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Are you ready to “Respect the Roll?”

Kimberly-Clark is looking to shake up the toilet-paper accessory category with toilet roll covers from designer Jonathan Adler.

To boost awareness about a new formulation of its Cottonelle toilet paper that it says is 30 percent stronger, Kimberly-Clark Inc. decided to forgo traditional advertising. Instead, it’s offering limited-edition boxes to hide your backup rolls. Who knew you needed such a thing?

It’s the latest effort by consumer product makers to spice up stagnant categories with eye-catching design. In 2010, Kotex introduced the “U by Kotex” line of pads and tampons with neon packaging and pad carriers designed by stylist Patricia Fields, for example.

Allen Adamson, managing director of global branding firm Landor in New York, said Target Corp. has successfully brought design to a lot of consumer product categories with such lines as the housewares rethought by renowned industrial designer Michael Graves.

But it’s new for toilet paper.

“It’s just surprising when design finally meets toilet paper _ that’s sort of the final frontier,” Adamson said.

Even though it’s a $10 billion industry, according to Nielsen, most people don’t pay attention to which toilet paper roll they buy _ or they stay loyal to one brand for decades.

“Consumers shop on autopilot and shop quite a bit on deal,” in the toilet-paper aisle, admitted Kurt Simon, brand director for Cottonelle. “They tune out when they go into the aisle. And, largely speaking, they tune out (toilet paper) advertising as well.”

Adler created covers in three bright, geometric patterns. Known for bold colors and pop graphics, he has designed everything from home furnishings to hotels and currently operates 16 of his own stores.

The roll covers will be available in January at respecttheroll.com for a shipping charge of $1.99 plus an offer code from a package of Cottonelle toilet paper. Or you can order one now for $3.99, including shipping.

Adler, whose other projects have included straws for extra-skinny Diet Pepsi cans, said the uniqueness of toilet paper covers appealed to him. He wanted them to be “bold, punchy and mood-enhancing” and tried to infuse a “pop-art element.”

“I don’t get calls every day to design spare toilet roll covers,” he said. “But I believe every piece in your home, no matter how unexpected or mundane, should be fabulous.”

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Britain faces the

An apple a day may keep the doctor away. But when you put it in a Happy Meal, it might help keep regulators at bay, too.

McDonald’s on Tuesday said it will add apple slices and reduce the portion of French fries in its children’s meal boxes beginning this fall, effectively taking away consumers’ current choice between either having apples with caramel dip or fries as a Happy Meal side.

The move comes as fast-food chains face intense scrutiny from health officials and others who blame the industry for childhood obesity and other health-related problems.

Critics wasted no time complaining that McDonald’s changes don’t go far enough. Kelle Louaillier, executive director of Corporate Accountability International, said McDonald’s is just trying to get ahead of impending regulations that will restrict the marketing of junk food to children and require restaurants to post nutrition information on menus.

“McDonald’s is taking steps in the right direction,” says Louaillier, whose group has pushed for McDonald’s to retire Ronald McDonald payday lenders. “But we should be careful in heaping praise on corporations for simply reducing the scope of the problem they continue to create.”

Cindy Goody, McDonald’s senior director of nutrition, said the new directives are “absolutely not” related to new regulations. Rather, she said, they’re a response to customers asking for healthier choices.

But apparently, customers aren’t making those choices in practice. Indeed, only about 11 percent of customers were ordering apples with their Happy Meals, even though 88 percent were aware they had the option, the restaurant said.

Jonathan Marek, a senior vice president at Applied Predictive Technologies, said the move should be good for public relations and, more importantly, could help drive sales.

“The key is, will this get parents to go to McDonald’s one more time each month than they would have otherwise?” he asked..

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The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has struggled for years to deal with an issue that lies at the heart of Internet services in Canada: how can it foster greater competition from independent Internet providers while also addressing telecom and cable company concerns about network congestion.

In 2009, the CRTC believed it found the right solution. It established Internet traffic management guidelines (often referred to as net neutrality rules) that created limits on how Internet providers could throttle or limit download speeds and it encouraged providers to use

Australia’s tax on carbon emissions will cost Qantas 110 million to 115 million Australian dollars ($118 million to $123 million) for the 2013 financial year and lead to an increase in passenger fares, the airline said Monday.

The flagship Australian carrier is one of the first of the nation’s major companies to release details of the financial impact of the tax, which will force the 500 worst polluters to pay AU$23 for every ton of carbon they emit.

The government released details of the tax on Sunday, saying it would help Australia lower its massive carbon emissions. Australia is one of the world’s worst greenhouse gas polluters because of its heavy reliance on coal for electricity.

The government is granting AU$9.2 billion in compensation over the next three years to industries affected by the tax, but Qantas said airlines are exempted from that assistance. The tax goes into effect on July 1, 2012.

Qantas said it would pass the costs onto its customers, with the tax adding an average of AU$3.50 to the price of a domestic flight ticket in the financial year ending June 30, 2013. The carbon tax does not apply to international flight fuel.

Qantas shares were down 2.5 percent to AU$1.95 in early afternoon trading.

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An investment scheme to sell shares in a company purporting to build Russian vodka stands has cost local financial consultant Paul Burkemper a $100,000 fine and his ability to sell securities in the state of Missouri.

The sanctions were outlined in a consent order signed by Burkemper and the secretary of state’s office Wednesday and follow a cease and desist order issued by regulators in May 2010 that shut down the scheme. Under the agreement, Burkemper is banned for life from selling securities in the state.

Burkemper, whose office was in Sunset Hills, partnered with Ilya Vishnevetsky, formerly of Clayton, to sell shares to investors in I.P. Holding LLC, based in St. Louis. Investors were told their money would go toward building more than a dozen kiosks that would sell vodka in St. Petersburg.

But the securities were never registered with the state and investors did not receive required financial information regarding the venture, such as a business plan, statement of financial condition or risk disclosure.

Burkemper and Vishnevetsky also formed a business in 2008 called Select Auto to export cars from the U.S. to Russia. And they used some of the money from the vodka business to buy cars for Select Auto, without disclosing that to investors, according to the consent order.

At least 11 people invested $1.9 million in the vodka venture from 2006 to 2008. In the consent order, the state concluded that Burkemper made untrue statements and failed to disclose material facts in connection with the investment offer.

Burkemper was an agent of Overland Park, Kan no teletrack payday loan.-based VSR Financial Services from May 2004 through August 2009, and he approached some of his VSR customers with the vodka investment offer without disclosing the investment to VSR.

“It should be a big red flag if you’re working with a broker, it is against state law for them to engage in something on the side,” said Laura Egerdal, a spokeswoman with the secretary of state’s office.

“Oftentimes, these involve high amounts of risk or are just flat out scams.”

Through his attorney, Albert Watkins, Burkemper declined to comment.

Watkins said Burkemper is no longer selling securities but has started a consulting firm in St. Louis advising those in the securities industry how to avoid securities violations.

Many of the 11 investors in the vodka stand venture were Burkemper’s friends and family members, and Burkemper was deceived by Vishnevetsky into believing the vodka stands were being built in Russia, Watkins said. The lawyer also said Burkemper received electronic images of kiosks in development and copies of leases in Russia that later proved to be fakes.

Burkemper “has cooperated with regulators and federal law enforcement and has accepted his responsibility as the registered financial adviser, and for having getting everyone, including himself, involved in this investment,” Watkins said.

The secretary of state’s office had fined Vishnevetsky $34,000. He could not be reached for comment.

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Unemployment rates rose last month in more than half of the nation’s largest metro areas, driven higher by weak private-sector hiring and natural disasters.

The unemployment rate increased in 210 metro areas in May, the Labor Department said Wednesday. It fell in 131 cities and remained unchanged in 37. That’s a sharp reversal from April, when unemployment rates dropped in more than 90 percent of metro areas.

Nationwide, the unemployment rate ticked up in May to 9.1 percent and employers added just 54,000 net jobs. Employers added an average of 220,000 jobs per month in the previous three months.

Tornadoes and flooding shut some companies down in the South in late April and May. And a parts shortage stemming from the March 11 earthquake in Japan affected U.S. auto production. The metro employment data isn’t seasonally adjusted and as a result can be volatile from month to month.

One of the biggest increases was in Tuscaloosa, Ala., which was struck a deadly tornado that killed 41 people in late April. The unemployment rate there rose from 8.1 percent in April to 9.3 percent in May.

Toyota, Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Chrysler were all forced to shut down some or all of their North American factories because of the parts shortage. At least 13 metro areas in South Carolina and Louisiana, where many factories are located, saw significant gains in their unemployment rates. Detroit, Ann Arbor and Battle Creek, Mich., also saw big increases.

The sharpest increase in unemployment was in Yuma Ariz. The unemployment rate there rose from 25.3 percent in April to 27.9 percent in May. Competition from farmers in neighboring Mexico has left some cotton, wheat and lettuce growers out of work. Agriculture drives about 40 percent of Yuma’s economy.

Many of the areas with the steepest declines are tourist destinations. Hotels and tourist attractions add workers for the summer season. Ocean City, N.J., reported the sharpest decline. The unemployment there fell from 13.3 percent in April to 11.6 percent in May.

Other steep drops were in three California metro areas: Madera-Chowchilla, Santa Cruz-Watsonville and Salinas. All three cities are big farming communities that demand more seasonal workers at this time of year.

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In an effort to modernize the Illinois electric grid, state legislators approved a controversial bill last month to jump-start more than $3 billion of investment by the two largest utilities.

Led by Chicago-based ComEd, the utilities lobbied hard for the ’smart grid” measure, which would jolt the state’s electric distribution network into the 21st century and impose sweeping regulatory changes. Environmental groups have embraced the measure. Consumer advocates have condemned parts of it as a ploy to boost profit. Gov. Pat Quinn has vowed to veto it.

Regardless of how the drama plays out in Illinois, there’s no rush to follow suit on the other side of the Mississippi River. As with electric deregulation a decade ago, the Missouri utility industry would rather watch and wait. Regulators, utility executives and consumer advocates in Missouri see peril in rushing to spend billions of dollars on new technology that may not pay immediate dividends.

“Everybody agrees we’re using way-old technology and older infrastructure, and we have to move toward upgrading and updating our electrical grid,” said Missouri Public Service Commission Chairman Kevin Gunn. But “this is the perfect example where the Show-Me state motto is the right way to go.”

The term smart grid generally refers to technological upgrades designed to improve reliability and efficiency of the nation’s power grid. Most attention has focused on new digital meters, but other infrastructure aims to minimize outages, allow for increased use of renewable energy and allow consumers to buy cheaper power during off-peak hours.

“This is a major transformation of the power grid that’s going to take a numbers of years, it’s going to occur in stages, piece by piece,” said Peter Fox-Penner, a principal at the consulting firm Brattle Group.

national backlash

Across the country, smart grid projects, especially those involving new digital smart meters, have sparked a backlash. In Texas, regulators were asked to investigate the accuracy of the new meters. In San Francisco, customers are worried about electromagnetic radiation. A few California cities have declared moratoriums on the new meters. Privacy advocates worry about what utilities will do with the data they collect on consumer energy use.

All of this provided fodder for discussion last summer as the Missouri PSC held a smart grid workshop with representatives from utilities, the Energy Department and smart grid vendors. Regulators and utilities continue to closely watch demonstration projects in Fulton and Kansas City that are paid for partly with stimulus grants.

In Illinois, it’s the debate over the regulatory framework being proposed by utilities that’s raising second thoughts payday loans in one hour. David Kolata, executive director at Citizens Utility Board, a Chicago-based utility watchdog, said the group backs the bill’s smart grid provisions. What it objects to are more sweeping changes in the legislation that could expose consumers to higher rates.

“It’s increasingly clear that we’re not going to build our way out of future energy issues” by adding new power plants, he said. “But there cannot be a blank check” for utilities.

Whatever the cost, the benefits of a smart grid could be enormous. Some say it could do for the nation’s patchwork electric grid what the Interstate highway system did for car travel, and revolutionize energy use the way the Internet changed the flow of information.

Today’s grid is a giant one-way road where electricity is pushed from a few large generating plants to millions of customers. Utilities charge the same rate for every kilowatt-hour, even though electricity costs vary widely throughout the day. And consumers have little idea how much power they’re using, and so they have little incentive to use less at peak times when electricity prices are high.

The smart grid would make better use of intermittent power sources such as windmills and solar arrays. New meters could make it possible for utilities to charge different rates for electricity at different times of the day, so consumers can run the dishwasher or clothes drier at night to save money. And new smart thermostats and appliances would be able to automatically adjust power use in response to changing prices.

Such improvements would help utilities avoid building expensive new power plants that run only a few hours on hot summer afternoons to help meet peak demand. They would improve air quality and cut down greenhouse gas emissions.

barriers to entry

But getting from here to there won’t be easy or cheap. The Electric Power Research Institute estimates implementation of a nationwide smart grid will require investment of as much as $476 billion.

Advancing the smart grid also requires consumers to buy in. And it has been a tough sell so far. Earlier this month, Kansas City-based Black & Veatch released results of an industry survey showing the main impediment to smart grid implementation is a lack of customer interest and knowledge.

Much of the controversy has focused on the new digital meters. Some consumer advocates, like John Coffman, an attorney for the Consumers Council of Missouri and AARP, worry the devices will prove too expensive and need replacement too quickly. Coffman also worries it could make it too easy for utilities to disconnect customers who fall behind on bills.

For now, the new meters aren’t in Ameren Missouri’s plans. The cost of smart meters

Household Essentials, a Hazelwood-based distributor of ironing boards, hampers and other products for laundry and storage rooms, acquired Cedar Fresh, a cedar storage products manufacturer based in Miami.

Terms of the deal, which closed June 17, were not disclosed.  

Cedar Fresh was founded in 1984 and makes cedar drawer liners, hangars and blocks that are designed to protect clothes and linens from moths.   

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Four new financial companies have joined a rival Canadian-only $C3.6 billion bid for the TMX Group that could block a proposed merger of the Toronto and London stock exchanges.

Maple Group Acquisition Corp. announced Sunday that Desjardins Financial Group, Dundee Capital Markets, GMP Capital Inc. and Manulife Financial have signed on as investors.

Manulife is Canada’s largest insurance company and Desjardins the biggest credit union, with major financial operations in Quebec. Dundee and GMP are smaller wealth managers.

Maple, made up of a who’s who of Canada’s major financial players _ including several major banks _ has put forward a US$3.67 billion bid to acquire TMX Group, which owns the Toronto exchange.

TMX rejected the bid, saying there are too many uncertainties, including regulatory and debt risks.

The bid from the London Stock Exchange is worth about US$3 billion.

The Maple bid is meant to keep TMX in Canadian hands after many bank and government officials raised concerns about the so-called “merger of equals” with the London Stock Exchange, which is technically a takeover by the British operator.

But TMX Group is intent on pushing ahead with the London Stock Exchange transaction and has publicly dismissed the threat that shareholders would accept the Maple proposal.

On Sunday, TMX declined to comment on the new Maple Group partners.

TMX’s rejection prompted Maple to go directly to shareholders with its offer. It hopes the addition of more big investors will send them a stronger signal.

A statement from Maple Group didn’t indicate if it would raise its bid, but spokesman Luc Bertrand says the additional investors are another indication that its offer is superior to the merger with the London exchange.

“Our vision for an integrated exchange provides a better way forward for Canada’s capital markets,” he said in the release.

Monique Leroux, Desjardins’ president and CEO, said the Maple bid for TMX “provides Canadians with an excellent opportunity to collaborate and cooperate in order to maintain a strong and growing financial industry that will enhance our economy both in Quebec and across Canada.”

Ned Goodman, chairman of Dundee Capital, said, “Canada’s small-and mid-cap companies and markets will do better with Maple than they will with the LSE. As an independent broker-dealer, we support Maple’s vision.”

Maple went directly to shareholders last month, announcing an informal C$48 (US$48.95) per share proposal -_ which represents a 24 percent premium to the implied value of the merger with the LSE Group.

Members of the Maple Group Acquisition Corp. include Alberta Investment Management Corp., Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, CIBC World Markets Inc., Fonds de solidarite des travailleurs du Quebec, National Bank Financial Inc., Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Scotia Capital Inc. and TD Securities Inc.

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