacre of school children in Connecticut, the Motion Picture Association of America has announced some changes to its movie rating system, saying it wants to help parents know which films contain excessive violence or sexual content. 

The new campaign, called "Check the Box" will add a more detailed description explaning why a particular movie got the rating it did. It urges parents to “Check the Box” (the ratings box) so they can learn more about the content of a movie before determining if it is appropriate for their children.

The campaign was unveiled by MPAA President Christopher Dodd, who for many years was a U.S. Senator from Connecticut. Dodd did not mention the Newtown shootings but he didn't really have to. The theater owners he was addressing were well aware that President Obama had called on the movie industry to do more to alert parents to excessive scenes of violence.

Remind parents

He said the new system was "intended to remind parents about the important tools at their disposal which allow them to make educated decisions about content appropriate for their children."

"Throughout its existence, the goal of the rating system has never changed: to inform parents and allow them to make their own decisions, considering their children’s sensibilities and unique sensitivities," Dodd said. "In 1990, we took a significant step to advance that goal, introducing rating descriptors for every film that is rated PG or higher, giving parents a snapshot of the content in each movie that leads to its rating."

Dodd said the changes announced today expand on that system, "giving parents the information they need to navigate the rating system and movies coming to their theaters."

Dodd was speaking to MPAA's annual convention at Caesar's Palace. A PSA describing the new campaign is available here. 

It's not business as usual for the vast majority of consumers these days.

Ever mindful of the Great Recession of 2008, 94% of consumers plan to hold the line on spending for food, beverage and household goods, according to Deloitte's 2013 American Pantry Study.

Indeed, Deloitte found that 92% of those surveyed say they have become more resourceful, with 86% getting more precise in what they buy. Those attitudes have shown little change in the three years the study has been conducted.

What sacrifice?

Even though they have become more frugal, 72% of consumers indicate that it doesn't feel like they are sacrificing much -- even though they are spending less on household and grocery items. That's up 7% in two years.

Another 88% claim to have found store brands that are as good as national brands, and just 27% say they plan to switch back to national brands once the economy rebounds -- an 8% decline from the previous year.

"One of the most notable year-over-year trends in the study is how embedded frugality has become due to the recession," said Pat Conroy, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and consumer products sector leader. "Prudent consumers and improving perceptions about store brands are squeezing national brands' position. The gap between the few 'must have' brands on shoppers' lists and others on the shelf may be widening, making it more important for brands to differentiate through innovation, quality and performance. Consumer product companies may also consolidate low and mid-level performers and shift investment to the category leaders."

Brand loyalty slides

Brand loyalty continues to slide as store brands become more entrenched in the pantry. Still, consumers appear to be selectively loyal to certain brands.

When questioned about their decisions to stop buying certain brands, the No. 1 reason was "other brands are available on sale." At the same time, brands to which consumers are most loyal significantly outpace their lower performing counterparts by 20 or more percentage points on things like performance, experience and trust.

There has also been a winnowing of brands consumers will consider. Eighty-four percent say they have a specific set of brands in mind, and will purchase whichever one is on sale. When it comes to coupons, 71% say they will use them only for items they would have purchased anyway.

Online shopping

There's an unmet demand for online shopping options -- particularly for in-store pickup and at-home delivery, according to the 2013 American Pantry Study. Fourteen percent of those asked currently buy consumer products online and pick them up in the store. But, 43% indicate they would like to do so, with strongest demand appearing in food and beverage categories for in-store pickup.

Just 11% purchase online with home delivery, with the number shooting to 34% among those who would like to do so, primarily for household goods such as laundry soaps and tabletop disposable paper products.

"Consumers are drawn to the convenience of purchasing frequently-used food, beverage and household items online, and brand preferences will likely extend into their online buying habits," added Conroy. "Consumer product companies can use mobile and online channels to strengthen the functional and experiential brand attributes that translate into conversion and loyalty.”

Overall inflation in March was nowhere to be found.

The Labor Department reports its Consumer Price Index (CPI) dipped 0.2%, bringing the inflation rate for the past 12 months down to a tame 1.5%. The March number was better that the 0.1% decline forecast by Briefing.com and the market.

The decline was led by a 4.4% plunge in the cost of gasoline, along with drops in the prices of electricity and fuel oil. In total, energy prices were down 2.6%. Food prices were unchanged in March.

Stripping out those two volatile categories, the “core rate” of inflation was up 0.1%

Outside the core items, costs for shelter, used cars and trucks, medical care, personal care and airline fares were higher in March, while prices for apparel, household furnishings and operations, and tobacco were lower.

The full CPI report can be found at the Labor Department website.

Housing starts

In a separate report, the Commerce Department says housing starts shot up 7.0% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,036,000 homes. That came as something of a surprise to analysts, who were expecting a rate of 935,000.

Ground-breaking for single-family homes were at a rate of 619,000 -- 4.8% below the revised February figure of 650,000. Apartment units were at an annual rate of 392,000.

Applications for building permits, an indication of plans for future construction, were down 3.9% to an annual rate of 902,000.

More on the March construction report is available on the Commerce Department website.

Although it is far and away the most successful operating system Microsoft has ever produced, Windows XP is finally fading to black. The company will stop supporting it one year from today -- no more patches, bug fixes or support of any kind.

Even though 500 million people are still running XP, Microsoft says it will stand firm in its determination to see its tail lights go down the driveway for good.

If you are among those still running XP, it's time to swallow hard and begin to lay the groundwork for whatever comes next for you.

Here are the options:

1. Stick with Windows.  Sure, go ahead, spend a bundle on Windows 7 or even Windows 8. Windows 7 runs well and is a worthy successor to XP, although the whole concept of a hoggish, bloated proprietary operating system has pretty much had its day. Don't forget to have your credit card ready. You'll want to pick up Windows Office and a good anti-virus program. And be sure to install the updates and fixes that are issued constantly.

2. Get a Chromebook. For the average user who doesn't do much except roam around the Web, send email and maybe play a game or two, a Google Chromebook is an easy, inexpensive solution. Prices start at $199 -- for everything, laptop, the Chrome operating system and the Google Docs online programs that do everything Microsoft Office does, for free.

You don't need an anti-virus program and you don't need to be constantly installing patches. Google does it all invisibly online.

3. Switch to Linux Ubuntu. Linux is the operating system that runs the Internet and just about every other industrial-strength system. The excellent Ubuntu flavor is ideal for casual users. It's free and it will run on just about anything. Any computer that is running XP will run Ubuntu, which comes with an open-source program of office apps that do everything Microsoft Office does, only for free. Basically, this is pretty much the same solution as getting a Chromebook (which also runs on what is basically a Google flavor of Linux), except you don't have to buy anything.

Just download and install Ubuntu. Your neighborhood computer repair shop will do it for you if you don't feel up to it. Again, no anti-virus needed.

4. Throw money away on a Mac. Feeling flush? Go ahead, buy an Apple machine. They're beautiful and run splendidly but they are too expensive for the casual user. If you're heading for the Apple Store, pick up a Maserati for me on your way, would you?

Time to decide

That's it, those are the options. You can see where my prejudices lie. I'm writing this on a Chrombook Pixel and have assorted Ubuntu-powered machines blowing hot air around me. They all work great. Don't believe those who tell you open source software is unreliable, illegal or troublesome. That's simply not true.

Just to say it again, you can't keep running Windows XP after April 15, 2014. To do so ensures that your machine will be taken over by malware, endangering you and everyone else on the Internet. Microsoft is holding a gun to your head: upgrade or die.

Things are starting to get interesting in the wireless business. Long an oligopoly dominated by Verizon, AT&T and Sprint and characterized by high rates and two-year contracts, the creaky old ship is starting to come apart at the seams.

Just a few weeks ago, T-Mobile announced it was scrapping the two-year contract and offering customers a two-tier plan consisting of a monthly charge for equipment (the phone) and another for airtime.

And now Dish, which has already won FCC approval to enter the wireless business, has launched a campaign to buy Sprint, hoping to snatch it from the hands of Softbank, the Japanese wireless carrier that last October agreed to pay $20 billion for the No. 3 U.S. carrier.

Troublemaker

Is there no apple cart Dish doesn't want to upset? It already has network and cable companies in an uproar with its Hopper DVRs that let viewers choose to eliminate the commercials that program producers need to finance all those shows about vampires, walking dead people and frustrated LA cops.

Dish went public with its $25.5 billion offer for Sprint over the weekend when it released a letter from Dish Chairman Charles Ergen to Sprint's board of directors, arguing that a Dish-Sprint last-up would produce a stronger competitive presence than Softbank can provide. 

"Our proposal provides Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank Corporation proposal," Ergen said. "A transformative DISH/Sprint merger will create the only company that can offer customers a convenient, fully-integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice services."

Ergen is also pitching his scheme as a solution for rural and other underserved areas that now have a hard time getting any kind of decent broadband, a pitch that's likely to sound good to the regulators who would have to sign off on the plan.

"Additionally, the combined national footprints and scale will allow DISH/Sprint to bring improved broadband services to millions of homes with inferior or no access to competitive broadband services. This unique, combined company will have a leadership position in video, data and voice and the necessary broadband spectrum to provide customers with rich content everywhere, all the time," Ergen said.

A better bundle

You can sort of see where Ergen is going with all this. Consumers are increasingly looking to wireless for their in-home entertainment and communications services. It was just a few years ago that Verizon and its competitors were digging up the neighborhoods of America to lay fiber optic cable that would provide cable, Internet and landline services.

But now, those services are merging at breakneck speed into a single stream of data carrying everything from network and cable TV shows to Twitter tweets, Facebook postings and everything in between.

Ergen, who has been assembling spectrum for years, looks to be in a pretty good place strategically. If he can pull off the Sprint purchase and combine Sprint's network with his spare satellite spectrum, Dish could emerge as a force to contend with.

Providing wireless service certainly isn't free but the incremental cost of serving a single subscriber is a lot less than it is for the ground-based telco and cable companies, who have to send out trucks, backhoes and men in boots to install new service.

If Ergen's grand scheme works out, it could mean that consumers would be offered a different kind of bundle. Instead of having to bundle a bunch of cable channels they will never watch just to get the two or three they want, consumers could sign up for high-speed wireless service that delivers entertainment on demand as well as cell phone and Internet access.

But don't take our word for it. Here's how Dish describes the benefits it sees from a Sprint acquisition:

"[It] creates an industry-leading spectrum portfolio and the only company that can offer customers a fully-integrated, nationwide bundle of in- and out-of-home video, broadband and voice services."

It's an intriguing scheme and it could just rocket Dish right past Verizon and AT&T in the race to be the One Big Pipe in the sky. 

If you’re currently on prescription medication, you can’t just assume you’re always getting the correct refills. In fact, you can’t even assume that you’re given the proper type of medication when it’s prescribed in the first place.

That’s what public health researchers at Brown University suggest, as they found that one in five seniors on Medicare Advantage plans are prescribed  “high risk medications” by their physicians, instead of being given a safer substitute medication.

In addition, study Danya Qato and Dr. Amal Trivedi found that residents living in the South are more likely to be prescribed medications that could be potentially harmful.

“At the population level it is clear that there is a unique phenomenon occurring,” Qato stated.

“While one can reason that it might be appropriate for a particular patient to be on a particular medication, with such a preponderance of use of high-risk medications in some locations versus others, our results suggest that we cannot attribute this variation wholly to patient characteristics.”

New England safest

After examining a total of 6 million senior patients, researchers found that 21.4% were given at least one high-risk medication and 4.8% said they were given at least two; and the study showed that residents in New England were the least likeliest to be given these medicines.

Some of the cities that showed the greatest percentages of senior patients receiving high-risk medications were Albany, Ga. at 38.2% and Mason City, Iowa at 9.6%, and researchers found that Alexandria, La., was No. 1 in the nation when it came to seniors receiving at least two potentially harmful medications.

Additionally, results showed those living in the East South Central, West South Central and South Atlantic parts of the country had a 10 to 12% greater chance of receiving a high-risk medication than people living in states like Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

In other findings, researchers said that women in every state had a 10% higher chance of being prescribed a harmful medication than men, since there are more medicines that are considered high risk that are specifically made for female conditions.

Why the difference?

And why do different parts of the country have such disparities in receiving high-risk medicines?

There are many reasons, researchers say, but some factors include a possible difference in the way medicines are prescribed between the North and the South, which may have something to do with a slight cultural difference and possibly because different areas of the country have more residents with chronic conditions.

Researchers say their findings should be an action call for physicians and the rest of the healthcare community, to make sure the absolute best medication is being prescribed.

“Clinicians and policymakers should work to reduce the use of these potentially inappropriate medications in older patients, because their risks outweigh their benefits and safer alternatives exist,” said Trivedi.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it received about 30,000 reports of patients receiving the wrong medication since 1992, and it says that many people tend to be at fault, including health professionals, pharmacies, patients and their families.

Some of the main reasons people are prescribed the wrong medicine or given the wrong medication during refills, include drug labeling errors and patients, physicians and pharmacies being confused about the correct name of a drug. Drugs not being properly classified by the manufacturer is also a problem. 

What to do

The FDA encourages you to learn everything about a drug you’re prescribed, in terms of the correct name and what it actually does. Don’t be afraid to ask your doctor to write down important things about the medicine, including why it’s being given to you.

And don’t refill your prescription without doing a little detective work; says the FDA, meaning take a look at your pills and make sure they look as they usually do. If they don’t, be sure to ask the pharmacist about it. The look of generic pills may differ sometimes, but confirming that you were given the right medication could never hurt.

Furthermore, research the type of problems and side effects a drug may give you, which may help if you’re ever given an improper dose, as the FDA found that 44% of the deaths that occurred from a medication error had to do with the patient not knowing anything about the drug and what that drug was supposed to do.

Michael Cohen, R.Ph., Sc.D., president of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, told the FDA that it’s the consumer’s responsibility to make sure they’re fully in-the-know about their medicine, from when it’s given to when it’s taken and even after that.

“You should expect to count on the health system to keep you safe, but there are also steps you can take to look out for yourself and your family,” he said.

Just about everyone now has a cellphone. In fact, a recent report on U.S. cellphone ownership showed there are more cellphones than people in the U.S.

New product launches become events, with consumers eagerly lining up to purchase the latest iPhone or Android device. Which raises the question – what do you do with your old phone when you update to the latest model?

When you activate your new phone, your old phone is deactivated. While it no longer works as anything more than a paperweight, it contains your sensitive data on its hard drive, so the last thing your want to do is throw it away. Besides, throwing your old phone into a landfill can harm the environment.

Another good reason not to dispose of your phone is it probably retains some residual value, depending on its age, model and condition. There are a growing under of companies that bring together consumers who have old cell phones and companies that want to buy them. One of them is uSell.

Sell with a few clicks

“Let's say a consumer has an iPhone 4 they are no longer using because they upgraded to the iPhone 5,” said Dan Brauser, President of uSell. “They could go onto our site and in a few easy clicks search for that device, select the carrier, the specific make and model, and give the condition of the device.”

When judging the condition of the device, there are only three choices; it's either “broken,” in “good” condition – meaning it has normal wear and tear – or it's in “perfect” condition, meaning it looks and works like it's new.

Once you have entered all the information about your old phone, uSell shops it around on your behalf, acting as a broker.

“Based on the information the consumer provides, we go out and ping our network of buyers and return the price quotes those buyers have offered,” Brauser said.

In some cases a device that's in heavy demand might draw 15 or more offers. In addition to the offer price, consumer reviews provide some information about prospective buyers that can help a seller choose one.

Consumer reviews

“We display the offers on a ranked basis that takes into consideration both the reviews and the offer price,” Brauser said. “It's possible the offer that shows up at the top in our Best Match system may not be the best price. The offering company with the lower price might have a couple hundred more reviews and have a five star average.”

If this sounds a bit like the eBay model, it's close but with a difference. The sellers on uSell just want to sell electronic devices and the buyers – many of whom you will find on eBay – just want electronic devices. Brauser says some of the purchased devices might actually later be sold on eBay.

“A lot of our buyers are eBay power sellers and they're using our platform to actually acquire their inventory,” he said.

Once a consumer accepts an offer, the purchaser mails a packing kit with pre-paid postage, so that the consumer can ship the device at no cost and with minimal effort. Once it's received, any remaining data on the phone is wiped and the consumer is paid, either by check or through Paypal.

Replacement phones

Besides being sold on eBay, the used phones are sold to warranty providers, who often fill claims with refurbished models. Many are also sold overseas, where a particular phone might not be available from the manufacturer. The iPhone, for example, isn't available in some Latin American markets.

“In South Florida, if you go into the Apple Store, you're going to find a lot of Latin American tourists who are buying iPhones while on vacation and taking them home, where they aren't available,” Brauser said.

Phones are also sold to consumers who will buy a second-hand iPhone or Galaxy S II if it means they don't have to sign up for a new contract.

Even if your phone is broken, it might be worth something because of the materials inside it. For example, some manufacturers use small amounts of gold and silver to produce smartphones – materials that can be extracted and sold or reused.

With consumers buying new cellphones every two years – sometimes even sooner – it's easy to acquire a collection of old smartphones. Sites like uSell are a way to recycle them, maybe picking up a few bucks for your effort.

Six retailers are recalling all Buckyballs and Buckycubes high-powered magnet sets, as they contain defects in the design, warnings and instructions that pose a substantial risk of injury and death to children and teenagers.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has received 54 reports of children and teens ingesting this product, with 53 of these requiring medical interventions.

Imported by Maxfield & Oberton LLC, of New York, Buckyballs and Buckycubes consist of sets of numerous, small, high-powered magnets. These sets vary in the number of magnets included and come in a variety of colors. Individual magnets in the set are about 5 millimeters in diameter. Individual magnets in Buckyballs are spherical and individual magnets in Buckycubes are cube-shaped.

About three million sets of Buckyballs and Buckycubes have been sold in U.S. retail stores nationwide and online since 2010 for between $5 and $100.

What to do

Consumers should take the high-powered magnet sets and all associated individual magnets away from children and teenagers and contact the retailer from which they purchased the product to obtain instructions for their remedy:

• Barnes & Noble, toll-free at (855) 592-2993 or online at www.barnesandnoble.com and click on “Product Recalls”
• Bed Bath & Beyond, toll-free at (800) 462-3966 or online at www.bedbathandbeyond.com and select “Safety and Recalls” under Customer Service, then click on Recall Information
• Brookstone, toll-free at (866) 576-7337 or online at www.brookstone.com and click on “Recall Information” under Shop Brookstone
• Participating Hallmark retailers, toll-free at (800) 425-5627 or online at http://www.hallmark.com/recall-product/
• Marbles the Brain Store, toll-free at (877) 527-2460 or online at www.marblesthebrainstore.com
• ThinkGeek, toll-free at (888) 433-5788 or online at www.thinkgeek.com/buckyballs/index.shtml

Legal action

These retailers have agreed to participate because Maxfield & Oberton has refused to participate in the recall of all Buckyballs and Buckycubes.

In July 2012, CPSC staff made an administrative filing against Maxfield & Oberton Holdings LLC, of New York, N.Y., after discussions with the company and its representatives failed to result in a voluntary recall plan that CPSC staff considered to be adequate to address the very serious hazard posed by these products. This type of legal action against a company is rare, as CPSC has made only four filings in the past 11 years.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is ordering special inspections of potentially defective parts on the Boeing 737, the most widely-used jetliner in the world.

The agency said more than 1,000 of the medium-range jets could have improperly manufactured parts that could cause pilots to lose control.

The FAA directive, as published in the Federal Register, was prompted by "reports of an incorrect procedure used to apply the wear and corrosion protective surface coating to attach pins of the horizontal stabilizer rear spar," the agency said.

"We are issuing this AD to prevent premature failure of the attach pins, which could cause reduced structural integrity of the horizontal stabilizer to fuselage attachment, resulting in loss of control of the airplane," the directive continued.

The directive applies to relatively recent models of the workhorse airplane, including the 737-600, -700, -700C, -800, -900, and -900ER series.  

The potentially defective parts secure the horizontal stabilizers that control the up and down movement of the nose. 

The FAA noted that Delta Airlines had asked that some of its airplanes be excluded from the directive, saying that they were not delivered during the time when the suspect parts were being installed.

"We disagree with the request," the agency said.

Although the directive technically applies only to U.S. carriers, it's expected that airlines around the world will perform the inspections.

What happens when you die? We're not talking theology here or trying to sell you life insurance. No, the question -- a thorny one, you must admit -- is what happens to your computer files and accounts when you leave the bricks-and-mortar world.

Actually, we're supposed to call them your "digital assets." It sounds better and it is more descriptive (kind of like "cremains"), since most of us store a lot of stuff in the cloud as well as on our hard drives.

In the event of your demise, figuring out what happens to all that information can be a huge headache for your heirs. Many, if not most, online services will not release user IDs and passwords to your survivors without making them jump through various hoops. At the very least, they will probably have to supply a copy of your death certificate. 

To the rescue comes Google, which has been known to have a few other good ideas. It is launching a new feature that makes it easier for you to instruct Google on what should happen to your digital assets when you die or become incapacitated.

The feature is called Inactive Account Manager and it is now available on  your Google Account settings page.

"You can tell us what to do with your Gmail messages and data from several other Google services if your account becomes inactive for any reason," said Andreas Tuerk, Google Product Manager on the company's blog.

"For example, you can choose to have your data deleted — after three, six, nine or 12 months of inactivity," Tuerk wrote. "Or you can select trusted contacts to receive data from some or all of the following services: +1s; Blogger; Contacts and Circles; Drive; Gmail; Google+ Profiles, Pages and Streams; Picasa Web Albums; Google Voice and YouTube."

Tuerk said that before Google takes any action, it will send a text message to your cellphone and an email to the secondary address you’ve provided.

So keep those smartphone batteries charged and keep your email addresses up to date. You don't want your stuff to be deleted before you are.

Being out of work is bad enough, but having it stuck to you when you're trying to find a job just pours salt into the wound.

But New York City-based 1st Security Preparation & Placement, Inc. and its owner, Allen Haft, are accused of doing just that.

In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman charges the company and its owner used phony job listings and false promises of employment to con consumers into paying for expensive security guard training courses. In fact, he says more than 15,000 consumers may have been scammed since 2008.

In addition to filing the lawsuit, the AG's office also obtained a temporary restraining order freezing any assets the company or Haft may have. It also bars them temporarily from advertising job openings or selling security guard training courses.

“My office will not tolerate companies that break the law to take advantage of vulnerable, unemployed consumers,” Schneiderman said. “Posting phony job listings during an economic crisis is a particularly cynical effort to prey on the hopes of struggling workers and families.”

How it allegedly worked

The Attorney General’s undercover investigation revealed that the company has posted hundreds of fake security guard job listings on Craigslist and in newspapers, including amNewYork, the Daily News, the New York Post and Metro. The ads make it seem like the company is hiring employees at high hourly wages when in fact the company is selling its courses, according to investigators.

1st Security is accused of falsely promising those who answer the ads that they have been selected for a position and says they must complete a series of security guard training courses, typically at a cost of $449 to $667.

After they pay for and complete the training courses, the consumers meet with 1st Security’s placement office and -- instead of the promised jobs -- are given worthless “referrals” to security guard companies. When they follow up on the referrals, investigators say, the consumers are not hired for any position usually because the companies are either not hiring or not interested in hiring individuals with no experience. In fact, they find that the companies that they were referred to have no knowledge of 1st Security and are not expecting the consumer for an interview.

Other instances

1st Security isn't the only firm accused of such dealings. In 2011, Schneiderman's office brought charges  against a company, known as both C.P. International Security, Inc. (C.P.I.) and Gateway Production Security, Inc.

Randolph of Pearl River, NY, has first-hand experience dealing with these kinds of companies. "I took two classes at Blue Steel Security school in Brooklyn, New York," he writes in a ConsumerAffairs post. "When I arrived there, they looked at my license and told me I had to take the 8-hour pre-assignment class and 16-hour on the job, instead of the 8-hour annual and a fireguard training class. When I sent in my license renewal, the state told me I had to take 8-hour annual. Now I am screwed because I can't get my license renewed, thanks to this school."

What to do

Anyone looking for work as a security guard should be careful about any training school that claims to be an employer or promises to place security guard positions for students. Be sure to read any contract with the security guard company carefully and -- before signing any contract -- check to see if the school is properly accredited.

Consumers should also keep in mind that low-cost and even free security guard training courses may be available. In New York, for example, the State University of New York’s Manhattan Educational Opportunity Center offers free security guard training courses for individuals who meet certain income guidelines and many community colleges offer low-cost security guard training courses.  

Federal Corporation is recalling 8,513 Couragia A/T tires, size P265/75R16 116S, DOT Serial Numbers UX77 3210-UX770813.

Excessive heat in the affected tires causes tread shoulder chunking. Thus, these tires fail to conform to the durability test requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 139, "New Pneumatic Radial Tires for Light Vehicles."

Tire shoulder tread chunking could cause a tire failure and increase the risk of a crash.

Federal Corporation will notify owners and will replace the tires, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin at the end of April.

Behind a podium, near the steps of Capitol Hill, Florida resident Ellen Adams spoke about the day her life changed forever.

On September 9, 2003, Ellen’s husband Matthew accidentally backed over their one-year-old daughter Ashleigh when she wandered behind his car as he backed out of the family driveway.

Sadly, the tragedy wouldn’t end there for Ellen, as Matthew committed suicide years later.

Since that time, Ellen and many others have been trying to get the Obama Administration to enact a rear visibility rule for all newly-made vehicles, as authorized by the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush back in 2008.

The act was created to protect children from non-traffic-related accidents, like arms getting caught in electronic windows and drivers accidentally backing over children. President Obama supported the measure when he was in the Senate but his Administration has never enacted the rules necessary to implement it.

At the news conference, Ms. Adams joined several other parents who lost children in back-over accidents, hoping to bring pressure on the Administration to act. 

Action, then nothing

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) recalled that while it was a struggle to get the bill passed, he had expected that it would be put into effect quickly.

“It was hard enough getting the bill passed” he said. “Then we thought it was going to be a matter of days, weeks, months for the standards and rules to be put into effect. Now it’s five years later and it still has not gotten done.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 50 children a week are backed over by vehicles and 70% of the time the driver is the parent of the child.

And out of those 50 children in back-over accidents, 48 are treated in emergency rooms and at least two die on average. Each year, there are about 228 deaths and 17,000 injuries where children are involved in back-over incidents.

Critics say the auto industry is reluctant to add things like rearview cameras and backup sensors to vehicles because of high costs.  

But according to Jacke Gillan, President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, much of the auto industry seems to be on board with making motor vehicles safer with these added features.

“This law had the support of the auto industry, the safety community and families,” Gillan said. “We have inexpensive and effective technological solutions, consumer support, and now we need government action.”

Available and affordable

Joan Claybrook, president emeritus, Public Citizen and former Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), agreed.

"Rearview cameras are available and affordable.  Many auto manufacturers are making them standard equipment on new makes and models," she said. "Rearview cameras as standard equipment will save lives and save consumers hundreds of dollars in potential repair costs when they can actually see when backing up.  Every day of delay costs consumers and puts children at risk."

Janette Fennell, President of Kids and Cars, made her own plea to the Administration to put the law into effect.

“It is clear from so many other actions that President Obama has the safety of our children as a top priority,” she said. “We urge the President to take one simple step today and issue the rear visibility rule. These unacceptable and unnecessary deaths and injuries from back-over incidents must stop.”

A powerful story

After the press event concluded, Ellen Adams spoke with ConsumerAffairs about why she had decided to speak out.

“I felt that my story was powerful and I needed to speak it because two people passed away," she said. "It destroyed a family and if it has some shock value that’s going to help get this law put into effect, that’s good for me.”

Ms. Adams said if the added safety features had been in her husband’s vehicle at the time of the accident, her daughter Ashleigh would still be alive.

“If there was a camera on my car she wouldn’t have died,” she said. “I don’t want anyone else to go through what we went through and the numbers are rising. There are 50 a week injured and two die a week, so I’ve been with Kids and Cars probably three and a half, four years and the numbers just keep getting higher, more per week, more per week--so that’s another thing that has urged me to really try to push this. I really don’t want anyone else to die."

Earlier, Adams said there was only one thing that kept her going through her tragedy.

“People kept asking me after my daughter was backed over and killed and my husband subsequently committed suicide, why I didn’t have a nervous breakdown. My response was easy -- who would be left for my son?”

“I urge the President to protect other families from these preventable tragedies, she said.”

Facebook has been generating a lot of publicity about its new Facebook Home app for Android phones but it's being a lot quieter about another big change -- its lash-up with Datalogix, a marketing research firm that maintains huge databases tracking consumers' online and offline activities.

Facebook's new deal with Datalogix lets it show ads to people who have purchased or shown interest in all kinds of products offline, everything from packaged goods to cars, as well as online.

Datalogix is one of those "big data" firms that constantly collects information from all kinds of sources, including loyalty cards in brick-and-mortar establishments.

In some ways, Datalogix goes Google one better. Google sells "contextual" advertising, based on the content of the web page you're viewing, and "behavioral" advertising based on your general online behavior.

But with the data from Datalogix, Facebook will be able to show you ads based on what you are doing in the physical world as well as online. This is creating a lot of buzz in the advertising world and is likely to generate a bumper crop of revenue for Facebook.

Audience segments

The Datalogix-Facebook deal involves the launch of over 300 audience segments, called “Partner Categories.”

“With Datalogix Partner Categories, Facebook becomes a verifiable sales driver as well as a brand builder for Pepsi,” said Shiv Singh, Global Head of Digital for Pepsico Beverages, in a news release. “Datalogix helps us reach the right consumers on Facebook and measure the offline sales impact with confidence.”

Marketing types say this is good for everybody: it helps companies sell their stuff, which creates jobs, moves the economy, etc.; it helps online sites keep the lights on; and it benefits consumers by reducing clutter and showing them targeted advertising that more closely meets their needs.

“What makes Datalogix audiences unique is both the quality of the data and the scale with which they deliver,” said Erica Bigley, Digital Media Manager for Ford Motor Company. “We’re excited to expand our use of Datalogix Data and Measurement services from the Open Web to the full scale of Facebook media."

How do privacy advocates feel about all this? They don't like it, although they tend to focus on the potential for information in marketing databases finding its way into the hands of the government. 

Consumer advocates express fears that the information can be used to affect credit ratings, insurance premiums and even employment prospects but attempts to outlaw such tracking are hampered by the often-overlooked fact that there is no guarantee of privacy in the U.S. Constitution. 

New legislation is always being proposed but tends to run into overwhelming opposition from marketers' well-funded lobbying.

Facebook has been generating a lot of hype around its Facebook Home app for Android phones, being released today, but a new study from Piper Jaffray may be more telling.

The investment bank says teens are drifting away from Facebook and  YouTube. This should come as no surprise, since teens get quickly bored with just about everything, although they may now be doing so at an increasing rate.

The Piper Jaffray study found that while Facebook is still the most important social network for teens, usage is down nine percent since last year.

One thing that may be creeping out teens is the flood of parents and grandparents who have gravitated to Facebook. After all, who wants to hang out with a bunch of old people?

So where are kids congregating these days? Jaffray's report says Reddit, Vine, Snapchat, Kik, and 4chan are trending up, as they say, these days.

Shopping online

Other findings from the Piper Jaffray study:

• Teens are shopping more online. Approximately 79% of females and 76% of males shop online, and respondents indicated that roughly 18% of their spending is online. Nearly 70% of teens indicate they prefer to shop the Web sites of their favorite stores-based retailers.
• Teens are increasingly choosing organic food options, with 42% eating organics versus just 33% two years ago. When eating out, 57% of teens prefer limited service restaurants, up steadily from 43% four years ago. 
• Mobility and connectedness are driving nearly 91% of teens to purchase a smartphone for their next wireless device, with approximately 60% biased toward Apple and 21% likely to buy an Android device.