Posted: 29 Oct 2010 09:40 AM PDT

Children's Halloween lanterns that pose fire hazards, bicycles with defective seat posts that could cause falls and strap-on tree steps that have sent people tumbling from trees all were recalled this week. So were mowers, infant shoes and dishwashers.

Here's a look at some of the week's recalls:

___

HALLOWEEN LANTERNS

DETAILS: Plastic lanterns designed to resemble a pumpkin, ghost and skull that were made in China for Dollar Tree Stores and sold from this August through October at Dollar Tree, Dollar Bill$, Occasions, Deal$ and Dollar Tree Deal$ stores nationwide.

WHY: The bulb in the battery-operated lanterns can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards.

INCIDENTS: One report received of a bulb overheating. No injuries reported.

HOW MANY: About 682,000.

FOR MORE: Call Dollar Tree at 800-876-8077 or visit www.dollartree.com or www.cpsc.gov .

___

BICYCLES

DETAILS: Bicycles with 2010 EC90 Zero seat posts, made in China for Easton Sports of Scotts Valley, Calif. They were sold at Turner Suspension Bicycles, Ibis Cycles and Security Bicycle Accessories retailers nationwide from April through August.

WHY: The carbon top clamp of the seat post can crack, posing a fall hazard to the user.

INCIDENTS: None reported.

HOW MANY: About 200.

FOR MORE: Call Easton Sports 866-892-6059 or visit www.eastonbike.com or www.cpsc.gov .

___

PLASTIC TREE STEPS

DETAILS: Ameristep plastic strap-on tree steps made in China for Primal Vantage Co. of Randolph, N.J. The product was sold from April 2008 through November 2009 at various outdoor and sporting goods retailers nationwide.

WHY: The plastic portion of the step can break, posing a fall hazard.

INCIDENTS: Six complaints of step breakage received, including two involving consumers who were bruised and cut.

HOW MANY: About 40,000.

FOR MORE: Call Primal Vantage at 866-972-6168 or visit www.treestandcustomerservice.com or www.cpsc.gov .

___

MOWERS

DETAILS: Deere & Co. of Moline, Ill., recalled mowers with foot lift and Premium Foot Lift Kits, sold at John Deere dealers in 2009 and 2010.

WHY: A bolt in the right-hand steering lever can catch on the tab of the foot lift stop and lock in place, causing the steering lever to remain in the forward travel position, posing an injury hazard to the driver.

INCIDENTS: No injuries reported.

HOW MANY: About 6,450 mowers with foot lift; 300 Premium Foot Lift Kits.

FOR MORE: Call Deere at 800-537-8233 or visit www.johndeere.com or www.cpsc.gov .

___

INFANT SHOES

DETAILS: Meijer, of Grand Rapids, Mich., recalled Falls Creek infant boy shoes made in China and sold at Meijer stores nationwide from July through September.

WHY: The shoe lace toggles can detach, posing a choking hazard to young children.

INCIDENTS: None reported.

HOW MANY: About 2,300.

FOR MORE: Call Meijer at 800-927-8699 or visit www.meijer.com or www.cpsc.gov .

___

DISHWASHERS

DETAILS: GE Appliances & Lighting of Louisville, Ky., recalled GE Profile dishwashers made between July 2003 and December 2005, and GE Monogram dishwashers made between January 2004 and December 2006.

WHY: Water condensation can drip onto the electronic control board, causing a short circuit and resulting in an overheated connector. This poses a fire hazard to consumers.

INCIDENTS: GE has received five reports of fires. No injuries reported.

HOW MANY: About 174,000.

FOR MORE: Call GE at 877-275-6840 or visit www.geappliances.com/recall or www.cpsc.gov .

___

Online:

www.dollartree.com

www.cpsc.gov

www.eastonbike.com

www.cpsc.gov

www.treestandcustomerservice.com

www.cpsc.gov

www.johndeere.com

www.cpsc.gov

www.meijer.com

www.cpsc.gov

www.geappliances.com/recall

www.cpsc.gov

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Making Sure Nickelodeon Hangs With Cool Kids - New York Times

Posted: 30 Oct 2010 03:08 PM PDT

"NO kicking. No spitting. No hitting," said Cyma Zarghami, the president of Nickelodeon, at the start of a staff meeting in late September. It was a playful admonition suitable to her line of work, but the tone in her voice meant business. On the agenda was the release of "BTR," the first album from the cast of "Big Time Rush," a new Nickelodeon series about a boy band.

Ms. Zarghami immediately expressed concern about a promotional concert at the Mall of America in Minnesota. Major advertisers would be on hand. What if the event was sparsely attended? "We need hundreds of fans there," she said.

She didn't need to worry. On Oct. 16, more than 7,000 near-hysterical teenage girls turned out at the mall to watch the show's floppy-haired quartet perform. "I thought I was witnessing the beginning of the Monkees," says Mark Addicks, chief marketing officer at General Mills. "It was a very good sign for the show."

For the first time in years, Nickelodeon has heat. Ratings are up across the board, powered by buzzy new live-action hits like "Victorious," centered on life at an elite performing-arts high school, and "iCarly," a series about an everyday girl with her own Web show. A new animated program, "The Penguins of Madagascar," is a solid success. Even the decade-old "Dora the Explorer" has perked up, thanks to a yearlong birthday celebration.

Nickelodeon's spinoff channels are also spiking upward, albeit from smaller bases. For Nicktoons, ratings among the target demographic of boys 6 to 11 are up 33 percent so far this year, compared with the year-earlier period, according to Nielsen Media Research. Nick Jr., aimed at preschoolers, is up 12 percent. And TeenNick has climbed 10 percent among its target audience, ages 12 to 17.

"We're winning in a way that we haven't been in a very long time," Ms. Zarghami says. "That sounds braggy, but we've worked really hard, and we're pleased it's finally paying off."

Pleased is an understatement. Philippe Dauman, C.E.O. of Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon, struck a giddy tone about the children's business in a recent note to employees: "The Nick family of channels now captures more than half of all kids' viewing on TV — the highest share in more than a decade!"

Not that Mr. Dauman is content. "Nickelodeon is perhaps our most important asset," he said in an interview. "It needs to retain its leadership position, and it needs to grow." Viacom does not break out numbers for Nickelodeon.

For all the momentum, enormous puzzles remain for Ms. Zarghami to solve. Pre-teenage viewers, once a loyal age group, are starting to become more fickle as parents unleash them onto the Web at an earlier age. Some analysts criticize Nickelodeon's digital efforts, particularly when it comes to entertainment on mobile devices as unfocused. Neopets, its once-booming online gaming world, has waned.

ADVERTISERS are under pressure to cut back on marketing to children — a problem to which Nickelodeon is particularly exposed because its primary rival, Disney Channel, does not accept traditional advertising. Last month, a children's advocacy group asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate a new Nickelodeon series, "Zevo-3," whose characters are named after Skechers shoes.

"We believe that the show violates several of the few existing rules we have to protect children from over-commercialization," said Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a nonprofit group. Nickelodeon said in a statement that it was confident the show did not violate the Children's Television Act, which limits advertising in shows aimed at kids.

Nickelodeon has also struggled to come up with a new generation of cartoons to replace aging stalwarts like "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "Dora the Explorer." Animated series are much more valuable than live-action programs like "iCarly" because they are easier to export overseas and generate a larger array of merchandise. But while Nickelodeon has poured tens of millions of dollars into the development of new animated hits, a parade of efforts — "El Tigre," "The X's," "Catscratch," "Mighty B," "Back at the Barnyard" — have failed to catch substantial wind.

Ms. Zarghami concedes that Nickelodeon needs animated reinforcements but points to promising shows like "Team Umizoomi," a preschool series centered on learning math; "Fanboy & Chum Chum," about two science-fiction aficionados; and "The Penguins of Madagascar," based on the DreamWorks Animation films.

Judy McGrath, chief executive of MTV Networks, which includes Nickelodeon, also brushes aside concerns. "They're experimenting, and they're figuring it out," she says.

A PETITE woman with piercing eyes and a husky cackle, Ms. Zarghami, 47, is the daughter of an Iranian-born doctor and a Scottish-born nurse. She started at Nickelodeon in 1985 as a scheduling clerk, a year after leaving the University of Vermont three credits shy of an English degree. (In 2000, the university gave her an honorary degree.)

She rose up the scheduling ranks, taking on responsibility for things like brand positioning and marketing, until she became general manager of Nickelodeon. In 2006, she took over as president of Viacom's Kids and Family Group, becoming one of the top executive women in the media industry.

In some ways, her ascent is a reflection of the usual attributes — ambition and a knack for playing corporate politics. But over the years, she also proved herself a highly talented programmer, with the rare ability to zero in on what children want to watch and when. She was not directly responsible for "SpongeBob" or "Dora," but helped nurture them into hits by deciding how to schedule them and overseeing marketing partnerships. "Cyma is a deep thinker on a strategic level: 'What pieces do I need to gather to get where I want to go?' " Ms. McGrath says.

When Ms. Zarghami landed the top job, she had to fight a number of fires. The Nickelodeon empire has tremendous muscle — ad sales and affiliate fees of $2.2 billion a year, according to the research firm SNL Kagan, and merchandising worth $5.5 billion — but two decades of breakneck growth had created inefficient wiring.

MARY EMMA ALLISON | 1917-2010: She helped feed kids around world - Chicago Sun-Times

Posted: 30 Oct 2010 01:54 AM PDT

October 30, 2010

Mary Emma Allison, 93, died Thursday at her home in Lowell, Ind., a modest preacher's wife who didn't like calling attention to herself.

She might not want anyone writing her obituary, except for the fact she passed a few days before Halloween --the holiday that promotes her favorite cause.

It was Mrs. Allison, a Wheaton College graduate, who came up with the idea of children trick-or-treating for UNICEF when she was a Pennsylvania housewife in 1950.

Fast-forward six decades.

The program has collected more than $160 million for the poor around the globe. Those little orange boxes constitute the nation's longest-running youth service program, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.

It has been praised and promoted by celebrities ranging from Lassie, Scooby -Doo and Kermit the Frog to U.S. presidents, Academy Award winners and Pope Paul VI. "Bewitched," the 1960s TV hit, even did a show in which Samantha twitched her nose for UNICEF. The current ambassador is Disney actress Selena Gomez.

"To our beloved Mrs. Allison, and all of the women of her generation who supported her vision and our mission, UNICEF is indebted to you," the organization said in a statement Friday.

"Children around the world are alive this evening due to the funds raised by children in the United States using orange boxes to collect money to support the work of UNICEF in providing food, medicine and education to help children," said the Presbyterian blog, Swords Into Plowshares.

Mrs. Allison was born in New Jersey and met her future husband, Clyde, when they both attended Wheaton College.

In 1975, Mr. Allison was quoted in the Philadelphia Daily News saying that his wife combined charity and Halloween because of a chance postwar encounter, according to UNICEF.

In 1949, the family was living in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Bridesburg. She was buying winter coats for her three children at Wanamaker's department store when she came upon a parade with a live cow to promote a UNICEF push for milk for poor children.

At a booth to promote the effort, she bumped into Gertrude Ely, a close friend of first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Allison had previously collected shoes and soap for the displaced children of World War II, but as the refugee camps closed, she wanted to find a way to keep the charity drive going. Meeting Ely was the answer to a prayer, she thought. Mrs. Allison came up with the idea of children helping children by collecting coins for UNICEF.

She'd seen American children in the throes of candy lust at Halloween, and said to her husband, "It's too bad we can't turn this into something good."

"She saw Halloween as a wasted opportunity," said her daughter Mickey.

Mrs. Allison wrote up a proposal for UNICEF trick-or-treating, and her husband included it in a kit that went out to schools and churches in the U.S. and Canada.

"Apparently the United Nations started getting envelopes from all across the country with money," said UNICEF's Lisa Szarkowski.

Mrs. Allison collected paper milk cartons for the Halloween appeal. "I just remember her endlessly washing them in soapy water so that they wouldn't stink," her daughter said. "We put orange bands around them that said 'UNICEF.' ''

At the end of her life, she was astounded at the success of her trick-or-treat idea, her daughter said. "It was just beyond her belief."

Mrs. Allison grew up on a farm in New Jersey. She took on responsibility at an early age because her mother was disabled by asthma.

The Allisons moved around the country for the minister's church postings. In the 1960s, he headed Englewood's Emerald Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Mrs. Allison loved their retirement home in Lowell. "She wanted to get a house where she could see the sunset, and when she was failing, we got a hospital bed to position it so she could see her sunsets on the lake," her daughter said.

She is also survived by her daughter Mary Jean Thomson, her son Monroe, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 2009. A joint memorial service is planned in December at Indiana's First Presbyterian Church of Crown Point.

Kids Shoes

Sunday, October 31, 2010

“Kids' Halloween lanterns, bikes recalled this week - AP - msnbc.com” plus 2 more

“Kids' Halloween lanterns, bikes recalled this week - AP - msnbc.com” plus 2 more

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