Tooth Fairy inflation: Price of a tooth nears $4

NEW YORK — Days of finding a quarter under your pillow are long gone. The Tooth Fairy no longer leaves loose change.

Kids this year are getting an average of $3.70 per lost tooth, a 23 percent jump over last year's rate of $3 a tooth, according to a new survey by payment processor Visa Inc., released Friday. That's a 42 percent spike from the $2.60 per tooth that the Tooth Fairy gave in 2011.

Part of the reason for the sharp rise: Parents don't want their kids to be the ones at the playground who received the lowest amount.

"A kid who got a quarter would wonder why their tooth was worth less than the kid who got $5," says Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor at Golden Gate University.

To avoid that, Brian and Brittany Klems asked friends and co-workers what they were giving their kids. The Klems, who have three daughters and live in Cincinnati, settled on giving their six-year-old daughter Ella $5 for the first tooth that fell out, and $1 for any others. They say that $5 was enough without going overboard. They didn't want other families to think they were giving too much.

Then Ella found out that one of her friends received $20 for a tooth.

"I told her that the Tooth Fairy has only so much money for every night, and that's how she decides to split up the money," says Brian Klems, 34, a parenting blogger and author of "Oh Boy, You're Having a Girl: A Dad's Survival Guide to Raising Daughters."

Confused about what to give?

Ask other parents what they're giving, says Jason Alderman, a senior director of financial education at Visa. That can at least get you in the ballpark of what your kids' friends are getting, he says. Alderman gave his two kids $1 a tooth.

"I think we we're on the cheap side," he says. Other families gave about $5 a tooth. One family gave their kid an antique typewriter. "I have no idea how they got that to fit under the pillow," he laughs.

Visa also has a downloadable Tooth Fairy Calculator app that will give you an idea of how much parents in your age group, income bracket and education level are giving their kids, says Alderman. The calculator is also available on the Facebook apps page.

How much kids are getting from the Tooth Fairy depends on where they live. Kids in the Northeast are getting the most, according to the Visa study, at $4.10 per tooth. In the west and south, kids received $3.70 and $3.60 per tooth, respectively. Midwestern kids received the least, at $3.30 a tooth.

Then there are the heavy hitters.

After losing her first tooth, 5-year-old Caroline Ries found a $100 bill under her pillow, along with a brand new My Little Pony toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste.

But there was a catch.

Her mother, Nina Ries, also left a note saying that the $100 had to go straight to Caroline's college fund. The Tooth Fairy would give her another $20 to spend anyway she likes if she brushes her teeth every day after lunch for a month. She did, and 30 days later Caroline found $20 under her pillow.

Ries, a 39-year-old lawyer and owner of Ries Law Group in Santa Monica, Calif., says that $120 is a lot to give, but she believes that she is teaching her daughter that education and taking care of your teeth is important. Ries says her friends give their kids about $20 a tooth.

That's way more than the $1 Ries used to get for losing her teeth as a child.

"It's incredible inflation," she says.

The Visa survey results are based on 3,000 phone interviews conducted in July.

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Tooth Fairy Calculator: https://apps.facebook.com/449594221747991/

Follow Joseph Pisani at http://twitter.com/josephpisani.

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Weighing Yellen vs. Summers for Federal Reserve

WASHINGTON — Lawrence Summers is the White House insider with a direct line to President Barack Obama. Janet Yellen is the Federal Reserve veteran with a long list of congressional patrons.

The two Ivy League-trained economists have emerged as leading contenders to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Fed, the nation's central bank. Obama could announce his nominee in the coming weeks.

As presidential nominations go, the top Fed post ranks higher than Cabinet secretaries without the longevity of Supreme Court justices. Fed chairmen serve four-year terms but their stints don't coincide with presidential terms and the Fed's independence is jealously guarded.

The central bank wields extraordinary influence over the lives of millions of Americans. Its two main missions are fostering maximum employment and stabilizing prices. With its power to regulate the supply of money and set interest rates, it influences economic activity, hiring and inflation. It also is the leading regulator of banks and plays a crucial role as the country's lender of last resort when banks can't get their money elsewhere.

So in the aftermath of a calamitous financial crisis in 2008 and with national unemployment still high at 7.4 percent, the selection of a successor to Bernanke has assumed all the drama of a high-stakes Washington moment.

A look at Summers and Yellen and their experience and stand on some issues:

EXPERIENCE

Summers has held numerous public policy posts, beginning as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Ronald Reagan in 1982. But he has not worked inside the Fed. He was chief economist at the World Bank from 1991 to 1993. Under President Bill Clinton, Summers served as deputy secretary and then secretary of the Treasury. He was president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006. Obama appointed him to serve as the director of the National Economic Council in 2009, a post he held until November 2010. He is a professor of economics at Harvard. He also has ties to Wall Street, having consulted for Citigroup and the exchange company Nasdaq OMX.

Early in her career, Yellen worked as an economist at the Fed and was a business and economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, when she became a member of the Fed's board of governors in 1994. Clinton selected her to chair his Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 1999. She was president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, one of 12 Federal Reserve districts. In 2010, Obama selected her as vice chair of the Fed's board of governors, a position she has held since.

REGULATION

Summers helped the Obama administration devise the proposals that eventually would shape the financial regulation bill that Congress passed and Obama signed into law in 2010, much of it over the objections of big banks. That aggressive stance is in contrast to Summers' support for legislation during the Clinton administration that allowed commercial banks to engage in investment banking, a deregulatory step that permitted banks to buy and sell of mortgage backed securities and other financial instruments that increased their exposure to risk. Summers' critics say his Wall Street work and his stance in the 1990s suggest he would be a less than enthusiastic regulator. But his backers say his support for a regulatory overhaul after the financial crisis belies those concerns.

Yellen has advocated tough regulations since her time at the San Francisco Fed. She is credited for issuing early warnings that the housing bubble and unregulated financial practices threatened the economy. As the Fed's vice chair she has called for additional financial system safeguards. In a speech in June she said it might be necessary to require banks to set aside more capital than the increases that have been proposed to reduce the threat they might pose to the broader financial system. Some lawmakers have called for a return to pre-Great Depression restrictions separating commercial banks from investment banks. "I am not persuaded that such blunt approaches would be the most efficient ways to address the too-big-to-fail problem," she told an international monetary conference in Shanghai, China.

MONETARY POLICY

Summers has been a strong advocate of a direct infusion of government spending to respond to the recession through taxpayer financed stimulus programs. But even if he believes that the Fed's massive bond purchases that have had the effect of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy aren't as effective in kick starting a recovery, his backers insist there will be continuity with the current policy no matter whom Obama chooses for the post. What's more, massive fiscal stimulus is highly unlikely given opposition from congressional Republicans to increased spending.

Yellen's approach to monetary policy is described as "dovish," meaning she is more inclined to focus on meeting the Fed's maximum employment goal. In a speech in March she acknowledged the inflation risks and costs associated with expanding the money supply, but she argued that "insufficiently forceful action to achieve our dual mandate also entails costs and risks." She added: "At present, I view the balance of risks as still calling for a highly accommodative monetary policy to support a stronger recovery and more-rapid growth in employment."

X-FACTOR

Inside the White House, Summers is the favorite. As director of Obama's National Economic Council, Summers led the president's crisis brain trust that forged both a response to the economic collapse and the financial meltdown with a combination of stimulus spending and regulatory proposals. At Treasury under Clinton, Summers helped manage the Mexican peso crisis in 1995 and then the Asian currency crisis of 1997-98. That experience, no doubt, is a factor in Obama's consideration. Obama admires his intellect, and advisers see him as the candidate with the best experience to deal with international economic crises that still could erupt and threaten the United States' modest recovery.

His supporters rave about his intellect while conceding he can be prickly and supercilious and is better known for winning arguments than building consensus. Still, they say he managed to successfully lead a White House economic team, many of whose members remain loyal admirers. And while he would be new to the Fed, Summers has allies such as Federal Reserve Board member Jeremy Stein who could smooth his way in the consensus-oriented Federal Open Market Committee that sets monetary policy for the central bank.

Yellen would be the first woman to chair the Fed, a historical achievement that is not lost on the White House and that has prompted leaders of some women's groups to rally to her side. The gender issue is all the more prominent because Summers was forced to resign as president of Harvard in 2006, in part because of comments he made raising questions about whether women were skilled in math and science. Moreover, Obama did select her to be the Fed board's vice chair in 2010.

She also has won powerful backing from Senate Democrats, particularly more liberal senators. In a letter urging Obama to nominate Yellen, about 20 Democratic senators said her experience setting monetary policy would lend continuity to the board. "The substantial size of the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, combined with the delicate state of the recovery," they wrote, "makes Governor Yellen's familiarity with the Fed process and communications skills that much more important."

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Report: GE to spin off consumer finance business

General Electric Co. plans to spin off the U.S. consumer lending business of its finance arm with an initial public offering of stock that could come early next year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper also said Friday that the Fairfield, Conn., conglomerate is considering smaller spinoffs or asset sales, but it has started preliminary work on the IPO. The paper cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The consumer finance business provides store credit cards to about 55 million people for retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. It accounts for $50 billion of GE Capital's $274 billion in outstanding loans, according to the report.

Aside from its finance business, GE sells a wide variety of industrial equipment and appliances around the world. This includes jet engines, medical diagnostic equipment, oil and gas drilling equipment and washing machines.

GE representatives did not immediately return calls early Friday morning from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Shares of GE climbed 23 cents to $23.34 before markets opened. That put the stock up 11 percent so far this year.

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US consumer spending up weak 0.1 percent in July

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumers barely increased their spending in July as their income grew more slowly, held back in part by steep government spending cuts that reduced federal workers' salaries. The tepid gains suggest economic growth is off to a weak start in the July-September quarter.

The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending rose just 0.1 percent in July from the previous month. That's slower than June's 0.6 percent increase. Consumers cut their spending on long-lasting manufactured goods, such as cars and appliances. Spending on services was unchanged.

Income rose 0.1 percent in July following a 0.3 percent June gain. Overall wages and salaries tumbled $21.8 billion from June — a third of the decline came from forced furloughs of federal workers.

Consumers' spending drives roughly 70 percent of economic activity. The weak spending report led some economists to sound a more pessimistic note about economic growth in the current July-September quarter. It follows July data showing steep drops in orders for long-lasting manufactured goods and new-home sales.

"This is a disappointing report on a number of levels," said James Marple, senior economist at TD Economics. "Prospects for a pickup in economic growth in the third quarter hinge on a broad-based acceleration in spending by households and business to offset the ongoing drag from government. The data for the first month of the quarter are not following this script."

Several analysts said that economic growth is unlikely to match the 2.5 percent annual rate reported Thursday for the April-June quarter. That was more than twice the growth rate in the first quarter and far above an initial estimate of a 1.7 percent rate for April through June.

Marple predicts third-quarter growth will fall around 2 percent, perhaps even lower.

The Federal Reserve will consider the consumer spending and income data at its September meeting, when it decides whether to begin slowing its $85 billion a month in bond purchases. The bond purchases have helped keep long-term borrowing rates low.

But the most critical factor that the Fed will weigh is the August employment report, which will be released next Friday. It's the final jobs report before the Fed meets.

Another concern is that rising interest rates could dampen consumer spending, particularly on homes and cars. Mortgage rates have already risen more than a full percentage point since May.

In July, the savings rate was unchanged at 4.4 percent of after-tax income. That was the smallest since the rate had been 4.3 percent in March.

The small rise in spending was driven by a 0.8 percent gain in purchases of nondurable goods, such as clothing. Purchases of durable goods such as autos fell 0.2 percent and purchases of services such as utilities and doctor's visits were unchanged in July.

A price gauge tied to consumer spending was up a small 0.1 percent in July compared to June. Prices excluding volatile food and energy are up just 1.4 percent compared to a year ago, significantly below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target for inflation.

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Dunkin' Donuts criticized for 'racist' ad campaign

BANGKOK — A leading human rights group has called on Dunkin' Donuts to withdraw a "bizarre and racist" advertisement for chocolate doughnuts in Thailand that shows a smiling woman with bright pink lips in blackface makeup.

The Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Thailand launched a campaign earlier this month for its new "Charcoal Donut" featuring the image, which is reminiscent of 19th and early 20th century American stereotypes for black people that are now considered offensive symbols of a racist era.

In posters and TV commercials, the campaign shows the woman with a shiny jet black, 1950s-style beehive hairdo holding a bitten black doughnut alongside the slogan: "Break every rule of deliciousness."

Human Rights Watch said it was shocked to see an American brand name running an advertising campaign that would draw "howls of outrage" if released in the United States.

"It's both bizarre and racist that Dunkin' Donuts thinks that it must color a woman's skin black and accentuate her lips with bright pink lipstick to sell a chocolate doughnut," said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "Dunkin' Donuts should immediately withdraw this ad, publicly apologize to those it's offended and ensure this never happens again."

The campaign hasn't ruffled many in Thailand, where it's common for advertisements to inexplicably use racial stereotypes. A Thai brand of household mops and dustpans called "Black Man" uses a logo with a smiling black man in a tuxedo and bow tie. One Thai skin whitening cream runs TV commercials that say white-skinned people have better job prospects than those with dark skin. An herbal Thai toothpaste says its dark-colored product "is black, but it's good."

The CEO for Dunkin' Donuts in Thailand dismissed the criticism as "paranoid American thinking."

"It's absolutely ridiculous," said CEO Nadim Salhani. "We're not allowed to use black to promote our doughnuts? I don't get it. What's the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white, would that be racist?"

Salhani said that the Thai franchise of Dunkin' Donuts operates independently of the American operation and that doughnut sales have increased about 50 percent since the campaign was launched around two weeks ago, which he attributed to curiosity about the new advertisements.

"Not everybody in the world is paranoid about racism," said Salhani, a Lebanese expatriate in Thailand who said his teenage daughter was the model featured in the campaign. "I'm sorry, but this is a marketing campaign, and it's working very well for us."

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Perez: Fast food strikes show need for wage hike

WASHINGTON — The recent spate of fast-food worker strikes is another sign of the need to raise the minimum wage for all workers, Labor Secretary Thomas Perez said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"It's important to hear that voice," he said of worker protests demanding higher pay that have steadily grown in size. The latest protests were Thursday in cities including New York, Chicago and Detroit.

Perez's comments came in a wide-ranging interview, his first since taking the helm of the agency a little over a month ago following a contentious confirmation process.

He compared the recent protests to the demands of demonstrators in the 1963 March on Washington who sought a national minimum wage to give workers better living standards.

While he declined to address fast-food workers' demand to raise wages to $15 an hour, Perez said he is taking a lead role in President Barack Obama's push to boost the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 an hour. Obama has called for the wage hike in several recent speeches on the economy, but Congress has not acted.

"For all too many people working minimum wage jobs, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity are feeling further and further apart," Perez said.

Perez, who previously served as the nation's top civil rights enforcer, said late Wednesday he sees many parallels between his former job and his new post as Labor secretary. His primary role, he said, will be as an advocate for workers.

That means continuing the work of his predecessor, Hilda Solis, in cracking down on companies that violate labor laws and making sure there's a "level playing field" for employers who follow the rules.

Senate Republicans who opposed Perez's confirmation had complained that his record of vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws at the Justice Department foreshadowed an overly activist approach at Labor. But Perez said he's made a point of meeting with business leaders and stressed that his previous tenure as head of Maryland's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation showed an even-handed approach that won praise from business groups like the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.

Perez said job creation is a focus and that he views the Labor Department as "the quarterback in the workforce system," bringing together workers, businesses and labor unions together to build a "demand-driven" workforce that has the skills needed to meet employer needs.

The unemployment rate of 7.4 percent remains stubbornly high four years after the recession officially ended. And employers added just 162,000 jobs in July, the fewest in four months. The economy's subpar growth and modest consumer spending are making many businesses cautious about hiring.

Some critics have said Obama's health care law has prompted employers to hire more part-time workers or cut back workers' hours to avoid providing health insurance for permanent, full-time workers. Part-time work has made up 77 percent of the job growth so far this year.

But Perez defended the law, saying 90 percent of jobs created since Obama signed the health care measure into law in 2010 are full time.

"The data belies the notion that the Affordable Care Act is leading to this wholesale restructuring of the workplace," he said.

Perez says employers tell him what they want most from the Labor Department is help getting workers necessary training. Also a priority: an overhaul of immigration laws as a means to grow the economy.

"I talked to one CEO of a large manufacturer, and he said that too many people walking through the door who want a job don't have the skills necessary to do the job," Perez said.

Labor officials have been meeting for the past month with business leaders from different sectors to determine how they can partner with colleges and other training programs to get skilled workers. Perez said he sees future job growth being particularly strong in manufacturing, health care and the restaurant industry.

He also praised partnerships between unions and employers that have led to better training and job creation in the culinary sector in Nevada and the health care sector in New York.

Perez has won enthusiastic support from Democrats, unions and labor advocacy organizations. Those groups praised new labor regulations issued this week that require government contractors to set new goals for hiring veterans and disabled workers. Business groups say the regulations on disabled workers clash with current federal disability law and have threatened to challenge the rules in court.

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Follow Sam Hananel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP

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Markets rebound as Syria jitters ease

LONDON — Indications that a U.S.-led military intervention in Syria may not be happening imminently allowed investors to regroup Thursday, helping to shore up stock markets. Commodities, such as oil and gold, drifted lower after racing ahead in the first half of the week as worries over an attack escalated.

However, the prospect of an immediate multinational response appears to have diminished, with President Barack Obama giving the impression Wednesday that he had not yet decided to back a military strike.

The U.K. government also backed down on a parliamentary vote to authorize British participation in any strike against Syria until UN inspectors reveal their findings on the apparent chemical attack in the suburbs of Damascus that has been blamed on the government of President Bashar Assad. The report is expected within a week.

"What seems like a delay in U.S. and allied military action in Syria is providing temporary relief for the equity markets that endured weakness earlier in the week," said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.5 percent at 6,465 while Germany's DAX was steady at 8,159. The CAC-40 in France was 0.2 percent higher at 3,966.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was up 0.1 percent at 14,833 while the broader S&P 500 index rose the same rate to 1,636.

An upward revision to second-quarter U.S. economic growth to an annualized rate of 2.5 percent from the previous estimate of 1.7 percent had little impact on trading as it was largely due to an improvement in the country's trade balance — there were more exports relative to imports than previously thought.

Up until this week, the main focus of attention through the summer months has been whether the Federal Reserve will start to reduce its monetary stimulus as soon as next months. A run of largely solid economic figures had raised the likelihood of that happening but recently the data have been a little bit more mixed.

The Fed is currently buying $85 billion worth of financial assets a month in an attempt to lower borrowing rates and shore up the U.S. economy.

The money has been one of the reasons why stock markets around the world have recovered over the past few years following the global financial crisis so the prospect of a reduction in the stimulus, or so-called tapering, has been met with concern by a number of investors even though it would indicate economic conditions getting back to normal.

"As investors weigh the near-term risk posed by potential military intervention in Syria and the uncertainty surrounding the timing and magnitude of the Fed's next move, the potential for volatility to re-emerge in the capital markets also appears to be on the rise," said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.9 percent to close at 13,459.71 while South Korea's Kospi advanced 1.2 percent to 1,907.54. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.7 percent to 21,704.78 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.1 percent to 5,092.40.

Elsewhere, there was a reverse of the trends that had dominated much of the week, particularly in commodity markets. The price of benchmark oil was down 72 cents at $109.39 a barrel, On Wednesday, the contract closed at $110.10 a barrel, its highest finish since May 3, 2011.

Gold prices were also a tad softer — down 0.6 percent at $1,410 an ounce — after racing up to three-month highs on the back of worries over Syria. Gold often garners support through its status as a safe investment at a time of geopolitical uncertainty.

In the currency markets, the euro was down 0.7 percent at $1.3246 while the dollar rose 0.5 percent to 98.24 yen.

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Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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US banks earn record $42.2B in 2nd quarter

WASHINGTON — U.S. banks earned more from April through June than during any quarter on record, aided by a steep drop in losses from bad loans.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says the banking industry earned $42.2 billion in the second quarter, up 23 percent from the second quarter of 2012.

Banks' losses on loans tumbled 30.7 percent from a year earlier to $14.2 billion, the lowest in six years. And bank lending increased 1 percent from the first quarter. Greater lending helps boost consumer and business spending, leading to more jobs and faster economic growth.

Still, the report shows that the largest banks continue to drive the industry's profits while smaller institutions have struggled.

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Applications for US unemployment aid fall to 331K

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits remained near the lowest level in more than five years last week, a sign that companies are cutting few jobs.

First-time applications for benefits fell 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 331,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. The four week average, a less volatile measure, inched up 750 to 331,250 after falling to its lowest level since November 2007 the previous week.

Applications for unemployment benefits reflect layoffs. At the depths of the recession in March 2009, they numbered 670,000. The average has fallen 10 percent this year.

All told, nearly 4.5 million people received unemployment benefits in the week that ended Aug. 10, the latest period for which figures are available. That's about 30,000 more than in the previous week.

The figures "signal no let-up from the recent pace in employment growth, which has been strong enough to keep unemployment trending down," said Jim O'Sullivan, an economist at High Frequency Economics. "If anything, claims are suggesting further acceleration."

Though employers are cutting few jobs, most have yet to start hiring aggressively. Fewer layoffs can increase net job gains, even if hiring doesn't rise much.

Employers have added an average of 192,000 jobs a month since January. That's enough to gradually lower the unemployment rate, which fell to 7.4 percent in July.

The economy is growing at a pace that might be too weak to accelerate hiring. It expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate from April to June, the government said Thursday. That's up sharply from the government's previous estimate of 1.7 percent.

Growth may not be picking up much in the current July-September quarter. Manufacturing and housing, two key sectors, have shown signs of weakening. Rising interest rates may be slowing the housing recovery, which could lead to fewer construction jobs. Sales of new homes plummeted in July to their lowest level in nine months.

And a measure of pending home sales — which reflects the number of people who sign contracts to buy homes — fell in July. That suggested that final sales could slow in the coming months.

U.S. factories received fewer orders in July for long-lasting goods, a sign of less-than-robust manufacturing output. Businesses cut back on orders for computers, electrical equipment and other costly items.

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Stocks edge higher following economic data

NEW YORK — Stocks moved higher Thursday as investors weighed a pair of positive economic reports against worries about Syria.

The Dow Jones industrial average added 28 points, or 0.2 percent, to 14,851 in the first half-hour of trading. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up three points, or 0.2 percent, at 1,638 and the Nasdaq composite rose 19 points, or 0.6 percent, to 3,613.

Dow component Verizon Communications was the biggest gainer in both the Dow and the S&P 500 after Britain's Vodafone confirmed it's in talks with Verizon to sell its 45 percent stake their joint venture, Verizon Wireless.

Verizon rose $1.91, or 4.1 percent to $48.46. The U.S.-listed shares of Vodafone rose $2.47, or 8.4 percent, to $31.88 on the news.

A lot of traders' attention was on economic data that came out before the opening bell. The U.S. economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate from April through June, much faster than previously estimated, the Commerce Department said. The figure was revised up from 1.7 percent as more U.S. companies exported goods and imports declined.

Also, the Labor Department said the number of people who filed for unemployment benefits last week fell to 331,000, the fewest in five years.

"It does support our belief that August was another month of steady employment growth," economists with the investment bank RBS wrote in a research report.

While lower unemployment claims and an upward revision on GDP are both positive signs, most of Wall Street's attention is focused on next week, when the August jobs report will be released. The Federal Reserve is expected to decide the fate of its massive bond-buying program in mid-September, and the August jobs report will be the last bit of heavy economic data the central bank will have to work with before making its decision.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.81 percent from 2.77 percent on Wednesday following the stronger economic reports.

Traders also continue to focus on Syria, where a U.S-led military strike could arrive in the coming days. British Prime Minister David Cameron's office laid out the legal justifications for a military strike Thursday, while France's defense minister said the French military was ready to commit forces with the approval of President Francois Hollande.

Investors worry that a limited tactical strike against Syria could drag the U.S. and its allies into Syria's civil war, or worse, set off a regional conflict in an area where so much of the world's oil is located.

The price of crude oil fell 74 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $109.40 a barrel in early trading. Oil had gone as high as $112 a barrel earlier this week.

In other corporate news, teen clothing store operator Guess jumped $3.11, or 11 percent, to $30.52 after the company reported second-quarter profit and revenue late Wednesday that blew past market expectations. The retailer also raised its full-year profit forecast.

Campbell Soup fell $1.44, or 3 percent, to $43.25 after posting a loss for its fiscal fourth quarter, stung by a charge related to the potential sale of its European simple meals business. Its earnings topped Wall Street's estimates but revenue missed expectations.

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Bombardier in talks with Russia on aircraft deal

TORONTO — Canada's Bombardier has signed a preliminary agreement with a Russian state corporation for the purchase of as many as 100 Q400 NextGen aircraft in a deal that could be worth up to $3.39 billion.

The Montreal-based plane and train manufacturer said Wednesday that the deal with Rostekhnologii, a state corporation controlled by the Russian Federation, also includes the possibility of setting up a Q400 NextGen final assembly line in Russia to complement its Toronto operations.

Bombardier says the manufacturing facility in Russia is a key commercial requirement for the deal and would be managed by a joint venture.

The sales agreement is expected to be finalized in 2014.

There are currently more than 120 Bombardier commercial aircraft in service in Russia and other former Soviet republics.

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Pending sales of US homes slip but remain solid

WASHINGTON — Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy U.S. homes in July, but the level stayed close to a 6 ½-year high. The modest decline suggests higher mortgage rates have yet to sharply slow sales.

The National Association of Realtors says its seasonally adjusted index for pending home sales declined 1.3 percent to 109.5. That's close to May's reading of 111.3, which was the highest since December 2006.

The small decline suggests sales of previously owned homes should remain healthy in the coming months. There is generally a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed sale.

Final sales jumped to an annual pace of 5.4 million in July, the highest in 3 ½ years, the Realtors said last week. That's consistent with a healthy housing market.

Higher mortgage rates appeared to have had a bigger impact on new-home sales, which plummeted last month. That raised fears that rate increases were restraining the housing recovery.

But many economists note that home prices and mortgage rates remain low by historical standards. Consistent job gains and rising consumer confidence may also support sales in the coming months.

"Higher mortgage rates are clearly negative for housing, but other key drivers, including the labor market, confidence, and expectations for prices and interest rates still point to improvement," Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a note to clients.

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage reached 4.58 percent last week, the highest level in two years and up from 3.35 percent in early May. Still, that's below the average since 1985 of about 7 percent, according to Bankrate.com.

Mortgage rates began to rise after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke first signaled that the Fed might reduce its bond purchases later this year. The purchases have helped keep borrowing costs low.

Rising home prices and more construction have boosted economic growth and created more jobs. The housing recovery has provided crucial support to the economy when other drivers, such as manufacturing, have struggled.

However, gains in home prices may be starting to level off. Prices jumped 12.1 percent in June from a year earlier, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday. That's slightly slower than May's 12.2 percent year-over-year gain. But price increases slowed in June from May in 14 of the 20 cities tracked by the index.

The stabilization in prices isn't necessarily a bad thing, economists said, because it could keep homes affordable and help prevent a bubble from developing in the housing market.

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Argentine high court considers media monopoly law

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The future of broadcast television and other news media in Argentina is at stake as the Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of a law designed to break up privately held media monopolies.

The 2009 law's stiff limits on cable TV ownership would force Grupo Clarin to break itself apart, demolishing a leading opposition voice against government power.

Both sides argued for freedom of expression in the hearings, which were broadcast live on Argentine television Wednesday.

Government lawyer Carlos Ruta said judges must decide whether it's better to trust the "savage power" of private companies or the "institutional guarantees of the state."

Luis Pardo, speaking for Clarin, said that "without an independent media, the right to inform will be held solely by pro-government media."

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Man, dog join forces for new breed of philanthropy

LOS ANGELES — When Charlie Annenberg adopted an abandoned golden retriever named Lucky, a new breed of philanthropy was born.

Lucky was 4 in 2001 when he teamed up with Annenberg, scion to a wealthy family known for giving money away.

The 46-year-old Annenberg incorporated Lucky into all his projects. They were on the road more than they were home as they traveled around making documentaries about people who were making a difference.

Lucky became Annenberg's sidekick and soul mate and would eventually inspire donations to dog-focused causes from the as much as $8 million the philanthropist controls annually.

Whether it was a chef at The White House or coal miners 100 feet underground in West Virginia, Lucky made documentary interviews easy because he made everyone so comfortable. In each small town and big city, the man and dog would make unannounced stops at a retirement home, where Lucky would steal the show.

The workload for both grew with explore.org. Using state-of-the-art cameras, Annenberg brought wildlife (bears and bees and beluga whales) to stunning life for millions of web watchers. He and Lucky traveled to every installation in North America and everywhere they went, Annenberg filmed Lucky interacting with people and places.

At the Delta Blues Museum in Mississippi, Annenberg cut a harmonica-backed, spontaneous freestyle jazz tribute to Lucky.

"It doesn't matter what color your skin, man or woman, fat or thin. He loves them all, every day. His name is Lucky and he's my friend."

In 2010, Annenberg decided to use his Lucky photos and films for a travel journal on Facebook, telling the story of their trips.

Annenberg called the journal Dog Bless You, he said, because several years earlier Lucky had befriended a homeless man in San Francisco. They shared time and a sandwich with the man. As they were leaving, the man said: "Dog bless you."

The Facebook page was all about Lucky, but it captured the fervor for pets that was growing around the country. "Today we have an audience of 505,000 fans," said Courtney Johnson, explore.org's community relations manager.

When an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in 2011, killing more than 18,000 people, Annenberg used Dog Bless You to send six search dogs.

Then war veterans started returning home in large numbers, with wounds including brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Passion for the cause on Dog Bless You soared. Dogs cost between $2,000 and $50,000 each, depending on how much training they need, Johnson said.

Annenberg, grandson of the late publisher, ambassador and philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg, is a vice president and director of the grant-making Annenberg Foundation. He gives away up to $8 million a year.

In just three years, he has donated 170 guide dogs, search-and-rescue dogs or service dogs for veterans.

The majority of the dogs funded by Annenberg have been for veterans. Because there are waiting lists at almost every training school and experts say thousands of veterans would benefit from a dog, Annenberg plans to accelerate the dog grant program.

Warrior Canine Connection in Brookeville, Md., is just one of the dog training schools Annenberg uses, but it's also one of the most unique because dogs are raised for, by and with veterans.

The latest group of nine puppies is even named after veterans, said Warrior Canine executive director Rick Yount. Called the "honor litter," they are Bre, Luke, Gavin, Leigh Ann, Derek, Nick, Florence, Cody and Stanley.

"It's a good way to say, 'We are not forgetting about your sacrifices.' And they (the namesakes) get to spend time with the puppies and get therapy themselves," Yount said.

Trained veterans teach the puppies for the first eight to 12 weeks. Then the dogs go live with volunteers from military or veteran's organizations. "By the time a dog is fully trained, over 500 vets and service members have been involved in getting it ready," Yount said.

"Hearing the stories of how these dogs help bring their humans out of the darkness is incredible. In some instances, having the companionship of a dog is what motivates them to keep going — it gives them a purpose and reason to get up in the morning," said Dog Bless You fan Rachel Nelken of Vancouver, British Columbia.

As Lucky aged and slowed down, the format of Dog Bless You changed, becoming a tribute to every dog. And Lucky had to retire from traveling.

Annenberg misses Lucky at work.

"He was my partner on all these trips," he said. "It's not the same. He would open the door and make me look good. People always stopped and petted him. Everyone wanted to keep Lucky, especially the coal miners. Isn't it interesting that every day was a new day for Lucky? And he just wanted to be petted? It's been a great ride."

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Judge refuses to suspend BP settlement payments

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge has rejected BP's latest request to suspend settlement payments to Gulf Coast residents and businesses while a former FBI director leads an independent investigation of the program, which compensates victims of the company's 2010 oil spill.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier's order Wednesday says an internal probe by the claims administrator's office didn't find credible evidence of fraud involving employees of the settlement program's claims center in Mobile, Ala.

BP said it received a tip that someone who worked at the center helped people submit fraudulent claims in exchange for some of the settlement money.

In July, Barbier rejected an earlier request by BP to suspend payments after appointing former FBI director Louis Freeh to investigate possible misconduct by a lawyer who worked on the settlement program.

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United Airlines makes emergency landing in Idaho

POCATELLO, Idaho — A United Airlines 737 flying from Seattle to Houston made an emergency landing in Idaho after an engine shut down.

Police say the airplane landed safely at the Pocatello Regional Airport just after 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.

KPVI-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1cd40SZ ) the plane's 147 passengers were waiting at the terminal for a replacement airplane to arrive, which was expected to happen at about 9:30 a.m.

Pocatello airport manager David Allen says an engine on the airplane shut down and Pocatello was the closest suitable airport to make an emergency landing.

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US consumer confidence rises in August

WASHINGTON — Americans' confidence in the economy inched closer to a 5 ½-year high on growing optimism that hiring and wages could pick up in coming months.

The Conference Board, a New York-based private research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 81.5 in August. That's up from a revised reading of 81 in July. And it's just below the 82.1 reading in June, which was the highest since January 2008.

Consumers' income expectations, which fell earlier this year after a January tax hike, rebounded to the highest level in 2 ½ years, said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's economic indicators.

Although consumers were more confident about the future, their assessment of the current economy dipped slightly in August.

"Consumer sentiment is holding steady, supported by advances in stocks, solid job creation, and a broad-based recovery in the housing market," Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors, wrote in a research note.

Consumers' confidence in the economy is watched closely because their spending accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity.

After hitting bottom at 25.3 at the depths of the Great Recession in February 2009, the index has bounced back. But it has yet to get back to the 90 reading that signals a healthy economy.

Americans' confidence jumped in June on hopes that the job market was starting to turn around. The economy has created an average of 192,000 jobs a month this year, slightly ahead of last year's pace. And the unemployment rate fell last month to a 4 ½-year low of 7.4 percent.

Still, unemployment remains painfully high four years after the recession officially ended. And employers added just 162,000 jobs in July, the fewest in four months. That raised worries that the sluggish economy could slow any progress made earlier in the job market.

The U.S. economic recovery has been held back this year by tax hikes, federal spending cuts and weaker global growth. The economy expanded at just a 1.7 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter. Most economists expect that figure will revised up to a 2.2 percent annual rate, mostly because of a jump in June exports.

The government issues its second estimate for second-quarter growth on Thursday. Most analysts predict growth may pick up to about a 2.5 percent annual rate in the second half of the year.

Still, recent data suggest the July-September quarter is off to a weak start, leading some economists to trim their third-quarter forecasts.

On Monday the government said orders for long-lasting U.S. factory goods fell sharply in July, in part because businesses cut back sharply on big purchases that signal investment plans.

And U.S. sales of newly built homes dropped 13.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 394,000. That's the lowest level in nine months, raising worries that higher mortgage rates could slow the housing recovery.

Mortgage rates have risen sharply since May when Chairman Ben Bernanke first signaled the Federal Reserve could reduce its bond purchases later this year, if the economy strengthens. The bond purchases have kept long-term interest rates low, making home-buying, auto loans and other consumer loans cheap.

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Facebook: Governments demanded data on 38K users

WASHINGTON — Government agents in 74 countries demanded information on about 38,000 Facebook users in the first half of this year, with about half the orders coming from authorities in the United States, the company said Tuesday.

The social-networking giant is the latest technology company to release figures on how often governments seek information about its customers. Microsoft and Google have done the same.

As with the other companies, it's hard to discern much from Facebook's data, besides the fact that, as users around the globe flocked to the world's largest social network, police and intelligence agencies followed.

Facebook and Twitter have become organizing platforms for activists and, as such, have become targets for governments. During anti-government protests in Turkey in May and June, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called social media "the worst menace to society."

At the time, Facebook denied it provided information about protest organizers to the Turkish government.

Data released Tuesday show authorities in Turkey submitted 96 requests covering 173 users. Facebook said it provided some information in about 45 of those cases, but there's no information on what was turned over and why.

"We fight many of these requests, pushing back when we find legal deficiencies and narrowing the scope of overly broad or vague requests," Colin Stretch, Facebook's general counsel company said in a blog post. "When we are required to comply with a particular request, we frequently share only basic user information, such as name."

Facebook spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg said the company stands by its assertions that it gave no information regarding the Turkey protests.

"The data included in the report related to Turkey is about child endangerment and emergency law enforcement requests," she said.

Facebook and other technology companies have been criticized for helping the National Security Agency secretly collect data on customers. Federal law gives government the authority to demand data without specific warrants, and while companies can fight requests in secret court hearings, it's an uphill battle.

Facebook turned over some data in response to about 60 percent of those requests.

It's not clear from the Facebook data how many of the roughly 26,000 government requests on 38,000 users were for law-enforcement purposes and how many were for intelligence gathering.

Technology and government officials have said criminal investigations are far more common than national security matters as a justification for demanding information from companies.

The numbers are imprecise because the federal government forbids companies from revealing how many times they've been ordered to turn over information about their customers. Facebook released only a range of figures for the United States.

The company said it planned to start releasing these figures regularly.

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Grain futures mixed on the CBOT

CHICAGO — Grains futures were mixed Tuesday in early trading on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Wheat for December delivery was 1.25 cents higher at 6.68 a bushel; December corn was 7.50 cents lower at $4.93 a bushel; December oats were unchanged at $3.4475 a bushel; while November soybeans were 4.50 cents higher at 13.94 a bushel.

Beef prices were mixed while pork prices were lower on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

October live cattle was .45 cent lower at $1.2670 a pound; October feeder cattle was .75 cent higher at $1.5660 a pound; October lean hogs was .02 lower at $.8600 a pound.

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Mexico farm linked to illnesses resumes operations

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration says a Mexico farm linked to an outbreak of severe stomach illnesses in two states can resume operations because no food safety violations have been found there. The number of people sickened around the country has topped 600.

The FDA said Tuesday that Taylor Farms de Mexico could resume operations after investigators found conditions there "in accordance with known food safety protocols." The firm shut down voluntarily after its salad mix served at Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants was linked to 242 cyclospora infections in Nebraska and Iowa. Similar illnesses in 20 other states were never definitively linked to the farm.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is working with Texas to try and discover the source of more than 250 cyclospora infections there.

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New Mass. sales tax angers, confuses tech firms

BOSTON — A new Massachusetts sales tax on software and computer services, part of a massive transportation financing plan that became law last month, has been met with anger and confusion in the state's technology sector, prompting calls for its repeal.

Business leaders brand the measure an "innovation tax" that strikes at the heart of ingenuity in Massachusetts, a pioneering state in the computer industry and still a cradle of cutting-edge entrepreneurship. The tax, which took effect July 31, also has been criticized as being so vague as to leave companies and their accountants scratching their heads over what it applies to while state tax officials scramble to sort it all out.

Two prominent business-backed organizations, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and the Massachusetts High Technology Council, are leading an initiative petition that urges lawmakers to repeal the tax when they return from summer recess. At least one bill has already been filed that would do so. If the Legislature doesn't act, opponents will ask voters to kill the tax on next year's state ballot.

In an Aug. 14 memo to legislators, the council's president, Christopher Anderson, said the tax threatens to make the state less competitive at a time when tech companies are expected to lead an economic revival.

"We have the highest percentage of tech workers of any state, the largest number of tech clusters, and a highly educated workforce that is second to none. However, none of the states with which Massachusetts most often competes for high tech jobs has a tax like this," Anderson wrote.

The measure imposes the state's 6.25 percent sales tax on certain computer system design services and the "modification, integration, enhancement, installation, or configuration of standardized or prewritten software." It's unclear if the Democratic-controlled Legislature will revisit the issue.

Sen. Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee and one of the principal architects of the transportation finance law, said no decisions had been made.

"I would welcome ideas if people had other alternatives," said Brewer. "We are not intractable."

Brewer noted that the tax, originally proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick, is one of several contained in the law that promises $800 million in new revenue for transportation and came in response to concerns from the private sector that the state's aging infrastructure was stunting economic growth.

The state estimated the tax would generate $161 million in the current fiscal year, but a Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation analysis concluded that estimate was based on faulty assumptions about the scope of the tax and pegged the actual impact on businesses at about $500 million.

Responding to the criticism, state officials promised to be as "narrow and conservative" as possible in interpreting the tax, said Amy Pitter, commissioner of the Department of Revenue. Acknowledging her agency was relying on "tax lawyers, not computer programmers," Pitter invited industry representatives to participate in focus groups and share their concerns.

The department issued new guidance last week seeking to clarify aspects of the tax, though it remains a complex patchwork of rules.

For example, customized software that incorporates pre-written software would be taxable, unless the extent of the pre-written material was "inconsequential." A plug-in that helps create a customized version of a product, such as an Excel spreadsheet, would be taxed. But enhancements made to open source software, generally free and downloadable from the Internet, would be exempt.

The revisions did not appear to be softening opposition to the tax, especially among smaller software services firms that say they'll be hurt the most.

"It's a very bad law," said Andy Singleton, founder and chief executive of Assembla, a 7-year-old Needham company that makes Web-based software. "They can't narrow it to the point where it makes sense. It's written to apply to almost anything that a computer programmer does."

The tax could prompt firms to shed jobs or produce more work outside of Massachusetts, Singleton says. Many of Assembla's 40 employees already work outside the state or even the U.S., using an online platform to share tasks.

State officials dispute critics' assertion that the levy is unique, saying most states tax information technology in one form or another. But opponents maintain that only four other states tax computer and software services, all at a lower rate than Massachusetts.

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German magazine: NSA spied on United Nations

BERLIN — The German magazine Der Spiegel says the U.S. National Security Agency secretly monitored the U.N.'s internal video conferencing system by decrypting it last year.

The weekly said Sunday that documents it obtained from American leaker Edward Snowden show the NSA decoded the system at the U.N.'s headquarters in New York last summer.

Quoting leaked NSA documents, the article said the decryption "dramatically increased the data from video phone conferences and the ability to decode the data traffic."

In three weeks, Der Spiegel said, the NSA increased the number of decrypted communications at the U.N. from 12 to 458.

Snowden's leaks have exposed details of the United States' global surveillance apparatus, sparking an international debate over the limits of American spying.

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States that allow private lobbyists in pension

At least 20 states allow some private lobbying groups to tap into often lucrative and safe state pension systems, according to a review by Associated Press reporters across the nation. Legislatures granted such groups access decades ago on the premise that they serve governments and the public, but several states have started to question whether they should be included since they are private entities.

States that allow at least one private lobbying group into the public pension:

— Alabama

— Arizona

— California

— Colorado

— Idaho

— Illinois

— Kansas

— Kentucky

— Maine

— Missouri

— Nevada

— New York

— New Jersey

— North Carolina

— Pennsylvania

— South Carolina

— South Dakota

— Tennessee

— Utah

— Washington

___

Source: AP reporting

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Private lobbyists get public pensions in 20 states

ALBANY, N.Y. — As a lobbyist in New York's statehouse, Stephen Acquario is doing pretty well. He pulls down $204,000 a year, more than the governor makes, gets a Ford Explorer as his company car and is afforded another special perk:

Even though he's not a government employee, he is entitled to a full state pension.

He's among hundreds of lobbyists in at least 20 states who get public pensions because they represent associations of counties, cities and school boards, an Associated Press review found. Legislatures granted them access decades ago on the premise that they serve governments and the public. In many cases, such access also includes state health care benefits.

But several states have started to question whether these organizations should qualify for such benefits, since they are private entities in most respects: They face no public oversight of their activities, can pay their top executives private-sector salaries and sometimes lobby for positions in conflict with taxpayers. New Jersey and Illinois are among the states considering legislation that would end their inclusion.

"It's a question of, 'Why are we providing government pensions to these private organizations?'" said Illinois Democratic Rep. Elaine Nekritz.

Acquario, executive director and general counsel of the New York State Association of Counties, argues that his group gives local government a voice in the statehouse, and the perk of a state pension makes it easier to hire people with government expertise.

"We want the people that work in local governments to continue to be part of the solution," he said. "We represent the same taxpayers."

The debate is more about principle than big money, since the staffs of such organizations are relatively small and make barely a ripple in huge state retirement systems. The eight New York associations, for example, have fewer than 120 total employees out of 633,100 current workers in the state's $158.7 billion pension system.

Still, the issue raises a public policy question as many states and taxpayers struggle to fund their pension obligations required by law.

"There is liability for taxpayers," said Keith Brainard, research director of the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. "Providing a pension benefit involves some amount of risk for the state and when you provide access to employees of entities that are not in control of the state."

Unlike state government, for example, these groups aren't bound by salary restrictions — significant salary increases would result in increasing pension benefits.

New York Conference of Mayors Executive Director Peter Baynes, who makes $196,000 a year and gets a 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee, argues that his and other associations have been at the fore of pushing to reduce taxpayers' costs, including reducing the costs of the pension system they share.

New York lawmakers recently acted to reduce benefits for future government hires and are proposing 401(k) savings programs for employees instead of traditional pensions.

But such cuts won't affect Baynes. Under the New York Constitution and that of most states, the benefits of those already in the pension system are protected from future cuts.

"It's clear that there's a big problem with hypocrisy when these lobbyists have been pushing austerity and benefit cuts for other government workers while they themselves enjoy solid state pensions," said Michael Kink of the progressive group Strong Economy for All Coalition. "'Do as I say, not as I do' seems to be their approach on retirement cuts."

"Workers who have faced cuts in pay and pensioners have a right to be angry — as do voters," Kink said.

In many states, lobbying groups for states and counties take positions that could conflict with taxpayer interests, such as advocating to weaken caps on property tax increases and boosting state school aid.

But associations of cities, counties and school boards argue that a plausible case can be made for allowing them to get state pensions. These quasi-government organizations operate mostly or solely on dues from their members — local governments or school boards typically — which are paid out of taxpayer-funded budgets. They argue they pool their resources to give a voice to government entities that serve taxpayers.

"It's a technical truism that lobbying groups are not supposed to be in the system," said Richard Brodsky, a former New York assemblyman. "But what they are doing is carrying out missions assigned to them by public officials in the public interest as they understand it."

Which groups get the pension benefit vary widely across the nation.

In Colorado, the list includes the Colorado High School Activities Associations, which runs state sports tournaments. Alabama gives it to the state affiliate of the National Education Association teachers' union. Washington state includes the Washington Apple Commission, which operates like a trade group. North Carolina's state Athletic Coaches Association is included, as is Tennessee's private Industry Council.

New York lawmakers decided years ago to bar any more lobbying and nonprofit groups in the pension system, grandfathering in eight groups.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who supports legislation to cut future hires from such groups out of his state's pension, issued an executive order this month creating a Pension Fraud and Abuse Unit. Among its mandates is to look at "claims of improper participation in the retirement systems."

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Small farmers: Rules could halt local food trend

CONCORD, N.H. — Federal officials say they appreciated hearing from northern New England farmers about proposed food safety rules, but some of the farmers didn't find the experience very valuable.

Hundreds of farmers from Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire attended Food and Drug Administration public hearings last week to discuss proposed rules that require them to take new precautions against contamination. Deputy FDA Commissioner Michael Taylor says many of them likely will be exempt from the rules but don't realize it.

New England farmers have argued that many aspects of the rules were derived from large-scale farming practices that don't apply to smaller farms, and they fear the cost of compliance will drive them out of business. Others say the uncertainty will stifle growth just when the local food movement is gaining steam.

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