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The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the recall includes nine models of Chinese-made single and double umbrella Maclaren strollers, which have been sold around the country since 1999.

The fingertip amputations occurred when children placed their fingers in the hinge mechanism of the recalled strollers.

The recall includes the following stroller models: Volo, Triumph, Quest Sport, Quest Mod, Techno XT, TechnoXLR, Twin Triumph, Twin Techno and Easy Traveller.

Prices for the strollers ranged from $100 to $360.

The company is offering free repair kits to fix the stroller problem. Details are available at http://www.cpsc.gov.

This latest threat comes from a Raleigh-based company called Eco Venture Group.

Customers sign up to receive materials that will show them how to work at home.

After customers provide their credit card numbers to cover shipping costs, they're billed much more than they agreed to.

Sometimes they receive fraudulent charges from Web sites they never visited.

BBB experts said usually that money is gone for good.

"Of course the better business bureau can't work with the company to seek a resolution if they're not answering the complaints," Beverly Baskin, President of the Eastern North Carolina BBB, said. "The likelihood of consumers getting their money back is not very good."

Baskin suggests consumers who pay with a credit card call their credit company to try and get some of the charges reversed.

Experts also said consumers should research a company before entering into an agreement.

You can find tips about dealing with the work-at-home scams from the North Carolina Attorney General.

The gathering is designed for developers, builders, lenders, and housing advocacy groups interested in developing affordable housing.

They'll be discussing the resources available to help the homeless, how communities can use stimulus funds and other topics.

Sponsors of the event include Bank of America, BB&T and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta.

Applications for the program will be accepted Nov. 2 through 13 from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Offices will be closed for Veterans' Day on Nov. 11.

Households with heating expenses that are determined eligible will receive a one-time energy payment in February.

"Heating and energy costs impact many family budgets and our agency wants to assist those in need," Sandy Burrell, Wilson County LIEAP manager, said. "Each year there continues to be eligible citizens that do not apply and we want to reach those individuals."

To qualify for the program, individuals must bring in verification of income, Social Security, photo identification and a current bank statement, if applicable, to the designated DSS offices. Cumberland County's office is located at 1225 Ramsey Street and Wilson County's is located at 100 W. Gold Street.

Most families and individuals receiving food assistance through Wilson County's Department of Social Services are automatically eligible and will receive letters stating their eligibility. These families do not have to apply. Families and individuals who are not automatically eligible will be notified by mail that they should apply.

Families in Cumberland County who need more urgent assistance can contact the Crisis Intervention Program through the Salvation Army at 226 South Cool Spring St.

For more information on Cumberland County's Low Income Energy Assistance Program call (910) 307-0359. For Wilson County, contact (910) 206-4100.

Eligibility Requirements:

• An applicant's October income must meet the income guidelines, which is 110% of the poverty income limit.
• 1 Person household - $993.00
• 2person household - $1337.00
• 3 person household - $1679.00
• 4 person household - $2022.00
• Have assets less than $2,200
• Subject to the rising cost of heating and has a heat source
• Meet citizenship requirements

West Corporation says it will hire more than 100 temporary full-time customer service positions.  West provides outsourced communications and says the new positions are to meet demand from a pharmaceutical company.  Those hired for the jobs would help callers with their prescription needs.

In an effort to fill the positions, West will hold job fairs Monday November 2 and Tuesday November 3 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at its office at 1974 Stone Rose Dr. in Rocky Mount.  A third job fair is planned for November 11.

You can also apply online at www.westemployment.com.

North Carolina Education Lottery officials say the ticket for the May 4, 2009 drawing was purchased at the Tri Star Mobile at 2900 Durham/ Chapel Hill Blvd.  The 5 winning white ball numbers were 7 - 13 - 22 - 33 - 39.

The winner can take the ticket to the North Carolina Education Lottery Headquarters at 2100 Yonkers Rd. in Raleigh.

If the winning ticket is not submitted by 5 p.m. on November 2, 2009 half the unclaimed prize will be distributed to the Education Lottery Fund while the other half rolls over into prizes for future games.

The bureau tells NBC-17 it has several concerns about the contest created by a man who runs a small marketing firm out of his Apex home.

"There's just a lot of red flags," Beverly Baskin, president of the Better Business Bureau of Eastern North Carolina, said.

Robert Brown is the person behind the CarolinaChristmasCash.com, an online essay contest which the Better Business Bureau had given an ‘F' grade.

"The problem the BBB has is lack of disclosure," Baskin explained.

For a $100 entry fee, a contestant submits an essay that has the chance of winning a $50,000 prize if 5,000 people enter.

When asked how much money he'd get out of it, Brown said, "A portion of it, but not that much ... What we'll do is give some to charity."

In an investigatory phone call on Tuesday, Oct. 27, the BBB asked Robert to be more specific.

"We did call to see what charities would benefit, and as of today, they had not decided," Baskin said.

But, when NBC-17 interviewed Robert on Monday, Oct. 26, he had a slightly different response.

"We're even going to start a charity ourselves named after my 6-year-old son, called ‘Jared's Friends' to help out kids with leukemia and things like that," Brown said.

Also worrisome to the BBB is that the contest rules posted online do not say how the winner will be chosen.

"How exactly are these things being judged?" Baskin asked. "There's no criteria laid out."

Regarding the judging, Robert told NBC-17, "At first we thought we were going to do it, but right now I think we'll have some local pastors come aboard and do that."

When asked how many pastors would be judges, Robert replied, "About 10 to 15 at least."

As of Monday, Oct. 26, Robert said he had 32 entries, with all the money from those entries residing in a PayPal account.

The BBB says there ought to be some kind of independent accounting oversight with regard to the money.

"It doesn't sound like it's in any sort of escrow account," Baskin said. "Where is that money going the meantime? Is he using it to pay bills now?

After interviewing the BBB, NBC-17 did a follow-up with Brown seeking additional answers.

He said he does not have an escrow account, but "may put the money in a short-term interest-bearing account later," and admits there is nothing in place with regard to oversight of the contest.

Right now Brown says the money remains in the PayPal account and he says he is not spending any of it.

As for what charities that will get donations, Brown said he's now considering adding a feature to the Web site asking entrants to decide where the charity money should go.

On Wednesday, Oct. 28, the BBB changed its previous 'F' rating of CarolinaChristmasCash.com to an 'NR,' citing insufficient information to issue a rating.

"Based on BBB files, Advango Marketing has a BBB Rating of NR," the BBB's Web site says. "Reasons for this rating include: This business is not currently rated. BBB does not have sufficient information to issue a rating for this business." 

Learn more about the settlement

The proposed class action settlement will resolve 22 suits filed against Mattel and Fisher-Price and major retailers on behalf of millions of families who bought defective toys as gifts before they were taken off the market.

In the settlement, Mattel and Fisher-Price agree to provide
refunds or other reimbursement to those who purchased the Chinese-made toys. The reimbursement varies by the circumstances of purchase and return of the toys.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine, joined with Democrats on the Finance Committee in voting for the measure.

The passage of the measure was a hot topic in the Triangle, including on local radio talk shows like WPTF’s Bill LuMaye program.

A sampling of callers included these comments:

A man identifying himself as Josh from Wake Forest said, “Olympia Snowe has dug her own grave and should be ousted.”

Another caller named Ken from Raleigh complained, “The Baucus bill has $404 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.”

A man claiming to be a Conservative Democrat from Sanford named Dave said, “Any Democrat that voted for the bill or is going to vote for it needs to be fired.”

“This is actually bigger than the immigration issue which I thought was the biggest issue ever on talk radio,” said LuMaye. “This blows immigration out of the water.”

The same emotions that marked the health care town hall meetings this past August were heard by LuMaye Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s amazing the passion you’ll get it from both sides on the issue,” he said.

Across town at Southeast Raleigh High School, parents lining up to get flu vaccines for their kids had lots to say about the Senate vote.

“I’m a little upset about the no public option they are putting in there,’’ said Shara Settle of Raleigh who is concerned about the way the bill is shaping up. “I think the public option’s very important.”

Another parent also complained about the Baucus version of bill.

“I wish there was more; especially the government part of the plan,” said George Olmoz.

As the debate rages, some believe the bill President Barack Obama signs will have to satisfy more people than the current measure.

We need more compromise,” said Dr. Atul Goel, who favors health care reform. “Let’s come up with something because I believe at the end of the day this country is ready for some sort of reform even if this is just a first step.”

There are currently five different versions of the health care bill sitting in both the House and Senate. And politicians say it will take weeks to merge them into one measure.

Company spokesman Wes Sherwood said 1.1 million Ford Windstar minivans will be recalled for repairs due to a small risk of fires.

He said another 3.4 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles with the same switches also will be recalled even though there have been no reports of fires with them. Those vehicles mainly are trucks and sport utility vehicles.

All vehicles covered by the recall are from the 1992 to 2003 model years.

Sherwood said this is Ford's seventh recall due to the Texas Instruments speed control switches. The recalls cover a total of 14.3 million vehicles and combined are the largest in Ford's history.

The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker will begin notifying vehicle owners of the recall by mail starting at the end of the month with instructions on how to get the repairs done.

Until then, Ford recommends that Windstar owners in the covered model years park their vehicles outdoors.

"With the Windstars that have shown some elevated risk, we would encourage people to park outside of their garage until they can have the recall performed," Sherwood said.

Ford is not recommending this for the other vehicles affected in this recall because they haven't shown the same risk of fires, he said.

• According to the Commerce Department, the state's special computer manufacturing tax credit, projected to result in $200 million for Dell, yielded only $106,000. 
• That and other incentives, including the Job Development Investment Grant, Lee tax credits and workforce training, bring the total to about $8.5 million.
• Of that, $1.5 million is from payments for 2006 and 2007 from the state's JDIG program, for creating 1,300 jobs and investing $119 million.
• About $3.6 million in work force training funds, from the N.C. Community College System and Commerce's Workforce Division, has gone toward strengthening worker skills and abilities - an investment that will continue to benefit individuals and employers. 
   

The Commerce Department spokeswoman said Dell has committed to pay back the state what is owed under the JDIG grant agreement, but did not further explain the other figures.
 
"Our main concerns now are to work with the company to assist displaced workers and to determine the next steps in recovering grant funds. We will also continue to review all information related to the incentives," she said.

Perdue said Dell told her the desk top computer market was “dead” and the company was having trouble competing.

"This may happen again, there may be another company that has outlived its capacity to compete in the 21st century in North Carolina,” Perdue said.

When asked if the state's incentive policy should be changed, she said her priority is jobs. She said incentives have worked for companies such as Durham-based CREE, which announced plans Thursday to hire 275 employees in 2009.

"Any company that comes to me that's credible with an opportunity to grow jobs here in this state and wants to have a conversation about incentives, I'll have it."
  

Parking has increased from $8 to $10, and fans are paying a premium rate for tickets on the week of the game.

Fan William O'Neal is one of hundreds of fans who brought his kids to the see Friday night's season opener, and knows where he'll cut costs.

He'll tailgate with the kids.

"We try to eat before we go inside. That cuts down on a lot of the expense," he explained.

Referring to the various concessions inside the RBC center, O'Neal added, "It's real easy to spend 50, 60 or 70 bucks feeding a family in there."

If you buy your tickets in advance, you pay less. But one week before the game, the price goes up. Yet, for some fans who were having hockey withdrawal this past summer, paying the higher price on the day of a game isn't a concern.

"This was a spur of the moment thing," Ken Rupert said. "I got off work and my oldest son said, "Let's go to a hockey game.'"

Although he paid the higher price he said, "It doesn't matter a bit."

Some fans say they understand the need for the ‘Canes to boost the cost of tickets sold a week before game time.

"As consumers, we all need to save what we can," Chris Miles said. "But as a business, if people are spending less money, the team has got to find a way to make it up."

Meanwhile, team officials are hoping the Hurricanes can make it to the playoffs again this year. Last year, post season revenue was worth at least a million dollars a game to the team.

"We're making security freezes simpler and cheaper so that more North Carolinians can use this important tool to guard their credit," said Senator Josh Stein, sponsor of the new law.

Placing security freezes on your credit prevents an identity thief from opening new accounts or taking out credit cards and loans in your name. Once a security freeze is in place, the credit bureau won't release information from your credit file until or unless you lift the freeze.

The new law also makes North Carolina the first state in the nation to require credit monitoring services to tell consumers how they can get credit reports for free. Consumers can get a free credit report once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus. Free credit reports are available online at http://www.annualcreditreport.com or by calling 1-877-322-8228.

"If you respond to one of those clever T.V. ads for paid credit monitoring, they now have to tell you how you can really check your credit for free," Cooper said. "Take advantage of free credit reports to keep an eye on your credit and spot suspicious activity that could be the first sign of ID theft."

Under the new law, businesses and state and local government agencies must now report all security breaches to Cooper's office, not just those that impact 1,000 people or more. Nearly 1.7 million North Carolina consumers have had their personal information compromised due to 329 reported security breaches since 2005.

The law also authorizes Registers of Deeds and Clerks of Court to remove consumers' Social Security numbers from their websites. Social Security numbers are required on many court documents and property records, and removing them from easy access on the Internet can help prevent the information from being misused by criminals.

In addition, the new law prohibits creditors from reporting victims' debts caused by criminals to national credit bureaus. Creditors cannot report a debt associated with services performed for a victim to any of the credit reporting agencies while the victim's application for compensation under the Crime Victims' Compensation Act is pending.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, nearly 10 million people in the US are victims of ID theft each year, including approximately 300,000 victims in North Carolina annually. Help for victims and information about how to protect yourself from identity theft are available at www.ncdoj.gov.

The company says it will be the largest U.S. recall in its history. Owners could learn about the safety campaign as early as next week.

Toyota and the government warned owners of Toyota and Lexus vehicles about safety problems tied to the removable floor mats. They say the mats could interfere with the vehicle's accelerator and cause a crash.

The recall will affect 2007-2010 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon, 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra, 2007-2010 Lexus ES350 and 2006-2010 Lexus IS250 and IS350.

Owners should take out the floor mats on the driver's side and not replace them.

Toyota's previously largest U.S. recall was about 900,000 vehicles in 2005 to fix a steering issue.

Officials admit the data from the Carolina Mammography Registry at UNC School of Medicine may have been targeted for years, but the breech was only recently discovered.

The 15-year-old study collects personal as well as medical information about its participants.

"The information does have a patient's name, address, phone number and coded health care information," Dr. Matthew Mauro, the chairman of the Department Of Radiology at UNC'S School Of Medicine, said.

Last July, officials found one of the servers containing that patient information had been hacked.

"They identified a variety of virus and worms, some dating back to 2007," Mauro said.

Once they figured out which patient information was compromised, the school started sending out written notifications.

"Each patient who was identified as being on that server will receive a letter," Mauro explained.

About 236,000 patients will be told their names, address and phone numbers may be at risk.

167,000 other patients had social security numbers attached to their data.

"The patients who had social security numbers included in the data will receive a separate letter advising them of the potential exposure of that number," Mauro said.

Since July, three independent I.T. security agencies are trying to figure out how the data got hacked and who is behind it.

"There's no clear, concrete evidence that the info was downloaded and removed, but we remain very, very suspicious," Mauro admitted.

Because they're not sure what kind of viruses are in the breeched server, it has been taken off-line and many new, additional security measures are being enacted to protect the databases used by the school of medicine.

Gov. Bev Perdue's office said Thursday that EMC was offered up to $7.4 million in state incentives over nine years if the data storage technology provider creates the jobs, invests $280 million, and pays wages averaging more than $73,000 per year.

The project still depends on approval of local grants from Durham city and county officials.

Massachusetts-based EMC plans a new research facility in Durham County and to expand a research facility in Research Triangle Park and a manufacturing plant in Apex, in Wake County.

According to the BBB, complaints have been filed nationwide against 3HourProfits.com and iJango.

3HourProfits.com of Minnesota charged one Wilson consumer to begin applying their internet marketing concepts and claimed the consumer would start making a profit within the first three hours of work. After paying, the consumer was re-directed to PayDotCom.com to set up an account. The site would not let the consumer log-in to sign up. 3HourProfits.com has yet to respond to the consumer's requests. 3HourProfits.com is also operating under the name of Force One Events, Inc. The company also claims it is "ranked #1 on BBBReviews.org", the Better Business Bureau states the website is in no way associated with the Bureau and neither 3HourProfits.com nor Force One Events is a BBB Accredited Business.

iJango is a multi-level marketing company claiming consumers can join the program for an upfront fee of $50, but recommends buying a package for $149.95 and a monthly maintenance fee of $19.95. The BBB has received more than 3,400 complaints nationwide about this company since August 2009. The site is being marketed on YouTube and Twitter, through spam email and at in-person presentations.

iJango denied any wrongdoing. (See full company statement below.)

"At a time when many people are looking for employment, the internet can be very useful for job searches and applications," said Beverly Baskin, President and CEO of Better Business Bureau serving Eastern North Carolina. "It is important for consumers to remember that not all job offers on the internet can be trusted and online work at home offers may sound like an easy option but they often result in people losing hundreds of dollars."

The BBB also releases monthly consumer alerts. The following local businesses made the BBB's list for September:

Kitchen Gadgetry is based in Cary and claims to be a kitchenware and restaurant equipment distributor on their website. BBB has noticed a pattern of complaints against this business concerning delivery and refund issues. On August 4, 2009 the company was invited to meet with the BBB to discuss ways to correct the underlying cause of the complaints. The company has failed to respond to our request. Due to issues including Kitchen Gadgetry's failure to respond to complaints filed against them and a lack of sufficient background information on this business, this company has an "F" rating with BBB.

The Pharmacy Technician Education & Training Institute is based in Durham and claims to be the "Home Of The Accelerated Pharmacy Tech Course" on their Web site. They offer a Pharmacy Technician certificate in as little as four months, but according to the North Carolina Community College System, Government Boards and Commissions, this firm has refused to complete a preliminary application in order to determine the status of the organization. BBB suggests students make sure the college or university they are enrolling in is accredited from one of the six regional accreditation boards. The U.S. Department of Education has a searchable database of accredited post-secondary schools at: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation.

iJango statement:

"A considerable amount of investor money, computer programming, time, resources and sweat equity has been invested into iJango Network, which is a start-up internet company. We believe the Central Texas Better Business Bureau (BBB) mistakenly mischaracterized the company in a news release and in a reliability report. iJango adamantly denies the allegations.

The company is following a proven network marketing business model based on the success of Excel Communications, which became the 4th largest long distance company in the country. With any start-up there are a few glitches with an initial launch, but there have only been a few complaints filed against the company at the BBB. The company has resolved the complaints and refunded the money to consumers."

-Ed Burbach, Attorney for iJango Network

It says the 300 job cuts are a direct result of the June 9th explosion that killed three people and injured several others.

In addition to the layoffs, the company says it will also stop guaranteeing 40-hour work weeks to employees.

“It’s just crazy how they're doing us,” complained ConAgra employee Nathaniel Hampton.

Just about two months after bringing back employees to its plant, ConAgra called a worker meeting late Wednesday afternoon to deliver the devastating news.

“We’ve had to make a difficult but necessary decision to layoff about 300 employees in mid November,” said company spokeswoman Stephanie Childs.

The company says OSHA still hasn't finished its investigation in the destroyed South building, where the Slim Jims used to be packaged. As a result, all manufacturing is happening in the faculty's North building.

"We’ve reconfigured that building so you can both process and package the product," said Childs.

But that cut production by half, necessitating the layoffs.

“A lot of us felt like this was coming, but we were surprised at how they did it to us,” said employee Terrence Jones.

“Everybody was angry,” claimed employee Nathaniel Hampton. “They wanted everyone to calm down so they could here the next person speak. It was crazy in there. A lot of people just got up and left.”

Some are now worried the plant might shut down completely, a move the town's mayor wants desperately to avoid.

“We’re going to do whatever we can to make sure they stay in business,” said Mayor Ronnie Williams. “That’s the key focus right now in light of the downturns and layoffs. We want to make sure they continue to operate.”

In the meantime, employees say the timing of the layoffs couldn't be worse.

“They are trying to get rid of us around the holidays. It's just wrong,” said Terrence Jones.

The company sees it differently saying by giving employees two months notice; it hopes the workers will have enough time to find other employment before the layoffs take hold.