11/19/2009

Life, health insurer opens in Salina

Bankers Life and Casualty Co., a national life and health insurer, has opened a sales office at 300 S. Ninth in Salina.

Tim Winchester, unit supervisor, said the new office will serve residents of central, north central and western Kansas.

The office plans to contract with up to 20 new agents in 2010.

Bankers offers a broad line of insurance products for the retirement market, including Medicare supplement insurance, long-term care, short-term care and home health care, as well as life insurance and annuities. Medicare's prescription drug coverage and Medicare Advantage plans also are available.

California gets tough on televisions

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California regulators adopted the nation's first energy-efficiency standards for televisions Wednesday in hopes of reducing electricity use at a time when millions of American households are switching to power-hungry, wide-view, flat-screen, high-definition sets.

The 5-0 vote by the California Energy Commission is just the latest effort by the state to secure its place in the forefront of the environmental movement.

California represents such a big consumer market that environmental groups hope the new standards will lead manufacturers to make energy-saving TVs for the rest of the nation.

The regulations requiring televisions to be more efficient will be phased in beginning in 2011.

The new standards will apply to new televisions up to 58 inches. Those larger than 58 inches, which account for no more than 3 percent of the market, were left out in a concession to sellers of high-end home-theater TVs.

Reader's Digest leaving longtime HQ

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- The company that publishes Reader's Digest is planning to vacate its longtime suburban headquarters, the CEO said Wednesday.

In a memo to the 650 employees at its federal-style building in Chappaqua, Reader's Digest Association CEO Mary Berner said their jobs will be moving to White Plains and New York City.

The plan is subject to approval in Bankruptcy Court, where the company filed for Chapter 11 protection for its American operations in August.

U.S. circulation for Reader's Digest magazine, best known for feel-good stories about American life, has dropped from 17 million in the 1970s to just over 8 million last year.

Panel backs Pfizer's enhanced vaccine

BETHESDA, Md. -- Federal health experts said Wednesday an updated version of Pfizer's best-selling anti-infection vaccine is safe and effective for infants and toddlers, despite company studies that failed to meet certain goals.

The Food and Drug Administration's panel of vaccine experts voted 10-1 in favor of Pfizer's Prevnar 13 to protect against pneumococcal disease.

While the FDA is not required to follow the group's advice, its recommendation moves the company closer to expanding the use of a treatment that racked up more than $2.7 billion in sales last year as the world's top-selling vaccine.

The new vaccine reduces risk of infection from 13 varieties of the disease, which causes thousands of cases of ear infection, meningitis and pneumonia each year.

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