This 'n That

by ANNE D”INNOCENZIO Associated Press Posted on November 27, 2011

More Americans hunted for bargains this weekend than ever before as retailers lured them online and into stores with big discounts and an earlier-than-usual start to the holiday shopping season.

A record 226 million shoppers visited stores and websites during the four-day holiday weekend starting on Thanksgiving Day, up from 212 million last year, according to early estimates by The National Retail Federation released on Sunday. Americans spent more, too: The average holiday shopper spent $398.62 over the weekend, up from $365.34 a year ago.

Art and Anne Destrada from Port Chester, N. Y., were among the holiday shoppers. They started shopping on Thanksgiving evening at a Walmart store, went to various malls in New Jersey on Friday, and got some deals at Macy”s on Saturday. They spent a total of $2,000 on gifts for themselves and others, including a Wii videogame console, clothing and jewelry.

“We”ve saved for Christmas and put away money all year,” says Anna Destrada, 49. “We stayed within our means so we can make a few splurges.”

The results for the first holiday shopping weekend show that retailers” efforts to lure shoppers during the weak economy are working. Some like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and J.C. Penney have been making a stronger push online to better compete with the likes of rival Amazon.com. And major chains like Macy”s, Target, Best Buy extended the traditional start to the shopping season by opening their doors at midnight on Thanksgiving evening instead of the pre-dawn Friday hours of years past.

But the question remains whether retailers” will be able to hold shoppers” attention throughout the remainder of the season, which can account for 25 to 40 percent of a merchant”s annual revenue. After all, Americans are still very driven by deep discounting and they”re more conscious of their spending budgets.

Overall, holiday spending is expected to grow by a modest 2.8 percent to about $466 billion, according to the NRF. A fuller picture on spending will come Thursday when major retailers report their November sales figures. But for now, experts agree that retailers will likely have to continue to discount to get shoppers to spend.

“The big question is: How do you close the season?” says Hana Ben-Shabat, a partner at A. T. Kearney”s retail practice. “This is a very promotional driven shopper.”

Indeed, the earlier hours — which meant earlier door-buster deals — on Black Friday seemed to be what drew many shoppers in over the weekend, particularly the younger crowd.

According to the National Retail Federation, 24 percent of Black Friday shoppers were at stores at midnight. That”s up from up from 9.5 percent the year before when only a few stores were open during that time. Of those shopping at midnight on Black Friday, 37 percent were in the 18-to-34 age group.

“Black Friday has evolved from an early morning shopping activity to a late night entertainment,” says Ellen Davis, spokeswoman at The National Retail Federation. “A lot of people stayed up until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. to go shopping, and then went to bed.”

The remainder of the day went well, too.

Mall of America, the nation”s largest mall in North America, broke its Black Friday record with about 210,000 shoppers. And Taubman Centers, which manages or leases 26 shopping centers in 13 states, says sales were up in the mid- to high-single digits on Friday compared with a year ago.

Overall, Black Friday sales were $11.4 billion, up 7 percent, or nearly $1 billion from the same day last year, according to a report by ShopperTrak, which gathers data from 25,000 outlets across the country. It was the largest amount ever spent on that day and the biggest year-over-year increase since 2007. Additionally, customer counts climbed 5.1 percent that day compared with a year ago.

Online shopping on Black Friday was especially strong. Research firm comScore reported on Sunday that online spending jumped 26 percent on Black Friday to $816 million, compared with $648 million on the same day a year ago.

Some experts worry the strong start will cannibalize sales during the remainder of the season. Indeed, many people who headed to the malls after Black Friday weren”t spending.

At the Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, N.C., it was busy on Saturday, but many shoppers did not have bags. Likewise, at Pioneer Place mall in Portland, Ore., on Saturday, a number of shoppers were doing more window-shopping for the best deals than actual buying.

David Van Veen, 25, for one, says he was looking for deals on work clothes. But he says he”ll likely wait to get gifts and other holiday items — perhaps when the deals are better — later in the season.

“I”ll wait until Dec. 23 to start shopping I think,” he says.

NBC NEWS — We”ve all accidentally thrown something valuable away in the trash, but what if that something was worth more than $10,000?

Would you swim in a pile of waste to find it?

One Margate, Florida man was faced with that conundrum and he didn”t think twice.

“The worst move of my life, horrible,” is how Brian McGuinn says he felt when he realized he had thrown out his wife”s engagement ring.

McGuinn meant to throw out a disposable razor, and ended up chucking out the ring with it.

The one and a half carat diamond ring was valued at around $10,000, and worth its weight in sentimental value.

He and his wife Anna have been married five years, and are now expecting a child.

“I just started crying and I would stop crying, and remind myself that jewelry is replaceable,” says Anna.

By the time they realized what happened, Waste Management had already picked up the trash from their community.

Devastated, Anna called Wheelabrator–the waste management company, and within an hour, McGuinn was suited up, ready to jump into more than eight tons of garbage.

Workers were able to identify the garbage from McGuinn”s collection route, they even leveled the 10-foot high pile so that he could search for the ring.

After sifting through sludge, gunk, food scraps, and anything else you”d find in a dumpster, he found his diamond in the rough.

“Once I found it, I actually let out a manly scream!,” says McGuinn, who describes the moment of finding his wife”s bling amongst the garbage as winning the lottery.

He rushed home to return the ring to its rightful owner.

“It was covered in muck. He just slipped it right on my finger and promised to never touch it again,” joked Anna.

She says she”s so appreciative of her husband”s uniquely chivalrous move. McGuinn says he wouldn”t think twice to search through the garbage again.

“She”s the love of my life. That ring was meant for her and no one else,” he said. “She”s everything to me.”

Published November 07, 2011 FoxNews.com

A jury found Michael Jackson”s doctor guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of the King of Pop.

Dr. Conrad Murray appeared stone-faced as the verdict was read Monday in a Los Angeles courtroom. The 58-year-old doctor, who is to be sentenced November 29, is facing up to four years in prison. He could also lose his medical license.

Jackson”s sister LaToya screamed out upon hearing the verdict, while his crying mother, Katherine, was consoled by her son, Jermaine Jackson.

Murray”s supporters looked somber over the news, with one shaking her head back and forth, mouthing the word “no.”

Jackson fans who had gathered outside the courtroom burst into applause and cheered as the verdict, “Guilty!,” was announced.

The decision was reached after less than nine hours of deliberation. The prosecution asked for Murray to be remanded into custody immediately. “He is now a convicted felon,” prosecutor David Walgren said.

Defense lawyer Ed Chernoff argued that he is not danger to the community before Murray was escorted out of the courtroom by the Sheriff.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009. The complete story of his death finally emerged during the six-week trial. It was the tale of a tormented genius on the brink of what might have been his greatest triumph with one impediment standing in his way — extreme insomnia.

Testimony came from medical experts, household employees and Murray”s former girlfriends, among others.

The most shocking moments, however, came when prosecutors displayed a large picture of Jackson”s gaunt, lifeless body on a hospital gurney and played the sound of his drugged, slurred voice, as recorded by Murray just weeks before the singer”s death.

Jackson talked about plans for a fantastic children”s hospital and his hope of cementing a legacy larger than that of Elvis Presley or The Beatles.

“We have to be phenomenal,” he said about his “This Is It” concerts in London. “When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, `I”ve never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I”ve never seen nothing like this. Go. It”s amazing. He”s the greatest entertainer in the world.””

Throughout the trial, Jackson family members watched from the spectator gallery, fans gathered outside with signs and T-shirts demanding, “Justice for Michael,” and an international press corps broadcast reports around the world. The trial was televised and streamed on the Internet.

Prosecutors portrayed Murray as an incompetent doctor who used the anesthetic propofol without adequate safeguards and whose neglect left Jackson abandoned as he lay dying.

Murray”s lawyers sought to show the doctor was a medical angel of mercy with former patients vouching for his skills. Murray told police from the outset that he gave Jackson propofol and other sedatives as the star struggled for sleep to prepare for his shows. But the doctor said he administered only a small dose on the day Jackson died.

Lawyers for Murray and a defense expert blamed Jackson for his own death, saying the singer gave himself the fatal dose of propofol while Murray wasn”t watching. A prosecution expert said that theory was crazy.

Murray said he had formed a close friendship with Jackson, never meant to harm him and couldn”t explain why he died.

The circumstances of Jackson”s death at the age of 50 were as bizarre as any chapter in the superstar”s sensational life story.

Jackson was found not breathing in his own bed in his rented mansion after being dosed intravenously with propofol, a drug normally administered in hospitals during surgery.

The coroner ruled the case a homicide and the blame would fall to the last person who had seen Jackson alive — Murray, who had been hired to care for the singer as the comeback concerts neared.

Craving sleep, Jackson had searched for a doctor who would give him the intravenous anesthetic that Jackson called his “milk” and believed to be his salvation. Other medical professionals turned him down, according to trial testimony.

Murray gave up his practices in Houston and Las Vegas and agreed to travel with Jackson and work as his personal physician indefinitely.

For six weeks, as Jackson undertook strenuous rehearsals, Murray infused him with propofol every night, the doctor told police. He later tried to wean Jackson from the drug because he feared he was becoming addicted.

Jackson planned to pay Murray $150,000 a month for an extended tour in Europe. In the end, the doctor was never paid a penny because Jackson died before signing the contract.

During the last 24 hours of his life, Jackson sang and danced at a spirited rehearsal, reveling in the adulation of fans who greeted him outside. Then came a night of horror, chasing sleep — the most elusive treasure the millionaire entertainer could not buy.

Testimony showed Murray gave Jackson intravenous doses that night of the sedatives lorazepam and midazolam. Jackson also took a Valium pill. But nothing seemed to bring sleep.

Finally, Murray told police, he gave the singer a small dose of propofol — 25 milligrams — that seemed to put him to sleep. The doctor said he felt it was safe to leave his patient”s bedside for a few minutes, but Jackson was not breathing when he returned.

Witnesses said he was most likely dead at that point.

What happened next was a matter of dispute during the trial. Security and household staff described Murray as panicked, never calling emergency services but trying to give Jackson CPR on his bed instead of the firm floor.

A guard said Murray was concerned with packing up and hiding medicine bottles and IV equipment before telling him to call emergency services. Prosecutors said Murray was distracted while Jackson was sedated, citing Murray”s cell phone records to show he made numerous calls.

Authorities never accused Murray of intending to kill the star, and it took eight months for them to file the involuntary manslaughter charge against him. It was the lowest possible felony charge involving a homicide.

There was no law against administering propofol or the other sedatives. But prosecution expert witnesses said Murray was acting well below the standard of care required of a physician.

They said using propofol in a home setting without lifesaving equipment on hand was an egregious deviation from that standard. They called it gross negligence, the legal basis for an involuntary manslaughter charge.

The defense team countered with its own expert who presented calculations suggesting that Jackson gave himself the fatal dose.

In closing arguments, the prosecutor said the mystery of what happened behind the closed doors of Jackson”s bedroom on the fatal day probably would never be solved.

Fox News” Lee Ross and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sometimes, the big banks can hear their customers.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

Following eight months of consumer testing, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has decided that it won”t charge customers who use their debit cards to make purchases, according to a person familiar with the bank”s plans. The New York bank”s Chase retail unit is one of the largest U.S. consumer banks, with 26.5 million checking accounts and 5,300 branches.

Several other banks, including Citigroup and Bancorp, have also decided against charging the fee.

Bank of America triggered outrage among customers last month when it announced plans to impose a $5 montly fee next year for using a debit card. Even President Barack Obama weighed in, saying banks shouldn”t take advantage of their customers.

The banks, in turn, said the debit-card fee was needed to recoup income because of the Dodd-Frank Durbin Amendment, which cut by about half the amount that banks can charge merchants for debit-card transactions as of Oct. 1.  Merchants have long been vocal about being charged too much to accept debit cards.

None of the banks backing down from imposing the fee say it”s because of the brouhaha over the announcement by Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the nation.

Retailer to close underperforming stores in 15 states, cut 1,950 jobs

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Home-improvement retailer Lowe”s Cos. says it will close 20 underperforming stores in 15 states and cut 1,950 jobs in a move that it says will allow it to focus on more profitable locations.

Ten locations were closed Sunday; the other 10 will close in a month.

Before the closures Lowe”s operated 1,725 stores.

Lowe”s, based in Mooresville, N.C., also says it will only open 10 to 15 stores in North America annually beginning in 2012. Previously the company expected to open 30 stores per year. It will open 25 stores this year.

Lowe”s says the moves will cost it 17 cents to 20 cents per share in 2011.

In August, Lowe”s said volatile weather and shoppers” worries about the economy hurt demand. Its net income was nearly flat in the second quarter and the company lowered its yearly sales forecast.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Craigslist bargain hunters around the country are being thrust into the middle of an elaborate scheme involving some of the Internet”s darkest corners:  Penny auctions, spam, and affiliate marketing.  And many are finding their bank accounts are $89 lighter for their troubles.

Shoppers who respond to “for sale” ads on the site are being sent “Sorry, but…” emails that appear to come from real sellers. They follow a consistent pattern.

“Sorry it took a while to respond, someone already picked it up, but I’ve been telling people where I got it. I just picked up four for under 80$ at THIS SITE and I’ve been re-selling them on Craigslist or eBay for some extra cash,” read one email received by msnbc.com after a response to an ad selling an Amazon Kindle. “Since that site is fairly new there’s almost nobody online, nobody is bidding, it”s like an early Christmas.”

More like an early April Fool”s Day.

Such links typically take recipients to relatively new entrant in the troubled world of penny auctions, BouncyBids.com, where visitors are confronted with flashing ads offering iPads for under $10 and $50 gift cards for pennies. After creating a user name and password, users this week were presented an even longer page full of blinking icons and expiring auctions, with the words, “finish registration below.” Tucked at the bottom of the page was a form that requested a shipping address for winnings. A message reading “Hurry and receive special offers” appeared, as did countdown clocks running towards 0:00.

Amid the visual noise, users were also asked for a credit card number.

Apparently, many missed the small, light grey print to the left indicating they would be charged $89 immediately.  A lightly trafficked Facebook page operated by the company was littered with complaints about the charges this week.

“I thought I would check this site out and signed up for the trial, 30 minutes later they took $89 from my bank account and I did not authorize it,” wrote one. “I have tried several ways to contact them and (received) no response to resolve this issue.”

Said another, more bluntly, “What’s up with the 89 dollar charge. … You guys ripped me off!!”

In penny auctions, users bid the price of items up one penny at a time.  Each bid costs money, however, and the sites have been dogged by controversy because their aggressive “Win an iPad for $2.04” ads do not reflect the true costs for bidders, which can far exceed the value of the item. There are perhaps 100 or more penny auction sites, and many have been accused of much worse than a confusing business model. On Thursday, the Federal Trade Commission obtained a court order shutting down online operations run by Canadian Jesse Willms. The agency accuses him of bilking $450 million from U.S. consumers by signing them up for $79 “negative option” services, such as teeth whitener, that were advertised as free. Willms took some of that money running deceptive penny auction sites named SwipeBids.com and SwipeAuctions.com, the agency alleges.

Angry users who visit a site devoted to consumer complaints called HissingKitty.com began logging complaints about BouncyBids.com in June, soon after it appeared.

“They post fake listings on Craigslist. … They get people to email inquiries for that item, then they respond to the emails,” wrote one.

Chris Risenhoover, CEO of BouncyBids, acknowledged there have been some complaints about his new site, but blamed the Craigslist spam on a rogue affiliate marketing company, and the unauthorized $89 charges on a design issue with his website. The design of the page was changed within minutes of a reporter”s phone call and now includes prominent disclosure of the $89 charge just a few pixels away from the shipping address form.

“If you look at our Facebook page, you”ll see there is a balance of people happy using the site, and people confused about it,” he said, before the change was made. “We”re trying to make it as clear as possible.”

Several users who complained on the site”s Facebook page indicated they”d been contacted by the firm”s customer support team and promised a refund.

But how did they get caught in the first place?

Murky world
Because a lot of money is at stake.  Fake Craigslist posters can earn $44 for each consumer they trick into signing up at BouncyBids. The story of how that money is split among various unseemly characters online offers a rare glimpse into the murky world of affiliate marketing.

It begins with the fake ads, which currently can be found across the country. Ads placed in Seattle offer electronics for sale, posted by a person claiming to be Tom Robinson.  A user with that name has posted similar ads for electronics in Milwaukee, Columbia., S.C., and Houston.

Once potential victims respond to the posts, would-be spammers have two valuable things — live email addresses, and Web users they know are actively shopping for electronics.  The spamming comes next.

“(We) have seen variants of this,” said Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. He said his firm would investigate.

The spam received by Craigslist users appears uniform, and in the messages examined by msnbc.com, the embedded email links were routed through a domain name server called PennyWinz.info. That domain was listed for sale in January on an industry site called PennyAuctionWatch.com. The registration information for the site is anonymized, and there is no contact information on the Web site, preventing contact with its current owner.

But sitting on that server are dozens of links allegedly offering pirated copies of the popular p90X exercise program.  The links did not work this week.

Affiliate pay-for-clicks arrangements have been around as long as the Web itself, and they often lead to unsavory tactics.  Affiliate networks have been tarnished by links to porn sites, computer hacking, identity theft and plenty of other below-the-belt tactics designed to split $5 or $10 commissions.  A $44-bounty per lead — half the cost for consumers who sign up with BouncyBid — is bound to bring out the worst in affiliate tactics.

“Advertisers often look the other way because they want the traffic,” said E.J. Hilbert, a former FBI cybercrime investigator who now runs Online Intelligence, an Internet advertising consulting business. “And you have networks that are going to push the envelope on everything they do.”

”Huge amount of fraud”
Pace Lattin, executive director of the Executive Council of Performance Marketing LLC, said he knows of affiliate companies that hire small armies of programmers in China and Thailand to post fake ads on Craigslist, then spam users who respond.

“Some of them are paid $2 a day to sit in Internet cafes all day and do this,” he said. “There is a huge amount of fraud.”

It”s unclear what affiliate network is behind the Craigslist spam that”s tied to BouncyBids, but a firm named YeahCPA has placed an advertisement on Offervault.com  –  operated by Lattin — promising $44 commissions to members who get new signups to BouncyBids.

Peter Zou, who is listed as a contact for YeahCPA, did not respond to emailed questions. It”s common for websites to work with multiple affiliate partners, so the advertisement doesn”t indicate YeahCPA is behind the fake Craigslist ads.

Risenhoover said his firm has no direct relationship with YeahCPA, and suggested  that firm purchased the chance to acquire BouncyBids bounties from another network.

Amanda Lee, who runs PennyAuctionWatch.com, said she was not surprised to hear about the Craigslist spam and penny auction site affiliate commissions.

“I”ve seen at least three other sites involved in that,” she said. She blamed the affiliates, not the auction firms. “They”re just trying to make their commissions. It frustrates me, though, because in some cases (penny auction sites) are giving affiliates control over the (design of the landing page), and they have users put in their credit card number where you enter your address to ship your winnings.  They are designed to confuse people.”

Risenhoover said affiliates who use the Craigslist spam tactics are violating their agreement with his firm, and maintained that his new website is sifting out less desirable affiliates.  Hilbert, however, said firms that hire affiliates could do more to screen out bad ones.

“My opinion (is) bad product affiliate marketers will push the envelope, but advertisers have a way to check quality,” he said.

BouncyBids also has the ability to control what happens to consumers who are delivered to its website by affiliate marketers.  This week, those consumers were treated very differently than users who arrived via the site”s front door.

Direct visits to BouncyBids.com generate a sign up form that promises “free” membership. Once the forms are filled out, users are presented with the chance to spend under $10 to start making bids on the site.

But users who find their way to BouncyBids via Craigslist spam are presented an entirely different, two-step registration process that includes only one option: the $89 “premium account.”

Shill bidding?
Penny auctions have exploded in popularity during the past 12 months, in part because of massive Internet marketing campaigns and even major airtime purchases at networks like ESPN.  They have been shrouded in controversy the entire time.  Dozens of sites have appeared and quickly disappeared with users” money, having never delivered products to winning bidders.  Because the firms make more money with every bid, there are rampant accusations of shill bidding by companies to drive up the prices.

MSNBC.com’s Herb Weisbaum explored the dark side of penny auctions here.

But even without accusations of fraud, many observers say the sites involve illegal gambling — users pay for a chance to win a near-free product, not unlike a raffle.   (Red Tape Chronicles explored this issue in depth earlier this year.)

Penny auction firms prefer the term “entertainment shopping,” and say the concept sites are legitimate, and fun to use. Risenhooven acknowledges his industry has seen its share of scams, but said it”s easy to distinguish between bad actors and legitimate ones.

“The biggest way you can tell a scam is if products are getting shipped,” he said. “It”s important to me that (scam sites) get called out. They don”t do anything for our industry.”

Indeed, BouncyBids” Facebook page is crowded with winners who post pictures of themselves along with the product they”ve received as winning bidder. Many are quick to defend the site against its critics.

One frequent winner claimed in a side conversation she”d been paid $100 by the company to post such pictures.

“Everyone else has the same opportunity,” she wrote. She did not respond to an emailed request for confirmation.

By Rita Rubin

The early bird might catch the worm because it sleeps better than the night owl, not just because it awakens earlier.

At least that appears to be the case for humans, according to a new study.

Researchers found that night owls — “evening-type individuals”– are significantly more likely to suffer from poor sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and disturbing nightmares than early birds — “morning-type individuals”– or folks whose bedtime falls somewhere between the two.

“Evening-type people have more nightmares because of their sleep patterns,” says lead author Yavuz Selvi, assistant professor of psychiatry at Yuzuncu Yil University in Van, Turkey, whose paper was published online Aug. 25 in the journal Sleep and Biological Rhythms.

Staying awake late at night and waking up late in the morning disrupts the relationship between the body’s internal clock and its ability to maintain normal sleep patterns, Selvi explains. In other words, it really screws up your circadian rhythm.

Nightmares usually awaken you, so if they occur frequently, you might begin to fear falling asleep, cutting into your snooze time even more. Epidemiological studies have found that nearly nine in 10 adults reporting having at least one nightmare in the previous year, Selvi says, with 2 percent to 6 percent reporting weekly nightmares.

He and his coauthors studied 264 medical students, ages 17 to 26 years old, who weren’t yet dealing with crazy hours in their training. The researchers administered a battery of tests to assess whether the students were morning or evening types, the quality of their sleep and how frequently they experienced nightmares and how disturbing they were.

The “Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire” taken by the students asked what time they’d go to bed and get up if they were entirely free to plan their day and evening. Other questions touched on such matters as what time they’d prefer to hit the gym and how wide-awake they feel when they get up in the morning.

The test revealed that 59 of the students were evening types, 67 morning types and the rest fell in the “intermediate” range. Men were more likely than women to be night owls; vice versa when it came to early birds.

As a self-described night owl, I wasn’t thrilled to learn from Selvi that the consequences of my sleep habits could go way beyond my morning sluggishness and frequent urge to nap.

“A possible relationship has emerged between eveningness and certain mental disorders, including substance abuse, bulimia, sleep disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, suicidality and mood disorders,” he told me.

One reason night owls tend to get stressed out, Selvi says, is because it’s tough to hold a job or attend classes if your brain doesn’t kick in until noon or so.

Yikes. How about you? Are you a night owl, an early bird or something in between? Would you like to change your sleep habits, or does your pattern work for you?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Unemployment remains a huge concern, but the underemployment problem isn”t as bad as it used to be. Fewer part-time workers are looking for full-time work — because they don”t mind working part-time after all.

Since hitting a peak of 9.5 million last September, the number of part-time workers who tell the Labor Department they are doing so for economic reasons rather than personal reasons has dropped to 8.4 million in July.

“It”s not massive, but there is a marked drop during a period when we”re not seeing an increase in hours,” said Heidi Shierholz, labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

The vast majority of part-timers, defined as those who work less than 35 hours a week, are happy with their status. Those who would prefer full-time work make up only 31% of all part-time workers, according to the Labor Department.

That”s still a lot higher than the 19% of part-timers who wanted a full-time job before the start of the Great Recession. But it”s a modest improvement from the peak of 34% last September.

But economists don”t have a definitive answer for why more part-timers are content to work fewer hours.

Where the jobs are

Part of it could be that workers who had been looking for full-time work have now decided they prefer the flexibility of a part-time schedule.

Shawn Boyer, CEO of SnagAJob, a job posting site for hourly positions, thinks some part-timers are discovering the advantages that go with the disadvantage of smaller paychecks.

“You get a person who didn”t have a choice but to go into part time, and after adjusting to the lifestyle, they realize they have more of a work/life balance,” said Boyer.

That was the case for Karen King, a suburban Chicago marketing executive for a midsize specialty retailer. When she had her hours — and her salary — cut by 25% in early 2009, she thought it was a disaster for her and her family.

“I was angry, I was bitter, I took it personally. I felt like I was taken advantage of,” King recalled.

But soon she decided it was the best situation, even if it put a crimp in the family budget.

“I finally figured out the balance since it was forced upon me,” she said.

Julia Claire was someone else who found herself changing her attitude about working part-time. A 2007 law school graduate who never intended to work part-time, she had trouble finding full-time work as the economy slowed that year.

Underemployed and looking for work

So she started working for temp agencies that placed attorneys with firms for limited hours to help with big cases or big projects. She soon decided the part-time lifestyle was a better fit.

“When I saw the crushing schedules that firm attorneys are subjected to, I didn”t think that”s the way to live,” she said. “I got used to living on less, and I found I was happier. My life was less complicated.”

She recently started her own placement firm, Hire an Esquire, to help other lawyers who would prefer to be working on a part-time schedule.

Some employers say they actually have trouble convincing their part-timers to shift to full-time work. Eric Morgan, who runs Adaptivity Pro, a web design/Internet marketing business, said it would be easier to manage his staff if more of his 15 part-timers would want to work full-time.

He said some workers are spreading their hours between different employers and want to keep that flexibility. Others are students or semi-retired workers who are only willing to work a limited number of hours a week.

Another possible reason for fewer disgruntled part-timers may be (as amazing as it sounds in this job market) that more workers who had been on part-time hours who have finally found full-time jobs.

Despite continued high unemployment, businesses have created 1.6 million jobs since last September. And those with jobs, even part-time jobs, often have an edge when competing for jobs with the 13.9 million unemployed job seekers.

“We”ve also seen people who have taken part time jobs in different industries where they didn”t have any experience before the downturn. They discovered they like the industry, they”re good at it, and they”ve moved into full-time jobs,” Boyer said.

Next time a national disaster strikes, whether it’s an earthquake or a pandemic, dedicated blood donors could be tapped — quite literally — to give again within as little as two days, under a plan being considered by federal health officials.

The Food and Drug Administration is asking advice from blood experts this week about whether it’s a good idea to dramatically shrink the intervals between blood donations in the event of emergencies.

Under proposals being considered by the Blood Products Advisory Committee, donors would be allowed to reduce the interval from the normal eight weeks down to four weeks without a doctor’s approval, and down to as little as 48 hours with a medical release.

“If things got really bad, we would like the ability … to draw more fully qualified donors more quickly,” explained Dr. Louis Katz, executive vice president of medical affairs for the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, who supports the idea.

The move essentially would create a potential fleet of super blood donors, regular donors available on short to notice to boost the blood supply by less than 10 percent, but enough to get over a donation hump.

“We’d like already-committed donors that we could look to in a bad pinch,” Katz said.

The reduced interval would be limited to once a year per donor and would be safe in normally healthy people, Katz said.

The change would allow more flexibility in a system in which blood donation and use can wax and wane dramatically. All told, about 15.7 million units of whole blood and red blood cells were donated in 2007, the most recent statistics available, exceeding those used by about 1.2 million units. In some years, the margin is much slimmer, blood experts say.

Interestingly, the super donors might not be called upon in the most obvious disasters, which always attract hordes of well-meaning people willing to give blood. After the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, for instance, or the Hurricane Katrina aftermath in New Orleans, the response taxed the blood donation community’s capability to use and store it all.

“Every blood center in the country had people lined up around the block,” Katz said.

Instead, the most dire blood emergency might come in the form of a pandemic illness that lasts for months and affects a wide swath of the country, or a nuclear accident or attack that knocks out key blood centers in several major cities at once, he added.

The FDA will consider the advice of the committee before making the change, but there is no estimate about when a decision will come, said Shelly Burgess, an FDA spokeswoman. Still, some center managers might be tempted to tap donors even before it takes effect.

“We were going to do this anyway if we had to,” Katz said, who expects it to be approved. “What are we supposed to do, let people bleed to death?”

© 2011 msnbc.com