Measure of U.S. home prices rises
Measure of U.S. home prices rises
WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of U.S. home prices jumped 4.6 percent in August compared with a year ago, the largest year-over-year increase in more than six years.
CoreLogic, a private real estate data provider, also said Tuesday that prices rose 0.3 percent in August from July, the sixth straight monthly gain.
Steady price increases, combined with greater home sales and rising builder confidence, suggest the housing recovery may be sustainable.
Other measures of home prices have also increased. The Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller index rose in July compared with a year ago, the second straight yearly increase after two years of declines. And an index compiled by a federal housing regulator has also reported annual increases. Housing prices are rising in most areas, according to CoreLogic. Only 20 large cities out of 100 tracked showed declines in the 12 months ending in August. That compared with 26 in July.
States with the biggest price increases in the past 12 months were Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii. Prices soared 18.2 percent in Arizona, partly because the supply of homes for sale is low and foreclosure sales have slowed.
NYPD monitors gangs on Internet
NEW YORK (AP) — Police investigating two gangs called the Very Cripsy Gangsters and the Rockstarz didn’t need to spend all their time pounding the pavement for leads. Instead, they fired up their computers and followed the trash talk on Facebook.
“Rockstarz up 3-0,” one suspect boasted — a reference to the body count from a bloody turf war between the Brooklyn gangs that ultimately resulted in 49 arrests last month. Authorities in New York say a new generation of gang members is increasingly using social media to boast of their exploits and issue taunts and challenges that result in violence.
And police and prosecutors have responded over the past several years by closely monitoring Facebook and other sites for leads and evidence.
On Tuesday, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced plans to beef up the NYPD’s cyber crackdown by expanding the use of aggressive online investigative tactics and doubling the size of the department’s gang unit to 300 investigators.
Outbreak tied to smoked salmon
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Smoked salmon tainted with salmonella bacteria has sickened hundreds of people in the Netherlands, sparking major recalls there and in the U.S., Dutch authorities said.
U.S. health authorities say they are also investigating possible effects from the salmon.
The Netherlands’ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said the salmon has been traced to the Dutch company Foppen, which sells fish to many major Dutch supermarkets and to stores around the world, including the United States.
The institute said around 200 people in the Netherlands and more than 100 people in the United States have been sickened by a strain of the bacteria called Salmonella Thompson.
Light shined on pigs’ tight cages
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The president of an organization leading the fight against cramped cages for pregnant pigs said Tuesday he’s seeking a spot on Tyson Food Inc.’s board of directors to put more pressure on the nation’s second-largest pork processor to abandon the crates.
Ending the use of so-called gestation crates has been a top priority for the Humane Society, which has helped convince McDonald’s, Burger King and Safeway to pledge to move away from buying pork from farms that use the cages.
Wayne Pacelle, the animal welfare organization’s president and chief executive officer, acknowledged he has a remote chance of being elected to Tyson’s board, but he said he would add a valuable perspective to the Springdale, Ark.-based company if his campaign was successful.
“It’s one thing to be on the outside and asking for animal welfare concerns to be elevated within in the company,” Pacelle told The Associated Press. “It’s another thing to try to do it from the inside.”
Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said the company is committed to humane animal treatment and expects the same from farmers who supply it with chickens, hogs and cattle.
“We’re not surprised Wayne Pacelle wants to sit on our board,” Mickelson said in an email.
Mickelson added that the company is handling its nomination process according to the law and the company’s bylaws. Voting documents will go out to shareholders, who can cast votes for the board of directors before or at the company’s annual meeting, Mickelson said. Election results will then be reported at the meeting in February, Mickelson said. There are nine board members, he said.
The Humane Society of the United States owns stock in Tyson and dozens of other companies that use animal products so its representatives can attend shareholder meetings and submit proposals for improved animal welfare policies.
Tyson has said it buys hogs from thousands of family farms, many of which use gestation crates for mother pigs and some of which have group or pen housing.
“Experts believe both housing systems are humane for mother pigs when managed properly,” Mickelson said in an email.
Gestation crates typically measure about 2 feet by 7 feet, holding a sow that might weigh 400 to 600 pounds in a space that’s too narrow to turn around or even sleep on its side.
While animal welfare groups insist the stalls are cruel, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians have said science does not provide a clear-cut answer and there are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.
One major reason producers switched to gestation crates is that sows in group pens tend to fight, leading to injuries and submissive sows losing out on food to more dominant animals.
Still, the Humane Society of the United States has pressured a number of companies, including the leading pork producer and one of Tyson’s main competitors, Smithfield Foods Inc., to move away from the crates.
”Tyson Foods is a major outlier in this debate,” Pacelle said.
Smithfield has said it will phase out the use of gestation crates at its facilities by 2017. Pacelle said it would be reasonable for Tyson to adopt the same timeframe.
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