In The News : July 7th

Schools around the country began to institute a minimum grade of 50, rather than zero. Educators said the adjustment would encourage student performance.

The number of aliens crossing the US border has dropped in the last 18 months. Various reasons such as better security, as well as a poor US economy has kept many 'home'. Only 859,000 were caught trying to cross the border, down from 1.07 Million in 2006. - Newsweek.

Gas stations that use the "scrolling numbers" can not register prices of gas higher than 3.99. There are about 8,500 of these in the US. - Washington Post.

Americans throw out about 27% of the 350 million pounds of food they buy every year. - New York Times.

With energy costs soaring new homes are actually being built "smaller". One builder in Oklahoma is building 1,800 square foot luxury homes, down from 6,000 sq feet just a few years ago. Money.

A Minnesota man who struck and killed a dog is suing the dogs owners for the damages to his car.

Americans threw out, or recycled, 68 million televisions last year. Washington Post

One in five cars sold in the US in April of 2008 was a subcompact car, up from One in Eight just 10 years ago. - New York Times

Thirty years ago (in mid May) the first spam, an invitation to a computer demonstration, was sent to users of Arpanet, the Internets predecessor. Now, business will spend an estimated 42 billion fighting e-mail spam this year, up from 34 billion last year. Washington Post.

An author of 12 guidebooks admitted to cutting corners recently, so much so he wrote about Columbia from his home in San Francisco. The author said he didn't have the money to travel and got information from a woman he was dating.

More than 1,300 Catholic schools in the US have closed since 1990. Enrollment in the US now is about 2.3 Million, down from a peak of 5.2 million in the early 1960's. - USA Today

Taxpayers in 2008 spent an average of $207 on tax prep, up from $185 three years ago. The self employed tax payer paid an average of $444 to put their takes together. Associated Press

A Canadian company has created the male version of the wonderbra..but its for flat bums! The company is called "Bottoms Up"

A man in Texas was arrested when he tried to cash a check for $360 Billion dollars. He told police he was starting his own record label and the money was from his girlfriends mother to get the label off the ground.

Retro eyeglasses are so popular now that many retailers provide them with "clear" lenses. - Wall St. Journal.

In the last 6 months there have been 15 near misses on US Airport Runways, that is twice the amount in the prior 6. - NY Times.

There is only one company that makes pinball machines, Stern Pinball of Melrose Park Ill. They make 10,000 games a year and 90% go directly to peoples homes or to Europe. - NY Times.

Once again, the New York Yankees have Major League Baseball's most valuable franchise with an estimated value of 1.3 billion. The Florida Marlins are last...with 256 million. - Forbes

The number of disabled veterans has jumped by 25% since 2001 to 2.9 million. - Associated Press

One week, middle of May, marked the first time in more than 10 years that a Harry Potter book was not on the New York Times best seller list - New York Times.

NASA is offering test volunteers $17,000 each to spend 90 days in bed. Sound good? Well there is a catch. Your feet will be slightly elevated over your head to see how the body responds to a lack of gravity over a long period of time. - Wired.com

Playboy enterprises last week posted a 3.1 million dollar first quarter loss on an 8% drop in revenues. Sales are suffering as consumers are finding adult content elsewhere, much of it free. Crain's Chicago Business

The House of Representatives last week voted to revive the steel penny. Steel pennies cost seven-tenths of a cent to make compared to 1.3 cents to make a copper one. - The Boston Globe.