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Has anyone gone shopping for toddler shoes recently?  I decided to take along my six-year-old daughter to help me find shoes for her younger sister. You know, one of those mother-daughter bonding excursions.

After roaming through countless boutiques with not enough sizes and too many expensive designer brands, we head into Payless Shoes.

The first thing my daughter notices is the various heel options for toddlers. She picks up a black suede pump with a heel.
American and Canadian authorities have have investigated and arrested 65 fraudsters, and received redress worth $18 million from the company they worked for, MoneyGram, for their involvement in an advanced-fee loan scam that Marketplace reported on last year.

MoneyGram International, one of the world's biggest money transfer services, paid for $18 million in cheques that were sent to U.S. consumers yesterday who have been victims of scams involving their service.

 It seems a day doesn't go by when an article appears about online "privacy concerns."

The story spark is usually a new "social" application, website or feature that uses personal information in a way to deliver an online service - and typically, the companies that are being written about in relation to personal privacy are also the biggest: Google and Facebook.
Earlier this month we updated you on Alan Kippax and the BIM Corporation following a letter he sent to members of his company informing them that he was putting the business on hold indefinitely.

At the time Kippax said he was closing BIM's doors due to plummeting sales, in part blaming the members for sitting on the fence following Marketplace's 2009 story Easy Money. As part of this investigation Marketplace took an inside look at the BIM corporation and spoke with an expert who told us the company looked like a pyramid scheme that would inevitably come to an end.
More on fire safety in nursing and retirement homes
More follow up on the story we brought you last month on fire safety in nursing and retirement homes - we asked why the Ontario government hasn't required homes to install sprinklers retroactively despite numerous fire deaths and calls for sprinklers from inquests.  Fire Chiefs across the province are asking why sprinklers aren't mandatory in all nursing and retirement homes.  We even visited the site of a fire at a home that killed 25 people in 1980 and discovered there are still no sprinklers there, leaving loved ones vulnerable. Now, The Globe and Mail's Christie Blatchford has written an article shedding some light on the politics involved behind the scenes - you can read her report on a seeming connection between the firefighters union and the Ontario government.
grey_black_and_blue.jpgIn 2007, I worked on a Marketplace investigation into nursing home violence, and discovered that one of the greatest dangers in nursing homes was residents attacking other residents.

So, unfortunately, I was not surprised when I read the story the behind Wednesday's headline: Murder charges laid in senior homes death.

I saw the violence for myself when I visited an Ontario nursing home as part of our investigation. It didn't take long before I saw a resident strike another resident, which quickly escalated into a physical struggle. With no workers near by, I had no choice but to intervene as I could see how it could lead to someone seriously getting hurt.
Marketplace received an Open Letter from The Co-operators. Here is Marketplace's response:

Thank you for your letter regarding the April 9, 2010 broadcast of Marketplace's story regarding the use of credit scoring as a component in determining home insurance rates.

We would like to take this opportunity to respond to your concerns, and challenge your assertion that our story had a number of "inaccuracies." Read full response
When Dave Frederick's home insurance premium came up for renewal, he got a nasty surprise. The new rate on his Blenheim, Ont., home almost doubled, so he set out to find out why. You might be surprised by what he discovered.
Searching out some seafood for dinner? You can't always trust the information on the supermarket label. Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your mackerel.
Alan Kippax is in the headlines again after yet another delay in his dangerous driving case on Thursday. Last February, Marketplace had him in the spotlight for a different reason when we took a closer look at his company Business in Motion or BIM, in our 2009 investigation, "Easy Money." Earlier this week, Kippax announced that he would be putting this company on hold.
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