Current Events in December 2014

Amazon and Walmart are trying to wring every last minute out of this year's holiday shopping season, extending their deadlines for online purchases to be delivered by Christmas.

Amazon says its customers can order with free shipping by Dec. 19 and receive items before the Christmas holiday. Prime members can order by Dec. 22 and, for the truly last-minute shoppers, customers in 12 major metro areas can choose from as many as a million eligible items for same-day delivery, order as late as 10:00 a.m. on Dec. 24 and have items delivered before Santa arrives.

Walmart last week said it would guarantee Christmas Eve delivery for packages ordered with standard shipping by Dec. 19.

Last year was something of a nightmare for FedEx, UPS, the Postal Service and other delivery companies and this year, they've issued what they say are firm guidelines for consumers to follow. Big corporate clients get more flexible deadlines, however. They also pre-sort packages and otherwise accommodate the couriers' needs.

The weather, of course, is always the potential spoiler. An ice storm in Memphis or a blizzard in the East or Midwest can throw a wrench into the best-engineered plans.

Without much fanfare, UPS and FedEx have suspended their money-back guarantees for ground deliveries until after Christmas, something they do every year. 

For some households, the Hanukkah or Christmas season doesn't “officially” end until they visit the thrift store to donate various old things they no longer need because they got newer, better versions as holiday presents. Other households do the exact opposite, and kick off the holiday season by unloading things they already have to make room for gifts to come.

But when you're giving things away (or selling them, for that matter), you must take a few precautions to ensure you don't give away more than you intended.

Old electronics? Wipe them clean

When you've giving away your old computer, smartphone, or any other data-recording communications device, of course you don't want to also give away all the (often-confidential) documents, photos and other data you have there.

Having the device wiped clean or getting a factory reset is supposed to ensure your files are safely deleted — but last summer, experimenting security researchers were able to successfully retrieve data from some Android phones which had supposedly been wiped clean.

So if you want to be double-extra certain your old data is gone, your best bet is to not merely delete or wipe your old files, but then overwrite the memory space with new data — innocuous or even meaningless files and photos.

Donating furniture? Check behind the cushions and drawers

Last month, a Massachusetts man made headlines after he bought an old desk at an auction for $40, and found $125,000 worth of bonds in one of the drawers.

Ironically, the family who originally owned the desk and the bonds within sold the desk at auction because they needed money (and thought the bonds had been lost). Fortunately for them, the buyer took the trouble to track them down and return the bonds. But not everyone would have been that honest.

If you're giving away old furniture, remember: don't just look inside any drawers, look behind and beneath them — not just for money and potential valuables, but also for any bank or credit card receipts, and other things which an identity thief might be able to use against you. And make sure you look behind the cushions and between the upholstery, too.

Even if you don't have a forgotten fortune in bonds there, you might have some paper money — or a credit card statement, bank deposit receipt, or other documents containing information which an identity thief might find useful.

Check the pockets

Don't give away any coats or clothes without first checking every pocket to make sure nothing important or valuable is in there.

Empty those purses, wallets and backpacks

Before discarding an old purse, backpack or similar item you should not merely empty it, but turn the entire thing inside out, because it's very easy for small items or pieces of paper to get stuck in the lining-folds of what appears to be a completely empty purse or bag.

Riffle through the books

When you're giving away any of your old books, riffle through their pages first to make sure nothing falls out.

Changing times lead to changing language. For example: do you remember Ben Franklin's old saying “A penny saved is a penny earned?” He first said that long before the introduction of income tax, and related concepts like “pre-tax income” and “take-home pay.”

With those factored in, the proverb becomes, “A penny saved is anywhere from 1.2 to 1.6 pre-tax pennies earned, depending on your local and state tax rates, number of dependents, possible business or investment losses and whether or not you file as head of household.”

And sooner or later Franklin's proverb is destined for total meaninglessness, when pennies vanish from American currency. It's still too early to offer any firm prediction when the U.S. Mint will stop minting one-cent pieces, but the Mint has wanted to for years.

Expensive money

Here's the problem: thanks to inflation, an actual U.S. dollar is worth a little bit less every year. That's why most things (with the exception of computers, smartphones and other high-tech electronics) tend to cost more money in actual U.S. dollars and cents every year — including dollars and cents. In other words, every years it costs the U.S. Mint more and more money to mint pennies, nickels and other currency coins, even as those coins' actual spending value decreases a little more each year.

This week, the Mint released its biennial report to Congress (available in .pdf form here). The Mint is legally obligated to produce such reports because, as noted in the report's background section:

The Coin Modernization, Oversight, and Continuity Act of 2010, Public Law 111-302 (Act) (Appendix 1) authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) to conduct research and development (R&D) on alternative metallic materials for all circulating coins with the goal of reducing production costs. The Act also requires the Secretary to provide a biennial report to Congress on the status of coin production costs and analysis of alternative content.

And here's the short version of the report's results: minting pennies and nickels costs the Mint more money than those coins are actually worth, as has been true for years now. It cost 1.7 cents for the Mint to make a one-cent piece, and 8 cents to make a nickel five-cent piece.

Of course, given the coins' intended use as currency, that “loss” doesn't really matter so long as the coin remains in circulation – you spend a nickel at the store, the store owner spends the nickel at a restaurant, the restaurant's next customer receives the nickel as part of her change – but even so, the Mint would like to reduce the cost of producing coins if it could.

Copper coating

The last major change the Mint made to the content of American coinage was in 1982, when the Mint stopped making one-cent pieces from copper and chose instead to make them out of zinc with a thin copper-colored coating. The Mint did this because zinc is much cheaper than copper: at today's metal prices, a pre-1982 copper penny is worth more than 2 cents for the copper alone, whereas a zinc penny contains less than half a cent's worth of zinc.

Zinc is one of the cheapest metals out there – if the Mint is to keep minting one-cent pieces, it really can't save money by switching to a cheaper material. But five-cent pieces, also known as nickels, are another matter: it costs eight cents to make a five-cent piece, yet almost five cents of that cost comes from the actual metal used in the coin.

The Mint would not be able to change the composition of coins without Congressional approval. Realistically, that's unlikely to happen anytime soon, regardless of how much it costs to mint pennies and nickels, because if the Mint changed the metal composition of coins, then American vending machine manufacturers would also have to make major changes to their machines, in order to accept the coins. As the Mint's report says:

Equipment manufacturers emphasized that any change that alters size, design, or content of a coin without comprehensive consultation and coordination with the industry could harm the economy. Specifically, if coin design or material content changes are orchestrated hurriedly without regard to the equipment and other stakeholders, the currently reliable United States coin circulation infrastructure could be adversely affected or fail altogether. In addition, co-circulating same denomination coins with different weights would be ruinous for coin weighing technology, as co-circulating coins would have to be separated for counting.

So expect the Mint to keep losing a mint minting low-value one- and five-cent pieces, at least for the foreseeable future.

Chrysler Group LLC has a new name: FCA US LLC. Catchy, no? It stands for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and mirrors the company's European name, which is now FCA Italy SpA.

It's the first of the Big Three American auto manufacturers to fall into foreign arms and take the name of its new parent. Ford and General Motors are still U.S.-based and still plodding along with their ancestor's monikers.

Chrysler originally eloped with German carmaker Daimler-Benz AG back in 1998 and was known as DaimlerChrysler for awhile. But at the end of the nine-year relationship, Chrysler moved back in with its Detroit neighbors and changed its name back to Chrysler LLC.

Fiat came along and swept Chrysler off its wheels in 2011 and finally gained full control last January.

But, just as a rose by any other name is still a rose, Chrysler products are still Chrysler products, wrestling with such familiar problems as Takata air bags, gas tank fires in some Jeep models and unproven but persistent allegations of unintended acceleration in other Jeeps.

What's in a name?

The party line is that the name change is no big deal.

“When you think about it, when someone changes their name from Smith to Jones for personal or professional reasons, they’re still the same person," said Ed Garsten, FCA US’s head of digital media, Automotive News reported. "The change just makes sense for them.  In that vein, our commitment to quality, style, performance and service hasn’t changed, we just have a new name to reflect our role in our new company, and that makes sense.”

For now, Fiat is hanging onto its title of the world's sixth-largest automaker, although sales are said to be weak in Europe and South America. In the U.S., Chrysler and Jeep products are selling well but the dinky Fiat 500 -- Fiat's answer to the MINI Cooper -- is still little more than a decimel point.

The name change, effective immediately, could be called a formality. It could also be called a tribute to Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, who has long wanted to see Fiat get a little recognition now that it has become sort of a globe-girdling colossus.

The Chrysler name was a tribute to Walter P. Chrysler, who founded the company in 1925. A native of Wamego, Kansas, Chrysler was a machinist and entrepreneur who was lured away from a railroad job to help improve manufacturing efficiencies at Buick. He became president of Buick, then left to head up the ailing Willys and later acquired control of what was then Maxwell Motor Co. and merged it into his new company -- Chrysler Corporation. 

Chrysler became fabulously wealthy and was lionized for his vision and innovation. It's what we used to call an American success story.

Developers broke ground on new homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,028,000 during November -- a drop of 1.6% from the October rate of construction and down 7.0% from the same month a year ago.

Figures released jointly by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development show single-family housing starts last month were down 5.4% from October to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 677,000, while the November rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 340,000.

Building permits

The outlook for the near-term construction of new homes isn't all that promising.

Housing units authorized by building permits were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,035,000 in November, a decline of 5.2 % from the previous month, and down 0.2% from November 2013.

Authorizations for single-family homes were off 1.2% to a rate of 639,000, with permits for buildings with five units or more at a rate of 367,000 in November.

The complete report is available on the Commerce Department website.

Ford Motor Company is conducting a regional recall for certain model year 2004-2005 Ford Ranger and 2005-2006 Ford GT vehicles vehicles originally sold, or ever registered, in geographic locations associated with high absolute humidity.

Vehicles sold, or ever registered, in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Saipan, Guam and American Samoa, as well as certain areas of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Georgia, are included.

Upon deployment of the passenger side frontal air bag, excessive internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture with metal fragments striking and potentially seriously injuring the vehicle occupants.

Ford will notify owners, and dealers will replace the inflators in all affected vehicles, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in the latter part of January 2015.

Owners may contact Ford customer service at 1-866-436-7332. Ford's number for this recall is 14S28.

BMW of North America is recalling 846 model year 2015 MINI Cooper Hardtop 2 Door vehicles manufactured August 12, 2014, to September 2, 2014.

The driver and front passenger seatback adjustment mechanism in the recalled vehicles may not be fully engaged. That could allow the seatback to fold during a rear impact collision, increasing the risk of injury to the seat occupant.

MINI will notify owners, and dealers will re-align and re-tighten the seatback adjustment mechanisms, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in December 2014.

Owners can contact MINI customer service at 1-866-825-1525.

Flat Creek Farm & Dairy of Swainsboro, Ga., is recalling 3 lots of cheese with lot codes 140802XAZ (Aztec Cheddar), 140702XAZ (Low Country Gouda voluntary recall) and 140725XGO (Aztec Cheddar voluntary recall). The lot codes can be found on the front of the packages.

The products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

Flat Creek records show that as of 11:00 am,November 25, 2014, at 11:00am, all of purchasers have been notified and all but 1.5 pounds of the cheese has been recovered.

The recalled products were distributed in certain parts of Georgia via Flat Creek delivery and through online order.

The products are packed in clear plastic and range in sizes from ½ pound to whole wheels.

Consumers who have purchased the products should return them to the place of purchase.

Consumers may contact Flat Creek at 478-237-0123, Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST.

Remember the Magic 8 Ball? You could ask it a question, like “Will I be rich and famous?” and the Magic 8 Ball would give you an answer.

Fun, but not that accurate.

The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank has developed a tool that might do a better job of predicting your personal wealth.

William Emmons and Bryan Noeth came up with their “financial health scorecard” that is based on the answers to 5 simple questions. They explain how it works in the Fed publication In The Balance.

Emmons and Noeth studied the responses to the 5 questions that participants provided in the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances between 1992 and 2013. They then cross-referenced the answers to the respondents’ reported wealth.

Strong correlation

They placed the consumers who responded to the survey in groups based on age, education, and race and ethnicity, forming 48 non-overlapping groups. What they found was a very strong relationship between their simple measure of a group’s financial health and its actual wealth.

Here are the 5 questions:

• Did you save any money last year?
• Did you miss any payments on any obligations in the past year?
• Did you have a balance on your credit card after the last payment was due?
• Including all of your assets, was more than 10 percent of the value in liquid assets?
• Is your total debt service (principal and interest) less than 40 percent of your income?

If you save money, pay your bills on time, pay off credit card balances each month, have most of your wealth in performing assets and a low income-to-debt ratio, your chances of building personal wealth are greater.

Education not a good predictor

The authors noted several patterns among the group and found that the level of education the consumers had attained was not a reliable indicator of personal wealth. Age and ethnicity were.

Older families generally had greater financial health and wealth than younger and middle-aged families for any given race, ethnicity or level of educational attainment.

At the same time, non-Hispanic white and Asian families typically had greater financial health and wealth than Hispanic and African-American families for any given age or level of educational attainment.

“Whatever the causal mechanisms, our simple financial health scorecard provides a surprisingly accurate prediction of the median wealth of groups of families defined by their age, educational attainment, and race or ethnicity,” they wrote.

If you're planning to try Verizon's new secure encrypted Voice Cypher app, bear in mind that when Verizon uses words like “secure” or “encryption,” it might not necessarily mean what ordinary non-Verizon people thinks it means.

The original purpose of encryption is supposed to be “security” -- everybody knows how easy it is for determined hackers to break into your device, eavesdrop on a supposedly private communication or otherwise grab data they're not supposed to have. (The past couple years have made it plain that even wealthy multinational corporations worth billions of dollars can't afford security good enough to keep all hackers and malware away from them; what chance do us ordinary non-billionaires have?)

Therefore, say the pro-encryption arguments, if you can't prevent hackers from intercepting that data, you can code or encrypt it so that when they do steal it, it's nothing but meaningless gibberish to them. Of course, this concept predates computers by thousands of years: codes and encryptions to keep meanings hidden have existed almost as long as writing itself.

So it's easy to understand why criminal hackers would hate the idea of their would-be victims securely encrypting their data. And, provided you have the properly cynical mindset, it's easy to understand why various branches of the U.S. government hate the idea of American citizens (or anybody else on the planet) having secure encrypted data, too.

Make it illegal

Barely two months ago in October 2014, for example, FBI director James Comey suggested that Congress ought to pass a law (or rewrite an existing one) to make it illegal for anyone in the U.S. to have securely encrypted data. Why? Because Comey wants to make sure that the U.S. government always has the ability to remotely break into anybody's devices and read whatever's there.

The National Security Agency also enjoys being able to remotely break into devices and read data at will, and Verizon's new “Voice Cypher” encrypted calling app (by Cellcrypt) allows them to do that.

Verizon's actual webpage promoting Voice Cypher doesn't mention that, of course; instead it discusses how you can “Place secure calls and send secure messages on virtually any 4G, 3G or WiFi Network” thanks to “AES 256-bit encryption, NIST FIPS 140-2 Certified.”

What the marketing copy doesn't highlight is that Voice Cypher comes with a backdoor allowing easy access to this supposedly secure and encrypted data.

But Verizon and Cellcrypt both say that only law enforcement and other authorized government officials will be allowed to walk through this backdoor to steal or peruse this supposedly secure data. For example, Cellcrypt VP Seth Polansky dismissed any suggestion that such a backdoor created a security risk. “It's only creating a [security] weakness for government agencies …. Just because a government access option exists, it doesn't mean other companies can access it.”

For those who genuinely do worry about security matters, such reassurances fail on two different levels: one, it's ridiculous to assume that criminals wouldn't be able to hack into or otherwise take advantage of password-protected things theoretically limited to law enforcement; and two, even if this backdoor genuinely is limited only to duly authorized agents of the U.S. government, who's to say they can all be trusted?

"Good police work"

Of course, right now it's too early to say how many customers will choose Voice Cypher anyway. Last week, Google executive (and Verizon rival) Eric Schmidt dismissed the idea that any devices equipped with “trapdoors” could ever be secure, and also said they're unnecessary: “[Google's] argument, which I think is clear now, is the government has so many ways — properly so, by the way — to go in the front door. They’re called warrants. They’re called good police work.”

In other words: the law and Constitution already offer police and other government authorities plenty of ways to legitimately gather evidence to arrest and prosecute criminals, when necessary. The police can even take data off your phone without your consent or help – they just have to go to court and get a warrant first, as the Constitution demands. But it is true that, without these backdoors or trapdoors or whatever you want to call them, the government cannot easily and remotely access your encrypted device without your knowledge. That, ultimately, is what's at stake here.

Indeed, in October 2012 – before James Comey took over the FBI – the FBI's own online security agents published a list of “Safety tips to protect your mobile device,” which included urging “smartphone users” to encrypt their devices if the option was available. Two years later, FBI director Comey suggested that such advice ought to be illegal.

If you are a Verizon customer, or are considering becoming one, you'll have to decide whether Voice Cypher is worth having. Verizon hopes you'll think so.

It's a tough time to be a big cell phone carrier, even though it's not likely AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon will get much sympathy from anybody.

The United States is just about cell-phoned out -- meaning everybody who conceivably could have a phone already has one. So the only way to eke out any growth is to raise prices or poach each other's customers. Obviously, you can't do both, so the big carriers have been spinning out all kinds of discounts aimed at prying customers away from their competitors.

This costs money. Lots of money, and it's not just the discounts and sign-up bonuses, it's the loss in value caused by investors taking a hard look at the industry's prospects.

The way the Wall Street Journal does the math. the four biggest carriers have lost $45 billion in market capitalization in just the last month -- more than the total capitalization of Sprint and T-Mobile combined.

Basically, investors have come to realize that customers are burning up more and more data -- which increases costs for the carriers -- while resisting price increases. Also, those stingy consumers are refusing to reproduce as quickly as necessary to create new smartphone users.

It's similar to what has happened to the cable TV business, which is starting to resemble the daily newspaper industry, which has been slowly going out of business for decades.

Spectrum space

Complicating it is an upcoming auction of spectrum space. The companies will have to pony up big bucks to get the additional spectrum they need to meet customers' data demands, then they'll have to invest heavily in more equipment and towers, all while coming up with aggressive new discounts to grow their customer base while fighting off tiny companies like Ting, Consumer Cellular and Republic, which just won Consumer Reports annual customer service ratings derby.  

Interestingly, many of those responding to the Consumer Reports survey -- as well as those commenting in ConsumerAffairs reviews -- say they experience better reception and fewer dropped calls from the smaller competitors. This is particularly galling to the Big Four since the smaller competitors actually operate on the big guys' networks, making it likely that the perceived differences are illusory. 

So, does all this mean that customers are getting a bargain? Not necessarily. In fact, it means the companies are working harder than ever to find ways to lasso consumers while looking for ways to jack up prices as time goes by. Both sides are locked in a tug-of-war for a service that didn't even exist until a few decades ago but which is now seen as essential to modern existence. 

A toddler in New York is the latest apparent victim of a new household hazard -- liquid nicotine refills for e-cigarettes. Police in Fort Plain, N.Y., said they answered a call concerning an unresponsive child. The child was taken to a local hospital and died a short time later.

Sgt. Austin Ryan of the Fort Plain police said investigators were told the child drank from a bottle containing liquid refills for e-cigarettes.

Though shocking, such accidents are becoming increasingly common. Earlier this year, it was reported that a CDC study published in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that calls to poison control centers for nicotine ingestion by children shot up from 1 per month in September 2010 to 215 per month this past February. And, the report says, the number of calls per month involving conventional cigarettes did not show a similar increase during the same time period.

The New York General Assembly recently passed a measure requiring child-resistant containers on e-cigarette refills, which are often flavored with fruit and other sweet substances attractive to children.

The CDC report said that more than half (51.1%) of the calls to poison centers due to e-cigarettes involved young children 5 years and under, and about 42% of the poison calls involved people age 20 and older.

The analysis, which compared total monthly poison center calls involving e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes, found the proportion of e-cigarette calls jumped from 0.3% in September 2010 to 41.7% in February 2014.

Poisoning from conventional cigarettes is generally due to young children eating them. Poisoning related to e-cigarettes involves the liquid containing nicotine used in the devices and can occur in three ways: by ingestion, inhalation or absorption through the skin or eyes.

Red flag

“This report raises another red flag about e-cigarettes -- the liquid nicotine used in e-cigarettes can be hazardous,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “Use of these products is skyrocketing and these poisonings will continue. E-cigarette liquids as currently sold are a threat to small children because they are not required to be childproof, and they come in candy and fruit flavors that are appealing to children.”

"One teaspoon of liquid nicotine could be lethal to a child, and smaller amounts can cause severe illness, often requiring trips to the emergency department," the American Association of Poison Control (AAPC) centers said recently.

Adults should use care to protect their skin when handling the products, and they should be out of sight and out of the reach of children, AAPC said. Additionally, those using these products should dispose of them properly to prevent exposure to pets and children from the residue or liquid left in the container.  

The American Association of Poison Control Centers recommends the following steps:

• Protect your skin when handling the products.
• Always keep e-cigarettes and liquid nicotine locked up and out of the reach of children.
• Follow the specific disposal instructions on the label.
• If you think someone has been exposed to an e-cigarette or liquid nicotine, call your local poison center at 1-800-222-1222 immediately.

Cat cafes are popping up all over so who's to say that a cereal cafe wouldn't be a hit as well?

It really appears that cereal is making a comeback despite companies not being able to milk it for all it's worth. Either that or nostalgia is getting the best of Generations X and Y. Perhaps their childhoods weren't so bad because they ate Trix or Rice Krispies every morning.

London is a place where many trends get a boost and twins Gary and Alan Keery have decided to open up a cereal cafe in London called The Cereal Killer Cafe. It features breakfast cereals from the 80's and 90's and the people who loved them.

The cafe pipes in music from the 80's and 90's and has formica furniture along with cereal boxes from the past. The menu will consist of over 100 cereals from 7 different countries, your choice of different types of milk and a little side of Pop tarts. A bowl of cereal will cost as much as box of cereal at the grocery store -- between $4-$5.50 depending on the size of the bowl.

This cereal nostalgia restaurant is the first of its kind in the UK but there is a chain in the good ole USA called Cereality.

According to Cereality's website: "Customers choose from their favorite brands and toppings. Pajama-clad Cereologists fill the orders. And customers choose and add their own milk, just the way they like it."

I bet you can't eat just one? Oh wait, that was a potato chip ad. But even so, I can't eat just one bowl of cereal, so at $4-5.50 a bowl, I'll eat mine at home in my PJ's and do a couple of helpings from the box.

Not a bad gig though for servers working there -- being able to wear your PJ's to work!

One of the best aromas of Christmas is the smell of a live natural tree. Just like picking the best oranges or pineapples, picking the right tree isn't just luck of the draw.

Before you even get to the lot to pick out your tree you want to make sure you measure. It's a pain in the neck to have to cut part of it off yourself, especially if you only have scissors in your house. Nothing worse than buying that perfect tree and then realizing it's a foot too big. Measure the height of your ceiling and be sure to measure your Christmas tree stand as well.

Fresh trees should last you about 6 weeks. There are a couple of options you might want to consider. If you have kids you probably want to be careful with the needles -- they can be sharp and hurt if poked or stepped on, so you most likely will want a fir or a pine. The needles are a bit softer. No kids, nothing to worry about then, a spruce tree might be just what you are looking for.

Color is what it's all about. Some trees will start out a deep rich green and as they dry out become almost gray so make sure it's not a tree that tends to have dry spots or it will dry quickly.

Bend the needles

When getting a cantaloupe you press the top in for freshness. You can't turn a tree upside down, but you can bend the needles. Take a few in your hands and see how they do. Fresh firs should snap, while fresh pines bend and should not break.

You want your needles to stay put, not be all over the floor as soon as you get home. Do the needle test. Take the inside of a branch and gently pull the branch toward you. The needles should stay on the tree. The other way is simple -- just tap the tree a bit by grabbing the base and seeing if anything starts falling. You expect a few needles to fall off, but if half the tree goes, you may want to move on to the next tree. 

Just like roses or flowers, you want to cut off a portion of the stem, or in this case the trunk. You can ask the guys at the tree lot to do that for you.The fresh cut will absorb more water, so your tree holds its needles and keeps its color longer. Put the tree in water as quickly as you can after making the cut.

Stay away from the heater or the fireplace. Obviously you don't want to start a fire and there are many this time of year because of trees and lights as well as fireplaces. Although live trees can catch on fire they also can dry out rather quickly if placed near the heater or fireplace.

Make sure your tree has plenty of water. It will keep it green and make it last that much longer.

The "Federal Debt Commission" sounds like something pretty official. So does the "Federal Assistance Progam" and the "Federal Mortgage Marketplace." But in fact, all three were scams that tricked financially-strapped consumers into paying for mortgage-relief services that were never provided, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

“Years after the economic meltdown, the FTC is still exposing and shutting down bogus mortgage relief schemes,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. “This case highlights the depths to which scammers will sink to defraud struggling homeowners, and our resolve to hold them accountable.”

According to the FTC’s complaint, filed earlier this year, Jonathan Herbert and his Fort Lauderdale-based operation falsely claimed that it was affiliated with the federal government’s Making Homes Affordable assistance program, and that it would renegotiate consumers’ mortgages to reduce monthly payments by several hundred dollars. The FTC alleged that Herbert hid his involvement in the scam through the use of stolen identities, shell corporations, and other ruses.

More than $800,000

Deceptively using the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) logo, Herbert’s companies promised consumers their mortgage modifications would be completed quickly and for free. They also told consumers to stop communicating with their lenders, and to send their “new” mortgage payments to addresses in Washington, DC, which turned out to be UPS Stores, not government office buildings. These payments were then forwarded to Herbert in Florida.

Although Herbert and his companies collected more than $800,000 in payments from hundreds of consumers, they made no effort to obtain loan modifications and did not apply any of the money to pay down consumers’ existing mortgages, the FTC said. As a result, many consumers lost their homes, as well as thousands of dollars.

The court order settling the FTC’s charges imposes a judgment of $815,865. It also bans Herbert for life from any involvement with all debt-relief programs, including mortgage loan modifications. The order also prohibits him from misrepresenting any aspect of a financial product or service or the terms and conditions associated with such products or services.

General Motors is recalling 679 model year 2015 Chevrolet Silverado, Suburban, Tahoe, GMC Sierra, and Yukon XL vehicles, equipped with electric power steering (EPS).

Due to a problem with the EPS module, the vehicles may experience a sudden loss of power steering assist during operation, increasing the risk of a crash.

GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the power steering assist motor kit, free of charge. The recall began on November 17, 2014.

Owners may contact GM customer service at 1-800-222-1020 (Chevrolet), or 1-800-462-8782 (GMC). GM's number for this recall is 14743.

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing is recalling 5,650 model year 2014 Toyota Camry, Camry HV, Avalon, and Avalon HV vehicles equipped with 16-inch and 17-inch rims.

The left-side front suspension lower arm may have been manufactured incorrectly. As a result, the left side lower arm may not have enough clamping surface area for one of the bolts that secures the lower arm to the lower ball joint. Because of the insufficient clamping force, the lower arm may separate from the ball joint, increasing the risk of a crash.

Toyota will notify owners, and dealers will replace the left side lower arm, free of charge. The recall was expected ti begin around mid-December 2014.

Owners may contact Toyota customer service at 1-800-331-4331.