Crockett & Waters

FROM THE WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY BLUR OF A SHOW

Australian school makes sunglasses compulsory for pupils

SYDNEY (AFP) - There was a time when wearing sunglasses would have been seen as too cool for school, but for pupils at a pioneering primary in Australia they are now a compulsory part of the uniform.

The move is aimed at protecting young eyes from the sun's dangerous ultraviolet rays, and education authorities say they are considering adopting the plan at all state schools.

The headmaster of Sydney's Arncliffe Public School, where sunglasses are now compulsory for children from kindergarten through Year 6, said they had no problems wearing the glasses in the playground.

The "sunnies" as they are called in Australia, would soon become "routine" for the pupils, Stephan Vrachas told commercial radio.

The education minister of New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, said the government would consider making sunglasses compulsory in all public school playgrounds.

"It is conceivable that in certain environments it might be appropriate to wear sunglasses when they are playing in the sun," John Della Bosca told reporters.

Excessive exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays, already blamed for skin cancers, can also lead to cataracts, experts say.

A specialist at Sydney Eye Hospital told the national AAP news agency that wraparound glasses were the best for eye protection and children should be encouraged to wear them from the age of three or four.

Sunglasses were particularly important in summer, when ultraviolet exposure was up to five times higher than in winter, said Con Petsoglou.

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Cell phones light up operating room during blackout

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The light from the cell phone screens allowed surgeons to complete an emergency appendix operation during a blackout in a city in central Argentina, reports said on Saturday.

Leonardo Molina, 29, was on the operating table on July 21, when the power went out in the Policlinico Juan D. Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, a small city in San Luis province.

"The generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work," a hospital spokesman, whose name was not given, told TN television news station.

"The surgeons and anesthetists were in the dark... A family member got some cell phones together from people in the hallway and took them in to provide light," he said.

Ricardo Molina, 39, Leonardo's brother, told La Nacion newspaper that the lights were out for an hour and his brother's anesthesia was wearing off.

Hospital Director Dario Maurer told La Nacion the surgery was without light a maximum of 20 minutes.

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Meditators predict Dow 17,000, near U.S. utopia

By Ayesha Rascoe

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks had a tough week with the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffering its worst one-week point drop in five years, but a group of meditators promise their good vibrations will send the index past 17,000 within a year.

A group called the Invincible America Assembly made that claim and more on Friday, insisting they have America's prosperity under control and their positive vibes will bring fewer hurricanes and better U.S.-North Korean relations.

Through group transcendental meditation the assembly -- which has 1,800 people meditating daily in Iowa since it was formed in July 2006 -- releases harmonious waves which benefit all aspects of U.S. life, spokesman Bob Roth told Reuters.

And the group's leader, John Hagelin, said when that number reaches 2,500 within the next 12 months, America will see a major drop in crime and the virtual elimination of all major social and political woes.

Asked what it would take to achieve world peace, Hagelin said such a utopia would need 8,000 meditators.

The group takes credit for, among other things: the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching a record high of 14,022 last week, unemployment rates falling to a six-year low at 4.5 percent, and North Korea shutting down its nuclear reactor.

It operates two facilities in Iowa, where followers practice several hours of transcendental meditation each day.

"This is not praying for peace, this is not sending out positive thoughts for peace," Roth said. "This is diving deep into one's own consciousness."

Hagelin compared the Assembly's use of transcendental meditation to the invention of electricity and other advances.

"We have control over things we didn't have control over before. That's the progress of science," Hagelin said.

And while most people may be skeptical of the ability of meditation to bring such change, Roth said the Assembly was not going to try to change people's opinions.

"We're not trying to convince anyone of anything," Roth said. "We're just doing it."

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Panda poop to be recycled into souvenirs

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING - Nothing says "I love you" like a photo frame made from panda poop.

The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base has come up with a dung-for-profit scheme that turns droppings from the endangered species into odor-free souvenirs ranging from bookmarks to Olympic-themed statues of the animals, state media and base officials said Monday.

The facility in the southwestern province of Sichuan houses about 40 bamboo-fed pandas who produce less than a ton of excrement a day.

"We used to spend at least 6,000 yuan ($770) a month to get rid of the droppings but now they can be lucrative," Jing Shimin, assistant to the base director, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

The products will be made at a local handicraft company mostly from undigested bamboo culled from the panda waste through a special process, Xinhua said.

An official who answered the phone at the Chengdu facility said the dung is "carefully selected, smashed, dried and sterilized at 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit)." He refused to give his name but said the products will be of all colors because they will be dyed.

"They don't smell too bad because 70 percent of the dung is just remains of the bamboo that the pandas are unable to digest," Jing said.

While no price has been set, he said the most expensive souvenirs will contain a panda hair — collected from the wild — in each package.

The 2008 Olympic statues will feature "athletic pandas performing various Olympic sports," Xinhua said.

In March, base officials said they were looking into making high-quality paper from the fiber-rich panda excrement, inspired by a trip to Thailand, where they found paper made from elephant dung.

The Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand already sells multicolored paper made from waste produced by its two resident pandas. Making paper there involves a daylong process of cleaning the ***, boiling it in a soda solution, bleaching it with chlorine and drying it under the sun.

The panda is one of the world's rarest and most beloved animals, with about 1,590 living in the wild in China, mostly in Sichuan and the western province of Shaanxi. Another 180 have been bred in captivity.

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According to a survey released yesterday, the boom in cell phones and portable devices that store reams of personal information has created a generation incapable of memorizing simple things. A quarter of those polled said they couldn't remember their landline number, while two-thirds couldn't recall the birthdays of more than three friends or family members.

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Remember the big steam pipe explosion in Manhattan last week? A woman is suing ConEd because it scared her. Francine Dorf, who says she was a victim of the explosion, is seeking punitive damages. She's now suffering symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to her lawyer. It should be noted that her sister died in the 9/11 attacks.

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www.whereihadmyfirstkiss.com

Our very first kiss is one of those special moments in life, a rite of passage that we will always remember. This amorous site maps the world’s “early romance” by using Google Earth to let users plot the geographic location of their first smooch.

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Boy Swallows ‘Grillz’

A 7-year-old boy in Sanford, Florida, was rushed to a local ER last week after swallowing a pair of “grillz” his mother had purchased for him at a local flea market. Officials say Bobby Tedesco was

wearing a pair of $10 knockoff “grillz,” which are commonly sold in flea markets and malls across the country. Tedesco’s mother, Dawn, said the grill popped off the boy’s teeth and he started to choke on

the piece of metal. She was trying to clear his throat when Bobby somehow managed to swallow the mouthpiece. The grillz have been in Bobby’s stomach for over four days and doctors say there is

only one way to pass them.

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FROM THE IN-TOUCH TUESDAY SHOW

Politician offended by landfill ice cream

NEW YORK - One Staten Island politician apparently doesn't have a sweet tooth for a locally-made vanilla ice cream with brownie chunks and cherries.

That's because the ice cream in question, marketed under the moniker "Staten Island Landfill," is "insulting and derogatory," borough president James Molinaro wrote in a letter on his Web site, in which he calls for a boycott of the treat, which is also packed with heart-shaped chocolate "crunchies" and fudge.

"The stereotyping of our community is as ignorant as it is hurtful," the infuriated politician wrote. "Even the most basic research effort would easily reveal the positive qualities that truly define our community."

For decades, until it closed in 2001, the city carted its refuse to a landfill in Staten Island, which residents there despised. Molinaro wrote that the borough has consistently been named the "greenest, cleanest and safest."

Kim and Scott Myles, the Queens couple who founded 5 Boroughs Ice Cream, which produces "Staten Island Landfill," said they intended no harm with the moniker.

Kim Myles, 33, told the Daily News in Wednesday's edition that it is a "flavor with heart."

The company markets other city-based ice cream flavors, including "Jackson Heights Mangodesh," "South Bronx Cha Cha Chocolate" and even "Upper East Side Rich White Vanilla."

The chairman of the upper East Side Community Board 8, David Liston, said if the ice cream was good, he would eat it.

Those who tried the Landfill ice cream said the name wasn't a big deal.

"It's not like we'll be expecting to see a syringe or a rubber boot in there," said Joe Melendez, an ironworker from Brooklyn.

The Staten Island borough president has offered an alternate name for a Staten Island ice cream — "Ferry Berry," after the Staten Island Ferry.

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Price of machetes drops after elections

ABUJA (Reuters) - The price of machetes has halved in parts of Nigeria since the end of general elections in April because demand from thugs sponsored by politicians has subsided, the state-owned News Agency of Nigeria reported.

NAN surveyed prices in the northeastern state of Gombe and found that a good quality machete was now selling for 400 naira ($3) compared with 800 naira before the elections, which were marred by politically motivated violence in many states.

"A price survey on machetes, which served as a popular weapon among political thugs in the state, indicated ... a drop in the price of the implement," NAN reported over the weekend.

Machetes are primarily used as a tool for farming in Nigeria but they are also popular among political gangsters.

"Before the conduct of the general elections, I was selling a minimum of seven machetes daily but can hardly sell one a day now," said Usman Masi, a trader quoted by NAN.

Africa's most populous country returned to civilian rule in 1999 after three decades of almost continuous army rule but violence remains a feature of politics, especially during the build-up to elections.

European election monitors estimated that at least 200 people were killed in politically motivated violence during months of campaigning ahead of the April polls.

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Man flies 5,600 km for wedding - a year early

LONDON (AFP) - A man flew all the way from Canada to Britain for a friend's wedding -- then realised he was a year too early, the self-confessed "berk" told BBC radio Tuesday.

David Best sent friend David Barclay an email at the start of 2007 which mentioned his wedding date of July 6.

Despite receiving no invitation, and thinking it was a bit odd to have a wedding on a Friday, expat teacher Barclay nonetheless booked his flights and jetted the 5,600 kilometres from Toronto to Cardiff, in Wales.

"I booked my ticket, paid 500 pounds (1,000 dollars, 750 euros) to fly into Cardiff, got the old suit cleaned, the goatee trimmed, the head shaved -- I was going to be the belle of the ball," Barclay said.

"I called his mum to find his number and then I called him up and I said, 'When and where is this wedding? It's in a couple of days and I'd just like to know where I'm going.'

"He said to me, 'Mate, it's not this year, it's next year. 2008 not 2007'."

Only then did a whole list of other strange occurrences start to make any sense.

"I called his mum up and she didn't mention it at all. I didn't get an invitation, it was just on an email and I mentioned it to a friend we're both friends with and he didn't know what I was talking about," Barclay said.

"All these things came together and I thought, 'Oh no, you berk.' I'm a year early and my mates are loving it, aren't they?

"At least it has assured me a mention in the speech next year, I reckon. Same time next year -- I'll be there."

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A Romanian prison inmate’s legal action against God has gone belly up because prosecutors couldn't find God’s address. Pavel Mircea, who is serving a 20-year sentence for murder, launched legal action against God two years ago. In his claim he stated: "God and I closed a contract when I was baptized and God did not respect his part of the deal. He was supposed to protect me from all evils and instead he gave me to Satan who encouraged me to kill." A prosecutor said: "We could not find God’s address. He has no home address."

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FROM MONDAY'S MURKY MESS

Anti-smoking pill may help curb drinking By ANDREW

BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A single pill appears to hold promise in

curbing the urges to both smoke and drink, according

to researchers trying to help people overcome

addiction by targeting a pleasure center in the brain.

The drug, called varenicline, already is sold to help

smokers kick the habit. New but preliminary research

suggests it could gain a second use in helping heavy

drinkers quit, too.

Much further down the line, the tablets might be

considered as a treatment for addictions to everything

from gambling to painkillers, researchers said.

Several experts not involved in the study cautioned

that there is no such thing as a magic cure-all for

addiction and that varenicline and similar drugs may

find more immediate use in treating diseases like

Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Pfizer Inc. developed the drug specifically as a

stop-smoking aid and has sold it in the United States

since August under the brand name Chantix. Varenicline

works by latching onto the same receptors in the brain

that nicotine binds to when inhaled in cigarette

smoke, an action that leads to the release of dopamine

in the brain's pleasure centers. Taking the drug

blocks any inhaled nicotine from reinforcing that

effect.

A study published Monday suggests not just nicotine

but alcohol also acts on the same locations in the

brain. That means a drug like varenicline, which makes

smoking less rewarding, could do the same for

drinking. Preliminary work, done in rats, suggests

that is the case.

"The biggest thrill is that this drug, which has

already proved safe for people trying to stop smoking,

is now a potential drug to fight alcohol dependence,"

said Selena Bartlett, a neuroscientist with the Ernest

Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of

California, San Francisco who led the study. Details

appear this week in the journal Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences.

Pfizer provided the drug for the study, but was not

otherwise involved in the research.

More often than not, smoking and drinking go together

— an observation pub-goers have made for hundreds of

years. That a single drug could work to curb both

addictions isn't a given — nor is it surprising, said

Christopher de Fiebre, an associate professor of

pharmacology and neuroscience at the University of

North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.

"This is an extremely important paper and hopefully it

will convince the major funding agencies that they

need to examine the interactions between nicotine and

alcohol to a greater extent than they have done to

date," said de Fiebre, who was not connected with the

study.

In fact, the California researchers, together with the

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,

are now planning the first studies in humans of the

drug's effectiveness in curbing alcohol cravings and

dependence, Bartlett said. That the drug is already

Food and Drug Administration-approved should speed

things along.

"This is a drug that people are actually using. That's

not trivial — not at all," said Mark Egli, co-leader

of the medications development program at the NIAAA,

part of the National Institutes of Health. "There is

plenty of animal research that looks pretty cool but

there is no way those drugs are ever going to be used

by human beings."

In the new study, researchers trained rats to drink

alcohol and measured the effect of varenicline once

the animals became the laboratory equivalent of heavy

drinkers. They found the drug curbed their drinking.

Even when stopped, the animals resumed drinking but

didn't binge.

Just as varenicline doesn't work for all smokers, it's

highly unlikely it would for all drinkers.

"Is this going to be a cure-all? No, not for smoking

or alcoholism because both diseases are more

complicated than a single target or single genetic

issue," said Allan Collins, a professor of

pharmacology at the University of Colorado who was not

connected to the study.

Still, Collins, who's worked on the topic for decades,

called the drug's potential use in treating alcoholism

a "no-brainer." And Egli said it supports the emerging

view that there is a common biological basis for

addictions to both alcohol and tobacco.

As for Pfizer, the New York company has yet to decide

whether to seek broader FDA approval for the drug, a

spokesman said.

"Without having considerable more data on this it

would be very difficult for us to say we might pursue

it or not. It's almost a wait-and-see," said Pfizer's

Stephen Lederer.

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FROM THE THURSDAY THINGY

Couple may lose home over $1.63 tax bill

SLIDELL, La. - A $1.63 property tax bill that never reached its destination in 1996 has turned into a nightmare for Kermit and Dolores Atwood, who are now trying to keep from losing their home over the unpaid notice.

Dolores Atwood calls the events that followed the wayward bill, including the eventual sale of their home at a sheriff's tax sale, "seven years of emotional hell."

"I don't know how much more I can endure," said Atwood, 69, while sitting in a FEMA trailer in front of her Hurricane Katrina-ravaged home north of Slidell.

The couple hope recent state court decisions, which say their home should never have been put up for sale, withstand appeals by a land company.

In 2000, the Atwoods learned their four-bedroom home had been sold in a tax sale three years earlier for the $1.63 in unpaid taxes, plus 10 cents interest and $125 in sale costs.

Atwood said the couple learned of the sale about a week after the three-year period in which delinquent taxpayers can reclaim their property had ended.

The bill was sent to a defunct address and returned undelivered to the St. Tammany Parish sheriff's office. Atwood then complained to the sheriff's and assessor's offices that she never received the bill and knew nothing about it. The house, which the couple has owned mortgage-free since 1968, previously was totally state homestead exempt, meaning there was no tax bill, Atwood said.

"The sheriff's office could have easily found us," Atwood said. "We're in the phone book."

Although the State Tax Commission nullified the sale, the couple found out in 2002 — when they attempted to sell the house and got a $90,000 offer, a buyer, Jamie Land Co., had filed suit. The company had bought the property rights from American Land Investments.

Atwood said the couple couldn't sell the house because they didn't have clear title to the property. When Katrina hit, trees fell on the house. She said they didn't have insurance, and because they didn't have clear title, they didn't qualify for federal rebuilding help.

In May 2006, State District Judge Patricia Hedges ruled that the property title belongs to the Atwoods. Jamie Land appealed. Last month, a three-judge panel of the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal upheld Hedges' decision. Jamie Land asked the court to rehear the case, but that request was denied last week.

Now, the company plans to ask the Louisiana Supreme Court to take up the case.

James A. Lindsay II, the company's president, said he did not want to pursue a long court case but that his rights were violated when the tax commission didn't inform him of its decision.

"I've been trying to settle this from the very beginning," Lindsay said. "I've offered to settle for very little. Every time we meet in court, we beg to settle."

Lindsay said he's made offers, ranging from $2,000 to $5,000, to settle, though Atwood said she's unaware of any offers. Lindsay said he has spent about $20,000 on the case.

FROM WEDNESDAY'S WALL-TO-WALL ENTERTAINMENT SHEW

George Bush's chef has revealed that a cheeseburger pizza is the President's favorite dish for dinner. It's basically a pizza with hamburger meat on top. For lunch he likes peanut butter and honey sandwiches and chips.

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Well this should be fun! In Germany a "death channel" is about to be launched. The 24-hour TV channel will be devoted entirely to ageing, dying and death. It will feature things like documentaries about graveyards, televised obituaries, and tips on finding a decent retirement home.

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America’s Best Hospitals

Johns Hopkins in Baltimore is the best hospital in America. U.S. News & World Report has announced the 2007 edition of America’s Best Hospitals (www.health.usnews.com/besthospitals ).

The guide ranks 173 hospitals in 16 specialties. The hospitals were judged on reputation, death rate and care-related factors such as nursing and patient services. This year’s “Honor Roll” of 18

hospitals :

1. Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore)

2. Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN)

3. UCLA Medical Center (Los Angeles)

4. Cleveland Clinic

5. Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston)

6. New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell

7. Duke University Medical Center (Durham, NC)

7. University of California, San Francisco Medical Center

9. Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University (St. Louis)

10. Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston)

11. University of Washington Medical Center (Seattle)

12. Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)

13. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

14. University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers (Ann Arbor)

15. (Tie) Stanford Hospital and Clinics (Stanford, CA)

15. (Tie) Yale-New Haven Hospital (New Haven, CT)

17. (Tie) Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles)

17. (Tie) University of Chicago Medical Center

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NASA moved space shuttle Endeavour a step closer to liftoff without an essential part – the “u.” The spacecraft arrived at the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, and officials welcomed it with a banner reading “Go Endeavor” (E-N-D-E-A-V-O R). The shuttle’s name, however, is spelled the British way, E-N-D-E-A-V-O-U-R. It’s named after the first ship commanded by 18th century British explorer James Cook. The banner was up for about 90 minutes before being replaced with the correct spelling . Endeavour’s launch is scheduled for August 7th.

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FROM TUESDAY'S TACKY SHOW

Laura Rowley Money & Happiness

Five Credit Card Traps to Avoid

by Laura Rowley

Americans are in love with their credit cards. So you'd think they'd try to get to know them a little better.

But many consumers are clueless about the most basic aspects of their plastic, according to a new survey by GfK Roper on behalf of CreditCards.com, an online credit card marketplace.

Credit, Sex, and Denial

For example, nearly three-quarters of cardholders surveyed don't bother to read the terms and conditions of their cards. "People did seem to know the interest rate, but beyond that they just seemed ambivalent," says Jody Farmer, vice president of marketing for CreditCards.com.

In addition, more than 90 percent of survey respondents believe they have the same amount (or less) debt as the average American. The survey based its number -- $9,300 per household -- on a figure published by CardWeb.com, which divides the outstanding revolving debt by the number of households with credit cards.

"I equate it to sex surveys, which are notoriously inaccurate because people won't own up to how they actually behave," says Farmer. "There's a high level of denial." The other possibility: Ten percent of the population has huge revolving balances that skew the numbers higher.

Meanwhile, more than 9 in 10 Americans don't know how long it would take to pay off their credit card bill if they made only the minimum payments. Asked how long it would take to wipe out a $1,000 charge, 55 percent underestimated the actual time of 7 to 8 years; 31 percent overestimated; and 7 percent didn't know.

Unfair Disclosure

The cost of borrowing money on credit cards has tripled -- even after adjusting for inflation -- since the onset of banking deregulation in the early 1980s, according to Robert Manning, author of "Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America's Addiction to Credit." The culprits? Major court rulings that allow lenders to charge whatever interest rate the market will bear, along with a variety of new fees and punitive clauses.

Consumer advocates and members of Congress are calling on financial firms to end these egregious practices. "We do believe consumers have a responsibility to make smart decisions," says Stephen Brobeck, executive director of advocacy group Consumer Federation of America. "But the true terms and conditions [of credit cards] are not clearly disclosed, and are not able to be understood by most people."

A September 2006 report by the General Accounting Office concurred. The report found that credit card disclosures were "written at a level too difficult for the average consumer to understand. ... When attempting to use these disclosures, cardholders were often unable to identify key rates or terms."

Brobeck would also like credit card issuers to make the numbers clearer to math-challenged borrowers. "We believe that consumers need to know exactly how long it would take to pay off a revolving balance and the total expense if they only pay the minimum -- and that should be clearly disclosed on the monthly statements," he says.

The Five Biggest Pitfalls

For the pathological optimist who hasn't read his card's fine print, here are the biggest traps to avoid:

• "Any time, any reason"

This clause says your card company can jack up your interest rate and change the fees whenever it wants to, for any reason.

"One of the most egregious practices is hair-trigger re-pricing, particularly moving people quickly from low rates to high penalty rates," says Brobeck. "Issuers try to justify it by claiming they're simply pricing to risk, but in our view, it's simply predatory pricing."

Happily, ahead of Senate hearings on credit card company practices held this March, Citi announced that it would eliminate the "any time, any reason" clause and keep rates and fees on its cards constant until the cards' expiration dates.

• Over-limit fees

According to the 2007 Credit Card Survey by Consumer Action, a San Francisco advocacy group, some 94 percent of cards charged over-limit fees of $20 to $39 -- and they can be assessed monthly until the balance falls below the limit.

At the March Senate hearings, Chase CEO Richard Srednicki apologized to an Ohio customer hit with 47 separate over-limit fees on the same original balance. The cardholder's debt had tripled to $10,700 from $3,200, despite making steady payments and incurring no new charges. Chase said it will no longer charge more than three consecutive over-limit fees.

• Late fees and penalty rates

More than one-third of consumers paid a credit card bill late during 2005, according to the GAO report. The average late fee more than doubled to $28 from $13 between 1995 and 2007, according to Consumer Action.

Some 85 percent of late payers are slapped with penalty interest rates, Consumer Action found, up from 79 percent in 2005. The average is 24.51 percent, but they can run as high as 32.24 percent. All of the banks surveyed require the cardholder to ask for a reduction in the penalty rate -- it's not automatic.

If you typically pay on time and get hit with a late fee, ask the company to remove it. I did this on a recent bill that fell to the bottom of my to-do pile when I left for a business trip. It took a three-minute call to have the charge erased. (I always pay the bill in full.)

• Two-cycle billing

This is a method of calculating credit card interest up until the day full payment is received. It's based on two billing cycles, instead of determining interest only on the immediate billing cycle.

Example: You owe no money on July 1. Then you head to the beach for a holiday, and charge it to the card. On August 1 you get a bill for $2,050. You pay the bill on August 21, but you only pay $2,000 instead of the full amount. On your next bill, the company will charge you interest on both the $50 outstanding and the $2,000 you paid on time.

Consumer Action discovered that 9 of the 20 banks surveyed employ the practice, including giants such as Bank of America, Capital One, HSBC, and Citi. Chase announced it would end the practice earlier this year.

• Universal default clauses

Imagine you have a credit card with a 3.9 percent interest rate, which you pay on time and in full. Then you pay another credit card bill late. It's not unusual to see the card with the 3.9 percent rate skyrocket to 28.9 percent, according to Manning. The credit card issuers argue that your behavior with other debts indicates that you're a greater credit risk.

In March, prior to the Senate hearings, Citi announced that it would eliminate this practice. Such changes may become the trend amid pressure by Congress and consumer advocates, says Brobeck: "I'm fairly certain that major issuers will continue to make significant improvements in products."

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Suit: Porn star took old friend's name

HOUSTON - A Houston woman is suing a former high school classmate who took her name and starred in pornographic movies.

Kristen Syvette Wimberly, 25, is asking that Lara Madden and film distributor Vivid Entertainment Group stop using or publicizing her name, which Madden took as a stage name.

The two met in ninth grade at Kingwood High School. According to the lawsuit, they "were friends but eventually that friendship ended due to conflict."

Madden, 25, began her adult-film career in 2004 and has appeared in about a dozen adult films using the name Syvette Wimberly.

As a result, the lawsuit claims, Madden and the distributor have inflicted "humiliation, embarrassment, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, mental anguish and anxiety."

Caj Boatright, attorney for Kristen Syvette Wimberly, said her client started being contacted by friends and acquaintances asking about her career in pornography.

"The purpose of the lawsuit is to get her to stop using this name," Boatright said. "We're not out looking for millions of dollars."

Kent Schaffer, Madden's attorney, said his client chose the name simply because she liked the sound of it.

"There is no bad blood between them," Schaffer said. "Lara never meant to harm this other girl."

Madden no longer performs in pornographic films, Schaffer said. Vivid Entertainment had no comment because it hadn't been served with the lawsuit, a spokesman said.

The lawsuit, filed June 26 in Harris County District Court, seeks unspecified damages, but Schaffer said Madden will agree to stop using the name if that's all the plaintiff wants.

"They'll never get a penny from her," he said. "She doesn't have any money, for one thing, but even if she did this suit will never hold up in court. I'm not aware of any court that has upheld such a lawsuit. If I use your name to defraud somebody, that's different."

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THE CROCKETT & WATERS WEEK IN REVIEW

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Boeing unveiled its first fully assembled 787 on Sunday.

John Edwards announced that he'll take a break from campaigning and go on a poverty tour.

The National Science Foundation on Tuesday chose a closed South Dakota gold mine as the site for a new underground physics lab to study the history and makeup of the universe.

A new study suggests older adults have a harder time getting jokes as they age.

Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson died Wednesday.

In Amsterdam, a judge tossed the case of Helene de Gier, who claimed she was traumatized by not winning her country's national lottery, which, by the way, she never entered.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected a proposal by director Oliver Stone to make a film about him.

Researchers now say middle age women are having more strokes than middle age men, and they don't know why.

Bob Barker continues to remind people that he does not officially endorse Rosie O'Donnell as the new host of The Price is Right.

An empty can of gourmet dog food taken from Paris Hilton's trash fetched $305 in an eBay auction.

A new study says the discomfort that airline passengers often feel when flying is due to incorrect air pressure settings.

Louisiana Sen. David Vitter apologized to anyone he disappointed after telephone records linked him to an escort service operated by the "D.C. Madam."

A report says nearly half of the pregnant teens in China's financial hub, Shanghai, met their partners on the Internet.

THE STORY OF THE WEEK:

Pennsylvania government offices shut down for a day due to a budget issue.

FROM THE THROBBING THURSDAY SHOW

China executes ex-food and drug chief By ALEXA OLESEN,

Associated Press Writer

BEIJING - China executed the former head of its food

and drug watchdog on Tuesday for approving untested

medicine in exchange for cash, the strongest signal

yet from Beijing that it is serious about tackling its

product safety crisis.

The execution of former State Food and Drug

Administration director Zheng Xiaoyu was confirmed by

state television and the official Xinhua News Agency.

During Zheng's tenure from 1998 to 2005, his agency

approved six medicines that turned out to be fake, and

the drug-makers used falsified documents to apply for

approvals, according to previous state media reports.

One antibiotic caused the deaths of at least 10

people.

"The few corrupt officials of the SFDA are the shame

of the whole system and their scandals have revealed

some very serious problems," agency spokeswoman Yan

Jiangying said at a news conference held to highlight

efforts to improve China's track record on food and

drug safety.

Yan was asked to comment on Zheng's sentence and that

of his subordinate, Cao Wenzhuang, a former director

of SFDA's drug registration department who was last

week sentenced to death for accepting bribes and

dereliction of duty. Cao was given a two-year

reprieve, a ruling which is usually commuted to life

in prison if the convict is deemed to have reformed.

"We should seriously reflect and learn lessons from

these cases. We should step up our efforts to ensure

food and drug safety, which is what we are doing now

and what we will do in the future," Yan said.

Zheng, 63, was convicted of taking cash and gifts

worth $832,000 when he was in charge of the State Food

and Drug Administration.

His death sentence was unusually heavy even for China,

believed to carry out more court-ordered executions

than all other nations combined, and indicates the

leadership's determination to confront the country's

dire product safety record.

Fears abroad over Chinese-made products were sparked

last year by the deaths of dozens of people in Panama

who took medicine contaminated with diethylene glycol

imported from China. It was passed off as harmless

glycerin.

Yan said she did not have any information about

whether the Chinese manufacturer, Taixing Glycerin

Factory, and the Chinese distributor, CNSC Fortune

Way, had been punished.

"We will try to get more information from the

department concerned and we will release it to you,"

Yan said. She wouldn't elaborate.

China admitted last month that it was the source of

the deadly chemical that ended up in cough syrup and

other treatments but insists the chemical was

originally labeled as for industrial use only. Beijing

blames the Panama traders who eventually bought the

shipment for fraudulently relabeling it as

medical-grade glycerin.

In North America earlier this year, pet food

containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the

chemical melamine was blamed for the deaths of dogs

and cats.

Since then, U.S. authorities have turned away or

recalled toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color

additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead

paint.

Yan said the food and drug administration was working

to tighten its safety procedures and create a more

transparent operating environment. The administration

has already announced a series of measures to tighten

safety controls and closed factories where illegal

chemicals or other problems were found.

But Yan acknowledged that her agency's supervision of

food and drug safety remains unsatisfactory and that

it has been slow to tackle the problem.

"China is a developing country and our supervision of

food and drugs started quite late and our foundation

for this work is weak, so we are not optimistic about

the current food and drug safety situation," Yan said.

Chinese officials have already said the country faces

social unrest and a further tarnished image abroad

unless it improves the quality and safety of its food

and medicine.

The government has faced increasing pressure from its

international trading partners to improve quality

controls after a series of health scares attributed to

substandard or tainted Chinese food and drug exports.

The list of food scares within China over the past

year includes drug-tainted fish, banned Sudan dye used

to color egg yolks red, and pork tainted with

clenbuterol, a banned feed additive.

China has also stepped up its inspections of imported

products and said some U.S. products are not safe.

In the latest case, the official Xinhua News Agency

reported Tuesday that a shipment of sugar-free drink

mix from the United States had been rejected for

having too much red dye.

Last week, China's food safety watchdog said almost 20

percent of products made for consumption within China

were found to be substandard in the first half of

2007. Canned and preserved fruit and dried fish were

the most problematic, primarily because of excessive

bacteria and additives, the agency said.

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'Arrogant' Paris on tourist charm offensive

PARIS (AFP) - Paris launched a charm offensive Monday

aimed at foreign visitors after a survey showed that

while the French capital was the most visited city in

the world it was also one of the rudest.

Mayor Bertrand Delanoe launched the campaign at the

Eiffle Tower, hoping to win the hearts and minds of

tourists and not just their hard-earned cash.

Leaflets were handed out proclaiming a "charter for

the Parisian and for the visitor" in French and

English, whereby the French were asked to be more

friendly and visitors were asked to "respect the

city."

Parisians should "take the time to give information to

visitors" and "make use of foreign language skills to

reply to them in their language," it said.

Tourists were meanwhile asked to "experience the

Parisian lifestyle," "take advantage of (their) stay

to try French products" and "respect the city and use

public transport."

The campaign was launched after a Global Market

Institute study ranked the French capital as the

world's most visited city, ahead of London and Rome.

When it came to hospitality, however, Paris only made

52nd place on a list of 60 cities.

Despite that ranking, 97 percent of tourists intend to

return to the city, according to a survey carried out

by the Paris Tourism Office of 2,837 users of its

www.parisinfo.com website.

Tourism Office chief Paul Roll said the charm campaign

aimed to "demolish the stereotype of the arrogant

Parisian and to show capital residents how important

an activity tourism is for them."

According to the agency, 20 percent of people working

in Paris are directly or indirectly dependant on the

tourism industry.

In 2006, 16.3 million visitors, including 9.7

foreigners, stayed in Paris hotels. By 2020 the number

of foreign tourists to the city is expected to climb

to 20 million annually, according to Tourism Office

figures.

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U.S. Recalls More Chinese-Made Toys

By JOE McDONALD,AP

Posted: 2007-07-06 07:07:52

BEIJING (July 6) - U.S. regulators on Thursday ordered a recall of three more Chinese-made products for children on safety grounds, adding to a flurry of warnings about goods from China.

The latest recalls, announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, cover jewelry that the agency said could cause led poisoning and a magnetic building set and plastic castles with small parts that it said could choke children.

The orders add to an avalanche of U.S. government actions in recent weeks to recall or restrict imports of Chinese tires, toothpaste, seafood, toys and other goods.

China has responded by stepping up enforcement of health and safety rules in the export industries that drive its economic growth. Beijing also has heatedly defended its record as a supplier of reliable goods and complained about possible protectionism linked to the safety warnings.

The latest recalls involve:

20,000 Essentials for Kids Jewelry sold by Future Industries, of Cliffwood Beach, N.J. The product safety agency said the metal jewelry sets contain high levels of lead that can be toxic if ingested by young children.

800 Mag Stix Magnetic Building Sets sold by Kipp Brothers, of Carmel, Ind. Small magnets inside the plastic sticks can fall out and could be dangerous if swallowed, the safety agency said. It said it an 8-year-old girl who swallowed magnets required surgery to remove them and repair intestinal perforations.

68,000 Shape Sorting Toy Castles sold by Infantino LLC, of San Diego. A plastic rod in the castles can come loose, posing a choking hazard to young children, the safety agency said.

Thousands of Chinese companies manufacture toys, furniture, clothing and other goods under contract from foreign companies.

In a gesture apparently aimed at reassuring both foreign and Chinese consumers, the government announced in June that it was closing 180 food processing facilities that were caught using formaldehyde, illegal dyes, and industrial wax in candy, pickles, crackers and seafood.

But officials also have accused foreign media of playing up the safety incidents, and a state newspaper warned Thursday against trying to use them to damage China's image and disrupt trade.

"Using the safety issues against all Chinese exports is neither reassuring nor productive," said the China Daily, an English-language newspaper aimed at foreign readers. "It should not be an excuse for foreign protectionists to sell their trade-distorting arguments."

State media said Wednesday that China is writing new regulations on dental care products after toxic diethylene glycol, commonly used in antifreeze, was found in Chinese toothpaste exported to markets in the Americas and Asia.

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EU consumer chief wants "fire-safe" cigarettes By Darren Ennis

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's consumer chief aims to prevent thousands of fire-related deaths and injuries each year by making all cigarettes sold in EU countries self-extinguishing, European Commission officials said.

The "fire-safe" cigarettes stop burning automatically after a few seconds if not puffed, due to small gaps in the cigarette paper which cuts the circulation of oxygen.

Officials at the EU executive said EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva would bring forward proposals later this year to make the self-extinguishing cigarettes mandatory throughout the 27-nation bloc.

"Data from just 14 member states show that over 2,000 deaths a year are caused by cigarette-related fires, with thousands more people injured and tens of millions of euros worth of damage caused," a Commission official told Reuters.

"There have already been discussions with the various stakeholders such as the fire-safety authorities, the tobacco industry and consumer groups. There is general support across the board."

Commission officials are developing an EU-wide standard for the cigarettes, similar to one in the United States and Canada.

"Canada introduced legislation in 2005 and a number of U.S. states have followed suit including New York, New Jersey and California, while Australia intends to also bring in laws for fire-safe cigarettes," another Commission official said.

"So, it would be more sensible and easier for industry if we draw up a common standard to be used across the globe."

The officials said research showed the cost of the new regulations in North America did not affect the overall cost of cigarettes.

"The cost is around 0.01 to 0.02 euro cent per packet," a Commission official said.

The Commission officials said the tobacco industry told them it would back the plan, if it was given time to adapt to the new legislation.

Previously tobacco firms said chemical additives required for fire-safe cigarettes would cause more damage to smokers and complained that smokers would not like the new taste.

"We support the push, but it must be in line with the standard adopted in New York," said Richard James, spokesman for Philip Morris -- maker of top-selling Marlboro and other brands.

"Also it must be made clear that this measure alone with not totally prevent fires from burning cigarettes, smokers must also be more responsible when smoking."

ANEC, an EU-wide consumers' lobby group for standardisation, backed the move.

"From a safety point of view and saving people, we welcome this news, but on the other hand we do not want to encourage smoking and we are also cautious regarding the final contents of these cigarettes which will be agreed as some could be highly inflammable," an ANEC spokeswoman said.

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Argh! Take A Chill Pill

New words enter the E nglish language every day, and dictionary publishers are constantly struggling to keep up. The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary Online update the Internet version of their

20-volume lexicon every three months. This week “chill pill,” “argh,” “bikini wax” and “problemo” are among the almost 2,700 new words that were added to the OED. Some of the other new and revised

entries include:

- Brooklynite

- sleeper cell -

- prissy - prime directive - that’s not my problem

- high-maintenance - primal scream - comeback kid

- low-maintenance - glitch

- scratch and sniff – Islamofascism

A complete list of the new words and their definitions are available at www.oed.com.

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