Current Events in July 2015

It's been almost two years since word first leaked out that the massive data broker Experian had, through a subsidiary known as Court Ventures, allowed a Vietnamese identity thief to buy access to databases containing the personal and confidential information on up to 5 out of every 6 American adults — 200 million people in all.

The identity thief in question, Hieu Minh Ngo, was sentenced last week to 13 years in prison.

Law suit cites negligence

A couple days later, on July 17, three plaintiffs filed a federal class action suit against Experian in California, alleging that the company was negligent in allowing an identity thief to buy access to its data for nearly 10 months.

Security expert Brian Krebs (who first broke word of the Experian breach in October 2013) announced the lawsuit yesterday. The 38-page suit, which is available as a .pdf here, seeks statutory damages for alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, declaratory and injunctive relief, and reimbursement of the plaintiffs' court costs and litigation expenses.

The suit also claims that “Experian refuses to notify the victims of Ngo's identity fraud operation or provide them with protection even though Experian knows their identities, and its senior vice president promised Congress [that] Experian would 'make sure they're protected'.”

Therefore, the plaintiffs have asked the court to force Experian to notify all consumers who were affected by Ngo's actions. They're also pushing for Experian to provide everyone who was affected with free credit monitoring services.

Incidentally, in American English, the phrase “make a federal case” is a common idiomatic phrase used to indicate that somebody is overreacting: “Dude, he didn't intend to spill your drink! There's no need to make a federal case out of this.” But in other contexts, it's not an idiom but a straightforward description, as in “Apparently you do need to make a federal case out of it, if you want Experian to notify the victims of its own negligence.”

Sales of previously-owned homes rose last month to their highest pace in over 8 years as the median sales price hit a record high.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports total existing-home sales -- completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – were up 3.2% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.49 million.

Sales are now at their highest pace since February 2007, have increased year-over-year for 9 consecutive months and are 9.6% above a year ago (5.01 million).

Return of the buyers

"Buyers have come back in force, leading to the strongest past two months in sales since early 2007," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "This wave of demand is being fueled by a year-plus of steady job growth and an improving economy that's giving more households the financial wherewithal and incentive to buy."

Yun says June sales were also likely propelled by the spring's initial phase of rising mortgage rates, which, he said, “usually prods some prospective buyers to buy now rather than wait until later when borrowing costs could be higher."

Prices and inventories

The median existing-home price for all housing types in June was $236,400, which is 6.5% above June 2014 and surpasses the peak median sales price set in July 2006 ($230,400). June's price increase also marks the 40th consecutive month of year-over-year gains.

The median is the point at which half of houses sold for more and half for less.

Total housing inventory at the end of June inched up 0.9% to 2.30 million existing homes available for sale, and is 0.4% higher than a year ago. Unsold inventory is at a 5.0-month supply at the current sales pace, compared with 5.1 months in May.

"Limited inventory amidst strong demand continues to push home prices higher, leading to declining affordability for prospective buyers," said Yun. "Local officials in recent years have rightly authorized permits for new apartment construction, but more needs to be done for condominiums and single-family homes."

Sales and prices by region

• Existing-home sales in the Northeast climbed 4.3% last month to an annual rate of 720,000, and are now 12.5% above a year ago. The median price in the Northeast was $281,200 -- up 3.9% from June 2014.
• In the Midwest, sales rose 4.7% to an annual rate of 1.33 million, a year-over-year gain of 12.7%. The median price in the Midwest was $190,000, up 7.2% from a year ago.
• Sales in the South totaled 2.20 million, a gain of 2.3%, and are 7.3 percent above the same time last year. The median price in the South rose 7.2% from a year ago to $205,000.
• Existing-home sales in the West rose 2.5% to an annual rate of 1.24 million in June -- 8.8% above a year ago. The median price in the West was $328,900, which is 9.9% above June 2014.

Results of a recent animal study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism suggest that carrying a gene variant that affects the release of a specific brain protein may put one at greater risk of developing an alcohol use disorder.

Scientists led by Professor Dorit Ron, PhD, Endowed Chair of Cell Biology of Addiction, Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, found that mice carrying the Met68BDNF gene variant, which reduces the release of brain-derived neurotrophic (BDNF) factor, would consume excessive amounts of alcohol, despite negative consequences.

BDNF plays a role in the survival of existing neurons and the growth of new neurons and synapses, the junctures through which cell-to-cell communication occurs. The human form of this gene variant, Met66BDNF, leads to a reduction in the normal function of BDNF in the brain and is associated with several psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia and depression.

In an animal study reported earlier this year, NIAAA-supported scientists found that adolescent binge drinking was linked to lower levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and these changes persisted into adulthood.

“Genetic factors play a role in determining who develops alcohol problems,” said Dr. George Koob, PhD, NIAAA Director. “By understanding the genetic underpinnings of alcohol use disorder, we will be better able to develop targeted treatment and prevention strategies.”

Alcohol addiction in mice

In the study, published in Biological Psychiatry, researchers tested the role of BDNF in alcohol addiction by creating a “knock-in” mouse carrying Met68BDNF. In this variant, the amino acid valine (Val) is replaced by methionine (Met) in a specific position within the protein sequence of BDNF, resulting in reduced activity-dependent BDNF release.

These “knock-in” mice drank more alcohol, even when the alcohol was treated with bitter-tasting quinine. This suggests Met68BDNF carriers compulsively drink alcohol despite aversive consequences.

The effect of the genetic mutation seemed to be specific to alcohol consumption since the mice did not differ in their consumption of other fluids, or exhibit differences in levels of anxiety or compulsive behaviors

Practical application

Significantly, researchers were able to reverse compulsive alcohol drinking in the mice using gene delivery and pharmacology. Increasing levels of BDNF in the ventromedial portion of the prefrontal cortex, a brain region involved in compulsive drug and alcohol seeking, returned the mice to moderate levels of alcohol intake.

In addition, by administering a pharmaceutical compound developed to mimic the action of BDNF, researchers were also able to put a stop to compulsive drinking behaviors. This compound (LM22A-4) may have potential as a therapeutic for humans. It appears to reduce compulsive alcohol drinking without a generalized effect on motivation.

Alcohol use disorder affects about 16.6 million U.S. adults. Knowing whether patients carry a gene that results in decreased BDNF function could help in tailoring alcohol prevention and treatment strategies in the future.

Electronic cigarettes or "e-cigs" have been touted as a safer tool smokers can use to wean themselves off of traditional cigarettes. But is that really true? After all, e-cig liquid contains nicotine and emits carcinogens, just like tobaco-based cigarettes.

A research team reports in the ACS journal Chemical Research in Toxicology that much of the nicotine in e-cigarettes is the addictive form of the compound.

Although e-cigs don't burn tobacco, they heat and vaporize a liquid that contains nicotine, flavorings and other substances. 

Some experts say the nicotine content in e-cigs could lead users to become addicted to e-cigs, or that it could even serve as a gateway to conventional cigarettes and other drugs. But not all nicotine is created equal, and studies had yet to investigate what kind of nicotine was in the liquids.

Out of three forms, scientists believe "free-base" nicotine is the only one that gets absorbed by the body, making it the most addictive kind. Najat Saliba and colleagues wanted to find out which nicotine forms are in e-cigs.

The researchers tested commercial samples of liquids made for the devices and found that, by and large, the nicotine was in the most addictive form. They also determined that the concentration of nicotine varied and often didn't match the concentrations the labels claimed.

Funding for the study came from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the U.S. FDA's Center for Tobacco Products.

Home sales are rising, which is good news for the housing market. But the downside to that good news is a shrinking inventory.

As homes disappear from the market, there aren't additional ones to take their place. That tips the balance of power toward sellers and could frustrate the new wave of first-time buyers just starting to look.

By its accounting, online real estate marketplace Redfin says home sales jumped 11.4% year-over-year in June, leaving buyers looking at the lowest inventory of available homes on record.

Selling quickly

June was also the fastest month for home sales on record, with median days on market falling to 26, breaking the record of 27 days set in June 2013.

Even with robust buyer demand and low inventory, Redfin reports prices have not responded accordingly. Prices were up, but only by a modest 5.1% year-over-year.

Even 5.1% might be high, since Denver, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco are commanding premiums that pushed up the national average. All four cities posted double-digit year-over-year price increases in June.

Prices elsewhere may have been held in check by conservative appraisals, which have become the norm under tighter loan underwriting guidelines.

Local Market Insights in June

In fact, some of the hotter markets are showing signs of cooling off over the last couple of months. In San Francisco, one of the most expensive housing markets in the nation, the median sale price fell 2.8% month-over-month, to $1.07 million. But year-over-year, prices were up 16.3%.

Redfin reports new listings in San Francisco declined 10.6% from June 2014. San Francisco hasn’t seen year-over-year growth in new listings since February 2014.

Home values continued to soar in Denver, rising 14.8% year-over-year to a median of $325,000. July was the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year price growth above 10%.

Denver was still the fastest-moving market, with half of all new listings selling in 6 days or less, followed by Seattle at 9, Portland at 10, and Boston and Omaha at 11.

According to Redfin, the pricey San Jose market suffered the biggest year-over-year drop in sales on record going back to 1998, falling by 50.7% since last year. In another bad sign for the market, inventory grew by 13.5% and average days on the market surged from 13 to 33 days.

Richmond, Va., led the nation in year-over-year sales growth, with a massive increase of 35.4% over last June. Boston had the highest increase from May to June at 49.3%.

Renting used to be the easier way to have a home without all of the expenses tied to it. Things have changed quite a bit since the renting market went through the roof and now monthly rent checks could take a good portion of your salary in certain areas.

The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies has conducted a study and published some staggering facts about renting in the United States. According to a 2013 report, tenants spend more than 30% of their paychecks on housing in nearly 20.7 million renting households.

Financial advisors counsel that you should spend less than a third of your pay on housing costs, but nearly 11 million renters spend more than half of their paychecks on utilities and rent. That is a 37% increase since 2003.

Rising rent prices

Historically, cities like New York or San Francisco have always had very high rents, but many other cities are beginning to follow suit.

“The rental housing crisis is everywhere,” says Angela Boyd, Vice President of Advocacy at Enterprise Community Partners. Her organization is active in supporting affordable housing.

Rents have shot up recently in locations like Miami. Nearly 36 percent of renters spent more than half of their pay on rent and utilities in the city in 2013, which is the highest of the 100 metro areas that were examined in the study. People with a median income of $32,000 were paying an average of $1,100 in rent each month. That equates to roughly 41 percent of their total income at the end of the year.

New Orleans is another city with extremely high rents. After Hurricane Katrina, the city was forced into a period of rebuilding that has heavily influenced the economy; 35 percent of renters in the city use more than half of their pay for housing as a result.

Middle class hit hardest

Middle class families have been hit hardest by these high prices. People making $45,000-$75,000 who spent more than 50 percent of their income on housing increased by 72 percent in a 10-year period, from 2003 to 2013. People making $30,000-$45,000 have been hit even harder in the same time period, with a 69 percent increase in people paying more than half their income on housing.

The most inexpensive apartments are usually grabbed up very quickly. Apartments that cost $800 dollars or less a month may only stay on the market for a matter of days before they are picked up. Metro areas tend to have less of these kinds of listings, and more luxury housing with higher price points.

Higher rent costs make saving for a down payment on a house a real struggle. If so much of your income is devoted to your current living situation, saving up for a house of your own may be quite a long struggle. 

Not much movement last week in the mortgage business.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey, mortgage applications inched up a tiny 0.1% during the week ending July 17.

The Refinance Index was down 1%, with the refinance share of mortgage activity slipping to to 50.3% of total applications from 50.8 % the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity dropped to 7.3% of total applications.

The FHA share of total applications edged up to 14.0% from 13.8% the week prior, the VA share was 11.3%, and the USDA share of total applications was unchanged at 0.9%.

Contract interest rates

• The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) with conforming loan balances ($417,000 or less) was unchanged at 4.23%, with points decreasing to 0.34 from 0.39 (including the origination fee) for 80% loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year FRMs with jumbo loan balances (greater than $417,000) dipped 4 basis points -- to 4.16% from 4.20%, with points increasing to 0.33 from 0.28 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 30-year FRMs backed by the FHA slipped from 4.02% to 4.00%, with points down to 0.17 from 0.26 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 15-year FRMs held steady at 3.43%, with points rising to 0.34 from 0.33 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans. The effective rate increased from last week.
• The average contract interest rate for 5/1 ARMs fell to 3.08% from 3.13%, with points edging down to 0.41 from 0.42 (including the origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. The effective rate decreased from last week.

The survey covers over 75 percent of all U.S. retail residential mortgage applications.

Osamu Corporation of Gardena, Calif., is recalling all of its frozen tuna (loin, saku, chunk, slice, and ground market forms) sourced from one processing plant in Indonesia.

The product may be contaminated with Salmonella.

There have been two reports of illness associated with a single distributor in Minnesota.

The frozen tuna was sold in bulk packaging to distributors who further sold it to sushi restaurants, and grocery stores, which packaged sushi rolls made available for consumers to purchase and take home.

The products, sold at stores throughout the U.S. from May 9, 2014 to July 9, 2015 contain all sequential four digit Purchase Order Numbers (PO#) of 8563 through 8599.

The Purchase Order Number (PO#) is printed on each product carton box end panel.

Consumers concerned about whether the sushi they purchased may contain the recalled tuna product should check with the place of purchase. Customers who purchased the recalled products from their distributors should return them to the distributor for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-310-849-8881, Monday through Friday, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. (PDT).

The Natural Dog Company of Windsor, Colo., is recalling 12-oz bags of 12-inch Tremenda Sticks pet chews.

The products may be contaminated with Salmonella.

No illnesses have been reported to date in connection with this problem.

The recalled products come in a 12-oz bag without a lot number or expiration date with UPC number: 851265004957. They were sold in retail stores in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Utah and Washington.

Customers who purchased this product should discontinue use of it and may return the unused portion to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-888-424-4602 – Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm (MST).

Osamu Corporation of Gardena, Calif., is recalling frozen yellow fin tuna chunk meat (Lot #68568) sold to AFC Corporation of Rancho Dominquez, Calif., sourced from one processing plant in Indonesia.

The product may be contaminated with Salmonella.

There have been 2 reports of illness to date associated with exposure to AFC sushi in Minnesota.

The recalled product was shipped to AFC from May 15-26, 2015. AFC has sushi franchises nationwide in many different grocery stores and it is sold from sushi counters.

Customers concerned about whether the sushi they purchased may contain the recalled tuna product should check with the store where they purchased the sushi. That store will be able to determine if it used the recalled product to prepare the sushi.

Customers who have purchased the recalled product should return it to the distributor for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at 1-310-849-8881, Monday through Friday, 8 A.M. to 5 P.M. (PDT).

Dermatologists are alarmed by a new fad that they say is jeopardizing health. It's called sunburn tattooing, and doctors say there is nothing “cool” about it.

Some people are creating temporary tattoos by using sunblock or sunscreen to either stencil or freehand designs onto their skin. Then, they bake in the sun, purposefully getting a sunburn on their skin, with the red contrasting with their protected skin.

While it isn't permanent like a real tattoo, doctors say a sunburn tattoo can cause lasting damage.

“When you get any kind of unprotected sun exposure, you are doing damage to the DNA in your skin cells,” said Dr. Michael Ioffreda, a dermatologist at Penn State University Medical Center. “Your skin has memory, so the damage accumulates over time. Eventually, your body’s repair mechanisms can’t keep up and skin cancers erupt.”

True, you may not get skin cancer – at least, maybe not for a couple of decades – but there are more imminent, unappealing side effects of unprotected sunning, dermatologists warn.

Early wrinkles

Too much sun can bring on early wrinkles. Strangely colored spots and irregular pigmentation of the skin can also occur. Ironically, people often expose themselves to the sun's rays in search of healthy looking, radiant skin. Over the long haul, that isn't what they usually get.

Some people may have some degree of natural pigmentation in their skin and are less at risk for the harmful effects of unprotected sun exposure, but doctors say even they can be harmed by too much unprotected sun.

“As dermatologists, our stance is that there is no safe level of sun exposure,” Ioffreda said. “We can’t say it’s okay to get a tan once a week because we don’t know what the threshold is.”

Tattoo artists' warning

Even a traditional tattoo parlor is joining in the warnings against sunburn tattooing. Elite Tattoo Gallery of Jacksonville, N.C., says that you can't get a real tattoo if you have sunburned skin. 

“Tattooing breaks down your epidermis, which, if you’re sunburned, is already damaged,” the company says on its website. Your body is already trying to heal your sunburned skin, so more damage will only mean trouble for a fresh tattoo.”

Ioffreda suggests everyone should be using a daily moisturizer containing sunscreen. If you're going to be spending time in the sun each day, he recommends a broad spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30.

Sunscreen should always be applied 15 to 20 minutes before sun exposure so it has time to react chemically with your skin to form a protective shield. Ioffreda says it should be reapplied every hour and a half -- unless you are sweating or in water, in which case it should be reapplied more frequently. You can also use a sunblock such as titanium dioxide or zinc oxide instead.

“That’s the real white stuff that lifeguards use,” Ioffreda said. “It’s almost like putting paint on your skin but it works immediately to reflect the sun’s rays.”

Ioffreda and other dermatologists worry about this new fad because it's spreading so quickly across social media. If you have to do it, he suggests doing it with a spray-on tanner. You can get the same effect, he says, without causing damage to your skin.

Henna tattoos

Another temporary tattoo fad has triggered the concern of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The agency says temporary tattoos marketed as "henna" are applied to the skin's surface and usually last two to four weeks.

Henna is a dark coloring made from a flowering plant that grows in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia. The FDA says henna body artists are using so-called "black henna," which is potentially harmful.

It says inks marketed as "black henna" may actually be hair dye or a mix of henna with other ingredients that can cause dangerous reactions. The FDA says reactions may occur immediately after the application or even up to two or three weeks later.

Reported problems include redness, blisters, raised red weeping lesions, loss of pigmentation, increased sensitivity to sunlight, and even permanent scarring.  

The Defense Department today closed loopholes to protect U.S. men and women in uniform from predatory lending practices, adopting the final version of the Military Lending Act, which covers all forms of payday loans, vehicle title loans, refund anticipation loans, deposit advance loans, installment loans, unsecured open-end lines of credit and credit cards.  

“We’re going to keep fighting to give our troops and veterans a chance to enjoy the American freedom you helped defend,” President Barack Obama said this morning as he previewed the measure at the 116th Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“There’s already a lot to protect our troops and families against unscrupulous predatory lenders, but some of the worst abusers -- like payday lenders -- are exploiting loopholes to trap our troops in a vicious cycle of crushing debt,” Obama said.

“It is the right thing to do,” he said of the new rule.

"Important stand"

"With this action, the department takes an important stand against companies that can prey on our men and women in uniform,” Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work said in a news release after the president’s announcement.

The new version of the MLA addresses more types of credit products, including many that a three-year study found were often problematic for servicemembers.

Research by the Department of Defense released last year found that as many as one out of every ten enlisted servicemembers continued to be targeted by high-cost credit designed to evade the Military Lending Act.  DoD estimates that the final rule will reduce involuntary separation caused by financial hardship, resulting in a savings of $14 million a year or more

“This new rule addresses a range of credit products that previously escaped the scope of the regulation, compromising the financial readiness of our troops," Work said.

Consumer advocates praised the measure. 

“For nearly a decade, high-cost lenders have exploited loopholes in critical military financial protections so they can continue lending at abusive rates far above the 36 percent rate cap established by Congress,” said Tom Feltner, director of financial services at Consumer Federation of America.  “The final rule published today will ensure that servicemembers and their families get the financial protections they deserve.”

The final rule will:

• Apply market-wide to all high-cost credit products that target service members, including payday, auto title and installment loans that were excluded from the 2007 protections;
• Cap interest and add-on fees at 36 percent for loans issued to service members and their dependents; and
• Preserve service members’ access to the courts by prohibiting mandatory arbitration agreements.

“We applaud the Obama Administration and DoD for finalizing this important rule and ensuring that servicemembers and their families will no longer be put at risk by abusive lending practices,” said Feltner.

In years gone by, summer was a season for youthful activity. Kids played outdoors all day – swimming, playing baseball and kicking the can after dinner.

In short, kids got plenty of exercise during the summer – maybe more than any other time of year.

That doesn't appear to be the case today. Health officials say summer is one of the most challenging times of the year when it comes to preventing childhood obesity.

What's changed? The school year is still the way it always was. A lot of students walk to school, go to gym class, play outside at recess, and participate in after-school sports.

Even though they remain seated at their desks for long stretches of the day, they eat only during designated times. These days, school cafeterias and vending machines have been mostly purged of junk food.

Kids are healthier during the school year

Ironically, it is during the school year, when kids are more confined, that they maintain a more healthy lifestyle.

“In school, you can’t keep snacking while you’re learning history,” said Lara Dugas, a physical activity epidemiologist at Loyola University.

It's children's summer lifestyle that has undergone a change, and not for the better. During the summer months many children have relatively little structure or supervision. This is especially true in low-income households that can’t afford summer camps, says Dugas.

As a result, many children get less exercise during the summer and pass the time eating as much junk food as they want.

Fitter in June than August

“Many children finish the school year in June fitter and leaner than when they go back to school in August,” Dugas said.

This changing summer lifestyle has occurred over the last 30 years, at precisely the time childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC reported that in 2012, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.

Dugas says the cycle can be broken, but it will take getting kids up off the couch and outside, involved in summer camps, sports teams, and park activities.

“Such structured activities provide opportunities to benefit both their physical and cognitive development,” she said.

Summer activity tips

The American Heart Association has these tips for keeping kids physically active during the summer:

• Encourage outdoor play that involves any kind of movement. Informal games like tag, jumping rope, or hopscotch are beneficial.
• Introduce new games to a group of children. When kids learn the rules of a game at the same time as their peers, they're more confident and are more likely to participate.
• Limit screen time to two hours a day.
• Keep it fresh. Don’t get stuck in a workout rut. Try and incorporate a new exercise or game every few weeks to keep kids motivated.
• Try to make sure kids get in 60 minutes of physical activity every day, but it doesn't have to be 60 uninterrupted minutes. Break it up into several shorter periods of play. As long as daily physical activity adds up to at least 60 minutes, it's fine.  

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects the rights of the disabled by requiring public facilities to make provisions for people using wheelchairs and those who are vision- or hearing-impaired.

Reuters is reporting that the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office is investigating ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft to make sure they're complying with the law. The report says the attorney general's civil rights division contacted the companies last week to discuss whether everyone had equal access to the services.

The National Federation of the Blind of California sued Uber in 2014, charging discrimination because some drivers allegedly refused to transport service dogs.

Both Uber and Lyft were defendants in a Texas lawsuit last year when they were charged for failing to provide wheelchair-accessible rides for disabled passengers.

Taxis updating technology

Meanwhile, Taxis – engaged in a sometimes bitter competition with the ride-sharing services – are updating in-car technology for blind passengers. In cooperation with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Verifone is enhancing the accessibility of their in-taxi technology for blind passengers.

The technology enables passengers to pay their cab fare with a credit or debit card and enjoy curated media content during taxi rides. The upgrades should be completed by the end of the year, Verifone said.

Under the present system, vision-impaired passengers can tap the center of a terminal screen to launch an accessibility mode, which uses voice prompts to provide information about the fare and to guide the user through the payment process.

Adding audio information

The planned upgrade will add audio information about the cab's current location, as well as other improvements. The upgrade stems from NFB concerns presented to Verifone which stated that their interface wasn't the most user-friendly for the vision-impaired.

"We are committed to providing a great experience for all users of our technology,” said Amos Tamam, Senior Vice President of Taxi Systems for Verifone. “We are delighted to work with the National Federation of the Blind to make sure that our systems are usable and accessible to blind taxicab passengers."

Some apps might need some work

Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) state that making provisions for the vision-impaired in digital device apps is no less important than doing so in transportation. Yet when they conducted an academic review of 9 mobile health (mHealth) applications on the market in March 2014, they found none met all the criteria that would make them fully accessible to blind consumers.

The reviewed apps included applications that upload data from blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring devices. The research team said accessibility shortcomings ranged from improperly labeled buttons to confusing layouts that didn't work well with iPhone VoiceOver or Android TalkBack services that "read" information on the phone screen.

"We wanted to see if these health applications would be out-of-the-box accessible, and most really weren't," said lead author Lauren Milne, a UW computer science and engineering doctoral student. "They made a lot of amateur mistakes that people make when they build apps."

But the problem might be easily fixed. The researchers say that it would be easy for developers to make mainstream health sensors that are fully accessible to blind smartphone users. All they have to do is follow the guidelines already put in place by Apple and the U.S. government.

Massachusetts General Hospital takes top spot in this year's U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings, which highlight hospitals that are exceptional in numerous specialties. 

The Mayo Clinic was No. 2 while Johns Hopkins Hospital and UCLA Medical Center tied for third.

Designed to help patients with life-threatening or rare conditions identify hospitals that excel in treating the most difficult cases, Best Hospitals includes consumer-friendly data and information on nearly 5,000 medical centers nationwide.

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is No. 1 in cancer care, the Cleveland Clinic is No. 1 in cardiology & heart surgery and the Hospital for Special Surgery is No. 1 in orthopedics.

Best Hospitals features national rankings in 16 specialties. In the 2015-16 rankings, 137 U.S. hospitals performed well enough in complex care to be nationally ranked in one or more specialties. Just 15 of these qualified for a spot on the Honor Roll by ranking at or near the top in six or more specialties.

The 2015-16 Honor Roll

1. Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston
2. Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
3. (tie) Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
3. (tie) UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles
5. Cleveland Clinic
6. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston
7. New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, New York
8. UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco
9. Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian, Philadelphia
10. Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University, St. Louis
11. Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago
12. NYU Langone Medical Center, New York
13. UPMC-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
14. Duke University Hospital, Durham, North Carolina
15. Stanford Health-Stanford Hospital, Stanford, California

U.S. News also identified 520 Best Regional Hospitals, ranking them by state and metro area based on their performance in both complex and common care.

"Patients deserve high-quality information on hospitals," said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis at U.S. News. "We strive to provide them with the most comprehensive data available so they can make more informed decisions together with their doctor about where to undergo treatment."

Substance abuse can be pervasive at all ages, but a recent study conducted by researchers at Penn State shows that marijuana use is rising amongst teenagers. At the same time, other controlled substances, such as alcohol and cigarettes, are either remaining stable or declining in use within the same age group.

The war against smoking has been raging on for years. Many anti-smoking campaigns have targeted teens in the hopes that stopping the habit before it starts is the best solution. “Our analysis shows that public health campaigns are working—fewer teens are smoking cigarettes,” said Stephanie Lanza, who is a professor of biobehavioral health and the scientific director of the Methodology Center at Penn State.

Marijuana trends rising

Unfortunately, Lanza and her team have discovered that teens are not simply stopping when it comes to smoking. They are just replacing cigarettes with marijuana.

The researchers collected data from surveys that were given to high school seniors over a 37-year period, from 1976 to 2013. Over 600,000 students were questioned about their use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. The study used data that was originally collected by the University of Michigan for their own long-term study.

The statistical findings showed that, as of 2013, nearly 19 percent of white teens smoked cigarettes and 22 percent used marijuana. These numbers shift slightly for black teens, where only 10 percent smoke cigarettes but nearly 25 percent used marijuana. The researchers also found that teens were more likely to use marijuana if they smoked or drank excessively, and vice versa.

When compared to alcohol, though, cigarettes and marijuana still lag behind in teen use. Although these numbers have decreased since the 1970s, alcohol consumption is still more widespread amongst white teens than cigarette or marijuana use. But if abuse trends continue in this manner, then marijuana will likely begin to challenge alcohol consumption as the number one substance that teens abuse.

Decisive shift

“What will this look like in a few years?” asked Lanza when looking at graphs that showed black teens’ use of marijuana and alcohol consumption. “All signs point to these two lines crossing within the next few years. This is a decisive shift.”

Lanza and her colleagues will continue to analyze their data to see what else can be learned from it. They hope to see if the legalization of marijuana in several U.S. states will impact their figures in any significant way. The full study has been published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says Citibank, N.A. bilked roughly 7 million customers through deceptive marketing and billing for debt protection and credit monitoring services.

It has ordered the bank to pay $700 million in relief to consumers and $35 million in penalties.

A Citibank subsidiary also deceptively charged expedited payment fees to nearly 1.8 million consumer accounts during collection calls, the CFPB said. 

“We continue to uncover illegal credit card add-on practices that are costing unknowing consumers millions of dollars,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “In our four years, this is the tenth action we’ve taken against companies in this space for deceiving consumers. We will remain on the lookout for similar conduct and will address it as we find it.”

According to the CFPB, Citibank actively marketed and enrolled consumers in five debt protection add-on products: “AccountCare,” “Balance Protector,” “Credit Protection,” “Credit Protector,” and “Payment Safeguard.”

These products promised to cancel a consumer’s payment or balance, or defer the payment due date, if the consumer experienced certain hardships, such as job loss, disability, hospitalization, and certain life events, such as marriage or divorce.

Citibank also marketed and sold other add-on products – “IdentityMonitor,” “DirectAlert,” “PrivacyGuard,” and “Citi Credit Monitoring Services” – that offered credit-monitoring or credit-report-retrieval services. Citibank also offered “Watch-Guard Preferred,” a wallet-protection service that notified credit and debit card issuers if the consumers reported a card lost or stolen.

Deceptive marketing

The service were marketed through a variety of deceptive methods, including telemarketing calls, online enrollment, “point-of-sale” application and enrollment at retailers, or when enrolled consumers later called tocancel certain products, the CFPB said. 

For example, confusing text on pin-pad offer screens at the point of sale increased the likelihood that consumers applying for credit cards at a retailer would not realize they were both applying for credit and purchasing debt-protection coverage.

The full text of the CFPB’s consent order is available online. 

For years, the National Children's Leukemia Foundation (NCLF) has claimed to be a charitable operation that operated a bone marrow registry and fulfilled the last wishes of dying children, among other supposed good deeds.

But New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced that his office has filed a court action to shutter NCLF and to hold its founder and officers accountable for misusing the nearly $10 million it raised from donors.

The suit says NCLF was little more than a one-man operation run by founder Zvi Shor, 64, out of the basement of his Brooklyn home. 

“Nothing is more shameful than pocketing millions of dollars donated by good-hearted people who just wanted to help children afflicted with a terminal illness,” said Schneiderman. “My office will continue to identify, investigate, and shutter so-called charities that use legitimate-sounding names to exploit the generosity of New Yorkers and betray the public’s trust."

$9.7 million

The lawsuit alleges that between 2009 and 2013, the NCLF raised $9.7 million from donors across America by:

• Repeatedly lying about having a bone marrow registry, an umbilical cord blood banking program, and its own cancer research center; and telling donors it had filed a patent application for a new lifesaving treatment for leukemia when it had not;
• Lying when it told potential donors that funds raised would be used to “fulfill wishes of terminally sick children,” including sending these children to Disney World, when NCLF had not done so in years;
• Making false official filings, including annual financial filings submitted to the Attorney General’s Office, by reporting individuals as directors of the organization without their knowledge, and falsely reporting a large portion of fundraising expenses as public education about cancer;
• Filing false audit reports, when no audits were in fact conducted.

As the petition charges, between April 2009 and March 2013, NCLF collected approximately $9.7 million in revenue from thousands of donors across the country. Of that, $8.9 million was solicited by professional fundraisers hired by Shor, who were in turn paid approximately $7.5 million – or 83% – of the money raised.

Less than 1%

Of the remaining funds, according to the organization’s filings, the organization spent less than 1% – $57,541 – of its income on direct cash assistance to leukemia patients and transferred another 5% – $655,000 – to a shell organization in Israel run by Shor’s sister, allegedly for research purposes. Over the same time period, Shor was paid a salary of nearly $600,000, and awarded himself another $600,000 in deferred compensation.

The Attorney General’s investigation found that NCLF’s president, Yehuda Gutwein, 58, who lives in Brooklyn, was president in name only. Gutwein, a certified public accountant, took over the title in May 2010, when reports surfaced that Shor, who had been president since the organizations 1991 founding, was convicted of felony bank fraud in the Eastern District of New York in 1999.

Shor’s son, Shlomo Shor, 43, also of Brooklyn, stepped in as a director and vice president, but did nothing other than sign checks and forms, as he was ordered to do by his father, Schneiderman charged.