News Archive (6192)
Study Reveals How Many Kids Accidentally See Porn In The Web
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More children and teens are being exposed to
online pornography, mostly by accidentally viewing sexually explicit Web sites
while surfing the Internet, researchers say. Forty-two percent of Internet
users aged 10 to 17
surveyed said they had seen online pornography in a recent 12-month span. Of
those, 66 percent said they did not want to view the images and had not sought
them out,
The wine and grape industry here in the United States is
taking on prominence, and economic importance, and now pumps at least $162
billion annually into the nation's economy, according to a study released by
MKF Research. That figure includes the economic impacts of sales, taxes,
jobs and other benefits of the growing industry.
At 2 a.m. on March 9, 2008, groggy Americans will turn
their clocks forward one hour, marking the beginning of Daylight
Saving Time. The federal law that established "daylight time" in the United States
does not require any area to observe daylight saving time. But if a state
chooses to observe Daylight Saving Time, it must follow the starting and ending
dates set by the law.
Under new law established in 2007, it is observed from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, adding about a month to daylight saving time. Until April 2005, when Indiana passed a law agreeing to observe daylight saving time, the Hoosier state had its own unique and complex time system. Not only is the state split between two time zones, but until recently, only some parts of the state observed daylight saving time while the majority did not.
Months after Indiana passed the law that got it in step with the rest of the country, the federal government announced a major change in Daylight Saving Time. In Aug. 2005, Congress passed an energy bill that included extending Daylight Saving Time by about a month. As of last year, Daylight Saving Time starts the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November. More than one billion people in about 70 countries around the world observe Daylight Saving Time in some form. Set your clocks ahead one hour Sunday, March 9th.
Beginning
today postal rates increase, meaning a
standard 1-ounce letter will cost 41 cents to mail, that’s up 2 cents from the
previous 39-cent rate for a first-class stamp. A postcard will
take 26 cents to send and a large 1-ounce envelope will cost 80 cents to drop
off. If your mail generally consists of first-class letters weighing an ounce
or less, however, you may
wish to invest in what the US Postal Service is calling the "forever"
stamps. These stamps, which cost 41 cents, can be used in perpetuity without
any extra postage for as long as you own them. While the forever stamp
is getting quite a bit of press, the Postal Service also is introducing something
called shape-based pricing. By
folding the contents intended for a large 1-ounce envelope into a 1-ounce,
letter-size envelope, you will save as much as 39 cents apiece. Customers who
can squeeze the contents of a first-class mail package into a large envelope
can save 33 cents apiece.
With a nationwide recall of millions of containers of
dog and cat food underway, many pet owners called stores and veterinarians
offices this weekend, all worried that the
kibble in their cupboard may be deadly. Menu Foods, the Ontario-based company
that produced the pet food, said
Saturday it was recalling dog food sold under 46 brands and cat food sold under
37 brands including Iams, Nutro and Eukanuba.
Daylight Saving Time Early this Year, Issues with Some Electronic Devices Updating
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Although it’s more of a
nuisance than a catastrophe in the making, but older computers, PDAs and DVRs may not
automatically update their times when daylight-saving comes three weeks early
this year — on March 11. The date change was established by the federal
Energy Policy Act of 2005, which was passed to get Americans to cut energy
consumption. The thinking is that less energy will be used toward the end of
the day if the sun’s out later. For
years, most of the nation has set clocks ahead on the first Sunday of April. Few
computer experts think the new date will make a big difference. Consumers can
prepare for the change by using a rule of thumb: If a computer or device is a
bit older, it may not correct the time automatically. Any Microsoft operating
system older than Windows
XP may not recognize the new time change come March 11. For more information,
customers can visit http://support.microsoft.com/gp/cp_dst. Older personal digital assistants or digital video recorders, for
example, may not adjust and you might have to set those manually; you should
consult the manufacturers of their devices for instructions.
A mysterious illness is killing tens of thousands of
honeybee colonies across the country, threatening honey production, the
livelihood of beekeepers and possibly crops that need bees for pollination. Researchers are scrambling to find the cause of the ailment, called
Colony Collapse Disorder. Reports
of unusual colony deaths have come from at least 22 states. Some affected
commercial beekeepers - who often keep thousands of colonies - have reported
losing more than 50 percent of their bees. A colony can have roughly
20,000 bees in the winter, and up to 60,000 in the summer. The country's bee
population had already been shocked in recent years by a tiny, parasitic bug
called the varroa mite, which
has destroyed more than half of some beekeepers' hives and devastated most wild
honeybee populations.
American River Bankshares,
parent company of Bank of Amador, has reported diluted earnings per share for the fourth quarter of
2006 of $0.42, a 7.7% increase from $0.39 recorded in the third quarter of 2006
and a 2.3% decrease from $0.43 for the fourth quarter of 2005. Net
income for the fourth quarter of 2006 increased 5.8% to $2,407,000 from
$2,275,000 during the third quarter of 2006 and decreased 6.2% from $2,567,000
for the fourth quarter of 2005. "We are pleased to finish 2006 with solid
results," said David T. Taber, President and CEO of American River
Bankshares. "The last
two quarters have each been better than the previous and our key industry
metrics are very good." He added: "The economy is strong, but the rapid increase in
funding costs has made 2006 tough. As a Company, we believe that we're up to
the challenge of positioning ourselves as the premier business bank in the
communities we serve."
Taber states that "Shifting
our loan and deposit portfolio mix towards commercial loans and noninterest
bearing deposits remains an important goal," He continued "Quarter
over quarter, commercial loans are up 3%, noninterest-bearing deposits are up
4% and over the one year period, commercial loans increased 10%."
The state has started to
crack down on people who drive without car insurance. Now according to
California Vehicle Code all
insurance companies are required to report insurance status information to DMV
for all private use vehicles and law enforcement and court
personnel have access to DMV records to verify that your California registered
vehicle is currently insured.
