Current Events in April 2014

Consumers weren't quite as upbeat about the U.S. economy this month as they were in March.

The Conference Board says its Consumer Confidence Index, which increased last month, slipped slightly in April from 83.9 to 82.3. The Present Situation Index dropped 4.2 -- to 78.3, while the Expectations Index was virtually unchanged at 84.9.

“Consumer confidence declined slightly in April, as consumers assessed current business and labor market conditions less favorably than in March,” said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. “However, their expectations regarding the short-term outlook for the economy and labor market held steady.

But, she adds, while sentiment regarding current conditions may have slipped a bit, “consumers do not foresee the economy, or the labor market, losing the momentum that has been building up over the past several months.”

Business conditions and jobs

Consumers’ appraisal of current conditions pulled back moderately in April. Those who said business conditions are “good” edged down to 21.8% from 22.6%, while those think conditions are “bad” rose to 24.4% from 23.5%.

Consumers’ assessment of the labor market was also slightly more negative. Those who think jobs are “plentiful” declined to 12.9% from 13.8%, while those saying jobs are “hard to get” rose 1.1% to 32.5%.

Looking ahead

Consumers’ expectations held steady in April. The percentage of consumers who look for business conditions to improve over the next six months was unchanged at 17.4%, while those anticipating them to worsen inched up 0.2% to 10.3%.

People were slightly more optimistic about the outlook for the labor market. Those anticipating more jobs in the months ahead increased to 15.0% from 14.1%, while those expecting fewer jobs edged up to 17.9% from 17.5%.

The proportion of consumers who think their incomes will grow rose 1.8% -- to 17.1%, while those expecting a drop in their incomes also increased -- to 12.9% from 11.5%.

The monthly Consumer Confidence Survey is conducted for The Conference Board by Nielsen, a provider of information and analytics around what consumers buy and watch. The cutoff date for the preliminary results was April 17.

BMW of North America is recalling a total of 156,137 vehicles including model year 2010-2011:

• 128i Coupe,
• 128i Convertible,
• 328i Sedan,
• 328i xDrive Sedan,
• 328i Coupe,
• 328i Convertible,
• 328i Sports Wagon and
• Z4 sDrive 30i;

2011-2012:

• 135i Coupe,
• 135i Convertible,
• 335i Sedan,
• X5 xDrive 35i, and
• X6 xDrive 35i;

2011:

• 335i xDrive Sedan,
• 335i Coupe,
• 335i Convertible,
• 528i Sedan,
• 535i Sedan,
• 535i xDrive Sedan,
• X3 xDrive 28i, and
• X3 xDrive 35i;

2010:

• X3 xDrive 30i, and
• X5 xDrive 30i;

2012

• 640i Coupe, and
• 640i Convertible;

2010-2012:

• 535i Gran Turismo.

In the affected vehicles, the bolts that secure the housing for the variable camshaft timing adjustment (VANOS) unit can loosen over time and may possibly break.

If the bolts loosen or break the engine may have reduced power or stall. An engine stall increases the risk of a crash.

BMW will notify owners, and dealers will replace the four VANOS housing bolts for both VANOS units (intake and exhaust), free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in May 2014.

In addition, owners of approximately 170,172 model year 2010-2012 BMW vehicles equipped with inline 6 cylinder engines not covered by this recall, will receive an extended warranty to address this condition.

Owners may contact BMW at 1-800-525-7417.

Chrysler Group is recalling 125 model year 2014 Ram 1500 4x4 vehicles manufactured January 24, 2014, through February 5, 2014.

The transmission case in the affected vehicles may have been improperly machined which can result in the park pawl not properly engaging when the transmission is in the “Park” position.

If the park pawl does not properly engage, the vehicle may roll away, increasing the risk of a crash and occupant or pedestrian injuries.

Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and replace the transmission -- as necessary -- free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in May 2014.

Owners may contract Chrysler at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler's number for this recall is P13.

Amazon.com reported quarterly earnings last week that severely disappointed Wall Street. As a result, the stock immediately lost nearly 10% of its value.

But for those interested in the future of retail, there may be deeper meaning behind the disappointing numbers. A lot of analysts who take the long view believe Amazon has it figured out.

Writing in the Motley Fool, Brian Shaw flatly states that Amazon continues to be the most innovative retailer in the world.

“While Amazon.com is rolling out innovations like Fire TV and Dash which fundamentally change the way consumers shop for media and groceries, the brick-and-mortar competition remains several steps behind,” Shaw writes.

Amazon effect

More important, perhaps, to those who make their living in retail, Amazon is doing it with fewer employees. Derek Thompson, writing in The Atlantic, notes what he calls “the Amazon effect,” with average sales per employee rising from $12,000 to $25,000 over the last two decades.

“That means that even as consumers spend more, we need fewer workers to stock shelves and process orders,” he writes.

Then there is Walmart, which has both a brick-and-mortar and online presence. It, perhaps more than any other business, reflects the rise of the supercenter, which has become a highly disruptive force.

Opposition to Walmart moving into a town usually comes from the area's other merchants, who complain that Walmart's low prices and convenient hours will put them out of business. Less attention is paid to what it means for the town's retail employees.

Thompson maintains that one Walmart employee replaces about 1.4 local retail workers. In a typical county that translates into about 150 fewer jobs in the years after a Walmart opens.

Declining labor force

“Combined with the Amazon effect, this has dramatically reduced our need for retail workers to sell things, and so retail's share of the labor force, which peaked in the late 1980s, has been declining ever since,” Thompson writes.

As we reported last year machines are also moving into the workplace. One only has to visit a large supermarket to find automated check-out kiosks, where customers scan and bag their own groceries. One clerk stands by to monitor and assist customers at as many as a dozen kiosks.

Vending machines, meanwhile, dispense more than just candy and snacks. In the video below a consumer purchases a new iPhone from a machine.

Served by machines

Futurist Thomas Frey predicts that soon nearly every city will have 24-hour convenience stores, 24-hour libraries, 24-hour banks, 24-hour churches, 24-hour schools, 24-hour movie theaters, 24-hour bars and restaurants, and even 24-hour shopping centers.

These places will have few, if any employees around, since the public will be served by machines.

Efficient? Probably. Convenient for consumers? Maybe.

But this trend certainly isn't good news for service sector employees, who already deal with low and stagnant wages. Retail employees tend to be young and, for many, it is their entry into the working world.  

It's a fact of modern life: any sort of wireless connection (Internet or otherwise) has the potential to be hacked, and the more connections you have, the more vulnerable you are. Here's a particularly creepy example out of Ohio, where an unknown man hacked into a baby monitor to yell obscenities at the child in the middle of the night.

Heather Schreck of Hebron was asleep one night when suddenly, she heard a man's voice (not her husband's) coming out of her 10-month-old daughter's bedroom. “I heard what sounded like a man's voice but I was asleep so I wasn't sure,” Schreck told Cincinnati-based news station Fox19.

She used her cell phone to check the Foscam camera in her daughter's room — the camera was moving, but she wasn't moving it. “About the time I saw it moving, I also heard a voice again start screaming at my daughter. He was screaming, ‘Wake up baby. Wake up baby.' Then just screaming at her trying to wake her up.”

When Schreck's husband ran into their daughter's room, the camera started shouting obscenities at him until the Schrecks disconnected the camera.

A wireless break-in

The unknown hacker managed to break into the system from outside the house. Bear in mind: had he not decided to amuse himself by screaming at a sleeping baby in the middle of the night, the Schrecks might never have known he was there.

Any wireless connection is vulnerable to hacking, but the Schrecks were particularly vulnerable because their Foscam camera had a known security flaw in its firmware; Foscam had released a patch, but the Schrecks did not know about it.

That's one problem with connecting any home system to wifi or the Internet: you can never just install it and forget about it. All require constant vigilance on your part: have there been any recent news stories about hackers attacking that particular system? Has the company, or any tech-security firm, announced the discovery of a security hole and/or security fix?

Just last weekend, for example, news broke that all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer going back to IE6 contained a zero-day security flaw granting hackers the ability to take complete control of your computer. Bear in mind: IE6 was first released in 2001, and that massive security flaw remained undiscovered [except, presumably, by malicious hackers] until 2014.

Not the first time

Nor was this the first time a hacked Foscam baby monitor made the news, either. Last August, a family in Texas had almost exactly the same experience as the Schrecks: a hacker took control of their Foscam baby monitor in order to harass their infant daughter. (Were these both the same hacker, or is hijacking baby monitors to terrify small children a new fad among sociopaths? Other than the hacker[s], nobody knows.)

If you have Foscam or any other baby monitor/spy equipment in your home and wish to continue using them, you must look for and install any relevant security patches for that system in addition to your regular wifi, and of course make sure you have a strong password for both.

Bad news for anyone using Internet Explorer (and worse news for anyone whose computer still runs on Windows XP, even though Microsoft stopped supporting XP earlier this month): hackers might be able to plant malware on your computer, without any effort from you.

Usually, when you read warning stories about the latest malware threat, they'll tell you to protect yourself by avoiding certain actions: don't click on that suspicious-looking link, don't open that spammy-looking email, don't download that unsolicited file.

What makes this latest Internet Explorer threat especially dangerous is that hackers can install malicious software on your computer without your first clicking a link, opening an email or downloading a file — merely visiting a hacked or compromised website is all it takes.

Nobody noticed

Turns out that Internet Explorer, even the versions still supported by Microsoft, has always contained a major security hole which nobody knew about until the security firm FireEye Research Labs announced, on April 26, that it had “identified a new Internet Explorer (IE) zero-day exploit used in targeted attacks.  The vulnerability affects IE6 through IE11, but the attack is targeting IE9 through IE11.”

“Zero-day” is tech-speak for any threat exploiting a previously unknown vulnerability; since nobody (other than bad-guy hackers) knew about the security hole, nobody's had time to patch it, and so zero days pass between the discovery of the vulnerability, and the first time that vulnerability is attacked. FireEye called this latest IE flaw “significant,” because the “vulnerable versions [of IE] represent about a quarter of the total browser market.

Microsoft Security responded promptly to news of FireEye's discovery, promising to find a fix for the problem and include it in the next automatic update (for supported systems; this will not help those of you still using XP). Meanwhile, “Microsoft continues to encourage customers to follow the guidance in the Microsoft Safety & Security Center of enabling a firewall, applying all software updates, and installing antimalware software.”

Complete control

But suppose you're an IE user who does none of this, and hackers manage to get into your computer. What happens then?

According to Microsoft: “An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. If the current user is logged on with administrative user rights, an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.”

In other words: anything you can do with your computer, a hacker can do while pretending to be you.

During a commercial break on CNN, Marie Osmond comes on the screen and you immediately expect it to be another weight-loss product commercial. It's not.

A somber Osmond talks about being prepared in the event of some catastrophe, when access to food, energy and medicine is interrupted. Not just for days but months, or longer.

The commercial for Wise Company, a firm in what appears to be a rapidly-growing survival food and gear industry, is part of a major campaign. In September 2013 Osmond signed a deal to become the company's marketing spokesperson and her image and name is prevalent on the company's website and marketing material.

“Not only does Marie resonate well with our target audience — predominately women in the 25-50 range — she personally appreciates the value of being prepared for any crisis situation, and like many women juggling career and family, she also understands the need to quickly and easily provide her family with shelf-stable, great-tasting foods,” said Wise Company founder Brian Neville, when he announced the deal.

In addition to appearing in television commercials for the company Osmond also produced the infomercial below.

Ready for more than hurricanes

Wise Company notes that the U.S. experiences as many as 50 natural disasters each year, leaving residents in affected areas without access to life's necessities. While that may be true, it's unlikely that there are significantly more disasters than there have been in past decades, before the public was served by dozens of survival product companies.

In any event, when a tornado or hurricane strikes, help normally arrives from unaffected areas in a timely manner. One gets the sense that this new breed of survival products is designed to be used for more than just a few days.

For example, Wise sells a package of freeze-dried food to feed two adults for up to a year, claiming a shelf life of 25 years. That claim, however, has been challenged by some of its competitors.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks many authorities urged Americans to assemble a “survival kit” as a prudent precaution. But the instant soup, dried fruit, flashlight, radio and blankets that make up these do-it-yourself kits are only meant to tide the users over for a week or two.

The new marketing push for survival food and gear may suggest the population of “doomsday preppers,” those who believe the collapse of civilization is imminent, is growing.

End of the world on screen

The end of the world is also an idea taking hold in popular culture. Since 9/11 there have been several movies in which disease, space aliens, zombie hordes, asteroids and, coming soon, Godzilla, have threatened mankind's existence.

The near-collapse of the world financial system in 2008 may have increased this depressing trend. Companies creating survival products have been quick to respond.

For example, a company called Legacy Premium offers food storage, survival kits, water storage and fuel. A 2-person survival “bug out” bag costs $98.

“You can protect your family with a survival prepper bug-out bag, the product description says. “The necessary meals, water, first aid and hygiene items have been gathered and packed for you.”

Amazon.com offers a wide range of survival products you can order online, including IOSAT potassium iodide tablets to protect against nuclear poisoning, an Israeli military-civilian gas mask and an KA-BAR Marine Corps fighting knife.

Or you might order the book “Ham Radio For Dummies.” Don't have a ham radio? You will.

"In the aftermath of a disaster, once other forms of communication stop working, there will be others trying to contact fellow survivors on ham radio waves,” the author writes. “Being able to operate a ham radio is an excellent skill to have, because another survivor's information could be extremely important to your current situation."

Mainstream preppers

What began in recent years as a fringe market niche appears to be moving mainstream. While being prepared to deal with any eventuality is a healthy thing – it's the Boy Scouts' motto, after all -- it is worth remembering that this kind of fear-driven marketing has occurred in the past.

In the early 60s many Americans dug up their backyards to build bomb shelters, fearful that Cold War tensions would unleash a nuclear holocaust.

In the late 1970s, a time of gasoline shortages and runaway inflation, a popular magazine called Mother Earth News urged readers to buy gold and advertised products to help consumers survive the coming collapse.

Just a couple of years ago nonstop commercials on cable TV urged viewers to buy gold since dollars would soon be worthless. At the time gold was approaching $2000 an ounce. Today it's around $1,300.

In none of these cases were the worst fears realized. But what the survival products industry will be the first to say, that doesn't mean they won't someday.

There was a time when Southern California was where car companies longed to be. The state had great freeways, pleasant weather and, most important, its drivers were quick to adopt the latest innovations in car culture, which then spread to the rest of the country. Besides, California is closer to Asian markets than Detroit. 

All of that is still true but the Golden State also scores near the top in cost of living and taxation. It has the toughest air quality laws in the nation and generally regulates and taxes businesses of all kinds much more aggressively than most other major states.

Then there's Texas. The weather's not always so great and the drivers are still heavily into pickup trucks. But there are plenty of advantages, as outlined by a Toyota executive quoted by Automotive News today as it reported Nissan's blockbuster decision to pack up and move its headquarters from the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance to Plano, Texas:

Zero state income tax, lower housing costs, and a relatively strong quality-of-life index. The cost of living is 39 percent lower in Plano than in Torrance. It has ranked highly in “best places” and “safest cities” ratings conducted by CNN and Forbes.

Plus, in Toyota’s favor, Forbes ranked Texas the seventh-best state for business, with the top-ranked business climate. Texas labor laws also are more favorable, with less red tape.

Rumors about Toyota's move began circulating last week, when it was thought that part of the 3,000 employees at the company's Torrance, Calif., locations would be moved. 

Jaws dropped today when the official announcement came that allof the Torrance jobs were moving to Plano, just north of Dallas, along with 1,000 engineering employees in Kentucky and an unknown number of New York workers.

One Toyota

The goal, said Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz, is to bring better coordination to all aspects of Toyota's operations:

"Currently, we’re operating as multiple affiliates in a connected-but-independent way. In other words, we still have silos, and that’s slowing our decision-making processes. Our goal is to become not a group of dedicated affiliates, but one company -- One Toyota." 

Toyota executives said the goal was to find a new location in a state that did not have any current Toyota operations, meaning that California never had a chance of keeping Toyota.

Toyota joins Nissan in bidding farewell to California's beaches. Nissan pulled up stakes and left in 2006, moving its operations to Nashville, Tenn. Honda USA, also headquartered in Torrance, has moved some of its operations from California to Ohio in recent years.

Hyundai and Kia remain in California, with headquarters and design facilities in Irvine. 

European automakers are generally clustered along the East Coast, which is, after all, closer to Europe. Volkswagen moved its U.S. headquarters to a Northern Virginia site near Dulles International Airport a few years ago.

No longer a trend-setter?

One reason automakers gave for setting up shop in Southern California years ago was that they wanted their stylists to be closer to the trend-setting populace. Does today's announcement mean California is no longer America's trend-setter.

We don't know and, frankly, had expected Gov. Rick Perry to enlighten us. But while there was no statement from him by midday, Perry has not been shy in the past about tweaking California, boosting Texas pro-business climate and low cost-of-living as an enticement to West Coast employers.

"Texas has taken an approach that is as simple as it is revolutionary: put people - employers and employees alike - in the best possible position to succeed, and then get out of the way," Perry says on the state's website. "The Texas approach is based on our state's traditional belief in the powers of personal freedom, personal empowerment, and personal responsibility. It's an approach that produces results that speak for themselves."

Here's a chart from Perry's office that the state has been using to tout its business-friendly climate:

A Brooklyn, N.Y., Nissan dealer will pay nearly $100,000 to settle charges that it used deceptive sales and advertising practices to sell cars and aftermarket warranties.

“This agreement is a victory for consumers in Brooklyn and around the state. We’ll continue to aggressively monitor the business practices of dealerships in New York to ensure they comply with laws designed to keep the auto market honest, and maintain a level playing field for consumers,” Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said. “Anyone buying a car should be able to expect that when they negotiate prices and terms for vehicles, the contracts will accurately reflect those terms.”

The agreement requires the company to pay $48,341 in restitution to 15 consumers and $50,000 as a civil penalty to the state.

The Attorney General conducted an investigation of the advertising and sales practices of the Brooklyn-based dealership after receiving dozens of consumer complaints. The complaints alleged a pattern of fraudulent and deceptive practices by the dealership, including conduct that led consumers to enter transactions that did not reflect the negotiated sales terms and frequently included unwanted aftermarket add-ons.

That's similar to many of the reviews posted by ConsumerAffairs readers like May of Brooklyn. 

"First, they provided a price of $23k + tax for a new car which we think is a pretty good deal. The total price including tax and fees should not be more than $26k, but it ends up at $38k," she said in a review submitted in September 2013. "When we realized the price is so high and wanted to cancel it, they refused and claimed that we signed the contract already, and we had to buy. I research online and somebody said it can be canceled if we didn't get the car. But the dealer insisted that we cannot cancel it."

May learned that part of the increased price was for an add-on warranty.

"[T]hey said the price is including a package which will cover the repair if we spilled coffee in the car or the car had been scratched. Today, when we went back there for a car scratch, and they said it is an accident, it is not covered," she said.

Restitution amounts range from $1,000 to more than $7,000 for the 15 consumers with outstanding complaints on file with Schneiderman's office.

Statins are the drugs that many millions of us take to control cholesterol, in an effort to prevent heart disease, stroke and other serious health problems.

The drugs are amazingly effective but a new study says the people taking them may be developing a false sense of security -- sort of like drivers who think their airbags and anti-lock brakes make it OK to drive recklessly.

That's the suggestions of a new study from UCLA, which suggests that people who took statins in the 2009–10 year were consuming more calories and fat than those who used statins 10 years earlier. There was no similar increase in caloric and fat intake among non–stain users during that decade, researchers said.

In 1999–2000, statin users were consuming fewer calories and less fat than individuals who didn't take these medications, but that is no longer the case, the researchers said. Increases in body mass index — a measure of obesity that considers body weight and height — were greater for statin users than for non-users.

"We believe that this is the first major study to show that people on statins eat more calories and fat than people on those medications did a decade earlier," said the study's primary investigator, Takehiro Sugiyama, who led the research while a visiting scholar in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

"Statins are used by about one-sixth of adults. We may need to reemphasize the importance of dietary modification for those who are taking these medications, now that obesity and diabetes are important problems in society."

Gluttony in the Time of Statins

"[E]ating more fat, especially saturated fat, will lead to higher cholesterol levels, which will undermine the effect of statins and may lead to unnecessary cost of medications," Sugiyama said. "Being overweight also increases the risk of diabetes and hypertension, which also are risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

"Ethical considerations should be included in the discussion. We believe that when physicians prescribe statins, the goal is to decrease patients' cardiovascular risks that cannot be achieved without medications, not to empower them to put butter on steaks."

The study, subtitled "Gluttony in the Time of Statins?", is published online in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Internal Medicine. 

Details

For the study, the researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to compare fat and caloric intake among statin users and non-users in 1999–2000 and 2009–10. They found that caloric intake among statin users had risen by 9.6 percent over that decade and that fat consumption had jumped by 14.4 percent. In contrast, caloric and fat intake by non–statin users did not change significantly during the 10-year period.

Statin-users ate roughly 180 kilogram calories less each day and 9 grams of fat less each day than non-users in 1999–2000. But as a result of increases over the decade, the researchers observed no difference in caloric and fat intake between statin users and non-users in 2009–10.

The differences may be explained by the fact that statin users simply don't feel the urgency to reduce their caloric and fat consumption or to lose weight the way statin users 10 years ago did, said Sugiyama, who is now a clinical fellow at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Japan. Also, doctors today may be more likely to prescribe statins for patients who eat and weigh more.

Comcast, working to engineer approval of its merger with Time Warner Cable, has put together a complex deal under which Charter Communications would take over 3.9 million customers.

The deal would reduce Comcast's post-merger market share to less than 30% nationwide while making Charter the second-largest U.S. cable operator. 

Charter would take over systems in Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Indiana and Alabama, while divesting systems in California, New England, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Oregon, Washington and Virginia.

A new, spun-off company would take over systems that are near Charter’s existing footprint in Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

In the first stage of the three-part deal, Charter would buy 1.4 million Time Warner Cable customers for $7.3 billion when the Comcast-Time Warner merger is completed. 

Charter would also form a holding company that would get a one-third stake in a Comcast spin-off that would have 2.5 million customers.

Another 1.6 million Charter and Comcast customers would be swapped.

“The transactions announced today will provide Charter with greater scale, growth opportunities and improved geographical rationalization of our cable systems, which in turn will drive value for shareholders and more effective customer service,” Charter Chief Executive Officer Tom Rutledge said in a statement.

Rutledge said Charter’s new "footprint" would be easier to operate since the shuffling would put its systems closer to each other. It would also boost Charter's subscriber count to 8.2 million, nearly double its current total.

An eight-month string of stagnant activity has come to an end with a rise in pending home sales.

The National Association of Realtors' (NAR) The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) surged 3.4 -- to 97.4 from an upwardly revised 94.2 in February -- the first increase in 9 months. The previous month's tally had initially been reported as 93.9. Nonetheless, the forward-looking indicator, based on contract signings, is 7.9% below March 2013 when it was 105.7.

“After a dismal winter, more buyers got an opportunity to look at homes last month and are beginning to make contract offers,” said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “Sales activity is expected to steadily pick up as more inventory reaches the market, and from ongoing job creation in the economy.”

Three of the four geographic regions surveyed by NAR posted gains last month.

The PHSI in the Northeast increased 1.4% -- to 78.8 in March, but is 5.9% below a year ago.

• In the Midwest the index slipped 0.8% to 94.5, and is 10.1% below March 2013.
• Pending home sales in the South rose 5.6% to a reading of 112.7, but are 5.3% below a year ago.
• The index in the West was up 5.7% to 91.0, but is 11.1% below its year-ago level.

Looking ahead

Although home sales are expected to trend up over the course of the year and into 2015, this year began on a weak note and total sales are unlikely to match the 2013 level.

NAR expects sales of existing homes to total just over 4.9 million this year, compared with nearly 5.1 million in 2013. However, with continuing inventory shortages in much of the U.S., the national median existing-home price is expected to grow between 6 and 7% in 2014.

Now that marijuana use won't get you busted in your state, are you thinking of firing up a doobie and mellowing out? You might want to think again, dude.

According to a French study reported in the Journal of the American Heart Association, smoking pot could result in cardiovascular-related complications -- even death -- among young and middle-aged adults.

"In prior research, we identified several remarkable cases of cardiovascular complications as the reasons for hospital admission of young marijuana users," said Emilie Jouanjus, Pharm.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study and a medical faculty member at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse in Toulouse, France. "This unexpected finding deserved to be further analyzed, especially given that the medicinal use of marijuana has become more prevalent and some governments are legalizing its use."

Key findings

Researchers analyzed serious cardiovascular-related complications following marijuana use that was reported to the French Addictovigilance Network in 2006-10. They identified 35 cases of cardiovascular and vascular conditions related to the heart, brain and limbs.

Among their findings:

• Most of the patients were male, average age 34.3 years.
• Nearly 2% (35 of the 1,979) marijuana-related complications were cardiovascular complications.
• Of the 35 cases, 22 were heart-related, including 20 heart attacks; 10 were peripheral with diseases related to arteries in the limbs; and three were related to the brain's arteries.
• The percentage of reported cardiovascular complications more than tripled from 2006 to 2010.
• Nine patients, or 25.6 percent, died.

And that may not tell the whole story. researchers note that marijuana use and any resulting health complications are likely underreported.

There are 1.2 million regular users in France, and thus potentially a large amount of complications that are not detected by the French Addictovigilance System.

A harmless activity?

"The general public thinks marijuana is harmless, but information revealing the potential health dangers of marijuana use needs to be disseminated to the public, policymakers and healthcare providers," Jouanjus said.

People with pre-existing cardiovascular weaknesses appear to be more prone to the harmful effects of marijuana.

"There is now compelling evidence on the growing risk of marijuana-associated adverse cardiovascular effects, especially in young people," Jouanjus said. "It is therefore important that doctors, including cardiologists, be aware of this, and consider marijuana use as one of the potential causes in patients with cardiovascular disorders."

Surveillance of marijuana-related reports of cardiovascular disorders should continue and more research needs to look at how marijuana use might trigger cardiovascular events, she said.

Johnson Health Tech North America is recalling about 1,100 Magnum and Matrix Fitness 900 Pro Series multi-station strength training towers.

The plastic connectors that link the strength training stations’ towers can slide out or break, posing an injury hazard to consumers.

The company is aware of three incidents where the plastic connectors slid out or broke, one resulting in a laceration near the eye socket.

This recall involves all Magnum and Matrix Fitness 900 Pro Series multi-station strength training towers used at commercial fitness facilities such as health clubs, hotels, apartment complexes and rehabilitation centers; schools and municipal facilities. The machines involved in this recall were sold in various multi-station configurations.

The machines include, but are not limited to, the adjustable pulley, the dual adjustable pulley, the triceps push down and the bicep/tricep pull down. Magnum or Matrix appear on the serial number label at the base of each unit.

The towers, manufactured in the U.S., were sold at Magnum Fitness and Johnson Health Tech North America and their dealers nationwide. from December 2008 through July 2013 for the Magnum tower stations and from July 2013, through November 2013, for the Matrix Fitness tower stations, for between $1,800 and $3,800 depending on the type of tower station.

Owners should immediately prevent people from using the multi-station strength training towers and contact Johnson Health Tech North America to schedule a free repair.

Consumers may contact Johnson Health Tech North America toll-free at (866) 218-3674 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday.

Knockum Hill Bar-B-Que, of Herndon, Ky., is recalling approximately 350 pounds of hickory smoked, pit cooked barbecue pork.

The product is has a basting sauce containing margarine formulated with soy, an allergen not declared on the label.

There have been no reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.

The product subject to recall bears the label:

• 1 lb., white tubs of “KNOCKUM HILL BAR-B-QUE HICKORY SMOKED PIT COOKED BARBECUED PORK”

The product was produced on April 11, 2014, and April 18, 2014, and has an expiration date of April 25, 2014, or May 2, 2014. The product bears the establishment number “Est. 18138” inside the USDA mark of inspection and was distributed to retail establishments in Kentucky.

Consumers with questions may contact Oscar Hill at (270) 271-2957.

Skilcor Food Products of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, is recalling approximately 36 pounds of fully cooked pork baby back ribs in honey garlic barbeque sauce.

The product was not presented at the border for U.S. inspection. Without the benefit of full inspection, There is a possibility of adverse health consequences.

There have been no reports of illness due to consumption of these products.

The following product is subject to recall:

• 18 pound cases containing 1.5 pound packages of “Cobblestone Farms Fully Cooked Pork Baby Back Ribs in Honey Garlic Barbeque Sauce” bearing package code “Sell By 2015-AL-08” and case code “15201”

The product bears the Canadian mark of inspection with establishment number “624,” and was distributed to a retailer in New York.

Consumers with questions about the recall may contact Don Bernier at (905) 501-0111.

We have previously referred tohomeowners' associations (HOAs) as “government minus the checks and balances,” and hardly a week goes by without an accommodating HOA board somewhere in America doing something to underscore this point.

Remember the Texas HOA whose residents were plagued by a rash of home burglaries, so the HOA responded by forbidding residents to protect themselves by installing burglar bars on their windows? Or the HOA in Vegas that actually went to court (and lost) in its desperate attempt to prevent a family with a disabled son from keeping an ambulance in their driveway? The Florida HOA that fined one of its residents $100 per day because the young sapling trees he'd just planted were “too short?”

Earlier this month, the state legislature of California (which, you might recall, is currently undergoing an historic drought) proposed a bill which, if passed, would prevent HOAs from punishing residents who comply with local water-conservation laws. In other words, if your city says, “Stop watering your lawn; we don't have enough water for that,” your HOA would have to respect this law rather than tell you, “Go ahead and water your lawn anyway, or else we'll put a lien on your home.”

Out of control

Think about that: HOAs are so out of control, the government actually has to propose laws that prevent HOAs from forcing people to break laws.

HOA boards across America have been particularly busy this April. In north Texas, a county judge ruled against a homeowners' association that tried to ban an Orthodox Jewish congregation of roughly 30 families from meeting in members' homes.

Orthodox Jews do not drive on the Sabbath, which means they can only attend religious services within walking distance of their homes. It also means that the traditional justification for banning large gatherings in private homes — insufficient parking for the guests' many cars — doesn't apply here.

In a lawsuit filed against the HOA, Congregation Toras Chaim said that many residents of the HOA used their homes for non-residential activities, including swimming lessons and running assisted-living facilities, yet “The HOA has never in its 30-plus years of existence ever sought to prevent a non-residential use other than the congregation's activities.” A Collin County judge ruled against the HOA.

Meanwhile, residents of an HOA in San Diego, California, turned to their local media for help after claiming the HOA board is requiring homeowners to make thousands' of dollars worth of unnecessary repairs. ABC affiliate 10News.com reported that more than 300 residents of Heritage & Legends in Vista received letters ordering them to paint their single-family stucco homes — despite the homes' being in perfect condition, and despite the homes' being made of stucco (which isn't supposed to be painted anyway).

The HOA board responded to media requests with a press release saying, in part, that “The duty of the board of directors is to protect the property values and they want to make sure the homeowners properly maintain their homes.”

What is proper?

Perhaps, but that still leaves open the question of exactly what proper maintenance entails. That's another problem with living in an HOA community: if you and the board disagree on such matters, there is little you can do. Consider another recent example from southern California: on April 13, the Los Angeles Times' real estate advice columnist posted this letter from a local retiree:

“Thinking this would be cost-effective housing, I bought a condo in the Riverside County area. Since then I've asked the board to repair my unit's balcony railing numerous times to no avail. Six years later, I received a notification that the balconies on all 96 units must be repaired, costing each owner more than $3,000. I have no say in the way things are done around here. This homeowner association has wasted thousands of dollars on repeated cosmetic primping like painting, parking lot slurry seal, landscape and more. The board's priorities differ from mine.”

No matter; if you join an HOA, you're on the hook for its expenses. The columnist advised the letter-writer to speak to her HOA board and work out a payment plan.

At least the HOA didn't order the elderly lady to go outside and personally repair those balconies herself. Yet a homeowner in Tucson, Arizona did receive a similar order from his HOA board: the house next door to Gilbert Tellez has been vacant and abandoned for six months, and the HOA board is holding Tellez responsible for weed removal and lawn maintenance on land he does not own.

NBC affiliate News 4 Tucson reported on April 10 that Tellez's neighbors say maintaining the abandoned property is actually the HOA's responsibility, not the next-door neighbor's.