Tracy Davidson

United Technologies will cut another 1,500 this year and next on top of the 900 positions it has already eliminated in 2010, the company said Monday.
The industrial conglomerate last week posted almost a 14 percent increase in second-quarter net income, citing a “relentless focus on cost.” It cut deeply into its payroll during the worst [...]

More than 70,000 children and teens go to the emergency room each year for injuries and complications from medical devices, and contact lenses are the leading culprit, the first detailed national estimate suggests.
About one-fourth of the problems were things like infections and eye abrasions in contact lens wearers. These are sometimes preventable and can result [...]

Drivers may want to fill up their SUVs, hybrids and motorcycles this weekend, because higher gasoline prices could be right around the corner.
Retail gasoline prices are expected to increase as much as a nickel a gallon in the next few days on the heels of a jump in wholesale gasoline and crude oil prices.
The biggest [...]

ap Nanny baby recliners — hailed by parents nationwide as a salvation from sleepless nights for infants with reflux, colic and other issues — are being recalled after a 4-month-old Michigan girl was found dead in one, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said.
Baby Matters, which makes Nap Nanny, said 30,000 of the recliners/sleep positioners [...]

USA TODAY
Bratz dolls will remain in legal limbo for a while longer after a court on Thursday overturned a ruling shifting ownership of the pouty-lipped posers from MGA Entertainment to Mattel in a copyright case that has lasted for years.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that a district court was [...]

For years safety advocates pushed for the idea of easy-to-use product registration cards for durable infant and toddler products to help notify consumers when a recall was issued. That day has finally arrived and two of the leaders of that effort for well over a decade got to be part of the bittersweet announcement today.
University [...]

Recent college graduates lucky enough to nab jobs are earning even less than their counterparts did a year ago, according to a recent survey.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers said in its quarterly report on salaries that 2010 graduates’ average starting salary was $48,661, down 1.3 percent from the initial salaries of 2009 graduates.
People [...]

State unemployment agencies are gearing up to resume sending unemployment payments to millions of people as Congress moves to ship President Obama a measure to restore lapsed benefits.
After months of increasingly bitter stalemate, the Senate passed the measure Wednesday by a 59-39 vote. Obama is poised to sign the measure into law after a final [...]

As chief executive of a country emerging from a brutal recession, President Barack Obama faces a host of pressing issues. But two long-term problems have morphed into crises and have come to a head lately — immigration and joblessness. What’s not always so obvious is how closely linked the two issues have become.
In a July [...]

Three pet-product manufacturers — Feline’s Pride, Merrick Pet Care and United Pet Group — have recently issued or expanded voluntary recalls of some of their products over concerns about possible salmonella contamination.
Feline’s Pride, a New York-based company that makes raw cat food, has recalled 2.5-pound containers of its Natural Chicken Formula cat and kitten food [...]