| Miss Manners sez: You're under arrest
And, hold your hat, fines for beeping cell phones in movies and shows. I bet our readers could suggest some other incivilities worthy of small fines. (It's not necessarily bad manners to talk on the phone while driving, but it sure isn't safe, to mention one of our own pet behavior-related legal ideas.) Didn't Louisiana try to outlaw displays of underwear? Richard Allin would undoubtedly mention over-aggressive toothpick use in public. Other ideas? Ban Hog-calling in church, other than Razorback Cathedral in Fayetteville? .
O2 bars set French officials sniffing
PARIS - AS oxygen bars begin to pop up across France, health authorities are beginning to question the merits or otherwise of sniffing O2. Supposed to improve health and well-being, oxygen bars date back to the late 1990s, spreading from Canada to California and to Britain and Japan, in nightclubs, health clubs, airports or even trade fairs. But Paris' first oxygen bar opened only last week. Flagged as 'a revolutionary anti-fatigue, anti-stress and anti-depression concept,' the city's maiden O2 bar is housed in an up-market beauty institute owned by no less than the wife of top French publicist and political 'kingmaker' Jacques Seguela. Mr Seguela has been very much in the news recently for bringing together President Nicolas Sarkozy and his new wife Carla Bruni around a dinner table, a coup that comes almost three decades after helping propel leftwing leader Francois Mitterrand to the country's highest public office.
CATA's crossroad Riders may face service cuts, route changes in wake ...
CATA's budget is paid primarily through its millage ($12 million), state subsidies ($9.2 million), and fares ($4.2 million). Randy Schaetzl, a CATA rider and professor of geography at MSU, voted for the CATA millage in November and said he would vote for it again. But he thinks CATA should seek out other revenue sources, such as advertising. "I would hope that they would be strongly considering that (advertising) along with other revenue sources they'll have to tap," he said. But CATA has a policy against using advertising on its buses and shelters, said Board Chairwoman Patricia Munshaw. The thinking behind the policy is to "maintain a positive image for the organization," she said. "It's uncluttered," she said. "It just presents a more professional looking image." But CATA may take another look at advertising given its current situation, Kuhnmuench said.
New vaccinations give scientists hope of conquering flu pandemic
A vaccine that could help to control a flu pandemic has shown encouraging results in its first human trials. The vaccine, made by Acambis, based in Cambridge, should protect against all strains of influenza A, the type responsible for pandemics. Unlike existing vaccines it does not have to be reformulated each year to match the prevalent strains of flu, so it could be stockpiled and used as soon as a pandemic strain emerges. Nor does it need to be grown on fertilised chicken eggs, as the existing vaccines do, but can be produced by cell culture. The results, announced yesterday by Acambis, show that in human volunteers the Acam-Flu-A vaccine was safe and produced an immune response against its target, a small protein (peptide) called M2e that is found on the surface of all A-strains of the flu virus.
LOCAL ECONOMY: Staffing may have soft year Housing recovery's pace ...
Economists and employment consultants are predicting a soft year ahead for hiring in Las Vegas and Nevada, as sustained lethargy in the housing market combines with slow growth in the resort sector to cap expansion ambitions among area businesses. Researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas' Center for Business and Economic Research are forecasting 2.1 percent job growth for Southern Nevada in 2008, while analysts at the state's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said they expect job formation to clock in at 1.9 percent statewide next year. Those numbers are well below the state's 5 percent and 6 percent job-growth rates of 2005 and 2006, but they're an improvement on the 1 percent pace of recent months. The employment department isn't expecting a dramatic turnaround in job growth because economists there predict new jobs in residential construction will be hard to come by for much of 2008.
Mass. Market: Social service workers may get well-earned relief
With a pending move across the Neponset River to Dorchester from their longtime home in Quincy, you can't blame the folks who run Work Inc. if they're a little stressed these days. But a big cause of headaches at the provider of rehabilitation and work services for disabled people isn't relocation planning. Instead, it's the ongoing efforts to keep up with constant turnover among its roughly 375 full- and part-time employees. Like other social service providers, Work Inc. relies heavily on a steady stream of state funds every year. But Jimmy Cawley, a development officer at Work Inc., says the rates paid by the state over the past two decades have not increased, making it tough for Work Inc. to provide decent wages for its staff. ``The turnover kills us,'' Cawley says. ``We're always retraining people (and) a lot of our clients need a continuation of care with the same provider.'' Fortunately for Work Inc.
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