BAN SOUGHT ON COLD MEDICINE FOR VERY YOUNG
Do you ever worry about what medications your young child should/could take? There are so many over the counter medicines to choose from. Where do you begin? It’s difficult to know what to do. Even the experts are worried.
“Experts urged the Food and Drug Administration to ban over-the-counter, multisymptom cough and cold medicines for children under 6.”
“The recommendation, in a 356-page safety review, is the strongest signal yet that the agency may take strong action against the roughly 800 popular medicines marketed in the United States under names like Toddler’s Dimetapp, Triaminic Infant and Little Colds.”
“The next step in the process is a meeting of outside experts on Oct. 18 and 19 to examine the medicines’ safety and offer recommendations to the agency.”
“In the new safety review, the agency’s experts suggested that all “infant” cough and cold formulations be removed from the market, and that the droppers, cups and syringes included with products for children be standardized to reduce the risks of confusion and overdose.”
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TOWN IS SHAKEN AFTER PROSECUTOR’S ARREST IN A CHILD-SEX STING
How sick do you have to be to think it’s OK to have sex with a child? A five year old! This latest case should make every parent double check every situation their children are involved in. Watch everyone who has contact with your children.
“To neighbors here, J. D. Roy Atchison was a deft federal prosecutor, an involved father and a devoted volunteer, coaching girls’ softball and basketball teams year in and year out.
His wife is a popular science teacher; his youngest daughter, an honors student who was on her high school homecoming court last year. Their house, with rocking chairs on the porch, oaks in the yard and a wrought-iron fence, is among the prettiest in town.”
“But in an instant last week, the community pillar became an object of community loathing. Mr. Atchison, 53, was arrested getting off a plane in Detroit on Sept. 16 and charged with the unthinkable. The authorities there said he was carrying a doll and petroleum jelly, and that he had arranged with an undercover agent to have sex with a 5-year-old girl.”
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MISSING WOMAN FOUND ALIVE IN WRECKED CAR AFTER 8 DAYS
Missing for more than a week, Tanya Rider was found 20 feet down a roadside ravine in a Seattle suburb after the signal from her cellphone led investigators to her. Her husband was frustrated by the futility he faced dealing with local authorities, but in the end the police traced a cellphone bleep and located her.
“Twenty feet down a roadside ravine, still strapped into the front seat of her Honda Element, Ms. Rider, 33, responded faintly when rescuers called her name through the blackberry bushes that had helped conceal her since her car ran off the road near the Seattle suburb of Renton on Sept. 19. Her kidneys were failing from dehydration and a buildup of toxins caused by muscle damage. Her clavicle and ribs were broken, her shoulder dislocated, her left leg severely hurt.”
“It was the signal from her cellphone that finally led investigators to Ms. Rider on Thursday, after what her husband of eight years, Tom, said Friday were days of futile efforts to have her disappearance investigated as a missing person case.”
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GIVEN FEWER COUPONS, SHOPPERS SNUB MACY’S
Coupon, coupon. Who’s got the coupon? Apparently not Macy’s customers, so they are turning their back’s on Macy’s. Customers want coupons!
“It was the boldest stroke in American retailing in decades. The Macy’s chain completed its takeover of 410 department stores around the country a year ago and renamed them all Macy’s, vowing to lure shoppers with innovations like price scanners in the aisles and exclusive fashions from the likes of Oscar de la Renta.”
“So far, the grand plan is not working.”
“A big reason? Macy’s forgot a basic law of human nature: Shoppers love a deal.”
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WHAT PLUNGE? STOCKS BACK NEAR HIGHS HIT IN JULY
If you were like Rip Van Winkle, fell asleep in early August and just woke up you would think nothing had really happened to the stock market. All the tumult from mid-August until now is a thing of the past. The market has come back almost all the way to the high it was experiencing.
“After a tumultuous and brutal August, the stock market has regained its footing and is within striking distance of the record highs it set in July.”
“The surge began building before the Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week and has come at a time when news from the housing market remains bleak.”
“Conditions in the debt markets have eased somewhat, but specialists say they remain much tighter than they were earlier this year.”
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COURT WILL DECIDE IF MATTEW HIASI PAN HAS ANY RIGHTS
This is a true story about Matthew Hiasi Pan. Matthew is a 26 year old chimpanzee who lived in an animal shelter with his sweetheart. The animal shelter has declared bankruptcy. Matthew has a life expectancy in captivity of 60 years. Animal rights activists want to make sure these chimpanzees have a home.
A short history of these two chimps goes as follows: they were captured in the wilds of Africa in 1982 and smuggled into Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers came to the rescue of the chimps and turned them over to an animal shelter before anything could harm them.
Donors have come forward to pay the $6,800 monthly for their upkeep but under Austrian law only a person can receive personal gifts. Organizers want to start a foundation to collect money for Pan but the only way they can do this is if the courts declare Pan a person. If this happens then a guardian can be appointed to protect Pan’s interests
The courts have struck down every argument made by the attorneys for the animal rights activists. The group doesn’t want the court to declare Pan a human but rather a person, which would give him some legal status. Otherwise, he is legally a ‘thing.’
The argument to the Supreme Court of Austria is, “Are chimps ‘things’ without interests, or persons with interest?” A court date hasn’t been set as of 9/28/09.
MORTGAGE RATES ARE CLIMBING
The mortgage rates for a 15 year fixed-rate rose again from 5.98n to 6.09,
the rate for a 30 year fixed mortgage has risen from 6.34 to 6.42.
New Homes sales drop to a 7 year low. The Commerce Department announce new homes builds in August dropped 8.3 %. In August the median sales price for new homes dropped 7.5 per cent from last years to $225,700. This is the biggest dropped in 37 years. Besides a sharp drop in homes sales, The demand for big ticket items has fallen sharply suggesting our economy is losing it’s thrust as we head into autumn.
HIGGINS ANNOUNCES $107,369 FOR ERIE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Funds will be used to establish new worker training programs
Washington, D.C. - Today Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-27) announced that Erie Community College has been awarded a grant through the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA) Susan Harwood Grant Competition. The funds will be used to develop safety training courses for residential construction workers.
“Erie Community College and our Workforce Development Department is very excited about the $107,369 federal award for the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program through OSHA. This grant will allow us the opportunity to train hundreds of residential construction workers in Western New York. Through our partnership with the Buffalo Niagara Builders Association we will provide training in areas such as increasing worker awareness to safety hazards, ways to lower worker compensation and disability costs by reducing workplace injuries and accidents, and promoting a safe and healthy workplace thereby enhancing worker productivity,” said William Reuter, interim President of Erie Community College.
“These funds will allow Erie Community College to build and improve Western New York’s workforce by increasing safety awareness among our construction workers,” said Congressman Higgins.
The College will develop and deliver three distinct training courses on residential construction hazards targeted to different training audiences. Thirty eight-hour courses will be conducted for employees; ten twelve-hour courses will be conducted for foremen, supervisors and managers; and two sixteen-hour trainer courses will be presented.
“Erie Community College is very grateful for all of the assistance Congressman Higgins provided in securing these funds which will be utilized for the training and workforce needs of our community,” said Mr. Reuter.
The College projects they will train 664 individuals in the new programs.
PUSH FOR ACTION ON FLIGHT DELAYS
If you had travel plans this past summer that included a flight to almost anywhere you probably were involved in a delayed flight situation.
President Bush “said airlines should treat passengers better when delays occur. “There’s a lot of anger amongst our citizens about the fact that, you know, they’re just not being treated right,” Mr. Bush said. Some, he said, have been subjected to “egregious behavior.””
“The transportation secretary, Ms. Peters, told reporters that air travelers “are cranky, and they have good reason to be.””
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HOME SALES AND PRICES FALL SHARPLY
Is there further economic trouble ahead? If you pay attention to the sales of new homes and you see that sales of new homes have dropped to the slowest pace in over seven years you probably think so.
“New-home purchases fell to an annual pace of 795,000, an 8.3 percent decline from July, as the number of months needed to sell off builders’ inventories rose to the highest level since March, the Commerce Department reported yesterday.”
“The median price for a new home was down 7.5 percent from a year earlier, to $225,700, the steepest monthly price drop since December 1970.”
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