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Urgent care centers are an important resource for many Americans, providing affordable and convenient medical care for a variety of non-life-threatening conditions. However, doctors often remind patients that in the event of a serious injury or illness, they should instead seek help at a hospital emergency room. The importance of this warning was recently illustrated in San Diego, when a patient with a suspected case of the measles mistakenly sought treatment at an urgent care clinic. On Monday, January 19. the Sharp Rees-Stealy Rancho Bernardo Urgent Care clinic tweeted that it was closed due to a suspected case of measles. All other departments at the location remained open. According to a clinic spokesperson, the unidentified patient came into the urgent care center before 10:30, seek...

Today, the average small- or medium-sized business likely has a number of questions about how to promote itself on and offline. These questions might include "what is SEO marketing?" or "how can I use the internet to succeed in the real world?" Increasingly, companies who are asking these questions are finding answers in social media: several recent reports suggest that social media marketing will increase significantly over the next four years. After surveying more than 5,000 marketers, the cloud computing company Salesforce found that 70% of their respondents planned to boost their social media spending in 2015. Meanwhile, Forrester Research, an independent research company, predicted that social media marketing will hit $9.7 billion in the United States this year, eventually reaching $...

In a time where many people run away from marriage, one Baton Rouge resident did the exact opposite. He, quite literally, ran towards it. Ben Randow, 41, proposed to his fiance at the Louisiana Half Marathon in Baton Rouge on January 18th. Randow, a chef, lagged behind his girlfriend, Davina Witte, as they were both approaching the finish line. Witte, 39, noticed that Randow was fidgeting with his running belt. "We were holding hands, and he stopped short," she said. The couple has run many races together, and always make a habit of holding hands as they're about to finish a race. Randow usually finishes the race before her, so he goes back to Witte's position and crosses the finish line with her, hand-in-hand. This time, however, Randow went one step further -- as it were. After the t...

Houston, Texas, has topped a nationwide list of cities with the most master-planned home sales in 2014, with a total of seven of the state's communities making the cut. Yet the top seller overall was Florida, with over 2,600 sales in one community alone. John Burns Real Estate Consulting, based in Irving, California, releases a list each year of the 20 top-selling master-planned communities in the United States. Last year, around 13,200 of these types of homes were sold throughout the country. The top developer went to Houston-based Johnson Development Corp., which is behind three of the top sellers: Riverstone, Woodforest and Cross Creek Ranch. Fourteen other developers besides Johnson Development made the list. However, sales in Florida also ranked high. The Villages, developed by Vil...

If you run your own business, hiring an SEO company or online marketing firm to help direct your internet advertising campaigns likely seems like an obvious choice. These agencies are experts in search engine optimization, enabling them to help companies like yours improve their Google rankings and attract new customers with compelling content. But how would you feel about this choice if you knew that your SEO company was using a country's tragic event to help brand your business? In the past, this controversial strategy has used events like the bombing of the Boston Marathon in 2013 or the Ebola epidemic to sell products and draw attention. Now, a number of businesses have reportedly begun using the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks in France for commercial gain. But does the Charlie Hebdo mov...

A Florida teen will not face charges after posing as a doctor in a hospital -- for an entire month. According to CBS Miami, the 17-year-old pretended to be an anesthesiologist at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach. According to the incident report, the teen wore a white coat with the St. Mary's logo on it and a stethoscope around his neck. What's really alarming about the incident is that is points to a weakness in hospital security -- and to the potential for dangerous consequences for patients and the hospital. If the teen had caused any injuries, there may have been the potential for a medical malpractice lawsuit -- the median damage award of which is $600,000. "If there are no damages it is hard to say that there is actual negligence," says an Attorney from Tapella &...

Home-grown vegetables are never a bad thing -- but for many American homeowners who live in urban areas, starting up a garden hasn't really been a feasible option. Until now. Recently, more and more homeowners have been taking advantage of the patio planter -- a raised container filled with soil that can produce a bountiful harvest of veggies year-round and is never more than a few steps away from the kitchen. According to a December 9 Mother Nature Network article, raised patio planters can either be pre-bought, or you can make one yourself. Their elevated surface makes gardening easier for people with back or joint problems, who would otherwise have trouble bending down. Patio planters allow homeowners to extend their gardening season. Because the planter's soil warms up fast...

The medium social media marketers will need to pay the most attention to in 2015 may be video, if updates to major social media platforms at the end of 2014 are any indication. “Every social network has begun to turn efforts towards the improvement of native video distribution and promotion services,” Juan Mendez wrote for Business2Community Jan. 21. Facebook, the platform probably on most marketers’ minds, will continue to prioritize video, with founder Mark Zuckerberg even commenting multiple times that he expects much of people’s newsfeeds to be filled with videos, rather than text or photos, in the near future. Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has also launched a 15-second video ad option. Twitter, too, added native promoted videos to feeds for the first time in 2014, and has ...

When he's not dodging comparisons to fellow teen heartthrob Justin Bieber, opening up for Taylor Swift on tour, or featuring on decidedly mediocre collaborations with Pitbull, 18-year-old Austin Mahone loves customizing his Range Rover with vinyl car wraps. According to January 20 Auto Evolution article, Mahone has been wrapping his Range Rover in countless custom colors and designs since getting the car when he was just 16. So far, it's been wrapped bright red, with red-on-black rims to offset the look, and "a weird dinosaur-like look" created with black and white strips, the article reports, among several other color and pattern schemes. And Mahone is far from the only celebrity who loves custom-wrapping his car to his tastes. Chris Brown wrapped his Lamborghini in Tupac lyrics, while F...