Current Events in May 2014

The latest chapter in the long-running controversy over Herbalife is a class action lawsuit that charges the firm made misleading statements to its investors.

The suit was filed by the Pomerantz Law Firm on behalf of shareholders who purchased Herbalife stock between May 4, 2010 and April 11. 

The complaint claims the company failed to disclose that it is based on a pyramid scheme – a charge leveled by hedge fund manager Bill Ackman in December 2012 but vigorously denied by Herbalife.

Herbalife is a marketing company that sells weight management, nutritional supplement and personal care products through a network of independent distributors. The suit maintains they are usually people with “little marketing expertise who were recruited to buy Herbalife products in the hope that they would be able to resell the product to other consumers or distributors.”

Multilevel marketing

In spite of that, Herbalife has continued to grow. Its stock is publicly traded on Wall Street with a total value in excess of $6 billion.

Ackman, who operates Persian Square Capital Management, a large hedge fund, has been a fierce critic of Herbalife and in late 2012 took a huge “short” position in the company's stock.

That means Ackman stands to gain if the value of Herbalife stock goes down. However, he stands to lose money if Herbalife stock stays the same or goes up in value.

Company value has increased

When Ackman first leveled the pyramid scheme charge against the company in December 2012 Herbalife was trading between $45 and $46 a share. For Ackman's short play to be profitable, he needs Herbalife stock to fall below that level.

Instead, the stock has sharply risen. Herbalife currently trades at around $61 a share with a 12-month price target of $85.

Some have questioned the appropriateness of Ackman's very public campaign against Herbalife. After all, he has a financial stake in the demise of this publicly traded company.

However, Yale law professor Jonathon Macey, writing in Forbes, argues that Ackman has every right to lobby government regulators to take action against Herbalife.

“Investors should use every legal means at their disposal – especially lobbying — to further their positions,” Macey wrote. “If it is legitimate for a company whose shares are being shorted to use shareholders’ money to fight investigations investors must be free to deploy their own resources to push back.”

Herbalife, meanwhile, claims Ackman has spent more than $20 million on a campaign against the company. In a recent press release it accused Ackman of “a calculated, coordinated and well-funded effort to destroy a 34-year old company and support his $1 billion bet against Herbalife.”

Ackman isn't the only one taking on Herbalife. In January Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Herbalife's business practices.

Neither agency publicly discloses which companies are under investigation.

The FTC is mailing checks totaling over $3.7 million to 26,176 consumers whose bank accounts were debited without their consent by EDebitPay LLC and its owners.

The defendants deceptively offered a $10,000 credit line that was really a membership to a website where consumers could buy goods, the agency said.

“The FTC strives to return as much money as possible to defrauded consumers;” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “It is particularly gratifying when we can make consumers whole again.”

In 2011, a federal district court ordered the defendants to pay more than $3.7 million after finding that the defendants were in contempt of court for violating a 2008 court order by selling a bogus “$10,000 credit line”, and a “no cost” prepaid debit card with hidden fees, to consumers who were unemployed or had poor credit.

After obtaining the judgment, the FTC collected it in full. Many affected consumers will receive more than $100; the amounts vary based upon the victim’s loss.

Those who receive the checks from the FTC’s refund administrator should cash them within 60 days of the mailing date. The FTC never requires consumers to pay money or to provide information before refund checks can be cashed. Those with questions should call the refund administrator, Gilardi & Co. LLC, at 1-877-290-6229, or visit www.FTC.gov/redress for more general information.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair bu

Hotels would like for you to deal directly with them instead of using third-party sites. So would airlines. And so, it turns out, would Apple, which isn't very surprising when you think about it.

Hoping to entice more customers to come directly to the Apple Online Store for iPhones, iPads, iMacs, MacBooks and so forth, Apple says is cutting in half the time it will take to process refunds who want to return their purchase.

That would mean customers could expect their refunds in less than a week, compared to 10 days previously.

StellaService, a retail-intelligence firm, says it first noted the speed-up in November but thought it might be related to the expected holiday crush.

Fresh Air

Apple's not expecting many returns of the updated MacBook Air, though, thanks to its faster processors and lower prices, which Apple says are "making the perfect everyday notebook an even better value."

Now starting at $899, MacBook Air features powerful processors, fast flash storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, up to 12 hours of battery life and Apple’s iLife and iWork apps.

“With MacBook Air starting at $899, there’s no reason to settle for anything less than a Mac,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Macs have never been more popular, and today we’ve boosted the performance and lowered the price of MacBook Air so even more people can experience the perfect everyday notebook.”

Power-efficient fourth generation Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors work in conjunction with OS X Mavericks to give the 13-inch MacBook Air up to 12 hours of battery life and the 11-inch MacBook Air up to 9 hours of battery life, according to Apple.

If you're visiting online booksellers, hoping to buy something by J.D. Salinger, Stephen Colbert or other authors published under the Hachette Book Group, be warned: though most online retailers will ship your book right away, or at most within a day or two, Amazon.com might delay shipping anywhere from two to five weeks.

The New York Times first reported the matter last Friday, noting that while most popular titles listed on Amazon are available within two days, a curiously large percentage of Hachette books have listed shipping times of two to three weeks.

Though Amazon was unwilling to speak to the Times, Hachette spokesperson Sophie Cottrell did:

“We have been asked legitimate questions about why many of our books are at present marked out of stock with relatively long estimated shipping times on the Amazon website, in contrast to immediate availability on other websites and in stores,” said Sophie Cottrell, a Hachette spokeswoman. “We are satisfying all Amazon’s orders promptly.”

But, she added, “Amazon is holding minimal stock” and restocking some of Hachette’s books “slowly, causing ‘available 2-4 weeks’ messages.”

Whatever the reason for the Hachette Books shipping delay, it's limited to Amazon; many of the same titles whose Amazon shipping dates are listed several weeks in the future will ship within 24 hours from Barnes and Noble.

Like a lot of things, aspirin can be both good and bad. It can help prevent heart attack and stroke but it can also cause internal bleeding in some patients. It's not always easy for doctors to weigh the risk-benefit equation for a given individual -- to determine who exactly should take a daily aspirin.

New research published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes may help answer that question. It shows that your coronary artery calcium (CAC) score, a measurement of plaque in the arteries that feed the heart, may help determine whether or not you are a good candidate for aspirin.

“Many heart attacks and strokes occur in individuals who do not appear to be at high risk,” said lead author, Michael D Miedema, MD, MPH. “Individuals with known CVD [cardiovascular disease] should take a daily aspirin, but the best approach for individuals without known CVD is unclear.

"If we only treat high-risk individuals with aspirin, we are going to miss a substantial portion of patients who eventually suffer heart attacks. However, liberally prescribing aspirin increases the bleeding risk for a significant number of people who were never going to have a heart attack in the first place. With this study, we wanted to see if there is potentially a better way to determine who to treat with aspirin beyond simply using traditional risk factors,” Miedema said.

The American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines currently recommend aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease (CVD) in people who have known CVD or who are considered to be at high risk for a CVD event but not for the population at large.

Study details

In this retrospective study, researchers studied 4,229 participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) from six centers across the country. Participants included had no known CVD or diabetes, were not on aspirin therapy, and were followed for approximately 7 years.

Participants were grouped according to their CAC score and the rates of heart attacks in each group were calculated. Based on these rates, the research team weighed the likelihood of an individual to benefit from aspirin therapy (the potential of the aspirin to prevent a heart attack) against the likelihood of harm (the potential for the aspirin to cause major bleeding).

They estimated that participants with elevated CAC scores were 2−4 times more likely to benefit from aspirin therapy than to be harmed, even if they did not qualify for aspirin use according to current AHA guidelines. Conversely, study participants with no calcified plaque were 2−4 times more likely to be harmed by aspirin use than to benefit. The results in both groups held true even after accounting for traditional risk factors.

“We estimate that individuals with significant plaque buildup in the arteries of the heart are much more likely to prevent a heart attack with aspirin use than to suffer a significant bleed” explains Miedema. “On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you don’t have any calcified plaque, our estimations indicate that use of aspirin would result in more harm than good, even if you have risk factors for heart disease such as high cholesterol or a family history of the disease.”

Miedema added, “A CAC score of zero is associated with a very low risk of having a heart attack. That means individuals with a score of zero may not benefit from preventive medications, such as aspirin as well as the cholesterol-lowering statin medications. Approximately 50% of middle-aged men and women have a CAC score of zero, so there is a potential for this test to personalize the approach to prevention and allow a significant number of patients to avoid preventive medications, but we need further research to verify that routine use of this test is the best option for our patients.”

Miedema is a preventative cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute at Abbott Northwestern Hospital and a clinical investigator with the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF). 

Do you think that it's worthwhile to shell out extra money for the nationally-know brands of products that sit side-by-side with store brands? If so, you're in a growing minority of consumers.

According to Deloitte’s American Pantry Study of more than 375 brands across 30 product categories, 71% of shoppers say they’re spending less on food, beverage and household goods -- but don’t feel like they’re sacrificing much.

In fact, only 31% of brands are considered a “must have” -- one that shoppers would buy whether on sale or not -- consistent with the last four years that Deloitte has conducted the survey.

Feeling the pressure

“National brands are pressured on all sides, from persistent consumer frugality and low brand loyalty to rival and store brand competition,” said Pat Conroy, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and U.S. Consumer Products leader. “While consumers initially resented buying less-expensive products out of necessity a few years ago, they have changed their tune. They have shifted from a feeling of settling for lower-priced brands to settling in to store brands distinguished by high quality.”

Eighty-eight percent of those responding to the survey say they have found several store brands that are just as good as national brands and that allow them to feel as though they are saving money without giving up anything.

Across 28 of the 30 consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories studied, Deloitte found that most consumers perceive store brand quality to be the same or better in most of them. Consumers find the highest private label quality in categories such as bottled water, tabletop disposable paper products, food storage, deli meats, condiments and salty snacks.

However, year after year, the study shows certain categories where consumers remain committed to their national brands and less likely to switch, even despite price increases, including beer, pet foods, soft drinks and coffee.

How we shop

The study found that 91% of consumers noted that they have become more resourceful, which has manifested itself through different savings tactics across consumer segments. Deloitte's analysis categorizes consumers into four groups: super savers (26%), sacrificers (19%), planners (23%) and spectators (32%).

• Super savers: These consumers enjoy the hunt, and make a concentrated effort to use coupons and visit multiple stores. They describe themselves as price-conscious and deal-seeking, and are most likely to conduct product research and price comparisons through mobile and online channels.
• Sacrificers: They are more likely than others to switch to store brands and only 16% describe themselves as brand loyal; however, these compromises are accompanied by feeling of resentment. Sacrificers report the lowest mean income among the consumer segments, and are most likely to have large household sizes.
• Planners: This group is most focused on resourceful pantry management and planning ahead to maximize their budgets. Although coming from smaller households, planners are similar to super savers in that 60% describe themselves as “deal-seeking.”
• Spectators: The least affected by economic conditions, spectators are more likely to buy higher-priced products by a brand they trust rather than cheaper or store alternatives, with convenience carrying more importance than price when it comes to selecting a retailer. Spectators have the highest income average compared to the other segments.

Focus on brands

Deloitte’s study found a narrow set of brands winning the loyalty game primarily on trust, but also on price and product positioning.

The top 10% of must-have brands differed significantly from the bottom 10% of brands -- most notably with a 27 percentage point rating difference as a product that tastes or works better. Additionally, the majority (68%) of the top 10% of must-have brands have a more focused price positioning and outperform those that are relatively scattered.

“Traditional thinking that targets consumers at multiple price points with good, better or best offerings often misses the mark,” added Conroy. “Given the bifurcation of consumers between higher and lower income levels, brands should instead address different shoppers’ ability and willingness to spend by moving to an OK, better and excellent brand portfolio.”

A matter of trust

Trust also trumps other brand qualities when convincing a consumer to pay a little more, though health and convenience also earn points with consumers. Nearly 8 in 10 (78%) consumers indicate they have purchased a higher-priced newly-launched product in the past year. Among them, 54% selected a more expensive product because it was a brand they trust, followed by healthier option (38%) and a company they trust (30%). Nearly 3 in 10 (28%) skipped a lower-cost alternative for one that was easy to prepare or use.

“CPG brands are suffering from a crisis of the similar, where consumers don’t see a lot of difference between branded products on the shelf,” Conroy noted. “Rather than exit a crowded category, brands should consider new growth opportunities where categories are beginning to blur -- such as extending their products into new meal times, form factors and store aisles, or making a move to support from-scratch cooking or prepared meals.”

To a lot of people, retirement means having time on your hands and nothing to do.

According to research published in Psychological Science, that's not a good thing. In fact, researchers say feeling that you have a sense of purpose in life may help you live longer -- no matter what your age.

The research has clear implications for promoting positive aging and adult development.

“Our findings point to the fact that finding a direction for life, and setting overarching goals for what you want to achieve can help you actually live longer, regardless of when you find your purpose,” says lead researcher Patrick Hill of Carleton University in Canada. “So the earlier someone comes to a direction for life, the earlier these protective effects may be able to occur.”

Previous studies have suggested that finding a purpose in life lowers risk of mortality above and beyond other factors that are known to predict longevity. But, Hill points out, almost no research examined whether the benefits of purpose vary over time, such as across different developmental periods or after important life transitions.

Taking the long view

Hill and colleague Nicholas Turiano of the University of Rochester Medical Center decided to explore this question, taking advantage of the nationally representative data available from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study.

They looked at data from over 6000 participants, focusing on their self-reported purpose in life (e.g., “Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them”) and other psychosocial variables that gauged their positive relations with others and their experience of positive and negative emotions.

Over the 14-year follow-up period represented in the MIDUS data, 569 of the participants had died (about 9% of the sample). Those who had died had reported lower purpose in life and fewer positive relations than did survivors.

Greater purpose in life consistently predicted lower mortality risk across the lifespan, showing the same benefit for younger, middle-aged, and older participants across the follow-up period.

“There are a lot of reasons to believe that being purposeful might help protect older adults more so than younger ones,” says Hill. “For instance, adults might need a sense of direction more, after they have left the workplace and lost that source for organizing their daily events. In addition, older adults are more likely to face mortality risks than younger adults.”

Wide ranging implications

Purpose had similar benefits for adults regardless of retirement status, a known mortality risk factor. And the longevity benefits of purpose in life held even after other indicators of psychological well-being, such as positive relations and positive emotions, were taken into account.

“These findings suggest that there’s something unique about finding a purpose that seems to be leading to greater longevity,” says Hill.

The researchers are currently investigating whether having a purpose might lead people to adopt healthier lifestyles, thereby boosting longevity.

Hill and Turiano are also interested in examining whether their findings hold for outcomes other than mortality. “In so doing, we can better understand the value of finding a purpose throughout the lifespan, and whether it provides different benefits for different people,” Hill concludes.

A good chunk of the nation’s midsection has been, is being or is about to be walloped by severe weather, including heavy rain, high winds, hail, the chance of tornadoes and -- in some rare instances -- snow.

The loss of power from weather emergencies compromises the safety of stored food, but consumers can take steps to reduce food waste and the risk of foodborne illness.

What to do

Here's a rundown from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of food safety recommendations:

If the power goes

• Keep appliance thermometers in both the refrigerator and the freezer to ensure temperatures remain food safe during a power outage. Safe temperatures are 40 degrees or lower in the refrigerator, 0 or lower in the freezer.
• Freeze water in one-quart plastic storage bags or small containers prior to a storm. These containers are small enough to fit in around the food in the refrigerator and freezer to help keep food cold. Remember, water expands when it freezes so don’t overfill the containers.
• Freeze refrigerated items, such as leftovers, milk and fresh meat and poultry that you may not need immediately; this helps keep them at a safe temperature longer.
• Know where you can get dry ice or block ice.
• Have coolers on hand to keep refrigerator food cold if the power will be out for more than four hours.
• Group foods together in the freezer. This ‘igloo’ effect helps the food stay cold longer.
• Avoid putting food outside in ice or snow, because it attracts wild animals or could thaw when the sun comes out.
• Keep a few days’ worth of ready-to-eat foods that do not require cooking or cooling.
• Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible. A refrigerator will keep food cold for about 4 hours if the door is kept closed. A full freezer will hold its temperature for about 48 hours (24 hours if half-full).
• Place meat and poultry to one side of the freezer or on a tray to prevent cross contamination of thawing juices.
• Use dry or block ice to keep the refrigerator as cold as possible during an extended power outage. Fifty pounds of dry ice should keep a fully-stocked 18-cubic-foot freezer cold for two days.

After a weather emergency

• Check the temperature inside your refrigerator and freezer. Discard any perishable food (such as meat, poultry, seafood, eggs or leftovers) that has been above 40°F for two hours or more.
• Check each item separately. Throw out any food that has an unusual odor, color or texture or feels warm to the touch.
• Check frozen food for ice crystals. The food in your freezer that partially or completely thawed may be safely refrozen if it still contains ice crystals or is 40°F or below.
• Never taste a food to decide if it’s safe.
• When in doubt, throw it out.

Chrysler Group is recalling 644,850 model year 2010-2014 Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan vehicles manufactured August 25, 2010, through October 31, 2013.

The vent window switch in the driver's door armrest may overheat, resulting in a vehicle fire.

Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will replace the vent window switch with a newer version, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in June 2014.

Owners may contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler's number for this recall is P25.

How can Americans lose electricity through no fault of their own? Let me count some of the ways: tornado, derecho, hurricane, nor'easter, tropical storm, thunderstorm, windstorm, rainstorm, snowstorm, ice storm, earthquake, volcano, lightning strike, falling branch and random bad drivers crashing into utility poles.

There's a similarly long list of reasons, including chemical spills, water main breaks and sundry natural disasters, why your tap water could either become dangerously contaminated or shut off altogether for awhile.

Point is, no matter who you are or where you live, you need to be prepared in case your power, water or other vital utilities disappear for awhile. Yet if you search online for information about emergency food storage, emergency power, disaster preparedness or similar topics, the results are usually cluttered by pages catering to so-called “preppers” or “survivalists,” people preparing in case modern civilization falls and all its life-sustaining amenities go on permanent leave.

Disclaimer: I personally am not particularly concerned about civilization permanently collapsing in my lifetime, and if it did, I doubt I'd outlast it much longer than a fortnight anyway. But like many Americans these days, I've occasionally suffered through days or even weeks of temporary storm-generated utility loss.

I spent a cold wintry week without heat or electricity after the Halloween blizzard of 2011 knocked out the power to more than half the state of Connecticut. This happened a mere two months after Hurricane Irene knocked out the power to more than half the state of Connecticut, which in turn happened only a couple weeks before some unnamed mid-September rainstorms knocked down power lines and washed out roads all throughout my own city in Connecticut.

Capable of taking a hint, the following summer I moved to northern Virginia and hadn't even lived there a full week before that monster “derecho” storm of 2012 walloped the region and — you guessed it! — knocked down power lines for miles in every direction from me.

The good thing about repeated power outages is that trial and error makes you progressively better at handling each one. It also drives home the lesson that the time to get your emergency-supply kit is now, before you think you'll need it, because by the time you know for certain a power-killing storm's headed your way, the stores have already sold out of everything useful.

So here's some things I've learned, without necessarily wanting to, ever since my power-outage-avoidance luck ran out a couple years back.

Emergency power generators

If you have the money for one, and a dedicated outdoor space where you can safely operate it, then buying a generator might be a good option for you. However, it generally isn't an option at all for most apartment- and condominium-dwellers. I've muddled through my various power outages without one.

Emergency lighting

Even with a generator you'll still want battery-operated flashlights and lanterns, because the cost of the batteries is orders of magnitude cheaper than the cost of fuel to run the generator to power your regular home electric lights. Luckily, we live in a Golden Age of absurdly inexpensive LED lighting, which require very little battery power to shine.

In addition to lanterns, I have several inexpensive LED keychain flashlights with glow-in-the-dark cases, which I keep in strategic locations around my house near various electric lights. The theory is that if a sudden power outage leaves me in the dark, I can find one of the glowing flashlights to light the way to the rest of my emergency supply cache.

Battery storage

For lanterns, flashlights, radios or other rarely used emergency appliances powered by alkaline batteries (AA, AAA, C or D-cell) as opposed to lithium “button” batteries, always store the batteries separately—or perhaps I should say, never store emergency appliances with their alkaline batteries in them, in case the batteries corrode.

Home climate control

If you're lucky, your extended power outage will coincide with a period of clement temperatures – not too hot and not too cold, so the lack of heat and air-conditioning won't be a problem.

Chances are, you won't get lucky.

For outages in too-hot weather, you always want some battery-operated fans on hand: ideally, a minimum of one fan for each person in your household, plus an extra fan or two for drawing air in or out of open windows.

If you live in a hot but dry climate, you have various options for using fans, water and damp cloth to create a makeshift “evaporative” or “swamp cooler” system sufficient to cool a small space — or you might even invest a few (very few) extra dollars in making a dedicated swamp cooler for such emergencies.

Unfortunately, swamp coolers don't work in humid climates.

Generating heat in a cold-weather power outage is much easier, even if you lack amenities like a fireplace or wood-burning stove. During my post-snowstorm week without power, when nighttime temperatures dropped to the teens or low 20s, I closed off the bedrooms in my apartment and managed to get the kitchen and common areas up to 66 degrees at night, by burning vegetable-wax candles in space heaters I'd made from coffee cans.

Granted, mine is an all-adult household; if I lived with small children, rambunctious pets or anyone else incapable of showing proper respect for fire safety, I'm not sure I'd have wanted to try this.

Water

If ever you've been in an area where a hurricane's forecast to strike, the authorities will urge you to fill bottles and jugs with water now, in case storm runoff contaminates public water supplies. You might also be urged to seal your bathtub with a leak-proof plug and fill it with water, for flushing your toilets.

But calamities ranging from chemical spills to broken mains to earthquakes are perfectly capable of contaminating or cutting off the water with no prior warning. That's why you should always keep on hand enough bottled water to keep everybody in your household going for seven hot and sweaty days. (The official FEMA recommendation is to only have three day's worth of water on hand. They established this guideline before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, and did not revise it afterward despite massive anecdotal evidence suggesting that in a truly bad emergency, “three days of supplies” isn't remotely enough.)

Drinks

You should have some individual-size servings of your favorite juice or soda over and above your drinking-water supply, because a power outage is boring enough without drinking flavorless lukewarm water, too. If you have young children, you should also consider getting boxes of no-refrigeration-needed milk for them. As with all food and drink purchases, keep an eye on the expiration dates and rotate/replace your stock as required.

Bear in mind: as a consumer-news source, this website usually urges food and drink shoppers to check the unit prices and buy whichever size offers the lowest one — for example, buying a gallon jug (128 ounces) of fruit juice for $3 is much cheaper than paying $2 for a six-pack of seven-ounce single-serving juice boxes or cans (42 ounces).

But that's assuming you have a working refrigerator to safely store that gallon of juice after you open it. When storing food and drink for a power outage sans refrigeration, any canned or bottled food or drink must be consumed soon after opening, before it goes bad. So, unless you have an unusually large household big enough to consume a “giant economy size” in a single sitting, your emergency food and drink supply should primarily consist of small single- or double-serving sizes, even though they do cost more than larger bulk purchases.

Food

Of course the obvious choice for emergencies is food that can be stored without refrigeration and eaten without cooking: crackers and peanut butter, canned fruit, granola or energy bars, pudding cups and the like.

If you do want to cook, remember the first and most important rule of cooking in a power outage: never, under any circumstance, try cooking indoors with a barbecue grill, liquid or gas-powered camp stove, or similar items. They all generate toxic fumes or exhaust, and can only be used in outdoor situations where the fumes can dissipate.

During my week without power, I didn't do any true “cooking,” in the sense of transforming raw ingredients into a meal. However, I was able to warm up various canned heat-and-serve items over a small can of ethanol gel of the sort used under chafing dishes. The key word is “warm”; ethanol is good enough to heat canned spaghetti, not enough to boil water or anything like that.

Dishes and cookware

If you lose power but still have clean (though cold) running water, you can use your regular dishes, cookware and utensils and, in a pinch, hand-wash them using dish soap and cold water. But if you suffer a loss of power and clean water, you can't even do that, so make sure you have plenty of disposable utensils and paper plates on hand. I also keep a supply of inexpensive disposable aluminum chafing dishes just the right size to heat a can of soup or baked beans over ethanol gel.

Cash in small bills

If the power's out in your area, the ATMs will stop working — and a lot of businesses, even if they manage to stay open, won't be able to accept credit cards. During my week without power, there were a couple of stores and sandwich shops in walking distance of me that stayed open on generator power, but until the regular power came back they operated on a cash-only basis. Thanks to my cache of cash, during that miserable chilly week I was at least able to kick off each morning with a cup of hot coffee; it's just too bad I had to walk two blocks each way to get it.

Medicines and medical supplies

If you or anyone in your house requires regular doses of medication, always have at least a few days' worth on hand, if possible.

Whether you require medication or not, make sure you have a well-stocked first aid kit available. There are plenty of companies that will sell you a pre-stocked first aid kit, but in most cases, if you look at what those kits actually contain, it's much cheaper for you to buy the individual components and put the kit together yourself. That's usually the case for any pre-stocked emergency kit offered for sale: anything from a three-day emergency food supply to an all-purpose lost-in-the-wilderness survival bug-out backpack might well be a good kit to have, but you'll get a better kit for less money if you put it together yourself.

And do it now, when you don't need it, rather than wait until you do.

Here's a factoid we're pretty sure you don't want to even think about; the toothbrush you shove in your mouth each morning may be crawling with germs.

Nasty little things like staphylococci, coliforms, pseudomonads, yeasts, intestinal bacteria and — yes — even fecal germs. How do they get there?

“The oral cavity is home to hundreds of different types of microorganisms, which can be transferred to a toothbrush during use,” said Maria L. Geisinger, DDS, assistant professor of periodontology in the School of Dentistry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Making matters worse, most toothbrushes are stored in bathrooms, which exposes them to gastrointestinal microorganisms that may be transferred via a fecal-oral route. One only has to recall a scene from a Seinfeld episode when germ-a-phobe Jerry knocks his girlfriend's toothbrush into the toilet.

“The number of microorganisms can vary wildly from undetectable to 1 million colony-forming units, Geisinger said. “Proper handling and care of your toothbrush is important to your overall health.”

How it happens

But can bacteria from the toilet actually reach your toothbrush? Geisinger says it can and the toothbrush doesn't actually have to fall into the toilet. It can happen if you don't adequately wash your hands or through microscopic droplets released from the toilet during flushing.

The Discovery Channel program “Mythbusters” recently explored the cleanliness of the average toothbrush and found all 24 that it tested contained intestinal microorganisms. Geisinger says toothbrushes may even be contaminated right out of the box since they aren't packaged in a sterile environment.

You can reduce the number of germs on your toothbrush by proper cleaning and storage. After each use thoroughly rinse toothbrushes with clean tap water to remove any remaining toothpaste and debris.

Antibacterial rinse helps

If you're really serious about germs, you can soak toothbrushes in an antibacterial mouth rinse; this has been shown to decrease the level of bacteria that grow on toothbrushes. Next, the way you store your toothbrush between brushing makes a difference.

“The American Dental Association recommends that you not store your toothbrush in a closed container or routinely cover your toothbrush, as a damp environment is more conducive to the growth of microorganisms,” Geisinger said.

Storing toothbrushes in an upright position, allowing them to dry, is also preferable to storing them in a horizontal position. It's also a good idea to keep brushes separate, preventing cross-contamination, if multiple brushes are stored in one location.

Cold germs

How about when you're sick with a cold or the flu? Do those germs remain on the brush you used while you were ill?

In fact, they do. Geisinger says the toothbrush used by a sick person should be kept a safe distance from other toothbrushes and, if economically feasible, should be discarded and replaced with a new one.

It's not unusual these days for companies to sue consumer review sites in a nearly always futile attempt to suppress negative comments about their products.

It's a bit more eye-raising when a company sues to prevent a federal agency -- in this case, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) -- from publishing reports about it.

But that's just what Ergobaby did. The company sued the CPSC in 2011 to block a report naming its product that blamed a baby's death on an Ergobaby infant carrier from being included in the saferproducts.gov web site. A federal appeals court recently ruled that the company's name cannot be kept secret -- but stopped short of ordering the disputed report to be published.

Now that its identity has been revealed, Ergobaby has issued a statement claiming that its carriers are "absolutely safe."

"The experts AND the court determined that the baby choked on a foreign object and it was a sad and unfortunate coincidence that this tragic event occurred in an Ergobaby carrier. No Ergobaby carrier has ever caused a fatality," the company said.

Company Doe

A federal court initially agreed to protect the company's identity, referring to it only as "Company Doe." But the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has now ruled that the case must be unsealed and the company disclosed.

The Consumer Federation of America joined with Public Citizen and Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, to object to the sealing of the court documents.

The appeals court found in April that injury to corporate reputation is not enough to justify sealing court records under the First Amendment and that permitting a company to use a pseudonym to challenge the inclusion of a report in the CPSC database, saferproducts.gov, was an abuse of discretion in light of the public interest of the database.

“This is an important victory for consumers, for transparency, and for the saferproducts.gov database,” stated Rachel Weintraub, legislative director and senior counsel for the Consumer Federation of America. “Saferproducts.gov is a database designed to increase transparency of important product safety information to the public. This case shows that the public interest is served by disclosure, not by secrecy.”

And so it may be, someday. But even after all the litigation, saferproducts.gov still does not display any information about Ergobaby.

And why would that be, you might ask. Ergobaby explains it this way:

"CPSIA [the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act passed in 2008] mandates that only reports of 'harm relating to the use of consumer products' may be posted. Because Ergobaby carriers were not at fault for this tragic incident, the information was not and will never be published on the site."

A lot of products that you really don't want to deal with were kept out of the hands of consumers in fiscal 2013, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says.

The agency says its inspectors seized about 12.5 million consumer items that violated U.S. safety rules or that were found to be defective during the year.

Of course, like any federal project, there's an acronym -- in this case, RAM or Risk Assessment Methodology. It enables CPSC investigators to analyze Customs data to identify high-risk shipments arriving at U.S. ports of entry.

Children's products dominate

About 550 of the 600 product shipments investigators stopped were children’s products totaling about 2.1 million items.

The leading hazards identified in shipments of children’s products in that 6-month span continued to be lead content or lead in paint in higher than allowable amounts. Additional hazards identified were products that contained phthalates and toys and other articles with small parts that present a choking hazard for children younger than 3 years old.

During the period when retailers imported products for the Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays in 2013, investigators stopped 51 shipments of violative fireworks. The more than 4.1 million units of fireworks made up the bulk of non-children’s products that were stopped in the six-month time frame.

A shipment of 100,000 disposable lighters was also stopped and seized for destruction due to the importer’s failure to demonstrate that the lighters successfully met performance safety requirements, including child resistance. Before cigarette lighters were required to be child-resistant, fire loss data revealed an estimated annual average of 7,250 residential structure fires, 190 deaths and 1,290 injuries that resulted from children younger than 5 playing with lighters.

A complete list of products found in violation of safety requirements enforced by CPSC is at http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/Violations.

Researchers at UC Davis say they have found that children with autism have deficits in a type of immune cell -- called granulocytes -- that protect the body from infection.

In children with autism, the cells exhibit one-third the capacity to fight infection and protect the body from invasion compared with the same cells in children who are developing normally.

The cells, which circulate in the bloodstream, are less able to deliver crucial infection-fighting oxidative responses to combat invading pathogens because of dysfunction in their tiny energy-generating organelles, the mitochondria.

The study is published online in the journal Pediatrics.

“Granulocytes fight cellular invaders like bacteria and viruses by producing highly reactive oxidants, toxic chemicals that kill microorganisms. Our findings show that in children with severe autism the level of that response was both lower and slower," said Eleonora Napoli, lead study author and project scientist in the Department of Molecular Biosciences in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. "The granulocytes generated less highly reactive oxidants and took longer to produce them."

The researchers also found that the mitochondria in the granulocytes of children with autism consumed far less oxygen than those of the typically developing children — another sign of decreased mitochondrial function.

The study was conducted using blood samples of children enrolled in the Childhood Risk of Autism and the Environment (CHARGE) Study and included 10 children with severe autism age 2 to 5 and 10 age-, race- and sex-matched children who were developing typically.

Want to cut your risk of stroke? Silly question. Who wouldn't? And here's the good part: It may not be as hard as you think.

New research in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke determined that eating more fruits and vegetables could do it for you.

Researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 20 studies published over the last 19 years to assess the effects of fruit and vegetable consumption on risk of stroke globally. The combined studies involved 760,629 men and women who had 16,981 strokes.

A declining risk

Stroke risk decreased by 32% with every 200 grams of fruit consumed each day, and 11%t with every 200 grams of vegetables consumed each day.

"Improving diet and lifestyle is critical for heart and stroke risk reduction in the general population," said Yan Qu, M.D., the study's senior author, director of the intensive care unit at Qingdao Municipal Hospital and professor at the Medical College of Qingdao University in Qingdao, China. "In particular, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is highly recommended because it meets micronutrient and macronutrient and fiber requirements without adding substantially to overall energy requirements."

Macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein and fat) provide calories or energy. Our bodies need smaller amounts of micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

Favorable BMI effects

The researcher cited studies demonstrating that high fruit and vegetable consumption can lower blood pressure and improve microvascular function. It has favorable effects on body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, cholesterol, inflammation and oxidative stress.

The beneficial effects of fruits and vegetables applied consistently to men and women, stroke outcome and by type of stroke (caused by clot or bleeding). Researchers found no significant difference in the effect on age (younger or older than 55).

The researchers adjusted the study findings for factors such as smoking, alcohol, blood pressure, cholesterol, physical activity, BMI and other dietary variables.

World-wide comparisons

Researchers combined the results of 6 studies from the U.S., 8 from Europe and 6 from Asia (China and Japan). They note that low fruit and vegetable consumption is prevalent worldwide, and especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables up to 600 grams each day could reduce the burden of ischemic stroke by 19% globally, according to the World Health Organization.

In China, stroke is the leading cause of death, with an estimated 1.7 million people dying in 2010. In the U.S., it's the No. 4 cause of death and a leading cause of disability.

What to do

The American Heart Association advises the average adult to eat 4 to 5 servings each of fruits and vegetables daily, based on a 2,000-calorie diet.

A diet rich in a variety of colors and types of vegetables and fruits is a way of getting important nutrients that most people don't get enough of, including vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber.

They are also naturally low in saturated fat.

Ste Fromagere du Livradois of Fournols, France, is recalling Haut Livradois brand Raclette and Montboissie cheeses – lot#350.

The products may be contaminated with Salmonella.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The products were distributed nationwide in supermarkets and gourmet stores between March 10th, 2014, and May 6th, 2014.

Raclette du Haut Livradois and Montboissie du Haut Livradois -- lot # 350 -- come as a 13-lb wheel and are usually cut and wrapped. The Montboissie has a vegetable ash line in the middle of the cheese. The Raclette does not.

Distributors and retailers are being contacted in an effort to recall any and all remaining product in the marketplace.

Consumers who have purchased the recalled products should contact their distributor or retailer for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact Ste Fromagere du Livradois at (201) 448 8787 Monday-Friday from 9am to 5pm (EST).

The measles, a once-common childhood disease, is back. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. is seeing the biggest measles outbreak in decades.

Most older Americans probably remember getting the measles. It usually meant missing a couple of weeks of school.

Measles, also known as rubeola, is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus, which meant if a kid in your class got it, sooner or later you probably would too. Besides the fever, runny nose, cough, people with measles also had a rash all over their body.

Once you had it, you usually didn't get it again. While it might not sound all that serious, it could be. For every 1,000 kids who got the disease, one or two would die, according to the CDC.

Measles all but died out after the 1960s. The first measles vaccine was licensed in 1963 and nearly 19 million people were vaccinated over the next 12 years.

The end of measles

Over the years other vaccines followed and the disease started to disappear. In 2000 the CDC declared endemic measles had been eradicated but U.S. residents remained at risk for infection from imported cases.

“We are seeing a rise in children in the U.S. with measles because international travel has become so common. People bring it back from endemic areas and because it’s highly contagious,” said Nadia Qureshi, MD, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Loyola University Health System. “If your child is not vaccinated they are at-risk.”

But vaccination rates in the U.S. have fallen, which may be another reason for the measles resurgence. The dramatic rise in autism coincided with the use of many childhood vaccines, leading many worried parents to suspect a connection.

Lancet article

In 1998 the British medical journal Lancet published – and later retracted – a study that seemed to imply a connection between the MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) vaccine and the development of autism in children.

Because it's a disease that many of today's parents' parents had as children, some think skipping the vaccine is the lesser of the risks. The CDC begs to differ.

No treatment

It points out that measles is caused by a virus and there is no specific treatment for the infection. It simply has to run its course and the child's immune system has to be strong enough to recover. Most are but a few aren't.

“We don’t have a specific treatment and can only address the symptoms of the infection. But, we do have a very effective vaccine that can prevent the virus. Children in the U.S. usually get two doses of the vaccine. After the first dose 95 percent are protected and 98 percent protected after the second. It is a safe vaccine that can protect children from a potentially deadly disease,” said Qureshi.

Even with a vaccinated population Qureshi says there will be 1-2% who are still at-risk. Since the virus was considered eliminated from the U.S. for nearly a decade there are many doctors who have never seen an actual case.

“Vaccine rates were so good in this country that many physicians have seen it in books or photos, but no live cases. This can make it difficult to diagnose and people can be walking around with the contagious virus not even knowing it. The best way to keep your family safe is to vaccinate,” said Qureshi.

Snapchat had a great thing going. Or at least it seemed to. The mobile messaging app promised consumers that they could say anything without worrying about it coming back to haunt them and promised that all communications were secure.

But the Federal Trade Commission says it wasn't so, and charged that Snapchat deceived consumers with promises about the disappearing nature of messages sent through the service.

The FTC case also alleged that Snapchat deceived consumers about the amount of personal data it collected and the security measures taken to protect that data. In fact, the case alleges, Snapchat’s failure to secure its Find Friends feature resulted in a security breach that enabled attackers to compile a database of 4.6 million Snapchat usernames and phone numbers.

“If a company markets privacy and security as key selling points in pitching its service to consumers, it is critical that it keep those promises,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “Any company that makes misrepresentations to consumers about its privacy and security practices risks FTC action.”

Snaps don't always disappear

Touting the “ephemeral” nature of “snaps,” the term used to describe photo and video messages sent via the app, Snapchat marketed the app’s central feature as the user’s ability to send snaps that would “disappear forever" after the sender-designated time period expired. Despite Snapchat’s claims, the complaint describes several simple ways that recipients could save snaps indefinitely.

Consumers can, for example, use third-party apps to log into the Snapchat service, according to the complaint. Because the service’s deletion feature only functions in the official Snapchat app, recipients can use these widely available third-party apps to view and save snaps indefinitely. Indeed, such third-party apps have been downloaded millions of times.

Despite a security researcher warning the company about this possibility, the complaint alleges, Snapchat continued to misrepresent that the sender controls how long a recipient can view a snap.

In addition, the complaint alleges:

• That Snapchat stored video snaps unencrypted on the recipient’s device in a location outside the app’s “sandbox,” meaning that the videos remained accessible to recipients who simply connected their device to a computer and accessed the video messages through the device’s file directory.
• That Snapchat deceptively told its users that the sender would be notified if a recipient took a screenshot of a snap. In fact, any recipient with an Apple device that has an operating system pre-dating iOS 7 can use a simple method to evade the app’s screenshot detection, and the app will not notify the sender.
• That the company misrepresented its data collection practices. Snapchat transmitted geolocation information from users of its Android app, despite saying in its privacy policy that it did not track or access such information.

Collected contact info

The complaint also alleges that Snapchat collected iOS users’ contacts information from their address books without notice or consent. During registration, the app prompted users to, “Enter your mobile number to find your friends on Snapchat!” Snapchat’s privacy policy claimed that the app only collected the user’s email, phone number, and Facebook ID for the purpose of finding friends.

Despite these representations, when iOS users entered their phone number to find friends, Snapchat also collected the names and phone numbers of all the contacts in their mobile device address books. Snapchat continued to collect this information without notifying or obtaining users’ consent until Apple modified its operating system to provide such notice with the introduction of iOS 6.

Finally, the FTC alleges that despite the company’s claims about taking reasonable security steps, Snapchat failed to secure its “Find Friends” feature.

For example, the complaint alleges that numerous consumers complained that they had sent snaps to someone under the false impression that they were communicating with a friend. In fact, because Snapchat failed to verify users’ phone numbers during registration, these consumers were actually sending their personal snaps to complete strangers who had registered with phone numbers that did not belong to them.

The complaint also alleges that Snapchat’s failure to secure its Find Friends feature resulted in a security breach permitting attackers to compile a database of 4.6 million Snapchat usernames and phone numbers. According to the FTC, the exposure of this information could lead to costly spam, phishing, and other unsolicited communications.

Under the terms of its settlement with the FTC, Snapchat will be prohibited from misrepresenting the extent to which it maintains the privacy, security, or confidentiality of users’ information.

In addition, the company will be required to implement a comprehensive privacy program that will be monitored by an independent privacy professional for the next 20 years.