The so-called Obamaphone project has a noble goal to help low-income Americans pay for mobile phones, allowing them to have contact numbers for job interviews or to access emergency services. 

But now conservative activist James O'Keefe is alleging that the program is prone to fraud. Undercover cameras taped salespeople telling applicants for phones under the Federal Communications Commissions' Lifeline program that once they get a device, they can do whatever they want with it, including selling it. 

One employee at a Stand Up wireless location in Philadelphia looked the other way when an undercover actor said he was going to sell the phone for heroin. "Hey, I don't judge," the employee said. 

 

Considering how many Americans are in incarcerated these days, surprisingly little attention is paid to their children. That's a situation "Sesame Street" is starting to address.

The beloved children's TV show has recently introduced a new blue-haired, green-nosed Muppet named Alex whose dad is in prison. Alex, who wears a hoodie, gives voice to kids who might feel that they don't otherwise have one.

It's a groundbreaking idea, and anyone worried about the effects of imprisonment on families -- and about the skyrocketing costs that taxpayers bear for maintaining prisons -- should welcome it.

As part of this effort, Sesame Street Workshop, the nonprofit that produces the show, has created the Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration program aimed at giving support to children with incarcerated parents and to their caregivers. 

American women are the breadwinners in 40% of American households with children, according to the Pew Research Center. A Prudential Financial study finds that 53% of women are the financial anchors and top earners in their families' homes. 

Call it Portland-on-the-Huds​on. 

Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City is turning into a veritable tree-hugging utopia, with bike lanes, a new bike-sharing program and a ban on smoking on parks. 

His latest goal for the city's notoriously hard-boiled residents: composting. That means New Yorkers, from the billionaire mayor himself down to the lowest-income residents, will need to separate food scraps from other rubbish, following the lead of generations of environmentalists. 

The idea of composting is to create a rich fertilizer by using decomposed food scraps, which are prized for being an economical and earth-friendly alternative to chemical fertilizers like those made by Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG). (Full disclosure: I have a composting bin, but my efforts are, at best, halfhearted.)

 

Remember during the last Bush administration when the Department of Homeland Security would trot out its color-coded Advisory System threat meter and get folks all riled up no matter how grave or trivial the justification?

Well, we're back to that again, only perceived threats to national security have been replaced by perceived threats to the cost of milk. Consider the nation's milk price threat level somewhere above "skim" and below "2%."

After averting a dairy cliff earlier this year that could have doubled milk prices if lawmakers didn't extend the agriculture bill that expired last summer, Congress is caught up in milk controversy yet again as it considers a new farm bill. The legislation includes a dairy provision that would nix current price supports and allow farmers to buy insurance that pays when their milk profits fall.

 

You probably remember the infamous McDonald's coffee case from the 1990s, in which a woman spilled a cup of overheated java from McDonald's (MCD) onto her lap, was severely burned, and ultimately was awarded several hundred thousand dollars in damages. But not the millions often described in urban legend.

Now United Continental Holdings (UAL), the company formed when Continental Airlines merged with United Airlines, is facing a similar lawsuit. This time, it's from a passenger who claims to have been injured during a coffee spill on a 2011 Continental Airlines flight from Madrid, Spain, to Newark, N.J.

The Los Angeles Times reports Texas resident Lourdes Cervantes is asking a U.S. District Court for a jury trial to seek damages against United Continental Holdings.

 

Tech companies apparently have emerged from the denial stage of grief over the National Security Agency's Prism spying program and sprinted directly to  acceptance.

After issuing blanket denials about the NSA's surveillance program, these companies have begun pointing users toward information about government requests for their data and disclosing the number of those requests more directly. After initially denying involvement with the NSA program, Apple (AAPL) revealed Sunday that it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data during the six-month period that ended in May.

Apple said between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were targeted by data requests in that time from federal, state and local authorities. The requests included both criminal investigations and national security matters.

 

Lululemon Athletica (LULU) is looking for a CEO who speaks Sanskrit, can hold a headstand for 10 minutes and has Oprah Winfrey on speed dial.

That's the new job posting from the company, and amazingly, at least 160 people have applied, according to CNN. Winfrey must get a lot of calls.

The posting was a joke, a nice change of pace from a company that hasn't had much to joke about lately. First there was the see-through-pants debacle that cost Lululemon nearly $70 million in revenue, and now CEO Christine Day is leaving for unclear reasons.

But Lululemon has retained a sense of humor through it all. A company spokeswoman said the fakeout was intended to show that Lululemon has "always been a fun and irreverent brand" and is "not afraid to spark a conversation in our communities."