InfoTrak: Hooked on Salt, Sugar and Fat

Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese, seventy pounds of sugar and double the recommended amount of salt--most of it from processed foods. Michael Moss, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, and author of Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us says that the use of salt, sugar and fat increases sales of processed foods, reduces manufacturing costs, and enables these foods to sit in warehouses or on the grocery shelf for months. He offered suggestions for consumers on how to read product labels.

InfoTrak: Your Online Resume

Social Media expert Debra Donston-Miller says social media has essentially become an online resume, and that job hunters who do not use it are at a huge disadvantage. She discussed the most effective strategies for using social media in job searches and networking with colleagues. She explained which social networks are the most useful and why. She also recommended sharing content on social networks, such as reports or videos, to demonstrate expertise and abilities.

InfoTrak: Problems with Payday Loans

Tim Lohrentz, Program Manager of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, a non-profit organization that focuses on policies to build economic health in lower income communities, recently conducted a study of payday loans and their net impact on the US economy. He found that the burden of repaying the high-interest loans results in $774 million in lost consumer spending and 14,000 job losses annually. He outlined the alternatives to payday loans that are available to low-income borrowers.

Michael Moss

MICHAEL MOSS was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2010, and was a finalist for the prize in 2006 and 1999. He is also the recipient of a Loeb Award and an Overseas Press Club citation. Before coming to the Times, he was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He has been an adjunct professor at the Columbia School of Journalism and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two sons.

Michael\'s Website

Debra Donston-Miller

As an editor and writer, Debra Donston-Miller has been covering the technologies and topics vital to enterprise IT professionals for 20 years. Donston-Miller was previously editor of eWEEK and executive editorial manager of eWEEK Labs, and is currently focused on collaboration, the consumerization of IT, and how social networking is changing, well, just about everything.

Information Week

Tim Lohrentz

Tim Lohrentz\'s responsibilities include research and assistance on a variety of projects related to community and economic development in immigrant communities and communities of color. Some of Tim’s recent publications include High Ideals, Low Pay: A Wage Analysis of University of California Service Workers, A Minority Business Development Framework for the Cleveland Foundation, and an Employment Survey of Vineyard and Nursery Workers in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. Tim is currently working on a comprehensive scan of federal and state policies related to affirmative action in public procurement programs. This work, funded by the Ford Foundation, will be used to determine the impact of the initiation, revision, or elimination of affirmative action in public procurement programs at the state or local level.

Tim earned his a B.A. in mathematics from Bethel College and a Master\'s in urban planning and policy from the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Insight Center for Community Economic Development