News In Brief

WELL, THAT IDEA WAS A BOMB

Wouldn't it be a blast, a promotions expert proposed to a Los Angeles law firm, to recruit new clients by sending out fake hand grenades - thus making the point: Hire us to represent you because business is war. Trouble is, it didn't deliver much - ahem - bang for the buck. Up in Silicon Valley, at least two recipients ducked for cover while telephoning police. But since the grenades weren't real and the intent wasn't malicious, the Postal Service planned to take no action. As for the law firm, it has learned its lesson: "Don't believe everything the marketing consultants tell you."

JUST TRY TO TOP THIS

Speaking of marketing ideas, two Chicago companies have a novel addition to the vast collection of presidential campaign memorabilia. Zipple.com and AllThingsJewish.com are selling yarmulkes bearing US Sen. Joseph Lieberman's name to "celebrate" the first Jew nominated to the ticket of a major political party.

Affordable apartments hard to find on minimum wage

There isn't a county in the US in which a person earning the federal minimum wage - $5.15 an hour - can afford what the Department of Housing and Urban Development considers a "modest" two-bedroom apartment, a new study reports. The Washington-based National Low Income Housing Coalition said the closest was Barbour County, Ala., where a worker would need to earn $6.73 an hour to rent such a unit. Statewide, New Jersey was the costliest, averaging $16.88 for a "modest" two-bedroom unit - or 61 cents an hour more than the average employee earns in the US. The top 10 and what that type apartment would cost per hour there:

1. New Jersey $16.88

2. District of Columbia 16.60

3. Hawaii 16.52

4. Massachusetts 16.43

5. New York 16.04

6. Connecticut 15.67

7. California 15.22

8. Alaska 15.18

9. New Hampshire 14.15

10. Maryland 13.42

- Associated Press

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