Kids Eat Too Much Salt, CDC Finds

Bill Cosby gets serious, for a moment, about comedy, TV and raising kids

Emanuel seeks court order to end Chicago teacher strike

More Americans opting out of banking system

In the aftermath of one of the worst recessions in history, more Americans have limited or no interaction with banks, instead relying on check cashers and payday lenders to manage their finances, according to a new federal report.

Not only are these Americans more vulnerable to high fees and interest rates, but they are also cut off from credit to buy a car or a home or pay for college, the report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.

Released Wednesday, the study found that 821,000 households opted out of the banking system from 2009 to 2011 and that the so-called unbanked population grew to 8.2 percent of U.S. households.

That means that roughly 17 million adults are without a checking or savings account. Another 51 million adults have a bank account, but use pawnshops, payday lenders or rent-to-own services, the FDIC said. This underbanked population has grown from 18.2 percent to 20.1 percent of households nationwide.


Brazil: Cemetery Of African Slaves Honored (PHOTO)

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Wearing full-skirted white dresses and turbans, the religious leaders chanted blessings and sprinkled water on the concrete floor of a modest house near this city's port. Beneath their feet were the remains of tens of thousands of African slaves who had died shortly after arriving from their horrific sea voyage.

The bodies had been dumped into a fetid, open-air cemetery, often chopped up and mixed with trash. With the 15-minute ceremony this week, the Afro-Brazilian priests were finally giving the slaves at least the semblance of a proper burial centuries later.



Why Reading Is Good For Your Brain

This just in: Reading books is good for your brain! In other news, the world is round, Obama is the president, and Jonathan Franzen loves birds.

To quantify the claim that school teachers have been making for centuries, a group of Stanford neurobiologists, led by literary scholar Natalie Phillips, examined blood flow in the brains of subjects who were instructed to read passages from Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" while inside MRI machines.

The findings were unexpected: Subjects were asked to read leisurely at first, and then to make a shift towards more critical reading. In both instances, Philips noticed an increase in blood flow that exceeded "just work and play." In the case of more critical reading--the type you'd engage in while writing an essay or preparing for a test--blood flow increased beyond executive function regions, or those areas responsible for problem-solving.

In other words, both leisurely reading and close-reading could benefit us neurologically in pretty significant ways. In case broadening our cultural horizons wasn't enough!

In spite of these findings, Philips warned against "historical nostalgia, or assuming those of the 18th century were less distracted than we are today." She asserts that Enlightenment-era writers (her area of expertise) were just as concerned about withering attention spans as we are today.



Iran Warns Israel, U.S. Against Attack
TEHRAN -- The top commander in Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Sunday that "nothing will remain" of Israel if it takes military action against Tehran over its controversial nuclear program.

Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said Iran's response to any attack will begin near the Israeli border. The Islamic Republic has close ties with militants in Gaza and Lebanon, both of which border Israel.

Iran has in the past made reference to the destruction of Israel but his comments at a Tehran news conference were unusually strongly worded and detailed.

He also said that Iran warned that oil shipments through the strategic Strait of Hormuz will be in jeopardy if a war breaks out between Iran and the United States. Iranian officials have previously threatened to close the waterway, the route for a fifth of the world's oil, but less frequently in recent months.



Study: Rural U.S. more likely to be obese
KANSAS CITY, Kan., Sept. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say Americans living in rural areas are more likely to be obese than those living in urban areas.

Christie Befort of the University of Kansas Medical Center said there might be two significant reasons why rural residents are more likely to be overweight -- cultural diet and physical isolation.

The researchers analyzed data of the National Center for Health Statistics that used measured heights and weights of people. Previous studies relied on self-reported data, which typically underestimate the prevalence of obesity, Befort said.

The study, published in the Journal of Rural Health, found rural Americans typically consume a diet higher in fat.

The research demonstrated the rural-urban obesity disparity existed in younger Americans, ages 20-39, but not in older age groups. Befort said this could be partially attributed to increased mechanization of previously labor-intensive jobs.




Czech Methanol Death Toll Rises, Poland Bans Czech Liquor Imports
PRAGUE--The Czech Republic continued Sunday to enforce a total ban on hard-liquor sales, as deaths and injuries from consuming methanol-laced bootleg alcohol kept rising and as Poland prohibited sales of all spirits imported from its southern neighbor.

The Czech ban on hard-liquor sales, which began late Friday, is the first blanket ban on spirits in the country and the region, where drinking alcohol is common and regulations on alcohol sales traditionally have been fairly lax. By Sunday, the Czech health ministry reported 20 deaths and 36 people in critical condition, since the crisis outbreak in early September, and up from 19 and 27, respectively, before the blanket ban on liquor sales limited alcohol available in shops, bars and restaurants to just beer and wine.

"No easing of this ban can be even discussed yet, but we hope it won't last for months," Czech Health Minister Leos Heger said during a live Sunday television news show on the Czech CT24 channel.

Sunday, Poland launched a 30-day ban on sales of liquor imported from the Czech Republic, the country's sanitary inspectorate and health ministry said, adding that during the ban authorities will make extensive tests of Czech alcohol to ensure it is safe for consumption.

Czech authorities escalated their measures after methanol-laced legitimate-looking bottles started appearing in regular liquor stores across several Czech regions, including Prague. This followed the initially confirmed sales of toxic alcohol at outdoor markets and kiosks in the country's northeast that have led to first intoxication cases earlier in the month. Czech authorities had previously banned liquor sales at these venues.

Mr. Heger didn't say how long the blanket ban could last but admitted the government was concerned about possible drops in collections of taxes, levied on legitimate alcohol, if the prohibition dragged on.