DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) -  The Memorial Day holiday not only signals the unofficial beginning of summer, it means an uptick in traffic at the Dallas Farmers Market.

“It’s fresh food, it’s fresh vegetables and fruits and it’s a lot cheaper and you save money and, I mean, everyone is polite,” says shopper Ryan Scott.

The market, though, is at a crossroads as the city of Dallas weighs whether to privatize it.  While shoppers are enthusiastic, day-to-day there are not nearly enough of them. Vendors and small businesses say the city-owned market is too short on commitment and too long on cumbersome rules.

“I have to have a “plan B” because I’m not sure of anything,” says Paul Gray of Paul’s Fresh Produce.  “One day it’s this, one day it’s that.  I mean, it’s just a nightmare here.”  Jim Ingenfor agrees.  ”The city can’t be spontaneous,” he says.  ”What takes the city six months to a year to accomplish, private business can do overnight.”

Which is why the city is considering privatizing the market, much as it has successfully done with the Dallas Zoo. Right now two bidders have submitted formal proposals on how they’d run the market. It’s a secret process so the city can get the best deal.

“We want someone to come in that is able to make decisions,” says Tanya Ragan of the Dallas Farmers Market Stakeholders Association, “to come in and in 60-90 days says, ‘We’re going to paint this, we’re going to clean this.’”

But stakeholders also say solutions must embrace more than just produce vending.

There are neighbors to deal with: new residential housing is springing up, and dealing with the overflow from The Bridge and other agencies for the homeless is a challenge.  “We still have issues with homeless going into the market area, panhandling people, harrassing people,” claims Ingendorf.

But folks at the market are hopeful the challenges can be met with profesional leadership.  Paul Gray says, “The market is just a great asset to Dallas — if we just get the right people to run it and make it a go-to place for families.”

It’s hoped the winning bid will be revealed by August and perhaps have new management in place by the first of next year.

(credit: Procter & Gamble)

DALLAS (AP) - Procter & Gamble says it will change the design of packaging for its miniature laundry detergent product to deter children from eating the brightly colored packets that look like candy.

Procter & Gamble spokesman Paul Fox says the Cincinnati-based company plans to create a new double latch lid on tubs of Tide Pods “in the next couple of weeks.”

Doctors say children sometimes swallow the pods thinking they are edible. Nearly 250 cases have been reported to poison control centers this year — a fraction of the thousands of poisoning calls received every year. No deaths have been reported.

Fox says to reduce the risk of poisoning, household cleaners and laundry detergents should be kept out of children’s reach.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) – The future is still uncertain for many Plano workers who learned yesterday they could lose their jobs when Hewlett Packard cuts nearly 30,000 jobs worldwide.

Many of HP’s nearly 5,000 Plano employees received emails notifying them early retirements will be offered, which should soften any blow to the local economy.

Still, Collin County officials expect the layoffs to hit Plano’s Enterprise Services division of HP hard.

It comes at a time when Collin County’s unemployment rate is 6.3 percent, which is less than the state and national averages.

Local officials are quick to point out other similar companies in Plano are expanding. “It’s a concern,” said Plano City Manager Bruce Glasscock.  “It has a rippling effect because if they live anywhere in Plano or Collin County and they get laid off that a potential impact on their buying capacity, their homes, everything.  But at the same time we’re seeing businesses out there expand so it’s not doom and gloom.”

HP plans to spread the layoffs out over a three year period. The move is expected to save the company more than $3 Billion.

People check out new Energy Star rated major appliances at a departmnet store. (credit: Getty Images/Frank Polich)

AUSTIN (CBSDFW.COM) -  Starting Saturday, the state is offering their annual energy efficient tax-free holiday.

Through Monday, anyone who purchases a household appliance with the Energy Star logo will not have to pay state or local sales taxes.

The state has a long list of items that qualify.  To learn more about the tax-free weekend, check out the website texaspowerfulsmart.com.

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Deep Ellum Brewery’s 8-ounce glass promotes its Rye Pilsner. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) –  It’s noon on a sunbaked Saturday along a semi-secluded industrial block of south Deep Ellum and a couple dozen people are comfortably sipping from 8-ounce glasses. They’re in a time warp of a beer garden –– it’s quite easy to forget that it’s flanked by warehouses and parking lots.

A band offers up Willie Nelson covers from a modest stage tucked in the corner while folks amble to food trucks that abut the fence. And, of course, there’s those frequent reprieves to the interior of the attached 3,000-squarefoot brewery –– it’s why they’re here, after all.

For the past eight Saturdays, Deep Ellum Brewing Company has opened its doors to the public for a tour. Four weeks ago, the nascent microbrewery tapped its first full-season brew, the Farmhouse Wit, a light wheat-styled beer that’s brewed without any wheat whatsoever.

The beer garden at the Deep Ellum Brewing Company. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

But more on that later –– Tait Lifto is cutting through the crowd donning a Deep Ellum shirt and hat, a toothy smile spread across his face. He’s come to proselytize.

“I just want people to try the beer,” he said. “It’s all about the beer. That’s what we live and breathe.”

Lifto is Deep Ellum’s ‘Sales and Brand Ninja,’ so, in other words, one of his duties is to be overwhelmingly excited about the product he cares so deeply for. Tough job, he assures me.

The 37-year-old joined the force in January, two months after the microbrewery formally launched at the Common Table in Uptown –– which may be the only thing Lifto promotes as enthusiastically as his employer’s beer.

Tait Lifto, Sales and Brand Ninja of the Deep Ellum Brewing Company. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

At that time, Deep Ellum was Dallas’s only microbrewery. Franconia hovers to the north, in McKinney, and Rahr is situated due west in Fort Worth. But Dallas-proper, the state’s third most populous city, had nothing to call its own.

“Dallas has needed this for so long,” Lifto says. “There’s, what, six million people in DFW? It’s ridiculous. You go down to Austin and there’s, like, 30 (microbreweries).”

Lifto and his colleagues are quite aware that they’re carrying the torch, so to speak. In the six months of its existence, Deep Ellum Brewing Company has released nine different beers. The Deep Ellum IPA –– by far their most popular –– Rye Pils and Double Brown Stout will be year round. The rest are varying degrees of seasonal.

Their 10^th, a Barley Wine, is aging in rye whiskey barrels and will flow in January 2013.

Barley Wine ages inside rye whiskey barrels at the Deep Ellum Brewing Company. These will age until Jan. 1, 2013. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

Deep Ellum’s bold brews are poured in 116 different bars and restaurants in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Lifto says.

Just 10 Dallas locations offered the brewery a tap when it launched.

“We’re mindful of how sometimes you can’t grow too fast, but our big deal is to make a splash and get out there in front of people and say, look, we’re here, we’re making beer … and be unapologetic about it,” Lifto said.

Since Deep Ellum opened last November, another three have, at the very least, announced plans to brew.

Peticolas Brewing Company is operational and calls the Design District home; Lakewood Brewing Company, in Garland, will formally open sometime this summer; and Four Corners Brewing Co. vows to roll out its beers on Labor Day.

Deep Ellum Brewing Company’s draft taps are made in Grand Prairie. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

It’s easy to live in this beer bubble –– the growth is certainly a good sign for craft beer fans. But, according to the U.S. Brewers Association, just 13 percent of the volume of beers consumed in America came from craft breweries in 2011.

However, that’s up from 12 percent the year before that.

“The reality is craft beer in Texas lags behind the rest of the country. Five percent of sales in Texas is craft beer,” Lifto says, his numbers backed up by the Brewer’s Association. “Overall regular domestic beer sales are down two percent from last year, but four or five percent of all of the picture is a hell of a lot less.”

And that is why Lifto proselytizes.

Of beer and Dallas

But Lifto came on following years of planning, paperwork and patience.

Deep Ellum’s brewer’s permit –– submitted to the state in April 2011 and approved at the end of the summer, public records show –– has three names attached to it: Scott Frieling, James Piel and John Reardon.

That wasn’t always the case.

Reardon, 32, is a longtime home brewer and former Dallas club owner. And, like many beer lovers with the dedication to brew his own, he had a far-out dream to open a brewery.

After “a bit of research and a bit of planning,” Reardon pounced and began filing paperwork.

Deep Ellum Brewing Company’s owner, John Reardon. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

“Little did I know there was another group of guys doing the same thing in Deep Ellum,” Reardon says. “In fact, I filed for a trademark on Deep Ellum Brewing Company two days before they filed Deep Ellum Brewing Company, LLC. with the state. Let’s just say some not-so-friendly letters went back and forth.”

That other group of guys was Piel and Frieling. Eventually, the three agreed to meet up, fittingly, for a beer.

“After a couple meetings, it was like, ‘why not do this together?’,” Reardon remembers.

And so they did. In October of 2010, the city of Dallas classified the brewery as a “light industrial” operation. This freed up the choices Reardon, Piel and Frieling had in selecting a location for their brewery.

Shortly after this declaration, Reardon teased in the comment section of a Pegasus News article that they’d settled on somewhere in South Deep Ellum.

“While we agree that it does not make much sense to locate ourselves in the thick of things, we still wish to be close enough to weave our way into the future framework of Deep Ellum,” Reardon wrote.

Location of the Deep Ellum Brewing Company. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

The brewery’s future home would be 2821 Saint Louis Street, a small offshoot block of Malcolm X that’s visible from the mid-air split of Interstate 30 and U.S. 75 in southern Deep Ellum, just as Reardon teased.

Piel and Frieling, both trial attorneys, aren’t actually considered employees. Reardon runs the daily operations while his partners act as, well, partners.

“They help when they can, but they’re not involved in the day-to-day,” Reardon said. “They’d love to be, but they can’t support that just yet.”

In January, Drew Huerter moved from St. Louis to Dallas to serve as Deep Ellum’s brew master. The 28-year-old previously brewed at the now-defunct Mattingly Brewery, a 1.5-barrel brew house that had Huerter coming up with a new beer each Wednesday.

“I really hate the name, but it was Peak-A-Brew Wednesday,” he said, “Lame name, cool concept.”

After two years there and 75 different brews, Huerter moved to Schlafly, a much larger 45,000-barrel brew house that, according to the Brewers Association, was the 39^th largest craft brewery in the country in 2011.

The Deep Ellum Brewing Company. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

Deep Ellum, Huerter says, gives him the freedom he had at the tiny nano brewery with a yield and drive similar to Schlafly.

“This is the best of both worlds; I get the freedom I got at that place but with the resources of the Schlafly brewery,” Huerter said. “It’s nice.”

While attempting to achieve “total beer domination” –– Reardon’s words –– Huerter’s been let loose.

For proof, look at that aforementioned Farmhouse Wit –– it’s brewed with triticale, a hybrid of wheat and rye. That’s rare, Huerter says. The only other brewery he can recall experimenting with it is the unapologetically bold Escondido, Calif.-based Stone Brewery –– a name that Lifto hopes Deep Ellum will be whispered alongside.

“I think we’re going to make a huge impact,” Lifto says. “I think we’ll get national recognition and be on the same playing field of the craft beer community across the nation as Dogfish, as Russian River.”

Deep Ellum Brewing Company’s branding, done by Caliber Creative –– another Deep Ellum business. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

These are bold statements, but so was co-opting the name of what is arguably Dallas’s most recognizable neighborhood. This is something they’re mindful of.

“Us coming in an area that’s already so well defined in terms of its own brand and for us to pick up that name? We had to kind of embody what we already are,” Reardon says.

Then he continues with a rapid-fire history lesson of Deep Ellum, his voice and cadence increasing by the word: “From the turn of the century to jazz to the demise back in the 50s and 60s; with the birth of the freeways and the, sort of, hipsters in the 80s, even like the skinheads and the punks and all that shit and the fallout in the 90s; we love every bit of that, we don’t shy away from that, but we want to be the next chapter, but still … with remembrance of it all.”

Before the DART Green Line zipped travelers into Deep Ellum, there was the Good Latimer tunnel –– a 70-plus-year-old historic structure covered with city-approved graffiti. For many, it was the gateway to the entertainment district; the murals and graffiti that lived along its walls are forever matched with the memories that formed on the other side of the tunnel.

A mural of all the pieces from the Good Latimer tunnel, which was demolished in 2006. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

“I remember going to Deep Ellum in the nineties and having some fun partying down there and going into the tunnel,” Lifto says. “I remember seeing Nine Inch Nails in ’94, ’95 at the Bomb Factory. That was something else, man.”

Even when recalling that memory nearly two decades later, Lifto walks through the tunnel before he gets to it.

While it was demolished in 2006, it’s immortalized in Deep Ellum’s slick tasting room. It’s a mural consisting of high-resolution photographs taken by area photographer Sean Fitzgerald before the destruction. It’s all there: The chubby tiger, the cartoonish DJ, the Elvis Pez dispenser, the defecating Pegasus.

Just as the Deep Ellum crew hopes to educate the public about quality beer, Lifto and Reardon both say they aim to give their city the spotlight, too.

“The Deep Ellum name has a lot of history behind it,” Lifto says. “It kind of, just, hits something in people’s souls when they think about Deep Ellum.”

A closer view of the mural at the Deep Ellum Brewing Company. (Credit: Kent Chapline/CBSDFW.com)

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Thursday morning, I went live from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) research facility in Fort Worth. I interviewed Cleve Lancaster to talk about his research into sustainable landscaping in North Texas. On their grounds at BRIT, a part of the Fort Worth Botanical Garden complex, and also up on their roof, they are growing native plants to see what would be best for your yard.

Is Warmer Than Normal The New Normal?

One only has to glance at the heat records in North Texas to notice a disturbing trend. Hot is the new normal. Four of the top 10 hottest years in DFW records (going back 114 years) have occurred in the last six years. Three of the top 10 hottest summers on record have been logged in the last four years. This streak of unusually hot weather is stressing area landscapes and forging new thinking in what to plant in this area.

The solution is simple, and not as limiting as you would think. Go native. The plants that can be found in the wild here in North Texas have learned to adapt to our weather variability. This an adaptation process that spans the last Ice Age, so there is a proven track record here.

The Future Is Local

Lancaster showed me the BRIT roof. Instead of metal, there is dirt; they are experimenting with different combinations of native plants. Last year was quite a stress test — it was the worst one-year drought on record and the hottest summer of record. Yet, the roof did just fine; they only had to water it about once a month. The soil bed on the roof is a mere four inches deep, so don’t think there is any magic formula to this. This is the power of going native.

There is also a tremendous diversity of plants on the roof. This insures that something is always in green, and it protects the stand from fungus infestations. Fungus are a bane to monoculture; they rarely create a problem for local biodiversity. Local nurseries have brought to the commercial market about 50 different species.

BRIT offers all sorts of education materials to teach you what they are learning there on-site. (The entire grounds are simply one big, on-going research project.) If you have been losing your plants over the last couple of years because of our warming climate, I recommend a trip there. It could make you re-think the traditional English landscaping of non-native plants and carefully groomed grass.

There is a truth in North Texas about the future of our water supply. There isn’t enough, ergo eventually we’ll be paying much more for it. During the warm season, more than half of the municipal water supply goes to irrigation. Besides being wasteful, it is going to also get rather expensive doing landscaping the traditional way.

Growing a wide variety of native plants is a different look (think patches of prairie, broken up by houses, sidewalks and roads in suburbia, and you are starting to picture the future), but likely the look of inevitability. Zoning laws will have to change, small businesses will have to adapt, and the sense of aesthetics will have to be adjusted.

But planting with plants that know the land means less water, less fuss and no fertilizer or pesticides. Don’t fight the system; Mother Nature is bigger than any of your landscaping plans.

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Chentel Bond said that she is happiest when she is surrounded by dogs, and she has been trying to drum up more business for her pet sitting business. So, when Bond heard about a new company that links pet sitters with pet owners, she jumped right on board. “I want them to know it’s a safe environment and a loving environment,” said Bond.

Dog Vacay first launched its website on the west coast and east coast before giving pet sitting “hosts” in North Texas the opportunity to post pictures and explanations of their services. Those who are interested can go online and review potential pet sitters in a number of nearby cities.

Some of the pet sitters live in apartments. Some are located inside of hospitals. But, according to the company’s owners, all of those who are on the website are screened and trained. “They’re mostly professional pet sitters, people who have worked in the animal industry as vet technicians, retired veterianarians,” said Karine Nissim Hirschhorn. She owns Dog Vacay with her husband, Aaron.

Some potential hosts have been rejected because they were not experienced enough. “The biggest reason is because they don’t respond in a timely fashion,” Hirschhorn said. “We believe that responsiveness to any potential client is probably the most important first level of trust.”

For each dog, Hirschhorn said, there is a right fit in the type of person and home where you leave your pet. “If your dog has aggressive tendencies, then I would say find a host that doesn’t have any other dogs,” said Hirschhorn. “If your dog is only comfortable around women that look like you, then find a host that looks like you.”

Prices for the pet sitters vary — mostly between $15 and $30 per pet — and are set by the host. (Dog Vacay gets a percentage of the payment.) Most of the hosts are individuals who offer pet sitting services, but there are also a small number of companies listed on the site. No matter which way a dog owner goes, Dog Vacay hopes to be the first website for animal lovers looking to place their pets somewhere other than a traditional kennel.

“We have an insurance policy that covers all of the dogs’ needs when they go to visit a host,” explained Hirschhorn. “We also have a money-back guarantee.”

Dog Vacay is not yet registered with the Better Business Bureau, but the Hirschhorns plan to do that soon.

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – A CBS11 investigation studied the difference in prices of household items online and in various stores –– it may just change the way some shop.

We put together a list of 25 common products that many use every day.  Then, we did some secret shopping at six North Texas stores and online to find out where we could get the best prices.

LeeAnna McMullen of Plano is a mother of two and a bargain shopper. So, CBS11 asked her to help us check the price of a 64-load bottle of Tide detergent.  We checked the price at Walgreens, then Walmart and finally online. We’ll get to the actual price in a moment, but shopping around like this is a way of living for McMullen.

“We have to make it work otherwise we wouldn’t be able to pay the bills,” she said.

She admits we all get in a hurry, but believes you should never have to pay more for convenience or necessity.

“I’d say you need to do a little bit of research,” McMullen said.

CBS 11 did some research going on a mission to find the best place to shop for nearly two dozen household items.  We compared the regular prices at discount stores, grocery stores, drug stores, and online retailers.  The biggest difference we found is with pain relievers.  Aleve costs $11.79 at Tom Thumb, but the same product was $7.99 at Target.

As for double-A batteries, the regular price of a four pack of Duracell batteries at Walgreens is $6.49, but at Walmart we found them for 40 percent less at $3.77.

In fact, the discount stores typically had the best prices on our list.  Walmart had the lowest price more than half the time.

Drug stores had the highest prices for most of the items on our list, with Walgreens at the top closely followed by CVS.  But, discount stores were not the best place to buy everything.

Take facial cleansers, for instance. We found the lowest prices for three brands online. At Drugstore.com, Aveeno Positively Radiant sold for $11.99 versus $17.99 at Walgreens and CVS, and $14.97 at Walmart. Over at Amazon.com, we found Neutrogena’s Pink Grapefruit cleanser for $5.99, but it sold for $8.99 at Walgreens and $6.97 at Walmart.

“You may get lower prices, but make sure you don’t pay shipping,” advised Jody Rohlena, editor of Shop Smart Magazine. “If you’ve got to spend $25 to get free shipping, it’s generally worth it.”

Rohlena says Shop Smart Magazine recently conducted its own nationwide study surveying the prices of 66 different products.

The magazine’s study and our own revealed cosmetics and pain relievers are often the most expensive at grocery stores. But with other products like laundry detergent and deodorant, the grocery stores were competitive in their pricing.

“We found really surprisingly that supermarkets did not do too badly on these products,” Rohlena said.

Now, remember our “unofficial” shopping expert, LeeAnna McMullen? She still stops at Walgreens and CVS every week, but she’s armed with loyalty cards and coupons, which cuts her bill down significantly.

So, let’s go back to the Tide detergent. We found that CVS charged more for this product at $17.99 versus Walmart’s lowest price of $11.97.

CBS 11 did not compare bulk prices, which can also make a big difference.

PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) – An HP spokesperson says there will be layoffs at HP’s Plano plant as part of the company’s 27,000-position reduction –– the question is how many.

On Wednesday, HP said it would be laying off 8 percent of its workers worldwide. The cuts will take place between now and October 2014. But the company hasn’t specified how it will divvy those cuts up –– just that nearly every branch of the business will be affected.

A spokeswoman who wouldn’t provide her name said the company will offer an early retirement program to those willing to leave voluntarily. Plano Economic Development Corporation Director Sally Bane says it’s too early to anticipate what the local impact will be.

Nevertheless, HP is the third largest employer in the city, with about 5,000 employees locally. The company says these cuts will save at least $3 billion, which it plans to reinvest into “strategic” areas of its business.

The city did say if HP plans to make significant layoffs locally, it will have to tell city leaders ahead of time.

That hasn’t happened yet.

“We understand they may be going through some transitions and changes but we’re not sure what that impact is here locally,” said Jamee Jolly, spokeswoman for the Plano Chamber of Commerce.

EDS, which was headquartered in Plano, was bought by HP in 2008. HP is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif.

An Arlington city employee places new signage on a downtown pole on May 23, 2012. (Credit: Joel Thomas)

ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) – City, business and community leaders gathered for an early morning ceremony Wednesday and launched the dawn of a new image campaign for downtown.

The climax of the outdoor breakfast get-together was to be two parachutists landing inside the downtown amphitheater. The parachutist carrying the new downtown flag couldn’t fight through strong winds to land on his mark, however.

But planners say they’re still on course to market the resurgent downtown as a regional destination or, at the very least, an addition to a visit that might include sports or Six Flags Over Texas.

The sales pitch: Music, culture, food, shopping.

“For years, no one thought Arlington had a downtown,” said Robert Johnson, chairman of the Downtown Arlington Management Corporation, a private, non-profit group that coordinates downtown activity. “So we’re using this as an opportunity to let people know that Arlington has a downtown. It’s a vibrant place.”

City leaders say the branding is designed to distinguish downtown Arlington as a destination like Greenville Avenue in Dallas or Sundance Square in Fort Worth.

“I’m not competing with them,” Mayor Robert Cluck said. “But I just want us to have an active fun atmosphere in downtown Arlington. One of the reasons is my office is right there and I like to see people having fun,” he said as he pointed to City Hall, which is in the middle of the recent development.

Shortly after the morning ceremony, work crews made their way down downtown streets hanging up light pole banners with the new logo and slogan.

People in Arlington like the signs of change for downtown.

“I love it,” said Trisha Michael who lives nearby. “I love the signs I just noticed. And I love all the restaurants that just opened up; things to do.”

And business owners say Arlington visitors have added downtown to the city’s attractions.

“We’ve got people from Mansfield,” said Charlie Bostick of Babe’s Chicken Restaurant, one of the first businesses in the renovated Center Street area. “We’ve got people from Southlake, Keller. I mean, you know, this is the central location if you want to go to a ballgame or go to Six Flags and this is the place to come to.”

And that’s the message Arlington will push in publications, on billboards and online in the coming months, Cluck says.

Tuna sushi. (credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Following 316 salmonella cases in 26 states, the Center for Disease Control last week issued a recall on a brand of ground tuna that’s found in sushi products often sold as ‘spicy tuna.’

Four of those cases happened in Texas between Jan. 28 and May 3, according to CDC statistics. The product in question is Raw Scraped Ground Tuna, a frozen raw yellowfin tuna product sold as Nakaochi Scrape by the Moon Marine USA Corporation.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based business voluntarily recalled nearly 60,000 pounds of the tuna, the CDC says. The ground tuna is actually tuna back meat that’s scraped off the bones and then often formed into frozen blocks.

Companies scrape the meat, they say, because tuna is too expensive to waste. This product is not treated with ammonia or any other chemical –– it’s FDA approved and supposed to be safe.

On March 8, Texas became the first state to have a cluster of eaters become ill after eating at the same Japanese restaurant, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

A week later, Wisconsin reported the same incident at a Japanese restaurant there, and the CDC launched its investigation.

“Preliminary information from 22 ill persons revealed that in the week before illness 80 percent reported eating seafood and 55 percent reported eating sushi,” results from a March 16 CDC test reads.

These numbers jumped as the weeks went on: On March 27, 90 percent of the 29 newly ill individuals reported eating sushi and 81 percent of those said they had spicy tuna.

On April 13, Moon Marine USA recalled three production dates of the fish. An import alert was issued the next day, and on April 24, the CDC traced the salmonella to a fishery in India and found the strain in unopened packages of the yellowfin tuna packages.

The company expanded its recall on May 10, including 22-pound boxes of “Tuna Strips” that were marked as either AA or AAA grade.

“The product has the potential to be contaminated with salmonella,” the CDC wrote.

In addition to sushi and sashimi, sickened individuals also reported eating ceviche. The CDC has asked restaurants to stop serving the product in question. For those that don’t know where it came from, check with the supplier, the CDC advises.

Customers are suggested to ask the restaurant or grocer which company supplied the tuna before eating it.

Other states with salmonella cases linked to the yellowfin include Alabama, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Thirty-six people have been hospitalized nationwide, none of whom have died.

AAA Texas reports Wednesday that’s 17 cents a gallon below the nationwide average of $3.68, down from $3.72 a week ago.

The travel association survey finds Amarillo has the least expensive unleaded fuel in Texas, at $3.41 per gallon. El Paso is the highest at $3.65.

A year ago, the state average was $3.75 and national average $3.84.

The record high average for Texas is $3.98 in July 2008.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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A customer leaves a Pizza Patron in Houston. (credit: Dave Einsel/Getty Images)

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A local pizza chain that made waves in 2007 for accepting Mexican Pesos for payment has come up with a new way to generate some buzz for itself, offering free pizza to anyone who orders in Spanish.

Dallas-based Pizza Patron will be offering free pizza on June 5 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. to anyone who places their order in Spanish.

The promotion was announced in a company press release as a way to honor the “positive force of change immigrants have made in communities throughout America.”

The company is calling the promotion Pizza Por Favor.

Pizza Patron has over 100 locations nationwide.

What do you think? Let us know in your comments below.

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DFW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (CBSDFW.COM) – Just when you thought airlines had exhausted options for passenger fees—think again.  Many airlines are now charging for window and aisle seats—dubbing them ‘preferred’ seating.

“It’s extremely annoying,” says Sandeep Sadhwani.  “Might as well charge one fare and let that be it, instead of, well, I’m going to give you this cheap ticket and then charge you $10 for this, and $20 for this, and $30 for carry-ons.  It’s insane.”

Sadhwani is traveling with his wife and two young daughters, so sitting scattered throughout the plane, he says, isn’t an option.  And it’s one that increasingly airlines are asking their passengers to pay to enjoy.

“You feel nickel and dimed,” says Terry Smith.  “It’s becoming like the banking industry, where every little thing is another $5 for this, $10 for that.  You can’t set your costs based on ticket and hotel.”  Smith says his company now limits travel whenever possible—turning to teleconferencing instead of face-to-face meetings.

But, families, he says, can’t teleconference a vacation and the extra costs are becoming frustrating. “Year before last for Disney was another $200, after we’d already paid for the tickets.  It went for baggage fees.  And coming back, it was another $200 for baggage fees again,” says Smith.  So now he’s more diligent about shopping around for deals, because he says he knows he’s going to be hit with additional fees at some point.

And Sadhwani agrees.  “After paying for the ticket, you’ve got to always keep an ‘x’ amount because who knows what fee they’re going to hit you up with next, right? That’s just the way travel has become nowadays.

Travel expert Tom Parsons with BestFares.com says savvy travelers do have some options, starting with booking early.  “High demand, especially during summer months, means limited seating,” says Parsons.  He also suggests settling for sitting near the rear of the airplane—getting to your seat may be more hectic, but “everyone arrives at the same time.”  And finally, check for additional seating 48 and then again 24 hours before your flight.  Many airlines hold the best seats for business class travelers; but will release them prior to the flight if they don’t sell.

Tim Smith, spokesperson for American Airlines, says their seating policies are not new and stressed that there are a number of options for all types of travelers, including those who are not premium AAdvantage members (who typically get access to preferred seating). Smith says American still offers window and aisle seating at no cost—but, it depends on the flight and the demand.

Smith suggests passengers check out the company’s website for specifics on the seating options.  But, as with most travel options, it’s always good to book early.

A new app launched this weekend that will scan the faces of patrons in 25 bars across the city to determine their ages and genders. Would-be customers can then check their smartphones for real-time updates on the crowd size, average age and men-to-women mix to decide whether the scene is to their liking.

The Austin, Texas-based makers of SceneTap say the app doesn’t identify specific individuals or save personal information. But in a city known for its love of both libations and civil liberties, a backlash erupted even before the first cameras were switched on from bar-goers who said they would boycott any venue with SceneTap installed.

SceneTap’s ability to guess how old people are and whether they’re men or women relies on advances in a field known as biometrics. A camera at the door snaps your picture, and software maps your features to a grid. By measuring distances such as the length between the nose and the eyes and the eyes and the ears, an algorithm matches your dimensions to a database of averages for age and gender.

SceneTap CEO Cole Harper says the app doesn’t invade patrons’ privacy because the only data it stores is their estimated ages and genders and the time they arrived — not their images or measurements.

“Nothing that we do is collecting personal information. It’s not recorded, it’s not streamed, it’s not individualized,” Harper said.

Whether the company’s promises are comforting or SceneTap still seems creepy, it portends a near future when any camera-equipped smartphone will have the ability to recognize faces with a click of the virtual shutter.

Already the iPhone’s camera app will highlight a person’s face on the screen with a green box before the picture is even snapped. And Apple’s iPhoto software will try to recognize the faces of the people in users’ pictures to categorize photos automatically by who’s in the shot.

Facebook also uses facial recognition software that tries to identify any friends in a photo a user uploads.

SceneTap’s San Francisco debut came the same day Facebook went public. Privacy experts say social media has played a major role in making it easier to attach a face to a name.

“Ten years ago if I walked down the street and took a picture of someone I didn’t know, there was little I could do to find out who that person was. Today it’s a very different story,” said Lee Tien, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who focuses on surveillance technology and privacy.

Tien says facial recognition technology has advanced to the point that having your picture taken potentially offers up the same degree of identifying information as giving someone your fingerprints. Computer programs can break down high-resolution images in minute detail to identify the distinctive features of individual faces.

Those patterns, rather than the images themselves, make possible the tracking of individuals even without knowing who they are. In theory, a program could also match that pattern to identifiable online images such as a Facebook profile picture.

The threat to privacy from an app like SceneTap depends not just on what’s being stored but how easily the system could be converted to become more intrusive, whether by a hacker or under a court order.

“Even if everything is happening the way it is supposed to, then the next question is, gee, is that good enough?” Tien said. “Is that something that you’re comfortable with?”

Along with the visual images being deleted nearly as soon as they’re snapped, SceneTap’s sensors aren’t sophisticated enough to recognize individual faces in any case, Harper said. Detecting basic characteristics like gender and age takes much less digital work than identifying individuals, he said.

The 28-year-old CEO argues SceneTap doesn’t come close to intruding on personal privacy the way many other ubiquitous technologies already do. Many bars already have video cameras that record customers’ every move, creating an archive that could, for example, be subpoenaed in court. And anyone who uses Facebook or Gmail is turning over reams of sensitive personal information to large companies every day.

SceneTap’s business plan also hinges on the data it collects. Facebook and Google make money by targeting individuals as precisely as possible. Harper says SceneTap only has the combined data on bar customers’ genders and ages. The company hopes advertisers will ultimately covet that data to target bar-goers through the app. The bars themselves can use the statistics to determine what mix of people come in when to adjust their inventories, advertising and promotions, Harper said.

SceneTap is already in use in six other cities across the country, including Chicago and several college towns.

Charles Hall, general manager of Bar None in San Francisco’s Marina District, said he decided to install SceneTap to give potential customers another way to interact with the business. He said his decision to use it depended on the company’s promise that no information was being collected on individuals.

“I have nothing to gain from doing something that people are going to be up in arms about,” Hall said the day before the official launch.

A few hours later, the bar briefly got cold feet because of the negative attention SceneTap had received in the local media. But as of 10 p.m. Friday night, Bar None was “lively,” according to the app: a little less than half full, a nearly even mix of sexes, average age 22.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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The House Human Services and Public Health Committees have asked experts to explain why so many families don’t have enough food and why some communities don’t have grocery stores. Lawmakers on Tuesday will also look into what state government can do to address the problems.

Texas has the second highest rate in the country of people who have trouble getting enough food to eat. In 2010 that was more than 4 million Texans.

Among the solutions the committee will consider are farmer’s markets and community gardens. Lawmakers are also considering applying nutritional standards to state food aid programs.

The committee’s findings will determine what bills lawmakers introduce next year.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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WAXAHACHIE (CBSDFW.COM) - The tight economy is forcing a lot of people to sell their family heirlooms, especially their gold. But one of the largest operations, setting up shop at hotels across the country, is being accused of fraud.

The operations go under different names such as “Ohio Valley Gold and Silver Refinery” or “Treasure Hunters Roadshow.”
Marlene Powell and her friend Karin Engel were curious when they spotted the ad. “It said as seen on TV, and with the words ‘road show,’” Powell said.

They thought it was the “Antiques Roadshow,” a common misconception that led to the company being sued for trademark violations. The women felt deceived again when they went to the event at a local Hampton Inn.  “I had a piece of 18 karat gold that I know for a fact was 18 karat and they told me, ‘No it wasn’t,’” said Powell.

They believe they were taken for hundreds of dollars and they’re not alone. We compiled complaints from across the country, mostly from seniors. They include a 71-year-old in West Virginia and an 88-year-old on the Canadian border. Both are grandmothers desperate for cash, selling family heirlooms for pennies on the dollar.

After jeweler Tom Broadwin heard similar complaints from his customers, he decided to visit the same roadshow, traveling under another name, Premiere Estate Buyers.  “I had a gold bracelet filled with coins, unmistakably gold coins,” said Broadwin. “The individual looked at it for a few minutes and told me they were plated. That was fraud right to my face.”

Broadwin agreed to lend several CBS Local stations $8,000 worth of gold for our investigation. Before handing it over, he tested each piece for karat count and weight. We took the gold to three separate jewelers to confirm its value.

A producer from CBS San Francisco brought the gold to a show in Santa Cruz. 13 out of the 15 pieces were 18 karat gold.  But after carefully examining each item, a road show manager said: “I’ve got some 10 and 14 karat, a mix. Believe it or not half of what you have on the table here is copper.”

Then several pieces of the jewelry went to Sacramento, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and to CBS 11.

A CBS 11 producer took $6,200 work of gold jewelry to a show at a hotel in Waxahachie. The appraiser told us some of the 18 carat gold was really only 14 carat gold. Our producer was offered $1,150 to buy it all and after bargaining for a while got a final offer of only $1,700.

In two other cities, appraisers got the karats right. In Philadelphia, CBS Philly producers were told 18 karat pieces were only 14 karats. In all, three out of the five initial offers we received were less than a quarter of the gold’s value.

THR and Associates operates 120 traveling shows a week under at least 8 different names. It’s corporate headquarters are in Springfield, Illinois.

“We are not in the business of lying to people,” THR spokesperson Matthew Enright said.

First, Enright examined our gold and confirmed it was 18 karats. Then we showed him our undercover video, in which a salesman tells us one of the 18 karat pieces is only 10 karats.

CBS San Francisco asked Enright: “There’s a bit of a trend here. Either he doesn’t have a cursory knowledge of gold, or he’s lying to customers.”

His response: “Sure. I mean it’s obviously a concern for me seeing that.”

CBS Chicago also questioned why it had happened on multiple occasions. Enright said, “Well it’s a very small percentage compared to 140 managers that we have.”

He said employees are not trained to purposely deceive customers. But CBS San Francisco obtained a THR buying guide which shows employees are trained to make a first offer of $1.50 per pennyweight. The going rate is more than 30 times that.

The entrance to the new Viridian development in Arlington (Joel Thomas/CBSDFW)

ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) -  A massive, 2,300 acre development is underway in an unusual location — next to a landfill.

The Viridian in North Arlington will feature first-class shopping and dining with homes starting at $200,000.

But the government-backed project is across a highway from a regional landfill.

The developer says there will be so much green space and development between it and the homes, though, the landfill will be an after thought for people who live there.

Dallas-based Atmos Energy says the scheme falsely claims Obama is providing credits or directly paying utility bills.

Atmos spokeswoman Jennifer Ryan said Thursday that scammers then asked for the customer’s Social Security number.

Ryan says Atmos workers always carry proper identification and never contact customers requiring personal information.

Atmos is one of the country’s largest natural-gas-only distributors. The company says it serves more than 3 million customers in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Christie’s auction house says Thursday’s sale featured more than 150 items including English furniture, Russian art, silver and jewels.

The highlight of the sale was a pair of George II giltwood mirrors attributed to Mathias Lock. They were sold for over $464,000. They had been estimated to fetch between $150,000 and $250,000. The price includes the buyer’s premium.

Cliburn, born in Louisiana and raised in Texas, says in a news release that he collected some of the pieces to remind him of concerts in various cities around the world.

Cliburn, now 77, was 23 in 1958 when he became world famous by winning a piano competition in Moscow.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) - North Texas woman are already feeling the fallout from the funding fight for women’s health clinics. Some clinics are starting to close. That is leaving women with fewer choices, and other health clinics being forced to pick up the slack.

The Collin County Adult Clinic is a nonprofit primary care facility. They handle things like asthma, diabetes and blood tests. Now, they’re getting ready to add pap smears and mammograms to their services.

Guadalupe Hernandez was diagnosed with asthma last year. She came to the Collin County Adult Clinic for a checkup. “We pay only $20 at first and then $15 every time we come here,” Hernandez said.

Margie Lopez came in because she was feeling pain in her joints. She pays $15. “That’s one of the things I like,” she said. “I wish they would make more like this to help out people. I really do.” Lopez goes to another clinic for her women’s health checkups.

Hernandez goes to Planned Parenthood for her pap smears and mammograms. “They always provide low prices and I think I had the mammogram last year free,” Hernandez said. Where would she go if her Planned Parenthood clinic shut down? “Good question. I don’t know. We need to do something about it.”

Two low cost Collin County clinics not affiliated with Planned Parenthood have already shut down. One was the McKinney Family Planning Center and the other was a clinic operated by Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas in east Plano. “I am sorry the other clinics are closing down, because other women need these clinics,” said Collin County Adult Clinic executive director John Ernst.

The Collin County Adult Clinic is already seeing 5,000 patients each year. Now, they’re planning to take on more women. “We have to step it up, because we’re seeing more people and we will be seeing more women,” Ernst said. They will open an additional clinic only treating women’s health issues. “We’ll be seeing women, probably, who are over 40 and who are needing some of these issues, who are needing the breast exams and then the mammography and pap smears.”

The clinic will not perform abortions. It will only provide women’s health care one Saturday morning every month.

As for the fight over state funding for Planned Parenthood, and the future of the Women’s Health Program, Ernst did not want to comment. “We’re just here to help women. That’s all we do,” he said.

The Collin County Adult Clinic will see women at its facility located on 4100 West 15th Street. It will also be known as the West Side Clinic. They will start seeing their first patients the third week of June, and then expand as they are able. “It’ll stress them out and stress out our finances, but it’s good work. It’s good work. It really is,” Ernst said.

For Hernandez, it is already a relief to know that she will have somewhere to go if she needs it. “Wow! That’s wonderful,” she said.

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CARROLLTON (CBSDFW.COM) - Before you begin your backyard grilling, CBS 11 News has uncovered a danger that you may be cooking up. It’s not about the meat, and it’s not about any food-borne illness. CBS 11 News investigates a growing problem that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is leaving up to manufacturers to regulate.

In North Texas, the sound of sizzling means that summer is here. It’s that same sound that calls the McMahon family of Carrollton outside for some quality time around the grill. “[It's] something we like to do in the summer,” said 21-year old Matt McMahon.

When you barbeque, you usually only worry about bacteria and other food-related illnesses. But it was something entirely different that sent McMahon to the emergency room. “We were grilling out, cooking burgers, and obviously the last bite, something stuck in the throat,” he said.

It was hours before they realized what it was — a 1.5-centimeter wire bristle from the wire brush that his dad had used to clean the grill. “You can see bristles coming all out,” McMahon said while examining a picture of the brush.

(credit: Matt McMahon)

Dr. Mark Bickert from Baylor Medical Center in Carrollton operated on McMahon. “I can only liken this to a needle in a haystack,” he said. “The wire bristle [was] actually lodged inside of the muscle of the esophagus.”

It took Dr. Bickert four hours to remove the wire from McMahon’s throat. “We yelled out to the rest of the operating room staff, ‘We have it! We have it!’” he said. “It’s probably more common than what we’re aware of.”

He’s right! CBS 11 News has learned that, in the last three years, nearly a dozen people have reported similar problems to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. There was even another case here in North Texas.

(credit: Deborah Bickert/Lone Star Ear, Nose & Throat Care)

“I felt it, but I didn’t know what it was,” said Mike Matus, a captain with the Richardson Fire Department. He took a bite of a burger 12 years ago, and felt the same sensation — sort of like a fish bone caught in his throat. The next day, when it didn’t go away, he went to the hospital and was shocked to hear the news. “It went through the esophagus and stuck in the wall of my heart,” Matus said.

Matus said that he doesn’t remember seeing any warning labels on grill brushes back then, but things have changed. CBS 11 News checked inside several local stores and found that most brushes now come with warnings to check for loose or detached bristles. However, Matus said, more needs to be done to protect those of us who love to grill. “Somebody needs to look at it,” he said.

(credit: Matt McMahon)

As for McMahon, the whole experience hasn’t scared him much. In fact, it’s helped him make a big decision about his future. He’s hoping to go to medical school to become a surgeon.

“Do you think there’s any chance you’ll take a wire bristle out of someone’s throat someday?” CBS 11 News reporter Ginger Allen asked.

“It’s possible,” McMahon said. “It’d kind of be one of those out of body experiences. ‘Hey, this happened to me before, I know what to do.’”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said that there are now mandatory standards with regards to warnings on grill brushes. It’s up to the individual companies to include a warning on their product. Meanwhile, both families we talked to stopped using brushes all together, and now recommend using special stones or pads to clean your grills.

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AAA Texas on Thursday reported the average price statewide has slipped to $3.56 per gallon.

Gas prices nationally also continue to slide, down 2 cents this week to settle at $3.72 per gallon.

The association survey finds that Amarillo has the least expensive gasoline in Texas, at $3.43 per gallon. El Paso has the most expensive gasoline, going for $3.69 per gallon.

AAA says declining crude oil prices and renewed global economic concerns have sent retail gasoline prices down in the past month.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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American said Wednesday that it’s filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation for the right to fly 17 more weekly flights between the U.S. and Brazil.

Fort Worth-based American currently runs more than 80 weekly flights to Brazil.

Chief Commercial Officer Virasb Vahidi says Brazil is a growing market for American, with the company hoping to start running expanded service as early as Oct. 1.

If approved, American said it would add flights from its Miami and New York-JFK hubs to various Brazilian cities.

American’s parent company, AMR Corp., filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last November.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopted rules in March that permit the use of silencers for the hunting of alligators, game animals or game birds. Such devices already were legal for the hunting of exotic animals, including feral hogs.

However, hunters will still have to apply for state permits to have and use silencers.

Longview gun dealer Bob Godell tells the Longview News-Journal the change is “long overdue.” Longview hunter Earl Ates, a lifelong National Rifle Association member, says he doubts the benefits of silent hunting, though, and worries about its use for poaching and other illegal activities. He says silencers “can also go against making a humane kill.”

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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The items will be part of a Christie’s auction Thursday in New York City. They include a silver soup tureen from the collection of a daughter of Russian Czar Nicholas I.

Cliburn says he’s contemplated the sale for years, since moving belongings out of homes in two other states to his Fort Worth mansion.

Cliburn started collecting the furniture, paintings and jewelry after winning the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958 at age 23. It was the height of the Cold War, and the lanky Texan quickly gained international fame.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Cliburn is keeping plenty of his treasures.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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ADDISON (CBSDFW.COM) – Stacy Gordon thought she found a good deal on a birthday gift for her daughter.  Last January, she ordered an iPod docking station from the website savemore.com.  She bought a voucher for $31 — for what the website called a $61 value.  But she never received it.

“It does make me angry – I was looking forward to getting this gift from my daughter as a birthday and I’m out of my money,” she said.

Gordon isn’t alone.  Now, the Texas Attorney General’s Office is investigating savemore.com.

When CBS 11 first reported on the website last December, the company wasn’t welcoming.  At the time, the Better Business Bureau received 260 complaints about the company.

Now, five months later, Jeanette Kopko of the BBB, says the number of complaints has shot up to nearly 1500.  She says, “This business has a Better Business Bureau rating of F.”

Kopko says they’ve kept a close eye on this company. “It’s a very short time to get in that many complaints. The complaints are all the same over and over again.. about not getting the voucher, it doesn’t work, not getting a product they ordered.”

Customers like Stacy Gordon say the problem is, their calls and emails to savemore.com have gone unanswered.  “It’s very frustrating. I just think they’re scamming people out of their money.”

CBS 11 returned to savemore.com’s Addison office Tuesday to ask them about the complaints, and got the same reception as before.

The Texas Attorney General’s Office says if consumers have problems with Savemore.com, they should file a complaint with the state.

Both the state and the BBB say if you paid for goods with a credit card, and you didn’t receive them, you should contact your credit card company to stop payment.

Wecords show savemore.com is linked to a debt settlement company with troubles in Texas.  That company is called Credit Solutions of America.

The Texas Attorney General sued Credit Solutions, accusing it of defrauding consumers with financial problems.  The case is still pending, but the state says Credit Solutions no longer sells debt settlement plans.

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – A woman took her car in for service in Fort Worth but was shocked to find what can only be described as Satanic symbols.

“It’s not something you go to get an oil change and you leave with that on your car,” she said.

Jessica, a 25-year-old bakery manager who wants to shield her identity, is proud of her 2002 Mustang.  She bought it herself.  So, she was shocked to find out someone had left marks on it, including the “Mark of the Beast.”

“I was pretty upset about it,” she said.

To see it for ourselves, we had to take it to an independent garage and put it on a lift, where we saw it: 666, an upside down cross and a pentagram written in light blue sealant underneath her car.

“Who does that? Being the Satanic symbols, it puts a bad omen. I mean, what if it’s a curse?” she wondered.

A kind Walmart service tech on Clifford Street in Fort Worth told her about it when she was getting her oil changed.

“He seemed pretty upset about it. And he’s, like, ‘Well, the previous technician wrote something on your car,’” she said.

Jessica said the service tech told her the color of the sealant was the color Walmart always uses.

He took a picture and made note of it on her receipt:

“WROTE SATANIC SYMBOLS ON THE CROSSMEMBER.”

Jessica had previously taken her car in for an oil change at a Fort Worth Walmart on Oakmont.

She remembers the person who changed her oil.  “He had an attitude. Very sassy. By the time it was all said and done, I spent about three hours at that Walmart just for an oil change,” she said.

She wrote Walmart to complain.  “I didn’t get so much as an apology or we’d taken care of this or we addressed the fact. Nothing,” she said.

“Just kind of puts a bad vibe on it,” she said.

In a statement to CBS 11, Walmart said:  “We’ve looked into the matter. And although we’ve been unable to confirm the details, we never want our customers to have an unpleasant experience. And we’ve reached out to the customer and will
continue to resolve the issue.”

Jessica said Walmart offered to scrape the symbols off but hasn’t offered anything else for her troubles.

“I believe in God. It’s just so disrespectful and ridiculous to deface somebody’s property with those kinds of beliefs,” she said.

Jessica, a loyal Walmart customer, says she’ll still take her Mustang to Walmart but a routine oil change will never look the same.

Jessica says while she’s waiting to see if Walmart compensates her for her trouble, she’s going to have them scrape the Satanic symbols from her car.

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The company Mark Zuckerberg created as a Harvard student eight years ago is preparing for what looks to be the biggest Internet IPO ever. Expected later this week, Facebook’s Wall Street debut could value the company at $100 billion, making it worth more than Disney, Ford and Kraft Foods.

That’s testament to the impressive numbers Facebook has posted in its relatively brief history. More than 40 percent of American adults log in to the site —to share news, personal observations, photos and more— at least once a week. In all, some 900 million people around the world are users. Facebook’s revenue grew from $777 million in 2009 to $3.7 billion last year. And in the first quarter of 2012 it was more than $1 billion.

Just a third of those surveyed think the company’s expected value is appropriate, while 50 percent say it is too high. Those who invest in the stock market are more likely to see shares as overvalued, 58 percent said so. About 3 in 10 investors say the expected value of shares is fair. Facebook on Tuesday lifted the expected price for its shares to $34 to $38 apiece from $28 to $35 each.

But price worries won’t necessarily stop would-be investors. Half the people surveyed say they think Facebook is a good bet, while 31 percent do not. The rest aren’t sure. Americans who invest in stocks roughly agree, although investors who are more “active” — those who have changed their holdings in the past month —are more negative. Nearly 40 percent say Facebook would not be a good investment.

Young adults, a majority of whom log on to Facebook daily, are more willing to dance to their hoodie-wearing piper, 28-year-old CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Among Zuckerberg’s peers, adults under age 35, 59 percent say Facebook is a good bet. Compare that to the views of senior citizens: Only 39 percent age 65 and over say Facebook shares are a good investment. Nearly half of Gen X’ers (ages 35-44) say the company is a good bet, as do 55 percent of middle-aged people.

Those under 35 are the generation most interested in Facebook’s IPO because they’ve grown up immersed in the social network. They were the first users, logging in from their college dorm rooms. Later, Facebook expanded to allow high school-age and even younger students to sign up. It’s become an integral part of their lives, giving them a launching pad to spread the news of life’s major developments through posts and pictures.

Conversely, it’s the rare senior citizen on Facebook: Just 21 percent have an account. Half of baby boomers — the generation born in the years after World War II — have one. But most of the 56 percent of the country that’s on Facebook is young — two-thirds of Gen X’ers and a staggering 81 percent of people 18-35 use the social networking site.

Young people aren’t just connected. They are constantly tethered to smartphones, tablets and notebook computers. Even with the rise of alternative social networks like Twitter and Google Plus, 55 percent of Zuckerberg’s peers go on Facebook every day. A third log on several times a day. Despite the intensity of their use, a narrow majority of young adults predict Facebook’s appeal will fade down the road (51 percent), fewer think it will stick around as a service (44 percent).

The public overall is similarly divided on the company’s future. Just under half of adults (46 percent) predict a short timeline for Facebook, while 43 percent say it has staying power.

Young people are more aware of Zuckerberg and have more positive views of the CEO, who celebrated his 28th birthday on Monday. Overall, one in five Americans say they’ve never heard of him, 30 percent don’t have an opinion and 14 percent plain don’t like him. Only about a third have a good impression of the CEO, who has alienated some with Facebook’s ever-changing approach to user privacy.

But 46 percent of people under 35 like him. And a scant 4 percent of those younger adults say they’ve never heard of him.

The privacy issue is a stinger. Three of every five Facebook users say they have little or no faith that the company will protect their personal information. Only 13 percent trust Facebook to guard their data, and only 12 percent would feel safe making purchases through the site. Even Facebook’s most dedicated users are wary — half of those who use the site daily say they wouldn’t feel safe buying things on the network.

As for how Facebook makes most of its money —selling ads— 57 percent of users say they never click on them or on Facebook’s sponsored content. About another quarter say they rarely do.

Despite user discontent about privacy, Facebook and Zuckerberg have connected with many Americans. The survey suggests that his reputation and youth seem more like assets than liabilities. For those who have heard of the CEO, two-thirds are at least somewhat confident in his ability to run a large public company. Twenty-two percent doubt he can handle the leadership role. As for the social network he created, 51 percent of Americans clicked “Like.”

The Associated Press-CNBC Poll was conducted May 3-7, 2012 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,004 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Perry said Tuesday that UT regents will decide the performance of Bill Powers, who recently criticized the board for freezing tuition at the state’s flagship campus for most students the next two years.

Asked whether he was satisfied with Powers, Perry said “I got a state to run” and added that he isn’t focused on one campus.

Perry did say the tuition freeze sent a “good message” about not raising college costs. He made the remarks while praising a $10,000 bachelor’s degree offered at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

The UT system chancellor has denied that regents told him to fire Powers.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – You’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram – but what happens to all those profiles when you pass away?  Do you keep them up or take them down – make it a memorial?

Also, who decides what happens to all those profiles you’ve spend years creating and keeping up?

It’s something Eric Allen from Dallas is thinking about, “I like to keep up with my friends and all my family in Canada,” says Allen about being online “If anything we need a will just for our social media accounts I have nothing else of that much value that I need to make a will for.”

Now even the federal government is suggesting to write a social media will so loved ones can control what happens to those online identities.

On a USA.gov page about wills, it suggests appointing one person who will be responsible and give that person your username and passwords and instructions on how the profiles should be handled.

“It makes sense that we would want to have someone designated,” says Peter Vogel, who is an attorney in Dallas and teaches internet law at SMU “I think it would be wise for anybody who wants to save their social media content to put together some kind of electronic documents that clearly delineates who ought to be responsible in case that person becomes ill or dies.”

Allen says as much time he spends online it only makes sense for his family.  “Something like this that can protect my family and friends and also my wife for getting messages from people who don’t know I died I would want in place.”

Facebook has a help center which walks users through how to report a deceased person’s page or how to memorialize that person on their page.

Twitter says they will work with a person authorized to act on behalf of the estate or with a family member.

FRISCO (CBSDFW.COM) - A major decision on the future of the controversial lead smelter in Frisco.

A state environmental agency is recommending that Exide’s battery recycling plant be given more time to meet air quality standards.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is recommending that a November first deadline for Exide to reduce emissions be extended to January 2014.

Opponents of Exide’s plant had hoped pressure to meet air quality standards by November would force it to close.

The decision buys time for the plant to make modifications that could keep it in Frisco.

Collette McCadden lived near the Exide battery recycling plant for 11 years and blames the lead smelter for learning disabilities in three of her four children.

“I don’t think that the State of Texas is adequately protecting us,” says McCadden.” We chose to relocate from our previous home and move to the far northeast corner.”

An Exide spokeswoman says the plant is undergoing changes that will reduce emissions.

“The measures agreed to are substantial and Exide believes the time allotted by TCEQ is appropriate and necessary,” says Susan Jaramillo.

Megan Green lives within two miles of the smoke stacks and has her children frequently tested for lead in their blood.

“To hear that they’ve given them an extension is disheartening to say the least,” says Green.

A TCEQ spokesperson tells CBS 11 that the deadlines are “considered on a case-by-case basis” with the consent of the EPA.

But those who believe the plant has been poisoning the air and soil around them for 50 years will likely have it as a neighbor for at least one more.