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Today's Consumer: News you can use

By DENNIS DAILY, United Press International
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IN-WALL HEATERS ON RECALL LIST -- AGAIN

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is asking homeowners and apartment dwellers to check to see if any in-wall heaters they are using are on a recall list of nearly 2 million units sold under the names Cadet and Encore. The units are relatively new and were sold nationally during 2002. The heaters were sold mainly on the West Coast.

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The agency reports a pre-schooler died just six weeks ago in Alexandria, Va., when a heater, already on an earlier recall list, caused a house fire. Additionally, there have been more than 300 other reports of non-fatal incidents involving fires caused by flaming chunks of material being thrown out the front of the units.

The following models are on the list, which regulators are re-issuing: FW, FX, LX, TK, ZA, Z, RA, RK, RLX, RX, RW and ZC.

Owners are asked to turn off the heaters, renters to report them to a landlord or call the manufacturer's hotline at 800-638-2772.


MOVIE BUFFS FIND WEALTH OF RE-RELEASES

Before the invention of the videotape machine and, more recently, DVD technology people who wanted to have an extensive collection of movies had to be very wealthy. Even when videotape was first perfected, the blank tapes -- which now you can find for a dollar or less -- sold for $25 each, when you could find them. Instead of recording six hours, machines ran faster and you could only get two hours on a tape.

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Today that is not the case, there are many companies lots everything from hard-to-find old TV episodes to "lost" movies of the past. It's possible to get several movies, of decent quality sight and sound, on a single $1 tape.

One of the best people keeping tabs on re-releases is movie critic Leonard Maltin. Through his daily reports on radio stations around the country and via his online newsletter -- at leonardmaltin.com -- he looks at movies that are coming back and being released on tape or DVD.

Among a new batch is a trio of nearly lost movies by the great director William Wellman. Wellman began his career in 1920 and ended up being the driving force behind some of the cinema's best, including "Wings" -- the first film to win an Oscar -- "The Call of the Wild," "Beau Geste" and "The High and the Mighty."

Additionally, Maltin reports fans of movie music have a chance to hear a great compilation of music written to accompany silent films. Much of it was written by a composer whose name has been lost in time, J.S. Zamercnik, whose "stock" themes, released as sheet music, were used by local orchestras and keyboard artists to accompany hundreds of movies.

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Search the Web for "old movies tapes DVD" or "movie re-release" and you'll find a wealth of distributors.

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