The rising cost of disability benefits, and more

The rising cost of disability benefits

Social Security disability benefits—paid to people who can no longer work—more than doubled between 2001 and last year, when they totaled $124 billion. The program may run out of reserves in seven years.

The Wall Street Journal

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Following in dad's footsteps

Forty percent of Americans at some point work for the same firm that employed their fathers, according to a study in the Journal of Labor Economics. But as a father’s income increases, so does the chance that his child will work for the same company. In the top 1 percent of highest-earning Americans, seven out of 10 sons take a job with their dads’ employers.

AndrewSullivan.TheDailyBeast.com

Black bear population surges

As a result of 1970s-era hunting bans, the U.S. black bear population is surging, causing growing numbers of confrontations between food-seeking bears and humans in Florida, Nevada, New Jersey, and other states. “There are now bears in areas of the country where there haven’t been bears since colonial days,” says wildlife biologist Rick Winslow.

The Wall Street Journal

The EPA's track record against chemicals

The Environmental Protection Agency has tested just 200 of the 80,000 chemicals registered in the United States. The total number banned: five.

The Washington Post

The worst passwords

A software security firm has isolated the 25 worst passwords to use online. These included “123456,” “qwerty,” “letmein,” and the worst, “password.”

ABCNews.com