| Airport workers told how to de-stress |
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Workers at New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport are getting a crash course on how to keep their cool.
It coincides with the fast-approaching holiday travel season, when stressed air travelers are even more likely to hurl epithets or even luggage at harried employees.
Trainer Tom Murphy leads the workers into role playing scenarios and tells them to remember that people who blow up at them when flights are delayed or bags are lost are usually "not bad people."
In one role-play sequence, an employee played a customer who needed to make a connection for a family reunion in Chicago. Another played a ticket agent whose shift was nearing an end and who had an after-hours appointment to get to. The message was that sloughing the traveler off to another agent would just make him angrier.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Posted: 6:30pm EST November 19, 2008
| UPS expects Dec. 18 to be peak shipping day |
ATLANTA (AP) -- UPS Inc. expects its busiest day overall for shipping packages this year will be Dec. 18.
For the first time since it went public in 1999, the Atlanta-based company is forecasting how many packages it will ship that day. United Parcel Service also will not project how many seasonal employees it will hire this year to help it through the holiday shipping season that runs from Thanksgiving until Christmas.
The decision was prompted by weak October retail sales and the uncertainty of the upcoming holiday season amid the worst financial crisis to hit the U.S. in decades.
Last year, UPS, the world's largest shipping carrier, delivered more than 22 million packages on its peak shipping day, which was Dec. 19, and it hired about 60,000 seasonal employees.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Posted: 10:26am EST November 18, 2008
| Ginkgo fails to prevent Alzheimer's in large study |
CHICAGO (AP) -- A large study has shown the dietary supplement ginkgo didn't help prevent dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Extracts from ginkgo tree leaves have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, but earlier research on ginkgo and memory showed mixed results. Proponents claim gingko protects the brain by preventing the buildup of an Alzheimer's-related protein or by preventing cell-damaging oxidative stress.
To test the theories, researchers recruited more than 3,000 people, ages 75 and older. Half were randomly assigned to take 120 milligrams of ginkgo biloba twice a day. The others took identical dummy pills.
After six years, dementia had been diagnosed at a similar rate in both groups. Researchers noted a similar rate of Alzheimer's disease. The leader of the federally funded study said he doesn't think ginkgo "has a future as a powerful anti-dementia drug."
The study appears in tomorrow's Journal of the American Medical Association.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Posted: 5:20pm EST November 18, 2008
| Turf wars: New rules for organic dairies' cows |
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A long struggle over what kind of milk counts as organic is coming to a head.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently issued draft rules that would require that the cows be on pasture at least half the year and get plenty of fresh grass.
The proposals are meant to close a loophole that allows some huge feedlots to sell their milk as organic, even though their cows rarely if ever get to graze on fresh grass.
Advocates for family farms and consumers say that's not what shoppers think they're buying when they pay a premium for organic milk.
The public comment period on the draft rules runs through Dec. 23.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Posted: 11:57am EST November 18, 2008
| Bush offering plan to ease holiday travel crunch |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President George W. Bush will announce steps tomorrow that he hopes will reduce air traffic congestion and long flight delays during the upcoming holiday season.
The White House has signaled that the Pentagon will, like last year, open two corridors of airspace from Florida to Maine, usually used for military exercises, to create a "Thanksgiving express lane" for commercial planes.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says Bush will talk about that, as well as other "new and continuing efforts" to help make holiday travel easier, in a speech tomorrow at the Transportation Department
The union representing air traffic controllers says last year's efforts had little impact on traffic congestion, and this year's steps are unlikely to provide any significant relief either.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Posted: 10:29pm EST November 17, 2008
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