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A North Carolina man, Hubolist Elliott, admitted in a federal court Feb. 23 to a real estate scam costing investors more than $1 million between 2009 and 2014, prosecutors have said. Elliott, a 43-year-old resident of Cary, offered vacation properties in Florida through the company Travel World Vacations Inc. But sometimes the properties in question were owned by neither Elliott nor his company, or simply didn’t exist at all. Most of the transactions, which were conducted with at least 10 people from all over the country, involved fractional ownership. (Fractional ownership is a concept similar to timeshares, with which most laypeople are probably more familiar; in fractional ownership, investors purchase part of the title to a property, as opposed to units of time.) Elliott has pleade...

February 2015 was a record-breaking month for many areas in the Northeast and has proven to be one of the harshest winters in recent memory. In addition to bitter temperatures and heavy snowfall, the effects of this winter are also making themselves known at homes and businesses -- and helping roofing companies set records of their own. Roofing companies are seeing an unprecedented number of calls from homeowners and business owners about ice dams on their roofs or leaks and damage that occur as a result of them. "This has been a really cold, prolonged winter with no big thaws," Jeff Kline told the Democrat and Chronicle. Kline is the production manager of Graves Bros. Home Improvement Company in Rochester, NY. "When it gets cold and stays cold like this, we have problems. Right now ther...

Last April, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that a medical power tool sometimes used to remove uterine fibroids could spread hidden cancers throughout patients' bodies. However, a new study reveals that the likelihood of this actually happening is fairly low. Fibroids are common tumors that develop in the wall of the uterus. Although the vast majority are benign and asymptomatic, some fibroids can cause serious issues such as abdominal pressure, pain during intercourse, and menstrual bleeding heavy enough to cause a woman to develop anemia. In order to remove these problematic tumors, doctors would often use morcellators, small power tools that divide uterine tissues into smaller pieces so that they can be removed through a small incision in the abdomen, thusly removing the...

Physicians often believe that patient requests for inappropriate care are responsible for a major portion of rapidly rising healthcare costs, but that perception isn’t borne out by the latest research. In a study published Feb. 12 in the journal JAMA Oncology, Ezekiel Emanuel and colleagues found that the rate at which such requests are fulfilled, at least in the field of oncology, is quite low, and therefore patient requests “are unlikely to add significantly to health care costs.” The researchers used data from 5,050 patient-clinician encounters occurring in three outpatient oncology centers between October of 2013 and June of 2014. Of those, only 8.7% included a patient demand for any specific medical intervention. Most of the time, physicians judged those requests to be clinicall...

It's only mid-February, and homeowners across the Northeast and Midwest regions are already counting down the days until spring begins, thanks to the constant snowstorms and sub-freezing temperatures that have caused entire cities to shut down for days on end. But for thousands of homeowners, the inconvenience of winter weather weather goes beyond messy work commutes and extra layers of winter clothing. According to the Boston Herald, about 150,000 low-income residents in Massachusetts depend on heating assistance programs, and 18,000 homes in the Boston area alone are in need of immediate aid at the moment, despite the $13 million that the federal government awarded to Massachusetts on January 21. That $13 million, bringing the state's total federal fuel assistance to $144 million for 2...

Interior design is typically a service affordable only to the wealthy, but a new startup is looking to change that.Laurel and Wolf, which recently just raised $4.4 million in its Series A round of fundraising, aims to bring interior design into the digital age. The new company is a web-based platform that connects professional interior designers with clients, who -- for a small, flat fee -- can get their residential and/or commercial spaces custom designed. Designers compete to win a client, offering them concept designs for their spaces, and once chosen, the selected designer will continue to revise the plan until it's been perfected.The startup is the brainchild of Leura Fine, a Los Angeles-based professional designer who has done designs for Elton John, and even designed the interior of...

Coca-Cola is one of the biggest and most recognizable brands in the world, responsible for everything from Diet Coke to Sprite and Minute Maid. However, according to the company's former head of global design, David Butler, the brand actually lacked a consistent approach to design until 2004. His views, available in his newly published book, "Design to Grow: How Coca-Cola Learned to Combine Scale and Agility," are a must-read for website design agencies, small business owners, and everyone in between. Upon joining Coca-Cola in 2004, Butler says that he was immediately charged with helping the company develop a vision, strategy and approach to ensure that the business would be getting the most out of their design efforts. At that point, Coca-Cola was already one of the largest brands in ...

UPDATED 9/8/20 After hospital officials announced on Feb. 23 that the Baton Rouge General Medical Center-Mid City Campus would be closing its emergency room by March 31, the residents of Baton Rouge, LA seemed to have one collective thought: Thank goodness for urgent care centers. After the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals made the official statement regarding the hospital’s emergency room closing date, a number of regional immediate care medical centers quickly reassured Baton Rouge residents that emergency medical treatment would still be readily available, from the moment the hospital’s ER closes its doors. Local news station WAFB has reported that two LSU Urgent Care Clinic locations are already planning on extending their hours to accommodate emergency services, as is the ...