From the Web

Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com
USDA knew of problems at farm behind egg recall: report
Reuters
(Reuters) - US Department of Agriculture experts knew about sanitary problems at one of the two Iowa farms at the center of a massive nationwide egg recall, but did not notify health authorities, the Wall Street Journal reported. ...
Egg Inspectors Failed to Raise AlarmsWall Street Journal
Egg recall presented worries, opportunities for Oregon farmersOregonLive.com
With eggs a suspect ingredient, what's a good baking substitute?Philadelphia Inquirer
Washington Post -Orlando Sentinel -Adweek
all 100 news articles »

Reuters UK
Ban on stem-cell research funding blocked during appeal
ModernHealthcare.com
In a legal victory for the White House, a federal appeals court in Washington temporarily blocked a lower-court ruling that would have halted federal funding of stem-cell research. In their ruling late Thursday morning, three judges from ...
Stem Cell Financing Ban Ends, for NowNew York Times
Stem cell funding gets reprieveWashington Post
Ruling allows NIH to temporarily resume funding for embryonic stem cell researchLos Angeles Times
MedPage Today -USA Today -NPR
all 1,523 news articles »

AccessRx Health Blog (blog)
Having more docs doesn't guarantee more primary care, study finds
ModernHealthcare.com
A good supply of primary-care physicians in an area doesn't mean patients are more likely to get primary care, and those who do aren't always getting better health outcomes, according to a new report by the Dartmouth Atlas Project. ...
More doctors no panacea for US healthcare: reportReuters
Dartmouth Data: Primary Care Alone Won't Fix Nation's Health WoesWBUR
No link between more primary care, outcomeUPI.com
HealthNewsDigest.com -Wall Street Journal (blog) -Kaiser Health News
all 38 news articles »

HealthJockey.com
Champaign County confirms West Nile in samples
Daily Illini
After a silent summer without the West Nile virus in Champaign County, the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD) has confirmed the virus in 14 mosquito samples from the area. Aside from the samples, dead birds have been found around the ...
Two more cases of West Nile virus reportedSouthCoastToday.com
More spraying for West Nile virus plannedKnoxville News Sentinel
Two Local Mosquitoes Test Positive for West Nile VirusThe Sag Harbor Express
Patch -KVIA El Paso -FOX2now.com
all 384 news articles »

CBC.ca
RI flu-vaccine campaign to be waged in all schools
Providence Journal
Rhode Island children will be offered flu vaccines in their schools this year, as the state Department of Health launches a new approach to fighting influenza that it hopes to make an annual routine. The program aims to duplicate ...
Flu shields up on Grand StrandMyrtle Beach Sun News
Public flu shot clinic set Oct. 2Times Record News
Flu shot clinic Friday at Health Dept. in RichmondRichmond Register
Explore Howard County -WFXL FOX 31 -WFAA
all 1,044 news articles »

Oneindia
'I like my odds' against cancer, Michael Douglas says
USA Today
By Lionel Cironneau, AP By Donna Freydkin, USA TODAY In this age of crass reality upstarts and pampered starlets, he's a movie star of the old school. And even in his third week of grueling radiation treatments for Stage IV throat cancer, ...
Douglas: Cancer came at good timeThe Press Association
Michael Douglas Set to Appear on "Stand Up To Cancer" TelethonCBS News
Michael Douglas is taking life one day at a timeCNN International
Tampabay.com -MSN Health & Fitness -msnbc.com
all 118 news articles »

San Francisco Chronicle (blog)
Americans Skimp on Fruits and Vegetables
WebMD
The percentage of Americans eating fruit two or more times every day and vegetables at least three times daily declined slightly compared to a decade ago, before health authorities began to sound the alarm about the nation's obesity ...
Most Americans Still Not Eating Enough Fruits, VeggiesBusinessWeek
Most Americans Still Skip Fruits and VegetablesABC News
Florida doesn't eat enough vegetables, but neither do other statesOrlando Sentinel
UPI.com -Wall Street Journal (blog) -CNN (blog)
all 288 news articles »

Aljazeera.net
Vitamin B May Help Prevent Mental Decline in Elderly
WebMD
Sept. 9, 2010 -- Elderly people with mild memory problems may benefit from taking very high daily doses of vitamin B to slow the rate of brain shrinkage, say researchers. A University of Oxford study found that taking vitamin B tablets ...
High daily Vitamin B doses slow brain shrinkage in elderlyXinhua
Health Buzz: Vitamin B Could Delay Alzheimer's OnsetU.S. News & World Report
Daily vitamin B could slow Alzheimer's onset, study findsCNN
Seattle Times -Bloomberg -CBC.ca
all 251 news articles »

CBC.ca
FDA Warns Five E-Cigarette Makers, Says Products Need FDA Approval
Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The US Food and Drug Administration warned five electronic cigarette makers Thursday that they were violating federal law. The agency said the products, which use a device to turn nicotine liquid into ...
FDA Sends Warning to E-Cigarette DistributorsBusinessWeek
E-Cigarette Firms Get FDA WarningWebMD
FDA says e-cigarette companies must seek regulatory approvalLos Angeles Times
MedPage Today -WOI -Richmond Times Dispatch
all 576 news articles »

Filed under: Fraud, Consumer Ally

Publishers Clearing House agreed to pay $3.5 million, not to a lucky prize winner, but to a collection of states that accused the marketing company of once again misleading consumers.

A decade after the company, best known for its million-dollar sweepstakes, got itself in hot water for misleading consumers into buying things to improve their chances of winning, it was accused of the same thing. Seniors had been the most vulnerable back then -- and this time, too.

Continue reading Publishers Clearing House to pay out $3.5 million -- but it's no prize

Publishers Clearing House to pay out $3.5 million -- but it's no prize originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Money College

Consumer advocates say most Americans are unaware of the cozy relationship many colleges have with credit card companies, and they applaud New York State's efforts to intercede at its public colleges. As we told you yesterday, the state's 64 SUNY campuses agreed to a code of conduct drawn up by New York's Attorney General to protect students from being taken advantage of by credit card companies.

While the CARD Act put the kibosh on some abuses (such as offering a T-shirt, water bottle or some other student-friendly freebie to coax kids into applying for credit), that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issuers' sneaky behavior. What's perhaps even more worrisome is that it's very likely that New Yorkers didn't even know about all the ways card companies used colleges as conduits to worm their way into students' wallets.

Continue reading New York launches student credit card protections

New York launches student credit card protections originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Bargains, Shopping

You're probably familiar with the effect of a sumptuous dessert tray wheeled to your table at a fine restaurant. When the cheesecake or torte or flan is within lunging distance, your salivary glands practically demand you order a slice. According to a group of researchers at Caltech, the same kind of marketing could be an advantage that could help brick and mortar stores in their fight with Internet-based commerce.

The group, led by professor Antonio Rangel and grad student Benjamin Bushong, studied the reactions of customers to text descriptions of an item vs. photographs of an item vs.actually being able to touch the item. They began by testing this reaction in food, and found that their test subjects would bid 50% more for items they could actually reach out and touch. They found no significant difference in bids between foods described by text and foods shown in photographs.

Continue reading People will pay 50% more for items they can touch

People will pay 50% more for items they can touch originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Food

The geezer with the goatee that appears on KFC's logo -- real person or a cartoon character? In a new survey of Americans 18-25, more than 60% of respondents didn't know that the geezer, Colonel Harlan Sanders, was a real person and founder of the fried chicken empire. How fleeting is fame.

Don't expect that ignorance to last much longer, though, as the company has announced one of the most esoteric PR campaigns in recent memory. The winner of the KFC Cooks Up Challenge will be commissioned to paint a portrait of the Colonel using paint supplied by the company, paint "infused with original recipe herbs and spices."

Don't try this at home, though -- your dog might lick the Colonel right down to the gesso.

Continue reading Most of Gen Y can't identify Colonel Sanders

Most of Gen Y can't identify Colonel Sanders originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Consumer Ally, As Seen on TV

The Product: ShoeDini
The Price: $14.99 plus $6.99 shipping and handling
The Claims: Takes the back-breaking work out of putting on shoes.
Buy-O-Meter Rating: 2 out of 5

Continue reading ShoeDini review: Not a joke, but maybe it ought to be

ShoeDini review: Not a joke, but maybe it ought to be originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Shopping, In the News

You may see a lot more of Toys 'R' Us at the mall, as the toy store giant opens up 600 smaller, temporary "pop-up stores" in vacant mall spaces just in time for the holiday season.

By doing so, the retailer is doubling the number of its U.S. stores and taking advantage of lower rents. Last year it opened 90 temporary Toys 'R' Us Express stores, a move that bolstered its holiday sales. Toys 'R' Us also plans to open holiday sections in its 260 Babies 'R' Us locations.

The pop-up store has become a trend since the recession began in December 2007. Sometimes the stores last a few days for a special event, but most last a few months and tend to be based around the late October-January holiday season.

The temporary stores also help fill otherwise empty stores. The national vacancy rate for malls in the U.S. was 9 percent in the second quarter of this year, up from a low of 5.1 percent in the second quarter of 2005, according to Reis.

Toys 'R' Us opening temporary holiday stores originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Wealth, In the News

Time to buy more stocks? More U.S. stocks are paying dividends that exceed bond yields than any time in the past 15 years, as profits rise at the fastest pace in two decades.

Kraft Foods and DuPont are among 68 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index with payouts that top the 3.80 percent average rate in credit markets, based on data since 1995 compiled by Bloomberg and Bank of America.

One example: Johnson & Johnson sold 10-year debt at a record low interest rate of 2.95 percent last month, but its shares pay 3.68 percent.

The last time the number of S&P 500 companies paying dividends above the corporate bond rate approached the current level was in March 2003, according to Bloomberg News, just after the start of a bull market in which the equity index more than doubled over five years.

Dividends beating bond yields by most in 15 years originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Credit, Debt, Credit Cards, In the News

Consumers in the U.S. are keeping their credit cards in their wallets in favor of using debit cards to avoid building up more debt, according to a new report by Javelin Strategy & Research.

Key findings of the report:

Continue reading Cardholders swiping debit cards more as credit card use falls

Cardholders swiping debit cards more as credit card use falls originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Family Money, Saving Money

If you're looking to stash some cash at home, you don't want to hide it somewhere obvious -- like under a mattress or in your dresser drawer. You want to put it some place that no sticky-fingered person would think to look.

No matter what it's meant for -- emergencies, a vacation fund, fun money -- we asked our readers where they squirrel away their secret cash. Some of the responses were quite clever. Here are 16 creative places people hide their money from the likes of prowlers, partners, children and even themselves.

Continue reading Crazy places people hide money

Crazy places people hide money originally appeared on WalletPop Blog on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reuters
Health Plan Won't Fuel Big Spending, Report Says
New York Times
WASHINGTON — A new government study says President Obama's health care law will have negligible effects on total national health spending in the next 10 years, neither slowing nor fueling the explosive growth of medical costs. ...
US health reforms cause bump in spending: reportReuters
New US Health Law Won't Curb Growth in Spending This DecadeBusinessWeek
'Obamacare' Costs More, But Covers MoreABC News
Los Angeles Times -The Associated Press -CNNMoney
all 437 news articles »

AFP
Vitamin B is revolutionary new weapon against Alzheimer's Disease
Telegraph.co.uk
Vitamin B tablets could slow and even halt the devastating march of Alzheimer's Disease in the elderly, a breakthrough British study suggests. By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent The research showed that the larges doses of the supplement could ...
B vitamins found to halve brain shrinkage in oldReuters
B vitamins fight dementiaFood Consumer
B vitamins may help prevent Alzheimer'seMaxHealth
The Guardian -The Press Association -U.S. News & World Report
all 194 news articles »