Current Events in May 2014

US Trading Company of Hayward, Calif., is recalling Dragonfly brand Crushed Chili Powder in 6.3-ounce plastic tubs with lot code 359XP.

The product has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The product was distributed nationwide in retail stores and food wholesale.

The Crushed Chili Powder, imported from Thailand, comes in a 6.3-ounce clear plastic tub, and was distributed nationwide in retail stores and food wholesale. The bar code 7 21557 53317 8 is printed on the front of the tub, and the code 359XP is affixed to the bottom of container.

Consumers who have purchased the recalled product are urged to return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 510-781-1818 Monday-Friday 8:30am-5:00pm.

http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm397234.htm

Recent surveys have indicated that the Millennial generation, those 18 to 34 years old, have adopted prudent, frugal habits when it comes to money.

They shun debt, tend to use cash, and see the value of saving money. Coming of age amidst a near-economic collapse and resulting Great Recession will form those kinds of attitudes.

But a new survey shows one area where Millennials come up short financially. They're pretty much in the dark when it comes to their credit score and why it is so important.

The survey by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and VantageScore Solutions, LLC shows Millennials know less about credit scores than other adults. They know less about the businesses that use the scores, less about who collects information on which the scores are based and less about how scores can be improved.

Bad information

For example, they are more likely than other adults to think that credit repair companies can always or usually be useful in removing errors and improving scores. In reality, the best way to raise a credit score is to pay your bills on time.

Because of this knowledge gap, Millennials are less likely than other adults to take advantage of the federal law that allows you – once a year – to get free copies of your credit report from all three credit reporting agencies.

“Obtaining their free credit reports not only allows consumers to check the accuracy of the reports but also appears to motivate them to learn more about credit scores,” said CFA Executive Director Stephen Brobeck.

Looking in the wrong places

Because of a lack of knowledge or awareness about credit reports, Millennials may also be prone to look in the wrong place for their credit report. There are a number of commercial services that offer credit reports – some even saying it's “free,” but there is always some service you have to sign up for in order to obtain the report.

The easiest way – and the way with no strings attached -- to obtain a credit report is to visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call a toll-free number, 877-322-8228.

What else should Millennials know about their credit score? For one thing, having and using some credit is helpful to your credit score.

For example, if you have a couple of credit cards and charge a few regularly-budgeted items like groceries and gasoline each month, it helps your credit score – if you pay the full balance each month. That last part is important.

Responsible use of credit

Credit agencies look at how much credit you have and how you use it. If you carry a credit card balance, the credit card companies will love you but it lowers your credit rating. Paying off the balance in full each month tells creditors you use credit responsibly.

Millennials should also know that that credit card issuers and mortgage lenders will use these scores when deciding whether or not to extend credit and at what rate. The better your score the lower your interest rate.

Experian, the credit reporting agency, offers a couple of other points of credit advice. Only apply for a new credit account when you need it. Don't open an account just to get a discount on a purchase.

Also, Experian says you should not open accounts just to have a better mix of credit. In fact, it probably won't help you score.

Balance transfer cards don't help

Balance transfer credit cards are a popular way to reduce credit costs but moving credit around doesn't help your score. Better to pay off debt rather than move it.

Don't close unused credit accounts thinking that will help your credit score. In fact, it is likely to have the opposite effect. Owing the same amount of money but having access to less credit will lower your credit rating.

Millennials, by and large, don't kid themselves about their credit knowledge. Only 40% think they have good or excellent knowledge about credit scores, while 62% of those 35 years and older think they have this knowledge.

The survey did identity a group of Millennials that actually possesses a lot of credit information. Those who have obtained their credit reports know more about credit scores than those who haven't.

In 2009 Medicare, the health insurance program for Americans 65 and older, spent $1.9 billion on 26 tests and procedures that studies have shown offer little or no health benefit.

In other words, the money was wasted. And the researchers who advance this claim say it's “just the tip of the iceberg.”

Harvard Medical School researchers analyzed Medicare claims data, focusing on the tests and procedures that had been identified as essentially useless. They found that a least one in four – 25% – of Medicare recipients received one or more of those services in 2009.

Those 26 tests and procedures aren't the only identified as having little or no value. The researchers claim there are hundreds more.

"We suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg," said study author J. Michael McWilliams, associate professor of health care policy.

Other warnings

This is not the first alarm bell to go off over Medicare spending. Last year a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) report found improper Medicare payments in Fiscal 2013 surged by nearly 19%, to just over $35 billion.

In April The New York Times reported a small number of doctors raked in nearly a quarter of the $77 billion paid out in U.S. government health programs, including Medicare.

The report said in 2010 just 100 doctors received a total of $610 million, including a Florida ophthalmologist who collected $21 million in Medicare payment. Researchers compiling this latest study say the numbers are shocking.

"We were surprised that these wasteful services were so prevalent," said Aaron Schwartz, lead author of the Harvard study. "Even just looking at a fraction of wasteful services and using our narrowest definitions of waste, we found that one quarter of Medicare beneficiaries undergo procedures or tests that don't tend to help them get better."

Unneeded services

The commonly prescribed but ineffective services identified by the researchers include arthroscopic debridement for knee osteoarthritis and a form of back surgery that involves filling collapsed disks with cement.

These services, the researchers claim, almost never provide any health benefit to patients. In fact, they claim they are almost always wasteful, pointing to recent empirical studies that have been conducted on the effectiveness of the procedures.

Other procedures were identified as wasteful, even though they can provide significant benefits for patients under very specific circumstances.

Exceptions

For example, lower back imaging provides little help for a patient with muscle soreness but it can be lifesaving when used to identify cancer or a spinal abscess.

With hundreds of medical procedures to consider, the researchers zeroed in on 26 that would stand out using the kind of information available in Medicare claims data. Then they looked for examples of those services that were likely to be a waste of money.

Waste was hard to isolate, they found, because the criteria used to measure it tends to vary widely.

Some might disagree

"How much waste you find varies greatly depending on how you define it,” Schwartz said. “Removed from the clinical details of a particular patient, it is hard to know whether a given procedure might be useful or not."

But finding and eliminating waste in Medicare can be expected to get increased attention in coming months. According to AARP, the Affordable Care Act shifts Medicare's focus to keeping older people healthy.

As a result, some coverages may be improved while procedures identified as wasteful or ineffective may no longer be covered, with the money diverted to other uses.

Virginia Tech has updated results of its adult football helmet ratings, which are designed to identify key differences between the abilities of individual helmets to reduce the risk of concussion.

All five of the new adult football helmets introduced this spring earned the five-star mark, which is the highest rating awarded by the Virginia Tech Helmet Ratings. The complete ratings of the helmets manufactured by Schutt Sports and Xentih LLC, each with two new products, and Rawlings Sporting Goods Co., with one helmet, are publicly available at the helmet ratings website.

The new helmets are Schutt's Vengeance VTD and AiR XP Pro VTD, Rawlings' Tachyon; and Xenith's EPIC and X2E.

"The Institute of Medicine released a recent report on concussion in sports that found our helmet rating system to be a theoretically grounded approach on how the injury mitigation properties of helmets could be assessed," said Stefan Duma, the Virginia Tech Harry C. Wyatt Professor and department head of biomedical engineering, and project leader.

"Consumers care about safety, and as a result, helmets that are rated poorly are not selling," he added. "This is going to continue to drive helmet design."

"Remarkable progress"

"This is remarkable progress for helmet safety in football. Not only are consumers using the ratings to purchase helmets, but manufacturers are using our rating system to design new helmets to achieve five stars," said Added Steven Rowson, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Virginia Tech.

"Our tests are representative of the impacts that players experience on the field, so helmets that perform well in our tests are going to perform well on the field, making the sport of football safer," said Rowson, who developed the STAR system and testing of the helmets.

Duma and Rowson confirmed this in a peer-reviewed study investigating concussion rates in collegiate football players by helmet type and published in the Journal of Neurosurgery.

"We found that concussion risk was 54 percent lower in players wearing a four-star helmet compared to a one-star helmet," Rowson said. "This closely matches the reduction in concussion risk that our ratings predict. It's great to see agreement like this between our on-field and in-laboratory studies."

2 million impacts

Helmet ratings are based on research that includes analysis of more than 2 million head impacts recorded directly from high school and collegiate football players using helmet-mounted sensors. These data were used to create lab testing conditions representative of all the impacts players experience on the field.

Each helmet model's ability to reduce concussion risk is assessed through 120 impact tests that are analyzed using the STAR Evaluation System, with each test weighted based on how often that impact condition occurs on the field.

Helmets that better manage the impact energy result in lower head accelerations and thereby lower concussion risk. To date, 23 helmet models have been evaluated through the analysis of more than 2,700 laboratory tests.

The research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, which Duma said is being directly used to reduce player injuries. The impact of Duma's research has been noticed: The NFL has placed a poster of the helmet ratings system in its 32 locker rooms to educate players on helmet safety. Duma expects all future football helmets to be five-star rated.

Ratings this fall will be expanded to include hockey helmets using newly developed testing methods. The hockey ratings will incorporate both linear and rotational acceleration into the evaluation system, following a report from the Institute of Medicine that suggested that Virginia Tech add rotational acceleration and youth specific data to increase the wide-spread applications of the helmet system.

Football helmet ratings methodology will be updated in 2015 to include linear and rotational acceleration, which will include for the first time youth helmets. Duma and Rowson earlier laid five-year plans for evaluating helmets in all sports.

The researchers are careful to warn that any player in any sport can sustain a concussion, even with the best head protection. Virginia Tech's rating system identifies helmets that best reduce the risk of concussion during play. "There is no concussion-proof helmet," said Duma. "Modifying rules and teaching proper technique play the most important in reducing concussions in sports because they reduce exposure to head impact. For the remaining head impacts that do occur, having the best head protection will further reduce risk of concussion."

Another round of Buckyball and Buckycube recalls is getting underway, in an attempt to curtail serious injuries to children who swallow the small but powerful magnets.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said it has reached a settlement with Craig Zucker, the former CEO and President of the company that manufactured Buckyballs and Buckycubes, Maxfield and Oberton, which was dissolved in 2012.

The bb-shaped smooth balls and cubes connect to one another with a strong magnetic bond. The magnets are individual balls or cubes that are sold in packages of many individual balls. They were originally sold as toys to children over 13 years of age, but after a recall in 2010, they are sold only to consumers age14 and older.

But the CPSC said the new warning label that has appeared on the package of Buckyballs since the 2010 recall has not resulted in a decrease in serious injuries to children. In November of 2011, CPSC issued a safety warning to consumers about this product but the injuries continue to occur. In July of 2012, CPSC filed a lawsuit against that resulted in the settlement announced earlier this week.

The magnets are of great interest to children of all ages: younger children mistakenly believe they are candy while older children use these products as faux facial piercings. The consequences of inhaling or swallowing more than one of the magnets can be severe. Children are at risk of developing serious injuries such as small holes in the stomach and intestines, intestinal blockage, blood poisoning, and even death.

Removing magnets surgically often requires the repair of the child’s damaged stomach and intestines. In the past, physicians have likened the internal damage caused by magnets to that of a bullet wound.

“We applaud the recall of Buckyballs and Buckycubes. High powered magnets have caused serious injuries to children. These incidents should not happen and can be prevented,” stated Rachel Weintraub, legislative director and senior counsel with Consumer Federation of America. “It is critical to get these products off of the market, out of people’s homes and away from children who could be harmed by ingesting two or more of these balls or cubes.”

Consumers will have six months to participate in the recall by requesting a refund. The recall trust will be funded by Craig Zucker and will be overseen by the CPSC.

It is illegal under federal law for any person to sell, offer for sale, manufacture, distribute in commerce, or import into the United States any Buckyballs or Buckycubes.

After rebounding last week from two straight declines, mortgage applications posted their second straight advance last week.

According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, applications were up 3.6% for the week ending May 9.

In addition, the Refinance Index jumped 7% to its highest level since the week ending April 11, pushing the refinance share of mortgage activity from 49% to 50% of total applications.

The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity slipped to 8% of total applications.

Contract interest rates

• The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) fell 4 basis points -- from 4.43% to 4.39%, the lowest rate since November 2013 -- with points increasing to 0.22 from 0.21 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year FRMs with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) was unchanged at 4.29%, with points increasing to 0.16 from 0.14 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year FRMs backed by the FHA decreased to 4.09%, the lowest rate since November 2013, from 4.13%, with points decreasing to -0.17 from -0.03 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate dropped from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs was down 4 basis points to 3.48%, the lowest rate since November 2013, with points falling to 0.12 from 0.22 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs dipped to 3.17% from 3.21%, with points decreasing to 0.24 from 0.29 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate fell from last week.

The survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.

The on-time arrival rate of nation’s largest airlines improved to 77.6% in March from the preceding month. However, it was down 2.2% from the March 2013 rate of 79.8%.

In even better news from the Department of Transportation (DOT), carriers reported no tarmac delays of more than three hours on domestic flights, and only one tarmac delay of more than four hours on an international flight.

The Air Travel Consumer Report, which is available on the DOT website, also includes information on cancellations, chronically delayed flights, and the causes of flight delays, data on passengers denied confirmed space (oversales/bumping), mishandled baggage reports and airline service complaints received by the Department’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division.

Also to be found are reports of incidents involving the loss, death, or injury of pets traveling by air.

The effects of bullying may not end once the kids leave the school yard.

Researchers at Duke University School of Medicine say children who are bullied may experience chronic, systemic inflammation that persists into adulthood, and that bullies may actually reap health benefits of increasing their social status.

"Our findings look at the biological consequences of bullying, and by studying a marker of inflammation, provide a potential mechanism for how this social interaction can affect later health functioning," said William E. Copeland, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke Medicine and the study's lead author.

The study, conducted in collaboration with the University of Warwick, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Emory University, is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of May 12, 2014.

Far-reaching effects

Earlier studies have suggested that victims of childhood bullying suffer social and emotional consequences into adulthood -- including increases in anxiety and depression. However, they also report health problems -- such as pain and illness susceptibility -- which may extend beyond psychological outcomes.

"Among victims of bullying, there seems to be some impact on health status in adulthood," Copeland said. "In this study, we asked whether childhood bullying can get 'under the skin' to affect physical health."

Copeland and his colleagues used data from the Great Smoky Mountains Study, a robust, population-based study that has gathered information on 1,420 individuals for more than 20 years. Individuals were randomly selected to participate in the prospective study, and therefore were not at a higher risk of mental illness or being bullied.

Participants were interviewed throughout childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, and among other topics, were asked about their experiences with bullying. The researchers also collected small blood samples to look at biological factors. Using the blood samples, the researchers measured C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of low-grade inflammation and a risk factor for health problems including metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease.

"CRP levels are affected by a variety of stressors, including poor nutrition, lack of sleep and infection, but we've found that they are also related to psychosocial factors," Copeland said. "By controlling for participants' pre-existing CRP levels, even before involvement in bullying, we get a clearer understanding of how bullying could change the trajectory of CRP levels."

Varying effects found

Three groups of participants were analyzed: victims of bullying, those who were both bullies and victims, and those who were purely bullies. Although CRP levels rose for all groups as they entered adulthood, victims of childhood bullying had much higher CRP levels as adults than the other groups. In fact, the CRP levels increased with the number of times the individuals were bullied.

Young adults who had been both bullies and victims as children had CRP levels similar to those not involved in bullying, while bullies had the lowest CRP -- even lower than those uninvolved in bullying. Thus, being a bully and enhancing one's social status through this interaction may protect against increases in the inflammatory marker.

While bullying is more common and perceived as less harmful than childhood abuse or maltreatment, the findings suggest that bullying can disrupt levels of inflammation into adulthood, similar to what is seen in other forms of childhood trauma.

"Our study found that a child's role in bullying can serve as either a risk or a protective factor for low-grade inflammation," Copeland said. "Enhanced social status seems to have a biological advantage. However, there are ways children can experience social success aside from bullying others."

The researchers concluded that reducing bullying, as well as reducing inflammation among victims of bullying, could be key targets for promoting physical and emotional health and lessening the risk for diseases associated with inflammation.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has announced a settlement to ban a global pyramid scheme and provide at least $7.75 million in restitution for consumers as part of a joint agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and attorneys general from Kentucky and North Carolina.

The settlement bans Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing (FHTM) from multi-level marketing after it enrolled more than 350,000 program participants – in particular consumers from the Latino community – throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada in the last four years.

The settlement requires the Kentucky-based operation to surrender assets totaling at least $7.75 million for affected participants.

The agreement is the result of a January 2013 lawsuit filed by Madigan, the FTC and the attorneys general, alleging that FHTM deceived its members by claiming that they would earn significant income by selling various products and services if they signed up as FHTM representatives. Participants were required to pay substantial start-up costs and monthly fees to retain their positions with the company.

“This pyramid scheme promised big returns but resulted in significant financial losses for thousands of families in Illinois,” Madigan said.

"Get rich opportunity"

Consumers paid a $249 fee to join FHTM to sell satellite television service, home security systems, beauty products, and other consumer goods and services. In promotional materials and at recruitment events, consumers were told they could “get rich” if they sold FHTM-affiliated products.

But unlike legitimate multi-level marketing programs, FHTM distributors had no incentive to sell products, Madigan said. For example, FHTM distributors only received pennies in commissions for selling multi-year service contracts but received substantial payments for every new FHTM member they signed up. FHTM’s promotional presentations and materials focused almost entirely on recruiting new members rather than selling products.

After conducting its own investigation, a court-appointed receiver determined that FHTM’s main business was to recruit new members and not sell products and services as it claimed, confirming the allegations made by Madigan, FTC and the states.

The overwhelming majority of participants – more than 98 percent – lost money in the program. At least 88 percent of members did not even recoup their enrollment fees. To the extent that participants could make any income, it was mainly for recruiting other people into FHTM’s scheme. 

In addition to the multi-level marketing ban, the settlement order permanently prohibits Thomas A. Mills, Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing Inc., FHTM Inc., Alan Clark Holdings LLC, FHTM Canada Inc., and Fortune Network Marketing (UK) Limited from misrepresenting material facts about any product or service, including claims concerning how much money people can earn. The order also bans the defendants from selling or otherwise benefitting from customers’ personal information, failing to properly dispose of customer information and collecting any additional money from customers.

The order imposes a judgment of more than $169 million, which will be partially suspended when the defendants have surrendered certain assets at an estimated value of at least $7.75 million for consumer restitution. 

(Warning: This article might be illegal in the European Union. More specifically, it might be illegal for search engines such as Google to link to this article in the European Union. Why? This article says nothing about how to commit crimes or acts of violence, but it does make mention of a Spanish back-taxes real-estate auction from 1998 and names the individual involved.)

Who owns your personal information? When people ask that question in America, it's usually in the context of sensitive info which (in theory) is supposed to remain confidential: who owns your Social Security and bank account numbers? Employment and salary history? What about your credit-card history detailing everything about you from what you eat and wear to where and when you travel, and how much money you spend on it all … and what, if anything, can you do to protect yourself from getting hurt when some company is careless with all this data?

In short, Americans' “personal information” is usually of the sort that's not supposed to show up on an ordinary online search engine. Also, for Americans, the answer to the question “Who owns your information” seems to be “Nobody knows, but definitely not you.”

Opposite extreme

In the European Union, a high court's answer to that question appears to be at the opposite extreme: not only do you own your personal information, you may also have some control over publicly available information about you, if it's too old or perhaps even unflattering, and while you can't make such information vanish, you can (in some instances) demand that Google or other search engines refrain from linking to it. Though in E.U. terms, it's not so much “the right to control your information” as it is “a right to be forgotten.”

The Court of Justice of the European Union (the E.U. equivalent to the U.S. Supreme Court, more or less) announced on May 13 that “An internet search engine operator is responsible for the processing that it carries out of personal data which appear on web pages published by third parties,” which is another way of saying “Google and other companies are responsible for removing links to certain information, upon request.” An English-language press release summarizing the case is available in .pdf form here.

The Court of Justice ruling was in regards to a case which a Spanish national named Mario Costeja González brought before the court in 2010. But the start of Costeja's complaint goes back much further, to 1998, when he owed some tax debts high enough that some real estate was auctioned off as part of attachment proceedings for repayment.

Public information

In Spain as in America, auctions for tax repayment are public information and thus count as legitimate news, so a Spanish daily newspaper called La Vanguardia published legal notices of the proceedings in January and March 1998. In 2009, those 11-year-old notices still turned up in Google searches for Costeja's name. Costeja asked La Vanguardia to take down the stories and asked Google to stop linking to them, on the grounds that old stories about his debt issues were no longer relevant, now that his debts had been resolved.

Google and the newspaper both refused Costeja's request, so in 2009 he took his complaints to the Spanish Data Protection Agency which, in July 2010, ordered Google to remove the links but did not order La Vanguardia to remove the stories.

Google challenged the order, the E. U. Court of Justice agreed to hear the appeal, and this week ruled against Google.

A footnote in the Court of Justice release notes that the ruling was based on “Directive 9 5/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data.”

No First Amendment

There is, of course, no First Amendment in most European countries. This means that would be an open-and-shut case in the U.S. came become quite muddied elsewhere.

There are, for example, few sites like ConsumerAffairs or Yelp in Europe, for the simple reason that businesses can bring libel charges against anyone who speaks ill of them with a reasonable certainty of winning, even if the criticism is accurate. 

In the U.S., the press has over the years developed accepted standards for handling sensitive information that it might have a legal right to publish. For example, most publications voluntarily withhold the identity of rape victims except in the most extreme cases. The Googles of the world largely ignore such niceties.

Chrysler says its suppliers are starting to manufacture the trailer hitch assemblies that supposedly will protect the fuel tanks of older Jeep SUVs from rupturing and exploding into flames in rear-end crashes.

The assemblies are expected to begin arriving at Jeep dealers late this summer for installation on more than 1.5 million 1993-98 Jeep Grand Cherokees and 2002-07 Jeep Libertys. 

Chrysler executives and then-Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood agreed on the retrofit in a secret, off-the-record meeting last year at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after a four-year investigation that began when safety advocates filed a 69-page petition with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) seeking action on the alleged defect.

Chrysler's proposed trailer hitch assembly drew fire from some of those same safety advocates, who said it had not been scientifically tested and shown to be effective.

LaHood, an Illinois Republican named to the Transportation Dept. post by President Obama, a former Chicago politician, was on his way out the door as the NHTSA-Chrysler discussions dragged on. He announced his decision to step down in January 2013 but said he would stay on until his successor was confirmed; the trailer-hitch plan was agreed to June 18. On June 27, the Senate confirmed Charlotte, N.C., mayor Anthony Foxx as his successor. LaHood is now working as a lobbyist, mostly on behalf of transportation interests, as is former NHTSA Administrator David Strickland.

Decision denounced

Safety advocates say the location of the fuel tank creates a greater risk of fire in rear-end collisions and question whether the trailer hitch is an adequate fix. They say at least 270 people have died in such fires. Chrysler and NHTSA dispute that and cite a number in the 50s.

"It is tragic that NHTSA approved Chrysler’s sham trailer hitch recall for Jeeps that explode in rear impacts," said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, who filed the 2009 petition that led to the NHTSA investigation. "NHTSA Administrator David Strickland will be remembered as the Administrator who took a job with one of Chrysler’s law firms rather than save more children like Cassidy Jarmon from burning to deaths in Jeeps with trailer hitches. 

"In strong contrast former NHTSA Administrator Joan Claybrook is remembered for saving lives by standing up to Ford and demanding crash tests and an improved remedy when Ford tried to foist off an inadequate remedy for the Pinto which exploded in rear impacts just like the Jeep.”

Ditlow cited a photo of the trailer hitch-equipped Jeep in which Cassidy Jarmon, 4, died when her family's Grand Cherokee was rear-ended.

No bankruptcy dodge

Although Chrysler has been lambasted by safety advocates for its handling of the issue, it has not played the pre-bankruptcy card, as General Motors did in April, when it said it should not be held responsible for injuries and deaths resulting from defective ignition switches in millions of Chevy Cobalts and Saturn Ions. 

GM said the cars in question were built by its predecessor -- "Old GM," the company that went through a government-engineered bankruptcy in 2009 -- and that today's GM is a different legal entity.

At one time Americans planned for a home of their own, or perhaps saved for a new car. When times were good many counted on a nice vacation every year.

These days Americans' financial priorities appear to be more future oriented. A Harris survey finds that 50% of American adults say having enough money for retirement is their top financial goal.

You might expect that shift among the Baby Boom generation, which is already in or nearing retirement. In fact, this thinking cuts along all demographics.

The Great Recession appears to have been the catalyst. While retirement security has risen in importance, home ownerships has declined.

Home-ownership losing its appeal

In 2011, 17 percent said homeownership was their most-important financial goal, compared to just 13 percent in the latest findings.

“People are more in tune with the importance of saving for their retirement years,” says Ted Beck, president and CEO of the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), which commissioned the poll. “Economic recovery is inching forward yet many individuals and families still are experiencing difficulty getting back on track.”

As a result, he says, people are taking comfort in their long-term financial comfort rather than material things. But even people who believe they have their retirement planning under control don't always sleep well at night.

An unrelated survey of investors, commissioned by Legg Mason, found 88% believe they will have enough money to retire but fear their plans could be derailed by a catastrophic event.

"We fear the unpredictable, the catastrophic event that can decimate retirement savings," said Matthew Schiffman managing director and head of global marketing at Legg Mason Global Asset Management. "As a result, we encourage financial advisors and investors to take a realistic approach when planning for retirement. We call it 'realtirement' and it includes trying to anticipate the unpredictable. For instance, have you planned for your long-term living situation?  What if you suddenly need assisted living or even greater care? Are you prepared for that event? We all need to be.”

Finding the money

While the Legg Mason poll measured more affluent investors the NEFE survey found 63% believe “not being able to save enough” is the biggest obstacle to reaching financial goals. Costs of food and gasoline have risen sharply while wages have remained stagnant, so how is it possible to save in today's economy?

The U.S. Department of Labor says fewer than half of Americans have even calculated how much they need to save for retirement, much less put a plan in place to save it.

In 2012 30% of people in the private work force who had access to a defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k), did not put money into it.

The Department of Labor estimates that you will need at least 70% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your standard of living when you stop working. Some may need less but others may need more.

Nuts and bolts

How do you get there? Saving is important but how you invest that savings may be equally as important in the long run.

Personal finance expert Ric Edelman says most people will receive income from a variety of sources in retirement; Social Security, a pension, perhaps an inheritance. Beyond that they need income from a diversified portfolio with some assets that produce income and some that don't.

Edelman suggests what he calls a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP). Instead of withdrawing dividend and interest income you take out the same amount of money each month, reinvesting the dividend and interest income.

But how can you carve out the money from your monthly budget to invest in a retirement account? Personal finance guru Suze Orman says that requires having a budget, with money going into a 401 (k), an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or a Roth IRA before it ever gets to your checking account.

In other words, saving for retirement should be a fixed expense you have to make each month, just like a mortgage or utility bill.

There's one exception to that advice, however. Orman says before saving for retirement you must pay off all credit card debt.

“Getting out of debt is the most important priority before investing for retirement,” she writes.

It's a fact of modern life: anything with a wireless connection has the potential to be hacked, so once wireless baby monitors went on the market, it was only a matter of time before hackers hijacked those monitor feeds so they could spy on strangers' babies.

But if wireless baby monitors aren't high-tech enough for your taste, check out this Wall Street Journal article about the possible shape of things to come: wearable baby monitors that measure everything from your baby's heart rate to sleeping position and send it wirelessly to your smartphone.

Aleks Swerdlow, who is expecting her first baby in July, owns several wearable devices, including a fetal heartbeat monitor. She wants her newborn to eventually wear devices, too.

"I love gadgets, wearables specifically," said Ms. Swerdlow, 29 years old. "So it seemed a natural extension to have that available for my child, especially if it allows me to not worry about how the baby is sleeping and breathing."

….

Swerdlow, of Santa Clara, Calif., recently paid more than $200 for Mimo Baby, a set of three baby bodysuits that includes a device used to measure respiration, skin temperature and body position. The product sends the vital-sign information to a smartphone. Ms. Swerdlow also is on the wait list for a $250 so-called smart sock made by startup Owlet Baby Care Inc. that senses a baby's oxygen saturation and heart rate.

Though the Journal does discuss possible downsides or concerns related to this wearable new monitoring technology, it doesn't mention anti-privacy or hacker-danger concerns, focusing instead on the possible dangers of babies wearing battery packs or any electronics devices: is there any danger of batteries overheating? Are those electronics made with toxic metals?

Though companies like Owlet say they eventually hope to have their items receive official medical-device status, for now they are careful to state that these are not meant as medical devices of any sort.

Millennials may be experts on the latest Starbucks concoctions and "Portlandia" episodes but a new study finds they're not quite as plugged in when it comes to credit scores. 

In fact, a survey by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and VantageScore Solutions reveals that millennials know less about these scores than other adult Americans. 

Those 18-34 years of age know less about which businesses use the scores and less about who collects information on which the scores are based, while being more likely to erroneously think that credit repair companies can always or usually be useful in correcting errors and improving scores.

An important reason for their lower knowledge appears to be that millennials are much less likely than other adult Americans to have ever obtained the free credit reports (49% vs. 74%) on which their credit scores are based. 

“Obtaining their free credit reports not only allows consumers to check the accuracy of the reports but also appears to motivate them to learn more about credit scores,” noted CFA Executive Director Stephen Brobeck.  The easiest way to obtain one’s reports is to visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call the toll-free number, 877-322-8228.

CFA also recommends that consumers take the free online credit score quiz at www.creditscorequiz.org.  “This easy-to-use quiz provides basic information about the complex world of credit scores and how consumers can improve their scores,” said Brobeck. 

To date, nearly 45,000 Americans have taken the quiz, which was developed and has been updated by CFA and VantageScore Solutions, displays no advertising, and collects no personal data.  Everyone who completes the quiz in May will be given the opportunity to enter a drawing for a $500 gift card.

The telephone survey was undertaken by ORC International April 17-19, 2014, using a representative sample of 1004 adult Americans interviewed on landlines or cell phones.  The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points.

Survey findings

The survey found that most Americans have a grasp of these essentials:

• Well over four-fifths know that credit card issuers (88%) and mortgage lenders (87%) might use these scores.
• Well over four-fifths know that missed payments (92%), personal bankruptcy (87%), and high credit card balances (87%) are factors used to calculate credit scores.
• Nearly three-quarters (72%) know that they have more than one generic credit score.
• Nearly three-quarters (72%) know that the three main credit bureaus – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion – collect the information on which credit scores are most frequently based.
• Nearly three-quarters (72%) know that it is very important to check the accuracy of one’s credit reports at the three credit bureaus.
• Nearly three-quarters (74%) know that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the federal agency best suited to help consumers solve individual problems.

However, far fewer Americans understand other important facts about credit scores. 

“Most troubling is that only 42 percent know that a credit score measures the risk of not repaying a loan rather than factors such as knowledge of, or attitude to, consumer credit,” noted Brobeck.  “Consumers should be aware that they can take steps to reduce this risk and improve their scores, most importantly, by making all loan payments on time,” he added.

A new study finds that people suffering from mental health disorders are three times more likely than others to be current e-cigarette users.  

Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine also found that people living with depression, anxiety or other mental health conditions are twice as likely to have tried e-cigarettes.

They are also more susceptible to trying e-cigarettes in the future in the belief that doing so will help them quit smoking traditional cigarettes, even though the FDA has not approved e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid, the scientists said.

"The faces of smokers in America in the 1960s were the 'Mad Men' in business suits," said lead author Sharon Cummins, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. "They were fashionable and had disposable income. Those with a smoking habit today are poorer, have less education, and, as this study shows, have higher rates of mental health conditions."

By some estimates, people with psychiatric disorders consume approximately 30% to 50% of all cigarettes sold annually in the U.S.

"Since the safety of e-cigarettes is still unknown, their use by nonsmokers could put them at risk," Cummins said. Another concern is that the widespread use of e-cigarettes could reverse the social norms that have made smoking largely socially unacceptable.

The study shows that smokers, regardless of their mental health condition, are the primary consumers of the nicotine delivery technology. People with mental health disorders also appear to be using e-cigarettes for the same reasons as other smokers – to reduce potential harm to their health and to help them break the habit.

"So far, nonsmokers with mental health disorders are not picking up e-cigarettes as a gateway to smoking," Cummins said.

"People with mental health conditions have largely been forgotten in the war on smoking," Cummins said. "But because they are high consumers of cigarettes, they have the most to gain or lose from the e-cigarette phenomenon. Which way it goes will depend on what product regulations are put into effect and whether e-cigarettes ultimately prove to be useful in helping smokers quit."

Study details

The study is based on a survey of Americans' smoking history, efforts to quit and their use and perceptions about e-cigarettes. People were also asked whether they had ever been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, depression or other mental health condition.

Among the 10,041 people who responded to the survey, 27.8% of current smokers had self-reported mental health conditions, compared with 13.4% of non-smokers; 14.8% of individuals with mental health conditions had tried e-cigarettes, and 3.1% were currently using them, compared with 6.6% and 1.1% without mental health conditions, respectively.

In addition, 60.5% of smokers with mental health conditions indicated that they were somewhat likely or very likely to try e-cigarettes in the future, compared with 45.3% of smokers without mental health conditions.

The study will be published in the May 13 online issue of Tobacco Control.

If you're one of the 44 million people at risk for osteoporosis -- a disease in which bones become weak and are more likely to break -- you may be taking bisphosphonates.

In an effort to slow or inhibit the loss of bone mass, doctors prescribe bisphosphonates, which include such brand-name drugs as Actonel, Atelvia, Boniva, and Fosamax (as well as a number of generic products). In fact, more than 150 million prescriptions were dispensed to patients between 2005 and 2009.

Lately, researchers at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have taken a close look at the long-term benefit of bisphosphonates. An FDA review of clinical studies measuring the effectiveness of long-term use shows that some patients may be able to stop using these drugs after three to five years and still continue to benefit from their use, says Marcea Whitaker, M.D., a medical officer at FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

How long is long enough?

Whitaker one of the co-authors of the FDA review, which was published in the May 31, 2012 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, says these drugs clearly work, adding, "We just don't know yet the optimum period of time individual patients should be on the drug to both maximize its effectiveness and minimize potential risks."

According to the study, more research is needed on patients' risk of fracture after they stop taking bisphosphonates, and whether taking them again later on could prove beneficial.

The studies suggest that patients at low risk of fracture -- for example, younger patients without a fracture history and with a bone mineral density approaching normal -- may be good candidates for discontinuation of bisphosphonate therapy after three to five years.

In contrast, patients at increased risk for fractures (for example, older patients with a history of fracture and a bone mineral density remaining in the osteoporotic range) may benefit further from continued bisphosphonate therapy.

How they work

Bones go through a continual process of remodeling, in the form of bone resorption (disintegration) and bone formation. Bone loss related to osteoporosis occurs when resorption is greater than formation. Bisphosphonates decrease bone resorption, thereby slowing bone loss.

During treatment, bisphosphonates become part of the newly formed bone and can stay there for years, through many cycles of resorption and formation. Patients continue to be exposed to the effects of the drug even long after they’ve stopped taking it.

The studies that FDA considered focused on patients who had been using bisphosphonates for at least three years and as many as 10. They looked at outcomes related both to bone mineral density and bone fractures.

"Bisphosphonates have been proven very effective in protecting against bone fractures in clinical trials lasting three to four years," says Whitaker. But it's still unknown whether the benefit lasts longer than that in decreasing the risk of fractures.

Caveats

Bisphosphonate labels have carried a safety warning about severe jaw bone decay (osteonecrosis of the jaw) since 2002. In October 2010, FDA warned patients and health care professionals about the increased risk of unusual thigh bone fractures and directed manufacturers to include the warning in the safety labels and medication guides that come with prescription medications.

FDA continues to evaluate the possible association of bisphosphonates with esophageal cancer. These associations would suggest that health care professionals may want to reconsider how long patients should continue taking the drugs.

What to do

Decisions to continue treatment must be based on individual assessments of risks and benefits and on patient preference.

If you are taking bisphosphonates:

• Talk to your physician about whether you should continue this therapy. Re-evaluate the decision on a periodic basis.
• Don't stop taking these (or any) prescribed drugs without talking to your physician first. If you do make the decision to discontinue use, talk to your physician before stopping therapy.
• Tell your health care professional if you develop new hip or thigh pain (commonly described as dull or aching pain), or have any concerns with your medications.
• Report unusual side effects of your bisphosphonate medication to FDA's MedWatch program.

A number of factors put both men and women at risk for osteoporosis, including age, race, family history, and a sedentary lifestyle. But there are also several ways you can reduce that risk, including:

• getting adequate amounts of calcium and Vitamin D through foods
• staying physically active, including weight-bearing exercise such as walking, jogging, skipping rope, and skiing
• not smoking
• limiting alcohol use

With data breaches occurring with more frequency and hackers devising more clever ways to access your personal information, identity theft now affects more people.

The results are devastating. Armed with your Social Security number and other bits of information about you, an identity thief can open credit card accounts and take out loans in your name.

Your credit will be ruined and you will spend months – maybe years – untangling the mess. Fortunately there is a simple and free way to reduce your chances of becoming a victim.

Work with credit agencies

Contact each of the three credit reporting agencies – Experian, Equifax and Transunion and request a fraud alert – or even an extended fraud alert -- on your credit file. This simply means that no one can access your credit file without verifying your identity first.

For example, if someone steals your Social Security number and tries to get a bank loan, the bank would first have to take steps to make sure the person sitting in front of them is who they say they are. That might mean placing a call to you to ask if you are, indeed, trying to take out a loan.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an extended fraud alert is free but primarily intended for victims of identity theft and those who believe they are at risk. Today, however, that covers just about everyone.

If you have reason to believe that any of your personal data has been compromised – if your credit card was one of the 40 million exposed in the Target breach, for example – you may be justified in asking for an extended fraud alert on your account. Anyone is eligible for a 90-day fraud alert, which can be renewed.

Where to start

Request fraud alerts here:

• Equifax
• Experian
• Transunion

The FTC advises that you contact each of the credit reporting agencies to place an extended fraud alert, with lasts 7 years instead of 90-days, on your credit file. The company may have you fill out a request form and provide other documentation.

Equifax cautions that a fraud alert, while a powerful tool, will not guarantee a cunning identity thief can't open an account in your name. In particular for an initial fraud alert, a creditor is not required by law to contact you.

“You should also pay close attention to your credit file to make sure that the only credit inquiries or new credit accounts in your file are yours,” the company says on its website. “Other measures may also be warranted depending on your particular situation.”

Credit freeze

A fraud alert is different from a “credit freeze” in one important respect. With a credit freeze, your existing creditors can still get access to your file without your knowledge. It will also not stop misuse of your existing accounts or some other types of identity theft.

To place either a fraud alert or a credit freeze, you will need to provide appropriate proof of your identity, which may include your Social Security Number. If you ask for an extended alert, you may have to provide an identity theft report.

An identity theft report includes a copy of a report you have filed with a federal, state or local law enforcement agency, plus any additional information requested. For more detailed information about the identity theft report.  

The financial crisis of 2008 had a huge impact on the real estate market, sending both sales and prices plummeting.

Since then some of the housing trends have reversed themselves but one has not -- many buyers now shun mortgage lenders and purchase homes with cash.

Month after month nearly one-third of buyers have paid cash rather than jump through the hoops mortgage companies now require. Many of the cash buyers have been investors, who have “flipped” foreclosed homes for a profit or converted them to rental property.

In the first three months of 2014 the cash trend has accelerated. According to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure marketer, 43% of homes sold in the first quarter were purchased without the aid of a lender.

“Strict lending standards combined with low inventory continue to give the advantage to investors and other cash buyers in this housing market,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “The good news is that as institutional investors pull back their purchasing in many markets across the country, there is still strong demand from other cash buyers — including individual investors, second-home buyers and even owner-occupant buyers — to fill the vacuum of demand left by institutional investors.”

Who's buying?

So, if institutional investors – companies – aren't buying homes for cash, who is? Blomquist suggests it is small investors and even owner-occupants, who are picking up principal and second homes.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) shares that view. But strangely, NAR statistics show the share of distressed sales within the market – those usually favored by cash buyers – continue to fall.

“Distressed home sales, most popular with investors who pay cash, have declined notably in the past two years, yet the share of all-cash purchases has risen,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist. “At the same time, investors have declined as a market share, indicating other changes have been underway in the marketplace.”

Demographic trend

What other changes? Perhaps a demographic trend, Yun suggests.

“The restrictive mortgage lending standards are a factor, but the higher levels of cash sales may also come from the aging of the baby boom generation, with more trade-down and retirement buyers paying cash with decades of equity accumulation,” he said.

Something else may be at work here as well. Foreign buyers looking for a place to park their cash appear to increasingly favor U.S. real estate over bonds, which pay very little, and stocks, which may now be overvalued.

In Florida, for example, more than half of all home purchases in the first quarter were made with cash. South Florida real estate, which remains priced well below its housing bubble peak, is favored by many Latin American investors.

West Virginia anomaly

But that doesn't explain the rise in cash home sales in West Virginia. In West Virginia, all-cash sales went from about one-third of buyers in 2012 to nearly 4 out of 10 buyers in 2013. At the same time, distressed sales declined from a quarter of the market to less than 1 in 5.

It's possible we are seeing the declining importance of mortgages in the housing market. Banks have made it much harder to get a loan.

With 43% of buyers paying with cash, we are also seeing the declining presence of first-time homebuyers in the market. It's fair to say that very few first-time buyers are able to pay in cash.

Even buyers who can qualify for a mortgage must submit to so much financial inspection and hoop-jumping that they simply don't think it's worth it. Historically low interest rates have failed to attract borrowers.

However, those low interest rates have helped inflate the stock market over the last five years. Investors who have remained in stocks have made a lot of money, cash they may now be putting into real estate.

If so, that may bode well for all concerned. Buyers don't have to convince a bank to loan them the money. The seller can be more certain that the deal won't get derailed by a last minute financing issue.