Current Events in October 2014

Californians never cease to express their amazement and disdain at the high tolls East Coast drivers pay to cross bridges and crawl along congested highways.

But at least nobody pays a toll to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, as San Franciscans may soon have to do if they want to trudge across the Golden Gate.

The bureaucrats who run the bridge are trying to close a $33 million deficit and have come up with the bright idea of charging pedestrians and bicyclists. 

It's estimated that about 6,000 cyclists and 10,000 pedestrians cross the bridge each day when the weather's good. The view is pleasant although the exhaust fumes can get a bit annoying when the wind is just right but, aside from the ferry it's the only way to get from Marin County to San Francisco and back without a helicopter, so the bridge czars pretty much have the market to themselves.

Not so new

It turns out that, like most new ideas, this isn't really so new. Pedestrians paid a 5-cent toll when the span opened in 1937. It was doubled a few years later and remained at 10 cents until it was discontinued in 1970.

Now you might think that it's unfair to charge pedestrians, who don't contribute much wear and tear to a bridge. But the Golden Gate has a long and tragic history of being one of the nation's leading jumping-off points for those bent on suicide.

About one person a week takes the plunge and the bridge is currently spending $76 million to build new suicide barriers. The toll would help recover some of that expense and perhaps provide money for other suicide prevention efforts.

The idea is still "preliminary," a bridge authority spokesman says, but so far nobody has come forward with $33 million, so if you're planning a jog, stroll or sprint across the bridge next time you're in the Bay Area, wear something with pockets so you can bring your wallet along.

There used to be a time where if you didn't understand your math homework you called a friend and they would try patiently to explain how to multiply something to the 10th power over the phone. That might seem barbaric to kids these days. If they only knew what doing homework was like without a smartphone!

Now there is a smartphone app that can do their math homework for them and this isn't just the times tables, although it can do that too.

It knows what 23 is and can calculate the root of 246. It's called PhotoMath by Microblink and it uses your phone's camera to solve equations. Sounds horrible if you are a math teacher or a parent for that matter. You're thinking how are they ever going to learn?

Well the brighter side of this is the app then teaches you step by step how to solve the problem yourself. It's almost like a tutor. That's pretty hard to say no to.

It does all the basic math like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as well as the more complicated problems. It works from printed text only, anything the phone's camera can see.

Schools haven't quite figured out how to deal with all of this smartphone technology just yet.

If they wait long enough though, I am sure there will be an app for that.
The PhotoMath app is available for iPhones and Windows phones and is coming to Android phones in 2015.

Coffee has gotten a boost from all sorts of flavors of late. This month of course it's pumpkin! But tea can also be spiced up and you can do it right in your own garden. You can add ingredients to store-bought tea or you can grow your own.

The great thing about tea gardens is they come in all shapes and sizes and they don't even have to be in the ground. You can plant right inside the house or start a tea garden outside if weather permits. Inside can work just fine. Just buy a plastic indoor sun garden at Lowe's or Home Depot -- all you really need is dirt, water and some seeds.

If you are planting inside keep the plants in an area that gets at least six hours of sunlight each day, rotate them often and monitor how much moisture is needed. Your seed packet is the best guide.

For starters

If this is your first try at reading the tea leaves, some of the easier to grow plants are mint, lavender or chamomile.

Herbs create a deep earthy flavor. Some other home-grown teas are bergamot, lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemongrass, mint, rosemary, sage,and stevia to sweeten the kettle . Be careful with the stevia because if you add too much the taste can go from sweet to bitter. You can also use savory, thyme and edible daylilies to get that sweet flavor.

There is no better place than Boston to study the history of tea. After the Boston Tea Party in 1773 they used Bergamot as a tea substitute in the colonies.

Bergamot, also known as bee balm, has a scent very similar to Italian bergamot orange. You can steep it for about 10 minutes alone or you can use it fresh, even dry if you wish and add it to a little black tea.

When herb plants are in bud, you will get the best scent from them so that's a good time to harvest, although you can certainly take cuttings here and there during the growing season. When it comes to tea, you can use the stems, leaves and petals in your brew.

As in anything you are only limited by your imagination when making homemade tea. Herbs have so many healthful properties to them. Nothing is better than a nice crisp fall day with a cup of warm, fresh-brewed tea right from the garden.

After taking August off, the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index (LEI) is on the move again.

The advance of 0.8% in September to 104.4 follows no change in August, and an advance of 1.1% in July.

“The LEI picked up in September, after no change in August, and the strengths among its components have been very widespread over the past six months,” said Conference Board Economist Ataman Ozyildirim. “The outlook for improving employment and further income growth are expected to support the moderate expansion in the U.S economy for the remainder of the year.”

While the financial markets are reflecting turmoil and unease, Ken Goldstein, also an economist at The Conference Board, says the data on the leading indicators, “continue to suggest moderate growth in the short-term. Meanwhile, the weak advances in the housing market remain a bigger risk to the outlook than short-term financial gyrations.”

Other indexes

The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index (CEI) rose 0.4% to 110.2 following a 0.1% increase in August, and a 0.3% gain in July.

The Conference Board Lagging Economic Index (LAG) inched up 0.1% in September to 125.1. It rose 0.3% in August and 0.2% in July.

The composite economic indexes are the key elements in an analytic system designed to signal peaks and troughs in the business cycle. The leading, coincident, and lagging economic indexes are essentially composite averages of several individual leading, coincident, or lagging indicators. They are constructed to summarize and reveal common turning point patterns in economic data in a clearer and more convincing manner than any individual component -- primarily because they smooth out some of the volatility of individual components.

The 10 LEI components include:

• Average weekly hours, manufacturing
• Average weekly initial claims for unemployment insurance
• Manufacturers’ new orders, consumer goods and materials
• ISM Index of New Orders
• Manufacturers' new orders, nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft orders
• Building permits, new private housing units
• Stock prices, 500 common stocks
• Leading Credit Index
• Interest rate spread, 10-year Treasury bonds less federal funds
• Average consumer expectations for business conditions

Those of us allergic to a food or some of the ingredients (full disclosure: shellfish) are pretty conscientious about scouring a food product’s label to make sure we don;t get bit.

But some labels may not be as reliable as they should be. In fact, those not listed on the label -- referred to as “undeclared allergens” -- are the leading cause of food recalls requested by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The agency is working on three fronts to reduce the number of such recalls:

• by researching the causes of these errors;
• working with industry on best practices; and
• developing new ways to test for the presence of allergens.

Following the law

Federal law requires that labels of FDA-regulated foods marketed in the U.S. identify major food allergens. In some people, these allergens -- milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, and soybeans -- can cause potentially life-threatening reactions.

A food product with a label that omits required allergen information is misbranded and can be seized by FDA. However, firms generally recall such food products from the marketplace voluntarily.

Reporting food-allergic reactions

Consumers can be a big help to FDA by reporting food-allergic reactions to the agency's consumer complaint coordinator in their district.

“We look at every complaint to determine the appropriate course of action,” said Steven Gendel, Ph.D., FDA food allergen coordinator. “What we’re trying to learn is what foods are most affected, what allergens are most involved, and how labeling errors might have happened. Those answers will help us to reduce the number of recalls for undeclared allergens.”

In an effort to find these answers, Gendel has sifted through FDA-collected recall data and found some clear trends.

For example, from September 2009, to September 2012, about one-third of foods reported to FDA as serious health risks involved undeclared allergens. The five food types most often involved in food allergen recalls were bakery products, snack foods, candy, dairy products and dressings (such as salad dressings, sauces and gravies).

The allergens most often involved in recalls were milk, wheat and soy. Consumers can find out what products have been recalled recently at FDA’s website and at the Food Allergy and Research and Education (FARE) website, as well as from the companies that make the products.

In addition, ConsumerAffairs tracks recalls issued by FDA as well as toe companies involved.

Within the candy category, there were many reports of undeclared milk in products containing dark chocolate. For example undeclared milk led to several recalls for chocolate-coated snack bars with labels that the products were “dairy-free” or “vegan.” “This represented a significant risk for milk-allergic consumers,” says Gendel.

Source of the problem

Recall data show that such labeling errors occur most commonly because of the use of the wrong label. This may happen when similar products made with different ingredients, including allergens, are sold in look-alike packages.

Gendel also found mistakes associated with the use of new technologies, such as computerization and the ability to print labels directly on packaging. This can save costs but also create new opportunities for errors.

The data suggest that food allergen recalls can be reduced through improved industry awareness and simple changes in the way packages, labels and ingredients are handled and tracked within production facilities.

To encourage improvements, FDA shares its findings with industry at conferences and cooperates with the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA). FSPCA’s mission is to enhance safe food production by developing training and outreach programs that support preventive controls described in the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

New tests for allergens

Keeping unwanted allergens out of food requires good methods for detecting them. The most common test used worldwide is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which uses antibodies (parts of the immune system that help neutralize viruses and bacteria) and spectroscopic detection to test for allergens.

Mark Ross, Ph.D., an FDA chemist, says ELISA is the standard test because it is easy to use, relatively low-cost, and has been improved by scientists over time. But ELISA, like similar tests used in medicine, can produce false positive results, so backup methods are needed. In addition, some allergens are so similar that scientists need another test besides ELISA to tell them apart.

Ross is working with other FDA researchers to develop methods for analyzing allergens based on mass spectrometry, a technology that more effectively determines the allergen protein content of a complex mixture of proteins, fats, sugars, and chemicals in a food.

“If someone wants us to analyze a food for peanut allergen, with mass spectrometry we can detect and differentiate among the 11 different allergenic proteins in a peanut,” he says.

The pace of new home sales cooled in September, but still managed to post a gain.

The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development report sales of new single-family houses were up 0.2% last month -- to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 467,000. The increases, as tiny as it was, put the sales rate 17.0% above the year-ago pace of 399,000.

Prices and inventory

The median sales price of new houses sold in September 2014 was $259,000, compared with $269,800 in September 2013. The median is the point at which half the prices are higher and half are lower. The average sales price was $313,200, versus $321,500.

Inventory swelled during the month. The seasonally adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of September was 207,000, representing a supply of 5.3 months at the current sales rate. The supply in August was 4.8 months.

The complete report is available on the Commerce Department website.

RevZilla Motorsports is recalling 87 model LaZer Monaco Pure Glass, Roadster PG, and Window PG motorcycle helmets, models MLD035010-D00L, MLD035010-M10L, MLD035010-S00L, MLD035010-T10L, MLD035020-OD0L, and MLD035040-2C0L -- size large only.

The helmets may not be adequately labeled with the correct size information. Thus, they may not fit the occupant properly, reducing the protection offered in the event of a crash.

RevZilla will notify owners, and replace the helmet liner with one that has a permanent discrete size label attached, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin by mid-November 2014.

Owners may contact RevZilla customer service at 1-877-792-9455.

General Motors has issued 2 recalls for its Corvette vehicles.

The first involves 89 model year 2015 vehicles manufactured August 20, 2014, to August 27, 2014.

In the event of a driver frontal air bag deployment, the module back plate may fracture, allowing the driver air bag to separate from the steering wheel. An air bag that separates from the steering wheel may increase the risk of injury to the driver in the event of a crash.

GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver side air bag, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020. GM's number for this recall is 14594.

The second recall is for 783 model year 2015 Chevrolet Corvettes manufactured August 20, 2014, to September 4, 2014.

In these vehicles, only one of the rear parking brake cables may be fully seated and engaged, resulting in the parking brake operating on just one of the rear park brake drums. Without the parking brake working on both rear wheels, the vehicle may roll away if parked on a steep gradient. The vehicle may roll away if parked on a steep gradient, increasing the risk of a crash.

GM will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and correct the park brake cable installation, as necessary, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020. GM's number for this recall is 14620.

Evenflo Company is recalling 202,346 Embrace 35 two-piece, rear-facing infant child restraints equipped with an AmSafe QT1 buckle.

The affected model numbers include:

• 30711365,
• 31511040,
• 31511323,
• 31511400,
• 3151198,
• 3151953,
• 31521138,
• 46811205,
• 46811237,
• 48111200,
• 48111215,
• 48111215A,
• 48111218,
• 48111234,
• 48111235,
• 48111235A,
• 48111462,
• 48411391,
• 48411391D,
• 48411392,
• 48411504,
• 48411504D,
• 52911307A,
• 52921040,
• 55311138,
• 55311238, and
• 55311292.

The restraints were manufactured at various times from December 2011, through May 2013.

Over time, use of the seat can make the harness buckle difficult to unlatch. A buckle that does not release easily, or possibly at all, may make it difficult to remove the child from the restraint, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a vehicle crash, fire or other emergency in which a prompt exit from the vehicle is required.

Evenflo will notify registered owners and provide a remedy kit, including a replacement buckle and instructions for easy consumer removal of the AmSafe buckle and installation of the newly-designed replacement buckle. The recall is expected to begin on, or about, October 22, 2014.

Owners may contact Evenflo's toll-free number at 1-800-490-7591.

Walnuts are a natural food and play a prominent role in the popular Mediterranean diet. Over the years health advocates have extolled their many health benefits.

Now, scientists in New York have completed an animal study that suggests another health benefit – reducing the risk, delaying the onset, slowing the progression of, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.

The research carried out by the Developmental Neuroscience Laboratory at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities (IBR) found significant improvement in learning skills, memory, reducing anxiety, and motor development in mice fed a walnut-enriched diet.

The researchers think that might have something to do with the high antioxidant content found in walnuts. They speculate these antioxidants provided protection to the mouse brain, preventing the degeneration typically seen in Alzheimer's disease. Oxidative stress and inflammation are prominent features in this disease, which affects more than 5 million Americans.

Promising results

"These findings are very promising and help lay the groundwork for future human studies on walnuts and Alzheimer's disease – a disease for which there is no known cure," said lead researcher Dr. Abha Chauhan. "Our study adds to the growing body of research that demonstrates the protective effects of walnuts on cognitive functioning."

For the study the mice were fed dietary supplements with 6% to 9% walnuts, which is the equivalent of a human eating 1 to 1.5 ounces each day.

It's estimated that someone in the U.S. develops Alzheimer's disease every 67 seconds, and that number is expected to escalate rapidly as the Baby Boom generation ages. By 2050, health experts say the number of people 65 and older with Alzheimer's disease may nearly triple, from 5 million to as many as 16 million, creating new urgency to find treatments or a cure.

Walnuts and cancer

Walnuts are said to have other health and nutritional benefits, including reducing the risk of prostate and breast cancer. The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) says there are a few dozen studies investigating cancer and whole walnuts, with many more on the compounds they contain.

However, AICR says the current evidence is too limited to draw any conclusions about walnuts – or any nuts – and cancer risk.

Walnut's healthy effect on the heart is better documented. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) says in the last 2 decades a number of clinical studies have evaluated the effects of walnut consumption on cardio-vascular disease (CVD) risk factors.

According to NIH, walnuts can reduce low density lipoprotein cholesterol and blood pressure, both major risk factors for CVD.

Part of a healthy diet

“The effect of walnuts on multiple CVD targets over relatively short periods of time supports recommendations for their inclusion in a heart-healthy diet,” NIH says.

Walnuts have also been shown to be effective in weight control. They are a good source of fiber and make you feel full.

At the same time, you need to be prudent with your walnut consumption because they are loaded with calories. A tablespoon of chopped walnuts contains about 50 calories.

First it was the Obamacare website, now it's Safercar.gov. Consumers trying to find out if their car is part of the Takata airbag recall are having a tough time getting the Safercar.gov site's VIN number look-upto work. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) introduced the VIN look-up page a few months ago and, like a lot of things, it was fine until thousands of people tried to use it. Now the agency has a static page with links to auto manufacturers' VIN look-up pages while it tries to get its look-up hooked up properly.

A much better VIN look-up site -- one that actually works -- was set up recently by Carfax. http://recall.carfax.com is free and has worked each time we've tested it. All you have to do is enter your car's VIN number and it will tell you whether there are any open recalls.

Carfax also has an app -- www.mycarfax.com -- that will notify you whenever new recalls are issued for your car.

8 million cars

You can thank Takata for all the confusion. The company makes airbags that are used by many if not most auto manufacturers. It's thought that nearly 8 million cars, most of them older, are equipped with Takata airbags that can explode with such force that they spray passengers with potentially deadly shrapnel.

Safety advocates and some lawmakers say Takata should recall all the airbags, something it is understandably reluctant to do. What's more galling is that NHTSA has so far displayed the same reluctance and has allowed the company to get by with recalling a limited number of cars sold in hot weather states, on the theory that hot weather worsens the problem.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a frequent NHTSA critic, says the current situation "is the worst of all worlds,” producing lots of confusion but not much else.

“The law requires a safety recall but they’re letting the manufacturers do service campaigns,” said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. He said NHTSA should immediately order a nationwide recall of all the Takata airbags.

Poor Apple. On Monday, the company officially launchedApple Pay, its long-awaited mobile-payment system promising greater security than credit or debit-card payment systems thanks to the process of “tokenization” (which basically means that even if a hacker does successfully break into a retailer's database, or plant malware on a store's cash registers, he won't be able to steal anything useful, only a now-worthless authentication token).

So Apple launched its new era of secure reliable mobile payment on Monday, and the very next day it started getting bad publicity over a serious glitch that wasn't even Apple's fault but Bank of America's, which double-charged certain customers for anything they bought with Aple Pay.

“Problems with #ApplePay - it looks like my @bankofamerica account was double charged by @Walgreens” one man Tweeted on the morning of Oct. 21.

The next morning, CNN Money published a story by tech reporter Samuel Burke, who mentioned being “among the first people to try out Apple Pay the moment it came available on Monday” and said he was double-charged for every purchase he made with Apple Pay.

Since his Apple Pay account was tied to a debit account through Bank of America, he called BoA “and they assured me it was a problem on Apple Pay's end. That seemed feasible, because all of the purchases I made without Apple Pay were only charged one time.”

Sounded feasible but turned out to be false; later that morning, a Bank of America spokesperson publicly admitted and apologized for an unspecifid glitch in Bank of America's software that resulted in double-billed charges for about 1,000 account-holders.

But Bank of America also promised to refund all double charges, so by the standards of contemporary problems with non-cash payment systems, this Apple Pay double-billing business proved to be only a minor inconvenience.

That said: if your mobile wallet is tied to your Bank of America account, you might want to hold off on using Apple Pay until this glitch is fixed.

Getting a flu shot is your best chance of avoiding the flu, according to the Mayo Clinic. Each year the vaccine is engineered to counter the expected strains of the flu virus, so getting a shot doesn't make you bullet-proof.

In past years unexpected strains have cropped up and people that got the shot got sick. However, these tend to be the exception, not the rule. Getting the vaccine simply improves your odds.

If you choose not to get a flu shot, your other option is to constantly wash your hands and avoid public places where you might pick up the germ from an infected person.

Serious business

The flu can kill. It's a serious illness – more so for some people – the very old and very young – than others. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that over 31 flu seasons between 1976 and 2007, as many as 49,000 people in the U.S. died of flu-related complications.

According to the CDC, about 90% of flu deaths during a regular flu season occur in people 65 years old and older.

Getting a flu shot can also make flu season less dangerous for others. People get the flu, after all, from other people. If more people get flu shots and fewer of them get the flu, there are fewer flu germs in circulation.

Reduced risk of heart disease

A final reason for getting a flu shot has nothing to do with the flu. Previous research has suggested that flu vaccines have proved effective against heart disease – even reducing the risk of a heart attack.

A new study this month reveals why. The scientists who conducted it say the information could be used to prevent heart disease directly.

Heart disease is known to be the leading cause of death worldwide. The risk can be reduced by eating healthily, exercising and stopping smoking. However, right now there is no vaccine against heart disease.

Over the years clinical studies have shown that people who receive the seasonal flu vaccine get the added benefit of its protective effect against heart disease. The risk of heart attack in the year following vaccination is 50% lower than people who did not receive the vaccination. Until now, scientists haven't understood why.

The latest study shows that the flu vaccine stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies that activate important processes in cells. These processes, in turn, lead to the production of molecules that protect the heart.

Potential heart vaccine

Because of this discovery, the researchers say it may be possible to develop a new vaccine against heart disease.

"Even though the protective effect of the flu vaccine against heart disease has been known for some time, there is very little research out there looking at what causes it,” said Dr. Veljko Veljkovic, Institute Vinca, Belgrade, the lead author of the study.

Veljkovic and his colleagues propose more research, including ways the components of the flu vaccine might be used to create a vaccine against heart disease.

The Illinois-based Sourcebooks publishing company admitted this weekthat a security breach in its website's shopping-cart software from April 16 to June 19 of this year put the payment information of 5,204 customers at risk. However, the company said it sent notification letters to roughly 9,000 people, as a precautionary measure.

The disclosure and sample letter (available here in .pdf form) which Sourcebooks filed with the Califrnia attorney general's office said that the potentially stolen information falls into various categories:

The credit card information included card number, expiration date, cardholder name and card verification value (CVV2). The billing account information included first name, last name, email address, phone number, and address. In some cases, shipping information was included as first name, last name, phone number, and address. In some cases, account password was obtained too. To our knowledge, the data accessed did not include any Track Data, PIN Number, Printed Card Verification Data (CVD). We are currently in the process of having a third-party forensic audit done to determine the extent of this breach.

Ironically, the authors whose works Sourcebooks publishes include security blogger Brian Krebs, who is notable for being the first to discover and report such massive data-security breaches as those at Experian and Home Depot.

As American credit card companies eventually move away from easy-to-counterfeit magnetic-strip credit cards in favor of the more secure EMV chip technology, identity thieves will switch their focus away from brick-and-mortar store databases, in favor of attacking small online stores (and their shopping cart software) instead.

That's already the case in Europe, where EMV-chip credit cards have already been standard for more than a decade, and as EMV cards replace magnetic-strip models in America, the regular weekly news articles about the latest retail hacking du jour will be replaced by regular weekly news articles about data theft from online shopping carts. Welcome to the future!

You remember Facebook. It used to be really popular but now it has 1.23 billion monthly users and nobody likes it anymore. It has too many ads and doesn't respect people's privacy. That's why nobody goes there anymore. Well, except those 1.23 billion people.

Obviously, the situation cries out for a new social network -- one that won't have so many ads, will respect everyone's privacy and so forth and so on. This is where something called Ello fits in, at least as its founders see it.

It's not just vaporware. Ello says it already has 1 million members and a few million more just waiting to join. Oh, and it's also raised a little over $5.5 million from investors who say they are willing to take a long-term view and be very patient about seeing a return on their money.

And so?

What's so great about Ello? Well, it says it will never have advertising and will never sell information about its users to any of those greedy marketers who are always stalking everyone around the Web. It has organized itself as a Public Benefit Corp., which is sort of like a charity that's allowed to make money -- to do well while doing good, as they like to say. 

Of course, if you don't charge advertisers, you have to charge somebody else. In this case, that somebody else will be the users of the site. Ello says it will use "micro-payments," which is a cute little way of saying the charge won't be too high.

The micro-payments will be for extra services that Ello will offer. It doesn't know what those services will be yet, apparently, but says it's confident it will dream something up as time goes by. Sort of the way smartphone apps just sprout up the moment they're needed.

And besides, Ello says it won't need to make as much money as the big greedy sites because it won't be doing as much. It won't be tracking members, selling data to marketers or doing any of those other things that eat up so much staff time. And generate the revenue that keeps the lights on.

A small universe

Of course, a social network is only as good as its members, who generally join up to interact with their friends and acquaintances, not with strangers. If one social network has 1.23 billion members and another one has a million or two, it's kind of likely the bigger one will have more of your friends and acquaintances. Which could make it a little hard for Ello to gain traction.

Once you join up, of course, you can try to get your friends to join too. You can send them those annoying little notices everybody is always getting about LinkedIn, Google+ and all the other social networks that are clogging up the interpipes.

It may be a little harder, though, to convince your friends to join a network that they have to pay for, although perhaps Ello will let you pick up the tab for your friends. Hmmm ... life online gets more like an evening at the pub all the time. 

Collecting a debt is one thing. Collecting a non-existent debt is something else. And according to the Federal Trade Commission, a South Florida debt collection operation has been doing just that -- hounding Spanish-speaking consumers for debts they don't owe. 

A U.S. district court judge in Miami has temporarily shut down Centro Natural Corp. and Sumore LLC pending the FTC's request to permanently put them out of business. 

“These defendants deserve a shameful Triple Crown for fraud. They posed as government officials, used abusive debt collection practices, and ignored the National Do Not Call Registry,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “We’re shining a light on fraud affecting every community, and we’re pleased that this scheme targeting Latinos has been stopped.”

Bogus debts

In its complaint, the FTC charged that the defendants cold-called consumers and threatened them with harsh consequences, such as arrest, legal actions, and immigration status investigations, if they failed to make large payments on bogus debts. The defendants’ telemarketers also pressured and deceived consumers into paying for unwanted products by telling consumers it would “settle” their debt.

According to the FTC’s complaint, since at least 2011, the defendants have held themselves out as court or government officials or lawyers. They demanded that consumers pay them to “settle” phantom debts that typically ranged between $3,000 and $9,000.

The FTC alleges that the defendants often told consumers that they could settle their debts by paying defendants hundreds of dollars. If consumers refused to pay, the defendants often continued to call and threaten them, sometimes using profane language. The defendants also kept calling consumers who asked them not to call again, regularly cold-called consumers whose phone numbers are on the Do Not Call Registry, and failed to pay fees for the Do Not Call Registry.

The complaint charges the defendants with violating the FTC Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, and failing to pay for, or abide by, the rules of the Do Not Call Registry.

From the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) -- word that you'll be able to sock more money away for retirement next year.

Because the increase in the cost-of-living index met the statutory thresholds that trigger their adjustment, many of the pension plan limitations will change for 2015. However, other limitations will remain unchanged because the increase in the index did not meet the statutory thresholds that trigger their adjustment.

What it means

• The contribution (elective deferral) limit for employees who participate in 401(k), 403(b), most 457 plans, and the federal government’s Thrift Savings Plan is increased from $17,500 to $18,000.
• The catch-up contribution limit for employees aged 50 and over who participate in these plans is increased from $5,500 to $6,000.
• The limit on annual contributions to an Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) remains at $5,500. The additional catch-up contribution limit for individuals aged 50 and over is not subject to an annual cost-of-living adjustment and remains $1,000.
• The deduction for taxpayers making contributions to a traditional IRA is phased out for singles and heads of household who are covered by a workplace retirement plan and have modified adjusted gross incomes (AGI) between $61,000 and $71,000 -- up from $60,000 and $70,000 in 2014. For married couples filing jointly, in which the spouse who makes the IRA contribution is covered by a workplace retirement plan, the income phase-out range is $98,000 to $118,000 -- up from $96,000 to $116,000. For an IRA contributor who is not covered by a workplace retirement plan and is married to someone who is covered, the deduction is phased out if the couple’s income is between $183,000 and $193,000 -- up from $181,000 and $191,000. For a married individual filing a separate return who is covered by a workplace retirement plan, the phase-out range is not subject to an annual cost-of-living adjustment and remains $0 to $10,000.
• The AGI phase-out range for taxpayers making contributions to a Roth IRA is $183,000 to $193,000 for married couples filing jointly -- up from $181,000 to $191,000 in 2014. For singles and heads of household, the income phase-out range is $116,000 to $131,000 -- up from $114,000 to $129,000. For a married individual filing a separate return, the phase-out range is not subject to an annual cost-of-living adjustment and remains $0 to $10,000.
• The AGI limit for the saver’s credit (also known as the retirement savings contribution credit) for low- and moderate-income workers is $61,000 for married couples filing jointly -- up from $60,000 in 2014; $45,750 for heads of household -- up from $45,000; and $30,500 for married individuals filing separately and for singles -- up from $30,000.

People who receive monthly Social Security benefits will find a little more in their checks in 2015.

The Social Security Administration says monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for nearly 64 million people will increase by 1.7% in 2015 the coming year.

The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which works out to about $22 per month, will begin with benefits that more than 58 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January 2015. Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 31, 2014.

The Social Security Act ties the annual COLA to the increase in the Consumer Price Index as determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

More changes

Some other changes that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages. Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $118,500 from $117,000.

Of the estimated 168 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2015, about 10 million will pay higher taxes because of the increase in the taxable maximum.

Medicare premium

The bump in benefits is not the only good news for seniors.

The premium of $104.90 that most people pay each month for Medicare Part B won’t change in 2015. Nor will the Part B deductible of $147 per year.

At the same time, the government says that if your modified adjusted gross income as reported on your IRS tax return from 2 years ago is above a certain amount, you may pay more.