By DAVID BENDA, Scripps Howard News Service

The marketers of prepaid debit cards got some unwanted attention last month when the Kardashian sisters pulled the "Kardashian Kard" off store shelves.

Known for their reality TV show documenting the sisters' lavish tastes and shopping sprees, the Kardashians had been roundly criticized for marketing a product that encouraged young people to spend.

That narcissistic rant about your boss is not the only stupid post you can make on Facebook.

Seemingly innocuous information like your birthday, where you went to elementary school or your pet's name can be a gold mine for identity thieves.

REDDING, Calif. - Bernadette Butz, an avid gardener, would wear flip-flops or clogs when she was out planting seeds or pulling weeds.

By early summer, Butz's feet would be a dry, cracking mess. Her heels would look like jerky. Worse, dirt would accumulate in the cracks of her feet until she couldn't stand it anymore.

The government will launch a refinance program next month that targets homeowners who are under water on their mortgage but have not missed a monthly payment.

The Federal Housing Authority (FHA) Short Refinance option is aimed at helping responsible homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth because their local markets saw large declines in home values.

Ann Minch, whose YouTube vow to stop making payments on her credit card captured the outrage of a nation, has reached a deal with Bank of America.

Cristal Dawn Speller saw a need in Redding for her medical marijuana clinic.

So the Glendale-based doctor opened Natural Care For Wellness in downtown Redding in July and has been doing brisk business.

May Honeyball came home with a souvenir, about a week after the 71-year-old Mountain Gate, Calif. woman took a spill at home and was impaled on a metal gate rod.
When doctors at the hospital showed her the spike they had just surgically removed from her right hip, Honeyball had to have it.
"My son said, 'Mom, we have to bronze that,' " Honeyball said.

REDDING, Calif. -- It's been a year since Ken Knowles suffered a brain-stem stroke that almost killed him and paralyzed the right side of his body.Knowles, 39, has had to learn to walk, talk and eat again. He spent two months in the hospitalThe stroke, for a time, left Knowles with no gag reflex, so he had to be fed by a tube.

Mick Waligorski's passion for flying remote-control airplanes has spawned a business.In December, Waligorski, 24, started Eagle Eye Aerial Photography, a one-man operation based in Redding, Calif., and one of only seven businesses of its kind in the state, he said.

ANDERSON, Calif. -- What started as a spin-off from a private investigating practice has grown into a global firm that does about 10,000 background checks a day for employers.Inside the company's Anderson headquarters, CEO Robert Mather talked about a contract the firm just signed with a Midwest trucking company -- background checks for 5,000 applicants.