Consumer Goods

Mel Haberman, a Cal Lutheran University professor of English, will discuss the role of consumer goods in modern literature in a free lecture Tuesday. The event begins at 4 p.m. in the Nelson Room on the Cal Lutheran campus. It is open to the public. During the lecture, titled, "The Re-enchantment of the World: The Role of Consumer Goods in Modern Literature," Haberman will discuss the views of Max Weber and Karl Marx in relation to capitalism and the role of consumer goods in modern literature.

More than two dozen people were charged in a $325-million counterfeit ring to import knockoffs from China and Taiwan through a port in New Jersey, authorities said. Using undercover agents and wiretaps, federal law enforcement agencies uncovered "two elaborate schemes" to elude border security and transport counterfeit apparel, accessories, cigarettes and illegal drugs into the Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the U.S. district attorney's office in New Jersey said in a statement.

The Communist Party on Wednesday announced a 15-year industrial program calling for ambitious increases in the output and quality of consumer goods and services over. The program, published in the party daily newspaper Pravda, called for increases in production of all consumer goods, such as shoes and color televisions, and services ranging from cafeterias to airplane travel.

How the new energy standards will work California has imposed energy efficiency standards on portable electronics chargers that will affect just about every home and business in the Golden State. Q: What's the problem with chargers? A: They waste as much as 60% of the energy they consume, even when no device is connected. Q: What devices are covered by the new mandates? A: Cellphones, laptop and tablet computers, power tools, toothbrushes, razors and hundreds of other consumer electronics items.

Clorox Co. said fiscal first-quarter profit rose 23% after consumers bought disinfecting wipes to ward off flu. Net income climbed to $157 million, or $1.11 a share, from $128 million, or 90 cents, a year earlier, the Oakland company reported. Sales fell less than 1% to $1.37 billion.

Clorox Co. reported fiscal third-quarter profit that rose more than analysts had estimated and raised its full-year earnings forecast after commodity costs declined. Net income for the quarter ended March 31 jumped 53% to $153 million, or $1.08 a share, from $100 million, or 71 cents, in the year-earlier period. Sales remained flat at $1.35 billion, the Oakland company said. Clorox shares fell 75 cents to $55.30.

"We Iraqis are very happy that the war is over," a Baghdad shopkeeper said, flipping through a local newspaper. "We hope that things will be better now. I would like to travel overseas." While the governments of Iran and Iraq wrangle over the details of a cease-fire in the Persian Gulf War, many Iraqis have begun to think about how they will adjust to life in a country no longer caught up in total war.

Prices for food and consumer goods will rise sharply in the first half of this year as the Soviet Union moves toward a market economy, a senior government official said Wednesday. Anatoly N. Komin, first deputy chairman of the State Price Committee, said that after years of delay, the government will shortly begin reducing its massive subsidies for virtually all consumer products and that many prices could rise 50% to 70%.

In a move to stabilize an economy hard hit by defense downsizing, Commerce Department Secretary Ron Brown presented a $250,000 check to a small Van Nuys electronics manufacturing company Friday to help its transition from converting defense-related products to consumer goods. Brown's visit to Industrial Electronic Engineers kicked off a weekend of meetings and presentations by Brown to promote the Commerce Department's defense conversion project.

In a crowded classroom, teen-age girls ogle products none of them have seen before. They are fascinated by one gadget several say could save them from embarrassment when guys are around: a make-up kit with a secret compartment. The hidden storage area is concealed behind a compact mirror made specifically to store items that no teen-age girl wants a teen-age boy to see: tampons, condoms and birth control pills. One girl is ready to order several of the kits on the spot.

Ketchup does not need to be kept in the fridge, apples sold in supermarkets may have been picked a year ago and there is no proof that hand gel can protect us from swine flu. If we act as if the reverse is true, it is because big consumer brands have bombarded our subconscious — and won. That is the argument of Martin Lindstrom in his latest book, "Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy," published by...

Did you ever notice that Andy Rooney was the TV equivalent of the cracker-barrel philosopher? The longtime "60 Minutes" essayist, who is stepping down at the age of 92, was a sophisticated former war correspondent, but in his brief commentaries he increasingly played the role of the curmudgeon whose crankiness concealed homespun wisdom. That put him in the company of Will Rogers and Mark Twain, but there also was a little Jerry Seinfeld in him. Or the other way around: Seinfeld's observational humor was part of the Rooney repertoire first.

GM may hand over $6.7 billion General Motors Co., which was set to begin making payments next month on $6.7 billion in government loans, is considering paying off that entire sum, Edward E. Whitacre, the company's chairman and chief executive said. U.S. taxpayers would still be owed an additional $45.3 billion in bailout funds. The company hopes to repay at least part of that when it sells stock to the public sometime next year. GM reported last month that it had $42.6 billion in cash at the end of the third quarter.

A safety scare involving the holiday season's hottest toy cooled off Monday after federal safety regulators quickly put to rest claims that one model of the bestselling Zhu Zhu Pets contained toxic levels of the element antimony. "The Consumer Product Safety Commission confirmed today that the popular Zhu Zhu toy is not out of compliance with the antimony or other heavy-metal limits of the new U.S. mandatory toy standard," agency spokesman Scott Wolfson said. "We will still do our own independent testing at CPSC.

AUTOMOBILES GM gets OK to buy some Delphi assets General Motors Co. said it has received permission to use $2.8 billion of its government aid to help buy part of troubled auto parts supplier Delphi Corp., the automaker's former parts division. The automaker said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the Treasury Department granted the release of $1.7 billion to acquire "a membership interest" in the new Delphi that emerged from bankruptcy protection.

Procter & Gamble Co. expects another tough year for sales of consumer products but says it has aggressive plans to build up its market share. The maker of Tide detergent offered a cautious outlook, projecting earnings of $3.65 to $3.80 a share for the fiscal year that begins July 1 -- a growth rate of roughly zero to 4% compared with its estimates for the current fiscal year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected earnings of $3.91 a share. But analysts said P&G's conservative forecast eased uncertainty after the firm had delayed issuing projections.