USPS Listens to Deaf Employees' Claims

The matter of Hubbard v. Donahoe, Civil Case No. 03-1062, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is a class action lawsuit that pits the United States Postal Service against its deaf and hard-of-hearing employees.

DealBook: Bank of England to Investigate Foreign Exchange Manipulation Claims

DealBook: For JPMorgan, $4.5 Billion to Settle Mortgage Claims

U.S. Unemployment Claims Rise Slightly

WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose just 1,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 308,000, hovering near six-year lows. Companies are still cutting very few jobs, however the decline in layoffs has not been accompanied by a pickup in hiring.

The less volatile four-week average for applications fell to 305,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the lowest since May 2007, seven months before the recession began.

Weekly applications could increase next week because of the partial government shutdown. Defense contractors and other companies that do business with the government may temporarily lay off workers. Federal workers who are temporarily laid off may also file for benefits, though their numbers are reported separately and published a week later than the other applications.

Still, the broader trend has been encouraging. Applications, which are a proxy for layoffs, have fallen steadily in the past three months as many companies have stopped laying off workers. That suggests more employers are confident enough in the economy to maintain their existing staffs.

Steady declines in applications are typically followed by more hiring. But that hasn't happened. Instead, job gains have slowed in recent months.

"Companies were not laying off workers ahead of the shutdown but they probably weren't hiring much, either," Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, said.

Employers have added an average of just 155,000 jobs a month in the four months through August, according to government data. That's down from an average of 205,000 for the first four months of the year.

On Wednesday, payroll provider ADP said that businesses added just 166,000 jobs in September, evidence that hiring remains sluggish. The ADP figures usually diverge from the Labor Department's more comprehensive monthly employment report, which was scheduled to be released Friday. But the September employment report will now be delayed until the government shutdown ends.

The government was able to release the unemployment benefits report because the data are compiled by the states, unlike the jobs report data, which is gathered by federal workers. The unemployment benefits report also requires little additional analysis by federal officials, a department spokesman said.

About 4 million people received benefits the week ended Sept. 14, the latest data available. That's about 80,000 more than the previous week. A year ago, more than 5 million people were on the unemployment benefit rolls.

The economy may not be growing quickly enough to encourage companies to ramp up hiring. Most analysts forecast that growth has slowed to an annual rate of 1.5 percent to 2 percent in the July-September quarter, down from a 2.5 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter.

Economists predict that growth is rebounding to an annual rate of 2.5 percent to 3 percent in the current October-December quarter. But those forecasts were made before this week's impasse that shuttered the government. The shutdown could shave about 0.15 percentage points from the fourth quarter figure for each week it lasts.

Film on J. D. Salinger Claims More Books Coming

Mr. Salinger, who died in 2010 at the age of 91, has been known for a distinguished but scant literary oeuvre that was capped by the enormous success of his 1951 novel, “The Catcher in the Rye.”

But a forthcoming documentary and related book, both titled “Salinger,” include detailed assertions that Mr. Salinger instructed his estate to publish at least five additional books — some of them entirely new, some extending past work — in a sequence that he intended to begin as early as 2015.

The new books and stories were largely written before Mr. Salinger assigned his output to a trust in 2008, and would greatly expand the Salinger legacy.

One collection, to be called “The Family Glass,” would add five new stories to an assembly of previously published stories about the fictional Glass family, which figured in Mr. Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey” and elsewhere, according to the claims, which surfaced in interviews and previews of the documentary and book last week.

Another would include a retooled version of a publicly known but unpublished tale, “The Last and Best of the Peter Pans,” which is to be collected with new stories and existing work about the fictional Caulfields, including “Catcher in the Rye.” The new works are said to include a story-filled “manual” of the Vedanta religious philosophy, with which Mr. Salinger was deeply involved; a novel set during World War II and based on his first marriage; and a novella modeled on his own war experiences.

For decades, those in touch with Mr. Salinger have said that he had continued to write assiduously, though he stopped publishing after a long story, “Hapworth 16, 1924,” appeared in The New Yorker. But no one had made so detailed a public claim that Mr. Salinger had left extensive posthumous publishing plans.

Matthew Salinger, who is Mr. Salinger’s son, and shares responsibility for the Salinger estate with Colleen O’Neill, the author’s widow, declined to discuss plans or the book and film. He said Ms. O’Neill, who did not respond directly to a separate query, would also decline to comment.

In an interview earlier this year, Matthew Salinger said he was skeptical that the planned book and documentary would deepen public understanding of his father, who, he said, for decades had confined his intimate dealings to a small circle of seven or eight people.

The documentary is directed by Shane Salerno, a filmmaker who spent nine years researching and filming the movie that is set for release by the Weinstein Company on Sept. 6, and will air later on PBS in the American Masters series. The companion book, co-written by David Shields, is to be published by Simon & Schuster on Sept. 3.

Speaking in his Los Angeles office on Saturday, Mr. Salerno pointed to tables and shelves filled with previously unpublished photographs, hundreds of letters and even a handwritten World War II diary that belonged to one of Mr. Salinger’s lifelong friends, a now-deceased fellow soldier named Paul Fitzgerald.

“If that’s not the inner circle, I don’t know what is the inner circle,” Mr. Salerno said.

His understanding of the publishing plans, Mr. Salerno said, took shape “fairly late” in his research.

The book and film attribute the detailed account of the plans to two anonymous sources, both of whom are described in the book as being “independent and separate.” Mr. Salerno declined to elaborate, other than to describe them as people who had not spoken to each other, but knew of the plans.

“The credibility of the last chapter,” Mr. Salerno said of a final summary of publishing prospects, entitled “Secrets,” “is in the 571 pages that preceded it.” Mr. Salerno noted that he initially had some cooperation from members of the Salinger family, but they later withdrew support.

The book and film have been marketed with the promise of revelations about Mr. Salinger, whose penchant for privacy became a hallmark. Last week, Weinstein and Simon & Schuster began a promotional campaign that includes a poster image of Mr. Salinger with a finger to his lips, beneath an admonition: “Uncover the Mystery but Don’t Spoil the Secrets!” The book, a 698-page companion to the film, is written in an oral history style with snippets of text from dozens of people who were interviewed for the project.

Jonathan Karp, the publisher of Simon & Schuster, said in an interview on Saturday that the book was “a major journalistic feat.”

Trump University Made False Claims, Lawsuit Says

The lawsuit, which seeks restitution of at least $40 million, accused Mr. Trump, the Trump Organization and others involved with the school of running it as an unlicensed educational institution from 2005 to 2011 and making false claims about its classes in what was described as “an elaborate bait-and-switch.”

In a statement, Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general, said Mr. Trump appeared in advertisements for the school making “false promises” to persuade more than 5,000 people around the country — including 600 New Yorkers — “to spend tens of thousands of dollars they couldn’t afford for lessons they never got.”

The advertisements claimed, for instance, that Mr. Trump had handpicked instructors to teach students “a systematic method for investing in real estate.” But according to the lawsuit, Mr. Trump had not chosen even a single instructor at the school and had not created the curriculums for any of its courses.

“No one, no matter how rich or famous they are, has a right to scam hardworking New Yorkers,” Mr. Schneiderman said in the statement. “Anyone who does should expect to be held accountable.”

The inquiry into Trump University came to light in May 2011 after dozens of people had complained to the authorities in New York, Texas, Florida and Illinois about the institution, which attracted prospective students with the promise of a free 90-minute seminar about real estate investing that, according to the lawsuit, “served as a sales pitch for a three-day seminar costing $1,495.” This three-day seminar was itself “an upsell,” the lawsuit said, for increasingly costly “Trump Elite” packages that included so-called personal mentorship programs at $35,000 a course.

On Saturday evening, Michael Cohen, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, denied the accusations in the lawsuit and said the school had received 11,000 evaluations, 98 percent of which rated students as “extremely satisfied.”

George Sorial, another lawyer for Mr. Trump, called the lawsuit politically motivated. He said that Mr. Schneiderman had asked Mr. Trump and his family for campaign contributions and grew angry when denied.

“This is tantamount to extortion,” Mr. Sorial said.

Andrew Friedman, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said that although Mr. Schneiderman had accepted a contribution from Mr. Trump in the past, “the fact that he’s still brave enough to follow the investigation wherever it may lead speaks to Mr. Schneiderman’s character.”

New Claims by Jobless Are Lowest Since 2007

WASHINGTON — A measure of Americans who applied for unemployment benefits over the last month has fallen to its lowest level in almost six years, signaling fewer layoffs.

The Labor Department said on Thursday that the average number of people who applied for benefits over the last four weeks dropped by 6,250, to 335,500. That is the lowest level since November 2007, the month before the Great Recession began.

The four-week average smooths week-to-week fluctuations.

Weekly applications for unemployment aid increased by 5,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 333,000. But that is up only slightly from the previous week’s five-and-a-half-year low.

The decrease in the four-week average points to a positive trend in recent months. Applications, which are a proxy for layoffs, have fallen more than 10 percent since the start of the year. That has helped drive net job gains this year, which are the number of people hired minus the number who lose or quit their jobs.

Employers added 162,000 jobs last month, the smallest monthly gain since March. And most of the job growth came in lower-paying industries or part-time work. Since January, the economy has added an average of 192,000 jobs a month. But the pace has slowed to 175,000 in the last three months.

When employers are cutting few workers, as they are now, it does not take many hires to create a high net gain.

The job market is improving, largely because layoffs have fallen to pre-recession levels. But while employers are no longer cutting jobs, many remain reluctant to hire in the face of tax increases, federal spending cuts and slower global growth.

At an Upscale Beverly Hills Restaurant, Claims of Underpaying Workers

Urasawa, a restaurant on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, serves sushi using ingredients mostly imported from Japan. A typical bill for two easily tops $1,000, and some dishes include 24-karat gold flakes.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — One of the country’s most renowned sushi restaurants, Urasawa, sits in a small alcove above Rodeo Drive here. A typical bill for two people easily tops $1,000. Over an evening that can stretch to three hours, diners are served dishes dotted with caviar and 24-karat gold flakes (for the iron, the chef notes).

Heriberto Zamora, left, is suing for back pay. His lawyer, Kevin Kish, right, said, “We see this happen all the time, across all industries, all parts of the city and all kinds of businesses.”

But workers in the back kitchen are routinely denied overtime pay and forbidden from taking breaks, according to former employees and a California Labor Department investigation. Now, the chef and owner, Hiroyuki Urasawa, is battling state and civil claims that he withheld tens of thousands of dollars in wages and overtime from workers. One former employee who left the restaurant last year said he resorted to urinating in the sink meant for cleaning mops after being told the men’s restroom was for customers only during business hours.

Each night, Mr. Urasawa stands behind a pristine sushi bar serving more than a dozen dishes, each with an elaborate description of the provenance of the ingredients, mostly imported from Japan. With an affable smile, he happily accepts sake from diners, who can spend hundreds of dollars on a bottle.

“It was always about the customers, making sure that they were happy,” said Heriberto Zamora, 26, who worked at the restaurant for more than five years and has filed a civil suit for back pay. “None of the employees were treated very well. We knew people were paying a lot to eat there, but for us it was no different.”

After immigrating from Oaxaca, Mexico, as a teenager, Mr. Zamora found a job at Urasawa through a friend. He worked his way up, starting as a dishwasher and eventually cleaning and preparing the fish and arranging precisely cut vegetables. After a promotion, while he was earning about $9 an hour, Mr. Urasawa forced him to buy his own $700 set of knives — each meant to touch only certain ingredients, Mr. Zamora said. Eventually, he was working nearly 60 hours a week for $11.50 an hour.

One day last June, nine hours into his shift, Mr. Zamora was coughing and asked to go home, complaining of a fever, he said. Mr. Urasawa fired him on the spot, he said.

Mr. Urasawa and his lawyer declined to comment for this article. But he has appealed a ruling issued by the state last month fining him $55,000 for failing to pay overtime and give breaks to Mr. Zamora and three other employees.

Mr. Urasawa is not the first high-end chef to face charges from workers. Mario Batali and his partners ultimately reached a $1.5 million settlement last year with a group of employees at several of his restaurants in New York.

The Urasawa case has become something of a battle cry among the overwhelmingly immigrant work force in hundreds of kitchens here. Labor and immigrant advocates say Mr. Zamora’s experience is typical for thousands of workers in restaurants, regardless of how much customers might be paying to eat there.

The problem is particularly acute in businesses that rely on cash to pay workers, as many restaurants do. A 2009 study by the Labor Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that there was an average of $26 million worth of wage violations each week in Los Angeles.

“There are countless examples in which workers are taking home less than they’ve earned,” said Julie Su, the state labor commissioner, who has made cracking down on wage violations a focus of her office. In the case of Urasawa and dozens of other restaurants, investigators wait outside watching workers come and go, comparing what they see to the time records kept on employers’ books. “It’s a perversion of the concept of minimum wage — it goes from being some kind of floor to instead being some kind of ceiling,” Ms. Su said.

Ms. Su has investigated hundreds of wage violation cases this year, using individual complaints as starting points for many of the investigations. In countless cases, she said, owners rely on paying the same rate over 12 hours, though such practices violate labor laws created a century ago in part to ensure that employers hire a sufficient number of people, rather than rely on one worker for many hours.

“We see this happen all the time, across all industries, all parts of the city and all kinds of businesses,” said Kevin Kish, a lawyer for Bet Tzedek, a nonprofit legal group that has taken on Mr. Zamora’s case. “The only thing that is remarkable about this case is that people might expect paying so much means that workers are getting paid fairly.”

After Mr. Zamora was fired, a friend told him to go to the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, which helps many workers file wage violation complaints. This spring, the organization held a daytime protest in front of Urasawa, which garnered some attention in the local news media.

At an Upscale Beverly Hills Restaurant, Claims of Underpaying Workers

Urasawa, a restaurant on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, serves sushi using ingredients mostly imported from Japan. A typical bill for two easily tops $1,000, and some dishes include 24-karat gold flakes.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — One of the country’s most renowned sushi restaurants, Urasawa, sits in a small alcove above Rodeo Drive here. A typical bill for two people easily tops $1,000. Over an evening that can stretch to three hours, diners are served dishes dotted with caviar and 24-karat gold flakes (for the iron, the chef notes).

Heriberto Zamora, left, is suing for back pay. His lawyer, Kevin Kish, right, said, “We see this happen all the time, across all industries, all parts of the city and all kinds of businesses.”

But workers in the back kitchen are routinely denied overtime pay and forbidden from taking breaks, according to former employees and a California Labor Department investigation. Now, the chef and owner, Hiroyuki Urasawa, is battling state and civil claims that he withheld tens of thousands of dollars in wages and overtime from workers. One former employee who left the restaurant last year said he resorted to urinating in the sink meant for cleaning mops after being told the men’s restroom was for customers only during business hours.

Each night, Mr. Urasawa stands behind a pristine sushi bar serving more than a dozen dishes, each with an elaborate description of the provenance of the ingredients, mostly imported from Japan. With an affable smile, he happily accepts sake from diners, who can spend hundreds of dollars on a bottle.

“It was always about the customers, making sure that they were happy,” said Heriberto Zamora, 26, who worked at the restaurant for more than five years and has filed a civil suit for back pay. “None of the employees were treated very well. We knew people were paying a lot to eat there, but for us it was no different.”

After immigrating from Oaxaca, Mexico, as a teenager, Mr. Zamora found a job at Urasawa through a friend. He worked his way up, starting as a dishwasher and eventually cleaning and preparing the fish and arranging precisely cut vegetables. After a promotion, while he was earning about $9 an hour, Mr. Urasawa forced him to buy his own $700 set of knives — each meant to touch only certain ingredients, Mr. Zamora said. Eventually, he was working nearly 60 hours a week for $11.50 an hour.

One day last June, nine hours into his shift, Mr. Zamora was coughing and asked to go home, complaining of a fever, he said. Mr. Urasawa fired him on the spot, he said.

Mr. Urasawa and his lawyer declined to comment for this article. But he has appealed a ruling issued by the state last month fining him $55,000 for failing to pay overtime and give breaks to Mr. Zamora and three other employees.

Mr. Urasawa is not the first high-end chef to face charges from workers. Mario Batali and his partners ultimately reached a $1.5 million settlement last year with a group of employees at several of his restaurants in New York.

The Urasawa case has become something of a battle cry among the overwhelmingly immigrant work force in hundreds of kitchens here. Labor and immigrant advocates say Mr. Zamora’s experience is typical for thousands of workers in restaurants, regardless of how much customers might be paying to eat there.

The problem is particularly acute in businesses that rely on cash to pay workers, as many restaurants do. A 2009 study by the Labor Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that there was an average of $26 million worth of wage violations each week in Los Angeles.

“There are countless examples in which workers are taking home less than they’ve earned,” said Julie Su, the state labor commissioner, who has made cracking down on wage violations a focus of her office. In the case of Urasawa and dozens of other restaurants, investigators wait outside watching workers come and go, comparing what they see to the time records kept on employers’ books. “It’s a perversion of the concept of minimum wage — it goes from being some kind of floor to instead being some kind of ceiling,” Ms. Su said.

Ms. Su has investigated hundreds of wage violation cases this year, using individual complaints as starting points for many of the investigations. In countless cases, she said, owners rely on paying the same rate over 12 hours, though such practices violate labor laws created a century ago in part to ensure that employers hire a sufficient number of people, rather than rely on one worker for many hours.

“We see this happen all the time, across all industries, all parts of the city and all kinds of businesses,” said Kevin Kish, a lawyer for Bet Tzedek, a nonprofit legal group that has taken on Mr. Zamora’s case. “The only thing that is remarkable about this case is that people might expect paying so much means that workers are getting paid fairly.”

After Mr. Zamora was fired, a friend told him to go to the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, which helps many workers file wage violation complaints. This spring, the organization held a daytime protest in front of Urasawa, which garnered some attention in the local news media.

Union's Claims Over SEPTA, Port Authority Work Survive

Allegations from an electrical workers' union that a contractor that used its members to fulfill contracts with SEPTA and the Delaware River Port Authority wrongly classified the workers in violation of the False Claims Act has survived a motion to dismiss.

Jobless Claims Fall Sharply

Thursday's data bolsters the view that economic growth could pick up after a dismal first half of the year in which consumers were smacked by tax hikes and deep cuts in the federal budget.

"This is an encouraging sign heading into the second half of the year," said Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke expects the economy will gather enough steam by the end of the year for the Fed to begin scaling back a bond-purchase program it has used to push down borrowing costs, and Thursday's data appeared to support his case.

The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said factory activity in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware rose to its highest level in more than two years as employment and shipments picked up.

The bank's index of business activity index rose to 19.8 from 12.5 in June, far exceeding economists' expectations. Any reading above zero indicates expansion in the region's manufacturing.

The report adds to early signs that U.S. manufacturing is expanding despite weakness in the global economy. The New York Fed said on Monday factory activity accelerated in New York state in July.

LABOR MARKET RESILIENCE

In a separate report, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 334,000. It was the lowest reading since May and a steeper fall than analysts had expected.

The drop in new claims was the latest data to point to resilience in the labor market. While Washington's austerity measures appear to have dragged heavily on growth in the first and second quarters, the pace of hiring has barely slowed, with employers adding 195,000 jobs in June.

At the same time, the labor market data from last week was clouded by seasonal factors. Readings for claims can be volatile in July because many auto factories close to retool, and it is difficult for the government to adjust the data for seasonal swings because shutdown schedules vary from year to year.

Still, a four-week average of new claims, which smoothes out volatility, fell 5,250 from a week earlier.

"This is still consistent with moderate job growth," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The dollar extended a rally against the yen and yields rose for long-term U.S. government debt, signs that investors were betting on tighter monetary policy in the future. U.S. stocks rose to record highs after investment bank Morgan Stanley posted stronger-than-expected profits.

The jobless claims data covered the same week in which the Labor Department looks at employers' payrolls to estimate how many jobs the economy added during the full month. Compared to the survey week for last month, the four-week average for claims was 0.7 percent lower last week.

A third report showed a gauge of future U.S. economic activity held at a near five-year high, with the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index flat at 95.3 last month.

Bernanke, who appeared before lawmakers for the second straight day on Thursday, repeated his message that the Fed would only begin withdrawing its support if the economy improves as much as policymakers expect.

In a potentially negative sign for the labor market, the Labor Department said the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid rose 91,000 to 3.1 million in the week ended July 6.

However, analysts said the increase could also be related to difficulties in adjusting the data for seasonal swings around America's July 4 holiday.

(This story is corrected to show jobless claims at lowest level since May, not March)

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Additional reporting by Rodrigo Campos and Richard Leong in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Neil Stempleman)

New Jobless Claims Drop, Partly for Seasonal Reasons

The drop left unemployment benefit applications at the lowest level in 10 weeks, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Some of the decline may have been caused by seasonal factors.

Still, the broader trend has been favorable. The four-week average, which smooths out fluctuations, fell 5,250, to 351,000.

“We believe labor market conditions remain on a gradually improving trajectory,” said Laura Rosner, an economist at BNP Paribas.

Weekly applications data can be volatile in July. Automakers typically shut their factories in the first two weeks of the month to prepare for new models, which leads to a temporary spike in layoffs. But this year, much of the industry has skipped or shortened the shutdowns to keep up with stronger demand.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. They have declined 5 percent since January. The drop has coincided with stronger job growth.

Employers added an average of 202,000 jobs a month through the first six months of the year, up from an average of 180,000 in the previous six months. In June, they added 195,000 jobs.

More than 4.5 million people received unemployment aid in the week ending June 29, the latest data available. That’s down just 1,900 from the previous week. The number of recipients has fallen 21 percent in the last year.

Separately, the Conference Board, a business research group, said on Thursday that its index of leading indicators remained unchanged at 95.3 in June, pointing to modest growth in the coming months. The flat reading followed increases of 0.2 percent in May and 0.8 percent in April.

The longer-term trend has been positive. The index increased 1.7 percent in the first six months of this year. That’s better than the 1.1 percent rise in the previous six months.

The trend “suggests that the economy should continue to experience at least modest growth over the next six to nine months,” Maninder Sibia, an economist at the Economic Advisory Service, said in a note to clients.

DealBook: Citigroup to Pay Fannie Mae $968 Million Over Mortgage Claims

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USPS Listens to Deaf Employees' Claims

The matter of Hubbard v. Donahoe, Civil Case No. 03-1062, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is a class action lawsuit that pits the United States Postal Service against its deaf and hard-of-hearing employees.

Rail Safety Law Doesn't Pre-empt Common Law Damage Claims, Panel Rules

A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that the Federal Railroad Safety Act doesn't pre-empt the common law claims brought by a Delaware County mall against railroad giant CSX.

SEPTA Not Immune From FELA Claims in State Court

SEPTA is not an arm of the state and therefore does not have 11th Amendment sovereign immunity from railroad workers' state claims under the Federal Employers Liability Act, the state Supreme Court ruled in a case of first impression.

Scant Proof Is Found to Back Up Claims by Energy Drinks

Their rising popularity represents a generational shift in what people drink, and reflects a successful campaign to convince consumers, particularly teenagers, that the drinks provide a mental and physical edge.

The drinks are now under scrutiny by the Food and Drug Administration after reports of deaths and serious injuries that may be linked to their high caffeine levels. But however that review ends, one thing is clear, interviews with researchers and a review of scientific studies show: the energy drink industry is based on a brew of ingredients that, apart from caffeine, have little, if any benefit for consumers.

“If you had a cup of coffee you are going to affect metabolism in the same way,” said Dr. Robert W. Pettitt, an associate professor at Minnesota State University in Mankato, who has studied the drinks.

Energy drink companies have promoted their products not as caffeine-fueled concoctions but as specially engineered blends that provide something more. For example, producers claim that “Red Bull gives you wings,” that Rockstar Energy is “scientifically formulated” and Monster Energy is a “killer energy brew.” Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, a Democrat, has asked the government to investigate the industry’s marketing claims.

Promoting a message beyond caffeine has enabled the beverage makers to charge premium prices. A 16-ounce energy drink that sells for $2.99 a can contains about the same amount of caffeine as a tablet of NoDoz that costs 30 cents. Even Starbucks coffee is cheap by comparison; a 12-ounce cup that costs $1.85 has even more caffeine.

As with earlier elixirs, a dearth of evidence underlies such claims. Only a few human studies of energy drinks or the ingredients in them have been performed and they point to a similar conclusion, researchers say — that the beverages are mainly about caffeine.

Caffeine is called the world’s most widely used drug. A stimulant, it increases alertness, awareness and, if taken at the right time, improves athletic performance, studies show. Energy drink users feel its kick faster because the beverages are typically swallowed quickly or are sold as concentrates.

“These are caffeine delivery systems,” said Dr. Roland Griffiths, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University who has studied energy drinks. “They don’t want to say this is equivalent to a NoDoz because that is not a very sexy sales message.”

A scientist at the University of Wisconsin became puzzled as he researched an ingredient used in energy drinks like Red Bull, 5-Hour Energy and Monster Energy. The researcher, Dr. Craig A. Goodman, could not find any trials in humans of the additive, a substance with the tongue-twisting name of glucuronolactone that is related to glucose, a sugar. But Dr. Goodman, who had studied other energy drink ingredients, eventually found two 40-year-old studies from Japan that had examined it.

In the experiments, scientists injected large doses of the substance into laboratory rats. Afterward, the rats swam better. “I have no idea what it does in energy drinks,” Dr. Goodman said.

Energy drink manufacturers say it is their proprietary formulas, rather than specific ingredients, that provide users with physical and mental benefits. But that has not prevented them from implying otherwise.

Consider the case of taurine, an additive used in most energy products.

On its Web site, the producer of Red Bull, for example, states that “more than 2,500 reports have been published about taurine and its physiological effects,” including acting as a “detoxifying agent.” In addition, that company, Red Bull of Austria, points to a 2009 safety study by a European regulatory group that gave it a clean bill of health.

But Red Bull’s Web site does not mention reports by that same group, the European Food Safety Authority, which concluded that claims about the benefits in energy drinks lacked scientific support. Based on those findings, the European Commission has refused to approve claims that taurine helps maintain mental function and heart health and reduces muscle fatigue.

Taurine, an amino acidlike substance that got its name because it was first found in the bile of bulls, does play a role in bodily functions, and recent research suggests it might help prevent heart attacks in women with high cholesterol. However, most people get more than adequate amounts from foods like meat, experts said. And researchers added that those with heart problems who may need supplements would find far better sources than energy drinks.

Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting from Tokyo and Poypiti Amatatham from Bangkok.

Montco Claims on Unrecorded Deeds Survive in Federal Court

All but one of the claims lodged by Montgomery County's recorder of deeds alleging that Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. has circumvented Pennsylvania law requiring the recording of mortgage assignments have survived a motion to dismiss in federal court.

Several claims nixed in suit over inmate's suicide

UNIONTOWN, Pa. (AP) - A federal judge has dismissed claims against two employees of the Fayette County Prison's medical provider who were sued in the suicide of an inmate at the lockup.

Constitutional Claims of PHA Official Tossed by Third Circuit

Within 10 days of hearing arguments, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has thrown out claims made by a former executive assistant at the Philadelphia Housing Authority that he had been retaliated against for constitutionally protected speech.