Current Events in July 2014

Consumers pulled back a little during May, according to the Deloitte Consumer Spending Index.

The index, which tracks consumer cash flow as an indicator of future consumer spending, and is made up of four components -- tax burden, initial unemployment claims, real wages and real home prices -- decreased to 3.65 from 3.91 in April.

“Housing prices are the primary contributor to this month’s dip in the index,” said Daniel Bachman, Deloitte’s senior U.S. economist. “Real wages also declined for the second straight month, but static unemployment claims and tax rate slightly offset the other categories. The stalled housing market may weigh on consumers, although the overall picture remains positive.”

Alison Paul, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and Retail & Distribution sector leader, says the sluggish pace of the economy recovery challenges retailers to think differently about what drives the most revenue.”

“Retailers should continue to pursue non-traditional methods to reach their most valuable customers, who tend to be those who use digital devices most often,” she said, adding “Deloitte’s latest research, The New Digital Divide, indicates 22% of consumers spend more as a result of using digital, and that digitally-savvy shoppers who come to your store frequently are more likely to use digital devices and do so at an increasing rate.”

Paul also noted that, with the summer now underway, certain retailers can take full advantage of the seasonal increase in traffic by digitally influencing consumers.

For example, in home improvement stores, digital devices influence 42 cents of every dollar spent in the store, higher than the average of 36 cents of every dollar across all categories, according to Deloitte’s research.

Category breakdown

• Tax burden: The tax rate is holding consistently at 11.8% -- the sixth straight month at this level.
• Initial unemployment claims: Applications fell 0.2% from prior month to 320,250, and show a 6.5% drop from the same period last year.
• Real wages: Real hourly wages dropped 0.1% to $8.82 this month, but are still higher over the past year.
• Real median new home price: New home prices took a 2.3% dip -- to $117,000 in May following a strong increase the month before, which could be directly correlated to the increase in home improvement spending in the past year.

If you own Buckyballs and/or Buckycubes you have a refund coming. These loose, high powered magnets pose a deadly risk to young children, tweens, and teens, if ingested.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is urging consumers to immediately stop using these loose, high powered magnets, which pose a deadly risk to young children, tweens, and teens, if ingested and visit BuckyballsRecall.com to request a refund.

The website has an online registration page to file a claim that is active and easy for consumers to use. Consumers may receive a refund no greater than the purchase price of the product, and partial refunds may be provided depending on the number of magnets returned.

Consumers have until January 17, 2015 to submit requests to the Trustee for refunds.

Sara Lee Foodservice of New London, Wis., is recalling approximately 82,440 pounds of smoked sausage.

The product was formulated with an ingredient containing hydrolyzed soy protein, a known allergen, which is not declared on the product label.

There are no reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of the product.

The product subject to recall is:

• Cases of “Smoked Sausage Rope” in 10-lb. cases containing two 5-lb packages with case code SKU 46218

The product, which bears the establishment number “Est. 2435” inside the USDA mark of inspection, was produced from January 1, 2014, through June 6, 2014, and sent to distribution centers for further shipment to institutional users across the United States.

The product is not available in grocery stores or sold directly to consumers.

During a routine label review, the company discovered that one of the product flavoring ingredients contains hydrolyzed soy and that the soy is not declared on the product label.

Consumers with questions may contact Eric Birkhaug, director of customer service at (312) 614-8283.  

Oeuf LLC of Brooklyn, N.Y., is recalling about 14,000 Sparrow Cribs.

The slats/spindles and top rail can detach from the cribs and pose an entrapment hazard to a child.

The company has received four reports of the slats/spindles and the top rail detaching from the crib. No injuries were reported.

The recall includes four models of Oeuf Sparrow cribs sold in birch, grey, walnut and white. The recalled cribs were manufactured between July 2007, and January 2014, and have one of the following model numbers: 1SPCR, 2SPCR, 4SPCR or 5SPCR.

The manufacture date, in the MM-YYYY format, and the model number are located on the warning label attached to the crib's mattress support.

The cribs, manufactured in Latvia, were sold at independent juvenile specialty stores nationwide and online for about $800.

Consumers should immediately stop using the cribs and contact Oeuf to receive a free repair kit.

Consumers may contact Oeuf toll-free at (844) 653-8527 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.

In the wake of the housing crisis large institutional investors swooped into beaten-down real estate markets and bought up foreclosures, turning some into rental properties but “flipping” others.

Now, thanks to the popularity of cable TV reality shows like “Flip This House” the public has jumped into house flipping with both feet, hoping to make some fast money. And it's true that some people have made money flipping houses.

But like any get-rich-quick fad, there are things that can go wrong. And when they go wrong with something as expensive as a house, they can go very wrong indeed.

Entry and exit

As with any short-term investment you must know your entry and exit prices. Your entry price will be the price of the property, closing costs, repairs and improvements, taxes and insurance while you own it and closing costs on the sale.

If you plan to list it with a Realtor, closing costs will include a 6% sales commission. If you have to borrow the money to finance the flip, you'll pay interest between the purchase and sale closings.

The spread between your entry and exit prices may not be all that wide, meaning your potential profit may not be all that great, considering the risk. So it makes choosing the right property all the more important.

Location, location, location

The first consideration in a flip is where the property is located. A good location, near shopping, good schools, major transportation arteries and health facilities, will make the house more desirable and easier to sell at the best price.

But if it is all that desirable, you might have to pay too much for it. The market is pretty efficient at determining the fair market value of real estate.

If a nice home in a desirable location needs new carpet and roof, the price will take those improvements into account and discount the purchase price to reflect them. But you aren't going to get the property for much less than those discounts.

So after you buy the property and make needed repairs you might actually lose money on a sale.

Find a foreclosure

That means you need to find a property where the market has made a “mistake” in its valuation, pricing the property well below the market value. That rarely happens except in one situation – foreclosure.

In most instances of foreclosure, the loan servicer has purchased the property at auction for the loan amount in order to make the mortgage investors whole. It then lists the property with a Realtor at a heavily discounted price in order to sell it as quickly a possible, not worrying about the loss.

For a house-flipper, buying from a seller who is not too concerned about the size of their loss is the best seller of all. Considering flipping any house that is not a foreclosure is probably a waste of time.

Cash is king

If you must get financing in order to do a flip, buying a foreclosure at a bargain price will be very difficult. One reason banks discount foreclosures so heavily is they often require repairs in order to meet lender standards – repairs the lender trying to sell the property typically refuses to make.

If the foreclosure you want to buy has damage, in most cases you won't be able to finance it. If you are paying cash, on the other hand, it gives you enormous leverage because you won't be competing with other bargain hunters who must get a bank loan. That's where the real bargains are.

When you are looking for a foreclosure, don't overlook condos and townhouses. There is an advantage to flipping them.

A roof repair, for example, isn't something a condo or townhouse buyer has to worry about. Normally the homeowners association fee covers replacing a roof and other exterior maintenance. But make sure you read the HOA covenants carefully before making a purchase.

Go with a pro

Many house flippers plan to do the renovation and repair work themselves, but unless you happen to be a remodeling contractor, that isn't always advisable. There are two main reasons.

First, any work needs to be done professionally so that you can get top dollar. If you have a little experience you can probably do painting and wallpaper yourself but let the pros do the rest.

A second reason is time. Refurbishing a house takes longer than you might think, especially if you are trying to do it nights and weekends. Paying to have a home center store lay the new flooring and install the new appliances will allow you to get the house back on the market faster.

After recovering nicely, the U.S. housing market has slowed in 2014. Sales of both new and existing homes have declined since last year.

Pending home sales got a nice boost in May, rising 6.1%. But it remains to be seen if that's a blip or a trend.

Economics may have a lot to do with it but so might demographics. The Millennial generation has reached the home buying, household formation years but has been slow to move into home ownership.

Still in the basement

Many, it seems, are still living at home. A Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data has found a record 57 million Americans, or 18.1% of the population of the United States, lived in multi-generational family households in 2012, double the number in 1980 – the previous record.

Adults between the ages of 25 and 34 are a big part of the population growth that lives with another generation. By 2012, nearly 1 in 4 of these young adults lived in multi-generational households, up from 18.7% in 2007 and 11% in 1980.

The reason isn't that hard to figure out. The Great Recession put lots of young adults in the unemployment line. No one without a house is buying a house.

But even some with jobs are finding it difficult to buy a home or their own. Saving for a down payment is difficult when raises are few and far between.

Lenders have also tightened lending standards. Not only do they want to see a very good credit score from mortgage applicants, they also want to see s stable employment history, with applicants in the same jobs for the last 2 years.

Prefer not to buy

Another study – this one from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies – suggests Millennials can afford to buy homes but are choosing not to. Using National Association of Realtors (NAR) data, the study found that median income households can afford a home in all but 7% of the nation's largest metro areas.

Given this affordability, young first-time buyers should be flocking to open houses each weekend, but they aren't. In 2013, first-time buyers comprised 38% of home purchases. But the historical norm, dating back to 1981, is 40%.

The Harvard study suggests some reasons home sales to Millennials have lagged. Even in metros where a majority of Millennials can afford to buy a house, one-third cannot. That greatly reduced the pool of potential buyers.

Even those who can swing the monthly note at today's low interest rates are challenged when it comes to raising the down payment. Finally, the study notes that 39% of 25-39 year-old households have student debt, throwing their income-to-debt ratio out of whack.

International sales

The last thing these young people want to do, the report notes, is take on more debt. Without young people buying homes in greater numbers, the market is doing as well as it is, in part, due to the influx of foreign real estate investors.

NAR reports for the period April 2013 through March 2014, total sales to non-U.S. buyers have been estimated at $92.2 billion, an increase from the previous 13 months' level of $68.2 billion. While the global economic has been a disruptive factor for many sectors, it has actually helped the U.S. housing market.

“We live in an international marketplace; so while all real estate is local, that does not mean that all property buyers are,” said NAR President Steve Brown. “Foreign buyers are being enticed to U.S. real estate because of what they recognize as attractive prices, economic stability, and an incredible opportunity for investment in their future.”

Of course, foreign buyers aren't buying property in every market. According to NAR, 4 states accounted for 55% of the total reported purchases – Florida, California, Arizona, and Texas.

Florida remains the primary choice, claiming a 23% share of all foreign purchases. California comes in second with 14%, Texas with 12% and Arizona with 6%.  

Persian Square Capital Management founder Bill Ackman once again took on the role of consumer advocate today, presenting what he called evidence that Herbalife engages in massive fraud and should be shut down.

Ackman has spent the last 18 months on the attack, claiming Herbalife – a nutritional supplement maker that sells its product through multi-level marketing – is a Ponzi scheme that preys on the poor and desperate.

In what he called “the most important presentation of my life,” Ackman introduced undercover investigator Christine Richard, a former Bloomberg News reporter whose team joined a number of Herblife's “nutrition clubs.” She presented audio, video and documents that Ackman says show the company's true purpose.

From the start Ackman, who placed a massive short bet against Herbalife in December 2012, has claimed that Herbalife is not trying to sell product so much as drive distributors to recruit more people to market the products. He said the nutrition clubs were “a mini-Herbalife pyramid.”

Selling business opportunities

"They are not selling weight loss in these clubs, they are selling a business opportunity," he said.

In particular, Ackman claims Herbalife is targeting Hispanic and other ethnic consumers. Among the slides in his presentation was a document he described as a 2008 internal Herbalife strategy document showing company sales leveling off in non-ethnic markets. However, it projected sharp growth in Hispanic and Korean markets.

“Herbalife targets affinity groups who work hard and don't complain,” Ackman said. “It’s a tragedy. They don’t realize they’re being defrauded.”

To say that Ackman has been a relentless critic of Herbalife is a serious understatement. During the presentation, a sometimes emotional Ackman revealed that he had spent $50 million visiting 140 nutritional clubs all over the world, assigning Persian Capital lawyers to provide legal oversight of the investigation.

Wall Street not impressed

Wall Street apparently wasn't impressed. Monday, when Ackman announced on national television that his presentation the next day would bring down the company, Herbalife stock dropped sharply. But by midway through Tuesday's presentation, Herbalife stock had regained what it lost and then some.

Herbalife has always denied Ackman's charges and company CFO John DeSimone was dismissive of Ackman's latest attack, telling CNBC “his bark is always worse than his bite.” DeSimone said there is nothing sinister or illegal about Herbalife's nutrition clubs, describing them as social gatherings to encourage use of the product.

Herbalife also has a number of supporters. Carl Ichan and George Soros are 2 of the largest shareholders in the company. Robert Chapman, founder of Chapman Capital, told CNBC that he believes Herbalife will get a clean bill of health from regulatory agencies and the stock – now at $60 a share – will surge to $150 in 12 months.

Government probe

Ackman's accusations may not be taken seriously on Wall Street but he seems to have gotten the attention of some lawmakers and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) earlier this year announced it would look into Herbalife's business model and take action, if appropriate.

Ackman clearly believe the FTC will find against the company. Chapman doesn't think so, which is why he says he's buying Herbalife stock at every opportunity.

Elizabeth Kubler Ross wrote the infamous book on death and dying and the different stages that we all go through in the grieving process. Saying goodbye to a pet can easily put you through the exact same stages. Grief is grief and a loss is a loss.

Many times people grieve the loss of their pet alone because for some reason society is not always as generous with support in the death of a pet. Many times people are told to get over it -- it's just a dog, a cat or a bird. Yet, these animals become companions for many and fill holes in people's lives. The death of a pet can be just as traumatic as the death of a loved one.

The International Association for Animal Hospice and Palliative Care (IHAAPC) is dedicated to promoting knowledge of, and developing guidelines for, comfort-oriented care to pets as they approach the end of life, just as hospice care does for humans. 

The goals of hospice are to control pain, keep the pet comfortable, and provide a decent quality of life for as long as possible. Some hospice programs involve occasional home visits by a veterinarian or a veterinary technician to assist with care and evaluations. Massage therapy is something that is widely used as a way to calm a pet down and ease tension to relieve pain. A few sites provide hospice care on-site, with owners visiting or staying for the duration.

Sparkle in the eye

Nancy Kay, DVM, a Rohnert Park, Calif., veterinarian, is the author of "Speaking for Spot: Be the Advocate Your Dog Needs to Live a Happy, Healthy, Longer Life." She commonly recommends hospice when clients simply want a bit more time for closure with their terminally or chronically ill pet.

“They recognize the disease is not treatable (or they have chosen not to treat), but their dog or cat continues to have enough of a ‘sparkle in their eyes’ suggesting that it is not quite time to proceed with euthanasia,” she said.

This is when hospice can be valuable letting the owner have time to say goodbye in a peaceful setting.

In some cases, owners use hospice care for their pets in the same way that it’s used in human medicine: to maintain the patient until a natural death. Others use hospice until they feel that allowing the animal to continue to die at its own pace is cruel, and they have the patient humanely euthanized.

Is it time?

Determining when to "pull the plug" on a pet isn't easy. Many base their decision on the pet's quality of life. The ASPCA suggests answering these questions as part of the decision-making process:

• Does your pet seem irritable, restless or confused?
• Has he lost his appetite or does he drink water excessively?
• Does he avoid his favorite activities?
• Is your pet picked on by other animals in the home? This can happen when a sick or elderly dog becomes the weakest member of the “pack.”
• Does he seek out unusual places to sleep or hide?

When your pet’s quality of life deteriorates due to an untreatable disease or aging, it's time to speak with your veterinarian and family members about end-of-life issues.

As veterinarian Katherine Goldberg notes, palliative care fills the gap between doing nothing and taking irreversible action: 

"Giving people options when they thought there were none. Euthanasia is always on the table and is irreversible. Palliative care is the antidote to hopelessness."

Thousands of victims defrauded by two sham immigration services can begin applying for compensation from a $2.2 million restitution fund.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman sued the International Immigrants Foundation, Inc. (IIF) and the International Professional Association, Inc. (IPA), alleging they held out fraudulent promises of citizenship while engaging in the unauthorized practice of law.

The process for distributing compensation, which will be administered by the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), will allow former IIF and IPA clients to submit claims for restitution for fees they paid to the organizations for immigration services that were never lawfully rendered. IIF and IPA have also been prohibited from providing immigration-related legal services in the future.

“Thousands of immigrants who had their trust abused and their money stolen by these organizations deserve to receive compensation, and now they can,” Schneiderman said. “By making more than two million dollars in restitution available for the victims of these unscrupulous organizations, we are taking an important step toward justice in this case."

Victims of IIF’s and IPA’s misconduct suffered both financial and legal consequences. In one instance, an individual was eligible to obtain a Green Card, but lost his opportunity due to the organizations’ delay and negligence, despite his paying more than $18,000 in fees and costs to them. Other clients were subject to deportation. Still others overpaid for services by thousands of dollars.

To be considered for restitution, former clients who paid for and received legal services from IIF and/or IPA must submit a claim form by October 23, 2014. Copies of the claim form, instructions for completion, and submission information are available at the claims administrator’s website, www.nylag.org/IPA.

Minnesota charges

Earlier, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a lawsuit against a woman and her companies for falsely posing as an attorney and charging immigrants thousands of dollars for legal work on immigration matters that she was not legally authorized to perform.

“This is an example of someone exploiting the complexity and cost of the legal process to their own advantage and to the detriment of others,” said Swanson.

The lawsuit was filed against two companies, American Group US, Inc. and The Legacy Firm Corporation, and Ornella Hammerschmidt, a woman from Shakopee, Minnesota who runs the companies.

The defendants charged Spanish-speaking immigrants with limited English language proficiency as much as $12,000 for legal work on immigration matters, the suits charge.

The declining typewriter industry is undergoing a mini-revival, at least in high German government circles, thanks to distrust of the U.S. National Security Agency's policy of spying on pretty much every form of electronic communication taking place anywhere in the world.

Germany in particular has taken a dim view of the NSA ever since last year, when allegations surfaced that it bugged the private phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

German Bundestag member Patrick Sensburg is head of the parliamentary inquiry into NSA activities – equialent to an American senator chairing a Senate investigative committee. On Monday, July 14, Sensburg made a television appearance on a morning newsmagazine program and said his inquiry committee, in order to shield itself from NSA spying, was using typewriters in lieu of computers.

“In fact, we already have [a typewriter], and it’s even a non-electronic typewriter,” Sensburg said, after the interviewer of the Morgenmagazin show asked if he was considering the use of typewriters.

Germany isn't the first moden govenrment to acquire old-fashioned technology for security purposes; last July the Russian government reportedly bought 20 new electric typewriters for certain high-level government documentation, after learning the extent of NSA spying activities.

The Russians apparently prefer Triumph-Adler Twen-180 models to meet their typewriter needs. Those models are not easily available in America, however; a brief search of commonplace American retail sites yielded no hits (although some American websites, including Amazon, do sell generic typewriter ribbons advertised as “Triumph-compatible”).

The typewriter companies whose machines are most readily available in America include Brother, IBM and Nakajima. Of those three, Nakajima machines are the most expensive; a single mid-range Nakajima typewriter can cost more than a new laptop computer.

By contrast, an electric or electronic typewriter by Brother can be had for less than $100.

Using typewriters doesn't make you (or a foreign government) immune to spying, from the NSA or anyone else, but it does at least guarantee that a successful spy will have to make an actual effort, and perhaps even take some actual risks, in order to gain your secrets, rather than merely press some buttons on a computer keyboard, bring up the NSA file on you and monitor your communications to his heart's content. That's about the best you can hope for, these days.

Bad news for thrift-store shoppers: though details remain sketchy, it appears certain that hackers have breached the customer credit-card database of Goodwill Industries.

Security blogger Brian Krebs first broke the news on Monday, after his sources reported that financial institutions have been tracking a new series of fraudulent credit-card purchases. Though the fraudulent charges have mostly been made in major supermarkets or big-box retail stores, the stolen card numbers' common point of purchase appears to be Goodwill stores in at least 21 different states: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

It's not known exactly how long this breach has existed, but Krebs' sources said it might stretch as far back as the middle of 2013.

If you have, in the past year, bought anything at a Goodwill store (especially in one of those listed states) and paid with a credit, debit or money card, your account information might be in the hands of identity thieves. Even if you shopped at a store in one of the other states, you might still be at risk – it's too early to tell if the previous list is all-inclusive.

A Goodwill spokeswoman told Krebs that the company “was contacted last Friday afternoon [July 18] by a payment card industry fraud investigative unit and federal authorities informing us that select U.S. store locations may have been the victims of possible theft of payment card numbers. … Goodwill Industries International is working with industry contacts and the federal authorities on the investigation. We will remain appraised of the situation and will work proactively with any individual local Goodwill involved taking appropriate actions if a data compromise is uncovered.”

A sharp increase in the cost of gasoline sent the government's consumer price index (CPI) up 0.3% in June, bringing the rise in the CPI to 2.1% over the last 12 months.

It was the 3.3% advance in gasoline prices that drove the monthly inflation figure higher. In fact, it accounted for two-thirds of the increase. Other energy components were were mixed, with electricity up 0.2%, but natural gas and fuel oil declining 1.7% and 2.6%, respectively.

Overall, energy prices were up 1.6%, the third increase in a row and largest since December. For the past 12 months, energy has increased 3.2%.

Moderating food increases

Food prices rose a tiny 0.1% in June following an advance of 0.5% the month before, posting the smallest monthly increase since January.

Major grocery store food groups were mixed: Dairy and related products fell 0.4%, fruits and vegetables dipped 0.3% and the cost of cereals and bakery products was down 0.2% for the second month in a row.

On the other hand, prices for meats, poultry, fish and eggs increased 0.2% June, but registered the smallest rise since December. The index for food at home has increased 2.4% over the past year, while the index for food away from home has risen 2.2 percent over the past 12 months.

Core rate

The cost of all items -- the “core rate” -- excluding the volatile food and energy components, was up just 0.1% following a 0.3% increase in May, and has increased 2.1% over the last 12 months

The full CPI report for June is available on the Labor Department website.

Prices of houses in the U.S. rose 0.4% in May, according to figures from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

At the same time, the agency said prices the month before actually rose -- a miniscule 0.1% -- revising an earlier report that there was no change.

From May 2013 to May 2014, house prices jumped 5.5%, but remain 6.5% below their April 2007 peak and are roughly the same as they were in July 2005.

The FHFA calculates its House Price Index (HPI) using home sales price information from mortgages either sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

A mixed performance

For the nine census divisions, seasonally adjusted monthly price changes from April 2014 to May 2014 ranged from -0.7% in the East South Central division to +1.1% in the West South Central division.

However, the 12-month changes were all positive ranging from +2.5% in the Middle Atlantic division to +9.6% in the Pacific division.

The complete home price report is available on the FHFA website  

In an effort to make sure retailers can trace sources of ground meats, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing a requirement that all makers of raw ground beef products keep records.

“The improved traceback capabilities that would result from this proposal will prevent foodborne illness by allowing FSIS to conduct recalls of potentially contaminated raw ground products in a timelier manner,” said USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety Brian Ronholm. “By requiring retail outlets to maintain improved records on sources for ground products, the proposal will enable FSIS to quickly identify likely sources of contaminated product linked to an outbreak.”

Retail outlets regularly make ground beef by mixing cuts of beef from various sources. This proposal, if finalized, will require them to keep clear records identifying the source, supplier, and names of all materials used in the preparation of raw ground beef products.

The need for traceback

When foodborne illness outbreaks occur, public health officials work to trace ground beef product back to its source so that any potentially unsafe product can be identified and removed from commerce.

Traceback investigations can be hindered when retail outlets produce ground beef by mixing product from various sources but fail to keep clear records that would allow investigators to determine which supplier produced the unsafe product.

FSIS has concluded that recordkeeping by retail facilities that grind raw beef to date, has not been sufficiently effective.

The agency has stressed repeatedly the importance of maintaining appropriate records to aid in the identification of FSIS-regulated products associated with foodborne illnesses during recall traceback and traceforward or other food safety incidents.

The latest effort

This new FSIS proposal is the agency’s latest effort to target its food safety prevention tools at areas that will have the most significant public health impact. In December 2013, it unveiled its Salmonella Action Plan, which details steps the agency can take to reduce Salmonella contamination in meat and poultry products.

Salmonella causes an estimated 1.4 million foodborne illnesses per year. Included in that plan are forthcoming pathogen reduction performance standards for ground poultry and poultry parts, which will reduce Salmonella, as well as Campylobacter, in popular chicken and turkey products. 

Sales of previously-owned homes climbed 2.6% in June, to an annual rate of 5.04 million houses -- hitting an annual pace of 5 million sales for the first time since October 2013.

But even with the June increase, total sales of existing-home sales -- completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops -- remain 2.3% below the 5.16 million-unit level a year ago.

At the same time, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports both prices and inventory were on the rise last month.

The “right direction”

Analysts say housing fundamentals are moving in the right direction. “Inventories are at their highest level in over a year and price gains have slowed to much more welcoming levels in many parts of the country, Said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “This bodes well for rising home sales in the upcoming months as consumers are provided with more choices.”

However, he says there's work to be done to return to a balanced market. “New home construction needs to rise by at least 50 percent,” said Yun, “because supply shortages -- particularly in the West -- are still putting upward pressure on prices.”

Yun also noted that stagnant wage growth is holding back what should be a stronger pace of sales.

Inventory and pricing

Total housing inventory at the end of June rose 2.2% -- to 2.30 million existing homes available for sale, representing a 5.5-month supply at the current sales pace. Unsold inventory is 6.5% higher than a year ago, when there were 2.16 million existing homes available for sale.

The median existing-home price for all housing types in June was $223,300 -- 4.3% percent above June 2013 and the 28th consecutive month of year-over-year price gains.

• Existing-home sales in the Northeast rose 3.2% to an annual rate of 640,000 in June, but are 3.0% below a year ago. The median price in the Northeast was $269,800, down 0.1%.
• In the Midwest, existing-home sales jumped 6.2% to an annual rate of 1.20 million, but remain 2.4% below June 2013. The median price was $177,900, a gain of 4.6%.
• Sales in the South inched 0.5% higher to an annual level of 2.06 million in June, and are up 1.0% from June 2013. The median price was $192,600, up 3.4% from a year ago.
• Existing-home sales in the West rose 2.7% to an annual rate of 1.14 million in June, but remain 7.3% below a year ago. The median price in the West was $301,000, which is 7.2% above June 2013.

It's obvious from some Facebook and Twitter posts that a lot of people have no reservations about sharing their most intimate thoughts and information. But if you are a bit more circumspect and would like to keep more of your business private, researchers at New York University (NYU) suggest being careful what you order from eBay.

Their concerns are aired in a new research paper – "I Know What You're Buying: Privacy Breaches on eBay." They presented their findings at the Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium in Amsterdam.

The researchers, from the NYU school of engineering and NYU Shanghai, said the privacy flaw allows anyone visiting eBay to view a buyer's complete purchase history.

It might be something innocuous like a piece of furniture. Or it could be something more sensitive, like gun accessories and at-home medical tests for pregnancy or HIV.

Discovered by accident

Doctoral candidate Tehila Minkus made the discovery. Minkus, a self-described eBay user, said she was browsing the feedback section of a would-be purchaser's eBay profile following a botched transaction.

These feedback features are an important part of eBay use since they allow users to leave comments on their purchase experiences to create trust and foster confidence during transactions.

It was while reviewing a particular buyer's feedback that Minkus said she noticed that, with very little effort, she was able to obtain a list of all of his previous purchases.

Doing a little more probing, she said she uncovered what she calls a substantial privacy loophole in the eBay marketplace, one that can expose highly sensitive purchases.

"This breach can be exploited on a scale ranging from a snooping spouse or an employer investigating an individual's buying habits to a large-scale, automated attack that could quickly link millions of people with their purchases," said Keith Ross, Dean of Engineering and Computer Science at NYU Shanghai and a co-author of the paper. "This is exactly the kind of information that could be very valuable to marketers, cybercriminals, or even law enforcement officials."

How it works

According to Minkus and Ross, the privacy flaw works like this: a user, who doesn't even need to be logged in, can visit someone's “feedback as a buyer” page.

Along with their comments, the seller also leaves a record of his or her own username and the time of sale. They don't disclose the item purchased but the researchers say it isn't that hard to figure out.

Simply by going to the seller's feedback page, they say it is relatively easy to match the time stamp of the sale and identify the item that was purchased.

Sometimes more than one sale matches the time stamp, especially with automated sales. But the researchers still found it fairly straightforward to identify purchase histories.

But doesn't eBay assign a pseudonym to each username listed in sales records? True, but Ross and Minkus say the pseudonym follows a formula that makes figuring out the username possible in nearly every case.

Testing the theory

To test their theory they analyzed a database of 5,580 feedback records and said they were able to match 96% of buyers' feedback records to a single seller feedback record, complete with purchase details.

Is this something consumers – regular and casual users of eBay – should worry about? It depends.

"While compiling data on purchasers of pregnancy or at-home HIV tests is useful to a fairly limited group — perhaps advertisers or pharmaceutical companies — assembling a database of those who have purchased gun accessories may have considerably more impact," said Minkus.

The researchers said they took their discovery to eBay and offered a patch to the privacy flaw. The simplest, they say, is changing the default setting of seller's feedback to buyers so that the comments would be public but the actual item sold would never be linked on either the buyer's or seller's pages.

In the meantime, they suggest that eBay users maintain two separate accounts, a private profile for buying and a public account for selling.

As the American population ages, the home elevator is becoming a popular option for those able to afford it and can be life-changing for those who might otherwise have to move out of their homes when they become unable to navigate stairways on their own.

But residential elevators -- like swimming pools -- can be life-changing in more ways than one, as a series of reports by reporter Dana Fowle at Atlanta's Fox 5 News has shown.

Fowle's reports have documented the inconsistent and sometimes non-existent local regulations that govern residential elevators. Some states have relatively strict regulations covering installation, maintenance and inspection of elevators in single-family homes while others have virutally none.

In the popular beachfront resort town of Myrtle Beach, S.C., elevators in single-family homes don't have to be inspected, Fowle found. That spelled tragedy for Jordan Nelson, 10, of Baltimore, who was vacationing with his family in a two-story beach house.

No inside stairs

Oddly, the rental house had no internal stairs; the only way to get from one floor to another was to take the stairs outside the house or the elevator inside. A storm was rolliing in one day as Jordan was headed upstairs. Rather than get wet, he hopped into the elevator.

The next thing anyone knew, Jordan was screaming for help. He had somehow gotten "wrapped around" the elevator -- his head beneath the car and his legs and torso still inside.

"Jordan puts his head out and essentially ends up wrapped around the elevator's car. When he's found by his family his head is under the elevator and his lower extremities - his legs and torso - are still inside the car. So, he's like a U wrapped around the elevator," said Andy Cash, the Nelson family's attorney. 

In seconds, Jordan went from being a superstar athlete, winning trophies in football, soccer and basketball to being a quadriplegic, suffering from catastrophic brain damage.

A lawsuit filed by Jordan's family alleges that the accordian doors designed to prevent anyone from being outside the car when the elevaor is moving were inoperable.   

Fowle’s reporting on Jordan Nelson's accident, and similar ones elsewhere, has led to possible changes in Georgia state laws. 

It also provides a valuable warning to any family that might be thinking of installing an elevator or visiting a home that has an elevator. 

When the revelations that GM delayed recalls of cars with faulty ignition switches for nearly a decade first surfaced this year, many were willing to cut the carmaker some slack.

The problems occurred during the days of the “old GM,” before the carmaker declared and emerged from bankruptcy under U.S. government guidance and new corporate leadership. GM CEO Mary Bara appeared before Congress and issued a public apology.

An internal GM investigation found no evidence of a cover-up but cited examples of incompetence that allowed the ignition switch failure to remain unresolved for years, resulting in accidents that claimed at least 13 lives.

Bara's forthright willingness to accept responsibility and compensate victims' families won her praise in the media and the halls of Congress.

Changing perspectives

But the passage of time seems to have altered perspectives on both sides of the issue. The “new” GM has made it clear there is a limit to the responsibility it will assume for the old GM.

In yet another appearance before Congress last week, Bara dug in her heels on the issue of compensation, refusing to increase it beyond what has already been agreed to. GM, she said, will not waive its protection from lawsuits by virtue of its bankruptcy.

At the same time, Barra and the new GM aren't being treated nearly as gently as before.

The changing atmosphere may be due in part to a New York Times article suggesting GM's legal department stonewalled death inquiries stemming from accidents related to the ignition switch.

The Times report alleged that in at least 3 fatal crashes, GM told federal safety inspectors that it had not been able to assess the cause, when in fact GM engineers had concluded the accidents were probably caused by the cars losing power.

Chilly reception

Barra's chilly reception before a Senate committee last week was very different from her first appearance. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called her answers “unsatisfactory.” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) suggested a cover-up.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and others zeroed in on GM's top lawyer – Michael Millikin – calling for his dismissal. McCaskill said the “failure of GM's legal department is stunning” and questioned how he could keep his job.

“I do not understand how the general counsel for a litigation department that had this massive failure of responsibility, how he would be allowed to continue in that important leadership role in this company,” McCaskill said.

While Barra has thus far escaped most criticism, her strong defense of the company's legal chief drew lawmakers' ire.

“I think you’ve … handled this with courage and conviction … but for the life of me, I [can’t understand] the notion that he can say ‘I don’t know’ … the failure of this legal department is stunning,” McCaskill told Barra.

AAA weighs in

The Congressional hearing also prompted AAA to weigh in on the controversy. The auto club issued a statement calling the failure of GM executive management to adequately oversee and respond to early warning signals of potential vehicle safety problems “unacceptable.”

"AAA continues to support efforts by Congress to raise the maximum fine that NHTSA can levy on automakers, along with legislation introduced by Senators Markey and Blumenthal calling for increased transparency in the recall process,” the statement said. “These steps should be taken immediately, and Congress should further use its authority to identify additional ways to help ensure that a tragedy such as this is never allowed to occur again."

A homeowning couple in drought-stricken California is facing an apparent legal Catch-22: the state will fine them $500 if they water their lawn, but their city will fine them up to $500 if they don't.

Last week, on July 15, California passed into law a set of mandatory statewide water restrictions, with high fines and penalties for violators.

On the same day, Glendora residents Laura Whitney and Michael Korte got a letter from the city, threatening to fine them for letting their lawn turn brown. Whitney and Korte told the Associated Press that their lawn had browned because, in an attempt to reduce their household water use, they had only been watering it twice a week:

They're encouraged by the state's new drought-busting, public service slogan: Brown is the new green.

The city of Glendora sees it differently.

"Despite the water conservation efforts, we wish to remind you that limited watering is still required to keep landscaping looking healthy and green," says the letter, which gives Korte and Whitney 60 days to restore their lawn.

Whitney also said: “My friends in Los Angeles got these letters warning they could be fined if they water, and I got a letter warning that I could be fined for not watering … I felt like I was in an alternate universe.”

Alternate universe

The AP story first ran on July 17. That same day, at 10:21 AM (Pacific time), the city of Glendora posted the following “Water Conservation Update/Information” on its website:

The City of Glendora takes the challenge of drought conservation seriously.  Our efforts have reduced water consumption by nearly 12% since we implemented Stage One regulations in 2008.  In extreme drought conditions, the City understands that lawns will have brown color.  Conserving does not mean property owners should allow vegetation to die or go unmaintained.   We offer financial incentives to ratepayers to undertake conservation steps like turf removal, low flow toilets and smart controllers. 

This seems to imply that the city has backed down from its previous demand that lawns look “healthy and green.” But by July 20, when Whitney and Korte's story made CBS Evening News, the couple said they weren't sure what would happen next – though the city website now admits to “brown lawns” and no longer mentions fines, they haven't heard whether the July 15 warning from the city still applies.

Whitney and Korte aren't the first Californians to face legal paradoxes as a result of the drought. In April, state legislators proposed a bill which, if passed, would ban homeowners associations from requiring water-intensive lawn conditions during a drought, or punishing residents who complied with state or local drought regulations. But that proposed bill, if passed, would only apply to HOAs in California.

When news of Whitney and Korte's plight first made headlines, state assemblywoman Cheryl Brown told the AP that she'd previously introduced a bill that would put similar restrictions on municipalities in the state, but dropped it after cities in her district promised they'd never punish residents for defying state drought restrictions. Now, though, she says she might revive the bill in 2015, and said: “It seems to me those cities aren't using common sense …. It's too bad you need a law.”