News stories the mainstream media missed 10/24/09

Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.

* Young college graduates are having hell finding a job now. And if they can’t get employed now at a entry level job, chances are they won’t be employed even when the economy recovers later because everyone else who was unemployed before will be trying for the new jobs too. The media is already calling the new graduates “the lost generation”. Highly educated very motivated young graduates with massive debt and no job prospects? That’s going to come back with some sharp teeth soon. [BUSINESSWEEK]

* If anybody in the Army was stop-lossed between September 11, 2001 to September 30, 2009, they may be eligible for retroactive pay of $500 for each month of additional service paid in a lump sum. My question is why is this an application process? Doesn’t the Army know who served them? Can’t they just direct deposit the money today? Or even mail out the checks? [ARMY TIMES]

* COOL (Country Of Origin Labeling) is a new initiative in labeling proposed by senators in Wisconsin that would say where your dairy products come from. The idea is that on the front of most dairy products, a sticker would say this cheese is from Wisconsin, this milk is from Oklahoma, etc. Well, as Gomer Pyle would say, SUH-PRIZE, SUH-PRIZE, SUH-PRIZE! Jerry Slominski, senior vice-president of legislative affairs and economic policy for the International Dairy Foods Association, says “This legislation is misguided, because it would do nothing to help America’s dairy farmers.” Yeah. Well Jerry, I’m thinking it might have something to do with the fact that most Americans ain’t gonna buy their skim milk if they find out it’s from a processing plant in downtown Detroit. Or their swiss cheese from a warehouse in Rochester. [FOOD BUSINESS NEWS]

* Do you have a child that is going to get or has already got the H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccine?  Whatever you do, don’t give them Tylenol or aspirin after the shot. It greatly reduces the effectiveness of the vaccine. Oh, and after getting the vaccine, most kids get a real bad fever. I would put this little tidbit somewhere between “good to know” and “why the flaming hell isn’t this front page news by now?”. [BLOOMBERG]

* Speaking of H1N1 (Swine Flu), the FDA is going after online hustlers that are selling “preventative medicine” for this disease. The FDA specifically popped drweil.com for “Unapproved/Uncleared/Unauthorized Products Related to the H1N1 Flu Virus; and Notice of Potential Illegal Marketing of Products to Prevent, Treat or Cure the H1N1 Virus.” Isn’t there an old proverb about not trusting people with beards? [FDA]

* And speaking of a lack of trust, the US Department of Justice recently busted “e-meditech”, which was owned by Joseph Egbe. Egbe was asking for and getting a lot of prescription drugs from other charitable organizations, saying he was going to ship them to Africa and other impoverished countries. But instead, he tore the labels off the donated drugs and resold them to local pharmacies for profit. Nice. Hopefully a little prison time will help adjust his conscience. [US DOJ]

* That new creature “Darwinius” that scientists were saying was the link to all links of humans and primates a few weeks ago? Uh… not so much now. A little research and wouldn’t you know this little creature was off by just 10 million years. And they have no living descendants. I thought scientists did a little of this “research” stuff I keep hearing about before having a press conference. [SCIENCEBLOG]