Calcium Supplements May Raise Men's Death Risk From Heart ...

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Feb. 4 (HealthDay News) ? Men taking calcium supplements may be running a nearly 20 percent increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a new study suggests.

Both men and women take calcium supplements to prevent bone loss. In this study of calcium intake, the risk of dying from heart disease was higher for men but not for women.

?Increasing evidence indicates that too much supplemental calcium might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease,? said Susanna Larsson, an associate professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm.

Larsson, who was not part of the study but wrote an accompanying journal editorial, added that ?the paradigm ?the more the better? seems invalid for calcium supplementation.?

The report was published in the Feb. 4 online edition of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

To find out if calcium supplements were associated with an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, a team of scientists led by Qian Xiao, of the U.S. National Cancer Institute, collected data on more than 388,000 men and women, aged 50 to 71 years old. They took part in a study on diet and health conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the AARP from 1995 to 1996.

Over an average 12 years of follow-up, about 7,900 men died from cardiovascular disease, as did nearly 4,000 women. Among those who died, 51 percent of men and 70 percent of women were taking calcium supplements, the researchers found.

Xiao?s group calculated that men taking 1,000 milligrams a day of a calcium supplement had a 20 percent increased risk of dying from heart disease. Men also had a 14 percent increased risk of dying from a stroke, but this was not statistically significant, the researchers said.

Among women, however, calcium supplements were not linked to an increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. And, calcium from diet didn?t increase the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease for either sex, the researchers found.

The study authors said more research is needed to determine whether there is difference between men and women in the cardiovascular effects of calcium supplements.

?Given the extensive use of calcium supplements in the population[often for osteoporosis], it is of great importance to assess the effect of supplemental calcium use beyond bone health,? the investigators concluded in the study.

Taylor Wallace, a representative of the supplement industry, faulted this and other studies because, he said, they were not specifically meant to address calcium supplements and heart disease.

Wallace, who is senior director for Scientific & Regulatory Affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, said most studies of calcium supplements show no effects on the heart.

?Calcium supplements probably have a null effect on the cardiovascular system,? he said.

Wallace noted that in the new study, the data that researchers used to draw their conclusions looked at diet and the risk for cancer, not whether calcium supplements were bad for the heart.

?What is needed, to close the chapter on this, is a large randomized control trial that is specifically designed to look at cardiovascular disease and calcium supplements,? he said.

Although the study tied supplement use to increased risk of death from heart disease in men, it didn?t establish a cause-and-effect relationship.

One medical expert said that neither men nor women should be taking calcium supplements without first checking with their doctor to assess the risks and benefits of these supplements.

?While further studies are needed, calcium supplements should be used only after careful consideration of whether the potential benefits in terms of bone health outweigh the potential cardiovascular risks,? said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a spokesman for the American Heart Association and a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.

More information

To learn more about calcium supplements, visit the U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements.

Source: http://news.health.com/2013/02/05/calcium-supplements-may-raise-mens-death-risk-from-heart-disease/

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1990s drop in New York City crime not due to CompStat, misdemeanor arrests, analysis finds

Feb. 4, 2013 ? New York City experienced a historic decline in crime rates during the 1990s, but it was not due to the implementation of CompStat or enhanced enforcement of misdemeanor offenses, according to an analysis by New York University sociologist David Greenberg. The study, which appears in the journal Justice Quarterly, did not find a link between arrests on misdemeanor charges and drops in felonies, such as homicides, robberies, and assaults. In addition, the analysis revealed no significant drop in violent or property crime attributable to the NYPD's introduction of CompStat in 1994.

"While the 1990s drop in felonies is undeniable, what remains unsolved is the cause, or causes, behind this significant change in New York City's crime rates," Greenberg said.

The analysis also showed no relationship between the number of police officers per capita at the precinct level and the reduction of violent crime, nor did it find a link between admissions to prison and violent crime rates.

Greenberg looked at crime data across New York City's 75 precincts from 1988 through 2001. During this period, homicide rates declined in every precinct while assault rates dropped in all but two and robbery rates fell in all but one.

"The decline in crime was a real one during this period, but the question is 'Why?' " said Greenberg, adding that many other major cities, including San Diego and Los Angeles, experienced similar reductions during this period.

One of the potential causes he explored was CompStat, a computerized crime-tracking program the NYPD adopted in 1994 to better identify and respond to criminal activity.

The analysis showed that violent crime rates (homicide, aggravated assault, forcible rape, and robbery) and property crime rates did not significantly decrease after the implementation of CompStat -- in fact, both continued on a consistent downward slope beginning in the early 1990s.

"There is no indication here that CompStat had any non-trivial effect on violent or property crime rates in New York," Greenberg wrote.

Greenberg also explored the possibility that a greater number of arrests on misdemeanor charges led to drops in felonies. Such a result would offer affirmation of the "Broken Windows Theory," which posits that stricter enforcement of lower-level crimes curtails more serious ones.

The 1988-2001 period showed a consistent decline in crime rates for major felonies, but an uptick in misdemeanors in all but 11 precincts.

However, based on a deeper review of the publicly available statistical data, there appears to be little evidence of causation.

In reaching this conclusion, Greenberg examined nearly two dozen variables at the precinct level (e.g., misdemeanor arrests, poverty rates, percentage of 15-24 year olds, imprisonment rates, size of a precinct's police force) and their association with rates of felonies.

While misdemeanor arrests rose 37 percent across New York City between 1988 and 2001, there was no association between these arrests and felony crime rates at the precinct level. In fact, with the exception of felony arrests contributing modestly to the drop in robberies, the analysis revealed no significant contribution made by law enforcement to the drop in more serious crimes. For example, both the overall size of the police force and city-wide imprisonment rates decreased during this time. Moreover, at the precinct level, rates of arrest and imprisonment varied greatly across New York -- and throughout the studied period -- while felonies dropped consistently across the city.

"While many may point to greater enforcement of lower-level offenses as a factor in curbing more serious crimes, the data simply don't support this conclusion," Greenberg observed.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/fDTAA6f9Qmg/130204153615.htm

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Green Blog: Babbitt Exhorts Obama to Protect Public Lands

Bruce Babbitt, the interior secretary in the Clinton administration and a former governor of Arizona, made one of his periodic forays out of the political wilderness on Tuesday to criticize the Obama administration for favoring oil and gas development over conservation on public lands.

Mr. Babbitt, 74, whose modest demeanor masked the sharpness of his critique of a fellow Democrat, said in a speech at the National Press Club that Mr. Obama was falling behind many of his predecessors in setting aside lands for wilderness while making vast tracts available for drilling.

He noted that President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton protected roughly one acre of public land for every acre made available for hydrocarbon development. Under President George W. Bush, Mr. Babbitt said, industry claimed 7.5 acres for every acre set aside for public use ? although that figure does not include the 200 million acres of marine reserve near Hawaii that Mr. Bush decided to protect at the end of his presidency, which would have given him a better ratio than any of his predecessors.

?So far under President Obama, industry has been winning the race as it obtains more and more land for oil and gas,? Mr. Babbitt said. ?Over the past four years, the industry has leased more than six million acres, compared with only 2.6 million acres permanently protected.?

?This lopsided public land administration in favor of the oil and gas industry cannot continue,? he said.

Mr. Obama has pursued an on-again, off-again approach to onshore and offshore oil and gas leasing. Early in his presidency, he proposed a major expansion of drilling rights, then pulled back after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. He approved oil exploration off the North Slope of Alaska, but industry has complained about the slow pace of leasing on Western lands.

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, frequently chided Mr. Obama for his supposed hostility to oil and gas development on public lands.

Responding to Mr. Babbitt?s speech, Jessica Kershaw, an Interior Department spokeswoman, said: ?As Mr. Babbitt noted, the administration has charted an impressive course for conservation, including launching landmark conservation policies and making? unprecedented investments to protect and restore vital lands and waters that support local economies, and we look forward to building on these historic achievements.?

?Our guiding principle from the beginning has been a balanced approach to achieving an all-of-the-above energy strategy while also taking important steps to preserve our treasured landscapes, like the Grand Canyon and the Everglades and partnering with local stakeholders to support their conservation priorities,? she said.

Mr. Babbitt, who has spent his years out of government practicing law, writing and speaking for conservation, proposed that Mr. Obama should right the imbalance by permanently setting aside four million acres of public lands and then maintaining a one-to-one ratio of preserved land to land leased for oil and gas development.

?If the president?s annual goals for land conservation are not met, he should suspend quarterly lease sales until they are,? Mr. Babbitt said. ?The threat of lease suspension will provide a strong incentive for the Congress, and industry lobbyists, to act upon pending conservation legislation.?

He acknowledged that it would not be easy with a hostile Congress and an aggressive and well-financed petroleum industry working against the president. He said Mr. Obama should make extensive use of his executive powers, including invocation of the Antiquities Act, to protect scenic and wilderness areas. He also said there was broad public support for conservation and? 30 bills pending in Congress at the end of 2012 to protect five million acres at specific sites in 13 states from Oregon to Maine.

Representative Rob Bishop, Republican of Utah, chairman of the public lands subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee, said a significant majority of public lands was already off-limits to commercial development.

He sharply criticized Mr. Babbitt for the designation of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah at the end of the Clinton administration.

?This locked up the nation?s largest proven coal deposit,? Mr. Bishop said in a statement. ?Suggesting that the president hurry up and use the Antiquities Act to unilaterally establish new land designations clearly illustrates that Secretary Babbitt?s agenda is purely political and has little to do with the vitality of states and communities.?

He said the president should ignore Mr. Babbitt?s advice, which he called ?an arbitrary formula concocted by a former presidential cabinet member turned liberal activist.?

This is not the first time Mr. Babbitt has jabbed a thorn in Mr. Obama?s side. Two years ago, he blasted the president for failing to confront Congressional Republicans who advocated more mining, logging and drilling on public lands. He blamed political calculations by ?munchkins? in the White House for what he deemed cowardice on conservation issues.

Many presidents, including Mr. Clinton and the second Mr. Bush, wait until late in their terms to use executive powers to set aside land for preservation.

Source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/obama-failing-on-public-lands-former-interior-secretary-says/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Pew Study Finds One In Five U.S. Internet Users Has Ditched ...

Facebook is far and away the dominant social networking service in the U.S. ? used by two-thirds (67 per cent) of online Americans, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, vs. a fifth (20 per cent) who use LinkedIn and 16 per cent who use Twitter. But in?a new research report, entitled Coming and going on Facebook, Pew shines a light on a sense of dissatisfaction some Facebookers feel towards the network that has caused them to cut back the amount of time spend on the site or abandon it altogether.

Pew?s report is based on a telephone survey of 1,006 American adults aged 18+ conducted in mid December 2012. Pew says the margin of error for the whole?sample is +/- 3.6 percentage points; for the results from 860 internet users in the sample it?s +/- 3.9?percentage points; for the results from 525 Facebook users in the sample is +/- 5.0 percentage points.

Pew?s study found that one in five (20 per cent) online adult Americans who do not currently use Facebook said they have used it in the past ? suggesting they have become so dissatisfied with the experience they have given up on it. The number of respondents in this group was too small to assign percentage proportions to their reasons for abandoning Facebook but Pew lists some direct responses showing a mixed bag of reasons ? including:

?It?s a gossipy thing.? ? ?I didn?t like to talk too much.??? ?I?m not social.? ? ?My account was compromised.? ? ?I got tired of minding everybody else?s?business.? ? ?Not enough privacy.? ? ?Got too many communications.? ? ?Takes my time away.?

The research also found that approaching two-thirds (61 per cent) of current Facebook users said that in some time in the past they have taken a voluntary break from the site for a period of several weeks or longer.

Taking a Facebook break

Pew was able to break out proportional responses from this group asking why they felt the need to temporarily stop Facebooking, and by far the largest group (around a fifth of those in the category) said they were too busy/didn?t have time for it. The next two most common reasons were disinterest/dislike of Facebook, and people finding it a waste of time/content being irrelevant. The (relative) good news for Facebook here is that concerns about privacy do not appear to be a big motivator for people falling off the Facebook wagon. The (relative) bad news is that a relatively large proportion of users is evidently finding Facebook time-draining, boring or annoying enough to have given it up for weeks at a time ? still, despite a sense of dissatisfaction, these people ended up going back for more.

The full breakdown of the Facebook vacationers? reasons are as follows:

Less interested than last year?

Pew also asked Facebook users to assess the amount of time they spend on Facebook and its general value to their lives. While the majority (59 per cent) of users said Facebook ?is as important to them now as it was a year ago, and 53 per cent said the amount of time they spend using it has stayed about the same over the past year, Pew also recorded ?notable numbers? pointing to a decreasing value and decline in usage over the past year. More than a quarter (28 per cent) of users said the site has become less important to them, according to Pew?s study, and a third (34 per cent) said the amount of time they spend on Facebook has decreased over the past year.

Looking at the demographics who are decreasing their Facebook usage, Pew?s study found that the trend to reduce usage was most pronounced among younger age groups, with approaching half (42 per cent) of users ages 18 to 29 and a third (34 per cent) of those aged 30 to 49 saying the time they spend on Facebook on a typical day has decreased over the last year. This compared to just over a fifth (23 per cent) of users aged 50 and above reporting decreased usage over the same time period.

Facebook usage isn?t all in decline of course. Pew found 12 per cent of Facebook users said the site has become more important to them than it was a year ago, and 13 per cent said the time they have spent on it has increased over?the past year. Its data also shows that women are more likely than men to report increased importance and greater time spent on Facebook:

Future usage

On the crucial question of future Facebook usage, a sizeable majority (69 per cent) said they plan to spend the same amount of time on the site over the coming year ? but, worryingly for Mark Zuckerberg, more than a quarter (27 per cent) said they plan to spend less time Facebooking in future. Of course planning and doing are two separate things but the intention to reduce reliance on Facebook should raise a red flag in Menlo Park. Just three per cent of users said they plan to spend more time Facebooking in the next 12 months. Zuck and co will be hoping the new Graph Search feature?? which lets users datamine their friends and friendships ? winds up ensuring more users spend more time within its walled garden.

Although a majority of users across age groups anticipate their Facebook usage will remain largely stable in the year to come, according to Pew, again Facebook dissatisfaction is strongest among younger users. Pew found that more than a third (38 per cent) of Facebook users?aged 18 to 29 expect to spend less time using the site in 2013. And just one per cent of this age-group plan to ramp up their Facebooking. Around a quarter (26 per cent) of 30 to 49 year olds said they intend to spend less time on Facebook in future.

Commenting generally on the research in an emailed statement, Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet Project and co-author of the report, said: ?These data show that people are trying to make new calibrations in their life to accommodate new social tools. For some, the central calculation is how they spend their time. For others, it?s more of a social reckoning as they ask themselves, ?What are my friends doing and thinking and how much does that matter to me?? They are adding up the pluses and minuses on a kind of networking balance sheet and they are trying to figure out how much they get out of connectivity vs. how much they put into it.?

Despite the report highlighting groups of users who have a sense of?dissatisfaction with Facebook, Pew was careful to point out that overall the ?vast majority? of social networking site users maintain a Facebook profile (92 per cent according to a separate Pew research report). ?It also notes that other Pew Internet survey findings underline the continued growth of social networking in U.S. life ? with 69 per cent of online adults now taking part in some form of online social networking vs. 47 per cent back in September 2007. Pew also notes that social networking site users are accessing these sites more frequently than in the past: in ?November 2012, Pew research found that 41 per cent of social networking site users said?they access these sites several times a day ? a ?statistically significant increase? from the?33 per cent who said they did so in August 2011.

February 1, 2004

NASDAQ:FB

Facebook is the world?s largest social network, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original...

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Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/05/pew-facebook-study/

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Vegetarians Have Lower Heart Disease Risk, Study Finds

Feb 4, 2013 6:00am

Credit: Mattomedia Werbeagentur/Getty Images

Going meatless gives vegetarians a 32 percent lower heart disease risk than non-vegetarians, a British study found, offering further proof that eating meat can be hazardous to health.

The study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, involved 44,561 people enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Oxford Study, which began in England and Scotland in 1993. Researchers sought to compare a range of diets and their impact on overall health, and 34 percent of all participants were vegetarians.

?It?s a very good study,? said Dr. William Abraham, who directs the division of cardiovascular medicine at Ohio State University, noting the large proportion of vegetarians. ?It?s further evidence that vegetarian diets are associated with a lesser risk of developing ischemic heart disease or coronary artery disease.?

Click here to read the ABC?s of heart health.

He and Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist at St. John Providence Health System in Michigan, agreed it?s not about what?s in the vegetarian diet that makes it so heart healthy ? it?s about what the vegetarian diet leaves out: saturated fat and sodium.

?Saturated fat is the single greatest dietary factor in the production of cholesterol,? McCollough said, adding that people assume dietary cholesterol increases cholesterol levels though it?s not true. ?Sodium intake is the single greatest dietary determinant of blood pleasure.?

Both high blood pressure and high cholesterol are known risk factors for ischemic heart disease because they constrict the blood vessels and cut off blood supply to the heart.

Abraham said he occasionally prescribes a vegetarian diet to patients who have already had heart attacks ? but this study might persuade him to prescribe them preventively to patients with heart disease risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

McCollough, on the other hand, has never prescribed a vegetarian diet and said limiting sodium and saturated fats can be done by picking the right meats, controlling portion sizes and avoiding what he calls the three s-es: sugars, starches and saturated fats. He said the healthiest protein to eat is fish and the least healthy is beef. Behind fish, beans and nuts are the best way to get protein, he said.

Vegetarianism isn?t always the answer because even vegetarians can eat too many sugars, one of the three-s categories, he said. For example, he added, vegetarians eat more cheese than non-vegetarians and, although it has some protein, about 60 percent of cheese is saturated fat.

Other studies have examined how daily servings of red meat can lead to early death and how processed meat can lead to heart disease and diabetes.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 2 million heart attacks and stroke a year in the United States, and about 800,000 deaths from heart disease.

SHOWS: Good Morning America

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/02/04/vegetarians-have-lower-heart-disease-risk-study-finds/

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4 retailers likely to close stores this year

Douglas A. McIntyre, Samuel Weigley, Alexander E.M. Hess and Michael B. Sauter , 24/7 Wall St. ? ? ? 5 hrs.

It is the time of year again when America?s largest retailers release those critical holiday season figures and disclose their annual sales. A review of these numbers tells us a great deal about how most of the companies will do in the upcoming year. And while successful retailers in 2012 may add stores this year, those that have performed very poorly may have to cut locations during 2013 to improve margins or reverse losses.

For many retailers, the sales situation is so bad that it is not a question of whether they will cut stores, but when and how many. Most recently, Barnes & Noble Inc. decided it had too many stores to maintain profits. Its CEO recently said he plans to close as many as a third of the company?s locations.

24/7 Wall St.: The 10 Most Hated Companies in America

Several of America?s largest retailers have been battered for years. Most have been undermined by a combination of e-commerce competition, often from Amazon.com Inc. and more successful retailers in the same areas. Borders and Circuit City are two of the best examples of retailers that were destroyed by larger bricks-and-mortar competition and consumers transitioning to online shopping. These large, badly damaged retailers could not possibly keep their stores open.

Currently, the best example of a struggling retailer is J.C. Penney Co. Inc. The department store chain's third-quarter revenue dropped more than 26 percent year-over-year, and its same-store sales fell by about the same. With J.C. Penney?s e-commerce sales slipping by an ever greater amount, it was left with nowhere to go for bottom line improvement other than deep cost cuts.

Store closings can bring a retailer some relief and may not always portend its demise. Gap announced in 2011 it would shutter 21 percent of its U.S. store base. It has since transformed itself into a much more successful clothing retailer. As the retailer completes the process of downsizing, its store operations likely will become even more efficient and its margins greater.

Very few retailers get into sudden trouble. Chains like Kmart and RadioShack Corp. have struggled for years just to stay in place. Their brands have lost much of their luster. Their stores have become old and their locations no longer attractive. The consumer?s perception is that the products they sell can be found elsewhere, usually at a cheaper price, and at retailers with better customers service and wider selections of products.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed the weakest large U.S. retailers and picked those that likely will not be profitable next year if they keep their current location counts. 24/7 analyzed the retailers' store counts, recent financial data, online presences, prospects against direct competitors and precedents set by other large retailers that have downsized by shuttering locations. We then forecast how many stores each retailer will have to close this year to sharply increase its prospects financially, even if some of those location closings do not occur for several years. These forecasts were based on drops in same-store sales, drops in revenue, a review of direct competitors, Internet sales and the size of cuts at retailers in the same sector, if those were available.

These are the retailers that will close the most stores in 2013.

24/7 Wall St.: The Most Valuable Actors of All Time

1. Best Buy

? Forecast store closings: 200 to 250

? Number of U.S. stores:1,056

? One-year stock performance: -36.8 percent

The holiday season was rough for Best Buy Co. Inc. Same-store sales declined by 1.4 percent year-over-year, with international stores posting a 6.4 percent decline while U.S. same-store sales were flat. Companywide, the electronics retailer reported that holiday revenue had declined to $12.8 billion from $12.9 billion the year before. In the most recent completed quarter, during which same-store sales declined 4.3 percent, the company reported a loss of $0.04 per share. Best Buy has been plagued by customers ?showrooming? -- looking at products in the store and then purchasing them online -- in recent years. Speculation persists that former chairman and founder Richard Schulze may buy out the company.

Related: Best Buy to close 15 stores in Canada

2. Barnes & Noble

? Forecast store closings: 190 to 240, per company comments

? Number of U.S. stores: 689

? One-year stock performance: 8.95 percent

The move by customers away from print books toward digital books has hurt Barnes & Noble Inc.. Same-store sales during the nine-week holiday season fell by 8.2 percent year-over-year. The bookseller has tried to offset the declines in physical book sales with its Nook e-book reader device, but sales of that device fell 13 percent compared to the previous year. The company already has begun cutting down the number of its stores in the past several years. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, the head of the retail group at Barnes & Noble said he expected the company to have just 450 to 500 retail stores in 10 years.

24/7 Wall St.: America's Most Misleading Product Claims

3. Sears Holding Corp.

? Forecast store closings: Kmart 175 to 225, Sears 100 to 125

? Number of U.S. stores: 2,118

? One-year stock performance: 8.8 percent

Both Sears and Kmart have been going down the tubes for a long time, steadily losing their middle-income shoppers to retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. Sears Holdings Corp.'s same-store sales have declined for six years. In the most recent year, same-store sales at the namesake franchise fell by 1.6 percent and at Kmart by 3.7 percent, compared to the year-ago period. The company is already in the process of downsizing its brick-and-mortar presence. In 2012, Sears announced it was shutting 172 stores. CEO Lou D?Ambrosio is leaving the company in February, to be replaced by chairman and hedge-fund manager Edward Lampert. Lampert has minimal operating experience in retail management.

4. J.C. Penney

? Forecast store closings: 300 to 350

? Number of U.S. stores: 1,100

? One-year stock performance: -53.6 percent

J.C. Penney has gone through a rough stretch recently. In the most recent quarter, same-store sales fell by 26.1 percent compared to the year-ago period. Even Internet sales, which are increasing significantly across the retail sector, have taken a turn for the worst, falling 37.3 percent in the third quarter, compared to the prior year. J.C. Penney sales have taken a turn for the worst since former Apple Inc. retail chief Ron Johnson took the helm at the company. Johnson?s plan, among others, has been to wean customers off of heavy discounting and simply give customers low prices. However, retail strategists and analysts have argued that Johnson?s plans have created confusion among customers and has been a further setback to any potential turnaround.

Click here to read the rest of 24/7 Wall St.'s Retailers That Will Close the Most Stores

?2013 24/7 Wall St.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/4-retailers-likely-close-stores-year-1B8170146

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Outrage over Saudi 'blood money' in girl's death

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) ? Online activists in Saudi Arabia are calling for harsher punishments for child abuse after reports that a prominent cleric received only a light sentence after confessing to the beating death of his 5-year-old daughter.

The social media campaign gaining momentum Sunday is the latest attempt to use the Internet to pressure the kingdom's ultraconservative rulers.

Saudi media reports say Fayhan al-Ghamdi, a frequent guest on Islamic TV programs, was arrested in November on charges of killing the girl. The reports said he questioned the child's virginity.

Saudi media say he was freed last week after serving a short prison term and agreeing to pay $50,000 in "blood money" to avoid a possible death sentence.

The money was presumably offered to the girl's mother or other relatives.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/outrage-over-saudi-blood-money-girls-death-134006386.html

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