pileofcrapola

We've shown you how to use magnets to hang tools in your shop and spices in your kitchen. This magnetic key shelf gives you a fun way to hang keys and other metal items wherever you need them.

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Android: We've long-since acknowledged that one of the best ways to find your car is to mark its location on a map before you leave it. Auto Finder simplifies this process by noting where you parked without any input or setup on your part.

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When lost car keys, missed appointments, and forgotten passwords are every day occurrences, it gets frustrating. If your memory isn't as good as it used to be, as good as you'd like it to be, here are some of my favorite easy ways to compensate for a "less than perfect" memory.

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Unless you are staggeringly lucky, your first job is probably not going to be your dream job. Just because you don't make six figures flipping burgers doesn't mean that job isn't important, though. No matter how crappy your first job is, it can teach you plenty of lessons that will help you build a career worth having.

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In a roundup of weird insider fashion tips, Elle reports you might not need an iron or clothes steamer to get creases out. Just use your hair dryer as a steamer.

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The Cinnabon cinnamon roll is one of the greatest calorie bombs found in the world’s malls and airport food courts. Maybe that’s why people fetishize it so, and there’s a huge market for Cinnabon-branded products that are not cinnamon rolls. The latest? Air freshener.

It’s probably the desire to have all of that tastiness with zero calories that drives this product. Isn’t it just cinnamon fragrance, though? NO. IT IS CINNABON(R).

The cinnamon fragrance joins other examples of cross-branding synergy in fragrance form, which the company calls the Familiar Favorites Collection. Other choices include Snuggle fabric softener fragrance and Baby Magic baby soap.

Couldn’t you just do your laundry or wash a baby and get the same effect? NO. NO, YOU COULD NOT. Note in the image above that while the Cinnabon fragrance is represented with a cinnamon roll, there is no corresponding freshly bathed baby for the Baby Magic fragrance, and no basket of freshly folded laundry for the Snuggle fragrance. You’re not supposed to picture the sources of the other fragrances, apparently.

News: New Cinnabon Air Freshener [Brand Eating]

You know all those crime shows where nogoodniks refuse to go to the hospital when hurt or contact the police when robbed because they are dodging arrest warrants? Those people are brilliant compared to the woman in Pennsylvania who called 911 about her bad Burger King experience without thinking about how she is wanted in another state.

According to news reports out of Pittsburgh, a 22-year-old Pennsylvania woman placed an order last Friday at a BK drive-thru. When she checked her order, she was not happy with what she received.

That’s when she decided that the best route toward conflict resolution was to call 911 and get the police involved.

The police did show up, but not to help her get a new Whopper (or whatever it was she ordered). Rather, she was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after she got out of her car and “engaged in threatening and yelling behavior, which caused public alarm,” write the police.

As a bonus, when police ran a background check on the upset customer, they found out that she is wanted by authorities in South Carolina.

Whether or not you’re on the lam, it’s always good to not involve the police in a customer service dispute. At best, you’ll just receive a stern talking-to and a warning to never do it again; at worst, you’ll end up being cited or arrested for the frivolous emergency call.

Woman Upset Over Burger King Order Calls 911, Found Wanted In S.C. [KDKA]

Police: Customer calls 911 over wrong order at Burger King [WTAE]

Sometimes you can’t get your child an appointment at the pediatrician’s office, or maybe you don’t like the idea of sitting in an emergency room for hours on end. While many parents turn to retail-based health clinics on an as-needed basis — like those at CVS, Walgreen’s or Kroger — the country’s largest group of pediatricians is warning parents not to rely solely on those clinic’s for a child’s primary care.

The reason being, says the American Academy of Pediatrics in its updated policy statement, is that having a pediatrician or a “medical home” for a patient is part of a long-term effort that’s carefully planned out to serve the child’s medical needs. Whereas CVS’ MinuteClinic or Walgreen’s Healthcare Clinic mainly fill in the gaps when a child’s doctor isn’t available, reports USA Today.

The basic message has stayed the same since the group’s 2006 statement, but it’s updating it now because “the number of clinics has grown and they are used much more,” says the lead author of the statement.

“If these entities are going to take care of children, there should be certain standards adhered to in terms of communicating back to the pediatrician or having some sort of relationship with a pediatrician locally so that a child can be referred back to their pediatrician for ongoing care,” he explains.

On the side of the RBCs, the trade group representing them says it’s not like clinics are trying to take the place of a pediatrician, just to fill in the gaps.

“They are a more convenient option for parents with sick children rather than the alternative, which is often waiting for an appointment while the child is sick or spending hours in a high-cost emergency room for a minor pediatric complaint,” says the executive director of the Convenience Care Association.

She adds that there are over 1,600 RBCs in 39 states and D.C. that have been visited by 20 million consumers to date, many of which are children.

The president of the largest chain of RBCs in the U.S. also says it’s just about providing a service when it’s needed. He notes that MinuteClinic will automatically provide referrals for patients without a pediatrician and will communicate back about the visit to the doctor, if the family allows it.

“MinuteClinic adheres to the principles (the AAP) outlines,” says he says. “We are very supportive of the medical home and the important role that the pediatrician plays, and we really see ourselves as complementary and supportive of that role.”

“We agree that the pediatrician should be the quarterback of the team, but we also think there’s an important role for walk-in-care that’s low cost and evidence-based,” he says.

To recap: Clinics can be great, but they can’t take the place of a pediatrician.

Docs oppose retail-based clinics for kids’ care [USA Today]

After several years of shutting down class-action lawsuits or affirming businesses’ ability to preempt such suits with forced arbitration, the U.S. Supreme Court today chose not to hear challenges to a trio of class actions about supposedly defective washing machines from three leading manufacturers.

Whirlpool, Sears, and Bosch are each currently involved in class-action lawsuits over alleged defects in various front-loading washing machines that may have allowed for mold to build up.

In petitioning the Supremes, the manufacturers each contended that there were too many variables involved to classify a specific class of damaged consumers.

“[T]here are 21 different products with different designs that affect the odor issue,” wrote Whirlpool in its Oct. 2013 petition to the court. “Injury and causation cannot be determined on a common basis because most Washer owners never experienced moldy odors and there are many potential causes of odors apart from the alleged defect.”

All three manufacturers were hanging their hopes on a recent Supreme Court decision in which the court ruled against a massive class-action against Comcast. In that case, the court determined there were too few common factors among the plaintiffs to properly certify them as a class.

But this morning, court denied without explanation all three petitions to hear the washing machine lawsuits, thus allowing lower-court decisions on these cases to stand.

Today’s denials come as a big surprise in light of the court’s recent history.

In addition to the Comcast case, the court came down against consumers’ right to a class action in 2011, ruling that AT&T could not only force customers into binding arbitration with a few sentences buried deep in a contract, but that they could also use these arbitration clauses to deny access to class complaints.

Then last year, the Supremes ruled in the American Express v Italian Colors Restaurant case that a harmed customer can not claim an “effective vindication” exception to get around a class-action ban.

In that case, a merchant wanted to prove that some of Amex’s business practices were anticompetitive and violated federal law. However, proving that case would have cost the plaintiff more than it could have received through arbitration. It contended that it needed to be able to combine its complaint with those of other affected parties in order to defray the cost of presenting its case. However, a split Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Arbitration Act “does not permit courts to invalidate a contractual waiver of class arbitration on the ground that the plaintiff’s cost of individually arbitrating a federal statutory claim exceeds the potential recovery.”

The three petitions denied today were Whirlpool Corp. v Glazer; Sears, Roebuck and Company v. Butler; and BSH Home Appliances Corp. v Cobb.

Another week, another vehicle recall. This time Nissan is recalling more than 13,000 Frontier trucks for a potential fire risk.

The voluntary recall affects 13,535 model year 2012-14 Frontier trucks that may have improperly install circuit breakers, the Los Angeles Times reports. The trucks were manufactured from Nov. 28, 2012 to Dec. 17, 2013.

Incorrectly installed circuit breakers can cause a bolt to wear through wiring creating an electrical short, which in turn could cause a fire, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [PDF].

The issue came to light after a driver of a Frontier truck in Mexico noticed smoke in the cab of his vehicle. The smoke was traced back to the circuit breaker.

Officials with Nissan say they are not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the problem.

Owners of the affected trucks will be notified beginning in March. Nissan dealers will inspect and replacing any incorrect circuit breaker and wiring harness at no charge.

This isn’t the first time the Frontier has been in the news this year. In January, the Federal Trade Commission deemed an ad in which the truck comes to the rescue of a dune buggy to be deceptive.

Monday’s recall announcement marks the second in two weeks for automakers. General Motors recently recalled nearly 800,000 vehicles over concerns about possible ignition switch failures; a defect that may have resulted in multiple deaths. Last week, it was revealed that the car company and the NHTSA knew about a possible issue back in 2007, but took no action.

Nissan recalls more than 13,000 Frontier trucks for fire risk [The Los Angeles Times]

It’s been nearly a year since the world first heard rumors of a strange breakfast beast being tested in lands to the west (i.e. California). The whispers claimed it was a Waffle Taco, while skeptics questioned whether the term “taco” was being stretched by a company whose longtime figurehead was a talking chihuahua and who also hired this guy. Now, like rock ‘n’ roll and door-to-door salesmen, the Waffle Taco, along with other breakfast stuff, is heading for your hometown whether you want it or not.

The fast food chain announced this morning that the Waffle Taco — which is not a corn tortilla full of waffle chunks or a tortilla shell made of waffle cone material, but really just a waffle curved around a piece of breakfast sausage — will be part of the Taco Bell breakfast menu nationwide starting March 27.

Taco Bell says that 5,500 of its stores will now be offering a full breakfast menu, including the taco of waffle, and something called an A.M. Crunchwrap, which the company describes as the “classic breakfast tastes of fluffy scrambled eggs, a golden crispy hash brown, melted cheese and flavorful bacon (or a hearty sausage patty or premium thick cut steak), all wrapped up in a warm flour tortilla.”

So basically it’s like getting the breakfast buffet bar at Shoneys and then shoving it all in a tortilla.

The fast food chain is also going to be selling these Cinnabon things, which we’re sure are of interest to some people, but we just gained five pounds writing this story… so we’ll be back after a brisk walk to burn some calories.

Yes. Everyone who loves espresso-based coffee concoctions knows, objectively, that they contain a lot of calories. Sometimes it’s hard to visualize what this means, though, without imagining the coffee beverage in terms of something more familiar. Like candy.

I Love Coffee framed different Starbucks drinks in terms of what else clocks in at the same calorie count. “190 calories” might be hard to picture, but it’s not hard to visualize making a tradeoff between a grande latte and a slice of pizza.

Or a hot chocolate and 45 gummy bears.

Keep in mind that the comparison only includes plain old calories: the relative fat, protein, carbohydrates, and Vitamin C (caffeine) in each item aren’t compared. It’s a fun visualization, still.

How Many Calories Are In a Drink From Starbucks? [I Love Coffee] (Thanks, Kate!)

Making thousands of dollars a month by working from your couch might seem like a dream come true. But don’t quit your day job just yet, because it’s most likely a scam. Fortunately, there’s now one less “work-from-home” scheme seducing consumers thanks to the Federal Trade Commission.

A federal court entered a temporary restraining order halting an allegedly deceptive scheme that conned millions of dollars from consumers, the FTC announced Monday.

According to the FTC charges, the businesses’ websites told numerous false “rags to riches” stories and made unsubstantiated claims that consumers could earn thousands of dollars a month by purchasing business coaching services and establishing their own internet businesses.

The FTC seeks to put a permanent stop to the operations of the company — which did business under several names, including Essent Media, LLC, Net Training, LLC, YES International, Coaching Department, and Apply Knowledge — and for money to be returned to affected consumers.

The company allegedly violated the FTC Act by misrepresenting earnings and the nature of services. It also allegedly violated the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule by misrepresenting material aspects of investment opportunities.

The scheme worked in three interconnected phases. In the first phase, consumers were enticed by deceptive emails and websites to purchase work-at-home kits costing $37 to $99. The second phase promised consumers would earn thousands of dollars a month using a coaching program to assist in their online business. The system generally cost $3,000 to $12, 000 and consumers were urged to put the cost on their credit cards, leaving many heavily in debt. During the third phase, the company pretended to provide consumers with coaching services while pitching additional costly add-on services.

A preliminary injunction hearing is set for March 20.

In a similar case last week, the FTC announced a series of settlement orders totaling $55.3 million stemming from a 2012 complain that several companies deceived consumers with business or work-at-home opportunities. In reality, the organizations in question tricked consumers into paying to join programs that then had recurring monthly charges.

FTC Halts Multi-Million Dollar Work-From-Home Business Coaching Scheme [Federal Trade Commission]

One of the best feelings as a consumer is the, “Wow, you didn’t have to do that but I’m so glad you did” feeling. Like when a customer service rep rewards you with a coupon just for calling in with a question, or when the cashier slyly gives you a discount you didn’t earn. Or when a garbage crew worker sifts through the trash to rescue an unopened birthday card and return it to its rightful owner.

He didn’t have to do that, but one Medina, Ohio sanitation worker did it anyway, reports The Medina-Gazette. Inside the envelope was also $50 from a woman’s sister-in-law, wishing her well on her birthday.

“They found it in the trash and they took the time to come and give it back to me,” the woman said. “I feel like they just went above and beyond.”

The worker who found the letter went with his supervisor to the woman’s home to hand over the card and explain what happened.

“We went to dump the can; it was just stuck in there,” he said of the purple envelope. “It wasn’t open, and it looked important.”

After his route was over he decided to open the envelope to make sure it wasn’t something vitally important, and then set out to return it.

“In this day and age, $50 is a lot of money,” he explained. “It’s a tank of gas. We had to take it back to her.”

As for how the card ended up in the trash in the first place, it was tucked in a box of gifts for the woman’s son, who forgot to tell his mother he’d left the envelope inside the box. It then ended up in the trash.

“They don’t get a lot of thanks for the hard job they do,” the woman said, adding that she called the worker to thank him directly as well as contacting the paper. “I wanted to make sure they got recognized.”

Sanitation worker discovers, delivers belated birthday gift [The Medina-Gazette]

There’s a reason I always leave the Do Not Disturb up from the moment I check in until the day I check out — I just don’t like anyone touching my stuff and I’m perfectly fine with making my own bed. But while I’ve worried about thieves, vandals, and snoops, I’ve never thought about coming back to my room to find the concierge wrapped up in my linens.

Among the questions in today’s Dear Prudence column is one posed by a reader who recently stayed at a bed-and-breakfast in Florida. While sitting poolside, the guest noticed that the B&B’s concierge had let himself into their room.

So the guest goes to find out why, only to find said concierge smelling one of the pillows from their bed, all while wrapped up in their sheets.

Understandably, the guest was displeased and made it know, but this only made the concierge cry.

“[He] said we were an attractive couple and that he ‘just wanted to feel alive again,’” recalls the guest, who didn’t know what to do.

“I figured the sheets are their property,” writes the guest, “and I’d think it was just weird or kind of funny had he just replaced the linens and done that in the laundry room, but in the room itself it felt like a gross violation of our privacy.”

The concierge promised to never do it again, and the guest opted to not complain to management or even tell their partner about what they had witnessed.

In her response to the reader, Emily “Dear Prudence” Yoffe says she “would have insisted we packed our bags (after carefully checking our underwear) because I would not be able to spend a night at a place where there was a guy with a serious fetish about my bedsheets and a key to my room.”

The reader had expressed concern about ratting out the concierge because this was a B&B and not some big chain hotel, but Yoffe says the size of the hotel shouldn’t impact your decision to file a complaint.

“If you ran a B&B, I assume you’d want to know if you had an employee who felt the aromas of the guests were a form of True Blood,” she writes. “And surely finding the concierge rolling in your sheets would have gotten you comped for the entire vacation.”

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The stuff dogs tend to pick up on the street is bad enough — really? That nasty container of gnawed up wings is tempting? — but to make matters worse, someone in San Francisco is putting out poisoned meatballs, threatening any dog with a nose and a taste for meat. So, basically, all dogs.

This isn’t the first time this has happened, either, and police say it’s possible this latest rash of poisoned meat is connected to a previous incident in July, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Back then a seven-year-old dachshund died and another dog was seriously injured after eating meatballs believed to be filled with strychnine. No one was ever caught or charged.

Over the weekend a San Francisco animal control officer found 35 meatballs suspected to be poisoned and fatal to any dog or cat that might eat them, in the same neighborhood as last year’s incident.

A resident called officials after finding bits of suspicious meatballs and Animal Care and Control responded to the scene. A rep for that department says 34 more balls of raw meat studded with something solid were found, and another resident handed one over after snatching it from her dog.

So how does one characterize a meatball meant for a dog? Well, most people aren’t going to go sniffing in carports, behind stairwells or on the curb, whereas that’s just what a dog likes best. And while yes, cats probably also like meat, if someone was going after cats specifically there would probably be a canned fish of some kind involved as bait.

The cops are now on the case and will analyze them to see if they’re poisonous.

“There’s a high probability,” the animal control rep says. “They look very similar to the ones found last year.”

Dog owners should be warned and keep dogs on a short leash, away from shrubbery. If you’ve got a cat, try to keep it indoors. And when in doubt, just head to the vet, says animal control.

“If your dog picks up anything and starts to eat it, I wouldn’t waste time, I would take it to a vet,” the rep advised. “We haven’t confirmed it’s poison but it’s not worth taking chances.”

Whoever you are, shame on you! Bad person. Bad.

You can follow MBQ on Twitter and she promises to never, ever poison meatballs because she has a heart: @marybethquirk

Poisoned meatballs again threaten dogs in San Francisco [San Francisco Chronicle]

Following Sunday’s announcement that Netflix had agreed to start paying Comcast for a better, more direct connection to the cable company’s broadband network, both AT&T and Verizon said they are working on a similar deal with the streaming video service.

First Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam told CNBC on Monday that no agreement with Netflix had been reached but, “Both [Netflix CEO] Reed [Hastings] and I have talked about it and we think it’s in both of our interests.”

McAdam revealed to CNBC that Verizon and Netflix have been discussing improving the connection between the streaming video servers and the ISP for “about a year.”

And then last night a rep for AT&T confirmed to DSLreports.com that, “We’re in discussions with Netflix to establish a more direct connection between our networks, similar to agreements we have with others, so that AT&T broadband customers who use Netflix can enjoy an even better video experience.”

In the last year, Verizon and Comcast customers have increasingly complained about the quality of Netflix streams coming into their homes. While some accused the ISPs of throttling access to the website, the problem has appeared to be at the “peering ports,” those points where Netflix’s bandwidth providers connect with the ISPs’ networks.

The ISPs had traditionally opened up more ports as Netflix traffic surged at peak times, without asking for any financial consideration in return. Verizon and Comcast reportedly began allowing traffic to bottleneck by balking at opening these ports.

The Comcast deal gives Netflix servers a more direct connection to the Comcast network. Companies like Google already have similar “paid peering” arrangements with many of the nation’s largest ISPs to prevent data logjams and increase data speeds to the end user.

While fast food burger joints have battled over turf and market share for decades, it’s always seemed like Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s were able to live in relative peace since their core products were very different. But a new lawsuit filed by McDonald’s now claims that Dunkin’ and the Golden Arches are so similar that a Maryland mall operator should be stopped from leasing space to the donut chain.

Baltimore Business Journal reports that McDonald’s corporate office filed the complaint [PDF] earlier this month in a federal court in Maryland.

The suit alleges breach of contract by the operators of a shopping center in Derwood, MD, who recently leased a space to a combination Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin Robbins but whose lease with the Golden Arches includes a restriction against the mall from leasing space to “restaurants with menu items substantially similar to those of McDonald’s, within 2000 feet of the McDonald’s restaurant at the Shopping Center.”

So do these two fast food giants really offer the same stuff?

Below is the plaintiff’s side-by-side comparison on what McDonald’s views as similar menu items at the two eateries:

As you can see, the majority of these items are from the breakfast menu. The suit also takes issue with the fact that Baskin Robbins, like McDonald’s, serves “ice cream products, including but not limited to, ice cream cones, ice cream sundaes, blended ice cream products, milk shakes, smoothies, and blended coffee drinks.”

Claiming that it will experience losses greater than $75,000 if the Dunkin’ Donuts is allowed to operate within the same shopping center, McDonald’s is asking the court to issue an injunction blocking the mall from leasing the space to the other fast food company.

After years of trying to get its users to hop on the “@Facebook.com” email address chain, the social network has stuck a fork in its email service, because it’s pretty much done. Once users switched their email addresses away from @facebook.com as the default back in 2012 though, it’s likely that many people won’t even remember that such a thing existed.

Now of course, we’ll take a moment to commiserate with anyone who does use the email address, but while it was touted as a “Gmail killer” at the beginning, the Facebook email experiment that started in 2010 just never really caught on, points out The Verge.

With a new update Facebook is letting users know about this week, any emails sent to users via their @Facebook.com address will be forwarded to their primary email address on file. While other media outlets report that there’s an option to turn that auto-forwarding off, there isn’t — at least, not yet.

“There will be a way to turn off forwarding,” a Facebook spokeswoman confirmed to Consumerist. “Once the changes roll out in early/mid-March, under the General Account Settings —> Email —> there will be a checkbox that gives you the option to stop using your Facebook email address.”

If you don’t have any other email address other than that, well, you don’t need to do any forwarding but you should check out another option. But that’s probably not the case, admits Facebook.

“Most people have not been using their @facebook.com email address,” a Facebook spokesperson told the Verge, confirming that the email service is effectively being put out of its misery.

The email feature didn’t have email subject lines or even cc’s and bcc’s, making it relatively user unfriendly, especially with plenty of other free email options out there.

Again, if you don’t want someone figuring out your @facebook.com email address (by simply pasting your profile page’s URL before the @ symbol) and pestering you with unsolicited you’ll want to turn off that forwarding feature. Which will basically turn the lights out for the address all together. That is, once that option becomes available.

Facebook retires its troubled @facebook.com email service [The Verge]

Less than a year after Disney last hiked its prices for the Magic Kingdom at Disney World the House of Mouse is tacking on a few extra bucks to the cost of tickets yet again. It’ll now cost anyone 10 and older $99 for a day’s admission, and kids will pay $93.

Just last June Disney changed adult day passes from $89 to $95 and from $85 to $89 for kids, marking the first time the company charged different prices for Disney World and Disneyland. Changes are in effect as of Sunday.

This recent uptick doesn’t only hit tourists heading to the popular Magic Kingdom. One-day tickets for Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood studios will also go up in price for adults, from $90 to $94 and for kids from $84 to $88.

“Our pricing reflects the high quality and breadth of experiences we offer and our ongoing commitment to investing in our parks,” a Disney spokesman told the Orlando Sentinel. “We offer a variety of ticket options that provide a great value, and find that most guests select multi-day tickets that offer additional savings.”

For now it seems that ticket prices are staying the same over in California, with the Disneyland site showing the same prices as back in June — $92 for an adult pass and $86 for a kid’s one-day admission ticket.

You can follow MBQ on Twitter for a lot less than $99: @marybethquirk

Selfies are all the rage. The word was added to the dictionary last year for crying out loud. Children, teens and even some misguided adults have jumped on the selfie bandwagon. But cozying up to your friends, or maybe even strangers, for a selfie could be bad for your health and your hair.

Lice-treatment experts are now saying the surge in selfies has led to an infestation of head lice, CNET reports.

The number of lice cases has increased significantly and it’s all because of selfies, says Mary McQuillan, a lice-treatment expert in California.

“Head lice are spread through head-to-head contact. Lice don’t jump or fly, so you actually have to touch heads,” McQuillan, operator of two lice salons, said in a press release. “Every teen I’ve treated, I ask about selfies, and they admit that they are taking them every day.”

Another lice-treatment expert says she found some merit to McQuillan’s claim.

Vanessa Mor, a supervisor at a lice-treatment facility in Oakland, Calif., tells CNET the claim does have some value since direct contact is made while taking a selfie.

She also reported seeing an uptick in the number teens and young adults with lice, but she did not attribute the problem directly to photo fad.

Dermatology resident Nick Celano says the amount of time required to take a selfie generally isn’t long enough for transmission.

“The way we’re taught is that it takes contact for an extended period of time, and 10 seconds is not what I’d consider an extended period of time. We’re in rooms with patients that have lice, and we don’t really worry about getting it transmitted from one person to the other while in the room,” he tells CNET.

Other pest experts say the new claim is simply a way to drum-up business.

“This is a marketing ploy, pure and simple,” Dr. Richard J. Pollack, a teacher at the Harvard School of Public Health and operator of a pest identification business, says. “Wherever these louse salons open a new branch, there always seems to be an epidemic. It’s good for business.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate there are 6 million to 12 million lice infestation cases each year. The most common way lice is spread is through sharing of combs, hats, and bedding.

Whether or not there’s a connection between the time-honored tradition of leaning in for selfies with your friends and the spread of lice, we don’t know. But we just might be hanging up our selfie superstar badge, you know, just in case.

Are selfless causing the spread of head lice? [CRNET]

- The commander of the U.S. Navy ship that ran aground while deployed near the Olympics has been relieved of his command.

- Nearly 1,400 lifers in California's prisons have been released over the past three years in a sharp turnaround in a state where murderers and others sentenced to life with the possibility of parole almost never got out.

- A jazzy band behind her and 100 people crowded into a bar before her, the evening's emcee walked on to stage wearing a Victorian outfit of corsets, bustles, bloomers and a feathered hat.

- Annapolis police say a woman cut her neighbor with a large kitchen knife after an argument over dog droppings.

- Cigarette maker Lorillard Inc. has banned animal testing following discussions with an animal rights group that has raised concerns over industry studies in which animals were forced to inhale cigarette smoke, eat tobacco and have cigarette tar painted on their skin.

Jennifer Lawson, 39-year-old mother has succumbed to injuries from being struck by a dump truck.

- An attorney for Harold Ramis says the actor has died.

- ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Maryland's health exchange board has voted to end the role of Noridian Healthcare Solutions as the prime information technology contractor for the defective exchange.

- A new book traces the history of the world's largest navy base.