Current Events in September 2014

Food prices are up and Americans are responding with the original do-it-yourself solution: they're growing their own. It seems everyone has chickens roaming around their homes lately and backyard gardens are becoming commonplace.

The National Gardening Association reports there's been a 17% increase in food gardening over the last five years, up from 36 million households in 2008 to 42 million in 2013. Spending on food gardening has increased 43%, urban gardeners have increased by 29%.

There has also been a residential chicken movement in big cities in recent years. Cities such as Boston and Madison, Wisconsin, are known to have had chickens residing illegally behind city fences. Grassroots campaigns are sprouting to allow a limited number of hens behind those white picket fences.

Mobile slaughterhouses

Jac Smit is the  president of the Urban Agriculture Network.  He says the spread of backyard chickens has promoted spin-off businesses that cater to the local market. Some communities are relying on mobile slaughterhouses to manage and distribute the poultry meat, according to Smit.

"It's no longer huge slaughterhouses doing millions [of birds]. It's a guy driving around on a truck, visiting neighborhood to neighborhood," he said. "And it's not chickens only. Duck, turkey, and quail are particularly attractive."

The not-so-sunny-side-up about these chickens is that many of them are getting dumped at animal shelters because people aren't aware of what goes into taking care of them. Hundreds, sometimes dozens at a time, are being abandoned.  The hope is that education will help people understand what they are getting into when they start their own hen house.

If all of this sounds pretty exciting and you always thought growing your own food and raising your own chickens would be fun, explore the Internet. There are many DIY options, including:

• UrbanFarmOnline.com, a free site with a barnful of gardening information;
• BackYardChickens.com, a chicken and duck bible.
• HobbyFarms.com, everything from gardening to tools and equipment to husbandry, which by the way is not telling your husband what to do.

An estimated 10,000 people retire each day, according to Pew Research, a trend that's likely to continue for the next 15 years or so. That means a lot of jobs will need to be filled, many of them requiring a particular skill.

So, who's going to be taking on this responsibility?

According to new research from CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI), high school seniors may be taking a more active role in providing a solution to the skills gap. Nearly 75% of high school seniors know what career they want to pursue -- and STEM-related fields (science, technology, engineering and math) top their choices.

The research combines labor market data pulled from Semi’s extensive database with nationwide surveys of more than 2,100 employers across industries and more than 200 high school seniors conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder from May 13 to June 6, 2014.

Long-running openings

According to the survey, 37% of hiring managers say they currently have positions that -- on average -- stay open for 12 weeks or longer, compared with 35% last year. Comparing industries, Information Technology (52%), Health Care (49%) and Manufacturing (44%) all came in significantly higher than the national average.

Among employers who have positions that stay open for 12 weeks or longer, 60% said they will raise starting salaries over the next 12 months, versus 43% for all employers.

Job postings vs. hires

To further explore how much companies are struggling to fill more specialized roles, CareerBuilder and EMSI compiled a list of some of the hardest-to-fill occupations that tend to be vacant for 12 weeks or longer, based on the survey conducted by Harris Poll. CareerBuilder and EMSI then pulled labor market data to see how the aggregated average monthly job postings3 for these occupations compare to the number of people who were actually hired over the last year (July 2013 to July 2014).

For Software Developers, Nurses, Sales Representatives and Network Administrators and IT Managers, the number of people hired for these occupations significantly lags the number of job ads companies are posting -- evidence that the skilled labor supply is not keeping up with the demand.

Aging Workforce and Education Gap

To get a sense of how quickly talent pools will be replenished for in-demand occupations, CareerBuilder and EMSI also looked at post-recession job growth for some of the hardest-to-fill positions along with the pace of college degree completions for those professions and the percentage of the workforce that is nearing retirement.

For example, employment in industries such as Manufacturing had been on a downward trajectory for a number of years due to automation and sending jobs overseas. Now, more Manufacturing jobs are coming back to the U.S., but the talent pool has shrunk over time due to workers moving into other fields and students avoiding related majors because jobs were being offshore.

From 2010 to 2014, there were an estimated 23,861 annual job openings for Machinists, but the number of college degrees awarded for this field was only 6,184 in 2013. Moreover, 25% of Machinists are ages 55 and older and approaching retirement, hastening the need to find replacement workers.

““There is a growing imbalance between the number of jobs being advertised and the number of jobs being filled -- and the college degrees needed to keep up with employment demands,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder and co-author of The Talent Equation. “Education is one of the building blocks of our economy and one of the most important defenses we have against the skills shortage in the U.S. More companies are promoting STEM-related careers in high schools and grammar schools, and it’s encouraging to see students get excited about pursuing these fields.”

Seniors eye the future

Fortunately, the Harris Poll survey shows the vast majority (97%) of high school seniors plan to go to college to obtain a two-year or four-year degree or other training that may ultimately help to close the talent gap. The most popular majors these students plan to sign up for are largely STEM-related:

• Engineering
• Business
• Psychology
• Biological and Biomedical Sciences
• Physical Sciences
• Arts, Visual and Performing
• Computer and Information Sciences
• Health Professions and Related Clinical Sciences
• English Language and Literature
• Math and Statistics

Seventy-three percent of high school seniors reported that they already know which career they want to pursue. The most popular choices for profession among these students include:

• Teacher
• Engineer
• Psychologist/Psychiatrist
• Scientist – Biological/Physical/Social
• Artist/Designer
• Veterinarian
• Machine Operator
• Computer Programmer
• Physician
• Government Professional
• Nurse

While 21% of high school seniors said their career decision was influenced by something they saw on TV or in a movie, 47% relied on research they conducted online, 32% pointed to advice from parents and/or family members and 25% said one of their teachers advised them.

Job creation took something of a breather in August.

After cranking out 200,000+ jobs for 6 straight months, the nations economy added just 142,000 new payroll positions in August. Figures from the government show that was the smallest number since 144,000 new jobs were added back in January.

At the same time, the unemployment rate dipped 0.1% to 6.1%. Over the year, the unemployment rate is down by 1.1%.

Where the jobs are

Professional and business services added 47,000 jobs in August, with management of companies and enterprises gaining 8,000 positions. Administrative and support services were up by 23,000, architectural and engineering services hired 3,000 workers as did management and technical consulting services.

Health care employment increased by 34,000 in August. Additions came in offices of physicians and hospitals (+8,000 and +7,000 respectively) and social assistance (+9,000).

In the leisure and hospitality sector, employment in food services and drinking places continued jumped 22,000 and is up by 289,000 over the year.

Construction added 20,000 jobs last month -- in line with its average monthly job gain of 18,000 over the prior 12 months. Employment also trended up in specialty trade contractors (+12,000) and construction of buildings (+7,000).

Manufacturing employment was unchanged in August, after an increase of 28,000 in July. Motor vehicles and parts lost 5,000 jobs following the addition of 13,000 jobs in July. Elsewhere in manufacturing, there were job gains in computer and peripheral equipment (+3,000) and in nonmetallic mineral products (+3,000), but electronic instruments lost 2,000 positions.

Who's working and who's not

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates in August showed little or no change for adult men and adult women (both at 5.7%), teenagers (19.6 %), whites (5.3%, blacks (11.4%), Hispanics (7.5%) and Asians (4.5%).

The number of long-term unemployed -- those out of work for 27 weeks or more -- declined by 192,000 to 3.0 million in August, and accounted for 31.2% of the unemployed. Over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has fallen by 1.3 million.

The civilian labor force participation rate , at 62.8% showed little change in August and has been essentially unchanged since April. The employment-population ratio was 59.0% for the third consecutive month but is up by 0.4% from a year earlier.

The full report is available on the Labor Department website.

Helmet City is recalling 1,755 HCI Model 100 L, XL, and XXL motorcycle helmets manufactured August 2012.

The helmets fail to comply with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards No. 218, "Motorcycle Helmets." In the event of a crash, the rider may be at an increased risk of a head injury.

HCI will notify owners, and distributors will replace the old helmet with a new helmet with a production date of 2014, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact HCI customer service at 1-888-550-3731.

Livie and Luca of Emeryville, Calif., is recalling about 5,600 pair of “Carta” and “Cotton” children’s shoes.

A metal thread inside the interior shoe liner can loosen and poke through the shoe lining, posing a laceration hazard to the user.

The firm has received 2 reports of the metal thread coming through the liner of the shoe, including 1 report of a child’s foot that was cut by a metal thread poking through the shoe lining.

The recalled Livie & Luca children’s shoes include two styles: Carta and Cotton. The Carta style Mary Jane shoes are canvas, solid color shoes stitched to a tan sole with a fabric strap and a brown wooden button. The Carta shoes are blue, fuchsia or gray.

The Cotton style Mary Jane canvas shoes have a stitched tan rubber sole and a colored fabric strap with a dandelion printed on a pink square button and a gingham or polka-dot cotton interior lining. The cotton shoes are yellow, green or red.

Both the Carta and the Cotton style shoes were sold in toddler sizes 4 through 13. Only shoes with date codes 06 2013 through 12 2013 (Month Year) printed on the insole of the shoe are included in the recall. The Livie & Luca logo is printed on the inside of the shoe.

The shoes, manufactured in Mexico, were sold at children’s boutiques including Ready Set Grow in Tennessee and ZandyZoos in Texas and online at www.livieandluca.com, www.zappos.com, www.addyscloset.com and www.mylittlejules.com from January 2014, through March 2014, for about $54.

Consumers should immediately take these shoes away from children and contact the retailer where purchased for instructions on receiving a store credit or replacement. If purchased through Livie & Luca’s online, contact the firm for instructions on receiving a store credit for a free replacement pair of shoes with prepaid shipping before disposing of the shoes.

Consumers may contact Livie & Luca toll-free at (888) 548-5822 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or by email at info@livieandluca.com.

Tjs Place of Kirkland, Wash., is recalling approximately 20 containers of Basil Pesto Pasta packed in 8 oz plastic tubs.

The product has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

The firm says it is unaware of any reported illnesses to date.

The recalled Basil Pesto Pasta was sold between 8/18/14 – 8/21/14, and has a sticker on the side of the container with either of the following codes: 0825, 0826, 0827, 0828

It was distributed in convenience stores, pharmacies, cafes and espresso stands located in King and Snohomish counties in Washington State.

Consumers who have purchased the recalled product are urged not to eat it and to dispose of it or return it to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 425-444-3700 between 2pm. and 4pm.

With all those credit card offers that come in the mail, you might think you can have your pick of credit cards.

Don't count on it. Just about anyone with a pulse is getting those notices that they have been “pre-qualified” for a credit card. The truth is, neither you nor anyone else has been pre-qualified.

You may be getting these offers for any number of reasons; the zip code in which you reside, the model car you drive, other credit or charge cards you might have.

But the credit card company can't offer you an actual credit card yet because it hasn't had a peek at your credit file. Once it has, it might not be returning your phone calls.

Consumers often take it personally when they apply for a “pre-qualified” credit card, only to be turned down. But something ugly in your credit report is not the only reason a credit card company declines your application.

What other reasons are there? We asked the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) and they came up with 10.

Not enough credit

You need credit to get credit, it seems. It's like getting turned down for your first job because you don't have work experience. Credit card lenders believe in patterns.

They want to see how you've handled other credit. You can build your case by getting a retail store charge card, using it to make a small purchase, then paying the bill immediately.

Poor pay history

Been late on a few bills? Word has a way of getting around and ending up in your credit file, which lowers your credit score.

You can raise your score by paying all of your bills on time, every time. It's as simple as that.

Maxed out

If you have a credit card or two and they're maxed out, it looks like you're in over your head. It doesn't exactly inspire a credit card company to extend you more credit.

NFCC says your credit card debt should equal no more that 30% of your available credit.

Too much debt

Mortgage, car payment, credit card bills – it can add up to a lot of money. If it looks like too much money, relative to your income, it can raise a red flag. Do you really need to take on more debt? Maybe the credit card company is doing you a favor by declining your application.

Too many inquiries

Every time you apply for credit, the potential lender pings your credit file. The credit bureaus keep track of these inquiries, which themselves become part of the record.

What's a credit card lender to think if you've applied for 3 other cards in the last month? They probably think you may have a financial problem.

Serious nastiness

There could be something in your credit report that that's an instant turn off. And the trouble is, the worse the problem – unpaid tax lien or Chapter 7 bankruptcy – the longer it lingers in your file.

Other reasons

In some cases, a credit card company might not think you make enough money. The credit card you're applying for might have a $10,000 credit limit and the lender decides your income isn't high enough to risk it.

A very common reason for rejection is job status. If you've just switched jobs, a lender is likely to wait to see how it works out. If you've moved from job to job in a short time, it might also be a reason to say no.

You might be considered too young. That's often the case when teenagers apply for their first credit card. Being a signer on a parent's account might be a good first credit card, while helping to establish your creditworthiness.

Finally, there might simply be an error in your credit application. Maybe you gave the wrong information or left something out.

Filling out the form online might be a way to cut down on mistakes since online forms prompt you when you leave out important information.

Remember, if you are denied credit because of something in your credit report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to be notified of the reason. If the information is in error, you can then appeal to the three credit reporting agencies – Experian, Equifax and Trans Union, to remove the incorrect information.

Google will repay at least $19 million to the parents of children who incurred illegal charges while using mobile apps downloaded from the Google Play store. Children are not legally able to enter into contracts, a fact that has been widely known for centuries but which has somehow escaped the notice of many online ventures until recently. 

Google has also agreed to modify its billing practices to ensure that it obtains express, informed consent from consumers before charging them -- or their children -- for items sold in mobile apps.

The settlement results from a Federal Trade Commission complaint that accused Google of billing consumers for charges by children made within kids’ apps downloaded from the Google Play store. Many consumers reported hundreds of dollars of such unauthorized charges beginning in 2011, according to the complaint.

Google employees referred to the issue as “friendly fraud” and “family fraud” and tried to tell complaining parents they would have to pursue refunds from the app developer rather than Google, the FTC charged.

Full refunds

Under the terms of the settlement, Google will provide full refunds – with a minimum payment of $19 million – to consumers who were charged for kids’ purchases without authorization of the account holder. 

The settlement requires Google to contact all consumers who placed an in-app charge to inform them of the refund process for unauthorized in-app charges by children within 15 days of the order being finalized. Google must make these refunds promptly, upon request from an account holder.

“For millions of American families, smartphones and tablets have become a part of their daily lives,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “As more Americans embrace mobile technology, it’s vital to remind companies that time-tested consumer protections still apply, including that consumers should not be charged for purchases they did not authorize.”

It's the third case involving unauthorized in-app charges by children. In January, the Commission announced a settlement requiring Apple to provide full refunds to consumers who were billed for unauthorized charges by children – paying a minimum amount of $32.5 million – and obtain express, informed consent for in-app charges. Amazon is facing similar charges.

In-app charges are a component of many apps available from Google Play and can range from 99 cents to $200. In many apps used by children, users are invited to accumulate virtual items that help them advance in the game, though as the FTC’s complaint notes, the lines between virtual money purchases and real money purchases can be blurred.

Left holding the bill

The FTC’s complaint alleges that Google billed consumers for many such charges by children without obtaining account holders’ authorization, leaving consumers holding the bill.

When Google first introduced in-app charges to the Google Play store in 2011, the complaint alleges, Google billed for such charges without any password requirement or other method to obtain account holder authorization. Children could incur in-app charges simply by clicking on popup boxes within the app as they used it.

According to the complaint, in mid- to late 2012, Google began presenting a pop-up box that asked for the account holder’s password before billing in-app charges. The new pop-up, however, did not contain any information about the charge. Google also did not inform consumers that entering the password opened up a 30-minute window in which a password was no longer required, allowing children to rack up unlimited charges during that time.

During this time, many thousands of consumers complained to Google about children making unauthorized in-app charges, according to the complaint. Some parents noted that their children had spent hundreds of dollars in in-app charges without their consent. Others noted that children buying virtual in-game items with real money were unaware they were causing their parents to be billed.

There's more information available about the Home Depot database hacking reported earlier this week, and that news is about as bad as it gets.

Security blogger Brian Krebs, who first broke word of the security breach, reports that new evidence suggests the credit- and debit-card breach affected every Home Depot store in the United States.

There's no doubt that a great many stolen credit and debit card numbers have suddenly appeared for sale in underground crime stores; the only question is, where were these numbers first stolen from?

Data theft is much harder to detect than the theft of physical goods. If, for example, a thief broke into your house and stole your TV, this would be immediately obvious after even a casual glance: there's the shattered window or broken door lock where he entered the house, and the TV is gone.

Not much evidence

But when credit card numbers or other sensitive data is stolen from a database, there's no sign of forced entry, and the numbers don't actually go “missing;” usually, the first sign that anything's wrong doesn't come until either somebody discovers the information for sale in an underground crime store, or card-issuing companies start collecting an unusual number of fraudulent-charge complaints from their account holders.

At that point, the companies (possibly with assistance from the U.S. Secret Service) start doing detective work to figure out what all of these stolen cards have in common. If, for example, it turns out that every single card had been used to make a legitimate purchase at Home Depot within a certain time frame, with no other common point of purchase, then chances are the breach involved Home Depot's database somehow.

However, the detective work behind the Home Depot data breach focuses more on zip codes – or, more specifically, the underground crime store where these stolen accounts are for sale divvies them up according to the zip code of the store where they were stolen. Why is that? As Krebs explained:

The ZIP code data allows crooks who buy these cards to create counterfeit copies of the credit and debit cards, and use them to buy gift cards and high-priced merchandise from big box retail stores. This information is extremely valuable to the crooks who are purchasing the stolen cards, for one simple reason: Banks will often block in-store card transactions on purchases that occur outside of the legitimate cardholder’s geographic region (particularly in the wake of a major breach).

Thus, experienced crooks prefer to purchase cards that were stolen from stores near them, because they know that using the cards for fraudulent purchases in the same geographic area as the legitimate cardholder is less likely to trigger alerts about suspicious transactions — alerts that could render the stolen card data worthless for the thieves.

Worse than Target

Based on the currently available information, it does appear that this Home Depot breach is much worse (in terms of the number of affected customers) than the Target breach.

As Krebs pointed out: the Target breach left customer data from about 1,800 stores exposed to thieves for roughly three weeks, whereas this Home Depot breach appears to involve customer data from 2,200 stores, starting last April or May and lasting all through the summer.

SIM USA, an American missionary organization, has reported another of its doctors in Liberia has been diagnosed with the Ebola virus. He is the third American health worker to contract the deadly disease.

When two American health care workers in Africa were infected with the virus last month, there were few treatment options available.

In a desperate move, they were injected with ZMapp, a drug that had been developed in the U.S. to treat Ebola but which had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In fact, no clinical trials had been conducted to determine whether the drug was even safe for use in humans. But both health care workers recovered.

That led some to wonder why the drug wasn't readily available for other Ebola victims. In addition to the fact that it is an unapproved drug, there simply isn't very much of it. Only a limited amount of ZMapp had been produced.

Fast-track approval

This week the U.S. government put a plan in place to fast-track approval of ZMapp as Ebola continues to claim more victims in Africa and Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned it threatens to “get out of control.”

“The bottom line is that despite tremendous efforts from the U.S. government, CDC, from within countries, the number of cases continues to increase and is now increasing rapidly,” Freiden said at a news conference.

The CDC says it is too early to know whether ZMapp is effective, but the government is doubling down on the experimental drug as its best chance to halt the disease.

“The best way to know if treatment with the product is efficacious is to conduct a randomized controlled clinical trial in people to compare outcomes of patients who receive the treatment to untreated patients,” the CDC said. “No such studies have been conducted. It's important to note that the standard treatment for Ebola remains supportive therapy.”

Federal funding

Under the terms of a contract signed this week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will provide funding to speed that process. Under the terms of the agreement the manufacturer, Mapp Biopharmaceuticals, will quickly produce more of the drug for testing.

Initial funding will total nearly $25 million but the contract can be extended up to $42 million.

The drug will be distributed for early stage clinical safety studies and nonclinical studies needed to demonstrate its safety and efficacy in people. Mapp Biopharmaceuticals also will work with government agencies on the manufacturing process, increasing production yields and the scale of manufacturing.

“While ZMapp has received a lot of attention, it is one of several treatments under development for Ebola, and we still have very limited data on its safety and efficacy,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS. “Developing drugs and vaccines to protect against Ebola as a biological threat has been a long-term goal of the U.S. government.”

From tobacco

ZMapp comes from tobacco plants. It has been shown to neutralize the virus, decreasing the amount of it in the body that the patient’s immune system has to fight.

Before the current outbreak, it had not been tried on humans but had been shown to reduce the death rate in mice and nonhuman primates exposed to Ebola viruses.

Work is also under way to speed development and approval of vaccines that would prevent someone from getting Ebola in the first place.

When disaster hits, often without warning, people may be left without food and shelter for a while, but it's usually much worse for animals, who have been the least protected throughout disasters around the globe.

If you watch videos of the devastating hurricane Katrina you will see people floating with dogs on makeshift boats. They were the lucky ones. Many other pets were left to drown. And it's even worse for livestock. With more than one billion of the world's poor depending on animals for jobs, food, income and even transportation, it's hard to understand how such an important segment could be left out.

The need for animals to be included in disaster risk management planning was highlighted recently at the International Conference on Small Island Developing States. There was an appeal for them to be included in the revised Hyogo Framework for Action, which is the international framework for disaster risk reduction.

“When Katrina happened in 2005 in the USA between 50,000 to 80,000 animals were left alone and could not be evacuated. 80 per cent of them were killed mostly by drowning," said Dr. Wayne Ricketts of World Animal Protection. 

Ricketts went on to point out that including animals in disaster management planning has been proven to significantly reduce the costs of recovery efforts.

In Kenya that was made clear via a study that was done in 2013. It showed that after floods every $1 invested to protect animals generated $2.74 that benefited the community by avoiding losses.

What to do

Ricketts and others are trying to get action on a global basis. They are working closely with the United Nations to include animal welfare in the post-2015 development agenda for disaster risk reduction.

But what about you? What can an individual do to protect pets when disaster strikes? The Humane Society provides detailed preparedness information for all kinds of animals. It's available online and it's worth checking out -- now, before you need it.

The Agriculture Department is looking for a few good carrots to take into schools.

The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service is creating a new program and wants the nation's farmers to get involved. The AMS is teaming up with the Food and Nutrition Service to bring unprocessed fruits and veggies to schools.

It's actually a pilot program created by the 2014 Farm Bill. You wouldn't think it would be that tough to get a few carrots as food options in schools but sometimes even simple things require an act of Congress.

The program is supposed to help farmers by allowing them to supply unprocessed quality fruits and vegetables to schools in eight states. The benefit doesn't stop with the farmers, as the schools are able to purchase the produce from eligible suppliers and use entitlement funding.

A recent farm-to-school census revealed that 56% of school districts want to buy more local food. FNS has invited states to participate in the pilot program by September 30, 2014.

If you are a farmer and you do have a few carrots laying around you may want to sign up. AMS is accepting applications for  vendors on a rolling basis.

Some studies are more surprising than others. Falling into the not-too-surprising category is the finding by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that finds overweight counselors aren't as effective as their slimmer counterparts are getting obese patients to lose weight.

In other words, patients may be more receptive to those who "practice what they preach."

Study leader Sara Bleich, PhD, an associate professor with the Bloomberg School's Department of Health Policy and Management, put it a bit more academically:

"Our research shows that the personal weight of health professionals matters when assessing their perceived level of success in helping obese patients to lose weight," she said. "Health professionals who maintain a healthy weight feel more empowered to help their obese patients achieve their weight loss goals and reported being more successful at helping obese patients lose weight."

Study details

The researchers surveyed 500 non-physician health professionals specializing in nutrition, nursing, behavior/mental health, exercise and pharmacy between January 20 and February 5, 2014.

Professionals of all weights, the survey found, were equally confident in their ability to relay proper weight-loss advice and felt that patients were equally receptive to it. But 52 percent of those counselors of normal weight reported success in helping obese patients achieve clinically significant weight loss as compared to 29 percent of overweight counselors.

The study also found that most health professionals, regardless of their weight, do not feel successful in helping patients with weight loss until they are morbidly obese, which suggests missed opportunities for early intervention.

A 2012 study led by Bleich on the impact of physician BMI on obesity care found that size also matters when it comes to physician care of obese patients. It found that normal-weight physicians, as compared to overweight/obese physicians, were more likely to provide recommended obesity care to their patients and feel confident doing so.

"More research is needed to understand how to improve obesity care delivered by non-physician health professionals, and why these groups do not typically initiate weight management discussions until their patients are morbidly obese, regardless of their personal body weight," Bleich says. "Going forward, it will be important to increase the confidence, perception and skill set among all health professionals who work on this public health issue."

The findings were published online Sept. 4 in the journal Obesity.

A new study finds that breast-conserving therapy may offer a greater survival benefit than mastecomy to women with early stage, hormone-receptor positive disease. 

The study findings defy the conventional belief that the two treatment interventions offer equal survival, and show the need to revisit some standards of breast cancer practice in the modern era, say researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

In the 1980s, studies concluded that breast conservation (BCT) and mastectomy offered women with early stage breast cancer equal survival benefit. However, those findings come from a period in time when very little was understood about breast cancer biology, said Isabelle Bedrosian, M.D., associate professor, surgical oncology at MD Anderson.

"Forty years ago, very little was known about breast cancer disease biology – such as subtypes, differences in radio-sensitivities, radio-resistances, local recurrence and in metastatic potential," said Bedrosian, the study's senior author. "Since then, there's been a whole body of biology that's been learned – none of which has been incorporated into patient survival outcomes for women undergoing BCT or a mastectomy.

"We thought it was important to visit the issue of BCT versus mastectomy by tumor biology," Bedrosian continues.

But Bedrosian cautioned that the findings, while provocative, should still be regarded as preliminary. She said that the use of radiation therapy in breast conservation therapy may be a factor in the overall survival numbers, 

Study details

For the retrospective, population-based study, the researchers used the National Cancer Database (NCDB), a nation-wide outcomes registry of the American College of Surgeons, the American Cancer Society and the Commission on Cancer that captures approximately 70% of newly-diagnosed cases of cancer in the country. They identified 16,646 women in 2004-2005 with Stage I disease that underwent mastectomy, breast conserving surgery followed by six weeks of radiation (BCT), or breast conserving surgery without radiation (BCS).

Of the 16,646 women: 1,845 (11%) received BCS; 11,214 (67%) received BCT and 3,857 (22%) underwent a mastectomy. Women that had BCT had superior survival to those that had a mastectomy or BCS – the five-year overall survival was 96%, 90% and 87%, respectively. After adjusting for other risk factors, the researchers again found an overall survival benefit for BCT compared to BCS and mastectomy. 

"While retrospective, I think our findings should give the breast cancer community pause. In the future, we may need to reconsider the paradigm that BCT and mastectomy are equivalent," she says. "When factoring in what we know about tumor biology, that paradigm may no longer hold true."

The research was presented at the 2014 Breast Cancer Symposium by Catherine Parker, MD, formerly a fellow at MD Anderson, now at the University of Alabama Birmingham.

This sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie but we should be used to that, the way technology is developing. In London they are in the process of creating artificial micro-humans.

That translates to no need for animals in laboratory tests. Each year as many as 90 million animals die due to testing.

These little artificial humans are very small -- the size of a microchip. They will simulate the human response to things that have been inhaled or circulated through the bloodstream and absorbed in the gut. The prototypes were a artificial lung, liver kidney and a heart. They are already being used in different tests.

These small artificial human machines could begin to replace animal laboratories within a three-year time frame.

Assuming the tests are successful, researchers will still have to do a second round with animals to prove that the substances are safe when they interact in a living body. There is still another snag with the animals as almost half of drugs that pass the animal tests later cause unforeseen side effects during human trials.

The hope is that these small artificial human machines will eliminate drug tests that are not safe for humans and help expedite life saving treatments.

According to Uwe Marx, a tissue engineer from Technische Universitat Berlin and founder of TissUse, a firm developing the technology "If our system is approved by the regulators, then it will close down most of the animal-testing laboratories worldwide."

US-based employers announced plans to cut 40,010 in August -- a drop of 15% from the 46,887 planned terminations reported in July.

Figures released by outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, show last month's total was down 21% from the same month a year ago, and just the fourth time this year that the monthly total was lower than the comparable period a year ago.

So far this year, job cuts are down slightly from 2013. Through August 31, planned job cuts total 332,931 -- which is 4.0% fewer than the 347,095 cuts announced between January and August of last year.

A hit in the tech sector

August job cuts were heaviest in the tech sector, where electronics firm Cisco Systems announced plans to reduce its payroll by 6,000 jobs following weak quarterly sales numbers. It joins fellow tech-sector giants Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel in announcing large downsizing initiatives this year.

Employers in the technology sector, including computer, telecommunications, and electronics firms have announced 80,088 job cuts in 2014 -- 41% more than the 56,918 tech-sector job cuts announced in all of 2013.

Computer firms have experienced the heaviest downsizing so far this year, announcing a total of 48,928 job cuts, to date. That's 87% more than the 26,180 job cut announced by this industry at the same point in 2013.

Electronics firms, such as Cisco Systems, have seen the largest increase in year-over-year job cuts. The 16,406 job cuts announced by these firms to date ranks ninth among all industries. However, that total represents a 170 percent increase from the 6,078 job cuts announced during the same period in 2013.

Retail losses slow

Meanwhile, retailers have the second highest number of job cuts this year, although downsizing in the industry has slowed from a year ago. Retail employers have announced plans to fire 30,109 workers so far this year, down 15% from the 35,567 planned reductions recorded by this point in 2013.

“Like retail, the majority of industries have seen job cuts decline in 2014,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “For many of the industries where job cuts are on the rise, economic weakness is not the driving factor. Instead, the cuts appear to be motivated by fundamental changes in the industry.”  

The nation's economy continues to crank out private sector payroll jobs.

According to the August ADP National Employment Report, employers added 204,000 jobs from July to August, the fifth month in a row the figure has come in above 200,000..

The report, produced by payroll provider ADP in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis.

Goods and services

Goods-producing employment shot up by 41,000 jobs in August -- 18,000 more than July. Manufacturing added 23,000 jobs -- the highest total in that sector since December 2012, while the construction industry added 15,000 jobs, slightly above the previous month’s gain.

Employment in the service-providing sector rose by 164,000 jobs in August, compared with the 190,000 jobs created in July. Professional/ business services contributed 51,000 jobs in August, down 9,000 on the month. Trade/transportation/utilities employment grew by 28,000, versus July’s 43,000, and the 5,000 new jobs added in financial activities was down almost half from the month before.

“The fifth straight month of employment gains above 200,000,” said Carlos Rodriguez, president and chief executive officer of ADP, continues “an encouraging trend for the U.S. labor market.” Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, notes that businesses continue to hire at a solid pace. “Job gains are broad based across industries and company,” he said. “At the current pace of job growth the economy will return to full employment by the end of 2016.”

Who's hiring

Payrolls for businesses with 49 or fewer employees increased by 78,000 jobs in August -- down 11,000 in July. Job growth was also down over the month for medium-sized firms with 50-499 employees, with just 75,000 new positions compared with 88,000 in July.

Employment at large companies -- those with 500 or more employees -- increased by 52,000, a gain of 17,000 over the previous month. Companies with 500-999 employees added 5,000, 8,000 fewer than in July.

Jobless claims

From the government, meanwhile, word that first-time applications for unemployment benefits moved above the 300,000 mark last week.

According to the Labor Department (DOL) initial jobless claims in the week ending August 30 were up 4,000 from the previous week to a seasonally adjusted total of 302,000. The consensus forecast from economists at Briefing.com was for a total of 300,000.

DOL says there were no special factors affecting this week's initial claims.

The 4-week moving average, which is less volatile than the weekly calculation and considered a more accurate gauge of the labor market, was up by 3,000 – to 302,750.

The full report is available on the DOL website.  

Orbea USA of Little Rock, Ark., is recalling about 715 Avant bicycles.

The bicycle front fork can crack, posing a fall hazard.

No incidents or injures have been reported.

This recall involves all Avant bicycles and carbon framesets sold with hydraulic disk brakes and all Avant bicycles and carbon framesets that are capable of being configured with hydraulic disc brakes.

The model numbers are not marked on the bicycles and there is also no color or gender designation. The word Avant is in black or white on the top and head tube of the frameset and the word Orbea is in white on the top and down tube of the frameset.

The bicycles, manufactured in China and Spain, were sold ay authorized Orbea bicycle retailers nationwide from August 2013, to June 2014, for between $1,200 and $9,000.

Consumers may contact Orbea toll-free at (888) 466-7232 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or by e-mail at avantsupport.us@orbea.com.